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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 4:52 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: billyweeds wrote: In the middle of watching Fruitvale Station on Netflix. It's a painful experience because it's so good. It tells the true story of a black man being killed by the poiice in almost documentary fashion....
Very good and very distressing. The only thing that marred the docu style for me was the way it oversold how sweet he was. I was getting that just fine without the run-down dog scene or the calling grandma to help the white lady fry fish scene. Oscar was a nice guy who had some scrapes along the way, and FS strikes mostly a good balance. The final scenes are horrific, and what they say about law enforcement culture is as timely as it can be.
Still haven't braved the final sequences, but for the record, I totally agree with you on the "oversold how sweet" deal. Nice guy is one thing; uncanonized saint is another. But Michael B. Jordan (don't omit that middle initial!) is superb in the lead, making up a lot for the overstated writing. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 1:01 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| The how-to-fry-fish scene struck me as fictive, a distillation of interactions in the guy's life. The dead dog scene was a hairy (NPI) old cliche. I think there's even some term that scriptwriters learn in workshops, like "pet the dog," meaning when you write a scene purely to establish a good nature. Otherwise, an excellent movie to zap your social consciousness. Agree, Jordan played it perfectly. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 6:13 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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knox wrote: The how-to-fry-fish scene struck me as fictive, a distillation of interactions in the guy's life. The dead dog scene was a hairy (NPI) old cliche. I think there's even some term that scriptwriters learn in workshops, like "pet the dog," meaning when you write a scene purely to establish a good nature. Otherwise, an excellent movie to zap your social consciousness. Agree, Jordan played it perfectly. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 6:55 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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[quote="whiskeypriest"]knox wrote: hairy (NPI) old cliche.
ACRONYM question. What is NPI? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 8:27 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| No pun intended? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 8:13 am |
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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[quote="billyweeds"]whiskeypriest wrote: knox wrote: hairy (NPI) old cliche.
ACRONYM question. What is NPI? |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 8:22 am |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
Posts: 278
Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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| Never Piss Iodine! |
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Big bang, shmig bang; still doesn't explain how anything starts. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 12:49 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| I started to watch Fruitville Station and thought: This is too painful, too currant. And I just survived my own unpleasant encounter with an officer of the law....just a simple dog barking case that cost me $6000 to get the law on my side. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 7:48 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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My sympathies. I am rarely surprised by hearing of the disrespectful and insensitive conduct of police officers. Way too much stuff has to go to court, esp. small claims, that adult humans could have worked out if people were still taught how to own up. People who don't reign in their pets are the absolute armpit of humanity (and I'm being charitable in my choice of anatomy).
Yes, the movie is achingly topical. The feeling I get from these cases is that you don't dare open your mouth in the presence of a cop, esp. if you are darkly complected. Thugs with badges. It might be one in ten cops, but those 10 percent rain down hell on the people they are supposed to protect and serve. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 9:57 pm |
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Electra, My Love, a Hungarian directed by director Miklós Jancsó (The Red and the White), is an art film in the worst sense of the word. I knew I was in trouble when a declaiming Electra is walking through a group of apparently dead Thebans, and they started rolling over like the girls in the Billy Flynn number in Chicago. The only scenery is one ruin, and the rest is steppe, with horsemen in the background riding back and forth, round and round, to no purpose I can see. Most of the first half are the people proclaiming how great Aegisthus is (it's the 15th anniversary of the murder of Agamemnon); later on, the people will proclaim how great Orestes is. Then Electra and Orestes take off in a helicopter, circle around, land the helicopter and shoot (or mock shoot) each other.
You'll note no mention of Clytemnestra here. That's because she died ten years ago, which blows the entire story because the whole point of the Orestes and Electra saga is the horror of Orestes murdering his mother to avenge his father (and late being forgiven by the gods because he was doing it at the order of Apollo). Mari Törőcsik is forced to declaim and sing of revenge, and is pretty bad here. She looks like Ellen Pompeo on a bad hair day. Apparently she's better in a lot of other movies where the director isn't being an idiot.
There are some redeeming characters, including József Madaras as Aegisthus, and Gabi Jobba as Chrysothemis (Electra's sister, who is not into revenge, possible because Agamemnon had it coming to him.) |
Last edited by Syd on Sun Oct 25, 2015 1:06 am; edited 1 time in total
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 10:32 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Oedipus Rex (1967) is also an art film, this time by Pasolini. It begins in 1930s Italy, where a child's father is fiercely jealous of the attention his wife is paying to their new son, and finally takes him out into the desert to expose him. The movie then shifts into ancient Greece (still filmed in Morocco) for a generally faithful telling of the Oedipus myth. The first half takes him from his exposure, rescue, adoption by Merope and Polybus, through the horrible prophecy at Delphi, his setting off in a random direction and winding up in Thebes. (He doesn't know he was adopted, so he thinks the prophecy is about Merope and Polybus.) Along the way, he meets a rude old man and slays him and his retainers in what I would consider self-defense. Then he meets and kills the Sphinx (no riddle), and his reward is to marry a woman with no eyebrows who is old enough to be his mother.
There's a break here, and the second half is Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, except for a coda in Italy that didn't really fit in.
This movie has definite flaws, including Franco Citti's inability to act. (His cries of anguish when he realizes the truth are particularly awful.) Silvana Mangano is very effective in the double role of the the mother in the prologue and Jocasta in the movie itself. I really liked Ahmed Belhachmi and Alida Valli as Polybus and Merope. Their joy at their unexpected gift from the gods is infectious. (This is Belhachmi's only screen credit as far as I know, which is too bad.) Carmelo Bene is Creon (Jocasta's brother and a major antagonist in Antigone), and Julian Beck is very good as Tiresius the prophet. The movie is also notable for its very unusual headgear, such as three-foot tall crowns and hats with a three-foot wingspan.
One place the movie really shines is Pasolini's use of Moroccan ruins and buildings, which really do give you a feeling that you are in pre-classical Greece (which apparently had little vegetation at all). One of the best scenes is the one where Oedipus unknowingly kills his biological father and his retainers; it's genuinely haunting.
By the way, although Oedipus begetting children is mentioned, I don't think you ever see them, although Antigone and Ismene were his companions in his exile, and I believe appear in Sophocles' play. I'm still hoping to see a film version of Oedipus at Colonus, which I like the best of the Oedipus trilogy. It's probably not as filmable as Oedipus Rex or Antigone, so I'm probably hoping in vain. |
Last edited by Syd on Sun Oct 25, 2015 1:08 am; edited 1 time 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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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 12:02 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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| Right Bart. You don't dare open your mouth or hesitate to comply. This was a lowly 20 yr. old animal control officer who threatened me with jail. And I am the dog owner who does reign in my dogs. Just happen to have a disabled neighbor who likes to put cameras and recorders toward my house and call animal control for less than one minute of dog barking. Always comply....right away.....or else. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 8:52 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Betsy--I hope you "rein" in your dogs rather than, as you said, "reign" in them, which implies that you treat them as royal subjects. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 9:41 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| When I was a teenager, our cocker spaniel used to bark like crazy in the back yard at night, and we'd get calls from the neighbors--but fortunately they never called the cops. My mother hated to have to bring the dog inside, because that just confirmed his understanding that the more noise he made, the more likely he'd spend the night in the kitchen. But that's where he slept, most of the time. Smart dog. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 10:22 am |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
Posts: 278
Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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Betsy, are they the dogs that I met? Very nice dogs. (Do you still bake your potatoes in the microwave?)  |
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