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inlareviewer
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:30 am Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Reposted from Crackbook:

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp


With incipient insomnia upon us, moving to one of our favorite items from the Powell/Pressburger canon, which, for all its watering-down of David Low's savagely satirical Tory original, is nonetheless still fairly trenchant in its examination of how honor amid combatants decreases by generation while military bureaucracy and political propaganda never changes: is still one of the most gorgeously controlled Technicolor films ever filmed: and has three pitch-perfect sustained performances in Roger Livesey's title character, Anton Walbrook's sympathetic German friend and Deborah Kerr as the three versions of idealized womanhood that weave through the piece. (Sir Genius Matthew, your rethought Prokofiev and P/P masterworks came to mind more than once while revisiting, perhaps an omen of a companion piece, Allan Gray's score dances all over the place, just noting, tee-hee). "War starts at MIDNIGHT!" Marvelously specific, drolly elegant and heartfelt wartime-era film-making.


Last edited by inlareviewer on Fri Mar 09, 2018 9:07 pm; edited 1 time in total

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whiskeypriest
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:54 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 6916 Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
Befade wrote:
Just follow enough social media to know she married Fassbender.
Maybe they only THOUGHT it was Fassbender. Maybe it was Law!

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Syd
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:12 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
I'm watching Michel Ocelot's Tales of the Night, which is delightful, and a good representation of his style, which is achingly beautiful background, and unusual animation style. In this one, all the characters are silhouette except for their eyes (and sometimes one of them has some decoration). It's six tales, connected by two kids and an older man (who I suspect is intended to be Ocelot) in a cinema, and one of the kids suggests a subject, which gives us the next tale. This device works spectacularly, and is a lot of fun.

I reviewed Ocelot's "Azur and Asmar: The Princes' Quest" at Christmas a while back. It had an achingly beautiful background, and unusual (and different) animation style. That was good. This is better.

Note: Ocelot apparently doesn't like Lotte Reiniger very much, which is odd because without her, you don't have Ocelot.

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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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Syd
Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 11:33 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Blue Ruin is the 2013 film by Jeremy Saulnier which already shows him as a gifted director of no-budget thrillers, with Macon Blair playing a drifter named Dwight Evans, who learns that the man who killed Dwight's parents is about to be set free, so Dwight decides to get revenge--but he realizes that this means that all the murderers' family will be out for revenge if Dwight doesn't get it himself. But Dwight is not exactly the most competent avenging angel, and his sister and her family are potential victims of the blood feud.

Nice thriller which was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign and grossed about a million dollars in its theatrical release--which means it probably made money. Macon Blair is as unlikely an action hero as you can get, frankly terrified of the revenge he is seeking, not a particularly good shot, and sometimes it seems what revenge he does get is by accident.

This was good practice for Saulnier's Green Room the film where a punk band is besieged by Neo-Nazis, which had a slightly higher budget and was a fine, taut thriller. He has another film coming out on Netflix on June 1, and I'm looking forward to it.

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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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Syd
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2018 9:45 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Gun Crazy is a 1950 film starring Peggy Cummins and John Dall as a fun-loving gun-loving couple who go on a robbing spree. He's not into killing, but she's not so scrupulous. Somehow it's all the woman's fault, as indicated by the alternate title Deadly is the Female. Resemblances to Bonnie and Clyde are NOT coincidental. This was based on those fun-loving killers, and the later film was heavily influenced by this, with the advantage that it was no longer restricted by the code.

In fact, Gun Crazy is noted for its cinematography, excellent performances and good writing especially in the opening scenes, which give us background on Bart Tare (John Dall), and a later bank robbery notable done in one take--and not showing the robbery itself. Gun Crazy is influential, and seems to be often overlooked, except by the National Film Registry, where it has resided since 1998.

(If you want a more in-depth review, Marilyn has one in Third Eye Film Reviews. Peggy Cummins is one of the more fatal femme fatales.)

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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: Thu Mar 22, 2018 11:35 am Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
Any film starring John Dall (who I really liked in "Rope") with a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, and a character named Bart has to have something going for it. On my list now. Thanks.

My latest couch viewing, "The Snowman," based on Norwegian detective novelist Jo Nesbo's fine book, is one I cannot recommend. A thin, and listless, and dumbed-down, version of an intricate and powerful novel. The only reason to watch is to drool at the beauty of Norway, which is displayed nicely.

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inlareviewer
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2018 1:23 am Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Re-posted from RussiaBook, 03/21/2018;

Quiz Show


Revisited this undervalued gem from 1994, which now looks not only prescient but suspiciously like The Redford's masterwork. Rob Morrow has possibly never been better than as the Congressional voice of idealism hunting down the perceived break of trust with the public, his reactions throughout informed and indelible; Ralph Fiennes, though too pretty by half, is staggering as the true-life account's fulcrum; John Turturro is beyond praise as the uncomprehending whistle-blower who gains zip; and the late, great Paul Scofield is unforgettable as the indirect spur of the dilemma. The large, glossy supporting cast is likewise remarkably well-observed -- Mira Sorvino, Johann Carlo, Scorsese!, Mr. Azaria and Mr. Paymer are especially choice, and the also late, great Elizabeth Wilson's final-reel silent closed-eye response alone justifies perusal. Mr. Attanasio's screenplay can be forgiven for its historical liberties and inaccuracies by virtue of its infinite thematic acuity and nuanced wit, and all production values, not least Michael Ballhaus's extraordinary cinematography, are plus-perfect. Not until Good Night, and Good Luck, then The Post, period. "I thought we were gonna get television. The truth is .... television is gonna get us." And, well, here we are. Exceptional.

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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim
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Syd
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2018 7:11 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
I was one of the few people rooting for Paul Scofield to win the Oscar that year. Samuel L. Jackson and Martin Landau were also up, and Landau won (which I'm fine with), but Scofield was outstanding.

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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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inlareviewer
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 11:44 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Syd wrote:
I was one of the few people rooting for Paul Scofield to win the Oscar that year. Samuel L. Jackson and Martin Landau were also up, and Landau won (which I'm fine with), but Scofield was outstanding.
He certainly was -- "Your name is MY name." -- just saying. Incomparable.

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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim
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Syd
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2018 1:03 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
The Past is an emotionally intense family drama by Asghar Farhadi that would be considered his masterwork if he hadn't already directed A Separation; as such it is a great film, wonderfully acted top to bottom, very well-written and directed and one of the best films of the decade.

Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) has returned to finalize his divorce from Marie (Bérénice Bejo) and gets all involved in her family's complications. Marie has two daughters, one a teenager Lucie (Pauline Burlet) and is housing the young son of her current lover, Samir (Tahar Rahim), and Marie is wanting the divorce so she can marry Samir, whose child she is carrying. However, Samir has a wife who has been in a coma for six months after a suicide attempt which may have been precipitated by her finding out about Samir and Marie's affair. Or perhaps not, though you can understand why Lucie resents this married man intruding into her life. So, as in A Separation a teenage child is caught in the middle. Ahmad, who is a father figure to the three children, tries to make things better, not always successfully because of the complications of the past.

Bérénice Bejo won Best Actress at Cannes for this film and deserved it, but the whole cast is good. The film is in French, but was the Iranian selection for the Academy Awards that year and somehow didn't make the finalists.

(Farhadi has gone on to win another Oscar for The Salesman, which is on my future viewing list. He has another film, Everybody Knows ,scheduled to come out later this year, and it's in Spanish.)

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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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Syd
Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 6:21 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Faces Places (Visages Villages), co-directed by and starring Agnès Varda and JR, takes us on a field trip across France in a van which has a camera painted on the side as our hosts take photographs of interesting people, blow them up to enormous size*, and paste them to the sides of building. (JR is a muralist, so I suspect this was his idea.) After a while, I got into this, helped by our genial hosts. At one point, they pose a friendly waitress with a parasol and paste that on the side of her restaurant. Since she's rather shy, she's chagrined when her picture goes viral on the internet, helped by people taking selfies in front of it. When they visit the docks of Le Havre, they decide to take three dockworkers' wives (all of whom also have jobs at the docks--one drives big trucks) and paste them on containers so that when the containers are assembled the portraits of the three women are also assembled.

There are asides as you might expect, including visiting JR 100-year old grandmother, who looks to be in fine shape, or JR pushing Agnès in a wheelchair through the main gallery at the Louvre while Agnès calls out the names of painters. (This is inspired by a scene in a Godard movie where three people have a race through this gallery. The wheelchair is because Agnès doesn't run as fast as she used to.)

This film was nominated for an Oscar this year, and Agnès Varda became the oldest person ever to be nominated for a competitive Oscar. She turns 90 in May and is eight days older than James Ivory, who was also nominated this year. The mural art is ephemeral, or would be if it wasn't for this pleasant documentary (and viral pictures on the Internet). I liked spending 89 minutes with this pair.

*The photos, that is, not the people.


Last edited by Syd on Mon Apr 02, 2018 6:56 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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bartist
Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 7:44 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6941 Location: Black Hills
Quote:
.The photos, that is, not the people.


You have a warped sense of humor. And I'm laughing, so what does that say?

Will see this. Not sure about Varda being the oldest nominated though.

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billyweeds
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 1:11 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
Syd wrote:
I was one of the few people rooting for Paul Scofield to win the Oscar that year. Samuel L. Jackson and Martin Landau were also up, and Landau won (which I'm fine with), but Scofield was outstanding.


Gotta chime in here. Of all the Oscar winners in history, few have been as deserving as Landau was for his Lugosi. It's the kind of Oscar victory that sorta kinda puts salve on the wound of Jean Hagen-Angela Lansbury-William H. Macy losses.
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Syd
Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 7:17 am Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Landau was obviously deserving, but Scofield would have been a great choice most years. Jackson probably should have been in the lead category anyway. There was some controversy about it at the time.

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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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Syd
Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 6:58 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
bartist wrote:
Quote:
.The photos, that is, not the people.


You have a warped sense of humor. And I'm laughing, so what does that say?

Will see this. Not sure about Varda being the oldest nominated though.


I checked it out. However there have been older people who got special awards. I believe Kirk Douglas was one.

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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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