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Syd |
Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 11:13 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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bartist wrote: Man made good film - even some that crits called duds, like Wolf, I found quite watchable. Loved Silkwood. Obit is fascinating...was not aware Albert Einstein was his cousin, or the anarchist, Landauer.
He made a bunch of good films (and Regarding Henry, proving that he was fallible.) Working Girl was my favorite, and Postcards from the Edge. |
_________________ 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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carrobin |
Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 11:28 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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I'd forgotten he directed "Wolf." The Times shrugged it off but I loved it--there was a lot of truth regarding book publishing. (And that literal pissing contest between Nicholson and James Spader still makes me laugh.)
I remember Nichols & May, and now I want to find that Grammy-winning recording. |
Last edited by carrobin on Thu Nov 20, 2014 4:33 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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billyweeds |
Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 4:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Syd wrote: Working Girl was my favorite, and Postcards from the Edge.
Wow. I thought I was the only person who had that opinion. IMO The Graduate is pretty far down the list of his great movies.
The only really really really bad one is Regarding Henry. It's really bad. Other not-so-hot ones are The Day of the Dolphin, Catch-22, and...sorry...Carnal Knowledge.
Primary Colors is very underrated IMO. Travolta is actually very good in this, probably his last good performance.
And of course my favorites Working Girl and Postcards from the Edge are also underrated. All of Nichols's good movies are underrated with the exception of The Graduate, which is very overrated, and Silkwood and Virginia Woolf, which are rightly admired. |
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gromit |
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 3:56 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Syd, you might find this interesting:
http://theweek.com/article/index/271394/6-tiny-scientific-mistakes-that-created-huge-disasters
I knew of the defective lens on the Hubble Telescope, the O-ring which failed -- both of which were very high profile failures -- and the one where one team used metric system while another used US measurements.
Wasn't aware of the accelerometer being installed backwards.
Or the Euro-glitch due to a conversion between 64 and 16 bit software that caused an explosion. Gotta upgrade ...
Really there's just so many things that can go wrong, it's hard to check everything. |
_________________ Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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billyweeds |
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 6:29 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Just to be clearer about my feelings about The Graduate: I think if the superb level Nichols established in the first half (the half dealing with Anne Bancroft and mightily informed by the Nichols-and-May sense of humor) had been sustained throughout, the film would have achieved the greatness so many ascribe to it. But once the story shifted to Katharine Ross, it almost totally lost me, turning into the most cliched of romantic soap operas. |
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bartist |
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:39 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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gromit wrote:
Really there's just so many things that can go wrong, it's hard to check everything.
Rocket travel, as someone once said, is basically sitting atop a controlled explosion. I remember the press conference where Richard Feynman was dunking a little rubber ring in ice water to show the problem with Challenger's O-ring. A cold morning in Florida didn't just kill orange trees.
Antigrav drives would be safer, but the physics may not exist. Is Richard Branson looking into this? |
_________________ He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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daffy |
Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 6:22 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1939
Location: Wall Street
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gromit |
Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 4:04 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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I've been to Rick's Cafe in Casablanca.
2nd floor, they play the film on a continuous loop.
I happened to venture up to look around just at the not exactly Play it Again Sam scene and watched the end.
Unfortunately things hadn't changed and somebody slipped something in my drink and just around midnight I started to get woozy.
Saw no more of Casablanca.
Spent the whole next day sick in bed. I tell you I was sitting on top of many a controlled explosion the next day.
(okay so it was really food poisoning from dinner the night before, but it did start with my head swimming just around midnight at Rick's).
Of course there was no Rick's Cafe and this is just an replica/imitation -- but it's a nice place and good tourist draw. |
Last edited by gromit on Tue Dec 09, 2014 4:36 am; edited 1 time in total _________________ Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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billyweeds |
Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 7:41 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Similar to Rick's in Casablanca, one of the most pleasurable film experiences I've ever had was watching Sun Valley Serenade in Sun Valley in 1985 or thereabouts. It was kinda meta back when "meta" didn't mean "meta" yet. The movie is no great shakes, but it's unutterably cute, and the setting made it memorable. |
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Joe Vitus |
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 10:36 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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So this is weird. For a long time I was logged out (though I didn't log myself out) and my password wouldn't work to log me back in. Now I'm logged in again (I didn't log myself in) and I guess that means the password is working.
Well, it's the end of the semester, I'm running on fumes and anything is possible. |
_________________ You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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daffy |
Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 7:44 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1939
Location: Wall Street
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knox |
Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 2:13 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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Page started with Mike Nichols death and ended with Pugsley's. And Gromit's food poisoning in Casablanca in the middle. And somewhere in there, the troubles with rocketry. And Joe running on fumes. It's all connected! |
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gromit |
Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 8:29 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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I seem to get logged out 2 or 3 times a year. No idea why.
Fortunately my user name and password are there and I just need to click to get back in. |
_________________ Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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bartist |
Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:26 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Why do Gary's postings now say "Guest" ??
I didn't know you could remove a name from the member list - even my old "bart" moniker is still there after being inactive for several years. But Marantz is gone from the list, and the "author search" window draws a blank. |
_________________ He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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billyweeds |
Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 10:12 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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I would love to know the answer to that question. |
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