Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 5,368 Location: Montana & Florida, USA
Re: Recent small screen viewing « Reply #902 on Jun 9, 2012, 11:32pm »
Just re-watched both The French Connection and Last Tango in Paris for the first time since their big-screen showings back in the 70's. Had remembered very little about either film, and enjoyed them both.
It did occur to me that both movies could have been called the French Connection!
Joined: Jan 2013 Gender: Female Posts: 373 Location: NOLA,USA
Re: Recent small screen viewing « Reply #903 on Jun 10, 2012, 12:05am »
I'm going to watch The Commitments tonight. A movie I've never seen but has been recommended to me so,so many times that I ordered it from Netflix and have been looking forward to a free evening to watch it and enjoy.
Never saw The French Connection, as I think of it as a quintessential boy movie.
No way! Only slightly dated, the chase scene with Gene Hackman driving is one of the best ever. Maybe because it doesn't feature 20 cop cars flying through the air into semi-trucks and over railings!
Joined: Jan 2013 Gender: Female Posts: 373 Location: NOLA,USA
Re: Recent small screen viewing « Reply #906 on Jun 10, 2012, 10:50am »
I agree with Kimby about the French Connection not necessarily being a guy movie. Gene Hackman's performance alone is worth the watch Bixa.
I quite loved The Commitments. I did have some difficulty with catching some of the lines because of the thick (and fast!)Irish dialect (the cursing is unreal and funny btw!!) and had to rewind a few times. I'm sure I still missed a bunch of the good lines.
Joined: Oct 2010 Gender: Female Posts: 1,659 Location: England
Re: Recent small screen viewing « Reply #908 on Jun 11, 2012, 8:21pm »
Having braved Prometheus at the cinema my OH and son have made me watch Alien and atm Aliens...not really my sort of thing but I haven't flinched....much....
It wasn't bad at all. I quite enjoyed it. I had seen a biopic of Channel many years ago, Channel Solitaire, so, I was familiar with her story. This was far better in so many ways. The acting was brilliant,and, the costumes, sumptuous.
Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 4,271 Location: USA
Re: Recent small screen viewing « Reply #914 on Jun 17, 2012, 2:54pm »
We watched Winged Migration last night. It's an amazing feat of movie making, and satisfying on many levels. The filmmakers hatched some of the birds, bonded with them, and then glided alongside as they flew. (the last part you watch the featurette to learn; it's the kind of thing I had to know but my husband didn't care about at all. In the film you perceive no human effort.)
Re: Recent small screen viewing « Reply #917 on Jun 26, 2012, 5:07am »
I saw Melancholia the other day. Arresting visuals and a bravura performance by Kirsten Dunst. Having said that, though, it was excruciating to watch and I'll never watch it again.
Today my husband reminded me in a text message to return melon-cholia (referring to Dunst's boobs). Jack ass.
I saw Melancholia the other day. Arresting visuals and a bravura performance by Kirsten Dunst. Having said that, though, it was excruciating to watch and I'll never watch it again.
Today my husband reminded me in a text message to return melon-cholia (referring to Dunst's boobs). Jack ass.
Having missed it on the big screen which clearly wold have been the way to see it, I resorted to seeing it on DVD I had heard so much about it. I am in full agreement with you on this NYCgirl. I loathed it. I wish I could think of the word to describe it, overindulgent is one that comes to mind.
I watched Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris last night. Aside from the stunning cinematography particularly in the opening scenes, shots of Paris, it was one of the dumbest movies I've seen in recent memory. I am so over Woody Allen and don't know why he has achieved such a high status in film making, I just don't get it. (there have been a few over the many, many years he's been around I have enjoyed yes, but not that many).
Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 25,325 Location: Mexico
Re: Recent small screen viewing « Reply #921 on Jun 26, 2012, 2:24pm »
I still haven't forgive Woody for Vicky, Somebody, Barcelona. (<-- not even worth looking up correct name)
And I can't forgive anyone for putting Owen Wilson in a movie that I might be tempted to watch.
I enjoyed the fantasy aspect of the movie & the great choices (& makeup) in those playing famous people. Other than that, the script was pretty pitiful & there was no character development whatsoever.
Hm. I remembered there had been previous discussion of MinP, but didn't remember there had been SO MUCH of it. Rather appropriately, these quotes go backward in time.
comment by Thill: Was anyone else surprised that Midnight in Paris was nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Year? I liked the film, but did not think it was one of the best films I've seen this year or, for that matter, the past five years. That being said, I can understand the Best Screenplay nomination because it was very unique script.
comment by me: Midnight in Paris was fun, but you have to deliberately overlook many flaws in order to get into it.
by AuntieA: I saw Midnight in Paris today. Still enjoying the lovely feeling it leaves. Definitely a feel good film!
by Bjd: Went to see Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris last night. Quite pleasant. It requires quite a lot of suspension of disbelief, but it was much better than most of the last ones he made.
me again: I just finished watching Midnight in Paris and thought it was great fun. It's definitely a movie you could pick holes in if you were of a mind to, but it's meant to be enjoyable & it is. The music is wonderful, too. I still don't care for Owen whatshisname, but he was okay. Some of the casting was almost eerie -- the guy who played Picasso, for instance, and the Gaugin casting was totally perfect. I have to say, Marion Cotillard is more beautiful than any one person has a right to be. Did everyone one notice how the woman who played Gabrielle resembled a young Mia Farrow?
to which Jazz responded: I didn't mind Owen Wilson, I'm just relieved that Woody Allen has stopped casting himself opposite young women.
Yes, the Picasso guy was perfect! He looked like he stepped out of a self-portrait. Marion Cotillard's character was grossly underwritten, but she made up for it by being alluring as hell. Rachel McAdams was wasted in the role of bratty, irredeemable shrew.
Paris was sumptuously beautiful, but it wasn't the Paris I experienced. I mean the 5 star hotels and restaurants, not the 1920s part.
It's not a very deep film, but it is light, fizzy fun. I liked it.
I am so over Woody Allen and don't know why he has achieved such a high status in film making, I just don't get it. (there have been a few over the many, many years he's been around I have enjoyed yes, but not that many).
I know what you mean. I liked Manhattan, primarily because it was a love letter to New York, but the part with him dating a cute 17-year-old who was madly in love with him...
Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 25,325 Location: Mexico
Re: Recent small screen viewing « Reply #924 on Jun 27, 2012, 5:26am »
NYCG ~~ I am so sorry! Don't know how I got it that confused.
I don't think you were harsh, Casimira. There is something emperor's-new-clothes about a movie like that. Would it have gotten so much attention & publicity if it were made by an unknown? Not to mention the unknown wouldn't have swung that budget nor those brand name actors.
Yeah, NYCG, gag-o on the long, loving, one might say prescient lingering on that Hemingway girl.
Did you read The Reader, Casimira? My prediction is that you will REALLY like the movie, whether or not you read the book.
(& I think there's prior discussion of it somewhere, giving me another opportunity to be compulsive & to mess up attributions.)
Joined: Nov 2011 Gender: Female Posts: 48 Location: Toronto Canada
Re: Recent small screen viewing « Reply #925 on Jun 27, 2012, 7:38am »
Oh my god….now even I’m confused! After a reread of #921: I stand by my original review of Midnight in Paris. Even though (I take the oath), I was not, and never have been, a fervent Woody Allen fan.
I agree with nycgirl…” I didn't mind Owen Wilson, I'm just relieved that Woody Allen has stopped casting himself opposite young women.” Yes.
Please. Understand, this film is not the creation of Ingmar Bergman! Nor was it meant to be a slavish copy. It is (I think) simply for the pleasure of those of us who love Paris and the artistic milieu of the late 1800's to the 1920's. Yes, romantic and perhaps pathetic? Not great depth, but suggestion. It doesn't matter.
I thought The Reader was a good film and worth a look.
For me, the true test of what I think is a remarkable work of art (in this discussion, a film) is if I will see it again and want to tell my friends about it.
ie: (there are many more)
The Silences of the Palace, a Tunisian film. (actually, the only Tunisian film I’ve ever heard about).
Since Otar Left, set in Georgia (Russia?) …for love of our grandmothers…
The rules of the Game, directed by Jean Renoir (son of the painter, Pierre Auguste Renoir). The film was made in 1939 and banned by the French government. This drove Renoir into exile in the US. Now it is considered considered a classic.
The Best of Youth, A superb 6 hour film of an Italian family.
Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang in 1927. Superb, as of this moment.
I don’t quite know what to say about much of this thread , or the ‘What is the last movie that you saw’ thread, given that I worked for 30 years in the film business.
Joined: Jan 2013 Gender: Female Posts: 373 Location: NOLA,USA
Re: Recent small screen viewing « Reply #928 on Jun 27, 2012, 4:10pm »
I loved Manhattan for the very same reason NYCgirl. One cannot deny or ever shake the beautiful imagery of NYC that Allen gave us.
I have to" fess up" here that part of my unshakable disdain for Woody has to do with being assigned to do an analysis of the film Hannah and Her Sisters for a family systems theory course in social work graduate school. In other words, we had to dissect the film and apply the "dysfunctional" aspects of that particular family to the family system theory we were taught that semester. This entailed having to watch that film many, many times ad nauseum. I don't think I ever recovered from that experience.
Thank you for the recommendations Jazz!! Much appreciated.
I hope to get to viewing The Reader today or tonight.
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