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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 15, 2019 20:51:08 GMT
Tonight I saw The Sisters Brothers again, a French movie filmed in Spain about the American West. It was nice to see Joaquin Phoenix not being Joker.
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Post by Kimby on Oct 16, 2019 0:04:57 GMT
We liked the Sisters Brothers a lot. Didn’t realize its mixed nationality heritage. It seemed pure American Western to us. Well cast, too. John C. Reilly was great. www.imdb.com/title/tt4971344/
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Post by rikita on Nov 3, 2019 19:28:57 GMT
a. got to chose a movie to watch for halloween (though we only watched it yesterday), so i gave her a choice of different children's movies with ghosts etc. she chose one that is old enough to be almost from my own childhood - caspar. i wasn't that fond of the movie back then but found it okay, same now ...
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Post by rikita on Nov 8, 2019 19:53:39 GMT
watched the neverending story with a. the other day. we are currently reading the book (and are done with the part that is covered by the movie) ... she enjoyed it, i noticed that it is quite old by now (and i think also as a kid i noticed that it doesn't come close to the book) ...
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 8, 2019 23:31:00 GMT
Quite honestly, I hated that movie because it had such a horrible message of petty revenge. And I watched it because I loved the book so much, which is subtle and spiritual. Also, why did they make the dragon look like an ugly dog? humph
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Post by rikita on Nov 9, 2019 0:05:23 GMT
from what i read, michael ende hated the movie, too ...
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 9, 2019 0:50:12 GMT
See there!
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Nov 9, 2019 16:42:20 GMT
Last week we watched the 2011 Jayne Eyre which I thoroughly enjoyed. Michael Fassbender as Rochester and Mia Wasikowska as Jane were truly excellent. So when I saw that today we had the 1943 version on BBC 2 I thought I'd compare and contrast Orson Wells and Joan Fontaine seemed so stiff and unrehearsed. I know that it was made in different times when cinema was still quite young and that they were knocking out films at a ridiculous pace...but the acting really was awful
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Post by Kimby on Nov 26, 2019 13:25:00 GMT
We just watched Souvenir, and were puzzled and almost lulled to sleep by the slow pacing. This Roger Ebert reviewer has a MUCH more favorable opinion of the film, and in retrospect is probably right. I agree, after the fact. www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-souvenir-2019Interesting to see Tilda Swinton in a non-androgynous role as the lead character AND lead actress’s mother.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 26, 2019 13:52:19 GMT
I am halfway through the Spanish miniseries Instinto. I wondered why it had a -16 rating, but I understood in the first two minutes. You see the guy jogging through the woods, but the minutes he gets home to take a shower, he masturbates furiously. Later, he goes to a mysterious sex club where everybody wears masks and not much else as they perform every sex act imaginable, some of which were clearly not simulated. And then... we get the opening credits and the story can begin.
The protagonist is Marco, a brilliant and rich entrepreneur with a lot of ghosts in his past. He seems like a nice guy when he isn't dealing with his sex drive. He has an autistic younger brother (age 18) in an institution. The brother adores him but is uncontrollable. Nevertheless, Marco tries to get legal custody for him while keeping the despised mother away. At the same company are Marco's best friend Diego as well as Diego's wife and another ambitious woman engineer. Stir all of these people up and things get really complicated. Marco, for example, has never had sex with anyone whose face he has seen and wants to keep it that way. I haven't reached the end of the series yet, but something tells me that his resolve will be shaken...
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Post by Kimby on Nov 27, 2019 21:20:07 GMT
Just watched The Favourite, a period costume drama set in the early18th c. court of Queen Anne. Great acting by Olivia Coleman, Emma Stone and Rachael Weist. Liked it a lot, right up till the too-abrupt ending. www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-favourite-2018
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 28, 2019 16:25:54 GMT
I am halfway through the Spanish miniseries Instinto. I wondered why it had a -16 rating, but I understood in the first two minutes. You see the guy jogging through the woods, but the minutes he gets home to take a shower, he masturbates furiously. Later, he goes to a mysterious sex club where everybody wears masks and not much else as they perform every sex act imaginable, some of which were clearly not simulated. And then... we get the opening credits and the story can begin. I made it to the end of Instinto even though I was beginning to lose interest around the middle of it. I had no interest in the infidelities of various characters nor the vagaries of tech company spying and theft. But I was rooted in the existential torment of the main character and his struggle for custody of his autistic brother. And why was he unable to deal with his mother, who didn't seem like a bad person even though she was seriously fucked up and had suddenly abandoned her sons without explanation while Marco was still a young teenager. Well, Marco changed psychiatrists and the truth came out in a repressed memory that finally surfaced after extreme torment. He even tried to commit suicide by hanging himself in the sex club, but had not succeeded in the next-to-last episode. I was pretty impressed by the revelatory memory, which explained not only why he hated his mother but why his sex life was completely tormented. The last episode left the door open for a continuation, but I don't think that one is planned, and that is the right thing to do, although of course I would have liked to know how things would turn out when he finally got custody of his brother -- the effect on his life and if the brother got better over time. {the reason for it all} As a young teenager, he walked in on his mother having sex while chained up by her partner. He attacked the partner who ran off but rather than releasing her, he took off his clothes and raped her. Therefore he could never have normal sex again and could never see the face of the person he was doing it with.
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Post by Kimby on Dec 4, 2019 12:28:48 GMT
We watched an excellent little German film called IN THE FADE. It follows a young widow in the aftermath of her husband and son being killed in an explosion that may or may not have been a terrorist act. The trial by judge panel was an interesting departure from American jury trials. www.imdb.com/title/tt5723272/
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 4, 2019 13:30:49 GMT
Diane Kruger won best actress for that at the Cannes festival a few years ago.
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Post by rikita on Dec 5, 2019 22:32:24 GMT
We watched an excellent little German film called IN THE FADE. It follows a young widow in the aftermath of her husband and son being killed in an explosion that may or may not have been a terrorist act. The trial by judge panel was an interesting departure from American jury trials. www.imdb.com/title/tt5723272/from fatih akin, i see. i have only seen a few of his movies, think i heard about this one but haven't seen it yet ...
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Post by Kimby on Dec 6, 2019 13:41:03 GMT
I can’t believe I made it to age 66 before seeing my first Bollywood musical! We acquired by Interlibrary Loan from Knoxville Tennessee the 3 hour 2002 Indian film called DEVDAS, and I was wow-ed! Variety called it a “Bollywood extravaganza of Romeo and Juliet dimensions” and I have to agree. www.imdb.com/title/tt0238936/The costumes! The settings! The ravishingly beautiful leading women! The mesmerizing and flirtatious dance numbers! I was struck by the Egyptian-like mechanical moves slipped into more sinuous choreography. The acting seemed a bit over-the-top at first, but I quickly adapted to go with the flow. I asked Mr. Kimby at what time in history and what percentage of Indians actually lived such sumptuous lives, and his reply was none/never. But is it all fantasy or is it based on a small slice of very privileged Indian families?
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Post by onlyMark on Dec 6, 2019 13:55:04 GMT
And it's got Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai (and married a Bachchan, famous family) in it...... Bollywood royalty. A complete opposite is a film called Bandit Queen. True story of a woman called Phoolan Devi - www.imdb.com/title/tt0109206/
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Post by Kimby on Dec 6, 2019 13:59:54 GMT
Another film that’s been “on our list” for a long time is 2014’s MERCHANTS OF DOUBT, which came from Knoxville Tennessee via Interlibrary Loan.
It is based on a book of the same title that we both read about how a small group of “scientists” managed to insert doubt into iron-clad scientific findings about tobacco, flame retardants, acid rain, the ozone hole, and most significantly, global warming, all for the purpose of preventing regulations that would harm their corporate clients.
Some of the “skeptics”/obfuscators were eventually converted to believers by the data, but were shouted down by their former allies, whose notion of “freedom” includes being able to make limitless money pedaling products that harm humanity and the Earth.
Very well-made (and less geeky than Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth), the film used a magician and sleight of hand to introduce the deceptions employed by the science deniers.
Worth viewing, but if you can’t find the film, read the book.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 6, 2019 14:47:15 GMT
You need to see the Bollywood spectacular Lagaan about singing and dancing peasants during a terrible drought. The Victorian colonial rulers are ruthless and cruel, and the fate of the peasants hinges on who wins a cricket game.
The voiceover on this trailer is appalling. It sounds like something from the 1950's.
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Post by Kimby on Dec 6, 2019 19:08:32 GMT
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Dec 14, 2019 20:38:14 GMT
I love watching old films on TV. As well as the old Ealing comedies, and splendid stuff like Goodbye Mr Chips, The Wilmslow Boy and the occasional Noel Coward war drama I am very partial to the big blockbuster American movies. High Society is a favourite along with the early Doris Day and Judy Garland musicals...and of course anything with Gregory Peck, Clarke Gable, Jimmy Stewart and the other greats.
I was quite excited when I saw that White Christmas was going to be on TV...so I settled down to watch as I'd never seen it before.
I hated it. Am I a terrible person?
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 15, 2019 5:24:05 GMT
No, you're just a grinch.
I don't remember much about that movie, but it has so little substance that there can't be all that much to hate.
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Post by bjd on Dec 15, 2019 6:21:47 GMT
I have seen it on TV but remember nothing. But it's title song has been played repeatedly in North America at Christmas over the decades.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Dec 15, 2019 20:46:22 GMT
The title song is fine...its the script and the other songs that are awful. I was unhappy as I usually enjoy films with Bing Crosby and Danny Kay in them...
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Post by mickthecactus on Dec 22, 2019 19:26:18 GMT
I’ve enjoyed what I’ve watched so far. Yesterday was Shrek and Mrs Brown, today has been Toy Story and BFG.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 22, 2019 19:44:37 GMT
Tonight I'm watching Vera. Probably not too Christmasy.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Dec 22, 2019 21:27:47 GMT
Paint Your Wagon was on the BBC this afternoon...what an absolute joy that film is. I love it...know all the words and many of the gestures Even the interesting singing voices of Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood are splendid...
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Post by questa on Dec 22, 2019 21:35:56 GMT
What is Vera's accent and location? I love her speech and idioms.
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Post by patricklondon on Dec 23, 2019 6:53:06 GMT
What is Vera's accent and location? I love her speech and idioms. North-eastern England, specifically Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the surrounding Northumbrian countryside, with that distinctive intonation (a bit Scandinavian, hardly surprisingly). Various Newcastle landmarks are frequently visible and referenced in the dialogue (the Tyne bridges, the Sage arts centre). Brenda Blethyn, who plays Vera, is actually from Kent, I believe. I have seen some people saying her "Geordie" accent is a bit generic and not very authentic. The actors playing her team and the assorted suspects and witnesses have a range of accents, of course, many clearly from the north-east, but others more generically drama school "northern", as well as occasional Scots, and other parts of the country. Talking of Vera, the Talking Pictures channel recently played a couple of Vera Lynn's movies from the 40s: fluff plots built around her songs, of course, and projecting her "sensible sister" image (which she's still very protective of - at the age of 102!)
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Post by questa on Dec 23, 2019 10:08:34 GMT
Thanks for the info, Patrick. I am devastated that her accent is not her natural tones. (Not really)Do you recall the character "Greengrass" from "Heart beat"...a dirty old poacher with an accent I could just understand. I saw him in an interview,...smooth Oxford accent and a polished manner.Almost unrecognizable.
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