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| Syd |
 Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2015 10:16 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I'm watching Pasolini's Medea. Did he completely lose the ability to tell a coherent story by the time this came out? |
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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 Jul 26, 2015 12:01 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I watched Pasolini's Oedipus Rex a week ago.
In fact right before Die Niebelungen and they complemented each other both being filmed myths, and featuring odd and interesting hair and headgear. In some ways Oed Rex is a rather faithful retelling of the tale. But it has a rather odd style and pace, and I couldn't really figure out what the message was or what Pasolini's take was. I wound up just shrugging and assuming it's a 60's earthy presentation of some sort. Like attempts to update the Bible as peopled by hippies.
The scene where he (unknowingly) kills his biological father is weird. Oedipus is walking down the road. Encounters a 6 horse carriage with four armed and armored guards and an imperious older man, who calls him scum and orders him off the road. So Oed is offended and refuses to budge. After a second command, one guard gets down and comes towards him. Oed picks up a rock and hurls it at the soldiers groin, felling him. Then he starts to run down the road. The other three non-injured guards give chase. Uh, leaving the king alone and undefended with the carriage. And of course it would make more sense to track down this running fool with the horses.
So in a long and unglamorous chase, Oed outruns the guards, and then stops and kills them one at a time. Then comes back for the slightly injured guard. And finally kills Dad. It's weird, long, and rather pointless. He then continues on foot, without using the horses or looting anything. That extended scene kind of sums up the film -- it's watchable, reasonably faithful to Sophocles, but I really had no idea what the point was.
The hairstyles were interesting and unusual. The modern day framing device to open and close the film seems utterly pointless and unnecessary. It was filmed in Morocco and some of the deserty locations look ancient and right for the film. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:05 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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When the son (Oed Rex) is taken out to the desert to be disposed of, there was a very striking shot:
Not surprised someone decided to use that for a poster.
That got a real visceral response from me. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:26 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| It's still a pretty good film despite all that. Medea's interesting, too, with a lot of striking shots. You have to train horses to run down a person, which is why I figure Laius didn't do that. |
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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: Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:48 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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The Edge of the World is an early Michael Powell, before Pressburger, and an excellent film. We start off with three people visiting an empty island, one of whom remembers it, and we gradually are drawn back to the last years of settlement on the island, and it hit me: this is Hirta in the St. Kilda islands off the coast of Scotland, 40 miles more outer than the Outer Hebrides, and one of the most famous isolated islands on the face of the Earth. It was inhabited for thousands of years and the movie is the story of the death of a unique community and their way of life. The islanders are torn between continuing to eke out their way of life or ask the laird to help evacuating them but the loss of their crops, of their young people leaving for the mainland, and their increasing isolation in a period when the world is becoming smaller are making this a moot point. In real life a preventable death from appendicitis was the final straw. By that time, the community had shrunk from a high of maybe two hundred to less than forty.
Some excellent performances, particularly from John Laurie as Peter Manson, the prime person who wants to stay, Eric Berry as the his son who wants to leave, and the lovely Belle Chrystall as the daughter of the family (who is in love with the son of Peter's rival, played nicely by Finlay Currie--the rival, that is, not the son). Outstanding (sometimes jawdropping) cinematography, including some scenes that had me on the edge of my seat, if not the world. Powell had to film in the Shetland Island of Foula, which is a character in itself. I suspect some of the exteriors of the island might actually be Hirta. This film would make a great companion piece to Man of Aran.
The yachtsman who visits the island at the beginning is played by Powell himself.
Possibly not as accessible as the Powell/Pressburger films, but I was fascinated throughout. |
Last edited by Syd on Wed Feb 03, 2016 1:21 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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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2015 9:09 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| It's odd that the commentary questions the message in a little boat that is launched at one point. I thought that it was well-known that the inhabitants of St. Kilda sent messages in bottles because mail service to the islands was so erratic. Maybe it was the boats they questioned. |
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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: Tue Jul 28, 2015 4:41 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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The Greatest Show on Earth has somewhat of a bad rep, mostly because it's seen as an undeserving Oscar Winner. But it's a good film and quite interesting. It combines behind the scenes drama --sort of an amorphous love square (4 people) -- with essentially near-documentary footage of Ringling Bros & Barnum Bailey Circus.
The casting is quite good. Heston's stiffness works well for the role as circus manager, as he's supposed to be taut and concerned about the circus and not engaged emotionally with the performers. He's got a tough guy swagger and wears manly earth tones. Cornel Wilde is also quite believable as an international trapeze artist, wearing flamboyant greens. I also liked Gloria Grahame as a tough glamor girl who is with the unpleasant German elephant trainer, but aspires to love Heston the bossman. And someone had the clever idea of casting Jimmy Stewart as a clown who never takes off his makeup, which works well because of his distinctive voice and timing.
It's also quite interesting to see some of the real circus acts, the costumes used and the whole presentation of a circus in the 1950's. Though there are probably too many shots of spectators laughing and eating ice cream. And the vo narration during some of the real circus scenes can be rather heavy-handed. And the train crash climax is pretty impressive. Though it seemed towards the end they cut corners a bit and used rear-projection and such. Either money running short or they added those scenes later. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 5:03 am |
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You're right about TGSOE being somewhat unfairly maligned as the worst Best Picture ever. It's certainly no more undeserving than Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Gandhi, Rocky, How Green Was My Valley, and several others, the bottom being The English Patient. It's considered less worthy because it's entertainingly cheesy as well as rather mediocre. Most of the other undeserving winners all had a kind of "prestige" working for them.
TGSOE also gets more dissed than most because it beat out the certifiable classic that is High Noon. This is arguably an all-time travesty and would be almost no matter what film beat HN. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 12:58 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
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Location: SF Bay Area
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billyweeds wrote: You're right about TGSOE being somewhat unfairly maligned as the worst Best Picture ever. It's certainly no more undeserving than [i]Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Gandhi.....
In Ireland they tell jokes about men from Kerry....
So this Kerry man is a quiz show contestant. "What was Gandhi's first name?"
He ponders...."Ah, Goosey Goosey?". |
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That was great for you. How was it for me? |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:38 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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billyweeds wrote: You're right about TGSOE being somewhat unfairly maligned as the worst Best Picture ever. It's certainly no more undeserving than Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Gandhi, Rocky, How Green Was My Valley, and several others, the bottom being The English Patient. It's considered less worthy because it's entertainingly cheesy as well as rather mediocre. Most of the other undeserving winners all had a kind of "prestige" working for them.
TGSOE also gets more dissed than most because it beat out the certifiable classic that is High Noon. This is arguably an all-time travesty and would be almost no matter what film beat HN.
Your list is a fair portion of my bottom rank, which would also include Around the World in Jesus Will this Movie Ever End and Gigi. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:41 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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yambu wrote: billyweeds wrote: You're right about TGSOE being somewhat unfairly maligned as the worst Best Picture ever. It's certainly no more undeserving than [i]Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Gandhi..... Whoah. What is Gandhi doing here? I love Kingsley as the little man who was ten steps ahead of the British Empire. I've never read a biography, but the film feels true.
In Ireland they tell jokes about men from Kerry....
So this Kerry man is a quiz show contestant. "What was Gandhi's first name?"
He ponders...."Ah, Goosey Goosey?". |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:52 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| We had a screening of "Gandhi" for our film class at 8 a.m. on a Sunday, which is tough when you're a ticket-taker and have to be there an hour early, but of course it's free. Attenborough, a.k.a. Sir Richard or Dickie, chatted with our professor for a while afterward. The audience was enthusiastic, but at the film class later in the week, one woman in class made the comment that she wasn't impressed--"to me he just looked like a guy in a shmata." (I didn't look up the spelling, but I'd been in NYC long enough to know what it meant.) Everyone cracked up. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 12:24 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| Cuckoo's Nest beating Jaws, Godfather 2 beating Chinatown....lots of travesty picks in the BP category. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 1:11 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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bartist wrote: Cuckoo's Nest beating Jaws, Godfather 2 beating Chinatown....lots of travesty picks in the BP category.
Cuckoo's Nest is a Great Film.
I've never really seen the appeal of Chinatown. I just kind of lose interest midway through.
I'm sure there are better examples ... |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 10:13 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Quote: I've never really seen the appeal of Chinatown. I just kind of lose interest midway through.
You are dead to me.
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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