Last Movie You Watched

[SurprisedByBeauty]

A few more films have accumulated over the last weeks:


With/For the kid:
Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas

The 2000, Jim Carey version.

Could have been worse, since my 10-year old step-daughter has a generally abominable taste in cinematic matters. :-)

The Help


African American women of the 60s say it how it really is, all thanks to an enthusiastic young white woman who makes this her career move.
Lovely performances; a sign of the times that critics needed to find a way of poopooing this darling film for its naive aspects.
I cringed preemptively, twice, not even knowing there had been a controversy... but that's only because the 60s in Mississippi
were cringe-worthy, even at their best. So in that sense, it's actually a very successful film.

And now we're on to a classic I've never seen:

Lawrence of Arabia


Any controversies here, too? 

[Karl Henning]

Return to Oz

[steve ridgway]

The Longest Day (1962).

I'd forgotten it was in black & white, which wasn't a problem, but although the action scenes were exciting it showed its age with attempts at humour and contrived dialogue to explain what was going on. Overall still absorbing, spectacular and informative though, the time went quickly. Strange as it may seem to others, epic war films are part of the Christmas tradition here.

[Karl Henning]

Watch and let watch.

[Madiel]

Capernaum



A boy living a life of severe poverty in Lebanon is in jail and suing his parents. The film flashes back to show he got there. Kind of good, frequently a bit depressing without being completely awful. Impressive child acting (how did they get that toddler doing those things?).

[SimonNZ]

A Hidden Life

I loved The New World and admired much about The Tree Of Life, but with each subsequent film I've found Malick's patented style of shooting enough footage for ten films, picking random shots based solely on their prettiness, random-editing them together and laying over it all an airy and often banal voice-over to border on self-parody rather than the "poetry" he's clearly aiming for and heavily undermine what might have been far more interesting if the storytelling matched the needs of each specific story.

[Wanderer]

Two eternal classics and perennial favourites: Fellini's La Strada & de Sica's Bicycle Thieves.

[Wanderer]

Another favourite today, de Sica's Shoeshine (Sciuscià).
Orson Welles said about this film: "In handling a camera I feel that I have no peer. But what de Sica can do, that I can't do. I ran his Shoeshine again recently and the camera disappeared, the screen disap­peared; it was just life." Another review posited that "...if Mozart had written an opera set in poverty, it might have had this kind of painful beauty." I cannot say I disagree with either view.

[Karl Henning]

Two eternal classics and perennial favourites: Fellini's La Strada & de Sica's Bicycle Thieves.

Nice!

[SonicMan46]

Last few nights, some more holiday films, both streamed on my Apple TV:

The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) w/ Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, and Johnathan Pryce - short synopsis below but much more at the link.  We first watched on streaming release three years ago - decided on a digital purchase ($4 vs. $10) because I want to watch again - what an amazing imaginative mind Dickens had in coming up w/ these characters and the story - highly recommended as a companion to the movie 'The Christmas Carol', whichever version you prefer.

Holiday Affair (1949) w/ Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh, and Wendell Cory - background synopsis below (see link for more). A menage a trois w/ Mitchum in a different role from his usual at that time, and does quite well in the romantic comedy (he went on to make other comedy movies) - a very young and ravishing Janet Leigh and her precocious son (played by Gordon Gebert, who was 8 y/o at the time).  Recommended especially for Mitchum fans who want to see him in other that his 'specialty' then, i.e. film noir.  Dave

The Man Who Invented Christmas is a 2017 Christmas biographical comedy drama film directed by Bharat Nalluri and written by Susan Coyne. Based on the 2008 book of the same name about Charles Dickens by Les Standiford; the joint Irish/Canadian production stars Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, and Jonathan Pryce, and follows Dickens (Stevens) as he conceives and writes his 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. (Source)

Holiday Affair is a 1949 romantic comedy film directed and produced by Don Hartman and starring Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh. It was based on the story Christmas Gift by John D. Weaver, which was also the film's working title. The film allowed Mitchum to briefly depart from his typical roles in film noir, Western films and war films, and his casting was intended to help rehabilitate his image following a notorious marijuana bust. Turner Classic Movies has frequently aired the film during the Christmas season, and it has become a minor holiday classic. (Source)

 

[ritter]

Just back from watching Pedro Almodóvar's The Human Voice, starring Tilda Swinton.



Almódovar's short—his first English language film—is an adaptation and updating of Jean Cocteau's monodrama La voix humaine (known to music lovers because of Francis Poulenc's operatic version of 1959); it's quite effective and visually arresting, and Swinton is excellent in her rôle. It's "very Almodóvar" in it aesthetics, and also has some typical self-references (the filmmaker already used Cocteau's play for some passages of his early La ley del deseo, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was originally supposed to conclude with the telephone call that is The Human Voice, but then that sequence vanished (as the director himself acknowledges in a short address to the Spanish audience before the start of the film proper).

With this I've seen the play and the opera (in a clever staging by Gerardo Vera here in Madrid some 25 years ago, in which we got the play in Spanish translation—with Cecilia Roth—immediately followed by Poulenc's version with a wonderful Felicity Lott), and now Almodóvar's screen version.

[Papy Oli]

Recent holiday viewing :

Grease (a first viewing, easy-going, maybe my last  )
Paddington 2 - Way more enjoyable that I'd thought
The Dam Busters (another first viewing, great film - I had the Eric Coates CD before even seeing the movie)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (Another first viewing, good fun this)

[SonicMan46]

Recent holiday viewing :

Grease (a first viewing, easy-going, maybe my last  ) - seen once likely rented when released - that was enough for me - 
Paddington 2 - Way more enjoyable that I'd thought - I really enjoyed both of the Paddington bear films - did not buy though - watch again?
The Dam Busters (another first viewing, great film - I had the Eric Coates CD before even seeing the movie) - saw way back - want the BD!
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (Another first viewing, good fun this) - seen once which was enough. 

Hey Papy Oli - quite an eclectic mix - my comments in bold above.  Dave

[71 dB]

Recent holiday viewing :
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (Another first viewing, good fun this)

First viewing? Wow! This is such a gem and works so well on repeated viewings thanks to John Candy and Steve Martin being so damn good (funny) together.

In Finland this movie is called "Vauhdilla Chicagoon" (with speed to Chicago).   

[Madiel]

Paddington 2 is a total delight. You can just tell that all the actors were having a great time.

Most recently watched: Onward.



In many ways standard Pixar fare. Which means well crafted and emotionally affecting. I enjoyed it, as I enjoy nearly all their films, without thinking it's one of their greats. Chris Pratt does lots of good work.

[SonicMan46]

Well, we watched a number of 'Christmas Holiday' films but Susan wanted something about New Years, so she selected the one below, which we streamed from Amazon:

After the Thin Man (1936) w/ William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart, and of course, Asta, their dog - short synopsis below, first quote - based on the novel, The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett (see second quote); this is the second of 6 'Thin Man Films' made w/ the co-stars from 1934-1947, all quite entertaining - events occur around New Year's Eve w/ nightclub scenes, etc. - recommended, especially if you have not seen the 'chemistry' between Powell and Loy in these detective films.  Dave

Recently returned home from vacation, private detective Nick Charles (William Powell) and his socialite wife, Nora (Myrna Loy), are back on the case when Nora's cousin, Selma, reports her husband Robert missing. As the duo search for the disreputable Robert, Selma's friend David Graham (James Stewart), who secretly pines for her, aids the investigation. When the three begin to unravel Robert's secret life, the missing persons case turns into one of murder.

Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961) was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), the Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse) and the comic strip character Secret Agent X-9. (Source)

 

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Well, we watched a number of 'Christmas Holiday' films but Susan wanted something about New Years, so she selected the one below, which we streamed from Amazon:

After the Thin Man (1936) w/ William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart, and of course, Asta, their dog - short synopsis below, first quote - based on the novel, The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett (see second quote); this is the second of 6 'Thin Man Films' made w/ the co-stars from 1934-1947, all quite entertaining - events occur around New Year's Eve w/ nightclub scenes, etc. - recommended, especially if you have not seen the 'chemistry' between Powell and Loy in these detective films.  Dave

I want to see that! I love these types of films.

Meanwhile, we went for something silly and light, after Lawrence of Arabia:

This is Spinal Tap

[Papy Oli]

2 more classics off the first viewing list yesterday  Very enjoyable too.

Singing in the Rain & Some like it hot.

One of the songs of Singing in the Rain stuck in my head as being already familiar. After about half an hour of humming the tune, it came back to me that it had been used in a French TV ad in the 80's... for a mattress brand.

https://www.youtube.com/v/quL_bCKBRGQ

[greg]

Re-watch of Cloverfield.

Gonna say it now, this really might be my favorite movie of all time, if I had to choose. (The Truman Show being 2nd and Silent Hill being 3rd).

The biggest, most reoccurring problem of any creative work in any genre is the tendency to be boring. And this is the least boring, possibly most intense movie I've ever seen.

Going to watch the two sequels from my blu ray in the next few days (for the first time).

[AlberichUndHagen]

Re-watched The man who would be king yesterday. A good fun as always.