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| lshap |
 Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 10:07 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 4248
Location: Montreal
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Lady W,
In my Americentric view of movieland, the 101 Best Screenplays is a damn good list. My top 2 all-time favourite films are ranked, in order, 1 and 2 on the list as the top 2 all-time best screenplays. Likewise, most of my all-time favourite films make the list among the top 101 screenplays. Shows what I look for in a film... |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:58 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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| It's not a perfect list, but it's much better than that AFI list. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:44 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien pays his tribute to Yasujiro Ozu on Ozu's centennial with Cafe Lumiere (2004). Ozu's style of film making is sincerely followed, with long scenes of everyday happenings, the camera remaing steady in one position, a leisurely pace, with seemingly nothing much happening. The "story" is very simple. The story is not "told', it has no beginning, middle or end, but as we see the characters in their daily humdrum activities shown in great detail, a life event emerges in a casual manner, no fan-fare, no drama, and this life event is dealt with in a low key casual manner. The cahracters are living their lives, not depicting a story. We become a part of their life, a part of their little world.
Hou's "Three Times", which too was extremely well reviewed, will be shown next week in Tribeca Film Festival, and starts at IFC Center on April 26.[/i] |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:36 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Ghulam wrote: Hou's "Three Times", which too was extremely well reviewed, will be shown next week in Tribeca Film Festival, and starts at IFC Center on April 26.[/i]
Three Times was shown at the NYFF last fall. It looked really good, but it was the second film I saw that day (after Paradise Now) and I was already pretty tired - so I can't really tell ya what it was like. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 8:24 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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Re: Bertolucci's "The Conformist," recently mentioned in Current film...
I've googled it and checked the imdb.com for info. as to why there is no DVD release of this movie. All I could find was a comment that apparently Paramount no longer owns the rights to the film and neither do the producers. According to the comment, the only way the film will come out on DVD will be if Bertolucci himself sanctions it, and he has no interest in doing so.
This is a real shame.
Of course, this makes me wonder just who restored and is distributing the beautiful print in current limited circulation.
Someone out there go find Bertolucci and convince him to release a top quality letter-boxed edition of this movie! |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:34 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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The documentary Fog of War is about Robert Strange McNamara, Secty of Defense for seven years during Vietnam. He was the most charismatic, intelligent, dynamic figure of the Kennedy/Johnson inner circle that journalist David Halberstam dubbed the Best and the Brightest. His press conferences were works of art.
He is a spry, energetic eighty-four when this is filmed. I love listening to this proven managerial wizard, as he reduces tremendously complicated issues to their essence.
No one else from that era has allowed himself to come before the camera and be examined so closely. But in the end, the off-screen questions are too few and too soft, and he is allowed a pass on the grimmest aspects of his tenure. Yet his perspective is important historically, with its obvious parallels to today. I was gripped by the man and his story. |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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yambu wrote: I was gripped by the man and his story.
So was I. Interesting how at some times he seems abashed by what he did in the past, but other times is pretty cold-blooded about it. This is a fascinating film, and well worth seeing. |
_________________
"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
Isaacism, 2009 |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:20 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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Nancy wrote: yambu wrote: I was gripped by the man and his story.
So was I. Interesting how at some times he seems abashed by what he did in the past, but other times is pretty cold-blooded about it. This is a fascinating film, and well worth seeing.
I agree. Fascinating film. Incidentally, my father (only a couple of years younger than 'boy genius' McNamara) was one of his students at the Harvard Business School during WWII. Dad used to have interesting stories to tell about him.
I got the impression that the man was a real cold fish. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 1:20 am |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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mo_flixx wrote: ......my father (only a couple of years younger than 'boy genius' McNamara) was one of his students at the Harvard Business School during WWII. Dad used to have interesting stories to tell about him.
I got the impression that the man was a real cold fish. |
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| Melody |
| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:09 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 2242
Location: TX
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Thanks to the Mexican film society or whatever for bringing Vera to Marc's attention.
Thanks to Marc for convincing Taos Talking Pictures to show the film, and for writing a brilliant review of the film which I also read when he first wrote it and which I remember to this day.
Thanks to Marilyn for traveling to Taos for the film fest and loving the film so much that she petitioned Facets to champion it.
Thanks to Facets for doing so.
Thanks to me for ordering the damn thing, and now having to wait two-plus months before I get to see it! |
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My heart told my head: This time, no. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:52 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| Fog of War is a rare opportunity to see a rare breed of a man trying to be as honest as he possibly could. |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 11:21 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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| "As honest as he possibly could." That describes it perfectly, Ghulam. |
_________________
"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
Isaacism, 2009 |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:53 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Am I the only one who thought Fog of War was a mushy piece of pap?
I was also disappointed that the Dvd special features didn't include MacNamara getting napalmed, forced to watch his family murdered, and finally being pushed out of a helicopter. |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 4:44 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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gromit wrote: I was also disappointed that the Dvd special features didn't include MacNamara getting napalmed, forced to watch his family murdered, and finally being pushed out of a helicopter.
Don't forget being shot in the head by a guy who comes up to him on the street. And if what consicence he has starts bothering him, he can always set himself on fire. |
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"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
Isaacism, 2009 |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:25 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I thought Fog of War was an interesting film of a period of history, and an interesting example of a man hanging himself on screen. Watching him I understood better how the US government screwed up so badly in Vietnam, and saw echoes of Donald Rumsfeld. |
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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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