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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 7:00 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| The movie of Blithe Spirit may be stagey, but the stage play is perfect. The right medium for the right "medium." |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 1:15 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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bartist wrote:
IIRC, the doubt about its being pure metaphor lay with Hawkes and the possibility that she, having witnessed murder, would be a loose end that needs mopping up before she spills it all to someone in authority.
Just saying how I read it.
Intentionally, the filmmakers tried to introduce doubt and uncertainty about whether her paranoia was justified.
We see that the cult is dangerous and transgressive. She knows a serious secret of theirs. The leader says in the bathroom scene something about her being his favorite and that he never wants to lose her. At the end, the camera adopts the point of view from across the river as though someone is really there.
She's made the mistake of calling, which could allow them to track/trace her. And this might be one of the last opportunities, as they are leaving the rental house. And something a little odd happens on the road.
Mitigating this, I thought her worries were amped up because she was moving further away from the cult, and it would be one of the last good chances for them to somewhat easily find her. So a minor traffic incident is fraught with danger (in her mind).
Also, we know that home-invasion is an MO of the cult, so we keep expecting that possibility. The car seems to offer more freedom and mobility and a less controllable public environment. If they were already there, it seems odd that they would wait for the family to get on the road. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 9:47 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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I just don't know. It's a measure of her performance that her paranoid sense of things got into me, as I watched developments towards the end.
Finally saw Blue Valentine. Excellent use of flashbacks, going from a marriage foundering, then cutting back to the start of romance, showing how seeds of discord got planted. Both Gosling and Williams are great, drawing us into sympathy with both of them while showing how love, kindness, and good intentions can falter as each comes to sense a basic incompatibility. An amazing work of realism, one of the best films of 2011. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 12:47 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
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Location: St. Louis
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| I liked BV. One inspired thing was having them go to a motel for a sexy getaway, with themed rooms, and the only one left (the valentine one is booked) is a surreally lit suite called The Future. In counterpoint with the flashbacks, it IS the bleak future of their marriage that they have arrived at, with Gosling wisecracking about the decor and such to cover up the deep unease between them. The lighting, alternating between garish and just disturbing, seems to plunge them into a hellish underworld. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 2:02 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Salt Lake City
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bartist wrote: Finally saw Blue Valentine. Excellent use of flashbacks, going from a marriage foundering, then cutting back to the start of romance, showing how seeds of discord got planted. Both Gosling and Williams are great, drawing us into sympathy with both of them while showing how love, kindness, and good intentions can falter as each comes to sense a basic incompatibility. An amazing work of realism, one of the best films of 2011.
I saw this one in the theater when it came out and it was a dark, edgy, honest and detailed view into a failing marriage. The acting was top notch and I was pretty impressed with both Michelle and Ryan. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 7:51 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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Grbavica: the Land of My Dreams is the story of a woman and her teenage daughter living in Bosnia. You may recall that it was the Serbs' plan to rape as many of the Bosnian women as they could, in order to leave them with the curse of mixed blood children.
Here mother and daughter deal with it, along with all the other trials brought on by an angry girl - who craved to know anything at all about her father - and her single mom. I was moved to tears. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 3:28 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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Caught a midnight showing of Scott Pilgrim with Earl. It's still a witty, entertaining kinda touching movie. Michael Cera is still miscast.
Later this month, the midnight show is Rear Window. You can bet I'm not going to miss that (though I'm happy to say I saw it on the big screen-twice I think--before I ever saw it on television, I was 14 then and haven't seen it on the big screen since). |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 5:59 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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yambu wrote: Grbavica: the Land of My Dreams is the story of a woman and her teenage daughter living in Bosnia.
I saw this a couple years ago.
I mainly remember the classroom scene where the daughter acts out. Pretty good as I recall. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:14 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: Caught a midnight showing of Scott Pilgrim with Earl. It's still a witty, entertaining kinda touching movie. Michael Cera is still miscast.
Later this month, the midnight show is Rear Window. You can bet I'm not going to miss that (though I'm happy to say I saw it on the big screen-twice I think--before I ever saw it on television, I was 14 then and haven't seen it on the big screen since).
Glad your Hitchcockophobia (I'm kidding) doesn't extend to RW, my favorite of all movies. |
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| Earl |
| Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 3:01 pm |
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Joined: 09 Jun 2004
Posts: 2621
Location: Houston
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billyweeds wrote: Joe Vitus wrote: Caught a midnight showing of Scott Pilgrim with Earl. It's still a witty, entertaining kinda touching movie. Michael Cera is still miscast.
Later this month, the midnight show is Rear Window. You can bet I'm not going to miss that (though I'm happy to say I saw it on the big screen-twice I think--before I ever saw it on television, I was 14 then and haven't seen it on the big screen since).
Glad your Hitchcockophobia (I'm kidding) doesn't extend to RW, my favorite of all movies.
We wondered about inviting you down here to see it with us that night, Billy. I've seen it a few times, but this will be my first time seeing it on the big screen. |
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"I have a suspicion that you are all mad," said Dr. Renard, smiling sociably; "but God forbid that madness should in any way interrupt friendship." |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 3:44 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| A Better Life is a well dramatized and touching story of an illegal immigrant in Los Angeles and his 14 year old son. Demián Bichir has been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, but he is not one of the favorites to win tonight. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 4:36 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Ghulam wrote: A Better Life is a well dramatized and touching story of an illegal immigrant in Los Angeles and his 14 year old son. Demián Bichir has been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, but he is not one of the favorites to win tonight.
He would probably get my vote, though I also admire Pitt and Clooney. The probable winner, Dujardin, is nothing more than pleasant. Haven't been able to remain conscious through enough of TTSS to opine on Oldman. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:30 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Salt Lake City
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Joe Vitus wrote: Later this month, the midnight show is Rear Window. You can bet I'm not going to miss that (though I'm happy to say I saw it on the big screen-twice I think--before I ever saw it on television, I was 14 then and haven't seen it on the big screen since).
I would love to see RW on the big screen someday. Hoping it comes to one of our theaters here. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:50 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| You get a much greater sense of that "canvas of life," and even in long shots you can pick out an apartment and watch the life there. Very impressive. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:35 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Moved, because despite a segue from The Artist, a 1923 silent film stretches the concept of current film slightly beyond its limits ...
Coeur Fidele[/b] a 1923 Jean Epstein silent. He's best known for a 1928 The Fall of the House of Usher, which I've never seen. Coeur Fidele is a love triangle in which a mistreated girl gets stuck with a minor criminal instead of the dockworker she loves.
Early on the film uses a lot of montage techniques apparently derived largely form Abel Gance. To open we just get glimpses of bits of action -- wine being poured into a, glass in close up, a woman's face, a few bottles in close up, a hand, etc. A fragmented experimental method of introducing the environment and main character.
There's a real standout scene where glimpses of carnival activity are rhythmically edited together. Quite impressive and catches the swirling frenetic nature of many of the rides, and the disorienting journey our heroine is on with the minor thug.
It reminded me a good deal of The Crowd from a half dozen years later (1928), with its Coney Island scenes. I wonder/suspect King Vidor had seen Coeur Fidele.
I was amused at the director's sister Marie Epstein hamming it up as the cripple girl next door. You'd think one might learn to use a crutch a little more effectively if one relied on it everyday. Marie was an actress, screenwriter and director herself.
It's a very good, effective film.
It's pretty frank in its sexuality. One concession is that they say that the thug wants to marry the girl, when he takes her away against her will. But next thing we know they have a baby and we never do see or hear about any (presumed offscreen) marriage.
Two other minor elements which interested me:
- The minor hoodlum is designated as such by wearing a bandana around his neck, which looks sort of working-class foppish. But here, it is shorthand for criminal.
- And at the fairgrounds, one ride has wooden airplanes swinging around. That kind of thing , especially today for young kids, is pretty much a staple of carnival rides. But today would be made of metal or hard plastic/fiberglass/whatever. But it struck me that back in 1923, airplanes were a pretty innovative technology, so these carnival rides with fake planes flying along on cables must have been pretty new and hip at the time. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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