Last Movie You Watched

[Belle]

Well it's cartoonish on a low budget. Which works better. Though I'd say a better adjective is theatrical.

I still don't think grunge is the right adjective for the aesthetic.

That's how it's referred to in Australia.  We get the not-so-subtle messaging, that's why!!

[Karl Henning]

Well it's cartoonish on a low budget. Which works better. Though I'd say a better adjective is theatrical.

Yes, as it was a stage show first. As with (say) Zombieland, the cartoonishness is simply part of the style.

[Madiel]

That's how it's referred to in Australia.  We get the not-so-subtle messaging, that's why!!

I'm Australian. I've never heard it referred to as that.

[Cato]

Zootopia 2

A worthy successor to the original movie: all kinds of laughs for young and old!

Even the musical score has wink-wink-nudge-nudge moments for Classical Music mavens!  😇

[Belle]

Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa  (in his 70's at the time), Jack Hawkins, and William Holden in a classic from director David Lean.



I had forgotten that the score was composed by Malcolm Arnold !

I have never read the novel by Pierre Boulle: I should perhaps fill in that lacuna in my education!

Lean was able to use three phenomenal screenwriters for his films "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai":  Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson, Carl Foreman.  The writing for "Lawrence" was often poetic;  certainly deeply moving.
I regard Robert Bolt as the greatest screenwriter of the post 'golden era' of cinema in the US and UK.

[Cato]

Lean was able to use three phenomenal screenwriters for his films "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai":  Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson, Carl Foreman.  The writing for "Lawrence" was often poetic;  certainly deeply moving.

I regard Robert Bolt as the greatest screenwriter of the post 'golden era' of cinema in the US and UK.

No arguments about that!  A Man for All Seasons should be in our Culture for centuries.  His version of Dr. Zhivago - as far as I am concerned - greatly improved the novel.

I have been wanting to revisit Lawrence of Arabia for some time!  Mrs. Cato needs some comedies after The Bridge on the River Kwai. 

[Karl Henning]

No arguments about that!  A Man for All Seasons should be in our Culture for centuries.  His version of Dr. Zhivago - as far as I am concerned - greatly improved the novel.

I have been wanting to revisit Lawrence of Arabia for some time!  Mrs. Cato needs some comedies after The Bridge on the River Kwai. 

Comedies after Kwai, certainly!

[Daverz]

Mrs. Cato needs some comedies after The Bridge on the River Kwai. 

Our Man in Havana

[Belle]

No arguments about that!  A Man for All Seasons should be in our Culture for centuries.  His version of Dr. Zhivago - as far as I am concerned - greatly improved the novel.

I have been wanting to revisit Lawrence of Arabia for some time!  Mrs. Cato needs some comedies after The Bridge on the River Kwai. 

I can highly recommend Kevin Brownlow's tome about David Lean;  it's all in there, and the difficult relationship he had with Alec Guiness. 

[Cato]

Comedies after Kwai, certainly!

As the old song from Julie London says...Kwai me a river! 

I can highly recommend Kevin Brownlow's tome about David Lean;  it's all in there, and the difficult relationship he had with Alec Guinness. 

Apparently things did not go well in Doctor Zhivago, but they worked together again for A Passage to India, in which Alec Guinness had practiced quite a bit for scene with a ritual Hindu dance, but it was cut completely, so...things became testy again!

[Madiel]

Update: Strictly Ballroom is the name of a band that musically could fit within the grunge genre. Yes, they apparently took their name from the movie.

But AI Google is helpfully describing this as a contrast to the glamorous aesthetic of the film. And "glamorous" is, I think, worth pointing out. It might be a working-class movie, but it's a movie about working-class people using sequins and glitter and teeth whitener.

Which, as an Australian, I've seen quite a few times.

I also have been known to listen to grunge.

And, during an attempt to understand how it could have ever been labelled as "Australian grunge", I actually stumbled across a rather good article about how Australian films like Strictly Ballroom that were released during the time period of American grunge were decidedly not part of the grunge aesthetic. They were almost the opposite. https://medium.com/outtake/arent-we-fabulous-b7de5965ea26