Last Movie You Watched

[Florestan]

it's not about "translating" the names as much as it's replacing the real names with funny descriptors of the characters.
...

It's not so much about translating real names as it's using descriptive names instead the real names,

Precisely and exactly.. See my reply #30368.

The exact Romanian translation of Laurel & Hardy (Laur & Duru) is as dull and unfunny for a Romanian, especially a Romanian kid, as the English original names, not to mention it bears no relationship whatsoever to their respective characters. Is Hardy really hardy in the movies? Hard(l)y (pun). Is Laurel really deserving a laurel wreath? Hard(l)y too.

On the other hand, Stan & Bran immediately evokes for a Romanian a pair of characters whose names are funny and easy to remember, whose exploits are ridiculous, and you can't even tell who is the stupidest of the two. For the life of me I cannot understand what is wrong with that, it fits their characters to a tee.

The analogy with translating Johann Bach as John Brook is twofold far fetched: (1) non-English names for Laurel & Hardy are not translations proper, and (2) even if they were, this is the only instance of such a substitution being widely practiced and accepted, and logic tells us that one cannot infer a general rule from a single particular instance.

That being said, I know from personal experience what it means to be a contrarian just for the sake of it, so I can see where Madiel is coming from. 

[Todd]

Wow, posts about the merits and demerits of mistranslating the names Laurel and Hardy. 

Do Cheech and Chong next, or better yet, Key and Peele.

[Florestan]

Wow, posts about the merits and demerits of mistranslating the names Laurel and Hardy. 

You got it wrong, Try again. 

[71 dB]

Precisely and exactly.. See my reply #30368.

The exact Romanian translation of Laurel & Hardy (Laur & Duru) is as dull and unfunny for a Romanian, especially a Romanian kid, as the English original names, not to mention it bears no relationship whatsoever to their respective characters. Is Hardy really hardy in the movies? Hard(l)y (pun). Is Laurel really deserving a laurel wreath? Hard(l)y too.

On the other hand, Stan & Bran immediately evokes for a Romanian a pair of characters whose names are funny and easy to remember, whose exploits are ridiculous, and you can't even tell who is the stupidest of the two. For the life of me I cannot understand what is wrong with that, it fits their characters to a tee.

The analogy with translating Johann Bach as John Brook is twofold far fetched: (1) non-English names for Laurel & Hardy are not translations proper, and (2) even if they were, this is the only instance of such a substitution being widely practiced and accepted, and logic tells us that one cannot infer a general rule from a single particular instance.

That being said, I know from personal experience what it means to be a contrarian just for the sake of it, so I can see where Madiel is coming from. 

You posted your post while I was writing my post which took an hour to do I think. All those English translations for the Finnish titles took time to do properly. 

[SimonNZ]

Haywire

Fourth - or is it fifth - viewing of this guilty pleasure.

Much of the larger story is standard spy story stuff, but Soderbergh has put a large number of clever or fresh touches along the way.

Many critics said they didn't think Gina Carero's acting was up to the level of the stunt work she did herself in the brutal fight scenes, but I disagree.

[vandermolen]

The Way.
My neighbour lent me this DVD. I thought that it was both moving and uplifting. My brother had originally intended to walk this epic Spanish pilgrimage walk this summer but his plans were thwarted by Coronavirus crisis. Good soundtrack as well;

[SonicMan46]

Prince of Tides (1991) w/ Barbara Streisand, Nick Nolte, Blythe Danner et al; Streisand, Director - just replaced my old DVD w/ the Criterion BD shown below - based on Pat Conroy's book w/ changes described HERE - filmed in and around Beaufort, South Carolina w/ the beach house on nearby Fripp Island - I watch this film annually mainly for seeing the Carolina coastal atmosphere which we have visited often - for those interested in a visit (after COVID of course), see my Beaufort Travelogue from April 2018 in the iPad Forums.  Dave

P.S. Port Royal Shrimp Fleet (near Beaufort, SC) - photo by Dave Shipper who works out of Beaufort, SC and Savannah, Georgia - own a handful of his coastal photographs that I've framed myself.  Check the link if interested in a purchase (NOTE: not a friend, relative, or financial partner, just love his work!).

 

[vandermolen]

Prince of Tides (1991) w/ Barbara Streisand, Nick Nolte, Blythe Danner et al; Streisand, Director - just replaced my old DVD w/ the Criterion BD shown below - based on Pat Conroy's book w/ changes described HERE - filmed in and around Beaufort, South Carolina w/ the beach house on nearby Fripp Island - I watch this film annually mainly for seeing the Carolina coastal atmosphere which we have visited often - for those interested in a visit (after COVID of course), see my Beaufort Travelogue from April 2018 in the iPad Forums.  Dave

P.S. Port Royal Shrimp Fleet (near Beaufort, SC) - photo by Dave Shipper who works out of Beaufort, SC and Savannah, Georgia - own a handful of his coastal photographs that I've framed myself.  Check the link if interested in a purchase (NOTE: not a friend, relative, or financial partner, just love his work!).

 

Love the Shrimp Fleet photo.

[aligreto]

The Disaster Artist





This is a film based on true life i.e. the story behind the making of "The Room" which is apparently a cult film and apparently has also been called the worst film ever made. Although fact based one needs to suspend belief prior to watching it - yes, it is that weird.

[aligreto]

P.S. Port Royal Shrimp Fleet (near Beaufort, SC) - photo by Dave Shipper who works out of Beaufort, SC and Savannah, Georgia - own a handful of his coastal photographs that I've framed myself.  Check the link if interested in a purchase (NOTE: not a friend, relative, or financial partner, just love his work!).

There is some wonderful work on display there Dave. Thank you for the link.

[Todd]

Brawl in Cell Block 99.  S. Craig Zahler's second film.  Zahler uses the same approach and techniques as in his other two films, and a fair chunk of the actors in this flick appeared in Dragged Across Concrete.  (Fred Melamed appears in all three Zahler films.)  Vince Vaughn does excellent work, his wavering accent notwithstanding, and Don Johnson shows that he can play hard men well.  The flick involves the tale of Vaughn's character, who loses his job and whose wife is cheating on him after a miscarriage, who then becomes a drug mule to make things right, because, you know, that's what you do.  After a delivery goes sideways, he ends up in prison, where he ends up having to engage in unspeakable violence to protect his wife.  Refn's influence can be seen, and Tarantino's influence is obvious, though Zahler blows right past him in terms of over the top violence and veers right into Troma film territory.  It's well done for what it is, but it ends up too exaggerated to be taken seriously.

[aligreto]

The Man Who Cried





This is the story of a small child who was left behind while her father immigrated to America. It is her story of pursuit and all that happened along the way. It had the making of being something good but it was ultimately too Hollywood for me.

[aligreto]

Winter People





This was a good human story. I enjoyed it.

[vandermolen]

Tonight I was watching 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' on TV. My wife walked through the living room and said 'what on earth are you watching?':

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Tonight I was watching 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' on TV. My wife walked through the living room and said 'what on earth are you watching?':

lol Don't believe that I've seen that one before.  When is it from Jeffrey?

Here, a nature program/dvd.

PD

[vandermolen]

lol Don't believe that I've seen that one before.  When is it from Jeffrey?

Here, a nature program/dvd.

PD

1970 PD. Not nearly as good as the marvelous 1968 original POTA (not to be confused with POTUS  ) but much better than the ones which followed.

I really disliked the modern re-make - thought it was terrible.

[André]

Revisiting an old favourite after a hiatus of many years.

It was to be a collaboration between Murmau and Flaherty (of Nanook of the North and Moana fame), both being credited as co-authors of the scenario. Flaherty eventually walked out, unsatisfied with the many changes Murnau had brought on the project, changing the camera work from colour to B&W, considerably expanding the story, etc.

Tabu is from 1931 and comes 4 years after Murnau's previous film, Sunrise. And yet the older film is much more modern. It deals with human issues in an extremely sophisticated and novel way. Tabu otoh deals with ancient, vanishing customs nobody really took seriously in 1931 (Flaherty would do the same in 1934 In Man of Aran with the basking shark fishing scene an anachronism from the previous century).

So, it really is a Murnau film, centering on the interactions and emotions of characters overcome by forces they cannot control (Der Letze Mann, Sunrise, Tabu). Flaherty had little interest in individuals, his forte was the ethnographic aspect of societies and the effect modernism had on them (Nanook, Man of Aran, Louisiana Story). So, a total mismatch that ended up with Flaherty's interest in the joint venture being bought back by Murnau.

The film garnered an oscar for its cinematography by Floyd Crosby (Zinnemann's High Noon and From Here to Eternity, Clouzot's Le Corbeau are among his other notable achievements). The intense luminosity and stark contrasts of bright light and shadows will be familiar to fans of these films, showing how tellingly great cinematography contributes to a film's aesthetic. The musical soundtrack is by Hugo Riesenfeld (The Ten Commandments, Beau Geste, Sunrise, Hell's Angels) who plugged in many themes of classical music by Smetana, Mendelssohn, Schubert and others - I couldn't identify them all.

So, a touching story, some fantastic shots and good acting for the period (non professionals). It has aged well, but is not as strikingly modern as Sunrise.

[Madiel]

A Ghost Story



Um... look, in some ways I get what this was trying to do. And some of it was effective. But some of it, especially in the first half, is incredibly slow and tedious.

[aligreto]

Gridlocked





This is one from the lots of shooting and violence genre. For those who know who Vinnie Jones is, he makes an appearance; so you know what to expect.

[steve ridgway]

Tonight I was watching 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' on TV. My wife walked through the living room and said 'what on earth are you watching?':

I was watching that too. Great fun and I liked the costumes .