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The Barbelith Film Classics Club

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Hieronymus

19:43 / 21.11.05

Alex Gein proposed in the Classic Movies thread that Lithers should start up a general film club of a sort, for discussion on various classics that more people should be putting their eyeballs to.

So here it is. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get your hands on The Third Man, a 1949 noir classic, sometime over the Thanksgiving holiday and join us for some bree, wine, conversation and crackers.

Actually that's not quite true. Cheese Whiz, saltines and a bottle of Thunderbird will have to do for now.

With each dead horse beaten, we'll move by general consensus to the next one.

I'm really looking forward to this.

Bed Head

20:08 / 21.11.05

So. If you want, you can order yrself a copy on DVD from here (the cheapy R2 version) or from here (the R1 Criterion edition with bells and whistles on).

And anyone who is into this thing might also be interested in the Greene novel or this book about the making of the film.

Just trying to help...

netbanshee

00:22 / 22.11.05

Hmmm... this thread was a mighty fine suggestion and I'm game. Plus it just so happens that I placed the Third Man as the next one up in my Netflix queue based on all of the recommendations and lack of viewing. Should be in tomorrow and couldn't be a better fit.

It would be cool if we used poll functionality or something like it to sort through a queue of movies on our own. I wonder if I could throw together something like this from an open source one that my co-worker uses or something. Any other recommendations?

BTW... we should all let each other know who's on Netflix and do some invites to keep the same spirit going? PM me if you're interested in sharing.

Char Aina

00:35 / 22.11.05

im up for it.
having never seen the film i am grateful for the motivation.

De Selby

00:37 / 22.11.05

I turn my back for 5 seconds and a club emerges

I was expecting no response so yahey.

The Third Man is an excellent start!

Whens the viewing deadline?

Char Aina

00:42 / 22.11.05

i'd say make it a week.
i can deal with a week.

X-Himy

00:46 / 22.11.05

Er... AHEM. For those of us that are poor college students. Or you know, dishonest.

Char Aina

00:50 / 22.11.05

heh.
that is so wrong of you, you bad, bad man.
i would never condone that sort of behaviour.

De Selby

01:03 / 22.11.05

i'd say make it a week.
i can deal with a week.

I was thinking a fortnight, as that would give everyone time to hire (or....ahem.... download) the movie.

I wouldn't want people to be excluded due to a tight deadline.

De Selby

01:54 / 22.11.05

Some sites:

Rotten Tomatoes
IMDB
Filmsite

soak...

netbanshee

03:12 / 22.11.05

Yeah... looks like a week / 2 week period is fair for review and gathering thoughts. We should hold out till the end of the period so everyone gets a fair shot. Any ground rules that need to be covered thus far?

So... are we to make suggestions here than push the convo to a Book Club: The Third Man thread and so on afterwards?

De Selby

03:16 / 22.11.05

yeah I think thats prolly a good idea. Rather than clog this thread... like I've already started to do.

De Selby

03:20 / 22.11.05

So lets say everyone should have seen the film by Monday 5 December. Discussion starts that day?

And then we could have another week to come up with a new film, and a fortnight from the following monday for the next film?

h1ppychick

09:57 / 22.11.05

I'm up for this! Excellent. I've often idly thought that I should see this film as it so frequently comes in very high in polls, but I've never yet managed to get off my arse and do anything about watching either it or any of several other classic films I've not seen.

Apologies for the badly-constructed sentence above. But you get what I mean.

Eloi Tsabaoth

11:11 / 22.11.05

You know, I'd personally recommend going cold into The Third Man, as one particular plot element is considered open season as regards spoilers and it's worth seeing it without knowing about it.

Hieronymus

15:45 / 22.11.05

It's kind of funny. I'd never even really heard about this film until some episode of Law And Order a week or so ago mentioned it as a reference/parallel to one guy's moral bankruptcy. Sam Waterston says something about Orson Welles being in it and suddenly he had my complete attention. Then I saw it recommended at Netflix and then you guys gave it rave reviews in the other thread.

Very funny how things just kind of click into place like that. With the subtlety of a flashing neon sign.

grant

19:48 / 22.11.05

Anybody here ever listen to the other Harry Lime radio plays?

sleazenation

20:33 / 22.11.05

Ticket to Tangiers is on the region 2 DVD...

Shrug

20:42 / 22.11.05

Yes definitely up for this.

Krug

07:54 / 23.11.05

Fantabulous idea!

Will see it next week.

Jack Fear

02:19 / 29.11.05

Can we use this thread to suggest possible films for future investigation?

Cos I'd like to recommend THE HAUNTING, director Robert Wise's adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House. Subtle, psychologically complex, and genuinely scary.

The Liam Neeson/Catherine Z-J remake is to be avoided, though.

HCE

04:55 / 30.11.05

Will bump 3rd Man to top of netflix que.

A fall of geckos

12:13 / 30.11.05

I'll second The Haunting. It's a wonderful film that shat me right up using just sound effects and some close-ups of a door.

I'll definitely be up for watching/discussing the Third Man. Touch of Evil is pretty good too.

Shrug

12:48 / 30.11.05

Yay I already happen to own The Haunting on DVD. Certainly a favourite. Should we use this or the Classic Films Thread for discussion of The Third Man? Or is a further thread an option? (i.e. Barbelith Classic Films: The Third Man.)

sleazenation

12:57 / 30.11.05

Well, we already have one here that isn't doing much at the moment...

De Selby

01:39 / 12.12.05

so.... while we discuss The Third Man.... which film are we watching next?

Bastard Tweed

04:28 / 12.12.05

Well, is foreign language a tenability?

If so, Kurosawa's always a solid source of heavy images, perfomances, and ideas to chew on.

Hieronymus

04:47 / 12.12.05

You had me at Ran.

*tear*

De Selby

05:53 / 12.12.05

Well I'm always happy to see Ran, but various people mentioned wanting to watch The Haunting earlier - which looks like it could be good too.

Is there any way we can put it to vote? We gotta be fair and "democratic" about this.

No matter how the vote goes though.... we have to hit Ran at some point.

Jack Fear

09:51 / 12.12.05

If you're gonna do Kurosawa, then maybe better to start with Seven Samurai, no? Seeing as it's so utterly seminal, so deeply and widely influential—people are still copping its moves. It's the blueprint for the modern action movie—and, incredibly, not everybody has already seen it, meaning that there are untold millions who think that the Pixar people made up A Bug's Life from whole cloth.

De Selby

00:54 / 13.12.05

Ok I set up an online poll with

The Haunting
Ran
The Seven Samurai

Vote Here.

Death to all Communists!

De Selby

00:57 / 13.12.05

btw - I didn't want any nasty voteblocking involving cookies or ip addresses, so we're operating on an honesty system.

De Selby

22:58 / 14.12.05

When shall we close voting? I was thinking Monday, which will give us two weeks to watch the film.

At the moment it looks like The Haunting....

Golias

18:20 / 16.12.05

I'm definetly up for this.I have to say i voted for 'Ran' as i have already seen the other two...but would be happy to watch both again.
I am blessed with a great film selection at my local library so can usually grab a copy of the 'classics'.

Shrug

15:38 / 18.12.05

It's looking to be The Haunting (which I've voted for) thus far.
But it's a case where we can watch Ran or 7S somewhere down the line or directly after isn't it?

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