The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
Resurrecting the Movies thread...
serious crayons:
David Denby had a good description of Brad Pitt's performance in this week's New Yorker:
"Pitt's modesty when he comes into his own handsome flesh is becoming, yet his eyes are unforgivably blank. Where is Benjamin's exhilaration at shedding his infirmities?"
Exactly.
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: oilgun on February 09, 2009, 05:14:35 pm ---MY WINNIPEG - A "docu-fantasy" by Guy Maddin. I enjoyed it much more than his previous THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD. Anne Savage, who has since died I think, plays his mother. She's famous for her unforgetable role in the Noir cult classic DETOUR. MY WINNIPEG is a bizarre, humourous and touching tribute to his hometown.
Watch the trailer!:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY9BtROpNQ4[/youtube]
--- End quote ---
What a hoot! How entertaining! A putdown/tribute to all small towns everywhere, no matter what size!
Kd5000:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on February 10, 2009, 02:41:21 pm ---David Denby had a good description of Brad Pitt's performance in this week's New Yorker:
"Pitt's modesty when he comes into his own handsome flesh is becoming, yet his eyes are unforgivably blank. Where is Benjamin's exhilaration at shedding his infirmities?"
Exactly.
--- End quote ---
I wonder what point in the movie the critic is talking about? The movie did bring home the point that as we aquire wisdom, our body begins to let us down. In TCCBB, he gets to experience wisdom from having lived a full life yet having the body of a 26 year old man. I really wonder what that would be like?
oilgun:
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - Well, let me put it this way, now I know what "Oscar boring" means. I didn't really hate it, but there is absolutely no way I could watch that again. At one point the young looking Brad reminded me of a CG "actor" from FINAL FANTASY, that was kinda cool actually. I thought the music was maudlin, intrusive and relentless. It was strangely un-affecting film for such a melodramatic story, with its abandoned babies, mowed-down ballerinas, drunken sailors & womanizing pygmies.
Sorry, Fincher fans, but it won't even make my top-ten.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Kd5000 on February 10, 2009, 03:54:58 pm ---I wonder what point in the movie the critic is talking about? The movie did bring home the point that as we aquire wisdom, our body begins to let us down. In TCCBB, he gets to experience wisdom from having lived a full life yet having the body of a 26 year old man. I really wonder what that would be like?
--- End quote ---
I think it would be a lot of people's idea of Heaven -- wisdom, beauty, peak health, the best of all possible worlds. But Benjamin goes through that phase in his usual stolid, pleasant, responsible, unexcited way. That's my interpretation of what Denby means.
--- Quote from: oilgun on February 10, 2009, 04:01:30 pm ---THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - Well, let me put it this way, now I know what "Oscar boring" means. I didn't really hate it, but there is absolutely no way I could watch that again. At one point the young looking Brad reminded me of a CG "actor" from FINAL FANTASY, that was kinda cool actually. I thought the music was maudlin, intrusive and relentless. It was strangely un-affecting film for such a melodramatic story, with its abandoned babies, mowed-down ballerinas, drunken sailors & womanizing pygmies.
Sorry, Fincher fans, but it won't even make my top-ten.
--- End quote ---
I thought the makeup in that dance-school scene, where Benjamin was maybe 18 or so (physically), was a bit startling. Completely convincing, on the one hand, though his eyes looked slightly alien, like they were pasted on.
I suspect the earlier film footage when he was in India or wherever, physically about 22, was of the actual Brad Pitt, traveling in his younger years. What a cutie!
Re your comment about the film being unaffecting, despite the melodrama, here's another good line of Denby's:
"He eventually leaves the home, enters a stunningly gentle world, and has assorted and generally meaningless adventures."
Just like Forrest Gump!
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