| Author |
Message |
|
| bartist |
 Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 10:26 am |
 |
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6965
Location: Black Hills
|
| deleted |
Last edited by bartist on Thu Nov 14, 2013 9:35 am; edited 1 time in total
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
 
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 1:30 pm |
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12940
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
Ordinary Decent Criminal: Michael Lynch (Kevin Spacey) is the leader of an Irish criminal gang who is more into being flamboyant rather getting rich, though he doesn't mind that. He is married to two sisters, Linda Fiorentino and Helen Baxendale, because nothing says Irish like Kevin Spacey and Linda Fiorentino. Much of the plot of this has to do with the heist of a Carvaggio painting that supposedly is worth 30 million Euros because this will make his name immortal for some reason. Along the way, it asks some interesting questions, such as why he can walk up to the counter to collect his dole while wearing a mask and nobody asks him for identification or summons the police (or in a courtroom, for that matter). We're supposed to root for him, but I was really hoping he'd get the book thrown at him. A really large and heavy book.
Pretty annoying movie that tries to be clever, marked by Spacey's memorably awful attempt at an Irish accent. |
_________________
Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
|
| Back to top |
 
|
| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 11:05 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
|
For some reason I'd never seen "The Killers"--partly because I thought it was about Burt Lancaster playing a boxer, from some scenes I'd caught on TV sometime. But I watched it on TCM last night and it was terrific, a smart noir with a remarkable cast. The host said that Hemingway called it the best film version of any of his novels, and had a copy of it he liked to run for friends.
' |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 1:02 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| The Killers was definitely a classic film-noir. When I was a youngster I heard my brothers talking about The Killers when they were discussing the best criminal movies. At the time, TK wasn't at the theatres anymore and I sure wanted to see it. We didn't have TV yet in Canada. It was 1950 I think. When TV came, TK was on the tube and I finally saw it. Watched it a number of times over the years. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 1:04 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| The Hemingway story made up only the framing device for the film. It was a short story about the Lancaster character and the people who were planning to take him out. The whole rest of the movie was new. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 2:01 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
|
I thought the host said novel, but maybe he said story. It was a good one, whatever it took to put it together.
A friend just sent me this clip of a Cirque du Soleil number that happened during the Oscars. Why it didn't make the broadcast, I don't know. It's pretty impressive.
http://www.twitvid.com/embed.php?guid=L558O&autoplay=0 |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 2:24 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
carrobin wrote: I thought the host said novel, but maybe he said story. It was a good one, whatever it took to put it together.
The host may well have said "novel." If so, the host was wrong. Happens. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 4:09 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| The only things I ever liked of Hemingway's writing were his short stories. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 1:53 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
|
Kurosawa's "Red Beard" (1965) is 3 hours and 5 minutes long. I thought I would have to fast-forward it several times, but I just couldn't. Every scene is a gem. It is about a senior physician, fierce but with a heart of gold, and his young arrogant intern. It tells the stories of four patients, each sensitively presented. One of the stories is actually a Russian import from the pen of Dostoevsky. It is set in 19th century Edo (now called Tokyo). This is Kurosawa's last black-and-white movie, and his last collaboration with Toshiro Mifune.
. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 1:21 am |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
|
Was watching more Warner pre-Codes from the same set as The Hatchet Man (Forbidden Hollywood Vol 7).
Employees Entrance is pretty good.
Loretta Young really lustrous and the film does a nice job of making a department store seem like a whole world. With Warren William as a self-absorbed jerk running the business.
Ex-Lady came off pretty dated, with Bette Davis as a fashion artist who eschews marriage, even after she gets married. The conceit is that these modern young people think they can buck tradition but fall into all the old traps and ultimately want to be a staid married couple. Bette Davis has odd posture but a nice delivery. Never a favorite of mine.
Haven't gotten to Skyscraper Souls yet. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 9:44 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6965
Location: Black Hills
|
| Kind of cool how Tokyo was named. Kyo means "capital." "To" is a generic directional stem - put it at the end and you get Kyoto, "western capital." Put it in front and you get "eastern capital." Red Beard must be set before 1868, which is when the shogunate fell. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:45 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
|
Basically the same in China, where Beijing literally means Northern Capital.
While Nanjing means Southern Capital.
China is a big country and has had many capitals during its history.
Beijing is in such an odd location, way up in the cold north near the Great Wall, because it was established as a capital by the Mongols during their 100 year reign known as the Yuan Dynasty. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| yambu |
| Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 8:54 pm |
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
|
| I would bet that everyone here has seen Bagdad Cafe. This was my third time. The unlikely force for spreading love is an overweight frauline who suddenly walks out of the American desert and into the seedy Bagdad Cafe. There's trouble all around, but she sends it all packing. |
_________________
That was great for you. How was it for me? |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 10:01 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
marantzo wrote: The only things I ever liked of Hemingway's writing were his short stories.
His short stories are generally superior (and he does a 180 from the sexism of his novels--generally men in the short stories are incompetent assholes and the women are smarter, surer, and morally superior, though often not in a position to do anything about the situations they are in), but don't discount The Sun Also Rises or (on a lesser plane) A Farewell to Arms. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 10:09 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
|
Loved "Bagdad Cafe." We had it for our film class, and I'd never seen the two actresses before. They were great, as was Jack Palance. Wouldn't mind seeing that again.
I saw "Red River" for the first time this past weekend, on TCM. Another film I knew only a little about, and it turned out to be more than I anticipated. It's too bad it wasn't in color--but the black-and-white cinematography was beautiful anyway. (Tonight TCM was showing "Gunfight at the OK Corral," and I watched a bit of it just because I love the color scenery the characters are riding through. As well as the well-matched egos of Lancaster and Douglas, whom I always enjoy seeing together.) |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
