Last Movie You Watched

[aligreto]

My favorite Claude Sautet movie with a fabulous performance of Daniel Auteuil "tout en reserve".  This movie was inspired by Maurice Ravel life and Mikhail Lermontov book "A hero of our time".  I find this movie very representative of french style at his best.

Yes indeed, an excellent film with great performances by all I thought. The Ravel music which punctuates the film is not bad either. 

[Karl Henning]

Wednesday night, I watched Deer Hunter. Or, started watching it, rather . . . I had forgotten that it runs three hours, and by the time I set the DVD playing, there was no way I was going to stay up late enough to finish.  So Wednesday, I watched the first hour, which is the whole of the opening Pennsylvania sequence.  I watched the rest of it last night.

I remember the movie being a particularly celebrated accomplishment in American cinema at the time.  (I first watched, not the season it opened, but probably within 3-4 years of the opening . . . I think it likely I watched it on movie night at the College of Wooster.)  And I am sure it then exerted on influence on later war pictures which I have also seen since.  The long and the short of my ruminations being that, it had a less visceral impact on me this week, but I don't think it fair to chalk that as any negative against the picture.  In fact, I thought it all held up very well.

Although I did not remember the movie running three hours, I did remember (that first viewing) feeling that the Pennsylvania opening ran long;  but I now wonder if that had not been boyish impatience.  Now, I think it just right, it builds Home for the characters, which ultimately underscores what Nick has lost view of in the final catastrophe.  (Although, maybe, that raises the question of how/why he still sends money to Steve at the V.A. Hospital.)

Even apart from an improved global appreciation of the movie, there is a great deal which I appreciated much better, watching it now.  Thanks to the wedding ceremony, the use of the liturgical choral music to score Mike's hunting forays in the mountains is dramatic, and not merely nice musicking. The (for this movie) atypical "mid-century US symphonist" vibe in the score during the late-war chaos in Saigon.  The restraint with which the bittersweet solo guitar tune is used.  The movie is intense, but it also has great heart;  so the intensity notwithstanding, I do see myself coming back to it, and much sooner than last time.

[SimonNZ]

Over the last week, some well made action films. Each quite inventive in their own very different ways, and recommended:

[George]

Mysterious, real and moving.

[aligreto]

Last night....

[listener]

The VOYAGE OF EMPEROR CHIEN LUNG   Shaw Brothers HK  1978
a half-dozen comic episodes of the Emperor travelling incognito to see how the 'other half' (non-royals and court and Southerners) live
diverting for those interested.

[James]

Hammer Horror 8-Film Collection
1960-1964 | 8 Movies | 686 min

Hammer Films, one of the most celebrated horror studios in the history of cinema, presents 8 classic horror films in one collection. From Dracula to Frankenstein, werewolves to phantoms, the Hammer Horror Series 8-Film Collection showcases some of the most terrifying monsters in the history of cinema and features legendary performances by Peter Cushing, Oliver Reed and Janette Scott. The box set includes Brides of Dracula, The Curse of the Werewolf, Phantom of the Opera, Paranoiac, Kiss of the Vampire, Nightmare, Night Creatures, and The Evil of Frankenstein.

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[Gurn Blanston]

Hammer Horror 8-Film Collection
1960-1964 | 8 Movies | 686 min

Hammer Films, one of the most celebrated horror studios in the history of cinema, presents 8 classic horror films in one collection. From Dracula to Frankenstein, werewolves to phantoms, the Hammer Horror Series 8-Film Collection showcases some of the most terrifying monsters in the history of cinema and features legendary performances by Peter Cushing, Oliver Reed and Janette Scott. The box set includes Brides of Dracula, The Curse of the Werewolf, Phantom of the Opera, Paranoiac, Kiss of the Vampire, Nightmare, Night Creatures, and The Evil of Frankenstein.

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Which one did you watch, James? All of them?  There are some great ones there that I haven't seen in decades!

[SonicMan46]

Last weekend, we were visiting our son in Indianapolis (Carmel) and had lunch, an in-house draft beer, and watched the movie below - all at the Flix Brewhouse:

Deepwater Horizon (2016) w/ Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, et al - well done film of the true Gulf of Mexico disaster - short synopsis below.  Ratings: 7.5/10, IMDB; 83%, Rotten Tomatoes; 3.9/5.0*, Amazon - best seen on a BIG screen w/ great sound, as we did - I would probably do a 4*/5* on Amazon - worth seeing but will not be a purchase for me (just would not be the same on my 42" HDTV w/ an inexpensive soundbar - ) - Dave

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, igniting a massive fireball that kills several crew members. Chief electronics technician Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) and his colleagues find themselves fighting for survival as the heat and the flames become stifling and overwhelming. Banding together, the co-workers must use their wits to make it out alive amid all the chaos.

[listener]

Erich von Stroheim, Betty Compson,
The GREAT GABBO     1929     directed by James Cruze (The Covered Wagon)
b&w this 93 min. version lacks a missing song-and-dance number in colour, soft focus does look like it could have been pulled from a colour positive.   A transitional early sound film based on a short story by Ben Hecht adapted by Hugh Herbert has a lot of static shots with reactions cut in.  If you're into examples of the development of film technique and/or late 1920's vaudeville chorus numbers it may be of interest, otherwise it's heavy going.

[Drasko]

Erich von Stroheim, Betty Compson,
The GREAT GABBO     1929     directed by James Cruze (The Covered Wagon)

Betty Compson is amazing to watch as proto Marlene Dietrich in Sternberg's superb The Docks of New York from previous year (1928). It's almost eerie to watch as Sternberg directs Compson to stand, to look, to smile, to carry herself in exactly the same way he will mold and create an icon of Dietrich just a few years later. A test run for creating a real life character.

[James]

Which one did you watch, James? All of them?  There are some great ones there that I haven't seen in decades!

All 8  ...

[Gurn Blanston]

All 8  ...

Damn, Marathon Man!  Oh, no, didn't mean that...

[Drasko]

Devil in the Flesh: pshychotic highschool girl obsessed with the teacher. It was straight to video and that pretty much says it all.

Lewis & Clark & George is quite better. Two escaped convicts and a mute girl searching for a gold mine in Mexico, various characters on their trail ... not much realistic and rather campy in tone but enjoyable. Has a lovely scene where Rose McGowan playing a mute character lipsyncs to Connie Francis' Where The Boys Are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvjx_uoWeYE

[SimonNZ]

Last night: The Social Network

The film itself, immediately followed by the Sorkin and cast commentary. I'll also be doing the Fincher commentary before I return it.

Ninety-nine takes they did of that great opening scene. An it sounds like that's about typical for Fincher. Makes Kubrick seem slap-dash.

edit: but I'm disappointed now to learn that Sorkin unapologetically played fast and lose with the facts, including those of the main characters' temperaments and ethics, as well as their motivations.

[James]

Les Diaboliques
1955 ‧ Mystery/Crime film ‧ 1h 56m

In this classic of French suspense, the cruel and abusive headmaster of a boarding school, Michel Delassalle (Paul Meurisse), becomes the target of a murder plot hatched by an unlikely duo -- his meek wife (Vera Clouzot) and the mistress he brazenly flaunts (Simone Signoret). The women, brought together by their mutual hatred for the man, pull off the crime but become increasingly unhinged by a series of odd occurrences after Delassalle's corpse mysteriously disappears.

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[James]

Damn, Marathon Man!  Oh, no, didn't mean that...

It was over the course of about a week and a half.

[aligreto]

Last night....

[James]

From Alien to Nosferatu: the most horrifying movie monsters of all time

[James]

The Hills Have Eyes
1977 ‧ Horror ‧ 1h 30m

Wes Craven's cult classic about cannibalistic mountain folk on the trail of stranded vacationers in the arid Southwest.

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