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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 1:29 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bart and Carol--Piano playing on film is one of the most infamous tradition because few do it adequately and almost none do it well and almost everyone sucks at it. One of the worst I can remember was Garbo in Camille (if I remember the movie correctly). The best was undoubtedly Dreyfuss.
bart--I agree with you a hundred percent about Grand Piano, which for some crazy reason has its admirers. It's simply horrific, and for all the reasons you state...and a few more. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:14 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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Just for fun, I tried to find a piano concerto with piano rests long enough for Wood to take all those offstage meanderings. Couldn't find any, but it's hard to really search thoroughly. Outside of John Cage (NPI), it's hard to think of composers who don't keep the main solo instrument pretty busy in a concerto.
Props to Victor Reyes, though, who wrote the original scores for the film. "La Cinquette," the "unplayable" piece can be heard during the 11-minute end crawl - very listenable. Film also might be a contender for the record for longest credits roll. (it's not like there are more credits, they just run them very slowly, so we can hear the whole piece)
My disappointment was that Wood's original program included The Tempest sonata....was really wanting to hear it, it's one of Ludwig's great ones, but Wood tosses it aside for his surprise performance.
I laughed at the ending, btw, as it underscores the central plot absurdity by reminding us that the piano was shipped on a truck, no armed escort, no armor. If all John Cusack wants is this skeleton key that's stashed inside the mechanism of the piano, why not just hijack the truck en route, and dismantle the piano? He doesn't seem to have any special love of Boesendorfers that would block this approach. His character is so poorly drawn that I have no idea why he is so angry and needing to make a piano virtuoso suffer. Cusack, unfortunately, has taken several roles like this in the past few years. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:27 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I was trying to think of the title of the film with John Cusack and James Spader in politics, and had to go to IMDb to find it: "True Colors." It came out in 1991 and I'd like to see it again--as I recall, it was a pretty sharp drama about the hazards of political ambition. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 6:55 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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There's a very good movie waiting to come out of Confidential Report (aka Mr. Arkadin) if only Orson Welles and his studio had been content to tell it. The premise is that, small time con man Guy van Stratten (Robert Arden) and his girlfriend Mily (Patricia Medina) happen across a dying man who manages to say two names to Mily, Gregory Arkadin and Sophie. Arkadin (Welles in a Falstaffian beard) is an extremely rich man with a mysterious past, and Guy and Mily sense an opportunity to squeeze some money from Arkadin if they can get to him. Guy's way in is through Arkadin's beautiful daughter Raina (Paolo Nori, Welles' future wife). Mily, who's pretty hot herself, has a more direct approach.
Guy meets Arkadin by infiltrating a masked ball, and Arkadin invites him upstairs to show Guy something, which turns out to be a confidential report on Guy van Stratter. Arkadin has a proposition. He claims to have no memories prior to 1927, at which point he found himself with a small fortune of gold from which he built his current fortune through dubious means. His weakness is his daughter, who he loves more than his fortune. He wants Guy to search through his path and uncover any dirt that might demean Arkadin in the eyes of his daughter. And if you buy that as his motive, I have a bridge to sell you.
This is a good story, but also has serious problems, not least of which is Robert Arden, who is totally unpersuasive as a film-noir protagonist. I like Patricia Medina and Paoli Mori (some people don't like her here for some reason). Welles would be fine but that beard is pretty silly. As a director, he's addicted to strange camera angles. A more straighforward approach would have been better. There's a great cameo by Mischa Auer as the owner of a flea circus and Michael Redgrave is striking as the owner of a very curious curiosity shop.
This film has been butchered enough by the studio and also by Welles himself that a definitive version does not exist. The one I saw was cobbled together for the Criterion Collection and actually makes sense, more or less, which I gather previous versions did not. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2015 1:12 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Rodan is the third Toho monster film (after Gojira/Godzilla and its first sequel). It's also the first one in color. The version I saw was dubbed in English with lots and lots of narration, with a prologue about atomic tests that was apparently tacked on, since in the movie proper the monsters are released by digging a coal mine too deep. At first the problem seems to be giant dragonfly larvae resurrected from the Paleozoic, but these turn out to be food for baby giant pterosaurs that grow up like pteranodons with a five-hundred foot wingspan and a flight velocity greater than the speed of sound. They're also bulletproof, missileproof,* and generally annoy people with sonic booms and typhoon-velocity wind blasts. They also occasionally eat people once all the giant dragonfly larvae are gone.
In this first film there are actually a Rodan and a Rodanette, and I thought they made for an effective pair of monsters. In fact, given their great speed and maneuverability (Rodan can make sharp turns while moving at supersonic velocity; don't try this in an airplane), they are probably more dangerous than Godzilla. They're certainly more international; they visit Bangkok, China, I believe the Philippines and Korea, and more.
Special effects and acting are generally at a level you expect from 50s giant rubber reptile movies. The insects look rather silly, but the Rodans don't. They also seem to be an affectionate pair; they have more chemistry than the human leads.
I like Gojira better than this, but I wasn't watching the Japanese version, which apparently is better. It's still an enjoyable watch once the Rodans start buzzing people.
Let's hope the creators of the "Jurassic World" theme park never see this movie.
*I was considering the possibility of garroting them with a steel cable. Incendiary bombs are also a possibility. |
Last edited by Syd on Mon Oct 17, 2016 9:44 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:42 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Watched Fritz Lang's 4 hour 2-part Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (1922). Been a long time since I had seen it.
Some of the hypnosis stuff is a little silly/dated.
I liked all the disguises and the casting is good.
Though I wondered why Dr. Mabuse's gang is a bunch of misfits when he is supposed to be such a mastermind. I guess it underscores how much of an outcast he is. Which then sort of lends credence to him trying to win over the countess, as he constantly tries to show up the aristocracy, but really wants to be accepted by them (this is pre-social mobility as we know it, especially in Europe, transforming from landed aristocracy to industrial wealth post WWI).
Not clear why the film needs to be 4 hours long, except that two-part monumental pictures were all the rage in Germany at the time, and Lang wasn't one to miss out on prestige and accolades. For a silent film, there's quite a lot of talking and frequently the dialogue doesn't get intertitles, though there are plenty of them. There's a fair amount of silent film overacting/over-emoting, and as the film went on I found myself appreciating the State Attorney who displays more of a restrained, modern approach. It was a mistake on my part to watch the 1927 Spies the week before, since they are very similar films. It is impressive how thoroughly evil Mabuse and socioopathic (and Haghi from Spies) are.
I listened to a good deal of the David Kalat commentary, and frequently the background and context are as interesting as the film. Especially the stuff about Norbert Jacques, who wrote the Dr. Mabuse book the year prior to the film. He was considered one of the leading German writers, but then the pulpy Dr. Mabuse novel and the film's success kind of sent his career as a serious writer into a tailspin. Again, a different era at play.
Some other interesting thoughts:
- From The Great War, Germany suffered defeat, lots of dead, steep reparations, inflation and other traumas. The result was a 1920's cinema of horror, dread, dark shadowy expressionism. The US got through the war with only a scraped knee and became the leading world power. The result: a 1920's cinema of mostly comedies.
- Hitchcock often focused on an innocent man trying to avoid traps and guilt in a dangerous world. Lang focused on the guilty getting away with it and going unpunished.
- Some discussion of Mabuse and Spies as the prototype for the Bond films. Even noting how the female criminal spy falls for the dashing good spy in Spies.
- There was some interesting info about the one main set designer -- Otto Hunte. Lang's films were well-known for their elaborate set designs. Like a number of Lang colleagues, Hunte stayed in Germany and made films under the Nazis, including doing the set design for the notorious anti-Jewish film Jud Suss. Yet he also was set designer for Murderers Among Us (1947), one of the earliest anti-Nazi films from Germany -- which interestingly was Lang's original title for M. but the Nazis objected to the title, thinking it might reflect negatively on them.
The whole Dr. Mabuse thing became quite a 20's phenomena and really launched Lang's career. Interestingly, his film before Mabuse,
Der Müde Tod aka Destiny (1921) was a flop in Germany, but then became a big hit in France the following month, and so was released in Germany a month or so later, where it then became a hit. Putting Lang in a position to make the 4.5 hour 2-part Dr. Mabuse. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 7:48 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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A Canterbury Tale (1944): Pleasant but erratic Powell/Pressburger film, which is often brilliant. Three "pilgrims" arrive at Chillingbourne, a small town outside of Canterbury:
(1) Rob Johnson, a callow young American sergeant from Oregon, played by real life Sgt. John Sweet. He mishears the conductor's words "Canterbury, Next Stop" as "Canterbury," where his unit is, and jumps off while the train is starting to move. Since there is a blackout on, and road signs are taken down to foil any potential invasion, he is totally lost,
(2) British Sergeant Peter Gibbs (Dennis Price), who is supposed to join his unit outside of Chillingbourne, and
(3) London girl Alison Smith (Sheila Sim) who has left her job as a sales girl in a gardening store for a potential job in Chillingbourne, because she spent the happiest 13 days of her life with her fiance digging through the mound outside of Chillingbourne for objects left by Chaucer-type pilgrims, Roman soldiers, and earlier inhabitants.
Alison is almost immediately attacked in the dark by a man in uniform who throws glue in her hair, and a major part of the film involves these three and the local kids trying to identify and catch the "glue man."
The fourth major character is the local magistrate, Thomas Colpeper (Eric Portman), who is love with the history of Chillingbourne, which was a stop for pilgrimages to Canterbury, the place of St. Thomas Becket's martyrdom. However, he doesn't approve of working girls or girls who follow soldiers, and refuses to hire Alison. He gives lectures to distract the soldiers and doesn't invite women, though Alison attends anyway, and is the only person in the audience who loves this history as much as him. They have a bit of a bond, and it's too bad he's their primary suspect.
The plot is a bit weak, and sometimes goes off the rails, but there are wonderful scenes as we get to know these four characters. I particularly like a scene where Alison (who is out of a job and looking) and Bob are talking with a pair of brothers, a wheelwright and a blacksmith. Alison comes from 50 miles away, is driving a cart, and does not understand the language of woodworking, while Rob, who comes from 7000 miles away comes from a woodworking family and gets into a lively conversation about the art.
Of course, our four major characters have to make that pilgrimage to Canterbury, where, as Colpeper explains, each will receive a blessing or a penance, and they certainly do. This last section lasts for half an hour and is pure gold. Canterbury Cathedral has never looked better, and can be seen in all its glory because so many buildings have been destroyed by bombs. Minus the stained glass windows, which were taken out for protection. The interior looks particularly grand, especially considering they weren't allowed to film inside the Cathedral. It's all magic by miracle art director Alfred Junge. There's also magic in the outdoor photography, including a wonderful scene where Alison, on a hill top, hears the sounds and instruments of the pilgrims from six hundred years earlier, just as Colpeper described in his speech, and she first sees Canterbury Cathedreal in the distance.
This was the first movie for Sweet, Price and Smith, and the only one for Sweet (and it shows for him). Price had substantial stage experience (which also shows), and would make quite a few movies. His major starring role was Kind Hearts and Coronets. Sim had a ten-year movie career and a 69-year career as Baron Richard Attenborough's wife. (She's still alive, but, alas, is suffering from senile dementia.) She and Portman are both excellent, and are major reasons that, despite the movie dragging in places I give it 8 out of 10. It's the average of 6 out of 10 and 10 out of 10. |
Last edited by Syd on Sun Jul 11, 2021 11:46 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 11:28 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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The Living Desert: Pioneer Disney live-action nature film. Revolutionary in its time and a staple of my childhood, but superseded by tons of David Attenborough documentaries. This probably still works as a junior high school film. And it does have its moments, and during the the last fifteen minutes, which features a rare rainstorm, a flash flood, and the desert briefly blooming, it's magnificent. (6 of 10, but 8 of 10 in historical value).
Now I need to find a copy of Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 5:31 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Once in a blue moon, a movie hits one's consciousness that came seemingly out of nowhere and turns out to be really good. Even rarer is the case where it turns out to be absolutely great. But it happened last night for me. Flipping through the list of movies on Showtime, I came across the title Cold in July, described as a "Southern noir," which grabbed me, and starring Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, and Don Johnson, which grabbed me by the throat. So we watched it, and were astonished at the sheer virtuosity of this thriller, which takes you in unexpected directions in almost every scene, is acted with panache and skill, and is pretty darn suspenseful and gory to boot. Jim Mickle is the director, and he's amazing. This is an all-time keeper. Released last year, it would easily have been in my top five list of 2014--if I'd even heard of it. Well, better late than never. Cold in July. Look for it. Watch it. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:07 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| Age of Innocence, based on the Edith Wharton novel and directed by Scorsese, presents Daniel Day-Lewis, married into 19th Century New York Society, falling in love with Michelle Pfeiffer, his wife's cousin. No secret, big or small, can survive in that privileged community for long, and it is that rule which drives events to unexpected places. I really can't say more, except the novel will be my next read. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 5:16 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Judgment at Nuremberg: This is the first time I've seen this in its entirety; I kept coming across it in the middle and had seen the last hour several times. Great movie, very well written, and full of fine performances, not only by Schell (who won the Oscar), Tracy, Clift and especially Judy Garland (who were also nominated), but also Dietrich, Lancaster and Werner Klemperer, who plays a fanatical and unrepentant Nazi judge. I would have gone for the death penalty for him just to make the world a better place. I'm a little surprised he didn't get an Oscar nomination himself. He's scary. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 5:33 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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Dietrich, the bloodied but unbowed everycitizen, created a terrific force together with Tracy. And Montgomery Clift simply broke my heart.
I was eighteen when first I saw it, and it has had a lifetime impact on me. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 2:21 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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Ain't Them Bodies Saints got raves from several critics but turned out to be dumb and boring. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 11:21 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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The Overnighters has a small town North Dakota pastor wondering what to do when an oil boom suddenly takes place. His new mission is to convert his parish hall into a dormitory for the desperate single men who show up seeking work. The pastor is fearless and tenacious, but the job is too big for one man, and some of the would-be roustabouts are rough cobs.
It's a documentary, but some of the setups are just too set up. Still, the minister is someone to admire and puzzle over. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 10:54 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| During the weekend I was flipping channels and happened across a VH1 show giving the top ten videos countdown. Since I seldom see videos these days, I kept watching, and several of them looked really great. Although I haven't seen any of the "Fast and Furious" flicks, I realized that one of the videos was a tribute to Paul Walker, the actor who was killed before completing the last film; what gave me the clue was the montage of car chases, and the final shot with one car veering away from the group on a highway to travel off on a different road. From what I read on IMDb, that's probably the final scene of his last film, as well. It was very moving, even for someone who hadn't seen the films. |
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