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| lady wakasa |
 Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 12:56 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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mo_flixx wrote: I've never heard of Mordaunt Hall.
Perhaps someone can explain.
I was never thrilled with either Bosley or Pauline.
Mordaunt Hall was a (possibly "the") Times reviewer in the very late 1920s / early 1930s. I think Bosley Crowther started at the Times when Mordaunt was in full swing, but became a name film reviewer in a later period. (Crowther has a Wikipedia entry; Hall does not.) Both were putzes overall. |
Last edited by lady wakasa on Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:14 am; edited 1 time in total
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 12:57 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:10 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| "Crowther was a prolific writer of film essays as a critic for the New York Times from the early 1940s until the late 1960s. Such was his perceived influence that a negative review of the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde was said to have panicked the film's producers, who believed that the public would avoid the film as a result. By that time, however, his tastes were widely regarded as antiquated (for instance, he had lauded the widely dismissed financial disaster Cleopatra), even by his editors at the Times, and he retired in 1968" (Wikipedia) |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:39 am |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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mo_flixx wrote: Wondering if anyone can shed more light on this. "You Are There" was a great show from the Golden Age of Television. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 7:13 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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billyweeds wrote: Bosley Crowther was clueless almost 100 percent of the time, but I don't think he was around when silents became talkies. He was later. But clueless.
And if Pauline Kael didn't adore Wild Strawberries (IMO Bergman's best by a mile) then she was temporarily clueless as well.
I'm not sure what her reaction was. She never wrote a full essay, though a mini-review is probably included in her 1001 Nights at the Movies. The only Bergman movies I know her to have loved are Smiles of a Summer Night, Persona, and The Magic Flute. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:00 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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Pauline Kael on Wild Strawberries :
From 5001 Nights at the Movies:
"It's a very uneven film"
"peculiarly unconvincing flashbacks and overexplicit dialogue"
"a very lumpy odyssey"
"few movies give us such memorable, emotion-charged images"
From another Kael book:
"But then came ten years that were a regular death knell of movies, from "Wild strawberries" to "Hour of the Wolf".
"I was fed up with Bergman. It was because of the pall of profundity that hung over his work and because so many people had come to think that that pall was art" |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:25 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Ghulam wrote: Pauline Kael on Wild Strawberries :
From 5001 Nights at the Movies:
"It's a very uneven film"
"peculiarly unconvincing flashbacks and overexplicit dialogue"
"a very lumpy odyssey"
"few movies give us such memorable, emotion-charged images"
From another Kael book:
"But then came ten years that were a regular death knell of movies, from "Wild strawberries" to "Hour of the Wolf".
"I was fed up with Bergman. It was because of the pall of profundity that hung over his work and because so many people had come to think that that pall was art"
Kael was a great critic IMO, but she had her off days, and dismissing Wild Strawberries would have to count as one of her offest of all time. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:29 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| When I called WS Bergman's best by a mile, I was overstating it. Persona is probably just as good, but those two have more human emotion than most of Bergman's work, much of which I find incredibly impressive but chilly--and sometimes soapy, as in the overrated Scenes from a Marriage. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:37 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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| Many people will agree that Persona was his best work. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:51 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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mo_flixx wrote: I have been watching "La Commune" by Peter Watkins from Marc's MONDO. I'm about 1/2-way thru disc 1. This seems to me to owe an awful lot to the CBS TV series "You Are There" produced during the '50's and written by many of the blacklisted writers of the time.
The imdb.com doesn't give much info.
Wondering if anyone can shed more light on this. "You Are There" was a great show from the Golden Age of Television.
My question had to do with "La Commune," not "You Are There," which although I am considerably younger than yambu (I think) I happen to remember quite well. As a little tyke, I was also a big fan.
The imdb.com doesn't give much info. about "La Commune." I'm wondering if anyone has heard much about this long film by Peter Watkins. Other than the using the "You Are There" technique, I don't find much exceptional in it so far. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 12:25 pm |
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I was never a big fan of You Are There. I found it very hokey. I was in my mid to late teens at the time. The only reason I watched it was because we only had two channels at the time and I think the other channel had Hymn Sing opposite You Are There.
I haven't seen Persona or a number of others, but I'd put The Seventh Seal and Virgin Spring high up on my list. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 12:39 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: I was never a big fan of You Are There. I found it very hokey. I was in my mid to late teens at the time. The only reason I watched it was because we only had two channels at the time and I think the other channel had Hymn Sing opposite You Are There.
I haven't seen Persona or a number of others, but I'd put The Seventh Seal and Virgin Spring high up on my list.
Have you seen Wild Strawberries? |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:10 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Ehle wrote: "Betsy -- you rock. Happy New Year, babe."
Thanks, Wade............back at you. (But I think I'm doing more rolling than rocking these days.)
Yambu.........If you liked You are There get The Best of Person to Person. One thing I'm noticing: Edward R. Murrow is ALWAYS smoking during the interviews. The interviewees NEVER are. What is this about? Was he being paid extra to promote cigarettes?
Started watching The Assassination of Richard Nixon.......based on a true story. I'm not a big Sean Penn fan, but he does a good job here. It's hard to watch because of Penn's character..........a man who shouldn't be a salesman because he hates lying.........who shouldn't be divorced because he loves his wife and kids.........who just doesn't understand how to make a life for himself. (He goes to a Black Panther office to show his support for their cause, gives them $100, and suggests they change their name to The Zebras because there are alot of white people who feel oppressed in America.)
One thing bothers me. Why do they have Naomi Watts playing the ex-wife with dark hair? If they need a dark haired actress why not get someone else......like Demi Moore? She would have done a good job........I think she and Penn would have chemistry. Demi went blonde in one film........I think it was The Butcher's Wife. Ridiculous!
One thing about Bosley Crowther: He hated Joan Crawford's drama queening. Who DID he like? |
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| Trish |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:26 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2438
Location: Massachusetts
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| Demi Moore instead of Naomi Watts? thats supposed to be an equal exchange? |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:33 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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Befade wrote: One thing I'm noticing: Edward R. Murrow is ALWAYS smoking during the interviews. The interviewees NEVER are. What is this about? Was he being paid extra to promote cigarettes?
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