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"The American people are turning sullen. They've been clobbered on all sides by Vietnam, Watergate, the inflation, the depression; they've turned off, shot up, and they've fucked themselves limp, and nothing helps."

Comments

[theblackmeat.livejournal.com]

This has been floating around on my Netflix queue for a few weeks.

[suspiriorum.livejournal.com]

It's definitely worth seeing. It was always on my list of films to watch, and TCM ran it, so I finally got around to it.

I should've seen it sooner.

What initially piqued my interest in it, aside from being a film from the '70s (my favorite decade for film), was that it was partly inspired by the on-air suicide of Christine Chubbuck.

Network is similar in a way to my favorite film, Privilege, in that both were considered to be outlandish at the time, viewed as slight possiblities of the future but are very relevant and true today.

Network is operatic, but entirely enthralling. The writing, directing, and acting are as perfect as I've seen from a film in quite some time.

[la-belle-ange.livejournal.com]

GURL, I LOVE YOU. Faye Dunaway's performance is one of my all-time favorites: "Next time I send an audience research report around, you'd all better read it, or I'll sack the fucking lot of you, is that clear?" Saving icon #1. ♥

[suspiriorum.livejournal.com]

♥ TCM ran Network last night and it was the first time I had watched it (it was always on my must-see list) and it completely blew me away. Sidney Lumet said that Paddy Chayefsky's script was the best he's ever had come across his desk, and holy shit was he right. It's a perfect marriage of directing, writing, and acting.

Faye Dunaway was absolutely breath-taking as Diana Christensen. Any other writer (as we've seen many times in other films, I'm sure) would've made her a 2-D caricature, but I love how complex she was. I loved her immediately and also resented her at other moments.

Also, Ned Beatty. I love schlock, I love B-movies, so I've seen plenty of his work; I've always enjoyed his performances. But the delivery of that speech? Absolutely brilliant.

Peter Finch totally deserved his Oscar, too. That probably goes without saying, but I gotta say it.

LOOK AT ME! I CAN'T SHUT UP!

[la-belle-ange.livejournal.com]

It's a perfect marriage of directing, writing, and acting.

WORD. \m/

[suspiriorum.livejournal.com]

I probably could've left it at that, but I'm never one for brevity ♥

[la-belle-ange.livejournal.com]

:D No worries. One should never be brief about good films. ♥

[suspiriorum.livejournal.com]

If I really loved something, I can go on about it forever. LUCKY FOR YOU! ♥

I really need to make more posts about films in general. Especially since I've been having more out of print vhs adventures. That was more prevalent years ago, when I still had stores I could scavenge, which I've missed, so being able to do that again has been thrilling. Of course, the vcr ate the tape, but I found another copy to replace it. These are the things I do for '80s French films.

[la-belle-ange.livejournal.com]

Almost all French films are worth the effort. ;)

[suspiriorum.livejournal.com]

They indeed are, especially when it's a film about a couple twins in love and how he drives across country with her corpse stuffed in a guitar case because she was electrocuted when taking a milk bath and a light fixture fell in it.

I had about five minutes left of the film when the tape got eaten :/

[la-belle-ange.livejournal.com]

I... can't say I've heard of that one. :P Hopefully you'll get to finish it!!

[suspiriorum.livejournal.com]

Haha! It's Inviation au voyage. I discovered it because one of the actresses was in a Louis Malle film I enjoyed. It's a surprisingly funny, touching little film. His sister was a singer, so he made it his aim to spread her music wherever he could. She asks in a scene,
"What would you do if I died?"
And he tells her,
"I'd make you live again."

I still laugh when I remember an old man in the film who spent most of his days next to a jukebox. He loved David Bowie and Lou Reed but, "Julio Iglesias makes me want to vomit!"

Hopefully I'll get to, or else I'll make up my own ending.