I just received a recommendation from Netflix saying "since you really enjoyed 'The Office: Series One' we recommend that you will like 'L'Eclisse'." I had never heard of this and after reading the summary I fail to see the comparison, although it did sound intriguing. Are there any "Office" fans here who help me find a common thread - or is was this recommendation off base?
sharei just finnished "l'eclisse". and i can't see any similarities to "the office" (the uk version, or the german version called "stromberg". don't know the us version, but i don't think there will be such a difference).
a very strange recommendation.
Indeed. An out-of-place recommendation. They have very little in common.
Watch it anyways. I like both.
"We played with life and lost." - Jules et Jim, François Truffaut.
(late comment): In fact, Monty Python make a joke on this in The Life of Brian, if you read the end credits it says "If you like this film you'll probably also like La Notte" - of course, they picked the most improbable likeness.
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That is a ridiculous recommendation. If you like Antonioni's other stuff you'll like this.
shareBoth the UK Office and L'Eclisse have pauses in them.
http://tinyurl.com/privacy-06Click trailer,watch&vote plz share
Putting aside the NF recommendation issue, the question whether admiration for other Antonioni films make an appreciation of L'Eclisse probable is just a bit problematic. My first Antonioni film was Blow-up. While i consider that a great film as well, it is also more accessible in several respects, beyond the obvious of it being in color and, for those in English speaking countries, no need to read subtitles. But despite Blow-up's complexity (and in particular its treatment of how we relate to perception), it is a rather straightforward film in its narrative arc.
The Passenger also has its twists and turns, but is also imo relatively straightforward (and again in color and English). Zabriskie Point does not follow a standard model, but imo is not really all that complex, either.
The earliest dated film of his I have seen is L'Avventura. First viewing left me astonished by the shifting protagonist turn, as well as the related huge turn in the film's focus. La Notte returned to a more conventional structure, but remains a stunningly complex rendering of how people in relationships search for meaning, in sex, love, avoidance of boredom?, with the underlying reality of existential anxiety always at risk of becoming predominate. Red Desert I find a frankly difficult film, and need to see again, but while the great art of it is in providing a cinematic vision of Giulianna's psychological challenges, and the landscape in which the film proceeds, it does not strike me as having the perfection that L'Eclisse has.
Perfection. But also a complexity that makes it frankly more of a challenge. To the relatively casual viewer, i can see someone admiring some of his other films more than L'Eclisse. But I also think L'Eclisse is the best.
Netflix's "suggestion" algorithm (which is extremely good _on_average_) works mainly from information of what _other_ people have liked. If a lot of people saw AA and rated it highly, then saw BB and rated that highly too, and then you saw AA and rated it highly, NF's computers will "recommend" you see BB. NF's computers don't know much about the actual tone or content or style or history or context of the offerings.
NF's algorithm works wonderfully for typical things and when people like only a few types of movies. But in the "edge" cases where highly atypical things have been watched in the past mostly by other people with highly eclectic tastes, the NF algorithm can stray into recommending something that doesn't make much sense. Sometimes such "bolt from the blue" recommendations are great because they alert you to a whole genre of films you didn't even know existed but in fact like. But other times such recommendations are just silly and should be placed in the round file.
well, *l'eclisse* does have alain delon, one of tim canterbury's favourite actors =]
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