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| bartist |
 Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 10:04 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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gromit wrote: Believe it or not, but I've managed to avoid knowing the spoiler/twist in The Sixth Sense. I can be fairly oblivious when I choose to be. And I didn't even know there was a catchphrase related to the film ...
Bruce Willis' girlfriend turns out to have a penis.
And his childhood BMX bike was named Rosenburg.
And now we're over the page break.
Where are Gary and Joe? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 9:56 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Just saw "Serenity," finally. I have it on DVD but as with so many of my other DVDs and books, the fact that it's in my apartment means that I can watch it later, so I procrastinate. It was on cable TV yesterday, so I sat down and watched, and wow, it was good stuff. Of course I knew it would be--Joss Whedon, and all that--but it was better than the TV series had been, mostly because it answered the questions and tied up the dangling strings left when "Firefly" was canceled. Nathan Fillion's Mal was the Whedon Han Solo, smart and funny and adept and not quite fearless, not to mention younger and thinner than Castle--not that that matters, of course. It made me want to see "Firefly" again. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 9:46 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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Few series have needed a subsequent movie more than Firefly needed Serenity. Glad you came aboard.
Kind of the opposite of the X-files, where you had 202 episodes and the movies were entirely unnecessary in advancing the Invasion plotline. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 3:23 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Folks should check out the 1959 Polish film Night Train.
It has a Hitchcockian premise -- there's apparently a murderer aboard the train. But its part thriller, part character study, and how a group coalesces and judges. It's rather stylish, and likely to remind one of the French New Wave. But before the French New Wave, there was the Polish New School.
The ending also reminded me of the Czech New Wave which was would also come later.
I forgot I had watched it before -- probably due to the bland English title -- and put it on. Enjoyed re-watching the film. It's smartly handled, looks great and is a good story to boot. If you ever anted to see what a French New Wave Hitchcock film would look like, here you go ... |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 3:34 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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I watched another from the Polish New Wave, Good Bye, Till Tomorrow (1960). This also has the thrown together charm of the French New Wave. There's even an impromptu cha cha cha dance bit on a tennis court a la Breathless' Madison dance.
This didn't really work that well for me. All of the young men seemed rather goofy and mildly awkward. The bubbly girl they all fall for is wonderful though, she really does exude charm and sex appeal. It's kind of a fleeting almost-romance story. I did quite like the simple yet elegant avant-garde theater the lead male is involved with. Not surprisingly, it's based on a real 1950's Polish theater group. basically just two hands and arms below the elbow act out routines with maybe one prop and occasionally another set of arms/hands. |
Last edited by gromit on Thu Nov 27, 2014 1:32 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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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 4:44 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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gromit wrote: If you ever anted to see what a French New Wave Hitchcock film would look like, here you go ...
I'll look for Nighttrain. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 1:48 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Night Train was put out by 2nd Run which specializes in eastern European and other foreign films. Seems the one Polish film studio, KADR, has gotten around to making good digital prints of their films, with state subsidies.
Night Train is good enough that when I realized it was familiar after a minute or two, I was still intrigued; then after 5+ mins when I knew I'd seen it before, I still watched the whole thing. Usually for me, films shot all in one limited location -- such as a train -- feel rather artificial and the ploys to come up with drama forced. But this film carries off the train setting quite assuredly, aided by the stylish camerawork. I think it benefits from setting up its minor contrivances early and then letting things play out fairly naturally.
Watched 2/3rds of Wajda's Innocent Sorcerers (1960), another Polish film of the era. 2nd Run put out a Polish Classics box -- plus each film individually. This film rather grated on me. An smug unlikeable guy (oddly both a pre-fight doctor and jazz drummer) picks up a girl at a nightclub. She plays easy to get, and they go back to his apartment where they proceed to bore the hell out of each other (and the audience). Maybe there's some devastating twist coming, but I'd settle for a building fire at this point. I didn't like the main character, or the opening scenes before he gets to the club, nor the locations or the look of the film. It seemed like it was trying to be counterculture/Beat, but all kind of fell flat for me. Not outright awful, but rather tedious. Maybe radical for the time ... but just a drag on mine.
I should mention that a few of these films have Roman Polanski acting in bit parts. He gets to do the chachacha with the seductive girl in Goodbye.
Just poked in on IMDb, and someone explains that the title might better be translated as Innocent Charmers, which is at least comprehensible. And that it comes from a famous Dziady play, from the line "innocent charmers who poison their own hopes." The lead male certainly does that, but he's fairly smug and annoying while doing it. I guess it's about alienation or acting like an aloof jerk, because women love that or whatever.
The two reviewers on the IM DB also assert that the film is more reflects the approach of Skolimowski, the writer, than Wajda the director. Rather boring and mildly annoying if you ask me. But since I'm on a late 50's/early 60's Polish binge, I'll try to dig out Wajda's war trilogy. I believe I've only seen one of the 3. I think marantz always touts Ashes And Diamonds (1958). |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 6:48 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bartist wrote:
Where are Gary and Joe?
Good question.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 7:01 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Hard to know whether to place these films in Current or Couch, because one is one and the other is the other, but what the heck.
Levan Koguashvili is a marvelous young director from Georgia (the Soviet one) whose two recent features I saw this week at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The first one, from 2011, is Street Days, and the more current one (still making the festival rounds) is Blind Dates. Both have a blend of wry, sometimes hilarious comedy and bleak, near-tragic seriousness that evokes Woody Allen when Allen was still good. The "heroes" of both films are (sorry to use this condescending term but no other will do) "losers," but Koguashvili makes us care deeply about them. In Street Time the lead is a formerly promising guy turned drug addict. In Blind Dates he's a 40-something who still lives with his parents. Both men are memorable as portrayed by a director who must be watched. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 7:09 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Happy Christmas is a sweet, funny, slightly melancholy, and altogether quite wonderful follow-up to one of my favorite films of the last few years, Drinking Buddies. Director Joe Swanberg is a terrific talent who knows how to use his actors. On the cusp of "mumblecore" (a term I've always disliked for its snarky overtones), the movie has heart and soul in its depiction of an immature 27-year-old who moves in temporarily with her married brother, his wife, and their two-year-old.
Anna Kendrick, one of my favorite living actresses and one of the most charming stars since Audrey Hepburn, plays the immature one, and she's able to make you sorta like the girl (she's not quite a woman, so the term applies) despite her irresponsible boozin', druggin', sleepin'-around ways. Melanie Lynskey, the jewel of an actress who played opposite Kate Winslet in Heavenly Creatures, is the wife and Swanberg himself is the husband and father, which brings me to two-year-old Jude Swanberg, who (toddler though he be) comes close to stealing the movie outright. Hard to describe, and nothing if not "little," this movie streams on Netflix and should really be seen. Lovelovelove it. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2014 12:01 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| Will stream soon as I get home from the cran-bird odyssey. If Lynskey is who I think she is, she was also the sole redeeming feature of the merde-fest, 2 1/2 Men, as a crazy stalker neighbor. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2014 12:15 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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bartist wrote: Will stream soon as I get home from the cran-bird odyssey. If Lynskey is who I think she is, she was also the sole redeeming feature of the merde-fest, 2 1/2 Men, as a crazy stalker neighbor.
She was also the woman who was adopting children in Away We Go because she kept having miscarriages. If I remember, every time she had a miscarriage, she and her husband would adopt another child, and they were up to five. |
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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 Nov 28, 2014 6:36 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: Will stream soon as I get home from the cran-bird odyssey. If Lynskey is who I think she is, she was also the sole redeeming feature of the merde-fest, 2 1/2 Men, as a crazy stalker neighbor.
That's her. I know that even though I never ever ever watched the show. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 11:29 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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| Happy Christmas is small, low budgy, sort of close to mumblecore as BW said, and a satisfying and amusing slice of life. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 6:59 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| The Duchess, with Keira Knightly and Ralph Fiennes, is a great late 18th Century period piece. Crackling energy, many power face offs. Fiennes's vehicle into evil are his wide, searching, almost doe-like eyes, which cover for his stony heart. Think of The English Patient. Same eyes, polar opposites. Or Schindler's List, where his eyes are dead from the start. |
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