Film Follies, Subtitle Subversive

Subtitle Subversive- The Seventh Seal

Cinema, like all the arts, serves many functions. Sometimes it is meant to help us escape. Sometimes its meant to give us hope. Sometimes its meant to expose an uncomfortable truth about the society in which we live. And sometimes its supposed to make us reflect on the nature of existence itself. In this edition of Subtitle Subversive, we’ll be taking a look at Ingmar Bergman’s Det Sjunde Inseglet or, as it is called in English, The Seventh Seal. One of Bergman’s seminal works, The Seventh Seal tells the tale of a knight as he returns home to Sweden after…

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Film Follies, Worth it?

Worth It?- Hercules

In the summer of 2014, we were treated to not one but two Hercules movies. The Legend of Hercules, which I haven’t seen but I assume should never be watched by anyone, lest we end up with an Ark of the Covenant situation, and Brett Ratner’s Hercules (2014), which can’t possibly be worse than the first one. Now normally I’m a big fan of avoiding anything involving Ratner (the first Rush hour being the exception) but this film also happens to involve that exploding supernova of charisma that is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as well as master thespians Ian McShane…

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Film Follies, Subtitle Subversive

Subtitle Subversives- Memories of a Murder

South Korea is home to a thriving film industry, full of talented artists willing to take big risks in both plot mechanics and visual style in an effort to push the envelop and make their films resonate emotionally with their audiences. With this knowledge at the forefront of my mind, I sat down with great excitement to watch Memories of Murder. A film that has garnered a great deal of critical praise since its release in 2003. The film is based on the rape and murder of eleven young women that took place between 1986 and 1991 in a rural…

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Film Follies, Subtitle Subversive

Subtitle Subversives-Intouchables

It is a fact of life that sometimes we set our expectations a little too high and, as a result, end up disappointed with something we might have been satisfied with if we’d gone in with no expectations at all. I have been waiting to watch this month’s entry of Subtitle Subversives for a while and was well aware of the numerous awards and top list considerations it had garnered. But while I don’t take the Subversive part of Subtitle Subversive too seriously, it is usually my goal to showcase movies here that set themselves apart from the formulaic Hollywood…

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Film Follies, How Have You Not Seen That?

How Have You Not Seen That?- Rear Window

Mozart. Michelangelo. Jordan. Wolverine. Some people are just the best there is at what they do. And no name better epitomizes the cream of the crop of film making then Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho, The Birds, Notorious, Vertigo, North by Northwest each one a classic in its own right. And that is far from being a comprehensive list of his masterworks. With all of those classic films to his credit its hard to select just one of them that is a must see. The truth is they all are for any true film aficionado. But How Have You Not Seen That…

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Film Follies, Subtitle Subversive

Subtitle Subversive- The Hidden Fortress

To wrap up our tribute to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens we take a look at the film that perhaps had the greatest influence on George Lucas when he was penning the original trilogy: Akira Kurosawa’s classic The Hidden Fortress. Released in 1957, The Hidden Fortress is another team up of famed samurai movie duo Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. It settles into place between Throne of Blood and Yojimbo on their joint filmography which is appropriate as this film is less of a sweeping epic than the former and less of a samurai film than the…

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Character Study, Film Follies

Character Study- Darth Vader

There are certain signatures in cinema that inspire emotions in us at an instinctive level, Bo Derek in a bikini, the cool confidence of John Wayne with a gun on his hip, the sight of Jaws’ fin above the water line; but only one creation in cinema has ever been able to inspire terror simply by breathing. When we hear that metallic inhuman sound we feel an innate terror that mixes with a feeling of anticipation and excitement because we know it means that Darth Vader is coming and people are going to die. We may admire a triumphant hero…

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Film Follies, How Have You Not Seen That?

How Have You Not Seen That?- Star Wars: A New Hope

This Thursday Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens will open in cinemas across the globe and when it ends its run I have no doubt that it will do so as the highest grossing film of all time. Such is the power of the Star Wars franchise to influence pop culture and shape our imaginations. And nowhere will the Force be felt more heavily this week than here at The Eclectic Eccentric. To start this Wookie-tastic week off right we’ll look back at the movie that started it all and ask the question of that one curmudgeonly, anti-Star Wars…

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Film Follies, Subtitle Subversive

Subtitle Subversives- Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India

Given how many films I’ve watched, rated, and reviewed over the course of my life I think that it is not too much of a stretch to call myself a cinephile. Much too pretentious certainly but not too much of a stretch. I’m a fan of films that range from the golden age of the Hollywood studio system to underground Korean revenge epics. But one glaring hole in my knowledge base has always been Bollywood. The closest I’d gotten to an Indian produced film was Slumdog Millionaire which when I read it out loud sounds a bit racist. It’s not…

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Character Study, Film Follies

Character Study- Holly Golightly

No matter how practical you are or how cynical you become there is always a small part of you that desperately wants to believe in love at first sight. When Audrey Hepburn steps out of that cab in the early dawn dressed to the nines, small paper bag in hand you are enthralled. By the time she pulls out her coffee and Danish and you see the reflection of her oversized, dark glasses in Tiffany’s venerated windows you are infatuated. In one simple scene the world’s love affair with Holly Golightly is born. (It is important to note at this…

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