"Encounters at the End of the World" - Werner Herzog's Antarctica documentary - I was disappointed. But Herzog sure is honest: he says, he saw some underwater photography of the Ross Sea at the South Pole and was "invited" to go (I think that means that someone gave him the money to make the movie) and then he shows us what, and who, he found there. And the answer is: what he found just wasn't all that compelling. But someone who loved the movie wrote on IMDB that you have to see it on the big screen, and maybe he's right...
What's my favorite movie? (It's a good question because it's revealing.) I have to say L'avventura (1960) by Antonioni. (Which is a real conversation stopper because so few people have seen it.) But I have to warn you, people who see it for the first time usually find it infuriating. When it was first shown (I think at Cannes) people actually yelled at the screen.
It does seem like everyone sees 8-1/2 before they see all those other Italian movies that Fellini makes fun of. That was certainly my experience. It's great to see the really hard core Italian neo-realist films - I'm thinking of "Open City" as a great example - so you can understand where Fellini, Rossellini and Antonioni came from. I think the Italians had a conversation with each other, as opposed to the French New Wave, which seemed to be having a conversation with Hollywood.
I'm going to see Umberto D again, so I can talk about it.
It does seem like everyone sees 8-1/2 before they see all those other Italian movies that Fellini makes fun of. That was certainly my experience. It's great to see the really hard core Italian neo-realist films - I'm thinking of "Open City" as a great example - so you can understand where Fellini, Rossellini and Antonioni came from. I think the Italians had a conversation with each other, as opposed to the French New Wave, which seemed to be having a conversation with Hollywood.
I'm going to see Umberto D again, so I can talk about it.
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