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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 3, 2010 22:24:27 GMT
Gad! Have you had many actors or actresses ruined for you after these periods of unpleasant propinquity?
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Post by Jazz on Apr 4, 2010 16:42:07 GMT
Gad! Have you had many actors or actresses ruined for you after these periods of unpleasant propinquity? Only a few, the most totally disappointing was Shirley Maclain. I have never been 'star struck' and deal with actors as with people, with the complex range of characteristics that you adjust to and come to love, or not, some more than others. Much more often I've been happily shocked, Al Pacino and Tommy Lee Jones come to mind.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 6, 2010 5:55:11 GMT
You'd think Shirley Maclain would have grown out of being a movie star. Guess not.
Does anyone here watch The Wire? A friend put me on to it, and I am thoroughly hooked. (only up to season 1, episode 11 so far) It has a very large cast and you get really involved with many of them, including the bad guys. It's one of those shows that draw you in so much that the real world disappears while you're watching.
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Post by bjd on Apr 6, 2010 9:47:25 GMT
I can't comment on the TV shows, but as far as movies mentioned here go, I liked Lost In Translation, although Bill Murray always seems to be Bill Murray (Groundhog Day, Coffee and Cigarettes being the two other movies I have seen him in). I thought Scarlett Johansson was good in that movie too. I thought Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona was a piece of shit -- a bunch of over-the-top acting and no plot.
I do like George Clooney and can forgive him for being so good-looking. I find that he is not afraid to look plain in some of his films (Syriana, Burn Without Reading, Good Night and Good Luck) and he acts well in all those movies. I also appreciate the fact that he goes to places like Darfur to bring them to people's attention.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 10, 2010 20:05:29 GMT
Really small screen viewing. They ran 2 hours of 24 on Monday, and we had the DVR set up to record only the usual one hour. So we had to catch one hour on the computer at hulu.com and the computer or connection wasn't good enough to watch it full screen.
And not only did we have to watch it on a 3 x 5 inch window instead of our 61 inch HD TV, for some reason we had to jiggle the cursor over the picture continuously or the picture stopped and eventually the sound did, too.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 10, 2010 22:53:40 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Apr 10, 2010 23:56:11 GMT
are these all free sites? and do they require Flash Player?
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 11, 2010 0:34:28 GMT
They're all free sites. I have updated Adobe Flash Player on my computer, but I don't know if those sites require it or not.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2010 1:16:11 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2010 1:40:59 GMT
I loved Lost in Translation for all the above mentioned positive reasons. I also knew that Bill Murray was a decent,in fact ,excellent dramatic actor from his role he played in The Razor's Edge,which I thought was brilliant. I like Scarlett well enough. On another note,tonight is the season premiere of the series TREME,set here in NOLA,directed by David Simon (of The Wire). However,no one and I mean no one I asked that I know gets HBO here,so will not be able to see. So much for them getting to their targeted audience,which I believe, is people like me and my friends. I am sorely disappointed.Many local people I know are involved in this.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 12, 2010 2:06:23 GMT
I am pumped as hell about Treme. There was a story about it the other day in the NYTimes online, with a little bit of video. Because I'm currently watching The Wire, which has some of the same actors, it was fun to see them as different people in Treme. Not only that, I of course love hearing N.O. accents.
However, I WILL be watching Tremeonline. There probably won't be an online version until tomorrow at the earliest, but when I find one, I'll post it here.
If anyone missed The Wire, the whole series is out on DVD. If there's an interest in watching it online, let me know & I'll post where & how.
Let me go look for the article @ Treme.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 12, 2010 2:11:14 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2010 2:12:30 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2010 2:19:57 GMT
I loved The Wire. The above interview is great if you like David Simon as much as I do. (He also loves NOLA)
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 12, 2010 3:16:49 GMT
This is interesting, although I'm already starting to quibble: First of all, they compulsively gave everyone French names. I'm not going into a diatribe about the history & ethnic make-up of the city of New Orleans here, just going to say that over-doing the French names is kind of fakey. And, it must be said, John Goodman rubs my fur the wrong way. Yeah, yeah, I know it's your adopted city, John, but calm the f down. Maybe go lose some weight. Wendell Pierce (Bunk in The Wire) is a real New Orleanian, as is the woman who plays his wife. Phyllis Montana-LeBlanc appeared as herself in When the Levees Broke. The Times-Picayune likes the (80 minute!) pilot: www.nola.com/treme-hbo/index.ssf/2010/04/treme_is_probably_as_good_as_i.html
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2010 10:04:52 GMT
I'm beginning to do more than quibble I'm afraid, after watching the trailers...is looking more and more hokey to me. One of the writer/consultants,Tom Piazza (who authored, Why New Orleans Matters), and lives nearby on Plum Street is going to get a thorough quizzing from me the next time I see him,which is generally on Wednesday evenings at the dog park up on the levee. Real nice guy,I know he'll be open with me about his thoughts on. I will be open to watching one episode before I condemn. (Couldn't agree more about John Goodman :
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Post by Kimby on Apr 12, 2010 14:06:59 GMT
One of the weaknesses of 24 is that the characters from the fictitious middle eastern country - including its president, his wife and daughter, as well as a whole band of terrorists - all speak English, all the time, even to each other, and even on a supposed live Internet broadcast to their fellow countrymen in which the head terrorist enumerates the crimes of their president before beheading him on camera. Would have worked better for me in Arabic with subtitles. Like that is gonna happen on TV.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 12, 2010 22:27:51 GMT
Just talked to my friend who turned me on to The Wire. She has satellite, so watched the Treme pilot last night & really liked it.
In the interest of fairness, I have to say that I totally rejected The Wire the first time I tried to watch it. I think I watched @15 minutes of it and found it really fake and sort of annoying. Then, after being reassured that it was really good, the best thing ever on tv, etc., I decided to give it a 2 or 3 episode chance. I'm completely hooked now. (I'm only up to the last 3rd of Season Two)
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2010 2:20:26 GMT
Everyone I've spoken to locally that viewed Treme all say they loved it,great photography and not too hokey. Of the people I spoke with,about half were native New Orleanians. Good sign. I need to see.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 14, 2010 2:59:03 GMT
Well, hold on to your hat, make popcorn, etc. ........... I have links!!!! TREME ~ season 1, episode 1 Do You Know What It Meanswww.movieworld2.com/index.php/2010/04/12/treme-1x01-do-you-know-what-it-means/Took a while to buffer for me. If it won’t play, it may be because you need DivX. *moviesip.com/?p=2422Same comments as previous link. tv.blinkx.com/show/treme/LP4aiYnSRyxdl58L#s1e1This is megavideo. Remember, Megavideo only lets you watch 72 minutes of video at a time. After that they cut you off and you have to wait 54 minutes before being allowed to watch again. So: if you go to full screen & it takes you to a new window, be sure to turn off the window with the smaller video in it, or it will count against your time window. Also, sometimes Megavideo starts all pixel-y, but give it a couple of minutes & it will start looking good. www.playandwatch.co.uk/play-628014-Treme-Season-1-Episode-1-Do-You-Know-What-It-Means?.htmlThree links on this page, probably the same ones as above. Note that you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to see the links. And Episode 3 is called: listen.grooveshark.com/#/s/Meet+De+Boys+On+The+Battlefront/2gOLra ~~ turn it up! And look at this -- the show has already been picked up for a 2nd season: blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2010/04/treme-plays-on-for-a-second-season.html*See Reply #288 in this thread.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 14, 2010 5:03:20 GMT
It ain't The Wire, more's the pity. BudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiser BudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserBudweiserYes, there was a little product placement. They vary it, though. In one scene, they drink Bud Light. This needs to get much better before it grabs me. Steve Zahn -- why? John Goodman, Melissa Leo, & the brittle twit playing their daughter could also go far, far away. Khandi Alexander truly sucks. That accent is awful, and she can't act at all. There is some really great stuff in the show, but I felt that every moment the stars named above were on the screen was false and a waste of time. There were some magnificent moments in the pilot, and I will give the show more chances, but this needs to start feeling a whole lot less like tv.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2010 11:30:28 GMT
Oh, how disappoining to hear...haven't watched yet. But,knowing your discerning ear and eye for all things NOLA,am not jumping up to make popcorn yet. I really fell in love with Melissa Leo in the series Homicide,pity she doesn't do it in this... Latest scoop though,The Maple Leaf has been approached for doing scenes in for final first season episode. In negotiations as we speak,of course,my friends are holding out for adequate $$$ .
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 14, 2010 18:03:16 GMT
Maybe I should not have been so quick to criticize her, as my gripe against her was the same I had against Dominick West when I saw the pilot of The Wire -- too "actor-y".
I'll be interested to hear your reaction, and hope anyone else watching will weigh in.
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Post by Kimby on Apr 14, 2010 23:01:24 GMT
In the past two weeks, two of the major characters have been killed off on 24. And unlike the soap operas, I don't think these two will be coming back (with or without amnesia)
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Post by Jazz on Apr 24, 2010 22:05:30 GMT
I was only about a hundred pages into Renoir, My Father when I noticed that The River (Le Fleuve), directed by Jean Renoir, was about to begin on television. Perfect. I love the work of both father and son and had never seen this film.
..."it is a meditation on the relationship of human beings and a coming of age story of three young girls in colonial India"...
It was languid and sumptuous, the first film in color ever done by Renoir and I think, the first color film made in India. You might think it is too romantic or too colonial, but remember it was filmed in 1951. Think of the mood you would be in to watch Indochine or The Lover (L'Amant). I enjoyed very much.
Jean Renoir created some masterpieces in France. La Grande Illusion is one that is outstanding for me. I would love to see The Rules of the Game. ....."In 1939, now able to co-finance his own films,[16] Renoir made The Rules of the Game (La Règle du Jeu), a satire on contemporary French society with an ensemble cast.[17] Renoir himself played the character Octave, a sort of master of ceremonies in the film.[18] The film was greeted with derision by Parisian audiences upon its premiere and was extensively reedited, but without success.[19] It was his greatest commercial failure.[20] A few weeks after the outbreak of World War II, the film was banned. The ban was lifted briefly in 1940, but after the fall of France it was banned again.[21] Subsequently the original negative of the film was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid.[21] It was not until the 1950s that two French film enthusiasts, Jean Gaborit and Jacques Durand, with Renoir's cooperation, were able to reconstruct a near-complete print of the film.[22][23] Today The Rules of the Game appears frequently near the top of critic's polls as one of the best films ever made".....
After the failure of 'The Rules of the Game', he moved to Hollywood and made a few films that were not great. (surprise) It is beyond my grasp to think of Jean Renoir working in Hollywood. He returned to work in Europe.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 25, 2010 1:02:18 GMT
So interesting -- I had no idea of that history of The Rules of the Game. Was it banned because of the social commentary or because of how that was presented?
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Post by lola on Apr 29, 2010 13:35:33 GMT
We watched The Hidden Blade (2004) the other night, set in Japan during the waning days of the feudal era. A low level samurai has trouble adjusting to the new ways, like modern warfare. A beautiful film.
I'll have to try Rules of the Game again. I never made it past the exposition before.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 29, 2010 18:07:09 GMT
Oh -- I'll look for that, Lola! One of the things I like so much about watching online is the access to documentaries that I'd never have a chance to see otherwise. Accordingly, I dipped into this site: topdocumentaryfilms.com/ the other night to see what they had to offer. As a fan of the film Lars and the Real Girl, I was compelled to watch this documentary: topdocumentaryfilms.com/guys-and-dolls/ (not suitable for viewing by children)
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Post by lola on Apr 30, 2010 13:14:52 GMT
Thanks for that, bixa. Will check it out. Isn't Lars great?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2010 17:37:59 GMT
The Rules of the Game is one of my husband and I favorite movies!!! We saw it early on in our courting days and have watched quite a few times since. (The scene with the "shoes" is unforgettably funny!!!).
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