Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Barbelith Film Club #2: Suggestion?

08:10 / 15.03.02

I was thinking that, as it's widely available and very commonly seen... Fight Club. It might have been done to death, but I think some formalised discussion would help.

I'm also going to assume that the DVD version is the one we'll be using. I appreciate many people won't have seen this version; it's just I feel that there's a lot in the commentary that we have to take as primary material. It can easily be related to others. There's an awful lot of background in that commnetary already, so I feel a more analytic approach would help; not quite "The Annotated Fight Club", but possibly down those lines.

And the other potential approach is exactly the opposite: very broad. Place it in the context of cinema and (especially) culture. It's crying out to be, so don't get stuck inside the whole Jack/Tyler thing.

How does this sound? I think even with the commentary and the number of times everyone's seen it, there's still life in it. I saw it for the fifth time last night and it was surprisingly not-boring, still picking stuff up. Don't know when we'd start, but it'll be a month after the offical announcement from Rothkoid, I guess. But yeah. It's an idea. Let's keep this film club thing going. Formalised thought is worth far more than rant-posts.

08:19 / 15.03.02

Personally I'm pulling for Casablanca, cos it is *such* a dense film thats interesting on so many levels ...

08:28 / 15.03.02

The Vertigo topic didn't exactly set the world on fire now, did it?

But still, another film is a good idea. Using commentary as basic source is a little too much -it presupposes possesion of a DVD player and four hours of watching time.

I'd go with something a lot of people might not have seen but should, like The Conversation or something. But that's just me.

08:51 / 15.03.02

Blade runner? Or is that a bit done to death by now?

08:52 / 15.03.02

Sorry by the way, I was a bit too busy to contribute to The Vertigo thread...

08:52 / 15.03.02

OK. Casablanca's good...

but I think Videodrome's right; The Conversation's a superb choice. Tons to it. Many people will be watching it fresh. I could probably dub off a copy in a few weeks if it needs circulating.

I'm still keen to do one on FC, though.

Murray Hamhandler

14:48 / 15.03.02

Howzabout 'Walkabout'?
Arthur Sudnam, II

15:33 / 17.03.02

Well thats handy, The Metro is showing The Conversation until Thursday.

Fri Mar 15 - Thur Mar 21
The Conversation
Progs 1.00pm, 3.30pm, 6.00pm, 8.30pm

How about this Wednesday at 8.30? I think its £7 for a ticket.

How to get there at http://www.metrocinema.co.uk/ Ignore the listings they haven't been updated since sept 2001 (bad cinema, no biscuit).

[ 18-03-2002: Message edited by: invisible_al ]

The Return Of Rothkoid

12:20 / 18.03.02

quote:Originally posted by videodrome:
The Vertigo topic didn't exactly set the world on fire now, did it? Eh. Only because I've been too preoccupied with moving to post to it as much as I'd liked. More WILL come, I'm sure. Gah.

I think both The Conversation and Fight Club are worthy of discussion; The Conversation because it's a fucking brilliant film, but maybe moreso Fight Club as it'll draw in more people, mayhap, and can be a thread that migrates between Books and possibly even The Head Shop. I agree that suggesting the commentary as use as primary is perhaps a bit problematic, given that people mayn't have access to a player or the correct version (the rental disc, for example, doesn't have it, IIRC). However, there's no reason why this couldn't be used to add colour to the thread - I'm all for it. Hell, anything that makes people post more, I'm for.

(I think I'm up for The Conversation this Wednesday, too. Given that it's down the road from work, I don't have much of an excuse, really.)

Arthur: Walkabout is great, but I think it's pretty hard to get hold of. I'd love to look at it in the context of some of Roeg's other work, though - I think there's some interesting parallels in that and The Man Who Fell To Earth, say.

In Good Television News, let it be known that through this week, Anatomy Of A Murder and Pi are both on TV in the UK. Perhaps this would be a good starting point for those who hadn't seen 'em (which includes me for the former.). I know that Pi would probably be good for a fair bit of discussion...

14:27 / 18.03.02

Oh my. PI, I'd be up for discussing that too, hmm better drag out my video copy so I can fast forward through that one bit that makes me hide behind my hands.
Actually just the soundtrack for PI could be a discussion all by itself. And I'm looking forward to someone giving me deep background on those very orthodox jews running around with guns.

14:30 / 18.03.02

Angel Heart, people. Angel Heart.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

08:20 / 19.03.02

Paleface, I'm happy to talk about Fight Club, but I don't think it's wise to assume that everyone has a DVD player and/or has seen the version with commentary. I haven't, for one.

Is there a 'script' online somewhere for the commentary?

12:52 / 19.03.02

I don't think so.

I'm fully aware of the commentary/DVD problem. It's just I don't want people who HAVE heard the commentary spend the whole discussion telling those who haven't what's said. It's a great commentary, useful and amusing without being facile or up itself, and helps out a lot - especially noticing the actor's own reactions to watching the film.

I still think The Conversation's a great idea, and I strongly suggest any London Barbeloids to GET TO IT this week - it's a remarkable film, and the chance to hear the sound design througha cinema soudn system shouldn't be frowned at.

Rothkoid got why I suggested Fight Club, though; it's a recent film that many people may have seen, and thus people from outside the 'hardcore' Film/TV/Theater readers would be attracted to it, if only to drop a few lines of input. Vertigo was a great choice; it's just that though this "one month" timescale does give you chance to go and dig the video/dvd out, I'd guess many people who might contribute to a Fight Club thread, say, because they've seen the movie and can comment in passing might not be so keen to hunt around for recorded versions of other stuff - even if they'd probably love Vertigo, other things press.

Hmn. Can we come to an agreement soon? I think it's worth doing if you lot do, I'd lean towards the Coppola.

Oh: an idea. How about a "SET YOUR VIDEO FOR" thread? Stuff that's on TV that might come in handy? I'm not sure Pi would be a great second BFC, but it'd be good to do in future... and also it allows us to alert people to stuff they might miss. Just thoughts. Right, back to my dissertation.

09:11 / 23.03.02

Well I've seen 'The Conversation' in the company of some of the London Barbelither's (I am soooo crap with names it hurts, rob? and a guy from canada *sigh*)
Do people want to start another thread or carry on with this one.

My gut reaction was WOW theres a film that would have a lot of trouble getting made today unless it had a very big director behind it, even then it would be a push.

Also did Gene Hackman play the same guy in 'Enemy of the State' or what? :-)

shirtless, beepers and suntans

09:27 / 23.03.02

The Game (directed by David Fincher, who did the aforementioned Fight Club) is pretty much the feature-length film version of The Invisibles.

09:27 / 23.03.02

quote:Originally posted by invisible_al:

did Gene Hackman play the same guy in 'Enemy of the State' or what? :-)

Yes. Do you see what they did there? Take one photograph of Harry Caul, plus the similar general theme, but make the movie a BAG OF FUCKING SHITE... and thus ensure non of today's modern audience care about the Conversation. Jeez... the bit with the bag spinning around? Save me.

09:27 / 23.03.02

Yeah enemy of the state wasn't in any way a film of substance, it was pure fluff, I didn't mind it but it didn't get within spitting distance of 'The Conversation'.
So lets not mention it again :-)
Paleface, talk to me about sound in 'The Conversation' anything you don't pick up until you've watched it a few times?

14:38 / 25.03.02

Here's one from left field --

what about THE TENANT?

[ 25-03-2002: Message edited by: nightguard ]

pointless and uncalled for

14:43 / 25.03.02

Shower is good. IMVSHO it has a lot of discussable points and issues.

19:14 / 25.03.02

Donnie Darko deserves the film club treatment...

The Return Of Rothkoid

19:57 / 25.03.02

...but probably not for a while - it's not even out on DVD in the UK yet: and it never made it to screen here, AFAIK.

I'd like to go with Fight Club as a slightly more populist thing that might draw more responses than some more outre films. There's a thread started about The Conversation, too, if people want to make that semi-film clubby. Contribute!

20:25 / 25.03.02

The Tenant stands as one of my top five favorites. It's rare that anyone else mentions it - somehow it always slips under the radar. So yeah, I'd be up for that. What a great, creepy film.

23:54 / 27.03.02

So where are we with this? Looks like Fight Club would be the best go for most people - I like the Film Club idea and a popular pick like that might jumpstart things a bit. Then perhaps we could move on to something like The Tenant?

Fight Club, then?

The Return Of Rothkoid

10:04 / 28.03.02

Yep. Starting post-Easter, I think. Next Friday?