The Silver Screen Oasis

[u][color=#BF0000]Lucky[/color][/u] [u][color=#BF0000]Vassall[/color][/u] wrote:Congratulations CM. A fantastic list! Forget the bach, for this you deserve a Masters.

Thanks so much Lucky!

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[u][color=#FF0000]Rohanaka[/color][/u] wrote:Hey there, Miss Maven.. that was terrific! You are on a roll! Though.. as a side note: ha.. (and in NO way am I starting trouble here, I promise) but I would have to put Harry from Night And the City in a different category. ha. (rather than mob violence) I would almost put him in "too rotten to live." Though I DO confess he was not AS rotten as all that... maybe. But still.. he was not quite so innocent either. ha. I still remember that long chat we had over at TCM in my Noir Walk thread.. with Frank Grimes. It was one of my all time favorite chats in that thread. As I recall Mr. Grimes was very "pro-Harry" and I came down more on the "he got what he deserved for being such a low-life" ha. It's all up to your interpretation, I am sure. But that is the best part about the movies... we can BOTH watch the same movie and come up with a totally different spin on things.. and we each end up being just as right. ha.

Hi there Ro. THANK YOU! I do remember that epic battle uhhh...conversation over at TCM-City. ( And the "Mildred Pierce" one as well. ) Ahhh...weren't those the days of friendly discussions with everyone making their points respectfully and with good cheer. You hold your own very well Peacemaker. And Grimesy was fearless taking on you and Miss Goddess and little miss Butterscotchgreer in some wild and woolly discussions. ( )

Harry in "Night and the City" was pretty rotten AND he got jacked up by the mob violence. A double whammy for Richard Widmark. It's great when a character can be considered for multiple categories for just one film. I daresay the young murder victim I cited for "Murder Most Foul" for "Rope" might also fit your Category #11 "Wrong Place/Wrong Time."
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Getting back to your listings.. I l-o-v-e LOVED your two references to Rear Window. Perfect examples of BOTH of those categories! And you have me wanting to check out Letter From an Unknown Woman.. it sounds like one I need to look into!

Ro, I would wholeheartedly recommend and urge you to seek out and watch "Letter From An Unknown Woman." This film is excellent, with good performances by Jourdan and Fontaine.

#24 Eternal Red Tape (for stories like Heaven Can Wait or Here Comes Mr. Jordan, etc)
. . .
#27 It's a Wonderful Afterlife (for films like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, where Death is just the beginning)

For one or both of these categories: AFTER LIFE (Kore-eda Hirokazu 1998). After dying, the person spends a week at a facility where the person must choose a single memory from life. The staff at the facility will videotape the memory and that - and only that - will be the person's memory for eternity. Each dead person reacts differently. One: "I have no memory worth preserving." Another: "I have too many wonderful memories, so I can't choose." And another: "I refuse to play this silly game."

For me it added a whole new meaning to the Greek Orthodox statement upon death: "May his (or her) memory be Eternal."

It is Intended to mean: "May the Living always remember the Dead so that the Dead will be Eternal."

Suddenly, it also meant: "I hope the Dead has a memory that is wonderful throughout Eternity (and, even better, that I am a part of it so that we have Eternity together)."

It's a Wonderful afterlife... hahahahaha! Ro - you slay me!

ChiO - that movie sounds really great, I love the idea of it. I realize how far out of the loop I am with more recent films.

Maven - I just adored your list of films, your thesis paper, as it were! What great choices,... and I'm all for Harry going on the list for mob rule. I really need to revisit that film, I believe that was the one that helped me decide that noir could be great.

Gad, I am choking up just thinking of the little girl in Penny Serenade.

I'm watching Les Visiteurs du Soir right now... I think it goes in the It's a Wonderful Afterlife category, though the afterlife in this movie is anything but wonderful, since the main characters have sold their souls to the devil. I'll let you know what category it ends up in when I'm done watching it.

[u][color=#4000BF]Jack[/color][/u] [u][color=#4000BF]Favell[/color][/u] wrote:Maven - I just adored your list of films, your thesis paper, as it were! What great choices,... and I'm all for Harry going on the list for mob rule. I really need to revisit that film, I believe that was the one that helped me decide that noir could be great.

Gad, I am choking up just thinking of the little girl in Penny Serenade.

Hiya JaxxXxxon. What's cookin'? This child also makes me cry:

'KAY' in "MILDRED PIERCE."


Too Good For This World: Young Innocent(s)

Kay gets me more and more, the more times I watch Mildred Pierce. Poor kid never had a chance with Veda around hogging all the attention. I have another of those too good for this world kids right on the tip of my tongue, but when I reach into my brain for it, it disappears. I know I'll get it one of these days.

I really don't know if it counts as a Too Good For This World character, but the innocent daughter's horrible death in The Virgin Spring sets up the entire movie, leading to another (maybe) innocent Too Good For This World death....

Sorry for being kind of vague in my description of this particular movie, but it troubled me greatly and I watched it through my fingers as I hid my face. It's the only Bergman film I've watched all the way through perhaps because he picks such frightening (to me) human subject matter.

1) Too Good for this World (with the subheading for young innocents) - MOUCHETTE (Robert Bresson 1967)

13) Wrongful Prosecution/Mob Violence - THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC (Robert Bresson 1962)

#18 Mostly Dead (for characters you THINK have died, but somehow manage to pull through) - ORDET (Carl Th. Dreyer 1955)

#22 Some Animals WERE harmed in the making of THIS movie - AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (Robert Bresson 1966) (also fits within #1)

ChiO - you really have to stop mentioning movies! It makes me feel bad to know how many great films I HAVEN'T seen.

I really like the idea of a "never truly alive" category, but I am not familiar with the movie you mentioned, Masha.

Thanks for the signature line describing your lovely avatar!

tinker wrote: And on Gregory Peck and inevitable deaths Jimmy Ringo in The Gunfighter. It always leaves me just wishing. A littl like the The Shootist much as I love the movie I can only watch it in certain moods because I always find something noble and therefore tragic about John Bernard Books or maybe its the man who played him.



dee

great choices!

rohanaka wrote:And you have me wanting to check out Letter From an Unknown Woman.. it sounds like one I need to look into!

oh, you should do yourself a favor and see it, Ro. it's one of the best movies ever, really.

Ro, your thread is a real delight!


CinemAva---you keep them coming! LOVED the "lessons learned" commentaries on all those "instant divorce" scenarios. Which brings me to one of my all-time favorite films, CHARADE. The film begins with the body of a man we only learn about as it progresses, but never see him again. Maybe he goes in my "UNSEEN" category, like Doniphon, only when we learn the truth this time it's not so noble!

I daresay the young murder victim I cited for "Murder Most Foul" for "Rope" might also fit your Category #11 "Wrong Place/Wrong Time."

Or Unseen/Off-Screen deaths. Hitch almost deserves a category of his own on this, for him---beloved---topic. [/b]

I thank you for your kind words.

It is one of my favorite movies. There are deep psychological and philosophical underpinnings to actions and discussions. It is also one of most funny movies ever as it has a bit of slapstick and biting satire and hilarious situations.

A favorite scene is when guests arrive at the country villa and their carriage is broken.
The master of the house talks to his blacksmith of fixing it:
Aleksei: How long will it take you?
Stepan: One day.
Aleksei: Perhaps two?
Stepan: I can finish in two.
Aleksei: Five?
Stepan: If I try very hard, it can be five.
Aleksei: Ten?
Stepan: Oh, master, your tasks are brutal. I can not do it alone in ten days. I will need an assistant.

Ha! So I wasn't that far off when I said the man in between in your avatar reminded me of Buster Keaton....who had his own oddly skewed view of the world and how things work.

Can you tell me please, as I am trying to watch the film in Russian without subtitles, why he has no body in the first scene and is resting comfortably on a platter?

Ro, I second MissG's recommendation of Letter from an Unknown Woman.