| Author |
Message |
|
| Joe Vitus |
 Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 2:22 am |
 |
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
| Earl and I caught Rear Window at a midnight showing tonight. No matter how many times I see it, it never stops being as exciting, funny, romantic as the first time I watched it. The print is from the restoration project done on the movie, but it still looked pretty crummy. Muddy, with figures in the background hard to distinguish. It killed Grace Kelly's entrance into the picture. Considering neither she nor any other woman in the history of humanity has ever looked more beautiful, this is kinda frustrating. Still, it was great to see the movie how I originally saw it: on the big screen. Terrific. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
 
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 6:14 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Wow. So you're with me on RW even if you're not the big Hitchcock fan that I am. It's hard to deny RW. Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, even Wendell Corey--all at their screen peaks. Are you aware that the songwriter is Ross Bagdasarian, who was not only William Saroyan's nephew but also David Seville, friend and "parent" of The Chipmunks?
Earl tagged me on Facebook as being there with you two in spirit. How sweet that was. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 8:04 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Gromit, with age one's memory lags. I knew that there were two Menlo Parks and I found that out years ago I wondered why Edison was the wizard of Menlo Park, when it was in California and he was in the east. I found out that there was a Menlo Park in NJ, something I had forgotten. I'm having a hard time remembering names too.  |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 10:22 am |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
What's also confusing is that Edison worked in 3 different locations in NJ. Started out in Newark (invented a better telegraph and the stock ticker), found fame in Menlo Park where his lab invented the phonograph (tin cylinders to start), perfected the light bulb (carbonized bamboo was the big breakthrough) and moved on to electricity/batteries to power lights.
Then he set up a bigger, more modern research lab in West Orange, NJ where the Black Maria Film Studio was. I'm not sure if the Kinetoscope was developed in Menlo Park aka Edison, or West Orange, but most/all of the film work was done in West Orange. And then his buddy Henry Ford convinced him to move the entire then-dilapidated Menlo Park lab to Dearborn Michigan.
So even though Edison is best-associated with Menlo Park, and today the town is named after him, there isn't a whole there there besides the Light Tower and a rather small museum building (like the size of a bedroom maybe) with some funky light bulbs, a kinetoscope, batteries and not much else. His West Orange lab is a museum, and the Menlo Park Lab is too, it's just in Michigan now. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 12:34 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
| Caught A Dangerous Method - in spite of a fascinating subject, the falling out between Freud and Jung, neither acting nor writing really rose to the occasion. The only casting that made sense to me was Viggo, who made a decent Freud. Knightley did not convince me that she was a Russian Jew, and her performance sank under the weight of a really bad accent, rendering mental illness with a bunch of ridiculous tics and gesticulations, and looking way too English. (was Rachel Weisz unavailable??) The Jung perf was leaden and, at times, soporific. Maybe a kind critic would call it "restrained." |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 3:05 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
billyweeds wrote: Are you aware that the songwriter is Ross Bagdasarian, who was not only William Saroyan's nephew but also David Seville, friend and "parent" of The Chipmunks?
Had no idea, and thought I knew what the Chipmunks' dad looked like. Guess not.
billyweeds wrote: Earl tagged me on Facebook as being there with you two in spirit. How sweet that was.
As a joke, I wanted him to write that I was shooting spitballs at the screen. But, as you say, he's a sweet guy. So he didn't. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 3:51 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
bartist wrote: Caught A Dangerous Method - in spite of a fascinating subject, the falling out between Freud and Jung, neither acting nor writing really rose to the occasion. The only casting that made sense to me was Viggo, who made a decent Freud. Knightley did not convince me that she was a Russian Jew, and her performance sank under the weight of a really bad accent, rendering mental illness with a bunch of ridiculous tics and gesticulations, and looking way too English. (was Rachel Weisz unavailable??) The Jung perf was leaden and, at times, soporific. Maybe a kind critic would call it "restrained."
Seldom have I so totally agreed with someone else's opinion. Every syllable of this post is right on the money. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| grace |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 4:16 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 3214
|
bartist wrote: Caught A Dangerous Method - .... (was Rachel Weisz unavailable??)
Perhaps she knew better. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 4:56 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Saw Bus Stop for the first time--and the last. Marilyn Monroe was inaccurately praised in some circles for this performance, in which she tries in vain to channel Kim Stanley, who played the role on Broadway. (Coincidentally and ironically, Stanley played the Monroe-inspired lead character in The Goddess two years later.)
Don Murray was "introduced" in BS, and was nominated for an Oscar. He's absolutely terrible--over the top, uncharming, a disaster. (He was good in some later roles, however.)
Joshua Logan was a mostly inept film director. South Pacific, Sayonara, this one--yecch all around. Picnic was his only good movie.
Saw The Third Man yet again. Wow. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 5:27 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
| It's odd that both Logan and Hal Prince both spectacular stage directors with a very cinematic approach to theater, yet neither had any gift when it came to directing for the screen itself. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 6:40 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Billy, I only saw Bus Stop one time and that was in a theatre. I agree with everything you wrote. A dud and Don Murray was a disaster. Monroe was not impressive.  |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 11:37 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| knox |
| Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 12:17 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
|
| It does seem clear he would have rejected the script of In Bruges. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| knox |
| Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:42 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
|
| Feeling the restrained excitement over the DVD release of Johnny English Reborn. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:29 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
|
billyweeds wrote: Wow. So you're with me on RW even if you're not the big Hitchcock fan that I am. It's hard to deny RW. Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, even Wendell Corey--all at their screen peaks. Are you aware that the songwriter is Ross Bagdasarian, who was not only William Saroyan's nephew but also David Seville, friend and "parent" of The Chipmunks?
Earl tagged me on Facebook as being there with you two in spirit. How sweet that was.
Ross Bagdasarian also had an uncredited role in another one of my favorite films, singing "I Love You" while a group of men slow danced together without a whiff of homosexuality being involved. |
_________________
I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
