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whiskeypriest

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:22 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 6916 Location: "It's a Dry Heat."

Quote:

There was another actress who got married and stopped working, but I don't remember her name.

Grace Kelly?

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lady wakasa

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:23 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 5911 Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon

whiskeypriest wrote:

Quote:

There was another actress who got married and stopped working, but I don't remember her name.

Grace Kelly?

No, no, the one I'm thinking of is Asian, though Grace Kelly definitely falls into that category.

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jeremy

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 5:13 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

Zhang Ziyi...sigh.

When I was in Hong Kong in 1980...nevermind.

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My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
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jeremy

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 5:33 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

I just watched Groundhog Day again. I feared that it may have dated, but I still found it absolutely spiffing. There is just so much that is right about that film: it has a brilliant premise; it probably features Bill Murray's signature performnce (which is no small thing), it is heads, warmingly romantic, and tails, icily cynical; it's scarily, philosophically clever; it's wish fulfilment; and it's funny. Perhaps my only criticisms are that it's a little too kind to the audience and it leaves the nagging question: if Bill Muray loves Andie McDowel he has to tell her...but how can he.

Speaking of Andie, given her manifest limitations, how come she played the female lead, succesfully, in two of the best romantic comedies made in modern times. Luck?

And speaking of Four Weddings And A Funeral, isn't Hugh Grant a treasure. I just watched Music & Lyrics, which, if it was any slighter, would have had trouble registering an image on the celluloid. That it is still a very likeable film, I think is down to the charm of its two stars, who both manage to both to fell sheepish for subjecting us to a piece of dreck and do their best to entertain.

And while we're on the subject of Drew Barrymore, for a erstwhile drug addict who looks more than the bisexual she is, she does pretty good.

tirebiter

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 6:16 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4011 Location: not far away

You take back what you said about Drew Barrymore, you British phony!

Syd

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 3:11 am

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12944 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

lady wakasa wrote:

Syd wrote:

I found "A Collection of 2006 Academy Award Nominated Short Films," and finally got to see the award winner, "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

You can also buy this from Amazon.com. Choose DVD and type in "short films" for your search. I notice the 2005 and 2004 collections are also there, and I'll order those tomorrow. The 2004 winner for short animation, Ryan, is a great short film, one of the best winners in this category. It is to the animated short category as Crumb is to documentaries. In fact, one of the artistic crimes caused by assigning animated films to their own category is that it wasn't nominated for short documentary as well.

If you don't know the film, it is the story of Ryan Larkin, who was nominated for Animated Short in 1969, then became a derelict, addicted to alcohol and cocaine. Chris Landreth rediscovered him and did this film about him, semi-animating it in a style that has been borrowed since. Ryan Larkin died on Valentine's day in 2007, but at least we have this to remember him by.

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mo_flixx

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 10:29 pm

Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533

My mini-dvd project this week is John Woo. HARDBOILED was mind-blowing. What an influential movie. LOVE Chow Yun Fat. Just about a perfect action film.

Tonight I saw THE KILLER (more Chow Yun Fat). I really missed the commentary from the Dragon Enterprises edition. Wish I could have seen the Criterion Collection DVD (which seems to be a collector's item on amazon.com). The quality of the DVD was not that great.

I am beginning to recognize some of Woo's themes: love of music (esp. jazz); numerous film references (I think he outdoes Tarantino frankly); the use of Christian symbols; the use of the color white (the Chinese color of death); the use of red (particularly blood spatter); Hong Kong locations; the role of reflections; inventive special effects; intricate camera choreography; casting real people/non-actors; children in jeopardy; eye injuries; the similarity of the good guy/bad guy; and Chinese gods and honor code...to name just a few.

Looking forward to seeing A BULLET IN THE HEAD - but will definitely miss Chow Yun Fat who isn't in that one.

gromit

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:33 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9016 Location: Shanghai

There's a 2-disc Criterion Ultimate Edition of The Killer here. I believe the 2nd disc has the extended director's cut. I watched the theatrical release and thought it was fairly long and silly. I'm not a fan of these violent melodramatic action pics, HK or US.

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tirebiter

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 6:35 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4011 Location: not far away

I did a talk on film about a month ago and used the 2 minute and 40 second shot from Hard Boiled as an example of what can be achieved without editing/cutting. (I'd started the evening with the Odessa Steps sequence from Potemkin, so the contrast was stark.) I still think Hard Boiled is the purest expression of Woo's vision-- just balls-out action.

BTW, I gave a prize to the person who could come closest to the body count in the shot. Anybody care to guess?

mo_flixx

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 7:20 am

Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533

gromit wrote:

gromit -

IMO HARDBOILED is superior to THE KILLER, which was made earlier. According to the commentary on HARDBOILED, Woo got his start making comedies (!).

And you're right about melodrama. A large part of THE KILLER's plot was lifted right out of the Sirk weepie, THE MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION.

The Korean revenge film (A BITTERSWEET LIFE) I watched a few nites ago at the Film Society reminded me A LOT of Woo, and it had the same downside. It was tied up with the Asian concept of honor [think kamazake pilots]...which (because it seems incomprehensible to Westerners) can make these films seem a bit overwrought.

The Criterion disc does not have a commentary. Too bad. Listening to the commentary can be valuable. I know it was for me with HARDBOILED.

There is a whole cult surrounding these films which involves the mystique of the HK locations as well as the various actors & minor players, their previous roles, opera backgrounds, roles in the Shaw Bros. epics, etc., etc.
Another thing -- these films are terrific at capturing the essence and history of HK which has changed so drastically over the years with its land reclamation project.

SPOILER --

In THE KILLER the "blood brother" aspect between the "good" cop and the "bad guy" isn't too subtle. There's no missing the homoerotic glances between them during the finale. That's another aspect of the story that's a bit heavy-handed.

marantzo

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:37 am

Guest

The American Hardboiled wasn't half bad either. A different film with the same title.

Syd

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:17 pm

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12944 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

I finished off the 2006 Animated Short collection. The Danish Poet and West Bank Story both richly deserved their Oscars, but I also loved Helmer and Son and A Gentleman's Duel, and most of the rest are worth an inspection.

In the live-action Helmer and Son, a very sad-faced middle-aged man is called to the old folk's home where his father has locked himself inside a closet and refuses to come out. This starts off like it might be a downer with the father going senile, but, no, it goes off on a completely different direction. I particularly liked it when the sad-faced man's sister shows up and begins an uninhibited bonding with the father (who is still in the closet). I guessed the big secret halfway through, and you should to, but it doesn't matter all that much in this case.

A Gentleman's Duel is from Blur Studios, a low-profile company that does first-class computer animation with delightful stories. They did Gopher Broke a few years ago, which was nominated for an Oscar a few years ago and was also a lot of fun. Their work is comparable to the Pixar shorts or the Scrat shorts. In this case, an Englishman and a Frenchman (and his toy poodle) are rivals for the affection of a beautiful woman with impressive cleavage and an enormous estate (and limited brainpower). An unfortunate altercation involving a tea set turns into a duel, of course, which escalates both in destructiveness and danger. Daffy Duck and Marvin the Martian would understand, I found the whole thing hilarious, and it's inexplicable to me that it didn't get an Oscar nomination. It's superior to all the animated shorts that were up that year except The Danish Poet. You can actually watch this one at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kVMv_VGZ1I

Guide Dog is Bill Plympton's sequel to Guard Dog, which was up for an Oscar a couple of years ago, and stars the same brain-challenged bull dog. The previous on went into a guard dog's fevered imagination and explained why dogs bark at seemingly innocent things. (They just know that little girl's jump rope is a device for decapitation, and they know the evil designs of squirrels. In this one, the dog decides to become a guide dog, with predictably disastrous results. It's still amusing, but in a more conventional way.

In Surviving the Rush, a small theater is, for some reason, chosen to be the only theater in Michigan to premiere the new blockbuster movie, a science fiction movie set on Mars and starring Eminem. (Hey, I'm there.) Naturally, the tiny staff gets overwhelmed, the mob gets unruly, the health inspector shows up, the person who was supposed to stock the quarters didn't get around to it, and there is the poor guy trying to handle the concessions singlehanded... I never knew that theater managers lived on the edge. Not deep, but demented and I enjoyed it. Check out the rival theatre whose marquee reads "NRA presents The Passion 2: The Revenge of the Christ," complete with people in cheesy period-style dress, and a Jesus on a cross in the lobby. I think the people in this short saw those Coke freelance awards one time too many.

The Saviour is an Australian short about evangelicals who go door to door, working the same areas day after day in pairs. Well, actually, one of them is working the lady of a house by himself while letting his partner risk the fire hoses of the rest of the neighborhood. Cheerfully wry and sacrilegious, with an serious edge to it. Our "saviour's" last line is wonderfully double edged and, if you think a second, true.

There are always some clunkers in a collection like this. I didn't like One Rat Short, One Too Many's really a two-joke film, and The Wraith of Cobble Hill is a promising first effort but not quite successful and very downbeat. The Passenger and Maestro are slight but not bad.

It bugs me when critics complain about the Oscars taking time to honor short films; a collection like this shows why the Oscars should go on doing exactly that.

_________________
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!

Earl

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:36 pm

Joined: 09 Jun 2004 Posts: 2621 Location: Houston

Finally got around to watching Babel and liked it, but it didn't rock my world. The three stories felt as if they were really three short films connected by the weakest of threads.

The one that held the most interest was the Tokyo segment because of the the things which the script leaves unsaid as well as subtleness of the acting by Rinko Kikuchi as the deaf/mute schoolgirl. I'd have been just as happy to have this part expanded to feature film length by itself.

The Morocco and Mexico stories were essentially just "will they or won't they survive" suspense dramas. Nothing too compelling there in spite of all the wailing by the characters. Oh well, at least I can punch another hole in my Cate Blanchett Fan Club card.

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Rod

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:53 am

Joined: 21 Dec 2004 Posts: 2944 Location: Lithgow, Australia

It would indeed be the best revenge on an artist who was as big a pain in the ass as Pablo Picasso to make an indifferent, sluggish, unchallenging, drippy, numbingly middlebrow, safely styled film about the man that rejects every value he ever tried to present in his art. Wait, hang on, that film's been made - Surviving Picasso. My first thought on watching Anthony Hopkins' inhabitation was that Anthony Hopkins is too civilised to play Picasso. There is an hilarious cat-fight featuring Julianne Moore.

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billyweeds

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:05 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

The Assassination of Jesse James... is a lovely-to-look-at numbing-to-sit-through Western with pretentions which reminds me why I never liked McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

The photography is stunning and the performances are fine, but everyone looks alike, like one long daguerrotype. Affleck is interesting but I liked him better in Gone Baby Gone. He had the starring role and Pitt's Jesse was the supporting part, making Affleck's supporting nomination a joke.

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