Last Movie You Watched

[Karl Henning]

There is that.

[George]

Man, this was awesome!

[aligreto]

The Danish Girl





Magnificent acting from Eddie Redmayne.

[Karl Henning]

Last night:  To Rome With Love.  Loved it.

[aligreto]

Where Angels Fear to Tread

[Karl Henning]

Over a period of two years, or maybe more, as I've reserved and checked out DVDs from the BPL, I believe that I checked out Midnight in Paris three times.  It was always one DVD in a small pile.  It is also typical of my library DVD borrowing, that when I have the DVDs checked, I do not always get around to watching them, by the time I need to return them.  Whatever combination of Karl is too busy at this period and When Karl is watching, his whim strikes elsewhere.  So, I never watched the BPL DVD of Midnight in Paris.

At last, I decided not only that I was definitely going to watch it, but that I was fine with buying my own copy on spec.  At first, I ordered the blu-ray, and at a perfectly reasonable price.  But then as I searched, I found a DVD 5-pack for $23;  as I had not yet seem any of the five movies, it was a bit of a gamble, but I felt fine about the risks.  The five movies, in chronological order of release:

Whatever Works (2009)
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
To Rome With Love (2012)
Blue Jasmine (2013)

I watched Blue Jasmine last night, and so I have at last completed this "set";  and I can report that it exceeded good expectations.

It is a key virtue of Woody Allen's work, but I especially exulted in the variety among these almost immediate successive five screenplays.  Of the five, "the one which I liked least" (which is unnecessarily negative) was You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.  It is the "weak" one of this handful, in the was that a B+ paper is "weak" compared to a quartet of A's.  The engine for both You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and Blue Jasmine is, the unpredictability of relationships, how we make such efforts to find the right person, but how some portion of that endeavor is just out of our control.  (We might say that the same theme runs through Whatever Works, but in the context of a giddy comedy.)  In different environments, the poignancy of both You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and Blue Jasmine comes from the relationships, and the people, which/who at the end are to some degree broken, and the open question of whether they can (and how they should) mend.  Perhaps they are both variations on the same theme of Annie Hall;  but there is no "retread" – there is inexhaustible discovery.

Per George, lawd, but Whatever Works is brilliant and witty.

In an environment (cinema) where two successive movies on a similar theme too frequently suggest the ham-handed use of a cookie-cutter, Allen achieves a tour-de-force in making the two "travelogue" movies, Midnight in Paris and To Rome With Love absolutely different, in spite of the superficial similarity of at least one element:  American parents coming to a European capital for the engagement/wedding of their daughter.  Exquisitely delightful, both of them.

[George]

Per George, lawd, but Whatever Works is brilliant and witty.

[SimonNZ]

Although "Fires Were Started" is considered the classic war-era Jennings it was "Diary For Timothy" and especially "Listen To Britain" that impressed me from this collection

[aligreto]

What Lies Beneath

[Bogey]

Yesterday was KING KONG day, released 85 years ago yesterday (according to one source).

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

Cold stone 10/10.

[Bogey]

Last night:



Acting moments for Brando have almost become fodder for cliché.  However, when you watch his films as a whole you realize once again that he was one heck of an actor.  Another of these is Karl Malden.  Too bad many folks only remember him doing commercials for American Express.  Lee J. Cobb and Rob Steiger also give excellent performances, while character actors "that you know" pop up left and right.  And someone named in Leonard Bernstein provides the musical backdrop.  Was this truly his only movie score?

[Karl Henning]

[...] you realize once again that he was one heck of an actor.  Another of these is Karl Malden.  Too bad many folks only remember him doing commercials for American Express.

You could have knocked me over with a crêpe when I saw him in Hitchcock's I Confess.

[Karl Henning]

Thread Duty:

Last night I watched Sleeper.  I cannot explain it, but I must never have seen it before:  too many elements and moments which were completely new to me.

"Pass the celery."

[Ken B]

Three Billboards

Which is excellent and unusual. Three great performances too. The best Harrelson has been since Cheers.

[bwv 1080]

Thread Duty:

Last night I watched Sleeper.  I cannot explain it, but I must never have seen it before:  too many elements and moments which were completely new to me.

"Pass the celery."

Grew up in Denver and used to see the house all the time driving into the mountains

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculptured_House

[Karl Henning]

Grew up in Denver and used to see the house all the time driving into the mountains

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculptured_House

Cool.

Thread Duty, again:

Last night, Dial M for Murder.  Perhaps not essential Hitchcock;  but a classic, and a superb cast.

[aligreto]

Hostage





Standard  Bruce Willis fare.

[kishnevi]

Thread Duty:

Last night I watched Sleeper.  I cannot explain it, but I must never have seen it before:  too many elements and moments which were completely new to me.

"Pass the celery."

I saw it years ago, possibly when it first came out or soon thereafter.   The only thing I remember is the Orgasmatron....

[Madiel]

Romeo + Juliet



I'd forgotten how frenetic and hot-headed it is. Which is exactly the point.

Seems I'm not the only one who thinks so. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/01/romeo-juliet-baz-lurhmann-leonardo-dicaprio-claire-danes-20th-anniversary

[Karl Henning]

I saw it years ago, possibly when it first came out or soon thereafter.   The only thing I remember is the Orgasmatron....

If the movie has a fault, it is busy/crowded. It may be, he soon learnt that less is more.