Last Movie you Watched?

Both are the fruits of an overactive imagination, but can make decent fiction in the right hands.

colly wrote:

Tux didnt find ANATOMY OF A MURDER perfect in every way?

This displeases me. :|

I just thought the ending felt too quick. That's just my reaction as a first-time viewer. I think it's a dynamite film.

I saw THE BRIDE WORE BLACK in the theater yesterday. I think it's great mainly because of how simple it is. I've always found it interesting how Truffaut, and other filmmakers with a good eye, could take a rather basic, and, in a way, silly plot, and turn it into something captivating.

I'll be seeing Christian Marclay's UP AND OUT tonight, which is Antonioni's BLOW UP mixed with the soundtrack from De Palma's BLOW OUT.

Vertigo (1958)

It's finally clicking more for me. I've always admired it greatly, I find it's ideas fascinating. This time it came together for me, though it may take another viewing or two for me to be enthralled. Those first 30-40 minutes still leave me a little cold. I find it much more interesting once Scotty and Madeleine meet, and even moreso once Scotty is trying to change Judy. The idea of falling for a woman who never existed, and then transforming another (or in this case the same) woman into that image is powerful stuff.

Kim Novak. I'm caught between wishing Vera Miles had done the part and thinking that Novak did a better job at portraying the comparatively rustic Judy than Miles might have done. But I think of Miles in THE SEARCHERS, and she's certainly unMadeleine-like there. I would have maybe prefered Miles over all, especially as Madeliene. I'd say she's a better actress than Novak, and could have communicated a vulnerablity that might hook the viewer in more in the early reels. Part of what might keep me a little cold is that I don't find Madeleine particularly bewitching until the fireside scene. She's supposed to be a somewhat cold and distant figure, but maybe a little more identification with Scotty would pull me in to the film more.

But many people seem to be enthralled by the film, maybe the problem is on my end. I absolutely recognize this as one of Hitch's best if not his best, and it's a higher kind of film than most of his canon.

Pity about the mono sound issue. I hate the surround mix, but that mono track is of garbage quality. It's like listening to one of those bargain bin Alpha Video DVDs. They should do a reissue with Will Smoth dubbing the dialogue.

I didn't like VERTIGO at all.

Yeah, and you love HEAT. 'nuff said.

VERTIGO is one of a very select group of films that can reasonably claim to be The Greatest Film Ever Made.

Unless they're sentient, the films can't claim anything.

Anthropomorphism isn't an evil.

VERTIGO is a film I appreciate a lot, I don't love it but it's one of those entries I have great admiration for many reasons. I don't own any Hitchcock title in blu-ray but when that comes out I look forward to getting that. Well, that is if they include a mono mix, that's most crucial aspect for me. If the blu-ray doesn't have that, I will not bother.

Harmsway wrote:

Anthropomorphism isn't an evil.

Tell that to Helga, my IP4S. Good job I bought a wipe-clean case.

Harmsway wrote:

VERTIGO is one of a very select group of films that can reasonably claim to be The Greatest Film Ever Made.

On what grounds, though? What's so special about it?

Paths of Glory (1957)

I liked it, I didn't love it. Wasn't bowled over by it, but it touched on themes that I like: incompetent management for one. I always like seeing (deliberately, from a writing standpoint) weak leadership as from my experience it rings so true to life.

Loomis wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

VERTIGO is one of a very select group of films that can reasonably claim to be The Greatest Film Ever Made.

On what grounds, though? What's so special about it?

I'll let others answer that, but I will say it is exceedingly well made even if it's not the most widely accessible film out there (it's certainly not the most accessible of Hitchcock's films).

BTW, I'm not saying that as a criticism of the film..

Loomis wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

VERTIGO is one of a very select group of films that can reasonably claim to be The Greatest Film Ever Made.

On what grounds, though? What's so special about it?

What isn't so special about VERTIGO?

Hitchcock has never been in finer form; VERTIGO is the Hollywood pulp thriller elevated into high art. All the melodrama is shot through with evocative subtext, using the conventional pulp mechanics as tools to reach deeper truths. And Hitch, in telling this story about one man's idolatry for the image of a woman, really, crafts some of his most startling and sensational imagery; VERTIGO gives us San Fransisco shot through the haze of a dream, a perfectly-manicured reality only cinema could ever give us. Every shot could be framed, Hitch's direction is so precise. But the preciseness of the image sits juxtaposed against the fractured, untidy nature of the narrative; this is the Hollywood thriller as surreal nightmare, a venture into the realm of the uncanny, where fiction and reality blur until almost everything is obliterated. VERTIGO is a film about fantasy as an entryway into the abyss. Could any story be more perfect for a film?

Jimmy Stewart turns in a career-best performance. He imbues the preposterous narrative with a genuine humanity. Has any actor ever been so haunted, so despairing, as Stewart in the second half of this film? His Scottie is both victim and monster, and Stewart effortlessly gives us both, a man lost at sea, frantically trying to restore a past that was actually little more than a fiction to begin with. Hitchcock structures the film around Stewart's Scottie, giving the film a stronger emotional center than is to be found in any of his other fine-tuned entertainments.

And finally, VERTIGO boasts the greatest film score ever composed for a motion picture by the greatest of film composers. Like PSYCHO, the film wouldn't be what it is without it, but even more so than PSYCHO, Herrmann adds layers of complexity to what was already a fairly complex picture.

Well, I guess I'll have to give it another try, given that you speak so highly of it. I'll have to look into this "greatest of film composers" fella Hermann, too.

Harmsway wrote:

Loomis wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

VERTIGO is one of a very select group of films that can reasonably claim to be The Greatest Film Ever Made.

On what grounds, though? What's so special about it?

What isn't so special about VERTIGO?

Hitchcock has never been in finer form; VERTIGO is the Hollywood pulp thriller elevated into high art. All the melodrama is shot through with evocative subtext, using the conventional pulp mechanics as tools to reach deeper truths. And Hitch, in telling this story about one man's idolatry for the image of a woman, really, crafts some of his most startling and sensational imagery; VERTIGO gives us San Fransisco shot through the haze of a dream, a perfectly-manicured reality only cinema could ever give us. Every shot could be framed, Hitch's direction is so precise. But the preciseness of the image sits juxtaposed against the fractured, untidy nature of the narrative; this is the Hollywood thriller as surreal nightmare, a venture into the realm of the uncanny, where fiction and reality blur until almost everything is obliterated. VERTIGO is a film about fantasy as an entryway into the abyss. Could any story be more perfect for a film?

Jimmy Stewart turns in a career-best performance. He imbues the preposterous narrative with a genuine humanity. Has any actor ever been so haunted, so despairing, as Stewart in the second half of this film? His Scottie is both victim and monster, and Stewart effortlessly gives us both, a man lost at sea, frantically trying to restore a past that was actually little more than a fiction to begin with. Hitchcock structures the film around Stewart's Scottie, giving the film a stronger emotional center than is to be found in any of his other fine-tuned entertainments.

And finally, VERTIGO boasts the greatest film score ever composed for a motion picture by the greatest of film composers. Like PSYCHO, the film wouldn't be what it is without it, but even more so than PSYCHO, Herrmann adds layers of complexity to what was already a fairly complex picture.

What he said.

That's much of the stuff going through my mind, but you can put into words. It's a film that I'm warming up to that I have a sneaking feeling will emerge as one of my top favorites in years to come. It's always been unsettling to me, which means Hitchcock is doing his job. What the film hasn't always been for me is seductive.

Loomis, check out Herrmann.

Loomis wrote:

Well, I guess I'll have to give it another try, given that you speak so highly of it. I'll have to look into this "greatest of film composers" fella Hermann, too.

As a die hard Herrmann fan, I recommend VERTIGO, his own favourite score - THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, along with TAXI DRIVER, OBSESSION, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, PSYCHO, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, TORN CURTAIN (rejected), CAPE FEAR, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, JOURNEY TO CENTER OF THE EARTH, THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, BENEATH THE 12 MILE REEF, THE WORLD OF GULLIVER, FAHRENHEIT 451, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, IT'S ALIVE! and CITIZEN KANE.

As always, I also urge you to read "A HEART AT FIRE'S CENTER: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF BERNARD HERRMANN" by Steven C. Smith. It's a very sad but profound read, containing extracts from many of his diaries, letters and correspondences with Hitchcock.

Sharky wrote:

Loomis wrote:

Well, I guess I'll have to give it another try, given that you speak so highly of it. I'll have to look into this "greatest of film composers" fella Hermann, too.

As a die hard Herrmann fan, I recommend VERTIGO, his own favourite score - THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, along with TAXI DRIVER, OBSESSION, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, PSYCHO, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, TORN CURTAIN (rejected), CAPE FEAR, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, JOURNEY TO CENTER OF THE EARTH, THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, BENEATH THE 12 MILE REEF, THE WORLD OF GULLIVER, FAHRENHEIT 451, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, IT'S ALIVE! and CITIZEN KANE.

Don't leave out HANGOVER SQUARE (which I'd take over a good many of the scores listed above, as fine as they are).

Harmsway wrote:

Sharky wrote:

Loomis wrote:

Well, I guess I'll have to give it another try, given that you speak so highly of it. I'll have to look into this "greatest of film composers" fella Hermann, too.

As a die hard Herrmann fan, I recommend VERTIGO, his own favourite score - THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, along with TAXI DRIVER, OBSESSION, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, PSYCHO, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, TORN CURTAIN (rejected), CAPE FEAR, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, JOURNEY TO CENTER OF THE EARTH, THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, BENEATH THE 12 MILE REEF, THE THREE WORLDS OF GULLIVER, FAHRENHEIT 451, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, IT'S ALIVE! and CITIZEN KANE.

Don't leave out HANGOVER SQUARE (which I'd take over a good many of the scores listed above, as fine as they are).

Right, though that's probably because of Concerto Macabre rather than the score as a whole. I also left out ON DEADLY GROUND - though likewise, it's overshadowed by its showstopping cue - Death Hunt.

Well, the score for HANGOVER SQUARE on the hole is more or less just excerpts from "Concerto Macabre," so I don't feel the need to distinguish too strongly between it and the rest of the score.

CRUISING. Unpleasant, pretentious fare. Pacino phones it in, the story is tough to follow and ultimately makes little sense, and the film's depiction of the gay community is questionable to say the least. That said, CRUISING is not, perhaps, entirely without merit. William Friedkin conjures enough style and suspense to keep one watching till the end, and the whole thing is certainly, uh, unique. Spielberg was supposedly attached to direct at one stage, which is a rather mindboggling thought.

Violent Saturday
I've got a soft spot for Victor Mature, as a kid I used to laugh at his silly name and wet performance in "The Robe"
then I saw him in "My Darling Clementine" I started to quite like him
now I see him as sort of the Sylvester Stallone of the 50s, loved by the public for his Biblical blockbusters like "The Robe", "Demetrius & The Gladiator" and "The Egyptian", the "Rocky" or "Rambo" of their time, but maligned by the critics who nicknamed him "Victor Manure"
I watched "Kiss Of Death" earlier this year, big Vic's ok but Richard Widmark steals the show as a giggling psychopath
Violent Saturday is sometimes billed as a noir, but the drama aspects are a bit too soapy for that, so "melodrama with a bank robbery finale" is a more accurate description
big Vic leads a stellar ensemble cast, who are all allowed their spots to shine, including Steve McNally, Richard Egan, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Sylvia Sydney
a group of seemingly unrelated people are observed acting out the small dramas of their lives until their paths all cross at the bank and things will never be quite the same again
the Richard Egan storyline is pure soap but does allow Virginia Leith one badass female scene where she really gets stuck into Margaret Hayes (verbally)
the script and direction allow Steve McNally, Lee Marvin and J Carrol Naish each to sketch out interesting and distinctive characters as the bank robbers, as much using mannerisms as dialogue
in that respect the film displays an unexpected subtlety and depth
the showdown at the farm is a crisp well constructed set piece with some quality action as big Vic gets to deal out some justice with the help of unlikely Amish farmer Borginine
surprisingly good then and a must have for any fans of big Vic

Seve wrote:

Violent Saturday

One I want to see.

As my 50s film book says, there is no film that is more emblematic of the 50s than VIOLENT SATURDAY.

It also helps that its an awesome film. 8)