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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:42 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Syd--I adore Our Hospitality, but The Navigator doesn't do as much for me. My other favorite Keaton (besides The General and OH) is Steamboat Bill Jr., which features some great physical comedy as well as an astute comedically oriented psychological portrait of a "loser" who gets with it. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:54 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Syd wrote:
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.
I think Woman of Paris is a pretty remarkable film. Not a comedy, but shows Chaplin's range and interests. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 1:03 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I'm currently watching an anime series on Netflix called Blood+. It also streams on Hulu but the quality seems a bit better on Youtube. This one is fifty episodes long and is mostly one continuous story. It begins during the Vietnamese War when a blood-soaked, red-eyed young woman with a katana is killing monsters called chiropterans but goes berserk and starts killing soldiers on her own side.
Then we're in the modern day, and Okinawan schoolgirl Saya is trying out for the high jump with her best friend spotting her. When she gets home she realizes she's forgotten her sneakers, and on her way back, she is scared by a strange man then a teacher his killed by a chiropteran. She flees to the school, the chiropteran follows her, then the strange man, who throws her a sword. Her eyes glow red, she bloodies the sword and kills the chiropterans. This gets the attention of two groups searching for the chiropterans, one of them to study them, the other to kill them. Saya, it turns out, is the only person who can kill chiropterans, because her blood is deadly to them. The strange man is some kind of assistant, but she doesn't remember him or anything else more than a year in the past. Except when she has a flashback to the Vietnam war. Saya's been high school age for a long time.
She's been adopted by a Vietnam vet who has also adopted two boys; the three kids consider themselves brothers and sister and are extremely loyal to each other; the older one obviously loves Saya and feels duty-bound to protect her though usually it's the other way around. But there is an organization called the Red Shield who placed her with this family (her adopted father is a member) so she can recover her memory slowly; they're afraid if she does it quickly she may go berserk again, but they desperately need her.
This is a long, unusually complicated saga, clearly thought out well in advance since things are popping up in episode 25 that were planted in episode 1. The series is spun off from the one-hour 2000 anime, Blood: The Last Vampire, which was actually set in 1966. It won awards when it first came out. This was turned into a manga, and a 2009 live-action movie with the same title but apparently a different plot.
"Chiropteran", by the way, is the biological designation for bats, and these creatures seem like a cross between vampire bats, humans and some sort of insects. |
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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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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:06 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Watched "The General" last night, and it instantly became my favorite silent movie. There have been a zillion restatements of the plucky-but-clumsy hero, but this one is hard to beat. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:38 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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The General really is a miracle movie. It's really exciting, really a heart-tugger, really a Rocky-style worm-turns epic, and really a funny comedy. How many movies accomplish all of that? And in 75 minutes to boot. Glad you joined the Generals club.
Oh! And plus, it's cinematographically ahead of its time. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:42 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I've seen parts of "The General" but never the whole film. I think TCM was showing it with the other Keaton films a couple of weeks ago, but they went into the wee hours and I didn't see them all. I'll make a point to see that one, though, as soon as I have a chance. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:44 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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carrobin wrote: I've seen parts of "The General" but never the whole film. I think TCM was showing it with the other Keaton films a couple of weeks ago, but they went into the wee hours and I didn't see them all. I'll make a point to see that one, though, as soon as I have a chance. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:47 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I don't have Netflix, though I'm more tempted all the time. (I have DVD disks piled up like books, unwatched, so I've resisted so far.) Maybe my friend who copies movies from the web can get it for me. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:08 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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Quote: Maybe my friend who copies movies from the web can get it for me
Don't do it. Support the arts by paying for them. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:27 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Well, I'm always on the verge of subscribing to Netflix. There are a lot of movies I want to see but don't want to own. However, David managed to snag several of my favorite films on disks that aren't on DVD at all--"Nijinsky," for one. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:19 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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My philosophy is if something isn't available on DVD or is out of print, all bets are off.
Then I will download. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 2:31 pm |
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| Is Nijinsky an American film? |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 2:35 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: NYC
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marantzo wrote: Is Nijinsky an American film?
American, and a bit British. Directed by Herbert Ross. Alan Bates is Diaghilev; Nijinsky is played by George de la Pena, who made another movie or two but then disappeared back into the music/dance world. (Nice kid--I chatted with him after our film class and turned out we got our hair cut by the same guy on West 72nd Street.) |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 2:46 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Quote: "He left Libya with a unique set of problems," Cordesman said. "You'd have to go back to Nero or Caligula to find someone who was able to impose their own personal eccentricities on a state to the degree that Gadhafi did."
Not remotely true unfortunately, but an interesting comparison nonetheless. Not sure that Qaddafi warped his country any more than Mao, Ceausescu, Hoxha, Kim Jung Il, Pol Pot, Khomeini, the House of Saud, or Fidel did. And that's just naming a recent bunch without even delving into Africa (Mugabe, Idi Amin, Emperor Bokassa, etc.).
I think the longer one person heads a state the more it becomes a corrupt, lawless personal fiefdom.
There should be an int'l norm that no leader can legitimately remain in power more than ten years. Though Putin is showing how to avoid term limits and such. But just because a rule can be circumvented doesn't mean it should exist and be enforced when possible. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 11:01 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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