Glóin the Dark

Good question! *reads the daily news* *watches some PTA for light relief*

I really couldn't disagree more, at least regarding Goodfellas, which is a realistic story realistically portrayed and told directly from the point-of-view of the protagonist. I don't see what's missing in the way of explanation.

Maybe we're using the word "empathise" differently, because for me empathy is not something which is precluded by moral disapproval.

I understand, and I have no quibble with your personal taste or subjective opinion of these characters. I note, though, that you're now talking about liking or disliking the characters, which is a completely separate issue from empathising with them. (I'm not claiming that your ability to empathise with characters is separate from your affection for them, of course - just people in general, and, specifically, myself.)

Sure, and I'm not suggesting that you should easily empathise with (e.g.) Henry Hill, or that you should try to. It's your specific argument ("They're NOT like you and me") for distinguishing between these types of characters which I'm disputing. For what it's worth, I think Henry Hill's character and circumstances, and how he came to be in those circumstances, are pretty well conveyed.

You're not a mediaeval Scottish warrior, but you apply your imagination to get some sense of what it would be like to be such a person in such circumstances.

Totally fed up with all these rational ratios.

Well, they are both about photographers... Zodiac's pretty good; his later films not so much.

Yeah, except for the curvature, Gance essentially invented Cinerama a couple of decades early!

I think he was joking! (Wasn't he...?) That's a big disadvantage with the DVD version of Abel Gance's Napoleon. When the triptych section comes at the end, the screen is supposed to triple in size, but, in order for the wide image to fit on the same display, it is shrunken so much that one needs to get out one's magnifying glass to follow the action.

Yeah, there are some revered directors whose work I've never been able to muster up any real enthusiasm for. Of your favourites, Antonioni is one such (with the exception of Blow-up). I might give L'Avventura another go some tme soon...

Inherent Vice is frequently hilarilous (unlike The BIg Lebowski, which is entirely hilarious).

I rediscovered this thread earlier today after doing a forum search for "Jane Campion" - who is in the news for giving her views on superhero films (she doesn't like them) - and promptly caught a bad case of the listing disease. I mentioned most of these informally in an earlier post, but here is a proper list of who I (today) think are my favourite directors ever: Orson Welles Michael Powell Jean Renoir Martin Scorsese Stanley Kubrick Paul Thomas Anderson David Lynch Robert Altman F.W. Murnau Joel and Ethan Coen Woody Allen John Cassavetes Roberto Rossellini Michael Mann Mike Leigh Maurice Pialat Quentin Tarantino Sidney Lumet Howard Hawks Jacques Rivette And, of the directors who (as far as I know) are still in the game: Paul Thomas Anderson Nuri Bilge Ceylan Kelly Reichardt Lynne Ramsey Joanna Hogg Hou Hsiao-hsien Michael Haneke Josephine Decker Lee Chang-dong Abdellatif Kechiche Sean Baker Josh and Benny Safdie Christian Mungiu Andrey Zvyagintsev Kenneth Lonergan Mike Leigh Quentin Tarantino Luca Guadagnino David Lowery Andrew Haigh And, lastly, special mentions for some current directors who I excluded from the previous list on account of the fact that I've seen fewer than three of their films (mostly because they've made fewer than three): Rose Glass Céline Sciamma Debra Granik Emma Seligman Jem Cohen Isabella Eklöf José Luis Guerín Jonathan Glazer Josh Mond Chaitanya Tamhane Mark Jenkin Radu Jude Robert Eggers Philippe Lesage Mati Diop Alice Rohrwacher Wang Xiaoshuai Sean Durkin Kantemir Balagov Valentyn Vasyanovych

Yeah, but a viewer's reaction to any film is inevitably influenced at the outset by more superficial aspects of the style and its relation to their personal taste. Sirk, like Capra, is a director whose work I sometimes find difficult to swallow. Hitchcock, too, while I'm being heretical...

It's a Fair-to-Middling Life - the Mike Leigh remake. Now there's an idea! From a Bedford Falls / Nakatomi mashup, can we concoct the ultimate Christmas film? "Unfortunately your Uncle Billy did not see it this way, so he won't be joining us for the rest of his life."