Maggie Cheung in Olivier Assayas' Irma Vep
(France, 1996)
Since I hope to work in some occasional movie-related posting here again this year after giving up on that a while back, I thought I'd invite anybody who wants to join me for some movie talk to participate in the first ever Caravana de recuerdos Foreign Film Festival in 2012. Participation is easy, and there are no stupid challenge rules to worry about since this isn't a challenge! You merely a) watch and review one or more foreign films this year and then let me know about it so I can link to your post(s) in a monthly round-up; or b) ignore the invitation altogether. Easy, right? The fine print: For those who want to play along, a film's "foreign" status should be determined by comparing the director's country of origin or residence with your own country of origin or residence (i.e. no Jean-Pierre Melville flicks for the French or Tarantino flicks for Americans; Raúl Ruiz's outstanding Mistérios de Lisboa can count as either a Chilean or a French but not a Portuguese work based on where the director was born and lived). The extra fine print: If any of you would like to "challenge" me to watch one particular film of your choosing at some point during the year, I'll watch it and blog about it as long as a) you're willing to do the same at some mutually agreeable time; and b) I can get a hold of it from my library or through some other source that won't break the bank. This challenge film can be foreign or domestic (your choice) and is only being offered as a participation option--not without some trepidation--as a cinematic tip of the hat to Amateur Reader's infamous so-called "Scottish rules" as set down here. In any event, thanks to both Caroline and Stu for helping me rethink my avoidance of movie reviews of late (whether they realized it or not). Coming soon: a post on a film from Argentina.
Entradas
What do you mean, what do you mean, what do you mean?
ResponderBorrarDid you see my World Cinema Series? I started it on Sunday with a Lebanese film (not on the movie blog) and have a new page where I will compile movie reviews. May I add yours there as well? I'd love to cover the whole world.
I didn't make a proper intro post it was in my Plans for 2012 but I will as others have already added comments and said they wanted to participate.
Maybe we could do a watchalong later this year.
Btw - I did watch and review Vision that I had discovered here. I reviewed it on my German blog.
I'm so sorry to have proposed something so similar without realizing it, Caroline, but I didn't see your Sunday post until now and didn't realize that your World Cinema Series plans would be for a group as opposed to a personal project. Do you mind me doing a parallel movie thing over here? If it's any consolation, the last film mini-challenge I tried to run a couple of years ago drew almost no response so I don't think this one will be any threat to your series! P.S. I'll send you an e-mail about possible collaboration plans.
ResponderBorrarI heard about this from Caroline (Beauty is a Sleeping Cat). I'm joining the World Cinema journey. It will be fun and I hope a lot of people will join. And nice to meet you Richard. I am new to your blog. Thanks Caroline for introducing me it!
ResponderBorrarTBM, nice to meet you, too! Caroline and I agree that it'll be fun to look at what movies get discussed on the various blogs, so I'll definitely keep an eye out for your posts as the year progresses. Until I get a chance to revisit your blog later, thanks so much for the visit. Cheers!
BorrarRichard, you have seen my answer by now, I'm sure but for others...
ResponderBorrarNo, of course I do not mind you doing this.
It was initially meant as something I'd do on my own but it so happend that I had people spreading the word and signing up already.
Now, as you see, I'm pointing them towards your blog and will do a proper introductory post on Sunday. I don't want anthying too structured, I follow my own impulses and all I offer is a page on which I collect all the links.
Everything is fine, nobody has been removed from the blogroll. There will be no blood...
Caroline, thanks again for your "the more, the merrier" mentality and for your generosity in directing people like TBM over here. I'll try to return the hospitality over here somehow. P.S. "No blood" is almost always a happy resolution, no?!? :D
BorrarIf I participate, which is unlikely for technical reasons, my #1 film humiliations are Tokyo Story and Seven Samurai, so I would pick one of those. I should try overcome those technical problems.
ResponderBorrarI haven't seen Tokyo Story and have only seen part of the Kurosawa (even though I own a pristine new copy of that one, arrgh!), so those would make fine de-humiliations for me as well. Just keep me in mind if you overcome those technical issues, OK?
BorrarThis sounds like a great idea! I haven't watched any foreign films in forever, so maybe this will provide the reminder that I actually want to do so...
ResponderBorrarMy DVD and movie-watching has tailed off over the last couple of years for no good reason, Amanda, so it would be great to pick up the pace again in the company of fellow movie buffs like you. By the way, please stay tuned to Caroline's blog (Beauty Is a Sleeping Cat) for more posts/links to her World Cinema Series. She's been in touch with a lot of other bloggers who will be discussing movies there. Cheers!
BorrarWill do! Thanks!
BorrarForeign films is no challenge for me - there's nothing I hate more than British movies. Reviewing them in any kind of constructive manner might prove more of a challenge.
ResponderBorrarIt's funny to hear your opinion re: British movies given that so many Americans seem to love any hint of a British accent in a film. Immediate Oscar material! Since you've just written a "constructive" post on an obscure Korean film, though, I hope you'll continue contributing more reviews to the dual film festivals this year.
BorrarI'm sold. I haven't "read" a foreign film for a while now. All the more attractive for the overlap with Caroline's event.
ResponderBorrarAwesome! And I think the cross-pollination with Caroline's event will be fun to observe in and of itself since one of my stealth goals for this project was to learn more about various bloggers' movie-watching tastes while picking up new recommendations for the DVD pile.
BorrarI m in richard give me a excuse to buy some more world film dvd to amanda as she really not a fan of them except if there horror ,all the best stu
ResponderBorrarI'm super glad you're in again, Stu, and I'm happy to provide a pretext for you to sneak some new DVDs into the house. Don't know much about the horror scene these days, but it'll be interesting to hear more about these husband/wife divides in film tastes--gotta love it! Cheers!
BorrarNice idea. I passed on writing about I Served the King of England even though I really enjoyed the film. I'll have to revisit it. And with a Andrei Tarkovsky movie at home and the Szindbad dvd winging its way to me, I just need to remember to write something about them.
ResponderBorrarThanks, Dwight, and I hope it goes without saying that I would love to see some posts on these DVDs should you have the time to write something about them (esp. Szindbad, which I knew little about until very recently). By the way, which Tarkovsky did you have in mind? I finally bought a copy of his Solaris recently and was thinking about watching that again for the blog at some point. It's been a few years since I last saw it.
BorrarIt's "The Mirror". I started it the other evening but was so exhausted I fell asleep after about 10 minutes. I'll have to try again this week.
BorrarI have just availed of a free month's membership of Netflix and have a free fortnight on MUBI to back that up so I might just be inspired to reawaken my inner film critic - I did some in the past - and review a couple of films.
ResponderBorrarIn fact I have just posted on La Dolce Vita as passages in Swann's Way reminded me of it and suggested to myself that I watch it again. So maybe I could take up my own suggestion, add yours, and then I have a plan of action.
I've been horribly erratic in my blog visiting (and commenting) of late, Séamus, but I'll have to go over and check out your Fellini/Proust posts soon (I'm afraid I've been a frequent "silent visitor" to your blog without introducing myself there, so apologies for the poor behavior on my part). Until then, I'd love to see what happens as your "inner film critic" reawakens and I was happy to see that you've been in touch with Caroline about her movie series as well. P.S. Obooki just mentioned MUBI recently, too--guess I need to look into that!
BorrarI've watched things on Mubi before, but I was reminded of it by this comment. There are 4 Raúl Ruiz films available, if that's any incentive.
BorrarThat's a great incentive indeed--at least based on how much I enjoyed his Mistérios de Lisboa last year. I picked up 1-2 Ruiz movies at the library last week, too, but I'm not sure how soon I'll get to them yet (I have a TBR-like viewing backlog).
BorrarI've only seen one Ruiz film, which was his version of Time Regained and which I saw 12 years ago when it came out. It was an extraordinary film and garnered rave reviews, and even at the time I wondered why I'd never heard of him, especially since he appeared to have directed about 100 films (no exaggeration). Ever since then he's been on my radar - and yet, till now, I've never come across another film by him.
BorrarI'd like to see Ruiz's Proust film, but I'll wait till after I finish Proust. Interesting to hear about how prolific he was--I wasn't aware of that, but there's a Portuguese director who died a couple of years ago who has a similar sized back catalog all unseen by me. MUBI looks great, by the way, so it looks like I'll be joining soon.
BorrarThat Ruiz' film is one on my monster pile... Totally forgotten about it.
BorrarYou do realize that In my case your rule is a tricky one...
Do I have to stay away from French/Italian and Swiss movies to enter here?
Of course I'm participating and am excited to find some new films through your reviews and Caroline's and everyone else's. Should be fun.
ResponderBorrarSarah, very glad to hear that we can count on the queen of movie madness for some more movie posts during your upcoming travels. In fact, I am so happy that I will toast you with my last bottle of 2011 pumpkin ale sometime today or tomorrow. Cheers!
Borraron board. totally on board. now to figure out how to blog in a worthwhile manner about movies...
ResponderBorrar(also, if you have some movie suggestions to throw out as being particularly great (or would be up the challenge of watching one of my favourites... shoot me an email!)
Selena, wonderful news! Movie-blogging seems like it should be so much easier to do than book-blogging in principle since there are so many more elements in a film to talk about, but I was just reminded the other day of how it's actually more difficult for me for some reason (ha, good thing I set such a low bar for myself in my posts!). In any event, glad you're in and I'll e-mail you later today about working out a challenge film for the two of us--I'd totally be up for watching one of your favorites. Cheers!
Borrar*Caroline: Aw, that rule shouldn't be tricky at all! If you define yourself as Swiss, for example, you can watch all the French and Italian foreign movies you like--and if you wanted to bend the rules, you could just define your identity differently each time. I won't be checking anybody's passports, you know!
ResponderBorrarI have finally visited your blog :)
ResponderBorrari have shared 2 movies for Caroline's World Cinema Series.I'd love to share it too in your event :)
I will link your round up post to my review as well :)
*Novroz: Thanks again for being persistent and thanks for the link you mentioned as well--glad to have you joining us for both film festivals. Should be fun!
ResponderBorrarSuch a cool erm.. non-challenge Richard! ;) I'm considering joining -- the only thing holding me back is that I'm having a hard time blogging at the moment. But just the 1 film a year would be enough? Wow, that must be doable! :)
ResponderBorrarGnoegnoe, thanks--feel free to participate at any level that seems comfortable for you. One film in 2012 is indeed sufficient for "membership." Cheers!
BorrarOh, good I just joined Caroline's and now I pop over here and I join yours too.
ResponderBorrarSometime last year I decided that I would start watching mainly foreign films anyway - by which I mean not British or American, or any in the English language made by English language countries at the very least. I don't really consider them to be 'foreign' otherwise.
It'll be great to join to film challenges... my little film blog I kinda started without knowing what I was doing or really having read any other film blogs out there. It'll be nice to be more aware of a larger community!
@Richard re: film blogging being easier then book blogging... I don't know how to review films at all to be truthfully honest, I just like to keep a kind of record of the films I see. So I find talking about books slightly easier. I'm hoping that being involved in this will help me improve and know what to say beyond "err, that was good" which is what I feel like I keep saying all the time!
Fiona, thanks for "signing up"--look forward to seeing your film choices! I actually also consider book blogging much easier than film blogging although a part of me thinks it should be the other way around (or at least equal) given that there are more things to talk about in a movie than a book. Am hoping to eventually figure out what the "difficulty" is for me, but in the meantime it's nice to see how other people review films as opposed to books. Anyway, thanks again for joining--hope you enjoy the festivities!
BorrarFor me the difficulty is either that there is too much to say and because I lack the depth of knowledge behind how a film is put together, I don't know how to put it into words so I worry what I say isn't enough. I just treat it like I would a book - story, characters, style and voice.
BorrarI suppose with books you also have a longer time in which to formulate an opinion?
Thanks for creating this challenge, I look forward to reviewing more films now!
Hi Richard - finally managed a second film review - of Werner Herzog's Little Dieter wants to Fly http://theknockingshop.blogspot.com/2012/04/little-dieter-wants-to-fly.html
ResponderBorrar