WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[RedRiver]

Chio, I'm guessing you've watched the dressing room scene in TOOTSIE many times!

The only think I liked about SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE was the popcorn. Nowadays it would be called SEX, LIES AND BLU-RAY, YOUTUBE, DOWNLOADING AND ALL KINDS OF STUFF NOBODY REALLY UNDERSTANDS!

[movieman1957]

I thought "Sex, Lies, etc" was rather dull. Everyone else loved it so I thought I was missing something. That still is a likely scenario.

[MikeBSG]

Speaking of the dressing room scene in "Tootsie," when I was in Moscow in July 1995, I saw "Tootsie" at the Illuzion Cinema. The dressing room scene was cut from the film. I don't know if this was offical Russian policy, or if this was a projectionist building his private collection.

(Sadly, while the dressing room scene was cut, the musical interlude was intact.) AARGH!!!

[feaito]

Thanks to Michael's recommendation "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" (1948) moved up on my queue and I finished watching it today. A good film about a man (Edward G. Robinson) who unwittingly can see future -negative- events, which ultimately dooms him. Gail Russell is a lovely heiress under menace and Bill Demarest a skeptical policeman. Virginia Bruce plays Gail's mother. John Lund's -Gail's love interest- performance is stiff. Interesting.

[MikeBSG]

Yesterday I watched "My Favorite Brunette" (1947).

It is a pretty good Bob Hope movie. It is a fine parody of film noir, and having Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney Jr. on hand for the menace adds a lot to the film. Still I think I prefer "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", to say nothing of Abbott and Costello. I like Hope's films, but I don't love them.

Today I watched "There Will Be Blood."

This one never really won me over. Maybe if it had been told in flashbacks like "Citizen Kane," but showing us stuff in 1898, 1902, 1911 and 1926 in chronological order just made the film seem lifeless. It was more pictorial than dramatic. Daniel Day Lewis seemed to be in every scene in the film, (if not in every shot), and I just got tired of him. Nobody else in the film registered half as strongly as a character. It was as if he were the only human in the film, and everyone else was an automaton. (In a film nearly three hours long, this is a drawback.)

[CineMaven]

March 3, 1911 - June 7, 1937

Beautiful...talented...gone too soon.

[Rita Hayworth]

March 3, 1911 - June 7, 1937

Beautiful...talented...gone too soon.

I agree!

[charliechaplinfan]

I've wanted to watch Heavenly Creatures for the longest time, despite not being a big fan of Peter Jackson's films but the premise of Kate Winslet and a movie based on a real life murder committed by two young girls. I was dissappointed , I didn't mind the style although I thought it was confused but it took an awful long time to build up to the murder and then ended. I felt the film was at last reaching it's potential and that was it, just a few words about the real people. I couldn't help thinking that he needed a lesson in film scripts from the writers of the forties and fifties. I felt like he took an interesting story, discarded the essence and then tried to build something slightly pretensious around it. I did appreciate what he weas trying to do with landscape, colour and some of the fantasy but rather than living in their heads with their made up characters I'd rather have had a more traditional storytelling approach. I had expected so much from Heavenly Creatures but it's just convinced me to avoid Peter Jackson's work in future.

[charliechaplinfan]

My Week With Marilyn assumes a bit of knowledge about Marilyn and the film world, not a problem for me. It's based on a book by Colin Clark and presuming everything is true, I've never read of a close relationship that Marilyn had when Arthur Miller was away although I've read lots of books about Marilyn over the years, or that she was taken to Eton or Windsor castle, it does make for a good drama. Kenneth Branagh caught Laurence Olivier, he was uncanny at times and then at others not quite as much. Judi Dench had the most sympathetic part as Dame Sybil, Zoe Wannamaker good as Paula Strasberg, Arthur Miller didn't resemble him at all I didn't think, or Vivien but perhaps the fault with Vivien's portrayal is the same as Michelle Williams, they are both so iconic to film lovers that the magic that we love can't be caught again. I can get past the lack of similarity, in longer shots I could believe Williams portrayal and at a couple of points I thought she'd really got the character, she doesn't resemble her but I could pass that by if she could sound like her but there was no attempt at the baby soft voice, I know Marilyn was meant to have two voices, the one we know being the one used for the camera but it wasn't attempted at all. Vivien's voice wasn't attempted either, I can forgive that more, producers might think that there are few that would have known what she sounded like. The storyline was a good one, seeing what goes on behind the scenes, the well documented troubles with lateness and her conflict with Larry Olivier, he was meant to be the villan of the piece, as Colin undoubtedly saw him whilst atthe same time looking up to him as a acting genius. I felt somewhat sorry for him, knowing that Vivien was somewhat unstable at this point in her life and Marilyn unstable at work. For a film lover despite my grumbles it's a joy to watch. Marilyn's costumes so lovely, why don't we dress like that today? Is it just too uncomfortable?

[JackFavell]

I liked Branagh the best, Alison. At first I thought, oh no, he's awful, but then he kind of got it, some of the tones made me laugh out loud. I think he went on to make Olivier more sympathetic, not satisfied with making him a petty tyrant or villain. I liked what Branagh did, because he knew it wasn't good enough to make a caricature, he made a new character of Olivier and dropped the mannerisms for more depth.

I think Vivien should come back and haunt the people who portrayed her in this movie, director, writer and actress.

[MikeBSG]

I wasn't that taken with "Heavenly Creatures" when I saw it. I don't think it was the pacing that bugged me but rather I didn't think Peter Jackson had control over the material or didn't know what he wanted to say or didn't realize what he was saying. Had it been a totally fictional story, I might have liked the movie better. But it was based on a real story in which the mother of one of the girls was murdered. My problem was that Jackson seemed to be saying "These girls had a wonderful love and a wonderful imagination" so we should have some sympathy for them, but then the murdered mom was the most sympathetic adult in the film. Murdering her made the girls seem simply destructive and self-indulgent, which seemed to fly in the face of sympathy Jackson had been building up for them.

And ending the film with "You'll Never Walk Alone" as we read about how the two girls were separated by the criminal justice system? To me that says we are to sympathize with them.

I decided that Jackson didn't really know how to handle this material.

[JackFavell]

Gee, I thought it was a very purposeful switch up that Jackson pulled. We were meant to feel awful for liking these girls. I felt the same way the first time I watched Day of the Jackal, here I was, almost rooting for the hit man who is going to kill Charles De Gaulle, I mean, he's so good at it, and interesting. Then he does something stunningly horrible and I felt revulsion.... my previous feelings being pointed up as shallow.

I saw it some time ago, but I liked Heavenly Creatures. It did leave me with questions, but I thought it was meant to be ambiguous.

[charliechaplinfan]

No attempt was made at Vivien which was such a shame, for me in many ways she's a bigger actress than Marilyn. No attempt was made at Arthur Miller either, not just Mr Monroe but an important person in his own right. No one was telling Marilyn the truth, starting with Dame Sybil, Vivien, etc and undoubtedly this bit was true, I didn't find Marilyn in the least bit sympathetic and down right manipulative and tended to agree when Sir Laurence told Colin to not let the little girl act fool him, she knows what she's doing. I felt Larry was too gushing about her art, I know he went on to say what she left on screen was genius but at the time I'm not sure he would have felt so sympathetic, had this mellowing not been shown in the film though Larry would have appeared tyranical. My favourite scenes were the ones when Larry is trying to direct her and Paula steps in, it turns the film within a film into a farce. If Michelle Williams had attempted the breathy voice I think her performance would have had a really strong chance at Oscar time.

Well put, Mike about Heavenly Creatures, I thought I was watching a story of a murder with the reasoning behind why the girls would do it but I think the interesting story would have been the arrest and the disintergration of the girls relationships afterwards, too much time was spent in their pretend world, both girls were completely obnoxious and as you say the nicest person in the whole film was the one who got beaten to death. I'd expected more because Jackson was picked to directed the Lord of the Rings trilogy on the back of this and although they might not be to my taste they have a huge following.

[feaito]

Yesterday I saw René Clair's "It Happened Tomorrow" (1944) starring Dick Powell and Linda Darnell, as a couple of great-grand parents who are celebrating their Gold Wedding Anniversary with their whole extended family and begin reminiscing of the time when they met each other; he was a young journalist and she part of a vaudeville act with her uncle (Jack Oakie) in which she pretended to guess things and foresee the future.

The premise is that Dick Powell talked about being able to see the future with his peers at the Newspaper and a senior colleague warns him about this longing; then something happens: he gets a newspaper with the news of the following day! What will he do now? The film's atmosphere is quite reminiscent in a way (IMO) of "An Italian Straw Hat" (1928) and is very well acted, paced and entertaining. Linda Darnell looks beautiful and has good chemistry with Powell. There are plenty of fine supporting actors, like Edgar Kennedy, Ethel Griffies, Sig Ruman et al. A nice discovery.

[RedRiver]

IT HAPPENED TOMORROW is a cute little fantasy. I'm stuck with two videos I have no interest in watching. You know how people shove movies and books down your throat? It's because THEY like them. It has nothing to do with you. A co-worker has lent me GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN and FLY-BOYS. They might be good. They might not be. I may never find out. I didn't ask for them!