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Hey everyone, it's been a terrific ride, but this community is going dark for a little while. You'll still be able to view old posts and click on the links, but nothing new will be going up for now. I want to thank everyone for their participation and insight. I've had a fabulous time showing up and talking Indie film with all of you.

We do hope to be up and running again in the future, though, so keep your eyes peeled.

In the meantime, there are some great Indies out in the theaters right now, and even more out on DVD, so I hope to hear all about the things you've been watching and digging when we return!

Happy 2008 everyone!

I got the new "Blade Runner" DVD tonight and I just want to recommend it to all movie fans.   The new print looks incredible.  It really enhances this great movie to see such a quality print of it.   I'm appreciating aspects of it I've never really noticed before.    

Congratulations to the following winners:

Sexiest moment: cubiclefever and repenthea

Indie Love Story: skoptzygrrl (also supported by peer review:) and schizometric for coming up with a film, and evidence for it, that I've never heard of!

Best Teenager: caseystrip

Picture Form:a_jaclyn

Ghost Story: just_happening and lunarflares


Please leave me your e-mail addresses in the screened comments so we can get you your prizes!!

It's almost 2008!

What was on your top 10 ten best of 2007 list? (Filmwise, of course).

I'd say:

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Black Sheep
3. Wristcutters
4. Juno
5. Once
6. Hot Fuzz
7. Ratatouille
8. The Simpsons Movie (shut up. I'm as embarrassed as you are! Spider Pig, Spider Pig...)

Are my best of so far.

To be fair, I've seen a lot of things this year that weren't released this year, and missed a lot (like Rocket Science) that I'd have loved to have seen.

Plus, I'm leaving two spots open: One for Sweeney Todd, and one for a final pass at making this list even!

Does anyone have a release date for the Savages?
I've been wanting to see this for sometime now but none of the trailers I've seen have dates on them.

I watched this film on IFC this weekend, and I have to say it was a wee to cryptic for my taste.

Normally that isn't a bad film quality, but for a film like this, in my opinion there should be a cleaner clearer voice on the topic.

I found it quite hypnotic image wise, but some images just puzzled me and I found myself wondering why the director chose that particular image for the scene, what was the significance etc..

_______SPOILER______


I found myself quite intrigued by the conversation the main character has with his friend while he is wearing a blond wig and makeup explaining to his friend that he isn't gay. Tho he clearly wants to have sex with an older boy.

It was also alarming that in the end it seemed that the boy wanting to dress up like and be a woman was because the boy he was attracted to was "straight". I have known many a transexual that has the same reasoning. "I like straight guys."

Has anyone else seen this film and what are your impressions???

Our last movie in the current queue, Russian Ark, is notable for several reasons, not the least of which is that it encompasses one, long 90 minute shot, which is frankly a crazy sort of technical achievement.

Here's the trailer: Russian Ark trailer

If anyone has seen this, what did you think of the film itself, technical achievement aside. It's a sort of fascinating glimpse through Russian history, lyrical and visual and dreamy.

So, while Grand Ecole isn't only about sex and sexuality, the physical plays a pretty strong role. Unlike Exterminating Angels, this isn't so much about the voyeurism or power dynamic of sex, but the way that our sexual yearnings and longings can shape our decisions and our identities.

Which brings us to today's challenge:

Describe the scene from an indie film (or any film) that you felt was the sexiest - doesn't have to actually involve sex, or nudity or lust, it can be about longing, or want, it can have nothing to do with physical desire at all, but still just pinged for you as a viewer on an intensely visceral level.

My favorite description/justification will win the prize.

I'd also like to open up the discussion on this front? What makes a moment or a scene sexy, particularly if there's no nudity, if there's no actually sex in it. What films are highly charged without completely becoming about that sexuality? And how do the actors and directors use that energy to keep our interest?

So, we continue the themes of difficult love, now adding into this the questions of sexual identity and lust, philosophy and confusion.

Grand Ecole is unquestionably French in sensibility, Foucault mixed with sex, class issues, race issues and the overwhelmingness of lust and love.

You can find a trailer for the film here: http://pyramidefilms.com/grande-ecole/
Click on "bande annonce + extraits" and then choose "bande annonce". Fair warning, the trailer is fairly explicit, as is the film, so if that's not your ball of wax, you know now!

However, it's a fun and complicated and sexy film that should definitely help heat up the chilly December days!

Juno was charming and mostly unpredictable. The cast was stellar and while it wasn't quite as subversive or ironic as Reitman's last film (Thank You for Smoking), I thoroughly enjoyed it. Plus, I'm a big sap and I like a certain kind of happy ending.

So, for today's contest, favorite atypical Indie love story, complete with visual documentation - can be an icon, a still, a header, a photo, anything that documents you're favorite Indie romance.

My favorite "evidence" will win someone a DVD!

Pairing one kind of complicated love story with a story of love gone terribly wrong, we're also going to watch Solo Mia this weekend.

The film, starring Paz Vega and Sergi Lopez, is a story about the way people change, the things - sometimes awful things that stay hidden - and while it's not the easiest film to watch (at least not for me. It deals with domestic violence in a fairly graphic way), it's also an intersting film to compare to Under the Sand which also raises the question of how well we really know the people we're intimately involved with.

This sort of topic can often end up being the source of horror and melodrama, and while there are elements of both in these films, they are ultimately very human stories.

So, other films that deal with the hidden, the unseen, the things that emerge from people we think we know as well as ourselves?

It's Friday. We have tickets to see Juno tomorrow night.

So, tonight's contest:

Best film teenager, with proof. Proof can be a quote, an action, an icon, a screencap, your ode to said character, whatever.

But sing a character's praises for the win.

Best post gets the prize!

(And for anyone who's a prize winner and has yet to hear anything about it, hang in there. If you haven't heard by Monday, holler, and I'll check up on it!)

Okay, so I'm liking the ghosty/missing theme, so today's contest (for one of the original featured movies), is as follows:

Create an icon, banner or wallpaper from a film featuring either a ghost or a missing person or both.

I'll select my five favorites, and then we'll all vote! I give y'all until Monday.

i keep remember these flashes of some movie trailer i saw a while ago, and i remember it looked like a really good film, but i can't remember the title or anybody who is in it. can anyone help me?!

here is what i remember: there are two brothers (or maybe they're best friends?) who are on vacation with their family at some lake house. one of the guys is successful and the other is not. there is a girl who comes to visit who they both know and they both, of course, are in love. at one point, the girl is up on a ladder or something and one the guys kisses her upper thigh, and she says something along the lines of "did you just kiss my ass?".

please please please help! this is bothering me so much! thank you!!

Thanks to everyone who's responded to the survey post, and for those of you who haven't, please go ahead and fill it out! I'm really enjoying the responses.

Second, as there's a slightly thrillery/supernatural aspect to Under the Sand, I'm wondering about ghost stories (yes, it's a huge leap), but for the prize today, what would your ideal movie ghost story be? If you were going to create a supernatural thriller, or even just a haunted tale, what would it be about and who would you cast? Would you make a love story, a horror story, a thriller, a drama, a comedy?

My favorite two answers win the prize.

We've certainly run the gamut on French drama this month, haven't we?

However, I happen to really like Under the Sand, for many reasons, not the least of which is the idea of people living on through memory, of continuing to exist because we want them to.

Here's the trailer.

This isn't exactly a ghost story, but it's got some of the trappings of it.

So, anyone else seen this? And if not, other favorite films about people with loved ones that they just can't let go of?

Hey folks. It's December now and we're heading into the home stretch of films, so I wanted to do a little reconnaissance about the community and the films and what you'd like to see us do over the next few weeks.

So, first of all, what would you like to see more of? More films featured? More discussion of films? More polls? More contests? More user participation (that's what I'd like to see!!) More artistic opportunities - icon contests, wallpaper contests, writing opportunities, etc?

I'd like to know what role film plays in your lives, how Independent film affects your hobbies, your work, your creativity, your social life, etc.

Second, as far as viewing films, how do you all watch them? Do you download? Netflix? Rent? Buy? See at the theater? See at friends' places? How and when do you watch movies? As a group? By yourself?

Have you learned things about other viewers by participating in this community? What have you learned about your own viewing and posting habits?

Is there a film that someone on this community has convinced you to see that you might not have seen otherwise?

This is totally an informal survey, but I'd love to get some of this data from you all, and want to thank you in advance for all your enthusiasm and participation.

We've all got movies that are kind of a hard sell for others (sometimes for legitimate reasons, sometimes for COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS THEY'RE JUST BEING DIFFICULT REASONS. Ahem.)

So, for today's prize, write me a slogan guaranteed to get someone to watch the film you think EVERYONE should see. (Feel free to expand this concept to movie trailer, movie poster, or anything within the vein of selling your must-see movie to the resistant!).

My favorite TWO slogans will win the prizes.

I'm seeing all sorts of things advertised that I'm dying to see - amongst them Sweeney Todd (with some trepidation. Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, yeah!! Can they sing Sondheim? Not so sure).

So, what are you all anticipating for the upcoming season when some of us at least get some time off to go to the movies, or raid the DVD stores and Netflix queues for Indie films?

What have you found to be the most highly anticipated films in the past few years that have actually lived up to your expectations? Which ones utterly failed to meet your hopes for them?

Indie film can often explore familial relationships in far more depth than mainstream movies. So, for a prize (a box set of your choice), tell me your favorite film exploring father/son or mother/daughter relationships and what it is that makes it stand out.

My favorite answer wins the prize.