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| Ghulam |
 Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 2:33 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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Nancy wrote: Nancy wrote: mo_flixx wrote: I just finished David Lean's "Passage to India" and was overwhelmed. I'm trying to think of more things I can watch about the British in India besides "The Jewel in the Crown" and "Far Pavilions."
Any ideas? I've already seen a lot on this subject.
Well, I just watched The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, which was pretty good. And there's King of the Khyber Rifles with Tyrone Power, thought it departs from the book quite a bit. And, of course, there's Wee Willie Winkie. Although it's not about the British in India, if you haven't seen it, A Throw of Dice (Prapancha Pash) from 1929 is awfully good, and not dated at all. It has beautiful scenery and exquisite costumes. I'll try to think of some more -- you've probably seen a bunch of these.
Oh, and I forgot Gunga Din. also suggested Kim, which I somehow managed to forget.
The Man Who Would be King is also good. Bhowani Junction is also enjoyable but probably not available on DVD.
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:36 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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Carry-on Up The Khyber
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=i8atKXFZefA&feature=related
Only really worth watching for an insight into broad, post-war British humour. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:49 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Just watched Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia for the first time in almost ten years, due to Roger Ebert's placing it on his "Great Movies" list. It's really terrific, and for a while I thought it was even better than Boogie Nights, but no. Anderson's masterwork is still BN. Magnolia is one of the most entertaining pretentious movies I've ever seen, but the pretensions still get the better of it in the long run. It holds your interest for all of its three-hour-plus running time, however, and keeps you in an almost constant state of apprehension partially due to one of the most omnipresent musical scores ever composed for a film.
I'm very glad I saw it again, but the portentousness of the set pieces are sometimes laughable in their adolescent self-importance. Still, immeasurably better than Anderson's outrageously overrated There Will Be Blood. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:44 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:28 am |
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| I think Magnolia was a much more mature work, though still not mature enough, than Boogie Nights which I found silly. I always said that Anderson had talent, which showed in a very few sequences in BN and in a number of sequences in Magnolia, but he had lacked artistic control and would throw far too much over the top nonsense at the screen. In Punch Drunk Love he showed what he could do with his talent when he was more thoughtful and stopped showing off. His startling visual and audio effects were striking and effective in that movie, unlike so many in his previous outing. The only flaw I saw in PDL was the Hoffman part which he could have done without completely. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:43 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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I also liked Punch Drunk Love a whole lot, much better than most of the clueless critics who dissed it (I think largely because of the fact that so many of them couldn't see past the Adam Sandler connection). The only Anderson movie I didn't like was There Will Be Blood, which (almost inevitably) has become his most praised creation. Not surprisingly, its most vocal proponent is Manohla Dargis.
Anderson's pre-Boogie Nights movie Hard Eight is also very good.
Gary--Some day you'll explain in detail what it is you find silly about Boogie Nights, one of my top ten movies. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:53 am |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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lissa wrote: Pan's Labyrinth is a stunning film. I own it, and the soundtrack, and watching it over again is better than the first time. Brilliant....
Whiskey, you have one hell of a thoughtful gift giver. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:56 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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billyweeds wrote: I also liked Punch Drunk Love a whole lot, much better than most of the clueless critics who dissed it (I think largely because of the fact that so many of them couldn't see past the Adam Sandler connection). The only Anderson movie I didn't like was There Will Be Blood, which (almost inevitably) has become his most praised creation. Not surprisingly, its most vocal proponent is Manohla Dargis.
Anderson's pre-Boogie Nights movie Hard Eight is also very good.
Gary--Some day you'll explain in detail what it is you find silly about Boogie Nights, one of my top ten movies.
Of all of these mentioned, "Hard Eight" is my favorite. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:59 am |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| Loved The Bank Job, though I got confused at several points and had to pause it to regroup. Rooting for the bad guy is always fun, and here the terry Leather character turns Raskolnikov on his head. |
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| bocce |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 2:56 pm |
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Joined: 24 May 2004
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HARD EIGHT is one of the best of its genre. while perhaps a little over influenced by mamet and mann, there is nothing to dislike about it. and it comes as close to "real world" as you're gonna get...
i put it up there with THIEF, THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE and THE GAMBLER (amongst a few others) as one of the top "nouveau noir" films...
i know i'm gonna be hit with complaints about the omission of other films when i use that description. but what i mean are films which are more grounded in realistic possibilities than BLOOD SIMPLE or RED ROCK WEST or MEMENTO... |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 3:39 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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bocce wrote: HARD EIGHT is one of the best of its genre. while perhaps a little over influenced by mamet and mann, there is nothing to dislike about it. and it comes as close to "real world" as you're gonna get...
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Speaking of Mamet, there is very little Mamet-like about the TV series "The Unit." I like the show but keep searching for Mamet themes and come up empty. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 4:39 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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billyweeds wrote: Just watched Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia for the first time in almost ten years, due to Roger Ebert's placing it on his "Great Movies" list. It's really terrific, and for a while I thought it was even better than Boogie Nights, but no. Anderson's masterwork is still BN. Magnolia is one of the most entertaining pretentious movies I've ever seen, but the pretensions still get the better of it in the long run. It holds your interest for all of its three-hour-plus running time, however, and keeps you in an almost constant state of apprehension partially due to one of the most omnipresent musical scores ever composed for a film.
I'm very glad I saw it again, but the portentousness of the set pieces are sometimes laughable in their adolescent self-importance. Still, immeasurably better than Anderson's outrageously overrated There Will Be Blood.
Love Magnolia much more than Boogie Nights, which I appreciated after a while, but not at first. Loved Magnolia from the get go. Granted, no one in Magnolia gives the stand out performance Mark Wahlberg, and the characters' statuses as loosers isn't as confortably offset by an sexy source of income or goofy character traits. Still, I found Magnolia poignant and gripping in a way I did not find Boogie Nights.
Having said that, everything about the way Anderson handles the t.v. show host's past with his daughter feels completely false and alien to real life.
SPOILERS
Sadly, pedophiles just don't usually commit that act with one person and never again. It's a sickness that seems to stay with them through life. The fact that the father seems never to have abused any of his other daughters growing up, or one of the kids from the show, and in fact is now banging his (same age as himself) secretary strikes me as unrealistic. Even if Anderson was going to make the decision that this was the only instance where the character had had a relationship like that, it should have been explained, a more believable "reality" should have been created for it. It wasn't. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 5:49 pm |
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I haven't seen Hard Eight, but I have read that Anderson was very upset about how they had edited it or some such liberty they took, and said that he couldn't do what he wanted with it. Probably a good thing from what a few on the forum have said about it and my opinion of his lack of discipline in his first movies.
Silliness in BN: a few examples; The mother having a snit fit with her son Dirk (the only bad performance I ever saw Monte Hall's daughter give), the wife humiliating her husband by screwing another guy in front of him in broad daylight (on the house sidewalk, I think) having as much sexuality as a visit from a Jehovah's Witness. The beating of the Roller Girl's abusers. The only thing I found interesting or in the least bit real in the movie was the Don Cheadle story line.
And the last shot, puleeeeeeze! |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:16 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| What can I say, Gary? I disagree--vehemently--with all of your objections. First of all, I have said before--and I think on these forums--that Joanna Gleason and Alfred Molina IMO give two of the great one-scene performances I've ever seen. And Macy's wife screwing that guy was so in tune with the milieu and time and place of the movie that it registers to me as inspired. Not as in the tank for the other scene, but nothing wrong with it as far as I'm concerned. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:48 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| But HAPPY NEW YEAR anyway, Gary and everybody else too!!! |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:33 pm |
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| And a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all from me. |
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