WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[JackFavell]

Oh I love The Court Jester! Wonderful, wonderful movie. It makes me laugh thinking about all those knights bowing down to a baby's bare bottom.

[feaito]

It's been a complete discovery for me!! Although I was already familiar with Kaye's antics in his Comedies with Goldwyn made during de '40s, which are very good!

And if I compare "The Court Jester" with the similarly themed "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1949) with Bing Crosby, TCJ wins hands down in all accounts!!

[Ann Harding]

I watched The Song of Bernadette (1943, H. King) recently and was pleasantly surprised by the film. King made there a really personal picture. I found Henry Miller's cinematography superlative. The early scenes inside the Soubirous' household reminded me of Tol'able David, King's greatest film IMHO. The cast is really excellent with many superb character actors: Vincent Price, Anne Revere, Lee J. Cobb and Gladys Cooper. Jennifer Jones managed to pull through a good performance, even if she is far too old to appera like a young girl. I appreciated the quality of the script based upon Werfel's book. It doesn't try to make you believe in miracles. It shows you the dramatic events surrounding Bernadette's 'visions'. It's interesting to note that the authorities are originally worried by the influx of believers. By the mayor realises later the profit that can be made. (Very little has changed nowadays: souvenir shopowners in Lourdes are often millionaires.) A very good King.

[mrsl]

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IT'S COMPLICATED

For the first time in 20 years, last night I saw a funny adult comedy. The writer is Nancy Meyers of whom I have heard nothing before or since, but she wrote a comedy that would have made 1930's comedy directors gleeful. This started out funny in the first scene and continued through to the final fade out. Of course the casting helped me, tremendously. I have a lot of trouble taking Alec Baldwin, so seeing him as the egotistical "look at me" guy was easy. Of course she could put on a glove that was 6 sizes too big and it would still fit Mery Streep, because to me she is that amazing. She deserves every oscar she was ever nominated for. She is such a throwback to the old days when an actress became a new person every movie, from an Italian immigrant to a high brow, gorgeous fashion director and on to a fairly normal suburban mother of three, who's a little overweight, and colors her hair but still likes herself.

After 10 years of divorced life which have taught her that she's a pretty nice person, she runs into her ex and, with complete shock in herself, falls into a mini-affair with him. This is all in the first 15 minutes or so, and from then on it's quite a romp, from the son in law who sees things but doesn't want to admit it, to the grown kids who keep trying to get a reconciliation, although Dad's married to a much younger woman. BTW, during all of this, she has met Steve Martin who she finds attractive, but she opts to mess it up with this 'affair' that is blooming. There are all sorts of bedroom foibles with the phone ringing, door knocking, and a scene that put me into hysterics with Baldwin and Steve Martin on the computer. That, you have to see to appreciate, I wouldn't even think of trying to describe it.

I highly recommend it, but make sure the kids are sleeping because although the nudity is not elaborate, or drawn out, it may cause some problems with children.
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[Birdy]

Not to mention the drug use!
B

[JackFavell]

You make me actually want to see this movie, which I didn't when the previews came out. Thanks, mrsl!

[mrsl]

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I had a different reply but somehow it got lost in translation. Birdy, thank you for reminding me of the drug use. That is a good example of how jaded I've become to certain sights. When I saw Poltergeist, I was angry at the use of drugs, and I get mad all over again when I revisit it. But that observation and feeling was formed when I was a young mother praying and working hard that my kids never got involved with that stuff. Now seeing it, a lot of the time I just chuckle, where previously I would have gasped and covered my eyes. And that is a sad comment on me, it says my backbone is not as strong as it should be.
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[charliechaplinfan]

Thanks to Nancy I got to see Raintree County, thank you I'm never dissappointed when watching Montgomery Clift even in a film as panned as this one. It was much better than I expected as often these films are. It was marketed as a second GWTW which it isn't, Elizabeth Taylor is no Vivien Leigh and Montgomery Clift is no Clark Gable.The film meanders a little, the photography is beautiful and good support is given by Agnes Moorehead and Lee Marvin amonst others. I also thought I'd spend the film noticing the before and after Clift but for me it wasn't obvious and his performance doesn't seem to suffer. A introduction from Robert Osbourne said Clift made only 17 movies, only 17, most of them very memorable films. Eve Marie Saint looks so ethereal, heavens only knows why John left her Nell for Elizabeth Taylor's shrill Suzannah.

I also watched Dead of Night an Ealing film made in 1945. It starts as some people meet in a house and it triggers memories for one of the guest of a dream he has that terrifies him, everything he sees in the dream starts to come true. Other contribute their stories and dreams. It's an unusual and very watchable film with plenty of British stars of the time in the cast.

[klondike]

Alison, Dead of Night is one of my all-time favorite movies! I make a point of sitting down and watching my DVD copy in entirety at least one evening every year, but frankly, if I stumble upon it channel surfing, it still hooks me without fail!
It's hard to describe in words the appeal this film has for me; as sensual & textured as DoN looks, and sounds, it somehow has nearly the same immediacy as watching a videotaped production, without any of that dry, hollow flatness.
Just as an example, consider the segment about the birthday party; the tension has only about ten or eleven minutes to escalate, and yet not only accomplishes its crescendo in expert delivery, but even takes time here and there, along the way, to distract you with the gay tomfoolery of happy children at play . . even while the gooseflesh keeps tickling at your back.
Or that mirror!! Talk about the raw, brute power of suggestion! The climax to that segment is made all the more insidious by masterfully selected music that goes far beyond its normal function of merely setting a tone, or framing an exchange.
Well I could go on til midnight if not careful, so I'll put the brakes on here & now.
I imagine there are also film buffs right here on this planet who'd find DoN somewhat boring, or more likely, perhaps, even overrated.
But they could sure never convice me!
{Because Pilgrim Farm exists!}

[JackFavell]

Oh man! I LOVE Dead of Night! I think I said elsewhere that I really like episodic movies, or short story type movies. Dead of Night is so super great! I adore the golf sequence with Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, but also enjoy all the other parts too. I watch it every year too, and pretty much every time it's on. The Mirror is my second favorite of the creepy sequences, with Michael Redgrave coming in first always - his ventriloquist bit is CLASSIC!

[charliechaplinfan]

I don't think I did Dead of Night justice last night, I was just too tired to do it justice. I'm glad you both put into words what is so great about it. It's one I'm going to have to revisit because there's more there than I could see with first viewing. In fact you've already got me wanting to go back for the second viewing straight away.

[MichiganJ]

Watched a couple more Jean-Pierre Melville films:

Le cercle rouge (1970) One of the great heist films. Characters are developed not through dialogue (which is sparse) but through some lengthy and seemingly mundane scenes. Ah, but Melville knows what he's doing and all the sequences have tremendous and unexpected pay-offs. When I make my own movie, I'm going to borrow the overhead billiards reveal, which is just one brilliant shot among many.

Un flic (1972) Another tremendous crime/heist film, again with sparse dialogue but also again with great character development. This one is more fatalistic and the lines are deliberately blurred between good guys and bad guys. This time for my movie I'm going to borrow the character revealing close-ups, paying particular attention to eye lines, as in the scene where Delon plays the piano.

I also watched the blu-ray of Nobuhiko Obayashi's House, a film I knew nothing about but which is currently one of my all-time favorites. I haven't had this much fun watching a film in a long time. It was so good that when it ended I just hit play and watched it again. There's really no way to describe it but I agree with the reviewer from DVDtalk when he writes " …it's a cross between Dario Argento's Suspiria and an episode of The Monkees", which is what it is and a lot more. (Beware there is a lot of playful violence and blood, which deliberately looks fake, and some nudity, which is not fake.)

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Jeanne Eagels, I think Kim Novak is simply stunning, she made this film watchable, the story itself was patchy, I don't think Eagel's descent into drugs and drink is dealt with particularly well. My first Jeff Chandler movie, he's lovely.

[MikeBSG]

I've seen an odd mix of stuff lately.

"The madness of King George" was good. It reminded me how much I like Amanda Donahoe, who was the queen's lady in waiting. Rupert Graves was also very good as the King's equerry. (I probably misspelled that.) It felt odd to see him in a sympathetic role.

Yesterday, I watched "District B-13," a French sci-fi film that strongly reminded me of "Escape from New York," but much much better. ("New York" was 1980, and "District" was 2004.) I realized why I liked "District" so much. It was stuntwork and not CGI. The stunts (a lot of leaping off roofs, and diving through windows) made me think of Buster Keaton. Also, it clocked in at under 90 minutes, which I greatly appreciated. It showed how bloated some Hollywood films are. (I'm looking at you, "Avatar.")

[charliechaplinfan]

A Kid For Two Farthings, I mistakenly thought it was a tale of a little boy in London in the 1950s', in a way it was but the kid in question is a goat that the little boy thinks is a unicorn who keeps making half wishes come through. It's a lovely movie and stars the great Celia Johnson as the boys mother and Diana Dors as a girl waiting to marry her fiancee.