Last Movie You Watched

[Belle]

Well it's cartoonish on a low budget. Which works better. Though I'd say a better adjective is theatrical.

I still don't think grunge is the right adjective for the aesthetic.

That's how it's referred to in Australia.  We get the not-so-subtle messaging, that's why!!

[Karl Henning]

Well it's cartoonish on a low budget. Which works better. Though I'd say a better adjective is theatrical.

Yes, as it was a stage show first. As with (say) Zombieland, the cartoonishness is simply part of the style.

[Madiel]

That's how it's referred to in Australia.  We get the not-so-subtle messaging, that's why!!

I'm Australian. I've never heard it referred to as that.

[Cato]

Zootopia 2

A worthy successor to the original movie: all kinds of laughs for young and old!

Even the musical score has wink-wink-nudge-nudge moments for Classical Music mavens!  😇

[Belle]

Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa  (in his 70's at the time), Jack Hawkins, and William Holden in a classic from director David Lean.



I had forgotten that the score was composed by Malcolm Arnold !

I have never read the novel by Pierre Boulle: I should perhaps fill in that lacuna in my education!

Lean was able to use three phenomenal screenwriters for his films "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai":  Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson, Carl Foreman.  The writing for "Lawrence" was often poetic;  certainly deeply moving.
I regard Robert Bolt as the greatest screenwriter of the post 'golden era' of cinema in the US and UK.

[Cato]

Lean was able to use three phenomenal screenwriters for his films "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai":  Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson, Carl Foreman.  The writing for "Lawrence" was often poetic;  certainly deeply moving.

I regard Robert Bolt as the greatest screenwriter of the post 'golden era' of cinema in the US and UK.

No arguments about that!  A Man for All Seasons should be in our Culture for centuries.  His version of Dr. Zhivago - as far as I am concerned - greatly improved the novel.

I have been wanting to revisit Lawrence of Arabia for some time!  Mrs. Cato needs some comedies after The Bridge on the River Kwai. 

[Karl Henning]

No arguments about that!  A Man for All Seasons should be in our Culture for centuries.  His version of Dr. Zhivago - as far as I am concerned - greatly improved the novel.

I have been wanting to revisit Lawrence of Arabia for some time!  Mrs. Cato needs some comedies after The Bridge on the River Kwai. 

Comedies after Kwai, certainly!

[Daverz]

Mrs. Cato needs some comedies after The Bridge on the River Kwai. 

Our Man in Havana

[Belle]

No arguments about that!  A Man for All Seasons should be in our Culture for centuries.  His version of Dr. Zhivago - as far as I am concerned - greatly improved the novel.

I have been wanting to revisit Lawrence of Arabia for some time!  Mrs. Cato needs some comedies after The Bridge on the River Kwai. 

I can highly recommend Kevin Brownlow's tome about David Lean;  it's all in there, and the difficult relationship he had with Alec Guiness. 

[Cato]

Comedies after Kwai, certainly!

As the old song from Julie London says...Kwai me a river! 

I can highly recommend Kevin Brownlow's tome about David Lean;  it's all in there, and the difficult relationship he had with Alec Guinness. 

Apparently things did not go well in Doctor Zhivago, but they worked together again for A Passage to India, in which Alec Guinness had practiced quite a bit for scene with a ritual Hindu dance, but it was cut completely, so...things became testy again!

[Madiel]

Update: Strictly Ballroom is the name of a band that musically could fit within the grunge genre. Yes, they apparently took their name from the movie.

But AI Google is helpfully describing this as a contrast to the glamorous aesthetic of the film. And "glamorous" is, I think, worth pointing out. It might be a working-class movie, but it's a movie about working-class people using sequins and glitter and teeth whitener.

Which, as an Australian, I've seen quite a few times.

I also have been known to listen to grunge.

And, during an attempt to understand how it could have ever been labelled as "Australian grunge", I actually stumbled across a rather good article about how Australian films like Strictly Ballroom that were released during the time period of American grunge were decidedly not part of the grunge aesthetic. They were almost the opposite. https://medium.com/outtake/arent-we-fabulous-b7de5965ea26

[Belle]

As the old song from Julie London says...Kwai me a river! 


Apparently things did not go well in Doctor Zhivago, but they worked together again for A Passage to India, in which Alec Guinness had practiced quite a bit for scene with a ritual Hindu dance, but it was cut completely, so...things became testy again!

You always seem up to speed, Cato, well done!!

[Belle]

Update: Strictly Ballroom is the name of a band that musically could fit within the grunge genre. Yes, they apparently took their name from the movie.

But AI Google is helpfully describing this as a contrast to the glamorous aesthetic of the film. And "glamorous" is, I think, worth pointing out. It might be a working-class movie, but it's a movie about working-class people using sequins and glitter and teeth whitener.

Which, as an Australian, I've seen quite a few times.

I also have been known to listen to grunge.

And, during an attempt to understand how it could have ever been labelled as "Australian grunge", I actually stumbled across a rather good article about how Australian films like Strictly Ballroom that were released during the time period of American grunge were decidedly not part of the grunge aesthetic. They were almost the opposite. https://medium.com/outtake/arent-we-fabulous-b7de5965ea26

Excellent comments!  A great article attached.  I still regard "Priscilla" as grunge because of its caricatures.  And that's how I would teach it, had I not retired 2 decades ago.  But it's good to hear the younger generation perspective.

Spoiler alert;  I'm over 70 and have adored 'vintage' film all my life;  studying, watching, analyzing. That's my specialization as a film aficionado. English teacher I taught films like "Ten Things I Hate About You", "Clueless", "A Simple Plan", etc.  However, I do remember showing "The Man With the Golden Arm" to a mid-level Year 10 and they liked it!!

[Belle]

I'm grateful to be having these little back-and-forth discussions on CMG!

[Cato]

.

Spoiler alert;  I'm over 70 and have adored 'vintage' film all my life;  studying, watching, analyzing. That's my specialization as a film aficionado. English teacher I taught films like "Ten Things I Hate About You", "Clueless", "A Simple Plan", etc.  However, I do remember showing "The Man With the Golden Arm" to a mid-level Year 10 and they liked it!!

Oh my, A Simple Plan packs a punch like Oedipus Rex or Elektra!

Directed by Sam Raimi, another highly recommended movie!

[brewski]

Oh my, A Simple Plan packs a punch like Oedipus Rex or Elektra!

Directed by Sam Raimi, another highly recommended movie!

I love this movie. So great, seeing how the original premise of the title rapidly spirals out of control. Still recall a review when it came out, commenting on all the crows as a kind of Greek chorus, commenting on the action. After I saw the movie the first time, I read the book by Scott Smith, and liked it, but Sam Raimi improved on it with the film. Definitely fun, with three terrific performances.

[Cato]

I love this movie. So great, seeing how the original premise of the title rapidly spirals out of control. Still recall a review when it came out, commenting on all the crows as a kind of Greek chorus, commenting on the action. After I saw the movie the first time, I read the book by Scott Smith, and liked it, but Sam Raimi improved on it with the film. Definitely fun, with three terrific performances.

The reviewer is quite right about the crows, one of the reasons why I referred to Greek tragedies earlier.

And your comment on how the movie is better than the book reminded me about Alfred Hitchcock's idea that mediocre books or stories can be improved, when they are turned into movies.

Tonight we watched:

Bullitt with Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Don Gordon.

Roger Ebert's 4-star review is on target.


https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bullitt-1968

[Todd]

Started rewatching Raiders of the Lost Ark - with a twist.  Until yesterday, I was unaware that Steven Soderbergh had posted a black and white version of the film with the original sound entirely removed, with music from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross swapped in, making it a hybrid silent movie.

The opening sequence looks fantastic throughout.  The purpose of the project was to focus on staging and blocking, which works well, but the conversion also allows one to dig the compositions and lighting as well.  The music was selected and edited to end the sequence with Techno-Grieg.

This makes me wonder what other color films would look this good in black and white, and it makes me want to see the proper hybrid of black and white with original sound and music.

Link: https://extension765.com/blogs/soderblog/raiders

[Cato]

Tonight we watched:

Bullitt with Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Don Gordon.

Roger Ebert's 4-star review is on target.


https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bullitt-1968

I should mention that Mrs. Cato and I both noticed that Lalo Schifrin's score sounds, to be polite, antiquated: jazzy solo flute or saxophone (the latter was worse), and probably too much pizzicato bass with brushes on snare drums and cymbals. 

I am sure, however, that it would have seemed just fine in 1968! 

And Schifrin's Mission: Impossible music is hard to top and has obviously withstood the test of time!

A comment about the movie itself: the hospital scenes are almost documentary in style, very realistic, with none of the Sturm-und-Drang "hysterionics" of modern doctor-nurse dramas.

And indeed, there is a low-key documentary feel to most of it.  Robert Vaughn's arrogant corruption and Steve McQueen's tight-lipped detective, all add to a realistic atmosphere.

In keeping with the "cool" atmosphere, there is hardly any shouting of any kind.  Neither the criminals nor the police speak in wise-cracking banter or have yelling matches full of obscenities.  The influence of Jack Webb's Sergeant Friday character was obvious!

[San Antone]

To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American legal drama crime film directed by Robert Mulligan, starring Gregory Peck and Mary Badham. Adapted from Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the film follows lawyer Atticus Finch in Depression-era Alabama educating his children against prejudice while defending a black man who is falsely charged with the rape of a white woman.



One of my favorite movies, and book. Watching it, no matter how often, never fails to bring tears to my eyes at the scenes of the Black community rising as Atticus leaves the courtroom and when Scout meets Boo Radley after he saved Jem.