| Author |
Message |
|
| whiskeypriest |
 Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:56 pm |
 |
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
|
| Which is to say, the only Emil Jannings movie I've seen is Inglourious Basterds. |
_________________
I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
|
| Back to top |
 
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 10:35 pm |
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
| Dying in that fire really put a damper on his comeback attempt. |
_________________
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: Mon Jun 13, 2011 6:58 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| I only saw The Last Laugh once, and it was decades ago. I remember admiring Jannings's performance immensely, but I wonder whether I'd feel the same way now. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:41 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
| Never seen that highly acclaimed movie. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 9:02 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| Ah yes, the 'I have' is understood. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 10:58 am |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
The Last Laugh is a great film.
Really shows how advanced the silent film vocabulary had become. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:04 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
I watched the 1939 Mikado and can't begin to tell you what a weird and alien experience that was for me.
I probably should research G&S a little, but it was like an anthropological study for me. And the music rather unappealing with an insane amount of repetition and inverted syntax. The plot also makes about as much sense as Japanese people named Yum-Yum and Nanki-Poo (I assume they either just fancifully made them up, or conflated Japanese with Cantonese Chinese, still with some made up fancy).
What absolute weirdness.
I almost wish I watched it with a Chinese person to hear what questions they'd have and what answers I'd give. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:29 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
| I don't think Gilbert and Sullivan were really making a light opera about the actual Japanese. The songs are musical comedy classics, like "Let None of them be Missed," "Till Day is Done," etc. Of course, I don't bring an objective opinion because my parents had a D'Oyly Carte recording and listened to it often, and so I have that attachment you get to music you hear in childhood. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:45 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| "Let None of Them Be Missed" is better known as "I've Got a Little List." Other Mikado classics include "A Wandering Minstrel I," "The Daughter-in-Law Elect," and "Three Little Girls from School." |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:55 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
Not my type of music at all.
I assumed that Japan was just an excuse for fancy costumes and exotic sets.
About the only thing I liked was the way in which Pooh-Bah has a zillion positions and all by himself represents the elite.
On the Criterion Dvd, Mike Leigh has a very good video commentary on the film, the play, and G&S.
That was better than the film. |
Last edited by gromit on Mon Jun 13, 2011 12:07 pm; edited 1 time in total
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 12:05 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Not a fan of The Mikado, but love The Pirates of Penzance and have a lot of fun with H.M.S. Pinafore. Did not like Topsy Turvy, as I've said, because of its post-modern take on G&S.
Just incidentally, my grandparents were among the biggest stars in the Washington, D.C. version of D'Oyly Carte run by the legendary DeWolf Hopper. My grandfather was also one of the leads in the original Broadway production of The Merry Widow. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 2:59 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
| The plot is totally false, so I don't care for it. Pirates is my favorite G&S, as well. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 3:15 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
Watched Who Killed Teddy Bear, starring Sal Mineo, who seems to have fluffed himself for the pool scene. Juliet Prowse works for Elaine Stritch at a discotheque. At home she starts getting obscene phone calls. Who's doing it? Mineo, who takes care of his mentally challenged sister? The cop who's obsessed with sexual perversion? Someone else? We learn the answer at about the halfway point, but it doesn't matter because the question isn't really who's the pervert in Who Killed Teddy Bear, but who isn't? Or who isn't going to be scarred by perversion and become one themselves in the future?
There are great mid-sixties cinéma vérité shots of New York and the dirty bookstores, where they sell paperbacks I actually own...including Mailer's The Deer Park, hilariously enough (it was considered very smutty for its time), and Mineo is attractive but disturbed, as he generally always was (is this pre-Stonewall homophobia: the homosexual as potentially violent neurotic? or am I reading to much into it?).
It's not a good movie, but any picture that makes Peeping Tom look healthy is probably worth a look. The mid-sixties pop rock score--not bubble gum, more like early Beatles, though the title song is kinda like a nightmare Petula Clark number--is pretty nifty. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 4:23 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
You're right: Who Killed Teddy Bear is not a good movie, but your mention of it caused several memories to come back. It's gritty and tough and the cast is interesting to say the least. Sal Mineo and Elaine Stritch teaming up with Juliet Prowse is weird, man. And, yeah, the title song is...well, let's put it this way. I still remember the tune and the first lines.
Tell me, who killed teddy bear?
Doesn't anybody care
That I loved him?
Huh?
Oh, tell me. Where did you see it? It's not available from Netfliix.
It's directed, btw, by Phoebe Cates's father. (Kevin Kline's father-in-law.) |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 4:52 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
| That's impressive, Billy. I bought it from Australia, out of curiosity. It's a Region 2 disc. Not available in Region 1. If anyone has a non-region or multi-region player, I'd be happy to loan it. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
