Risselada

Member since 9/21/2006, last signed in awhile ago.

"Home Alone is like a kid's version of Straw Dogs without the rape."

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Personal statement:

Interested in everything about film. I'd like to sample every different kind of film possible, and every different kind of art for that matter, just to see what's out there.

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Anatomy of a Murder

director introductions - Otto P ...
By Risselada in Risselada Blog
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"This is the first film I've seen by director Otto Preminger. Anatomy of a Murder A good courtroom drama, but less for the reasons that I would have expected. At some point finding out what really happened and who is guilty or innocent is not quite as important as just watching all of the different characters involved, their motives, methods, and relationships. Also notable for being one of the earliest major screen appearances from the great George C. Scott. His talent and skill as a distinct actor were already developed at this early stage of his film carreers. Also interesting as one of the only major films I've ever seen that takes place in the Michigan Upper Peninsula. What also sticks out about the film is how open it is about talking about and investigating such disturbing crimes as violence and rape. The word rape is used quite openly, along with many details surrounding the incident. The crime was not made light of, yet we see how it can become more matter of fact or be ... " [More]

Moral Tales, Filmic Issues
By Risselada in Risselada Blog
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"Moral Tales, Filmic Issues This one isn't in the Spout database but I thought I'd mention it because I enjoyed it. You can see this on disc one of the Criterion Collection set of Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales. The first film in the set The Bakery Girl of Monceau is so short at 23 minutes that it would have seemed kind of wasteful to have nothing else on the disc. So we get this fantastic 84 minute long dialogue with Eric Rohmer and Barbet Schroeder. These guys are as wonderful to hear talking to each other as it is to hear the characters in Rohmer's films talking to each other. Even though I had not hardly any of the films he was referring to I found it fascinating. I will have to revisit this interview some day after I have seen more of his oeuvre. Rating: 9/10 " [More]

A Generation

director ratings - Andrzej Wajd ...
By Risselada in Risselada Blog
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"This is the second feature length film I've seen by director Andrzej Wajda. I chose to watch this film based on previous good ratings I've given other films by this director and to better my favorite directors by algorithm listing. Kanal I'm always so thrilled to find new movies as great as this. It's not great because everything that happens in it is so pleasant, but because (like several of my favorite movies) it is so apt in portraying the true horrors war and revolution, and more specifically what this particular moment for people like this in the Warsaw Uprising may have been like. In some ways realistically and in some ways more poetically. It's an excellent ensemble movie like a lot of good war movies are, but this one really steps it up to the highest level. So many emotions. You are there with the characters, feeling the will to keep going on, and at the same time the desperation that the efforts will most likely all be useless. Also, add this one to the short list o ... " [More]

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White
By Risselada in Risselada Blog
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"Snow White The final feature length film from the DVD set "Treasures From American Film Archives" is a classic tale, but set some of the future standards of cinematic interpretations. Or at least it is known to have been a considerable influence on Walt Disney in his inspiration and execution of his own version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. My biggest complaint is that there seems to be moments that jump over major scenes or plot points. I don't know if part of the film is missing or the filmmakers just assumed people were familiar with the story enough to know what wasn't being shown. Otherwise it's a fun example of very early American fantasy filmmaking. Rating: 7/10 " [More]

The Gold Rush

The Chechahcos
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"The Chechahcos From disc three of the DVD set "Treasures From American Film Archives". An interesting silent feature set in the Alaska gold rush from director Lewis H. Moomaw. This is his only surviving film. Some action, romance, drama. The different settings like the boat, the lodges, and especially the Alaska landscapes are major points of interest as well though. It was said Chaplin got some ideas from this film for The Gold Rush. Rating: 7/10 " [More]

Burn After Reading

director ratings - Joel and Eth ...
By Risselada in Risselada Blog
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"This is the forteenth feature length film I've seen by directors Joel and Ethan Coen. I chose to watch this film based on previous good ratings I've given other films by this director and to better my favorite directors by algorithm listing. A Serious Man It's a special moment that seems to have come around once a year in the fall season the last few years when I get to watch another new Coen brothers film. Since they are my favorite filmmakers, and being a film lover, there are few moments of cinematic anticipation as big as this for me. My love and admiration for their films always ends up being massive. Sometimes immediately, and sometimes as it sinks in. Last year's Burn After Reading was pretty much instantaneous. A Serious Man I knew I liked just as much, but took me a while longer to figure out completely why. The reason it took me a while, is actually the reason why it's so great. It has a lot of the wonderful and distinctive Coen brothers characters and dialogue. Bu ... " [More]

The Toll of the Sea

The Toll of the Sea
By Risselada in Risselada Blog
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"The Toll of the Sea Another one from the DVD set "Treasures From American Film Archives". This was the first "successful" feature film to use the two-tone Technicolor process through its entirety. It is doubtful that the film would have had even a small fraction of the notoriety it does not if it weren't for that distinguishing fact, although it isn't a horrible film. The only other notable aspect of the film is actress Anna May Wong. It was rare for Asian American women to have starring roles in American films, and she does a praiseworthy job. Her appearance and performance along with two other secondary Asian American actresses and the sets filmed in the early Technicolor process would be my only primary reasons to recommend the film. Rating: 5/10 " [More]

All About Eve

director ratings - Joseph L. Ma ...
By Risselada in Risselada Blog
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"This is the second feature length film I've seen by director Joseph L. Mankiewicz. I chose to watch this film based on previous good ratings I've given other films by this director and to better my favorite directors by algorithm listing. All About Eve I don't have too much to say about such a famous movie mostly because I feel like it must have all been said before, and I would tend to agree with the general sentiments surrounding it. If you rent the DVD for this movie, you will get more special features than you can almost handle. I watched them all because I'm compulsive. I enjoyed them, but now I've heard so much about this movie, that I can't stand to take too much time to write much more about it. I usually tend to shy away from movies about backstage theatre drama, especially involving selfish divas. People tend to write about what they know, so there are a highly disproportionate amount of backstage subject matters in movies and plays. But when the writing, acting, an ... " [More]

The Butcher

director introductions - Claude ...
By Risselada in Risselada Blog
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"This is the first film I've seen by director Claude Chabrol. Le boucher (The Butcher) I first read about Charbrol as a master of suspense like Hitchcock or Clouzot, but with his own kind of psychological, sociological, and political slant. And he is kind of coming out of the French New Wave so there's that kind of feeling about it. I'll admit the suspense and mood were done well, but the story itself was not that great. I understand that the story was kind of commenting on and playing on conventions and the main point was the examination of characters. But I didn't connect with any of the characters, especially not the protagonist played by his wife and muse Stéphane Audran, Charbrol's muse and wife. She creeped me out from the very beginning. Something just about the way she dressed and her makeup might have been part of it. I understand the characters were supposed to be a bit creepy and enigmatic, hiding stuff from their past. I can understand what he was going for ... " [More]

Man of Aran

director ratings - Man of Aran ...
By Risselada in Risselada Blog
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"This is the second feature length film I've seen by director Robert Flaherty. I chose to watch this film based on previous good ratings I've given other films by this director and to better my favorite directors by algorithm listing. Man of Aran I've heard him called the "Father of the documentary" (although a quick search of the phrase shows more hits for John Grierson), his films are actually more constructed and narrative than in a method that required a lot more effort than filming what we would consider to be more of a strict documentary today. The locations are real. The people are usually native, but their relationships may not be. And while their actions may be inspired by the more interesting parts of reality, they are still acted out for the camera. The most exciting part of this film, the shark hunt was a recreation of a practice that had been abandoned for a generation or more. People still had all of the equipment, but didn't exactly know what they were doing. It ... " [More]

Ghost World

director ratings - Terry Zwigof ...
By Risselada in Risselada Blog
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"This is the fifth feature length film I've seen by director Terry Zwigoff. I chose to watch this film based on previous good ratings I've given other films by this director and to better my favorite directors by algorithm listing. Louie Bluie I've now seen all of Terry Zwigoff film's, and I find it amusing that the last one I was able to see was a documentary that I watched on a little TV in a library viewing room, since this was also the case with the first movie of his I saw. Although that film, Crumb, I watched in college in a cramped little room with a bunch of other guys and one girl. And if you've seen Crumb, you may know why that was a bit uncomfortable. I still thought it was a great documentary though, and was the beginning of my love for Terry Zwigoff. Ghost World and Bad Santa have been my favorites, but his early documentaries are good too. I would love to see him direct another documentary soon. It's his knack for finding the interesting people to base his films ... " [More]

Hell's Hinges

Hell's Hinges
By Risselada in Risselada Blog
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"Hell's Hinges This is available through the DVD set "Treasures From American Film Archives". The western has always been such a distinct genre with it's own clichés, and for that reason it has always been a great genre to subvert. I think this was probably one of the earliest really subversive westerns. And the star William S. Hart was probably the first real star of the western genre. This is probably one of my new favorite pre-1920s feature length films, although I haven't seen too many. They are sometimes hard to appreciate, not just because equipment and technique seem primitive by today's standards, but most of the times the film has degraded so bad that we cannot appreciate what it originally looked like. Hell's Hinges looks fairly good here though. And sometimes you can be surprised by the great and gritty stories from these early years, especially since there wasn't too much censorship at that time, compared with a couple decades later. Rating: 8/10 " [More]