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| Mr. Brownstone |
 Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:45 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2450
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Man, I just watched Downfall. I was not prepared for that shit.
I felt horrible for thinking it, but as I watched Hitler, Goebbels, et. al., repeatedly express their lack of compassion for their German constituents, I was reminded of the old axiom, "You get the government you deserve."
These bastards led the German people cheerily into hell, and then left them there to die.
Such a complicated feeling I got. Every time I felt sympathy for these people, I was reminding myself that they had allowed and/or supported the killing of 6 million innocent people, and I wrestled with the notion of how responsible one lone citizen is for the deeds of one's leaders.
Bruno Ganz rocked the hizzy as Hitler, though. The guy would do a wonderful Lear. |
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"My name is Gunnery Sergeant Major Highway. And I have drunk more beer, pissed more blood, banged more quiff and knocked more skulls than all you numbnuts put together." - Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:52 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Ghulam: I liked the allegorical section of Tropical Malady better than the realistic section, but I thought it was just okay over all. It certainly is beautiful to look at. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:07 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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Mr. Brownstone wrote: ......Bruno Ganz rocked the hizzy as Hitler, though. The guy would do a wonderful Lear.
You glancingly touch on the "humanity" of these guys. The German press tried to run with this as a controversy about the film, but German viewers had no problem with this aspect. For the last twenty years, Germans have been reading and viewing good, responsible history on that time, without feeling the need to tear their hair out. If they have read Ian Kershaw's definitive trilogy on Hitler, they will be ok with the film's portrayal of Hitler's food choices and dinner conversation as being bland and ordinary. |
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| Mr. Brownstone |
| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:20 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2450
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Yam:
Thanks, man.
It's films like Downfall and The Grey Zone that make me sort of ambivalent about a Schindler's List.
Spielberg's film is just too dag easy.
Both the former films are just so... emotionally complicated for me.
The last words of Downfall left me in tears, by the way:
"I realized it was no excuse to be young, that it was possible to find things out."
And as far as Ganz... I had no concept of how old Hitler was when he died, but I was struck by the elderly Ganz' ferocity. I wondered if it was exhausting for Ganz to be Hitler. Then I wondered if it was exhausting for Hitler to be Hitler.
Lastly, the scenes where the German officers are rampantly killing the civilian "new recruits," who are simple old men, may be one of the more powerful statements I've seen on what becomes of a society that thrives on war.
P.S. I just watched a movie with subtitles, bitchez. Subtitles. What's up now, Marc? |
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"My name is Gunnery Sergeant Major Highway. And I have drunk more beer, pissed more blood, banged more quiff and knocked more skulls than all you numbnuts put together." - Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 11:10 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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Mr. Brownstone wrote: ...... I had no concept of how old Hitler was when he died, but I was struck by the elderly Ganz' ferocity. I wondered if it was exhausting for Ganz to be Hitler. Then I wondered if it was exhausting for Hitler to be Hitler......
But as you say, he had just enough ferocity, and just enough grasp on the levers of power, to pull down his people with him. Too bad he couldn't have been imprisoned, to witness West Germany's rise from the ashes. Anyway, a terrific portrayal. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 11:26 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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| It's suspected he had Parkinson's, to boot. There's a theory that that may have dictated a lot of his strategy - his being ill, and the fact that he knew he was ill and probably running out of time. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 11:29 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Not to disrupt this (although I had enough of a violent reaction to Downfall that I felt like crap for days), but I just watched Maurice and am in shock. Given the right material, and (I suppose) the right director...
...Hugh Grant can act - not just his usual Being A Presence. |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 1:04 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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I HEART Maurice! I used to have daydreams of Scudder climbing a ladder to my boudouir. *sigh*
I liked Tropical Malady, okay. Nothing about it was new or blew me away. I was glad to see it though, because all one usually sees of Thailand is Bangkok. The country is stunningly gorgeous and the people (as represented in the film) seem nothing like their city-dwelling counterparts. |
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It truly disappoints me when people do something for you via no prompt of your own and then use it as some kind of weapon against you at a later time and place. It is what it is. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 2:22 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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This is for Billy, if noone else. Where the Truth Lies was mesmerizing enough for me to watch it 2 times in a row. Alison Lohman's presence and voiceover were responsible. She looks a bit like Amy Adams in Junebug and acts a bit like Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive.
This is a story of 2 comedians (somewhat Martin and Lewis) who hold polio telethons and split up when a woman is discovered dead in the bathroom of their hotel suite. Karen (Alison's character) was the star polio victim at the duo's last telethon 15 years earlier. Now she is a journalist who would like to discover why her two idols broke up and how the girl in the bathtub died.
Atom Egoyan is one of my favorite directors anyway........and you can count on Kevin Bacon's projects to be interesting (even if his naked butt wasn't......to me). Colin Firth played against type being anguished, rough, and secretive. He made me think of a distraught Nathan Lane.
Oh, and all the guys who liked the girl on girl sex scenes in Mulholland Drive will be happy to know that this film has some, too. |
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| Mr. Brownstone |
| Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:14 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2450
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Lady:
So that's what his hand shaking was all about.
Yam:
"Job stress." Ha!
Goebbels kind of fascinated me. He seemed to have an air of superior intelligence, even beyond Hitler's. I got the sense that he didn't really believe any of this shit about race superiority and the ascent of the Aryan Man as the perfect human, but it was politically astute to stoke Hitler's fires and stroke his ego.
I even thought that when he and his wife kill off his children; it was only when his own suicide became inevitable did I say to myself, "Holy shit! This asshole actually bought in! He is dumber than Speer!" |
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"My name is Gunnery Sergeant Major Highway. And I have drunk more beer, pissed more blood, banged more quiff and knocked more skulls than all you numbnuts put together." - Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:37 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| That top echelon all were pretty bright, with Goebbels probably the smartest. As you say, and from all I've read, there was no center to him. Inside was a void. All he understood was power, and he worshipped Hitler for it. Communism, fascism, whatever. Just tell me the program and I'll get with it. |
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| McBain |
| Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:51 am |
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Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 1987
Location: Boston
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billyweeds wrote: McBain wrote: "The Weather Man" was much better than I expected and Nicolas Cage is very good...
Yes!!!!!! Couldn't agree more. The Weather Man is going to be surprising a lot of skeptics like me who (much as we would like to deny this fact) are very swayed by what we read from critics and by box office success. The Weather Man got extremely mixed reviews (the bad ones were poisonous) and tanked at the box office. Nonetheless, as a DVD viewing proves, it's a very, very good film--with a marvelous performance by Cage.
We agree... It is a a very good movie. Nicolas Cage is very good in this type of role, where he has to carry us through a movie getting intimate with his character. It is not, however, a great movie. The writing isn't strong enough and I didn't empathize enough. I thought the Michael Caine father role could have been fleshed out quite a bit more interestingly. |
Last edited by McBain on Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:59 am; edited 1 time in total
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A life, Jimmy. You know what that is? It's the shit that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come. |
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| McBain |
| Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:59 am |
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Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 1987
Location: Boston
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Mr. Brownstone wrote: Funny, in light of our discussion of Sharon Stone, Mahnolia Dargis and appearance.
Last night I was watching Terms of Endearment with a friend, and near the end of the movie she remarked, "I miss actresses from the 80s. No fear of looking not beautiful, no botox or plastic surgery. Just really good acting."
She was referring to Debra Winger, but I'm sure others were on her mind as well.
I watched "Terms of Endearment" recently, and taped it for Jen to watch.
While I was watching it, I kept thinking about how Brooks' modern film "Spanglish" is supposed to be equivilent in many ways and is more telling about 21st century America than it is about holding the same ideals at heart.
If Brooks wants "Spanglish" to be about how immigrant inferiority is silly in the face of American opportunity, then he surely failed. The ending of "Spanglish" just made me angry. |
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A life, Jimmy. You know what that is? It's the shit that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come. |
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| McBain |
| Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 5:02 am |
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Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 1987
Location: Boston
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tirebiter wrote: Should have worn my glasses! Damn!
Da goggles... dey do nathing! |
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A life, Jimmy. You know what that is? It's the shit that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:12 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Really enjoyed Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle.
A few months back I watched M. Hulot's Holiday. And while I thought it was pretty good, there were slow parts, and some of the gags seemed a little laboured and without much payoff. So i didn't hurry to get around to another Tati.
But Mon Oncle is charming on many levels. First the muted colors are marvelous, as is the great attention to composition. This film is more like watching a moving painting than moving pictures. The film score strikes the right mood, with its combination of nostalgia and fun. While the story, such as it is, just unfolds much like everyday life does.
I really enjoyed the parallels between the group of dogs and the gang of boys. Both full of energy, slightly bored, mischievious. Mon Oncle harkens back to simpler times and the silent film era. With its minimal dialogue and a theme of modern inventions taking over from the older more social ways, the comparison to Chaplin's Modern Times is easy to make. But it's certainly an updated French version.
Now when Playtime turns up, it'll go right to the top of the Q. |
Last edited by gromit on Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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