893 Certain Women

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Black Hat
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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#26 Post by Black Hat » Tue Nov 01, 2016 8:39 am

dda1996a wrote:
for many people myself included it doesn't pass the 'is this entertaining?' test
worst parameter ever. Films don't have to be entertaining to be great, unless you consider everything that affects you as entertaining. Haneke, Roeg and Kieslowski are some of my favorite directors but I wouldn't really call their films entertaining.
I do and those filmmakers you mention happen to be among my favorites as well. Perhaps engaging would be a better word?

I've also never understood the tendency some people have to knock one artist, in this case PTA, to lift another.

Laura Dern in conversation with the New Yorker.

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zedz
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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#27 Post by zedz » Tue Nov 01, 2016 9:06 pm

Black Hat wrote:I've also never understood the tendency some people have to knock one artist, in this case PTA, to lift another.
Isn't that how this thread started?
Black Hat wrote:to suggest her films are personal in the vein of Linklater or PTA is entirely disingenuous. If you're making the kinds of films she is that's the reason why you're broke, not the distributors, nor is it about sexism.
You can't really complain if somebody follows your lead in making further comparisons between exactly the same filmmakers.

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Black Hat
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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#28 Post by Black Hat » Sun Nov 06, 2016 1:40 pm

zedz wrote:
Black Hat wrote:I've also never understood the tendency some people have to knock one artist, in this case PTA, to lift another.
Isn't that how this thread started?
Well yes in the sense that I read the article Frau posted and responded to what Reichardt said about those directors.
zedz wrote:You can't really complain if somebody follows your lead in making further comparisons between exactly the same filmmakers.
Well no that was an entirely different conversation about financing and box office, not how good or bad one thinks a director is. In any case like I said it wasn't my lead, Reichardt made those comparisons bringing those directors up not I.

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zedz
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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#29 Post by zedz » Sun Nov 06, 2016 4:45 pm

I'm afraid I don't see how your comment from the opening thread isn't a case of using PTA and Linklater as sticks to beat up on Reichardt. Her films, apparently, "aren't personal" in the same way as theirs, and she deserves to be broke because she isn't making films like theirs (which we later discovered meant "not as entertaining").

That's certainly far more snarky than what Reichardt actually said, which seems like a perfectly reasonable comparison between herself and other American filmmakers who do similar work:
“I couldn’t point to a woman and say, ‘I’d like to have her career'. Linklater can make personal films and make a living, as can Gus Van Sant, Wes Anderson, P.T. Anderson, Todd Haynes, David O. Russell, and I can go on and on and on and name the list of men that can make personal films and make a life doing that.”

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Black Hat
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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#30 Post by Black Hat » Sun Nov 06, 2016 7:54 pm

Like I said I would never have mentioned them in reference to her if I hadn't read the interview. Not sure how you're not seeing how or why I made that connection, but that's ok.

What I would like to make clear is I never said she 'deserves to be broke'. I would love to live in a culture where an artist like her would have full reign to create as she pleases while having many zeros in her bank account, but unfortunately we live in a culture that's perilously close to voting in a grotesque vaudeville act as its leader.

Personally, I've repeatedly said I respect Reichardt's talent and am looking forward to seeing the rest of her films. As for Certain Women, I saw it once at a press screening and twice at IFC Center, places you would think are as close to her target audience as can be and I have never seen more people asleep during a movie. Now it's certainly true that some of the best sleep you will ever get is at the movies, but I think this says something regarding how mainstream commercially viable a film would be. This last point is where this whole conversation started as in my view those guys are far closer to mainstream sensibilities than she which is why I felt it disingenuous for her to make the comparison.

To clarify more I don't think a film putting you asleep automatically makes it a bad film. Tarkovsky for me is one of, if not my favorite filmmaker, and I've dozed off during each of his films multiple times.

While I see the talent on display in Certain Women, I simply failed to connect with it enough to meet Reichardt on her level. Now you could say the problem is me, but in my view I think she is culpable too.

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swo17
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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#31 Post by swo17 » Mon Nov 07, 2016 12:02 pm

This is a film about ascribing value to things through our actions. The stories are simple so I will be brief.
SpoilerShow
One story is about a lawyer who has a client that goes unhinged. Most would probably distance themselves from such a situation, but she decides to make a friendship out of it.

Another story is about a wife in an inauthentic family. Her daughter and husband don't respect her. He ambivalently cheats on her, which she probably doesn't know. But she also has secrets of her own. She works to build a house around them that will be authentic. Perhaps that will make them so.

A third story is about two girls that become friends. One of them is much more invested than the other. When the relationship is no longer convenient for the other girl, she ends it without fanfare, which is what most would do. But the first girl has a need to show what it meant to her, and so she drives four hours just to say goodbye. (Gut punch.) In externalizing her feelings this way, she made it mean that much.

If you've been paying close attention, there is also a fourth story, about a girl who had a dog for a while until it died. But that girl made that dog into a star. And then dedicated this film to her.
I don't write about very many new films. I've just made this into one of them.

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zedz
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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#32 Post by zedz » Mon Nov 07, 2016 3:31 pm

swo17 wrote:This is a film about ascribing value to things through our actions. The stories are simple so I will be brief.
An analysis as elegant as the film itself.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#33 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Nov 07, 2016 3:51 pm

swo17 wrote:This is a film about ascribing value to things through our actions. The stories are simple so I will be brief.
SpoilerShow
One story is about a lawyer who has a client that goes unhinged. Most would probably distance themselves from such a situation, but she decides to make a friendship out of it.

Another story is about a wife in an inauthentic family. Her daughter and husband don't respect her. He ambivalently cheats on her, which she probably doesn't know. But she also has secrets of her own. She works to build a house around them that will be authentic. Perhaps that will make them so.

A third story is about two girls that become friends. One of them is much more invested than the other. When the relationship is no longer convenient for the other girl, she ends it without fanfare, which is what most would do. But the first girl has a need to show what it meant to her, and so she drives four hours just to say goodbye. (Gut punch.) In externalizing her feelings this way, she made it mean that much.

If you've been paying close attention, there is also a fourth story, about a girl who had a dog for a while until it died. But that girl made that dog into a star. And then dedicated this film to her.
I don't write about very many new films. I've just made this into one of them.
This was beautiful. Thanks man.

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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#34 Post by bakofalltrades » Mon Nov 07, 2016 5:32 pm

I saw this film a couple weeks back. What most surprises me still is how many times I laughed aloud--how many moments I found genuinely funny. I'm thinking mostly of the first act (and its epilogue), but even the second and third acts had their moments.
SpoilerShow
Laura Dern's reactions to her client as he was venting/railing in the car ride home. Her asking if it was totally insane for her to be walking into a hostage situation. (YES!) The shot of her walking up to the building seemingly in a daze with that dumb little map in her had. The cut to the guy in the cop car immediately after she tells them he tried to escape out the back door.

Michelle Williams' husband shutting the car door as his daughter was giving him some mouthy reply.

The teachers' questions during what's supposed to be a law course. Particularly the one that went something like "Can a student just say whatever he wants to me and get away with it?"
I wasn't rolling in the aisles in a fit of riotous laughter, of course, but based on what I had read before seeing the film, I just wasn't expecting it.

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swo17
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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#35 Post by swo17 » Mon Nov 07, 2016 5:58 pm

Yes. Also, almost everything James Le Gros ever does or says.

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Jeff
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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#36 Post by Jeff » Mon Nov 07, 2016 9:05 pm

swo17 wrote:I don't write about very many new films. I've just made this into one of them.
swo, you magnificent value-ascribing bastard. That was a great take on the film. Thanks.

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swo17
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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#37 Post by swo17 » Mon Nov 07, 2016 9:28 pm

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I also just realized that the three stories here pretty broadly cover the areas of work, family, and friendship, respectively, which (along with health) are often brought up as the main contributors to personal happiness.

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ianthemovie
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Re: Forthcoming: Certain Women

#38 Post by ianthemovie » Wed Nov 09, 2016 2:42 pm

SpoilerShow
swo17 wrote:If you've been paying close attention, there is also a fourth story, about a girl who had a dog for a while until it died. But that girl made that dog into a star. And then dedicated this film to her.
Thank you for pointing this out. Upon reflection I realized that we see both the Laura Dern and Lily Gladstone characters' relationships with their dogs.

Is there also a dog in the Michelle Williams section? I can't recall.

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swo17
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Re: 893 Certain Women

#39 Post by swo17 » Fri Jun 16, 2017 4:54 pm


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Dead or Deader
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Re: 893 Certain Women

#40 Post by Dead or Deader » Fri Jun 16, 2017 7:25 pm

Given their status on Blu-Ray,what are the chances that Criterion pick up Meek's Cutoff/Wendy and Lucy from Oscilloscope?

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LightBulbFilm
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Re: 893 Certain Women

#41 Post by LightBulbFilm » Sat Jun 17, 2017 3:22 am

Dead or Deader wrote:Given their status on Blu-Ray,what are the chances that Criterion pick up Meek's Cutoff/Wendy and Lucy from Oscilloscope?
Or Old Joy from Kino! PLEASE.

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bottled spider
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Re: 893 Certain Women

#42 Post by bottled spider » Sun Jul 16, 2017 11:37 pm

It's as if Reichardt listened carefully and respectfully to the many and various objections of her critics, and then incorporated into one film everything anybody ever complained about, raised to the power ten. I don't know why the hell I liked it, I can only report that I left the theatre feeling bemused, yet refreshed and somehow lighter of heart. The best I can come up with is that Reichardt knows how to show someone driving a truck -- for one small example -- in a way that is immersive and pleasurable.

And oh my god it just kills me the way Kristen Stewart delicately dabs her mouth with a napkin that
SpoilerShow
STILL HAS THE CUTLERY ROLLED IN IT!!!!!
Magnificent. I'm still basking in the afterglow.

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zedz
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Re: 893 Certain Women

#43 Post by zedz » Sun Jul 16, 2017 11:44 pm

bottled spider wrote:It's as if Reichardt listened carefully and respectfully to the many and various objections of her critics, and then incorporated into one film everything anybody ever complained about, raised to the power ten. I don't know why the hell I liked it, I can only report that I left the theatre feeling bemused, yet refreshed and somehow lighter of heart. The best I can come up with is that Reichardt knows how to show someone driving a truck -- for one small example -- in a way that is immersive and pleasurable.
The moral of the story is:
1) if the filmmaker has a cinematic eye, it doesn't matter whether or not the subject is supposedly 'uncinematic'; and
2) no subject is uncinematic.

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Never Cursed
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Re: 893 Certain Women

#44 Post by Never Cursed » Fri Aug 11, 2017 6:05 pm


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Ribs
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Re: 893 Certain Women

#45 Post by Ribs » Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:04 am


blueyes
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Re: 893 Certain Women

#46 Post by blueyes » Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:28 pm

Hello forum

I am having a very strange experience watching this blu-ray (uk edition). The image looks terrible in motion. If I freeze, the image looks quite good, grainy and detailed, but in motion everything looks waxy and there is a constant problem with what I guess is usually called "mooring" (but I may be dead wrong on that). I actually found myself getting slightly sea-sick after some 15 min, and no doubt it was caused by the strange image properties.

Anyone else has this experience, or could this be a faulty disc/batch of discs? Thanks!

blueyes
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Re: 893 Certain Women

#47 Post by blueyes » Fri Oct 06, 2017 8:33 pm

Thank you, david hare, that was helpful. Indeed I am watching on a very cheap monitor, not my usual one, but I didn't think that that could affect the PQ so much. I changed a few of those things that were turned on, and I think there was improvement, but nothing like the beauty you describe. I will try on another set asap.

BTW, I thought the film was exquisite. I want to read the short that was the basis for the middle section in particular.

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knives
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Re: 893 Certain Women

#48 Post by knives » Wed Dec 27, 2017 1:09 pm

Where is this film supposed to be set (if it was mentioned I didn't pick it up). The land seems as much a main character here as anyone else with the grass, mountains, and small town malls Reichardt evokes something really specific that with even, and only, the slightest change of scenery would make a radically different film. It feels to me like eastern Washington, but I could also see western PA or some place like that.

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cdnchris
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Re: 893 Certain Women

#49 Post by cdnchris » Wed Dec 27, 2017 1:13 pm

The author is from the Pacific Northwest and the stories take place there but I believe the film takes place in Montana.

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knives
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Re: 893 Certain Women

#50 Post by knives » Wed Dec 27, 2017 1:17 pm

Cool, thanks.

Edit: Just took a look at the Stewart segment again, and of course right at the beginning there's a big map of Montana in the background. That makes me feel a little foolish.

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