ol' eddy wrecks

I imagine the cancer and Soviet censorship were greater sources of despair for him. Anyhow, I really should rewatch Solarys, it's been a long time. The problem I run into, given the length, whenever I feel like rewatching a Tarkovsky sci-fi film, I end up just rewatching Stalker, because that's the one I remember liking more. Which sounds a lot like Paul's line about Alien and The Thing. That said as @FictionIsntReal mentioned above, I believe the common understanding is the planet itself is an alien entity, and is kind of unknowable, creating simulacrum of life. Which, well, see Tarkovsky and trying to make religious films in the Soviet Union. (I believe the final scene is partly, rejecting the rational world to succumb to the heart and God/faith. Or something). It sounds like Paul conflated the simulacrum with a direct representation of an entity, which strikes me as an odd read, but he did keep referencing Contact, where that was what it was. Side note, I recall there was a How Did this get Made? episode where someone who worked on the film worked with Tarkovsky. I remember this, because Paul stumbled over trying to say Tarkovsky's name in the episode, which was kind of the sign of, "oh, Paul doesn't know who this is." I'm pretty sure this was before Paul ever mentioned loving Annihilation, but not positive. Though I can't remember which movie it was. Anyhow, hopefully they'll get to more Eastern European films. Daisies and Marketa Lazarova would both be... worth a watch. And if Paul had never heard of Tarkovsky before, I'm pretty sure he hasn't heard of those.

Kaufman's version of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers is really good - if we're talking alien movies along the lines of The Thing. (Both are top 10 horror favorites for me). In a few more movie associations, I'm sure we'll make it to Kevin Bacon. Probably in the form of Tremors. And fwiw, put me in the Alien > Aliens camp. I find the former to be more of a tense thriller and the latter of an action-horror movie (Predator and Dog Soldiers both falling in this camp). The preference might come down to just preferring one genre to another (this difference is even more pronounced in my memory of The Terminator vs T2).

Not including Hoop Dreams seems like a big miss to me. Especially when including Hoosiers, which history has looked back on it and commented on it having a great-white-hope, race-problem. But, eh. *shrugs*.

The US cut of The Grandmaster is less WKW and more pre-fall Weinstein doing a hack edit to shorten and dumb it down for American audiences (at least according to people who saw both versions).

Whoa now, My Blueberry Nights, is a tonal misfire. I'd also like to see the non-Weinstein cut of The Grandmaster. I want to know how the scene explanation titles, if they exist at all, read internationally. Because the U.S. version felt dumbed-down in a way to that dragged the movie down (not to mention the actual edits used). Looking over there now, I don't even see the poll or discussion for Chungking Express, did you get a sense if the people voting have seen other WKW, this is a proxy vote for WKW as a whole, or even if amongst other WKW films, this one still really shines for people (voting)? I think for the general level of me being positive on WKW and consider him an influential filmmaker in my early cinephile years, I think wrt to his other fans, I probably rank Chungking lower comparably (I use the fact that prior to the upcoming World of WKW blu-ray set that criterion is managing distribution in the US, the only WKW criterions were Chungking and ItMfL, I think). I'm just trying to get a feel (out of curiosity). ETA: I should really rewatch 2046. That's one that didn't land with me when I was younger, but viewers change as they age. I wonder how it'd play for me now.

It is my understanding that Chinese lacks articles, so while it comes down to convention of translation, this is the first time I've heard Chungking Express refered to as The Chungking Express and for whatever reason that deviation kind of triggers the anal retentive part of my brain. (A little surprised Paul didn't see this in his early years. Maybe the difference of about four-six years, but this one was big when I was starting college. But then again, I think for any art house circuit film, no matter how big it is, it's still reasonable for someone to not see it, in reality). Anyhow, echoing a segment of what Sycasey said, WKW is often held up as the style being the substance. His movies are often about the process of moving on (from something. usually love or the notion of love), and the style of the movie is the crucial and key part of evoking the emotional state of the character. As I've grown older, I just find myself less invested (not uninvested) in the particular moments of these characters lives. Something that has not held true for either Happy Together or In the Mood for Love. (And in terms of the style being the substance, Fallen Angels is WKW's most overtly stylized movie). Which is to say, on that binary yes/no question, I'd find myself preferring any of his three following films more than this one. But, eh, it's not bad. It's still quite good! I didn't rewatch it for the podcast, but I think I rewatched it during the pandemic unprompted. Unprompted, I say.

I feel like In the Mood for Love is the best WKW movie according to the general consensus (it probably doesn't help for me that IntMfL has aged well for me as I've gotten older and Chungking Express has not. But my impression is it still holds a lot of emotional weight for a lot of other people). Criterion's releasing a World of WKW blu-ray set in February I think, so the timing of this probably could have been a little more better, luck-wise. It crossed my mind that for other movies both Lanthimos and Ozu would have movies that could qualify (The Lobster and Late Spring - though I guess the latter is a bit of a stretch). Though in terms of movies that came to mind (after In the Mood for Love), were things such as Mulholland Drive, Eyes Wide Shut, Contempt, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Jeanne Dielmanne (okay, not a couple and super-cynical, but possibly the appropriate antithesis of everything else), L'Avventura, Hiroshima mon Amour... The one that Is probably vote is pretty much a straight love story - The Earrings of Madame de... (L'Avventura would probably be my second choice for the series).

One thing I left off the comment I made at the beginning on the reminder of how the polls work is they just ask these people, "give us your ten best movies of all time." So it's not even a given that even the directors voting for it were necessarily placing it as their number one. Though, and I'm guessing (especially with directors who tend to be less film historians than the critics), probably just were moved by the emotional narrative and the minimalist compositions and directions complemented those emotions really well. Anyhow, for cinematic language, I think Bleary's probably right that the commentary (which I've never actually listened to) would probably break the film down better than anything I could do. I'll just say this is the movie, with tatami style/camera placement that made me appreciate just where the hell I was sitting (or more if I was sitting) in my apartment while watching a movie has a profound impact on the impact of the composition. I know in the past you said you watched movies on your phone. I imagine doing so would have dampened the effect for me. Granted, I doubt that viewing experience would change your mind on the film, but it was something that came to mind. As far as the film just not doing it for you? Just put a shrug here. In every list of "great movies" there are going to be some that are misses or at least very tepid on. This is coming from someone who's still just kind of "meh" on Vertigo - which is the more critically acclaimed movie.

Since you went in not having a feel for why it's so acclaimed (or at least, not feeling it), I am curious if you took anything away from the episode on that front. Discussions can sound very different when coming from a very different angle (I've seen the movie multiple times and it's grown on me each time. But it also started out fairly well with me on the first viewing - but also unburdened by my ignorance of any list ranking at the time).

Paul not knowing of this film is just a reminder to me they did the wrong list for season 1. Sidenote, when Amy said, "they got all these directors together and they agreed that Tokyo Story was the best movie of all time," a more fair characterization is, in their most recent poll in 2012, that they do every decade (since 1952), in which they split out the directors from the critics since, I believe the 1992 poll, Tokyo Story received the most number of votes amongst directors, becoming the top film. It's worth noting the top 7 of the critic's poll were Vertigo, Kane, Tokyo Story, The Rules of the Game, Sunrise, 2001, and The Searchers. So it's not like it's acclaim is unique to directors. I only take the time to type that out, because I remember seeing a lot of misconceptions about how these polls/lists at the beginning of season one. For the John Hughes connection, maybe because Home Alone is in this set, and I haven't seen Ohayo or "I was Born, But...", but vaguely knowing the premise of them, those were the ones I thought of. One thing I noticed this time around with Tokyo Story is that the way it ends is possibly setting up the premise of Late Spring at the end. A daughter who seems devoted to her widowed father, living with him. And there's a lingering question of when she'll eventually marry and move out (with the concern of who will look after him). A potential nice circular touch to the Noriko trilogy (though I was always unclear if Ozu intended it to be a thematic trilogy or if that's something we've attached afterwards. All those films that are early/mid/late season-name kind of confuses things in my mind.) And I'm surprised they never used the term minimalism in describing it since that seemed to be the term Paul was reaching for. Something also relevant in Joan of Arc. Granted, I always think the power of minimalism comes from the contrast of everything else and in a cultural vacuum doesn't work quite as well (but no culture is ever truly in a vacuum, except in an archeological dig, maybe). I will say, the didaticticism at the end always moves me, which is not what didaticticism usually does. Hey, yeah, we just showed you adult children that seem self-absorbed and neglectful of their parents, but I'm addressing you, the audience directly, don't judge them too harshly. It's what we all do. We all have their own lives. And it does recenter you to think about the shortcomings of the parents as well. Just an overall great movie by not trying to be too much (this isn't The Ballad of Narayana).

While a lot of these movies are centered around family dynamics and drama, a lot (most) of these don't strike me as "fucked up families." (The choices in the letterboxd list matches up with the title a lot more). Seeing Tokyo Story described that way is really jarring for me.

In terms of influencing other movies, the example that springs to my mind is Guillermo del Toro's early vampire movie, Drinks, which also does an "addict licks the blood off the bathroom floor" scene. Mentioning it since I don't think I heard that one mentioned. Fwiw.

It's not an uncommon misconception that Hausu is a bad film. But if you look at it, it is very stylishly bold in a way many other films fail to match, and it's knowingly campy and comic. It's basically Evil Dead 2 but with the mindset and tone coming from a 15 year old girl doing more of a straight comedy, than a 16 year old boy basically doing a comedy. (Both of which are very different than a Tobe Hooper doing a comedy...) ETA: The Hausu being HDTGM material because it's so nuts is legit though. But if you look at it, I'd say if Evil Dead 2 wasn't as cultural well known, it would also be HDTGM material because of its crazy factor (which is an order of magnitude less crazy than Hausu - which is probably my favorite horror comedy). ETAA: the poll question asked which movie would be the most interesting episode, not the movie I would put on a best-of list. I mean, in that case, Hausu....

Here's about a thousand suggestions. http://theyshootzombies.com/ghf1000/1-100/ My recollection for BFI overlap (between 100-200) is The Shining, Don't Look Now, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. ETA: Videodrome was also 202 in the critics' poll. I kind of don't feel like making a single suggestion, because while I want to point my finger at the '78 version of Bodysnatchers or Possession. But that's hard to do, when obvious biggies like The Shining and The Exorcist, technically haven't been included or really considered yet.

I thought someone else here had also watched the documentary Horror Noire last year. Ganja & Hess was obviously mentioned in that (and Spike Lee did a remake of it a few years ago). I'm not saying it's necessarily a well known movie, but I thought the things that cause it to be actually "heard of" had permeated in here.