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Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated Incendies (2010) in Movies

Feb 11, 2021 (Updated Feb 11, 2021)

Incendies (2010)

2010 | Drama, Mystery, War

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Movie Rating

The third in my series of films you would recommend to a visiting alien to explain humanity is… the harrowing yet utterly brilliant Incendies (2010), directed by Denis Villeneuve, from the play by Wajdi Mouawad.

Utilising a French and Arabic speaking cast you have probably never seen before, this brutal drama feels as close to reality as you would ever want a story of this nature to be. Yet, of course because it is a Denis Villeneuve film (he also made Blade Runner 2049, Enemy, Prisoners, Arrival, Sicario etc, if you are not familiar with him) it is drenched in style and visual embellishment that makes it a work of art transcending a documentary feel. Naturalism is evident in the acting, but so is an awareness of storytelling. It also boasts one of the most jaw dropping endings I have ever seen. Once experienced, never forgotten. Rated the 111th best film of all time on IMDb currently, and my Decinemal score agrees with that.

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Julian Schnabel recommended The 400 Blows (1959) in Movies (curated)

The 400 Blows (1959)

1959 | Drama

(0 Ratings)

Movie Favorite

"Here’s one where the music is so important. And the decision where the camera movement is. There’s one moment in particular in 400 Blows, where the two boys skip school and they go into this centrifuge, and the kids are spinning around and you’re watching the movie and then all of a sudden you realize you’re watching something on the screen — you’re seeing this pole in the middle and these bodies flying by. I guess they’re just epiphanies of humanness that resonate, and I guess all that comes out of really physical human decisions — whether it’s about where you point your camera, what and how you’re editing, or how people are acting. But in all of these movies I can’t think of one that is depending on special effects. So I would say that what drives me is something that has to do with things that seem much more fundamental to storytelling, that are simple things… but maybe that’s because I’m a primitive kind of person."

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Jane Campion recommended The Road (La Strada) (1954) in Movies (curated)

The Road (La Strada) (1954)

1954 | International, Classics, Drama

(0 Ratings)

Movie Favorite

"Fellini is a deep, deep master of film. As time goes by I adore him more and more. La strada is quite perfect. It is like “The Ancient Mariner.” A haunting film for all time; one cannot insult innocence without a lifetime of cost. I don’t know why it is, but it is so, a spiritual truth, that both Coleridge and Fellini knew and tell in their respective stories. Fellini is the most fluent filmmaker of them all. His shots and storytelling are so at ease and elegant, it’s as if he’s thinking his shots through a camera in his mind and straight onto a screen. I went to his funeral in Rome in 1993, where people in the crammed huge Piazza Republica gathered to salute farewell. It was also a time when no one wanted to see a Fellini film. Every year since then his legacy appears more remarkable and more incomparable."

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John Hawkes recommended Stranger Than Paradise (1984) in Movies (curated)

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

1984 | International, Comedy, Drama

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Movie Favorite

"Jim Jarmusch film. So wonderfully done in black and white. John Lurie stars and does the music. It’s weird because there are no close ups in the film, it’s an objective viewing experience, and yet it’s subjective in the way that Jarmusch points you. You’re given anything to look at, but you’re always looking at the right things. And the idea that it began as a short, just called The New World, but they raised money to make the other two or three acts, is really interesting to me. Great performances, a lot of humor, really slow pace. These were things I wasn’t really used to — the European pace, even though I love The 400 Blows, it was a revelation at the time in 1984. And I saw it when it came out in Austin, and just I think it opened up a new world of storytelling and filmmaking to me on some level."

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