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| whiskeypriest |
 Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:51 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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whiskeypriest wrote: yambu wrote: Army of Shadows is the best film you'll ever see about the French Resistance. Having enjoyed Black Book only last week, Army makes that one seem trivial.
This is a psychological thriller in the best sense. There are no blown up trains. Rather, the deliberate pacing forces you into the minds of these unsung saboteurs, as they deal with making constant life or death decisions, their solitude, despair, and almost certain knowledge that they will die soon. Simone Signoret is terrific as an absolutely fearless underground operative. One of the three or four best movies I saw for the first time last year - and I saw a lot of great ones as a consequence of living in a series of motel rooms for two months with nothing but a portable DVD and bad cable choices to keep my busy. Absolutely fantastic.
Ah, an alphabetetical list of all the great movies I saw for the first time last year that I can currently recall:
Ace in the Hole
All About Eve
American Splendor
Army of Shadows
Au hasard Balthazar
Bande a part
The General
Gospel According to St. Matthew
High Noon
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Metropolis
Mouchette
No Country for Old Men
Stagecoach
Stalker
Steamboat Bill Jr.
Top Hat |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Marilyn |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 9:47 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8210
Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
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| Does anyone know if there's a dubbed copy of The Gospel According to St. Matthew? That's one film I can't watch with subtitles. |
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http://ferdyonfilms.com |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:37 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I found "A Collection of 2006 Acadeny Award Nominated Short Films," and finally got to see the award winnder, "West Bank Story," which is very funny. It's a parody of West Side Story, about two restaurants, Kosher Kuts and Hummus Hut, the former owned by Israelis and the latter by Arabs, which sit sit by side, and their bosses and employees are, of course, having the restaurant equivalent of a gang war. Naturally an Israeli boy and Arab girl fall in love and try to end the war. Very funny. Both sides wear hats that represent food items. The Arab hats look like they have shishkebabs piercing their heads,
The collection includes all five live action shorts that were nominated that year, but only two of the animated shorts (The Danish Poet, which won and deserved to, and Maestro, an okay short with a wonderful visual punchline). I've seen the other three nominees anyway. There are six additional shorts I haven't seen. None of the documentary shorts.
The only other short I've watched so far is "Binta and the Great Idea," which I found pretty cloying, but did have some things to say about the importance of educating women and putting yourself in someone else's shoes. I didn't care for the short despite the message. It's narrated by the child Binta and is, frankly, childish. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:15 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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I don't know if there's a dubbed version of The Gospel According to St. Matthew.
But, there is a colorized version. Blasphemous. |
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| tirebiter |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:47 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4011
Location: not far away
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 3:01 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Syd wrote: I found "A Collection of 2006 Acadeny Award Nominated Short Films," and finally got to see the award winnder, "West Bank Story," which is very funny.
That sounds hilarious, in the way that only things from that area can be.
"Where did you find that?" she asks, although she just bought two Japanese dvds yesterday when she's not supposed to be buying any. %^o |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 3:14 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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Marc wrote: I don't know if there's a dubbed version of The Gospel According to St. Matthew.
But, there is a colorized version. Blasphemous. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:24 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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lady wakasa wrote: Syd wrote: I found "A Collection of 2006 Acadeny Award Nominated Short Films," and finally got to see the award winnder, "West Bank Story," which is very funny.
That sounds hilarious, in the way that only things from that area can be.
"Where did you find that?" she asks, although she just bought two Japanese dvds yesterday when she's not supposed to be buying any. %^o
He rented it from the local Hastings, which tends to have a lot of foreign, art, and sometimes silent films for sale and rent. I watched West Bank Story too, and thought it was delightful. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:29 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Nancy wrote: lady wakasa wrote: "Where did you find that?" she asks, although she just bought two Japanese dvds yesterday when she's not supposed to be buying any. %^o
He rented it from the local Hastings, which tends to have a lot of foreign, art, and sometimes silent films for sale and rent. I watched West Bank Story too, and thought it was delightful.
Wow - I'd never even heard of Hastings, and yet, through the magic of The Internets, there it is.
Maybe I'll do this next payday. *sigh* |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:50 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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lady wakasa wrote: Nancy wrote: He rented it from the local Hastings, which tends to have a lot of foreign, art, and sometimes silent films for sale and rent. I watched West Bank Story too, and thought it was delightful.
Wow - I'd never even heard of Hastings, and yet, through the magic of The Internets, there it is.
Maybe I'll do this next payday. *sigh*
It's one of the better book/video stores, and we are lucky enough to have one in town. They tend to separate me from my money on a regular basis. |
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"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:59 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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Nancy wrote: lady wakasa wrote: Nancy wrote: He rented it from the local Hastings, which tends to have a lot of foreign, art, and sometimes silent films for sale and rent. I watched West Bank Story too, and thought it was delightful.
Wow - I'd never even heard of Hastings, and yet, through the magic of The Internets, there it is.
Maybe I'll do this next payday. *sigh*
It's one of the better book/video stores, and we are lucky enough to have one in town. They tend to separate me from my money on a regular basis.
There are 2 of them in Santa Fe. I guess they don't have as good a selection of mags. and books as Borders. I haven't shopped at Hastings in a long time.
There are some in Albuquerque too. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:26 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I rent movies from Hastings and buy them and movies from either Hastings or Borders. I buy books from Borders or Barnes and Noble, which have a better selection and where I have discount cards. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 10:00 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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Syd wrote: I rent movies from Hastings and buy them and movies from either Hastings or Borders. I buy books from Borders or Barnes and Noble, which have a better selection and where I have discount cards.
I mostly buy slightly used or new (remaindered) books and dvd's from amazon.com . I don't know if I'd do better at Borders, but it's a 2-hr. drive away. I've had good luck with almost all purchases. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 10:04 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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mo_flixx wrote: Syd wrote: I rent movies from Hastings and buy them and movies from either Hastings or Borders. I buy books from Borders or Barnes and Noble, which have a better selection and where I have discount cards.
I mostly buy slightly used or new (remaindered) books and dvd's from amazon.com . I don't know if I'd do better at Borders, but it's a 2-hr. drive away. I've had good luck with almost all purchases.
I do that, too, with hard to find items. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 12:57 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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To Live (Huozhe) is the story of a Chinese couple living through the period 1948-69 (with an epilogue that would take place around 1975). The couple is played by Ge You and Gong Li (aka You Ge and Li Gong), and directed by Zhang Yimou (aka Yimou Zhang...okay, I'll stop that now). More exactly, the movie takes place in three time periods, 1948-9, 1958, and 1968-9, with the epilogue. Thus you get the Chinese Civil War, Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Since the writer and director looked at those events with both tragedy and satire, the film got banned in China and won awards overseas.
This is in what I think of Zhang Yimou's early period; i.e. before he discovered Zhang Ziyi. The only other film I've seen from that period was Ju Dou, a tragedy in which the protagonists all got crushed by the juggernaut of fate. That was a beautiful film which I actively disliked. There's a lot of being crushed by the juggernaut of fate in this one, too, but at least there's some light, and I mostly liked the film.
When we first meet Xu Fugui and Xu Jiazhen, they already have a daughter, and have a son on the way. Unfortunately, Fugui, the ne'er-do-well son of a wealthy family gradually hitting the skids, has a gambling habit, which loses the family mansion and, temporarily, his wife. (It's a good thing for his wife he'd never read The Mayor of Castorbridge.) The man who wins the house was a puppeteer, and, now that he's wealthy, gives Fugui the puppets so Fugui has a way to make a living. Actually, as it turns out, this is a stroke of fortune since Fugui becomes a somewhat more responsible person as a result. Unfortunately, it's two feet forward and twenty-three inches back for the family as they navigate through history. The tragedy gets heavy-handed, but it's also interesting as a jaundiced look at the glories of the communist state.
As always for Zhang Yimou films, it's very beautiful, especially the leading lady. Ge You was the actor who won the award at Cannes, but I was more impressed by Li Gong as his incredibly long-suffering wife. Most of the tragedies have some connection with something Fugui does that goes sour, often in connection with something he does to try to survive in a dangerous and often lunatic world. I found myself more than once wishing Jiazhen would brain him.
To tell the truth, I much prefer his more recent work, beginning with The Road Home, but this one is very much worth watching. |
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