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Film of the Month Club?


Mei Lewis

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14 hours ago, Satsuki Murashige said:

When’s the next (Variable Focal Length) meeting? 

Possibly we should work out a time that's plausible for as many people as possible. Personally my sleep schedule is currently very flexible but other people may not enjoy the same situation. The time that tends to work best is early evening in western Europe which is midmorning for west-coast USA, but I appreciate that it's generally referred to as movie night.

P

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On 1/5/2021 at 10:27 AM, David Mullen ASC said:

I don't always hate the lifted black level look - years ago I remember seeing "Lost Highway" and there was an extremely underexposed scene in the apartment, middle of the night, and it felt like a fever dream, you were straining to see into the darkness but there was nothing there to see. It was hypnotic.

I remember that issue of American Cinematographer.   Lynch and Deming discussed that scene a lot and it was super important to them how dark it was.   Unfortunately when that scene occurred there was also a reel change.   I remember cause I was a projectionist back then.  Funny to hear how all that careful deliberation was literally chopped out of the film because of the accident that the scene occurred during a reel change and most of us didn't know why there was so much black leader in the head of the reel.  We literally chopped it all out.  Well, most of us.  I knew better. Cause I was reading A.C.

Edited by Michael LaVoie
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7 hours ago, Mei Lewis said:

I'm fairly flexible.

Shall we do this  by calendar month starting with January?

Now how do we choose a film?

 

January works for me.

We could decide on an era/director/genre and then do a poll for a specific film. It would be helpful if we chose from movies widely available on one of the streaming services.

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1 hour ago, Michael LaVoie said:

I remember that issue of American Cinematographer.   Lynch and Deming discussed that scene a lot and it was super important to them how dark it was.   Unfortunately when that scene occurred there was also a reel change.   I remember cause I was a projectionist back then.  Funny to hear how all that careful deliberation was literally chopped out of the film because of the accident that the scene occurred during a reel change and most of us didn't know why there was so much black leader in the head of the reel.  We literally chopped it all out.  Well, most of us.  I knew better. Cause I was reading A.C.

Lol, great story Michael!

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Time frame on my little "movie club" has been one of the hardest things to negotiate.  New York to LA is a three hour difference and we all want to do evening.  Obviously the other side of the world is a bigger issue.

As far as picking a movie... there's not much to it... something streaming.... something people would talk about.... I'll give five I just watched that I feel are worth talking about....

"Blue Jasmine" A fantastic take on "Streetcar Named Desire" in my opinion.  Streaming on Prime for $3.99

"Agatha" which I just reviewed on my movie club based on a facebook post by David Mullen.  I'd never heard of it and his ranting and raving about the cinematography made me take a look.  Streaming on Prime for $1.99

"Catch Me if You Can". A near perfect Spielberg film (in my opinion) streaming on Netflix right now.

"Goodfellas". Obviously a movie we all love, but when I watch it in my old age, it feels like a horror film to me.  I'm scarred to death of this movie, as much as I appreciate it. Netflix

"Chef" streaming on Netflix.  This may be one of the best movies on the craft of cooking I've ever seen.

 

 

Edited by Justin Hayward
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On 1/7/2021 at 5:00 PM, Phil Rhodes said:

Suspect I'll be the most remote involvee, my schedule is alarmingly flexible at the moment.

Obviously if it's the weekend, it's going to be a little easier.  We could do a LA-11am, New York-2pm, London-7pm (if that's the right time difference). Or a LA-3pm, New York-6pm, London-11pm... if that's not too late for you Phil.  Or somewhere in between.  There's really no way for Phil to do the morning without the rest of us going really late or Phil getting up at like 4am, so...  Whatever you all think works for me.

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

On 1/5/2021 at 7:33 PM, Satsuki Murashige said:

When’s the next (Variable Focal Length) meeting? 

 

It's getting towards then end of January now, so how about we get started?

Let's pick a movie to watch over the next week or so.

 

On 1/6/2021 at 7:04 PM, Satsuki Murashige said:

We could decide on an era/director/genre and then do a poll for a specific film. It would be helpful if we chose from movies widely available on one of the streaming services.

I think that's a really great idea, but I don't know how to do a poll on here, so perhaps we do a few one-offs and then work out the poll thing.

 

Suggestions:

 

On 1/4/2021 at 3:49 PM, Phil Rhodes said:

1 - Ah, John Wick!

 

On 1/7/2021 at 4:44 AM, Justin Hayward said:

...

2 - "Blue Jasmine" A fantastic take on "Streetcar Named Desire" in my opinion.  Streaming on Prime for $3.99

3 - "Agatha" which I just reviewed on my movie club based on a facebook post by David Mullen.  I'd never heard of it and his ranting and raving about the cinematography made me take a look.  Streaming on Prime for $1.99

4 - "Catch Me if You Can". A near perfect Spielberg film (in my opinion) streaming on Netflix right now.

5 - "Goodfellas". Obviously a movie we all love, but when I watch it in my old age, it feels like a horror film to me.  I'm scarred to death of this movie, as much as I appreciate it. Netflix

6 - "Chef" streaming on Netflix.  This may be one of the best movies on the craft of cooking I've ever seen.

 

 

I'll add these to the list:

 

7 - Dogtooth https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1379182/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
8 - Capernaum https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8267604/
9 - Shawshank Redemption (been meaning to rewatch)

 

 


If someone has a strong preference let's go with that.

If not, then someone please click this link RANDOM NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 9 and we'll get a number telling us what to watch.


 

 

On 1/4/2021 at 7:51 PM, Phil Rhodes said:

So how does this Sz'euum thing work, then?

 

I can create a zoom meeting and post the link here in a week's time?
Still not sorted a date time for the actual meeting. I'm fairly free most evenings/weekends at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Mei Lewis
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Here goes then:

 

Film of the Month Club 2021 – Schedule 

 

January  
Sound of Metal 
imdb / trailer / Amazon Prime US UK  

"A heavy-metal drummer's life is thrown into freefall when he begins to lose his hearing." 
 

 

February 
Dogtooth 

imdb / trailer / Amazon UK US

"Three teenagers live isolated, without leaving their house, because their over-protective parents say they can only leave when their dogtooth falls out." 

 

 

March 

Woody Allen Film (Phil to decide which) 

imdb / Woody Allen montage

“My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.” 
 

 

 

April – December
TBC

 

fposter,small,wall_texture,product,750x1000.jpg

dogtooth1256966.jpg

Sound_of_Metal_poster.jpeg

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56 minutes ago, Mei Lewis said:

Not yet - my mum is staying and I don’t thi k she’d enjoy it!

 

Planning to watch tomorrow when she’s gone to bed. 

If she’s not into uncomfortable sounds, then yeah. Otherwise, it’s a compelling drama with a lot of emotion, so she might!

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  • 2 weeks later...

You were right!

We watched it together but I stopped it half way through because it was getting very late, and the next day she asked if she could finish watching it. That's very strange for my mum!

Sorry I've been away for a while. I actually had a lot of notes I made on this film, but I've been too busy with work the last 7 days or so to do anything. Will post again later.


You liked the film then?

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4 hours ago, Mei Lewis said:

You were right!

We watched it together but I stopped it half way through because it was getting very late, and the next day she asked if she could finish watching it. That's very strange for my mum!

Sorry I've been away for a while. I actually had a lot of notes I made on this film, but I've been too busy with work the last 7 days or so to do anything. Will post again later.


You liked the film then?

Nice! Glad she liked it. 

I thought it was compelling and well made. I want to go back and watch it again to pick up more details. I’m mostly interested in the sound design choices of when they shift in and out of Ruben’s perspective. I also like the simple but effective staging choices. I do wish there was a bit more visible film grain (1080p stream to a 50” Panasonic Plasma tv thru a 4K Firestick), but I enjoyed the celluloid look nonetheless.

There’s a Kodak article about the film which was an interesting read. I’ll link back to Stephen Perera’s post on the film which has the link to the article: 

 

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