I should be asleep.
by AC - permalink
I just caught myself watching a movie called Mediterranea for the second time in less than 24 hours. It's an Italian movie shot in 1991, and IFC is showing it. It's about a small group of Italian soldiers stationed and subsequently forgotten about on a tiny, unimportant Greek island in 1941, and it's a kickass little film. Incredibly atmospheric and immersive. It's not a war movie, in fact it's sort of a comedy, but dramatic as well as it follows the lives of the men essentially marooned on this idyllic little island. If you can put up with subtitles, you'll love this movie.
And that's what I like about IFC. Sure, most of the time they show stuff you've never heard of, and occasionally they air Vincent Gallo movies, and I'd kill a man if it meant I never had to sit through another Vincent Gallo shitstorm. But IFC also shows films like Reservoir Dogs, uncut and letterboxed, which is awesome. And they also go international, and when they do, it's generally a masterpiece, something we would otherwise never see in America.
In fact, the main reason IFC is on my DirecTV channel list is for the Zatoichi movies, which they run every weekend, without fail. There are at least a dozen Zatoichi movies, and they're all fucking awesome. If you've never seen one, just put it on IFC on a Saturday. They center on a blind masseur in feudal Japan, a blind masseur who is also a master swordsman. Most of the movies follow the same basic plot of A Fistfull of Dollars. Every film, every single one, is beautiful in every way a movie can be beautiful. From the sound to the cinematography to the acting to the editing, these movies are masterpieces. Any one of them is "desert island" material. Again, they're only for people who can put up with subtitles. Dubbing sucks all the life out of foreign films, literally.
And I might as well point out that I've been sucked totally back into Star Trek recently. The Next Generation hooked me during its first season, and I became a total Trek nerd for years afterward. After the death of Enterprise I slacked off and kind of forgot about it all, but G4 and Spike air Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and even the original series so often that I've been pulled back in, and I don't really watch anything else on TV but Trek now, except The Daily Show, Sportscenter, Family Guy, and anything on Adult Swim that isn't anime. DS9 has always been my favorite series, and I wish those series box sets cost less, because I love the story arc of the last few seasons, but there's no way in hell I'll pay fifty or sixty bucks for one fucking season of a TV show, no matter how good it is. Probably. Maybe. I really like that show...
by AC - permalink
I just caught myself watching a movie called Mediterranea for the second time in less than 24 hours. It's an Italian movie shot in 1991, and IFC is showing it. It's about a small group of Italian soldiers stationed and subsequently forgotten about on a tiny, unimportant Greek island in 1941, and it's a kickass little film. Incredibly atmospheric and immersive. It's not a war movie, in fact it's sort of a comedy, but dramatic as well as it follows the lives of the men essentially marooned on this idyllic little island. If you can put up with subtitles, you'll love this movie.
And that's what I like about IFC. Sure, most of the time they show stuff you've never heard of, and occasionally they air Vincent Gallo movies, and I'd kill a man if it meant I never had to sit through another Vincent Gallo shitstorm. But IFC also shows films like Reservoir Dogs, uncut and letterboxed, which is awesome. And they also go international, and when they do, it's generally a masterpiece, something we would otherwise never see in America.
In fact, the main reason IFC is on my DirecTV channel list is for the Zatoichi movies, which they run every weekend, without fail. There are at least a dozen Zatoichi movies, and they're all fucking awesome. If you've never seen one, just put it on IFC on a Saturday. They center on a blind masseur in feudal Japan, a blind masseur who is also a master swordsman. Most of the movies follow the same basic plot of A Fistfull of Dollars. Every film, every single one, is beautiful in every way a movie can be beautiful. From the sound to the cinematography to the acting to the editing, these movies are masterpieces. Any one of them is "desert island" material. Again, they're only for people who can put up with subtitles. Dubbing sucks all the life out of foreign films, literally.And I might as well point out that I've been sucked totally back into Star Trek recently. The Next Generation hooked me during its first season, and I became a total Trek nerd for years afterward. After the death of Enterprise I slacked off and kind of forgot about it all, but G4 and Spike air Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and even the original series so often that I've been pulled back in, and I don't really watch anything else on TV but Trek now, except The Daily Show, Sportscenter, Family Guy, and anything on Adult Swim that isn't anime. DS9 has always been my favorite series, and I wish those series box sets cost less, because I love the story arc of the last few seasons, but there's no way in hell I'll pay fifty or sixty bucks for one fucking season of a TV show, no matter how good it is. Probably. Maybe. I really like that show...
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