Last Movie You Watched

[Karl Henning]

@SonicMan46 ... somehow I've never seen Seahawk. That's got to be available at the Library.

[SonicMan46]

@SonicMan46 ... somehow I've never seen Seahawk. That's got to be available at the Library.

Hi Karl - definitely try to see - usually ranked near the top of Flynn movies like the listing below (another one HERE has the film second on their ranking - of course, Robin Hood is always at the top!).  If not seen, I would also recommend Gentleman Jim, about the boxer James Corbett, and one of Flynn's favorites.  Dave

01 - The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
02 - Captain Blood (1935)
03 - The Sea Hawk (1940)
04 - Dodge City (1939)
05 - They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
06 - Gentleman Jim (1942)
07 - The Dawn Patrol (1938)
08 - The Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex (1939)
09 - The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
10 - Objective, Burma! (1945)

(Source)

[ritter]

Marguerite Duras' 1976 film Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert (Her Venetian Name in Deserted Calcutta) has finally been released on DVD:



This is Duras at her most experimental, but also at the top of her game IMHO. Essentially, the film uses the dialogues and soundtrack of the earlier (1975) India Song, but now coupled with new images, from which the actors are completely absent.

This juxtaposition of the pre-existing sound with the new images works because India Song had been written in such a way that most of the action is narrated by four off-screen voices —one of them Duras herself, immediately recognisable— and in the earlier film, the lines of the actors were heard but not uttered by themselves, even when they were onscreen.

The whole artifice of Duras' cinematographic art is further underlined by the fact that the story is set among the diplomatic corps of a fictionalised British India in the mid-20th century (this is the crowning achievement of Duras' "Indian cycle" of novels and films) while the images are for the most part of the abandoned Château Rothschild in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris.





The title is a line from the script: the infatuated Vice-Consul is screaming the (Italian) maiden name of the object of his obsession, the wife of the French ambassador, Anne-Marie Stretter, née Guardi.

And it's great to hear Carlos d'Alessio's haunting theme song:

The 14th (grave e maestoso) of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations is also used to great effect throughout the film(s).

This is a love it or hate it work, for sure. The original India Song has been labelled by some as "the most boring film ever" or as "unbelievably pretentious", and by others as one of the "1000 films one must see". The same can be said if this Son nom de Venise..., but for me this is a profoundly poetical, beautifully filmed work, with a wonderful and powerful text.

[Karl Henning]

Marguerite Duras' Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert (Her Venetian Name in Deserted Calcutta) has finally been released on DVD:



This is Duras at her most experimental, but also at the top of her game IMHO. Essentially, the film uses the dialogues and soundtrack of the earlier India Song, but now coupled with new images, from which the actors are completely absent.

This juxtaposition of the pre-existing sound with the new images works because India Song had been written in such a way that most of the action is narrated by four off-screen voices, and in the earlier film, the lines of the actors were heard but not uttered by themselves, even when they were onscreen.

The whole artifice of Duras' cinematographic art is further underlined by the fact that the story is set among the diplomatic corps of a fictionalised India in the mid-20th century (this is the crowning achievement of Duras' "Indian cycle" of novels and films) while the images are for the most part of the abandoned Château Rothschild in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris.





The title is a line from the script: the Vice-Consul is screaming the (Italian) maiden name of the object of his obsession, the wife of the French ambassador, Anne-Marie Stretter, née Guardi.

And it's great to hear Carlos d'Alessio's haunting theme song:

This is a love it or hate it work, for sure. The original India Song has been labelled by some as "the most boring film ever", and by others as one of the "1000 films one must see". The same can be said if this Son nom de Venise..., but for me this is a profoundly poetical, beautifully filmed work, with a wonderful and powerful text.

Most interesting!

[Karl Henning]

My old mate Peter recommended Withnail and I, although he cautioned me that the ending is dark. On one hand, I'm not at all sure that "dark" is what I want at this stage. And on 'tother the premise isn't exactly sunshine. Well, the ending was not the heavy affair I had girt my loins for, but the movie is not cheery, to be sure. A good film, undeniably. I thought I recognized Handmade Films: the company co-formed with Geo. Harrison when Eric Idle approached him about Life of Brian, when EMI backed out of the project. It was fun to see Ringo in the closing credits. I'm glad I've seen it, but for me a "one and done" affair. 

[Karl Henning]

And the new Yorgos Lanthimos film, which I found delightful [Poor Things]:

I shall watch that this weekend.

[Karl Henning]

So, I came home from the Library yesterday with Withnail, Poor Things and Spitfire Grill. The trailer for Things gives a Burton-adjacent vibe, which is not a deal killer, but not what I'm looking for right now. So I'm off to the Grill. 

[Karl Henning]

One of the best movies in our collection:


The Spitfire Grill

A young woman hit by tragedies throughout her childhood and into early adulthood tries to find a new life in a small town in Maine.

It has one of the finest speeches you will hear in any movie: delivered by Will Patton toward the end.


Music by James Horner, with help from Gustav Mahler's Second and Third Symphonies!





Highly recommended!

This is exquisite! Just what I needed tonight!

[Cato]

Concerning the movie The Spitfire Grill

This is exquisite! Just what I needed tonight!

Wonderful!

The movie should be better known!

[LKB]

One of the best movies in our collection:


The Spitfire Grill

A young woman hit by tragedies throughout her childhood and into early adulthood tries to find a new life in a small town in Maine.

It has one of the finest speeches you will hear in any movie: delivered by Will Patton toward the end.


Music by James Horner, with help from Gustav Mahler's Second and Third Symphonies!





Highly recommended!

Grrr... now I have to watch this, for the Mahler ( and anyone else Horner may have " borrowed " from ).

[Cato]

Grrr... now I have to watch this, for the Mahler ( and anyone else Horner may have " borrowed " from ).

Specifically, the lonely flute calls in the last movement of the Second Symphony: if they are not "borrowed," they are closely imitated.  And I thought I detected a few imitations from the Third Symphony here and there.

But enjoy the story first of all! 

[LKB]

Specifically, the lonely flute calls in the last movement of the Second Symphony: if they are not "borrowed," they are closely imitated.  And I thought I detected a few imitations from the Third Symphony here and there.

But enjoy the story first of all! 

Just finished watching, and listening. The three female leads did a great job, quite natural and credible in their performances. When the big emotional moments arrived, I found myself choking up a bit. A strong picture, and I'd recommend it to anyone whose heart still beats within them.

As to the music, I'd agree that Horner might have been inspired by the solo flute calls in the last movement of the Resurrection. He uses A minor instead of Mahler's F# minor, and only the short ascending third motif, so it isn't a direct quote. It also reminded me somewhat of bits from Ravel and Stravinsky.

Mahler's Third wasn't used, but perhaps some fairly luminous strings pushed some of those same buttons... 

I was also reminded of Elmer Bernstein's score for To Kill a Mockingbird, particularly the opening minutes of that film.

Anyway, thanks Cato for your post - I'm now familiar with a solid character film, thanks to you. 

[Karl Henning]

Two of them are by Paul Verheuven:

[DavidW]

Two of them are by Paul Verheuven:

I'll have to give it a watch.  I'm surprised how many viewers hero-worship Patrick Bateman and Tyler Durden, completely missing the point of both movies.  Peter Benchley deeply regretted writing Jaws due to the negative stereotypes that arose around sharks.  A message that he wasn't promoting.

[Karl Henning]

Peter Benchley deeply regretted writing Jaws due to the negative stereotypes that arose around sharks.  A message that he wasn't promoting.

Indeed. It did surprise me a bit when I learnt that he was a shark conservancy advocate.

[Karl Henning]

I'll have to give it a watch.  I'm surprised how many viewers hero-worship Patrick Bateman and Tyler Durden, completely missing the point of both movies.  Peter Benchley deeply regretted writing Jaws due to the negative stereotypes that arose around sharks.  A message that he wasn't promoting.

I never saw Love, Actually, and I love his take-down!

[Karl Henning]

Two of them are by Paul Verheuven:

Amusingly, I has been talking about Robocop with my PT earlier ... so I figured it was time to watch it again. 

[Karl Henning]

Amusingly, I has been talking about Robocop with my PT earlier ... so I figured it was time to watch it again.

I was planning originally to follow Robocop with Poor Things, but I got sucked into watching the special features on the Robocop blu-ray disc.

[Madiel]

When I'm on a plane I try to find something I'm moderately interested in, and often I don't want it to be too demanding.

On the way to Spain I watched the animated Big Hero 6 which fit the bill nicely, largely undemanding (apart from a bit of thought about the morality of taking revenge), quite nicely paced, a nice way to while away a couple of hours.



I don't recall watching any others on the journey, I think maybe I did some TV shows instead? Or watched something insufficiently memorable...

On the way home from Spain I accidentally had a Timothée Chalamet festival, but given he's so prominent lately maybe that's not surprising. First flight I watched Wonka, largely triggered by discovering it's the same director as the Paddington movies. Something that becomes very obvious while watching it. I didn't like it quite as much as those, I think I couldn't quite decide whether the same style fitted here and I was wondering why all the song and dance was in there. Eventually the film itself helped remind me that the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory film is musical. There are also times when it's very apparent the new film wants you to see Chalamet growing up to be Gene Wilder. I did on the whole enjoy it, and there were at least a few times where it was REALLY funny because I did that whole "I'm on a plane and I need to restrain myself from laughing out loud" thing.



And then, on the longest flight (13-14 hours), I decided I would tackle both parts of Dune. Between fitful periods of tiredness or sleep I still almost didn't have enough time, but I did watch everything except the Part 2 credits.



Hmm. I again recognised the hand of a director, only this time I found it a bit distracting. I kept thinking that this all felt a lot like Villeneuve's film Arrival which I love. Even the music to the extent I could hear it on a plane (though it's not the same composer). Possibly not helped by using the captioning which would keep saying things like "mysterious music playing" or "tense music playing".

And the story... there's a lot of the "external (white) saviour" trope in here which is not great, but then I arguably shouldn't blame the films for that. For one thing Herbert's novel predates a lot of the films with the trope that I'm thinking about (I haven't read the novel but I gather at least some of the messianic theme is in there). For another, the Dune films are far more self-aware of the trope than is usual and portray it quite cynically. But even if Herbert wrote it all before and I've seen the imitations, I did sometimes feel that the fundamental story was a bit basic and there was just a lot of mumbo jumbo around it.

My favourite bit was probablly the Bene Gesserit. Charlotte Rampling is magnificent. I quite liked Oscar Issac as Atreides senior as well.

[DavidW]

And the story... there's a lot of the "external (white) saviour" trope

If you haven't read the books, that is a common misconception. Paul is not a savior but a tyrant.  He is depicted as the hero of the story in the first one and then shows the truth in the second novel.  The theme that runs through the entirety of the chronicles is to be wary of charismatic leaders.