Last Movie You Watched

[JBS]

I should tangentially mention, in this context of pop Sprechgesang, a style which I call The Rex Harrison* School of Fine Singing, where the notes really do not matter!

* Rex Harrison - I have read - was a fairly terrible person, which might explain his 6 marriages...and his affinity for this song!   

I've read that Harrison was known to be unable to sing, and therefore the songs for the character of Higgins (he was the original performer in the Broadway musical) were written to accommodate this deficiency.


As for the film

George Cukor directed the 1964 film adaptation, with Harrison returning in the role of Higgins. The casting of Audrey Hepburn as Eliza created controversy among theatregoers, both because Andrews was regarded perfect in the part, and Hepburn's singing voice was dubbed (by Marni Nixon). Jack L. Warner, the head of Warner Bros., wanted "a star with a great deal of name recognition", but since Andrews did not have any film experience, he deemed success more likely with a movie star.[92] (Andrews went on to star in Mary Poppins that same year for which she won both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Actress.) Lerner in particular disliked the film version of the musical, thinking it did not live up to the standards of Moss Hart's original direction. He was also unhappy with the casting of Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle and that the film was shot in its entirety at the Warner Bros. studio rather than, as he would have preferred, in London.[93] Despite the controversy, My Fair Lady was considered a major critical and box-office success, and won eight Oscars, including Best Picture of the Year, Best Actor for Rex Harrison, and Best Director for George Cukor.

[From Wikipedia's article about the stage version]

[Karl Henning]

My Fair Lady was considered a major critical and box-office success, and won eight Oscars, including Best Picture of the Year, Best Actor for Rex Harrison, and Best Director for George Cukor.

Tangentially, although I have some darker/weightier titles in the queue, tonight I want something on the lighter side, So I'm going to rewatch George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story.

[Cato]

Tangentially, although I have some darker/weightier titles in the queue, tonight I want something on the lighter side, So I'm going to rewatch George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story.

"C.K. Dexter HAVEN!!!"   

[brewski]

After seeing The Banshees of Inisherin (great), I had one more Martin McDonagh film to check out, Seven Psychopaths (2012). Christopher Walken might have been my favorite in a fascinating cast that includes Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, and perhaps most surprising...Tom Waits.

Warning: not for the squeamish. Hilarious, in McDonagh's typical quirky way, but quite bloody. (But quite hilarious.)

Trailer:

-Bruce

[Karl Henning]

After seeing The Banshees of Inisherin (great), I had one more Martin McDonagh film to check out, Seven Psychopaths (2012). Christopher Walken might have been my favorite in a fascinating cast that includes Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, and perhaps most surprising...Tom Waits.

Warning: not for the squeamish. Hilarious, in McDonagh's typical quirky way, but quite bloody. (But quite hilarious.)

Trailer:

-Bruce

Love it!

[Madiel]

For fun, I googled "Disney animated features ranked," and found this.

You realise, now, I'm going to have watch all of these on Disney Plus? Seeing as how that's the only paid streaming service I already have.

I've resisted until there was ranking involved, though I intend to go chronologically. I couldn't actually tell you for certain for many of the old classics whether I've actually seen them in full. I have a fair idea from The Little Mermaid onwards as to which ones I've seen and which I haven't... only most of the ones I've seen are ones that would be worth revisiting anyway.

Weirdly, though, the version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs available on Disney Plus is formatted for the old squarer television screens. Surely that's not the original format. EDIT: Actually it probably is, this is the sort of ratio used back in 1937. Widescreen wasn't popular yet. The things you learn.

[Todd]

If you're gonna watch a shoot 'em up like John Wick, why not watch Shoot 'Em Up?  The movie is an over-the-top farce, complete with gratuitous violence and awful one-liners.  Only a couple years after making the great Children of Men, Clive Owen is the hero, who again delivers a baby on screen, munches on and kills people with carrots, hooks up with Monica Bellucci, and avoids bad guy Paul Giamatti, all while unraveling a plot involving a presidential candidate.  It's so bad it's good, turned bad, turned good again.  The movie was made about seven years before John Wick, and watching it so soon after the franchise flick, it looks like it served as a template for the later movie. 

[Cato]

You realise, now, I'm going to have watch all of these on Disney Plus? Seeing as how that's the only paid streaming service I already have.

I have recommended it before, but the movie which started the comeback of Disney animation in the late 1980's was The Great Mouse Detective with Vincent Price at his best doing the voice of Professor Rattigan!

[pjme]

"Mon crime", François Ozon's latest film.
I enjoyed it a lot: it is a light and frothy , sweetly funny, elegant reworking of a 1934 comedy by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil. 
Actually, it did feel like an evening out in Art Déco Paris, "les années folles" - "théâtre de boulevard".  Boulevard du Temple
Opulent costumes and sets. I enjoyed Isabelle Huppert's (well timed) overacting as Odette Chaumette...

Teaser

[Karl Henning]

Tangentially, although I have some darker/weightier titles in the queue, tonight I want something on the lighter side, So I'm going to rewatch George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story.

Didn't watch the feature itself, as I was drawn into the Supplements rabbithole.

[SimonNZ]

Picked up a copy of a book called Gladiator: Film and History edited by Martin Winkler, a collection of academic essays, taking this film as a jumping off point for talking about film depictions of the ancient world, the uses of source material, etc.

And greatly enjoyed this rewatch in preparation for the reading.

[Karl Henning]

So I'm going to rewatch George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story.

Maybe something was amiss with the DVD I checked out from the library back then... for while I remember watching this (12 years ago?) There was quite a bit in the last 25 minutes which it seemed I'd never seen. Dang! This is fun!

[Undersea]

Recently:



Everything Everywhere All At Once


Not often that I watch a Movie these days - Streamed the above to see what all the hype was about.
Wasn't sure what to make of the Movie at first - it did take a while to get going but got hooked in and ended up enjoying it quite a bit.
Will probably appeal to some other people in this Group I think especially those who enjoy Arthouse/Cult/Strange kind of stuff...

[Todd]

Revisited No Country For Old Men since close to the time it came out.  It has held up very well.  Since it's a period piece of sorts, the imagery hasn't dated.  The story is small-scale and plausible.  And the dialogue is extraordinarily fine in some scenes.  I never read the book, so I don't know if the Coens lifted any from the book, or if they approximated McCarthy's style, but it is a cut above the dialogue in most flicks. 

[Fëanor]

Recently:



Everything Everywhere All At Once

Not often that I watch a Movie these days - Streamed the above to see what all the hype was about.
Wasn't sure what to make of the Movie at first - it did take a while to get going but got hooked in and ended up enjoying it quite a bit.
Will probably appeal to some other people in this Group I think especially those who enjoy Arthouse/Cult/Strange kind of stuff...

Like you it seems. it took me awhile to get in tune with this movie but eventually came away feel it was a "good" of not necessarily "great" movie.  I give it 7/10* on the IMDB scale.  On account of that I'm not quite sure yet it got so many Academy Award nominations.

An acquaintance who had seen all the Best Film nomination suggested it was because it was the best of an mediocre slate. Maybe so.  The only other Best Picture flick that I saw was All Quite on the Western Front which I gave a 8/10*.

Is Everything ... a cult or Arthouse movie?  I don't know.  That same acquaintance said it was about a middle aged women about to loose her business, husband, and daughter -- nothing really cult about that.  But as I said, it's more about that woman's ridiculous fantasies in response to her predicament;  I suppose that's the twist.

[Brian]

Although it does have an unusual concept, I tend to associate the word "Arthouse" with "incredibly slow movies where nothing happens." Maybe I am being unfair 

I'd love some recommendations of fast-paced Arthouse movies.

[Todd]

I'd love some recommendations of fast-paced Arthouse movies.

A good number of Nicholas Winding Refn movies.  Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog, perhaps.  Badlands and The Thin Red Line maybe.

[DavidW]

I'd love some recommendations of fast-paced Arthouse movies.

Run Lola Run.  Oh wait I should rewatch that...

[San Antone]

A Fish Called Wanda
Two Lane Blacktop

I guess they are arthouse?

[Karl Henning]

I should tangentially mention, in this context of pop Sprechgesang, a style which I call The Rex Harrison* School of Fine Singing, where the notes really do not matter!

* Rex Harrison - I have read - was a fairly terrible person, which might explain his 6 marriages...and his affinity for this song! 

I'm tickled that it was for this role that Harrison earned his Best Actor Oscar. Part of me thinks "how ironic that he won for a role he couldn't sing." But more of me thinks that he earned it on more than one level: playing the character of Professor 'iggins, and playing an actor who canna sing.