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| Joe Vitus |
 Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:56 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Hammerstein's lyrics were terrific in this song if almost nowhere else
I will agree with the second half of that sentence. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 6:50 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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[quote="marantzo"]Quote: 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....
Toreador-a.
Don't spit on the floor-a!
Use the cuspidor-a!
Whaddya think it's for-a? |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 9:57 am |
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Yeah, billy, that's it. What do these young whippersnappers know?  |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:10 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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billy and Gary --
You guys are the youngest old geezers I know!
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:27 am |
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| Thanks mo. But don't be fooled by my avatar. That was taken a few years ago. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 2:28 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| I haven't seen Zefirelli's Carmen, or the one Baryshnikov is in, but one of my all-time favs is Carlos Saura's version, set in flamenco Spain. Netflix doesn't have it, so I just bought. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 2:31 pm |
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yambu wrote: I haven't seen Zefirelli's Carmen, or the one Baryshnikov is in, but one of my all-time favs is Carlos Saura's version, set in flamenco Spain. Netflix doesn't have it, so I just bought.
I'm pretty sure that there is one with Placido Domingo -- that's another good one. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 11:39 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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yambu wrote: I haven't seen Zefirelli's Carmen, or the one Baryshnikov is in, but one of my all-time favs is Carlos Saura's version, set in flamenco Spain. Netflix doesn't have it, so I just bought.
I've been thinking all week about popping in the Saura version, which I've never seen. It was released early this year on Criterion's budget Eclipse label, in a 3 film Saura set, so I'd think it was netflixable. Eclipse Series 6: Carlos Saura’s Flamenco Trilogy |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:08 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Just got back from Thanksgiving watching Garuda, Gamera the Brave and a two-part Space 1999 from MST3K's season zero.
Garuda is a Thai film about a sort of giant bird-man monster who is unearthed in an underground tunnel escavation. Not bad, really. In this one the damsel in distress who is also the scientist who wants to keep the creature alive despite its massacring humans. She also has an unusually shrill voice although she's very pretty. The monster is very effective.
Gamera the Brave is a 2006 attempt to revive the giant atomic flying turtle franchise, and is surprisingly charming. It's my first Gamera movie. I understand Gamera started off as a general giant atomi rubber reptile villain, but pretty soon became a good guy, and the movies tended to become more child-oriented. In this one, a motherless boy sees a flashing red light coming from an island, and on investigating finds a glowing red rock with a turtle egg on top of it, which egg promptly hatches in front of him. He takes the turtle home, names him Toto, and quickly discovers his new pet (1) can fly and (2) is subject to sudden growth spurts despite seemingly not eating anything. He does not realize immediately that the turtle breaths fire as well. Toto is, of course a Gamera, and is there to protect Japan from a rampaging bad monster, which looks like nothing so much as a giant spiky frilled lizard. There is also a subplot involving a girl next door who is about to have a heart operation and needs the flashing red stone to help her pull through.
The monsters are obviously models and there really isn't an attempt to make them look realistic once Toto is grown a few feet. The charm is in the boy-and-his-flying-turtle subplot, and the friendships and family relations of the kids. I like the look of the evil monster, and Gamera himself has his charms, too.
As for the MST3ked Space 1999, I'm glad I never watched the series, because both episodes were definitely awful without the commentary, with stupid plots, cheesy sets, bad costumes, and little echoes of other films you wish you were watching instead. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 3:05 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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| I never really got Japanese monster movies. Sure I could enjoy them for their kitsch appeal and the fact that they allowed me a little easy condenscension, and it's not that Ii'm immune to the charms of pop culture, but they never chimed with me. |
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 12:05 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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| As for Carmen Jones, I thought the Cindy Lou character was supposed to be somewhat dull, as she represented the safe, family choice, which looks appealing enough until Carmen unleashes her heatwave. I thought that it was Preminger's sly entry point for the viewer. It's hard to identify with Carmen or Husky, but Cindy Lou is outside of the fast lane, she's just a sweet innocent, kind of ordinary, just like most viewers. I also like how she had spunk enough to go the training gym, to hunt down Carmen, the woman who stole and then spat out her man. I felt sorry for the nice candy-faced girl, as Carmen calls her. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 12:24 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Watched Woody Allen's Sleeper for the first time in a long while. Still great fun. I was struck by Woody's impressive physical comedy, and his numerous tributes to Chaplin. Most obvious when Woody, disguised as a domestic servant robot, is being chased by security at the robot repair center. The chase and the use of clamps and pliers echoes Chaplin at the factory in Modern Times.
Early in the film, there is a definite silent movie ethos at times, reinforced by the dixieland jazz and ragtime score. Most notable when the female scientist tells Woody that it's 200 years later than he thinks, and this is shown from a distance, without dialogue, and filled with broad gestures, ending with an exaggerated stagy fainting.
I also liked the set design, especially the funky house that the scientists first take Woody to. The swirling circular concrete design is impressively futuristic. And the initial lab has a great simple look to it.
Then there are the simple but great props such as orbs, orgasmatrons, and Hydra-vac suits. Woody even gets good comedic effect from the simple act of wearing glasses (as a cryogenic corpse, and as a robot).
The simplicity of some of these ideas is genius.
Always love the part where Woody explains the various historical artifacts from his era. Though I'm left wondering what the one photo is that he says he doesn't know what it is. Diane Keaton does a nice job here as well. Sleeper still retains its place as my favorite pre-Annie Hall Allen film. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 8:04 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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jeremy wrote: I never really got Japanese monster movies. Sure I could enjoy them for their kitsch appeal and the fact that they allowed me a little easy condenscension, and it's not that Ii'm immune to the charms of pop culture, but they never chimed with me.
The same is true with me for the most part, although I thought Gojira (the original Japanese Godzilla, which was quite different when it hit the states) was pretty interesting, and this Gamera actually worked for me, but there are so very many that are just plain terrible. Some of the sixties Gameras used to wind up on MST3K. About the only thing worse than a really terrible Japanese rubber monster movie is a really terrible American rubber monster movie. Something gets lost in translation.
Some of the scenes in Gamera the Brave--the refugee camps, people looking for each other in the crowd, the arrival of the villainous monster, reminded me of the Korean monster movie The Host, which is a fine film by any standards. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 10:25 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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No desire to contradict you again, Gromit, but there's far more Buster Keaton than Chaplin in Sleeper, particularly the opening segment when Allen is revived, and the Keaton/Allen relationship.
I like the movie a lot (and it's very attractive, visually) but Love and Death will always be the pre-Annie Hall favorite for me. Though I think that paticular movie is a kind of transitition between the later works and the "early, funny ones" as he refers to them in Stardust Memories. So maybe it exists in a grouping all it's own.
At any rate, Sleeper is hysterical as is Bananas. As much as I may be disappointed in his current output, it's hard to feel cheated by a director who has given us so many genuine classics. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 10:58 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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| The Korean film "The Host" is a wonderful sendup of the Japanese horror flick. |
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