WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[feaito]

Today I watched the Guillermo del Toro produced Spanish film "Los Ojos de Julia" (The Eyes of Julia) (2010) with Belén Rueda (The Orphanage, The Sea Inside) and Lluís Homar (Hispania, Los Borgia), an interesting if not altogether succesful horror-eerie-suspense feature which tells the story of a woman whose blind twin sister mysteriously dies (apparently commits suicide) and who tries to discover what really happened with the help of her husband.....but terrible secrets await her!!

[charliechaplinfan]

I rented out Pacific for my hubby to watch. We'd both loved Band of Brothers and we hoping for a repeat of that great series but it didn't happen. We'd bith hoped to round out our education a little about the Pacific theatre of war. I got through the first episode, it takes time for characters to bed in and stories to develop but after the second episode I was completely lost, I couldn't recognise one character from another apart from the colonel, oh my, it seemed like one long skirmish. Not wanting to admit my failure to follow the characters I sat there rather quietly thinking that I had another 8 episodes to go. After the second episode Chris decided he wasn't wasting anymore time on The Pacific because he couldn't distinguish who was who and it wasn't a patch on The Band of Brothers. It wasn't just me then.

[knitwit45]

I just watched This Happy Breed last night for the first time. I struggled to understand what the actors were saying, right at first. A lot of the dialog went right over my head because of the "language" differences, but I soon fell into the story. Robert Newton was, for me, a revelation. I only remember seeing him as Long John Silver, and I kept expecting some kind of violence from him. Alison's beloved Celia Johnson was marvelous as a mother/wife working to keep her family fed and clean.

I almost choked with laughter when one of the children and date were at the movies, watching an American-made talkie, and he commented "I can't understand a word they're saying." His date replies, "I know, but aren't they marvelous?"

By the end of the movie, I was wishing it had continued thru the WWII years. Was Queenie safe in Singapore? Were Frank and Ethel safe thru the Blitz? Did Billy make it safely thru?

[charliechaplinfan]

It's a lovely film isn't it. Anything with Celia Johnson in deserves a look and when it's directed by David Lean as well, it's worth sitting down and watching.

I've had Libby at home today. So we treated ourselves.

The Pilgrim 1923, she loved this as a smaller child and found it just as delightful today. She didn't get all of the gags, like Charlie and Mack Swain slipping and the bottle busting in Charlie's pocket after Charlie pinched it from Mack Swain's back pocket. She loved the bit with the small boy, who has said in interviews that he didn't want to act mean to Charlie and Syd but the effect is hilarious. Topped off by Matt Munro singing for some reason but it suited.

Pay Day 1922 another favorite from her early days, the film were Charlie has no diner and it goes up and down in a lift and from this I have to find the right film, thank goodness I'm a fan. The bricklaying is a masterpiece, trying to get Libby to think outside the box into how it was put on screen but she wouldn't believe me, he's imply just good at catching, perhaps I should leave it like that.

Then I made her move on to Laurel and Hardy and my favorite feature, Sons of the Desert and the 'exhausted leader' this film tickles me even more than most, I think it's because Stan has the better hand, his wife isn't as bad as Mae Busch and despite all Ollie's posturing he's truly under her thumb. It's predictable in that very fimiliar funny way that Laurel and Hardy are. Libby really enjoyed it although I don't think she knew what to make of the wives.

We finished off with Monkey Business the superb comedy by Howard Hawks, Libby was taken with the juvenile capers of Ginger and Cary, the film is so well cast, Ginger especially given a chance to exercise her talent for comedy, with Cary it's just second nature. I love Charles Coburn too.

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday, I revisited Violent Saturday, a 1955 Richard Fleischer thriller. This heist picture takes place in a small town where three strangers arrive, looking like travelling salesmen. In fact, they are three gangsters who came to rob the local bank. The film, in its first part, takes a leisurely pace showing the various people of the small town. We discover the local librarian (Sylvia Sidney) stealing a handbag as she is desperate for money. The married bank manager (Tommy Noonan) is obsessed with a pretty nurse ; the rich heir to the local copper mine (Richard Egan) is also at odds with his wife. The main character is the mine manager played by Victor Mature. He will be the one who will stop the three gangsters in their tracks. Overall, the film is very well built with a very good use of the CinemaScope screen. Some characters are hardly touched upon though. The film tries to cover too much ground. It's still quite interesting to see Ernest Borgnine playing a peaceful Amish farmer. While being very much against violence, he decides to act and kills nasty Lee Marvin with a pitchfork. The film has flaws, but it's entertaining enough.

[MikeBSG]

I just watched "Germany, Pale Mother" (1979), directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms, which looks at her parents' relationship from the height of the Nazi era to the onset of the Fifties.

A very powerful and interesting film, shamefully underrated in most accounts of the "New German Cinema" of the Seventies. I far prefered this direct and straightforward view of the era to the 'magic realism' of "The Tin Drum."

[mrsl]

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CharlieChaplinFan: I was like that with Band of Brothers but for some reason, I was able to distinguish one from another better than with Pacific. That could be one reason I have to like the stars of a movie in order to watch it, so I know what the characters are doing and who belongs to whom. It's hard enough trying to follow the story, but when you can't keep the people straight because you have no idea who they are, that doubles your failure to enjoy the show.

KnitWit: I posted a short thing on This Hapy Breed last week. I found this movie intriguing from the first time I saw it about 2 or 3 years ago. I love generational movies, and like you, wished it had gone on a bit longer. Also, like you, I expected some sort of explosion from Long John Silver, which was my only introduction to Robert Newton too. It's surprising to me how John Mills stayed around for so many years. To me he was a weird looking fellow, and I wouldn't have looked for him when casting movies at all. But, remember, that's only my opinion.
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[JackFavell]

Robert Newton is very under-rated and a favorite of mine... I find him quite interesting to watch, and have a couple of favorites including This Happy Breed, in which he is cast so against type and is wonderfully warm and down to earth as the dad.

Major Barbara is also a fantastic performance - no surprise here, he plays a tough, though his emotions are all over the place here, as they should be with this character. I find him more fascinating than either Rex Harrison or Wendy Hiller (though I am a big fan of hers), he adds a lot of excitement to the rather talky movie.

In Odd Man Out he plays an artist, probably the most philosophical and least bad of the bunch who take in Mason while he's sick and on the run. He is quite thoughtful here and I like him tremendously, He's definitely the hioghlight for me. It's nice to see him in these diverse roles.

I find it very interesting that every pirate in the movies since his "Long John Silver" copied his accent - I laughed out loud in the movie theatre during the first Pirates of the Caribbean, when Depp spoke his first words... he does a great "Robert Newton".

[charliechaplinfan]

Robert Newton grows on me.

Anne, I have a perennial problem when watching war films, even The Longest Day, my husband has taken me to most of the sights and it's acted by very famous people and I still get lost, even though I know the history really well. The Longest Day has too many strands for me but usually it's the fact I can't keep up with who's who, what uniform is which side (I know, I'm pathetic) who's winning etc. I'm far better with war movies that haven't too much action in them, like The Dambusters. For some reason Band of Brothers clicked for me, not least for Damian Lewis, for all of the actors. I liked the fact it followed one company, I thought it taught me something about fighting in WW2 which is what I'd hoped for from Pacific. We can't like them all I suppose.

[Rita Hayworth]

I'm far better with war movies that haven't too much action in them, like The Dambusters. For some reason Band of Brothers clicked for me, not least for Damian Lewis, for all of the actors. I liked the fact it followed one company, I thought it taught me something about fighting in WW2 which is what I'd hoped for from Pacific. We can't like them all I suppose.

I love Longest Day too. I can see where you are coming from - regarding LD Movie starring John Wayne and a cast of thousands ... I wished TCM or AMC can reshow Dambusters again. It one of my favorite WWII movies and I've a friend that has the complete DVD of the Band of Brothers and I enjoy those series as well.

Allison, thank you for jarring my memory to recheck any movie channels if Dambusters is playing again. I really mean it.

[movieman1957]

Alison:

I recently saw an episode of "Foyle's War" that dealt with the same territory as "The Dambusters." They certainly didn't devote the time to it but is was central to the murder investigation and gave some good background. While I don't think they used any clips from the film there was some original footage from test flights.

The original film was very interesting. Save for some of the graphics in the climax it was well done and informative.

[MikeBSG]

Yesterday I watched "The Rider Named Death" a 2005 Russian film about a terrorist group in Moscow during the 1905 Revolution. (It was based on a book by the surviving member of the group. Well, he survived 1905 and was executed after the Russian Civil War.)

Directed by Karen Shaknadzarov (male), it was very good. Old Moscow was lovingly recreated, and I liked the fact that the director used long takes and really created a sense of "the past" as a real place. The action scenes were very powerful as well, particularly the hunting down of a terrorist who had thrown a dud bomb. Indeed, although the fastest thing in this movie was a horse-drawn cab, the suspense and intensity of this film was very strong. (Perhaps because it felt real, not CGI.)

The funny thing for me is that 10 years before, Shaknadzarov had directed "American Daughter," a charming comedy about a Russian who goes to the US to find his young daughter. The two films are extremely different.

[charliechaplinfan]

Heck I want to watch The Dambusters again now, my first memory of the film was the dog that gets killed before his master sets off, how cruel, that lost the film for me age 9, I had to wait until I was older to watch it in it's entirety.

[feaito]

I watched "Woman on the Beach" (1947), a Drama with Noir overtones directed by Jean Renoir, starring Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan and Charles Bickford, all very good actors. The film is flawed and , from what I read on the book on the "Bennetts", was reshoot completely by Renoir after a disatrous preview. It's a complete pity that the first cut of the film doesn't exist anymore, because I'm sure it was much better than the 67 minute version I saw. The premise is interesting and the interplay between the characters too, but all in all, the film doesn't make much sense and its conclusion is forced. A true pity. Renoir's best American film for me is the beautiful "The Southerner" (1945).

[feaito]

I just watched This Happy Breed last night for the first time. I struggled to understand what the actors were saying, right at first. A lot of the dialog went right over my head because of the "language" differences, but I soon fell into the story.

Hi Nancy, something similar happened to me last WE when I watched "A Canterbury Tale" (1944). I had trouble to get used to the accents of some of the actors featured in that film, especially at the beginning. And this, in spite of the fact that I was educated in a British School based in Santiago, where they taught me British English and I was used to listening to -the speech & accents of- teachers from England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, South Africa, Australia et al. After I graduated my English turned "more standard" towards Midwest American English (my accent when younger sounded too British for many people and thus kind of snooty, or so I was told...)