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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:28 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| After seeing Splendor in the Grass again fairly recently, I still think the best thing about it is the wonderful one-scene performance (the last scene in the movie) by Zohra Lampert. I thought so in 1961 and I think so again in 2011. Without Lampert's artistry, the crucial denouement would fall flat. With Lampert it succeeds. Kazan cast and directed her beautifully, and she delivered in spades. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:36 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Lampert is in an earlier scene, where she takes an interest in Beatty at her folks restaurant.
Splendor reminded me of a number of other films. Even that ending is reminiscent of Humbert finding Lolita married, pregnant and living on a farm. Definite echoes of a number of Paul Newman and Brando films of the era (though I'd need to check which films preceded and which followed). |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:41 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: Lampert is in an earlier scene, where she takes an interest in Beatty at her folks restaurant.
Splendor reminded me of a number of other films. Even that ending is reminiscent of Humbert finding Lolita married, pregnant and living on a farm. Definite echoes of a number of Paul Newman and Brando films of the era (though I'd need to check which films preceded and which followed).
gromit--Right on both counts, the earlier Lampert appearance and--very interesting insight--the Lolita comparison. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:12 am |
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When Dwight Macdonald was leaving a screening of Splendor In the Grass he was handed a questionnaire on his thoughts about the movie. One of the questions was, "Do you think that anyone 16 years old or younger should be allowed to see this movie?"
He answered that no one over the age of 16 should be allowed to see this movie. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:14 am |
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| That comment was--like much of what Macdonald wrote--unnecessarily snarky and juvenile. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:15 am |
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| No, it was very funny and IMO on the mark. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:44 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| If Splendor in the Grass had been a truly wretched film I might agree with you, but at worst it was overwrought and somewhat uneven, with fine sequences. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:47 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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gromit wrote: I think The General is overpraised.
After our thread and this comment, I felt moved to watch the movie again, especially since it streams on Netflix. Delighted to report that I don't think gromit could be farther off the mark. The General is if anything even better than I had remembered. Unbelievable that so much humor and excitement could be packed into 75 tight minutes. A truly great film, one of the best ever. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:15 pm |
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billyweeds wrote: If Splendor in the Grass had been a truly wretched film I might agree with you, but at worst it was overwrought and somewhat uneven, with fine sequences.
No it wasn't wretched and there were some scenes that were well done, but I don't remember any of them including Wood or Beatty. It was a movie for a teenage audience, especially teenage females.
At least it wasn't in All The Fine Young Cannibals territory. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:26 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Ah, yes, All the Fine Young Cannibals!!! A campfest par excellence. Four horrific performances by four pieces of plastic mouthing purple dialogue. Susan Kohner has partially redeemed herself by giving birth to the Weitz brothers, who have produced American Pie, About a Boy, and (this year) the underseen A Better Life.
As for Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, and George Hamilton--no redemption yet. 
How did Pearl Bailey get involved with that crap? Mysteries of the cinema. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:04 pm |
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On my latest viewing of Murder By Contract
Having seen it a few times, though many years ago, the suspense wasn't there of course, like it was the first time I saw it. The editing was unusual and that really impressed me when I first saw it and still did. The acting was also a little off centre but it grows on you except for one character that was some of the worst acting I've seen and it annoyed me just as much the first time I saw it. The woman who plays the drunk who used to work for the target is way beyond bad. I can't understand why they didn't change the actress. Maybe short on money.
I did enjoy it and as a film noir it is unique. I would almost call it "camp noir". The guitar background was perfect.
Claude (Vince Edwards) is a very unusual character. He has a girlfriend back home and a dull regular job that doesn't pay him very much. He's a mystery. You want to know what his background is but you never find out. He has a hatred of lipstick and some kind of problem concerning women. He lectures about his philosophy often and you wonder what made him that way. His lectures do make some sense but very often a bit skewed to say the least.
Scorcese tells an interesting story about his history with this movie and the things he found so effective in the originality of how it was shot. He said he first saw it with a friend on a double bill with The Journey as the main attraction, when he was 14 (though he had to be at least 15 going on 16). His friend and he didn't care that much about The Journey, but were bowled over by MBC. He used some of the things from it in Taxi Driver and wanted to put some actual shots from it in The Departed but couldn't find any that fit into the movie.
In many ways Murder By Contract was groundbreaking. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:24 pm |
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billyweeds wrote: Ah, yes, All the Fine Young Cannibals!!! A campfest par excellence. Four horrific performances by four pieces of plastic mouthing purple dialogue. Susan Kohner has partially redeemed herself by giving birth to the Weitz brothers, who have produced American Pie, About a Boy, and (this year) the underseen A Better Life.
As for Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, and George Hamilton--no redemption yet.
How did Pearl Bailey get involved with that crap? Mysteries of the cinema.
I'm pretty sure I saw About A Boy and liked it, but I'll be damned if I can remember it. I did not like American Pie....at all!
Susan Kohner wasn't much of an actress but but I found her very appealing as a woman. She never returned my calls though.
I think I'll pick up AAB and check out A Better Life.  |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:56 pm |
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billyweeds wrote: gromit wrote: I think The General is overpraised.
After our thread and this comment, I felt moved to watch the movie again, especially since it streams on Netflix. Delighted to report that I don't think gromit could be farther off the mark. The General is if anything even better than I had remembered. Unbelievable that so much humor and excitement could be packed into 75 tight minutes. A truly great film, one of the best ever.
It's not my favorite Keaton, though. I like Our Hospitality and The Navigator better.
As far as the Chaplin/Keaton comparison, I like Modern Times, City Lights and The Gold Rush better than any of Keaton's features, but then it's pretty much all Keaton as far as features. Keaton was much more solid than Chaplin as far as short films go. I don't think Keaton made any shorts that I dislike, and that's far from true with Chaplin. Part of that is probably because Chaplin did most of his in the decade before Keaton and was essentially one of the creators of a new form while Keaton had what amounted to an apprenticeship with Fatty Arbuckle. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 6:27 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Just rented The General from the film archive here. Look forward to it. Tonight the university is continuing a festival of short experimental films. Last night was contemporary work, with emphasis on experimental, with emphasis on dangling pieces of wood rotating in and out of view, or cubes, lots and lots of cubes flying about. I liked one called "720" in which a telescope eye view rotates around a beach (twice, as the title suggests) and shows strange slices of life. Tonight is more historical stuff, including some rare 35mm print of an art film made by Jean Genet, so I'll find out what the fuss was about and why it got banned here.
http://www.theross.org/event.php?eid=528 |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:25 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| A month or two ago, TCM was showing some Melies films (in the middle of the night, unfortunately, so I eventually dozed off). I'd seen the "Flight to the Moon" short, but there were some other "magic tricks" and an adventure story in which a prince pursued a witch who had kidnapped his princess bride, over cliffs and under the sea--pretty awesome, to tell the truth. I'll bet it was the "Avatar" of its time. |
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