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two words for you 'Jeunet' 'Amelie'?
ooops maybe a couple more....'In the Mood for Love'?
am supposed to be getting extra paper for my class and not on internet so I'll leave all you people that are obviously having a quiet day workwise to it:wink:
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Originally Posted by christopher leigh
finding virtues in what others see as flaws is also romantic in my opinion....eg Amelie! (yes, its my favourite film)
I also really love Big Blue (as a previous poster mentioned) but reckon that the extended version of the film is actually not awfully good at times and Rosanna Arquette gets annoying but it is still sublime in places.
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Originally Posted by christopher leigh
don't worry about not understanding Stolly, Chris or Graham will be along in a minute to tell you definitively which is the better movie, along with a list of all the factual reasons proving their finding.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
I like both.Quote:
Originally Posted by DazTheSlug
Too many people dislike films without ever watching them and Mamma Mia's an especially good example of that. I didn't especially like Abba before I watched it but incredibly I like a fair few of the songs in the film :). Also lots of would be or actual film buffs play up to and fawn on the views of film critics - liking Citizen Kane never having watched it being a totally acceptable opposite to disliking Mamma Mia never having seen it. I sometimes get to listen to Simon Mayo/Mark Kermode on radio 5 Friday afternoons and loads of the listeners who text in put on their own Mark Kermode airs and graces, liking and disliking films for exactly his reasons (rather than perhaps their own). I find his film reviews pretty good actually but I still like some films he doesn't. In fact he absolutely hates some films I like.
Yeah, but what about flying monkeys?Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
I think Citizen Cane, Miller's Crossingand Shaun of the Dead stand alone on most criteria
Not seen those Hes. Amelie sounds along the lines of Chocolat which was a good film.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hes
Best film by far (IMHO:D) with ABBA songs in was Muriel's Wedding :thumbup:Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
oooo, you are in for a treat CL. I liked Chocolat but imo Amelie is a lot better. It is quirky, stylish and different. Feel good without being schmaltzy (sp?) and sweet without being sickly.
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Originally Posted by christopher leigh
That is such a good film Alf! :)
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Originally Posted by Alf
Well Wheeze you are right on both counts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wheeze
I post to provoke.
And I have already indicated with my comments on Citizen Kane the important people in a movie team are not the cattle (except in cowboy movies).
So let’s take a look at In The Heat Of The Night.
It was directed by Norman Jewison who had been around the block: The Thomas Crown Affair, The Cincinnati Kid,…
It was scripted by Stirling Silliphant who earned his spurs in TV shows such as Naked City and Route 66. A good CV for taut story telling.
Who filmed it? Haskell Wexler. Wow! His work on Days of Heaven has been described as ”breathtaking” . He may well be the greatest American DP. Wexler went on to write, direct, produce and film his own movie Medium Cool which is still an interesting film 40 years later.
Editor? Has Ashby. It just gets better. Ashby went on to direct his own movies and won two Oscars (Film and Direction) for Coming Home.
And en passant the music was by Quincy Jones.
So with a team like that you and I could have acted in it and been part of a great movie but the Casting Director chose other people for the parts.
Casting Director? The most under-recognised job in filmmaking. It is they who look at the roles and decide “who playing their standard acting role will fit the bill?”
Rod Steiger is always Rod Steiger so the skill of the Casting Director was putting Rod Steiger in a film where he could act as…Rod Steiger. And if you were impressed by the “incendiary interplay”-well that was because of the skill of the Director in extracting that and the Editor in selecting the best shots from many, many takes.
So cattle?
Or I could just list the rubbish that Poitier and Steiger have also appeared in to illustrate my point, including of course Poitier reprising the same role in two follow-up Mr Tibbs films that every one chooses to forget.
Great to read the thoughts of a true lover of the genre. And you are so right in that, when you peel back the covers, this was an A team in every sense of the word. The comment about casting director is so apposite. Conversely, some of the films that I most enjoy are when you see actors playing some distance away from their 'standard acting role'.... this may be a better way of counterpointing your 'cattle' comment. I'm thinking of Pitt in Twelve Monkeys, Ford in Frantic, Cruise in Collateral, Williams in One Hour Photo, Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon....but not Brody in Predators - that was shocking!
And, like bands, most actors have only one 'good' outing in them, be it an album or a movie. Something that defines them forever. Of course this only applies to the mainstream, which is why the true cognoscenti find more intellectual nourishment in the fringes and the true greats often try to get back into the fringe. Radiohead are probably the best example of that in music. I think someone like Samantha Morton fits the bill in acting terms. I suspect she may nut you if she ever catches you calling her 'cattle'!
I was going to launch in (at GB mainly :) )and say that lots of the films made in the 1960's, especially in America, were absolute rubbish. Thinking about it though Bush Cassidy, Bullitt, 2001, Doctor Zhivago, Where Eagles Dare, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, Laurence of Arabia, Zulu and quite a few others were damn good. I've proved conclusively that I don't know what I'm talking about :)
Some of the other Clint Eastwood films like Play Misty for Me and Coogans Bluff were probably the 60's too goddamit, as well as some of the early spaghetti westerns. Doh!
Edit: And not forgetting Jane Fonda in Barbarella ;)
"Senna" is on the cards for tonight. I will provide a 15,000 word review in the morning.
The best thing about this over-rated, hagiographic crock of sentimental slush is Alain Prost.Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Fowler
(14 words)
Didn't think much of the Senna flick either, really hoped for more.
Probably the best bike racing film so far http://youtu.be/Vn1YB7fk8eg
Bullitt is a good film. I liked some of the finer points within that film as well, such as when he goes shopping in the local store.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
I think there are better French films than Amalie - as charming as that film is. La Haine or La Vie en Rose anyone?
I also avoid most films that are based on 'true stories' because they are hardly ever as good as the imagination. There are exceptions though and one was the German docu-film 'Downfall.' It was both brilliant and chilling in the account of Hitler's final days in the bunker and Bruno Ganz who played Hitler gave a masterly performance. Not very inspiring romatically speaking but great as a record of events.
I think it's unfortunate when critical review descends into iconoclasm. How can it be sentimental when all it does is string together real-time footage? It,s not talking heads and rose tinted retrospectives but more akin to tele reportage that sketches out the life of a mercurial but doomed talent. Not fiction but true life and a real docu-drama.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Oh, and I forgot another example of a great actor playing against type...De Niro in Brazil....almost makes up for the execrable focker movies.
Downfall was superb. Ditto Das BootQuote:
Originally Posted by christopher leigh
Of course there are better French films...that wasn't the point I was making. The point was that Amelie is a great romantic film without the schmaltz and it is stylish, quirky and funny too. La Haine is brilliant. I also liked I've Loved You So Long with Kristen Scott Thomas. Not seen La Vie en Rose but imagine I will at some point.
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Originally Posted by Dynamo Dan
Going back to actors, what about Ulriche Muher in 'The Lives of Others'? He was fantastic, so expressive. I really like that film, it makes you think.
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Originally Posted by Wheeze
OK
I'll amend "sentimental" to "ridiculously one-sided propagandizing deification through the use of biased, selected editing of footage".
Not such a snappy comment but comprehensive:wink:
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Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Talking of fantastic acting making a film, just watch Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Oh yes! Stupid film but he was BRILLIANT! The first scene is spine tingling. The personification of smiling evil. You could feel the knife edge he had others walking along.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
Also, I never understood shoe fetish till I saw that film.
Tarantino likes putting actors into different places. Who would have guessed that Travolta or Thurman had those roles in them?
Sorry GB, I'm the worst person to fence with about Senna seeing as I is a self-confessed petrol-head who worships at his altar of brilliance! Probably blinded to the view you have of it. It's still a great film though!!...because I say so!
Well I really enjoyed it. Found it quite moving and couldnt believe how much of a (insert nasty word) Prost was.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
I accept to know nothing about films, the way directors edit them to give it a one-sided view and if this was the case then I fell for it. But I still really enjoyed it.
Absolutely!Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
Ive tried to google it....but has anyone any idea what he shouts when the young jewish girls sprints away across the fields after her family were killed? He aims his gun at her but doesnt shoot...then shouts..."????????".
I suspect the Prost/Senna thing is quite a good way of testing someone's personality. You either go for the cold, calculating but grey genius of Prost or the devil-may-care, exhuberant brilliance of Senna.
Both arrogant as hell but in different ways. It was one of those great sporting match ups alongside Ali/Frazier and McEnroe/Borg.
Back to films. Scariest moment ever? The steaming footprints in the wood in Night of The Demon. Still gives me the willies now!
Wheeze, what do you think to the actual Senna crash? I know this will obviously be one of these "chicken or the egg" debates.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wheeze
Somone close to me in convinced he put himself in the wall on purpose. To end it all. Because he said he wasnt happy. And that extract his sister reads out of the film, talking about reading the bible before the race and him receiving the greatest gift of all.
Food for thought.
I posted this on the Today's movie thread when I watched it a couple of months ago:Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Fowler
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Originally Posted by Alf
That film was or was almost, great. It was one of the best films I've seen in a long time. He started off with strong socialist principles and then gradually realised how corrupt they were.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hes
I think Hollywood could learn a lesson or two in creating good films from those abroad.
I think Graham is a bit more skollish than usual because of his accident the other day. Glad you are alive and kicking Graham.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wheeze
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Originally Posted by christopher leigh
Thank you.
That makes two of us.
I agree with you there CL! :)
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Originally Posted by christopher leigh
to add insult to injury, the only notice Hollywood seems to pay to foreign films is to churn out sh!te/unnecessary re-makes (Ring, The Vanishing, El Mariachi, Solaris)Quote:
Originally Posted by christopher leigh
I agree with you too Daz, although I rather enjoyed Solaris (if enjoyed is the word) but I haven't seen the original so I'm definitely going to look that one up.
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Originally Posted by DazTheSlug
We'd all love to accept anything but the sad truth when something like this happens. Like all conspiracy theories, this one gets legs because of our wish that it wasn't just a tragic accident...but thats all it was. The person who would know most about this is Adrian Newey because he knew the car had been made dangerously unstable by the late regulation changes that outlawed his brilliant adaptive suspension design. Because of this the car was aerodynamically compromised leading to 'floor stall' which would suddenly and unpredictably remove downforce. The actual lethal consequence...penetration of the helmet by a suspension arm, could not have been planned or predicted. So its sad fantasy to say that he drove off the circuit deliberately to kill himslf.Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Fowler
Skyfall: starts spectacularly, subsequently sluggish, sometimes silly. Summarising simply? So so.