|
Post by kerouac2 on Jan 20, 2020 4:03:11 GMT
I don't think you know anything about the movie at all, do you? Not a problem. You can visit the Marvel multiverse instead.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jan 20, 2020 16:38:33 GMT
Today, I scraped the bottom of the movie barrel and went to see a rural comedy "Une Belle Equipe" -- English language title "Queens of the Field." The more-or-less ridiculous premise concerns a small (last division) football team in northern France. They are struggling, but even worse, they get in a ridiculous fight on the field during a game, and all of the team members are banned for the rest of the season. If they can't finish the season, the team will disappear forever. So the women of the town decide that they will become the team. The federation rules do not say anything about the sex of the players so technically there is nothing stopping them.
You can imagine the rest. The husbands/companions are against the idea, but women now have more power. On top of that they force the men to take care of the children while they are at practice. There are 3 matches left in the season. They lose the first one 0-9...
I have a soft spot for this kind of movie, no matter how outlandish. These movies are good-hearted and they promote the little people who are ignored by everybody. And there is most definitely a public to see these stories (but not in Paris).
Strange that it all takes place in the same battlefield areas as 1917.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jan 22, 2020 20:31:46 GMT
Normally I post trailers for the movies I see, but I thought this feature about the cinematography of 1917 was much more gripping and explicit about the experience.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 23, 2020 2:22:28 GMT
Well, THAT was riveting!
I never really understood what was meant by a single shot scene before, but this seems even more difficult & undoubtedly believable to an almost excruciating level. The main reason I had been thinking that I would avoid seeing this film is because I find books and movies about or photographs of WWI severely affecting, really to the point that it's a form of mourning for everyone in or touched by that war. But the concept of this movie, focusing on two soldiers -- two regular young men -- seems a form of homage to everyone who was in that terrible war, meaning that perhaps I really should go see it.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jan 23, 2020 13:56:21 GMT
I was very impressed by the Mexican movie Luciérnagas. It is both low key and unusual in the way it handles the story. There are two main characters -- Ramin, an Iranian refugee who hardly speaks a word of Spanish and Leti, the woman who runs the cheap hotel where is is staying. Ramin ended up in Veracruz by accident -- he thought he was boarding a cargo ship going to Europe, but no… He picks pineapples, picks up trash, does demolition work… anything that comes along. He clearly hates it. Leti is the usual abandoned young woman. Her man ran off to Los Angeles and then he shows up with a shit-eating grin as though he were a gift-wrapped treat, only to tell Leti that he's going to go to Texas now. So neither character is happy, but they try to make the best they can of life. Ramin has an additional secret which is never made completely explicit, but he has huge scars on his back from a flogging and there is a man back in Tehran for whom he clearly has intense feelings.
Let's just say that Veracruz is not really shown in its full touristic glory, but I was happy to see what I could of it in the movie.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jan 24, 2020 14:57:40 GMT
So, I saw Bombshell and I can affirm that it takes a really strong stomach to watch a movie about Fox News. I will always be impressed at how Hollywood rarely has any fear about tackling the most difficult and controversial subjects, but the American acting community is generally extremely timid. I presume this explains why none of the three newsblondes is played by an American actress.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 30, 2020 6:11:15 GMT
Well! I just finished watching Little Women and came away very impressed. This is what Lugg said after seeing it: I absolutely loved it and so did my sister and it appeared that everyone else did too .... ...I think this will be one of my all time favourite films. I loved the way the timelines over the various books melded and how the film paid due regard to Louisa M Alcott's story. I don't think that when I read the books as a child 45 plus years ago I had any inkling of how current the themes were but I certainly did yesterday. |
Having now seen the film, I really appreciate Lugg's remarks about the timelines and the regard to the original story. And I am very grateful that I read the books more than once when I was a girl. I felt that lent an extra layer of enjoyment to the movie, although I'd also say the movie would hold its own for viewers who haven't read Little Women or its sequels. What I really liked was the subtle interweaving of Louisa May Alcott's real life and that of Jo. It not only made for an excellent way of bolstering the theme of women's independence, but further engaged those of us who loved the books as girls. As to the casting and the cast's performances ~ wow! The only person who I initially had a little trouble with, although she did a fine job, was Laura Dern. But by the end of the film I'd gotten what Greta Gerwig was up to and was somewhat awed by how beautifully it had been pulled off and how much Laura Dern was part of that success. To quickly run through some of the others: Ronan and Chalamet were perfect and perfectly believable. The script was really full of pitfalls for Chalamet, but he made walking that tightrope look easy. Emma Watson is an actor who kind of leaves me cold, but someone had to play Meg and I can't fault her performance. Even Beth, way too simpy-nice in the book for this mid-20th century girl reader, gets rounded out nicely in the movie. And, 60 years after first reading the book, the movie made me finally, finally get why Jo would want to wind up with Friedrich. They were all wonderful, but oh goodness gracious -- Florence Pugh as Amy was just a breathtaking feat of acting. Along with every other reader of the book, I couldn't stand Amy, but Pugh's interpretation is a miracle of mining, interpreting, and presenting a living, breathing character.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Jan 30, 2020 16:02:02 GMT
So I should see it. This version of Little Women got fairly negative reviews here.
It was a completely different era, but much of the roots of feminism in the US and the UK grew out of the abolitionist movement.
I would also like to see the recent film about Harriet "Moses" Tubman, though the reviews say it is rather academic. Hardly strange as it grew out of a slave and slave rescuer narrative, not a work of fiction.
Luciérnagas looks very affecting and I'll be looking for it.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jan 30, 2020 16:15:35 GMT
Being a boy, I confess that I never even read Little Women (or Little Men, for that matter). And in Europe, the novel is basically unknown, so the release of the movie had to stand on its own with no previous reputation. It fared well, in France at least, due to the director and the cast.
However, on a different website, somebody told me the following:
I must confess that I have absolutely no recollection as to whether I saw that version or not, but I am sort of leaning to "not." But the cast of that version is indeed impressive and now I want to see it.
Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne, Christian Bale, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes, Eric Stoltz, etc. Directed by Gillian Armstrong. No way that it could be bad.
|
|
|
Post by lugg on Jan 31, 2020 18:20:52 GMT
I have not seen that version K2 so thank you for the heads up. So glad you enjoyed it Bixa - I agree Florence Pugh really brought Amy to life, although have to disagree that every reader of the book disliked her character
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 31, 2020 18:28:57 GMT
much of the roots of feminism in the US and the UK grew out of the abolitionist movement. Extremely important point, although as a child I was unaware of the philosophical bent of the Alcotts. All I knew was that the father was away at war, and I may not have even realized which war it was. Being a boy, I confess that I never even read Little WomenI think it was always considered a book for girls and has a great deal of Victorian simpiness in it. I thought it was brilliant the way that Gerwig kind of maintained that in the very first part of the movie, but then moved on to create more lifelike characters. Because of the aforementioned Victorian etc., I never saw the 1994 version, although Susan Sarandon would seem to make a great Marmee (gawd, how I hate that name!). I can't wrap my head around Winona Rider as Jo, though. Lugg ~ Amy -- really?!
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 1, 2020 17:03:24 GMT
I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt, but no, I'm sorry, Jojo Rabbit was unbearable to me.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 3, 2020 14:04:55 GMT
I had seen the trailer for Wasp Network (French title: Cuban Network) too many times, and it seemed both too deadly serious and also very complicated, so I wasn't sure that I would go and see it. But as the days passed, three other reasons convinced me to go. 1. Olivier Assayas is an excellent director. 2. Teaming Penelope Cruz with Edgar Ramirez and Gael Garcia Bernal sounded good. 3. A lot of it was filmed in Havana. But I think that what really convinced me in the end was an interview that I heard about the movie where they explained that all of the actors were practically tied to their dialogue coaches for months so that they could get the Cuban accent right. While the vast majority of us don't worry about such details, Assayas knew that for a Latino oriented movie, he wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of proper exposure if the accents were all wrong. (Actually, English speakers will understand this when thinking of mixing American, British, Scottish, Australian and Irish accents in a movie where everybody is supposed to be from the same place.)
So, I knew I had to see it. This is one of those "based on a true story" movies, but having been away from the United States for so long, I knew absolutely nothing about the Wasp network or all of those things that happened in South Florida during the Clinton administration.
The movie is about Cuban spies who infiltrated the anti-Castro groups, but what makes it really different is that this time the Cuban spies are portrayed as the good guys and the Cuban counter-revolutionaries and the FBI are portrayed as the bad guys. (I don't think this movie will be a blockbuster in Florida.)
I was delighted to see the streets of Havana again, and I learned about all of the terrorist attacks perpetrated on the Cuban tourist industry around 1995. I had certainly missed or dismissed this in the news back then. Obviously a movie like this has quite a bit of ambiguity in it, but I thought Penelope Cruz was really excellent this time (and I think that about her in less than 50% of her movies), and Edgar Ramirez was outstanding, as were quite a few of the secondary characters.
Anyway, for what it's worth, here's the trailer.
The movie has not yet been released in most of the world, but it has done some festivals so I knew that it wouldn't be hard to find some extreme reactions such as:
Or this one: And then there are people who don't even know where the movie is from:
Oh well...
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Feb 3, 2020 14:59:41 GMT
My daughter saw that movie last week and thought it was pretty good, although she was too young to remember any anti-Cuban stuff from the 1990s. She was also happy to see Cuban streets again.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 12, 2020 18:09:38 GMT
Well, that does look like exceptionally intelligent inspired fun!
My favorite lines from the article (actually captions): Moses Rosenthaler, an incarcerated artist, with his prison guard and muse, Simone
And there's this: Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright), a mashup of James Baldwin and A. J. Liebling, is a journalist from the American South who writes about food. eh?
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 12, 2020 18:31:58 GMT
I watched the trailer earlier today, and my personal jury is still out. Wes Anderson has disappointed me on occasion, but he has also made some good movies. I do not always have access to his universe.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 12, 2020 19:19:50 GMT
Well, I have to agree with your last sentence.
Speaking of Wes Anderson-ish things, I tried to watch Jojo Rabbit, mainly because I'm kind of a fan of Scarlett Johansson. I don't know how she was in that movie because I never got that far due to absolutely loathing the movie.
|
|
|
Post by whatagain on Feb 13, 2020 15:03:29 GMT
How can tou expect us foreigners to follow when tou give the wrong title. Little women is known as les 4 filles du dr March in french. Non mais. I have not seen it nor read but my wife did. In the 80s.
We went in family to see dr dolittle. Does the job.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 14, 2020 11:16:17 GMT
So, in recent days I have seen movies from Tunisia, Rwanda, Colombia, Korea, Guatemala, the UK and even France. Many strange things happen.
The girls visit a sorceress and it doesn't go well. The teenagers eat magic mushroom that grew out of the manure of the cow that died. A man lives in the airport for two weeks while waiting to be picked up by his internet girlfriend. The policeman falls in love with the illegal psychiatrist. The girl might have killed her best friend; it's up to the jury. An orphaned boy replaces a friend who falls off a cliff. A widowed father makes up fairy tales for his daughter until she suddenly gets interested in boys. The fat accountant learns to pole dance and doesn't care what people think. And so on...
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 21, 2020 16:34:28 GMT
I had misgivings about the new Clint Eastwood movie Richard Jewell, because he has made a few stinkers recently. But I found it quite excellent, particularly the restrained performance by Sam Rockwell.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 22, 2020 3:57:34 GMT
Watching the trailer almost gave me an ulcer. Looks like well done slow-burn tension all the way through.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 22, 2020 5:34:28 GMT
Jon Hamm is pure evil in the movie.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 22, 2020 6:03:18 GMT
He seemed to be having an awfully good time playing a horrible person, well, horrible angel in Good Omens:
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 23, 2020 16:01:55 GMT
This morning I saw the Icelandic movie Hvítur, hvítur dagur (A White, White Day). It's about a police officer whose wife died in an accident -- a 'white out' day when you can't tell the sky from the land in a misty frozen landscape. Things are not made explicit, but he seems to be on leave from the shock of losing his wife. He takes care of his granddaughter most days, but he has a growing obsession about his wife -- was she cheating on him? Things go haywire sooner or later, but this is Iceland where nearly everything is taken in stride. It is a good movie.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 24, 2020 16:32:55 GMT
Today I saw the Singaporean movie Wet Season, and I was really amazed by how many different issues it addressed. It's about a Chinese language teacher in high school in a country where everybody wants to speak English instead of Chinese, so she is mocked by both her students and the school administrators. It's about a woman trying desperately to conceive a child in spite of medical issues and a husband who has no interest in her. It is about taking care of an old man (the father-in-law) who can do nothing for himself, who shits his diapers, can't talk, needs everything to be done for him, including sometimes chewing his food for him before putting it in his mouth. It's about a high school student with the hots for his teacher. It's about a family fighting over the inheritance after the old man dies. It's about what to do when you are suddenly pregnant after so much effort but the husband is certainly not the father.
This poor woman had one of the most difficult lives in the world while living in one of the richest countries. But everybody eats durians constantly.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 27, 2020 17:00:32 GMT
Judy just came out in France just this week. It is an unpleasant and upsetting movie, but Renée Zellweger definitely deserved her awards. However, instead of the main story that was told, I was much more interested in the flashbacks about young Garland submitting to evil Louis B. Mayer and his minions -- this is the stuff of horror movies. Darci Shaw who played young Judy Garland was impressive.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 27, 2020 18:01:41 GMT
Well, the flashbacks went a long way to explain Garland's later deficiencies as an adult -- erratic choices, poor money management, allowing herself to be manipulated by hangers-on, then turning on those people in a fury, etc.
I can remember seeing Mickey Rooney on a talk show where he spoke about how horribly Judy Garland had been treated as a child performer and later a child star.
And yes, even having read all the rave reviews, I was still astounded by the perfection of Zellweger's performance.
|
|
|
Post by casimira on Feb 28, 2020 2:01:41 GMT
I haven't heard anything positive about CATS. Christmas Day my husband and I went to see Richard Jewell which is based on the true story of an Atlanta man wrongfully accused of being the bomber of the World Olympics held in Atlanta in the '80's. Very depressing albeit well done. Kathy Bates is exceptional. Just wondering if anyone reads the previous posts...
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Mar 5, 2020 6:22:30 GMT
I thought the Polish film Corpus Christi (La Communion in France for some reason) was outstanding. And no, it is not a feel good comedy. Even here it has a -12 restriction.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Mar 6, 2020 18:56:45 GMT
I doubt that the movie De Gaulle is of great interest to people from other countries, but I found it more interesting than expected. It opens unexpectedly with a love scene in bed between De Gaulle and his wife. One does not normally imagine De Gaulle in this sort of situation. And even though the situation in June 1940 is of primary importance, De Gaulle's family life and most particularly his relationship with his daughter Anne who had Down's syndrome is given equally important treatment. (She died at age 20.) As far as I'm concerned, that is the primary merit of this movie.
|
|