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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: At the movies - what are you watching?
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
I wonder if Keaton is as ditsy in her real life as she always appears in reel life.
Dunno, but she still looks good naked and can still act as seen in a recent film.
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Tukai
Shipmate
# 12960
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Posted
Here in Fiji, with 35% of the population of Indian descent, Bollywood supplies half the films on offer. It's a taste I have acquired over the years - as perhaps has host WW. The films are much easier to follow now that (as shown here) they have English subtitles, especially as the girls all look pretty, but in the same way - all have 'fair skin', black hair, brown eyes, and healthily curvaceous body. But you have to move fast to catch a particular one, as the usual run at the cinema is precisely one week. As with Hollywood, Paris, Hong Kong, etc, quality is variable.
However the recent blockbuster "Chennai Express" lived up to its billing as "entertaining". Starring male hearthrob Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padhukone as the female lead, it was basically a romance/ comedy, but also included pantomime villains, a car chase, several song and dance routines, and even a fight scene (for the hero to win the girl).
I can also recommend "The Dirty Picture" (which is not one of those, but is about the rise and fall of a female film star). Vidya Balan (almost certainly the best actress in Bollywood, though perhaps less classically beautiful than some) carries this serious film. Well worth a look if you're into 'feminist' films, as its theme is the power structure that pulls her in and then spits her out.
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A government that panders to the worst instincts of its people degrades the whole country for years to come.
Posts: 594 | From: Oz | Registered: Sep 2007
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Avila
Shipmate
# 15541
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jedijudy:
I heard Helen Mirren, thanks to being treated to a movie by Daughter-Unit! She voiced Dean Hardscrabble in "Monsters University". It was a cute animated movie. It also had a lesson attached for youngsters, demonstrating hard work as a hopeful route to achieving one's dream.
"Monsters University" was a nice way to spend an afternoon, especially in the company of my beloved D-U!
I went to see Monsters university this week when it arrived in our rural town - without cover of a small person.
I saw a very different lesson about valuing who you are, and your own particular gifts, even in the face of dismissal and/or bullying from others. And was pleased that they missed the too obvious ending showing a vocational as well as academic option (even if just in the fast forward at the end)
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http://aweebleswonderings.blogspot.com/
Posts: 1305 | From: west midlands | Registered: Mar 2010
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
Re: Indian films. There was a run not that long since of non-Bollywood type Indian films of all vintages on UK Channel 4. Some great films, and a good reminder that not all films made in India have to be musicals. I've still got Nayak, a version of Strangers on a Train sat on my DVR awaiting some attention.
I was watching Dangerous Liasons last night. I'd forgotten that Peter Capaldi was in it (as Valmont's man servant). That man gets everywhere.
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
Posts: 1887 | From: the rhubarb triangle | Registered: Sep 2012
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
Went to see The Lone Ranger on Friday just because I could - I'm not sure I'd have gone if it hadn't had Johnny Depp in it. It had lovely scenery and some humour but was a bit gory, but then it is a Western so I guess gore is to be expected. The storyline jumped back and forth around history quite a bit, and I'm not sure it worked as well as was probably intended. Not a film I'd see again, nor one I'd necessarily recommend but I didn't feel that I'd wasted the evening.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
Recently a friend was raving to me about having finally read Gone With The Wind. I've never read it, and tried to give it a go, checking it out from the local library.
Ye gods. I'll never talk books with that friend again. I made it halfway through Chapter 1 before giving up in utter disgust; the thing is unreadable trash. However, I then decided (please don't ask; these are things I can't explain even to myself) to rent the 1939 movie.
What's worse, I watched the entire thing. I guess in part I was curious, having been reading threads on male feminists and attitudes toward race on the Ship. I kind of wanted to see how Mitchell (assuming the film had something more in common with the novel than its title -- never a safe assumption chez Hollywood) viewed her subject matter.
Amazing: all the happy if slightly mentally-defective "darkies," striving alongside their owners for the preservation of the institution of slavery. At one point, one of these characters mentions that other "servants" "runned away," though there's not the faintest hint as to why, unless it's fear of the invading demon Yanks.
And the main characters -- !! Scarlett is an emotional idiot; Rhett is a rapist (and perhaps predictably, Scarlett falls in love with him after he rapes her); Ashley is a dithering fop; and Melanie is a cardboard saint.
I know; I have no one but myself to blame. I hang my head in shame.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
The one thing that saved the movie for me, other than Vivian Leigh's glorious scenery-chewing, was Hattie McDaniel's going, "if I am stuck being a dumbass mammy character, I am going to be the best damn mammy character you ever seen!" She rocked it. She elevated that shitty, stereotypical role to comedic brilliance. She deserved that Oscar.
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
GWTW loses any romance it may have had once you learn that Vivien Leigh had terrible trouble shooting the clinches with Clark Gable because his dentures (!) gave him permanent halitosis... ![[Projectile]](graemlins/puke2.gif)
Hattie McDaniel was brilliant - as was Butterly McQueen as the ditsy Prissy.
As you say, the plot is pretty terrible: the character of Ashley, in particular, is simply unbelievable - and if the character of Scarlet is true then she'd either have strangled Melanie to get at him, but more likely would have realised what a wimp he was and got on with her life.
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness has been on TV recently: I'm very torn by the film, which takes appalling liberties with the life-story of Gladys Aylward but it does, at least, tell some of the story of the orphans she led through the mountains. GA came and preached at the church I attended as a child and she was so different from Ingrid Bergman - short and dumpy with dark hair, not a willowy blonde and still with a marked London/Essex accent.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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JoannaP
Shipmate
# 4493
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Posted
This evening we saw The Hammer Horror The Mummy, with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, outside at the British Museum. It was great fun, an excellent film, even if not 100% Egyptologically accurate.
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"Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow." R. H. Tawney (quoted by Isaiah Berlin)
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Posts: 1877 | From: England | Registered: May 2003
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by JoannaP:
This evening we saw The Hammer Horror The Mummy, with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, outside at the British Museum. It was great fun, an excellent film, even if not 100% Egyptologically accurate.
But does it have anything to match the bit in the Boris Karloff original where you have the Egyptologist gibbering in a corner with the shot of trailing bandages moving across the floor....
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
What you lot are missing about Gone With the Wind is that Ashley Wilkes was played by Leslie Howard who was hugely popular back in the day. I didn't belong to that generation, but I had a crush on him myself when younger and even though that's faded, I still think he was a good actor. Vivien Leigh was the other one who carried the film. However, I never liked Clark Gable, and I did know about the halitosis.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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JoannaP
Shipmate
# 4493
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
quote:
Originally posted by JoannaP:
This evening we saw The Hammer Horror The Mummy, with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, outside at the British Museum. It was great fun, an excellent film, even if not 100% Egyptologically accurate.
But does it have anything to match the bit in the Boris Karloff original where you have the Egyptologist gibbering in a corner with the shot of trailing bandages moving across the floor....
No, just a gibbering Egyptologist with no trailing bandage or anything to indicate why...
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"Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow." R. H. Tawney (quoted by Isaiah Berlin)
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Posts: 1877 | From: England | Registered: May 2003
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
I have a book called Place of Stones, by Ruth Janette Ruck. Mostly it's about her life as a Welsh hill farmer, but there is a chapter called Chinese Interlude where she gets involved in the filming of The Inn of Sixth Happiness, some of which was filmed somewhere near Beddgelert. She even got to be a Chinese soldier in a battle scene!
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
We are searching for a good British film, which can be difficult in this market. The film about the butler was great, but we are not into paying large amounts of money for films that are mostly CGI violence. I worked on a film which did things the old fashioned way by actually blowing cars up and destroying buildings by hand. The method was called "character plaster" , the company was Universal and the film was Jamie Foxx's The Kingdom. Not a critical success but not a CGI tour-de-force either!
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Sir Kevin
Not sure if you mean a film with a storyline in the UK or a film with a largely British cast and made by a British director???
For the first, I'd nominate Tom Jones which stars a very young Albert Finney. A wonderful romp and with some marvellous actors.
Otherwise, Kingdom of Heaven (2005) is a good film - some reviewers weren't kind but I found it enjoyable and the cast is good.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
What you lot are missing about Gone With the Wind is that Ashley Wilkes was played by Leslie Howard who was hugely popular back in the day. I didn't belong to that generation, but I had a crush on him myself when younger and even though that's faded, I still think he was a good actor.
I still have a crush on him. Leslie Howard was one fine sharp dressed man.
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
I never had a crush on Leslie Howard, but... having watched 'sharp dressed man' maybe the lovely Tom Hiddleston could play him in any future Hollywood bio... ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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would love to belong
Shipmate
# 16747
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Posted
I haven't seen many new films this year, but I did go and see "Lincoln" and really enjoyed it. So much so that I went to see it a second time and a third time. Much of the brilliant script was lost on me on the first viewing.
I saw Gone With the Wind for the first time aged about 12 in a fleapit in Helensburgh. It didn't make much of an impression on me then, except for the scene where Rhett and Scarlet's little girl (name?) was thrown from her pony and killed.
Posts: 331 | From: Lost and confused | Registered: Oct 2011
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Bonny Blue Butler (because her father opined that the child's eyes were as "blue as the bonny blue flag"... ![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Twilight:
I still have a crush on him. Leslie Howard was one fine sharp dressed man.
Oooh. Thank you.
Sad person that I am, I could name most of the films those clips came from before the credits came up...
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
I just saw the new Woody Allen movie "Blue Jasmine". Cate Blanchet plays a woman who had been married to a shady financier (Alec Baldwin) who has been convicted and now she has to live in a San Francisco apartment with her sister and kids.
It was good, not as good as Midnight in Paris but still a worthwhile if depressing film if only to watch Cate chew the scenery as she goes downhill.
The film is set in Manhattan and the Hamptons and San Francisco so I got a kick out of knowing most of the background scenery.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
If you're looking for a good British film, "My Weekend with Marilyn" which is a film about the making of 1957 Prince and the Showgirl".
You may enjoy the period film/theater references.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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fletcher christian
Mutinous Seadog
# 13919
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Posted
Just watched Elysium which was getting rave reviews here...although I'm not too sure why. As a movie it's ok - same story as every other sci-fi you've ever watched, but watchable. What really killed the movie though was the camera work. At every crucial moment the camera men seemed to be attacked with a vicious bout of Parkinson's. I've seen a few films (well, very few to be honest) where this sort of camera work, works, but here it was just annoying and really badly done. Ruined the entire movie experience. On a positive note it has cool robots, but sadly no monsters.
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'God is love insaturable, love impossible to describe'
Staretz Silouan
Posts: 5235 | From: a prefecture | Registered: Jul 2008
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
I haven't seen Elysium, but a new book "Sleepless in Hollywood" talks about the current state of Big Budget Film.
90 percent of US Big Budget Studio film rental revenue comes from overseas. In particular China, Russia and other non European markets are a huge amount of the box office. DVD's are hard to estimate given piracy and online rental. Hence the glut of action explosion CGIfilms. Humor doesn't translate well.
Unlike the US, where 3D film making has once again peaked and many movie goers don't want to see 3D, those foreign viewers can't get enough of it. In China, where the Government wants to boost the local film industry, the domestic makers have limited skill with 3D and CGI. So the official quotas for big foreign blockbuster summer films require 3D to be used.
The result is that the studios are making many films with a 3D for the international market and a flat version for domestic US viewing. This and the tendency to synthesize the 3D instead of shoot it may yield those camera jitters. I saw a flat print of the new Star Trek and many of the obviously intended for 3D effects were annoying.
[ 05. September 2013, 05:37: Message edited by: Palimpsest ]
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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fletcher christian
Mutinous Seadog
# 13919
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Posted
I don't think the jittery camera is for 3D in this instance. If it was it would almost certainly induce vomiting.
But along the same lines, I was reading something not so long ago in Screen International that 3D is basically a format being pushed by the studios and distributors because it's so damned difficult to pirate (a bit like HD and Blue ray discs). Sales right across the world in 3D cinema ticket sales have slumped and many thousands of cinemas are now reporting customers phoning to request if there is a non 3D version on show. SI has pushed for a very long time for universally co-ordinated release dates for both cinema and DVD sales, and I think they are right. The current situation is killing cinema and creating a banquet for piracy nerds. I've been patiently waiting for the fourth season of something I follow to appear on DVD and meanwhile in the US they are watching the seventh season on TV. It's very tempting to go watch it on piracy streaming sites and not bother to support it by buying it, and I really can't blame those who opt for this. It's a system that is set up in such a way that it benefits the piracy heads, and why studios and distributors can't see this I really can't say, but until they change it, it will continue to be a major issue.
Screen also wrote about the rise of the East in the same article. They pointed out that many big budget movies now essentially cater to the Asian market - the inclusion of Asian settings, Asian actors, ninjas, samurai's etc. It's all well and good, but the Michael Bay school of 'How To Make A Really Cool Movie' (by having an explosion, fight or car chase every five minutes) is also killing cinema. There is no craft to these things, so even if they get a good script and story, they often botch it with shitty execution. There seems to be this notion that the East has no noble tradition of cinema and that they will be wowed by big bangs and flashes and loads of action. They seem to forget that the greatest film ever made came out of the East and that as technicians in film, Asia has always produced nothing but the finest that US directors to this day still try and emulate....and fail.
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'God is love insaturable, love impossible to describe'
Staretz Silouan
Posts: 5235 | From: a prefecture | Registered: Jul 2008
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
Kurosawa, one of my favourite directors comes to mind. But what is SI, Fletcher? Here in the US, it is of course a magazine best known for its swimsuit issue...
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
The sad news is that those international markets still love 3D. The US is over it. Part of this is that China in its semi official form has invested in a chain of big IMAX/3D theaters and they get to set the rules on Hollywood imports.
As a friend of mine used to whisper before the trailers started for the Comic book feature;
"repeat after me.. you are not the target demographic."
[ 05. September 2013, 19:07: Message edited by: Palimpsest ]
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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fletcher christian
Mutinous Seadog
# 13919
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Posted
posted by sir kevin:
quote:
But what is SI, Fletcher?
Sorry, it's for Screen International
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'God is love insaturable, love impossible to describe'
Staretz Silouan
Posts: 5235 | From: a prefecture | Registered: Jul 2008
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
I've just watched Ladies in Lavender for the first time in years - stunning performances by Maggie Smith and, especially, Judi Dench, who can tear my emotions with just a glance.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
Last night it was the turn of Tea with Mussolini which has so many wonderful performances with Joan Plowright taking the honours as far as I am concerned.
eta: and I think Judi Dench must have thoroughly enjoyed doing that wonderfully over the top scene in the cemetery at the start of the movie.
[ 26. September 2013, 06:39: Message edited by: Welease Woderwick ]
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Just come in from seeing the live feed from the National Theatre of Othello with Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear.
Blissful!
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
I've just watched the 1939 version of Goodbye, Mr Chips for which Robert Donat won a well deserved Oscar as Best Actor. 70 odd years later it is still a stunning portrayal of Hilton's complex character.
Great fun.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
That it is!
Later this weekend we shall be watching RUSH director Ron Howard. I remember that era: I bribed a rent-a-cop to stand at the hairpin curve at the Long Beach Gran Prix in 1976. My wife worked at the Italian restaurant where some of the drivers ate. She is a big F1 fanatic also.
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
Just come in from seeing the live feed from the National Theatre of Othello with Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear.
Blissful!
That sound that you can't hear over the internet is me seething with jealousy ![[Biased]](wink.gif) The live feeds of the National Theatre are always shown on Thursdays, which I can never make. This Othello looked so good; I think there is another Rory Kinnear one late 2013/early 2014. Oh, well.
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
Posts: 1887 | From: the rhubarb triangle | Registered: Sep 2012
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
Would that I could get them here. I work for the local opera company and still have my student ID: we will see Pinafore with decent seat in a few weeks and Flying Dutchman in November.
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
Tonight it was the turn of The Birdcage - Gene Hackman is just stunning in drag! I am always more impressed with Nathan Lane's performance than I am with Robin Williams.
I think I still prefer La Cage aux Folles [perhaps next week] but this is about as good as a remake gets.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Last night was about escapism : R.I.P.D. with Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges.
Pure tosh - bliss
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
We saw James Gandolfini's last film earlier this week. It was great: no stunts, no CGI, just a man and a woman trying to carry on a romantic relationship without interference from their families. Well worth driving more than 12 miles to see!
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
This week my copy of Dr Strangelove arrived - years since I've seen it but still good fun with an early-ish appearance by James Earl Jones. George C Scott gives probably the best performance of the lot. Nice to see Peter Bull, the fellow arctophile, again.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Bene Gesserit
Shipmate
# 14718
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
This week my copy of Dr Strangelove arrived
Now that was a really good film.
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Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus
Posts: 405 | From: Flatlands of the East | Registered: Apr 2009
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Clarence
Shipmate
# 9491
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Posted
I'm not sure what the distribution outside of Australia might be, but on the weekend FD and I saw The Turning, the adaptation of Tim Winton's book of interwoven short stories of the same name.
The best way to describe it is like going to an art gallery of films. Each of the stories was directed by someone different and the whole effect is extraordinary.
I'm still thinking about it two days later.
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I scraped my knees while I was praying - Paramore
Posts: 793 | From: Over the rainbow | Registered: May 2005
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
I recently watched The Hours, expecting to be impressed as usual by Meryl Streep. I wasn't disappointed; she was impressive. But I was blown away by Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman.
Kidman as Virginia Woolf was especially astonishing. Can't remember what, if anything, else I've seen her in, but until now I've thought of her as just another blonde glamourpuss.
So wrong.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
So glad you saw that. That is one I have watched over and over... yes, all three women in the principal roles are outstanding.
I also like Toni Collette's little turn as the popular socialite friend who isn't as together as she seems. She took me from despising her to weeping for her. And Claire Danes's moments as the daughter. That film is like an actress Fantasy Football league. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
Having now watched another film (but B or C-level -- what was her agent thinking?) with Kidman in the major role, I suspect a good script and a good director are what she needs to tap into her own ability.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Paul.
Shipmate
# 37
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Posted
Just watched Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing.
I enjoyed it. It doesn't topple the Branagh/Thompson version as my favourite but it has a lot to commend it. For one, in most productions I've seen Claudio is a bit of a blank slate. He's there to move the plot along but you're usually watching the other characters. Here Fran Kranz made the part come alive in a way I've not quite seen before. Also I think the key scenes between Beatrice and Benedict - especially the one centred around 'kill Claudio' - work exceptionally well.
In any case I suspect the Branagh is my favourite due to seeing it at an impressionable age, and when I was falling for someone.
Oh and Sean Maher as a villian? Perfect! How come he's not doing that all the time?
Posts: 3689 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2004
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
A friend has been lending me all the Babylon 5 episodes, and I've just watched the third film that they made, A Call to Arms, in which President Sheridan foils a plot to destroy Earth - almost. The idea was to set up a second five year series, with the people of Earth under threat of a bio-engineered plague and Our Heroes searching for a cure, but it was never taken up.
I liked it, and thought it was the best of the three Babylon Five films.
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Porridge:
Having now watched another film (but B or C-level -- what was her agent thinking?) with Kidman in the major role, I suspect a good script and a good director are what she needs to tap into her own ability.
Check her out in The Others and Cold Mountain. Both really meaty, complex roles, although more so in the former.
[tangent]A bunch of us were discussing female facial expressions off board-- here's the thing-- I think a number of directors (especially of the B variety)have their actresses hold a certain look for the camera that will produce the most stunning shot-- not necessarily the one that will allow the actress in question to express the required emotion the most fully. Because Kidman is so flipping gorgeous, I fear she has been put in that position- they only allow her to stare dreamily into the lights, just so.[/tangent]
Back to "The Hours" alumnae-- I really was moved by Julianne Moore's performance. Her agony was apparent, and her attempts (in character)to be authentic while sticking to the 50's housewife script were masterfully executed.
If you want to see her kick more thespian ass, check out "Safe." It's a very strange, Kubrick- esque character study/ social commentary revolving around a woman who gets a mysterious chemical sensitivity condition in the early 80's. Moore does a fantastic job of portraying this rather spiritless, over-impressionable, easily-lead woman who finally thinks about what she wants and needs when her body completely breaks down. The film also has a meta-statement about the various trends in medicine and pseudo-medicine at the onset of the AIDS epidemic.
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
Oh, I'd forgotten The Others. Genuinely creepy, and yes, Kidman pretty much walked off with it. I've added Safe to my Netflix queue.
[ 14. October 2013, 01:52: Message edited by: Porridge ]
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
Well the Seattle Gay Film Festival has started. So far I saw a great documentary on Divine, a film about a 40 year old broke lesbian film maker living in a garage and making film and 4 films about gay men who have gone straight and had a kid when a gay lover shows up.
There was a horrifying documentary about being Gay in Cameroun where it's illegal.
Tonight's film was "Reaching for the Moon" a film about the Poet Elizabeth Pike and her Brazilian lover who was an Architect who built Flamengo park in Rio.
The one I'm looking forward to is a new documentary about Moms Mabley directed by Whoopi Goldberg.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
They made a film about Divine??? ![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif)
Oh wait, sorry misread that. They should make a film about Divine, anyway.
[ 14. October 2013, 17:10: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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