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| gromit |
 Posted: Sun May 27, 2012 11:39 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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The Cannes Film Festival -- Michael Haneke won the top prize for a second time with his stark film about love and death, "Amour."
The Austrian director's powerful and understated film stars two French acting icons - 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva and 81-year-old Jean-Louis Trintignant - as an elderly couple coping with the wife's worsening health. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 5:22 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| The Deep Blue Sea features meticulously crafted performances by Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston, and Simon Russell Beale, meticulously crafted direction by Terence Davies, and is based on a meticulously crafted play by Terence Rattigan. It's all beautifully filmed and lovingly photographed, with carefully chosen music. If, however, you are getting the impression that I was underwhelmed, you are correct, sir (or madam). It's very studied, and very slow. And not as emotionally charged as it should be. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Mon May 28, 2012 8:44 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 8:14 am |
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Billy, call me psychic but I knew where you were heading. I saw the first one with Vivien Leigh, who was very good in the role but the movie was hard slogging.
Apparently the play when it was on stage in London was a huge success, but on the screen it seems to be, (is smothering a good description?). |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 10:57 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I think I commented on The Deep Blue Sea which I found fairly stale. Though I liked it better than I Am Love (2009), another tale of a wealthy woman having an adulterous affair. It was dull and unengaging and then towards the end it devolved into heap of cliches and tired plotting. Really not my kind of film. All the melodramatic ending stuff was poorly handled in my O. And the food/sex aphrodisiac stuff seems to have been played out in the 90's. Tilda Swinton is fairly good, while the rest of the family is largely underdeveloped or ignored.
I liked Terence Davies first two films -- Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and The Long Day Closes (1992) which are largely the same. Watching them within a shortish period -- a month? -- wasn't such a good idea for me. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 12:04 pm |
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For some reason I think the story line of The Deep Blue Sea and the other one that Gromit mentioned are way past their due date. These are plot lines from the 50's and back. And these would have been considered women's movies in their day. As Oscar Levant described a woman's movie, "The wife has an affair and the husband apologizes". 
The Deep Blue Sea doesn't quite fit that description. Where is Joan Crawford when we need her? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 12:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| All of the above said (and I started the ball rolling), Rachel Weisz is quite convincing in the role, and some of the period detail is terrific. There is a scene where soldiers and their women all sing along to Jo Stafford's iconic recording of "You Belong to Me" which will forever remain in my memory, if only because it reminds me once again what an amazing voice Stafford had. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 1:02 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Similarly, in I Am Love, Swinton's central performance is solid, and the house they live in is an impressive location (some genuine1920's Milan mansion).
Davies' calling card is exacting period reconstruction.
And a group sing-along is something of a trademark as well.
The two early films have a number of such singing scenes.
I like Jo Stafford, though she wasn't that consistent imo.
But her best is truly outstanding.
She does a great Walking My Baby Back Home, probably the best of the many versions I know. And her Stardust is near the top as well. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To. Blues in the Night -- the duet version she recorded. Though on most of those a fair amount of the credit goes to the band and arrangements. I guess I like her interps of swinging classics, and not as much on slow material. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 4:20 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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Deep Blue Sea was worth seeing for the period atmosphere and Rachel Weisz. Somehow it reminded me of Shame.......in that both movies focused on one person's sexual obsession........leading to the morose.....
I liked I am Love more. It had more of an open space feeling and there were more characters deeply affected by Tilda's affair. She didn't play the victim like Rachel......she wanted a happy ending.......and her husband wasn't so nice.....
Anyone ready for Blind Love? (as yet not made) |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 8:03 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Mirror, Mirror is a mess, to the point where I have qualms about recommending it, but I was entertained and sometimes vastly amused. I really liked the sequence when the dwarfs are training Snow White to fight*, followed by the scene where She and the Prince have a swordfight, complete with somersaults, snowballs and kicks to strategic areas**. Being a Tarsem movie, it is full of striking and unusual images, including the animated open scenes, and an attack by giant wooden puppets. (These are the featureless kind without clothing.) Snow White is a pretty formidable opponent for the Queen here, using her head as well as her looks.
This is the only version of Snow White I know of that ends with a Bollywood Style production.
The main problem with this fractured fairy tale is that it's not quite fractured enough. Tarsem tries hard to make it unusual, but he's hampered by the over-familiar fairy tale it's based on. Still, I smiled a lot, and sometimes laughed out loud.
*The dwarfs in this version are bandits rather than miners.
**The dwarfs didn't just teach her to fight, they taught her to fight dirty. |
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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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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 9:08 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Cowgirls 'n' Angels shows what can happen if you watch a movie without reading any reviews first, the first time I've done that since Dylan Dog. There's not even a Wikipedia page. Fortunately it was a much more pleasant experience than Dylan Dog.
Bailee Madison is Ida Clayton, whose grandfather was a famous trick rider at the rodeo. Her father was also associated with the rodeo, but disappeared, and Ida's mother Elaine (Alicia Witt, not a rider as I reported earlier) has soured on the rodeo, which makes it fascinate Ida all the more. She starts hanging around with a group of female trick riders named the Sweethearts of the Rodeo. (No connection with the country duo as near as I can tell.) James Cromwell is Terence Parker, an even more famous rodeo star than ELAINE's father, who created the Sweethearts. Kathleen Rose Perkins is Rebecca, the head Sweetheart who tries to run herd on a crew of girls, some of whom have troubled pasts. One of these, Kansas (Dora Madison Burge, aka Maddison Burge) served some time for petty theft and drunkeness, but also becomes a protector for Ida. Ida responds by finding Kansas a boyfriend, which Rebecca doesn't appreciate, since she wants the girls to stay focused while on tour,
Remembering Ida's grandfather (and Elaine, too, it turns out), Terence invites young Ida to become a rider with the rodeo. Ida decides to seize this chance to run off with the rodeo and search for her father, whose first name she knows by looking in her mother's box of memorabilia. Elaine finds outand refuses to let Ida roam off until Terence drops by, reminisces about Elaine's father, and, sensing Elaine is in straitened circumstances, notes the job has pay, so Elaine relents.
Will Ida become a trick rider? Will she find her father? Will Kansas get to have true love? Will Elaine get twelve years of child support? Well, you know the answers to the first three, anyway.
More interesting to me is whether Bailee Madison is still a good actress at 12, and the answer is yes. The character she's playing is a year or two younger than that. (I imagine the filming was done a couple of years ago.) Witt, Perkins, Cromwell and Burge are fine, and Burge is also sexy as hell. However, this is a family-friendly movie, so she just gets to do some kissing.
A couple of standout scenes: one where Ida is at a dance with all the grownups and suddenly realizes she misses her mommy. (Bailee drops about three years off her age in a few seconds.) And one where she is in an empty arena (aside from a couple of guys with the rodeo) riding her horse and announcing herself as a major star.
This was filmed on location in Oklahoma and Kansas at actual locations and was partly funded by the state of Oklahoma, which is why it's showing here first, and why you're now reading a review of it. You may want discretion to showing this to young girls because they may run off and join the rodeo. |
Last edited by Syd on Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:22 pm; edited 1 time in total
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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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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 10:53 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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| I do wonder about the legality of a girl her age working for the rodeo, but I suspended my disbelief since people associated with the film should know. |
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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 May 29, 2012 8:23 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Quote: Bart...........that is a funny statement. In other words you need people younger than yourself to help you feel comfortable in a theatre. (Or the threat of close proximity to 70 and 80 year olds cannot be underestimated.)
BEFADE: I know you're smarter than this. Please don't put words that are so glaringly incorrect in my mouth. Reread the post, this time for meaning. Best of luck to you. -- Bart |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 8:59 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Fwiw, here's my brief take on Deep Blue Sea just after I saw it:
gromit wrote: The Deep Blue Sea didn't do much for me. Really wasn't interested in these characters and didn't get enough to be interested in the relationships. And that's the whole point of the film. A fair amount of the dialogue felt forced and unnatural. The conflicts seemed a bit too schematic and yet still a bit nebulous.
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On the extras for I Am Love, Swinton says that the film was like "Visconti on acid. " More like Visconti with acid reflux, Though Visconti can be pretty dull too.
She's a real odd looking human. Almost a mannequin.
She can look glamorous. Or ugly.
Feminine. Or like a boy. Or androgynous. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 3:08 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Just got back from "Marigold Hotel" (I never get the rest of the title right) with my mother and sister. I think both of them got a bit bored in places, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Maggie Smith's character reminded me of my friend Rosemary in London, whose husband had a serious illness (he later died) and Rosemary told me that they had a very good Indian surgeon--but, she added, "of course, he's a Brahmin."
What a wonderful cast, reminding me how much more charismatic the older actors are than the youngsters in People magazine these days. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 4:04 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I'm glad you like it. Smith's monologue about being replaced was one of the most satisfactory moments in the movie for me. Though her persona at the very end was too sugary for me, a real misstep, I thought. The whole cast is really, good though, and I teared up more than once. |
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