Tonight-The Good Thief with Nick Nolte (Good)
This afternoon-Zoolander(Brilliant)
Last night-Shadow Run with Michael Caine (Fair)
Also last night-The Warrior's Way(Pretty good)
Night before-The Man From Nowhere(Brilliant)
Recently- I Want Candy(Good) The Train(Wonderful) Kelly's Heros(Good) Tristam Shandy: A C$$k and Bull Story(Weak) Quicksand with Michael Caine and Michael Keaton (Good)
Looking forward to: The Trip on DVD Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in theaters next month Final Destination 5 in 3-D in theaters
Not a huge Batman fan... probably will not see that in theaters.
How far back should I go? I love film... probably devour 12+ a week!
EDIT: I guess Supertopo has a problem with one of those movie titles!
Big Night
The Birth of a Nation
The Kid
Belle de Jour
The Red Shoes
Ikiru
Wings of Desire
Wild at Heart
Requiem for a Dream
Donnie Darko
City of Lost Children
Big Night Yep!
The Birth of a Nation Yep!
The Kid Nope
Belle de Jour Yep!
The Red Shoes Yep!
Ikiru Nope
Wings of Desire Yep!
Wild at Heart Yep!
Requiem for a Dream Yep!
Donnie Darko Yep!
City of Lost Children Yep!
This is a thread I will visit every day!
I saw a preview for A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop
Looks promising.
Another great Korean film! The Good, the Bad, the Weird I dare you not to enjoy that!
Tonight I watched Exporting Raymond. Since I have spent plenty of time in Russia it was probably funnier than it would be for someone who has not been there.
I will work up a list of must sees. I know we all have them...
Planet of the Apes.
One of the best Damn things I have seen in a while..
Love it..
As a climber I felt like I was watching my own people take over the world.
Went out to the movies last night for the first time in a long time, saw Another Earth, probably give it a B-
Doesn't hold a candle to the movie I rented the other night - Runaway Train - 1985 with Jon Voight and Eric Roberts, now that's a movie worth watching!
Tonight I watched Exporting Raymond. Since I have spent plenty of time in Russia it was probably funnier than it would be for someone who has not been there.
watched downfall. hard to take seriously with all those youtube spoofs..
I couldn't help busting up when that scene came on...The rest of the movie is really compelling and thought provoking especially the human side of the monster.....
Watched Lincoln Lawyer this weekend, it was superb!
Went to the theater and saw, The Tree of Life, also excellent if you like this sort of movie. Sean Penn's role was quite small but Brad Pitt-IMO-played the best role of his career. The three boys in the film were unknowns, never acted before and were amazing.
The last 3 that I've seen (we were catching matinee's at the theater in Mammoth on our rest days)
Harry Potter (7?, the last one). - Good but not great. Lots of action in this one. I thought the series peaked with the Goblet of Fire.
Cowboys and Aliens - A fun goofy movie. Not quite as good as the trailer made it seem, but it's an enjoyable, mindless film with cult appeal. I would have liked it more maybe if it had more aliens and less cowboys.
Captain America - It's alright. The Captain doesn't rank very high on my list of favorite superheros or comics, so I didn't expect much. His origins story is pretty lame in particular, but the movie made the most of what little it had to work with. Tommy Lee plays a good Colonel.
I am not a huge fan of horror but tonight I "watched" one that really had me cringing at points.
My wife walked out as it was too intense.
Even my 17 year old daughter who never shows fear (we usually laugh through the "tough" parts) was freaking out and saying she just hadn't seen horror in a while so it was difficult to watch.
The movie... Wind Chill with Emily Blunt. Two people stranded in a car on a mountain road in winter. If you do rent it make sure you watch the "making of." I was quite surprised to see the conditions they filmed under.
Overall a great film but it did make me feel like a wimp!
Last night... Paul. I expected more as I think Simon Pegg can be brilliant. Alas, this was only fair. Plenty of interesting behind the scenes stuff in the extras though.
I will probably be disappointed again tonight with Your Highness. Oh well, after that The Maltese Falcon so it will get much better!
The Way Back, the account of a group escaping a Siberian prison camp in WWII by walking 4,000 miles due South. Further research shows the memoir it's based on is in question, but it was still a pretty good Netflix instant flick. Kept me up when I should have been sleeping last night, anyway.
Sully... I must admit it has been many years since I have seen it. However, I am interested in watching it again simply to research how the film handles the concept of different groups of people wanting the same thing that may or may not have any real importance other than driving the story forward (AKA the McGuffin.)
I re-watched the new Indiana Jones film the other afternoon just because I wanted to see how they introduced Irina Spalko (the Cate Blanchett character.) I am weird like that... I will watch something just to see a specific few minutes or scene or even an cut.
Other films (noir or otherwise) that pop to mind:
Sunset Boulevard (duh!) Chinatown (easily in my top five) The Tunnel Brilliant! A fantastic film! 2001 German with subtitles Confidence with Edward Burns. Pretty good. Tell No One America is remaking this French film. They will probably ruin it. The original is great. Inside Man Spike Lee did a nice job on this one.
The other obvious ones... Rear Window, Strangers on a Train, Rope (Yep... I like Hitchcock!) Shaun of the Dead. Very Fun and funny and Hot Fuzz. Same team and pretty funny.
Thanks for the tips, IHP. Sunset Blvd. is my favorite of all time. The side story with Joe sneaking out at night to write with Betty is so great. I've seen all Hitchcock and Chinatown. My second favorite film is The Apartment. The way it's shot plus Shirley and Jack.
Sully... The Apartment is a great one! I need to watch that again as it has been years. Have you seen Madame X with Lana Turner? It is a bit late to be noir (1966) but as I recall from film school it had that feel to it. How do you feel about Japanese films? If you haven't seen these... you should.
High and Low by Kurosawa. A wonderful crime drama. The Fortress Even Lucas admits he stole many ideas for Star Wars from this! Rashomon Another Kurosawa film that should be on any top ten list.
Joey.F... Another good one! The North Face was nicely filmed and acted. Interesting to contrast the reality of that with The Eiger Sanction.
Treez... I wanted to like Cedar Rapids but maybe I was just not into it the night I rented it.
Pud... Can't go wrong with Taxi Driver!
Josh... Not a huge sci-fi fan and Tron just looked like way to much CGI for me.
I had planned to watch Your Highness tonight but the rented disk just made horrible wobbling sounds in my Blu-ray player. I guess it was a sign. Instead we watched a fairly new Keira Knightly film called Last Night. It made for interesting discussion between my wife, daughter and I about being faithful in a marriage and which character had committed the biggest mistake/crime/sin in the film. A good film that ends exactly as it should.
Whoo Hoo! They used to play that every Tuesday night at the gym I climbed in. Called it "An Evening of Estrogen" And if you liked Tank Girl, you should definitely watch "Six String Samurai."
But tonight was totally retro for me. Watched "West Side Story." First time. Amazing film.
"Seraphine" (2008) - the story of Seraphine de Senlis. She was a washerwoman in
rural France before the Great War who started painting in response to the
Virgin Mary's instructions. It is an incredible film. I think it just made my top 10 of all time.
Just finished Ken Burns Civil War documentary series as previously aired by PBS.
What and epic and tragic piece of history.
And for something completely different am about to watch Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch for the fourth time. His best work yet.
Soul Surfer with the kids. Kind of what you expect, but a good movie anyway. And she used to baby sit my cousin's kids before she made bigger money on speaking.
Last night watched, Mao's Last Dancer. Not only was it a good story but the dancing was beautiful.
Sully, you must watch; Double Indemnity-this is an excellent film noir, one of my favorites.
More must sees:
The Third Man
Mildred Pierce
Gaslight
Laura
Night of the Hunter (Robert Mitchum is really creepy in this film).
White Heat- James Cagney- awesome in this!
Blood Simple- it is a modern noir- I think it was done in the 80's?
The following are more must sees....
Crash
What the Bleep Do We Know
American History X
Dark City
House of Sand and Fog
Requiem for a Dream
The Seventh Seal
A Clockwork Orange
Fight Club
About Schmidt
Drug Store Cowboy
Glengarry Glen Ross
The Vanishing (must see the Euro version)
Solaris....really prefer the Russian version.
Karen... Mildred Pierce! Another great one from my film school days. I had forgotten about it and will now need to watch it again.
Wayno... The Night Watch and Day Watch films are wonderful and the effect and even the way the subtitles are handled really makes you do a double take. Good films!
Just finished the fourth and final disc of SOA II and it ends with an awesome cover of Gimme Shelter by some Irish singer.
Can't say you should watch 10 hours for the song at the end, but despite some unrealistic depictions, it can be fun rooting for the bad guys.
I have really enjoyed the remake of "Moby Dick" with William Hurt (as Ahab),Ethan Hawke and others. The casting for the crew is excellant, the unknowns in the movie are all perfect. It's been on TV lately.
Hey ihateplastic, I saw Paul and really enjoyed it. I thought it was very funny. I haven't seen any of those guys other movies though.
Il Divo (About Guilio Andreotti). Second time.
"It is astonishing that a film like this could be made about a man still living. Andreotti’s Christian Democrats ruled postwar Italy until 1992, by which time the party was in such disrepute that it no longer survived. Yet he prevails. The legend is only enhanced by the great performance here by Toni Servillo, an actor who succeeds in making him hypnotizing by supplying him with an almost cheerful lack of magnetism. Here was a man who suppressed the usual charm of a politician, perhaps aware he worked better as an enigma. Was he thinking of himself when he famously said, “You sin in thinking bad about people; but, often, you guess right.”
Sorrentino's use of titles, quick edits, multiple-perspective flashbacks, slow motion, extreme close-ups, and sublime musical accents--as well as star Toni Servillo's brilliantly stylized acting--convert this airless and sinister piece of world history into a dynamic tale of moral ambiguity and seemingly invulnerable political power.
In one of the film's most memorable scenes, Servillo allows his ironic veneer to crack just once, in a molten monologue where, spit flying, he justifies "perpetrating evil to guarantee good." Another chilling sequence intercuts a crucial Mafia hit with shots of a particularly tense and triumphant horse race, while a punky blues number roars in the background.
The film assembles a roll call of figures in postwar Italian politics, society and crime, uses an abundance of names and dates in captions, and makes us despair of keeping track until we realize we’re not intended to — the purpose of all these facts is simply to evoke the sheer scope and breadth of Andreotti’s machinations. The more we learn, the more fascinated we become, as Servillo portrays him as --faced, hunched, impassive, observing all, revealing little, wise and cynical beyond measure."
After I saw “Il Divo,” I suppose I should have felt indignation. But the film present such mesmerizing figures that I simply regard them, astonished. I wonder if just before a snake strikes you think: How amazing!
Previewing parts of The Crucible for class. Pretty cool that the male lead (my fav. actor, D. Day-Lewis)met Art. Miller's daughter on the set. They're still married. Win. Ryder is amazing in this film. She sort of vanished after the shoplifting fiasco didn't she?
Joey.F... My favorite line from The Maltese Falcon
Sam Spade:When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it.
We went to a studio preview of the film Dolphin Tale. I would guess it is PG... a nice film for kids and family. Not sure why they felt it needed to be in 3-D... there were no explosions or shards of glass shooting out of the screen.
Joey.F... I don't know why writers don't write like that anymore. That rapid tit-for-tat dialogue is wonderful to hear.
Not long ago I introduced my wife to the wonderful Grant/Hepburn film Charade. English is not my wife's native language but she was laughing at all the right spots and wanted to see it again the next night. She was so amazed by the dialogue and wondered why they don't make films like that anymore. I know there are a few more modern films with great dialogue but I can not think of them right now.
Last flick I saw was The Trip. A hilarious brit flick. PLEASE SEE THIS MOVIE. I was in tears in the theater. Somebody else made reference up thread I think
Winona Ryder could have/should have had a better career. I recently watched Heathers for the first time since seeing it in the theater when it came out.
Ryder was great. I thought the film has aged rather well.
The only problem with TMWSLV is I think James Stewart was a little long in the tooth to play a young man heading west. But I can't really picture anyone else playing Rance either. Edmond Obrian as the editor is just the best. Charade is a favorite also, IHP. You're right, for dialog head for the classics. Pretty much anything by Billy Wilder is a good place to start.
Last flick I saw was The Trip. A hilarious brit flick. PLEASE SEE THIS MOVIE. I was in tears in the theater. Somebody else made reference up thread I think
I am anxiously awaiting this on DVD! Steve Coogan is beyond brilliant. When I lived in the UK I watched a show of his called I'm Alan Partridge and I would routinely vomit in laughter. I need The Trip on DVD so I can watch it over and over and in slow-motion so I get every joke and nuance.
It has been a while since I saw it but I want to mention Idi I Smotri.
If you want to see a different and extremely well made realistic warfilm. Go and see "Come and See" ("Idi I Smotri"), Elem Klimov 1985.
We are following a kid through the horrors of war and the kid being transformed physically and mentally through his experiences. The film is one of its kind, poetic, violent, surreal yet real, the white stork has taken to the ground following him home to his slaughtered family, a girl dancing, strong life, erotism and desperation in the same moves under the dark rainy sky where bombs have just fallen. The film is heartbraking in a realistic non-Hollywoomerican way. At times the camera is dwelling on faces and people where you can read the desperate change of emotion. Highly recommended.
In one of the featurettes Redford said he didn't think that Americans knew the story behind the assassination, but I've read numerous books about it including Manhunt by Swanson, which was a best seller.
Still, it was a good film about allegiance and the foundation of civilian rights. Still, I was surprised that he did not use the last words of Mary Surrat (the first woman executed by the Federal government) despite having the accuracy of the umbrellas to keep the condemned from fainting in the extreme heat.
It should have also made clearer that her son was acquitted on the exact same evidence later due to remaining animosity.
Dreams, a tuba, a drum, song and an electric gitar bringing light into the bleak poetic world of solitude together. An absurd film, all jazz, brilliantly composed. Makes me think of Kaurismäki, Beckett and Kafka. But with orginality and a twist: Where there are dreams there is hope. They all go on, in spite of, after all, because of. Don Quijote on the wall and Lethe being the end station. The name of the film borrowed from Goethe: "Be pleased then, you the living, in your delightfully warmed bed, before Lethe’s ice-cold wave will lick your escaping foot".
In my view this scene contains some of the best acting ever seen on screen.
Here is parts of the history behind:
"Apocalypse Now was shot in the Phillipines (most notably the Pagsanjan River and Hidden Valley Springs) and the shoot has become legendary for its length and difficulty; filming took so long, critics eventually began referring to it as "Apocalypse When?". The film went far over budget and over schedule for several reasons. A typhoon destroyed many of the sets, which had to be rebuilt at great expense. The Philippine Air Force helicopters used for shooting Col. Kilgore's attack on a Vietnamese village were constantly being called back by President Ferdinand Marcos to serve in actual combat against anti-government rebels.
Martin Sheen suffered a near-fatal heart attack during production and was suffering from alcoholism during the shoot. Sheen later revealed that the opening scene was completely improvised, that he had been drinking all day, his 36th birthday, before it was shot, and that he broke the mirror by accident. When he started bleeding, Coppola wanted to stop filming, but Sheen insisted that he continue. Watching the scene back, Sheen, said it was good to see where he'd come from knowing that he was never going to go back there again. It took Sheen weeks to recover and return to the set, during which time the film was in danger of being shut down. Being similar in appearance and voice, Joe Estevez, Sheen's brother, stood in for Sheen in some of the long shots and would later record some of the film's narration.
Marlon Brando appeared on set massively overweight, despite his character's description as sick and emaciated. He refused to learn his lines and had not read the book Heart of Darkness as Coppola had requested. The majority of Brando's dialogue had to be improvised, despite the short time during which the actor was available.
Coppola famously said of the shoot: "We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane." The director faced bankruptcy and financial ruin if the film was not finished or shut down; his personal investment and the bizarre circumstances of the production created immense personal pressure. According to Eleanor Coppola's 1991 documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse Coppola's marriage almost fell apart and the director suffered a nervous breakdown, including declaring to commit suicide three separate times through the making of the film."
Columbiana was pretty good. Bathroom fight scene a bit too staged but the plot, acting, action, dialogue, and locations were all good.
I was surprised to see an action/shooting/killing/revenge pic like this try to stay within the PG13 rating... I understand it has a bigger audience and thus more rev source, but it just seems weird to see all the killing and have there be no blood and no swearing.
Just finished watching Sanctum, the James Cameron caving movie that came out earlier this year. Pretty bad, but not nearly bad enough to actually be good (like Cliffhanger). Just a bunch of cliches, bad writing, and an obligatory climbing scene in which there is a lateral dyno and they cut the rope.
Oddly enough, it did make me want to go caving.
Edit: Also watched Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (the 3rd one) yesterday. I would have edited it down to be a half hour or so shorter, but overall it's the most focused (and least full of shit) of the Zeitgeist films. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w
^^it's free to watch if anyone's interested.
CHARLOTTE is a film about an extraordinary boatyard, the Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway, located on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Ross Gannon and Nat Benjamin established the boatyard in 1980 with the purpose of designing, building, restoring, and maintaining traditionally built wooden boats. Over the ensuing decades Ross and Nat have played an essential role in preserving and extending the art and craft of wooden boat building. The film begins as Nat embarks on building a 50 foot gaff-rigged Schooner for use by his family and friends her name is Charlotte. Charlotte is being built from Nats original design, using traditional plank-on-frame, all wood construction. He has been preparing to make this boat his entire adult life, accumulating the experience, know-how, and resources that would allow him to construct the boat of his dreams. The film portrays the everyday activities in and around the boatyard. Much of the work is mundane, repetitive, and confusing to the uninitiated, while other work demonstrates moments of singularly inspired craftsmanship and ingenuity. Those who work at the boatyard are bound together in mutual support, friendship, and shared mission; the friends, family, enthusiasts, and clients who drop by sustain the boatyard, materially and spiritually. After decades of preparation, and three and a half years of construction, Charlotte is moved from the shed. The launch of Charlotte is the climax of the film. Hundreds of people turn out, some traveling thousands of miles to attend the event many have no direct relationship to the boatyard, they have come to support its work and celebrate the enduring tradition of wooden boatbuilding. The film is a character study of the processes, people, and the boats themselves, but ultimately what emerges is a meditation on tradition, craftsmanship, family, community, and love of the sea.
"Kurosawa made Kagemusha after a decade of personal travail. Although he is often considered the greatest Japanese director, he was unable to find financial backing in Japan when he first tried to make the film. He made a smaller film, Dodeskaden, which was not successful. He tried to commit suicide, but failed. He was backed by the Russians and went to Siberia to make the beautiful Dersu Uzala (1976), about a man of the wilderness. But Kagemusha remained his obsession, and he was finally able to make it only when Hollywood directors Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas helped him find U.S. financing.
The film he finally made is simple, bold, and colorful on the surface, but very thoughtful. Kurosawa seems to be saying that great human endeavors (in this case, samurai wars) depend entirely on large numbers of men sharing the same fantasies or beliefs. It is entirely unimportant, he seems to be suggesting, whether or not the beliefs are based on reality, all that matters is that men accept them. But when a belief is shattered, the result is confusion, destruction, and death. At the end of Kagemusha, the son of the real Lord Shingen orders his troops into a suicidal charge, and their deaths are not only unnecessary but meaningless, because they are not on behalf of the sacred person of the warlord.
The great battle that concludes the film is one of the strangest I've ever seen on the screen, if only because none of the major characters is more than an observer to the battle that will determine his fate. Kagemusha, once again an outcast, dressed in rags, watches the battle from the station of someone not allowed into the club. Even Shingen's son, now in command, observes the carnage from a safe distance, according to custom, sitting on a camp chair. What we see is not a battle that holds us in suspense, but the progress of something over which we have no control, like someone else's revolution. When, at the end, the camera pans across the quiet battlefield, we see the occasional figure of a dying soldier or a horse attempting to stand, only to fall back, collapsed, finished and forgotten.
There are great images in this film: Of a breathless courier clattering down countless steps, of men passing in front of a blood-red sunset, of a dying horse on a battlefield. But Kurosawa's last image of the dying Kagemusha floating in the sea, swept by tidal currents past the fallen standard of the Takeda clan summarizes everything: ideas and men are carried along heedlessly by the currents of time, and historical meaning seems to emerge when both happen to be swept in the same way at the same time. What one carries away from this film is not any prettified idea of the dignity of man but of man in impotent relation to historical forces over which he has little if any control."
"The movie is del Toro’s saddest; almost every frame is permeated with sadness. When the movie opens many of the characters have already made the choices that will send them to their eventual fates – in fact it could be argued that Ofelia is really the only character still making active decisions throughout the movie. But even she’s sad; besides being unhappy with her new stepfather and her new home, Ofelia is getting to the age where she’s expected to leave childish things behind. She’s too old for fairy tales, everyone tells her, yet she still finds herself drawn to them.
Ofelia's escape from her gloomy surroundings begins with the gentle housekeeper, Mercedes, who befriends the lonely, frightened girl and shows her the mill's abandoned garden, which has a labyrinth as its most interesting feature. Ofelia explores the labyrinth, and within its walls finds a remarkable fantasy world lorded over by a Faun, who sends her on a series of increasingly difficult tasks in order to prove that she is really a lost, enchanted princess who lost her way from the fairy realm centuries ago. Through the fantasy of the labyrinth and the adventures Ofelia finds there, she will come to terms with her fears and with the monsters of both her real life and her imagination.
Dark, dreamlike and dangerous, Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth is a fairytale every bit as scary and moving as they were always meant to be. In both the real world - civil war-riven Spain - and the fantasy underworld she discovers, our heroine Ofelia must battle against the most twisted, nightmarish evils to survive. Transcendent, passionate, full of beauty and endlessly affecting. Pan’s Labyrinth does “speak to the poetic and the brutal in man,” part angel part beast."
StahlBro... Nothing wrong with that film! A fun piece of popcorn entertainment.
Tonight was Pearl Harbor. I was there a few days ago so it made sense to see what Michael Bay did with the event. I am surprised I had not seen this film before.
I saw Pan's Labyrinth in the theatre, with my then 17 yr old daughter. Brilliant, Fascinating, if disturbing. I have a copy on DVD tht I recently acquired and I haven't been in the right frame of mind at the right time to watch it yet.
I wish the Del toro/ hobbit project hadn't fallen through.
I saw Dr. Akagi yesterday. A brilliant picture it was, the last scene still standing before me. The ahabic phallic american beast raising in the west, even more scary than the judge of Blood Meridian, raising and bending over the best little doctor you could find and the best little wannabe whore you will ever see in a boat. A deeply touching movie made by Imamura with a lot of humor, making me laugh at myself when I discover that dr. Liver has been right all along about hepatitis, while I and the villagers have been laughing at him. The only problem for the doctor being that it is impossible to fight an epidemic where the germs are dropped by the enemy, possibly in the name of God and Fatherland. A beautiful multifaceted story. The girl and the whale - no Ahab complex there - she loved f*#king a lot more than the killing of the whale.
The Eagle - Came out earlier this year. It's about a Roman dude and a slave who go on a quest to find a lost eagle crest or something. It's alright. It's kind of boring at times, but they got a lot of good on location shots with beautiful scenery and stuff. Good costumes too. Basically it just looks very pretty.
Mad Max - I'd never seen the original before. It's a little different than I was expecting. The middle of the film dragged on a bit, but overall it was alright. A very weird film.
Xmen Origins: Wolverine - This movie sucked. The plot doesn't make any sense, the character development and acting is terrible, and even some of the CGI is really fake looking. Some of the action scenes are alright, but not good enough to make up for an otherwise shitty movie.
Director Patrick Hughes' first feature. Only shorts before this.
Actor Tommy Lewis says seven words in the whole film but he is a fantastic "bad guy." Almost Eastwoodian!
The town sherrif played by Steve Bisley, a main actor, has done plenty of films but you have heard of not one of them.
The lead actor, Jason Stackhouse IS known in the US, as the the highly-sexed town heartthrob on True Blood.
This is a GREAT movie. The twists are perfect, the acting/dialogue ratio is just right. The cinematography is beautiful, great sound effects (some of the bullets into skin stuff is damn creepy and the gurgling of blood from a spear wound will keep you awake.)
Watched How The West was Won (again)...it is now very narrow without (except if you look real hard) seems. All restored. It works, just keeps moving, nice aerials of the East Side, buffalo stampedes, rafting, train chase. Complete mindless fun.
Followed last night with Carry on Nurse, and Carry on Constable. English mindless fun.
"A terrible scroll of Hell is shown depicting the fall of the castle. There are no real sounds as the scroll unfolds like a daytime nightmare. It is a scene of human evildoing, the way of the demonic Ashura, as seen by a Buddha in tears. The music superimposed on these pictures is, like the Buddha's heart, measured in beats of profound anguish, the chanting of a melody full of sorrow that begins like sobbing and rises gradually as it is repeated, like karmic cycles, then finally sounds like the wailing of countless Buddhas."
— Ran Screenplay
"As the title suggests, chaos occurs repeatedly in the film; in many scenes Kurosawa foreshadows it by filming approaching cumulonimbus clouds, which finally break into a raging storm during the castle massacre. Hidetora is an autocrat whose powerful presence keeps the countryside unified and at peace. His abdication frees up other characters, like Jiro and Lady Kaede, to pursue their own agendas, which they do so with absolute ruthlessness.
The ultimate example of chaos is the absence of God. When Hidetora sees Lady Sué, a devout Buddhist and the most religious character in the film, he tells her that "Buddha is gone from this miserable world." Sué, despite her belief in love and forgiveness, eventually has her head cut off. When Kyoami claims that the gods either don't exist or are the cause of human suffering, Tango responds that "[The gods] can't save us from ourselves." Kurosawa has repeated the point, saying that "humanity must face life without relying on God or Buddha." The last shot of the film shows Tsurumaru standing on top of the ruins of his family castle. Unable to see, he stumbles towards the edge until he almost falls over. He drops the scroll of the Buddha his sister had given him and just stands there, "a blind man at the edge of a precipice, bereft of his god, in a darkening world." This may symbolize the modern concept of the death of God, as Kurosawa also claimed that "Man is perfectly alone... [Tsurumaru] represents modern humanity."
"What I was trying to get at in Ran, and this was there from the script stage, was that the gods or God or whoever it is observing human events is feeling sadness about how human beings destroy each other, and powerlessness to affect human beings' behavior."
In addition to its chaotic elements, Ran also contains a strong element of nihilism, which is present from the opening sequence where Hidetora mercilessly hunts down a boar to the last scene with Tsurumaru. Roger Ebert describes "Ran as a 20th century film set in medieval times, in which an old man can arrive at the end of his life having won all his battles, and foolishly think he still has the power to settle things for a new generation. But life hurries ahead without any respect for historical continuity; his children have their own lusts and furies. His will is irrelevant, and they will divide his spoils like dogs tearing at a carcass."
This marked a radical departure from Kurosawa's earlier films, many of which were filled with hope and redemption. Even Kagemusha, though it chronicled the destruction of the samurai class, had ended on a note of regret rather than despair. By contrast, the world of Ran is a Hobbesian world, where life is an endless cycle of suffering and everybody is a villain or a victim, and in many cases both. Heroes like Saburo may do the right thing, but in the end they are doomed as well. Unlike other Kurosawa heroes, like Kikuchiyo from Seven Samurai or Watanabe from Ikiru, who die performing great acts, Saburo dies pointlessly."
The lead in Whale Rider was 14 and almost unknown when she was nominated for an Oscar for best actress. The glimpse into another culture is mystifying at times.
Just watched Bridesmaids. Okay but not as funny as I was led to believe. However...
Since when did studios stop allowing renters to see the special features? The disk has them but upon attempting to view them I was informed that I must purchase the disk to see the special features. Now THAT is LAME!!!
Now on to Prom.
EDIT: Well, believe it or not... if you have a teenage daughter watching Prom as a family is an enjoyable evening. Predictable as hell but not painful by any means.
A Clockwork Orange is a film that, from beginning to end, drips of irony. It is a brilliant, darkly poetic work that is able to both enrapture and disgust.
The film's poster and tagline advertised its themes of violence in a police state, teen delinquency, technological control, and dehumanization.
The visually-brilliant film is narrated by Alex, the film's main hero/protagonist:
Alex (voice-over): There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence.
Visually, they are harshly backlit and project elongated shadows ahead of them as they walk through the darkened streets with billyclubs, wearing white trousers and white suspenders to match, black combat boots and derbies. Every night, they commit stylized but meaningless acts of terrorism including rape ("the old in-out, in-out"), robbery, and mugging.
The youth gang beat up a drunken bum (Paul Farrell) who has sought refuge in a gutter under a pedestrian underpass, while singing "Molly Malone." The "filthy, dirty old drunkie" taunts them and is severely beaten after masochistically bemoaning the state of affairs in the present society - "a stinking world" where the young show no respect for the elderly:
On the soundtrack, a balletic overture of violins and woodwinds plays, as the camera pans down from a gilded prosceneum above the stage of a derelict, abandoned opera house/-, a symbol of collapsed civilization. Operatic screams and waltztime music are heard as a young woman struggles during an acrobatically-delivered molestation. On stage, the rape victim has her clothes torn off by five other mad-faced delinquents from a rival gang. The leader, Billyboy (Richard Connaught) and his gang of droogs wear remnants of old Nazi uniforms:
Alex (in voice-over): It was around by the derelict - that we came across Billyboy and his four droogs. They were getting ready to perform a little of the old in-out, in-out on a weepy young devotchka they had there.
From the shadows, Alex and his gang observe the preparation for the rape, and then - preferring violence to sex, challenge them to a fight on the rubbish-strewn floor with a youthful, sexual insult: "How art thou, thou glob by bottle of cheap, stinking chip oil? Come and get one in the yarbles, if you have any yarbles, you eunich jelly thou."
The old-fashioned, stylized rumble, a quick-edited succession of violent images performed as a balletic dance, is dazzling - synchronized with the building music from Rossini's The Thieving Magpie (La Gazza Ladra). In slap-stick style, the adolescent gangs flash switchblades, hurl each other through furniture and plate glass windows, and use judo to smash each other about. Bodies fly through the air, leap and somersault; chairs smash heads.
To underline the assaultive nature of the film's content, much of its camera work is deliberately in-out, with few pans or much lateral/horizontal movement. Because of the copy-cat violence that the film was blamed for, Kubrick withdrew it from circulation in Britain about a year after its release. [Shortly after the ban was instituted, a 17-year old Dutch girl was raped in 1973 in Lancashire, at the hands of men singing Singing in the Rain. And a 16-year-old boy had beaten a younger child while wearing Alex's uniform of white overalls, black bowler hat and combat boots. Both were considered 'proof', after the fact, that the film had an influential effect on violence in society.] In preparation for a new 1972 release for US audiences, Kubrick replaced about 30 seconds of footage to get an R-rating, as opposed to the X-rating that the MPAA initially assigned to it. (The replacement footage was for two scenes: the high-speed orgy scene in Alex's bedroom, and the rape scene projected at the Ludovico Medical Center.) In the spring of 2000, an uncut version of the film was re-released to British screens.
The frightening, chilling and tantalizing film (a morality play) raises many thematic questions and presents a thought-provoking parable: How can evil be eradicated in modern society? If the state can deprive an individual of his free will, making him 'a clockwork orange,' what does this say about the nightmarish, behavioral modification technologies of punishment and crime? Do we lose our humanity if we are deprived of the free-will choice between good and evil?
Ironically (or not) the ending of Clock Orange is the same as the end of The Goodfellas.... the bad guy goes into the government program and escapes with his freedom intact, despite all his bad deeds.
This early evening, finished streaming the Mad Men series on Netflix. Witty dialogue, interesting snapshot of early 1960's life, and lessons (still) applicable in the business world.
Just now, watched The Future of Food. Eye-opening argument for sustainable agriculture (i.e. local, organic).
You're forgetting Branagh, both actor and director of the Bard's Hamlet, Othello, and Henry V. Nobody beats his Iago or Fishburne's Othello performance.
Branagh's Shakespeare is excellent. One of my best filmatic experiences is connected to seeing him as Henry V completely worn out, tired to the bone, but raising to the challenge once again. And I agree - his Iago is very very well done. I also like his Much Ado For Nothing. Emma Thompson is one of my favorite actresses and to me she IS Beatrice in that film.
Which reminds me of another film - The Winter Guest - where Emma plays against her mother Phyllidia Law - the film is one of my favourites - there is a human touch and fragility to some of the scenes that is extraordinary. Film critics did not appreciate the film very much though.
Marlow, I liked him in Much Ado too. How about Helena B. Carter as Ophelia in the Mel Gibson Hamlet? I also enjoyed Emma Thompson in the understated Remains of the Day (Anthony Hopkins).
If that's the new one....easy to get confused with this genre of movies.
Ya, its very good...
Highly recommended..
Fun seeing what's her names head getting cut off
I don't remember the impression Helena B. Carter as Ophelia and Mel Gibson's Hamlet made on me, but Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins in the understated Remains of the Day made a lasting impression. In my view they are two of the best actors ever to have set their feet on the earth. They are able to play very much attracted by each other and at the same time desperately emotionally restrained. They are almost painful to watch, just as they should be. They are also culturally well equiped to make the film - English as they are.
S. Leeper, didn't think to check youboob. Just found a film there that I was thinking about this morning - Handmaid's Tale. Icy Faye Dunaway plays Serena Joy. Natasha Richardson and Aiden Quinn play the rebel couple. I love the final scene where Richardson is at her mountain hideaway thinking about the guy.
edit: Youboob's a bust. Scenes aren't all there. Netflix next.
Gal, Now I'm hooked (after seeing the first 10 min. again after 20+ years). What a cast! Could Faye Dunaway be any more amazing or Aiden Q. any sexier?
"Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave."
"Blade Runner: The Final Cut," is the first version of the movie that truly seems like a finished product. The film is a few minutes longer, yet seems leaner, with a tighter narrative that is now worthy of the outstanding art direction and cinematography. This definitive print should be the last push that "Blade Runner" needs to complete its 25-year journey from box office failure to cult favorite to full-blown classic.
From the beginning, the movie was controversial. Filmmakers willing to butcher Philip K. Dick stories have become as commonplace in Hollywood as collagen injections, but the maverick Scott was the first high-profile scavenger of the author's work. The "Blade Runner" screenwriters took little more than the main character and key concepts of Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," and added their own twists and turns.
Ford's narration is so dopey and lackluster in the original "Blade Runner" that you can almost imagine producers pointing a gun to his head. That happy ending looked as if it came from another movie, which it did. (For the final scene, Warner Bros. borrowed an aerial shot from Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining," which had come out two years earlier.) And while the so-called director's cut from 1992 left the question of Deckard's humanity a matter of debate, "The Final Cut" makes it much more clear, injecting a short dream sequence that suddenly makes Edward James Olmos' origami hobby much more significant.
Other scenes are added and extended as well, although the next best reason to see the "Final Cut" is the tuned-up special effects, which give the film a nice 21st century sheen. The director restores the film's brutal violence, including important scenes of savagery from the Daryl Hannah and Rutger Hauer replicant characters, Pris and Roy Batty. Their capacity for cruelty is particularly important to see, contrasting with Batty's contemplative final scenes in the movie.
The movie has aged exceptionally well. Part of this has to do with the time: In a world filled with filmmakers such as Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams, a science fiction film-noir cop thriller doesn't seem anywhere near as unusual or misguided as it did in 1982.
Much of the credit goes to director Scott, who took the opportunity to give "Blade Runner" the topiary treatment one last time, and turned his already great film into a masterpiece.
This film contains - language, nudity and violence, plus a tortoise lying on its back, with its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs to turn over, but it can't.
I got my kid to watch Blade Runner with me... it bored her silly.
As a stand-alone movie its got things that reduce mass appeal - its 40ish era tone and all the dark colors are quite depressing. Perhaps Ridley Scott was too successful in portraying our dark future?
I love the movie its one of my all time favorites. But I can understand its lack of mass appeal. Its also somewhat slow paced, because of its relentless attention to detail.
"Shackleton" with Kenneth Branagh. Really good treatment of the famous Antarctic expedition with the loss of the Endurance. A & E produced it. Highly recommended.
Cold Lazarus "is set in the 24th century, in a dystopian Britain where the ruined streets are unsafe, and where society is run by American oligarchs in charge of powerful commercial corporations. Experiences are almost all virtual, and anything deemed authentic (such as coffee and cigarettes) has either been banned or replaced by synthetic substitutes.
At a cryogenic research institute in London, funded by a pharmaceuticals tycoon, a group of scientists is working on reviving the mind of the 20th century writer Daniel Feeld (Albert Finney). His brain is kept in a dull glass bell. Unable to see any profit in the project, they consider discontinuing it, but a media mogul envisages making a fortune from broadcasting Feeld’s memories on TV, and proposes to the team that they work for him.
The leader of the team is unaware that a member of her team is a member of the resistance group RON (‘Reality Or Nothing’), which attempts to undermine the reliance of society upon advanced technology. The team member approves of the broadcast of Feeld’s memories, which he believes might provoke a revolt against the ‘inauthentic’ life propagated by the authorities.
As more of Feeld’s thoughts and memories are unearthed, it becomes evident not only that Feeld’s mind is conscious of its predicament, but also that Feeld is attempting to communicate with the scientists, and is pleading to be allowed to die. He is suffering. At this point the team begin to doubt the morality of their project. The RON team member is by one of the other team members denounced as a RON member and saboteur. Having been warned, he heads for the laboratory to put Feeld out of his misery....."
"In his "Phaedrus," Plato records the myth of Theuth, or Thoth, the god whom the Egyptians credited with the invention of writing. Theuth urged Thamus, the king of Egypt, to teach his people how to write, claiming: "Here is an accomplishment, my lord the king, which will improve both the wisdom and the memory of the Egyptians." But Thamus turned this boast on its head: "You who are the father of writing," he insisted, "have out of fondness for your offspring attributed to it quite the opposite of its real function. Those who acquire it will cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful. ... And as for wisdom, your pupils will have the reputation for it without the reality; they will receive a quantity of information without proper instruction, and in consequence be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant."
Plato's myth of Theuth offers a perfect route into the questions raised by "The Ister." For the major subject of the film is the power and danger of technology, of which Theuth, like the Greek Hermes, was the patron deity. And the filmmakers' major interlocutor, the philosopher around whom the film cautiously circles, is Martin Heidegger, whose suspicion of technology went hand in hand with a powerful challenge to conventional ways of writing and talking about ideas.
The film takes its name from a poem by Friedrich Holderlin, the late-18thcentury German Romantic, whose hymn to the Danube River called it by its ancient Greek name, "the Ister." More specifically, the film is inspired by a lecture course on "The Ister" that Heidegger gave in 1942, one of many he devoted to Holderlin's poetry. The formal structure of the film is simple but fertile: Camera in hand, Messrs. Ross and Barison (who never appear onscreen) follow the course of the Danube, from its mouth on the Black Sea back to its source in Germany.
Their travelogue pays careful atten tion to the bridges and ships and cities they discover along the way, thus providing an illustration of Heidegger's major theme - man's imposition on Nature, in all its destructive necessity. Messrs. Ross and Barison produce several lovely tableaux - of rivers, mountains, forests - but the visual strength of the film lies not in beauty but in clever juxtaposition.
In Romania the filmmakers visit the ruins of the bridge across which Trajan's armies marched into Dacia; in Yugoslavia they show the bridge at Novi Sad, destroyed by the NATO bombing campaign in 1999; in Hungary, they find a bridge at Dunafoldvar which was attacked by the invading Soviets in 1956. Over the course of the film, and with very little nudging by the filmmakers, the figure of the bridge comes to bear the full weight of Heidegger's critique of technology: As a human intervention into Nature, it is both essential to life and bound up with violence and death.
The bridges on the Danube are products of what Heidegger, in his essay "The Question Concerning Technology," called "enframing" - a way of thinking that makes Nature subordinate to human ends. In that essay, Heidegger showed how his thought about technology relates to his thought about poetry, and specifically the poetry of Holderlin. Taking up another one of the poet's river-odes, "The Rhine," Heidegger contrasts "'The Rhine,' as dammed up into the power works, and 'The Rhine,' as uttered by the artwork, in the Holderlin's hymn of that name." The contrast speaks volumes about Heidegger's sense of the betrayal of Nature - its reticence and mystery, the essential Being that Holderlin invokes - by technology, which turns it into merely an exploitable resource.
To the great credit of Messrs. Ross and Barison, however, they do not stop at simply illustrating Heidegger's thought; they allow it to be challenged, trusting the viewer to take part in a series of complex philosophical debates. These are expounded in the interviews that make up the intellectual pith of "The Ister," a series of talks with three French philosophers - Bernard Stiegler, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. (There is also an interview, much less compelling, with the pompous filmmaker Hans-Jurgen Syberberg.) Editing their questions out almost completely, Messrs. Ross and Barison allow these thinkers to elaborate on their own disagreements with Heidegger's views on technology - disagreements that spring from a fundamental indebtedness and respect. Thanks to the informality of the settings - we see Mr. Stiegler quieting his dog and blowing out candles at his birthday party - the men become more than talking heads; we take in some of their eccentricities along with their ideas.
As the filmmakers' itinerary reaches Germany, "The Ister" turns to confront another, more controversial aspect of Heidegger: his embrace of Nazism, and his seeming refusal, even after the war, to acknowledge the magnitude of its evil. His lecture on the Holderlin poem, after all, took place at the height of the Nazi period and contained admiring references to "National Socialism and its historical uniqueness." Mr. Lacoue-Labarthe devotes most of his screen time to explaining Heidegger's infamous equation of the concentration camps with "motorized agriculture," and elaborates a powerful critique of Heidegger's view of history. And Mr. Stiegler, the most charismatic figure in the film, convincingly challenges Heidegger's bleak view of technology, arguing that were it not for technology - above all, that of writing - we could not live historically at all.
This lesson, too, is implicit in Holderlin's poetry; as he writes in "The Ister":
But the rock needs incisions
And the earth needs furrows,
Would be desolate else, unabiding.
"The Ister," then, not only contains a humanistic defense of technology; it is itself part of that defense, using one of the newest media to address some of the most ancient questions. The film cannot by itself serve as an introduction to Heidegger's thought, and much is inevitably simplified and taken for granted. To fully appreciate what Messrs. Ross and Barison are up to, it is helpful to have already spent some time with Heidegger's work. But the fact that it could be made, and even distributed, is heartening testimony to the potential of a usually barren medium.""
I've just recorder Time with Justin Timberlake from an online web page using free screen recorder http://freescreenrecorder.net/ so I'm watching this movie and I must say I really like it so far.
"The Eagle - Came out earlier this year. It's about a Roman dude and a slave who go on a quest to find a lost eagle crest or something. It's alright. It's kind of boring at times, but they got a lot of good on location shots with beautiful scenery and stuff. Good costumes too. Basically it just looks very pretty."
Way better with basically the same story is "Centurion" w/ M Fassbender. shot in Scottish highlands
It is about an underground super high stakes Russian Roulette ring.
It stars an unknown young Sam Riley alongside heavyweights like Mickey Rourke, Jason Stathan and Sam Winstone.
Aside from a few tactical flaws (the "contestants" first stand in a circle with their revolvers against the heads of the contestants in front of them and pull when a light comes on while the millionaire spectator bettors stand in a group at the same level. Think about it. Shot from the 9 o;clock guy would go through the head and into the freakin' spectators. But of course this never happens.
Also, they use unmatched guns.
Also, spinning the cylinders on closed frames overhead is problematic at best.)
it is none the less a compelling character driven story with a satisfyingly ironic finish.
Two good ones. "Youth in Revolt" which is based on the book of the same name. Not your usual coming of age story. This one has an edge to it and is pretty funny. Michael Cera stars in it. Definitely worth a view.
Also "Synecdoche, New York" which has Philip Seymour Hoffman. Very bizarre story written by the writer of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Also with a twisted sense of humor. It's very layered, so you might have to wade through some stuff before you get it.
Recently finished watching "The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" trilogy, based on the Millenium series.
Very disturbing topics, keep you're attention most of the time.
Now watching for a second time, Clint Eastwood's Eiger Sanction.
I just finished watching a documentary available on Netflix, called "War on Democracy"
Holy moly, I have never been so disgusted with the behavior of my government as I am at this moment. I have read summaries of US involvement in the overthrow of democratically elected governments that did not go along with US economic interests, in favor of dictators who did. I had an intellectual awareness of these things, but it is easy to distance one's self from such things and view it in an abstract way, "yeah that's bad."
But this documentary brought home and made real and raw how truly horrendous are the things our government has brought into the world. Personal testimony and graphic description of torture, including 24 hour rapes, prolonged torture with electrical probes on nipples and vaginas and electricity coursing in circles between, just truly gruesome stuff.
But the thing wasn't all shock-value (truly no pun intended) individual stories like that. It was showing country by country what was in the media controlled by rich folks, what was the sentiment in the vast poor barrios that were literally not even drawn on maps, what was echoed and shared with us back in America, and just showing the whole evil cycle of anything-goes brutality to ensure subservience to America, coupled with outrageous lies to put a pretty face on it all. And CIA officials basically saying "too bad, anything goes to protect our national security interests."
I was thinking about where I could move to get away from my nasty country while watching this thing. But when I think more deeply, it's not really about my "nasty country." Like any country, there is a mix of beauty and ugliness in America. Some of the things seeing in this movie made me reflect on the current Occupy Wallstreet movements and how they have the same fundamental underpinnings as the popular uprisings in South America and the same sorts of powers aligned against them. It is the age-old struggle of a small group of rich folks trying to maintain their power and wealth at the expense of all the rest of the vast majority.
Having my eyes more opened, being more emotionally engaged in the turbulent modern history and struggles in South America (which are not so different from the original European exploitation of South America), inspires me to be more active in raising my voice against our political and economic system that over time favors a greater concentration of wealth, to such an extent that it interferes with the fundamental ideals on which our country was founded. It makes me afraid that what has been cast on the doorstep of others will come to our own doorstep.
For my own part, I'm sorry what our government has done to oppress other people. I would rather pay more money for products that were obtained in equality-based fair trade. But the problem is, how can you really find that? What I fear is that "organic" and "fair trade" and "green" and other such movements are just coopted by corporations to increase their profits, not truly changing business practices but using it as an excuse to charge more of consumers who are trying to effect change.
Darn, I guess I'm a bit of a downer tonight, time for bed. Tomorrow is another day, and the sun will rise again, and I'll figure out how to make my small stands.
Wow Nutjob, I'll have to check that one out. It can be depressing when you learn our country's dirty little secrets. Many people simply choose to ignore it or not to believe it, despite all the evidence.
There is a steady awakening taking place. I really see Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party as expressions of this awakening. Revolution will come to the US sooner or later, I just hope it doesn't get too ugly.
I just watched a very inspiring movie called "The Way Back". An incredible true story of a group of men who escaped from a Siberian labor camp during WWII. They walked all the way from Siberia to India! There are some cool scenes of them crossing the Himalayas. But, the story is just amazing. I'm wondering if there is a book about their ordeal.
and last week, excellent movie, Melancholia. It's always amusing when at the end of a film-indie types-there is inevitably people who will state out loud how awful the film was.
Cool. The Help is sitting here in its Netflix envelope. Maybe we can see it tonight. This morning we watched the 2nd Jackass. I laughed so hard my abs hurt!
The new Sherlock Holmes this afternoon, entertaining, at times anyway;
Then Werner Herzog's film on the Chauvet Cave art, fascinating, on Netflix;
Then Apocalypto on Netflix, got a little predictable but great visuals.
It was a movie day, after we put on our snow gear and went kayaking this morning since there's no snow.
"The Danish Poet", a sweet Danish/Norwegian/Canadian animated film, narrated by Liv Ullmann. About 15 minutes, in English. It won the Academy Award in 2006 for best animated short film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTef0HWbW_M
A distant relative is in a way a central figure in the film, but I didn't know that when I found it at the library.
Stage Fright.
Michael Wilding,Richard Todd, Marlene Dietrich,Jane Wyman, all directed by Hitchcock. Not the best Hitch, but not the best Hitch is still really good.
I recently saw Hugo, which is very well done. A bit sappy in places, and maybe a touch longer than it needed to be, but still very fine homage to the origins of cinema, a century ago. Strongly recommended.
Inglorius Basterds. What a lousy movie. Evidence (if it were needed) that Quentin Tarentino has cinematic talent, but nothing to say. His schtick is to turn sadism into comedy. Maybe the first time I saw him do it I thought he was being edgy or challenging my definitions of genre, but now it's just tired. He's a one trick pony. One of his characters entertains his comrades by beating in people's heads with a baseball bat. That's not clever or original. In fact, it's kind of disturbing. I guess the audience is supposed to feel better about it because the victims are Nazis. I wouldn't have believed that it was possible to make a movie about World War Two that had absolutely nothing substantive to say about war, Nazis, art, or human nature, but Tarantino has found a way. What a waste.
At the other end of the spectrum, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I liked the Gary Oldman movie so much I went back to find the BBC series with Alec Guinness. Both excellent in their way. For all the tragedy (and near-tragedy) of the Cold War, it provided an excellent backdrop for John le Carre's bleak explorations of international intrigue.
Wayno, if you like the Russians, check out 'The Forty first', as well as the classic Eisenstein movies.If you haven't already
Bigbrother style edit; as soon as typed the above and returned to the main apge, there was a banner add of the SF Opera, 'Onegin"-based ona a story in an Eisenstein movie....
Jay, decided to roll with what I got. Putting new tires on it this week, figured out my tranny problems are cold weather only and a temp-related logic loop thing, should get another year or two out of her.
Watched "Margin Call" last night, w/ Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore. Not bad, not really recommended.
Company Men w/ tommy lee Jones, Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Craig T nelson, etc was pretty good.
Just finished watching Monty Python's Life of Brian. What a hoot!
The Christian neo-fundies should watch it. Hahahahaha.
Always look on the bright side of life.
Commandos Strike at Dawn.
Early 40's production w/Paul Muni.
Norwegians vs Nazis, filmed in Vancouver.
Good stuff.
One Of Our Aircraft is Missing,
a Pressburger/Powell production,
Very well done. Also early 40's.
(dvr day yay)
best scene, Lebowitz talking at the Book Awards 2006,
"they've just formed the Iraq Study Group.
Let's think about this, say you're in school and you're getting ready to study for that math test.
When would a good time be to study? Before the test? or three years after the test?"
Thanks to the Cerro Torre thread, I finally watched "Scream of Stone" by Werner Herzog.
Very bizarre film with many leaps of logic and disconnects in the dialog.
Both Hans Kammerlander and Stefan Glowacz play major roles in the movie.
The acting and directing is as ham-handed as anything I've been subjected to in a goodly while.
But, the scenery! Oh the scenery!!!
They apparently choppered climber/stunt-doubles to the summit of the Torre for the climactic, and ridiculously unbelievable final scene.
Filmed in 1990, I wonder what the locals felt about having their wilderness invaded by a film crew in whirlybirds.
Ballad of Narayama by Kinoshita. Easily one of the best films I have ever seen and will ever see. Pure poetic brilliance.
"In feudal times, in a remote impoverished mountain village in Japan, those who reach the age of seventy are ushered to the top of the nearby sacred Mount Narayama, the abode of the gods, and are abandoned there to wait until they die. This tale tells of the kind-hearted peasant granny, Orin (Kinuyo Tanaka), who is prepared to make that pilgrimage in the coming new year, the traditional time of the Narayama festival, when she reaches that magical age. But before doing her duty, Orin wants to sort out the affairs of her troubled family. When a messenger comes to her village and tells her there's a recent widow in the next village, Tama-yan (Yûko Mochizuki), who is the same age as her widowed adoring 45-year-old son Tatsuhei (Teiji Takahashi), they immediately arrange a marriage and granny feels she's ready to leave the world. Living with granny are her three mean-spirited grandchildren and the pregnant wife of the vile (Danko Ichikawa), who can't wait for Orin to exit so the family of eight can divide up her share of the food. in the meantime the grandchildren mock granny because she still has all her 33 teeth (seen as devils teeth in old humans), which she becomes ashamed of and finds a way to smash them. When the time arrives, the heartbroken loyal son carries mom to the mountain top and finds it's an auspicious sign that it snows just when they reach the top"
Norwegian, the movie was good but the book was even better.
I'm reluctant to see "Extremely loud and incredibly close" though. The book was so wonderful I'm afraid the movie will be disappointing.
We got "Buck" from Netflix. It's a documentary about a horse trainer. But you don't have be interested in horses to love this film. Buck's story and the way he has lived his live are wonderful. He was severely abused as a child yet made the choice to follow a path of kindness and humor. Highly recommended.
Life of Brian - That was a fun one. The religious satire is great. I like the part where he falls out of the tower and goes for a ride with aliens before they crash back in the village where he fell. And he survives.
The two bystanders who witnessed the whole thing say "lucky bastard".
how was hunger games? my daughter wants to see it.
We took our 14 year-old daughter and 5 of her friends... to the midnight show. Great times.
We listened to the series on CD during a trip to the Valley and points West a couple of years back. The movie does a really good job of conveying the feeling of the first book... but the devil of the thing is in the details of the book.
I think you would get 16 thumbs up from our group as of 2:30 am last night.
For those unfamiliar with the story... it is about the U.S. after 74 years of Tea Party rule...
;-)
just kidding
ohhhhh.... and Mad Men is up Sunday.... this is a great media weekend
tonight watched "Travelers and Magicians" directed by Kyentse Norbu about a restless man who leaves his village for American cash, but along the way meets a monk who tells him a teaching tale.
Coming up on TCM @ 7pm is Eyes Without A Face, extra creepy French film from 1960. Highly recommend, dvr set, as that's my weird bedtime now...I love Alone in the Wilderness, Wildone.
"how was hunger games? my daughter wants to see it."
Just saw it about an hour ago. I'd give it maybe a 7.5/10....my wife felt stronger about it. Personally, I found it somewhat formulaic...a combination of several familiar movie themes...but still entertaining and reasonably suspenseful (even if I could guess the outcome).
Movies of particular note and impact seem to generate some level of buzz here on ST...it's noteworthy that this flick didn't seem to garner much interest here. (There are some reasonably good judges of movies in these parts.)
Example: Someone here recommended 'In a Better World'...that generated a lot more thought...
Hunger Games was good. Mind blowing, no. It's a teen film, fer chrissakes, but the book and movie(s) are a very focused, powerful seed for fantasy-based thought. I bet it's better once you get a few beers deep and explore your limbic system. I got there at the Draft House.
Moneyball. Interesting flick, a little on the slow side though. Most impressive to me was Brad Pitt's acting, once again he played a role with no type casting, to me he was Billy Beane.
also, saw The Hunger Games, pretty good over-all.
Lastly, I now own the Werner Herzog movie, "Stroszek". Here is what it is about....
Bruno Stroszek (Bruno S.) is a Berlin street performer. Released from prison and warned to stop drinking, he immediately goes to a familiar bar where he comforts Eva (Eva Mattes), a prostitute down on her luck, and lets her stay with him at the apartment his landlord kept for him. They are then harried and beaten by Eva's former pimps, who insult Bruno, pull his accordion apart and humiliate him by making him kneel on his grand piano with bells balanced on his back. Faced with the prospect of further harassment, Bruno and Eva decide to leave Germany and accompany Bruno's eccentric elderly neighbour Scheitz (Clemens Scheitz), who was planning to move to Wisconsin to live with his American nephew Clayton.
After sightseeing in New York City they buy a used car and arrive in a winter-bound, barren prairie near the fictional town of 'Railroad Flats'. There Bruno works as a mechanic with Clayton and his Native American helper, Eva as a waitress at a truck stop and Scheitz pursues his interest in animal magnetism. The pair buy a trailer which is sited on Clayton's land, but as bills mount, the bank threatens to repossess it. Eva falls back into prostitution to supplement her wages, but it is not enough to meet the payments. She tires of Bruno's drunken ramblings and deserts him by leaving with a couple of truck drivers bound for Vancouver.
A man from the bank visits Bruno, who is now drinking steadily, and has him sign off on the repossession. The home is auctioned, and he and Scheitz, who is convinced that the world is conspiring against him, set off to confront the "conspiracy." Finding the bank closed, they hold up a barber shop beneath it, make off with 32 dollars and then go shopping in a small store across the street. The police arrive and arrest Scheitz for armed robbery without noticing Bruno.
Holding a large frozen turkey from the store and the shotgun, Bruno returns to the garage where he works, loads the tow truck with beer, and drives along a highway into the mountains.
Upon entering a small town, the truck breaking down, Bruno pulls over to a restaurant, where he tells his story to a German-speaking businessman. He then starts the truck, leaves it circling in the parking lot with a fire taking hold in the engine compartment and goes into a tourist trap across the street, where he starts a ski-lift and rides it with his frozen turkey. After Bruno disappears from view a single shot rings out. The police arrive at the scene to find the truck is now fully ablaze. The film ends with a sequence showing a chicken dancing, a chicken playing a piano and a rabbit riding a toy fire truck, in coin operated attractions that Bruno activated on his way to the ski-lift.
Everyone I have shown this movie says it is so depression....yeah, so what?
The actors, or I should say, non-actors are brilliant, it is indeed a quirky movie the lead played by Bruno S., he is quite a character.
I'm about to see something I don't want to watch. I'd rather I was about
to see Monsieur Ibrahim again. Saw it two weeks ago. A really fine movie
with a fine performance by Omar Sharif and a young french kid.
"A Serious Man" with Tarbuster. Second time for me. The Cohen brothers again apply the slow water drip to the forehead, this time with Jewish life in 1967.
last night's Netflix DVD: Microcosmos: Le peuple de l'herbe
could be slow for most of you... but astounding cinematography... and a very interesting music score for the sound track...
Hunger Games was good. Mind blowing, no. It's a teen film, fer chrissakes, but the book and movie(s) are a very focused, powerful seed for fantasy-based thought.
Hunger games reminded me ever so closely of the Japanese Book and film Battle royal...
Anyway Last film I watched was Ghost in the shell have not seen it since high school still is good...
A doctor was assigned to the unit in Mexico and one night he had to attend to John Huston, who had an adverse reaction to marijuana, having smoked it for the first time with his father. He never touched the stuff again.
A Woman in Berlin
Based on the autobiographical book about the plight of the German women at
the hands of the Red Army. A very powerful and well done movie with some
outstanding acting. (2008)
Had us going through many emotions. Had many characters that we loved to hate, and hated to love.
Clooney's acting continues to impress, and Shailene Woodley is wonderful in her part. Seeing Hawaii pictorially as the backdrop somehow adds something unreal to the movie, which makes the story even more bittersweet (if that makes any sense).
If you've ever been left by anyone (deliberately or not), you will appreciate the movie.
It should have gotten the academy award, we think.
Re-watched The Birds, for the I don't know, the 20th time. Family time, so seemed acceptable, 80 yr old in-law hadn't seen it since the old days when one went to the theater. He said it scared the pee out of him!
"It's the end of the world"...
Then for the midnight show,
Female Trouble (1975)
A riotously funny bad-taste epic from director John Waters, Baltimore's "Prince of Puke," this sick classic tells the depraved life story of obese criminal Dawn Davenport (Divine), from her bad-girl youth as a go-go dancer on Baltimore's infamous Block to her death in the electric chair. Mink Stole is terrific as Dawn's bratty daughter Taffy, conceived following a romp on a junkyard mattress with a fat derelict in soiled underpants (also played by Divine). Mary Vivian Pearce and David Lochary
Gonzo chemist,
Your right about that I listened to the first book on audio books love it the reader is fantastic, and now I started to read book 2 clash of kings and enjoying it alot.
"Che" (now on streaming Netflix). 4 hours. I'll grant you I have leftist leanings, but that aside I found it an excellent movie. Even Fatty would find something to admire (lol) Entering into the life of a guerrilla. History, drama, tragedy all mixed into on. Makes free soloing look light weight.
Wildest Dream with Anker and Houlding (on Netflix). Highlights: Anker at home w/family, Houlding doing a sketchy free climb, Houlding winded on Everest, and final dedication to Natasha Richardson.
Joey F.: The Birds never gets old. Doesn't Bob Newhart's wife get pecked to death? Do you think the Hitchcock blonde became the David Lynch brunette in the 90s?
Beginners (Chris Plummer best supporting actor)
Melencholia (Lars Van Triers latest)
The Tree (Charlotte Gainbourg) she's also in melancholia
Young Adult (Charlize Theron)
Breaking Bad season 4 (not a movie but entertaining) Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul are great.
Saw the new Bond "Skyfall" First half is excellent. Last bit the plot (supposed mastermind bad guy) fell apart. Got a little ridiculous and made me think of Home Alone without the funny parts. Or Patriot Games
Definitely different for a Bond flick. Backstory, and some salutes to the old bond movies, More drama and acting than usual. Worth seeing.
I'd give Prometheus a zero out of however many stars you want. It would have been disappointing if it had potential. It had no potential. The story was so weak that nothing could have saved it. A total waste.
I saw Argo over the weekend. It was good but they got sucked into Hollywood over-dramatization. Great (true) story, but I really doubt that everything barely happened by mere seconds (trying not to give anything away). It just seems kind of unnecessary over dramatize it. The story itself is dramatic enough. Worth the watch though.
The L Shaped Room.
A real gem, early 60's, starring Leslie Caron, is remarkable. Brock Peters is great as well. Story unfolds slowly with unexpected turns.
Can we talk t.v. here? Only two more days until D. Abbey season three begins. Anyone else a fan? My prediction is that the IRA guy lasts all of two episodes before being gunned down in the Easter Rising. This will force the prettiest cast member back under Lord Grantham's roof. Have a bone to pick with show's Brit writers in that this drama's villians are an Irish woman and a gay man. Wait a minute. That's my house.
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
Jan 3, 2013 - 01:16pm PT
Somebody here recommended 'El Topo'....gave it a spin last night, but couldn't finish it. I'm all about the surreal, but that one was just too over the top for my simple mind.
I'd love to hear the view of someone who knows cinema really well on the significance and meanings behind that one.
For stay-at-home New Year's Eve I bought the first two seasons of Downton Abbey.
Them Brits do know how to do some things right. In fact, bloody well right.
Just saw "The Fall". Probably the greatest movie ever made with the only
possible exception being "El Topo". It grossed $3.2 million worldwide.
But then people didn't get van Gogh either. Dostoevsky, Beethoven, and
Mozart all died penniless. It's a pattern.
S.Leeper, what are your favorite time travel movies? i'm a huge fan of em, i liked Looper quite a bit and Primer is one of my favorites. seen the usual ones..time bandits, 12 monkeys, etc.
watched Moonrise Kingdom. typical Wes Anderson fare, if you're a fan. didn't like it as much as The Royal Tennenbaums or This Aquatic Life but i'll probably watch it again.
watching Argo tonight. then i have The Fantastic Mr. Fox on que for more Wes Anderson nuttiness.
btw, thanks to Reilly for recommending The Fall. it's been on my radar for a while but i'd forgotten about it. i watched it recently and really loved it. the little girl who played Alexandria was awesome, as were all the sets.
Ah, "Mystery Train." Jarmusch's first actually good film in my opinion. I could only sit through "Stranger Than Paradise" once. I liked all three sets of characters, but especially Joe Strummer of course. Screamin' Jay Hawkins is a great bonus. And we know what Elvis is up to! I have a copy of "Dead Man," which is my favorite from Jarmusch although I also liked "Broken Flowers."
Got "Looper" from the library last night. It was my second viewing since the theatrical release. Still loved it and forgot some of the plot twists. Great film that will stand up over time I think.
weezy:
I guess I should have just said that I'm not much of a fan of time travel movies. I couldn't get past J Levitt's makeup in Looper and the plot wasn't very compelling for me, I know I'm in the minority.
s.leeper, i hear you on the plot with Looper. nothing groundbreaking but there are movies i love with weakish plots (ie, Drive) JGL's makeup was pretty realistic in the movie but i can see how it would get in the way of the film. overall, i think Looper went above and beyond as far as your typical summer blockbuster action movies go.
i had a hard time with The Master. i didn't connect with it like i did with There Will Be Blood.
eternal sunshine of the spotless mind is one of those movies you probably should or shouldn't watch as you're ending a multi-year relationship. charlie kaufman writes some great stuff.
So I watched The Master. This is just my take... and keep in mind i do LOVE Joaqiun Phoenix. I thought the acting was excellent, high caliber. But the plot, the movie itself, just didn't speak to me. I didn't relate to the characters, or I just... I don't know, it just wasn't a captivating plot (to me). But Joaquin & Phillip Seymour Hoffman, they are fantastic actors! So it's worth a watch in that respect/perhaps others will think differently than i, it has gotten high critical acclaim...
Not a movie, but an interview with Kim Novak on TCM great stuff 100 percent lucid. Is she not nearly 80 years old? A true survivor and wow did the camera love her.
i'm with you on The Master, Gal. it just didn't do it for me. one of those movies where i liked all the players involved but the end product is meh. maybe it'll grow on me eventually.
also, RIP roger ebert. he's probably already arguing with gene
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