Movies you've recently watched

[Martinus]

Derek Jarman's Edward II

Somehow I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. 

[Alatriste]

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)

Fritz Lang film about Siegfried.  The film is epic complete with monumental scenes, a huge cast, mysterious, murky forests and a sixty foot long dragon.  The acting is... somewhat less subdued than it will be a few years later in Metropolis; I think Siegfried (Paul Richter) is incapable of expressing any emotion without raising his hands over his head.

The film was one of the favorites of both Hitler and Goebbels.

I would like to hear your opinion about the movie with more detail, please. Epic movies without sound seem so... well, unnatural (oddly enough color does seem far less important for immersion, at least to me).

[Savonarola]

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)

Fritz Lang film about Siegfried.  The film is epic complete with monumental scenes, a huge cast, mysterious, murky forests and a sixty foot long dragon.  The acting is... somewhat less subdued than it will be a few years later in Metropolis; I think Siegfried (Paul Richter) is incapable of expressing any emotion without raising his hands over his head.

The film was one of the favorites of both Hitler and Goebbels.

I would like to hear your opinion about the movie with more detail, please. Epic movies without sound seem so... well, unnatural (oddly enough color does seem far less important for immersion, at least to me).

Lang's style is more geared towards creating atmosphere than telling the story (at least at this point in his career.)  His principle strengths are in creating huge expressionistic sets and getting the extras to function like a chorus.  At this point he hadn't yet adopted the fast cross cutting of his contemporaries like Eisenstein or Gance, nor does he have the camera technique of Murnau, and his actors are not acting naturally.  These techniques in silent films provide sweep the viewer into the story; so without them the film feels emotionally distant and overly long.

For Lang's silent work I recommend Metropolis; he's learned enough from his contemporaries at that point to create a film which engage the viewer more but also uses his own strengths to much better effect.  His earlier serial Dr. Mabuse the Gambler is also worth seeing; he doesn't have the mamoth sets, but he sucessfully uses atmosphere to give it the film an overall creepy feel.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)

Fritz Lang film about Siegfried.  The film is epic complete with monumental scenes, a huge cast, mysterious, murky forests and a sixty foot long dragon.  The acting is... somewhat less subdued than it will be a few years later in Metropolis; I think Siegfried (Paul Richter) is incapable of expressing any emotion without raising his hands over his head.

The film was one of the favorites of both Hitler and Goebbels.

I would like to hear your opinion about the movie with more detail, please. Epic movies without sound seem so... well, unnatural (oddly enough color does seem far less important for immersion, at least to me).

Silent Epics had sound: an Orchestra live, right in front of you. doesn't get more Epic than that. You lose this sense on DVD though unless you crank your tuner.

[Alatriste]

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)

Fritz Lang film about Siegfried.  The film is epic complete with monumental scenes, a huge cast, mysterious, murky forests and a sixty foot long dragon.  The acting is... somewhat less subdued than it will be a few years later in Metropolis; I think Siegfried (Paul Richter) is incapable of expressing any emotion without raising his hands over his head.

The film was one of the favorites of both Hitler and Goebbels.

I would like to hear your opinion about the movie with more detail, please. Epic movies without sound seem so... well, unnatural (oddly enough color does seem far less important for immersion, at least to me).

Silent Epics had sound: an Orchestra live, right in front of you. doesn't get more Epic than that. You lose this sense on DVD though unless you crank your tuner.

Good point. And probably orchestral music made theatrical acting like Richter's raised hands seem more natural.

Thank you, Sav. At this point Lang's movies were still very opera-like, then?

[Savonarola]

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)

Fritz Lang film about Siegfried.  The film is epic complete with monumental scenes, a huge cast, mysterious, murky forests and a sixty foot long dragon.  The acting is... somewhat less subdued than it will be a few years later in Metropolis; I think Siegfried (Paul Richter) is incapable of expressing any emotion without raising his hands over his head.

The film was one of the favorites of both Hitler and Goebbels.

I would like to hear your opinion about the movie with more detail, please. Epic movies without sound seem so... well, unnatural (oddly enough color does seem far less important for immersion, at least to me).

Silent Epics had sound: an Orchestra live, right in front of you. doesn't get more Epic than that. You lose this sense on DVD though unless you crank your tuner.

That's true, and the right soundtrack can have a huge impact.  Part of the reason that I liked Metropolis so much is that I saw it in the theater with the Alloy Orchestra:

http://www.alloyorchestra.com/

(I might not have liked it so much if I had seen the DVD version with the Billy Squier songs.)  On the other hand the version of Siegfried I saw was on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1gZ55mkTsA&feature=related) and had a poor print and the music was poorly transfered.

[Savonarola]

Good point. And probably orchestral music made theatrical acting like Richter's raised hands seem more natural.

Thank you, Sav. At this point Lang's movies were still very opera-like, then?

This one seems more stage-bound than his later films; but it's not to the point of the early talkies which often look like filmed plays.

[Admiral Yi]

Saving Sarah Marshall.  The brown haired chick with the tiny butt is growing up very nicely.

[Ed Anger]

Dodgeball on FX, just to see that fag from the Apple commercials get beaned in the head and nuts.

[Caliga]

Dodgeball on FX, just to see that fag from the Apple commercials get beaned in the head and nuts.

Anyone who buys an Apple due to those commercials needs to be sentenced to death.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Say word son! Say word!

[Eddie Teach]

Why do you hate BB so much? 

[Caliga]

Why do you hate BB so much? 

Did he buy an Apple due to those commercials?

[Eddie Teach]

Let's assume he did.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I'm sure he did. I believe he admitted as much once.  "I bought it because those commercials were so funny!"