Man oh man oh man.

I just came back from a screening of the restored print of THE RED SHOES.

Do not miss it. It is one of the most ravishingly beautiful things I have ever seen. It is one of the most ravishingly beautiful things you will ever see.

This print is apparently being shown around the country over the coming months. Do not miss it. Do not. Do not miss it.

I go further. If you have an opportunity to see this magnificent masterwork of sheer delicious beauty and magnificence, and actually pass up the opportunity to revel in this radiant masterpiece, you are not a lover of movies. I condemn all who deny the brilliance of this film to a lifetime of Clint Eastwood, Brad Pitt and MILLION DOLLAR BABY.

I have spoken.

Jim wrote: "Wristcutters: A Love Story. Weird little film. I dunno that it hinders suicide, but it's thought evoking and it has quite a few interesting one-two liners delivered by Tom Waits. "

That sounds weird enough to be really interesting, especially with Tom Waits. I've watched a lot stranger films in the hope of seeing something thought provoking

Tom wrote: "Man oh man oh man.

I just came back from a screening of the restored print of THE RED SHOES.

Do not miss it. It is one of the most ravishingly beautiful things I have ever seen. It is one o..."

it's not on the PFA schedule for november or december, but it will likely come through in january or february (maybe in time for my birthday!).

glad you liked it...not wholly surprised it was fabulous.

Push. Much more interesting and convoluted than your usual superhero/action film.

Anna: And what do you think about it?

About Inglorious Basterds: It was amazing, really. Great sense of humour dealing with the hypothesis of the death of Hitler on an ambush inside a movie theatre in France. Violence and blood, and the brilliant interpretation of Christoph Walts as Col. Hans Landa.


In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

a hundred per cent recommended!

there was a lengthy discussion on inglorious basterds, if you want to check it out, please do. it has a discussion thread all its own.

"brother BORN AGAIN"

LAST DAYS OF DISCO- Whit Stillman nails it. And I love Chloe- she can do no wrong (with the possible exception of BROWN BUNNY of which Ebert said the footage of his colonoscopy was more interesting).

Preparing to watch Fame - 1980 version.

wow

Cause also I want my cousin (who saw this year version) to see the original.

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

Just saw the latest Indiana Jones. I'm left wondering if either Lucas or Spielberg have any original bones in their bodies.

i think they had them early on but lost them with every new film they made.

Did you hear that Roger Corman is getting a lifetime achievement Oscar this year? I read an article listing all the directors that got their start, or at least valuable experience, directing Corman's movies. People like Martin Scorcese, Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, and many others.

good for corman. he deserves it.

last week i got a chance to see Hurt Locker - i'm kind of new here, so i don't know if a discussion has already taken place regarding this film. if i'm rehashing previous posts, forgive me.

i hardly know how to describe this movie. how good it is creeps up on you. the movie just throws you right into the middle of the action and it keeps you there.

about halfway through i realize i am holding my breath - a lot - and when i am breathing i can almost taste the dry as dust air of Iraq. i can almost feel the caustrophobic constraints of the protective suit the bomb disposal unit wear.

the movie is completely lacking in sentimentality, and what's even rarer in a war movie from the States, it is completely lacking in political overtones. and there are definitely no heros. the restraint is admirable.

it is one of the best movies i have seen this year. not one of the ones i have liked the best - it is a little too viseral. one of those movies that is so good at depicting uncomfortable subjects, it is hard to really like. it's like i can't let my guard down.

Sooz wrote: "last week i got a chance to see Hurt Locker - i'm kind of new here, so i don't know if a discussion has already taken place regarding this film. if i'm rehashing previous posts, forgive me.

Sooz I saw the film over the summer and have to agree that it's the best film I have seen to come out this year.

Just finished screening the first half of BATTLE OF ALGIERS with my high school film society. I feel like it gains power with each subsequent viewing. Can't say enough good things about this film.

hurt locker and battle of algiers are both great films.

there was a thread for hurt locker, sooz, but no one minds if we post outside the thread. this thread in particular is fine for posting on a film you just watched whether there is a dedicated thread or not.

nice to read your posts today, btw....

Just finished watching a trilogy of films on India directed by Deepa Mehta: Fire, Earth and Water. All the movies gave me "aha" moments of insight and I trust the director was fairly honest in his protrayals. Of course there were flaws, but I was looking for a window and perspective into India, and the triology delivered. Each movie tackled as aspect of Indian life: how India's partition in 1947 affected a group of Muslim, Sikh and Hindu friends in Lahore in the newly created Pakistan; what happened to widows in prepartioned India; and a more modern take on love and life in contemporary India. The production values were well done - better than some Indian movies I've seen.

I watched fame 2 days ago - that version from 1980 with Irene Cara, Paul McCrane, Lee Curreri and Gene Anthony Ray. It was great.

cathy,

that's a real nice trilogy...glad you got what you were looking for.

any luck with the bollywood viewings?

have you seen any of satyajit ray's films?

Phillip wrote: "cathy,

that's a real nice trilogy...glad you got what you were looking for.

any luck with the bollywood viewings?

have you seen any of satyajit ray's films?"

Hi Philip,
Satjayjit ray's film are in my netflix queue and I should be receiving some shortly. I've been watching a bunch of Indian movies; Swades, Dehli 6 and others. The diversity of the movies amazes me and the production qualities vary greatly. Someone has promised to take me to a movie in New Delhi and experience watching an Indian movie with Indians; apparently audience members start singing and dancing with the movies.

great!

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."

that's funny. the onion often has good film reviews.

Saw "Synedoche, New York," written and directed by Charlie Kaufman. I wanted to enjoy it, but there was just too much going on. The multiple conflicts, characters, narratives, and everything else crowd each other out.

Well, I tried to watch Angels & Demons last night but I kept falling asleep.

Saw yesterday Ken Loach's Looking for Eric, I loved it and Taking Woodstock, it was fine but I thought Paul Dano would have a bigger role

...and hated Tony Manero

Ariadna wrote: "Saw yesterday Ken Loach's Looking for Eric, I loved it and Taking Woodstock, it was fine but I thought Paul Dano would have a bigger role"

for my money, Ken Loach is always a good bet.

Went and seen 2012 and it wasn't to bad. I love Jon Cusack.

Looking forward to Looking for Eric.

As for 2012... Isn't it odd that the cell phones keep on working while the world is falling apart? :D Not seen the film, but it's my understanding that they do. Now, that's service!

There is a time in the movie where all that stuff quites working..

Cissy wrote: "Looking forward to Looking for Eric.

As for 2012... Isn't it odd that the cell phones keep on working while the world is falling apart? :D Not seen the film, but it's my understanding that they..."

Cell phones have become the plot point of the moment. Failing when they need to to advance the script and working as the modern machina-ex-deus.

.....what would eric rohmer do?

Phillip wrote: ".....what would eric rohmer do?

"

i don't know what that means.

last night, i was in the mood to revisit an old favourite. the final three in the running were:
Night of the Hunter.
Sweet Smell of Success
Touch of Evil

Orson Welles' Touch of Evil won out. such a good movie.

sorry, my comment was meant to cite a bit of irony...eric rohmer, a wonderful director of the french new wave, works in a very natural style without much use for gags, effects, etc. he also made a series of films called the moral tales. so based on that info, i made the above comment (which referred to the use of cell phones for plot advancement, etc.)

we were talkng about welles recently. touch of evil has always been my favorite.

Phillip wrote: "sorry, my comment was meant to cite a bit of irony...eric rohmer, a wonderful director of the french new wave, works in a very natural style without much use for gags, effects, etc. he also made a ..."

ah, so if deus ex machina was at one end of the continuum, Eric Rohmer would be at the other? maybe his neighbours would be the Dogma 95 directors?

i have an XKCD comic in my head for some reason

i don't think rohmer would appreciate the dogma directors moving in next door, but they might live in the same part of town

Also saw 2012 it kept me awake and I love Amanda Peet but liked better the day after tomorrow.
Also saw Ponyo it's really cute, I always enjoy Miyazaki's movies.
Fireflies in the garden hmm... I find it boring

Ariadna wrote: "Also saw 2012

Is 2012 worth it? I love John Cusack.

i just finished a play so now i have tons of free time and im filling it with movies, most recently that would be Barton Fink, Closer, Let The Right One In, and Stand By Me.

Chak de! India once more

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.

agree on frenzy...that's one of hitchcock's grittier thrillers.

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.

Hey Philip, thanks for the recommendation for Angel at my Table. I just finished watching it and it was a hard, hard film to watch but worth it; though I gotta admit I was uncomfortable at times.
It was hard watching this pudgy, painfully shy girl with wild hair and wilder imagination growing up in New Zealand--which is both a beautiful and brutal place. There are some magical moments of her childhood like when she and her sisters were dancing in the forest like fairies at night. Or play-acting and collapsing in companionable heaps. It was hard to watch her come within a hair’s width of a lobotomy only to escape because of a book award—what a bizarre and precarious twist. Watching a writer write isn’t generally provocative, but Campion got a sense of how Frame chose this word and not that one, how she beats the words hush-hush-hush in her head and then pounds it out on typewriter.

cathy,

so glad you liked it!

there are parts indeed that are hard to watch, it's just so sad how various people in her life turn their back on her because she isn't your run of the mill girl and challenges conventions in a ver innocent and unassuming way. especially her professor, who was once a trusted ally, but ends up being the guy who sells her stay at the sanitorium. but, indeed miraculously, she is released and finds herself. and like so many of us, she has to travel far from home to find herself. in the end, it's a very beautiful picture about courage and staying your course, and i think kerry fox makes it all work magically.

tom,

i've been hearing and reading about saga for years, i hope it comes to the west coast. i seem to believe it is available on DVD from
someone like kino....can you validate that?

Going to see White ribbon on Monday.