Author Topic: Movie News  (Read 81716 times)

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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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moremojo

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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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Offline Meryl

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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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Offline serious crayons

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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."