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| Ghulam |
 Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:23 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| The Argentinian movie The Holy Girl (2004) directed by Lucretia Martel, with Pedro Almodovar listed as one of the producers, is about two teen age girls, deeply rooted in their Roman Catholic faith, trying to deal with, sometimes disastrously, their burgeoning sexuality. There are several humdrum stretches, but it is very sensitively directed and has flashes of brilliance. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:28 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| You mention Almodovar as a producer. Is it a comedy? |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 2:12 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| Jim, no it is not a comedy. Lucretia Martrel, the director, has been compared to Louis Bunuel, but she does not have the atheistic sarcasm of Bunuel. She is a low key observer of the interplay between ambivalent faith and nascent sexuality. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 2:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 3:26 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| No big deal. And in real life, it's Chris, not Joe. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 3:37 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Joe--I love Debra Winger's voice. Also Blythe Danner's and June Allyson's (they have the same tic as Winger).
Lulu got it right. Winger's career was definitely hurt by her reputation for being impossible to work with. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 5:24 pm |
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Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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I think of Danner and Allyson as having a sort of fog to their voice but not the raspiness she has. Like I said, now that I'm familiar with it, I like it.
Winger is/was apparently impossible to work with. She hated Gere and refused to pretend to love him in Officer. Somehow, her antagonism in their love scenes translated as passion. It's call unprofessionalism, in my book. But here's the rub: I enjoy her work. I'd hate to work with her, would probably not hire her (were I in the position to do either), but I watch her films. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Same here. I love her on screen, a lot. But people as various as Billy Crystal, Michael Douglas, and my nameless friend who worked with her twice and ultimately got out of the business (partially because of Winger) are on record as...no comment. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 7:35 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| Ghulam.........The Holy Girl is definitely worth a view. Note also the mother/daughter interest in the same man. |
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| shannon |
| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 10:34 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 1628
Location: NC
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Just watched Bee Season. What a weird movie. I don't really know what I was expecting. Some typical overbearing father coaching his daughter in spelling bees or something. Definately wasn't expecting what I got. Richard Gere is a college religion professor obsessed with Kabbalah. ("Huh?" you're thinking. He's actually not as unbelievable as you would expect.) He seems to believe the shit he teaches, but in a more academic than spiritual sense and tries as hard as he can to push it on his family. Juliette Binoche is his wife, scarred by the early death of her parents when she was a child, who now secludes herself emotionally from her family and breaks into random strangers houses and steals shiney things because they remind her of the kaleidoscope her parents gave her as a child. Their teenage son rebels against overbearing dad by becoming just like him, only replacing hardcore Judaism by becoming a hardcore Hare Krishna. (This isn't quite as hard to believe as you would think. I would probably become a Krishna, too, if it meant I could sleep with Kate Bosworth.) Their 12-year-old daughter wins the district spelling bee and crazy dad becomes obsessed with her, thinking, and leading her to believe that, she has some mystical connection with God or something. Obvs, this fucks her up in all sorts of ways. The movie kinda leads you to believe that dad's right, though, which is kinda confusing.
Really, the whole thing is kinda confusing. I'm not sure what it all adds up to. It's all just really, really weird. If it were more interesting, I might be inclined to watch it again in an effort to figure it all out. But it's not. If my above synopsis at all interests you, please watch the film and explain it to me. I will be thankful. It's directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, who also made the even-more-weird Suture way back when. Bee Season shares that film's snail pace and aseptic direction, which is probably why it failed to involve me. |
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| shannon |
| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 10:43 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 1628
Location: NC
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billyweeds wrote: I found it not so much "cynical" as "clear-eyed." Judge for yourselves. I think the ending of the movie can serve as a litmus test of sorts. In any case, The Weather Man is well worth seeing.
SPOILER
Hmm. The movie's main moral lesson was, "So your life didn't turn out as swell as you hoped, huh? Yeah, life sucks for everybody. Get over it." I was shocked. I was liking the movie a whole lot all along, but I stayed worried the whole time that it would fuck it all up with some heartwarming Movie Moment statement, but all I get is Caine's "this shit life" speech. Then pair that with the movie's "fast food as metaphor for American life" theme. I was impressed. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 11:09 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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shannon wrote: billyweeds wrote: I found it not so much "cynical" as "clear-eyed." Judge for yourselves. I think the ending of the movie can serve as a litmus test of sorts. In any case, The Weather Man is well worth seeing.
SPOILER
Hmm. The movie's main moral lesson was, "So your life didn't turn out as swell as you hoped, huh? Yeah, life sucks for everybody. Get over it." I was shocked. I was liking the movie a whole lot all along, but I stayed worried the whole time that it would fuck it all up with some heartwarming Movie Moment statement, but all I get is Caine's "this shit life" speech. Then pair that with the movie's "fast food as metaphor for American life" theme. I was impressed.
Shannon--
SPOILER
The ending was basically "I'm somewhere between the hero firefighters and Spongebob Squarepants. Life doesn't necessarily suck, but I'm terminally mediocre like most people. Life's just okay--and that's better than it might have been." At least that's my take on it. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 9:25 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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I am doing my best to skim over some of these posts since during my catching up, I have yet to see The Weather Man but it goes to the top of my queue.
I have seen Memoirs of a Geisa, A History of Violence and my favorite of all ... Junebug, which I know was discussed endlessly, so I won't add anything more other than I love, love, love, this movie!
I've also spent some time watching commentaries and featurettes, which especially in Memoirs of a Geisa are well worth the time, and for me at least were better than the film. Of course I don't feel right critiquing it too much since it is clearly a big screen picture. Still as much as I loved the art and cinematography I just found the story weak. But for those who did see it in a theater it is worth the rental, just to see the extra disk of featurettes.
A History of Violence was an amazing film and another I know has been discussed a lot. But I have to applaud everyone involved and give special plaudids to Viggo Mortensen, who IMO was sadly overlooked.
K. Ready to watch the commentary on Junebug. I just love this movie so much!!! |
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| Mr. Brownstone |
| Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:30 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2450
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Weatherman is sitting in my DVD player right now. Despite the glowing reviews for it here, I'm still ready to full-on eat Nic Cage's lunch.
Marj:
While I'm baffled by the appeal of A History of Violence as a movie, I thought Mortensen, Bello and Harris were pretty terrific.
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE SPOILER
I especially enjoyed the contrast in how Mortensen & Bello have sex - the nurturing, meek family beta-male tenderly stroking his appreciative wive's legs as he goes down on her, his hair falling about her, versus the bad-ass former mafia hit man monkey-fucking his wife on the stairs.
One of the very few examples of sex on-screen being interesting. Usually they're presented as either car chases for chicks or creative juvenile projection. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 11:24 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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| Tim -- I'm smiling because I was hoping when I saw the movie that someone else would see the the contrast in the two scenes too. To say nothing of the fact, that the first sex scene had a huge clue in it. |
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