David O. Russell
2004

Yay.

There were a few scenes where there were just too many characters yelling at each other. Not perfect. But so much fun.

Joan Chen
2000

I'm not really sure why we watched this whole thing. I was so tired.
Basically it's a really shitty love story with really beautiful cinematography, and Winona Ryder inexplicably playing a 22-year-old even though she was almost 30 when this was made.

Here's how bad the dialogue is:
Winona (whispering): "I can smell the rain."

Also, Richard Gere's character's named Will Keane, which is only one letter different from Gary Cooper's character in High Noon. Coincidence? I think so.

Fred Zinneman
1952

There's nothing not good about the film, except maybe Grace Kelly (so priggish in this), but everytime I see it I think of Rio Bravo which was made in response. (In this film, the guy runs around asking everyone for help and then can finish the job. In Rio Bravo, he turns down people who aren't good enough.)

My favourite character is Mrs. Hernandez. She's such a pistol.

And I do like the song.

Dziga Vertov
1929

When you type "Man with a Movie Camera" into imdb, you automatically get some thing that's still in production. I had to search for Vertov to find the production year.
This is sad.
I've had trouble really liking the poetic documentaries so far. They're pretty and stuff, but I need some kind of content or something.
But this was rather extraordinary.
I didn't even fall asleep.
And I was really tired.
And it's silent.

David Gordon Green
2000

I feel really guilty for oversleeping and missing the beginning of this.
I was really impressed. It had that same, deceptively simple, from-a-child's-eye feel as To Kill a Mockingbird, only the tone is totally different and it has less of a morality-play feel. And doesn't construct black people as other, etc etc.
But it has that same touching childhood losing innocence thing going for it.
I love the scene where the little girl's all "I have a confession. I'm not a very good person." She's so matter-of-fact and it's so powerful.

(That said, I loves me some Harper Lee. I've read that book so many times.)

Sergei Eisenstein
1927

The most bearable ever of Eisenstein, except maybe Battleship Potemkin.
I understand he's a genius, but I just don't feel it.
Sorry, film curricula.

Jorgen Leff
1982

The whole thing is really really short scenes (like 20-30 seconds) of iconic American things.
Except for this endless shot of Andy Warhol eating a hamburger somewhere right in the middle.

Leff came and talked to our class because he's in town right now (the Cinematheque is showing some of his work). It was cool.

Howard Hawks
1948

Hawks' homosociality coupled with the Western's fetishizing of guns turns to outright homoeroticism.
"Nice gun. Can I see it?"
[hands him the gun]
"Can I see yours?"
I'm not even joking.

It was actually pretty good, tense, epic. Until the end, in which things that shouldn't have been forgiven are all solved with a good tussle. (Not like that.) It sort really destroys the integrity of the characters. I think it's just Hawks' impulse to end the film with a united male group/couple.

On another note, was Montgomery Clift always that pretty?

Samuel Fuller
1957

"Can I touch it?" (She means his gun.)
"Careful, it might go off in your face."
Wait, so you mean guns are phallic?

It's a Western. Featuring Barbara Stanwyck as a cattle baronness who runs the county and is a "high ridin' lady with a whip."
The opening is just wide open prairie, in silence, then this great sequence where Jessica Drummond leads her forty gunmen past the heroes' little carriage. Then the music kicks in. AWESOME.

I've seen four of his movies; officially my new favourite director.

Jean Vigo
1931

You can tell he's trying to shoehorn bits of experimentation into a film about something he didn't actually care about. Which is cool.
I think it's kind of a predecessor for the diving sequence in Olympia.