I Just Watched...

[CinemaInternational]

The end of FEUD: Capote Vs The Swans. What was the point of all that?

Or awards too. It will undoubtedly be up for some (especially in a year with few other shows in the running), and uneven though Feud was this year, Naomi Watts turned in her best work in years, and Diane Lane was clearly enjoying her character's acid lines.

[CinemaInternational]

There have been a few rewatches the last few days (The Best of Everything, Lucy Gallant, Lover Come Back), but only two new first time offerings:

The River Niger (1976): James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson are wonderful at their work, but despite their valiant efforts with their typically fine performances, the film (based on a Tony-award winning play) just simply does not work since the source material, even despite being prize-winning, is monotonous and deals in cliches about rough-and-tumble neighborhoods and the Black Panthers. Plus the print quality was miserable.

Come Fly with Me (1963): Fluff out of the Three Coins in the Fountain school, involving Dolores Hart, Lois Nettleson, and Pamela Tiffin as flight attendants looking for romance and going around some very photogenic European cities. Too bad for them though that most of their would be suitors seem more like the wolfish ones in The Best of Everything.... still its a pretty good escapist offering and the Lois Nettleson/Karl Malden plotline is wonderful.

[cmovieviewer]

There have been a few rewatches the last few days (The Best of Everything, Lucy Gallant, Lover Come Back), but only two new first time offerings:

The River Niger (1976): James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson are wonderful at their work, but despite their valiant efforts with their typically fine performances, the film (based on a Tony-award winning play) just simply does not work since the source material, even despite being prize-winning, is monotonous and deals in cliches about rough-and-tumble neighborhoods and the Black Panthers. Plus the print quality was miserable.

Come Fly with Me (1963): Fluff out of the Three Coins in the Fountain school, involving Dolores Hart, Lois Nettleson, and Pamela Tiffin as flight attendants looking for romance and going around some very photogenic European cities. Too bad for them though that most of their would be suitors seem more like the wolfish ones in The Best of Everything.... still its a pretty good escapist offering and the Lois Nettleson/Karl Malden plotline is wonderful.

I find the beginning of The Best of Everything to be an interesting example of what it was like in New York City at that time. This ties into something I learned from the documentary The Automat, which pointed out that there was a huge number of women working in the offices as stenographers etc. in the late 50’s and early 60’s. The opening scenes in the film of people rushing into the city at the start of the work day provide a nice historical record and the Johnny Mathis title song is great too.

[Allhallowsday]

...Or awards too. It will undoubtedly be up for some (especially in a year with few other shows in the running), and uneven though Feud was this year, Naomi Watts turned in her best work in years, and Diane Lane was clearly enjoying her character's acid lines.

I liked all of the performances; don't forget JESSICA LANGE! NAOMI WATTS I am now in love with. I do not blame the wonderful performers for a very spotty script, which I believe had an OVEREMPHASIS on foul language. By today's standards "big deal" insert eyeroll, but then, these Swans weren't swearing the "f" word at each other in public places. Nope.

[CinemaInternational]

...Or awards too. It will undoubtedly be up for some (especially in a year with few other shows in the running), and uneven though Feud was this year, Naomi Watts turned in her best work in years, and Diane Lane was clearly enjoying her character's acid lines.

I liked all of the performances; don't forget JESSICA LANGE! NAOMI WATTS I am now in love with. I do not blame the wonderful performers for a very spotty script, which I believe had an OVEREMPHASIS on foul language. By today's standards "big deal" insert eyeroll, but then, these Swans weren't swearing the "f" word at each other in public places. Nope.

I couldn't forget Jessica Lange, especially not because of her run of marvelous performances in The postman Always Rings Twice, Tootsie, Frances, Country, Sweet Dreams, Crimes of the Heart, Music Box, Men Don't Leave, Blue Sky, Rob Roy, and A Thousand Acres. Some of those films might not have been as good, but she always gave her all.

It's nice to see Naomi Watts get a good role again; it had been too long; she has had a strong talent for a long time. The first time I saw her was in an Australian miniseries called Brides of Christ (1991), about nuns and students dealing with the turbulent 60s. She was one of the students, about 23 when she made it, and she was excellent in it. I've always kept an eye on her since, and she gave fine work in the gritty Mulholland Drive and in the old-fashioned The Painted Veil (one of the few remakes better than the original).

As for the language, it was overkill and anachronistic for the time, but all too common now. I recall seeing a marvelous film a few years ago called Motherless Brooklyn. It was an exceptional film, but the swearing level was way too high for something set in 1959. It was the film's only flaw. With regards for this series, I think it falls into the same pitfall as many other modern shows, be it a broadcast channel like FX or HBO or a streaming platform like Netflix: they feel the best way to grab interest is to lay on the language and nudity in heavy amounts. They call the use of such things the defining trait of high-quality dramatic TV. Strange, but I remember high quality dramatic or comedy/drama network shows of the past (Peyton Place, St. Elsewhere, Knots Landing, Cagney and Lacey, LA Law, China Beach, thirtysomething, Northern Exposure, Moonlighting, Homefront, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, Family) and they never had to go that deep in that material because they all had good, solid, relatable writing. And frankly, they have aged better too.

[CinemaInternational]

you know,

i'm torn.

i have never seen CROSSING DELANCEY and, while all your remarks have me wanting to...I also kinda don't wanna spoil what fun it is to view this photo without knowing just what on earth the context of the scene is.

not a clue.

If I had to caption it, it would be: "MISS HAVISHAM TO ANITA BRYANT: "**** YOU AND **** YOUR ORANGES, NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF THE EAST VILLAGE!"[/b]

I know this was a couple months ago, but I have to bump this after my ranking films thread, because I felt that having covered a year from most of the other decades, I had to include the 21st century for completion's sake, but 2008 reminded me of the sheer torture of sitting through Milk due to the script's constant use of the name Anita Bryant. I swear they said her name at least 60 times in the film. It was audio torture! Couldn't they have only said her name once instead of constantly?

As for this scene though in Crossing Delancey, the woman in question is a street entertainer who wanders into a hot dog shop, and starts singing "Some Enchanted Evening"

[Allhallowsday]

One of my favorite movie moments:

[Swithin]

Dear old Paula. I passed her apartment building this evening. One of the sweetest and kindest people I've ever known.

[kingrat]

We just finished watching Masters of the Air. This Apple TV series in nine episodes follows the real-life story of American airmen who flew missions out of England in WWII and watched most of the men in their units be killed or taken prisoner. Doesn't develop characters that much, but is heavy on atmosphere and gives a clear sense of what this felt like. The Tuskegee airmen enter the story in episode eight. My husband loved the graphics. At the end of episode nine, we learn what happened to a few survivors after the war. If you're interested in WWII, you might want to check this one out. This is like Twelve O'Clock High from the enlisted men's point of view.

[Hibi]

I was charged up by the candor and violence of the 1st two episodes. Wonderful performances. The Black and White Ball was a letdown despite a great idea, and after that it was beating a dead horse. D A E D. Dade.

Agree. It quickly went downhill after a promising start...

Lending credence to your previous argument that it should've been a 2 parter. Just not enough material to stretch to 8+ hours. I don't know what the running time was in total, since I think every episode ran well over an hour with the ads (which I skipped over).

Bless whoever invented the DVR...

LOL 8 PLUS hours of Truman Capote. Too much! (I figure with commercials it was an hr per episode)

[HoldenIsHere]

The end of FEUD: Capote Vs The Swans. What was the point of all that?

Do you mean the actual ending of the last episode where the ghosts of the Swans watch Truman Capote's ashes being auctioned in 2016 and then leave?

I'm pretty sure it's meant to be a comment on the end of New York high society.

It was a nice surrealistic touch, the kind of thing you often see in great stage plays but rarely in mainstream television where audiences usually seem to want to something "real" ("real" is in quotations because they don't actually want real but the fake formulaic "real" they've grown accustomed to getting.)

Notwithstanding that Lee Radziwill was still alive in 2016, it was a brilliant ending to a brilliantly written episode, an amazing blend of reality and fantasy/hallucination that is not often seen on mainstream television.
The author, playwright Jon Robin Baitz, played "Herbert Moss" (Capote's fictionalized version of Herbert Ross) in the episode.

[kingrat]

We just watched the documentary The Bloody Hundredth, which accompanies the mini-series Masters of the Air. This superb documentary includes interviews with survivors of the 100th, including some of those portrayed in Masters of the Air. If you have any interest in WWII, highly recommended.

[Allhallowsday]

...Do you mean the actual ending of the last episode where the ghosts of the Swans watch Truman Capote's ashes being auctioned in 2016 and then leave?

I'm pretty sure it's meant to be a comment on the end of New York high society...

No.
The writing was uneven, too many curse words, and an overindulgence of fictional fantasy sequences.

[HoldenIsHere]

...Do you mean the actual ending of the last episode where the ghosts of the Swans watch Truman Capote's ashes being auctioned in 2016 and then leave?

I'm pretty sure it's meant to be a comment on the end of New York high society...

No.
The writing was uneven, too many curse words, and an overindulgence of fictional fantasy sequences.

The writing was fantastic, much better than what you usually see on mainstream television.
Most bio-pics are rather tepid fare.
Jon Robin Baitz's dialogue and use of fantasy was what made the series worth watching.
I didn't need to see a dramatization of the literal facts of Truman Capote's life.
People familiar with Capote's story already knows the details of his life.

[Allhallowsday]

...The writing was fantastic, much better than what you usually see on mainstream television.
Most bio-pics are rather tepid fare.
Jon Robin Baitz's dialogue and use of fantasy was what made the series worth watching.
I didn't need to see a dramatization of the literal facts of Truman Capote's life.
People familiar with Capote's story already knows the details of his life.

I know who TRUMAN CAPOTE was.
I think the writing was often interesting, even stunning. I still believe the foul language is 21st century. One swan using the "f" word once would have carried more weight. I think "high society" sure ended half a century ago before people started the vulgar vernacular routinely. If the fantasy sequences made it worth watching I shrug. There was too much. Plus the "timeline" was puzzling or at least expedient. I do think performances were strong.