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| bartist |
 Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2020 2:37 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6944
Location: Black Hills
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| Not really a major point in my review of Trumbo, so I'd rather, if it's okay, take that over to Lounge. Rather than take a minor role in the film, and that actor's subsequent peccadilloes and disgrace, and turn Couch forum into a chat about that. I can even peel that comment out of the review, and post it separately in Lounge? Would that work better? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2020 8:48 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Bart.....I wasn’t being critical I just thought it was one of the funniest phrases
I’ve heard recently. I guess it could be discussed in the Lobby if anyone is interested. Paul Schrader would like to cast Kevin Spacey in a film. I’d be all for that.
My Couch watching lately has been Japanese films on the Criterian channel.
I find them a good way to separate myself from all the virus talk. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2020 11:36 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6944
Location: Black Hills
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Thanks. Yeah, I'm reaching a point where escapism might guide my viewing choices more.
Tomorrow I'm watching some indie film where a couple stay in someone's Hollywood house and dig up a human bone in the backyard. As long as the bone's owner didn't perish in a pandemic, I'm good. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2020 6:06 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Revisited 1971's "Klute," for which Jane Fonda won her first Oscar. She was fantastic as a call girl who becomes the major lead for a detective investigating the disappearance of a young businessman. Movie also features a terrific performance as the detective by Donald Sutherland. Alan J. Pakula, later the director of the surpassingly great "All the President's Men," did a great job here as well, as did cinematographer Gordon Willis. It's a beauty all around. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 12:15 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Isn't that peculiar?
I always found Klute boring with little substance.
And President's Men ultra-boring despite what should be gripping substance.
The Alan J. Pakula film I like is The Parallax View which has some energy and drive. |
Last edited by gromit on Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:32 am; edited 1 time in total
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 12:46 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Re-watched Overlord (1975) a Brit WWII film which I remembered nearly nothing about. This really worked for me. Basically a nice young bloke is drafted, leaves his parents, goes through basic training with occasional leaves, makes an army friend or two who are blunter than he is, etc.
It's a quiet meditative film. Interspersed with the filmed story are actual WWII clips, many that are visually poetic, such as bombs slipping from an airplane bay, or exploding on a field far below. This is often combined with an elegiac and at times soaring classical score. Overlord is filmed in a highly realistic manner, at times the camera seems to be hidden, designed to blend to an extent with the actual footage used. For most of the film, the war is a dream-like abstraction, both mildly alluring and yet mostly dangerous.
The style and blending with actual footage is similar to It Happened Here (1965), though that has a significant story-line about an alternative future in which the Nazis rule England (which could have happened if not for US intervention). [Recommended] Overlord is more about one young man's life and subjective experience leading up to D Day.
If you're in the right mood for a low-key war film, I think this is really a brilliant film. I'm even more impressed that this was made during the latter stages of the Vietnam War when outrage and anti-war sentiment were at their highest, at least in the USofA. This is like a poetic, impressionistic version of joining the army and prepping for war. A totally unique film about D-Day.
The film was shot by John Alcott, Kubrick's cinematographer. Kubrick remarked that the only problem with overlord was that it was an hour and a half too short.
Overlord was never released int he US, and didn't screen stateside until 2008. Here's an interview with the director at the time of the resurgence of interest. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/jan/18/2 |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 7:19 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: Isn't that peculiar?
I always found Klute boring with little substance.
And President's Men ultra-boring despite what should be gripping substance.
The Alan J. Pakula film I like is The Parallax View which has some energy and drive.
Hahahaha. "The Parallax View" is the Pakula film I've always found boring and mediocre. "All the President's Men" is one of my all-time favorite movies, and "Klute" is something of a masterpiece of tone and acting. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 10:44 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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If you like offbeat comical magical realism that involves an entire recycling dumpster's worth of cardboard fashioned into a labyrinth that is much larger on the inside than the outside (like the Tardis on Dr Who), then you may find Dave Made a Maze quite the fun little flick. I searched the title here and found one post where Gromit said he'd obtained a copy but didn't see a later review. I'm guessing he liked it.
What made it enjoyable was the spoofing of cheesy 80s adventure movies and also documentary film making (a camera crew and director, drolly pretentious, follow a small team of rescuers into the maze who search for the maze's builder, i. e. Dave). A couple of characters seem briefly fixated on Robert DeNiros immortal line in Raging Bull (which seems to be a sly allusion to the presence of a Minotaur, half man half bull, in the labyrinth), "did you fuck my wife? " repeating the line with various tonal variations on DeNiro. Funny stuff, delivered by some rising young talents in the indie comedy world.
I need to see both Klute and Parallax View again, thanks for the point/counterpoint. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 12:33 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I liked Dave and his Maze fine enough. Probably better than my expectations.
For some reason it reminds me of Brigsby Bear which is a fairly different film, but also deals with escapism and the nature of reality in a similarly gentle way. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 12:36 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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| I find Klute a frustrating snooze. But it doesn't help that it features Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda, probably my least favorite pairing since Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon. [/billy's head exploding] |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2020 9:19 pm |
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gromit wrote: I find Klute a frustrating snooze. But it doesn't help that it features Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda, probably my least favorite pairing since Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon. [/billy's head exploding]
Prepare the sackcloth and ashes, and the bell so you can signal "unclean." |
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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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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 4:00 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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| Klute is one of my favorite movies. I’ve watched it 3 or 4 times. Do I like romantic movies about prostitutes? No. I hated Pretty Woman. Do I like stories about young women getting into prostitution? Yes. I recently watched Paul Shrader’s Hard Core with George C. Scott. Do I like tragic life stories about prostitutes? Yes. The Japanese film The Life of Oharu is one of the best. Probably I like Klute because it’s a story about a good man rescuing a prostitute from an evil man and it’s a thriller. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 4:10 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: I find Klute a frustrating snooze. But it doesn't help that it features Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda, probably my least favorite pairing since Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon. [/billy's head exploding]
Believe me, I can handle wrongheaded movie analysis. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 4:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Befade wrote: Klute is one of my favorite movies. I’ve watched it 3 or 4 times. Do I like romantic movies about prostitutes? No. I hated Pretty Woman. Do I like stories about young women getting into prostitution? Yes. I recently watched Paul Shrader’s Hard Core with George C. Scott. Do I like tragic life stories about prostitutes? Yes. The Japanese film The Life of Oharu is one of the best. Probably I like Klute because it’s a story about a good man rescuing a prostitute from an evil man and it’s a thriller.
I love "Klute" because it's a beautifully directed, gorgeously photographed, masterfully acted film. In addition to Jane Fonda's and Donald Sutherland's performances, there's the inspired turn by Charles Cioffi, a great villain. I saw Cioffi as Benedick in "Much Ado About Nothing" in Stratford, CT, a lifetime ago. He was terrific, as far removed from "Klute" as can be. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:54 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| I’m wondering if I like a movie because of the story or because of the way a story is told. Time to investigate.... |
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