| Author |
Message |
|
| Syd |
 Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 9:53 pm |
 |
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
In Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story, an Egyptian talk show host who is known for her stories on the problems of her society agrees to do non-political stories for a while to help her husband get a job as editor-in-chief with the help of political contacts. So she decides to spend a week doing non-political stories of women's life in Egypt. How could this possibly go wrong, not to mention spectacularly wrong with cannons and fireworks?
The movie has a strongly feminist slant, with four stories, not the least of which is that of the talk show host herself. Oddly, the second story could be a ribald tale from Chaucer from a different point of view, and the woman in the third story is a bit of an idiot. But it's a good and frequently powerful movie about women trying to maintain their independence in a patriarchal society, and interestingly directed by Yousry Nasrallah (who is a guy, by the way). He's had a couple of other films appear at Cannes, but this appears to be his best film, and I highly recommend it.
PS: The last scene is inevitable, hurts like hell, and is amazing. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
   
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 11:42 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
| A friend in Toronto saw this at TIFF and thought it was great. I confess I may have had a knuckle-dragging moment when I saw the "women's issues" in a synopsis and skipped seeing it at that time. But your recommend makes me rethink - thanks. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 1:08 pm |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
Watched Rene Clement's 1947 submarine thriller, The Damned.
A group of Nazis and assorted followers take a sub to South America as the war is winding down and Germany on the brink of defeat. One passenger gets injured so they send a three man party ashore in France to kidnap a doctor. The real standout is the evil Nazi villain who is just a ruthless machine. He really is a stop-at-nothing man of will and action. Even a little thing like the death of Hitler is no obstacle. Kind of chilling.
A pretty good ensemble piece.
The film has a pretty authentic gritty feel to it. They built a copy of an actual German submarine, and they do nice work guiding the camera through and presenting the closeness and claustrophobia of the sub. They also blow up the sub in pretty cool fashion for no real reason to end the film. I always like Clement's films. Well-crafted stuff. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 5:51 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
Teddy Bear is a pretty terrific, small 2012 film from Denmark.
The central character is a 38 year old bodybuilder who still lives with his controlling mother. It makes a nice contrast to see this 6'7" 300 pound muscleman being cowed by his frail birdlike old mother. Dennis is painfully shy and rather awkward socially. Mom is taciturn and imperious.
I liked how the film didn't explain everything but left things for the viewer to figure out. And the observational style made it feel like a documentary and deepened the characters. A lot gets said without words in this film. The camerawork was simple but effective, with a fair amount of tight framings which emphasized both the bulk and awkwardness of Dennis.
There's an uncomfortable early scene where they are both brushing their teeth at the same time. This is topped by another joint use of the bathroom, when Dennis is taking a shower and mom comes in and uses the toilet. Yikes.
After seeing his scrawny uncle marry a young loving Thai girl, Dennis decides to go there too and see if he can find a girl. There's no way he can tell his mother this, so he makes up a story about a bodybuilding competition in Germany. When his mother finds out that her 38 year old son is now dating(!), Dennis returns home to find that she has gone all Citizen Kane on his room while he's was out. I like his response: upon seeing his trophies and computer strewn all over the floor, he just sits down gingerly on the bed and holds his head, as though he feels he deserves this abuse.
I'm kind of a sucker for films about ethnic cultural mismatches, and pairing cold reserved Denmark with hot lively Thailand makes for a curious partnership. It's been a while since I found a small independent film I liked. I guess Ginger & Rosa was fairly good. And I really liked the doc 5 Broken Cameras. But other than that, I'd have to go back to 2011 for a number of small films which were worthwhile. If possible, try to to find Teddy Bear, a really nice understated film. It's on Dvd from Film Movement. I'm looking forward to watching the attached 18 minute short film which formed the basis for Teddy Bear. I think most a lot of Film Movement films are available on Netflix streaming. |
Last edited by gromit on Thu Aug 29, 2013 3:17 am; edited 1 time in total
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2013 7:42 pm |
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
|
| I love you guys and your eclectic viewing habits. |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 4:16 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
Film Movement and Trigon Films (from Switzerland?) are my two go to sources for small budget international films. They can be a little hit or miss, but both carry a lot of interesting well-crafted films which would otherwise fly under the radar.
Film Movement has a "circle of friends" thing where you subscribe and they send you a film a month. But they also sell individual titles. I like how they package each film with a related short film. One such short featured billyweeds getting snuffed out in post-apocalyptic Brooklyn. Recently, I caught a few films where the short formed the basis for the feature film. Which is interesting to compare and contemplate.
The short film Dennis, which was the precursor to Teddy Bear, is what I would expect -- a good short which is improved upon in development to a feature. The short has the same actors playing Dennis and his mother. Dennis' stunted emotional growth is a little overplayed, as when he rides a bicycle to go out on a date. It's a good visual moment, this huge hulking man on a small mountain bike. But a little heavy-handed in suggesting he's still his mama's little boy. In the feature film he drives a station wagon, a good family car, possibly his mother's.
In the short, his mother tells him twice he's just like his father (once in the feature film and worked in better), and then the yikes moment is when he comes in to his mother's room at night while she's reading. I thought he was going to tell her he lied about where he went that night (he had a date!), but instead asks his mother if he can sleep with her. She says sure, and he climbs in bed. Erg! |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 8:22 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
jeremy wrote: I love you guys and your eclectic viewing habits.
2nd that!
Gromit, have you seen the Danish film, "The Hunt" ? Fairly recent, with Mikkelsen as a kindgarten teacher wrongly accused (the film makes this clear, so you are firmly in his corner) of pedophilia. Very well done. Sweden and Denmark really seem to be having a renaissance lately - tons of good celluloid. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 1:22 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
I've heard some good things about The Hunt.
Hope it turns up here. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 11:54 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
Watched an incredibly crappy print of Otto Preminger's movie of Porgy and Bess. Of course it has to be a crappy print since neither the Gershwin or Haywood estates will allow the movie to be released. The movie is famous for being too sanitized, for being filmed in long static takes that slow down the action, and for dubbing about half its cast.
All this is true, but I confess I enjoyed it quite a bit, much more than I enjoyed Preminger's Carmen Jones, with basically the same cast. I was most worried about Sammy Davis, Jr. as Sportin' Life, but he's really good. Sidney Poitier is surprisingly well cast as Porgy, and recently I've done a 180 on Dorothy Dandridge; I used to think she was a blandly attractive starlet, but now I'm really impressed with her performances, including her Bess. Pearl Baily plays a role called Maria that really has only the slimmest connection to the character who goes by the same name in the opera. She's terrific. As is an unfortunately dubbed Diahann Carroll (the dubbed voice is lovely, but Carroll didn't need any dubbing). The supporting cast is all good. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 12:43 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
Yeah, I have a public domainy copy of P&B around here.
One thing I should add about Teddy Bear.
It knew when to end. I said to myself this is the right place to end the film, And, 5 .. 4 .. 3 .. 2 .. 1 .. fade to black.
Plus, right at the 1:30 mark, which is my default preference.
The director just had a good sense of how to handle and present the material. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 7:17 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
gromit wrote: Yeah, I have a public domainy copy of P&B around here.
One thing I should add about Teddy Bear.
It knew when to end. I said to myself this is the right place to end the film, And, 5 .. 4 .. 3 .. 2 .. 1 .. fade to black.
Plus, right at the 1:30 mark, which is my default preference.
The director just had a good sense of how to handle and present the material.
In the middle of watching Teddy Bear. A terrific movie which...
ATTENTION, JOE...
streams on Netflix. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 7:20 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| Joe--Surprised you had that initial reaction to Dandridge. In Carmen Jones she is amazing--sexy, vivacious, sexy, evil, and sexy--and does one of the best jobs of lip-synching I've ever seen. In Porgy and Bess she is less amazing but still good. In her early appearances as a singer-dancer she is charismatic IMO. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:35 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
| Although I'd already seen Carmen Jones, I think James Baldwin's vicious comments on her in both it and Porgy really influenced me. I had to break away from his hypnotic voice to judge her for myself. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 9:17 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Joe Vitus wrote: Although I'd already seen Carmen Jones, I think James Baldwin's vicious comments on her in both it and Porgy really influenced me. I had to break away from his hypnotic voice to judge her for myself.
Wow. Never saw Baldwin's comments. What was the gist? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 10:26 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
Pretty much that she was a lightweight with no real talent and nothing unique about her, that she had a kind of generic Hollywood pretense of "sexiness" rather than the real thing.
What's really fascinating is his take on Porgy and Bess, not just the opera (which he likes without considering it a great opera) but the original novel, which he gives a lot of credit to and only criticizes (if that's the word) for being an outsider's view with the limitations an outsider brings to the subject. A really intersting piece. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
