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mo_flixx
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 8:51 am Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
Billy --

I'm not on a pity pot as you call it. All I'm saying is that the search function is there for anyone who wants to use it.

I find it handy from time to time. I'm surprised others don't seem to.

I wasn't trying to be a grump. It was meant as a HELPFUL suggestion.
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billyweeds
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:14 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
Cool.
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chillywilly
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:48 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8251 Location: Salt Lake City
mo_flixx wrote:
Thank you, but it is not hard to remember if you do a search.
..
I wasn't trying to be a grump. It was meant as a HELPFUL suggestion.

Sometimes doing a search for a post or two so you don't leave out others in a "thanks" post can be overkill. billy's post was one that I could remember off the top of my head.

I figured it was a helpful comment.

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inlareviewer
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:32 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Was given a pristine new copy of All About Eve for the hollydays. Who in the world at Fox thought it acceptable to have one commentary track with Joseph Mankiewicz's son and his biographer essentially ignoring cinematic analysis to focus on the rivalry between Joe and Herman, while leaving a woefully underutilized Celeste Holm to evoke late-period Gene Kelly with each occasional spliced-in observation? Adding insult to injury, the second commentary track, by the author of All About All About Eve -- clearly more interested in selling himself and making dishy cracks than intelligently discussing the film and its history (overlooks that Claudette Colbert was cast as Margo, and that's just for starters) -- is beneath contempt. Though the film's restoration is certainly lush, and the newsreel awards/promotional footage kind of a hoot, it's immensely disappointing for such an archon of verbal wit.

The pitchah itself remains immortal, so that's a mercy, anyhow

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Melody
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:54 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 2242 Location: TX
Crikey, Inla, that sucks. I bet it's not a Criterion disc, is it? But man, what a great movie!

"You're maudlin and full of self-pity. You're magnificent!"

I'm always amazed at the interviews and commentary tracks Criterion can squeeze on a two-disc spectacular, like Down by Law, which I re-watched last night because I'd been listening to Tom Waits' new album "Orphans" and I was wishing there was a DVD version of "Orphans" and then I thought wait a minute I've got Tom Waits on DVD thanks to Jim Jarmusch, and a whole disc of extras thanks to Criterion, including a fabulous Tom Waits video, directed by JJ, of Cole Porter's "It's All Right With Me."

Tom Waits is the coolest DJ. Ever.



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bart
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 4:20 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Posts: 2381 Location: Lincoln NE
Primer

Anyone who likes smart sci-fi, or likes indie (as in real independent, made in a garage) film, or just likes a narrative that makes an interesting puzzle about cause and effect and the consequences of human actions, should see "Primer."

Like "Memento," you pretty much have to see it twice, but at 1 hr. 17 minutes, that's not a big deal. I don't think I've seen any film give as much of a clear sense of real engineers trying to make something work and, as they are more engineers than scientists, making it work without quite understanding what they're doing. It's a "garage movie" in two senses -- made for practically nothing, and actually about geeks inventing something in a garage.

Most films pass over the really sticky issues of time travel. This one doesn't. And you can go as far as you want to try to unravel that whole side of the film, or you can just enjoy the great acting, the relationships between the partners and their friends, and the brilliant writing.

A-plus, multiple thumbs upward, and for heaven's sakes go see this absolutely wonderful film.

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inlareviewer
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 4:50 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Melody wrote:
Crikey, Inla, that sucks. I bet it's not a Criterion disc, is it? But man, what a great movie!

"You're maudlin and full of self-pity. You're magnificent!"

I'm always amazed at the interviews and commentary tracks Criterion can squeeze on a two-disc spectacular, like Down by Law, which I re-watched last night because I'd been listening to Tom Waits' new album "Orphans" and I was wishing there was a DVD version of "Orphans" and then I thought wait a minute I've got Tom Waits on DVD thanks to Jim Jarmusch, and a whole disc of extras thanks to Criterion, including a fabulous Tom Waits video, directed by JJ, of Cole Porter's "It's All Right With Me."

Tom Waits is the coolest DJ. Ever.



Word on Waits (am among the few Angelenos who wanted more of his songs in The Black Rider); Word on Criterion (sadly not the distributors of this Fox Home Entertainment release), a veritable cinemaphile buffet; and Absolute Word on Everything Concerning Gertrude.

"What a story. Everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end."

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lady wakasa
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 4:54 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 5911 Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
Strangely enough, M. Verdoux just stopped by for a few minutes - he came to return something and brought over some other things - and he just gave me a copy of Moroder's Metropolis. I don't think he's been on here since the silents forum, and it is his job (film historian), but that's quite the coincidence...

And I don't think I've seen the whole thing through, either.

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Joe Vitus
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 8:04 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
inlareviewer wrote:
Adding insult to injury, the second commentary track, by the author of All About All About Eve -- clearly more interested in selling himself and making dishy cracks than intelligently discussing the film and its history (overlooks that Claudette Colbert was cast as Margo, and that's just for starters) -- is beneath contempt.


Though it's only fair to add that All About All About Eve is an extensively researched history of the work from the event that inspired it, through the short story and radio versions, down to the film, and that it does trace the history of the film very thoroughly.


Last edited by Joe Vitus on Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:07 pm; edited 1 time in total

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jeremy
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 8:44 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
bart wrote:
Primer

Anyone who likes smart sci-fi, or likes indie (as in real independent, made in a garage) film, or just likes a narrative that makes an interesting puzzle about cause and effect and the consequences of human actions, should see "Primer."

Like "Memento," you pretty much have to see it twice, but at 1 hr. 17 minutes, that's not a big deal. I don't think I've seen any film give as much of a clear sense of real engineers trying to make something work and, as they are more engineers than scientists, making it work without quite understanding what they're doing. It's a "garage movie" in two senses -- made for practically nothing, and actually about geeks inventing something in a garage.

Most films pass over the really sticky issues of time travel. This one doesn't. And you can go as far as you want to try to unravel that whole side of the film, or you can just enjoy the great acting, the relationships between the partners and their friends, and the brilliant writing.

A-plus, multiple thumbs upward, and for heaven's sakes go see this absolutely wonderful film.


I will definitely keep an eye out for it

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inlareviewer
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:20 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Joe Vitus wrote:

Though it's only fair to add that All About All About Eve is an extensively researched history of the work from the event that inspired it, through the short story and radio versions, down to the film, and that it does trace the history of the film very thoroughly.

I've read Staggs' book -- as many of his resources and sources have come under dispute by the Zanuck and Mankiewicz estate as anything Kenneth Shipman ever wrote about Judy was called into question by Sid Luft or Lorna -- and in any event, little of that extensive research appears in any meaningful way on the execrable film commentary.

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Joe Vitus
Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 12:27 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Do you trust his book? I'm curious, as I respect your opinion.

It's interesting that the film in question is All About Eve, an underrated movie these days (at least that's the vibe I get) but one that, almost immediately after it became a revival house staple, came to be considered only good-to-mediocre in terms of direction. I think this low estimation is flat-out wrong, but it therefore doesn't surprise me that the movie as cinema doesn't come in for discussion on the various commentary tracks. Not a choice I support, just one that doesn't surprise me.

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inlareviewer
Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 2:53 am Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Joe Vitus wrote:
Do you trust his book? I'm curious, as I respect your opinion.

It's interesting that the film in question is All About Eve, an underrated movie these days (at least that's the vibe I get) but one that, almost immediately after it became a revival house staple, came to be considered only good-to-mediocre in terms of direction. I think this low estimation is flat-out wrong, but it therefore doesn't surprise me that the movie as cinema doesn't come in for discussion on the various commentary tracks. Not a choice I support, just one that doesn't surprise me.
Joe, that's very kind of you. Yes, I rather thought more of the book seemed plausible than not, though, as with his Sunset Boulevard book, there's rather a lot of second-and-third-and-fourth-party-once-removed input. Yet some of the dishier details, like the antipathy between Bette and Celeste, for example, have not been debunked. I also don't understand critical failure to recognize the film for its cinematic strengths as well as its theatrical ones. In fact, on the other bad commentary track, both Chris Mankiewicz and his father's biographer go to great lengths to repeat, ad nauseum, how Joe wanted AAE to rival Citizen Kane, and keep putting down Mankiewicz's lack of visual savvy even as they claim to be advocating for his more verbal style. Frustrating. Would have expected more care taken by the home video unit at Fox.

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inlareviewer
Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 2:54 am Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
I think it's still a film for the ages, though.

Margo, you were an enchanting Peter Pan. You must play it again, soon.

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billyweeds
Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:35 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
If I were God, I would have awarded Best Picture in 1950 to Sunset Blvd., which has all the verbal dexterity of All About Eve and adds a ton of cinematic verve. But AAE is undeniably a great film, and should have won in almost any other year. Plus, there are moments of pure cinema. The scene where Baxter, Ratoff, Monroe, Sanders gather on the stairs at Margo's party is memorable for Mankiewicz's refusal to move the camera. We glimpse an inimitable dose of "inside show-biz" in a remarkably non-pushy way. Does this make any sense? All I know is that when I think of AAE, I think of this pictorial composition even before I think of Davis's incredible performance.
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