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| carrobin |
 Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 10:34 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I'll have to catch up with "An Education" on DVD one of these days. Though I wouldn't like to have her as a teacher--I'd be hiding in the coat closet half the time. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 11:35 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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carrobin wrote: Why did Eli Wallach's credit read "With the participation of Eli Wallach"? Was that his agent's compromise because the studio wouldn't give him a high-profile billing?
I suspect Wallach and/or the agent requested that billing rather than take the kind of lower-level billing the role would otherwise receive.
As for your spoiler question, I would say option #1 is the right one. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 4:15 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| RIP Dixie Carter. She died here in Houston in mid-April, and tonight was the first I heard of it. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 7:05 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: RIP Dixie Carter. She died here in Houston in mid-April, and tonight was the first I heard of it.
I had heard about it at the time, and was reminded bittersweetly of a time decades ago when Dixie was still Genna Carter and performed memorably at Manhattan's Downstairs at the Upstairs in a far less showy style than the one she later perfected. I still chuckle when I remember her sly performance of a song about the ineffectiveness of birth control pills. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 9:06 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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And chalk up yet another performance you caught for me to hold against you.  |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:28 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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billyweeds wrote: carrobin wrote: Why did Eli Wallach's credit read "With the participation of Eli Wallach"? Was that his agent's compromise because the studio wouldn't give him a high-profile billing?
I suspect Wallach and/or the agent requested that billing rather than take the kind of lower-level billing the role would otherwise receive.
As for your spoiler question, I would say option #1 is the right one.
Thanks, Billy. I recalled some discussion at the film class about how some actors preferred a "special" credit (or sometimes no credit at all) rather than be listed too far down the list, due to the brevity of their appearance or the magnitude of other cast members. I figured Wallach had some such deal. (He was terrific in his short scene, of course--and it was good to see him still working.)
And thanks also to you and Marc for affirming my first feeling about the ending. Though I still wish it had been just a tad clearer. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:40 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: And chalk up yet another performance you caught for me to hold against you.
Ironic that Hal Holbrook, fifteen years Carter's senior, should be the widowed one. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:51 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Well it was cancer, not age. It's too bad. She was marvellous on Designing Women, and an earlier Bloodworth-Thomason show called Filthy Rich. I heard she was great on Desperate Housewives, but never saw her on it (haven't seen more than about ten minutes of one episode, actually). |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 11:15 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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This french film (Girl on a Train) looks interesting...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1183672/
A reviewer describes it as more about social embarassment than about its prima facie subject of anti-Semitism (a French girl, traveling on a train, claims to have been the victim of an anti-Semitic attack). Now showing at arthouses and independents around the U.S. Apparently based on an actual incident in France. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 1:03 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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| It looks interesting, Bart. And any movie with Catherine Deneuve piques my interest. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 1:58 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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I found the first half of The Messenger fairly solid, and then it didn't really go anywhere. Some of the dialogue was overwritten ('his shirt smelled of rage and anger of the man he had become'). Also some of the character interaction was odd and awkward -- his superior officer pockets the photo of his ex-girlfriend; he asks if he can stay in Morton's house a few minutes while she leaves to pick up her kid. It also seemed odd how stoic and cold the pair broke the news to NOK's.
One dvd extra was a short doc about actual notifiers, who were noticeably more gentle and sympathetic people than the macho hard-asses we get in the film. It also seemed that a chaplain is usually one of the assigned pair.
I thought it was also interesting that the Dvd included the full shooting script. Though I didn't pop it into my computer to see it. I'd probably be more interesting in the original screenplay, more than the shooting script anyway, so you can see what changes were made.
But this film didn't compel me to take a look at the script. I do hope more films/dvd's will include scripts though. When I have a chance I'll search back and see what folks here thought of The Messenger. |
Last edited by gromit on Thu May 20, 2010 10:56 pm; edited 1 time in total
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 5:09 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| gromit--The overall assessment here was generally much better than yours, but I think you're right about the film sort of reaching a plateau and staying there. I think it's a really interesting, well-made film without being absolutely memorable. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 3:56 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| Morton was memorable and her scenes in the kitchen with the younger messenger (name?) were the height of it. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 10:12 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| Michael Douglas will be the early front-runner for the Oscar. Not necessarily for the Wall Street sequel to be released later in the year, but for the dramedy coming out today titled Solitary Man, in which Douglas gets his best reviews since Wonder Boys. I will be seeing it very soon--it's the kind of movie I race to--and will report. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 11:29 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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You should race to your Netflix account and Q up Seance on a Wet Afternoon. Instantly one of my favorite British films. Where's Jeremy when you need him?
Hopefully I won't need to see another Michael Douglas film ... I'll see how the reviews go.
But Imogen Poots was a standout in the girl-school drama Cracks (2009), though I'm not sure how big her role is in Solitary Man. Now I see that she was also in Me and Orson Welles (2008), but I can't remember her from that film (which was pretty entertaining, btw). |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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