Last Movie You Watched

[DavidW]

I remember hearing a story on NPR [may it live forever!] some months ago(?) about actors and AI.  One of the parts that I particularly remembered was how extras (at least for one movie) were told to perform various reactions/feelings to be photographed and, from what I understood, to be used at will by the studio.  Well, guess how that went over?

K

Disney, in particular, had been forcing actors to film those various parts for future AI use. They have been doing that for years, though, and that was a big part of the strike that happened a while back.

This is old news. That is not what the movie is about. The movie is about one of the tech billionaires launching an AI tool that people used to make fake news, which led to violence, the toppling of governments, deaths, and global chaos.

[Karl Henning]

Designing Dune and Dune FX featurettes for the David Lynch movie

@LKB should you ever give the movie another try, I'd be interested in your thoughts. @krummholz I appreciate that a devotee of the books would have cause to look askance at the Lynch. For myself, it's quite an artifact of its era, and my enjoyment is largely in those terms. All the character actors I feel a fondness for, e.g. It seems, too, to be a very early role for Brad Dourif, and a toothsome character for a young pup of an actor to play. I love the moment when Patrick Stewart's Gurney and Kyle McLachlan meet back up near the end. After seeing the Villeneuve movies, I appreciate what a peculiar choice Sean Young was for Chani, even allowing for the fact that this character is much more fully developed in the recent movies. What I appreciated more than almost ever ("almost" because I've been reminded of the impression from the big screen) is: just as Ridley Scott is an expert draughtsman and was very hands-on with the art design of Blade Runner, Lynch was a talented and curious artist who took a similarly active interest in the art design of Dune. Not to call the Villeneuve movies anything other than beautiful in their own right, I find the Lynch movie wonderful to watch. Overall. There are also, of course, the very creepy bits. One of the easier contrasts between the two presentations, perhaps is that Villeneuve's Harkonnens are relatively coldly pathological, where Lynch's are almost more disgusting than they are a menace.

[Cato]

@LKB should you ever give the movie another try, I'd be interested in your thoughts. @krummholz I appreciate that a devotee of the books would have cause to look askance at the Lynch.

For myself, it's quite an artifact of its era, and my enjoyment is largely in those terms. All the character actors I feel a fondness for, e.g. It seems, too, to be a very early role for Brad Dourif, and a toothsome character for a young pup of an actor to play. I love the moment when Patrick Stewart's Gurney and Kyle McLachlan meet back up near the end. After seeing the Villeneuve movies, I appreciate what a peculiar choice Sean Young was for Chani, even allowing for the fact that this character is much more fully developed in the recent movies. What I appreciated more than almost ever ("almost" because I've been reminded of the impression from the big screen) is: just as Ridley Scott is an expert draughtsman and was very hands-on with the art design of Blade Runner, Lynch was a talented and curious artist who took a similarly active interest in the art design of Dune. Not to call the Villeneuve movies anything other than beautiful in their own right, I find the Lynch movie wonderful to watch. Overall. There are also, of course, the very creepy bits. One of the easier contrasts between the two presentations, perhaps is that Villeneuve's Harkonnens are relatively coldly pathological, where Lynch's are almost more disgusting than they are a menace.

Brad Dourif had a starring role in 1979 in Wise Blood, based on Flannery O'Connor's admittedlty strange novella.

John Huston was the director!

See if the local library has it!

[Karl Henning]

Brad Dourif had a starring role in 1979 in Wise Blood, based on Flannery O'Connor's admittedlty strange novella.

John Huston was the director!

See if the local library has it!

Most interesting! I have generally seen Dourif in, shall we say, peculiar roles:
Gríma Wormtongue (Saruman's plant in Medusel) in the Lord of the Rings
The Gemini Killer in Exorcist III
one of the main researchers for whom it does not end at all well in Alien Resurrection.

[Cato]

Most interesting! I have generally seen Dourif in, shall we say, peculiar roles:
Gríma Wormtongue (Saruman's plant in Medusel) in the Lord of the Rings
The Gemini Killer in Exorcist III
one of the main researchers for whom it does not end at all well in Alien Resurrection.

"Peculiar" would also describe his role in Wise Blood!   

But given that it is a Flannery O'Connor story, practically all the characters are peculiar! 


I have mentioned this before: somewhere she gave an interview or made a comment in her letters that if you write a story about the South that is realistic, the critics will call it "grotesque," and if you write a story about the South that is grotesque, the critics will call it "realistic."   

[JBS]

Most interesting! I have generally seen Dourif in, shall we say, peculiar roles:
Gríma Wormtongue (Saruman's plant in Medusel) in the Lord of the Rings
The Gemini Killer in Exorcist III
one of the main researchers for whom it does not end at all well in Alien Resurrection.

His most peculiar role is that of Chucky: he seems to have been Chucky or at least the voice of Chucky throughout the Chucky franchise.

But he won a Golden Globe for his first film role, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and he was nominated (for Best Supporting Actor) but did not win, an Oscar for that role--the only major category for which  that film was nominated but did not win the award.

[Above the result of checking to see what films I've seen him appear in. Turns out to be not that many.]

[Karl Henning]

His most peculiar role is that of Chucky: he seems to have been Chucky or at least the voice of Chucky throughout the Chucky franchise.

I, too, only learnt of that by checking his filmography. Even with my occasional foray into horror, I've never seen any of Chucky.

[Madiel]

Most interesting! I have generally seen Dourif in, shall we say, peculiar roles:
Gríma Wormtongue (Saruman's plant in Medusel) in the Lord of the Rings
The Gemini Killer in Exorcist III
one of the main researchers for whom it does not end at all well in Alien Resurrection.

He is also part of one of the truly great episodes of The X-Files. That's how I first knew him. It basically puts him front and centre with Gillian Anderson, and it's one of the first times you get to see just how good she is going to be.

[DavidW]

He is also part of one of the truly great episodes of The X-Files. That's how I first knew him. It basically puts him front and centre with Gillian Anderson, and it's one of the first times you get to see just how good she is going to be.

He was also in one of the best episodes of Babylon 5, where he played a serial killer who had his mind wiped. The episode challenges the viewer's perception of victimhood, tolerance, compassion, forgiveness, and faith.

BTW the episode you mentioned is my favorite episode from all of the early seasons of the X-Files.

[Karl Henning]

Because it's been awhile: The Seven Samurai.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Because it's been awhile: The Seven Samurai.

Love the battle scene at the end!

[Karl Henning]

Robt Eggers' Nosferatu.

[Cato]

Because it's been awhile: The Seven Samurai.

Aye!  And you remind me that it is time to revisit Yojimbo and its American counterpart Last Man Standing, the latter with a great cast: Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, Bruce Dern, Ned Eisenberg, and William Sanderson.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Aye!  And you remind me that it is time to revisit Yojimbo and its American counterpart Last Man Standing, the latter with a great cast: Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, Bruce Dern, Ned Eisenberg, and William Sanderson.

As you already know, A Fistful of Dollars is a remake of Yojimbo too.

[SonicMan46]

Last night, I wanted to watch a D-Day movie and found a 'Top 10' list on the National WW II Memorial website - shown below, except for Overlord & Eye of the Needle, I had (and own many) seen the rest - Susan made the pick and chose 36 Hours - did not remember much - short beginning synopsis below - recommended although all of those that I've seen are quite good.  Dave

36 Hours is a 1964 American war thriller, and stars James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Taylor and Werner Peters. Having attended General Eisenhower's final briefing on the upcoming Normandy landings, U.S. Army major Jeff Pike is sent to Lisbon, Portugal on June 1, 1944 to meet an informant to confirm that the Nazis still expect the invasion at Calais. He is abducted and transported to Germany. Pike awakens in what seems to be a U.S. Army hospital. He is told that it is May 1950 and that he is in post-war occupied Germany. (Source)

National WWII Memorial Website - Alex Keshaw ((Source)

The Longest Day (1962) - Wayne and many more!
Saving Private Ryan (1998) - Hanks & Spielberg
The Big Red One (1980) - Marvin
36 Hours (1964) - James Garner, EM Saint, Rod Taylor
Where Eagles Dare (1968) - Burton & Eastwood
Ike - Countdown to D Day (2005 - Tom Selleck
Overload (1975) - Archival & Live footage filming
Eye of the Needle (1981) - Donald Sutherland
Americanization of Emily (1964) - Garner & Andrews
The Desert Fox (1951) - James Mason

 

[Karl Henning]

Robt Eggers' Nosferatu.

I checked this out immediately upon finding it on display at the Library, but I waited until I was quite in the humor. An earnest slowburn that puts me in mind of Ridley Scott. Visually very stylish, too. There's also a bit of The Exorcist in this. Tangentially, on the same table at the Library I saw Alien Romulus, which like the DVD of Alien Covenant sported a line of hyperbolic praise. I don't believe I'll bother.

[Karl Henning]

My second time: The Marsh King's Daughter. Now I appreciate the initial positive portrayal of the M.K.

[AnotherSpin]

I watched Mr.Jones a while ago, but it came back to memory after yesterday's forum discussions — ...................

It's not just another historical drama — it hits hard. It gives a raw, unflinching look at the Holodomor, Stalin's man-made famine in Ukraine. It's a fierce indictment not just of the Soviet regime's cruelty, but also of the Western elites who chose to look the other way.

The story follows journalist Gareth Jones, who starts out in polished, propaganda-filled Moscow — a city putting on a shiny, fake face for foreign visitors. But then he makes his way into Ukraine, and it's a completely different world. Empty villages, frozen corpses, starving kids... until he realizes what it is.

What hits hardest isn't just the imagery — it's Jones's reaction. You see him slowly realize the scale of what's happening. He's staring straight at evil, and the world around him either doesn't care or refuses to believe it.

Mr.Jones is emotional, political, and absolutely necessary — especially today.

Note of the moderation: this post has been edited to remove the reference to yesterday's  incident in the WAYL2N thread.

[SimonNZ]

Hadn't heard of director Christian Petzold before, but looking into film depictions of East Germany he is repeatedly cited as one of the most subtle and authentic (without being sympathetic). The local dvd store has this and three other of his films, and after the success of this I'll be watching the others over the next three weeks.

[Madiel]

I'm only halfway through for various reasons and I might hold off finishing it until tomorrow, but I'm rather enjoying The Thief of Bagdad (the 1924 version).



I think it's a very long time since I watched any silent film at all. This one holds up well.