Last Movie you Watched?

Mr. Brown wrote:

I can even tolerate Julie Christie. I've always found her as an actress who is just 'there' in most of her films and I don't think she has much of a screen presence.

Where can I shoot you? Go watch DON'T LOOK NOW, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, DEMON SEED, HEAVEN CAN WAIT, NASHVILLE, and HAMLET.

Mr Brown likes to be shot in the nude. He's very artistic.

Miss Christie liked to be shot in the nude as well. She's very rich.

Sharky wrote:

Quote :

Highlights: the ride in the potato lorry and McCowen's meals at home.

As much as I love the Alec McCowen/Vivien Merchant interplay, for me this will always be the highlight:

Yep, it's a great moment. Good old Hitch.

Loomis wrote:

Sharky wrote:

Quote :

Highlights: the ride in the potato lorry and McCowen's meals at home.

As much as I love the Alec McCowen/Vivien Merchant interplay, for me this will always be the highlight:

Yep, it's a great moment. Good old Hitch.

There's also a very clever edit there between the interior set and the street exterior, right when the first passer by blocks the camera for a few frames.

THE DAY OF THE LOCUST (1975, dir. John Schlesinger)

I'll have to take some time to think it over, but it packs one hell of a punch.

Glad you dug it, Harms.

If I EON were to do an adaption of DAF or YOLT, my idea of it would be something like that.

Sharky wrote:

Glad you dug it, Harms.

I'm not sure to what extent I dug it, but it is fairly astonishing in places. That ending...

Sharky wrote:

If I EON were to do an adaption of DAF or YOLT, my idea of it would be something like that.

Hm. I gotta say, THE DAY OF THE LOCUST doesn't exactly bring Bond to mind, but I can kinda see where you're going with that.

But I do have Sondheim's FOLLIES on the brain, thanks to the release of the new cast recording, and while there are many different valid ways to adapt it, the film version I have in my head would have a heavy dose of DAY OF THE LOCUST.

FourDot wrote:

Crime in the Streets (1956)
Dir. Donald Siegel

Is there some specific reason this isn't regarded as a classic of any stripe, or one of the great films of the 1950s? If so, I missed it.

Really? My memory of about 4 months ago doesn't remember it as anything too special. Sorta like THE YOUNG SAVAGES, excpet without Burt.

Harmsway wrote:

Sharky wrote:

If I EON were to do an adaption of DAF or YOLT, my idea of it would be something like that.

Hm. I gotta say, THE DAY OF THE LOCUST doesn't exactly bring Bond to mind, but I can kinda see where you're going with that.

But I do have Sondheim's FOLLIES on the brain, thanks to the release of the new cast recording, and while there are many different valid ways to adapt it, the film version I have in my head would have a heavy dose of DAY OF THE LOCUST.

Which version of FOLLIES do you like best? I understand it's undergone several revisions to this day.

Sharky wrote:

Which version of FOLLIES do you like bet? I know it's undergone several revisions to this day.

Yep. Every cast recording is a different experience.

I came to know and love FOLLIES through the '85 concert recording, with its star-studded cast, and for my money, it's still the best "all-around" recording of FOLLIES available. There are two weak points: 1) Barbara Cook's Sally; Cook has a beautiful voice, but she doesn't "get" her character, a character who is so deluded she comes pretty close to madness, and 2) the concert ending, which removes the original's abrupt, haunting final moments and replaces it with a grander reprise of one of the earlier numbers.

The Original Broadway Cast recording isn't that splendid, aside from the fact that it has Dorothy Collins as Sally. Otherwise the musical numbers are often truncated to squeeze it all into one album, and the voices of most of the original cast members leave something to be desired. The Original London Cast has Diana Rigg, which is enough for me to give it a thumbs-up (her "Could I Leave You" is a knockout), but it's the weakest version of the show overall, cutting some of the numbers from the original show and adding a bunch of lackluster new ones. The New Jersey Cast (also labeled the "Complete" recording) is the most comprehensive recording available, including a bunch of deleted/alternate musical numbers as a bonus, but while no cast member is less than capable, they're never particularly striking or endearing, either. That said, it's probably the best album for appreciating the score as a whole, even if it's not the most dramatically involving experience. The newest one, the New Broadway Cast Recording, is a fine record of the show, with one stunning performance from Bernadette Peters and capable performances from everyone else; I'd probably put it in second place after the concert recording, if I were to rank them.

colly wrote:

FourDot wrote:

Crime in the Streets (1956)
Dir. Donald Siegel

Is there some specific reason this isn't regarded as a classic of any stripe, or one of the great films of the 1950s? If so, I missed it.

Really? My memory of about 4 months ago doesn't remember it as anything too special. Sorta like THE YOUNG SAVAGES, excpet without Burt.

At first I thought it was very stagebound, but as it goes on the claustrophobia becomes more and more of an asset. There is quite literally nothing beyond that the apartment, the alleyway, and the shop, and the only time the story ventures from that location is for the opening titles, where the characters go and belt the shit out of each other near a warehouse. So essentially you have the scummy backalleys the characters call home, or a battleground to go to.

Then you've got Cassavetes' performance, which I really liked. The sheer and utter contempt he has for anyone not willing to "be a man" and kill somebody, or anyone who seems to have accepted the lifestyle that they're consigned to is really strong, and something you don't see often in the protagonist of a film. And he also does feral really well. That "SHUT UP" he bellows at his mother is heartbreaking.

And then there's Whitmore, who is fantastic as always. Just the look on his face when the younger brother reveals what he thinks is about to go down speaks volumes. And then there's Rydell's kinda-very-gay sidekick, and Mineo doing his thing.

Rose's teleplay/screenplay is fantastic, with characters given proper motivation, proper conflict, and they're all either fully fleshed out or Siegel injects enough inflection and implication to fill in the gaps. It all just comes together really well, and it's something that still has social relevance today, I think. It just clicked for me, I guess.

Private Parts (1972)

I need to see more from Paul Bartel. I enjoyed this. A fun cheapy with a nice cast and a nice sense of humor. I like any movie where it's not enough to simply electrocute a rat, it has to be put through the garbage disposal. It stars Ayn Ruymen, who went nowhere but is pretty appealling I think. It's also got a priest who digs leather, and blood-filled blow-up dolls. Nice score by Hugo Friedhoffer.

Tamara Drewe, 2010, Gemma Arterton

Its the ultimate Gemma film, the most Gemma-centric movie of them all.

Fields Man will love it! Although I'm sure he's got his own personal copy, and would be on his 10th viewing by now.

Funny cheeky British sex comedy. It's real funny and so very English. Arterton might be the most English actress on the planet.

Funniest characters are the two teenage girls. Such potty mouths.

The middle-aged thriller writer's schemes for stepping out on his wife are just awful, but funny. He explains you lull wife into false sense of security, by acting like you are cheating, so that when she checks up on you and you are not, she feels so guilty for suspecting, that you can then get away with anything.

tiffanywint wrote:

The middle-aged thriller writer's schemes for stepping out on his wife are just awful, but funny. He explains you lull wife into false sense of security, by acting like you are cheating, so that when she checks up on you and you are not, she feels so guilty for suspecting, that you can then get away with anything.

Not a half-bad idea, actually.

Another alternative would be to never get married.


Does Gemma show her tits? For me, that'd make or break something like this.

Mr. Brown wrote:

Does Gemma show her tits? For me, that'd make or break something like this.

No, but she does share the screen with Dominic Cooper and Luke Evans, who qualify as tits.

Roger Allam is hilarious in that film. Nothing else is, though. Interesting spin on Far From the Madding Crowd I guess, but gee, Frears has fallen a long way since the days of The Hit.

Watched FINDING NEMO with the family and a stein of Paulaner. Good fun. :)

Last night Donovan's Reef

I definitely have gone John Wayne mad or at least trying to watch as much as I can. Alas I wasn't too enamoured with this, probably too soon after watching The Searchers. Still it had some faces to it, Lee Marvin, Jack Walden, Cesar Romero and yes, Dorothy Lamour alas looking as if she needed Bob and Bing's help.
Lined up Wayne-wise, Cahill US Marshal and Operation Pacific

tonight, Every Girl Should be Married

fairly decent romp made much more so by Cary Grant. Rest, well...next time perhaps.

I havent put myself through DONOVAN'S REEF yet. Maybe one day, though I'm more interested in fiding more of the Duke's 40s films at the mo.

And THE CONQUEROR, naturally. ;)

Mr. Brown wrote:

Does Gemma show her tits? For me, that'd make or break something like this.

No but she prances around in short shorts, and lounges about naked quite a bit. Makes lots of loud orgasmic noise as well, unless those were the barnyard animals. Hard to tell. She's almost easier to get into the sack in this movie, than she was in QoS and that's saying a lot.

colly wrote:

Decoy (1946) Dir. Jack Bernhard

A true B-classic that starts of rather slow, but builds masterfully to become a sinister gem. Starring a cast of nobodies (the only name I recognized was KING KONG alumnus Robert Armstrong), the real find is Jean Gillie in the lead, playing a psychotically seductive black widow who gets more and more insane as the film goes along. And she's absolutely brilliant. Such a shame she only made 1 more film before dying 3 years later.

I've got that on the DVD with CRIME WAVE. As I recall, the commentary on CRIME WAVE by Eddie Muller and James Ellroy is entertaining. As for DECOY, she's supposed to run over the guy, back up, and run over him again. Sadly, that's not on the DVD version.

Speaking of Ellroy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32M2N3zD-Tk#t=2m43s

I watched...



The Red Shoes (1948)

I was quite impressed, but it didn't grab me. The dancing sequence was stunning and startling. Everything else... I sorta watched it admiring how great it looked without giving a damn about anything that I was seeing.

SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER ... AND SPRING. Blending the tranquility of Ozu with a pinch of the sadism and black humour of OLDBOY, this 2003 South Korean effort is a defiantly arty Buddhist fable about a kindly old monk and his wayward pupil who must undergo some painful and cleansing rites of passage during the "seasons" of his life. Bizarre, baffling, borderline pretentious and ridiculous (at least when viewed through the jaded, secular Western eyes of yours truly), it's nonetheless compelling, haunting and moving, although I'll confess that I was never quite as transported either emotionally or visually by it as many other viewers have been. Still, there's something wonderfully uncompromising about it and it's undeniably a unique experience (well, maybe not in the annals of Buddhist cinema, but Buddhist cinema is something of which I know squat). Definitely worth a gander, regardless of one's religious persuasion or lack thereof, and along with the likes of THE CHASER and OLDBOY proof that these are interesting times for South Korean cinema.

Another Thin Man (1939)

Third of the Thin Man series but the chemistry and sense of fun between leads Powell and Loy is undeminished. The story is actually a bit darker this time around and a bit closer to home which doesn't quite mesh so well with our sleuths style imo but that is a minor detraction from an otherwise solid piece of entertainment.

7/10

Twleve Angry Men (1956)

The Blu ray version is pin sharp with lots of detail on show but as a consequence it is rather grainy... But while this was never a picture to demo your state of the art Home Cinema, it is absolutely enthralling in a way very few pictures are. Quite remarkable that what is essentially a film shot on one small set focussed on one idea still oozes with character and tension. Brilliant performances from top to bottom, a rattling good script, taut direction and a powerful theme make this one of the greats.......but I think we all knew that already!

9/10

colly wrote:

I havent put myself through DONOVAN'S REEF yet. Maybe one day, though I'm more interested in fiding more of the Duke's 40s films at the mo.

And THE CONQUEROR, naturally. ;)

I should drag myself to the 40's films sooner or later. Seem to be bouncing around the early 70's with the exception of Searchers and Donovan's Reef. :)

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I was quite impressed, but it didn't grab me. The dancing sequence was stunning and startling. Everything else... I sorta watched it admiring how great it looked without giving a damn about anything that I was seeing.

That is bad cinema.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

The Red Shoes (1948)I sorta watched it admiring how great it looked without giving a damn about anything that I was seeing.

And you thought Vertigo was shit as well. Not a romantic, are you, Tux?