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Post by htmb on Aug 6, 2013 21:41:04 GMT
Never was that much of a Star Wars fan.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2013 23:12:00 GMT
Thinking more and more of my recent viewing of As I Lay Dying (currently released on a grand total of 1 screen in the U.S. -- in NYC -- while it is on at least 50 screens in France), I really believe that it is an important film that will be recognized sooner or later. In France, it is a total flop as well commercially, but I think that people will gradually come to appreciate it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2013 20:35:47 GMT
I have seen a number of Palestinian movies over the last several years, but all of them have been Franco-Palestinian or Germano-Palestinian coproductions simply because money was needed from other countries to make the movie. It should come as a surprise to no one that each and every movie deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in one way or another (as do about 90% of Israeli films). Although there have been a few lighthearted films like Le Cochon de Gaza (a Franco-German-Belgian coproduction - English language title "When Pigs Have Wings"), most of the films are dramas where almost nothing good happens.
Omar is no exception but it least has the merit of being the first Palestinian film financed 100% by Palestinian funds. It is a tragic as ever, where the young and handsome Omar and the young and beautiful Nadia love each other but everything conspires to destroy their love. Like many young Palestinians, Omar has vague ideas of how to fight the Israeli occupation forces and naturally things go terribly wrong.
This type of movie constantly upsets me, but I feel that I have a duty to see such things, just as I go to see the Israeli movies about the same subject.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2013 21:07:38 GMT
Seeing the lastest film by Ethan and Joel Coen today, Inside Llewyn Davis, I am realizing more and more how uncomfortable I am with their universe. They are fantastic storytellers and their actors are always great, but the situations, epochs and personalities in their movies are increasingly disturbing, it seems to me. I think that Inside Llewyn Davis should be shown in a double feature with Frances Ha, because these people are made for each other.
This movie takes place in 1961 and that year is enough to give me the creeps all by itself.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2013 22:05:59 GMT
Never been a fan of the Coen's. I was quite disturbed and yes, depressed, by Fargo and Burn After Reading. I guess I find their amoralistic universe a little hard to take. I'll pass on this one, I think.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2013 23:09:55 GMT
In any case, no matter what anybody thinks of this movie, I really hope that the career of Oscar Isaac takes off after this. When you look at his filmography, you see that he has really been in a lot of stuff but he has absolutely never been noticed before.
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Post by bjd on Nov 8, 2013 10:37:14 GMT
I had planned to go see that movie after reading good reviews. I rather like the Coen brothers, except for A Silent Man.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2013 12:05:14 GMT
I'm sure you'll like it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 8, 2013 22:25:00 GMT
I'll be losing my virginity at the movie theater tonight ~~ my 3D virginity, that is. I'm going to see Gravity. Excited!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2013 1:22:30 GMT
Enjoy yourself, Bixa. We did when we saw it.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2013 18:22:26 GMT
I am still anxiously awaiting Bixa's report of being deflowered. While Avatar is incontestably the best use of 3D ever made at the cinema, Gravity is pretty admirable, too.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 9, 2013 18:58:35 GMT
Thanks, Lizzy!
Here I am, Kerouac, & here's my report:
From the very first second of 3Dism, I was totally dazzled, knocked-out, enthralled, & deeply pleased. What an amazing, brilliant invention! I did have in the back of my mind some comments you've made here about the necessity or non-necessity of using it in particular movies. To me it seemed obvious that Gravity was created in order to use 3D. I wanted to give myself over to the experience, but a part of my mind was wondering if 3D would be distracting or gimmicky in other, more thoughtful movies, or if it will eventually become as normal & expected as "talkies" now are.
At any rate, giant wow. When it ended, I felt as though every, down to the teensiest, muscle in my body had been worked as I flinched or tensed throughout the brilliantly executed movie. I loved how everything seemed so realistic and textured and, without giving anything away, was properly moved when we were supposed to be moved. Probably I was the perfect audience, as except for one small thing, it was all suspension-of-disbelief & immersion in the thrills for me.
I didn't know I'd be going to see Gravity until a few hours before showtime, nor did I know anything about the movie. When it was over, the friend with whom I went & who had been so eager to see it, griped furiously. She had read many glowing reviews which apparently praised the intellectual depth & underlying philosophy of the film and was vastly disappointed in it on that level. Her very first comment when the movie ended was how much she hated the dialogue & that she would have made it without any dialogue. She was offended by the emotional manipulation of the moving part (the part where I was blotting my eyes) & by the events immediately afterward. Since I was only expecting something whose entire purpose was to entertain & thrill, I was more than satisfied with the experience.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2013 19:30:43 GMT
One thing that I enjoyed reading was how the space specialists (including former astronauts) said that the film was extremely realistic -- except for one small detail which they nevertheless excused as "poetic license." They said that the idea that the various space stations would be within reach of each other was the same as saying that someone had swum from the Bahamas to England overnight.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 10, 2013 1:26:01 GMT
I briefly thought about that during the film, & then decided maybe it was a few years in the future, so totally logical that there would be more & closer together. The one small thing that bothered me was this: When the module lands in the ocean, did she open the hatch, or did it open by itself?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2013 19:53:49 GMT
Ridley Scott's "The Counselor" is the second worst film that I have seen this year, which is pretty amazing since he is a competent director and a movie with Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, etc. would normally be considered a relatively sure bet. It was so awful that I considered walking out several times (don't forget that I pay hardly anything to see movies, so I am not even held there by trying to get my money's worth), but I was paralyzed by wondering how bad it would get, plus of course there were one or two gory scenes every half hour to perk things up. In the end there were only two redeeming things about the movie -- Cameron Diaz as the most toxic femme fatale that I have seen in decades and one tiny scene where Michael Fassbender looks longingly at a poster of Steve McQueen. This was clearly a private joke since Steve McQueen is the director who made Michael Fassbender famous and with whom he has made his best films. Transposing his gaze onto the actor Steve McQueen as a substitute was excellent.
So, what is the #1 worst movie that I have seen this year if this isn't it? It was "A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III" with Charlie Sheen.
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Post by lola on Nov 16, 2013 4:45:44 GMT
I had no sooner read NYTimes reviews of As I Lay Dying and wanted to see it than I learned it was out on DVD already. One of my favorite books, well top 50 anyway, so I'll have to watch it at home.
Counselor was panned pretty much here, never made my Must See list.
There are quite a few I'd like to see in theaters, so I might make it to a couple of them. Maybe one HighMinded and one not.
The St. Louis Film Festival starts this weekend, so I'm going to throw a dart I think and pick one.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 16, 2013 20:48:40 GMT
As I Lay Dying is a truly great book. I was excited about the film, but much less so now that I've read the reviews. I remain mystified as to what all the James Franco hoo-ha is about. Here's one less dart you'll have to throw! Hear ye, hear ye, Anyporters around the world. This just in from Bayou Maharajah's fb page:
Mark your calendar and check our 'events' pages for details. Bayou Maharajah November tour schedule: Nov 11th. Athens, GA. Nov 14th. Lafayette, LA. Nov 17th. St Louis, MO. Nov 23rd. London, UK. Nov 24th. Paris, France. Dec 1st. Rome, Italy.
www.bayoumaharajah.com/
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2013 20:51:51 GMT
As I already wrote, I think that As I Lay Dying is hard to like during a first viewing, but it grows on you when you think about it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 18, 2013 6:34:23 GMT
Thanks for that, Kerouac, as I either didn't see your earlier comments on the film (or spaced them out).
Any movie that continues to resonate & that a committed movie-goer describes as important must be worth seeing. I'll see if I can get my hands on it. Meanwhile, I eagerly await Lola's take.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2013 0:07:28 GMT
Tonight I went to the premiere of the Indian movie "The Lunchbox" which will be released in France in December. It was released in India in September and comes out in Germany in a few days, because it is officially a Franco-Germano-Indian coproduction.
It is an absolutely suberb movie which has apparently been sold in just about every territory in the world, so it will be released sooner or later everywhere. It's in Hindi and English and concerns lower middle class workers in Mumbai. The backbone of the movie is the lunchbox delivery system used in India. Delivery people pick up the metal lunchboxes (just like the ones used in China) from all of the invididual résidences and take them to all of the workplaces. Then they pick up the empty containers after lunch and return them to the point of origin. To us non-Indians it sounds both uselessly complicated and also brilliant, but it works.
The plot revolves around the incorrect delivery of a lunchbox, which officially happens one in six million times. A wife who is trying to win her husband's affection back makes extra efforts to cook superb meals, but the lunchbox is mistakenly delivered to a widowed accountant about to retire. As for the husband, he is receiving the widower's crummy lunches from a local greasy spoon.
Due to the husband's (non) reaction to her cooking, the wife understands that her meal was eaten by a stranger, who practically licked the container clean. She starts putting notes into the container along with the chapati, and an incredible correspondence develops between the old accountant and the frustrated wife.
In any case, it is a beautiful love story, but it also an amazing ethnological survey of life in Mumbai. Just seeing the dwellings, the daily commute, the condition of the offices, the proximity of the colleagues, the lunchroom... it is all a remarkable look into a different culture. And even though life appears to be much more difficult than most of us have it, it also shows that we are all the same in the end, all around the world.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2013 0:23:26 GMT
I saw one of those guys while I was in India. Quite something how well the system works. It all seems so chaotic but in reality it's not. There is a method to it and as you say, a meal is very rarely delivered to the wrong person. Nice clip. (Would you like me to translate what is being said in parts of the clip)?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2013 0:28:51 GMT
Actually, there are other links with English subtitles, but I thought this was the best trailer.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2013 0:41:56 GMT
Arh right, that's fine.
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Post by lola on Nov 19, 2013 2:06:09 GMT
Here's one less dart you'll have to throw! Hear ye, hear ye, Anyporters around the world. This just in from Bayou Maharajah's fb page:
Mark your calendar and check our 'events' pages for details. Bayou Maharajah November tour schedule: Nov 11th. Athens, GA. Nov 14th. Lafayette, LA. Nov 17th. St Louis, MO. Nov 23rd. London, UK. Nov 24th. Paris, France. Dec 1st. Rome, Italy.
www.bayoumaharajah.com/ Well, foo, Bixa. I didn't see this until today and missed the film (which was shown the 16th after all.) I'll keep my eyes open for it, though. Inertia, indecisiveness, and the weather kept us from seeing any of the films. We'll see if we can overcome the first two obstacles, and my work schedult, this week.
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Post by rikita on Nov 25, 2013 22:37:58 GMT
I saw one of those guys while I was in India. Quite something how well the system works. It all seems so chaotic but in reality it's not. There is a method to it and as you say, a meal is very rarely delivered to the wrong person. Nice clip. (Would you like me to translate what is being said in parts of the clip)? hm i am too lazy to click on links for other clips, so can you translate it for me? (only if you have time though, i suppose i shouldn't be so lazy ...)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2013 1:10:29 GMT
Oh Rikita, I'm in a lazy mood too right now. I will do it later on...
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Post by rikita on Nov 26, 2013 21:35:28 GMT
no problem ...
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 11, 2013 4:38:55 GMT
I'm going to see this tomorrow. Hope it's not schlocky:
A friend & I are going. We're both keenly interested since the little girl actress is from Atzompa, one of the villages adjacent to the city of Oaxaca.
Regardless of whether or not I like the movie, I LOVE this ~~
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Post by htmb on Dec 11, 2013 11:32:15 GMT
I enjoyed watching both clips very much. Please report back to us, Bixa.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 15, 2013 6:02:21 GMT
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