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Post by berkley on Oct 22, 2024 18:16:25 GMT -5
Tonight's double feature was a pair of adaptations of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. ... The telemovie is mostly lighthearted, with spooky elements, mostly superstition and anxiety; but, it adds enough doubt to be fun. It's a nice production, even with some of the stilted dialogue, as they try to ape the style of Irving. Still better than Tim Burton's mess of a film, which swipes the Disney image and manages to be boring, more than scary. It has its fan, but I'll stick with this version. For one thing, the director doesn't cast his latest girlfriend in his movies. Personally I'm happy that Tim Burton cast Lisa Marie in his movies and I only wish he had giver her better and bigger rôles to play. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 22, 2024 18:20:19 GMT -5
Alice ou la dernière fugue (Alice or the Last Escapade) by Claude Chabrol, 1977. Third time I watched it so the very bizarre mood isn't as unsettling as the first time I saw it, but this is a very good movie. Scary? No, not really, but it really feels like a genuine bad dream one can't escape from. It's partly inspired by the weirdness of Alice in Wonderland (the main character's name is Alice Carroll), but it's not an adaptation or anything of the sort. The story is also open to many interpretations (what does that snail slowly making its way across a windshield mean???) but I personally see it as the journey of someone who's tricked into willfully making a very, very bad choice. And maybe I'm wrong. Chabrol is a clever director.
The dialogues are very French. I wish we in Quebec spoke as elegantly, even of the most mundane of things!
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 22, 2024 20:50:52 GMT -5
Tonight's double feature was a pair of adaptations of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. ... The telemovie is mostly lighthearted, with spooky elements, mostly superstition and anxiety; but, it adds enough doubt to be fun. It's a nice production, even with some of the stilted dialogue, as they try to ape the style of Irving. Still better than Tim Burton's mess of a film, which swipes the Disney image and manages to be boring, more than scary. It has its fan, but I'll stick with this version. For one thing, the director doesn't cast his latest girlfriend in his movies. Personally I'm happy that Tim Burton cast Lisa Marie in his movies and I only wish he had giver her better and bigger rôles to play. I mean all of his girlfriends/wives. Made Ron Howard look stingy, in his casting. Lisa Marie was fine in Mars Attacks and Ed Wood, but Sleepy Hollow was not something I thought much of, after slogging through it. I was pretty tired of Johnny Depp, by that point, too, and they had miles to go. I've never been a Burton worshiper. I like some of his stuff, but he goes overboard with the outsider stuff and the freaky for the sake of being freaky, rather than contributing to the story. I know I am an outlier, but I never really cared for Nightmare Before Christmas....and I am a huge Oingo Boingo fan. It just kind of made me wish I was watching a Rankin-Bass special, instead. Even Rudolph's Shiny New Year. |
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Post by Jeddak on Oct 22, 2024 21:01:42 GMT -5
The Ritual - 2017 - A group of friends hiking in Sweden get lost and stumble into something horrible. Good scenery, good interactions between the hikers, good Blair Witch style build. What they find is familiar, but the creature at the end is pretty good.
Goodnight Mommy - 2014 - A woman comes home after facial surgery, and her 2 sons begin to suspect she's not their real mother. I guessed the big twist early on, but that didn't lessen the disturbing bulk of the film. Didn't care for the ending, though. Recommended, but be warned it is hard to watch.
A Dark Song - 2016 - A woman grieving over her son hires an occultist to perform a ritual for her, saying she wants to speak to her son again. The whole film is the two people stuck together in the house for the months it takes to perform the ritual, following their interactions, the strain, the lies and mistrust. It's the best movie about ritual magick I've seen, and has a great effect at the end.
Barbarian - 2022 - A woman in town for a job interview rents a house, but finds someone else living there. At first put off, she decides to stay. Things go bad, but not at all in the way I was expecting. This is an intense, surprising, even scary film. Lots of violence and sexual abuse, so be warned.
The Vampire Lovers - 1970 - I've wanted to rewatch the Karnstein trilogy for a while. But this film bored me, and I had to force myself to finish it. So maybe I'll skip the other two.
The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackal - 1969 - Don't.
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Post by berkley on Oct 22, 2024 22:19:18 GMT -5
Personally I'm happy that Tim Burton cast Lisa Marie in his movies and I only wish he had giver her better and bigger rôles to play. I mean all of his girlfriends/wives. Made Ron Howard look stingy, in his casting. Lisa Marie was fine in Mars Attacks and Ed Wood, but Sleepy Hollow was not something I thought much of, after slogging through it. I was pretty tired of Johnny Depp, by that point, too, and they had miles to go. I've never been a Burton worshiper. I like some of his stuff, but he goes overboard with the outsider stuff and the freaky for the sake of being freaky, rather than contributing to the story. I know I am an outlier, but I never really cared for Nightmare Before Christmas....and I am a huge Oingo Boingo fan. It just kind of made me wish I was watching a Rankin-Bass special, instead. Even Rudolph's Shiny New Year. She's the only one I ever knew about, off the top of my head. I think he's very talented but the finished movie doesn't always fulfill the potential of that talent and/or the concept. Mars Attacks was fun but a bit one-note, a collection of funny bits that was less than the sum of its parts - but perhaps that was a case of the source material being a bit too slight to sustain a full-length feature. Dark Shadows I thought started off great and maintained a high level for the most part until the end, when it went all Hollywood in the worst possible way. Eva Green was a disappointment as Angelique too, though I usually like her. So he's never been one of those directors whose latest movie I'm automatically curious about. I still haven't seen several of his big movies like Beetlejuice and Sleepy Hollow. I thought Ed Wood was great, though, pretty much start to finish. |
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Post by berkley on Oct 22, 2024 22:23:34 GMT -5
Alice ou la dernière fugue (Alice or the Last Escapade) by Claude Chabrol, 1977. Third time I watched it so the very bizarre mood isn't as unsettling as the first time I saw it, but this is a very good movie. Scary? No, not really, but it really feels like a genuine bad dream one can't escape from. It's partly inspired by the weirdness of Alice in Wonderland (the main character's name is Alice Carroll), but it's not an adaptation or anything of the sort. The story is also open to many interpretations (what does that snail slowly making its way across a windshield mean???) but I personally see it as the journey of someone who's tricked into willfully making a very, very bad choice. And maybe I'm wrong. Chabrol is a clever director. The dialogues are very French. I wish we in Quebec spoke as elegantly, even of the most mundane of things! I don't think I knew about this one until now. The only Chabrol I can think of that I've seen is Le Beau Serge, which I watched just last year. Very impressive, though a bit depressing. Which others of his do you like? |
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 22, 2024 23:16:37 GMT -5
I mean all of his girlfriends/wives. Made Ron Howard look stingy, in his casting. Lisa Marie was fine in Mars Attacks and Ed Wood, but Sleepy Hollow was not something I thought much of, after slogging through it. I was pretty tired of Johnny Depp, by that point, too, and they had miles to go. I've never been a Burton worshiper. I like some of his stuff, but he goes overboard with the outsider stuff and the freaky for the sake of being freaky, rather than contributing to the story. I know I am an outlier, but I never really cared for Nightmare Before Christmas....and I am a huge Oingo Boingo fan. It just kind of made me wish I was watching a Rankin-Bass special, instead. Even Rudolph's Shiny New Year. She's the only one I ever knew about, off the top of my head. I think he's very talented but the finished movie doesn't always fulfill the potential of that talent and/or the concept. Mars Attacks was fun but a bit one-note, a collection of funny bits that was less than the sum of its parts - but perhaps that was a case of the source material being a bit too slight to sustain a full-length feature. Dark Shadows I thought started off great and maintained a high level for the most part until the end, when it went all Hollywood in the worst possible way. Eva Green was a disappointment as Angelique too, though I usually like her. So he's never been one of those directors whose latest movie I'm automatically curious about. I still haven't seen several of his big movies like Beetlejuice and Sleepy Hollow. I thought Ed Wood was great, though, pretty much start to finish. He was with Lisa Marie, when she appeared in his films, then Helena Bonham Carter and now Monica Bellucci. Bellucci surprised me, as she was married to French actor Vincent Cassell, for a while (they did 9 films together) and was involved with some other actors, and Burton seems to be a much different type; but, what do I know? The money probably doesn't hurt, either.  |
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Post by Calidore on Oct 22, 2024 23:47:35 GMT -5
She's the only one I ever knew about, off the top of my head. I think he's very talented but the finished movie doesn't always fulfill the potential of that talent and/or the concept. Mars Attacks was fun but a bit one-note, a collection of funny bits that was less than the sum of its parts - but perhaps that was a case of the source material being a bit too slight to sustain a full-length feature. Dark Shadows I thought started off great and maintained a high level for the most part until the end, when it went all Hollywood in the worst possible way. Eva Green was a disappointment as Angelique too, though I usually like her. So he's never been one of those directors whose latest movie I'm automatically curious about. I still haven't seen several of his big movies like Beetlejuice and Sleepy Hollow. I thought Ed Wood was great, though, pretty much start to finish. He was with Lisa Marie, when she appeared in his films, then Helena Bonham Carter and now Monica Bellucci. Bellucci surprised me, as she was married to French actor Vincent Cassell, for a while (they did 9 films together) and was involved with some other actors, and Burton seems to be a much different type; but, what do I know? The money probably doesn't hurt, either. ?! I never heard about Tim and Helena splitting up, or Monica and Vincent, or that Tim and Monica were now a couple. Clearly I'm way behind on my celebrity gossip. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 23, 2024 0:00:46 GMT -5
He was with Lisa Marie, when she appeared in his films, then Helena Bonham Carter and now Monica Bellucci. Bellucci surprised me, as she was married to French actor Vincent Cassell, for a while (they did 9 films together) and was involved with some other actors, and Burton seems to be a much different type; but, what do I know? The money probably doesn't hurt, either. ?! I never heard about Tim and Helena splitting up, or Monica and Vincent, or that Tim and Monica were now a couple. Clearly I'm way behind on my celebrity gossip. Cassel and Bellucci split in 2013, and Burton and Carter in 2014. Burton & Bellucci hooked up last year. Does that make their couple name Burto-llucci??? |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 23, 2024 6:02:38 GMT -5
Alice ou la dernière fugue (Alice or the Last Escapade) by Claude Chabrol, 1977. Third time I watched it so the very bizarre mood isn't as unsettling as the first time I saw it, but this is a very good movie. Scary? No, not really, but it really feels like a genuine bad dream one can't escape from. It's partly inspired by the weirdness of Alice in Wonderland (the main character's name is Alice Carroll), but it's not an adaptation or anything of the sort. The story is also open to many interpretations (what does that snail slowly making its way across a windshield mean???) but I personally see it as the journey of someone who's tricked into willfully making a very, very bad choice. And maybe I'm wrong. Chabrol is a clever director. The dialogues are very French. I wish we in Quebec spoke as elegantly, even of the most mundane of things! I don't think I knew about this one until now. The only Chabrol I can think of that I've seen is Le Beau Serge, which I watched just last year. Very impressive, though a bit depressing. Which others of his do you like? Une Histoire de Femmes and Violette Nozières which were, as you say, a bit depressive. I like his crime movies too. |
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Post by commond on Oct 23, 2024 7:34:21 GMT -5
Alice ou la dernière fugue (Alice or the Last Escapade) by Claude Chabrol, 1977. Third time I watched it so the very bizarre mood isn't as unsettling as the first time I saw it, but this is a very good movie. Scary? No, not really, but it really feels like a genuine bad dream one can't escape from. It's partly inspired by the weirdness of Alice in Wonderland (the main character's name is Alice Carroll), but it's not an adaptation or anything of the sort. The story is also open to many interpretations (what does that snail slowly making its way across a windshield mean???) but I personally see it as the journey of someone who's tricked into willfully making a very, very bad choice. And maybe I'm wrong. Chabrol is a clever director. The dialogues are very French. I wish we in Quebec spoke as elegantly, even of the most mundane of things! I don't think I knew about this one until now. The only Chabrol I can think of that I've seen is Le Beau Serge, which I watched just last year. Very impressive, though a bit depressing. Which others of his do you like? La cérémonie is probably Chabrol's best film, but I am a big fan of Story of Women. Both films star Isabelle Huppert. It's really his earlier crime thrillers that he's known for, though, particularly the stretch from 1969's Les Biches to 1971's Just Before Nightfall. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Oct 23, 2024 7:42:55 GMT -5
Trying to make up some ground, I squeezed in a viewing of FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN. I realized that despite my upbringing as a monster fan, I'd never actually seen the whole thing before. It was fun, and I really appreciated the look of it, taking in all the visual details adoringly. I got a kick out of seeing Bela Lugosi obviously mouthing dialog that had been cut when they decided against having the monster speak. He does, however, just seem wrong in the makeup, and the efforts to make his seemingly slight frame look imposing didn't work for me. I was impressed with the stunt work, as remarked upon earlier in this thread. I was bothered by a lot of things, though. If the gypsy woman's son, also a werewolf, died, why can't Talbot? If the name of Frankenstein is so disdained, why is his granddaughter welcomed as a guest at the town festival? Frankenstein's precious "secret of life and death" is cringe-inducing: the doctor reads about "reversing the polarity" as if it were some utterly ingenious scientific notion, and I couldn't grasp how this was supposed to apply to granting Talbot his final rest. And the archaic policy of immediately ending the film when the monsters apparently die doesn't sit well for a modern audience that wants some closure: Talbot never gets his desired death, and the doctor suffers no consequences for his last minute seduction to empower the monster rather than kill it.
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Post by commond on Oct 23, 2024 8:51:54 GMT -5
Stepfather (Joseph Ruben, 1987)
Felt like watching an 80s slasher film and chose this at random. Equal parts good and cheesy as fuck. Can't have done new stepfathers any favors. Terry O'Quinn, of Lost fame, was entertaining as the killer.
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Post by driver1980 on Oct 23, 2024 8:57:39 GMT -5
Stepfather (Joseph Ruben, 1987) Felt like watching an 80s slasher film and chose this at random. Equal parts good and cheesy as fuck. Couldn't have done new stepfathers any favors. Terry O'Quinn, of Lost fame, was entertaining as the killer. Blimey, I’d forgotten about that one. The sequel is pretty good, if you ask me. |
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Post by berkley on Oct 23, 2024 9:04:23 GMT -5
I've been seeing a few things but haven't found time to post them. Last night it was Gawain and the Green Knight (1973). I'll try to fill in on that and a few of the others I haven't mentioned here before the month is out.
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