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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 8, 2018 17:54:00 GMT -5
Senso (1954) - Well, actually, I have seen it, but I counted it as one I hadn't seen because I didn't remember it very well. Alida Valli is in movies from the List a lot! Here, she plays a naughty contessa during the 1860s when northern Italy was fighting for independence from Austria. She falls for Farley Granger, and he is a bad person! I also like Valli's work over her career, not so much in The Paradine Case but in her Italian films. Among her films on the List: Eyes without a Face, The Third Man, Suspiria and The Spider's Stratagem. Eyes without a Face is a great horror movie and quite possibly my favorite French film of all time! I also saw her in We the Living (based on an Ayn Rand novel) at a special screening in Los Angeles about 1990.
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Post by Farrar on Oct 8, 2018 19:57:13 GMT -5
I love opera too, but in a weird way because it's just from movie clips and selected operas. I love Carmen so much! I listen to the cd in the car all the time. And one of my favorite Bergman films is The Magic Flute. That film was actually my introduction to opera. At the time I was a Bergman completist so I dutifully went to see this, not knowing what to expect (the friend I went with was studying the violin so at least I had someone who knew something about music with me). Anyway, I was blown away and I started seeking out opera movies such as Joseph Losey's Don Giovanni a few years later or revivals such as a 1950s film of Aida (Tebaldi lip-synced by Sophia Loren). I also watched a lot of opera that was telecast on my local PBS station. A few years later I started going to opera in person and I haven't looked back. And yes, I gave Senso extra points for opening at the opera! Another movie from the List that I saw recently with a short opera scene was Prima della rivoluzione. There's a very early film on the List (1923, I think) called The Smiling Madame Beudet. It's short and it's kind of dumb, but it's supposed to be the first feminist film. The husband is horrible, but it's hard to feel any sympathy for the wife because she declines a chance to go to the opera in the first scene. You fool! This movie could have been about a trip to the opera! Not on the List but available on YouTube is Charlie Chaplin's A Burlesque on Carmen. There are two versions. Watch both. The version edited by Chaplin is better overall but the studio's version is interesting because it has a lot of great scenes with Edna Purviance that Chaplin edited out or used a different take. I opened another tab and played Spike Jones version of Carmen while I was watching. Thanks, appreciate the film recommendations. I never get tired of Carmen and have seen it live many times -- and will do so once again early next year. Can't wait!
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Post by Farrar on Oct 8, 2018 20:10:11 GMT -5
I also like Valli's work over her career, not so much in The Paradine Case but in her Italian films. Among her films on the List: Eyes without a Face, The Third Man, Suspiria and The Spider's Stratagem. Eyes without a Face is a great horror movie and quite possibly my favorite French film of all time! I also saw her in We the Living (based on an Ayn Rand novel) at a special screening in Los Angeles about 1990. Oh yes -- how could I forget her in The Third Man and Eyes Without a Face! EWaF also starred another favorite of mine, the underrated Edith Scob. Scob appeared in a lot of Franju's films; I always liked her work. And I may have mentioned this before but in 2004-5 Marvel Knights Fantastic Four #13 and #14 had an "Eyes Without A Face" story with Sue, Alicia and the Puppet Master. It's included in the tpb Divine Time. Here's the Amazon link
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 9, 2018 12:32:08 GMT -5
Farrar,
I've been working on a special list of the Top Ten Movies from the 1001 list that I had never heard of before I started working on the List. This is to highlight one of the main reasons that I like the List - all the great movies that I might never have heard of otherwise. (I'm just two or three movies away from having less than a hundred movies to go.)
I've not quite picked ten, but here's the List as I have it now.
1) The Great White Silence (An amazing documentary about Scott's final Antarctic expedition.) 2) An Actor's Revenge (What if Roger Corman and Divine were Japanese and made a movie about the Kabuki theatre.) 3) Daisies (This is a Czech film that a lot of List people don't like too much. I love it!) 4) Come Drink with Me (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was greatly influenced by this.) 5) In the Loop (Possibly the funniest political satire ever made.) 6) Four Lions (JUST WATCH IT!) 7) Wadjda (Supposedly Saudi Arabia's first feature film.)
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Post by berkley on Oct 12, 2018 1:04:21 GMT -5
Farrar, I've been working on a special list of the Top Ten Movies from the 1001 list that I had never heard of before I started working on the List. This is to highlight one of the main reasons that I like the List - all the great movies that I might never have heard of otherwise. (I'm just two or three movies away from having less than a hundred movies to go.) I've not quite picked ten, but here's the List as I have it now. 1) The Great White Silence (An amazing documentary about Scott's final Antarctic expedition.) 2) An Actor's Revenge (What if Roger Corman and Divine were Japanese and made a movie about the Kabuki theatre.) 3) Daisies (This is a Czech film that a lot of List people don't like too much. I love it!) 4) Come Drink with Me (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was greatly influenced by this.) 5) In the Loop (Possibly the funniest political satire ever made.) 6) Four Lions (JUST WATCH IT!) 7) Wadjda (Supposedly Saudi Arabia's first feature film.) I've seen Come Drink with Me and In the Loop, both excellent.
Have you seen The Thick of It, the tv series that In the Loop was derived from? Not to be missed.
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Post by Farrar on Oct 12, 2018 12:54:51 GMT -5
Farrar, I've been working on a special list of the Top Ten Movies from the 1001 list that I had never heard of before I started working on the List. This is to highlight one of the main reasons that I like the List - all the great movies that I might never have heard of otherwise. (I'm just two or three movies away from having less than a hundred movies to go.) I've not quite picked ten, but here's the List as I have it now. 1) The Great White Silence (An amazing documentary about Scott's final Antarctic expedition.) 2) An Actor's Revenge (What if Roger Corman and Divine were Japanese and made a movie about the Kabuki theatre.) 3) Daisies (This is a Czech film that a lot of List people don't like too much. I love it!) 4) Come Drink with Me (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was greatly influenced by this.) 5) In the Loop (Possibly the funniest political satire ever made.) 6) Four Lions (JUST WATCH IT!) 7) Wadjda (Supposedly Saudi Arabia's first feature film.) Thanks for this, great selections. I have seen An Actor's Revenge by the great Kon Ichikawa and Daisies by the equally great Vera Chytilova. Come Drink With Me is something I've wanted to see forever (I'm a fan of King Hu's work in general) but somehow I never got around to it. I'll check out the other films. I do recall seeing trailers for Four Lions, and being enthralled. And at first glance I misread the last film in your list as "Wajda." I thought it was a documentary about one of my favorite directors.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 12, 2018 14:00:41 GMT -5
Farrar, I've been working on a special list of the Top Ten Movies from the 1001 list that I had never heard of before I started working on the List. This is to highlight one of the main reasons that I like the List - all the great movies that I might never have heard of otherwise. (I'm just two or three movies away from having less than a hundred movies to go.) I've not quite picked ten, but here's the List as I have it now. 1) The Great White Silence (An amazing documentary about Scott's final Antarctic expedition.) 2) An Actor's Revenge (What if Roger Corman and Divine were Japanese and made a movie about the Kabuki theatre.) 3) Daisies (This is a Czech film that a lot of List people don't like too much. I love it!) 4) Come Drink with Me (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was greatly influenced by this.) 5) In the Loop (Possibly the funniest political satire ever made.) 6) Four Lions (JUST WATCH IT!) 7) Wadjda (Supposedly Saudi Arabia's first feature film.) I've seen Come Drink with Me and In the Loop, both excellent.
Have you seen The Thick of It, the tv series that In the Loop was derived from? Not to be missed.
I have never heard of The Thick of It, but I will see if it's on YouTube.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 12, 2018 14:06:47 GMT -5
Farrar, I've been working on a special list of the Top Ten Movies from the 1001 list that I had never heard of before I started working on the List. This is to highlight one of the main reasons that I like the List - all the great movies that I might never have heard of otherwise. (I'm just two or three movies away from having less than a hundred movies to go.) I've not quite picked ten, but here's the List as I have it now. 1) The Great White Silence (An amazing documentary about Scott's final Antarctic expedition.) 2) An Actor's Revenge (What if Roger Corman and Divine were Japanese and made a movie about the Kabuki theatre.) 3) Daisies (This is a Czech film that a lot of List people don't like too much. I love it!) 4) Come Drink with Me (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was greatly influenced by this.) 5) In the Loop (Possibly the funniest political satire ever made.) 6) Four Lions (JUST WATCH IT!) 7) Wadjda (Supposedly Saudi Arabia's first feature film.) Thanks for this, great selections. I have seen An Actor's Revenge by the great Kon Ichikawa and Daisies by the equally great Vera Chytilova. Come Drink With Me is something I've wanted to see forever (I'm a fan of King Hu's work in general) but somehow I never got around to it. I'll check out the other films. I do recall seeing trailers for Four Lions, and being enthralled. And at first glance I misread the last film in your list as "Wajda." I thought it was a documentary about one of my favorite directors. Come Drink with Me is available for rental on YouTube movies for $2 or $3. Because you get access for 48 hours, I was able to watch it two days in a row, which I don't do very often. (In the last five years, the only other two movies I watched two days in a row were Jackie and Suspicion.) I got Four Lions from the library but it was on Hulu for a while. Wadjda is a ten- or twelve-year-old girl who really really wants a bicycle. But in Saudi Arabia, this is not considered a proper item for a proper young Muslim girl.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 12, 2018 14:07:51 GMT -5
I saw The Servant (1963) last night.
I call it "Whatever Happened to Baby Jeeves?"
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2018 21:24:58 GMT -5
Past Week
THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, THE (1951) ... Last Saturday on TCM BLOOD AND SAND (1941) ... Last Monday on TCM MARK OF ZORRO, THE (1940) ... Last Monday on TCM BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE (1974) ... Last Tuesday on TCM GILDA (1946) ... Last Tuesday on TCM LADY FROM SHANGHAI, THE (1948) ... Last Tuesday on TCM CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, THE (1936) ... Last Wednesday on TCM HORROR OF DRACULA (1958) ... Last Wednesday on TCM DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1965) ... Last Wednesday on TCM AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956) ... Today, on TCM
Last Night on DVD
SHIN GODZILLA (2016)
Right Now, THE HUNT OF THE RED OCTOBER (1990) on Cable Network.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 13, 2018 21:54:05 GMT -5
Past WeekTHING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, THE (1951) ... Last Saturday on TCM BLOOD AND SAND (1941) ... Last Monday on TCM MARK OF ZORRO, THE (1940) ... Last Monday on TCM BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE (1974) ... Last Tuesday on TCM GILDA (1946) ... Last Tuesday on TCM LADY FROM SHANGHAI, THE (1948) ... Last Tuesday on TCM CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, THE (1936) ... Last Wednesday on TCM HORROR OF DRACULA (1958) ... Last Wednesday on TCM DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1965) ... Last Wednesday on TCM AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956) ... Today, on TCM Last Night on DVD SHIN GODZILLA (2016) Right Now, THE HUNT OF THE RED OCTOBER (1990) on Cable Network. Ah, yes; the Hunt For Red october. The book that conned people into believing Tom Clancy was a military expert. Don't get me started on his books. The film, though, is good and that string of films actually did a much better job dealing with his thin plots (and massive padding), creating a more coherent and believable story. For instance, Patriot Games, the novel, has Prince Charles and Princess Diana as the targets of the IRA offshoot and has them Provos attacking Ryan's house while they are there. Their security is the SAS; best in the world. the film made it a relative of the Royal Family and a government figure, who had less personal security and was a more viable target. he was also someone more likely to be at a dinner party at Jack Ryan's house. Funny to watch the film and see Gates McFadden as Mrs Ryan (briefly) and using an accent. Alec Baldwin is good; but, Harrison Ford fit the CIA analyst profile better. As a tiny point of trivia, the actor who plays the murdered zampolit (political officer) is Peter Firth, who as a child was one of the stars of the children's series Here Come the Double Deckers, which was shown on NBC, in the early 70s.. Mark of Zorro is just plain fantastic, especially the duel between Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone (the two best actor/fencers in Hollywood). Also enjoy the 1970s tv remake (from the exact script), with Frank Langella and Ricardo Montalban, with Ann Archer as the love interest, years before she was Mrs Jack Ryan. Also love me some Hammer Dracula, though I kind of like their take on Frankenstein better than the Dracula films. My favorite Hammer, though, is still Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter, with Horst Janson, John Carson, and Caroline Munro. Love the hook of kronos having to uncover the vampire's specific weakness and then exploit it, plus the swordsman elements. Would have been a great film series if they had started it before the studio was in trouble. Written and Directed by Brian Clemens, of The Avengers fame.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 13, 2018 22:06:56 GMT -5
After making a joke in my Guardians thread, I decided to actually watch Cruising, with Al Pacino. All I knew of was what was discussed in the documentary The Celluloid Closet, about the depiction of homosexuality in Hollywood and a skit on SCTV ("Cruisin Gourmet," with Dave Thomas doing Pacino, stuffing a turkey, suspended by chains). It was Pacino and William Friedkin, so i thought I'd give it a whirl, despite the setting. Wasn't particularly shocking, though they probably tread a fine line with the censors, no matter what. The story doesn't really hold up well as a thriller or mystery and the twist ending doesn't really make sense. Really odd to see Karen Allen in it, after Animal House and Raiders of the Lost Ark, especially when you see her in a couple of love scenes, with Pacino.
I do think the Celluloid Closet nailed the film, for its rather pulp coloring of things and negative portrayal of the leatherman world, though I suppose you would have to work hard to make gay BDSM afficinadoes sympathetic to a general audience. I think they could have if they had wanted to do a character study, rather than a pulp crime thriller. There is a subplot of a pair of cops harassing a couple of gay drag/leather prostitutes that offered some possibilities, plus the character who is Pacino's neighbor, in the apartment he rents, while undercover. To work as a thriller, it needed to lose the twist ending and be smarter about the investigation into the killings. It lacked in procedural elements in serial killing investigations (and the film is post-Son of Sam). Basically, it tries to be too many things and does none of them well. Good cast in there trying, though, including Paul Sorvino and a few character actors who I recognized.
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Post by brutalis on Oct 15, 2018 8:15:16 GMT -5
Saturday was a long rainy grey and dreary day: perfect horror movie weather! Went on a Halloween binge of a sort with watching Halloween 1, 2 and 3. Of course #1 is a pure classic kicking off the whole 70/80's slasher/stalker movie trends. There are lots of good scares as well a few oddities in context of the movie like when Michael puts the sheet over his head wearing the dead boyfriends glasses pretending to be a ghost. Why and what for? Showing Michael without the mask after Laurie stabs him in the eye with the coat hanger. While it shows Michael's weakness and dependence upon wearing his mask it also is another really unnecessary scene which wasn't required. Could have been done without totally showing Michael's face. A lot of the violence actually occurs off screen and is implied leaving us to imagine our own worst fear of the killings. The Carpenter written music suitably eerie and instantly recognizable. Good scares all the way to the end.....or is it?!?!?
Halloween 2 works as a great thriller/horror if only it wasn't Michael Myers doing the slaying. An almost empty hospital at night with a killer stalking through the campus is more than scary. Creative kills ensue but the addition of 1st person perspective dilutes the powerful images. Also introduces the rather lame idea that Laurie is the sister of Michael. Personal note is when seeing this at a midnight showing when it came out with a friend we left the theater to find our car had a flat tire. Let me tell you nothing scarier than an empty parking lot with a flat tire after seeing the same thing occur in the movie you just saw. It is funny now but was a real nerve wracking experience at the time!
Halloween 3: Season of the Witch has no Michael but is a superbly terrific horror movie in it's own right as far as I am concerned. A much more science-fiction(y) gimmick movie but the idea of micro-chip mind controlled children is downright horrific. Points taken off for the rather sillier idea of the androids which might have worked better if they were used more significantly as killers haunting the holiday nights. The decomposing "heads in the masks" with bugs, spiders and snakes is quite creepy. Carpenter again does the music and it is still scary and one you hear it you can never get the "silver shamrock" company tune out of your head!
Good thrills and chills on a cold wet rainy day with a hot cup of tea and cookies. No better way to relive Halloween days of yore...
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Post by brianf on Oct 15, 2018 20:57:38 GMT -5
I'm a big fan of movies set (mostly) in one room - Hitchcock had 3 (Rope, Lifeboat and Rear Window). 12 Angry Men may be the most famous. Breakfast Club counts.
I'm always looking for more - any suggestions?
I also love CLOSET LAND
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2018 21:19:17 GMT -5
I do like Closet Land too ... brianf
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