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| gromit |
 Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 12:05 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Well, I've been on a re-watch binge, which is unusual for me since I have oh so many unwatched dvd's.
Last week I did re-watch Margaret. It held up very well. Maybe a little too much yelling at times. But teenagers can be emotional. It all flowed much smoother than I had thought the first time, making me wonder if the choppy history of its production/release influenced me on first viewing, or if I was just familiar with the story and so it felt more natural. A terrific film.
Others:
Kontroll
Takes place entirely in the Budapest subway. A dysfunctional crew of ticket inspectors tries to do their job without getting beat up too often by patrons and other inspector crews. Not to mention a graffiti artist who likes to tag inspectors, or a maniac who has been pushing folks on to the tracks. I liked the kinetic camerawork, and the misfits are well played. One thing that mildly disappointed me this go round was the girl in the bear suit. She's still charming and mysterious, but really has limited payoff. Otherwise I think this is a fun, interesting, edgy film I'm sure I recommended before.
Diabolique
A solid thriller with a twist. Though once you know the twist, the pacing feels rather muddy. I like the interplay between the small frail wife and the more robust mistress. It's never too clear why they team up or what benefit the mistress gets from knocking off her lover. I think the film suffers a bit from having the headmaster/husband be such a jerk, and so quickly sketched in that he's not really believable. And when you go back and think about how it all went down, it seems fairly implausible. The kids and the peripheral teachers are handled well. French films used to be terrific on secondary/tertiary characters.
Vagabond
Really glad I re-watched this. Liked it on first viewing maybe 10 years back, but thought it rather harsh and bleak and the main character hard to feel much sympathy for. On this viewing, I was more sympathetic to Mona, even if she is frustrating at times.
But I was more aware of the artful structure of the film. The interviews and fragmented recollections. It mostly occurs in chronological order, though sometimes characters telling Mona's story recur out of order, even once the Algerian man just appears briefly in closeup without saying anything.
This was my first Varda film, and now I can recognize her signature touches and quirky style. Such as having a character or two directly address the camera, or the faux documentary approach (Varda made a ton of docs), to the non-judgmental tone of the film (Varda seems to have a well, this is what life is like kind of philosophy), and the compositions. I also noticed how almost all of the characters were dissatisfied, or searching for something, or running away from something. And I had forgot that part of the film involved French plane trees, which line the streets of downtown Shanghai (former French Concession) including right outside my gate. In fact they just dumped their pollen loads all over the gutters this past Sunday and Monday. It's really a terrific film, even if it is rather bleak.
So those are three terrific films everybody should see, plus Diabolique which is solid but I have some reservations about. |
Last edited by gromit on Tue Apr 21, 2015 3:07 am; edited 2 times in total
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 12:18 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Last week I had knee replacement surgery, so I'm at home trying to do my exercises and take my medication, and very glad to have TCM to look at in the process. Today when I saw that "Gaslight" was on, I thought it was the Ingrid Bergman film, of course. However, the star of the day is Diana Wynyard, and she was the wilting victim of the plotting charmer. I saw only the last half hour or so, but it was intriguing and somewhat different from the American remake.
Later this afternoon they're showing "An Ideal Husband," which I'm looking forward to. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 3:40 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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Dear White People has a few good jokes, but on the whole it is a 'B' (for boring) movie.
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 11:57 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6944
Location: Black Hills
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| We chatted about Diabolique a couple years ago. I liked the humor in it. Not scary, but that's through 21st century eyes. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 9:18 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway to Heaven) A young pilot (David Niven) is flying home in a heavy fog and finds himself in contact with a friendly radio operator (Kim Hunter). Unfortunately, his plane is on fire, he's the only crew member alive, and the only parachute available has been shredded by shell fire. (Since the date is May 2, 1945, he must have flown the plane all the way from Germany.) Not willing to be burnt to death, he jumps from thousands of feet up...and survives, virtually unharmed. The reason is that the soul who was supposed to conduct him to heaven couldn't find him in the fog. By the time the pilot is found twenty hours later, he has met the radio operator, and they have fallen immediately and deeply in love. And this changes things, because while he was prepared for death before, now he has a future to care for, she's found something that will alter her future, and Heaven now has a responsibility to them. Should Heaven go strictly by its laws or give them a chance of a lifetime together? A heavenly tribunal must decide.
This, in short, is a wonderful film, with fine performances by Niven, Hunter and especially Roger Livesey as Doctor Reeves who examines Niven with the (legitimate) concern that Niven may have a brain injury. (Livesey's also famous as the lead in "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.") There are lots of striking scenes, including two in parallel: the vestibule of heaven, through which incoming souls are conducted, has circular galleries though which they can look at the hall of records where the lives of the living are kept. (This is particularly striking when we see them from below.) Later, we visit Dr. Reeves' camera obscura, where he has a similar benign godlike view of the living. Then there is the Stairway to Heaven, which in one scene is an escalator which the pilot and his conductor ascend, passing statues of the great men of history, any one of whom can be chosen as the pilot's advocate. And that scene with him in the burning plane talking to the radio operator is incredibly powerful and moving.
The more Michael Powell films I see, the more I am convinced he was one of the great directors, and this is him at his best. |
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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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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2015 12:58 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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That's one Powell/Pressburger film I haven't seen.
Most of their films I think are pleasant enough with a few good scenes, but nothing more. Small Back Room, 49th Parallel, Black Narcissus, Col. Blimp, Canterbury Tale, Red Shoes. Not really my kind of films. But I did really like I Know Where I'm Going. And Powell's solo oddity Peeping Tom is great, and greatly unlike his other films. Will have to look for Stairway, though the golden age of dvd's and piracy has ended, and the selection here is much more limited now. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2015 11:26 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6944
Location: Black Hills
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The Babadook is outstanding, the best horror movie I've seen in a decade. Probes deep emotional truths about the premature loss of a parent and the burdens and anxieties of single parenthood. And it may scare the shit out of you, not through cheap fright-flick gimmicks, but with meticulously crafted and slow-building suspense and masterful cinematography that gazes into the shadows and
dark recesses of a house that is being breached by.... |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2015 1:59 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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T H E
B A B A D O O K |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 6:54 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1245
Location: St. Louis
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Ha! Many useful viewing ideas...will look for Stwy to Heaven. Also Vagabond.
The child's performance in Babadook was amazing. And the mom, Essie Davis, was able to effect a transformation that could go under the heading of stunt acting. I liked her in The Slap, too. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 8:16 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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In Cold Blood: Famous and absorbing, if flawed film, about a quadruple murder of the Clutter family by a couple of ex-cons, Perry Smith (Robert Blake) and Dick Hickock (Scott Wilson, in only his second movie role. Since the first was "In the Heat of the Night," you could say his career got off to a promising start), in an attempted robbery for nonexistent cash in a nonexistent safe. Faulty intelligence in both senses of the world. For such a notorious, violent film, there is surprisingly little gore. The camera shies away from the actual shootings. Hickock is cocky and optimistic and not as smart as he thinks he is, but plans from the beginning to kill the Clutters to leave no witnesses. He teams with Perry since Smith allegedly killed a man in Las Vegas and he figures he can kill the Clutters as well. There's also the possibility Smith could kill Hickock, but, alas, he never does.
Blake and Hickock are both good. The Clutters really aren't developed all that well. The film is black-and-white, which is very effective. The essential stupidity of the crime--Hickock prides himself on committing a perfect crime because he leaves no witnesses, but he overlooks that the prisoner who told him about the Clutters is very much alive, and Hickock told him all about his plan.
The film also works well as a procedural. The problems include a made-up reporter representing Capote, who gets to spout overwritten dialogue toward about death row. (This aspect is handled much better in Capote, naturally.) And the soundtrack by Quincy Jones, which got an Oscar nomination, is often inappropriate and undermines the tension at critical moments. Some of the psychology gets silly. Did the two killers really combine into a third murderous personality? It seems to me that they played the roles Hickock planned from the beginning. |
Last edited by Syd on Sat Apr 25, 2015 5:21 pm; edited 2 times in total
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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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| yambu |
| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 8:35 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 8:43 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| When I saw Perry Smith's photograph, I was struck by Blake's resemblance to him. Hickock and Wilson, a little less close a resemblance. |
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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: Mon Apr 20, 2015 11:53 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6944
Location: Black Hills
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| Was thinking about actor resemblances today, having just watched Mia Wasikowska as the Oz woman who walks across the interior of Oz with a team of camels, in "Tracks." At end crawl, they show her real-life counterpart, who she looks very like. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2015 5:38 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Syd--FYI the family in In Cold Blood was named Clutter, not Cutter. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 11:22 am |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1245
Location: St. Louis
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| Just saw "W," Oliver Stone's biopic. Seems miscast in many places. Josh Brolin does the voice well, but his energy and looks are just wrong for GWB. Ditto Thandie Newton as Condoleeza, Richard Dreyfus as Dick Cheney (AYFKM?), Jeffrey Wright as Colin, and...."caricature" is the word that springs to mind. Some of the dialog, in attempting to give us something raw and behind the curtains, just comes across as implausible and sort of mean-spirited. Really, I think Laura (Eliz Banks) is the only person they got right. And, FWIW, I don't think that having the title character swigging beer and wolfing down food in nearly every shot is a nuanced or interesting way to develop a character. From the movie, you would expect he had turned into Pres. Taft in a few months. |
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