And a take you will get. I don't think it'll be shown at the cinema here, so I await the dvd.

Btw, overall, did you think it a better film than DONNIE DARKO? I assume probably not.

I'm one of the those that thinks the original cinema release of DD was better than the Director's Cut. Not only better, but a lot better. (Kinda the inverse of the BLADE RUNNER situation.) DD for me was spot on in its evocation of being a high school student in the late 80s (Kelly described it as a science fiction film that was also a period piece), and in its formal qualities. The experience of just watching and listening to the film unfold was great. There was no reason to tamper with its idiosyncrasies. The elaboration on the time stuff did nothing for me - I preferred the more ambiguous take. Worse, it was the "little things", such as the change to its opening sequence whereby the cool (and pitch perfect) Echo & The Bunnymen song was replaced by fucking INXS.


Madget,

I was intending to elaborate a little on my views re Departed/Infernal Affairs, and will do so later.

Btw, you saw Departed, right? Have you seen IA yet? It would be interesting to get the view of someone who watched DEPARTED first & then IA. The only people I've spoken to about it have either seen IA first (they always agree with me that IA is better) or they have only seen DEPARTED.

Really? That's the critical consensus? (I'm not disputing - just surprised.) I find that almost all Coen films have "audience identification" characters. (Maybe less so BLOOD SIMPLE.)

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN sounds intriguing.

I mean... fucking INXS!

Stevv: no, not yet. It's coming up in my Netflix queue though. I was a little unsure about seeing The Departed first. But a friend of mine pointed out that that was probably not so bad a way to go, since Infernal Affairs would likely be better. I.e. see a decent movie, then the even better movie that it was based on.

How is Donnie Darko an '80s "period piece"? I remember it was set in the '80s, but it didn't jump out at me as that distinctive a characteristic. However, I'll admit I don't remember the movie terribly well. I only really liked the rabbit sequences. I've always thought rabbits were a little creepy for some reason (maybe seeing The Twilight Zone: The Movie at an impressionable age contributed) and Harvey -- which I never saw all the way through -- always had this nightmarish quality to it, to me. Just this idea of having a six foot invisible rabbit that only you can see or hear. Definitely fertile ground. Not so long before Donnie Darko came out I had been drafting out ideas for a story in which the protagonist would repeatedly have visions of white rabbits, be it just one pocked somewhere inconspicuous in the scenery, or dozens, even hundreds at a time. Always coming to him in the sense of a foreboding warning.

Rabbits are ominous business.

[img]http://xs221.xs.to/xs221/07462/212558154_52e13f0dee.jpg[/img]

Ominous.

K

Stevv, DD is a better movie. And I mean the original theatrical version. I hated that I saw the discarded stuff on the dvd as it ruined the dreamlike qualities of the film, making it more of a straightforward Christian parable. That he chose to make some of that stuff into the director's version was really boneheaded. Kelly demonstrated Lynch to be correct about not replying to the question "what does this mean?." But I like INXS, at least up through "Listen Like Thieves."

Charles sez:

"This film is about the myth of pop culture"

Madget sez:

"Sounds right up gene's alley."

Gene sez:

Sure, if that alley happened to be in Beautiful Downtown Frankfurt.

It's a good doc, give it a chance. Well photographed, too.

On a related note, I was bicycling home from drinking the other night and a stumbling drunken Superman, in his mild-mannered persona as Clark Kent, panhandler, asked if he could have a ride on my handlebars. Buck up, Gene, maybe this is but an indication of the credo with great power comes great responsibility. Don't fly drunk! (Cycling drunk is a lot of fun, though.) God, I love Hollywood.

[img]http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff123/begorbleed/76b8bf68.jpg[/img]

Part of me says that the above post should be left as the final word on this topic, it's just that awesome. But then there's the part of me that’s writing these words. So tough shit, bunny.


Madget,

“How is Donnie Darko an '80s "period piece"? I remember it was set in the '80s, but it didn't jump out at me as that distinctive a characteristic.”
It was Kelly that used the term ‘period piece’, but I agree, based on, as I wrote, that DD was evocative of high school in the late 80s. It's possible that it is just evocative of high school in general, and I’m imputing the 80s part because that’s when I was there. But the music of the film alone is very 80s: Echo & The Bunnymen, INXS, Joy Division, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears et al. Many of the songs add texture to key scenes, and so this aspect is important in itself. I agree with Wiki that ‘period piece’ is a fairly loose, informal term, but basically: “period piece is a work set in a particular era.” So Donnie Darko is at least that. Also, the whole subplot involving Patrick Swayze’s character, with the ‘answers’ for life’s problems that are really just glib shit, was the kind of bunk I remember becoming trendy in the late 80s (and perhaps has offspring in some of the more legitimate complaints of “PC gone mad” these days).

“I've always thought rabbits were a little creepy for some reason”
Have you seen INLAND EMPIRE? There’s some freaky rabbits in that.

“Rabbits are ominous business.”
That rabbit's eyes follow me as I move.


Charles,

You’re a good promoter for Hollywood. I feel like somehow you should be able to make some money out of that.
“…the discarded stuff on the dvd…ruined the dreamlike qualities of the film, making it more of a straightforward Christian parable… But I like INXS”

I loved the dreamy sense that pervaded the movie. I also may have overstated my dislike of INXS. They were okayish. They had some good songs. The song at the beginning of the Director’s Cut was an okay song in itself. But I think “The Killing Moon” kicked off the movie in a much more dreamy way.


I’ll be getting back to DEPARTED v INFERNAL AFFAIRS tomorrow.

I have not, but this makes me want to even more so.

K