WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[knitwit45]

Oh, Chris, to have been there!!!

[CineMaven]

You surprise me about the n word Theresa, I thought enough years had passed so that everyone would be in no doubt that it is an offensive word but then it hasn't stopped the f word and I think everyone knows it's offensive.

I'm afraid not Alison. The word is now used as just another colloquial part of the lexicon. I cringe when I hear it. And some folks "rationalize" that taking BACK that word removes it of its power. I totally disagree and know no other ethnic group who identifies themselves in such a disparaging way; many layers to self-hatred. A shame.

I'm REALLY excited about Ellen Barkin's choices tonight on TCM (Monday, June18, 2012)! First up is a movie I've been wanting to see forever, FAT CITY, starring Jeff Bridges, Stacy Keach and Susan Tyrell: directed by John Huston. This one is a POSITIVELY DO NOT MISS! I believe some SSO members will be pretty happy to see this one in the lineup. After that is NIGHTS OF CABIRIA...followed by WHO"S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF and finally, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, both of which are incredible ensemble acting pieces. If you haven't seen them yet, then you must not have been watching TCM.

I guess Barkin is a heavy duty drama fan. It may be rough watching these 4 films all in a row, but I am excited to see the showcase for some brilliant acting.

Well your excitement in the "Coming Up On TCM" thread Wendy was contagious so I took your recommendations to heart and attempted to watch Barkin's line-up last night. I recorded "...Cabiria" and "...Picture Show" for later viewing. But I did watch "FAT CITY." Whoa!!! THAT was John Huston???!!! A director from the 1940's who has "The Maltese Falcon" "Key Largo" "...Sierra Madre" and "In This Our Life" under his belt? He's made such a hard-hitting uncompromising film in the 1970's? I was totally impressed. His story telling seemed so very modern. I thought I was watching Bob Rafelson or one of those 70's directors.

Two sides of the see-saw: we see a fighter on the downward side of his career...and a young, up & coming fighter try to work his way up. We see the seedy side of the fightworld, where managers and trainers pin their hopes on a broken down fighter. (Is it) Nick Colasanto (from "CHEERS" who) plays the trainer who tries to help these guys...but also is their biggest cheerleader and he is very very good. My baby's Jeff Bridges, so young fit and trim here in '71, who stood his ground with an accomplished actor like Stacey Keach. When I saw Bridges looking for a job as a migrant, I felt, he too is destined to get sucked down into the vortex of failed dreams.

But, of course, it's Susan Tyrell who tears up the screen. Shrieking, drinking, pleading, sloppy, irrational...Tyrell throws herself into this part with ferocious abandon. Gawwwdammmerung!! (Hey, at least it's not the "F" word). She killed me. What was sad or lesson-learning is watching how these folks seemed to get in their own way... and that a tsunami wouldn't be enough to wash them away from clinging to despair. They clung to being on the wrong side of things for all they were worth. The fight scene between Keach and that Latino guy was amazing. Not fancy edits and slo-mo like a "Raging Bull" but two fighters practically on death's door with internal bleeding and rocks in their brains...slugging it out for this little prize money. Keach wins the fight, but seems dazed and dead. And watching the other fighter walking out of the arena was sad. But I liked that the film took its time to watch him leave.

Nope, it wasn't a "fun" nite at the movies if "Fat City" is any measuring stick. But it was good solid acting. Thanx for the suggestion Wendy. Now, if Ellen has finished arguing and suing her rich ex-husband...I hope she goes back to making movies.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

I devoted some time to Nights of Cabiria, and kept thinking of Edith Piaf and how this film kept reminding me of her and her sparrow-like waifishness. Her Mercourial attire called up visions of Never on Sunday, produced three years later.

Spoiler Alert:

But, by the end of the movie, I just kept wanting to do something about those eyebrows. They were infinitely ascending, and her spirits were infinitely descending until that last scene.

Sad desperation rescued by that last moment of hope...

Chris--another HAHAHA! The language on college campuses now would curl your toes.
Cinemaven--your last couple of posts here are great reads.

[RedRiver]

I'm not a Fellini fan, but I enjoyed watching "Cabiria" at The Music Box in Chicago. A place our friend Chio knows well!

My father literally said, "Watch your ***damn language!"

[JackFavell]

Maven,

I don't think I've ever seen a fight scene before that seemed so horrific. They were literally meat, clinging to one another, used by everyone for enjoyment or money at the cost of their wits, their bodies, and their lives. This is like The Set Up but without hope. I am still processing the movie, but thought young Jeff Bridges was excellent, the thoughtful way he took his time over scenes, the doubts on his face in that last scene with Keach which he then good naturedly shook off, but should he?

And then Keach himself - wow! I've never seen his as good as this. He was somebody I'd never seen before, not Keach at all, but a guy whose brain was addled from punches, a lowlife to be sure but something else in there I just can't put my finger on... almost refined, in a way - certainly better than the life he was living.

I felt exactly as Barkin did - Susan Tyrell did not even seem like an actress - she could have been a street person they hired. Huston constantly surprises, and rolls with the times, but is consistently brilliant. Think about it, he made this film 3 years BEFORE The Man Who Would Be King. You couldn't get two films MORE different if you tried, and both are simply brilliant, but doesn't Fat City seem so modern in comparison?

As for Cabiria, I found it moving, wrenching, hilarious, beautiful, profound, and I am really mad that Barkin stole my line after the film was shown - as I was watching, I thought, "This isn't even like a movie, it's as if you are living it as it happens." Doggone you Ellen, I was going to say that!

[MikeBSG]

Here's another vote for "Fat City." I've only seen it once, but I remember it vividly. The Mexican boxer was handled in such a great way. He seems so scary when he gets off the bus, and then we follow him into the men's room and realize that he has health issues. He goes through with the fight, gets his money and leave, without saying one word. Wow, that's filmmaking.

And Susan Tyrrell is unforgettable. Her line "I have never been ashamed of an act of love" has stayed with me ever since.

"Fat City" was the film that made critics rediscover John Huston, whom they had largely written off since "Night of the Iguana." As has previously been said, it is a very Seventies film, yet it was not directed by a "film brat."

[charliechaplinfan]

I love Giulietta Masina, I don't think it would be possible not to.

[JackFavell]

I loved the brief hug between the two boxers, after the fight in Fat City. Mike.

You are so right, kingrat! Every situation in Cabiria is different, because it is a mix of different people, and each has a personality of his or her own, which means you can never tell what is going to happen. You can't rely on people to do what you think they will.

I too loved that frosted door effect, it made me agonize for Cabiria without seeing her specific initial reaction. Just her hand I think pushing the money back, and his quick shove into her hands. also when the actress came back to see him, her presence is felt through shadow, though she can't see them inside the room.

[MikeBSG]

Today I watched "The Big Trail" (1931) directed by Raoul Walsh.

I can see why this film didn't catch on in 1931. The culprit is the screenplay. The characters are saddled with long, clunky speeches, which (for the most part) are declamed in a way to prevent any member of the audience from taking a nap. The odd thing was that some of the performers seemed natural, and some seemed as if they were trying out for roles in "That Fatal Glass of Beer."

Wayne seemed to grow in stature as the film went on. He seemed like a big kid in the early scenes of the film and not the respected scout people treated him as, but by the end of the film he seemed far more confident had come to fit the role.

I found it interesting that as early as 1931, Wayne is playing a revenge hero (as he would in "Stagecoach" and "The Searchers," of course.) Also, one of his antagonists is a Southern gambler, who made me think of Hatfield in "Stagecoach."

This was an interesting film, but not especially entertaining. Better to watch John Ford's silent "Three Bad Men."

[mongoII]

I've always been a fan of Huston's "Fat City" ever since I saw it on the big screen.
I marveled at the performance of Susan Tyrell as Oma, and thought she should have won the Oscar for best supporting actress. Eileen Heckart won for "Butterflies Are Free".
Sadly, Miss Tyrell past away on Sunday at age 67, a day before TCM presented her movie chosen by Ellen Barkin.

[Ann Harding]

Today I watched "The Big Trail" (1931) directed by Raoul Walsh. I can see why this film didn't catch on in 1931.

I hope you watched the 'Grandeur' version of the film. This widescreen version offers a very different perspective on the film compared with the banal 4:3 version (which has also a mediocre picture quality in comparison). As for the storyline, actually, The Big Trail is an unofficial remake of a great silent success: The Covered Wagon (1923, J. Cruze) that was produced prior to Ford's first epic western, The Iron Horse (1924).

[CineMaven]

Maven, ...then Keach himself - wow! I've never seen his as good as this. He was somebody I'd never seen before, not Keach at all, but a guy whose brain was addled from punches, a lowlife to be sure but something else in there I just can't put my finger on... almost refined, in a way - certainly better than the life he was living.

Helloooooo Jaxx. I know exactly what you're saying here. At points his diction was very good and it made me think two things:

( 1. ) Am I seeing you acting, Stacey...did you drop character?

But more like this:

( 2. ) Tully, you must have had such a normal maybe middle-class life before your wife left and you became a drunk who gets ghetto and low-class and out of control.

I did notice it, and I noticed it in a good way, in a way that puzzled me, tickled my brain. Poor Tully, he tried to keep it together, and making a simple meal got him grief on that score. It was like he was reaching back into a past normal family life...brief flashes of a former life of his. His demeanor and way of speaking slightly changed when he wasn't drunk. And also in that film, with Tyrell's character, having the box of her previous lover's things...then Keach goes back to the house and Earl is there. Tyrell's having a tirade and Earl has put Keach's things in a box. Took the shirt off his back that belonged to Keach. It was like a sad history repeating itself. Lushes...losers...failed dreamers? Naaaaaah, that'd be the glass half-empty to speak of them so harshly. Huston made me care about a group of people who just couldn't get their lives together, no matter how hard they tried. They seemed doomed. They seemed damned. It's really a shame that no one there could really get a hold of their life. (Love your description of the fighters. And it looked like it was done in real-time. Riveting film).

I haven't seen "...Cabiria" yet. But it's cued up.

[feaito]

Yesterday I watched "My Favorite Blonde" (1942) an amusing comedy with Bob Hope, Madeleine Carroll and a penguin, in which Ms. Carroll displays her skill for slapstick comedy. Madeleine Carroll is an actress that has grown on me as such; she was indeed very talented and versatile, besides being charming and very beautiful (Hitchcock's first "icy blonde"?). She was good in costume dramas (Lloyds of London, The Prisoner of Zenda), thrillers (39 Steps), romantic comedies (Honeymoon in Bali et al), slapstick (My fave Blonde), socio-political dramas (Blockade), tearjerkers (My Son, My Son), comedy of manners of sorts (The Fan).

Gale Sondergaard and George Zucco, very good actors and highly stereotyped, did little but look menacing all the time; only their powerful presence was used by the director. Sondergaard fared much better in a role prone to black-humor in the above-average Bob Hope comedy "Never Say Die" (1939) as a femme fatalle caricature.