Last Movie You Watched? 7.0

SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING. Excellent (thanks for the recommendation, Sharky).

Walkabout (1971, dir. Nicolas Roeg)

The film juxtaposes civilized life and archaic life (in the outback) in a visually brilliant manner. It's also about growing up and touches a couple of other themes. The visual story-telling is really fine, and the music quite entrancing. I thought I had noticed the composer by a couple of notes, and indeed, the end titles confirmed it: no one less than John Barry.

Twilight's Last Gleaming. 1977. Caught it at the Oakridge theater opening night, the Pruneyard cinema the next day, and since it disappeared from theaters almost immediately, one last time at the Moonlight Drive-in. Haven't seen it in decent conditions since early 1977.

This has long been among my alltime favorite movies, but it has been impossible to see it in anything approaching decent shape. When it broadcast on CBS, the swearing was dubbed in a ludicrous way; on VHS and even laserdisc (which I still own), the split-screen work (the ONLY film in which the process really works for me) was badly cropped and the movie looked mushy.

On blu ray, the movie looks the way it did in the cinema, at least as I recall it looking. Interiors way too bright in a tv-ish way, but me not caring because it just works for me. There was restoration work done, not all successfully (there are some lip-sync issues that weren't there to start with), but overall a good good try.

On an academic level, there is a 66 minute making of doc on the disc that is very nicely done, and includes stuff I did not know (before the president's role went to Charles Durning, it was offered to Paul Newman ... can't imagine there were many times that those two were in contention for the same role, and as much as I like Newman's later work, this is the best work Durning ever did (even he always said so.)

Of some interest to Bond devotees is the fact -- totally unknown to me before this -- that Tom Mankiewicz did an uncredited rewrite and/or dialog polish. One of things I really dig about this movie is that for a suspense thriller cum political paranoia tragedy, it has some great GREAT one-liners that are very true to the characters. Had no idea that the guy responsible for "Alimentary my dear Leiter" could very well be responsible for lines like "There are no midgets in the United States Air Force" or the reply: "Maybe they got em from the mafia, it is all the same outfit."

I'm sure my local rental place will have that. No way Netflix ever will. I'll keep a look out.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I'm sure my local rental place will have that. No way Netflix ever will. I'll keep a look out.

Don't be too sure; I was flabbergasted to see that NETFLIX not only carried Tavernier's DEATHWATCH as soon as it came out, but that they had it STREAMING already. Of course I'd already ordered it by then.

TLG has some definite pacing problems, but shoot, that is probably why Goldsmith got hired to score it. He really helps it skate along at times.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Blu Ray)

Haven't had a chance to go through the special features yet; just watched the movie only. This is my second time seeing it.

I still like it, still think it's as good as the first two, and maybe even a little better than both. Loved the ending. One of the best endings I've seen in a movie. Certainly up there with the likes of PLANET OF THE APES.

There's just so much to digest that it will take several more viewings, and I suspect that there were a few deleted scenes, as a couple of times in the movie it felt like it moved from one scene to the next as if something had been cut. Nothing major or terribly important, just little stuff (like the scene in front of BlackGate prison; how did the media know Bane would be right there and giving a speech? How did Drake know to be at the reading of Bruce's will?). I also noticed the Bat Signal at the end of the movie and Gordon's reaction of joy to it, something I had not seen in the theater. Coupled with Drake finding the Batcave and all the goodies, the movie does more than imply that Batman will be back; it's coming right out and saying Drake will be either Batman or Robin or Nightwing. I don't really mind which one, though I think Nightwing would be the most appropriate choice.

I really don't see the point of not bringing Gordon-Levitt back in the lead role. The hand-off was flawless. The character is in place. The audience accepted JGL. I think Nolan has brought to WB some consistency and balance that they didn't have with the Keaton/Kilmer/Clooney era, and I think it would be a shame to start all over again.

LAURENCE ANYWAYS

Unfortunately the first twenty or so minutes were absolutely ruined by some piece of shit at the back of the cinema (who looked like he hadn't washed for a few weeks) playing around non-stop with some sort of wrapper between burping and making lewd comments about any woman on screen. Luckily he left quite quickly (how he ended up in a three hour French-Canadian film about transsexuality to begin with is beyond me), and I was left to enjoy the rest of the film in peace. It's pretty stunning. For a three hour film about two people, it goes by remarkably fast. Like A SINGLE MAN, it will probably face the absurd criticism that it's well shot (oh, the horror!) - every image is beautifully rendered, and most are well conceived (one exception is a moment where we're left looking at a meaningless salt shaker as two months pass). Great to see more filmmakers bringing back Academy ratio, especially people like Dolan who seem to understand exactly the sort of compositions that benefit from it. Probably the best soundtracked film of the year too.

Tim Robey wrote in the Telegraph that 'the film’s strangely coy about his desire or otherwise for a sex-change operation: we could have handled more gory details, at this length.' The problem with this line of criticism is that the film clearly isn't interested in the finer points of transsexuality to begin with. What's so remarkable about this film (and Dolan's others), and what makes him so offended about winning an award like the Queer Palm, is that it makes every effort to avoid being ghettoised as an 'LGBT film'. It's a film about love - love between two people, of whom one happens to be a transsexual - not a film about 'queer issues'.

Best films of 2012 for me thus far (THE HUNT is the only other film I'm interested in checking out):

1. AMOUR (Haneke)
2. LAURENCE ANYWAYS (Dolan)
3. RUST AND BONE (Audiard)
4. ARGO (Affleck)
5. BARBARA (Petzold) / LOOPER (Johnson)
7. THE MASTER (Anderson)

A very good year for cinema, even if I had to sit through some tired shit like THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and GINGER & ROSA.

Amazing Spider-Man on Blu-Ray...

The actual in-costume Spidey sequences are nicely done, especially when he uses the web-shooters...

Even mildly interested in checking out SKYFALL, Harry? I know you've gone off Bond, but I think you'd enjoy it.

I've got two free tickets for the Hackney Picturehouse, so I might go and see AMOUR.

I liked the look of SKYFALL from the trailer but I didn't follow the development at all and didn't build up any sort of excitement. I haven't really gone off Bond, I just haven't exposed myself to it for a while. I haven't even seen QUANTUM OF SOLACE either. Is SKYFALL a direct sequel or not?

Not at all. Takes place about six years after the events of the last two, with a world-weary Bond goes who's gone to hell and back.

QUANTURD OF SOLACE is best avoided. 104 minutes of your life you won't get back.

Largo's Shark wrote:

QUANTURD OF SOLACE is best avoided. 104 minutes of your life you won't get back.

I disagree. QOS should be viewed so that Bond fans can better appreciate both the "classic" Bond films and SKYFALL. Sometimes a person needs to be humbled in life to really appreciate the blessings that they have. Similarly with QOS, it helps remind people what a true Bond film is not supposed to look like. QOS is a text-book example of everything that could go wrong with a movie that is Bond in name only, written and directed and produced by people who love to smell their own farts. To appreciate dinner at a five star restaurant, sometimes you need to eat at a Jack-in-the-Box. QOS is Jack-in-the-Box.

American Gangster (2007)

I'm pretty sure if Olde MI6 still existed and if you dug deep enough you could find my praises for this film when it came out. "One of the best films of the decade", "will be remembered for years", yada yada. Hell, I bought the DVD when it came out and the strange thing is I never actually bothered watching it after purchase. It just sat on my DVD shelf for five years untouched. I looked at my shelf recently and realized there were flicks I had long neglected and demanded a rewatch, to determine whether I still gave a shit about them. AMERICAN GANGSTER was one of them.

Well, it made me want to watch 70s blaxplotation movies. If one thing holds up it's Denzel for sure. Beyond that? Forgettable. I like Russell Crowe, but I don't care for him here. Not sure why the hell I thought this was so great when it came out. So many good actors here are wasted too in roles not worth their talent. Overall underwhelming.

Dracula's Daughter (1936)

Played on TCM, felt like a good time to see this as I just came back from work, ordered a pizza and had two dogs to hang out with. I really like Universal horror classics, and this is just as fun, and with lesbian overtones too! TWILIGHT could learn a lot from this flick. :)

Python wrote:

American Gangster (2007)

I'm pretty sure if Olde MI6 still existed and if you dug deep enough you could find my praises for this film when it came out. "One of the best films of the decade", "will be remembered for years", yada yada. Hell, I bought the DVD when it came out and the strange thing is I never actually bothered watching it after purchase. It just sat on my DVD shelf for five years untouched. I looked at my shelf recently and realized there were flicks I had long neglected and demanded a rewatch, to determine whether I still gave a shit about them. AMERICAN GANGSTER was one of them.

I got halfway through it a while ago (had to stop it because I needed to be somewhere), and never actually got around to finishing it. I should have, but I found it pretty boring. Should pop it in again and try get through it. I feel bad because it was a gift from someone...

It just feels like a pale shadow of other great gangster films to me.

Largo's Shark wrote:

Not at all. Takes place about six years after the events of the last two, with a world-weary Bond goes who's gone to hell and back.

QUANTURD OF SOLACE is best avoided. 104 minutes of your life you won't get back.

Interesting. I was planning on watching it on blu after I'd caught up with QOS, but I guess I'll check it out in the cinema if I find the time this week (or if it's still playing once I'm back in Bristol). My love-hate relationship with visiting the cinema is back to love for the moment, despite recent unpleasant experiences like the bloke in LAURENCE ANYWAYS and the chap who tried singing the Islamic call to prayer during ARGO. I've gone eight times this term already (five times for reviewing), and I suspect I'll add THE HUNT and SKYFALL to that tally before I return home. Not having a HDTV or a blu-ray player with me makes the cinema a much more compelling option.

Just watched The Jacket (dir. John Maybury).

Me being the Keira Knightley fan I am, I had been aching to give this a watch. It's an interesting little thriller focusing on the choices we make in life, and regardless of what bad decisions we may have made in the past, it's never too later to change. Unfortunately, the characters could have been rounded out a bit more to make them more human - Keira Knightley and Adrien Brody do their absolute best to humanise their characters and in many moments throughout the film, it seems real. But, at times, they don't feel like people - they feel like cardboard cutouts and that's mostly due to the writing. It's written by Massy Tadjedin, who had written and directed 'Last Night'. That is a lot stronger in my opinion, despite a slightly undercooked storyline for Eva Mendes and Sam Worthington's characters (Keira Knightley and Guilliame Canet's storyline is fully developed and much more real). But back to 'The Jacket', we also have a refreshingly quirky performance from Daniel Craig, despite a wonky accent, and with another connection to Bond, the end titles have a rock version of 'We Have All The Time In The World', compounding the notions of choices and time, but it Louis Armstrong's version is so much better.

Keira Film Ranking

Atonement
Pride and Prejudice
Never Let Me Go
The Edge Of Love
Last Night
Love Actually
A Dangerous Method
The Duchess
--> The Jacket
London Boulevard
Silk

HJackson wrote:

Best films of 2012 for me thus far (THE HUNT is the only other film I'm interested in checking out):

1. AMOUR (Haneke)
2. LAURENCE ANYWAYS (Dolan)
3. RUST AND BONE (Audiard)
4. ARGO (Affleck)
5. BARBARA (Petzold) / LOOPER (Johnson)
7. THE MASTER (Anderson)

A very good year for cinema, even if I had to sit through some tired shit like THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and GINGER & ROSA.

Hmm. I have to confess that any "best films" list I compiled for 2012 would be pretty meager. I haven't seen a lot of art cinema this year. There's plenty of stuff I probably should have seen, ala THE KID WITH A BIKE or I WISH or even AMOUR, but, with some exceptions, I don't generally love naturalistic arthouse fare. The arthouse fare I tend to go for has strong roots in genre tradition and baroque stylistic choices. There hasn't been a lot of that this year.

HJackson wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

Not at all. Takes place about six years after the events of the last two, with a world-weary Bond goes who's gone to hell and back.

QUANTURD OF SOLACE is best avoided. 104 minutes of your life you won't get back.

Interesting. I was planning on watching it on blu after I'd caught up with QOS, but I guess I'll check it out in the cinema if I find the time this week (or if it's still playing once I'm back in Bristol). My love-hate relationship with visiting the cinema is back to love for the moment, despite recent unpleasant experiences like the bloke in LAURENCE ANYWAYS and the chap who tried singing the Islamic call to prayer during ARGO. I've gone eight times this term already (five times for reviewing), and I suspect I'll add THE HUNT and SKYFALL to that tally before I return home. Not having a HDTV or a blu-ray player with me makes the cinema a much more compelling option.

I suggest watching watching it in the Cineplex IMAX, preferably at the middle, at the back rows. IMO it's the best way to appreciate Roger Deakins's work here, and the room itself is much steeper, meaning it's easier to just look ahead. When I saw it at the BFI IMAX in Waterloo, there was this bloke next to me getting sucked off by his girlfriend. Normally I would mind, but here the film experience is so overwhelming, nothing around you is worth paying attention to.

Largo's Shark wrote:

there was this bloke next to me getting sucked off by his girlfriend.

...who the fuck does that? Like really. That's disgusting.

La chair de l'orchidée (1975, dir. Patrice Chéreau)

Very bizarre and dark thriller. It's pretty unbelievable, but realism certainly is not the director's aim. It has got two ex-knife thrower brothers turned killers for hire; a greedy aunt who keeps her rich niece in a mental hospital in order to get to her money - the girl (Charlotte Rampling) escapes, clings to an idiotic coward who has a felonious brother that gets him into trouble; the girl wants to make everyone believe she is sane, but she does have the nasty habit of knifing a man's eyeballs if he approaches her with unambiguous intentions; does that three times in the film. Some of the characters also complain about being lonely, so that is one theme, I believe. There is also a most outrageously dramatic back story to the girl, who is the daughter of an orchid, and her mother supposedly committed suicide (though I didn't pay close attention during that scene; her mother was a stage actress, I believe?).
I have no idea if this film makes sense. It might be artful (Chéreau is said to be an excellent opera director). I couldn't make anything of the last scene in which the girl lies in hospital bandaged, and the elderly woman who revealed to her the tragic story of her parents, and the remaining brother - who commits suicide after killing the elderly woman - lie dead on the floor in the hospital room, and the girl acts as if they were not there (must have missed some business she is about to initiate on the phone that probably reveals her true character; I didn't pay attention again). Is that symbolic?
I couldn't tell if the film makes sense at all, but a potential second viewing may put several things right. I'd be grateful for some explanations, though. Won't be shown again any time soon on TV.

SOYLENT GREEN (1973, dir. Richard Fleischer)

Much, much better than I remembered it being.

Fae wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

there was this bloke next to me getting sucked off by his girlfriend.

...who the fuck does that? Like really. That's disgusting.

The girlfriend of the bloke sitting next to Sharky.

:)

Harmsway wrote:

SOYLENT GREEN (1973, dir. Richard Fleischer)

Much, much better than I remembered it being.

Edward G. Robinson's death is one of the most moving things I've ever seen.

Maybe I'll give it another looksie.