Last Movie You Watched

[SonicMan46]

Well; IMO it's especially Mormons that need to see such a movie. Scam of the century?

LOL!    Well, a handful of people did leave during the performance - wasn't able to poll them as to their faith?     Dave

[kishnevi]

We share the same memories (that scene    ....parents taking me to see it). Except it wasn't Tracy (he survives until the end); it was Jimmy Durante (Smiler Grogan) who kicks the bucket.

Another vivid memory: it was the first film I ever saw with an intermission; half way through it's three hour runtime the screen suddenly went black and the theater lights came on. I actually thought the film was over! God, what a dark ending, every couple was in dire straits--trapped in a burning building, etc. 

Sarge

I stand corrected--but of course you must have been older than me when you saw it (I was born in '59). 

I know how I'm coming off here, but I'm serious: good as Acker/Denisof is, by far the best Much Ado I know on film is the televised 1972 production from the NY Shakespeare Festival starring Sam Waterston and Kathleen Widdoes, easily available on DVD. I saw it live in Central Park that season and it still remains one of my half-dozen happiest memories of a Shakespearean production. I don't much like the Branagh myself; too much bathing and "the Prince is coming!" in the beginning, Keanu is all wrong, and Branagh mugs far too much for my liking. Indeed, the only one of his Shakespeare films I admire is Henry V, which was just about perfect; I'll try to see him live in Macbeth here in NY next year, but I thought his Hamlet was ghastly. "Overrated" to be sure.

What I remember most about Branagh's Henry V was the volume of the music in the theater where I saw it--for some reason, during the Agincourt sequences,  the music was playing so loud it became impossible to hear the actors, thereby wiping out some of the most memorable passages in Shakespeare.

I have not seen many film version of Hamlet, but I would like to put in a word for the Mel Gibson version;  Mel actually did a good job in that one, but the most memorable acting came from Glenn Close in the role of Queen Gertrude.

[Karl Henning]

I know how I'm coming off here, but I'm serious: good as Acker/Denisof is, by far the best Much Ado I know on film is the televised 1972 production from the NY Shakespeare Festival starring Sam Waterston and Kathleen Widdoes, easily available on DVD. I saw it live in Central Park that season and it still remains one of my half-dozen happiest memories of a Shakespearean production. I don't much like the Branagh myself; too much bathing and "the Prince is coming!" in the beginning, Keanu is all wrong, and Branagh mugs far too much for my liking. Indeed, the only one of his Shakespeare films I admire is Henry V, which was just about perfect; I'll try to see him live in Macbeth here in NY next year, but I thought his Hamlet was ghastly. "Overrated" to be sure.

Well, we may disagree about overrated there, but I am certainly glad to learn of another good Much Ado About Nothing.


Probably the thing I like about all the bathing and "the Prince is coming!" in the beginning is, that Branagh is taking advantage of the medium, and is establishing place.  The Prince's device of tricking Beatrice and Benedick into loving one another, this improbability (but not impossibility), how does it work?  I think giving the audience a sense that we are in sun-drenched Italy (which can be "done" on screen more persuasively than on stage), where the moon can hit your eye like a big pizza pie, is reasonable service to the action of the play.

[Karl Henning]

I have not seen many film version of Hamlet, but I would like to put in a word for the Mel Gibson version;  Mel actually did a good job in that one, but the most memorable acting came from Glenn Close in the role of Queen Gertrude.

Probably the best acting I've seen Gibson do, and he surprised an ex-pat Briton out of his skin by the strength of that performance.  That Hamlet benefits too from Zeffirelli's camera, and eye for color, and the Morricone score.  And while some may understandably lament the radical distillation of the text, the tight pacing is another of the film's strengths.

[Cato]

Probably the best acting I've seen Gibson do, and he surprised an ex-pat Briton out of his skin by the strength of that performance.  That Hamlet benefits too from Zeffirelli's camera, and eye for color, and the Morricone score.  And while some may understandably lament the radical distillation of the text, the tight pacing is another of the film's strengths.

You remind me of another Shakespeare play turned into a movie with an actor whom one would not immediately think of for a major role in it:

http://www.youtube.com/v/7X9C55TkUP8

[SonicMan46]

James - love that film and a superb BD transformation both video & audio (and that last scene - inserted below - is great!)  Dave

 

[Karl Henning]

You remind me of another Shakespeare play turned into a movie with an actor whom one would not immediately think of for a major role in it:

http://www.youtube.com/v/7X9C55TkUP8

Thanks for this!  I know I have seen it, but I didn't especially remember it (which, on the whole, I think The Good Thing).  Not that it's a bad performance, on the contrary!  All right, so now I feel almost as if I were channeling Dostoyevsky . . . .

[Cato]

Thanks for this!  I know I have seen it, but I didn't especially remember it (which, on the whole, I think The Good Thing).  Not that it's a bad performance, on the contrary!  All right, so now I feel almost as if I were channeling Dostoyevsky . . . .

And it is never bad to channel Dostoyevsky!

And here is another Hollywood version with an older actor playing the same role:

http://www.youtube.com/v/0bi1PvXCbr8

[Todd]

Watched the last season of Breaking Bad in pretty short order.  Better than season 5, but not as good as season 4 and before.  The ending was pretty satisfying.  I really enjoyed the character development of Todd.

[Cato]

Today we took our gift card to the theater, where this movie was playing:



Highly recommended!

And see this for a related story:

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,10977.msg768344/topicseen.html#msg768344

[SonicMan46]

Today we took our gift card to the theater, where this movie was playing:

 

Highly recommended!

Philomena is on our list to see sometime w/i the next few days or early next week - has certainly received excellent reviews!

Last night for us a new arrival The Right Stuff (1983) w/ a great cast - did not own the DVD, so have not seen this film for 30 years - still holds up well and the blu-ray reprocessing is just superb, especially the audio!  Below ratings from HERE - came w/ a second BD of specials which from the chart below seem to be excellent - will take a look tonight!  Dave

[George]

A lot of fun!

[Sammy]

Philomena is on our list to see sometime w/i the next few days or early next week - has certainly received excellent reviews!

Yes, Philomena was a fine film.  My sole reservation concerns Steve Coogan who plays his role in a lame fashion.  Then again, maybe that's how the director wanted him to play it.

[lisa needs braces]

Game of Thrones -- Season 1.

Finished the ten episodes of season 1 moments ago. The series is spectacular -- the plot moves along nicely and the visuals and production values are sumptuous.

It has the honor of being the most pirated tv show of all time.

All the same, good job on HBO's part for bringing this fantasy series to television.

I will eventually get around to the rest of the series. The character in the picture -- Daenerys Targaryen --  is my favorite character.

[Octave]

Two biopics by Margarethe von Trotta, a longtime director and former Volker Schlöndorff and R.W. Fassbinder collaborator:
1. VISION (2009) [about Hildegard of Bingen]
2. HANNAH ARENDT (2012)

I was very disappointed with both, to a small degree because I came to them with an interest in the subjects (a strong interest in Arendt); but also, mainly, because both pictures seemed pretty bad.  There was a tendency towards slick surfaces and gleaming eyes that made me think of Paul Verhoeven albeit without any irony whatsoever, nor any of Verhoeven's other interesting complications; Verhoeven gets much deeper with shallowness, but these two Von Trotta movies are just 'intellectual' soap opera.  Hagiography can be compelling, but here all we get are the worst aspects: you always know exactly who the bad guys are, they sneer helpfully and are frequently poorly dubbed.  Also, the problem of such wholesale importation of hand-wringy modern humanism into Hildegard's milieu.  I don't look for 'history' in these movies, but Arendt herself would no doubt reach apoplexy in seeing this self-congratulation of moderns back-dated for purposes of antecedence.  The 'uses' of both women's lives for a feminist politics probably doesn't need the deck to be marked and stacked in that politics' favor.   The results reek of something 'pedagogical' that despises its audience....something problematic that might easily still make for interesting cinema if the dramaturgy, blocking, and cutting didn't scream out 'Movie Of The Week'.

I do not remember having any of these problems with Von Trotta's first feature, THE LOST HONOR OF KATHARINA BLUM (1975), the only other of hers that I've seen.

The star of both, Barbara Sukowa, might be another matter.  I'd like to see more of her acting.  (She was in Fassbinder's LOLA and BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ, and Lars von Trier's excellent EUROPA/ZENTROPA.)

[Octave]

Kenneth: [Will you come to my party?]

Donaghy: No, I'll be at home, listening to Schubert.  And ironically watching Canadian porno.


elsewhere, overheard on 30 ROCK P.A.:
"Ghostface Killah and Yo-yo Ma, please report to the soundstage for Muffin Top skit."

[Todd]

Started the year off by watching Barry Lyndon on BD.  The image quality is better than on DVD, though in place of noise, there is some old-style graininess, which is quite fine by me.  The spellbinding cinematography is even easier to appreciate now.  Kubrick's finest film?  Maybe.

[mn dave]

Game of Thrones -- Season 1.

Finished the ten episodes of season 1 moments ago. The series is spectacular -- the plot moves along nicely and the visuals and production values are sumptuous.

It has the honor of being the most pirated tv show of all time.

All the same, good job on HBO's part for bringing this fantasy series to television.

I will eventually get around to the rest of the series. The character in the picture -- Daenerys Targaryen --  is my favorite character.

Can't wait for it to come back! Glad you're enjoying it. 

[Brahmsian]

Started the year off by watching Barry Lyndon on BD.  The image quality is better than on DVD, though in place of noise, there is some old-style graininess, which is quite fine by me.  The spellbinding cinematography is even easier to appreciate now.  Kubrick's finest film?  Maybe.

Yes Todd, it is perhaps his finest. 

[mn dave]

Yes Todd, it is perhaps his finest. 

Jeez, I bought the Kubrick box set and still haven't seen this.