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mo_flixx

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:56 am

Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533

I'm a big fan of Powell's "Peeping Tom." An odd little movie.

His "The Edge of the World" (1937) is a movie about the forced migration from a small Scottish island and truly one of the saddest movies I have ever seen. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. It was not uncommon in that period - when isolated island villages simply couldn't make a go of this kind of life anymore.

Martin Scorsese played cupid and introduced editor Thelma Schoonmaker to Powell. There were married from 1984 until his death in 1990.

"Les Enfants du Paradise" ("Children of Paradise") is a famous film. Perhaps people aren't familiar with it today, but there was a time when this was the most beloved French film (by both French and others the world over).

bocce

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 5:43 pm

Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 2428

i had a strange evening the other night...

watched THE GOOD SHEPHERD. i'm not quite sure what to make of this film: it's slow (but in an non-boring way); the acting is mediocre (but i'm not sure that's not what was intended) and the overall result is like an adagio to dreams...never quite satisfying but, not entirely disappointing...

the latter portion with the son was a bit contrived but on the whole not an entirely wasted few hours...

i don't recall earlier comments on the film...fill me in...

Trish

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 11:09 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 2438 Location: Massachusetts

bocce wrote:

the acting was NOT mediocre - Matt Damon in particular was brilliant

mo_flixx

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 11:19 am

Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533

Trish wrote:

bocce wrote:

the acting was NOT mediocre - Matt Damon in particular was brilliant

Agree. I liked the film a lot.

grace

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 12:43 pm

Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 3214

I liked The Good Shepherd okay, but it's not like a must see again flick for me. I thought Damon was okay, but I really liked John Turturro's work -- thought he was awesome. Ms. Jolie -- meh. Just my opinion. I thought for the period in history that was covered, the length (almost 3 hours) was reasonable, but it didn't drag too much.

mo_flixx

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:04 pm

Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533

grace wrote:

I don't think Jolie's beauty suits a number of different periods. She looks just fine as a goddess ("Troy"). But as a character from the '40's or '50's, she was miscast, IMO.

gromit

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:24 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

Enjoyed Carmen Jones a lot.
Dorothy Dandrige is amazing.
Pearl Bailey adds some nice support (and gets to wear some great outfits). Harry Belafonte is an interesting presence, and especially in the latter half kept making me think of ... Obama. Maybe just too much election-year imprinting on my brain, but ...

Preminger et al. did an excellent job of transferring the Carmen story to black America. It's a little surprising at first to get (dubbed) operatic singing, especially if one is familiar with Belafonte's real voice. And I found the occasional black locutions (dat, dem, they was, etc.) a little incongruous with the opera.
Marilyn Horne does the singing voice for the Carmen Jones role. But I couldn't help wishing they had made an alternate version with more natural singing styles featuring Dandridge's and Belafonte's voices.

But this is really a dynamite film. There's a good deal of sexual sparks between the two leads and a lot of physical action. Unlike some other lengthy Preminger films, Carmen Jones ends in a rush.

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Joe Vitus

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:39 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston

I thought it was pretty dull, myself. But maybe it's just Dandrige's odd position as the movie musical star who didn't sing (she was always dubbed). The stage version was Hammerstein's first big success after Oklahoma! I don't think it has aged as well. Bizet's music is timeless, but that is sort of beside the point.

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Marj

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 2:11 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan

I tend to agree with Joe on Carmen Jones. And for many of the reasons he mentioned. Still it was an excellent endeavor for the time. My guess it got a lot of people listening to Bizet's music who might never have listened before.

And this may have been one of the first times an African American women was portrayed as other than a housekeeper, share cropper or what have you.

Indeed, the fact that it's dated is a good thing.

jeremy

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 2:13 pm

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

I saw Carmen Jones when I was little (before I'd seen the Opera). I was blown away. I found it enthralling and sexy. I could've fallen for the bitch, but I wouldn't of strangled her...I'd have drunk my sorrows away in a bar somewhere or fled to Tahiti to paint pubescent girls or...

Talking of impressionable young minds. Olivia De havilland was not a great beauty, but I stil can't help wanting to jump all over her...bt she'd have to wear a billowing dress and corsets.

Tyrone Power would have been a disaster as Captain Blood. It would be like getting Sly Stallone to play Jack Carter or Ah-nold to play a real person.

Last edited by jeremy on Thu Nov 27, 2008 3:42 pm; edited 1 time in total
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it.

billyweeds

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 3:58 pm

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

I'm sort of in the middle on Carmen Jones. Dubbed or not, Dandridge was amazingly sexy and believable, and thoroughly deserved her Oscar nomination (the first starring nomination for an African-American of either gender). Pearl Bailey made "Beat Out That Rhythm on a Drum" really cook. And "Whizzin' Away Along the Track" (the quartet) is my favorite moment in the movie (Hammerstein's lyrics were terrific in this song if almost nowhere else).

Up the hill and down the hill
And out upon the plains again.
Through a storm and out of a storm
And pretty soon it rains again.
It only takes a half a day
To be a thousand miles away.
It only takes a half a day
To be a thousand miles away!

Away! Come on away!
Whizzin' away along the track
Out to Chicago, Illinois!

Dandridge was commanding in her lip-synching, making the operatic music look very conversational in a way never dreamed of by the likes of Mario Lanza, whose Perry Como-like synching of huge arias was unintentionally hilarious.

All that said, the story was indeed rather dull, and the Joe-Cindy Lou stuff was duller than that.

In any case, I own the DVD.

jeremy

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 4:16 pm

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

Don't you just want to dive in.

It was revived on the stage in London recently to generally good reviews.

_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it.

Marj

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 4:29 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan

"Pearl Bailey made "Beat Out That Rhythm on a Drum" really cook."

Did she ever! I have never heard this song any other way, since. Nor do I want to.

I agree with many of your points, Billy. Any surprise? Of course I hadn't known Dandridge was an accomplished singer when I first saw the movie and I didn't even realize it was dubbed. But she was wonderful and deserved her nomination.

In recent years I've seen Halle Berry's, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. I think it may be the best thing Berry has ever done. But I have the DVD for the musical numbers. The arrangements were all Dandridge* arrangements and are exciting and very sexy but never cross the line into camp.

* I don't know who actually did the original arrangements that Dandridge used. But I was surprised after seeing a documentary on her that the arrangements used in the Berry film were virtually the same.

mo_flixx

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:06 pm

Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533

Glad to see Preminger back here in the Forum again. I thought he was unfairly dissed recently for a number of his films.

Halle Berry was thrilled to play Dandridge. I remember the buzz at the time.

marantzo

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 6:41 pm

Guest

Quote:

My guess it got a lot of people listening to Bizet's music who might never have listened before.

I doubt that New york was much different but many of Bizet's songs from Carmen were very well known where I am from. In fact we even had a parody of one of the famous songs from Carmen when I was no more than 10. One of the lines ended with ...spit on the floora....

Camen Jones as people my age know, was very big. And every girl in Winnipeg, from the age of 13 and up had the LP. Plus many of the guys who weren't just louts.

Belafonte didn't get to sing the songs because his voice wasn't the right register for the songs his character had to sing.

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