| Author |
Message |
|
| Syd |
 Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 11:28 am |
 |
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
|
| Back to top |
   
|
| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 9:44 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
|
| The silent film Sunrise (1927) was F.W.Murnau's first film after his arrival in Hollywood from Germany. It was financially not as successful as Nosferatu, but is regarded by many as one of the finest films ever made. It has been recaptured on DVD very well. The narration is powerful, in spite of scarce subtitled dialogue. Comic scenes, dramatic episodes, happiness and disasters are all convincingly presented. The movie made a splash at the very first Oscars. Still enjoyable. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 10:25 pm |
|
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
| Sunrise is a film that stuck with me after I saw it. At first I didn't rank it near the top of silent films, but now it's there, underneath only The Passion of Joan of Arc and maybe Modern Times and City Lights. The scene at the wedding is really powerful. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 2:46 am |
|
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
Oh, oh: From David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's website:
Quote: Up until recently, the name Lotte Reiniger meant little to most people. Some were aware that she, rather than Walt Disney, had made the first animated feature film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). Some had been lucky enough to see a few of her shorts, created with a delicate silhouette technique using hinged, cut-out puppets. She had pioneered the approach in the late 1910s and continued to use it in much the same way up to her last films in the 1960s and 1970s.
Now, however, in another of the marvelous revelations that DVDs have made possible, we are in the process of having virtually all of Reiniger’s surviving work become available over a short stretch of time.[/i]
The Adventures of Prince Achmed is one of the great animated films. (Although it wasn't the first animated feature, it's the oldest surviving animated feature.) I had no idea so much of Lotte Reiniger's work had survived. If you haven't seen The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the silhouette technique worked brilliantly, and it's unlike any other animated film I've ever seen. This is the best film news I've seen in a long time. |
Last edited by Syd on Fri May 22, 2009 3:03 am; edited 1 time in total
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 2:59 am |
|
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
| There's already a 8-disk (!) collected works of Lotte Reiniger's work--in German, for an exorbitant price (although not that exorbitant for an eight disk collection if I spoke German). The British Film Institute is bringing out her films, but blowing it a bit, if Kristin Thompson is accurate. It doesn't sound like they blew it that badly, and I'm really looking forward to seeing these films. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 10:05 am |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
I have a 3-disc Japanese set which seems to be all of the 2-disc BFI released films (Lotte Reiniger: The Fairy Tale Films), plus a handful of additional short films with only German intertitles.
It has some wonderful stuff and seems to only miss a handful or so of her total collected work.
Almost all of it is based on fairy tales.
I think I actually clapped at the end of her 1922 Cinderella.
Disc One has Prince Achmed (with only German intertitles, but I know it well enough not to matter). And there are also two short documentaries showing Reiniger making and filming her silhouettes in her home studio. Of the 2 docs/interviews one is in German and one English, and you can tell they were filmed back to back, as she is wearing the same outfit. They mostly cover the same ground, though we get to see her making different figures and animating different brief segments, and the German one is a little longer and shows a bit more of the technical issues.
Cool just to see her home -- and how she looks like someone's little old aunt, which I suppose by then she probably was.
Let me know if you want a copy cheap-like. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 1:42 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
|
Flight of the Red Balloon (2007) is set in Paris, and is Taiwanese director Hou Hsaio-Hsien's great tribute to Albert Lamorisse's 1956 masterpiece The Red Balloon. Juliette Binoche is excellent as a harried muti-tasking single mother of a young boy. The family's daily life in a small Paris apartment is portrayed in great detail and with remarkable realism. It moves with a leisurely pace but wins our hearts.
. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 10:16 am |
|
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
| That's one that was too slow for me and I had to give up after a half hour to watch grass grow. I guess the original was the right length for me. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 6:30 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
If I had seen Azazel Jacobs's beautiful, unforgettable comedy-drama Momma's Man before the end of 2008, you can bet it would have been close to the top of my ten-best list for last year. Seldom has less money yielded such plangent, puissant rewards. Jacobs tells the story of a young man undergoing some sort of very early mid-life crisis wherein he visits his parents and doesn't want to leave, even though he has a wife and newborn baby a continent away. The filmmaker casts his own parents as the parents (his father is famed filmmaker Ken Jacobs) and films it in the apartment he grew up in, a fascinating, object-crammed loft. The movie is impossible to describe because it's unique, told completely without exposition but crystal-clear in its story points.
In case I have to say it bluntly, this is one you must see. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 12:03 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
|
| Fully agree with Billy about Momma's Man. Those parents (who are the director's real life parents) are adorbale. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 5:29 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Ghulam wrote: Fully agree with Billy about Momma's Man. Those parents (who are the director's real life parents) are adorable.
That's true, but so is the actor Matt Boren, who stands in for the director in this (I suspect) partially autobiographical tale. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 6:15 pm |
|
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
| The Youtube shows site has apparently gotten a hold of Nancy's bad movie collection. There's a lot of grade-B horror. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 1:55 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
|
| The documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is a fascinating study of the talented writer, destroyed by alcohol, drugs and his inner demons. A severe critic of Nixon and Bush, he was an active participant in the campaigns of McGovern and Carter. He became increasingly frustrated and cynical about American politics and political figures, including Democrats such as Humphrey and Muskie. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 9:19 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
I'd forgot about that doc. I'm going to pick it up. Hunter was a one of a kind talent and character. Someone who, though nutso, was a pleasure in so many ways.
So I guess it's Fury and Gonzo for me next week. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 10:59 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
|
Ghulam wrote: The documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is a fascinating study of the talented writer, destroyed by alcohol, drugs and his inner demons.... |
_________________
I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
