Film Fanatics Society - Chat Thread

For those at university: do you know of bobnational.net?

If your university is registered, it gives you access to a lot of films, TV, etc. And as someone who hasn't seen many of the films that "FILM FANS MUST SEE", it's proved pretty useful for me.

A friend who saw 127 Hours today said a woman fainted during the hacking away the arm scene. She got up to go to the toilet and collapsed back into her seat.

I don't really understand how anyone could faint from that, unless they had a particularly low tolerance to gore/depictions of pain... I assumed the stories about people fainting were all just hype.

...Surely almost everyone knows how the story ends, so anyone who has a low tolerance to things like that could just stay away...

Yes, cutting through an arm will typically show gore. If a director didn't show gore then he's not deserving of being a director. This is Danny Boyle though, someone who is famous for having Ewan McGregor climb through a filthy toilet so I'm more interested in how he has depicted the scene which, I would imagine by his film-making, will be very gruesome and hard to watch.

I'm not sure people are just going to see it for the arm cutting scene. Aron Ralston's story is pretty inspirational. Yes, back then he was an idiot for not informing anyone where he was going, but he also had the guts and bravery to lose a limb to survive and therefore his story is playing right to the nature of humans and how we fight tooth and nail to survive. I think that's what people are going to see and Danny Boyle is excellent at that.

A friend who saw 127 Hours today said a woman fainted during the hacking away the arm scene. She got up to go to the toilet and collapsed back into her seat.

Edit: For those of you who have seen it: is it as good as it looks and is James Franco worthy of an Oscar? And is the most talked about scene as gruesome as they say?

I actually generally agree with you for the most point - You're leading me to look up some stuff on this - QTs' major criticisms and critics, I think some people may make valid points with in depth study of his work

Yep you're right about the immediacy of his impact on his work, this could inspire a thread in the future, his work is an interesting talking point

some links if you're interested
http://cinemaroll.com/cinemarolling/the-start-of-criticism-lets-start-positive-lets-go-quentin-tarantino/

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/shouting-match-should-quentin-tarantino-shut-the-****-up.php

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=120875

Well one thing's clear, he's as hated as passionately as he's defended, I'm not that swayed to either side, I like him but not hugely, I don't partciularly like him as a person but I don't dislike him, he strikes me as a likeable sort of awkward uncle

If a director didn't show gore then he's not deserving of being a director.

I love Tarantino, but he frustrates me so much. He's such a capable director in some aspects but then in others he just doesn't seem interested and his films have a habit of suffering because of it.

With regards to his purloining of ideas, I think the old moniker "poor writers borrow. Good writers steal" rings true. He never takes an idea and doesn't offer a unique perspective on it. I would argue it's more influence than anything else. And you have to bear in mind that his movies are unique. Pulp Fiction is a great example of that - when it came out, nobody had seen anything like it before. Most of the key scenes would have ended up on the cutting floor for most directors, as they were seemingly so superfluous to what was going on. 15 years on and it's hard to count the amount of films that copy that, they're so numerous. It's not stealing, it's how cinema evolves. He took the best of what came before, added his own creativity and pushed on, just as people are trying to do post-Tarantino.




Nonsense. Often times what you don't see is far more disturbing than what you do.

It's quite good. And James Franco is definitely worthy of an Oscar, mostly because I can't think of any serious competition for him. Jesse Eisenberg, maybe.

'The Scene™' is incredibly gruesome, but don't let the inevitable expectations of it dominate the experience for you. It's really about the mental and emotional buildup; how Ralston got to the point where he thought "Right, I've got to cut my arm off because I really do quite want to live' rather than the act itself.

Colin Firth maybe?

I haven't actually seen The King's Speech, but Colin Firth is getting good notices. Good shout.

Jeff Bridges again as well is a possibility. The Coens know how to market their products to the Academy really well.

But I get the feeling it's going to be really close between Firth and Franco. Franco doesn't really need to self-publicise seeing as he's hosting it, but it is definitely Firth's turn for it.