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| whiskeypriest |
 Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 9:30 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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bartist wrote: The Notebook wasn't half bad. I think the movie that my companion and I shredded under the Claes Oldenburg sculpture was the other recent Nick Sparks movie, now that I reflect back on it. Wires crossed in the old neural net. Now if I can remember what the movie was....but maybe just as well I don't.
Nights in Rodentia {Sideshow Bob Shudder} |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 3:46 pm |
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I watched 12 Monkeys yesterday and I was surprised by how little I remembered of it. Most of it was new to me. A very good grim movie. And just as Billy and I thought Pitt's performances was way over the top when we first saw it, I thought the same thing on my second viewing.
I also tried to watch The 5th Element. It opened nicely over the credits with a scene that started in outer space. There was no sound and I thought that was sort of clever, because there is no noise in outer space. That was until it the next scene which seemed to take place in ancient Egypt and people were talking and there still was no sound. Tried everything but the DVD was obviously damaged. No T5thE for me. I took them back to the video outlet and could get another movie for free. I looked around and I found Collector's Choice Film Noir Classics disc 5 of 5 with comments by Scorsese on the movie which is Murder By Contract an almost unknown film with the late Vince Edwards that I've been touting ever since I saw it in 1958. Can't wait to see it again.
Yun Fat our friend from Austria in the NYTFF days (and I believe is a film critic over there now), was also a big fan of MBC. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 8:39 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Purely as a math question...is 12 Monkeys more fun than a barrel full of monkeys? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 9:26 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| My mother would never let me try that experiment. (No scientific curiosity at all.) |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 9:42 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| I'm not entirely clear on this -- your mother would not allow you to watch "12 Monkeys" and then place some live monkeys into a barrel, for purposes of comparison? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 10:40 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Actually, I've never seen "12 Monkeys"--maybe I was thinking of the Three Stooges. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 1:32 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Kes: Billy Casper (David Bradley) is a 15-year-old working class boy in Yorkshire who looks about 12 and is bullied at home by his brother and at school by the school thugs and some of the teachers. He earns a little money doing deliveries for a local shopkeeper and does a little shoplifting, and in the past had some run-ins with the police until he broke with the thugs.
One day he sees some kestrels flying from a derelict wall, and decides to capture a fledgeling and train it which requires stealing a book on falconry since he's too impatient to go through the red tape to get a library card. Training the falcon soon becomes the chief passion of his life. He's nearing the point where he has to decide whether to leave school and become a laborer, but has no idea what he wants to do. I'd suggest animal husbandry, but it doesn't seem to occur to him. He certainly doesn't want to work in the coal mines.
It's often bleak, but its best it soars. There is a scene in class where Billy finally gets to express what he feels; this is magnificent, and there are a couple of others nearly as good. The acting is very good.
This is a Ken Loach film, which means subtitles help a lot; it takes a while to get used to the accents. It was the #7 film in the 1999 BFI list of the 100 greatest British films, and #4 on the Time Out 2011 list. [Loach had two films on each list, the others rated #91 on the respective lists.] I'm not sure I'd rate it quite that high, but I still rate it 8 on a scale of 1-10. My only minor complaint is that at one point, Loach breaks away to show Billy's mother and brother partying; except for one very brief scene, the rest of the film is focused on Billy, so the cutaway is jarring. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 10:12 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I've heard of "Kes" but never saw it. Looks like I should. (Does Billy also dance?) |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 1:12 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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carrobin wrote: I've heard of "Kes" but never saw it. Looks like I should. (Does Billy also dance?)
No. At one point he's hiding from his brother and looks in on a dance class. I was thinking he should change his last name to Elliot.
I watched the Criterion Collection edition from Netflix. This was the first Region 1 release of the disc, and only came out in April, more than forty years after its initial release. Given the stature of the film, this is astonishing, and is probably because of American difficulty in penetrating the Yorkshire dialect. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| mitty |
| Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 2:34 pm |
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Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 1359
Location: Way Down Yonder.......
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marantzo wrote: I watched 12 Monkeys yesterday and I was surprised by how little I remembered of it. Most of it was new to me. A very good grim movie. And just as Billy and I thought Pitt's performances was way over the top when we first saw it, I thought the same thing on my second viewing.
I also tried to watch The 5th Element. It opened nicely over the credits with a scene that started in outer space. There was no sound and I thought that was sort of clever, because there is no noise in outer space. That was until it the next scene which seemed to take place in ancient Egypt and people were talking and there still was no sound. Tried everything but the DVD was obviously damaged. No T5thE for me. I took them back to the video outlet and could get another movie for free. I looked around and I found Collector's Choice Film Noir Classics disc 5 of 5 with comments by Scorsese on the movie which is Murder By Contract an almost unknown film with the late Vince Edwards that I've been touting ever since I saw it in 1958. Can't wait to see it again.
Yun Fat our friend from Austria in the NYTFF days (and I believe is a film critic over there now), was also a big fan of MBC.
12 Monkeys was grim, I watched it several years ago when it was here as part of a thread. I liked it, but don't remember a lot either, time for a re-watch.
Glad you've mentioned Murder by Contract, I found it on Amazon in what is probably the similar to the collection you have. This one says disc 1 though. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 4:10 pm |
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| I will be interested in your opinion of the movie, Mitty. I haven't re-watched it yet. I have seen it two or three times but that was a long time ago. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 8:59 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Watched a South American double feature (over two nights). The Colors of the Mountain (Colombia 2010) and Mutum (Brasil 2007) are fairly similar films. Both focus on a small boy growing up in rural poverty with adult violence and problems looming in the background. In CotMts, the family is caught between the guerrillas and the govt' troops, both trying to get the locals to switch sides. While in Mutum, the drama has more to do with who is sleeping with who, who is killing who, etc.
Both are realistic portrayals.
The opening scene of Mts looks like the kid is running through a painting. Mutum has one very nice scene where the two young brothers sort of understand their family and their isolation in a conversation at night in bed. I liked how the younger boy fell asleep and the older one is left alone, with the camera just on his face, whispering out his brother's name. Given the family context and discussion they are having this works perfectly on a few levels.
These are both good solid interesting movies. I need to get back to watching more small-scale int'l indie films. Lord knows I have a ton sitting around here, just waiting to feel the tingle of the laser on their furiously spinning bodies. Color of Mts comes from the Film Movement Series, which features a good deal of new int'l cinema, and is hip enough to have have weedybill in one of their short films (which always accompany the features). Mutum comes from Global Lens, an SF non-profit, which puts out a dozen or so small int'l films from oft-neglected countries (Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Morocco, etc.). They also provide a dozen grants of $10K each to help such films get post-production work complete.
I'd rec checking them out.
I've been impressed enough by Film Movement that I pick up whatever they put out.
I've seen maybe a half-dozen so far.
I'm less up on Global Lens.
And I should also pimp Trigon Films which puts out some very interesting 3rd World and other assorted films. I quite liked Rusalka, an odd Russian film. And I have a Turkish film and something else in my to-watch mountain.
Trigon is a Swiss company, and not all of their films have English subs. They have French, German and English if they can swing the rights at a reasonable cost.
Film Movement
I've also seen The Wind Journeys (very good film I've touted before) How I Ended This Summer (good) and If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle (not bad); and would like to see He Died With a Felafel in His Hand (great title)
Global Lens
Trigon
Personally, I'd much rather watch a small indie film from some non-G20 country, than the latest formulaic action, comedy, rom-com from the US. |
Last edited by gromit on Thu Feb 04, 2016 6:13 am; edited 1 time in total
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 9:00 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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I'd rec checking them out.
I've been impressed enough by Film Movement that I pick up whatever they put out.
I've seen maybe a half-dozen so far.
I'm less up on Global Lens.
And I should also pimp Trigon Films which puts out some very interesting 3rd World and other assorted films. I quite liked Rusalka, an odd Russian film. And I have a Turkish film and something else in my to-watch mountain.
Trigon is a Swiss company, and not all of their films have English subs. They have French, German and English if they can swing the rights at a reasonable cost.
Global Lens
Trigon
Film Movement
From FIlm Movement, I've also seen The Wind Journeys (very good film I've touted before) How I Ended This Summer (good), Alamar (good); and If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle (not bad); and would like to see He Died With a Felafel in His Hand (great title)
Personally, I'd much rather watch a small indie film from some semi=obscure country (at least in cinematic terms), than the latest formulaic action, comedy, rom-com from the US. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 9:09 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| The Pineapple Express -- was on the shelf at the library yesterday. Elevates stupidity and crudity to an art form, resulting in an entertaining spoof of the actioner. "Rear Window" with potheads. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 11:52 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| I was going to complain that S. American film should be more accessible, but went to Netflix and found it has The Colors of the Mountain both DVD and streaming. Wow. BTW...what the title of the short feature with Weeds? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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