10617 replies to this topic

[BillF]

Brilliantly made action bio. Strongly recommended!

[king ubu]

(no need for words, I reckon...)

[Jazzmoose]

I don't know how he does it, but Claude Rains gets better every time I see this.

[jlhoots]

In The Land Of Blood & Honey
I thought it was better than the reviews would suggest.

[BillF]

Returned to this classic. Magnificent on images and atmosphere, though plot complications defeat me.

[Shawn]

[king ubu]

my own musical double feature at the movies tonight:



Mama Africa (Mika Kaurismäki, ZA 2011)

which was okay and contained plenty of nice bits, but didn't work too well as a film, left many questions open etc. etc. - a bit of a wasted opportunity, it seems, alas


followed by:



Bird (Clint Eastwood, US 1988)

and that one was amazingly good! the freaky music pastiche for most part didn't bother me too much, and the whole story got quite intensely sad and was filmed rather well, too...

[BruceH]

"Bird" is hardly a flawless film, but it has plenty of good points, not least of which is the amazing recreation of 52nd street in its prime.

[king ubu]

That guy in Paris, is he sort of a Don Byas character?

[king ubu]

The Neon Bible (Terence Davies, GB 1995)

[paul secor]

The Neon Bible (Terence Davies, GB 1995)

Had no idea that a film was made based on John Kennedy Toole's novel. Any comment(s) on the film?

[king ubu]

Paul, I'm finding it *very* difficult to put it into words what these films achieve... I'm still most fascinated by his first full-length film, "Distant Voices, Still Lives", which is the one that (so far - I'm catching them chronologically at the cinematheque, the new one will open mid April then) is most deeply into this "inner monologue" thing, where images sort of float in and out of each other, with an off-narration by the "hero" (autobiographically coloured, or so one reads everywhere). Layers of time are juxtaposed, and mostly songs (there lots and lots of singing, in "The Neon Bible" Gena Rowlands does two touching songs) or very artful images that are cross-faded are used to jump between different parts and layers of the story... you get a white beadsheet drying outside, camera closing in until all screen is white... and then it turns into a US flag... or Gena and the boy walk down the street on the boardwalk, a lorry passes between them and the camera, darkening the whole screen for a moment, and when it's gone, they're walking the very same place on the boardwalk but it got night... those are just two overly obvious examples, there's plenty of this. And there's many an epiphany, too... these films are amazing works of art (and hence easily dismissed as artsy-fartsy pretentious crap by non-believers, I'm sure) and they tend to linger on in my head... amazing stuff, for sure!

Here's a fine article by Jonathan Rosenbaum on "The Neon Bible":
http://www.jonathanr...aum.com/?p=6757
There's more on Davies on his site, but it's kind of hard to find (best do a search for titles or use google).

[kinuta]

Perfect Sense - David Mackenzie (2011)



Interesting take on the end of the world, if you like that kind of thing.
Totally depressing, waiting for hospital test results or chronic insomnia might be more fun.

Runaway Jury - Gary Fleder (2003)



Popcorn entertainment badly needed after the previous film.

[BillF]

An excellent Chabrol.

http://rogerebert.su.../602240301/1023

[king ubu]

Saw Béla Tarr's amazing Sátántangó in the movies... wow! What an amazing film! Very funny (in a dark way), sometimes more like a Breughel painting than any other director's movies... goes straight onto my favorites list!

[paul secor]

Paul, I'm finding it *very* difficult to put it into words what these films achieve... I'm still most fascinated by his first full-length film, "Distant Voices, Still Lives", which is the one that (so far - I'm catching them chronologically at the cinematheque, the new one will open mid April then) is most deeply into this "inner monologue" thing, where images sort of float in and out of each other, with an off-narration by the "hero" (autobiographically coloured, or so one reads everywhere). Layers of time are juxtaposed, and mostly songs (there lots and lots of singing, in "The Neon Bible" Gena Rowlands does two touching songs) or very artful images that are cross-faded are used to jump between different parts and layers of the story... you get a white beadsheet drying outside, camera closing in until all screen is white... and then it turns into a US flag... or Gena and the boy walk down the street on the boardwalk, a lorry passes between them and the camera, darkening the whole screen for a moment, and when it's gone, they're walking the very same place on the boardwalk but it got night... those are just two overly obvious examples, there's plenty of this. And there's many an epiphany, too... these films are amazing works of art (and hence easily dismissed as artsy-fartsy pretentious crap by non-believers, I'm sure) and they tend to linger on in my head... amazing stuff, for sure!

Here's a fine article by Jonathan Rosenbaum on "The Neon Bible":
http://www.jonathanr...aum.com/?p=6757
There's more on Davies on his site, but it's kind of hard to find (best do a search for titles or use google).

Thanks, Flurin. I'll have to try and see the film.

[jazzbo]

Went to see "John Carter." Really fun movie!

[kinuta]

The Awakening - Nick Murphy (2011)




Effective, well done ghost story. I liked it and so did The Missus.
The doll house bits were very creepy. Best of it's kind since The Orphanage.

[brownie]

Very much liked Polanski's 'The Ghost Writer' when I saw it for the first time.



Now that I have watched it a second time, I am really impressed with the film. Polanski's best?
A terrific movie.
Pierce Brosnan - an actor I never cared much about - is splendid!
Great performances by all!

[Jazzmoose]

Went to see "John Carter." Really fun movie!

I couldn't get the cats inside in time on Saturday; I'm off again tomorrow and looking forward to it! I was stunned at work when I was asked "is it based on a book or something?" Now, I'm not the world's biggest ERB fan by any means (made it through the first four Mars books and the first two Tarzan books...) but I was stunned. One of those "am I really this old?" moments, I'm afraid.

[BillF]

Very much liked Polanski's 'The Ghost Writer' when I saw it for the first time.



Now that I have watched it a second time, I am really impressed with the film. Polanski's best?
A terrific movie.
Pierce Brosnan - an actor I never cared much about - is splendid!
Great performances by all!

Agreed!

Just watched:

[skeith]

I was watching TCM the other night and they were showing a film called "Goodbye Again" with Ingrid Bergman, Yves Montand and Tony Perkins. Set in Paris,it's a pretty decent romance film, but what knocked me out is a scene in a jazz club featured Diahann Carroll singing but also with Kenny Clarke and Lucky Thompson - and some french jazz musicians.

They are not on long... but it is a cool scene and cool to see them in a movie.

Anyone else catch this one?

[BillF]

Argentinian film just seen as part of a Spanish and Latin American film festival. Good.

[jazzbo]

Went to see "John Carter." Really fun movie!

I couldn't get the cats inside in time on Saturday; I'm off again tomorrow and looking forward to it! I was stunned at work when I was asked "is it based on a book or something?" Now, I'm not the world's biggest ERB fan by any means (made it through the first four Mars books and the first two Tarzan books...) but I was stunned. One of those "am I really this old?" moments, I'm afraid.

I went to see it again with my two film-seeing buds Dave and David. A good time was had by all!

[kinuta]

Volver BR - Pedro Almodovar (2006)





My favourite Almodovar film. Penelope Cruz is a stand out.

Edited by kinuta, 13 March 2012 - 05:25 PM.

[BruceH]

Forgot to mention, last week caught a couple of pre-Codes at the Roxie:

"Sensation Seekers"---A real poverty row production, and more of historical interest than anything else, but it had it's moments.

"Murder At the Vanities"---Pure fun from start to finish, though it turns out I'd seen it before, a long time ago, but great to see it again. And the Duke Ellington Orchestra appears!

[king ubu]

saw Almanac of Fall (HU 1984) by Béla Tarr yesterday... pretty weird one, and every now and then too virtuoso, too much l'art pour l'art, I felt... but the images (in colour!) and light are wonderful!

will catch "The Turin Horse" on Saturday, and might re-visit "Werckmeister's Harmonies" - and that wraps up the Tarr series going on... "Sátántanó" was most amazing, "Damnation" very, very good, too... "Almanac of Fall" pretty good, and so was, I guess, the first of his films, "Family Nest". They did skip the other two early films, and I did skip "The Man from London" which I saw a few years ago.

Somehow I've expected a wee bit more, but hey, my expectations were huuuuuuge... and "Satan's Tango" more than lived up to them, for sure!

[Soulstation1]

Dang it
missed Mean Streets on the big screen last night

[king ubu]

Dang it
missed Mean Streets on the big screen last night

That's too bad! Great film!

But me, I'm gonna miss "Unforgiven" tonight because I'm too feghing exhausted from work... darn!

[jazzbo]

First time viewing this. Not too bad.