list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Metropolis on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Metropolis/22495/default.aspx Title: Metropolis
Year: 1927
Director: Fritz Lang
Plot: The biggest budgeted movie ever produced at Germany's UFA, Fritz Lang's gargantuan Metropolis consumed resources that would have yielded upwards of 20 conventional features, more than half the studio's entire annual production budget. And if it didn't make a profit at the time -- indeed, it nearly bankrupted the studio -- the film added an indelible array of images and ideas to cinema, and has endured across the eight decades since its release. Metropolis had many sources of inspiration, including a novel by the director's wife, Thea von Harbou -- who drew on numerous existing science fiction and speculative fiction sources -- and Lang's own reaction to seeing the Manhattan skyline at night for the very first time. There are some obvious debts to H. G. Wells (who felt it "the silliest of films"), but the array of ideas and images can truly be credited to Lang and Von Harbou. In the somewhat distant future (some editions say the year 2000, others place it in 2026, and, still others -- including the original Paramount US release -- in 3000 A.D.) the city of Metropolis, with its huge towers and vast wealth, is a playground to a ruling class living in luxury and decadence; they, and the city, are sustained by a much larger population of workers who labor as virtual slaves in the machine halls, moving from their miserable, tenement-like homes to their grim, back-breaking 10-hour shifts and back again. The hero, Freder (Gustav Froehlich) -- the son of Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel), the master of Metropolis -- is oblivious to the plight of the workers, or any aspect of their lives, until one day when Maria (Brigitte Helm), a beautiful subterranean dweller, visits the Eternal Gardens where he spends his time cavorting with various ladies, with a small group of children from the workers' city far below. They are sad, hungry, and wretched looking, and he is haunted by their needy eyes -- something Freder has never seen or known among the elite of the city -- and by this strange and beautiful woman who tells all who hear her, workers' children and ruler's offspring, that they are all brothers. He follows her back down to the depths of the city and witnesses a horrible accident and explosion in the machine halls where the men toil in misery. Haunted by what he has seen, he tries to confront his father, only to find that the man he loves and respects believes that it is right for the workers to live the way they do, while he and his elite frolic in luxury. Freder decides to do something about it, but he must first learn more, and also find Maria -- with help from Josephat ({Theodor Loos), Fredersen's recently dismissed office manager, he goes below again and takes over the job of one of the workers, in order to find Maria. Meanwhile, Fredersen is concerned about the rumblings of unrest among the workers, and his son's sudden interest in their plight -- he assigns "Slim" (Fritz Rasp), his investigator, to follow Freder. Meanwhile, he goes for advice to an old acquaintance, the inventor C. A. Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge). Rotwang once was a rival to Fredersen for the love of the woman Hel, who married Fredersen and died bearing his son, Freder, and he still feels the loss. But he is a cunning and practical man, and is willing to help his old "friend," but not before showing off his latest creation -- a robot that he has modeled in the image of his beloved Hel, that he may have her again. Rotwang answers Fredersen's question by taking him to the catacombs below the modern city, where they see Maria preaching the gospel and counseling patience, in the hope that a
Times Tagged: 40
Number of Lists: 46
Number of blog posts: 38
Number of discussion threads: 22
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:51:57 GMTMetropolis1927Fritz LangThe biggest budgeted movie ever produced at Germany's UFA, <a href="/players/P____98675/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Fritz Lang</a>'s gargantuan Metropolis consumed resources that would have yielded upwards of 20 conventional features, more than half the studio's entire annual production budget. And if it didn't make a profit at the time -- indeed, it nearly bankrupted the studio -- the film added an indelible array of images and ideas to cinema, and has endured across the eight decades since its release. Metropolis had many sources of inspiration, including a novel by the director's wife, <a href="/players/P___115588/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Thea von Harbou</a> -- who drew on numerous existing science fiction and speculative fiction sources -- and Lang's own reaction to seeing the Manhattan skyline at night for the very first time. There are some obvious debts to H. G. Wells (who felt it "the silliest of films"), but the array of ideas and images can truly be credited to Lang and Von Harbou. In the somewhat distant future (some editions say the year 2000, others place it in 2026, and, still others -- including the original Paramount US release -- in 3000 A.D.) the city of Metropolis, with its huge towers and vast wealth, is a playground to a ruling class living in luxury and decadence; they, and the city, are sustained by a much larger population of workers who labor as virtual slaves in the machine halls, moving from their miserable, tenement-like homes to their grim, back-breaking 10-hour shifts and back again. The hero, Freder (Gustav Froehlich) -- the son of Joh Fredersen (<a href="/players/P______103/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Alfred Abel</a>), the master of Metropolis -- is oblivious to the plight of the workers, or any aspect of their lives, until one day when Maria (<a href="/players/P____31627/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Brigitte Helm</a>), a beautiful subterranean dweller, visits the Eternal Gardens where he spends his time cavorting with various ladies, with a small group of children from the workers' city far below. They are sad, hungry, and wretched looking, and he is haunted by their needy eyes -- something Freder has never seen or known among the elite of the city -- and by this strange and beautiful woman who tells all who hear her, workers' children and ruler's offspring, that they are all brothers. He follows her back down to the depths of the city and witnesses a horrible accident and explosion in the machine halls where the men toil in misery. Haunted by what he has seen, he tries to confront his father, only to find that the man he loves and respects believes that it is right for the workers to live the way they do, while he and his elite frolic in luxury. Freder decides to do something about it, but he must first learn more, and also find Maria -- with help from Josephat ({Theodor Loos), Fredersen's recently dismissed office manager, he goes below again and takes over the job of one of the workers, in order to find Maria. Meanwhile, Fredersen is concerned about the rumblings of unrest among the workers, and his son's sudden interest in their plight -- he assigns "Slim" (<a href="/players/P____58869/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Fritz Rasp</a>), his investigator, to follow Freder. Meanwhile, he goes for advice to an old acquaintance, the inventor C. A. Rotwang (<a href="/players/P____38674/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Rudolf Klein-Rogge</a>). Rotwang once was a rival to Fredersen for the love of the woman Hel, who married Fredersen and died bearing his son, Freder, and he still feels the loss. But he is a cunning and practical man, and is willing to help his old "friend," but not before showing off his latest creation -- a robot that he has modeled in the image of his beloved Hel, that he may have her again. Rotwang answers Fredersen's question by taking him to the catacombs below the modern city, where they see Maria preaching the gospel and counseling patience, in the hope that a40Tag Target (>10)4638223http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t41837b0vlt.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Metropolis/22495/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_May_4_Express_Yourself/625/42230/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 5/11/2009 12:58:19 PM
Body: [quote user="Risselada"] You guys have mentioned Fritz Lang's M and Metropolis, but no one has yet mentioned Der letzte Mann, presented in the United States as "The Last Laugh" but the actual translation is "The Last Man". I think this film may be even more expressionistic than the other two, and possibly even better from my standpoint. Also largely because I find Emil Jannings to be one of the greatest silent film actors. The film actually presents several distored point of view shots explicitly stating that this is how the character is seeing the world emotionally. Although sometimes he is drunk, so we know that can have some effect on your perceptions as well. Coincidentally I actually have Lang's Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler right at the top of my Netflix queue. I assume this will have some expressionistic tendancies in it as well, so maybe I'll pop back in once I've viewed that. [/quote] Guys, I fucked up here! The Last Laugh was definitely by Murnau, not Lang! The two luminaries of German cinema at the time. I'm sorry I got their works confused! Anyways I finished watching Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler this weekend, and it's largely a realistic movie with certain great expressionistic effects when people are under hypnosis. This movie is actually more appropriate for the 3+ Hours discussion I discovered. I'll go post something over there right now!
]]>Mon, 11 May 2009 16:58:19 GMTRisseladaWeekly Theme5/11/2009 12:58:19 PM[quote user="Risselada"] You guys have mentioned Fritz Lang's M and Metropolis, but no one has yet mentioned Der letzte Mann, presented in the United States as "The Last Laugh" but the actual translation is "The Last Man". I think this film may be even more expressionistic than the other two, and possibly even better from my standpoint. Also largely because I find Emil Jannings to be one of the greatest silent film actors. The film actually presents several distored point of view shots explicitly stating that this is how the character is seeing the world emotionally. Although sometimes he is drunk, so we know that can have some effect on your perceptions as well. Coincidentally I actually have Lang's Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler right at the top of my Netflix queue. I assume this will have some expressionistic tendancies in it as well, so maybe I'll pop back in once I've viewed that. [/quote] Guys, I fucked up here! The Last Laugh was definitely by Murnau, not Lang! The two luminaries of German cinema at the time. I'm sorry I got their works confused! Anyways I finished watching Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler this weekend, and it's largely a realistic movie with certain great expressionistic effects when people are under hypnosis. This movie is actually more appropriate for the 3+ Hours discussion I discovered. I'll go post something over there right now! http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_May_4_Express_Yourself/625/42069/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 5/6/2009 4:05:39 PM
Body: You guys have mentioned Fritz Lang's M and Metropolis, but no one has yet mentioned Der letzte Mann, presented in the United States as "The Last Laugh" but the actual translation is "The Last Man". I think this film may be even more expressionistic than the other two, and possibly even better from my standpoint. Also largely because I find Emil Jannings to be one of the greatest silent film actors. The film actually presents several distored point of view shots explicitly stating that this is how the character is seeing the world emotionally. Although sometimes he is drunk, so we know that can have some effect on your perceptions as well. Coincidentally I actually have Lang's Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler right at the top of my Netflix queue. I assume this will have some expressionistic tendancies in it as well, so maybe I'll pop back in once I've viewed that.
]]>Wed, 06 May 2009 20:05:39 GMTRisseladaWeekly Theme5/6/2009 4:05:39 PMYou guys have mentioned Fritz Lang's M and Metropolis, but no one has yet mentioned Der letzte Mann, presented in the United States as "The Last Laugh" but the actual translation is "The Last Man". I think this film may be even more expressionistic than the other two, and possibly even better from my standpoint. Also largely because I find Emil Jannings to be one of the greatest silent film actors. The film actually presents several distored point of view shots explicitly stating that this is how the character is seeing the world emotionally. Although sometimes he is drunk, so we know that can have some effect on your perceptions as well. Coincidentally I actually have Lang's Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler right at the top of my Netflix queue. I assume this will have some expressionistic tendancies in it as well, so maybe I'll pop back in once I've viewed that. http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Weekly_Theme_for_May_4_Express_Yourself/625/42028/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: leeroy711
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 5/4/2009 10:05:53 PM
Body: Yet another theme that I've been wanting to do for a while now. I'd like to talk this week about expressionistic film. I think maybe we should try to define it first. I'm probably not the best person for this, I think you could pretty accurately call expressionism an art movement, started in Germany in the early 20th century in which reality (the world) is distorted in order to reflect emotion..... Still with me? Its pretty easy to understand once examples are used so let's start that. As I said earlier, this art form was started in Germany so naturally, early German films are great examples. Think of the buildings and backdrops of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Metropolis. In the former, the buildings were all standing twisted and sideways to display a chaotic and unnerving feel. While in the ladder, the city was very much larger than life and completely oppressive. Later, many German directors like Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang moved to the states and continued their expressionistic style in the film noir vein with films like Double Indemnity and The Big Heat respectively. Film noir is really defined as an expressionistic film movement as a whole. Filmmakers used smoke and fog in the shots to lend more of an unsettling and suspicious feel to the films. ** from Double Indemnity - notice venetian blind shadow give the "behind bars" look ** Director Tim Burton has somewhat rehashed and revamped expressionism in modern films. His sets for Gotham in Batman and Batman Returns are throwbacks to the earlier looks of the German films. Edward Scissorhands' costume and set are both very exaggerated in their look to add a stark contrast to the character backdrop relationship. There is one more film I'd like to mention that fits this catagory to a T. But, I will wait until later in the hopes that someone else mentions it first. I will only say that its a film that came out within the past 15 years and its an obvious homage to one of the early German films. I really would like to see someone else mention it before I do. So there you have it. I absolutely love this theme and I hope I've given y'all something at least to think about.
]]>Tue, 05 May 2009 02:05:53 GMTleeroy711Weekly Theme5/4/2009 10:05:53 PMYet another theme that I've been wanting to do for a while now. I'd like to talk this week about expressionistic film. I think maybe we should try to define it first. I'm probably not the best person for this, I think you could pretty accurately call expressionism an art movement, started in Germany in the early 20th century in which reality (the world) is distorted in order to reflect emotion..... Still with me? Its pretty easy to understand once examples are used so let's start that. As I said earlier, this art form was started in Germany so naturally, early German films are great examples. Think of the buildings and backdrops of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Metropolis. In the former, the buildings were all standing twisted and sideways to display a chaotic and unnerving feel. While in the ladder, the city was very much larger than life and completely oppressive. Later, many German directors like Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang moved to the states and continued their expressionistic style in the film noir vein with films like Double Indemnity and The Big Heat respectively. Film noir is really defined as an expressionistic film movement as a whole. Filmmakers used smoke and fog in the shots to lend more of an unsettling and suspicious feel to the films. ** from Double Indemnity - notice venetian blind shadow give the "behind bars" look ** Director Tim Burton has somewhat rehashed and revamped expressionism in modern films. His sets for Gotham in Batman and Batman Returns are throwbacks to the earlier looks of the German films. Edward Scissorhands' costume and set are both very exaggerated in their look to add a stark contrast to the character backdrop relationship. There is one more film I'd like to mention that fits this catagory to a T. But, I will wait until later in the hopes that someone else mentions it first. I will only say that its a film that came out within the past 15 years and its an obvious homage to one of the early German films. I really would like to see someone else mention it before I do. So there you have it. I absolutely love this theme and I hope I've given y'all something at least to think about. http://www.spout.com/blogs/windbreaker/archive/2009/4/11/41549.aspx Post By: Windbreaker
Post To: Windbreaker!
Post Date: 4/11/2009 9:22:11 AM
Body: It's a shame you have to get Netflix or Blockbuster Online to see Metropolis. At least I've never seen it on shelves. Epic sci-fi by Fritz Lang. Don't even ponder the plot in advance -- as a movie fan you owe it to yourself to watch this!
]]>Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:22:11 GMTWindbreakerWindbreaker!4/11/2009 9:22:11 AMIt's a shame you have to get Netflix or Blockbuster Online to see Metropolis. At least I've never seen it on shelves. Epic sci-fi by Fritz Lang. Don't even ponder the plot in advance -- as a movie fan you owe it to yourself to watch this! http://www.spout.com/groups/Movie_Polls/Re_Which_of_these_film_movments_have_produced_film/657/40557/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Movie Polls
Post Date: 2/19/2009 3:15:26 PM
Body: [quote user="pippin06"] This is out of my league too. I consider myself an average to above average filmgoer/viewer but am not sure if I've seen anything in any category (maybe I have and I didn't know it...but maybe not). Like I said, I saw a lot of French films in college, but who knows if they fall under New Wave or something like that... ...but maybe we could somehow start a discussion somewhere where people schooled in these film schools could make recommendations for beginners. That would be cool, right? Or, maybe it's already somewhere...anyone know? [/quote] Ok, well I'll try to give some insight on what I know about them and any recommendations I may have. Czechoslovakian New Wave may be one of the lesser movements listed here. It kind of started in the 60s. A discription from wikipedia says "Trademarks of the movement contain long unscripted dialogues, dark and absurd humour, and the casting of nonactors." I don't know if I've actually seen any, but some of the more popular ones are available from the Criterion Collection like The Shop on Main Street (which people have mentioned on Spout before), Closely Watched Trains, and lots of Milos Forman's (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Man on the Moon, Amadeus) early work like Loves of a Blonde and The Fireman's Ball. Dogme 95 was an official movement started by Lars Von Trier and a few other Danish filmmakers that had specific rules about it. You could actually submit your film to them to be labeled as an official Dogma 95 film. You can probably find the rules online somewhere, but it involved using only digital film and found locations, props, and costumes. You aren't supposed to add any special effects. The full rules are of course available at good old wikipedia. The most famous of the films would probably The Celebration, The Idiots, and my favorite, Julien Donkey-Boy. The French New Wave is a pretty broad movement usually referring to the iconoclastic filmmakers from France. I think the tail end of the 50s is really when this started to get into full swing. Like Tennenbaums mentioned earlier, Jean Luc-Godard and François Truffaut are often the most identifiable filmmakers with the movement, although there are probably dozens if not more who have been lumped into this movement. SkyPilot mentioned Jean-Pierre Melville's Bob le Flambeur. I have seen that one and was disappointed. I've also seen Godard's Breathless and Truffaut's Jules and Jim both of which I did not enjoy. Truffaut's The 400 Blows I appreciated a bit more, but still not a favorite. Some people throw Éric Rohmer into this category as well, although some argue his style is considerably different and stems from somewhere other than many other of the French New Wave filmmakers. I have enjoyed what little I've seen of his work. Expressionism was a movement in Europe in the early 20th century. It stressed intense emotion conveyed through exaggerated and distorted style and forms. The Germans took this movement and put it in film. I'm sure you recognize famous directors like F. W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. Some of these films had extremely expressionistic and highly unrealistic visuals like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Some like The Last Laugh were just more more distorted versions of reality. With all the Dracula talk that has happend on Spout at times I'm guessing you've also heard of Nosferatu. Some of Lang's works that came a bit later that are well known might also count like M and Metropolis. When I looked into it, I can't really define Iranian New Wave any better than just saying it's basically films that were made in Iran. I guess the most popular filmmaker is Abbas Kiarostami. Look him up and you may recognize a lot of his films. Maybe not. I have seen two films from Majid Majidi and would recommend The Color of Paradise. It's kind of recent though so I don't really know if it's a good representation of the first wave of the Iranian New Wave. Italian neorealism is what it probably sounds like. Italian films that stressed trying to give a realistic depiction of every day working class people. They did this by shootings things on location and often with non-actors. And a lot of the the "boring" action of normal life that might not find it's way into other films is here. Although I sure don't find it boring. The time frame we are looking at is the later forties. The most famous example is Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief which I would highly recommend, although De Sica's Shoeshine and Umberto D are also amazing. Other big name directors are Luchino Visconti and Roberto Rossellini. The Japanese New Wave like the French New Wave were a bunch of iconoclastic filmmakers that started with works being released around the end of the 50s through the 70s. You could put Seijun Suzuki in this category who is one of my favorite directors. Tokyo Drifter, Fighting Elegy, Branded to Kill, and Youth of the Beast are all fims of his that I love and are available on the Criterion Collection. Hiroshi Teshigahara also has some of his movies released through Criterion, one of which, Woman in the Dunes, I just saw recently and is amazing. Shohei Imamura also has some of his movies available through Criterion (this is basically just a big Criterion ad). Nagisa Oshima is probably the biggest name from this moment in my mind and I'm rather embarassed to say I still haven't seen any of his films. Mumblecore core is the newest term on this list and has gotten a lot of press on Spout, so maybe you've heard of it. I don't know if I've really seen any movies that would fit this category hardcore, but you probably recognize the trend in independent cinema. I think it has a lot to do with young adults living in big cities. Very low budget. Lots of slang and hip music and culture references with a realistic style. Correct me if I'm wrong on this. Joe Swanberg had a short film series on Spout for a while I think. New French Extremity is the other really new term here. I just came across the name recently to refer to a recent wave of confrontational French films ove the past decade or so. You know how we had a group here on spout called "extreme films"? Well a lot of these would probably fit in nice there. They show you the extreme fifth, cruelty, and violence of humanity often in graphic detail. You may recognize a lot of these names. Gaspar Noé's Irreversible is one of the most well known state side I think. It's the one that runs backwards. I've seen his I Stand Alone and let me say it's pretty striking and depression, very confrontational to the dark and depressing side of the human condition. Other examples are some of Claire Denis' and Leos Carax's recent work, Bruno Dumont (The Life of Jesus, Humanité), Catherine Breillat (Fat Girl). Maybe you have also heard of the infamous Baise-moi (Fuck Me). If you listen to a lot of the horror fans we have on the site too you may hear them rave about many of the violent horror films comming out of France recently. These could probably fit in well too. The most well known now being High Tension. As for New German Cinema, you've heard of Werner Herzog right?? He's one of my favorites (check out The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser, Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Stroszek, Fitzcarraldo). Well he and some other German folks such as R. W. Fassbinder (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, The Marriage of Maria Braun, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (the guy made well over fourty films in a span of sixteen years including the fifteen hour long Berlin Alexanderplatz)), Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas), Volker Schlöndorff (The Tin Drum) and several others started making the first original movies starting in the late 60s since before the rise of the Nazis (Werner Herzog even made a remake of the classic German film Nosferatu). Finally Germany was a force in the world of Cinema making original and revolutionary films again. Anyone have anything to add?
]]>Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:15:26 GMTRisseladaMovie Polls2/19/2009 3:15:26 PM[quote user="pippin06"] This is out of my league too. I consider myself an average to above average filmgoer/viewer but am not sure if I've seen anything in any category (maybe I have and I didn't know it...but maybe not). Like I said, I saw a lot of French films in college, but who knows if they fall under New Wave or something like that... ...but maybe we could somehow start a discussion somewhere where people schooled in these film schools could make recommendations for beginners. That would be cool, right? Or, maybe it's already somewhere...anyone know? [/quote] Ok, well I'll try to give some insight on what I know about them and any recommendations I may have. Czechoslovakian New Wave may be one of the lesser movements listed here. It kind of started in the 60s. A discription from wikipedia says "Trademarks of the movement contain long unscripted dialogues, dark and absurd humour, and the casting of nonactors." I don't know if I've actually seen any, but some of the more popular ones are available from the Criterion Collection like The Shop on Main Street (which people have mentioned on Spout before), Closely Watched Trains, and lots of Milos Forman's (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Man on the Moon, Amadeus) early work like Loves of a Blonde and The Fireman's Ball. Dogme 95 was an official movement started by Lars Von Trier and a few other Danish filmmakers that had specific rules about it. You could actually submit your film to them to be labeled as an official Dogma 95 film. You can probably find the rules online somewhere, but it involved using only digital film and found locations, props, and costumes. You aren't supposed to add any special effects. The full rules are of course available at good old wikipedia. The most famous of the films would probably The Celebration, The Idiots, and my favorite, Julien Donkey-Boy. The French New Wave is a pretty broad movement usually referring to the iconoclastic filmmakers from France. I think the tail end of the 50s is really when this started to get into full swing. Like Tennenbaums mentioned earlier, Jean Luc-Godard and Fran&ccedil;ois Truffaut are often the most identifiable filmmakers with the movement, although there are probably dozens if not more who have been lumped into this movement. SkyPilot mentioned Jean-Pierre Melville's Bob le Flambeur. I have seen that one and was disappointed. I've also seen Godard's Breathless and Truffaut's Jules and Jim both of which I did not enjoy. Truffaut's The 400 Blows I appreciated a bit more, but still not a favorite. Some people throw &Eacute;ric Rohmer into this category as well, although some argue his style is considerably different and stems from somewhere other than many other of the French New Wave filmmakers. I have enjoyed what little I've seen of his work. Expressionism was a movement in Europe in the early 20th century. It stressed intense emotion conveyed through exaggerated and distorted style and forms. The Germans took this movement and put it in film. I'm sure you recognize famous directors like F. W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. Some of these films had extremely expressionistic and highly unrealistic visuals like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Some like The Last Laugh were just more more distorted versions of reality. With all the Dracula talk that has happend on Spout at times I'm guessing you've also heard of Nosferatu. Some of Lang's works that came a bit later that are well known might also count like M and Metropolis. When I looked into it, I can't really define Iranian New Wave any better than just saying it's basically films that were made in Iran. I guess the most popular filmmaker is Abbas Kiarostami. Look him up and you may recognize a lot of his films. Maybe not. I have seen two films from Majid Majidi and would recommend The Color of Paradise. It's kind of recent though so I don't really know if it's a good representation of the first wave of the Iranian New Wave. Italian neorealism is what it probably sounds like. Italian films that stressed trying to give a realistic depiction of every day working class people. They did this by shootings things on location and often with non-actors. And a lot of the the "boring" action of normal life that might not find it's way into other films is here. Although I sure don't find it boring. The time frame we are looking at is the later forties. The most famous example is Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief which I would highly recommend, although De Sica's Shoeshine and Umberto D are also amazing. Other big name directors are Luchino Visconti and Roberto Rossellini. The Japanese New Wave like the French New Wave were a bunch of iconoclastic filmmakers that started with works being released around the end of the 50s through the 70s. You could put Seijun Suzuki in this category who is one of my favorite directors. Tokyo Drifter, Fighting Elegy, Branded to Kill, and Youth of the Beast are all fims of his that I love and are available on the Criterion Collection. Hiroshi Teshigahara also has some of his movies released through Criterion, one of which, Woman in the Dunes, I just saw recently and is amazing. Shohei Imamura also has some of his movies available through Criterion (this is basically just a big Criterion ad). Nagisa Oshima is probably the biggest name from this moment in my mind and I'm rather embarassed to say I still haven't seen any of his films. Mumblecore core is the newest term on this list and has gotten a lot of press on Spout, so maybe you've heard of it. I don't know if I've really seen any movies that would fit this category hardcore, but you probably recognize the trend in independent cinema. I think it has a lot to do with young adults living in big cities. Very low budget. Lots of slang and hip music and culture references with a realistic style. Correct me if I'm wrong on this. Joe Swanberg had a short film series on Spout for a while I think. New French Extremity is the other really new term here. I just came across the name recently to refer to a recent wave of confrontational French films ove the past decade or so. You know how we had a group here on spout called "extreme films"? Well a lot of these would probably fit in nice there. They show you the extreme fifth, cruelty, and violence of humanity often in graphic detail. You may recognize a lot of these names. Gaspar No&eacute;'s Irreversible is one of the most well known state side I think. It's the one that runs backwards. I've seen his I Stand Alone and let me say it's pretty striking and depression, very confrontational to the dark and depressing side of the human condition. Other examples are some of Claire Denis' and Leos Carax's recent work, Bruno Dumont (The Life of Jesus, Humanit&eacute;), Catherine Breillat (Fat Girl). Maybe you have also heard of the infamous Baise-moi (Fuck Me). If you listen to a lot of the horror fans we have on the site too you may hear them rave about many of the violent horror films comming out of France recently. These could probably fit in well too. The most well known now being High Tension. As for New German Cinema, you've heard of Werner Herzog right?? He's one of my favorites (check out The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser, Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Stroszek, Fitzcarraldo). Well he and some other German folks such as R. W. Fassbinder (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, The Marriage of Maria Braun, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (the guy made well over fourty films in a span of sixteen years including the fifteen hour long Berlin Alexanderplatz)), Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas), Volker Schl&ouml;ndorff (The Tin Drum) and several others started making the first original movies starting in the late 60s since before the rise of the Nazis (Werner Herzog even made a remake of the classic German film Nosferatu). Finally Germany was a force in the world of Cinema making original and revolutionary films again. Anyone have anything to add? http://www.spout.com/groups/Movie_Polls/Re_Which_of_these_film_movments_have_produced_film/657/40528/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: rjsprague
Post To: Movie Polls
Post Date: 2/18/2009 4:30:45 PM
Body: [quote user="EGonzalez"] Definitely German Expressionism. Most Tim Burton is reminiscient of this era, and quite a bit of Steampunk. They really utilized the mise-en-scene of film and explored so many possibilities. Metropolis (1927) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is still one of the best suspense movies I've ever seen, even considerin the technological advancements. [/quote] Yeah Steampunk! woot
]]>Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:30:45 GMTrjspragueMovie Polls2/18/2009 4:30:45 PM[quote user="EGonzalez"] Definitely German Expressionism. Most Tim Burton is reminiscient of this era, and quite a bit of Steampunk. They really utilized the mise-en-scene of film and explored so many possibilities. Metropolis (1927) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is still one of the best suspense movies I've ever seen, even considerin the technological advancements. [/quote] Yeah Steampunk! woot http://www.spout.com/groups/Movie_Polls/Re_Which_of_these_film_movments_have_produced_film/657/40505/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: EGonzalez
Post To: Movie Polls
Post Date: 2/17/2009 4:22:20 PM
Body: Definitely German Expressionism. Most Tim Burton is reminiscient of this era, and quite a bit of Steampunk. They really utilized the mise-en-scene of film and explored so many possibilities. Metropolis (1927) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is still one of the best suspense movies I've ever seen, even considerin the technological advancements.
]]>Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:22:20 GMTEGonzalezMovie Polls2/17/2009 4:22:20 PMDefinitely German Expressionism. Most Tim Burton is reminiscient of this era, and quite a bit of Steampunk. They really utilized the mise-en-scene of film and explored so many possibilities. Metropolis (1927) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is still one of the best suspense movies I've ever seen, even considerin the technological advancements. http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2009/1/7/39219.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 1/7/2009 5:00:47 PM
Body: It’s only a couple of short weeks before the 2008 Oscar nominees are announced, and the internet is abuzz with prognostications. One hotly debated topic is whether or not Wall-E can pull off a Best Picture nomination, or even a win. It would be the second animated film to be nominated in the category, after Beauty and the Beast, which got the honor before the Animated Feature prize existed. Will the stodgy old Academy seat Wall-E at the kid’s table, giving it an easy win in the animation category, or will it be allowed to play with the big boys? A best pic nomination for Wall-E would be a rare honor for animation in general, but it would also be a long over due rarity for another reason: Wall-E would only be the second best pic nominated film in the history of the Oscars to be set in the future. The only one to date is A Clockwork Orange. When you consider how many nominees are period pieces (I didn’t care to count), this represents a massive bias on the part of the Academy. It’s clear that they love the past, but they hate the future. What would the history of the Academy Awards look like if the Hollywood elite wasn’t terrified of speculative fiction? Below, seven movies about the future that should have been nominated for Best Picture: 1. Metropolis The first Academy Awards, held in 1929, gave honors to films produced in both 1928 and 1927, so this should have at least been nominated. Of course the nomination process was rather primitive back then, and American audiences probably wouldn’t have been familiar with German films such as this, but for the purpose of revisionist history, we’ll say it got snubbed. There’s something very 20th century about Art Deco skyscrapers and class conflict, but Metropolis‘ depiction of 2026 still feels relevant today. The film laid the ground work for countless sci-fi tropes, including sexy female androids (see #5). 2. On The Beach This 1959 post-apocalyptic drama stars Gregory Peck as the captain of a US submarine stationed in Melbourne. Set in the near future of 1964, nuclear war has wiped out the rest of the planet, and it’s only a matter of months before the wind brings the deadly radioactive fallout to Australia. The film is a beautiful meditation on the inevitability of death, featuring a solid performance by Ava Gardner, and the most melancholy work by Fred Astaire I’ve ever seen (he does not sing or dance). On the Beach was nominated for both Best Score and Best Editing Oscars, and director Stanley Kramer won a BAFTA. 3. 2001: A Space Odyssey Kubrick’s masterpiece wasn’t completely snubbed; it received four Oscar nominations, with a win for Visual Effects. But the fact that it didn’t get a Best Picture nomination is criminal. The film is consistently listed on top 100 movie lists, and breaks the top ten on plenty of them. It’s clear that something went very wrong that year. Perhaps the snub can be blamed on the fact that the film was so far ahead of its time, that many people just didn’t get it. Pauline Kael said it was “a monumentally unimaginative movie.” 4. Solaris This 1972 Russian science fiction film is just as cerebral as 2001, and perhaps an even deeper plumb of the human psyche. The Palme d’Or nominated film, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, follows the story of psychologist Chris Kelvin as he ventures to a distant space station, orbiting the water-covered planet Solaris. The station has fallen into disarray, and Kelvin soon figures out why. An apparition of his dead wife appears, apparently created by Solaris using Kelvin’s brain waves. The film is slow and introspective, and is one of those rare gems of science fiction that transcends the trappings of the genre. It should have at least been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film; instead, it wasn’t nominated for anything. 5. Blade Runner For some, saying that Blade Runner was one of the five best films of 1982 is stating the obvious. Perhaps the blending of sci-fi and noir seemed at the time to be nothing more than a cheap genre gimmick. But the enduring quality of Blade Runner makes it clear that it deserved more than the two nominations in received for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects. The snub of Blade Runner is perhaps the best way to prove the Academy’s bias toward the past, when you consider that Ridley Scott’s 2000 film, Gladiator was not only nominated for Best Picture, but it won! I repeat, Gladiator won Best Picture, while Blade Runner was not even nominated. Which did you think was the better movie? 6. Brazil Terry Gilliam’s dystopian black comedy might have had a shot at few Academy awards if Gilliam hadn’t burned every bridge in Hollywood as he made it. The film operates in the dystopian mold cast by 1984, with a healthy dose of dark humor and fantasy. It’s one of the most egregious examples of a studio re-cutting a film and essentially destroying it in the process. Fortunately, Gilliam’s cut is readily available on DVD now, but the director’s trustworthiness in Hollywood is still highly suspect. Gilliam is one of those filmmakers who, no matter how good a movie he makes, will never be welcomed into the inner sanctum. Still, Brazil deserved a Best Picture nomination. 7. Children of Men When the 2006 Best Picture nominees were announced, you may have heard a faint stream of cursing on the wind. That was me. I know that people tend to win Oscars when they’re “due,” which easily explains why The Departed took home the top prize, but the fact that Children of Men wasn’t even nominated is just silly. It was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, which is the Academy’s way of saying, “Wow, this movie is incredible, but it’s about the future, so let’s only honor that one really long take near the end.” Bullshit. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:00:47 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com1/7/2009 5:00:47 PMIt’s only a couple of short weeks before the 2008 Oscar nominees are announced, and the internet is abuzz with prognostications. One hotly debated topic is whether or not Wall-E can pull off a Best Picture nomination, or even a win. It would be the second animated film to be nominated in the category, after Beauty and the Beast, which got the honor before the Animated Feature prize existed. Will the stodgy old Academy seat Wall-E at the kid’s table, giving it an easy win in the animation category, or will it be allowed to play with the big boys? A best pic nomination for Wall-E would be a rare honor for animation in general, but it would also be a long over due rarity for another reason: Wall-E would only be the second best pic nominated film in the history of the Oscars to be set in the future. The only one to date is A Clockwork Orange. When you consider how many nominees are period pieces (I didn’t care to count), this represents a massive bias on the part of the Academy. It’s clear that they love the past, but they hate the future. What would the history of the Academy Awards look like if the Hollywood elite wasn’t terrified of speculative fiction? Below, seven movies about the future that should have been nominated for Best Picture: 1. Metropolis The first Academy Awards, held in 1929, gave honors to films produced in both 1928 and 1927, so this should have at least been nominated. Of course the nomination process was rather primitive back then, and American audiences probably wouldn’t have been familiar with German films such as this, but for the purpose of revisionist history, we’ll say it got snubbed. There’s something very 20th century about Art Deco skyscrapers and class conflict, but Metropolis‘ depiction of 2026 still feels relevant today. The film laid the ground work for countless sci-fi tropes, including sexy female androids (see #5). 2. On The Beach This 1959 post-apocalyptic drama stars Gregory Peck as the captain of a US submarine stationed in Melbourne. Set in the near future of 1964, nuclear war has wiped out the rest of the planet, and it’s only a matter of months before the wind brings the deadly radioactive fallout to Australia. The film is a beautiful meditation on the inevitability of death, featuring a solid performance by Ava Gardner, and the most melancholy work by Fred Astaire I’ve ever seen (he does not sing or dance). On the Beach was nominated for both Best Score and Best Editing Oscars, and director Stanley Kramer won a BAFTA. 3. 2001: A Space Odyssey Kubrick’s masterpiece wasn’t completely snubbed; it received four Oscar nominations, with a win for Visual Effects. But the fact that it didn’t get a Best Picture nomination is criminal. The film is consistently listed on top 100 movie lists, and breaks the top ten on plenty of them. It’s clear that something went very wrong that year. Perhaps the snub can be blamed on the fact that the film was so far ahead of its time, that many people just didn’t get it. Pauline Kael said it was “a monumentally unimaginative movie.” 4. Solaris This 1972 Russian science fiction film is just as cerebral as 2001, and perhaps an even deeper plumb of the human psyche. The Palme d’Or nominated film, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, follows the story of psychologist Chris Kelvin as he ventures to a distant space station, orbiting the water-covered planet Solaris. The station has fallen into disarray, and Kelvin soon figures out why. An apparition of his dead wife appears, apparently created by Solaris using Kelvin’s brain waves. The film is slow and introspective, and is one of those rare gems of science fiction that transcends the trappings of the genre. It should have at least been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film; instead, it wasn’t nominated for anything. 5. Blade Runner For some, saying that Blade Runner was one of the five best films of 1982 is stating the obvious. Perhaps the blending of sci-fi and noir seemed at the time to be nothing more than a cheap genre gimmick. But the enduring quality of Blade Runner makes it clear that it deserved more than the two nominations in received for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects. The snub of Blade Runner is perhaps the best way to prove the Academy’s bias toward the past, when you consider that Ridley Scott’s 2000 film, Gladiator was not only nominated for Best Picture, but it won! I repeat, Gladiator won Best Picture, while Blade Runner was not even nominated. Which did you think was the better movie? 6. Brazil Terry Gilliam’s dystopian black comedy might have had a shot at few Academy awards if Gilliam hadn’t burned every bridge in Hollywood as he made it. The film operates in the dystopian mold cast by 1984, with a healthy dose of dark humor and fantasy. It’s one of the most egregious examples of a studio re-cutting a film and essentially destroying it in the process. Fortunately, Gilliam’s cut is readily available on DVD now, but the director’s trustworthiness in Hollywood is still highly suspect. Gilliam is one of those filmmakers who, no matter how good a movie he makes, will never be welcomed into the inner sanctum. Still, Brazil deserved a Best Picture nomination. 7. Children of Men When the 2006 Best Picture nominees were announced, you may have heard a faint stream of cursing on the wind. That was me. I know that people tend to win Oscars when they’re “due,” which easily explains why The Departed took home the top prize, but the fact that Children of Men wasn’t even nominated is just silly. It was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, which is the Academy’s way of saying, “Wow, this movie is incredible, but it’s about the future, so let’s only honor that one really long take near the end.” Bullshit. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/12/8/38043.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 12/8/2008 12:00:52 PM
Body: Fanzine pioneer (and credited coiner of the term “sci-fi”) Forrest J. Ackerman died last week at the age of 92, so I thought it appropriate to showcase a bittersweet clip from the documentary The Sci-Fi Boys. Though I panned the film when it premiered at Tribeca a few years back (and got a lot of crap from readers as a result), I do recognize it as primarily a showcase for Ackerman’s celebration of and influence on genre filmmaking. If you’re looking for something to watch to pay tribute to the guy, this may be it. Or, you could use this as a springboard with which to begin a marathon of Forry’s favorite sci-fi films. He lists them in this clip as being Metropolis, Things to Come, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and The Time Machine. Also in this clip, filmed in 2003, Ackerman visits the grave of legendary sci-fi filmmaker George Pal and mentions that he’d recently almost joined the producer/director in the afterlife. Fortunately, fans got to enjoy Ackerman and his memorabilia museum home (the “Acker-mini-mansion”) for another five years. Now, though, “Forry” has gone and met up with Pal, and they’re likely having great conversations about H.G. Wells and the current state of sci-fi/fantasy. Check out the clip of Ackerman and Sci-Fi Boys director Paul Davids after the jump. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:00:52 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com12/8/2008 12:00:52 PMFanzine pioneer (and credited coiner of the term “sci-fi”) Forrest J. Ackerman died last week at the age of 92, so I thought it appropriate to showcase a bittersweet clip from the documentary The Sci-Fi Boys. Though I panned the film when it premiered at Tribeca a few years back (and got a lot of crap from readers as a result), I do recognize it as primarily a showcase for Ackerman’s celebration of and influence on genre filmmaking. If you’re looking for something to watch to pay tribute to the guy, this may be it. Or, you could use this as a springboard with which to begin a marathon of Forry’s favorite sci-fi films. He lists them in this clip as being Metropolis, Things to Come, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and The Time Machine. Also in this clip, filmed in 2003, Ackerman visits the grave of legendary sci-fi filmmaker George Pal and mentions that he’d recently almost joined the producer/director in the afterlife. Fortunately, fans got to enjoy Ackerman and his memorabilia museum home (the “Acker-mini-mansion”) for another five years. Now, though, “Forry” has gone and met up with Pal, and they’re likely having great conversations about H.G. Wells and the current state of sci-fi/fantasy. Check out the clip of Ackerman and Sci-Fi Boys director Paul Davids after the jump. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_November_24_Cyborgs_Androids/625/37640/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Tizzy
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 11/25/2008 3:54:06 PM
Body: Maria is good! How about the Buffybot in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (tv series though)! But to get back to just androids, D.A.R.Y.L and Dot Matrix in Spaceballs. [quote user="mphmuse"] Maria in Metropolis (1927). http://lolbots.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/metropolis-maria-lumps.jpg [/quote]
]]>Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:54:06 GMTTizzyWeekly Theme11/25/2008 3:54:06 PMMaria is good! How about the Buffybot in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (tv series though)! But to get back to just androids, D.A.R.Y.L and Dot Matrix in Spaceballs. [quote user="mphmuse"] Maria in Metropolis (1927). http://lolbots.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/metropolis-maria-lumps.jpg [/quote] http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/Classic/MemberTagFilms.aspxClassic
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