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bartist

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 11:08 am

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6958 Location: Black Hills

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443354/

"Ecoute le Temps" -- French thriller with a supernatural device that reminded me a bit of "White Noise" -- but better and with a truly original fantasy idea (AFAIK) that oddly combines sound engineering and time travel. (The English title, "Fissures" makes far less sense in describing the film -- "Ecoute le Temps" means literally "Listen to time," with a sort of double-entendre as it could also mean "Listen to the weather.")

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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

Joe Vitus

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 10:59 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston

Watched Rebel Without A Cause the other night, hardly for the first time. I really love this movie, and seeing it in high school for the first time clearly clouds my aesthetic judgement, but I'm still surprised Pauline Kael though it was a terrible movie. It's certainly a terribly unrealistic movie, but it captures the emotional intensity of adolescence very accurately, and I think the performances are knockouts, not just Dean (who's too mannered in the opening police station scene, but to my mind only on that scene). Nicholas Ray uses primary color and CinemaScope better than anyone I can think of. Many of the images are as abstractly powerful as the era's architecture and advertizing (Frank Lloyd Wright, Googie architecture, the Stardust sign in Vegas). It's a very powerful film.

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billyweeds

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 11:32 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Joe--I agree with you about the use of primary color (amazing) and CinemaScope, and about the overall power of the film, yet I can fully get behind the notion that on an objective level the movie is at least partly terrible. Jim Backus and Ann Doran are pretty awful as Dean's parents, and Natalie Wood, Oscar nomination to the contrary, is mediocre. However, Dean and Mineo (and Nick Adams) are on the money, and the whole package is intensely memorable. I own it--what more can I say?

The Levi Strauss company should devote half of its profits to Dean's estate and another hefty portion to Nicholas Ray's. This movie did more to popuarize blue jeans than any other film except perhaps Brigitte Bardot's ...And God Created Woman.

gromit

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 12:08 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

Watched Bunuel's A Woman Without Love (1952). A well-crafted family melodrama.
I liked the way Bunuel takes his time setting up the family and situation, then halfway through the film jumps 20 years into the future and adds a nasty little twist -- good luck arriving with a bad core. And that's when the camera work and angles become more interesting. Bunuel also enjoys presenting the upper-middle class antique dealer as ill-mannered and somewhat crude, while the working class forestry supervisor is the gentleman. Enjoyable and worthwhile as is the case with most Bunuel.

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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

Joe Vitus

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 1:03 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston

billyweeds wrote:

I own it, too.

LOL about the Levi Strauss company. I'm not a fan of Wood. Sometimes I like her sometimes not. I like her in Rebel, but I think I'm reacting to her, not her talent. As for the parents, this is exactly what my folks act like at their worst (which, admittedly, is very rare), so they worked for me. The ludicrous grandmother is a different case entirely.

Oddly, I've never seen The Wild One. I was always a Dean obsessive, not a Brando fanatic.

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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.

-Topher

marantzo

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 1:18 pm

Guest

I was a Brando fanatic and I was quite disappointed with The Wild One. I found Brando and the movie pretty silly. Rebel Without A Cause was fun to watch, but even though I was about the age of the audience that would be the most impressed, I didn't think it was a great movie.

billyweeds

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 1:28 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Rebel Without a Cause is not a very good movie, but it is a great one. The Wild One is neither good nor great. If this doesn't make any sense, sorry.

marantzo

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 1:35 pm

Guest

I know what you mean, Billy. RWAC is great in the context of being influential and a landmark film.

billyweeds

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 1:36 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Natalie Wood was in more classic movies than most unexciting actresses I can think of (Elizabeth Taylor was another). Natalie was in Miracle on 34th Street, Rebel Without a Cause, West Side Story, Splendor in the Grass, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, maybe more. Not bad for a gorgeous but not overly talented lady.

Joe Vitus

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 4:17 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston

marantzo wrote:

I know what you mean, Billy. RWAC is great in the context of being influential and a landmark film.

I think he meant more than this, that it effected him and still does, even if it has many shortcomings as a work of art.

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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.

-Topher

Joe Vitus

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 4:18 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston

But I appreciate your post on The Wild One.

_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.

-Topher

marantzo

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 5:05 pm

Guest

Joe Vitus wrote:

But I appreciate your post on The Wild One.

You should see TWO, Joe. For one thing, Brando looks great as a biker even though his character is, well, ridiculous. Lee J Marvin is a rival biker and he's fun to watch. It's a movie that fits the midnight movie cult variety fairly well.

Joe Vitus

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 6:53 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston

I think I'll end up liking Marvin better. I put The Wild One on my Netflix cue a few days ago, but right now there are still a few Corner Gas discs ahead of it.

_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.

-Topher

billyweeds

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 7:03 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Joe Vitus wrote:

I think I'll end up liking Marvin better. I put The Wild One on my Netflix cue a few days ago, but right now there are still a few Corner Gas discs ahead of it.

I should have added that Levi's could save some money for Brando, since it was really the one-two punch of TWO and RWAC, with the two icons rocking jeans, that made Levi's the pants to have for all hipsters.

marantzo

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 7:07 pm

Guest

Corner Gas was terrific. I watch the reruns often. There are two spin-off running now and they are different programmes but with a lot of the same actors and both very good. Dan For Mayor (Hank)and Hiccups (Brent and Wanda). Brent married Wanda, by the way.

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