Return Of The Film Corner Thread

[duaneiac]

[jlhoots]

Give Me Liberty

[kinuta]

Too Big To Fail - Curtis Hanson (2011)

[jlhoots]

Cold Case Hammarskold

[kinuta]

Amazing Grace - Sydney Pollack (2018)

Incandescent, intense and absolutely inspiring. A must see.

Yesterday - Danny Boyle (2019)

From the sublime Aretha to the ridiculous, worst ever Danny Boyle film.

Without the music this would have been nothing, with embarrassingly squirmish dialogue and facepalm attempts at humour. Just my opinion, of course.

Edited September 11, 2019 by kinuta

[Brad]

Pollack is one of the reasons Amazing Grace hasn't made it to the big screen until now. He neglected to bring clapper boards -- necessary to synchronize sound and picture -- to the filming so the film basically sat in the can until producer Alan Elliott, through the use of digital technology, managed to sync up the sound and film in 2010.  The other principal reason was Aretha herself but after she died her executor cut a deal with Elliott so the film could come out. 

Edited September 12, 2019 by Brad

[kinuta]

1 hour ago, Brad said:

Pollack is one of the reasons Amazing Grace hasn't made it to the big screen until now. He neglected to bring clapper boards -- necessary to synchronize sound and picture -- to the filming so the film basically sat in the can until producer Alan Elliott, through the use of digital technology, managed to sync up the sound and film in 2010.  The other principal reason was Aretha herself but after she died her executor cut a deal with Elliott so the film could come out. 

I knew there had been major problems synchronizing the image and sound, that had only been overcome recently.

I'm just glad someone put this out. Of course I've had the record since it's release but seeing it is a whole new level of involvement.

Does anyone know anything about the energetic choir leader , Alexander Hamilton ?

Edited September 12, 2019 by kinuta

[jlhoots]

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound Of My Voice

[kinuta]

The House Of Mirth - Terence Davies (2000)

[jlhoots]

Official Secrets

[Matthew]

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Is it allowed for a sixty year old to really, really, enjoy this film? It's a fun film to watch.

[jlhoots]

Hustlers

[kinuta]

The last three nights -

A Most Violent Year - J.C. Chandor (2014)

A Most Wanted Man - Anton Corbijn (2014)

Sicario - Denis Villeneuve (2015)

[duaneiac]

An interesting documentary about the world of industrial musicals.  The story is centered around Steve Young, a writer for David Letterman's shows, who got into these little known musicals when he had to seek out oddball records for skits on the Letterman show.  He gradually became interested in and then obsessed with the music in these old trade show souvenirs.  The film takes us along as Mr. Young meets fellow record collectors in this specialized field and as he meets some of the performers (including Florence Henderson and Martin Short) who worked in these industrial shows and he even gets to meet some of the composers of the shows, who are like legends in his eyes.  The film is a little slow at first, but it has a couple of goods surprises, a little sadness and a boffo ending.  The following song plays an integral role in the film, so if you can appreciate music like this, you might enjoy this film.  I sure did.

 

[kinuta]

All The Way - Jay Roach (2016)

 

 

[jlhoots]

Downton Abbey

[jlhoots]

Ad Astra

[kinuta]

The Assassin - Hou Hsiao-hsien (2015)

I've now watched this three times but am still unable to follow the storyline.

It hardly matters as the visual splendour more than compensates for the murky plot.

 

7 hours ago, jlhoots said:

Ad Astra

The trailer looks very interesting. I hope it lived up to your expectations.

[duaneiac]

Well that was really, uh . . . something.

[Brad]

9 hours ago, duaneiac said:

Well that was really, uh . . . something.

Like “Reefer Madness”.

[Ted O'Reilly]

On 9/19/2019 at 1:31 AM, duaneiac said:

 

An interesting documentary about the world of industrial musicals.  The story is centered around Steve Young, a writer for David Letterman's shows, who got into these little known musicals when he had to seek out oddball records for skits on the Letterman show.  He gradually became interested in and then obsessed with the music in these old trade show souvenirs.  The film takes us along as Mr. Young meets fellow record collectors in this specialized field and as he meets some of the performers (including Florence Henderson and Martin Short) who worked in these industrial shows and he even gets to meet some of the composers of the shows, who are like legends in his eyes.  The film is a little slow at first, but it has a couple of goods surprises, a little sadness and a boffo ending.  The following song plays an integral role in the film, so if you can appreciate music like this, you might enjoy this film.  I sure did.

 

There's a really good radio show about marketing on CBC called Under The Influence hosted by Terry O'Reilly (no relation) which covered that topic a couple of years back -- and it's available here:  https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-70-under-the-influence/clip/12424026-when-madison-avenue-met-broadway-the-world-of-industrial-musicals-an-encore-presentation

Lots of the music stands, if you drop the lyrics...

[jlhoots]

Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool

[duaneiac]

7 hours ago, Brad said:

Like “Reefer Madness”.

For me, it wasn't even enjoyable in that "so over the top it's funny" manner.  The movie seemed to me like a really weak episode of The Wild, Wild West, (y'know from that period when Ross Martin was out of the show for medical reasons and James West had to do even more of the work himself) with Vincent Price's character running around turn-of-the-century San Francisco engaging in various chases/fights/escapes in the midst of a Tong war as he tries to break up a kidnapping/yellow slavery ring and free several nubile, young, imprisoned Asian women.  Sorry, it doesn't make any better sense than that.  The story is confusing, the pacing is bad, yet somehow Vincent Price manages to retain his dignity and soldiers through it all like the professional he was.  It's rather fitting that the movie literally ends up in the sewer

Spoiler alert:  No opium is actually eaten in this film.

[jlhoots]

Judy

[duaneiac]

Here's what I love about movies in the 1940's.  They could take Hedy Lamarr and George Sanders and cast them as characters in a story set in 1850's Maine and no one would question the fact that they both have these odd, definitely non-Maine accents.  Hedy Lamar is cast as a poor but bad girl (named "Hager", not even "Lindquist" or something which might have explained the accent) who grows up to be a woman who uses her feminine wiles to move up in the world by getting men (including a father & son duo) to do her bidding and, frequently, marry her.  George Sanders is cast as a lumberjack.  Let that sink in for a moment.  Maybe this film was steamy stuff in its day, but it's pretty tepid tea today.