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Befade
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 1:11 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ
I’m serious, Gromit. An article. An editorial. It’s relevant!

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Befade
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 5:33 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ
Watching The Naked Spur. Two problems: the scene where the 4 white men coldly slaughter a small herd of Indians. And the color or technicolor. It makes the western landscapes look luscious but doesn’t promote the mood of the picture. There’s nothing subtle about the primary colors. I can’t put my finger on it but I know current filmmakers have a much more intelligent way of using color.

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knox
Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:25 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1245 Location: St. Louis
Befade wrote:
Gromit......I see an editorial in your future. NYT? “Why it’s better to live in China than the USA during these troubling times.”


Not the future. Gromit has written extensively on this very topic, in the politics forum at Escapefromelba. Many editorials worth. Josh, Needs, Knicks, Barton, HairyLime (whiskeypriest at 3rd Eye), Uno, Kam, and others all unleash their inner columnist/pundits there. Bo Diddley is Gromit's nom de plume over there. I am Oilcan (not the Oilcan who used to post at NYTFF, however, and resides more deeply in the South than I do).
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gromit
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 3:26 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
The Women (1939)
Interesting gimmick ... not one male in the whole film.
And surprisingly, you don't really notice, though I assume it must have been very obvious back in the day. Also interesting that it opened the very same day as WWII -- with Hitler invading Poland -- and soon enough the USofA would be a country without men. Well, not totally as in the film, but males would be depleted soon enough.

And so a change of female roles was just around the corner. Here, the main character is known mostly as Mrs. Stephen Haynes. And most of the concerns in the film revolve around husbands and family, without a Rosie the Riveter in sight.

And some of that dated sexual politics/roles gets a little tiresome.
I did find it amusing that there is essentially a divorce train to Reno.
Followed by a divorce ranch, run by Marjorie Main who basically does a female WC Fields impression.

The film is uneven and veers between drama and screwball comedy. Some good scenes, some eye-rolling moments. Good cast. Norma Shearer a little annoying as Mrs. Perfect. Joan Crawford as the tough gold-digging other woman.

A better movie if they had trimmed some and tightened the 2'13" runtime. Get it done to 1'45" or 1'50" and it would have been better.


Last edited by gromit on Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:14 am; edited 1 time in total

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carrobin
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 3:44 am Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC
I love Marjorie Main--whenever she shows up in some old film on TCM, it's a bright spot. But she really impressed me in her segment of "It's a Big Country," an ambitious postwar flick that's really a string of brief scenes (some not brief enough), in which she's the mother of a soldier who had been killed in the war; when a stranger (Keefe Brasselle) shows up at her door and gives his name as Max Klein, she's not at all welcoming, but he explains that he was a friend of her son's, and as they talk she slowly thaws and ends up viewing him with the warmth she'd show an old friend. It's not subtle, but she's great.
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billyweeds
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 6:58 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
Did a double-film-noir-feature last night. "Born to Kill" (1945) is ruthlessly unflinching and quite brilliant in its look at a conscienceless killer's (Lawrence Tierney) sexual charisma, which turns a divorcee (Claire Trevor) from a tough cookie into a toxic force. Directed by Robert Wise, who later won two Oscars for "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music." This is what is known as dumbing down. Wise was great with the hard-boiled (1958's "I Want to Live!" was further evidence) and I wish he'd stuck with it. But...Oscars, y'know.

Second feature was 1949's "Impact," a silly title for a mediocre exercise in "Postman Always Rings Twice" territory. Double features are a crap shoot, and you can't win 'em all.
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gromit
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:31 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
I've seen Impact.
A bit hokey, kind of fun noir.
Not bad, nothing great.

Born to Kill sounds better.

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Syd
Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2020 10:42 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Watching "Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff", loving it and it freezes at 26 minutes and I scream as one damned. If you don't understand, Cardiff was a legendary cinematographer on films such as "A Matter of Life and Death," "Black Narcissus," "The Red Shoes," "The African Queen," "The Vikings," and "Conan the Destroyer" (Well, okay, how did that one happen?).

EDIT: Got a replacement disk and watched it all. Really fascinating documentary. He really peaked in the forties and early fifties, but lived until 2009 at age ninety-four, ninety years after he began in films. (He was a child actor.) He also directed more than a dozen films, the notable being "Sons and Lovers" for which he received an Oscar nomination for best Director. Surprisingly he only got three Oscar nominations as a cinematographer, winning for "Black Narcissus" (duh). He also got an honorary Oscar, the first cinematographer to do so.

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gromit
Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 1:55 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
Been rewatching a bunch of Westerns. I like the socio-political elements. A number of films deal with the conflict between ranchers and farmers (cattlemen and sodbusters). That forms the background to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, where the town is threatened by the lawless who become hired thugs for the cattle interests. And that film gets directly into political action as the climax is a vote to send delegates to the state convention. Interestingly, the town's people want the territory to become a state and more lawful and orderly and settled, while the cattle interests prefer a wide open system where they can exploit the land and intimidate the farmers. I had never thought of the farm/cattle clash in terms of statehood. Other films deal more directly with farmer - cattlemen clashes. The farmers always portrayed as family men and hard workers and salt of the earth types, while the cattlemen are greedy predatory types who hire ruffians to protect their interests.In Liberty Valence its not the early days of settlements, but the transitional era where towns are fairly well-developed, if isolated, and they are heading towards statehood.

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billyweeds
Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2020 10:44 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
test
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billyweeds
Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2020 10:44 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
test
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gromit
Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2020 10:44 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
It's good to see that Billy has been tested ...

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Syd
Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2020 8:53 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
One of those silly things: I watched "Le Bonheur" by Agnes Varda and was going to announce she was the first woman who had directed ten films I had seen. (I keep a list of films that I've seen, directors, countries, major awards, etc. This dates back to a question on Reelviews, and I got so I liked doing it. I'm a list maker.)

Unfortunately, "Le Bonheur" was on the list of Varda films I'd seen, though I think I was mistaken (or it's just not memorable). So #10 will probably be the film that was released posthumously.

This continues my experience that, except for Cleo from 5 to 7, I don't find her fictional films that interesting, but I love her documentaries. Though, as usual, the photography is stunning.

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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 Nov 14, 2020 12:54 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9005 Location: Shanghai
Rewatched Billy Elliott. it's a bit too much of a crowd pleaser. And the father going from hard-ass opposed to Billy's dancing to nice guy full support is too sudden. I get they want to show that he realizes any path for Billy out of there is good. And then after a bit the older son kind of fizzles out of the story.

The cast is good. The pace is good. I'd just like more on why billy takes to dancing and what the teacher see in him. I guess a little more of the dance and training. I kind of like the girl, the daughter of the dance teacher, as she kind of distances herself and acts mature throughout. It's all likable, but perhaps glides to easily over troubles and to the next scene.

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billyweeds
Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2020 6:19 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
Did not like Billy Elliott for all the reasons gromit cites.
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