Last Movie You Watched

[LKB]

It's fascinating simply because it is so clearly both a Kubrick movie and a Spielberg movie.

I suspect though that there aren't an enormous number of people who are both Kubrick fans and Spielberg fans.

I am, very much so.

But then, l am " weird ", as any of my exes would undoubtedly testify.

,

LKB

[André]

Purchased today:

[aligreto]

Tous les matins du monde



Man, what a beautiful movie. Highly recommended.

Yes, I have seen it twice. Wonderful stuff indeed!

[Karl Henning]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, even though my mother is no hamster.

[71 dB]

Two French movies from the 60's with Michel Legrand's music:

Les parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)
Great music, awesome colors. What's not to like?


Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)
Less music, even less color (only tarot cards!). A bit boring imho.


I watched these on TV (Finnish subtitles).

[SonicMan46]

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) w/ Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, and George Sanders; Joseph L. Mankiewicz, director (great uncle of Ben) - own on BD - romantic fantasy interspersed with comedic writing - film was brought up a few pages ago, so convinced my wife to watch (not a great fan of old B & W films) - she really enjoyed - highly recommended.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) w/ James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, et al; Frank Capra, director - now I've seen this film well over a dozen times and currently own the BD; BUT just restored to a 4K UHD version not yet out, however, available on Amazon Prime in that format as an inexpensive streaming rental or purchase, so I bought the digital film (review HERE) - still a classic; up for 11 Oscars in 1940 but won just one, and lost 'Best Picture' to 'Gone With the Wind' (not unexpected) - also highly recommended.  Dave

 

[Pohjolas Daughter]

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) w/ Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, and George Sanders; Joseph L. Mankiewicz, director (great uncle of Ben) - own on BD - romantic fantasy interspersed with comedic writing - film was brought up a few pages ago, so convinced my wife to watch (not a great fan of old B & W films) - she really enjoyed - highly recommended.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) w/ James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, et al; Frank Capra, director - now I've seen this film well over a dozen times and currently own the BD; BUT just restored to a 4K UHD version not yet out, however, available on Amazon Prime in that format as an inexpensive streaming rental or purchase, so I bought the digital film (review HERE) - still a classic; up for 11 Oscars in 1940 but won just one, and lost 'Best Picture' to 'Gone With the Wind' (not unexpected) - also highly recommended.  Dave

 

Pleased to hear that she--and you--enjoyed the Ghost!  Did you end up watching any of the commentary?  I really enjoyed the first one (one listed at the top), but not so much the second one.  Or perhaps another time?   

PD

[LKB]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, even though my mother is no hamster.

Oddly enough, l woke up this morning smelling of elderberries...

[SonicMan46]

Pleased to hear that she--and you--enjoyed the Ghost!  Did you end up watching any of the commentary?  I really enjoyed the first one (one listed at the top), but not so much the second one.  Or perhaps another time?   

PD

Hi PD - just checked Amazon and I bought the BD shown back in 2014 (and had the DVD a number of years before that time) - I cannot remember the commentary but have watched that film nearly a half dozen times over the years, and may have ran the extras?  Dave

[aligreto]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, even though my mother is no hamster.

What a coincidence! I have recently watched it too.





Run away! Run away!

[DavidW]

I watched the 70s King Kong and The News of the World.  Both were very good, thanks for the rec!

[Brahmsian]

I watched the 70s King Kong and The News of the World.  Both were very good, thanks for the rec!

Glad you enjoyed King Kong '77 David! 

[SonicMan46]

Togo (2019) w/ Willem Dafoe, Julianne Nicholson, Christopher Heyerdah, et al - story below about a remarkable Alaskan sled dog named Togo and his trainer Leonhard Seppala - won't go into the 'Balto Controversy', more HERE, if interested - recommended.  Dave

Togo is a 2019 American drama adventure film directed by Ericson Core. The film centers on the greatest achievement of Togo's life in 1925, when he led Leonhard Seppala's team on the legendary serum run that saved the town of Nome in Alaska. (An outbreak of diphtheria was raging through the town. No other form of transportation could get through at the time, as the weather was too bad.) Through blizzards and across breaking ice on the Norton Sound, the small husky skillfully covered 250 miles of ground. He was 12 years old. Most sled dogs are long retired by that age. (Source)

   

[Karl Henning]

What a coincidence! I have recently watched it too.





Run away! Run away!

That rabbit's dynamite!

[milk]

Nomadland.  Frances McDormand and David Straitharn work with mostly unprofessional actors in this film depicting the life of homeless people living out west in vans and RVs.  Set a few years after the financial crash, McDormand's character lost her job when the company town she lived in died, and her husband died as well, so she wanders.  She runs into Straitharn's character, who is a bit less better drawn (on purpose), and both veterans deliver the dramatic goods.  The film gives a lot of sympathetic screen time to real people, though, so one gets an insight into why they live the way they do.  The film is simply magnificent, and its magnificence comes from its simplicity.  No special effects.  No grand visual flourishes.  And, thankfully, no soundtrack most of the time.  When music is used, it is as spare as the film.  Director Chloé Zhao and her production team scouted some striking locations, including an extended segment set in the Badlands, where one gets to take in the view one sees driving in from the west, though no images, still or moving, can capture the impact of seeing it in person.  The world needs more movies like this.

Indeed this is a wonderful movie.

[SimonNZ]

second viewing

[aligreto]

The Green Book





I know that a lot of you have already watched this one. However, for those of you who have not it is based on a true story of a white nightclub bouncer who is hired by a black musician to be the driver and bodyguard for a concert tour of the deep southern states of America in 1962. The mutual relationship which develops is interesting. The prejudice and racial separation of the time is depicted but not in an overly aggressive way. It is worth a watch.

[SonicMan46]

King Kong (1976) w/ Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodon, and Jessica Lange (her debut movie role!) - well after posting on other Kong films and stating that the 1976 version below was in last place, I was encouraged to watch the film (which was available on our HBOMax subscription service, and seen by me only once 40+ years ago!) - NOW, the story is different (see quote below - the hero is a primate palenontogist and the building climbed was the now gone World Trade Center.  Reviews indeed were mixed: 5.9/10, IMDB; 51% RottenTomatoes; BUT 4.5/5 on Amazon.

Well, the film was enjoyable as an 'alternate' remake of the story - Bridges and Lange were so great looking in their youth, AND I must say that Lange is the sexiest of all of the 'King Kong' babes - I would probably give a mixed rating on Amazon, say 3 1/2 to 4 of 5 stars; plus, I would watch again if the mood strikes me over my other Kong films.  Worth seeing - Dave

The film was released on December 17, 1976, to mixed reviews from film critics, but was a box office success. Of the three King Kong main films, it is the only one to feature the World Trade Center instead of the Empire State Building.  In the 1970s, Fred Wilson, an executive of the Petrox Oil Company, forms an expedition based on infrared imagery which reveals a previously undiscovered Indian Ocean island hidden by a permanent cloud bank. Wilson believes the island has a huge deposit of oil. Jack Prescott, a primate paleontologist, sneaks onto the expedition's vessel and attempts to warn the team against traveling to the island, citing an ominous final message about "the roar of the greatest beast" from previous doomed explorers. Source

 

[milk]

My wife had never seen it. I feel like Tootsie is a technical triumph in many ways and I wonder how many movies do so many things this well. Most obvious is Hoffman's masterful performance here, which is confusingly good. When he's Dorsey playing Dorothy, you totally believe Dorothy is real and you forget the role is really Dorsey. When he's Dorsey, he's also typically believable. Sometimes, often, he pulls this incredible trick of showing you Dorsey in Dorothy. Then, not only is he somehow two different people in one, he's also the great actor being played by the invisible great actor underneath it all.
Now, name me any other actors who could have done this? I've never seen Mrs. Doubtfire so I've no idea if Williams was this good, or meant to be this good in this way.

Then there's the script (written by a crack team including the great Larry Gelbart, the great Elaine May, the great Barry Levinson) to this which is, again, a technical masterpiece of Hollywood. I'm sure this used to be in textbooks as, well, a textbook example of a nearly-flawless conventional 3 act script. It manages to juggle all these balls in the air, setting up these great scenes of suspenseful comedy whith almost too-many-to-believe character connections and points of drama. Everything comes together effortlessly in this script. It really is mesmerizing.

Finally, there's the directing by Sydney Pollack, who also plays Dorsey's agent. Pollack is in complete control of this material and he really is a whiz at making all these pieces work together. It's not an easy feat to depict a show within a show, as well as the behind-the-scenes workings of a show, that seems convincing. Pollack does it. How does he manage to bring it to life with verisimilitude AND gut-aching laughter? He gets all the timing right.

Having said all this about Tootsie, one can't fail to notice upon watching this movie that there is little chance it could be made today and that this movie probably falls into the "cancelled" category that takes up so much space in today's cultural landscape. Tootsie likely goes into the town dump of political correctness and social media.
Should it? Should I even have been laughing along with this? I think the twitterverse would likely say "no." It's worth it to ponder the question of why and what's so wrong with this movie in today's context. Leaving aside Hoffman's own #metoo canceling, maybe today's zoomers would just find the whole premise of Tootsie offensive as well as several of the plot lines?   

[Daverz]

Cold War



A beautiful film, but don't watch if you're feeling down.