Last Movie You Watched

[Brahmsian]

Mrs. Cato was astonished by the emotional impact of this movie: the story of anti-Nazi Catholic conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter, who is up for canonization now.





She was doubly astonished - after we had walked out of the theater in 2019 - that the director was Terrence Malick, whose movie The Tree of Life she had disliked.  (It is an acquired taste    ).

I just watched 'A Hidden Life' yesterday, based on yours and Karl's recommendations. It was an amazing film. The landscapes and cinematography were superb. It is certainly the most beautiful film I have seen in a very long time. Heartwarming, touching, poignant but without going over the top and not saccharine.

[Papy Oli]

Over the weekend: Daniel Craig's last James Bond, No Time to Die. It flew by so i guess it was entertaining and gripping enough.



 

[LKB]

Over the weekend: Daniel Craig's last James Bond, No Time to Die. It flew by so i guess it was entertaining and gripping enough.



 

On my list, maybe tonight. Been a while since l was " Bonded " ...

[Karl Henning]

On my list, maybe tonight. Been a while since l was " Bonded " ...

I really enjoyed it.

[DavidW]

On my list, maybe tonight. Been a while since l was " Bonded " ...

It is good and definitely better than the previous one (which I think is the weakest).  But my favorite Craig era movies remain Casino Royale and Skyfall by far.

[LKB]

Thanks for the info guys, maybe l won't wait for tonight. 

[Karl Henning]

It [No Time to Die] is good and definitely better than the previous one (which I think is the weakest)

You may be right: too diffuse, tries to encompass too much? (which was my impression of the last Christopher Nolan Batman flick, too) I may have felt that subconsciously, too, which made me shy at first of trying No Time to Die. Glad I got over that, though.

[SimonNZ]

Huh. In my memory this was superior trash, but on this viewing it just seemed clunky and silly.

And, my, what a lot of air vents that bioweapons lab has.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

The Leopard. Luchino Visconti. Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale et al..

[Brian]

The Leopard. Luchino Visconti. Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale et al..

I just bought this Criterion edition but have never seen the movie. Excited to try it. What were your impressions?

[brewski]

The Leopard. Luchino Visconti. Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale et al..

Hope you enjoy it. I have been lucky to see it on the big screen twice, and found it a sumptuous, ultimately moving experience. The final hour—the ballroom scene—is one of the greatest sequences in film history, and the Nino Rota score is fabulous.

-Bruce

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I just bought this Criterion edition but have never seen the movie. Excited to try it. What were your impressions?

You may want to briefly check the history of the Unification of Italy before watching the movie.
All Visconti movies are great with aesthetic cinematography, sumptuous costume, and relevant social/philosophical themes. Just like other Visconti movies, there are juxtapositions of youth vs. old age, nobility vs. bourgeoisie, prestige vs. wealth, fundamental vs. compromise, etc. in the movie. Nobody make cinema like Visconti. However I tend to see that Visconti movies are not very popular in the USA where people appreciate, and are proud of, Hollywood movies.

Hope you enjoy it. I have been lucky to see it on the big screen twice, and found it a sumptuous, ultimately moving experience. The final hour—the ballroom scene—is one of the greatest sequences in film history, and the Nino Rota score is fabulous.

-Bruce

I saw and watched the movie more than 10 times. I'm a big fan of Romolo Valli (the priest in the movie, hotel manager in Death in Venice, lawyer in Conversation Piece).

[SonicMan46]

 

Huh. In my memory this was superior trash, but on this viewing it just seemed clunky and silly.

And, my, what a lot of air vents that bioweapons lab has.

Hi Simon.. - remember seeing this film as a rental years ago - believe not impressed except for watching Milla Jovovitch -     Not sure if I've seen any of the sequels, probably not?  Dave

[DavidW]

It might be instructive to watch Resident Evil back to back with The Last of Us just to see how far we've come.

[SimonNZ]

The 1935 Hollywood Dream with James Cagney as Bottom.

Another example of my memory proving inaccurate (I should be getting worried). I thought when I first saw this some years back that it was a trainwreck where nobody understood what they were saying and were just babbling gibberish. But actually its not like that at all, was actually quite good (except for the very young Mickey Rooney's Puck which is cringe-inducing). And the more difficult passages in the text are cut away so its only the more straightforward dialogue that remains (though with all the frolicking and visual-effects scenes etc its still over two hours).

Perhaps my original problem was that at the time I was largely unfamiliar with the play and it didn't, especially with all the cuts, convey or make ease of its bonkers story - which I no longer need it to do, and can overlook if its missing.

Kept wondering how I knew the guy playing Flute, and eventually realized he's the guy who 24 years later would be trying to seduce Jack Lemon in Some Like It Hot, the one who says "nobody's perfect".

[Cato]

The 1935 Hollywood Dream with James Cagney as Bottom.

Another example of my memory proving inaccurate (I should be getting worried). I thought when I first saw this some years back that it was a trainwreck where nobody understood what they were saying and were just babbling gibberish. But actually its not like that at all, was actually quite good (except for the very young Mickey Rooney's Puck which is cringe-inducing). And the more difficult passages in the text are cut away so its only the more straightforward dialogue that remains (though with all the frolicking and visual-effects scenes etc its still over two hours).

Perhaps my original problem was that at the time I was largely unfamiliar with the play and it didn't, especially with all the cuts, convey or make ease of its bonkers story - which I no longer need it to do, and can overlook if its missing.


Kept wondering how I knew the guy playing Flute, and eventually realized he's the guy who 24 years later would be trying to seduce Jack Lemon in Some Like It Hot, the one who says "nobody's perfect".

Famous (at the time) comedian Joe. E. Brown, born not far away from where I live now in northwest Ohio: he was big in the early 1930's in a series of comedies.

Check out:

[Mookalafalas]

Cocaine Bear
 
  Powerful, deep, provocative. Life changing.

[ritter]

Caught this curiosity on TV the other night: Goyescas, directed by Benito Perojo (1942).



This lavish (for its time —1942, after the devastation of the civil war, and with WW2 in full swing— and place —Franco's Spain— ) is a sort of musical comedy, using arrangements of Granados' Goyescas (plus other works by the composer, e.g. the Spanish Dance Nr. 5), but the plot or characters bear no relation with the opera. It's very kitsch, but has a quaint charm. The recreation of some of Goya's tapestry cartoons is probably the most attractive feature.

The two female leads (a countess and a singer, who have a striking resemblance, this being basis of the plot) are played by Imperio Argentina, the most prominent tonadillera —popular singer— in Spain in the 40s and 50s, who was favoured by the Franco regime (as well as by the Nazis in Germany, apparently Hitler himself found her ravishing).

The film apparently won a prize in the 1942 Venice Festival (which doesn't really mean much, since even if Spain remained neutral during WW2, the affinity of a good section of the Spanish government of those years with Mussolini's and Hitler's regimes was well known).

[SimonNZ]

Famous (at the time) comedian Joe. E. Brown, born not far away from where I live now in northwest Ohio: he was big in the early 1930's in a series of comedies.

Thanks for that. I watched/heard the excellent commentary track last night by film historian Scott MacQueen. At one point he mentions that Brown was one of the ten highest paid actors of the 30s. Lots of other stuff about the making of the film, but also a good case study illustrating the studio system of the time, and, in this case, the desire of a studio known for gangster films to get some class with a capital c to rub in the faces of the others.

There was also a surprising amount about Korngold's reworking of Mendelssohn, including the detail that in a couple of places he was onset conducting actors as they delivered lines so it would complement the score.

[Cato]

We are watching the "prequel" to Lonesome Dove. 





It is necessary to watch Lonesome Dove first: a great Western from the mid-1980's with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones as the main characters (Texas Rangers after the Civil War).

Then watch the absolutely astonishing portrayal of Steve Zahn as the 30-years-younger version of Robert Duvall's character!  Karl Urban is good as a younger version of the character played by Tommy Lee Jones, but Steve Zahn is incredible.

The story by Larry McMurtry is nearly on the same level as the story in Lonesome Dove.  People have found the Val Kilmer part to be problematic: I do not agree, with the exception that scenes where he is later in Boston seem unnecessary to the the main part of the story in Texas.