Last Movie You Watched

[Karl Henning]

Because it's been awhile (and because I saw George Sanders last night as the original Mr Freeze) ... Hitchcock's Rebecca.
"picturization!"

[Karl Henning]

Because it's been awhile (and because I saw George Sanders last night as the original Mr Freeze) ... Hitchcock's Rebecca.
"picturization!"

Ah, when Mrs Danvers says, not "it was the first Mrs De Winter's room" but simply,  "it was Mrs De Winter's room."

[Number Six]

Ballerina

Some killer action pieces, a great training montage, a gorgeous leading lady, and judicious use of Wick himself.

I dig it.

[AnotherSpin]

Yesterday, on TV:



Very well acted by Angelina Jolie, and very chic and glossy artistic direction, but Pablo Larrain's Maria bored me to tears, and I quit watching it after about 45 minutes.

The musical selections are dubios and seem to aimed at the "wider public": in the part I saw, O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi and the Ave Maria from Otello are repeated over and over again, and I cannot think of two arias less associated with Callas (although admittedly she did include the Puccini piece in her ill-fated 1973 comeback tour).

Much style with little substance, I'm afraid...

It seems to me that Callas performed and recorded this aria long before the 70s. If I'm not mistaken, the most popular rendition, often included in anthologies, was made in Milan in the 50s.

I agree that Lauretta's part can hardly be counted among Callas's more significant roles. I'm not aware of any full staging of this Puccini's opera featuring her.

As for the film, I simply couldn't manage 45 minutes, more like 5 or 7, as the suspension of disbelief never quite took hold.

[ritter]

Indeed, Callas did record both arias (Lauretta's in her 1954 Puccini arias disc, and Desdemona's in 1964), but did not perform either rôle onstage.

[Cato]

Recently we watched Sunset Boulevard and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre: Mrs. Cato had never seen the former, so it was a new experience for her.



Of interest is that one of the cameos by former silent-movie stars was done by Anna Nilsson, who was 62 at the time (1950).  She was, in one sense, a real Norma Desmond! But in the teens and twenties of the 1900's, she was one of the most popular stars of the new art.  An immigrant from Sweden, she had been voted the most popular actress of 1926 and received c. 20,000 letters per week from fans!

But when sound hit the movies, her career crashed practically immediately.  Apparently her voice (accent ?) did not sound like what the studios wanted.

The only acting jobs she could find were tiny parts for which she received no screen credit!  Almost overnight, she became a nobody!

Even in Sunset Boulevard she has no real speaking part ("Two hearts" in a card game scene).

Anyway, great musical score by Franz Waxman!

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre still holds up well: you might not know a wonderful Bugs Bunny cartoon, wherein Humphrey Bogart's character Fred Dobbs is satirized three times.  Very funny!

In the movie, Dobbs approaches American tourists in Mexico and says: "Could you stake a fellow American to a meal?"

The satirical scenes start c. the 4:00 minute mark, but the whole cartoon is worth the 7 minutes!

Also interesting is the author of the book, B. Traven, whose real identity has been a mystery for decades.  He seems to have been a German, perhaps a deserter from the German Army in World War I, who remained fearful of governments in general and seemed to prefer to be in hiding, even when his adventure books were selling well and being made into movies.

Wikipedia says his identity is still under dispute!  I recall reading scholarly German journals with debates about who he really was.

This has some interesting comments on the mystery:


https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-myster-of-b-travern-270-v16n12/

[Mister Sharpe]

Saw this over the weekend, one of the few Losey films that has escaped me.  As usual, Alain Delon excels.  He also produced the film. 

[Karl Henning]

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) Olivia de Havilland's film début as Hermia. Victor Jory as Oberon. Choreography by Bronislava Nijinska, at-times-curious musical adaptations by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Jas Cagney as Bottom and Dick Powell as Lysander are not bad, but are perhaps more interesting artifacts of the time than engaging in their performance. Rising above that threshold, arguably, is Joe E Brown as Flute/Thisbe. Overall I enjoy this a good deal, yet I come to it quite seldom, probably because Mickey Rooney waxeth surpassingly annoying.

[Cato]

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) Olivia de Havilland's film début as Hermia. Victor Jory as Oberon. Choreography by Bronislava Nijinska, at-times-curious musical adaptations by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Jas Cagney as Bottom and Dick Powell as Lysander are not bad, but are perhaps more interesting artifacts of the time than engaging in their performance. Rising above that threshold, arguably, is Joe E Brown as Flute/Thisbe. Overall I enjoy this a good deal, yet I come to it quite seldom, probably because Mickey Rooney waxeth surpassingly annoying.

I have not seen that in decades!  I remember James Cagney and Mickey Rooney in their roles, but yes, Joe E. Brown was always an all-around fave!   

You remind me of the all-star Julius Caesar from the early 1950's with Marlon Brando surprisingly unmannered as Antony, and James Mason as a Brutus agonizingly unwilling to be an assassin, with a host of great character actors (e.g. Edmond O'Brien, John Hoyt, John Doucette (usually a cowboy-movie villain), and Alan Napier (later known as Alfred the Butler in the great satirical version of Batman).

Maybe it is time to revisit that movie!   

[Karl Henning]

I have not seen that in decades!  I remember James Cagney and Mickey Rooney in their roles, but yes, Joe E. Brown was always an all-around fave! 

You remind me of the all-star Julius Caesar from the early 1950's with Marlon Brando surprisingly unmannered as Antony, and James Mason as a Brutus agonizingly unwilling to be an assassin, with a host of great character actors (e.g. Edmond O'Brien, John Hoyt, John Doucette (usually a cowboy-movie villain), and Alan Napier (later known as Alfred the Butler in the great satirical version of Batman).

Maybe it is time to revisit that movie! 

Yes! I especially enjoyed Diana Rigg as Portia pleading with Brutus to level with her.

[hopefullytrusting]

This movie is a perfect encapsulation of the time (at least in the United States of America): Superman (2025)



It also proves that Jung was right.

I will admit that I didn't think anyone could replace Cavill, but Corenswet was perfect, and, man, that soundtrack - really makes you feel.

[Karl Henning]

I watched a 1968 film of A Midsummer Night's Dream. And if the movie-craft feel noticeably inferior to later Shakespeare on film, against that we have Judi Dench as Titania, Ian Holm as Puck, Helen Mirren as Hermia, Diana Rigg as Helena and David Warner as Lysander.

Oh! If only they had cast Leo McKern as Bottom!

[Karl Henning]

TD: The Rankin-Bass animated Hobbit. I'd forgotten that Jn Huston narrates, and voices Gandalf. I'm not sure I ever realized that Otto Preminger voices the Elvenking.

[ritter]

Oh! If only they had cast Leo McKern as Bottom!

Yes, the unforgettable Rumpole of the Bailey!

[hopefullytrusting]

A Night at the Roxbury - this movie is surprisingly uplifting - even if its ethos can be boiled down to, quite literally, "bros before hoes":



My favorite scene is the homage to Cusack in Say Anything (in my opinion, equally as powerful, although not as well shot). (Highlights how important music is to moviemaking.)

[AnotherSpin]

This movie is a perfect encapsulation of the time (at least in the United States of America): Superman (2025)



It also proves that Jung was right.

I will admit that I didn't think anyone could replace Cavill, but Corenswet was perfect, and, man, that soundtrack - really makes you feel.

In the latest Superman outing, one can hardly fail to notice the demise of Boravia's unhinged dictator, his corpse unceremoniously landing amidst a skyline adorned with onion domes. It produces, I must admit, a rather satisfying sense of poetic justice.

The caricature of a deranged techno-magnate - faint echoes of a certain Mr Musk may be discerned - bankrolling an aggressive autocracy is rendered with amusing grotesquery. True, it doesn't exactly replicate the West's long-standing habit of shovelling zillions into the maw of an increasingly rabid tumor of Russia, but the resemblance is not entirely off the mark.

One is tempted to remark: at last, someone has begun to sketch the outline of the problem, even if only in the realm of comic-book fantasy. Very well then. If understanding must arrive clad in cape and tights, I suggest we make it welcome.

[hopefullytrusting]

In the latest Superman outing, one can hardly fail to notice the demise of Boravia's unhinged dictator, his corpse unceremoniously landing amidst a skyline adorned with onion domes. It produces, I must admit, a rather satisfying sense of poetic justice.

The caricature of a deranged techno-magnate - faint echoes of a certain Mr Musk may be discerned - bankrolling an aggressive autocracy is rendered with amusing grotesquery. True, it doesn't exactly replicate the West's long-standing habit of shovelling zillions into the maw of an increasingly rabid tumor of Russia, but the resemblance is not entirely off the mark.

One is tempted to remark: at last, someone has begun to sketch the outline of the problem, even if only in the realm of comic-book fantasy. Very well then. If understanding must arrive clad in cape and tights, I suggest we make it welcome.

"We have here a golden opportunity of seeing how a legend is formed, and how in a dark and difficult time for humanity a miraculous intervention grows up of an attempted intervention by extra-terrestrial 'heavenly' powers"

"In the threatening situation of the world today, when people are beginning to see that everything is at stake, the projection-creating fantasy soars beyond the realm of earthly organizations and powers into the heavens, into interstellar space, where the rulers of human fate, the gods, are expected to appear. The modern myth of the UFOs is a reaction to the present-day spiritual and intellectual vacuum. It is a living myth that we are experiencing. The UFOs are a compensatory manifestation of the unconscious. They are an attempt to heal or at least compensate for the metaphysical enfeeblement of man."

Jung

[AnotherSpin]

"We have here a golden opportunity of seeing how a legend is formed, and how in a dark and difficult time for humanity a miraculous intervention grows up of an attempted intervention by extra-terrestrial 'heavenly' powers"

"In the threatening situation of the world today, when people are beginning to see that everything is at stake, the projection-creating fantasy soars beyond the realm of earthly organizations and powers into the heavens, into interstellar space, where the rulers of human fate, the gods, are expected to appear. The modern myth of the UFOs is a reaction to the present-day spiritual and intellectual vacuum. It is a living myth that we are experiencing. The UFOs are a compensatory manifestation of the unconscious. They are an attempt to heal or at least compensate for the metaphysical enfeeblement of man."

Jung

I am acquainted with individuals who believe that the affairs of our world are guided by extraterrestrial forces destined to bring about a just resolution. Or not.

As for myself, I am inclined to think the origins of war lie much closer to home. They seem woven into the very fabric of human nature: fear, a gnawing sense of inadequacy, a feel of lack, the abiding anxiety that there may not be enough of resources, of recognition, of love.

In the end, everything appears to distill into three elemental pursuits: lust, violence, and sugar.

[Cato]

"We have here a golden opportunity of seeing how a legend is formed, and how in a dark and difficult time for humanity a miraculous intervention grows up of an attempted intervention by extra-terrestrial 'heavenly' powers"

"... The modern myth of the UFOs is a reaction to the present-day spiritual and intellectual vacuum. It is a living myth that we are experiencing. The UFOs are a compensatory manifestation of the unconscious. They are an attempt to heal or at least compensate for the metaphysical enfeeblement of man."

Jung

A former student of mine, who has risen into the higher levels of the apparatus known as U.S. Air Force Intelligence, happened to visit me a few years ago, when the Navy was reporting a flurry of "U.A.P." sightings of objects performing inexplicable maneuvers and acceleration and speed.  (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon: why the new abbreviation was necessary, who knows?)

When I puckishly asked my student what the Air Force thought of the Navy's claims, my student just smiled and said:

"When will the public realize that ALL of those things belong to us?!  


Speaking of such things, earlier I mentioned a movie called Sketch, which deals with child fantasy.

A related movie, although you would not think that it could be related to a childhood fantasy movie:

[Karl Henning]

@Florestan at last, A Beautiful Mind. I'm not sure what I expected, but it's superb.