(no subject)

[proximoception]

I wonder if the late '90s will ever be recognized as the greatest period for films--in the English-speaking world.

Comments

[agoraphiliac.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I'm kind of blanking. Not on the 90s in particular, but just the form of the question makes me say: "Movies, huh. I know I liked some. What were they?"

I'm very fond of Riff Raff, by Ken Loach. I guess that's mid- or early 90s, though.

Of your list, I'm especially crazy about Exotica & eXistenZ.

I wish there were entertaining movies now. I guess people have said that before: now we have bloated special effects, where we used to have well-written but relatively unambitious entertainments.

Just randomly, apropos nothing: I like Nicholas Ray's "Bigger Than Life." It's a crazy mess of a movie: it sort of lurches from drama to public service announcement about the dangers of untested medicines. But to watch James Mason go from milquetoast to raging patriarch, especially when he starts quoting from the Abraham and Isaac story, is a delight.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's both silly and impossible to summarize such things. And like you I'm only really sure that the movies of the last few years have been unprecedentedly wretched. Some combination of CGI, the demographic shift to Y/Tweens, and Sept 11?

Never did see Riff Raff. Land and Freedom had some great moments. I think I saw some of Bigger Than Life on TV a few years ago? I remember the widescreen being good for couches, lots of lamps being turned on and off, Grade A Masonic hamming. I miss the widescreen of '50s/early '60s movies on the Turner stations, that tiny band of toylike people leaning among aquarium hues and porcelain textures.