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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 4, 2015 11:25:39 GMT -5
There were moments in each of those Bale/Nolan Batman movies that were -- Dare I use the "F word" when talking about these three wannabe-noirs? -- fun. However, they were too few and far between, entangled as they were in the relentlessly grim proceedings.
I'm sorry, but all of these weighty quotes that seem so fraught with meaning make little sense: "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain?"
Is this a musing on the fickleness of the public, the changing tides of history, the inability to curb one's own selfish desires, or something else?
"You'll hunt me. You'll condemn me. Set the dogs on me. Because that's what needs to happen. Because sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded."
This is just a glitzy version of the knowing, sardonic line from John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: "When the legend becomes the fact, print the legend." When Bales' Batman delivers it, it has about it the air of self-pity and self-conscious martyrdom. if the line were to have any worth at all, it should have been delivered by someone else, Gordon perhaps, but Nolan's style is all bombast, with characters prone to giving speeches that seem planned and aggrandizing.
I will say, however, that the Joker is frightening in many ways. Don't know if Nolan knows his Shakespeare, but there is much of Iago in Ledger's Joker.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 4, 2015 11:42:17 GMT -5
I saw They Live by Night last night. Wow! I should have seen this years ago. I knew it was considered a classic but I really had no idea that it would be so great.
Cathy O'Donnell! Just wow!
I can hardly believe it was Nicholas Ray's first movie.
I've also seen The Big Clock and The Barretts of Wimpole Street recently. They are both pretty good - especially The Barretts - but They Live by Night was just a wonder from start to finish.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 4, 2015 11:47:01 GMT -5
The Big Clock was being shown as part of TCM's summer-long film noir festival, but I have a hard time considering The Big Clock to be film noir. My definition of film noir is very exclusive, but The Big Clock is particularly jarring to my view of film noir because it is just so silly. Silly silly silly. I enjoyed it for many reasons, but it is too silly to be noir.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2015 16:40:04 GMT -5
The Big Clock was being shown as part of TCM's summer-long film noir festival, but I have a hard time considering The Big Clock to be film noir. My definition of film noir is very exclusive, but The Big Clock is particularly jarring to my view of film noir because it is just so silly. Silly silly silly. I enjoyed it for many reasons, but it is too silly to be noir. The Big Clock was on yesterday on TCM and I missed it - Drats and I wanted to watch then. Is this movie is that Silly - I find it quite unusual for a Crime, Drama, and Film Noir type film.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2015 20:44:45 GMT -5
I'm taking a challenge from one of my friends, who asked me to count the F words in Scarface.
Will be watching that one tonight.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 4, 2015 20:49:47 GMT -5
I'm taking a challenge from one of my friends, who asked me to count the F words in Scarface. Will be watching that one tonight. Hope you have a calculator.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 4, 2015 21:59:07 GMT -5
I'm taking a challenge from one of my friends, who asked me to count the F words in Scarface. Will be watching that one tonight. I heard the rock band Blink-182 came up with that number by counting the F words in Scarface. Lets see what Jez counts.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 4, 2015 22:15:05 GMT -5
Blowup (1966) D-Michelangelo Antonioni David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles
Thomas is an arrogant fashion photographer in London. Taking pictures in a public park, he comes upon a couple embracing and begins to snap some pictures of their embraces. The woman runs up to him asking for the pictures but he refuses. Back at his studio he looks at the results and thinks he sees some strange things. Sure enough, after blowing up the photos, he makes out a man in the bushes with a gun aiming at the couple. Thomas goes back to the park that night to find a corpse on the ground
That's it, the movie ends right there. Its long and tedious and the murder photo reveal doesn't occur until 75 minutes into the flick. I recall this film getting a lot of publicity back then. Probably due to some scenes of pot smoking and a scene with Thomas and 2 topless teenyboppers fooling around in his studio. I thought there would be some more vivid, psychedelic visuals but none to be found. And Thomas was so snotty to everyone that you rooted against him. The film has no resolve and rather pointless
However:
A scene where Thomas goes into a nightclub and on stage are The Yardbirds This was filmed during the brief time when both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page were the guitarists. It runs for 2 minutes and Jeff Beck gets so frustrated by the static emitting from the stage amp that he smashes his guitar and flings it into the audience
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 5, 2015 0:33:04 GMT -5
The Big Clock was being shown as part of TCM's summer-long film noir festival, but I have a hard time considering The Big Clock to be film noir. My definition of film noir is very exclusive, but The Big Clock is particularly jarring to my view of film noir because it is just so silly. Silly silly silly. I enjoyed it for many reasons, but it is too silly to be noir. The Big Clock was on yesterday on TCM and I missed it - Drats and I wanted to watch then. Is this movie is that Silly - I find it quite unusual for a Crime, Drama, and Film Noir type film. I like The Big Clock a lot, so don't skip it just because I think it's silly.
It's got a great cast. Charles Laughton, Ray Milland, Elsa Lanchester, Maureen O'Sullivan. Also, Harry Morgan. Yes, that Harry Morgan! Gannon on "Dragnet" and then Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H.
It's got a really intricate plot that I won't give away because you haven't seen it. It's very gimmicky. It mostly works.
But still. Very silly.
It was directed by John Farrow, Mia Farrow's father. (And Maureen O'Sullivan is Mia Farrow's mother. Which is weird. I've known it for a long time but it never stops being weird.)
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 7, 2015 14:22:11 GMT -5
I've seen quite a few classic films this past week
A pair of Bette Davis films-Now Voyager and The Catered Affair Inside Daisy Clover with Natalie Wood, Robert Redford and Ruth Gordon Ali: Fear Eats The Soul directed by Fassbinder A Criterion Exploitation Collection called Monsters and Madmen which includes 4 movies from the 50s. Boris Karloff starring in The Haunted Strangler and Corridors of Blood. Plus The Atomic Submarine and First Man Into Space Unfaithfully Yours directed by Preston Sturges
And some others whose titles don't come immediately to mind. But I'm tired and without words for the moment so that's that
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 7, 2015 15:49:52 GMT -5
A pair of Bette Davis films- Now Voyager and The Catered Affair
Agreed!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2015 16:39:38 GMT -5
Boris Karloff starring in The Haunted Strangler and Corridors of Blood. Plus The Atomic Submarine and First Man Into Space I haven't seen these 4 Boris Karloff movies yet! ... I really want to see The Atomic Submarine so badly! That's been on my list of movies to see for years.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 7, 2015 16:50:56 GMT -5
The Catered Affair is a much-neglected classic. Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Barry Fitzgerald and Debby Reynolds.
I watched it because it was on TCM and Bette Davis is one of the actors whose movies I look for, performers that I like so much and who seemed to (mostly) pick or get assigned to pretty good movies that you can usually count on an interesting experience even if the movie's not all that great. (Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Bela Lugosi and Barbara Stanwyck are the main actors in this category.)
And I was really impressed with The Catered Affair! I'm surprised I haven't heard much about it over the years. Especially Debby Reynolds. She's great in Singin' in the Rain but I had no idea she was such a good dramatic actress in addition to being such a great entertainer.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 7, 2015 18:19:45 GMT -5
Boris Karloff starring in The Haunted Strangler and Corridors of Blood. Plus The Atomic Submarine and First Man Into Space I haven't seen these 4 Boris Karloff movies yet! ... I really want to see The Atomic Submarine so badly! That's been on my list of movies to see for years. Only the 2 horror films starred Boris. The SF films did not. Did Karloff ever do a true SF film besides Frankenstein? My tiredness prevents me from looking it up in IMDB but I'm sure someone here will provide the answer.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 7, 2015 18:30:31 GMT -5
The Catered Affair is a much-neglected classic. Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Barry Fitzgerald and Debby Reynolds. I watched it because it was on TCM and Bette Davis is one of the actors whose movies I look for, performers that I like so much and who seemed to (mostly) pick or get assigned to pretty good movies that you can usually count on an interesting experience even if the movie's not all that great. (Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Bela Lugosi and Barbara Stanwyck are the main actors in this category.) And I was really impressed with The Catered Affair! I'm surprised I haven't heard much about it over the years. Especially Debby Reynolds. She's great in Singin' in the Rain but I had no idea she was such a good dramatic actress in addition to being such a great entertainer. I share your opinion on The Catered Affair. Bette obviously gained quite a few pounds to look like a typical Bronx working class housewife. You had to feel sorry for hard working cabbie Ernest Borgnine who scrimped and saved for 10 years to buy his own cab and then to see all the money disappearing in order to appease his wife's demands for an elaborate wedding for their only daughter Debbie Reynolds. I also loved seeing that the film was shot on location in the Bronx.
By the way I met Debbie Reynolds once. Way back in the early 70s I had an office job for a clothing chain that had bought out and absorbed the Yankee Shoe stores. Yankee Shoes was owned by Debbie Reynolds husband and for some reason she came to the home office and took a tour saying hello to all the employees. At the time I had no idea why she was there and it seemed weird
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