[–]▶ No.2873[Watch Thread][Show All Posts]
Next up for Film Club is one of Peter Greenaway's most savage and divisive efforts…
> No other filmmaker, living or dead, could have made "The Baby of Mâcon." And no other filmmaker would have wanted to.> Peter Greenaway's controversial and rarely-seen 1993 film saw a very limited run here in the United States, opening in New York and L.A. and then disappearing forever. Its content–your typical Greenaway excesses of murder, gang rape, disembowelment, dismemberment, full-frontal nudity, and more philosophical and allegorical allusions than you can shake a stick at–was judged too offensive, and the film failed to find a U.S. distributor.> That's unfortunate, because it's one of the director's best. ~~ David N. Butterworth, rec.arts.movies.reviews
> [I]f you've got the stomach, this is an unusually clever and moving and angry work, keen in its examination of social roles among men, women, nobles and peasants, and deep in its satiric depiction of genuine religious impulses becoming codified into weapons of status quo authority. This is not a hopeful work, but it is a beautiful one, making the absolute most of its theatrical sets and numerous quotations from classical music. It's all a show, you see, but aren't shows supposed to mean something? ~~ Joe McCulloch, PennLivehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106335/referencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baby_of_M%C3%A2conOn a slower board such as this one, the sticky may hide conversations as much as highlight them. So I'll let this thread roam free as an experiment.
▶ No.2874
▶ No.2883>>2884
Baby of Macon will be streaming tonight (Thurs) @ 7:30 eastern at:
>tinyurl.com/filmstream1
I will stream as well Fri and Sat as well.
H.
▶ No.2884
▶ No.2885>>2886
Sorry for the delay (got home late). Now playing.
▶ No.2886
>>2885Next showing is @11p.m Eastern on reapeat (2hr. runtime).
▶ No.2887>>2889
Has anyone else seen Greenaway's The Falls? I tried watching but was interrupted so I wasn't able to finish. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover is probably my current fave of mine. Have yet to see his other movies.
▶ No.2888
I'm not sure which one of his movies I saw first, but I didn't really connect with Peter Greenaway at first. He seemed weird and self-indulgent (when I wasn't completely ready for that sort of thing). It didn't help that most transfers looked pretty dull before the blurays were released.
But Baby of Macon changed my mind; the framing device adds an interesting layer and the content pushes the envelope. I also enjoyed Drowning by Numbers. I was less impressed with The Pillow Book, bored by 8 1/2 Women, and somewhat confused with Prospero's Books (having not read The Tempest).
▶ No.2889
>>2887Yes, I did not like it outside of the concept. I'll be checking this out though.
▶ No.2892
Interesting picture. The gaudiness works in its favor. But its not altogether for me; too bleak but without emotion. It orients itself more in the conceptual, the meta-analysis of the narrative (a renaissance play within a film watched by an audience, watched by us, which actively participates, etc., etc.), which isn't bad but the point is made clear quite early. I think the best of the film was in the Fiennes death scene. Just my thoughts on it.