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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 31, 2019 16:44:56 GMT
I was pretty much gobsmacked by the Chinese movie I saw yesterday, Nan Fang Che Zhan De Ju Hui, or if you prefer The Wild Goose Lake. I think the title 'Sperm Lake' might be more appropriate. It is a manhunt for a motorcycle thief who accidentally kills a policeman and makes a run for it. He ends up at Wild Goose Lake, a sort of interzone of vice. The main attraction is the 'bathers,' prostitutes who ply their trade standing breast high in the water so that nobody can prove what they are doing with the man pressed against them. Sometimes they are in a boat to do their business, but they spit a white blob in the water rather than swallowing.
Anyway, the reward for his capture is 300,000 yuan (I looked it up: 38,372 euros or US$ 43,092 so not a shabby amount for China). He meets up with a nice hooker and tells her that he knows that he will not get away but wants his wife to get the reward money. Incredible chases and deaths ensue. If you want to know more, I suggest that you see the movie.
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Post by casimira on Dec 31, 2019 16:54:50 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.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 1, 2020 1:32:56 GMT
Much as I love my feline friends, zero desire to see that film.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 1, 2020 14:00:06 GMT
Little Women is a nice movie. It will win Oscars. However, enough fabric was used for the costumes that they could make the tents for three circuses with them.
Cats was yanked off 95% of the screens of Paris after just one week.
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Post by lugg on Jan 1, 2020 17:06:10 GMT
Well in what is becoming a tradition my sister and I went to watch a film on NYE - we had 3 choices that fitted with our timings in our cinema - Cats ( we both said no based on the crap reviews ) Star Wars - ( yes for me... I'm a bit of a Star Wars geek but a no for my sister) and finally Little Women , which we both agreed on. I absolutely loved it and so did my sister and it appeared that everyone else did too ....or at least nobody chatted , took a phone call or went to the loo half way through. 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.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 1, 2020 18:53:04 GMT
Sounds like Cats will be an expensive flop...I shall reserve judgement until I've seen it...I have quite enjoyed a few films that have been slated by the critics.
I really enjoyed the Little Women books when I was a girl, I will probably wait for the DVD....
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 2, 2020 1:57:50 GMT
Oh Lugg ~ thank you so much for that review! I read Little Women several times when I was a child, but have shrunk back in horror from any film or tv versions in fear of diabetes from the saccharine treatments. The trailer of this latest incarnation seemed promising, but I was still reluctant until I read what you thought about it.
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Post by casimira on Jan 2, 2020 18:11:21 GMT
What Bixa said. Thank you Lugg. I had the same reservations.
When I was in NY visiting my childhood home I was rummaging through some boxes in the attic and found my childhood copy. I was so thrilled it hadn't been tossed or eaten by mice.
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Post by lugg on Jan 2, 2020 18:56:49 GMT
Hope you both enjoy it as much as I did.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 3, 2020 18:42:28 GMT
My my, I wouldn't have thought that Hellen Mirren and Ian Mckellan were so hard up as to accept to make a movie like The Good Liar. It starts out as the typical scam movie (old crook preys on wealthy widow) but they probably knew how worn out this plot was, so they took it to a weird new outlandish level. While I felt quite sure from the first minute that the "victim" would not be the targeted person, I never expected the Berlin sequence and its totally unbelievable events.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 4, 2020 3:23:56 GMT
I have zero interest in that type of film. Too bad, as I'm very fond of Helen Mirren.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 5, 2020 1:15:22 GMT
I dunno. Usually I am not willing to give the proper amount of attention to the twists, turns, and hints in this kind of story, but this one looks as though it might be worth watching, especially after reading Kerouac's ambivalent not-quite-a-putdown.
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Post by htmb on Jan 11, 2020 14:09:07 GMT
So, I saw the new Polanski movie J'Accuse yesterday (international title: An Officer and a Spy), and no matter what you think of the director as a human being, it is an excellent movie. It takes the Dreyfus case into a different direction, from the point of view of the anti-Semitic scumbag who helped to have him convicted and then had doubts when investigating the evidence ("fake news," anybody?). But as we all know, the French army (like every army, even in the 21st century) refused to have its decisions challenged. The scumbag was thrown in jail, Emile Zola was thrown in jail... but Dreyfus was released in the end. Pardoned but not exonerated of guilt (that took quite a few more years). The scumbag and Dreyfus saw each other one last time after he was released and despised each other -- not quite a Hollywood ending, but that's the way real life is. Visually, the movie is stunning. I’ve been reading the Robert Harris book, from which the film was adapted, and have found it quite illuminating. It was written as a novel, but supposedly stays true to the details and to the characters involved. However, the protagonist in the book comes across as evolving into more of a hero whistleblower, and certainly less a scumbag than the members of the military who covered their tracks. I only have a few pages left in the book and now I’m wondering if the film will ever be shown in the US.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 11, 2020 14:47:06 GMT
Oh, they wouldn't be hypocritical, would they? After all, a country that glorifies world class paedophile Michael Jackson certainly can't hold anything against small time player Roman Polanski.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 11, 2020 16:10:45 GMT
I’ve been reading the Robert Harris book, from which the film was adapted, and have found it quite illuminating. ... I’m wondering if the film will ever be shown in the US. When Robert Harris is good, he is really compelling. Do you recommend the book, Htmb? I think Polanski has an outstanding warrant in the US, so he stays out of that country. But his movies, which I assume are distributed by some international entity, aren't banned in the States, are they? The Fearless Vampire Killers is a cult classic in the US and as far as I know, still shown on tv.
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Post by htmb on Jan 11, 2020 17:08:25 GMT
Bixa, I’m glad I read it. I’ve learned a lot more about the historical significance of the Dreyfus affair. Because the film is in French, part of my reason for reading the book was to help me follow along later with my very limited French. Since I seem to find many books interesting that others (family members, friends) don’t, I’ve learned to stop making recommendations. I haven’t read any other books by Robert Harris, so I have nothing with which to compare. I did find the book got a little bogged down at one point, but that can be the nature of true stories.
As for showing the film in the US, all I could find was a note that no American companies had picked up the options.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 11, 2020 17:51:43 GMT
Thanks, Htmb! I've read Imperium and Pompeii. Imperium is fairly complex as historical fiction, whereas Pompeii is more simplistic but with great edge-of-your-seat suspense.
This discussion prompted me to look up Robert Harris. His Wikipedia entry has a fairly extensive section on Harris and his working with Roman Polanski. That made me google "robert harris roman polanski" which renders bunches of hits.
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Post by htmb on Jan 11, 2020 18:51:42 GMT
I downloaded a sample of Pompeii this morning to give a try. When it comes to books, it seems feast or famine for me. Fortunately,I have several to get to at the moment, so will probably delay starting Pompeii for awhile.
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Post by bjd on Jan 12, 2020 14:32:05 GMT
To chip in, I generally like Robert Harris's books and have read An Officer and a Spy. I think I mentioned it somewhere above when Kerouac first posted that he had seen the movie.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 15, 2020 18:55:37 GMT
1917 is definitely impressive visually. Nevertheless, I found it a bit shallow and probably would have wanted to be punched in the gut much harder. Go figure.
I have been following the career of George Mackay for a number of years (Marrowbone, Captain Fantastic, Pride, How I Live Now…) and it seems clear now that he has reached his turning point.
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Post by lugg on Jan 17, 2020 19:13:38 GMT
I really want to see 1917
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 18, 2020 13:56:25 GMT
I saw the Japanese animé movie Weathering With You by Makoto Shinkai, who made the fabulous Your Name two years ago. It takes us westerners a bit of an effort to enter the animé world, but it is very much worth it. This movie is about a teen boy who runs away to Tokyo without enough of a plan (or money). Life is grim and the weather is horrible, but he finally finds some helping hands. Unfortunately, the police are after him, Tokyo is sinking into the bay because of the non stop rain, and the girl he loves is fading away as he magical weather powers drain her.
I was surprised at the number of spectators for a Saturday morning show in an outlying area -- and they were all high school students.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 18, 2020 15:00:56 GMT
I love animé..I prefer the cheerful cartoon films to the more realistic depressing ones. Have you seen Grave of the Fireflies? I bought the DVD thinking it would be another Spirited Away or similar....boy was I wrong. Sooooo depressing. Beautifully animated tho, as they all are.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 18, 2020 15:09:01 GMT
Animé often tells extremely tragic stories. I confess that I not seen the Grave of the Fireflies even though I know it is a classic. But Spirited Away was not exactly a laff riot either. I continue to marvel at the fact that it won the Oscar for best animated feature in 2003 -- the only Japanese animated movie to have ever done so.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 18, 2020 16:12:53 GMT
I'm pretty sure that I am just about ready for a second viewing of 1917. This doesn't mean that it was "the best film ever" but it definitely had too much going on for my eyes to absorb everything the first time. I probably see a movie a second time perhaps twice a year, which would be a huge amount for the general public, but nothing compared to how I was in my teens.
My parents never really understood my passion for movies (but had the decency not to criticise it). However, at various times over the years, each of my parents actually went to see a movie a second time on a big screen because they were in love with it.
For my mother, it was Thelma and Louise. For my father, it was Staying Alive.
I felt that it revealed significant things about their ideals, frustrations and desires, more than they ever told me in any conversation.
Did any of your parents ever expose anything about themselves in being impassioned about a movie they saw?
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 18, 2020 18:43:08 GMT
Many of us don't give a fuck what it available on tiny DVD format screens when a huge visual is available. And actually, 1917 is an authentic story, not made up at all.
I will admit that the French series Apocalypse is much more horrifying since it uses only archival footage (albeit with sound effects added). What petrified me the most were the scenes of shell shocked survivors. It is really the horror that goes beyond all concept of horror.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 18, 2020 19:26:35 GMT
If "made up" war footage offends, that implies that all "fake" footage about anything offends. I call bullshit on the concept. People have always needed to be told stories, and if you have to create images to correspond to the story, I really do not see the problem. That is the genius of fiction.
Of course, I know some people who only read non fiction books, and I feel quite sorry for all of the wonderful stories they are missing.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 19, 2020 16:53:21 GMT
So, I went to see 1917 again today and I am very happy to have done so. This time I did not have to worry about the plot and was able to completely focus on the fabulous cinematography. There are so many remarkable details, from the flies on the horse corpses to all of the body parts sticking out of the mud and the antics of the rats chewing on everything that is dead.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 19, 2020 19:55:21 GMT
I played a small part in the making of Apocalypse, translating dialogues and other elements. (I do have a useless graduate history degree).
Is it true that this 1917 doesn't mention the two Russian revolutions of that year at all? I guess the brass didn't want soldiers to hear about any such revolts that stemmed in large part from the impact of the war on an already impoverished people.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 19, 2020 20:50:22 GMT
The story takes place on April 7, 1917 and just follows the two soldiers who have to make their way through the no man's land to where another British division is located. It does not discuss any geopolitical events of the time, just the microcosm of the soldiers on that day. They have no idea what is going on -- their only mission is to try to stay alive.
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