Talk About Movies: Part 4
Somehow threads merged, so here's part 4 of our ongoing movie discussion.
I have NEVER seen a LOTR movie... unless it was animated by Ralph Bakshi my precious.
bunch of grumpy old men in this thread. Watch what you wanna watch, but don't poo-poo movies you haven't seen.
i didn't like the bakshi adaptations, found them creepy and disinteresting
bunch of grumpy old men in this thread. Watch what you wanna watch, but don't poo-poo movies you haven't seen.
Yeah, if I want to watch Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! who will frown upon that?
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Remember, there are posters on this forum older than Dom, but none as grumpy.
Faster pussycat, kill kill is awesome...
FINALLY caught up with Anora
Wow. I'm a sucker for Sean Baker films. I don't know how he does it over and over, but he wins me over with these characters. I felt nothing until I felt EVERYTHING during the final scene. The pacing feels frantic and with almost any other director I would have been turned off by this material. I kept feeling excited about the next scene, where it was going, and where it would end. There's a shot/reverse shot in the film that's incredibly profound and it was employed beautifully. That shot in the spoiler section below
Spoiler
I LOVE how much time the audience is given to breath and absorb this moment. Absolutely floored me. I was a mess. It was also an interesting commentary on class system. Ani and Igor feel like they're cut from the same cloth. It sickened me that after the Zakharov family got what they wanted, them sent them back home in coach. Unlimited wealth and out of spit and pettiness, make them sit with the fellow peasants! SHAME!
Anora is a film I won't soon forget and will immediately go on my imaginary shelf of every day soul(s) i'm rooting for. I want these people to have their day in the sun.
Shot comparisons for Anora This is as intimate as Ani and Ivan get in the movie. It's a transactional relationship and since I'm gullible AF I was hoping it would lead to happiness for Ani. But the contrast between the scenes is jarring.
He makes her an offer she can't refuse
They get engaged
And finally...
Spoiler
Finally some intimacy. Probably doomed, but far more emotional than Ani and Ivan. I can see and feel their guards coming down.
Two Hitchcock films yesterday:
The Wrong Man and North By Northwest.
I've seen all of Hitchcock's films from The Lodger to his final film, Family Plot, but I had never been able to see The Wrong Man until yesterday. It's based on a true story about a man, Manny, accused of and jailed for a robbery he didn't commit. I expected the film to explore his arrest, imprisonment, and his release. But the film moves in unexpected ways, focusing in a surprising turn on Manny's wife.
The Wrong Man explores the transference of guilt, a familiar Hitchcock theme, and how people who earn enough money to barely survive face life. The famous story about Hitchcock's father taking him to a police station and having him locked up as a child scarred him for life. It's also one of the few films in which Hitchcock explores openly his Catholic religion.
It's a somber film for Hitchcock who has no cameo in this one. I find it of all his films, aside from Vertigo, his most devastating.
North By Northwest, which also explores the "wrong man" theme, is a comedy in comparison. Stanley Cavell, the Harvard philosopher, has written a great essay on North By Northwest, which compares the film to an early version of Hamlet. Rodger O Thornhill, the O stands for nothing, has an unusual attachment to his mother. If you watch it, pay attention to all the references to playacting and theater. The film's title is taken from Hamlet's line "I go mad north by northwest." Hamlet has a destination for his madness. He acts it out. Also notice how Thornhill reacts to Eve (why Eve?) and how Hamlet treats Ophelia.
North By Northwest is a tense film but the tension is relieved by humor, which is absent in The Wrong Man. And if you want to see a film that shows the way a well done narrative works, the way information is dispersed throughout the film--some characters know more than the audience and some characters know nothing about what the audience knows--I can't think of a better example.
I love North By Northwest, a film I have watched at least a dozen times. Note the final shot.
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Love Hitchcock, thank you for your thoughts. The latter really is much more comedic than it’s given credit for.
I think my favorite is Frenzy.
My friend just inherited a 3000 DVD collection from an old man who is sick. The collection includes everything from Chaplin's Essanay films to the collected Russ Meyer. I think "eclectic" is the right word here.
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My friend just inherited a 3000 DVD collection from an old man who is sick. The collection includes everything from Chaplin's Essanay films to the collected Russ Meyer. I think "eclectic" is the right word here.
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Oh man, I would have loved sitting down with a beer or a cup of coffee with that old guy.
North by Northwest my favorite Hitchcock.
The final shot is to assure the audience that the new Mr. & Mrs. Thornhill are getting back to New York safely, and nothing else. 😉
North by Northwest my favorite Hitchcock.
The final shot is to assure the audience that the new Mr. & Mrs. Thornhill are getting back to New York safely, and nothing else. 😉
Exactly [emoji23]
Cavell makes a nice comparison between the end of Bringing Up Baby to Grant pulling up Katharine Hepburn from the crashing dinosaur skeleton to Grant pulling up Eva Marie Saint up into the bed from Mt. Rushmore.
Cavell also compared Grant's face to those on Rushmore, emphasized by Grant shaving with the tiny razor.
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I watched the new remastered PQOTD last night... they did an fantastic job with this Australian release.
A great story with a lot of Humanity.
priscilla was an amazing watch back in my yut but i revisited it a few years back and it didn't hold up
This thread is a friendly reminder that I have many Hitchcock blind spots. So many that it may be easier for me to list the ones I've actually seen! Gotta fix that. As I'm revisiting my blu-ray library I'm having so much fun digging into older films. After watching stuff like Exit Through the Gift Shop, Blood Simple, Mission Impossible 1, I can't help but feel like a grumpy old man and shout at the clouds, "They don't make em like they used to!" Thankfully we have modern filmmakers like Robert Eggers, Sean Baker, Kelly Reichardt, Spike Jonze and David Lowery (to name a few) that are making great, worthwhile stuff with a unique voice and vision.
"Anora" is awesome. I was tired yesterday when I started watching it and only lasted about 45 minutes before turning it off thinking it was slow. But, I am glad I went back to finish it, because almost immediately after that it went full blast awesome until the end.
