Beautiful but not very good films

[howard male]

I watch Coppola’s latest ‘Youth without Youth’ on BBC 2 last night. It had some fantastic imagery in it, but in many other respects…

Anyway, what are your favourite good looking but otherwise disappointing movies?

[AndyM]

Some other Coppolas, actually - One From the Heart especially.

Derek Jarman - great eye, scripts from hell.

[Nick Boyes]

Dead Man directed by Jim Jarmusch
a western starring Johnny Depp as Blake who meets a native american ( what John Wayne calls a red indian ) who thinks Depp is the poet of the same name. That what it says on the box though I never understood that bit at the first viewing.
Very stylish etc etc but I always end up with a headache after watching ,but maybe that's because of the Neil Young soundtrack.

I also love the look of Kevin Costner's Open Range , another western that disappears up its directors myth and moustache saved only by a great performance by Robert Duvall

[john poole]

The latest films by Jarmusch ("The Limits of Control") and Coppola ("Tetro") would probably also both qualify, except I did enjoy them both (as I did "Dead Man"; I've not seen "Youth Without Youth" yet), so I'd rather think of them as good films despite their ludicrous plots. I'd think twice before recommending them to anyone else though.

[Jamie Renton]

Wim Wenders has made a fair few of these in his time.

I'd also nominate a number of Brit costume dramas.

Sorry I'm not coming up with any names, but by their very nature not very good films tend also to be not very memorable. But having said that ...

Amelie

[Ted]

Almost anything by Isaac Julien

[NormanD]

Maybe the film's much forgotten now, but am I risking wrath if I suggest Elvira Madigan?

[uiwangmike]

Maybe the film's much forgotten now, but am I risking wrath if I suggest Elvira Madigan?

I might just express polite disagreement, where I'm sure forum decorum draws the line. I'd need to see it again - some films that came at around the same time (Butch Cassidy, Easy Rider for two) don't look nearly as good to me now as they did then. But remember, when it came out in 1967, Elvira didn't look and sound like the shampoo and soft margarine commercials that subsequently plagiarized its visual style and its use of that Mozart slow movement. I was sad to read on imdb about the later life of the gorgeous Pia Degermark.
I didn't see Youth without Youth, but it isn't quite Coppola’s latest, Howard. I have seen his next film, Tetro, which I think got some release in the UK. It does look good (it's in b/w), but that's also the best I can say for it.
But anyway, talking of wrath, the local rep here is running a John Ford season, and I had the great good luck to see The Grapes of Wrath on a big screen last night. There's a b/w film that looks as good at it is.

[AndyM]

Almost anything by Isaac Julien

Let's be honest and snip out that 'almost'.

[Ted]

Almost anything by Isaac Julien

Let's be honest and snip out that 'almost'.

Not totally fair. "Looking For Langston" has its moments (It's about the only bit of his work I'd consider sitting through again). I saw a brilliantly programmed double bill of "The Battle Of Algiers" and "Black Faces, White Masks" a few years back. The contrast between the terse, gritty black and white of Algiers and Julien's endless vapid chocolate-boxy meditation on Fanon just made Pontecorvo's film look like a work of genius.

[NormanD]

Mike, Elvira Madigan was a beautifully shot film, no doubt. But my memory (and heart) has hardened to its story, although I, too, haven't seen it for decades, and may well be misjudging it. I may be accusing it of what it seemed to spawn after the multi-rip-offs that followed: the crime of soft focus.

My son has similar feelings against Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, but his A-level syllabus may have a lot to do with this.

[AndyM]

made Pontecorvo's film look like a work of genius.

Which is indeed what it is.

[Hugh Weldon]

Luc Besson (Diva, etc)

[AndyM]

Good call.

[Jamie Renton]

Luc Besson (Diva, etc)

A cine-pedant writes: Diva was directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix. Luc Besson directed that one where Christopher Lambert has a silly haircut & lives in the underground (or something)

Still a good call though Hugh