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| gromit |
 Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2013 2:53 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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| I lost track of all the people involved in the film who were blacklisted according to Frankenheimer. Even James Wong Howe's wife was blacklisted and went to Mexico so he could keep working, though he suffered a few lean years before Sam Fuller got him back in action. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2013 7:42 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Temple Grandin's not as prolific as Amazon suggests. "Making Animals Happy" looks like the same book as "Animals Make Us Human." Since the seller was in the UK, it may be the British edition. The other book of hers I've read is "Animals in Translation." |
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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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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 4:05 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Clash By Night. Fritz Lang 1952.
A real good set up, as a jaded woman returns home to her small Cali fishing town after leaving ten years earlier. Stanwyck is real good with the tough witty dialogue. She moves back in with her wary brother, a fisherman, who is busy wooing Marilyn Monroe, in what I believe was her first substantial role. A burly fishing captain falls for Stanwyck, and with nothing much going on, she opts for security and marries him. But after having a baby she's dissatisfied and starts up a fling with her husband's best friend, a pretty callous Robert Ryan.
Kind of typical Lang film, with a woman causing trouble, a naive husband in over his head, love triangle trouble. I thought the first half was great. Good setting, a jaded Stanwyck, snappy/weary dialogue. I didn't really like Paul Douglas much, because he isn't much of an actor but more trying to charm, and once he finds out he's been cuckolded his acting goes into Mike Mazurski mode. I kept expecting him to start yelling for Velma ...
Marilyn is sweet and they toss her in a bathing suit and hold her upside down in one scene. Ryan is edgy but a little uncentered. The conceit is that he sees through Stanwyck's character and realizes they are both tough and passionate, and selfish. And takes advantage. Good film, but the second half didn't grab me as much as the set up. |
Last edited by gromit on Wed Dec 18, 2013 8:48 am; edited 1 time in total
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 8:08 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| That's still the only Lang film I dislike. It's a good thing it has Marilyn to distract us from the main plot. |
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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: Wed Dec 18, 2013 9:30 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Have to read Grandin now. The teetering pile grows.
Five Broken Cameras is one of the best documentaries I've seen in the past few years. The quintessence of "bearing witness" - just pointing the camera and letting us reach our own conclusions. Makes it very hard to respect the right-wing segment of Israel, whose policies towards the indigenous Palestinians are really no better than outright fascist repression. I was glad to see some Israelis were joining the Palestinian villagers and farmers in demonstrating and fighting against the theft of their lands by West Bank "settlers." |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 1:39 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Syd wrote: Ministry of Fear: Fritz Lang's 1944 adaptation of a Graham Greene novel about a man released from an asylum (because he was convicted of the mercy killing of his wife) and finds himself involve in a series of weird and increasingly dangerous events after he wins a cake he's not supposed to get. (I love the way the crowd goes dead silent after he wins the cake.) Lots of twists and turns and it takes at least 45 minutes before things begin to make sense. It reminds me favorably of some of Hitchcock's wartime thrillers; a fun and improbable ride.
Funny thing, I was researching euthanasia at the library (philosophical, not practical, interest here) and the catalog coughed up MoF, among other titles, so I checked it out. In my pile now. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 2:11 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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bartist wrote: Syd wrote: Ministry of Fear: Fritz Lang's 1944 adaptation of a Graham Greene novel about a man released from an asylum (because he was convicted of the mercy killing of his wife) and finds himself involve in a series of weird and increasingly dangerous events after he wins a cake he's not supposed to get. (I love the way the crowd goes dead silent after he wins the cake.) Lots of twists and turns and it takes at least 45 minutes before things begin to make sense. It reminds me favorably of some of Hitchcock's wartime thrillers; a fun and improbable ride. (posted by Syd in January 2013)
Funny thing, I was researching euthanasia at the library (philosophical, not practical, interest here) and the catalog coughed up MoF, among other titles, so I checked it out. In my pile now.
I was looking up nature films on Amazon, and one of the recommendations was "The Owl and the Pussycat." |
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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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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 4:59 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| That explains why my film search unexpectedly showed up Of Hunan Bondage.... |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 5:00 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| It's the Chinese version. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 5:01 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| Double post. Joke not all that funny to start with. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 7:52 pm |
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| A movie that is a favourite of mine and not seen by many people is, Nothing But Amman. The Jordanian version. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 4:20 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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bartist wrote:
Five Broken Cameras is one of the best documentaries I've seen in the past few years. The quintessence of "bearing witness" - just pointing the camera and letting us reach our own conclusions.
Was my top film from last year.
I wasn't expecting much, but it really pulls you in and just dumps you right into the conflict, and is pretty heartbreaking. Sad the way it's such a lopsided game on one side and a life or death on the other.
Two other virtually unseen films in my 2012 Top Ten:
Barbara (Germany)
Putin’s Kiss (Russia) |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 9:56 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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One thing not mentioned is the Hasidic cultural stance on family size, which is part of the reason the settler population is exploding there. The Hasids are trying to win by sheer numbers. Ecologically insane in a desert nation, but rigid religious sects are rarely distinguished for their sanity.
Finally saw The World's End, which has old high school friends 20 years later, trying to redo a barhopping (or pub-crawling - this is England) marathon they didn't quite finish in their youth, while gradually uncovering an alien invasion that has overthrown their hometown and replaced most of the residents with androids. Yes, it's a metaphor, and it mostly works, though it's a notch or two sillier than "Shaun of the Dead." Uses the cliche of the one guy who has never grown up and embraced adult responsibility (Pegg, of course), to good comic effect. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:29 am |
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The Hasids are just another extremist religious group, that is also a part of other religions. Actually some don't bother anyone but many do, and it is an Israeli problem. The government has made laws against a number of things that the religious neanderthals foist on others. Unfortunately thousands of Hasidim came over from the States in the last two decades.
When Israel made a peace treaty with Egypt, they asked Egypt to control the Gaza strip again, and Sadat said, "No thank you." When Israel made a peace treaty with Jordan, they asked Jordan to take back the West Bank (without East Jerusalem which was taken from Israel during the war of 1948 when they were attacked after getting statehood), Hussein said, "No thank you." |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 12:14 pm |
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I saw Broadway Melody of 1940 last night on TMC. I'd never seen it before. What a treat. Loved it. The dance scenes were spectacular and the story kept me interested from beginning to end. Comic and semi-dramatic.
As usual, these early movies always seem to have an ending that should be less abrupt. I wonder why that is. |
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