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| Joe Vitus |
 Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:29 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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whiskeypriest wrote: Befade wrote: Julie Christie? She can't even comb her hair!
Thank you, Connie White. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 9:44 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| Boy I hope lissa loves that movie. That's why I am usually hesitant to recommend movies to people: having to explain my enthusiasm for it after they are disappointed. Of course, I shouldn't worry about that. After all, there's gonna be nothin' left in our graves except Clorox bottles and plastic fly swatters with red dots on 'em. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:39 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Well, Marantz tricked me into watching Murder by Contract. Actually it was okay, but seemed a lot like a slightly more nasty version of an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode. Where you have to suspend your disbelief and allow the film to play out as it does, and overlook the unlikeliness of the character interactions or the ho-humness of the main plot twist(s). On that level it's a fun film, as we don't know what the main character will do. But it's certainly not much of a tight or believable narrative. The direction is competent but doesn't really strive for more.
Lady W, I see that J'Accuse is now out on DeeVeeDee from Flicker Alley. Makes sense, as usually a touring print means a restoration has been done and a dvd issued. FA is a quality distributor.
I picked up today a 2film set by Murnau from MoC. Phantom (1922) & Die Finanzen des Großherzogs (1924) ... aka Finances of the Grand Duke, apparently a class comedy. The great Thea von Harbou wrote the adapted screenplay for both, and Alfred Abel stars. Hell, even Max Schreck has a role in the Duke comedy. Well, I'm excited.
This might just bump the noir fest I've been rolling with.[/b] |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:23 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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gromit wrote: Lady W, I see that J'Accuse is now out on DeeVeeDee from Flicker Alley. Makes sense, as usually a touring print means a restoration has been done and a dvd issued. FA is a quality distributor.
I picked up today a 2film set by Murnau from MoC. Phantom (1922) & Die Finanzen des Großherzogs (1924) ... aka Finances of the Grand Duke, apparently a class comedy. The great Thea von Harbou wrote the adapted screenplay for both, and Alfred Abel stars. Hell, even Max Schreck has a role in the Duke comedy. Well, I'm excited.
This might just bump the noir fest I've been rolling with.[/b]
Ah! From what I can tell, the Rubin screenings are often one-offs by enthusiastic (and connected) fans, so I wasn't thinking there might be a DVD behind it.
I think the MoC box has been out a bit, and I thought it was going to show up last Xmas. Instead... I got a comforter (long story there, although the comforter *is* very warm). |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:33 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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And a question for youse folks, although I'm thinking it's probably a looooong shot:
Last Thursday I stopped by the Korea Society for their Ghost Stories night (1 of 2). The story we saw, Nine-Tailed Fox, was actually an episode of a long-running tv series, but I did find mention of the 1994 movie, Gumiho (or Kumiho, depending on your mood). So - anyone run into this on their travels? Should I go for it although I should really be working on Xmas gifts and I just got a bunch of DVDs?
Link: http://www.hanbooks.com/foxwinitar.html
Image: http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/hanbook_2080_65576610
(they're obscuring it, so no image appearing here)
This is a sad story of Kumiho, a half-human being and half-fox. She chooses a man to use as a tool for her to become a perfect human being. Though she gets to love him with her true heart, she can't become a woman pitifully.
The Fox with 9 Tails is a classic Koran folktale that is shown on TV every year to help people forget the heat and humidity of summer This time, Director Park filmed this story using the latest science-fiction techniques.
This fox is half-human and half-animal. If and when this fox has sex with a man, she will become a human being Unfortunately, the for can not have sex with her handsome, young boyfriend because of interference by a messenger form "the other world" |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:44 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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http://www.flickeralley.com/
J'Accuse is right below the featured Russian serial, in the lineup of 4 "Now available" titles.
Here's the direct link to J'Accuse:
http://www.flickeralley.com/fat_jaccuse_01.html
Flicker Alley is great.
I think I only have their Melies set, which is brilliant.
I really want Judex.
Kumiho has an odd cover.
No help, but Kumho is a major brand of Korean tires and never fails to get a luagh out of me. Kum-ho! |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:08 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| Downhill Racer on TCM today, btw. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:27 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Watched Splendor in the Grass for the first time since 1961 when it was released. It was recently revived at Film Forum in NYC and rather than spending for it there I rented it at the same time, sort of like being there.
Anyhoo...
I was more impressed this time around. I think the movie's bitter take on sexual repression was somewhat ahead of its time. William Inge wrote the screenplay and won an Oscar for it, and now that we know that Inge was a closeted gay man who committed suicide (reportedly partially out of gay-centered self-hatred), the story of two teenagers desperately in love with each other and driven to split up because their parents are obsessed with sexual propriety seems a thinly veiled autobiographical statement.
In any case, Natalie Wood is at her absolute peak as an actress with this role. Wood was prominent in at least four classic films--Miracle on 34th Street, Rebel Without a Cause, West Side Story, and Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice--but this was her only performance IMO without a trace of phoniness. She goes from virginal innocence to desperation to madness to quiet acceptance with a seamless arc that is very moving. And of course she was gorgeous, even more so here than usually. Maybe Elia Kazan's direction was largely responsible for her excellence, but Wood's Oscar nomination seemed deserved.
It was Warren Beatty's film debut, and he was perfectly okay, but that's it. Pretty, somewhat vacuous, not exciting. No James Dean for sure. Wondering why he made it so big. Whatever.
His father and her mother were sometimes outrageously overacted by Pat Hingle and Audrey Christie, but Zohra Lampert was extraordinarily appealing and memorable in a small role whose relevance is in the nature of a spoiler.
Very much worthwhile viewing. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 1:56 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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Quote: wondering why he made it so big.
Bonnie And Clyde and Shampoo for starters. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 2:01 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: Quote: wondering why he made it so big. and Shampoo for starters.
Well, that's true. I guess I was wondering why he got to a position to be able to make those movies. Splendor in the Grass was such a lightning rod for him at the time that I guess it more or less catapulted him into the national consciousness. But the actual performance was somewhat blah, though professional.
Interesting sidelight: the trailer on the DVD has the announcer pronouncing Beatty's last name "Beety" rather than the generally accepted "Bate-y."
Sorta like Ronald Reagan's transformation from "Ree-gan" to "Ray-gun." |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 3:39 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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Billy,
I'm reading a really terrific book called PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION that includes a section on the making of BONNIE AND CLYDE, which was Beatty's dream project. Originally, he wanted Truffaut to direct. When Truffaut passed, he asked Godard. Beatty's pretty boy looks obscured a hardcore cinephile who wanted to make "important" pictures. Unfortunately, his attempts at arthouse fare (Mickey One, for instance) were boxoffice bombs. In order to keep his career alive, he opted for the role of Hollywood heartthrob while keeping his arthouse ambitions on the back burner. Of course, BONNIE AND CLYDE managed to cement his leading man image and was one of the great movies of the 60s.
Beatty was a maverick.
Looking back at his career, he was involved with a lot of really exceptional films, some groundbreaking: BONNIE AND CLYDE, SHAMPOO, McCABE And MRS. MILLER, THE PARALLAX VIEW, REDS, BULWORTH. While not great movies, HEAVEN CAN WAIT, BUGSY and one of my guilty pleasures ISHTAR are nothing to be ashamed of. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 3:54 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Wow, Five Against the House (1955) is wildly entertaining. I enjoyed the goofy casual set-up, with a four buddies at college (Midwestern University!) in a sort of 50's film proto-Animal House. And the one guy's girl is Kim Novak who starts a gig as a lounge/jazz singer in a nightclub. Two of them are Korean War vets, with one disordered from post-traumatic stress.
So the film has it all: lots of wisecracking and cheesy pick-up lines, swankness and romance, baked with 50's psychological melodrama.
Oh yeah, then they all go to Reno to pull a casino heist. And the foolproof plan is so ludicrously brilliant it had me laughing out loud for minutes. There's even the famous shot from The Graduate of Anne Bancroft with her naked leg up and Dustin Hoffman framed below, only a dozen years earlier and with Kim Novak's leg.
Jeez, that was fun. Take a bow Phil Karlson* and Stirling Silliphant.** I think if anyone wants to study the 1950's they should just watch this movie and they'll be ready move on to the next decade.
* Man, I really need to see The Phenix City Story now.
** The writer of The Lineup and all sorts of other good ish. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:45 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Marc,
In their essay "Lightening in a Bottle" Newman and Benton say they are the ones who wanted Truffaut, and then tried for Godard (who wanted to do it and suggested shooting start...about a week after they first met him; it terrified them and they said no). Penn and Beatty came later.
Doesn't make their account true, but it should probably be considered. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:50 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Billy,
Beatty was generally considered the sexiest man alive, and that's what he had going for him. Obviously you don't agree, and I don't either, but the man didn't have an intruder-proof bedroom for nothing. As to the producer angle, it was an era when most actors were forming their own production companies and assembling their own projects. A lot of them had been around for decades, and Beaty was just starting, but as that was the direction the industry was going in at the time, its not surprising that he followed suit. I think his reputation as a producer was bigger because he was full of hot air. The others largely wanted to make action movies and westerns and didn't talk about art. Beatty always aspired to be an intellectual, and he wanted it known that the movies he produced as vehicles were more than empty vehicles. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:04 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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| Joe, that's true to a degree. But, Beatty's involvement was early on. He met with Truffaut to discuss acting in FARENHEIT 451. Truffaut turned Beatty on to Benton and Newman's script for BONNIE AND CLYDE. There was discussion of all of them working on the film at the time. Godard and Truffaut both met Beatty and Arthur Penn when they visited the set of MICKEY ONE. So, there was a connection between Beatty and Truffaut and Godard prior to Beatty being offered BONNIE AND CLYDE. Beatty was interested in B&C when he heard that the two French directors were considering the film. Or something like that. The point is Beatty wanted to make artful movies. |
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