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| yambu |
 Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 6:42 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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The Straight Story with Richard Farnsworth and Sissy Spacek as his slow-witted daughter, resembles Nebraska, in that both are road stories set in the Midwest. The first is in color, and doesn't miss a patch of the sky's quiet splendor.
Nebraska is the sky I remember from my four years in Wichita - black and white, with sky running from horizon up to infinity, like a Flemish painting.
This was Farnsworth's final role. He died about a year later, at age 80. His character is a master of wisdom and persuasion. I doubt if he could've faked it. It was a case of him growing more human with age. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:47 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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yambu wrote: Diary of a Country Priest is one of my recent favorites. I'll get Leon Morin, Priest.
And while we're on the subject, this year's Polish film Ada, about a young novitiate from rural Poland, is achingly sad, until you realize this young teenager is at peace with herself.[/b]
It's called Ida. (Pronounced "Ee-da.")
The Straight Story was my favorite film of 1999. And Farnsworth was robbed of the Oscar. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:04 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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If you're on to religious films, try Mother Joan of the Angels, a 1961 Polish film based on actual doings in a convent. Usually religious themed films bore me -- this one was bracing, with terrific camerawork.
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 7:11 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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Taare Zameen Par is a feel goody out of India, though it could have taken place here.
A student age nine has never had a good day at school, and home is just as hard. Finally, his art teacher sees he's dyslexic, fights the good fight with parents and school, and brings the boy through reading, math and artwork.
I tutored dyslexia for four years, and I think the teaching/learning process in the film is compressed in time, but is otherwise accurate.
A sidelight: There is a lot of background music, all of it terrific. I'm guessing some of the lyrics somehow came from Hindu cultural lore. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 10:25 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| I remember that Taare set off debate about the Academy snubbing India chronically. Critics compared it to Slumdog, which garnered several Acad awards that same year. Taare was ignored in the best foreign film noms. Big mistake. Thanks for reminding me of this exc. film, Yambu. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 10:54 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Wish it were streaming on Netflix. Seems hard to find. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 5:50 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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billyweeds wrote: yambu wrote: Diary of a Country Priest is one of my recent favorites. I'll get Leon Morin, Priest.
And while we're on the subject, this year's Polish film Ada, about a young novitiate from rural Poland, is achingly sad, until you realize this young teenager is at peace with herself.[/b]
It's called Ida. (Pronounced "Ee-da.")
The Straight Story was my favorite film of 1999. And Farnsworth was robbed of the Oscar. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 9:07 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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whiskeypriest wrote: billyweeds wrote: yambu wrote: Diary of a Country Priest is one of my recent favorites. I'll get Leon Morin, Priest.
And while we're on the subject, this year's Polish film Ada, about a young novitiate from rural Poland, is achingly sad, until you realize this young teenager is at peace with herself.[/b]
It's called Ida. (Pronounced "Ee-da.")
The Straight Story was my favorite film of 1999. And Farnsworth was robbed of the Oscar. Fool me twice shame on me.
wp--Have no idea what you're referring to here. It was yambu who got the title wrong. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 9:28 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| Reference to your getting me to watch a Lynch film. Once. Never again. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 11:11 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Speaking of Lynch, "The Double" (2013) is what might happen if Lynch, minus some of his excessive tossing in of nonsequitur and random symbolism, were to take on the doppelganger theme of Fight Club. It also touches on the cubicle alienation syndrome of FC, adapted from the short story by Dostoevsky, and captured precisely in the low-affect of Jesse Eisenberg's pale face. Good supporting from Mia Wachisowska, as she reacts to Eisenberg's bifurcation into two bodies, one the office wonk, the other a Durdenesque bastard who knows how to get his way. (For you Fightt Club holdouts, Durden is the....well, that would be a spoiler, so I'll just say he has animal magnetism and leave it at that....)
Wallace Shawn is also fun to watch, though I feel his role is a bit too easy for him. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 1:48 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
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Location: SF Bay Area
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billyweeds wrote: wp--Have no idea what you're referring to here. It was yambu who got the title wrong. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 6:57 pm |
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I watched a movie this afternoon on TCM that I'd never heard of. A 1966 movie, A Big Hand for the Little Lady. with Henry Fonda an Joanne Woodward plus other well known actors. It takes place in the western days and it all around a poker game, but other things too. It was really good and a lot of fun to watch, with a surprising ending that wrapped it up wonderfully.
Has anyone seen? If not, see it. [/i] |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 9:46 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: I watched a movie this afternoon on TCM that I'd never heard of. A 1966 movie, A Big Hand for the Little Lady. with Henry Fonda an Joanne Woodward plus other well known actors. It takes place in the western days and it all around a poker game, but other things too. It was really good and a lot of fun to watch, with a surprising ending that wrapped it up wonderfully.
Has anyone seen? If not, see it. [/i]
Seen it three or four times. Knowing how it ends doesn't spoil it one iota. Love that movie! Paul Ford, Jason Robards Jr., Kevin McCarthy, Burgess Meredith, the direction by TV veteran Fielder Cook, but mainly Joanne Woodward and Henry Fonda. An honest-to-goodness gem. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:47 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 12:18 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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The Westerner: Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan) dispenses law west of the Pecos, generally on the side of the cattlemen against the homesteaders, to the point that shooting a steer is a bigger crime than shooting the man who owns it. He also has an obsession with Lily Langtry, to the point where he names the whole town after her. Cole Harden (Gary Cooper) is a drifter accused of horsestealing, who gets a suspended sentence after bullshitting the Judge about his supposed intimate friendship with Langtry, then is mostly let off when the real horse thief is caught. He then meets/is beguiled by the lovely homesteader Jane Ellen Mathews (Doris Davenport) and tries to negotiate a ceasefire in the range war. But the cattlemen are ruthless and the homesteaders are pretty stubborn themselves.
Gary Cooper was reluctant to do this because he rightfully thought Brennan would steal the movie, and Brennan won his third Academy Award for Supporting Actor for this movie. You could argue Brennan was a co-lead, but the award was richly deserved. Interestingly, until the movie turns deadly about an hour in, it's one of the funniest Westerns ever made. Brennan and Cooper made a great team together, and made eight films altogether, of which this was the second. One of these was Sergeant York, for which Cooper got revenge by getting his first Oscar as a lead.
Part of the fun is watching Cole manipulate Judge Bean (and a little the other way), and later watching Jane Ellen and Cole taking turns manipulating each other. The rest of the cast pales in comparison.
By the way, if this region is anything like central New Mexico, the cattlemen had a point. It's not a good place for homesteading, and Cole points out why at one point. This doesn't mean the cattlemen should be murdering homesteaders, but there is an argument on their side. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:43 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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The Grey contains some arresting images...not every film offers you the dubious pleasure of watching a man punch a wolf in the face. But, despite some good shots and some good performances, most notably from Frank Grillo as he does some world-class sneering at Liam Neeson's often pretentious philosophizing and wolf wisdom (which some wildlife group rightly called bullshit on), the whole thing seems like an overlong riff on the heartlessness of nature that ratchets all the coldness and meanness to fanciful levels. I think it says something that very few scenes contain actual wolves under the supervision of animal trainers - it's clear from the start that you are seeing fake wolves (puppets? animatronic? who cares...) whose fakeness is poorly concealed by the device of superfast cuts - clearly, you can't get a real wolf to do most of the shenanigans depicted in the film.
Still waiting for Dirty Dancing with Wolves. |
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