Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by ArdRi (A) on August 18, 2006 at 23:13:48

In Reply to: And a bunch maybe who just don't know. (?) posted by grantv on August 18, 2006 at 14:16:04:

Clint's westerns like Unforgiven and Pale Rider OK but anything with "emotions" + Clint Eastwood=Cringe. Musicals, never.Foreign films i love. The fact that i am unfamiliar with the language is a challenge i enjoy. Its as good a means as any to begin to learn another language.I've recently watched a few Bergman films. The Virgin Spring most recently then Persona and The Seventh Seal, I just watched the original Solaris tonight, The Saragossa Manuscript of course and then some in French.Watching films in a language of which i posses no present understanding is kind of like driving without brakes in a way without the risk.Its interesting to arrive at an internal understanding of the matters which can be common to all people related through an unfamiliar culture and language.This serves to allow one a knowledge of greater value or a more truly meaningful dimension of these things when understanding is arrived at thru the filter of a foreign language.It certainly engenders in me a great appreciation for and admiration of people i know who's native language is one in which i am as yet still uneducated yet who speak mine with ease.What other films do you regard as "Classic" you have left unwatched?Ben Hur?The Third Man? Is that really a classic?I think i agree that wild popularity in most things of a cultural nature often equates for me to shallow depth of value.I am with you on Gore anything that uses extreme amounts of blood and violence can pass right into the rubbish like Reservoir Dogs and any slasher junk like Saw and Texas Chainsaw etc ad museum.Glad to say Romance films require me to be chained to the seat to watch.Gangster films thankfully aren't much in style unless the Oceans 11 etc are in there.I can do without the glorification of the criminal mentality thank you very much.Movies that ask meaningfull questions and don't pretend to answer them if there is no clear answer but can let reality be uncertain win for me. Life is enigmatic, no? I frequently have no satisfactory answers for important questions.Like today I saw an interview Neil Cavuto did with Valdimir Zhiranovski who a few years ago was being demonized as a very serious threat to "peace" for his ultra nationalistic speeches yet today i found him smiling and somehow reasonable and felt much goodwill toward him and what can explain this other than maybe people who once found themselves far apart and in conflict can actually grow and see the mutual benefit of common understanding and cooperation outweighing the lower impulse to conquer and defeat for survival. It has some weird meaning to me as i have a theory Russia is responsible for my existence in that my parents conceived me during the so called Cuban Missile Crisis ,i believe in a state of reckless abandon when the thought of imminent cataclysmic annihilation gripped them.Seeing a warming and genuine impulse for good will between the two former adversaries is to me a truly beautifull thing i hope can flower to an abiding fruit which nourishes us all.I think i could survive with your list.So you and Victor for now.