WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[Birdy]

Uncle Stevie - Nice selection for the weekend! I watched 3 of those myself this week, as I am introducing more Judy Garland movies to the kids when they are visiting. One of the kids had to stay up to see how Summer Stock ended, and was fascinated by Mr. Osborne's commentary at the end. She said, How cool, they tell you about how the movie was made!"

108 minutes is just about perfect for movie-time, isn't it?
Birdy

[MikeBSG]

Last night I watched "Night of the Iguana" on DVD.

I really was impressed by the movie. Normally, I don't espeically like Burton, Gardner or Kerr, (in that I don't search out and watch their movies) but I thought they were all superb here. Sue Lyons was also terrific, and the scene in which Burton walked on broken glass because of her was very powerful.

This seems to be rather underrated among Huston's films, but I think it is very good.

[movieman1957]

I watched Clash By Night starring Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan and Paul Douglas. A dark melodrama of a woman who settles for a "nice guy" to marry and finds out it doesn't really suit her. Paul Douglas gives a good performance as the "nice guy" (Jerry) who thinks he can give Stanwyck (Mae) the life that could settle her down and have his love be enough. Robert Ryan plays the best friend (Earl) with a hard attitude that is not all that different than Stawyck's "Mae." She hates him but comes to love him in spite of it. This spells trouble for everyone.

Stanwyck is fine as is Ryan though his is kind of a one note performance. He's mad all the time. There is some dialog that might elicit a groan or two. (Mostly delivered by Ryan.) Nice understated performance from Marilyn Monroe who plays an ordinary girl. The underlying character traits help the conflict right up to the end.

[MichiganJ]

A few I've watched recently:

Leon Morin, prétre (1961)--Jean-Paul Belmondo as a priest! It's ocupied France and the disillusioned Marxist Barney (Emmanuelle Riva) walks into a confessional, trying to provoke a reaction from Belmondo. What she doesn't expect his retorts, and the two form an interesting friendship, that soon leads to Barney falling in love.

Didn't expect this moving and often funny film from Jean-Pierre Melville, but it's certainly one worth revisiting again.

Creature With the Atom Brain (1951)--Haven't seen this since I was a kid and was pleasantly surprised at how a no-budget Sam Katzman production could still provide a number of good thrills. Mob boss hires an ex-Nazi scientist to reanimate the dead--what's not to love?

Public Enemies (2009) I was a bit disappointed when seeing this in the theater, but there are so many terrific sequences that I had to see it again. Glad I did. The bullets really fly (the sound mix is incredible) and Michael Mann's modern direction of the period film worked much better for me this time 'round. Depp is terrific (redundant, I know) and it's nice to see that the "folk hero" Dillinger is presented as he likely was: a charming killer. I like Christian Bale as an actor, but he doesn't register much here (in keeping with his character), and it's always nice seeing Marion Cotillard.

Zéro de Conduite (1933) Forty minutes of laugh-out-loud sequences set in a boys' boarding school. There are some delightful shenanigans, and, of course, all of the adults are ineffectual (the head master thinks he's something of a Napoleon), all finally leads to revolution!

This plus his masterpiece, L'Atalante (which I watched again, too), place Jean Vigo high on my favorite directors list.

[MikeBSG]

I just watched "Colossus: The forbin Project," a SF thriller from around 1970.

Very well done. This is a movie that lives up to its reputation. If you took HAL from "2001" and added him to "Dr. Strangelove," you would have a movie like this.

Although it is forty years old, the Cold War is over, and we don't worry about computers becoming intelligent, "Colossus" holds up extremely well. There are no unintentionally goofy moments, the performances are quite believable, and it builds up some very good suspense.

(I just know what Billy Wilder would have called this movie, however.)

[charliechaplinfan]

I love L'Atalante.

I spent a few days with Synnove and it seemed fitting that we watched some British movies. Brief Encounter, The Lady Killers and Whisky Galore. We'd had the pleasure of visiting the railway station where Brief Encounter was filmed (Carnforth) before revisiting the film. This time I wondered is Trevor Howard sincere or am I getting more cynical as I get older? The Ladykillers is a joint favorite of my husband and I, such classic comedy, when I'm old I want to be Mrs Wilberforce. Whisky Galore is another long time favorite of ours.

[feaito]

I revisited Edmund Goulding's haunting masterpiece "The Constant Nymph" (1943) with and equally haunting score by masterful Erich Wolfgang Korngold, with Joan Fontaine playing Tessa, arguably her best performance ever (a tie with "Letter from an Unknown Woman" (1948) perhaps?) Alexis Smith is superb as her cousin Florence. Beautiful and delicate film. Definitely among my top five.

Also watched Fritz Lang's "The Blue Gardenia" (1953) a smart Noir with Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern and Raymond Burr. Both Anns give great performances and Burr is impressive. Never have cared much for Conte though. Suspenseful.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

charliechaplinfan, I think it is great that you visited Carnforth, the railway station in Brief Encounter. I enjoyed this
movie so much. If I had known where Carnforth was, I probably would have gone there in 2006 when I was lucky enough
to visit England.

The Ladykillers is also one of my favorites. (But definitely NOT the remake!)

But I have never seen Whiskey Galore and it sounds like fun.


Feaito, I never much liked Richard Conte, either. But The Blue Gardenia is a good little noir. I've never seen
The Constant Nymph with that stellar performance by Joan Fontaine, but it sounds like I need to check it out.

[MikeBSG]

My family and I saw "toy Story 3" last night.

It is a lot of fun. I enjoyed it more than the last two Pixar movies. ("Up" just left me annoyed.) The action scene at the start of this film is brilliant. The new characters are very good, and while the plot plays variations on tropes established in the earlier movies (such as Buzz thinking he is real) it is done in a pretty inventive way.

Still, the grump in me kept wondering "If Andy loves his toys so much, he sure loses them a lot."

Despite that, "Toy Story 3" is worth seeing in theaters.

I really got a bang out of "Day and Night," the short Pixar cartoon before the feature. This is also their best short in years. It reminded me of Chuck Jones' "The Dot and the Line." (Not that it copied anything, just the spirit of the two pieces.) Also, some of the gags reminded me of Tex Avery's work.

[charliechaplinfan]

Sue sue, Carnforth isn't somewhere you'd find lots of things to do, you need to visit it on the way to somewhere, it's on the way to Lancaster and the Lakes. The guides who all seem to be retired and having lots of fun have made the absolute best of the station. When you come here again put it on your itinery.

I've seen 2 Bergman movies this week, Cries and Whispers and The Virgin Spring both discussed in more detail in the Ingmar Bergman thread. I also watched Mayerling directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Charles Boyer at his most dashing and Danielle Darrieux at her most charming. Crown Prince Rudolf is a reluctant heir to his father's title, he his freinds with an undesirable trade unionist and has countless affairs, he marries his father's choice and promises only to produce an heir. Everyone it seems wants him for what he can do, until he meets Maria Vetsera in a fairground, he is incognito as a police officer, it's such a charming scene, Maria falls for him immediately. She remembers when she leaves who he reminds her of, only later at an opera at her debut does she realise that it was the Crown Prince she met that night. After this they meet in secret, Maria providing the only happiness and contentment Rudolph has known. The romance of the pair is treated in sympathetic terms and probably doesn't have a great deal of resemblance to what the main characters were like but the ending is the same. I could watch Charles Boyer in almost anything to listen to his voice, it doesn't matter whether he speaks English or French, I can appreciate him just the same.

[Synnove]

I love L'Atalante.

I spent a few days with Synnove and it seemed fitting that we watched some British movies. Brief Encounter, The Lady Killers and Whisky Galore. We'd had the pleasure of visiting the railway station where Brief Encounter was filmed (Carnforth) before revisiting the film. This time I wondered is Trevor Howard sincere or am I getting more cynical as I get older? The Ladykillers is a joint favorite of my husband and I, such classic comedy, when I'm old I want to be Mrs Wilberforce. Whisky Galore is another long time favorite of ours.

I loved these movies.

Brief Encounter I had seen before, but I had never seen any of the Ealing comedies. I also want to be Mrs Wilberforce when I'm older, though it will be on purpose.

[Birdy]

Fernand Gravet, Gravey, Garvey or Martens...
apparently all the same person. I got on a jag with his comedy films The King and the Chorus Girl , '37 with Joan Blondell and Fools for Scandal, 38, Carole Lombard. He seemed as charming as his characters but his name sure is confusing. Anyone recommend anything else of his? I can't remember if I've seen him as Strauss in The Great Waltz.

[Ann Harding]

Yes, he plays Johann Strauss in The Great Waltz. Here is what I wrote about it recently:

I have been watching The Great Waltz (1938), a Julien Duvivier picture about Johann Strauss's life. Fernand Gravey (btw the credits called him Gravet as they were scared that Americans might mistake his name for gravy! ) as Johann Strauss is very good: assured, polished performance with an impeccable English accent. Alas, I can't say that much about Miliza Korjus. This Polish soprano sing the blandest colorotura I have ever heard in my life: she sounds like a mechanical bird and the 'embellishments' on Strauss' music are just a pure disaster. Dimitri Tiomkin was hired to re-orchestrate Strauss' music....OMG.....! It's just terrible. Die Fledermaus ends up being mixed up with a zest of waltz and some horrible English lyrics. I cannot believe they could treat Strauss's music so badly. It's light music alright. BUT, it needs to be treated with the same respect as Beethoven or Mozart. As for the script, it's pure tosh with Luise Rainer playing a long 'emotional' scene to recover her husband who has gone astray in Miliza's arms. If you want my opinion, this heavy layer of treacle is really boring. I far perfer the lighthearted Waltzes from Vienna (1934) made by Hitchcock. It's simpler and has more charm.

[feaito]

A friend -who's an ardent fan of "Blade Runner" (1982)- lent to me the 5 disc Blu-Ray Collector's Edition and told me to watch the remastered, restored in HD 2007 Final Cut version and I was deeply impressed by the enhancement in the look of the film. It looks amazing and it has many differences (some very subtle) with the Director's Cut I own and with 1982 original theatrical release (which is my pal's fave). One of Scott's most atmospheric films; rich in symbolism and hidden messages. The robotic-genetic manipulation of Man; Man behaving like God....just like perhaps Alien visitors from 5,000 yers ago or more behaved towards us, perhaps creating us a slave race, who can tell for sure?....timeless issues. A sci-Fi Noir which makes you think and wonder...And after all, apparently Ford's character was also a replicant, wasn't he? Isn't that implied? A gorgeous looking, decadent film in the line of "Brazil", "The Clockwork Orange" and other films of the kind. Rutger Hauer's character as a kind of fallen angel is superb.

[MikeBSG]

Yesterday, I watched "Myra Breckinridge."

What a mixed bag! I've never cared much for Mae West, and her scenes here didn't even seem like they were part of the same movie. Raquel Welch had some unspeakable dialogue to deliver, and she did okay with it. Rex Reed made so little an impression that whenever he showed up I was surprised. He would walk offscreen, and i'd promptly forget he was in the film.

To my great surprise, John Huston came out the best. He was really funny. If it hadn't been for him, I would have given up on the movie very early on.