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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2013 1:24 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Black Christmas has been called the real granddaddy of the "slasher" genre, predating as it does Halloween. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2013 2:13 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| All That Heaven Allows didn't let me get past the first hour. I couldn't convince myself that these two were doing anything more than play-acting at love. |
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That was great for you. How was it for me? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2013 3:40 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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yambu wrote: All That Heaven Allows didn't let me get past the first hour. I couldn't convince myself that these two were doing anything more than play-acting at love.
I'm with you, although anyone who expects any kind of reality from a love story coupling Jane Wyman with Rock Hudson and directed by Douglas Sirk is looking for oranges in a hardware store. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 10:58 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| All I can say about Top Hat is I want to live in its stylized version of Venice. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 11:00 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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billyweeds wrote: Black Christmas has been called the real granddaddy of the "slasher" genre, predating as it does Halloween.
Yeah...sort of...but couldn't you say that about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Or maybe more apt, Psycho? Nevertheless, Black Christmas is a superb early entry. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 9:56 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Been on a re-watch binge lately.
Brother's Keeper holds up quite well.
A lot going on. The whole issue of whether Delbert killed his brother and if so was it an acceptable mercy killing. Whether his confession was coerced or true. But it's amazing the access the filmmakers had, providing an intimate glimpse into rural poverty -- how these brothers lived in such close quarters and basically squalor. And finally the rural community coming together. A terrific story, well told.
I had forgotten the old yellow school bus being used a a chicken & turkey coop. And the pig killing scene (yikes)
It's painful to watch what a bad witness brother Lyman is -- so nervous he's shaking -- which hardly makes it convincing when he disavows his earlier deposition testimony.
And this time I noticed how the medical examiner sounds exactly like Woody Allen. Which is pretty amusing when he tries to show off a little and gives extended banal examples which really have nothing to do with the case.
This documentary blew me away on first viewing and still is powerful even when you've met these characters before and know how it turns out. Really a must-see doc for anyone who hasn't see it. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 11:03 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Great New Year's film...."I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees outside!" |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 11:29 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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| knox |
| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 11:36 am |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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I think his quote is Billy Crystal in WHMS?
That, and The Apt. are two of my favorite New Year films. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 12:43 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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knox wrote: I think his quote is Billy Crystal in WHMS?
That, and The Apt. are two of my favorite New Year films. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 6:45 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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The Autobiography Of Nicolai Ceausescu is amazing in that they managed to turn much of engrossing archival footage into boring Soviet drivel. I watched live his last speech to the always obedient crowd, as it transformed itself into a murderous mob. His facial reactions were for the ages. All this is missing.
Having been in custody for a few days, he and his wife are seen bent down, exiting a tank from the wheel encasement. Their last interview is edited to about ten percent of its true length. We never hear from the Missus, who scolded their captors the whole time, never seeming to realize she was going to be dead in a few minutes.
Film viewers also could be forgiven for not knowing they were watching a moment of mortal reckoning. The most telling parts were excised. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2013 3:29 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I agree that the doc was oddly put together.
The quick trial (1.5 hours) of the Ceausescus would have been more powerful at the end of the film, and should have been longer than the few grainy minutes we get.
The whole thing was overlong (3 hours) and kind of numbing.
Here was my take and some of the things I liked.
I found The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu interesting but a bit long and rather uneven. The first half hour was kind of dull and I wasn't sure who a fair number of the participants were.
The next 40 minutes were filled with highlights:
- Ceausescu goes to some large national fair where there is a costumed reenactment of some Romanian medieval founding myth.
- There's a press conference with ridiculously softball questions such as: "Romania and the Romanian Communist Party is the only country and party worldwide to have good relations with every country in the world, even the Communist Party of China. Tell me, how has such a result been achieved?"
- There are big rallies in Bucharest to condemn the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and NC sternly warns everyone to respect Romanian sovereignty.
- Tricky Dick pops in to Romania and glad hands everyone willing to be touched by him. First American president to visit Romania and commie Eastern Europe, (at least according to Nixon).
- Then a big parade which oddly includes simulated sports. So there's a travelling basketball game with the baskets pushed on wheels and lots of people dressed in white acting as the walking sidelines. A moveable boxing match, with 4 guys as walking turnbuckles, holding the ropes. A volleyball match in the parade as well. Kind of zany and more than a touch surreal -- you wonder who thought that up. Some comrade in the Sports Ministry must have been proud.
- Next Ceausescu visits China and sees everyone dressed alike and meets with Mao and Lin Biao (the soon to be disgraced #2, who helped launch the Cultural Revolution but then was accused of trying to overthrow Mao, and died in a plane crash reportedly trying to flee the country).
Amusingly, Ceausescu tries to greet the people like Nixon did in Bucharest, and the Chinese are having none of it. No one interrupts their clapping or other choreographed behavior, so Ceausescu is reduced to shaking the forearm of Chinese who studiously ignore him. Probably no one wants to risk standing out or doing something individual and/or unscripted during the hyper-regimented Cultural Revolution. Intentionally touching a foreign leader might lead to trouble. Or maybe the concept of a handshake just hadn't penetrated into Mao's China yet ....
But after that there wasn't too much that was memorable. I did like when Ceausescu was awarded an honorary PhD for his 55th birthday and everyone goes into some sort of sycophantic overdrive. The opening with some interrogation of the overthrown Ceausescus was interesting, but brief and the video quality was rather poor. I think it would have had a greater impact if it came at the end after witnessing how powerful Ceausescu was for 3 hours.
I assume I missed a lot not being overly familiar with Romania. But the whole 3 hours just left me kind of numb and unable to draw any useful conclusions. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2013 4:23 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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whiskeypriest wrote: knox wrote: I think his quote is Billy Crystal in WHMS?
That, and The Apt. are two of my favorite New Year films. I agree with billy that The Apartment is the single greatest New Years' Eve movie ever. I just also happen to think it is the greatest Christmas movie ever. Because a movie that great can carry the weight of both holidays.
The Apt. is too great to be limited by any category. As it happens, saw Shirley MacLaine on the Kennedy Center honors last night, and they showed many clips incl. a couple scenes from The Apt. It was fun, but the Herbie Hancock tribute was better - practically had the First Lady and Big O dancing in their seats. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2013 5:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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The Spanish silent movie Blancanieves (2012) is 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' fairytale set in 1920's Seville to tell the story of a brave woman bull-fighter. Interesting.
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 6:07 pm |
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Say Anything... was on TV today and had been on a number of days. I was pretty sure that I'd seen it, but I figured I'd give it a go anyway. Well I hadn't seen it. The only thing I'd seen was when he holds up a big radio.
All and all, I really liked it. A very good movie with a lot of plot and good acting. I guess I'm the only one on here who hadn't seen it. |
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