Has Mohammad Rasoulof made anything good? I thought Manuscripts Don't Burn was mediocre so I haven't watched anything else, but White Meadows looks interesting.

Heard from an Iranian friend that the gov is looking into a nationwide internet shut down...

>>1460 Why?

>>1461 Protests in Baluchestan https://netblocks.org/reports/internet-disruption-registered-in-iran-following-days-of-outages-in-southeast-oy9Yvoy3

I signed up for a history class at my college and it turns out it's just a semester of watching Iranian film and writing reviews, it's going to be an easy fucking A. So far I've watched Not Without My Daughter and Children of Heaven, this week I'm watching Color of Paradise.

African cinema: ten of the best https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/sep/03/10-best-african-films https://archive.is/pRS9M An older list from Mark Cousins with some common titles and some others I haven't seen. This bisexual comment regarding Cairo Station was surprising to me. I don't remember that being relevant to the film at all, but perhaps there's a subtext that I completely missed. >If Alfred Hitchcock had been Egyptian and bisexual, and had himself played Norman Bates, Psycho might have been something like this.

This documentary is credited to Ethiopia but it's not entirely homegrown -- the director is half-Mexican, left Ethiopia at age ten, studied at UCLA, lives in Brooklyn. Still I like the meditative mood of this trailer so (as someone who never watches anything new) I'll probably check it out. https://yewtu.be/watch?v=NltBA1RbJUc >Ethiopian legend has it that khat, a stimulant leaf, was found by Sufi Imams in search of eternity. Inspired by this myth, Faya Dayi is a spiritual journey into the highlands of Harar immersed in the rituals of khat, a leaf that Sufi Muslims chewed for religious meditations – and Ethiopia’s most lucrative cash crop today

>>590 >Wakaliwood and Nollywood are similar on the surface but seeing two of their movies I can say former makes genuinely good action movies, better than anything America has made Is that ironic or has some Ugandan out there actually made a great action movie?

>>1903 I remember watching one of the meme films, Bad Black, and jokes aside i was surprised how "decent" the plot was and it was alarmingly well executed too, budget and set conditions considered. Some overused action genre cliches are there along with the gaudy cheap CGI but the director still managed to pull interesting dynamics regarding the main protagonist's emotional progression from slum orphan to ruthless bad bitch (hence the film's title), not to mention a harsh critique on Africa in general with tongue in cheek jokes and plot points (kids used as sex toys, a hammer being called an Ugandan Key). Although somewhat of a weak ending part due to it being so prolonged/dragged out i suppose, great is not really what i would call this movie but there's obvious amounts of efforts and creativity (stuntmanship, prop item construction) that wager a bit of genuine praise out of the usual pity brownie points some african movies usually get. Hong Kong this ain't but it is more entertaining than a contemporary action movie without the expensive CGI tricks.

>>591 Some of the best movie producers in India are from Bengal, the Hindu part of Greater Bengal. I see Bangladesh film industry having a great future ahead.

Will we ever make it to 250? War and Peace should be on the list -- it's a phenomenal epic that's been praised here frequently. We've already had it on other lists, but I suggest adding Mother Dao the Turtlelike. It's one of the best examples of unearthing and arranging silent footage to create something fresh and vital. I just wish there was a better restoration of it. I think there should be something from the Sensory Ethnographic Lab. Leviathan is the easy choice but I'm not 100% sure it's the best choice. While I have seen some of their other projects, I can't say that anything beats it. I also suggest including Werner Schroeter in some way. I'm just a casual film watcher so I haven't done an exhaustive study of his filmography, but I was amazed by The Rose King. If it wasn't so homosexual it would be one of my personal favorites. The film is hard to put into words. It plays out like a mood piece with lush visuals that's heavily dependent on the editing.

>>1870 A rare thing they mention us nowadays, back in the day they had a link in their board announcement line. >>1872 I mean we can certainly churn names until we reach 250 but many probably feel to cautious, i do say i have names under my tongue that i would like to see but that will depend on the boss of the list.

>>1873 I nominated the theme. I havent posted since 8ch but I was wondering if you consider The Plague Dogs (1982) and Punishment Park or Edvard Munch or some nod towards Peter Watkins.

>>1912 >I havent posted since 8ch Welcome back bud >I was wondering if you consider I'm not the BO but i think he would add any movie as long as you think it's one of your personal favorites, for me i think Punishment Park is a bit of a leaner to one side but the concept itself makes for a compelling work, hell the poster art is still very iconic and one of the main reasons people watch it.

>>1913 I agree on Punishment, so I dont mind if Edvard gets it either since thats also very well done but I need to watch it again to make sure. I have been going through the list and am on Manuel by Raul and so far Ive liked pretty much all of them, I couldnt watch Taigo, Revelateur or The Falls but thats it, so far Satantango and Werkmeister have stuck with me, even if I did not care for his particular thoughts in the latter. Eros was also really good but City of Pirates takes the cake. I have never seen such an effortless film. It just flows between sets and time stands still until its over.

What have you already seen and why do you think it's more interesting?

>>1596 Canada is the most boring place on earth. Naturally, the further you get from it, the stranger and more interesting things become. You could say Canada is the centre of the world, the top of the hierarchy, and as you move away from the centre things become less like it, less normal. The United States, Greenland, Russia, Japan, all these are close enough to be similar but just far away enough to be interesting (the USA least so). The southern hemisphere in general skirts the vast Canadian Sphere of Influence. It is peopled by strange and fearsome creatures, those who live in the no man's land between order and the chaos of outer blackness, the inhospitable antarctic cold which doubles as an inverted, ironic parody of the Canadian centre. This in-between zone is where meaning meets matter, authority meets power, reason meets absurdity. It is a place of dreams, of danger, of potential. It is the perfect place for a film.

>>1597 >Canada is the centre of the world, the top of the hierarchy >Canadian Sphere of Influence

To get a flavor of the postwar South Pacific I recommend this island-hopping ethnographic travelogue filmed in Cinerama and (partially) narrated by Orson Welles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeyeChzsVUQ

>>1596 >La hora de los hornos I just watched this. It was an hour too long but there's plenty of interesting content if you can power through the slower parts. After establishing the present (1968) situation in Argentina, the documentary chronicles the rise and fall of Juan Perón and the ensuing years of struggle by leftist activists to re-establish their brand of Peronism. The activists tried street protests, labor strikes, even winning elections, but each time their resistance efforts were thwarted by the police or military. The documentary reflects upon these tactical failures and searches for a more effective path. While I'm not entirely sympathetic to the activists' motivations, their frustration with an intransigent political system that answers their grievances with violence is more and more relatable.

>>1741 Would never have watched this otherwise. Thanks for sharing.

>>1817 No problem, anon.

Swallowed by the Sea: Ancient Egypt's Greatest Lost City (1 episode; 2014) – as the name implies, a documentary about the sunken Egyptian city of Heracleion. Somewhat dull but decently comprehensive and I believe this is the most recent docu on the subject, showing all the latest discoveries, so it's a good starting point to get to know the topic. https://rarbgp2p.org/torrent/i7h84p5

Last Days in Vietnam (2014) As the Taliban conquers Afghanistan in a matter of days -- to the extreme embarrassment of the bumbling Globohomo Empire -- it's a great opportunity to revisit America's frantic exit from South Vietnam in April 1975. Nominated for an Oscar, this PBS documentary contains a wealth of rarely-seen footage mixed with interviews of relevant American politicos. It tells the story of the US embassy evacuation, the photo that most people think is the embassy evacuation, and a situation where escaping helicopters would land on a carrier and be pushed into the ocean to make room for more helicopters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SpY7kkPAZc https://yewtu.be/watch?v=-SpY7kkPAZc

>>1856 Is it online?

>>1857 I downloaded a pirated version but haven't installed it yet

>>1856 I've used their photo programs and i find the old non-AI versions yield better results, at least the DeNoiser and Sharpener ones, the newer versions took down some comparison tools and streamlined the options to add a general AI slider. Many programs have been fucked in the butthole with this "AI" fad, they were already simple enough to use but with this new wave there's even less options, i fear the actual userbase is not as mentally sharp as i thought. In terms of the Video Enhance one, i've seen results for their 4k conversions/upscale and it leaves tons of artifacts like outlines and mushy texturing that looks like beauty filters, also a pervasive digital fine grain that looks odd in places like skin tones or foliage. Like everything it should be used with moderation, 60FPS doesn't look good with sources that were under 20FPS (like old timey reels) because the technique just multiples frames and makes variations with motion, so low FPS videos suddenly looks like heavily motion-blurred video game footage. The coloring aspect i didn't know, that does sound promising and the only one i can think of because that does save massive amounts of time.

>>1860 >it leaves tons of artifacts like outlines and mushy texturing that looks like beauty filters, also a pervasive digital fine grain that looks odd in places like skin tones or foliage. That's too bad. I haven't actually watched a full film that's been restored like this. I've only seen short clips and screencaps. The person who made Begotten for KG converted the Topaz video output to PNGs and then touched them up with Irfanview and Premiere. From the caps that project looks quite good considering the extremely grainy source, but I didn't actually watch it (and the bluray is supposedly in the works but who knows).

>>1874 >converted the Topaz video output to PNGs and then touched them up with Irfanview and Premiere That's a double step, intensive but sounds good, he probably moved contrast to pull detail out of the shadows. I recall watching that movie many years ago back in the old, old place but i almost felt asleep, it is an artsy direction with the purposely high key grainy footage so in that case i don't think he had much trouble. >I haven't actually watched a full film that's been restored like this The Gay Porn Acting without the Porn community has some Topaz 4K conversions and few 8K scene upscales if you really want to see what a normal, standard upscale looks like. Here's screencaps comparing the same scene in the classic wholesome, totally non-gay and definitely not awkward dialogue sequence. Because these flicks had native speeds of 30FPS from the typical digital camcorders the 60FPS conversions are not that jarring, 24FPS can still cut it but in old timey sources that have FPS below the 18 count, like 16, 12 or even 8, the footage starts to look jarring. I haven't seen it but i guess if you apply motion blur the program will overwork and produce, i suppose at best, scenes akin to artsy 90s asian action sequences if original footage had considerable camera movement. Interpolation software and procedures have greatly advanced in recent years so that quality gap in low FPS footage can be somewhat narrow now if the original camera position was static, but we are still a bit far from decently upscaling low-resolution footage.

>>1840 Yes. And if you mean the one with a bony back it's Êxtase.

>>1842 >Êxtase Never heard of it. The plot sounds rather, um, modern. Have you seen it? I thought that it might have been a new Antoine D'Agata movie, so I looked him up and coincidentally he made a movie in 2020, La vie nue.

I've only seen 2019 films (not counting a Biograph compilation) but I'm planning to watch A Shape of Things to Come for starters, eventually trying Dau to see if it lives up to the hype

Posthumous Ruiz

>>1847 It's a video essay about anorexia that occasionally experiments with the form in interesting ways. I've put it on my list of top flicks of 2020 so yeah, I've seen it. I've had White Noise on my 2019 list. La vie nue seems to be online but it's a short video art piece, I really liked the idea of using thermal cameras for the photos but I don't know if it was edited all that well.

>>1767 >it's vulgar and bizarre. That's why i love the guy, he just goes for it but i do also dislike his approach when it is uncalled for as in no previous context or need to in terms of de-synthesizing the viewer or a character in particular. I have heard tons of things from Johnnie To, he's the Election guy right? i usually watch asian stuff by director and i still haven't tackled him as Tsui Hark and Chang Cheh have proven to be long experiences for me. I think i have that movie in the backburner but haven't downloaded it, will make sure to have special attention for it. Aaand if you want vulgar, homosexual and sometimes bizarre visages look no further to Johnny To's hong kong gossip rumors, that's why i knew of him in the beginning, he's had very nasty and hilarious stories (that i guess are most fake) that fortunately are usually shadowed by his films. When i researched the asian action scene in the beginning there was always jokes about him, old IMDB forums had some of them. To save you absolute time and the displeasure of wondering why some people say such things from him rather than discussing the movies, imagine the recent american controversy of Harvey Weinstein but instead girls and him being a producer, imagine dudes/action stars and him being a director. Plus in China doing homo stuff is much more controversial than in the west, hence the secrecy from some. >dat spoiler That's almost dead certain, chicoms hate the bad guys getting away with it cooly, which i can understand to be fair as i like justice too but it is kinda forced to be fair sometimes. Most famous example of it happening although i liked it way more than the original ending would be Infernal Affairs, which is a thriller too now that i remember it, it's honestly quite cheesy as to appeal to campy asian mainstream sensibilities but still if one can pass the melodramatic nature of it at times (slow-motion death scenes with melancholic music-tier). It is a decent ride, the cinematography is particularly well done and an example of a director, Andrew Lau, who also shot as the main cinematographer so total control of it. His second (or actually main non-directing cinematographer) Fai Lai is also pretty decent, both worked as KW Wong's camera men at some point together with Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee if that says something about fancy camera work. It was remade, in my opinion badly, years later by Scorcese as The Departed because americans can't read subtitles but this one has superior acting, again in my opinion, to the point that i still hate the co-protagonist's actor Andy Lau for it, such a good dastardly soulless dog-eating chink performance that i cannot see away when watching his other movies, even when he plays fairy tale good guys, and why i liked the mainland china ending of the cops capturing and implicitly executing him for his misdeeds, despite being made non-canon in the two prequel/sequels

>>1794 >Aaand if you want vulgar, homosexual and sometimes bizarre visages look no further to Johnny To's hong kong gossip rumors, that's why i knew of him in the beginning, he's had very nasty and hilarious stories (that i guess are most fake) that fortunately are usually shadowed by his films. When i researched the asian action scene in the beginning there was always jokes about him, old IMDB forums had some of them. I haven't heard of any nasty stories involving Johnnie To lol. Maybe the Asians are more silent when it comes to that stuff. >still haven't tackled him as Tsui Hark and Chang Cheh have proven to be long experiences for me. I'm not interested martial arts movies tbh; also you not being an Asian (I assume) will have harder time getting into that genre from the Chinese. They tend to use a lot of classic literature references and the dialogue could become weird/lost in translation into English. On the other hand, Hong Kong action movies (from directors like John Woo, Johnnie To, Andrew Lau etc.) are more accessible to the western audience. >it's honestly quite cheesy as to appeal to campy asian mainstream sensibilities but still if one can pass the melodramatic nature of it at times (slow-motion death scenes with melancholic music-tier). Haha I totally understand this, the melodrama is indeed popular in mainstream Hong Kong/Chinese movies (not what I like tbh). I like Drug War because it's gritty and void of that thing, and so are the Election movies. >i still hate the co-protagonist's actor Andy Lau for it, such a good dastardly soulless dog-eating chink performance that i cannot see away when watching his other movies, even when he plays fairy tale good guys I totally agree lol, he's kinda wooden and has this wide-eyed expression all the time which becomes annoying after you've watched for long. This kind of one-note acting is more on display when he plays good characters and make me hard to root for him, which comes off as a boring idealistic determined good guy. Besides the plot and dialogue, the actor's approach to portray the character is also very important to make it ring with the audience I guess.

>>1798 >will have harder time getting into that genre from the Chinese It was a steep curve and i bet i haven't and will not get most of the classical references, but after seeing tons of movies i can suspect what they say, the writing in kung fu stuff is VERY formulaic and the references made explicit (Monkey King, The Water Margins, Confucius singing his teachings, Taoist esoterics). It's trash and you would be in the clean for ignoring it, but it's crack for me and it's either that or porn lol. My difficulty with them is that they are so many, but in terms of Cheh's i know the reason, he was fronting for his aides and associates. English subtitles don't help either, they are worse than the dubbing sometimes which is no small feat, still it's mostly cheap entertainment for the stunts and the classical chinese pre-surgery beauties, no wonder almost no actress made more than 10 movies, all the dudes married them and threw them right into the kitchen, the levels of mainlander rural girl trafficking must've been insane back then. >he's kinda wooden and has this wide-eyed expression Glad it's not only me, pretty spot-on with the wide-eyed lol, they seem to worship the fucker and i recall seeing extras working better than him. I guess it's because he did soap operas for the mainland and they respect him for that, don't wanna sound like a girl but the guy bottles even the love scenes, he kisses like a fish and it's one of the very rare instances where i notice that because any dude can munch a pretty girl out. Bet he's a To Boy. >make me hard to root for him Absolutely, in the first KW Wong film (with Andrew Lau camera) i remember waiting for someone to glass him but he keeps going and even does his cousin at one point, i didn't know if i had to celebrate or wait for someone else to take the helm but it was all just his show. >Asians are more silent when it comes to that stuff. Massively more silent but that didn't stop asian sharpshooters from photographing To french kissing a dude at a premiere private party, it was a main actor too but i don't really remember it being Simon Yam, i still have that image somewhere, never deleted it (no homo) because i don't remember seeing it mentioned and i fear the chicoms are saving the face of some people (read: scraping the internet) like they did with Jackie Chan's drugged up son or Eric Tsang fondling tig ol bitties of promo girls. I think i need to come up with non-asian thrillers, this has more rice than a take-out, but so far anyone seeing these will have a good time.

>>1801 >it's crack for me and it's either that or porn That's a pretty weird thing to get high on/jack off to, lol. >Bet he's a To Boy Nope, he isn't. Louis Koo is a To boy (frequent collaborator), you can watch him in Drug War and the Election movies, I like his acting. Andy Lau is famous because he acted a lot in television (those wuxia series) and is also a singer. Asian celebrities who are popular for television work and singing tend to be not great actors, lol. >never deleted it (no homo) That's very homo bro And yeah, I want more non-Asian stuff too. Kinda bored of rice at this time. Gibraltar (2013) is a nice thriller about a man working as an informant for the French border patrol. Its neo-noir quality is shown in the shadowy cinematography and the dark world of moral compromise and treachery. A straight up story, no annoying reference of unrelated politics or stupid casting (like Hollywood often insert to their neo-noir - gotta make some woke social commentary huh) Please excuse the watermark.

Aside from it being cold war propaganda, Panic in Year Zero is a very entertaining thriller.

>>1751 No problem, anon. I just realized that half the links are dead by now. But at least there are titles so it shouldn't be too hard to find them.

Best Hamlet adaptation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OfxxEWi-fs

>>1819 Full movie with Eng subs on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McKuFBAp_i8 Epic, exquisite and riveting. Still haven't been released on Bluray though.

No necrorealism?

The modern Scandinavian countries are the worst liberal shithole ever, so I avoid most of their new stuff. I like the scenery and atmosphere of the place, which could be a great setting or background for films. Could you recommend some brooding, atmospheric films from this region? On a not very related note, does anyone find viking stuff in current pop culture so fucking gay? Everything about vikings from Hollywood and their allies, even a fucking Japanese comic (Vinland Saga) also features a tranny character in the Middle Ages. Is it because they're trying to feminize masculine characters into emotionally driven, bumbling idiots who submit at the will of women? On the other hand, I'm watching the Raven trilogy by Hrafn Gunnlaugsson and really enjoy them. Classic "Spaghetti Western" in Iceland and with Vikings. I've completed the first one, When the Raven Flies, which is said to be based on Yojimbo. There's something charming about the type of hero that sets a goal and follow it with determination and competence (at first). It's fun to follow them on their journey and look for their next success, or failure. The music imitates western films but is played on synthesizer, sounds hilarious but also... charming. I guess I like western as a genre and reinventing it in an exotic setting is very enjoyable.

In the Shadow of the Raven (1988), second movie of the Raven trilogy.