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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2017 9:21:44 GMT -5
Over Thanksgiving I watched The Man I Married starring Joan Bennet. She stars as a woman married to a German who is called home to help sell his father's business in 1938. War has not broken out yet and she is happy to accompany her husband. She doesn't quite believe all the horrible stories coming out of Europe--until she witnesses it first hand. This was a very interesting propaganda movie. I had only seen Joan Bennet in Dark Shadows and Suspiria, so it was cool to see her young and in a different type of role. Her husband was played by Francis Lederer--he gave a chilling performance as someone who was quite happy in America and is slowly won over by the Nazis.
Also watched Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte. I didn't quite enjoy this one as much as Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, but Bette Davis knocked it out of the park along with Olivia DeHaviland and Joseph Cotten. The main attraction for me was Agnes Moorehead as Velma. Creepy moments here and there, but more of a psychological thriller rather than a horror film.
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Post by Jesse on Nov 29, 2017 1:08:10 GMT -5
Edge of the City (1957) Excellent casting with some really strong performances. The story is interesting and there are some genuinely tense moments. There's a great use of drama with underlying social commentary that in some ways feels ahead of its time. Sidney Poitier steals nearly ever scenes he's in and he has some very memorable lines. The climax where John Cassavetes confronts the murderer of his best friend while risking his own imprisonment for being an AWOL soldier is both moving and exciting.
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Post by Jesse on Nov 29, 2017 2:08:02 GMT -5
The Room (2003) After seeing the recent trailers for The Disaster Artist I decided to give this a chance. This movie is so thoroughly awful that it ends up being pretty entertaining and I can see why it has a cult following.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2017 2:35:41 GMT -5
Edge of the City (1957) Excellent casting with some really strong performances. The story is interesting and there are some genuinely tense moments. There's a great use of drama with underlying social commentary that in some ways feels ahead of its time. Sidney Poitier steals nearly ever scenes he's in and he has some very memorable lines. The climax where John Cassavetes confronts the murderer of his best friend while risking his own imprisonment for being an AWOL soldier is both moving and exciting. You can count me a fan of this movie!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 29, 2017 10:42:15 GMT -5
The Room (2003) After seeing the recent trailers for The Disaster Artist I decided to give this a chance. This movie is so thoroughly awful that it ends up being pretty entertaining and I can see why it has a cult following. "You're tearing me apart, Lisa!" "Oh hi, Mark."
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Post by Rob Allen on Nov 29, 2017 15:44:33 GMT -5
Edge of the City (1957) I thought they'd misspelled the writer's name, but Google tells me that his name really is Aurthur.
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Post by Jesse on Dec 1, 2017 1:45:26 GMT -5
The Front (1976) This is probably my favorite Woody Allen movie after Annie Hall even though he didn't write or direct this. In a way it's a middle finger to the House Un-American Activities Committee who were responsible for blacklisting and essentially ruining the lives of a number of Americans they deemed as Communist sympathizers. In fact it was written, produced, and directed by several people who were themselves all blacklisted during that time. Incredible that they survived that and later were able to come together to make this poignant and funny film about how McCarthy era paranoia effected people. Allen's character finds success signing his name to the scripts of writers after they are unable to get work but eventually comes under suspicion himself. Zero Mostel gives a brilliant and moving performance as an actor whose career is tragically ruined. The film's final message during the HUAC questioning and the final credits showing the blacklisted creators make for a pretty satisfying ending despite the real life consequences of such an ignorant and un-American witch-hunt.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 1, 2017 2:20:45 GMT -5
Jane Asher is the main reason to watch Deep End. Here's a list of the movies that I saw in November from the "1001 Movies You Must See before You Die" list: Midnight Song (1937) - A Chinese film that adapts and makes a few alteration to Phantom of the Opera. The changes make the story work better for me, but there's no Lon Chaney and there's no masquerade in color. The Reckless Moment (1949) - An interesting film noir with Joan Bennett and James Mason. Los olvidados (1950) - A Mexican film about desperate poverty-stricken kids in the ghetto. Directed by Luis Bunuel! Salt of the Earth (1954) - A film made by several blacklisted filmmakers about zinc miners going on strike. This is actually really good! Very entertaining despite sounding like a heavy film. The Mad Masters (1955) Rocco and His Brothers (1960) An Autumn Afternoon (1962) - Yasujiro Ozu's last film. One of ten or twenty masterpieces from one of the world's greatest filmmakers. Marketa Lazarova (1967) - In the 1990s, Czech filmmakers voted this the greatest Czech film ever. It's about a girl coping with the horror of Central Europe in the Middle Ages. I liked it quite a bit, but I'm not sure how it might look to someone who hasn't seen any Czech or Russian or Polish films. Wavelength (1967) - A short film about a very long single take. Forty minutes go by as the camera moves thirty feet, getting closer and closer to a framed photo on the wall. It's, um, not for everyone. Deep End (1970) - What a great movie! Jane Asher rocks! The Unbelievable Truth (1989) Philadelphia (1993) Gabbeh (1996) - A 70-minute Iranian film about a girl who appears when you roll out a rug and she tells you her life story. There's a bit more to it than that. Highly recommended for film buffs who like a unique cinema experience now and then. Russian Ark (2002) - A very strange journey through numerous moments of Russian art, culture and history. How much you like this may depend on how much Russian history you know. I was lost at times but I followed most of it reasonably well and I liked Russian Ark well enough. I also watched several films from the List that I've seen before, though for some of them, it's been a while: Taxi Driver, The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Birds.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2017 11:03:20 GMT -5
Worth Winning - Mark HarmonWith Madeleine Stowe, Lesley Anne Warren, and Maria Holvoe pictured here. It was a fun movie to watch and I've haven't seen this movie for a very long time and I enjoyed the fun antics of Mark Harmon here and the crazy bet that he can get these three women to marry him and that's where the fun begins and all that. He even up making a fool of himself by throwing into the arms of Veronica Briskow being played by Stowe of giving her up for auction for $4,200, a Scrabble Game, and a Public Proclamation of being a jerk that he is. A fun comedy, drama, and great routines by Stowe, Warren, and Holvoe here. He was wearing this Tux when he made himself a fool to Veronica!
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Post by Jesse on Dec 2, 2017 1:45:24 GMT -5
Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972) Pretty solid giallo with some genuinely disturbing moments and probably Fulci's earliest use of gore although it's more of a mystery thriller than a straight forward horror movie. In a rural Italian town a spree of child murders causes panic as the superstitious village is thrown into the spotlight. As the investigation goes on the mistrustful locals act out in violence brutally murdering an innocent woman who was suspected of the crimes. I think viewers might actually be surprised by the end reveal of the real killer and their motives which also explores some interesting themes.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2017 12:20:00 GMT -5
Empire has made a list of 100 Greatest Movies and asked how many have you seen? I don't necessarily agree with their list (it's very skewed to modern blockbuster franchises and skips a lot of perennial classics), but of their list, I have seen 56. -M
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2017 12:31:06 GMT -5
From that list ... I've seen 75 films.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 2, 2017 12:36:40 GMT -5
Empire has made a list of 100 Greatest Movies and asked how many have you seen? I don't necessarily agree with their list (it's very skewed to modern blockbuster franchises and skips a lot of perennial classics), but of their list, I have seen 56. -M 79. But Great Caesar's Ghost, that list is a joke.
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Post by Jesse on Dec 2, 2017 12:40:15 GMT -5
Empire has made a list of 100 Greatest Movies and asked how many have you seen? I don't necessarily agree with their list (it's very skewed to modern blockbuster franchises and skips a lot of perennial classics), but of their list, I have seen 56. -M I got 81 out of 100 and I was surprised I had watched so many of them. I think maybe half of those movies do not belong on a Greatest Movies list though.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 2, 2017 12:55:18 GMT -5
68 and I have probably seen about 100 better movies than the majority of that list. These things are compiled by young staff writers/freelancers, with no cultural history knowledge, heavily skewed towards their target demographic, to sell the magazine to them. Kim Newman is the only writer at Empire I pay attention to and that is mostly his fiction, as most of his movie stuff is horror (plus some reviews, and the odd article). An Entertainment Weekly list would probably be even worse. An internet poll would probably be filled with Transformers movies.
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