I saw dark city last night. Loved it. But I've been thinking about how strong a reaction a film can provoke by just being good. As far as recent films go my standrads have plummeted. What would happen if I saw "Apocalypse Now" or "Spartacus" or any other great film? There just seems to be "good" films coming out lately. The last "great" film I saw was "Romeo and Juliet". Since then "The General", "Lawn Dogs", "Big Lebowski" and others have come and gone and they've been good but not great. Lebowski was a fantastic film but it wasn't great. Basically I seem to be missing the "powerful" films. Huge films, as opposed to the mass of self-reflexive "small" films around lately. I'm a bit pissed so I'll probably think differently tomorrow but... anyone else feel like this? If anyone mentions "Saving Private Ryan" I'll scream.

Tell me abt 'The General', Bag. I read a blurb abt it somewhere months ago/but I keep confusing it in my head w/'Rushmore' (which isn't even out yet) becuz there was a blurb abt that on the same page. (See what happens when you subscribe to too many movie mags?) Rumour has it Malick's "The Thin Red Line" is s'posed to be pretty close to great. I wanna see that before I see 'Saving Private Ryan'. I've never been big on Tom Hanks. Meaning he's never seemed to me to be the kind of actor who can carry off a role requiring serious emotional depth. (Which I assume 'Private Ryan' does.) He's a little too 'everyman' for me. But I admire him as a husband & father & glaring exception to the "Nice-Guys-Finish-Last" in Hollywood rule. You shd check out 'Life is Beautiful' (La Vita e Bella). THAT'S supposed to be a great film. I saw Roberto Benigni on a talk show recently -- he was so gracious & full of exuberence w/his adorable broken English. I can't imagine how stellar yr creative abilities have to be to even dream up the idea of a comedy abt the Holocaust. But I really hope he pulls a 3 Hat Trick at the Oscars & walks off w/Best Film/Best Foreign Film & Best Original Screenplay. (They say the movie shd be nominated for all 3/if not Best Director as well.) It's playing at a little art house here (in the heart of downtown w/no parking lot/which is why I haven't seen it yet). That's the one movie I promised myself I wd go & see before the Oscars/even if I have to go alone/pay full price/& park 2 miles away.

The General is a good film. If you like seeing the police being made to look like arseholes (which is ALWAYS fun) then it's hilarious. The fact that it's mostly true is a bonus, usually things are changed for dramatic purposes (like the names, events and time of the story) but Martin Cahill did the stuff that's on screen. It's black and white (the 'mericans run screaming for the exits) and without wishing to sound like a twat - very lyrical. Brendon Gleeson is great as the General. It's subtle because it doesn't overplay the etraordinary story that it's telling. He's convincing as Cahill, a man who could have a relationship with two sisters with their consent. The story is the thing. There's the usual John Boorman touches of surreality but the complexity of the man comes through. Jon Voigt even pulls off a believable irish accent! info

I'm desperate to see The thin Red Line. I refuse to go and watch SPR. The disapointment of the middle of the film would be too great I think.

american films in black and white (off the top of my head): stranger than paradise manhattan young frankenstein down by law i wish people in other countries would realize that just because they don't get some these films or happen to get only the 30 minute documentaries, it doesn't mean we don't make anything else. in the land of ken burns, i hear new zealanders say that we don't make documentaries longer than 30 minutes. jeez.

Adn how exactly do you define the word 'twat', Bag? Becuz in America it is roughly the equivalent of cunt. Which I don't think you intended... And Filmbuff -- however cd you forget "Raging Bull' -- an American classic in b&w! I think foreigners get too much of their ideas abt American movies from overseas sales of Hollywood blockbusters like 'Titanic' & those insufferable Bruce Willis flicks. And from shows like 'Entertainment Tonight' (which I believe is syndicated worldwide) which seem to exist only to promote big Hollywood movies. Haven't you guys ever heard of Sundance? Or the Independent Film Festival in NY? Or the Independent Film Channel (a wholly American enterprise/thankyouverymuch)

Sorry, just winding you up. Us foreigners like to poke fun at your, ahem, less culturally aware bretheren. As I said before, it stops us being scared of your gargantuan country. American's do make great films. They also remake great films REALLY BADLY. "City of Angles", "The Assasin"

Well, yeah, City of Angles was pretty bad. The geometry just couldn't sustain the plot. And there was no suspense; a half hour into the film it was obvious that the sum of the angles of a triangle are 180. But you're far too kind. Those listed are hardly the worst remakes we've done. Why, just in the last couple months Gus van Sant remade Psycho shot for shot in the most pointless waste of celluloid since Batman and Robin, and the two hour commercial for AOL, You've Got Mail, is a blatant and mediocre ripoff of a flick from the 50s.

You've got to understand what it means to be a: "gargantuan country" a very culturally diverse one and a hyper-capitalist one Our best work always comes not from any *official* american endeavours, but from the independent, underground artists. Across the Atlantic they sniff of us and are veddy veddy English about it, but you've got it wrong. Having defined yourself culturally as English may give a sense of smugness, but it has it's drawbacks. It also makes you a bit stagnant and a bit intolerant. I really think that america's low-brow veneer is much more necessary and advantageous as a culture than you might think. I think that, ultimately it's more of a stimulus to independent minds and artists. Take the technological advances made here in the u.s.: phone, phonograph, light bulb, alternating current, airplanes, mass-production of automobiles, the television, the personal computer, etc. It's not that other countries couldn't invent these things (because in some cases they were already being worked on in other countries or made by people from other countries working in the u.s.), it's because of that peculiar american energy of innovation as a virtue and the worth of anybodies good idea. Then they were brought to the rest of the world by the energy of good ole' american capitalism, the idea that "hell, we could make money doing that." My point is just this: when we say "american" we mean something that is actually not very well-defined - adolescent, searching, obnoxious at times, aggressive, highly schizophrenic. How many times have you heard someone say here, "I don't really consider myself *american*"? Despite all of this, it's also where we draw our energy from. We need our low culture to stimulate our high culture. We make blockbuster and crap movies because they make money and we send them to othe countries because they buy them. By the way, I was watching a horrendous English movie called, I think, "Bullshot" on cable the other day. So, there you go. Another american, one who hasn't even had his morning coffee yet fer christ' sake, trying to defend himself. I've got a burrito in the freezer that really sounds good right now, with coffee.

Not as confusing as "Angles With Dirty Faces - The Pythagorus Story"

More great films in b+w: Clerks (only if you've ever worked in the service industry, tho) Pi (I haven't seen it yet, but my friend who's never wrong about these things says its awesome) Man Bites Dog the b+w parts of Arise! And we don't even need to get into Kurosawa. (and, I'll admit i did see "SPR" - um, ending was sort of weak, but really worth going to see just to get a glimmering of what war is really like. FIrst 1/2 hour left me exhausted, and it only barely let up afterwards)(And I refuse to see Titanic - three hours of crap before you get to see DiCaprio's frozen corpse - what a ripoff!)

"Almost an Angle" - one man's struggle to follow a straight line through life. ouch.

Had my burrito and coffee. Almost feel sane. "We're no Angles" - the story of straight men trying to define themselves to a degree? And, of course, my favorite black and white film: "Eraserhead." And "Dr. Strangelove", even if it was made in England. Stanley Kubrick and Terry Southern are still our boys.

They've defected! Stanley's one of ours. He IS. BTW what's David Fincher's new film like? I'm gonna try and catch that when I come over there soon.

Ah, Kubrick left only because he likes to be, as you would say, bloody-minded. Terry Southern's a Texan just like me; we're all branded in the brain. Haven't seen David Lynch's new film.

Kubrick left because he felt stifled by the lack of creativity and self-expression found in USA Inc.

or that. i'm just fucking with you, 'puss.

Arse! I was supposed to be winding *you* up. I gues I can't get the hang of this trolling thing.

sorry. i start these things for fun, but i'm too distracted too follow through. I'm waiting for the insurance appraiser to show up and tell me house is a dump. maybe later.

don't know what the hell i'm apologizing for. damn insurance.

out of curiousity, where do you guys work that allows you to log and and post this often? that sounds like a good job.

I'm in college, well I'm at home at the moment (four weeks holiday, british degrees are easy peasy). It costs a fair bit of money to be on the internet from home over here but I'm really bored so fuck it.

This also explains why I can't seem to shut the fuck up. I've just seen how many posts I've made lately. Sorry guys.

i have a broken leg, arm, clavicle, and six broken ribs from a car accident. when i'm not doing that i'm a dentist. smile.

Bag -- what does yr ISP charge? I've always wondered if people outside thst U.S. had to pay more for Net access. If you get MSN or AOL or any one of those behemoth American-based ISPs/won't they just bill you the local-currency equivalent of what we pay? Or do they jack up the price?

My ISP is free (free internet access is all the rage over here) The thing is the phone calls cost about 1.5p a minute nightime 3.5p daytime. The telcos give free net access but take a cut of the call charge. Free local calls?? Wass that????

some local phone companies in america (such as the one that serves the university of chicago area) have started charging per minute as well. horrors. I only have net access at work. but I (am at) work all the time. (it's 4:22 a.m. and I've been here since 2 p.m.) not recommended. the last movie I saw was "six days, seven nights," as it was the only english-language film playing at the time. friday I may go see a russian dubbing of "salaam bombay" because it's free and the only eng-lang option would be an expensive show of sharon stone's "last dance," some death-row tripe from two or three years ago.

cyst, you don't work at amazon, do you? just a guess.

She posted at 9:22 PM Eastern, and said that it was 4:22 AM where she was, which also isn't a place with many English language movies. Ergo, Russia (and the mail ID is a further giveaway). Incidentally, the Bells have always had a measured phone service that has a minimal monthly charge compared to the flat rate, but charges by the minute.

my friend at university of chicago law school says she has no flat-rate option. I would think only people without friends in the area or home internet access would choose to pay per minute. I don't work at amazon but know many people who do. have heard that in the seattle office, as of six months ago anyway, the staff size increased so quickly that the office was sort of like a sweat shop, with desks crammed in the hallways and everything. but the people I know who work there love it anyway. I don't live in russia but ukraine, but close enough. most everyone here in the capital speaks russian, and the food is just as bad here as there. I work at the eng-lang newspaper. the hours suck, but then I have no time to go out and whittle away my income on $10 nachos and $5 whores, so now I can afford trips to western europe, fuck yeah.

Whores in the Ukraine are cheaper than nachos? Somebody just oughta e-mail Eugene Robinson...

supposedly a blowjob on the road that circles the city costs US $2. a beautiful young girl told an american friend of mine that she would be his for the night for $100. a lap dance at the cabaret strip club costs $100. a plate of nachos costs $10, but a happy-hour margarita is only $2. a mail-order bride costs $2,000. (a taxi ride costs $1, a pound of zucchini costs $2.50, a pirated windows 98 costs $3.) an eng-lang version of saving private ryan ($5) comes out next week. it's the film event of the year here. after that, it's all george of the jungle and parent trap.

Hmmm...does that $2000 include shipping?

maybe...but's it the handling that'll COST YOU.