this episode:
David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises, documentary talk, Fall/Winter preview, plus the usual fare…
Unwrap the complete Show Notes by clicking on this link…
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These are the show notes for Cinecast Episode #62
Intro music: :00 - 3:29
Opening remarks: :29 - 6:50
Eastern Promises: 6:51 - 31:34
Documentary talk: 31:35 - 57:25
Fall/Winter movie preview: 57:26 - 1:33:52
DVD picks: 1:33:52 - 1:43:24
Kurt’s screener - Death Proof (extended cut): 1:43:25 - 1:54:37
Closing remarks: 1:53:51 - 1:54:37
Outro music: 1:52:27 - 1:55:44
Bumper Music by “Tenacious D” and “The Coasters”
In-House Announcements:
– (almost) All MoviePatron reviews are now commentable! You can now comment on any of the review links below that we discuss and any other reviews We’ve written in the past year and a half or so. Give it a try!
Eastern Promises
Documentaries:
Sort of a disjointed ramble about different documentaries and how we feel about them in general.
Limited show notes for this one, but here are our favorite documentaries:
Kurt: American Movie
Andrew: The Fog of War
Looking Ahead to Fall/Winter:
Most anticipated films for the rest of 2007:
Andrew:
There Will be Blood
No Country for Old Men
Gone, Baby Gone
American Gangster
Lars and the Real Girl
Into the Wild
Across the Universe
I’m not There
Kurt:
Assassination of Jesse James
Darjeeling Ltd.
Southland Tales
- - YouTube trailer link
There Will Be Blood
Teeth
Til the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Charlie Wilson’s War
My Kid Could Paint That
I’m not There
Beowulf
Atonement
DVD Picks of the Week:
KURT - Tekkon Kinkreet:
Kurt’s review
ANDREW - Black Book:
Andrew’s review
DARE TO TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT - Bug:
Andrew’s review
TWITCH review
Other Random Things:
Death Proof rules.
Kurt’s review
Andrew’s review
Homework:
Kurt: See Vincent Cassel film - Derailed and Viggo Mortensen film - GI Jane
Andrew: See the documentary - Crumb
YOU: vote in the poll on the right side of this blog and also see Death Proof and let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Comments or questions?
Leave comments by clicking on the comments below - you can even leave AUDIO comments!
feedback@moviepatron.com (general)
andrew@moviepatron.com
kurt@moviepatron.com
- - Kurt’s BLOG - this week’s screener: Death Proof (extended cut).
The Martin Scorcese documentary on Bob Dylan is called No Direction Home.
Right. Dammit. I actually own that one too. haha. That’s what you get for smokin doobies in college.
With regards to Death Proof extended cut:
I am a person who watched that version without having seen the Grindhouse one and for me it works absolutely fine as a movie all by itself. Once I see the Grindhouse version (when it eventuall comes out on DVD) I will probably compare like you guys said. But for a Tarantino fan that is ALWAYS fun
Oh btw forgot to mention (man I should really think before I post) that when you guys were talking about Eastern Promises and mentioned A History of Violence I was going crazy. Andrew you kept saying I know a lot of people just hated that movie - and I kept wanting to somehow shout to you “Like me! I hated it!” haha!
Seriously though I couldn’t stand that film. Does that mean I won’t like Eastern Promises?
Ross, hard to say, but Eastern Promises is definitely operating on a similar to A History of Violence, except that Viggo’s Russian character may be progressing the opposite from his American Dad in AHoV.
Eastern Promises has a more conventional structure compared to AHoV, it fits easier into the gangster genre while at the same time subverting the whole thing.
I have a real problem with History of Violence. I think it comes down to what I wanted Cronenburg to show. I thought the pretty much the third act was a waste of time. For me the movie should have completely focused on the relationship of the main character with his family and also with the people in the town. The whole bit where he goes off and takes on the mob just felt out of place. If the movie had focused on the relationships more it would have been my favorite movie of last year. As it is it dropped down to somewhat of a disappointment.
I think Andrew and I are going to disagree on that though. He sounded like he wanted something in Eastern Promises like the action sequence so that it would explain Viggo’s character taking over the mob.
Have you seen The Crimson Rivers Kurt? Its a Jean Reno/Vincent Cassel crime flick thats pretty good.
Or how about Irreversible? Its something along the lines of Memento as it is shown in reverse order for time but it is also much darker.
The Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan is commendable, an encyclopedic inventory of Dylan minutae, but the real ‘in’ to Dylan is Pennebaker’s ‘Dont Look Back’, the cinema verite marvel following Dylan at his most ‘Beat’ific, during his British leg of the 1966 tour. You cannot script something this good, there is a real immediacy to it that totally captures the zeitgeist and the real human element of Dylan in the flash bulb spotlight. I was a moderate fan of Dylan until I saw this, and ever since I am downright fervent. Much of the Cate Blanchett segments in Todd Haynes’ ‘I’m Not There’ biopic is lifted from this documentary in some form or another. BTW no Guy Pierce in I’m Not There, would of been interesting casting though. The guy that really delivers the goods (aside from Cate) is Christian Bale, but he is criminally underused in it.
as for Eastern Promises, I have to side with Andrew… but I would go further, I do not understand much of the enthusiasm for Cronenberg, particularly A History of Violence. I found it creaky and formulaic, and working with archetypes at the risk of having interesting characters who can dimensionally mull over the significance of violence, an important topic for sure. Eastern Promises was a step up from Violence, and it is at least an entertaining straightforward gangster picture with one great fight sequence. But I do not see the weightiness to it that I know many do. Also I anticipated everything that was going to happen long before it did, and I can never do that, so I found that a problem as well.
I’ve not seen anything directed by Matthew Kassovitz (spelling) - Crimson Rivers 1 or 2, La Haine (high on my list to see though!), or that bad flick he did with Halle Berry.
Gaspar Noe, I’m highly familiar with though, I’m a big fan and supporter of Irreversible, despite the hard nature of that film and the difficult visuals. I liked its point (even it it is very heavy handed about it) and I like his brand of extreme filmmaking with established stars (Bellucci and Cassell)…Noe is like earlier Cronenberg, looking to shock people visually with interesting thoughts under-neath about the thin line between humanity and reptiles.
Crimson Rivers 1 is a pretty good film. I’d ignore the second though. Cassel wasn’t in it and it took the whole supernatural thing a bit far.
Sheez, I never realized he did Gothika. I might have actually caught it if I had known that. Good thing I didn’t.
La Haine sounds pretty interesting I might have to check it out when I get the chance.
I think I’m going to have to start making a list of movies I want to see soon. I keep hearing about stuff that sounds good and then I don’t think about it till months (or years) later.
“Eastern Promises” is currently sitting comfortably atop my list of faves so far this year. Loved this movie to pieces and can’t wait to see it again.
On documentaries…I try to watch them regularly but must admit that it’s sometimes an effort, especially when the selection is limited and I find I have to have some interest in the subject to actually sit down and invest the time to see it. I’ve seen a few recently that I quite enjoyed including “Heavy Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey” which was wonderfully entertaining and “Scared Sacred” about finding religion amids war, terror and depression). Happy to hear you guys mention “Paradise Lost”. I saw that earlier this year and WOW, just WOW. Amazing. I’m trying to track down copies of the other docs but they haven’t been easy to find.
As far as films I’m looking forward to….my list is pretty much a copy of both of yours but “Atonement” and “There Will Be Blood” are right at the top. Thankfully, I only have a few more hours to wait to see “Atonement”!
Great show guys!
@Ross
“Does that mean I won’t like Eastern Promises?”
I’ll go along with Kurt on this. It IS difficult to say. They are two completely different movies that really only share a similar tone and Viggo Mortensen. Also, like Kurt said EP has a much more conventional (ie - predictable as hell and cliche) structure. If you like mafia-esque movies (lower guys trying to figure out how to get higher up and innocent people trying to be tough and smart without getting killed), you’ll probably like this a lot. I wouldn’t compare it to AHoV at all, except that it happens to be Cronenberg.