Tom's comments (member since Jun 06, 2008)

Tom's comments from the Movies We've Just Watched group.

Is there a reason why no one has mentioned SCHINDLER'S LIST? Or is it just too obvious?

I've been wanting to see SHOAH for a while now. Is it on DVD yet?

I remember EUROPA EUROPA, a very interesting movie from Agnieszka Hollander. Well worth a look. I remember reading though that there were some doubts as to how truthful the story really is. But there's no denying the excellence of the film.

Watched John Carpenter's version of THE THING and enjoyed the hell out of it. What a great movie.

I saw Alexander Sokurov's new film THE SUN, about Emperor Hirohito toward the end of WWII. Very sad and slow moving film, in that pensive Russian kind of way where even the appearance of anything like speed is completely unheard of. The actor playing Hirohito was excellent, making some rather odd choices in places that might be explained if I knew a bit more about Hirohito. The man is shown throughout to be almost completely catered to in every way by more than attentive servants, and his odd helplessness when these attentions vanish with the arrival of the U.S. Army is strangely moving: it takes the man several seconds to figure out how to open a door, and it becomes clear that this is because he has simply never had to do so before.

The Mighty Mouse cartoons that Bakshi did were not from the 60s. Bakshi did a reboot of the series for Saturday Morning TV in the 90s, and it is pure genius, one of the funniest things I have ever seen, not at all even remotely intended for children. One episode involved a villain bent on world domination who had to consult his marketing directors, for example. It also featured one of my very favorite animated characters, Might Mouse's arch-nemesis -- The Cow.

The show was kind of a training ground for John Kricfalusi who gave us all the magnificent REN AND STIMPY.

Also, The Satanic "Rev." Donald Wildmon caused a lot of controversy when he lied about drug use being depicted on the show.

I pray that someone comes to their senses and releases this glorious show on DVD at some point. I have some precious oh so precious DVDs I burned from so precious oh so precious VHS recordings.

Dear Philip, I'd say the same except for those Coen Brothers on your list...

My favorite directors, in no order:

Buster Keaton
F.W. Murnau
Fritz Lang (his German films, mainly)
Alfred Hitchcock
Akira Kurosawa
Federico Fellini
Chuck Jones
Francis Ford Coppola
Tim Burton
Andrei Tarkovsky
Richard Linklater
Alfonso Cuaron
King Vidor
Abel Gance

Etc. Etc. Etc.

You long haired commie freak, you.

HAPPY GO LUCKY and NAKED are very interesting when considered as a pair. I remember thinking that HAPPY GO LUCKY was NAKED in reverse.

FULLY DRESSED, maybe?

Mike Leigh's film about Gilbert and Sullivan is TOPSY TURVY, and it is by very far my favorite Leigh film. I like NAKED a good deal, too. Recently I saw NAKED for the first time in years and was surprised at how complete my recollection of it is -- I really seemed to have big chunks of it committed to memory somehow.

That kind of thing is happening a lot lately, most particularly with the Beatles Box Set I got. I haven't heard most of that music in nearly 20 years, but big chunks of it were coming back. Not just lyrics, I mean the sound effects and dialogue bits of REVOLUTION 9, and the Shakespeare at the end of I AM THE WALRUS too.

Whoa, Ariadna. Be sure to tell us about NAKED. I'll be interested to see what you think.

Atlas, actually I think it is about movies we've watched recently, whether for the first time or the hundredth.

Philip, yes, GOSTA is on DVD from Kino. I haven't looked at the DVD, so can't vouch for it, but Kino usually does a good job with this kind of thing.

Saw GOSTA BERLING'S SAGA last night at Film Forum, a silent film from Sweden that just happens to have one of Greta Garbo's first major roles. Liked it more than I was expecting to. It was a print with Swedish intertitles, so an actress delivered an English translation. That kind of thing can be a drag, but it worked quite well last night.

Great rowdy fun movie, I thought, jammed with fun and events: defrocked priests shouting down their parisioners, drunken parties, denunications, defenses from denunciation, fires and a suddenly invalid marriage. As Thelma Ritter says in ALL ABOUT EVE -- "What a story, everything but the hounds snapping at her rear end!" And of course GOSTA one-ups Eve Harrington, even working in a marvelous chase over the ice with wolves!

The male lead is a favorite of mine: good old Lars Hanson. Seen him in other things. He was supposedly brought to this country by Lillian Gish to co-star in her film of THE SCARLET LETTER, and he made several films here, including a co-star with Garbo in FLESH AND THE DEVIL (great fun, too, by the way). When sound came in, he just went back to Sweden and became one of the country's leading stage actors, eventually playing James Tyrone in the world premiere of LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT.

As for Ms. Garbo. She was pure amateur, I thought, until she suddenly wasn't. Twitching up a storm, grimacing and making faces, I didn't believe a minute of it, until that moment in the second half when she just sits there fiddling with her wedding ring, and you actually see the great goddess spring to life onscreen, and she's terrific for the rest of the film. Curious, I'd love to know how the director got such great work out of her for the second half of the film.

There are two DVD releases of THE NEW WORLD -- one is of the version that was in general release in theaters, and the other is a longer Director's Cut.

The film went through a good deal of changes, I seem to remember. It was first shown to assorted critics at some film festival or other, and when it was released it had been trimmed. I'm sure more information can be gotten on wikipedia or some such.

I rather liked CLOSER. Maybe not as deep as it thinks it is, but I liked Clive Owen a good deal.

Watched Hitchcock's FRENZY over the weekend for the first time in years, and was impressed all over again. Very fast and fresh film, playing lots of fascinating hero/villain games. I like this film a lot, very underrated.

Both.

I guess I'm interested in seeing THE LOVELY BONES, but I'd be more interested if Marky Mark wasn't involved. And IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS -- well, we'll see. The trailer wasn't inspiring, but I'll see anything by Terry Gilliam.

I saw a trailer for THE WHITE RIBBON, and it looked like a batch of Bergman outtakes. Curious. I'll wait and see.

I'm mostly anticipating the big Kurosawa retrospective at Film Forum in January, capped by a two week run of RAN. I'm actually setting up days off from work to see certain films.

Movie review quote of the year, from the Onion's AV Club:

"Do you like montages, but grow bored with the tedious plot bits in between? Then PIRATE RADIO is the movie for you."

Ebert also said that Zemeckis' film of BEOWULF was a Monty Pythonesque comedy. Mr. Ebert's judgment is not what it was.

Saw IVAN'S CHILDHOOD years ago, and haven't found time to watch the Criterion DVD yet. I remember liking it very much, very powerful film.