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| Marj |
 Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:03 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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marantzo wrote: Tire, read The Cotton Club Murders. It's gives you a real close up of the unsavory (and that's being kind) characters involved. The woman is actually satan. Very entertaining read. And as an aside, I guy I knew in my youth is even mentioned in it as a periferal unsavoury character. (He was murdered in NYC).
Gary -- I never knew there was a book. I'm off to see if I can find it. Thanks!
PS. Cotten = typo. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:09 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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Am I the only one here who became obsessed with The Prestige?
Or maybe I was just too tired the first time I saw it. But still, I love a good mystery. I just wish it had stayed one and not gone off into fantasy.
Now I have to decide whether or not to read the book. I'm so tempted. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:48 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Marj wrote: PS. Cotten = typo.
Actually, I was only pulling yer leg. I don't know about those other unsavory characters.
And I haven't seen The Prestige, but I have seen The Illusionist, which was a C+/B- - which makes me want to see The Prestige a little less. (Even with David Bowie as Nikola Tessla.) |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:02 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marj wrote: I just wish it had stayed one and not gone off into fantasy.
This is what I was afraid of and why I skipped the movie. I like a mystery that's a mystery and not a supernatural affair. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:09 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Manhattan
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lady wakasa wrote: Marj wrote: PS. Cotten = typo.
Actually, I was only pulling yer leg. I don't know about those other unsavory characters.
And I haven't seen The Prestige, but I have seen The Illusionist, which was a C+/B- - which makes me want to see The Prestige a little less. (Even with David Bowie as Nikola Tessla.)
I know you were. Can't speak about those other unsavory characters though.
I think that if you're a mystery fan you'll like The Prestige. People who saw it expecting another The Illusionist were disappointed. I liked them both but for totally different reasons. In fact the only thing they have in common is that they're about illusionists and are period pieces. David Bowie as Tesla, while important to the outcome, is little more than a cameo. But in the end, I was disappointed. I love a good mystery and I want my mysteries to make common sense.
PS. Missed you during the Blanches. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:31 pm |
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| Marj, I'm sure you can pick up The Cotton Club Murders real cheap on EBay or whatever those sites are. I got it years ago from a bargain bid at a bookstore. It's a good read and true. It was published before there was any verdict in the trial of the bad people. In fact the trial wasn't even resolved by the time I finished the book. But don't worry, it has been finished and you can look up the results. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:30 pm |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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Joe Vitus wrote: Is this a video purchase? I really like The Devils, and eagerly await a DVD release.
It's one of the tapes I bought off my video store when they got rid of all their VHS last week. I copied it onto disk last night.
Christ almighty it's a mad, monstrous, marvellous work. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:35 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:39 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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I love the audacity of it, particularly the many intentional anachronisms: the gleaming white, modern town; the use of silent movie imagery; the use of the jazz term "Bye, Bye Blackbird."
And the gallows humor of the two assistants (Max Adrian and...who?) is great.
Visually, the whole damn thing is so impressive. I love that Russell's obsession with period pictures never lead to a static "classical" approach to his subjects. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:39 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| Rod, depending on what version it is, that VHS copy of THE DEVILS could be quite valuable. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:55 pm |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
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Location: Lithgow, Australia
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Marc wrote: Rod, depending on what version it is, that VHS copy of THE DEVILS could be quite valuable.
Probably not, it's only seven years old, put out by Warner Bros., a pretty shit transfer badly squeezed. But, better have a bad copy than no copy.
I've got some videos that are quite old that I want to hold onto. More for camp retro nostalgia value than any fiscal motive. My copy of Alligator, for instance, is more than twenty years old and is crammed full of cheesy early-days trailers of B-movies. The copy of The Cotton Club I was watching was put out by K-Tel, a company which, as far as I know, never put out another video. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:38 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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marantzo wrote: Marj, I'm sure you can pick up The Cotton Club Murders real cheap on EBay or whatever those sites are. I got it years ago from a bargain bid at a bookstore. It's a good read and true. It was published before there was any verdict in the trial of the bad people. In fact the trial wasn't even resolved by the time I finished the book. But don't worry, it has been finished and you can look up the results.
Gary - Who is the author?
And Btw, The Cotton Club is on DVD. I just added to my queue. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:51 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Rod and Marc,
They have found the "Rape of Christ" footage, deleted (as far as I know) before release and which for decades has been considered lost. Don't know if it's been incorporated back into any prints, or not. Rod's VHS is probably somewhat valuable if it comes from the States or Britain, which I believe are the only places the originally released version (the most complete so far) has been available. As I understand it, the Warner video release did not censor anything. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 12:11 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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Joe Vitus wrote: They have found the "Rape of Christ" footage, deleted (as far as I know) before release and which for decades has been considered lost. Don't know if it's been incorporated back into any prints, or not. Rod's VHS is probably somewhat valuable if it comes from the States or Britain, which I believe are the only places the originally released version (the most complete so far) has been available. As I understand it, the Warner video release did not censor anything.
Is that the bit where Redgrave's making out with Reed in Christ-off-the-cross regalia? |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:00 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Nope. There was a scene where the nuns in their delirium rape a statue of Christ. The scene was cut apparently before release, whether because it was felt the movie couldn't be released with it in place, or because Russell decided it was unneccesary, I don't know. Surely with the recent The Exorcist showing a young girl masturbating with a crucifix, there was unlikely to be any sort of banning at least in the US and Britain, and Russell is hardly the kind of director to let other people control the content of his movies. But the details in this case are fuzzy.
Joseph Gomez, a major Russell critic, refuses to give The Devils pride of place because he claims without the scene, what we have is a butchered version. On the other hand, Ken Hanke, who's Ken Russell's Films is one of the best critical analyses written, considers it, even in it's "rapeless" state, one of Russell's supreme works. |
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