Author Topic: Movie News  (Read 81711 times)

Offline Front-Ranger

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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.   ::)

Offline Front-Ranger

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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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