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| Syd |
 Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 9:25 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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gromit wrote: I never heard of Down to the Sea in Ships.
Kind of a clunky title there.
I'd like to see more Clara Bow films.
It's from Psalm 107, King James version:
23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
24 These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.
Other versions translate it as "out on the sea in ships." Agreed, it's clunky, although a nice psalm. There's another movie from the 1940s with the same title that is not a remake. |
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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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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 10:23 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| I don't find "down to the sea in ships" clunky in the slightest. In fact, I think it's beautiful and poetic. Well, that's a horse race for you. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 11:47 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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It's nice in the psalm (I didn't know LeBron James was writing psalms!)
But as a movie title it comes off as awkward. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 12:50 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Liberal Arts is a simply lovely movie, not quite a love story but almost, about a 35-year-old college graduate who returns to his alma mater for a retirement celebration for one of his favorite profs and remains to forge a relationship with a 19-year-old sophomore based on their mutual love for classical music and their skill at old-fashioned letter-writing. Written and directed by--and starring--Josh Radnor as the 35-year-old and co-starring Elizabeth Olsen as the sophomore, it's charming to the max. A trifle twee--but, seriously, just a trifle--but poignant and uncommonly wise. Radnor is a very talented man and Olsen is a star to her fingertips. The prof is Richard Jenkins and the cast also features Allison Janney and Zac Efron. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Fri Oct 31, 2014 12:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 12:50 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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One AH Presents S5 episode has a young Suzanne Pleshette as a good girl intrigued by bad boys. Her guardian is an upright/uptight solid citizen confronted with a young hoodlum type. She's sort of a bobby-soxer, and quite charming.
When I was a teen, I thought my girlfriend's mother looked a bit like Pleshette -- and the young Pleshette here looks a good deal like my old girlfriend did back then. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 1:10 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6944
Location: Black Hills
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billyweeds wrote: Liberal Arts is a simply lovely movie, not quite a love story but almost, about a 35-year-old college graduate who returns to his alma mater for a retirement celebration for one of his favorite profs and remains to forge a relationship with a 19-year-old sophomore based on their mutual love for classical music and their skill at old-fashioned letter-writing. Written and directed by--and starring--Josh Radnor as the 35-year-old and co-starring Elizabeth Olsen as the sophomore, it's charming to the max. A trifle twee--but, seriously, just a trifle--but poignant and uncommonly wise. Radnor is a very talented man and Olsen is a star to her fingertips. The prof is Richard Jenkins and the cast also features Allison Janney and Zac Efron.
I saw this a year or so back, and my initial feeling was "this could really suck!" - but then it managed to keep its twee largely in check and was as charming as you describe. I think what aroused a deep bias in favor of the movie was the bit about letter writing, a traditional art that I believe in saving. It is really a lovely movie. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 2:12 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| "Someone wrote a letter? You mean like A, B, C?" --Kelly Ripa as Kim Kardashian on this morning's Halloween show. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 4:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: One AH Presents S5 episode has a young Suzanne Pleshette as a good girl intrigued by bad boys. Her guardian is an upright/uptight solid citizen confronted with a young hoodlum type. She's sort of a bobby-soxer, and quite charming.
When I was a teen, I thought my girlfriend's mother looked a bit like Pleshette -- and the young Pleshette here looks a good deal like my old girlfriend did back then.
Pleshette and Hitchcock also teamed up for The Birds, a movie I don't particularly love but which IMO Pleshette steals. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:57 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6944
Location: Black Hills
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billyweeds wrote: gromit wrote: One AH Presents S5 episode has a young Suzanne Pleshette as a good girl intrigued by bad boys. Her guardian is an upright/uptight solid citizen confronted with a young hoodlum type. She's sort of a bobby-soxer, and quite charming.
When I was a teen, I thought my girlfriend's mother looked a bit like Pleshette -- and the young Pleshette here looks a good deal like my old girlfriend did back then.
Pleshette and Hitchcock also teamed up for The Birds, a movie I don't particularly love but which IMO Pleshette steals.
Well, it's normal for actors in a given film to establish some kind of pecking order.
-- happy Hallowe'en, everyone! |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 7:07 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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I saw Liberal Arts a while back. A friend's son went to the college: Kenyon in Ohio. I went there for his wedding. sweet little college town.
I'm wondering if anyone will make a movie of the book Stoner by John Williams. It's a very piercing view of academic life 50 years ago in Missouri. An unforgettable portrait of a professor with a few woes. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 10:25 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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I'm so glad finally to have seen Cleo from 5 to 7. An aspiring, temperamental singer will learn at 5PM that day whether she has cancer. She pouts in her oversized bed, and as usual her agent flatters her with pecking kisses. She gets up to practice with two truly brilliant musicians and lyricists. Not just today but always, she sabotages the rehearsal, except that now there is working a terror unknown to them but her.
Later in a park she meets an infantry soldier back from Algeria. He's on the hunt, and she knows it. He pursues her, and with death on her mind, she grows to like him. The wonderful thing about their meeting is that it grows apace. We come to like the soldier as she does. Never have I seen such budding love so perfectly married to the screen and its audience. |
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That was great for you. How was it for me? |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 10:35 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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| I think I've seen Cleo 3x and it's still hard to pinpoint exactly why it works so well ... |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 11:30 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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yambu wrote: I'm so glad finally to have seen Cleo from 5 to 7. An aspiring, temperamental singer will learn at 5PM that day whether she has cancer. She pouts in her oversized bed, and as usual her agent flatters her with pecking kisses. She gets up to practice with two truly brilliant musicians and lyricists. Not just today but always, she sabotages the rehearsal, except that now there is working a terror unknown to them but her.
Later in a park she meets an infantry soldier back from Algeria. He's on the hunt, and she knows it. He pursues her, and with death on her mind, she grows to like him. The wonderful thing about their meeting is that it grows apace. We come to like the soldier as she does. Never have I seen such budding love so perfectly married to the screen and its audience.
The whole film takes place in real time, which, since it takes place in 90 minutes, give you a hint that something's going to happen that will resolve the plot. I love the movie, including the scenes with the soldier, and the creative use of mirrors in the restaurant scene (an idea that shows up again in "The Beaches if Agnes," and some of her other films). |
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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: Sat Nov 01, 2014 11:32 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6944
Location: Black Hills
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Added Cleo to my list. Thank you.
Anyone in search of Hallowe'en fare, or just a good indie generally, should consider the Canadian film "Pontypool," which concerns a small town radio station trying to keep up with a breaking story of townspeople overthrown by a virus which is not biological, but semantic. Stephen McHattie, as the silver-tongued announcer/personality, is terrific. The film achieves that delicate balance lost in most horror/comedy films, between giving you a genuine frisson and allowing you to laugh at our human struggle to deal with the unknown. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 12:42 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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The 3 Penny Opera, the 1931 German version (is there a decent English language version?) is a mess, I think because the original must be three hours long and the movie is 1 hr 45 minutes long, so "Pirate Jenny" is rushed, "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" moves to the opening credits, and some transitional scenes seem to be lost. On the other hand, "Mack the Knife" not only has the extra lines from the Sting version, but a couple of lines I've never heard in any version. (Don't take seriously that he commited all those crimes. For example, at least one of his "victims" seems to be walking around very much alive. The song is about his legend, though Mackie's pretty unsavory anyway.)
Anyway, MacHeath has married the daughter of the King of Beggars without her father's permission, so the father blackmails the London police chief into arresting MacHeath, despite chief being a war buddy of MacHeath (as evidenced by "The Cannon Song" at the end.) Hidden evidence magically appears, MacHeath has to vanish, putting his new wife Polly in charge of the gang on the eve of a bank job on the eve of the Queen's coronation, which leads to the best couple of scenes, the first of which shows how Polly deals with threats to authority (showing a spine of steel I hadn't fully realized), and the second showing her unique, and perfectly legal, method of pulling off a bank job.
Despite this, I don't like the movie. It has no spark, MacHeath isn't that interesting, there are transition scenes, such as a narrator suddenly breaking in, that makes no sense in context, and at least one song that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It does nothing but take up time.
The 3 Penny Opera is based on John Gay's 18th Century mock-opera The Beggar's Opera, which I've seen on stage and is an utter delight, and, on this evidence, and despite the famous songs in the Weill/Brecht opera, I think is far superior. |
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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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