Author Topic: Movie News  (Read 81762 times)

Offline Front-Ranger

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Movie News
« on: April 21, 2006, 02:55:04 pm »
Would like to talk sometime with anyone who's interested about an article I'm reading on Werner Herzog. Unfortunately, it's not online.

But here's a review of American Dreamz: http://www.newyorker.com/critics/cinema/articles/060424crci_cinema

It looks like an interesting plot but doesn't sound too appetizing to watch. I think I'll see Don't Come Knocking next instead.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2006, 12:19:58 pm »
Brokeback Mountain is playing for an indefinite engagement at the Starz Film Center in downtown Denver, home of the Denver Film Society http://www.starzfilmcenter.com/. If any of you Texas Brokies are coming to town for the hockey playoffs, I'd be glad to play host if you would like to get together for lunch/dinner and/or a trip to the Tivoli Brewery where the Starz Film Center is located. I envy Sheyne/Ray and the NY/Calif Brokies who can get together easily! I think there's one other Tremblayan (Mel) around here and I'd love to meet him/her!
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Offline SFEnnisSF

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2006, 05:10:48 pm »
Makes me want to go to Denver for the week!  I wish there were some "return engagements" playing around here.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2006, 09:29:23 pm »
Well , it's a very nice time to be in Denver! And remember, that's what Jack recommended for "People like us." You;re welcome anytime!
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« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2006, 11:31:49 pm »
Okay, here's a quote from the article I'm reading about Werner Herzog to whet your appetite:

“Herzog worked particularly quickly that day, filming scenes at three locations. In the evening, he filmed [Christian] Bale alone in the jungle, huddled beneath a rocky overhang on which a faded gold Buddha was painted. A 7-foot-long banana leaf dangled over the shrine; it was weighted down, on its underside, by a giant gray slug. The trees thrummed with bats. To replace the moon, a small white balloon, embedded with electric bulbs, was inflated with helium. It slowly climbed upward, through the netted palms; when it was hovering above the treetops, the device was turned on. There was an implosive sound as moths and beetles hurtled into the glowing orb, which was soon speckled with the black outlines of ten thousand bugs.”

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2006, 09:31:16 pm »
Tonight I am reading about the making of the film Miidnight Cowboy. There are quite a few similarities to Brokeback Mountain, and some glaring differences. The most glaring is the fact that Midnight Cowboy, an X-rated film, won best picture in the Acaademy Awards 35 years ago. It was made by a gay director, John Schlesinger, about two gay men. The times were very different then, and so was the approach. Another thiing I noticed that was very different was the support from the cast/crew and management. John Schlesinger was a reluctant director, unsure of the value of the film, but his producer and management, as well as major actors Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, supported and reassured him throughout the production.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #6 on: April 24, 2006, 12:22:02 am »
Tonight I am reading about the making of the film Miidnight Cowboy. There are quite a few similarities to Brokeback Mountain, and some glaring differences. The most glaring is the fact that Midnight Cowboy, an X-rated film, won best picture in the Acaademy Awards 35 years ago. It was made by a gay director, John Schlesinger, about two gay men. The times were very different then, and so was the approach. Another thiing I noticed that was very different was the support from the cast/crew and management. John Schlesinger was a reluctant director, unsure of the value of the film, but his producer and management, as well as major actors Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, supported and reassured him throughout the production.

Interesting, F-R! I didn't know any of this. I absolutely loved Midnight Cowboy, one of my favorite movies at the time, though I saw it on TV (!!!) when I was a little kid and I don't think I've seen it since. Never in its X-rated form. I didn't realize the two men were supposed to be gay; I just thought they was good friends! Another movie I loved as a kid is Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. It's interesting for me to look back at my own life in the wake of Brokeback and speculate on why I might have been drawn to these particular movies. As I'm a straight woman, I haven't come up with any good theories as to why I'd find movies with homoerotic themes particularly appealing, but I'm intrigued by the concept. If anybody else has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

PS, I love Anthony Lane. Did you read his review of Brokeback? One of my favorites.


Offline littledarlin

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2006, 01:06:07 am »
Brokeback Mountain is playing for an indefinite engagement at the Starz Film Center in downtown Denver, home of the Denver Film Society http://www.starzfilmcenter.com/. If any of you Texas Brokies are coming to town for the hockey playoffs, I'd be glad to play host if you would like to get together for lunch/dinner and/or a trip to the Tivoli Brewery where the Starz Film Center is located. I envy Sheyne/Ray and the NY/Calif Brokies who can get together easily! I think there's one other Tremblayan (Mel) around here and I'd love to meet him/her!

lee, if the timing was better for me, i might actually have considered going to this.  i love denver, it's one of my favorite cities.  i'll have to remember you're out there for the next time i go, we'll have to have a mini-brokie-get together   :D
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #8 on: April 24, 2006, 09:27:14 am »
Great, l-darlin. I'll check to see if there are any Brokeback return showings or events planned. Denver is also the home of Dave Cullen, so there may be something in the works.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #9 on: April 24, 2006, 04:10:33 pm »
Lat, if you saw Midnight Cowboy on TV as a child, I don't think u've really SEEN the movie, u know what I mean? I think there is a special re-release due to the 35th anniversary of the movie, so u might check it out at the Blockbuster. With scenes added back in, it will become clearer that the two leads are gay. In light of BBM, we should go back and reexamine certain buddy pictures, maybe not Butch & Sundance but Midnight Cowboy, certainly. For example, in one scene, Joe Buck has been hired by the character played by Brenda Vaccaro. But he can't get it up, so they play Scrabble, and Brenda spells out "gay." Outraged, Joe rises to the occasion and they get it on on the Scrabble board.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #10 on: April 25, 2006, 10:04:12 am »
About Anthony Lane, lat, he has a real heart. Since I read the New Yorker religiously, of course I read and have kept his review of BBM. I love the way he chooses a wide range of movies to review, not just ones for the up-tight New Yorker readers.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #11 on: April 26, 2006, 01:27:27 am »
Lat, if you saw Midnight Cowboy on TV as a child, I don't think u've really SEEN the movie, u know what I mean? I think there is a special re-release due to the 35th anniversary of the movie, so u might check it out at the Blockbuster. With scenes added back in, it will become clearer that the two leads are gay. In light of BBM, we should go back and reexamine certain buddy pictures, maybe not Butch & Sundance but Midnight Cowboy, certainly. For example, in one scene, Joe Buck has been hired by the character played by Brenda Vaccaro. But he can't get it up, so they play Scrabble, and Brenda spells out "gay." Outraged, Joe rises to the occasion and they get it on on the Scrabble board.

LOL, F-R, of course you're right! If any hints about their sexual orientation managed to slip past the TV censors -- obviously much stricter back in them days -- I'm sure I would have been oblivious.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #12 on: April 27, 2006, 08:36:03 pm »
I'm afraid it's necessary to start a "don't bother" thread. I saw Match Point last night. Sob, it ain't no Annie Hall. The critics said this was Woody Allen's comeback film, but it's not. Avoid like the plague! Also, Scarlett Johannsen was much better in Girl with a Pearl Earring.
« Last Edit: April 29, 2006, 01:20:17 pm by Front-Ranger »
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BBM playing in Denver
« Reply #13 on: April 28, 2006, 05:14:24 pm »
Still going strong at the Starz Film Center in downtown Denver!

http://www.denverfilm.org/eventwindow.cfm?event_id=28
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Re: Movie News--Wim Wenders
« Reply #14 on: April 29, 2006, 12:19:13 pm »
Found this great article on Wim Wenders:

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/wenders.html

I'm planning to to see his latest, Don't Come Knocking, this p.m. at the Starz Film Center in downtown Denver. Screenwriter is Sam Shepard.
« Last Edit: April 30, 2006, 11:27:02 am by Front-Ranger »
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Offline delalluvia

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #15 on: April 29, 2006, 12:46:49 pm »
I liked MatchPoint, it was OK.  I don't normally like Woody Allen, so his 'comeback' didn't matter to me one way or another.  Between Jonathan and Scarlett, I'm surprised there wasn't a pneumatic blowout of lips.

Kat, I'm with you.  I've been highly attractive to homoerotic movies/stories/comics since I was a child.  Don't know why.  Perhaps like Madonna, I'm a "gay man in a woman's body" or was a gay man in another life.  Dunno.

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Re: Don't Come Knocking
« Reply #16 on: April 30, 2006, 11:33:34 am »
This movie was engrossing and had some plusses and minuses. The plusses: it is a Western, Sam Shepard is good as the lead and Paul Gannon as his son, the screenwriting, by Shepard, is terse and compelling. The minuses: Strange music, colors, and cinematography intrude on the story sometimes, Jessica Lange's acting is uneven, with smiles and grimaces when she should be sad or impassive, and too many comedic touches. It's interesting to see how foreigners interpret the Western and this movie adds to the dialogue.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #17 on: April 30, 2006, 09:59:34 pm »
I just saw "Friends With Money" today. It was well worth watching. Kind of a women's, West Coast version of the Woody Allen of about 10 years ago. Catherine Keener was particularly good -- I always like her. But all four actresses were good. And I didn't think wistfully about Brokeback more than five or six times during the whole thing.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #18 on: May 01, 2006, 10:02:51 pm »
I will check out Friends with Money next weekend. Thanks for the recommendation! Last night I watched Baz Luhrman's La Boheme with the Australian Opera. It was so good, I watched it without the subtitles to get the most of the performances! He is the director who recently did Moulin Rouge.
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Re: Kurosawa's last film
« Reply #19 on: May 04, 2006, 09:18:13 am »
Saw an excellent movie last night, Umi wa miteita (The Sea is Watching) by Akira Kurosawa. It was the filmakers last work in a long line of excellent movies. Beautiful cinematography and acting. Also particularly appropriate for this time of year, heading into hurricane/tsunami season. It was everything Memoirs of a Geisha should have been but wasn't.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #20 on: May 08, 2006, 07:54:41 pm »
Saw Les Miserables yesterday (the play, sorry this is a bit OT) and afraid I have to add it to my "don't bother" list. It was the Broadway touring company. The biggest problem was that there seemed to be no charisma between the leads and, after BBM, my charisma requirements have gone way up! Another opera I saw recently that was more satifying was Baz Luhrman's La Boheme, filmed at the Sydney Opera House. This dates from 1993 but is very fresh and moving.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #21 on: May 16, 2006, 05:35:48 pm »
Here's an interview with one of my favorite directors, Robert Altman, who got his start in Kansas City where I lived for a time after graduating with a degree in radio, television, and film. I used to walk past Centron Films in KC where he worked, trying to get up the courage to go in.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/060522ta_talk_singer
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Re: Prairie Home Companion
« Reply #22 on: June 01, 2006, 12:20:43 am »
This movie debuts June 9!! It's the first movie I've truly wanted to see since BBM. Looking forward to discussing it with everyone.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #23 on: June 28, 2006, 11:21:48 am »
Next Saturday night I'm going to see Godard's Breathless at the Starz Film Center in downtown Denver. I was too young to see it when it first came out. Saw the remake with Richard Gere and liked it, so I'm prepared to love Godard's original version. Godard, along with Truffault, was a leader of the bad  boys of French Cinema who started a movement borrowing extensively from documentaries. I want to see all the classics of that era again because they were the ones Ang Lee studied as a film student of the University of Illinois. I studied film at about the same time at the University of Kansas. Wish I had a friend to attend the film with me (Front-Ranger Jr. is still in Ireland) but maybe I'll meet one there.
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« Reply #24 on: June 30, 2006, 06:44:49 pm »
Next Saturday night I'm going to see Godard's Breathless at the Starz Film Center in downtown Denver. I was too young to see it when it first came out. Saw the remake with Richard Gere and liked it, so I'm prepared to love Godard's original version. Godard, along with Truffault, was a leader of the bad  boys of French Cinema who started a movement borrowing extensively from documentaries.
Now, Front, you know you might be dating yourself by suggesting your age range at the time of the release of the first Breathless--anyone can look up its date on the IMDb, you know!

Godard's film is certainly important and impressive in many ways. It's a key work of the French Nouvelle Vague and of world cinema generally. It's not my personal favorite from the films I have seen by that director--I prefer Contempt and Pierrot le fou.

Did you know that Godard made a followup film, in the very loosest sense of the term, in 1975? It's called Numero deux, which he shot on video and transferred to film stock. He was hired or commissioned to do a sequel or remake to Breathless, and in his idiosyncratic manner, ended up making something that had very little to do with the original film other than alluding to it in the title. I haven't seen this one myself, incidentally.

I have read that Godard was much influenced by a Soviet Russian director named Boris Barnet. His early short Charlotte et son jules is supposedly a direct hommage to Barnet, and Godard's early work is said to be not properly understood without knowledge of Barnet's style and sensibility. Unfortunately, his films are rarely exhibited outside of major cinephile capitals like Paris, though the director's 1933 feature Okraina was recently released on DVD.

Cheers,
Scott

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #25 on: July 02, 2006, 07:17:59 pm »
Wow, thanks, Scott! I really enjoyed the show last night and think I really need to see some of those other Godard movies. I especially liked Jean Seberg. She and Jean-Paul Belmondo had a BBM-type relationship, don't you think? I saw many parallels!

I liked the part where Jean Seberg's character Patricia Francini goes to interview a film director played by Godard himself. One of the things he says (or proclaims) is "Love is a form of eroticism, and eroticism is a form of love." Yes!!
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #26 on: July 04, 2006, 06:12:10 pm »
I recommend the new release of "The Outsiders" with a second disc of features and interviews. The actors C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, Leif Garrett, and Patrick Swayze all participated (no Tom Cruise or Emilio Estevez tho). It's a very moving story about the greasers and the soshes at Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, written by S.E. Hinton when she was a high school junior (She reminds me of Annie Proulx). And directed by Francis Coppola.
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Offline Midnight24

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #27 on: July 04, 2006, 06:19:50 pm »
I recommend the new release of "The Outsiders" with a second disc of features and interviews. The actors C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, Leif Garrett, and Patrick Swayze all participated (no Tom Cruise or Emilio Estevez tho). It's a very moving story about the greasers and the soshes at Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, written by S.E. Hinton when she was a high school junior (She reminds me of Annie Proulx). And directed by Francis Coppola.

Ohhh, I haven't heard about the new release, I love that movie!!!! I used to watch it all the time as a kid, I'll have to check out that new DVD!! The actors are so good, I love them all.  :D
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Re: Marquee Juxtaposition
« Reply #28 on: July 07, 2006, 02:45:04 pm »
Here's a shot of me at the Breathless screening.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #29 on: July 28, 2006, 06:19:30 pm »
Several scenes that were cut from the original release of The Outsiders were replaced in this new version. Almost all of Rob Lowe's scenes were cut and he said in the bonus features that it was devastating since he was just starting his career. Among the reinserted scenes were several that showed how close the brothers were, Daryl, Sodapop, and Ponyboy. A scene that sticks in my mind is when Rob Lowe, as Sodapop, and C. THomas Howell, as the youngest brother Ponyboy, are in bed and talking before falling asleep. Ponyboy is worried and Sodapop turns and puts his arm around his brother and they lie in the moonlight talking. It was so sweet and intimate. The director, Francis Ford Coppola, explained in the bonus features that much of Lowe's work had to be removed because he was making the movie for a young audience and the homophobic feelings of the times dictated it. It sure was good to see the movie intact again.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #30 on: November 27, 2006, 06:23:04 pm »
I heard that "The Fountain" is supposed to be an adaptation of the story "The Time Traveler's Wife." That makes me want to see it even though it didn't get good reviews. Also, Hugh Jackman as the lead character Henry? I'm sure he could handle the acting but he seems too healthy and wholesome for that role. But it would be great to see him in the role because of the frequent nudity!!
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #31 on: December 05, 2006, 02:46:44 pm »
I just heard that the classic "Once Upon a Time in the West" movie by Sergio Leone is being restored, thanks to a foundation established by Martin Scorcese. This is the fourth in Leone's "Dollars" series and often called the best Western movie ever produced. It stars Henry Fonda, Jason RObards, and Claudia Cardinale. Bernardo Bertolucci co-wrote.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #32 on: December 21, 2006, 10:26:28 am »
Watched "Little Miss Sunshine" last night. A very entertaining movie with lots of style. A good vehicle for the cast. But, there were a couple of things that bothered me. The plot was pretty contrived, and some of the twists and turns of plot didn't work at all. Also, I had seen an Indie film that was so much like it that, if I were the director, I would have sued. The film was "You and Me and Everybody We Know."

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #33 on: December 24, 2006, 12:23:09 am »
I started this topic talking about Werner Herzog and now I have just seen one of his recent movies, a documentary called "Grizzly Man." It was an amazing and often very upsetting account of the life and death of Timothy Treadwell. Anybody else seen this and want to discuss it?
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Offline SFEnnisSF

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #34 on: December 24, 2006, 12:51:13 am »
I started this topic talking about Werner Herzog and now I have just seen one of his recent movies, a documentary called "Grizzly Man." It was an amazing and often very upsetting account of the life and death of Timothy Treadwell. Anybody else seen this and want to discuss it?

I have the DVD for Grizzly Man but I have yet to watch it.  I will soon!  ;)

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #35 on: December 24, 2006, 12:53:57 am »
I didn't give you much of a spoiler as the end was brought up near the beginning of the movie.

And, the music is heartbreaking. This was in the playlist of BBM radio at one time I think.

Catch the part where Timothy wishes he were gay and how much simpler life would be. I've often thought that myself.

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Re: Movies: Great News About the Conformist!
« Reply #36 on: December 24, 2006, 12:17:23 pm »
Exciting news!! I just read in The Wall Street Journal weekend edition that my all-time favorite movie (before BBM came out of course) The Conformiste is just now available on DVD!! The WSJ calls it, "some of the most ravishingly beautiful images ever projected on the screen." The movie is set in Fascist Italy and stars Jean-Luis Trintignant and Dominique Sanda!! There are short interviews with the director, Bernardo Bertolucci, and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro as well. And a cut scene, where blind people are at a party in a basement, has been restored.

Bertolucci recalls in the article that the movie debuted in the US at the New York Film Festival in 1970. The next day, he inquired when the movie would be opening nationwide and was told that it wouldn't be offered to theaters because "It's not a film for American audiences." Francis Coppola and other directors wrote letters of protest after which it was shown sporadically, but then it disappeared for 36 years!!

This will be great news in our family because, in order to see the movie, I had to haul out my Sony Betamax and try to hook it up Frankenstein-wise to the DVD player and then to the TV monitor!!

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #37 on: December 24, 2006, 12:19:41 pm »
There's just one problem: There's a beautiful photo of Sanda with Tringinant to accompany the article, but she's mis-identified as Stefania Sandrelli in the caption!! Oh, what to do? I knew the WSJ wouldn't get it right!!
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #38 on: December 24, 2006, 01:12:34 pm »
Here is a review of the Conformist along with a review of 1900, Bertolucci's 1977 epic starring Gerard Depardieu and Robert De Niro!!

http://www.avclub.com/content/node/56812

The review discusses the interviews with Bertolucci about how he was influenced by Antonioni, Fellini, and Leone, and how he in turn influenced Coppola...and Lee???

« Last Edit: December 26, 2006, 11:09:53 pm by Front-Ranger »
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Offline delalluvia

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #39 on: December 24, 2006, 01:16:07 pm »
I didn't give you much of a spoiler as the end was brought up near the beginning of the movie.

And, the music is heartbreaking. This was in the playlist of BBM radio at one time I think.

Catch the part where Timothy wishes he were gay and how much simpler life would be. I've often thought that myself.



Was this the movie where that crazy guy went to live among the bears in Alaska and sat around anthropomorphizing them and thinking he had some sort of 'bond' with them?

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #40 on: December 24, 2006, 01:38:45 pm »
Wow, della, you describe the movie so accurately, I'm sure you have seen it over and over!! You should be a movie critic!!

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Offline delalluvia

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #41 on: December 24, 2006, 02:14:16 pm »
Wow, della, you describe the movie so accurately, I'm sure you have seen it over and over!! You should be a movie critic!!

So that's a yes?   :D

If it's the same one, that's pretty much the reaction I got from my friends who were educated in the biological sciences.  They were not very sympathetic with the guy and felt sorry for his girlfriend.  You can warn people and warn them...

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #42 on: December 24, 2006, 05:50:29 pm »
There's just one problem: There's a beautiful photo of Sanda with Tringinant to accompany the article, but she's mis-identified as Stefania Sandrelli in the caption!! Oh, what to do? I knew the WSJ wouldn't get it right!!

Okay, I wrote to the WSJ and asked them to print a correction. Let's see if it will be Christmas for me and Dominique soon.  :-* to my goddess!!
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #43 on: December 25, 2006, 04:21:16 pm »
So, guess what I got for Christmas!! The Conformist!! My husband had to go to three places yesterday in a snowstorm to find it!! I have now officially elevated him to hero status!!

Coming shortly: Several misconceptions about Grizzly Man.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #44 on: December 26, 2006, 01:33:23 pm »
The main misconception about Grizzly Man is that Timothy Treadwell is depicted as being crazy. The movie shows him as a rational person who is not deluded about the dangerousness of the grizzly bears he lived with for 13 years. In fact, he talks a lot during the movie about how dangerous the bears are.

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Re: Movie News: Grizzly Man
« Reply #45 on: December 26, 2006, 01:42:14 pm »
Another misconception is that Timothy Treadwell forced his girlfriend into staying with him in the midst of the grizzly bears. He was alone most of the summers that he spent with the grizzlies in Alaska. His girlfriend did not operate the camera or do anything with the bears. In fact, she was frightened of the bears and stayed away most of the time. She only appeared on camera once, and that time it was a mistake.
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Offline delalluvia

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Re: Movie News: Grizzly Man
« Reply #46 on: December 26, 2006, 11:04:15 pm »
Another misconception is that Timothy Treadwell forced his girlfriend into staying with him in the midst of the grizzly bears. He was alone most of the summers that he spent with the grizzlies in Alaska. His girlfriend did not operate the camera or do anything with the bears. In fact, she was frightened of the bears and stayed away most of the time. She only appeared on camera once, and that time it was a mistake.

I think I read somewhere that Treadwell was either bi-polar/manic depressive or had some other disorder.  Someone who watched the movie said that they could tell he had some condition because he rambled on and on, had some sort of mania, was self-absorbed.

Yes, he knew the bears were dangerous, he had been warned the bears were dangerous, so what was his excuse to keep approaching them when they are at their most dangerous?  That's the major reason people called him craxy.

I hadn't heard he forced his girlfriend to do anything.  Actually I read that she was there quite willingly but was terrified for Timothy, knowing what danger he was putting himself into on a daily basis.  Sad for her that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #47 on: December 27, 2006, 11:56:11 am »
So much movie news lately!! Where to start? I would enjoy discussing Grizzly Man more after some of you have seen the movie.

No correction from the Wall Street Journal yet on failing to identify Dominique Sanda in The Conformist!! I have really enjoyed watching the extended version of the movie, but I haven't been able to watch the extended features yet.

Has anybody seen The Queen? It's one of the best movies this year. I would love to discuss it!!

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #48 on: December 27, 2006, 06:50:55 pm »
Here she is, Dominique Sanda. Does this look like Stefania Sandrelli to you? No, a thousand times no! (Where's moremojo when I need him??  >:()

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #49 on: December 28, 2006, 08:04:32 pm »
Yay! The WSJ finally printed a correction, giving Dominique Sanda the credit for her 1970 role as Anna in The Conformist!! I can finally relax!!

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #50 on: December 29, 2006, 02:31:21 pm »
Grizzly Man is worth seeing just for the fantastic scenery of Alaska and the incredible scenes of grizzlies feasting on fish (I said fish not flesh!! Gross joke!), and the way they lumber along like they are falling apart (Annie got it right as she always does!!) But my favorite scenes were those of the foxes. They are so beautiful and friendly--as tame as cats!! They also made me miss my lovely Newfoundland fox, tho she's not in Newfoundland any more (a few of the Tremblayans will know whom I mean).

Here's a picture she sent me one time:

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #51 on: December 31, 2006, 01:18:59 pm »
A quote about Werner Herzog, the creator of the documentary film "Grizzly Man."

Quote
“His films . . . attempt to reconnect modern cinematographers with their prelapsarian selves: the emotions are always primal, and landscape is integral to the drama. ‘You will never see people talking on the phone, driving in a car, or exchanging ironic jokes in my films,’ he said. ‘It is always bigger, deeper.’ He vows that his films expose ‘the ecstatic truth’ of mankind.”
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Re: Movie News: "Grizzly Man"
« Reply #52 on: January 01, 2007, 03:15:38 pm »
There is a lively discussion over on imdb about whether Timothy Treadwell, the subject of "Grizzly Man" may have had undiagnosed Klinefelter's Syndrome. Anybody agree with that?

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #53 on: January 02, 2007, 03:29:00 pm »
Here is a link to the discussion about whether Timothy Treadwell, the subject of the documentary "Grizzly Man" might have had Klinefelter's Syndrome.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427312/board/inline/43460935
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Some French Movie News
« Reply #54 on: January 04, 2007, 02:28:01 pm »
At FRiend Lee's invitation (thanks, Lee!), I come here to copy and paste an earlier post I made today on my blog:

I just wanted to share some exciting (to me, anyway) news regarding the area of film and film appreciation. I have learned that a new restored print of Jean Renoir's 1939 classic La Regle du jeu (The Rules of the Game) will enjoy an American release soon, and as a result will be shown in Austin's Dobie Theatre in the near future. I have seen this masterpiece so far only via DVD projection, and am looking forward to the opportunity to experience it as it was meant to be seen and heard. This is a truly great film, fully deserving of its high reputation, though, oddly, it is not one of those great works of art that inspires love in me (such as Brokeback Mountain). I am curious to see if the theatrical experience may induce a somewhat more emotionally engaged response in me.

Some more news: This coming Sunday, January 7th, at 11:00 p.m. (Central Time), Turner Classic Movies will air the rare 1921 French silent feature La Terre, directed by Andre Antoine after Emile Zola's eponymous novel. This happens to be one of film curator and director Kevin Brownlow's favorite films, one he said he would have been proud to have made himself, and I have long been curious to see it. The film is reputedly precious for the wonderful documentation of a rural France that has all but disappeared today, and was quickly on the wane even during its production. The Beauce region (around Chartres) has been preserved as if in a time capsule by the miracle of cinema and cinematic preservation--this is, at least, some of this production's attested importance. I will definitely be making time for this one.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #55 on: January 18, 2007, 05:08:32 pm »
Throughout February, MOMA in New York will be showing the films that have scores by Ennio Morricone, most notably Sergio Leone's series starting with Once Upon a Time in the West. There will also be a concert of his work at Radio City.

I recommend the recent CD of the songs of Morricone as performed by Yo-Yo Ma on the cello.

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Offline Meryl

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #56 on: January 22, 2007, 02:24:28 pm »
The AFI is revising their list of the top 100 American Films:

Frodo Takes On Charles Foster Kane

The AFI announced Thursday that it's asked its brain trust of actors, directors, screenwriters, historians, critics and more to look anew at which movies, including a spate of relatively recent releases such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Shrek and Spider-Man 2, should be declared among the greatest American-made movies.

The new list, to be called "100 Years...100 Movies—10th Anniversary Edition," will be unveiled in June on a CBS TV special.

Per the AFI, all rankings previously assigned in the original "100 Years...100 Movies" list will be up for grabs....


Click the link for the whole article.

I wish there were some way we could lobby the voters to get BBM in there.
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #57 on: January 22, 2007, 02:32:35 pm »
If Shrek (which I enjoyed) and Spider Man 2 end up being considered among the hundred greatest American-made movies, do I want BBM in that club?  :-\

(OK, I'm a snob. And I'm shooting off my mouth without know what are the criteria for a film's being named among the hundred greatest.)
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #58 on: January 22, 2007, 02:42:05 pm »
There were LOTS of folks, critics and non-critics alike, who were disappointed with the last results when AFI pursued this topic; I was one of them. The Chicago Reader's Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote an eloquent essay lamenting the sorry state of the nation's film culture represented in those results, and offered an alternative personal pick of the 100 greatest American films. I wouldn't be surprised if he chose not to participate this time around, and will likely be just as displeased with the final results.

Offline opinionista

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #59 on: January 22, 2007, 02:54:49 pm »
I think movies should be evaluated within the categories or genres they belong to. I disagree with the selection of Superman 2 as one of the best 100 greatest American-made Movies. But Shrek within the category of animated movies is not bad. It is actually a good movie but you cannot compare it with Brokeback Mountain for example, because they do not belong to the same group or genre. That's the problem with the Oscars. They put movies movies of different categories and genres to compete for the same award. For Best Picture, for instance. It's unfair, IMO.
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #60 on: January 22, 2007, 02:57:50 pm »
I think movies should be evaluated within the categories or genres they belong to. I disagree with the selection of Superman 2 as one of the best 100 greatest American-made Movies. But Shrek within the category of animated movies is not bad. It is actually a good movie but you cannot compare it with Brokeback Mountain for example, because they do not belong to the same group or genre. That's the problem with the Oscars. They put movies movies of different categories and genres to compete for the same award. For Best Picture, for instance. It's unfair, IMO.

Now, THAT approach, categories or genres, makes sense! Thanks, Natali!  :D
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #61 on: January 22, 2007, 03:05:27 pm »
Now, THAT approach, categories or genres, makes sense! Thanks, Natali!  :D
On the face of, it does seem a sensible approach, but there are films that cannot be easily categorized, or transcend the genre(s) in which they fall. The original 1973 The Wicker Man, for example, can justly be called a horror movie and a musical (albeit an offbeat one). And most of the very greatest movies I know of fall outside genre or transcend them. Brokeback Mountain would be a good example of this: It's a Western (at least in one sense) whose ultimate meaning lies far beyond the boundaries and expectations of that genre.

I don't know of a completely "good" way to arrive at these attempts at consensus. In fact, in these kinds of polls, I'm always more interested in individual responses than in the group results.


Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #62 on: January 22, 2007, 03:47:54 pm »
On the face of, it does seem a sensible approach, but there are films that cannot be easily categorized, or transcend the genre(s) in which they fall. The original 1973 The Wicker Man, for example, can justly be called a horror movie and a musical (albeit an offbeat one). And most of the very greatest movies I know of fall outside genre or transcend them. Brokeback Mountain would be a good example of this: It's a Western (at least in one sense) whose ultimate meaning lies far beyond the boundaries and expectations of that genre.

I don't know of a completely "good" way to arrive at these attempts at consensus. In fact, in these kinds of polls, I'm always more interested in individual responses than in the group results.

Picky, picky, picky.  ;)

For myself, I wasn't really thinking any deeper than, say, thinking that Brokeback Mountain shouldn't be evaluated in the same context as, say, Fantasia.

But your point about films that defy or cross the bounds of easy categorization is well taken.  :)
« Last Edit: January 22, 2007, 06:28:38 pm by Jeff Wrangler »
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Offline opinionista

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #63 on: January 22, 2007, 04:50:13 pm »
On the face of, it does seem a sensible approach, but there are films that cannot be easily categorized, or transcend the genre(s) in which they fall. The original 1973 The Wicker Man, for example, can justly be called a horror movie and a musical (albeit an offbeat one). And most of the very greatest movies I know of fall outside genre or transcend them. Brokeback Mountain would be a good example of this: It's a Western (at least in one sense) whose ultimate meaning lies far beyond the boundaries and expectations of that genre.

I don't know of a completely "good" way to arrive at these attempts at consensus. In fact, in these kinds of polls, I'm always more interested in individual responses than in the group results.



BBM is not a western. It falls under drama and romance. Romance can be a sub category of drama, for example. It depends on how the categories are defined.

However, you are right not all movies are easily categorized but that's not the usual. Movies tend to fall into one category or two. They aren't universally themed.
« Last Edit: January 22, 2007, 04:53:38 pm by opinionista »
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Offline nakymaton

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #64 on: January 22, 2007, 04:52:31 pm »
*reads list on Meryl's link*

*goes off to burn Paul Haggis in effigy again*

Interesting that they mention specifically that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not on the list, because it's not an American-made film, but they don't mention BBM. (Is CTHD officially the movie that Ang Lee is known best for? I know it made more money than BBM, and I love both movies, but... well, BBM is amazing. I saw CTHD twice in the theater. I saw BBM six times.)

I've been avoiding the awards hoopla this year, but... well, does it ever strike anyone that the entertainment media really avoids talking about BBM, unless it's in the context of gay rights? Like it can only be discussed as a gay movie, not as simply a GREAT movie.

(That said, I want to see the LotR movies rated higher than Star Wars... ;D )
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #65 on: January 22, 2007, 06:01:40 pm »
BBM is not a western. It falls under drama and romance.
I think the film can arguably be called a Western, at least in the sense of it dealing with Western rural life (albeit in the modern era), and it's certainly a work that is haunted by the mythos of that genre. I was watching Nicholas Ray's 1954 classic Johnny Guitar last night on cable TV, and was struck by how the film's titular (anti?)hero, played by Sterling Hayden, anticipated in some ways the demeanor and even the look of Ennis (though it's hard to imagine Ennis strumming a tune on a guitar).

Brokeback is most definitely a romance and drama, whatever its Western credentials; this could serve as another example of the amorphous boundaries that can complicate considerations of genre.

Offline Meryl

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #66 on: January 22, 2007, 06:55:12 pm »
*reads list on Meryl's link*

*goes off to burn Paul Haggis in effigy again*

Interesting that they mention specifically that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not on the list, because it's not an American-made film, but they don't mention BBM. (Is CTHD officially the movie that Ang Lee is known best for? I know it made more money than BBM, and I love both movies, but... well, BBM is amazing. I saw CTHD twice in the theater. I saw BBM six times.)

I've been avoiding the awards hoopla this year, but... well, does it ever strike anyone that the entertainment media really avoids talking about BBM, unless it's in the context of gay rights? Like it can only be discussed as a gay movie, not as simply a GREAT movie.

(That said, I want to see the LotR movies rated higher than Star Wars... ;D )

*Fans the flames on the pseudo-Haggis*

I hate to say it, but I think you're right that the media are so lacking in perception or intimidated by the subject that they don't look past the homosexual theme to notice that BBM is simply a great movie, period.  :(

I was pleased to see that the author singled out the LOTR movies as being possible competition for "Citizen Kane," even though it was probably mainly meant as an attention-grabbing headline.  As with BBM, the media tends to not look past the fantasy label to realize how good these movies are, particularly when compared to Star Wars.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #67 on: January 22, 2007, 06:59:36 pm »
As with BBM, the media tends to not look past the fantasy label to realize how good these movies are, particularly when compared to Star Wars.
I certainly think that Citizen Kane and the Star Wars series all tend to be consistently overrated (though the historical importance of Citizen Kane cannot be denied).

Offline nakymaton

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #68 on: January 22, 2007, 07:18:21 pm »
*Fans the flames on the pseudo-Haggis*

I would roast marshmallows, but, well... I keep thinking of the Scottish dish haggis, and I don't think I would enjoy eating haggis-flavored marshmallows.

Quote
I was pleased to see that the author singled out the LOTR movies as being possible competition for "Citizen Kane," even though it was probably mainly meant as an attention-grabbing headline.

And LotR is on the list because it made a lot of money. Like Shrek. Like the Harry Potter franchise. (Nothing against Harry or Shrek, mind you. I would watch any of the HP or Shrek movies multiple times before anything written by Paul Haggis. Harry and Shrek are a lot of fun. But they're on the list because they made money.)

I keep hoping that people will remember what a great movie BBM was, and how much the critics loved it, and how great a response it got from audiences, especially compared to the expectations of the "nobody wants to see a gay movie" bigots and trolls. But the media is very happy to refer to the "Crash upset" as if it made the awards exciting, and as if Crash actually deserved the Oscar.

*burns the entertainment media in effigy as well*
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Offline Meryl

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #69 on: January 22, 2007, 09:27:13 pm »
Quote
I keep hoping that people will remember what a great movie BBM was, and how much the critics loved it, and how great a response it got from audiences, especially compared to the expectations of the "nobody wants to see a gay movie" bigots and trolls. But the media is very happy to refer to the "Crash upset" as if it made the awards exciting, and as if Crash actually deserved the Oscar.

It disgusts me to think that, regardless of the record number of awards handed out to BBM, the mere fact that it didn't win Best Picture is the reason that it's not mentioned in that article and Crash is.  We're all so conditioned to think of the Oscars as the be all and end all.  That debacle did such damage in so many ways.
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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #70 on: January 22, 2007, 11:25:21 pm »
Crash IS the Pia Zadora of the Oscars!!

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Offline nakymaton

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #71 on: January 23, 2007, 12:00:27 am »
It disgusts me to think that, regardless of the record number of awards handed out to BBM, the mere fact that it didn't win Best Picture is the reason that it's not mentioned in that article and Crash is.  We're all so conditioned to think of the Oscars as the be all and end all.  That debacle did such damage in so many ways.

It's entirely possible that, if BBM had won, they would have found another Best Picture winner to mention. (Note that the LotR movies are in the category with Shrek and Spiderman 2, and not with the Best Picture winners. Though, you know, I enjoyed the Spiderman movies a heck of a lot more than, say, A Beautiful Mind or Million Dollar Baby or Chicago. So maybe it's better company.)

They can handle LotR if it's in a context with "non-serious movies that made a lot of money." BBM... they can't handle BBM at all.

Stupid movie industry. *goes off to wait impatiently for the new episode of BSG to show up on iTunes*

Has anyone looked at the full list that's on the ballot? Is it possible that BBM is on there, and the article didn't mention it? (I mean, good grief, it ought to fall into the "indie favorites" category with Sideways and Memento, shouldn't it?)

Did you see that up to five write-in choices are allowed? Maybe BBM will show up after all. The criteria include "how the movies fared with critics, how they fared at award-show time, and how they're holding up against history." I would say that BBM does pretty damn well with all those criteria (better than Crash), even without the Best Picture win. (Director's Guild? Producer's Guild? Writer's Guild? Golden Globes? BAFTAs? Critics awards? There were good reasons why BBM was expected to win last year.)

Maybe we should spam the article with comments asking if BBM is on the ballot, arguing that it was truly the best movie of 2005, and asking why CTHD was mentioned when Ang Lee's other classic was not?
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Offline Meryl

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #72 on: January 23, 2007, 02:19:12 am »
Has anyone looked at the full list that's on the ballot? Is it possible that BBM is on there, and the article didn't mention it? (I mean, good grief, it ought to fall into the "indie favorites" category with Sideways and Memento, shouldn't it?)

Did you see that up to five write-in choices are allowed? Maybe BBM will show up after all. The criteria include "how the movies fared with critics, how they fared at award-show time, and how they're holding up against history." I would say that BBM does pretty damn well with all those criteria (better than Crash), even without the Best Picture win. (Director's Guild? Producer's Guild? Writer's Guild? Golden Globes? BAFTAs? Critics awards? There were good reasons why BBM was expected to win last year.)

Maybe we should spam the article with comments asking if BBM is on the ballot, arguing that it was truly the best movie of 2005, and asking why CTHD was mentioned when Ang Lee's other classic was not?

Mel, I looked again at the article and noticed a link toward the end for afi.com.  If you register, you can submit your favorite movie and the reasons you chose it.  They also give you a link to download the official ballot (PDF format) with all 400 films.  Brokeback Mountain is on it (yay!), so there is a chance.

Everybody, if you go here and register your comments, BBM will at least have our voices behind it.  8)
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #73 on: February 08, 2007, 12:32:46 pm »
I'm reading a great article on Cate Blanchett in this week's New Yorker. Oh, to be CB's husband! (She's considering having a third child) Definitely have to see Notes From A Scandal. Has anyone seen it??

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #74 on: February 10, 2007, 05:57:26 pm »
Okay, I have Maurice in hand and plan to watch it tomorrow. Please join me!

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New Jacques Rivette website
« Reply #75 on: February 16, 2007, 12:14:06 pm »
Some exciting news: I just discovered a new English-language website devoted to French filmmaker and critic Jacques Rivette (born in Rouen in 1928). Rivette, who worked as a critic for the legendary magazine Cahiers du cinema before becoming one of the most important directors of the French New Wave, is a major filmmaker who is still relatively little-known in the English-speaking world. His delightful 1974 feature Celine et Julie vont en bateau is one of the masterpieces of world cinema, and his controversial 1966 La Religieuse (based on the classic subversive novel by Denis Diderot) remains one of the loveliest and most subtle period films ever made.

Here is the link to the website (which is very much a work-in-progress):

http://www.jacques-rivette.com/


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Re: Movie News
« Reply #76 on: February 16, 2007, 12:31:48 pm »
So he was one of the Truffault gang then? Cool, I'll look at it!

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #77 on: February 18, 2007, 02:10:22 am »
Normally I don't read the Wall Street Journal, but there was an excellent review in this weekend's edition about the movie "Little Miss Sunshine." It was titled "How One Scene Can Say Everything" and was about the scene where the brother Dwayne, played by Paul Dano, finally breaks his silence with the "heartbreaking cry of 'F--! F--! F--!"

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #78 on: February 23, 2007, 12:20:34 pm »
I'm taking two movies with me to Michigan for the Oscar Not Party. "The Player" one of Robert Altman's greatest, and "Stranger Than Fiction" which Mel recommended to me. Stay tuned for reviews. Of course, the main movie on my agenda is Brokeback Mountain at the State Theater!!
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #79 on: March 03, 2007, 04:15:47 pm »
Was this the movie where that crazy guy went to live among the bears in Alaska and sat around anthropomorphizing them and thinking he had some sort of 'bond' with them?

LOL!  That's it exactly. I don't know if he was crazy but he was certainly delusional.  He fancied himself as this great protector of Grizzly bears but in the process probably endangered them more than anything by acclimatizing them to human presence.  I didn't have much sympathy for him either although he was obviously a troubled person in need of help.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #80 on: March 03, 2007, 10:21:19 pm »
I don't think I agree with the statement that he anthopomorphized the bears. Yes, he did give them names but he was always very aware that they were not human and would not behave in a human way. He was very aware of the dangers IMO, and that's why he lived among them safely for seven years. When he was killed by the bears, IMO, it was because he wanted to be.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #81 on: March 05, 2007, 11:51:51 am »
I caught an interesting silent feature on Turner Classic Movies last night, beginning at 11:15 p.m. (Central). It was entitled Crainquebille, and it hailed from France, having been first released in that country in 1922; its director was Jacques Feyder (best known in the U.S. for having directed Greta Garbo in her last silent film).

Crainquebille is a bittersweet comedy on the travails of an old fruits-and-vegetables vendor in Paris, an elderly gentleman who is the film's titular character. Having been adapted from a tale by Anatole France, the story shows the absurdities to which the legal and judicial systems of so-called enlightened societies can sometimes descend. The film also functions as a loving time-capsule of a vanished France, doing much the same for the urban landscape of that country as Andre Antoine's La Terre, from around the same time, did for the French countryside. The film has been praised for its realism, but no less remarkable are two striking fantasy and dream sequences, which anticipate Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la bete and even, of all things, the Tool video 'Stinkfist'.

The film ended on a somewhat arbitrary note, and one of the main characters remained oddly underdeveloped, yet the ending was sweet and effective, and I did not regret staying up way past my bedtime to catch this rare film. Worth checking out.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #82 on: March 05, 2007, 10:21:46 pm »
I'll have to look that one up and also check out those Turner Classic Movies more often! Thanks, Scott!
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #83 on: March 12, 2007, 07:35:06 pm »
I saw "300" last Friday and I don't know exactly what to tell you about it. Stylistically, it was very pretty, but I did get a yearning to see something green about halfway through the movie. Other reactions?

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #84 on: March 18, 2007, 10:43:24 pm »
Tonight my family took pity on me and let me have the TV to watch. I am watching Dog Day Afternoon, which I've never seen before. Al Pacino plays Sonny, who has robbed a bank in order to pay for his partner's sex change operation. He has taken eight hostages. He asked for his wife to be called to the site, and his partner, Leon, arrives but is too distraught to talk to him. Finally, Leon is persuaded to call him and there is a hearbreaking scene of them on the phone to each other. It was a  sweet detail that they both were wearing wedding rings. I was reminded so much of Lureen when Al Pacino was talking to Leon on the phone. Anne Hathaway's performance in some part was an homage to him, I thought.

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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #85 on: March 19, 2007, 01:14:41 am »
I was reminded so much of Lureen when Al Pacino was talking to Leon on the phone. Anne Hathaway's performance in some part was an homage to him, I thought.

Interesting! I saw DDA in the theater, and I think maybe one time on TV since. I remember that scene, but of course didn't make the connection with BBM. Now I'll have to watch it again.

Back in college, I used to think it was fun to go to a multiplex, pay for one movie, then stick around and sneak into a second (it's not really a matter of sneaking; you just walk right in; it's not like anyone's paying attention). That works just fine if they're both kind of middling movies. But I did that with "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Dog Day Afternoon." I realized that night that, whether it's morally wrong or not, it's aesthetically wrong to do that with two really good movies -- it diminishes both. That was the last time I did  it for a long time.

Then, more recently, I did it again. This time, I saw "The Weatherman" and, when I got out, realized I had a little more time before I had to resubmerge into the harsh realities of children and family and daily life. So I went into "North Country," thinking I'd just watch a few minutes, and wound up staying for the whole thing. In that case, it worked fine.

Today I saw "Amazing Grace." I might have skipped it, but I went because of recommendations here at BetterMost. I thought it was very good. I sobbed throughout, tears pouring down my face, but although there were some poignant parts I think it was more me than the movie.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #86 on: March 19, 2007, 09:24:40 am »
I sobbed throughout, tears pouring down my face, but although there were some poignant parts I think it was more me than the movie.

I was so sorry to read that! We got to do something about this GBOUS!!

I want to see Amazing Grace and North Country. But not in the same day!

I still think of movies as a once or twice weekly thing, unless you need to compare and contrast them for a paper or something (I majored in radio, TV, and film.)
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Re: Dog Day Afternoon
« Reply #87 on: March 19, 2007, 09:49:00 am »
More about the movie:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0072890/

It seems to me that Al Pacino was nominated for Best Actor in this movie but lost to Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Also with John Cazale as Sal, and Chris Sarandon as Leon, Sonny's partner. Based on a true story.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #88 on: March 19, 2007, 11:22:17 am »
Katherine, I'm glad you got to see "Amazing Grace," despite the tears.  I swear, the locations in that movie are so pretty, they almost brought me to tears all by themselves.  ;)

Lee, I love your new avatar.  8)
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #89 on: March 19, 2007, 12:58:42 pm »
Katherine, I'm glad you got to see "Amazing Grace," despite the tears.

LOL, I kept thinking that the people sitting around me must be amazed at what a sensitive soul I was, getting that upset about the very mention of slavery. After a while, I wasn't sure whether it WAS the very mention of slavery, or the other emotional moments in the movie, or issues in real life, or just the momentum carrying me along!  :laugh:

I had wanted to take my sons to see it, for its educational value. But wheneve I see a movie with them, if they spot even the slightest glisten of a tear in my eye, they'll stare at me and ask in a loud, horrified voice, "Mom, are you CRYING?!!?" So in the end I was glad I went alone!  :laugh:

The normally reprehensible right-wing Chicago Tribune op-ed columnist wrote, for a change, a quite interesting piece yesterday about the historical figure William Wilberforce and the book "Amazing Grace" on which the movie is based. I guess Wilberforce is credited with helping awaken Europe's social conscience, which led to all kinds of other reforms. There was a sentence in the piece: "In the 1790s, a good man could stroll past an 11-year-old prostitute on a London street without feeling a twinge of disgust or outrage; he accepted her as merely a feature of the landscape, like an ugly hill."

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #90 on: March 19, 2007, 03:59:48 pm »
I had wanted to take my sons to see it, for its educational value. But wheneve I see a movie with them, if they spot even the slightest glisten of a tear in my eye, they'll stare at me and ask in a loud, horrified voice, "Mom, are you CRYING?!!?" So in the end I was glad I went alone!  :laugh:

Yeah, that would be a bit of a deterrent for enjoying a movie!  ;D  I'm glad you had a nice cry, though.  Sounds like good therapy for the soul.  :)

I blessed William Wilberforce many times during that film, starting at the very beginning when he stopped the beating of that cart horse.  I bless those brave folks who speak out and take action, even in small ways, to let people know they're really doing something wrong.  Cruelty or prejudice sanctioned by large numbers of people is not something that has to last forever.  I hope you do see the movie with your sons eventually, maybe on DVD, and they can get some of the same good feeling from it.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #91 on: March 19, 2007, 04:20:30 pm »
I hope you do see the movie with your sons eventually, maybe on DVD, and they can get some of the same good feeling from it.

It's hard to get them to see anything without any killings or car chases or scatalogical humor. Especially if they think it might be educational or inspirational. Every now and then I manage it. They went to "Breach" with me, and though that's not especially inspirational, they did sit through it even though no one was slaughtered and there were no fart jokes.


 

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #92 on: March 19, 2007, 05:00:55 pm »
It's hard to get them to see anything without any killings or car chases or scatalogical humor. Especially if they think it might be educational or inspirational. Every now and then I manage it. They went to "Breach" with me, and though that's not especially inspirational, they did sit through it even though no one was slaughtered and there were no fart jokes.

I know what you mean.  Kids have radar about stuff that's "good" for them.  But I have a distinct memory of my Mom saying to us one day when we were little that she wanted us to watch a movie that was on TV because it was important for us to see the living conditions of the poor people in it.  I was hugely impressed and solemnly watched it, a little scared, and remembered it ever since.  It made me feel grown up. 

I'm glad you keep managing it now and then.  After all, if your parents don't care enough to "bother" you by taking you to see socially conscious things, the odds of someone else doing it are slim.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #93 on: March 27, 2007, 02:25:40 pm »
I picked up a copy of "Ma Vie En Rose" from the library yesterday and I'm looking forward to watching it. Is anyone else familiar with this film?
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #94 on: March 27, 2007, 05:25:38 pm »
I picked up a copy of "Ma Vie En Rose" from the library yesterday and I'm looking forward to watching it. Is anyone else familiar with this film?

Yes, I saw this some years ago at the cinema, accompanied by my sister. We both enjoyed it, and actually I think my sister might have appreciated it a bit more than I did. It was kind of a surreal spectacle, seeing a community on screen that could practically pass for an American suburb, yet was set in western Francophone Europe. The film's delicate theme and treatment of a child's burgeoning sense of identity and difference (presexual for the most part), and the surrounding community's misunderstanding and hatred of that difference (insisting on projecting sexuality onto a child's innocence), is intelligently presented; I don't think a film like this would be made in contemporary America, at least not a mainstream commercial production.

The film's precise setting remains mysterious to me. Going into the cinema, I assumed I was going to see a Belgian (Francophone) film, yet part of the story takes place in Clermont-Ferrand, a French city. I do think the director is Belgian, but I remain unsure whether the story is set in Belgium or France (and, for that matter, whether the film was shot in Belgium or France).

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #95 on: March 27, 2007, 05:45:17 pm »
Thanks, Scott! I am really interested in seeing this now!!

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #96 on: March 27, 2007, 10:19:13 pm »
I picked up a copy of "Ma Vie En Rose" from the library yesterday and I'm looking forward to watching it. Is anyone else familiar with this film?


Hi frontranger.  You will love Ma vie en rose, it's a wonderful and touching film without being sentimental.  For some bizarre reason, the MPAA rated this family film 'R', apparently for brief language (!).   Yeah right, we believe that, lol!  It's obvious that the MPAA a-holes had problems with the film showing a child not conforming to society's rigid gender roles.

Why is it that every movie seems to be rated R in the states?  Why are they not allowing teenagers to see intelligent films.  The MPAA 'R' rating  seems to be the equivalent of our '14A' here up north.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #97 on: March 27, 2007, 11:04:30 pm »
Thanks for the review, o-g! I will try to figure out when I watch it what set those MPAA ignerant SOBs off. You never know...I read that in "Boys Don't Cry" it almost got an NC-17 rating because Chloe Sevingny was shown enjoying sex too long, and they made them cut the scene shorter! Even tho no skin was shown!

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #98 on: March 28, 2007, 02:49:25 am »
Why is it that every movie seems to be rated R in the states?  Why are they not allowing teenagers to see intelligent films.  The MPAA 'R' rating  seems to be the equivalent of our '14A' here up north.

Thank you, oilgun! I have sons who are 11 and 12. The 12-year-old's movie comprehension is starting (in some cases) to surpass mine. What do you do with kids who love movies, have nearly adult-level intellects, think penguins are stupid (yes, I know, they're wrong about this, but still) but exhibit all the immature tastes of their developmental level?

What I've done is to decide is that the following are OK: Violence, as long as it isn't really gruesome or gratuitous. Sex, as long as it isn't graphic or full-frontal or obvious (and then I have to make them pay for their viewing by glaring meaningfully at them as they watch it, which they hate so much they're tempted to skip it altogether). Swearing -- fuck, they know I don't give a shit what they see in a movie, as long as I don't have to hear the words coming from their mouths.

So for example, last week I let them watch "The Departed." So far, they don't show any signs of being scarred for life, but it's still early ...

Anyone tempted to call the child-abuse hotline is invited to try to deal with my sons themselves for a week.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #99 on: March 28, 2007, 10:11:44 am »
I will try to figure out when I watch it what set those MPAA ignerant SOBs off.
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the story revolves around a child's budding conception of identity, not necessarily a sexual identity per se, but certainly gender-related. The community insists on seeing the child's difference in a sexual way (specifically, homosexual way), though the child himself is innocent and largely presexual. It is the sexual component (again, specifically homosexual component) to the theme that makes the film potentially so controversial in the context of American exhibition; anything dealing with children's sexuality is bound to be provocative and controversial in this anxiety-ridden, post-Freudian era.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #100 on: April 01, 2007, 05:44:49 pm »
Has anyone seen Shortbus?  It's John Cameron Mitchell's follow-up to Hedwig and the Angry Inch and includes real & explicit sex scenes.  I thought it was a very well made film with very believable characters that were treated with respect and affection. It explored its themes with intelligence, humour and a refreshing honesty and it actually treats sex like it was a valid human activity.  I highly recommend it.

The main actor, Sook Yin Lee, is a well known radio personality here in Canada and she almost lost her job at the CBC when the vp of Radio got wind of her involvement in the film.  Luckily, many high profile personalities sent in letters supporting her and the project so they reversed their decision.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #101 on: April 01, 2007, 05:52:56 pm »
Impish saw it and recommended it. Shortly thereafter he disappeared from the board, never to be heard from again. I hope there isn't a curse attached to seeing it! I assume you saw the movie on DVD??
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #102 on: April 01, 2007, 06:07:33 pm »
I assume you saw the movie on DVD??

Yes I did, but I remember when it was at the theatre.  The DVD was very reasonably priced for a new release (CAN$16.99) so I bought it blind and I wasn't disappointed. I found it to be a very validating, feel-good experience. The extra features are decent, (unlike BbM's, he he) and make you appreciate the film even more.  

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #103 on: April 02, 2007, 08:48:49 am »
Anyone heard of (or seen) "The Bubble"? I thought it had been mentioned here, but I cannot find it.

It's by Eytan Fox - Yossi & Jagger! It's kind of a sequel, I think..

Should be interesting!

http://www.thebubble.msn.co.il/eng/index.asp

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #104 on: April 02, 2007, 09:30:59 pm »
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for that link!!!!!!

I had Googled The Bubble but that never came up. There is much less info on this movie than Eytan Fox's other two more popular movies. (which I both own on DVD) I know nothing of a DVD release date yet. I am very anxious to see this movie.

Here is a link to a youtube video if you have not seen it. "The Man I Love" sung by Ivri Lider. I just love him. Of coarse. He's Israeli! :)


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Re: Movie News
« Reply #105 on: April 02, 2007, 10:00:54 pm »
If anyone is interested in listening to more of Ivri Lider here is a link to his English web site. There are several songs that loop. Some sung in English, some in Hebrew. I have been listening to this a lot when I sit in my computer room and knit. I've never liked the song "Nights In White Satin" but I love his version. Love the accent.

http://www.ivrilider.com/english/

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #106 on: April 05, 2007, 04:23:46 pm »
Thank you Wishes! Ivri Lider is the one who composed some of the songs in "Yossi & Jagger" right? I forget.

It's a beautiful song! I love Hebrew songs too. I love the language! I tried to learn it once.. :-\

Wishes, I got the link from imdb.com. On the left, when you scroll down, it says 'official site'.

It doesn't say anything about release dates in my country. Can't wait either, to see this one! I have "Yossi & Jagger" on DVD too, but I haven't even seen "Walk on Water" yet!!  :o  Will have to get the DVD some day soon!  ;D

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #107 on: April 10, 2007, 05:04:05 pm »
j.u.d.e., I don't know how I missed that link as I have been to the imdb site. So thanks again.

Yes, Ivri Lider is the one who sang the song "Bo" (Come) at the end of Yossi & Jagger. And I do believe he composed the theme music also. It's amazing what they did with that movie considering how low budget it was. Do try to see Walk on Water if you can. I think you will like it also.

I'm going to keep looking for The Bubble on DVD. I do hope it comes out soon. I enjoy watching the clips on the official site though even without subtitles! Several times over.  :)

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #108 on: June 19, 2007, 07:07:19 pm »
I had the pleasure on the evening of this past Sunday, June 17th, to watch the American television premiere of Jacques Feyder's rare and almost legendary 1925 silent feature Visages d'enfants, presented on Turner Classic Movies as their weekly silent-film offering. Film historian Jean Mitry is famously quoted as having stated that if he could save but one French film from the 1920's, it would be Visages d'enfants, an outstanding example of the rural-themed film that has been such a distinguished, if sometimes intermittent component of France's cinematic heritage. After seeing this highly sought-out film for myself (albeit through the equivocal lens of television transmission), I can understand Mitry's regard and enthusiasm.

The film, which was directed by Jacques Feyder from a script that he co-wrote with his wife Francoise Rosay, is set in an Alpine village, and tells the story of a little boy struggling from the grief caused by the recent death of his beloved mother. The child's quandary is further burdened by his widower father's subsquent remarriage to a local widow with a young daughter by her late husband. The boy's stepmother is sympathetic in herself, but unwittingly becomes the focus of her stepson's opprobrium simply for taking the place and role of the mother he cannot forget. His new stepsister, who entered this new menage just as reluctantly, also comes to bear the brunt of his dislike and distrust. Through a series of unexpected and dramatic incidents, the emotions of all the household's members are tested to the utmost, and all are challenged with powerful lessons of love, understanding, and forgiveness. A new family is forged through a crucible of anguish and hope.

The most immediately striking quality of the film is its stunning cinematography, shot on location in the beautiful Alpine region. The locations, gorgeous in themselves, are given further character by some striking camera angles and movements. Host Robert Osborne stated that the film was shot/set in Switzerland, yet other sources I have encountered claim France as the site and setting.

A similar ambiguity inflected the period in which the story occurs. I had assumed that the setting was contemporary (1920's), but nowhere does one see any of the accoutrements of a young twentieth century, such as trains, automobiles, and telephones. The characters likewise wear folk costumes that must have changed little in the preceding centuries, and are overwhelmingly agricultural, pastoralist folk, living very close to the land in much the same way as their ancestors had surely done. Contemporary audiences might have been more attuned to nuances of temporal setting that would elude a viewer like me, coming to the material almost a century later, but I was astonished to think that anyone in France in 1925 would have lived in such a rustic fashion as these characters.

The film is also notable for the fine, assured performances of the entire cast, and the three children who are central to the story are especially remarkable in this regard. Jean Forest as the grieving boy, Pierrette Houyez as his guileless little sister, and Arlette Peyran as the grudging new stepsister all impress with their engaging and realistic portrayals. Forest, who appeared in Feyder's earlier Crainquebille, shows an artistic sensitivity beyond his years in his conveyance of the different faces grief can take, ranging from the sorrowful and sullen to the enraged and defeated.

Like that earlier film Crainquebille, Visages d'enfants is also graced by momentary touches of fantasy, used to convey the inner states of the characters. The films' Cartesian poetry generates a visual and rhythmic quality that links them to the Impressionist phase of French cinema, in its day an aesthetic movement almost as influential as the now better-known Expressionism of German film. For this quality alone, both these wonderful films deserve to be seen, studied, and cherished for generations to come. 

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #109 on: July 02, 2007, 11:02:06 am »
I made another of my increasingly rare forays to the cinema this weekend (on Saturday, June 30th, to be precise), accompanied by my parents (both visiting from out of town) and my sister, to see the animated feature Ratatouille, a whimsically charming fantasy of a gastronomically gifted rat's dream of becoming a great French chef. The animation, courtesy of Pixar studios, is superb and state-of-the-art, and the pleasure afforded by the film's visual excellence is bolstered by a well-crafted screenplay featuring engaging and well-rounded characters that the viewer genuinely comes to care about.

This is gonna sound a bit crazy, probably, and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I actually thought one of the principal characters was quite cute (in the I-wish-he-could-be-my-boyfriend kind of way)--I'm specifically referring to Linguini, voiced by Lou Romano, a lanky, gangly, but thoroughly winning young fellow who becomes the main character Remy's unexpected vehicle to culinary success. Linguini was distinguished by the artists who created him by a big nose and pronounced ears (both weaknesses of mine), perhaps to suggest further connection to the rodent he is helping (Linguini is a human character), and the fine, naively charming character with which he was invested just sealed my affection for him. Ennis and Jack, make some room for (egad) a cartoon character!

I and my family all enjoyed the film very much, and were equally delighted by the wonderful short (also from Pixar) that preceded the feature, called Lifted--a sweetly funny take on, of all things, the present-day mythology surrounding supposed alien abductions. Both short and feature come warmly recommended by me.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #110 on: July 04, 2007, 10:18:13 am »
Thanks, Scott! I was looking for a good movie to take in while waiting for it to get dark e-nuff for fireworks tonite! This sounds like just the ticket!!

Meanwhile I've started watching The Science of Sleep on my computer, but need to switch to a larger screen to keep from falling asleep while watching it! Because of the subtitles...

What other summer movies are people watching??
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #111 on: July 04, 2007, 05:00:39 pm »
7/4/07 USA TODAY ranks 25 Hollywood Movies that have had an impact.  BBM isn't ranked but PHILADELPHIA comes in at #8. :(    Was Philadelphia that groundbreaking.  I thought Longtime Companions which screened on my PBS station at the time was more moving. Of course, it didn't do that well at the B.O. 
Did Philadelphia cause that much conversation.  Hollwyood was accused of being late as usual with a social commentary film about AIDS after the hysteria when even Reagan couldn't mention the word.

8. Philadelphia (1993)
Before that rendezvous on Brokeback Mountain, straight stars Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas were gay lovers in this groundbreaker about an AIDS-afflicted lawyer who sues over job discrimination. Hard to believe that this was the first major studio movie to deal with the disease.

Here's the full article

http://www.usatoday.com/life/top25-movies.htm
YOu can click on the article to find out the author's rationale.   Had an impact.  THE CABLE GUY??  I don't want this blog post to be too big..
I do agree with SEX LIES AND VIDEOS being on the list. 

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #112 on: July 08, 2007, 03:02:18 pm »
Yes, Philadelphia was a big deal, I think it was primarily because of Tom Hanks' starring in it. He also won the Best Actor Oscar as well.

« Last Edit: July 08, 2007, 03:09:58 pm by Front-Ranger »
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #113 on: July 10, 2007, 11:23:41 am »
USA Today has gone off the deep end with their movie lists, I think. Some of those movies had me mystified!!

I had a scare last nite. I was watching the 1998 Coen Brothers movie The Big Lebowski, which is very funny. One of the best parts of it is the Cowboy (natch!) played by Sam Elliott. Afterwards, somebody mentioned that he died! I was very relieved to find out that he is still alive and kicking, according to wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Elliott

and excited to read that a movie is coming out this year starring him in His Dark Materials!! Now this could be good!!
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #114 on: July 10, 2007, 11:55:15 am »
I had a scare last nite. I was watching the 1998 Coen Brothers movie The Big Lebowski, which is very funny. One of the best parts of it is the Cowboy (natch!) played by Sam Elliott. Afterwards, somebody mentioned that he died! I was very relieved to find out that he is still alive and kicking, according to wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Elliott

and excited to read that a movie is coming out this year starring him in His Dark Materials!! Now this could be good!!


Lee, you're right about His Dark Materials.  It looks like it could be really good.  The website for that film is stunningly beautiful: http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/?.  The cast is gorgeous, too:  Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and Eva Green, as well as Sam Elliott.

I've read the trilogy of books the movie is based on, and they're highly imaginative and dramatic.  I don't know how they're going to condense the story into one movie.  Maybe there's more than one?  Anyway, I'm really looking forward to it.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #115 on: July 10, 2007, 03:54:16 pm »
I read part of one book, but after BBM, my attention span for books is the length of one well-known short story, and no more! Interesting, when I heard Annie Proulx speak in Boulder, Colorado, she was asked how she felt about the movie Brokeback Mountain, as opposed to the one for Shipping News, and she said that making a movie from a novel was essentially a destructive act, because so much has to be cut out, whereas with Brokeback Mountain it was more a process of adding to, or fleshing out. LauraGigs was just reminding me of her comment last nite. . .

I am really excited to see Sam Elliott in this role! He just hasn't had a defining role in my opinion. (Tho I never saw him in McGuyver) He just gets better and better as he gets older (and the mustache gets bushier!) If Jack had lived, I imagine he would look something like Sam...

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #116 on: July 10, 2007, 06:09:35 pm »

Lee, you're right about His Dark Materials.  It looks like it could be really good.  The website for that film is stunningly beautiful: http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/?.  The cast is gorgeous, too:  Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and Eva Green, as well as Sam Elliott.

I've read the trilogy of books the movie is based on, and they're highly imaginative and dramatic.  I don't know how they're going to condense the story into one movie.  Maybe there's more than one?  Anyway, I'm really looking forward to it.
You're right about the website. I got to choose my daemon, and it's a male gibbon named Agapius. It's fun! Try it all of you who enjoy those quick personality quizzes!
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #117 on: July 10, 2007, 06:15:26 pm »
Here he is, the man of the moment, appearing as The Stranger on The Big Lebowski:



Now that's what I call a 'stache!!

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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #118 on: July 11, 2007, 07:14:58 pm »
This is gonna sound a bit crazy, probably, and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I actually thought one of the principal characters was quite cute (in the I-wish-he-could-be-my-boyfriend kind of way)

Scott, I have found animated characters cute in the I-wish-he-could-be-my-boyfriend kind of way, too! One that comes to mind is the beatnicky artist in The Iron Giant, a film by the same guy as made Ratatouille (which I thought was excellent, too, BTW -- one scene that I thought was wonderful and that was mentioned in a review I read was where the food critic takes a bite of the special dish, and the touching, creative way his reaction was dramatized).

Anyway, back to my crush in The Iron Giant, he was voiced by Harry Connick Jr., whom I DON'T find cute in the I-wish-he-could-be-my-boyfriend kind of way. But he sounded great.

P.S. I found Capt. John Smith in Pocahontas kind of IWHCBMB cute, too.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #119 on: July 11, 2007, 10:14:59 pm »
Welcome back, ineed!! Where ya been? Ya musta got all those notes I left at your place an...

 ;D

I had the opportunity to see Harry in concert at Red Rocks a few weeks ago, and altho his music was kinda fluffy, his clowning around with his bandmates was very endearing. He played a nice roster of New Orleans music and made like white trailer trash. I imagine he'd have a rilly nice voice for animations too.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #120 on: August 14, 2007, 10:31:24 am »
I finally saw the latest Harry Potter movie last nite and I was entranced by the character Luna Lovegood. Late in the film she says something like, "The things we lose have a habit of finding their way back to us in time." Was that the right wording? Also, I loved the ending line by Harry, when he said that Dumbledore's Army has something their enemies don't have: "We have something worth fighting for."

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #121 on: September 02, 2007, 06:08:40 pm »
I went to see Superbad last night with my sister, and we both enjoyed it. Not a great film, but a fun one. Essentially a raunchy teen comedy, the movie is graced with an underlying and sincere sweetness that is rarely encountered in this genre, and is similarly distinguised by solid performances by a coterie of talented, charming actors.

Possible spoiler alert: I think there was a distinct suggestion that Seth (played by Jonah Hill) harbored homosexual or bisexual tendencies, and that his love for his best friend Evan (played by Michael Cera) was not wholly platonic. One of the striking and admirable features of the movie is its insistence on the worth and importance of male friendships, and its acknowledgement that such friendships are a genuine manifestation of human love. The subplot involving the third friend Fogell (played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and the two feckless police officers played by Bill Hader and Seth Rogen also touches on this theme.

Out of a wide range of accomplished performances, I was especially struck by that of Mintz-Plasse as the nerdy but endearing Fogell. This young actor seems to have a flair for understated and idiosyncratic comedy, and is someone to watch for in the future.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #122 on: September 03, 2007, 10:13:24 am »
Watching the news yesterday evening, it seems that Harry Potter was considered an underperformer for the summer season.   You think with all the publicity about the last book, there would have been a symbiotic effect...

There is nothing at the cinema right now that appeals to me.  The summer blockbusters have all been there for some time.  And nothing is really grabbing my attn to go see a movie on Labor Day.      I don't have any interest in going to see CHUCK and LARRY. 

Here's hoping the Fall Season looks more appealing...




moremojo

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #123 on: October 02, 2007, 11:47:40 am »
I managed to make it to the Kenji Mizoguchi film Ugetsu Monogatari last night.

I had only seen the ending of this film before on cable television, and was pleased to have this opportunity to experience such a major work as a film projected upon a screen. The title, which can be translated as 'Tales of the Pale Moon After Rain', is a 1953 work set in the sixteenth century, during the turmoil of the civil wars. The story is a ghost story which also doubles as a cautionary tale, about how we often don't realize what we have until it is lost.
 
The main character, Genjuro, is a poor but skilled and ambitious village potter who leaves his family to pursue trade and profit in the towns. He is lured to the luxurious mansion of a mysterious and beautiful aristocratic lady, Lady Wakasa, who indulges him and asks for his hand in marriage. During the course of the story, Genjuro learns that Lady Wakasa and her attendants are ghosts, spirit representatives of a noble clan wiped out by the wars; Lady Wakasa's soul has returned to earth because she died before ever knowing carnal love, and seeks a man with whom she can return to the spirit world. Genjuro's life is in danger, and with the help of a Shinto priest, he successfully wards off the spirits in order to make his way back to his abandoned family, to be greeted by a bittersweet surprise.
 
The film is distinguished by its evocative black-and-white photography, replete with a variety of creative lighting effects, and an effective, apposite musical soundtrack. Most memorable of all are the fine performances by the central actresses (Mizoguchi was celebrated for his consummate direction of women), namely Kinuyo Tanaka as Genjuro's stoically suffering wife Miyagi, the lovely Machiko Kyo as the dangerous Lady Wakasa, and Kikue Mori as Lady Wakasa's ghostly nurse Ukon. The most powerful scene for me was one where Ukon, realizing that Genjuro has learned of his predicament and seeks to flee, angrily confronts him and then, astonishingly, begins to plead desperately for his eternal presence alongside her beloved charge. The emotional shift in the sequence is striking, and Mori conveys the character's conflict and plight masterfully. The scene is also most unusual in that it is a testament of love by proxy--Ukon reveals that her sorrow over her lady's lack of fulfillment led her to take them both back to the world of the living, and that she wanted nothing more than her charge's happiness, even if it could only be obtained in the realm of the dead. She selflessly advocates for the heart of another, who pines silently to the side throughout the sequence.
 
All in all, an interesting, masterful film that I would recommend for those who appreciate beauty in the cinema.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #124 on: October 09, 2007, 03:48:37 pm »
I saw an interesting Japanese film last night. Though I retain a general antipathy to war films (which this was), this was nonetheless an accomplished work of cinema that I found rewarding and memorable; I would recommend it, especially to those who are interested in unheroicized stories of war and its real human costs.
 
The film is Nobi (Fires on the Plain), a 1959 feature directed by Kon Ichikawa. The print shown was visually excellent, looking almost new, and I was impressed by how well the film had been preserved or restored. Shot in black-and-white 'Scope, the film was distinguished by a consistently intelligent visual design, being illustrative of the especially high quality of Japanese widescreen films of this era.
 
The story involves a private in the Japanese Army named Tamura, who is stationed in the occupied Philippines during the waning days of the Second World War. Diagnosed with possibly terminal tuberculosis at the story's beginning, and shunted between a unit that fears his diseased presence and a military hospital that lacks the resources to treat him, Tamura is thoroughly demoralized, has lost his will to fight, and is only clinging onto life as he knows of nothing else to do. The Japanese realize that their defeat is imminent at the hands of the conquering American forces, and a general retreat to the island of Cebu is underway. Tamura falls in with his equally demoralized comrades, and witnesses a gradual degradation of his fellow soldiers' humanity that tests his own moral boundaries to their limits.
 
Tamura is a highly flawed character, but is equally fully and recognizably human. Desperately ill throughout the story, some of his reactions and choices may be attributed to a mind racked with fever and fatigue. The ultimate horror that Tamura countenances is not apparently the indiscriminate killing that surrounds him, but the men's resorting to cannibalism to survive their ordeal. In the end, Tamura kills his comrade Nagamatsu as apparent punishment for this transgression, which to my mind makes Tamura a distinctly less heroic figure. He dies himself under a rain of enemy bullets, with the knowledge at least (flawed, to my thinking) that he did not debase himself as Nagamatsu had done.
 
To speak of the main character's flaws is not to diminish the film's quality. This was an intelligent and harrowing work that seeks to depict the realities and costs of war without romanticization, and also without didacticism. It is surely as relevant today as it was in 1959 (the film is a welcome antidote to many American war films of the same era, and shows war from the angle of the losing side).
 
The soundtrack of the print was not in as pristine a shape as the visual element, and in the last quarter started to snap, crackle, and pop in a most uncomfortable way, but ironically reflected the increasing hellishness of the story.
 
Even for those who are not fans of war movies, this classic of the Japanese cinema can provide for time well spent.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2008, 07:10:23 pm by moremojo »

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #125 on: October 15, 2007, 12:33:22 pm »
I did manage to see Eastern Promises Saturday evening with my sister Cathy. We both enjoyed it, and found it to be an accomplished and rewarding film of real artistic merit. Directed by noted Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg to a Steve Knight screenplay, the film has some of the flavor of Francis Ford Coppola's and Martin Scorsese's gangster pictures, but without the idealization/glamorization of the violent ethos and psychology of the worlds depicted in those works that I find so distasteful and hypocritical.

Set in the world of the Russian mob in contemporary London, the story is a timely window onto the high price that globalization and the advance of unrestrained capitalism has wrought upon so many people struggling for life and parity in today's world. Anna (played by Naomi Watts) is a midwife who delivers a stricken fourteen-year-old Russian girl named Tatiana of her baby, only to have the girl die, leaving her infant daughter alive but alone. Finding a diary in Russian among Tatiana's effects, and a card naming a Russian restaurant in London, Anna consults the restaurant's owner for help in establishing the girl's identity and story.  Unbeknownst to her, the restaurant owner, Semyon (played by Armin Stueller-Mahl) is a leading member of the Russian mob, and has played a central role in Tatiana's demise. Semyon's chauffeur Nikolai (played by Viggo Mortensen), who is rising through the ranks of his adopted criminal family, comes to interact with the increasingly endangered Anna, and both prove helpful to one another in unexpected and surprising ways.

There is a distinct homoerotic undertone introduced to the story through the character of Semyon's son Kirill (played by Vincent Cassel), who is clearly (if subliminally) attracted to Nikolai, and whose affections Nikolai subtly encourages and exploits for a range of reasons. There is also more than a note of homoeroticism in the film's most celebrated set-piece, wherein Nikolai is attacked while completely naked by a couple of assassins in a public bathhouse. This is one of the most ferocious ballets of violence I have seen in cinema, and is electrifying to watch while the horror and pain being meted out by the characters is never diminished.

The complex humanity of all the characters is one of the film's strongest assets. While many are shown engaging in truly terrible acts, everyone is always depicted as fully human, with nuances of feeling and choice with which they are constantly grappling. This thematic sophistication mirrors the often intransigent complexities met in real life.

The film is distinguished by handsome, warm cinematography by the noted Peter Suschitzky, and a welcome supporting role by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski as Anna's uncle Stepan. This is one of the more noteworthy releases so far of 2007, and is one I would recommend.

Offline Meryl

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #126 on: October 15, 2007, 05:26:32 pm »
Thanks for the wonderful, insightful review, Scott.  You summarized it perfectly, too, without giving away essential plot twists.  8)

This is one of the most ferocious ballets of violence I have seen in cinema, and is electrifying to watch while the horror and pain being meted out by the characters is never diminished.

Electrifying is right!  Mikaela and I were in a state of shock for awhile after seeing this scene.  It's an instant classic as far as film fights go, IMO.  :P
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #127 on: November 13, 2007, 10:44:33 am »
I'm looking forward to seeing "Black, White and Gray" at the Starz International Film Festival tomorrow. Its the story of NY photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and Sam Wagstaff.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #128 on: November 13, 2007, 10:53:04 am »
I went to see "American Gangster" this weekend (not my choice...I dislike RC intensely), but it was worth it to see the preview of "Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street".  It's one of my favorite musical theater pieces.  I did not know they were turning it into a film.  I am hesitant about Johnny Depp, but still very anxious to see it.

http://www.sweeneytoddmovie.com/

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #129 on: November 13, 2007, 11:58:28 am »
I went to see The Passenger (aka Professione: reporter), the 1975 feature directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, last night at a free screening; this was my first experience of this important film. The film had been rereleased in late 2005, and was showing at the same theater I went to see Brokeback Mountain for the first time on Saturday, 18 February 2006--I remember seeing the poster while standing in line, and regretting that I would have to defer my chance to see it until later. (That ended up being much later...in the wake of Brokeback Mountain, I had no energy or desire for other movies for some time).

So this was a second opportunity (maybe once in a lifetime) to see this work, as it was made and meant to be seen...as a 35-millimeter print projected onto a movie screen. The screening was fairly well-attended, so perhaps others were of a like mind, though there seemed to be a significant amount of restlessness in some members, with a few walkouts noticeable.

Antonioni, though one of the supremely great filmmakers (he died earlier this year after more than two decades of poor health), is not for all tastes. His pacing is deliberately patient and observant, his mood overridingly one of alienation and dislocation. He presents a pessimistic view of late twentieth-century man, but filters this through a prism of visual and aural poetry, rendering the pessimism equivocal by virtue of the intelligence and artistry of which the human mind is capable.

The Passenger stars Jack Nicholson as British TV reporter David Locke who, while on location in an unnamed African country, is ambiguously motivated to switch identities with a stranger with whom he becomes casually acquainted and who dies suddenly at the hotel in which they are both lodged. So Locke officially becomes dead to the world, while Robertson lives on in a new body. What Locke doesn't realize is that Robertson was an illegal arms smuggler, and unwittingly inherits Robertson's connections and responsibilities with his new identity.

The story is set up to become a thriller, but Antonioni frustrates and redirects this trajectory in a number of ways. Narrative is less important here than the evocation of mood and the delineation of existential freedom and angst. During the course of his international travels (the film was shot in Algeria, Britain, West Germany, and Spain), Locke meets up with a young woman (played by Maria Schneider), who is no less mysteriously motivated to become this strange man's fellow traveller and lover. Both are running away from the certainties of their past existences into an uncharted and potentially perilous future. And running after them, locked into attitudes of certainty and social expectation, are Locke's wife (played by Jenny Runacre), who comes to realize what her husband has done, and Robertson's (now Locke's) twin nemeses, his illicit accomplices and the law.

There is a subdued quality to Nicholson's performance, and Schneider and Runacre are both strangely affectless in their respective personae. This woodenness may have been deliberate on Antonioni's part, to convey a sense of alienation, which seems to me to be Antonioni's major theme in his body of work. Inspired use is made of the many exotic locations in which the story is set, and the film's (anti-)climax is a stunningly bravura sequence of camerawork (obviously inspired by Michael Snow's 1967 experimental film Wavelength) that literally pushes Locke to the periphery of the action, becoming the dead center of the other characters' frenetic and bewildered attentions.

Antonioni was the supreme cinematic poet of urban alienation, and even in a film like The Passenger, where much of the narrative transpires in rural settings, the blighted reach of twentieth-century urban man is shown to be limitless. Though not as fine as Antonioni's earlier L'eclisse and Il deserto rosso, this film remains a resonant work of art, capable of coloring one's experiences of the world outside the film itself, which is perhaps the most salient qualification of artistic greatness I know.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2008, 06:35:00 pm by moremojo »

Offline oilgun

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #130 on: November 22, 2007, 09:39:01 am »


Did anyone know about The Golden Compass controversy?  Catholics are up in arms because they say the story's goal is to indoctrinate kids into atheism.  Isn't this ridiculously ironic?  Christians concerned about child indoctrination?  A catholic school board in my area has actually pulled the books from the school libraries.

School board pulls ‘anti-God’ book
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/278845

Excerpt:
Quote
Halton's Catholic board has pulled The Golden Compass fantasy book – soon to be a Hollywood blockbuster starring Nicole Kidman – off school library shelves because of a complaint.

Two other books in the trilogy by British author Philip Pullman have also been removed as a precaution, and principals have been ordered not to distribute December Scholastic book flyers because The Golden Compass is available to order.

"(The complaint) came out of interviews that Philip Pullman had done, where he stated that he is an atheist and that he supports that," said Scott Millard, the board's manager of library services.

"Since we are an educational institution, we want to be able to evaluate the material; we want to make sure we have the best material for students."

Following a recent Star story about the series, an internal memo was sent to elementary principals that said "the book is apparently written by an atheist where the characters and text are anti-God, anti-Catholic and anti-religion."

Well, guess what movie has suddenly become my most anticipitated, lol!  I don't even like fantasy films but I'll be seeing this one on opening weekend!




Offline Meryl

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #131 on: November 22, 2007, 01:28:13 pm »


Did anyone know about The Golden Compass controversy?  Catholics are up in arms because they say the story's goal is to indoctrinate kids into atheism.  Isn't this ridiculously ironic?  Christians concerned about child indoctrination?  A catholic school board in my area has actually pulled the books from the school libraries.

Actually, now that you mention it, oilgun, it doesn't surprise me at all.  These books really do go after organized religion, specifically Christianity.  Many of the basic ideas Pullman used come from Milton's Paradise Lost.  Here are Wikipedia links to His Dark Materials and Paradise Lost.  The articles help explain some of the reasons for the controversy.

It is ironic that Christians are decrying the indoctrination of children.  I guess that can apply to everyone who wants their children to be brought up in only the belief system they feel is right.  Trouble is, this is one heckuva big, complex world, full of innumerable belief systems.  Also, we have access to more information at our fingertips than ever before.  Parents have their work cut out for them, trying to keep their kids unexposed to other beliefs.
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Offline Shasta542

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #132 on: November 22, 2007, 01:46:26 pm »
I had gotten the news about this movie in an e-mail and I never take those at face value. I check "Snopes" to see whether they deem it true or not. Snopes may not always be right either, but they said this was true. In an interview the author said his books were about "killing God". I think children can be exposed to all kinds of belief systems without being shown a fantasy about killing God and angels -- not sure the movie shows this. I think those things happen in the follow up books.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
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Offline oilgun

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #133 on: November 22, 2007, 04:21:47 pm »
Actually, now that you mention it, oilgun, it doesn't surprise me at all.  These books really do go after organized religion, specifically Christianity.  Many of the basic ideas Pullman used come from Milton's Paradise Lost.  Here are Wikipedia links to His Dark Materials and Paradise Lost.  The articles help explain some of the reasons for the controversy.


Thanks for the Wikipedia link, meryl,  it's very informative.  It sounds like the zealots are overreacting yet again.  Also, I just realized that pullman wrote I Was a Rat, I love that book!  I read it to my nephew a few years ago, it's a great story!

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #134 on: December 14, 2007, 04:06:24 pm »

Lee, you're right about His Dark Materials.  It looks like it could be really good.  The website for that film is stunningly beautiful: http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/?.  The cast is gorgeous, too:  Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and Eva Green, as well as Sam Elliott.

I've read the trilogy of books the movie is based on, and they're highly imaginative and dramatic.  I don't know how they're going to condense the story into one movie.  Maybe there's more than one?  Anyway, I'm really looking forward to it.

Now that the movie The Golden Compass is out, I thought it would be good to post the web site link again. We should all go there and get our daemons. Me, I have a monkey gibbon on my back, name of Aguippa.
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Offline Meryl

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #135 on: December 14, 2007, 04:24:26 pm »
Thanks for the reminder, Lee.  I applied for my daemon back in April, and he turned out to be a civet (wildcat) named Rasthmus.  Just now I tried it again and was given a gorgeous tiger named Archeleron.  Looks like they know I am a cat person!  8)
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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #136 on: August 13, 2009, 09:08:46 pm »
I heard that "The Fountain" is supposed to be an adaptation of the story "The Time Traveler's Wife." That makes me want to see it even though it didn't get good reviews. Also, Hugh Jackman as the lead character Henry? I'm sure he could handle the acting but he seems too healthy and wholesome for that role. But it would be great to see him in the role because of the frequent nudity!!

This is about to come out, starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. And, guess what? The role of Claire in childhood is played by Brooklyn Proulx!!

brokebackjack tells me Brooklyn is a granddaughter of AP!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452694/
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Offline southendmd

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #137 on: August 13, 2009, 09:33:02 pm »
This is about to come out, starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. And, guess what? The role of Claire in childhood is played by Brooklyn Proulx!!

brokebackjack tells me Brooklyn is a granddaughter of AP!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452694/


You mean this Brooklyn Proulx?  Jenny, age 4, left.


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Re: Movie News
« Reply #138 on: August 13, 2009, 10:18:37 pm »
Yes, the very same! Altho she now spells her name Brooklynn.
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Offline southendmd

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #139 on: August 13, 2009, 10:31:43 pm »
Yes, the very same! Altho she now spells her name Brooklynn.

Before you know it, she'll be hyphenating it--Brook-Lynn!

Offline Shasta542

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #140 on: August 13, 2009, 10:52:00 pm »
She has a part in "The Time Traveler's Wife". I don't know if it's out yet, but I've seen some previews.
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Offline oilgun

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Disappearing star Christian Bale -Article
« Reply #141 on: August 20, 2009, 06:39:57 pm »
Oh no, he's at it again!  :o

http://celebedge.ca/Bang/ContentPostingBang3column?newsitemid=BSBS74768&feedname=BANG&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=False

Disappearing star Christian Bale
Method actor Christian Bale reportedly looks ''emaciated'' and keeps disappearing from the set of his new movie 'The Fighter'.

Christian Bale keeps going "missing" on the set of his new movie.

The actor has bemused co-stars on his new movie 'The Fighter' - which he is filming in Massachusetts with Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams - with his insistence on "getting into character" and refusing to be seen when he isn't filming.
 
A source told 'E!': "You only see him when it's time for his scenes. Other than that, no one has any idea where he is. He just goes missing."

Bale is determined to accurately portray former crack addict Dicky Eklund in the movie - which follows the life of boxer 'Irish' Mickey Ward - and has stunned people with his appearance.

The source explained: "Christian has lost almost as much weight as he did for 'The Machinist'. He is so gaunt. They have even thinned his hair - he just looks sickly."

The 35-year-old star famously lived on just a can of tuna and an apple a day and lost 60lbs while filming 'The Machinist', in which he played a paranoid insomniac.

Bale has previously said he would not want to go to the dieting extremes he did for 'The Machinist' ever again - but admitted he thrived on the "mental challenges" it presented him with.

He said: "I wouldn't want to take it to that extreme again. But it was necessary to lose weight for that role - not as much as I did - but it was a challenge mentally to see if I was capable of doing such a thing.

"I know that I can now, so there would need to be a certain gimmick if I was to do that all over again. But I do like the notion of seeing how far you can push yourself so I'm very happy that I did that. Everybody told me that I was risking my health the first time around, so doing it twice? I'm probably being an idiot."

(C) BANG Media International

Offline delalluvia

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #142 on: August 20, 2009, 06:45:54 pm »
Method actors.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #143 on: August 20, 2009, 06:51:16 pm »
Quote
The 35-year-old star famously lived on just a can of tuna and an apple a day and lost 60lbs while filming 'The Machinist',

Geez, I can't live on a can of tuna and an apple a day long enough to lose 10.


Offline Mikaela

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #144 on: August 20, 2009, 06:58:01 pm »
Cans of tuna - yuck!  :-X

Bearing in mind how cranky CB was at the set of Terminator Salvation where he didn't have to starve himself or anything, I can only imagine how everyone is walking on pins on needles *now*.  :o

But I'm no fan. I think CB is one of the most overrated actors around.

Offline delalluvia

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #145 on: August 20, 2009, 07:12:12 pm »
Cans of tuna - yuck!  :-X

Bearing in mind how cranky CB was at the set of Terminator Salvation where he didn't have to starve himself or anything, I can only imagine how everyone is walking on pins on needles *now*. 

But I'm no fan. I think CB is one of the most overrated actors around.

Except they're not because he's not staying around people.  He does his scenes, then leaves.  Very wise.

 ;D

Offline oilgun

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #146 on: August 20, 2009, 07:15:57 pm »
Tuna is one of the worst fish he could have picked, because of its large size it has high levels of mercury.  It shouldn't be eaten more than once a week.  He would have been better off with something small like the sardine (which is what i just had for dinner, lol!).

(PS:  Wow, a major thunderstorm just went by!  It got so dark and moved so quickly!)

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #147 on: August 23, 2009, 10:58:55 pm »
I can just imagine you there with your can of sardines, and the lightning waving like a white sheet in the window!!

I read an article about Bale's work in Herzog's Rescue Dawn in The New Yorker. It sounds like he was very reckless with his safety on that movie...shot in Thailand on a shoestring budget. I was looking forward to seeing the movie in theaters, but apparently it came out directly on DVD, unfortunately. I want to acquire it.

Here's an interview with him about the movie:

http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_12364.html
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Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #148 on: August 24, 2009, 02:34:33 am »

    I saw the Golden Compass when it was first released, but I didn't like it at all.  Not because of the religious connotations it has, one way
or another.  I happen to be agnostic, but I just thought it was boring and not interesting at all.  I felt like I had wasted my time.

    However on the similar topic, I didn't care for the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe either.  I never read the book either, maybe it
was better, but the movie to me was just plain silly.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2009, 11:26:10 pm by ifyoucantfixit »



     Beautiful mind

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #149 on: August 25, 2009, 10:24:06 am »
I read an article about Bale's work in Herzog's Rescue Dawn in The New Yorker. It sounds like he was very reckless with his safety on that movie...shot in Thailand on a shoestring budget. I was looking forward to seeing the movie in theaters, but apparently it came out directly on DVD, unfortunately. I want to acquire it.

It was in theaters here, briefly. I kept trying to go, but missed it. Later, I saw it on DVD. I didn't love it, but I liked it.

I am a CB fan and don't think he's overrated. I've been dismayed by some of his real-life behavior, of course, but I usually don't hold that against actors onscreen (Mel Gibson being the only exception I can think of). I especially liked him in 3:10 to Yuma and The Prestige.


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Re: Movie News
« Reply #150 on: August 27, 2009, 09:30:46 pm »
News flash! I obtained Rescue Dawn from the library! Need to see it fast before Taking Woodstock opens!!
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #151 on: August 27, 2009, 10:13:01 pm »
News flash! I obtained Rescue Dawn from the library! Need to see it fast before Taking Woodstock opens!!

Wait -- why?

Not to discourage you or disagree, but I'm not sure I'm clear on the urgency.


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Re: Movie News
« Reply #152 on: August 29, 2009, 11:05:23 pm »
Good question, friend! Well, I only have so much discretionary time, so I tend to line up movies that I want to see and try to shoehorn them into my free time. Another factor is that I borrowed Rescue Dawn from the library which means that I must return it! DVDs that I buy nearly always end up unseen for months or even years. And I gave up on Blockbuster and Netflicks long ago. Finding 1 1/2 hours or 2 hours of continuous free time is almost impossible, especially in the summer months. Am I pitiful? Maybe so.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #153 on: August 30, 2009, 01:45:15 pm »
Good question, friend! Well, I only have so much discretionary time, so I tend to line up movies that I want to see and try to shoehorn them into my free time. Another factor is that I borrowed Rescue Dawn from the library which means that I must return it! DVDs that I buy nearly always end up unseen for months or even years. And I gave up on Blockbuster and Netflicks long ago. Finding 1 1/2 hours or 2 hours of continuous free time is almost impossible, especially in the summer months. Am I pitiful? Maybe so.

Not at all. Or at least if you are, I am, too. I can find the time to watch movies -- it's returning them I have trouble with. I wind up inadvertently buying them from the video stores and owing Hollywood Video $130.



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Re: Movie News
« Reply #154 on: September 06, 2009, 09:32:53 am »
Lately I have been buying DVDs rather than renting them too. It makes sense when movies that have just stopped playing in theaters are for sale for 5 for $20. Last week I picked up The Duchess, Burn After Reading, Australia, Appaloosa, and others. My mom, who's living with me now, likes to watch movies and needs to get up to speed. She's spent too much time watching and rewatching John Wayne movies.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #155 on: September 21, 2009, 11:37:46 pm »
Ennibody up for a great movie about Romantic poets? How about a movie about the most Romantic of them all, John Keats? Bright Star directed by Jane Campion opens this Friday. See it and discuss it here!!
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Offline oilgun

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #156 on: September 27, 2009, 06:55:53 pm »
Another reason to hate the Swiss....

Polanski arrested in Switzerland on old U.S. warrant

27/09/2009 12:11:40 PM
CTV.ca News Staff
Swiss police took director Roman Polanski into custody late Saturday on a 30-year-old U.S. arrest warrant for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Polanski had travelled from his home in France to Switzerland to receive an honorary award at the Zurich Film Festival when he was held at the airport, festival officials said in a statement.

The Swiss Justice Ministry released a statement Sunday, saying the U.S. had been seeking Polanski's arrest in various countries since 2005.

"There was a valid arrest request and we knew when he was coming," ministry spokesperson Guido Balmer told The Associated Press. "That's why he was taken into custody."

According to Balmer, American authorities will have to issue a formal extradition request if they want Polanski returned to U.S. soil.

The director's French lawyer, Georges Kiejman, told France-Inter radio that it is "too early to know" if Polanski will face extradition.

"The proceedings must take their course," Kiejman said. "For now we are trying to have the arrest warrant lifted in Zurich."

It is still unclear why Polanski was arrested now, given that he regularly travels to Switzerland.

According to Balmer, the arrest of someone facing an international warrant is "automatic when you know when and at what time the individual is coming."

Balmer denied that Switzerland was trying to appease U.S. officials, with whom Swiss authorities recently disagreed over tax evasion issues and concerns about Americans hiding money in Swiss bank UBS AG.

"There is no link with any other issues in question," Balmer said.

France's culture minister said Sunday that he was "dumbfounded" by the arrest.

Frederic Mitterrand said he "strongly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already experienced so many of them."

According to a statement released by the culture ministry, Mitterrand is in contact with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, "who is following the case with great attention and shares the minister's hope that the situation can be quickly resolved."

Polanski has lived in France since 1978, when he fled the United States after pleading guilty the year before to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

The director, now 76, has asked a U.S. appeals court in California to overturn another judge's refusal to throw out the case. Polanski has levelled allegations of misconduct at the original judge in the case, who is now deceased, saying he reneged on a previously arranged plea bargain.

Polanski was accused of raping the teenager during a photo shoot in 1977 at the home of Jack Nicholson, while the actor was away. The girl testified that the director gave her champagne and part of a Quaalude pill and proceeded to have intercourse with her despite her protests.

Polanski pled guilty to one of six charges, unlawful sexual intercourse. He was sent to prison for 42 days of evaluation.

Defence and prosecution lawyers were satisfied with the 42-day sentence. However, the judge tried to overturn the plea bargain, which would have meant more prison time and eventual deportation for the director, who chose instead to flee to France.

The victim, who identified herself publicly many years ago, has supported Polanski's attempts to have the case dismissed.

Samantha Geimer, now 45, has said she would like to put the ordeal behind her. She previously sued Polanski for an undisclosed sum.

Despite the director's arrest, the film festival announced that it will go ahead with a planned retrospective of his work.

Polanski was born in France, but as a child moved to Poland. He escaped Krakow's Jewish ghetto as a child, but his mother died at Auschwitz.

He began his career in Poland, earning an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film in 1964 for his movie "Knife in the Water."

His career in the U.S. began in 1968, when he directed "Rosemary's Baby." However, his Hollywood fairytale was cut short with the gruesome murder of his actress wife, Sharon Tate, in 1969 at the hands of followers of Charles Manson. Tate was eight months pregnant when she was killed.

Polanski also directed the classic film, "Chinatown," in 1974, and received a directing Oscar in absentia for his 2002 film, "The Pianist."

He is married to French actress Emanuelle Seigner, with whom he has two children.

The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday that it has directed the French ambassador to Switzerland to help arrange a consular visit for Polanski as soon as possible.

According to the statement, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has told Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey he hopes "Polanski's rights (will) be fully respected and that the case would quickly result in a favourable outcome."

Offline delalluvia

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #157 on: September 27, 2009, 10:16:19 pm »
Why should we hate the Swiss for enforcing the law?

Offline oilgun

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #158 on: September 27, 2009, 11:31:34 pm »
Why should we hate the Swiss for enforcing the law?
Right.  They were enforcing the law.  How convenient, thirty years or whatever, later.   ::)

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #159 on: September 28, 2009, 12:07:48 am »
I can see both points of view. It would be interesting to know what that 13-year-old girl is doing now and what she thinks of the affair. Or, maybe not. I tire to realize that the whole mess is probably about how much $$$ one can extort from someone else.
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Offline delalluvia

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #160 on: September 28, 2009, 12:39:35 pm »
Right.  They were enforcing the law.  How convenient, thirty years or whatever, later.   ::)

Actually, no, they've been after Polanski ever since he fled the charges against him.

He has already admitted his guilt.  He was fleeing having to serve any time.  He also broke bail.  Guess the statue of limitations doesn't apply to his flight and refusal to serve time.

So are you saying just because it's 30 years later breaking the law doesn't matter anymore?

That if you commit a crime and can manage to outrun justice for 30 years, then it's OK and you can get away with it?

Is that what you're saying?

« Last Edit: September 28, 2009, 05:28:16 pm by delalluvia »

Offline oilgun

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #161 on: September 28, 2009, 11:31:40 pm »
Actually, no, they've been after Polanski ever since he fled the charges against him.

He has already admitted his guilt.  He was fleeing having to serve any time.  He also broke bail.  Guess the statue of limitations doesn't apply to his flight and refusal to serve time.

So are you saying just because it's 30 years later breaking the law doesn't matter anymore?

That if you commit a crime and can manage to outrun justice for 30 years, then it's OK and you can get away with it?

Is that what you're saying?


It's not that black & white.  Check out the doc WANTED AND DESIRED, it helped me understand why he originally skedaddled out of the US.
I'm just finding it very suspicious that they have arrested him now.  The guy apparently owns a home in Switzerland, so it's not like he hasn't been there in the last 30 years.  And yes, considering that his victim  sued him for an undisclosed sum of money, later forgave him & tried to get the charges dropped and has moved on with her life and is by all accounts a happy mother of three, I think they should let it go and instead focus on people who are really hurting others.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #162 on: September 29, 2009, 08:33:31 am »
Hey everybody, I started a thread about Roman Polanski in the Current Events forum:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,37854.msg541913.html#new



Offline delalluvia

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #163 on: September 29, 2009, 11:38:27 am »
It's not that black & white.  Check out the doc WANTED AND DESIRED, it helped me understand why he originally skedaddled out of the US.
I'm just finding it very suspicious that they have arrested him now.  The guy apparently owns a home in Switzerland, so it's not like he hasn't been there in the last 30 years.  And yes, considering that his victim  sued him for an undisclosed sum of money, later forgave him & tried to get the charges dropped and has moved on with her life and is by all accounts a happy mother of three, I think they should let it go and instead focus on people who are really hurting others.

Actually it is that cut and dried.  Checkout crayons new thread.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #164 on: December 01, 2009, 11:21:58 am »
Before going to see the preview of Brothers, I signed up for this movie watching service called gofobo.com. It buys the tickets, reminds me on the day of the movie, gives me directions, and asks me for a review after the movie. I really like it so far...now I hope there's no, or little, spam.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #165 on: April 14, 2010, 12:00:51 am »
Ennibody up for a great movie about Romantic poets? How about a movie about the most Romantic of them all, John Keats? Bright Star directed by Jane Campion opens this Friday. See it and discuss it here!!
A lovely summation by David Denby:

"...the author of the odes and sonnets, though miserable, obscure, and disappointed, lived, at times, in scenes of the most intense beauty."
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Offline oilgun

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #166 on: October 13, 2010, 07:00:30 pm »
Tom Hardy is trending on Twitter! OMG, OMG, OMG!  ;)


Tom Hardy is set for a lead role in Nolan's next Batman film!

Exclusive: While Tom Hardy's plan to play Mad Max in the George Miller-directed Mad Max: Fury Road has hit another delay, the fast-rising Hardy's in the mix for another big film at Warner Bros. I'm told that Hardy has been set by his Inception director Chris Nolan for a lead role in the next Batman film at Warner Bros. Insiders are keeping the role secret and won't even say if he's up for a villain role, but that seems a reasonable assumption. Hardy has followed up Inception with lead roles in the Tomas Alfredson-directed  adaptation of the John Le Carre novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and he's currently starring with Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon in the McG-directed Fox comedy This Means War. CAA reps Hardy, who's expected to return to Fury Road when it goes. »
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni4895454/

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #167 on: October 13, 2010, 07:16:39 pm »
Exciting!!
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Offline southendmd

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #168 on: October 13, 2010, 09:29:08 pm »

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #169 on: April 05, 2011, 09:49:55 pm »
Grizzly Man is worth seeing just for the fantastic scenery of Alaska and the incredible scenes of grizzlies feasting on fish and the way they lumber along like they are falling apart (Annie got it right as she always does!!) But my favorite scenes were those of the foxes. They are so beautiful and friendly--as tame as cats!!

I watched this last night on BluRay. It was haunting, sad and joyful all in one. One of Herzog's best films, and winner of many prizes including Best Documentary from the Academy of Motion Pictures.
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Offline oilgun

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #170 on: April 06, 2011, 07:15:39 pm »
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W07bFa4TzM[/youtube]
‘Atlas Shrugged’: First Movie to Target the Tea Party
Atlas Shrugged, a novel in which society’s most productive citizens choose to disappear, was published in 1957, and filmmakers have spent nearly every year since trying to adapt it. They finally succeeded, and the first part of what’s planned as a trilogy comes out April 15. If you didn’t know that, it’s likely you’re not a member of the Tea Party.

It was probably only a matter of time before Hollywood tried tapping the e-mail lists and social networks of the giant political movement, as distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures and filmmakers including co-producer Harmon Kaslow have for Atlas Shrugged: Part 1.

Despite years of cinematic interest and high hopes for stars and funding, the film was made for less than $10 million, with Taylor Schilling — who appeared on NBC’s short-lived Mercy — playing protagonist Dagny Taggart.

By Hollywood standards, the marketing budget is tiny, so word-of-mouth from Tea Partiers sympathetic to the film’s message is crucial to its success.

The film is also the perfect test case to see whether such an effort can work because Ayn Rand’s novel extols free markets and entrepreneurialism and excoriates government coercion and overtaxation, values that unite Tea Partiers. In fact, rallies invariably feature signs that mimic the book’s opening line: “Who Is John Galt?” Another common sign at Tea Party rallies asks, “Is Atlas Shrugging?” If Hollywood can’t persuade this demographic to support Atlas, it might as well write off the Tea Party as a marketing source.

About 9 million adults are active Tea Partiers, and 45 million support the movement, a CBS/New York Times poll says. The makers of Atlas have been working to get organizers to insert mentions of the film into the millions of e-mails that go out to the faithful, and Tea Partiers have obliged. Many have also attended screenings and are satisfied that the movie adheres to Rand’s principles of objectivism, individualism and self-responsibility.

One recent e-mail to Tea Partiers in California, for example, alerted members of upcoming Freedom Rallies. But it also included a link to the movie’s trailer, the name of the local theater that has booked the film and the line, “Mark your calendars for a celebration of capitalism.”


Continues:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/atlas-shrugged-first-movie-target-175724


Apparently all the big speeches from the book have been replaced with snappy one liners.  They know their audience, lol!  Oh and the no-name actress playing Ayn Rand Dagny Taggart has zero screen presence.  The thing looks like a bad TV movie.

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #171 on: June 09, 2011, 07:22:13 pm »
I'm embarking on a big movie watching project, watching Red Cliff, the six-hour Chinese epic. So far, it's beautiful and intense and has an interesting storyline and characters.
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Re: Movie News
« Reply #172 on: June 12, 2011, 10:42:56 pm »
It turned out to be "only" two hours, was named Red Cliff II, and apparently was only the climax of the movie. So, it was hard to follow the characters, and the concluding battle took up most of the movie (Way too much fireworks) but it was a very compelling story.
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Offline delalluvia

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #173 on: January 07, 2012, 03:33:27 pm »
This looks eerie.



Based on the book Cowboys for Christ.  Written and directed by the same guy who did the original Wicker Man movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323808/

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #174 on: January 08, 2012, 07:53:23 pm »
Looks interesting...I'll watch for it!
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Offline oilgun

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #175 on: February 26, 2012, 01:39:33 pm »


FILM NEWS
WRIGHT AND DEPP TEAM UP FOR THE NIGHT STALKER

Johnny Depp is obviously living out his childhood dream of playing all the bad-ass characters he must have grown up watching on television. I damn well know he's living out mine.

Putting all controversy and preconceived opinions aside, Depp is playing the iconic vampire Barnabas Collins, in the upcoming Tim Burton adaptation of the hallowed Dan Curtis (RIP) gothic-horror soap opera, Dark Shadows.

Depp is also playing Tonto, arguably the single most recognized Native American character in film, in the big budget Lone Ranger. With Armie Hammer as the masked rider, you can bet this is going to be Depp's, and Tonto's, film all the way.

Then it looks like Depp goes from blood starved velvet clad anemic, to wielding a stake and mallet as the monster hunting news reporter, Carl Kolchak, in the big screen take on the classic television horror film/series The Night Stalker. While I am not sure how to take that - Depp in my opinion has been hit or miss - the potentially great news is Edgar Wright has signed on to direct.
[...]

http://twitchfilm.com/news/2012/02/wright-and-depp-team-up-for-the-night-stalker.php


This should be interesting.  I wonder who they'll cast as Gail, the Carol Linley character, and Vincenzo, Kolchek's prickly boss?

Offline ifyoucantfixit

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Re: Movie News
« Reply #176 on: February 26, 2012, 07:18:38 pm »
   
   It will be nice to see Johnny in films, that are pure entertainment again.  Instead of a blatant ploy for cash..  He is too talented for that.



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