Totally agreed, I even liked better Four months, three weeks...
Lorna's Silence is just the type of french movie I don't like, cause they're not necessarily bad but personally it gives me nothing, which is not the same as boring but the same thing happened to me with Hadewijch

i saw Lorna's Silence last night. all i knew going in was that the theme centred around the hardship of European emigrants trying to make a life for themselve. i guess i was expected something along the lines of Dirty Pretty Things, but Lorna's Silence had more the look and tone of Four Months, Three Weeks, Two days. an unhurried pace, low key unsentimental look at hard choices and consequences.

Well, after having shown us all how Bob Fosse would have made CHICAGO if Fosse had had a frontal lobotomy, Marshall will now show us how Fellini would have made a film if Fellini had been a talentless hack.

Sorry. I get unreasonable on this topic. I will be silent.

come to thnk of it, i saw a preview the other day...it had daniel day Lewis playing the mastroiani character...i kept thinking: wow, people are just ripping off fellini these days and not even offering up propers...

i still don't get it, but...i understand.

Neither do I, but the cast is absolutely amazing

right....a film based on a musical based on a film.




....i don't get it.

NINE is the new film from Rob Marshall, the film version of a Broadway musical based on Fellini's masterwork 8 1/2.

>shudder<

never saw a very long engagement, nor nine (????).

She's got a part in Nine

I haven't seen Public Enemies yet - but plan to. I think she has a small part in A Very Long Engagement?

she was also good in public enemies, and if i'm not mistaken, i think i saw her face in a preview for the new terry gilliam film.

Indeed!!

I finally watched La Vie En Rose, albeit on my own because nobody in my family particularly likes subtitled films. I think Marion Cotillard is fantastic. Great film.

Phillip wrote: "polish version? you mean dubbed in polish, or a remake made by a polish film production?"

No. The movie was made in similiar style. The movie is set in the middle oh 1980s somewhere in Poland. Milice investigates the events that happened 4 years earlier. The three people were killed and the only suspect is forced to help militia reconstruct the happenings. Weird things happen. The title is House evil (inverse version of words Evil Houze) and I think it should The house that make you do evil things.

i think you're probably too smart.

Phillip wrote: "is it considered great?

i think it was popular for the same reasons slumdog millionaire was popular: it had a nice look to it, a cute cast, a bit of mexican exotica for the colonialists, and a nar..."

Thanks, I often feel I'm not smart enough to get movies that get onto many critics top 10 lists and I just scratch my head . . .

is it considered great?

i think it was popular for the same reasons slumdog millionaire was popular: it had a nice look to it, a cute cast, a bit of cultural exotica for the colonialists, and a narrative that wasn't about to challenge anyone with the minimum of a middle school education.

Can anyone explain the charms of Y tu Mama Tambien? I know it is well regarded but I didn't get it. It seemed like of coming of age, road trip with a couple of twists. What am I missing? Why is it considered great?

polish version? you mean dubbed in polish, or a remake made by a polish film production?

I just watched the Polish version of Blair Witch Project. Kinda a.

i liked departures quite a lot, ariadne. a mortician is a strange place to discover a love for life, but it worked.

this weekend i saw fantastic mr fox, bad lieutenant: port of call-new orleans (werner herzog's newest) and the road and loved all of them.

it really confused me when i found out herzog was doing a remake but, as you can imagine, herzog did something really different with the story, and brought out a lot of humor that just isn't a part of the original with harvey keitel. it's the best nicholas cage performance i've seen in decades, which just goes to show you what actors can do when they work with a great director. eva mendez (rawr!), brad dourif and val kilmer do good thongs with their smaller roles.

Two lovers, didn't liked it, the dialogues didn't feel "real".
Departures, it's the kind of movie that leaves you with this feel good sensation.
Genova, not even Catherine Keener which I love could make this movie good for me. I think it's kind of personal, but I've never liked Michael Winterbottom.

Finally saw Naked!!! I liked it, but didn't blow my mind. Especially the first half I think it was really great and the script is amazing. You guys were totally right, it's like the opposite of Happy Go Lucky.

Well, I never!

You, sir, obviously have low standards for swine!

and pigs don't care an oink about grammar...
:)

My German is rusty from my previous life as a pig herder.

Christy wrote: "Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari"

the correct article is der...there is no form of des in deutsche. des is the plural article au francaise.

grammar aside, that is one of the great works of german expressionist cinema, but if anna's project is to expose herself to the sound and comprehension of german language constructs, silent films won't be particularly helpful.

Ladies in Lavender - great movie with great actors. Daniel Brühl did great job - especially because it included speaking Polish.

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari

Phillip wrote: "i was thinking of the tin drum or the lost honor of katharina blum..."

I had read both books in Polish, but I haven't seen the movies.

Nick Cassavetes' The Notebook. I normally dislike romantic movies but this one was quite a delight. Ryan Gosling was excellent, Rachel McAdams not so much (no surprise there...).

i've been on a little movie spree myself, having seen the road, fantastic mr fox and my favorite 50's b-classic them! all highly enjoyable and recommended.

Anna wrote: "As I learn German now I try to watch movies in this language. So Ein Freund vor mir is now on the board."

i was thinking of the tin drum or the lost honor of katharina blum...

Elaine, read the novel STIR OF ECHOES by Richard Matheson. It's a quick read but very unsettling. I stayed far away from the film because matheson is my favorite horror writer...and the story exists in my own head not on the screen. His novels WHAT DREAMS MAY COME and I AM LEGEND have been made into terrible movies so I'm poisoned in giving films from his work a chance. Richard Kelly's (director of DONNIE DARKO) new flick THE BOX is based on a Matheson short story and again, not willing to watch. Glad you liked STIR but you may find the book a little more interesting.

Anna wrote: "As I learn German now I try to watch movies in this language. So Ein Freund vor mir is now on the board."

Downfall would be a great movie to watch!

Another movie about the importance of commitment and the possibility of true love! What is this world coming to? Ghosts of Girlfriends Past with Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Michael Douglas romp through this somewhat predictable (as to outcome) romp. Actually quite enjoyable. Oh, and it takes place in Newport, RI, in winter no less.

I have a feeling I'm not supposed to have liked Stir of Echoes with Kevin Bacon. But I did. It's one of those movies in which someone gets second sight (you know, they can see the dead, etc.), but I did like it. It's a bit like Shamalyan, but gorier. It taps into folkloric beliefs about freeing the spirit of someone who... If I say more, it will spoil the plot.

I watched Grand Canyon again, on Thanksgiving. I always get more out of films like that one. Blogged about it at http://marcvunkannon.blogspot.com just because the spirit moved me to.

hulot's holiday is a gas, tom...good fun.

sam! you're really knocking it out of the park. that's quite a movie spree.

As I learn German now I try to watch movies in this language. So Ein Freund vor mir is now on the board.

Saw M. HULOT'S HOLIDAY yesterday, just lovely and charming as ever. Saw ANTICHRIST today, just the exact opposite.

PS ...i loved the ruins ... forgave the talking plants

been too busy watchin' movies to a be writin' about watchin' them ... just lookit me go ...

flirting - (again) such a sweet story but I think I prefer the year my voice broke ... I liked danny's narrative a lot

ball of fire - ha! ... the lady eve - HA!

caught a few episodes of The Brides of Christ - but we're not talking about that ;o)

the holiday - awh I cried ... loved Kate, surpised at jack black, yay cameron!

dead man - gosh, I really liked this flick ... held my interest & made me laugh ... someone described it to me as the anti-western - I'm still pondering that ...

pink flamingos & hairspray - oh my!

precious - cried at the awfulness of it but didn't think the film was that great

tokyo story - such a nice film - I obviously need to see more ozu

last but not least - Alien & a bit of Aliens .... ahhhhhh!

it sure does.

DRUNKEN ANGEL rules!!!

i'm usually not one to want to reduce cheese if the whole film seems comfortable in that domain, but in this case it was one of those things where the first half felt like it existed in one filmic world, the second half in another.

moving on: i watched kurosawa's drunken angel, and it quickly jumped to my top 10 kurosawa list. toshiro's performance is amazing. it has all the grit and pathos of films like stray dog and the second half of high and low, but with a spiritual side that predates ikiru and red beard. it also has a few quirky cabaret scenes that felt like mizoguchi in street of shame. highly recommended!

Totally agree, but sometimes for me the cheesier=LOL I just saw the ruins because of Jena Malone. At last, this is the weekend for Mike Leigh; going to see Departures (a year later, amazing!!)

i never saw splinter, but regarding the ruins, i felt somewhat the opposite: i liked the ruins until the plants became more human-like. the more that happened, the cheesier the film became. the film was frightening enough just having these plants that, when exposed to them, could just make your flesh rot and fall off. couple that with the locals' paranoia of anyone escaping the ruin, and you've got yourself a pretty horrific travel story....who needs talking plants?

Splinter, it was fun but I liked The Ruins better, at least the vines and flowers imitate human voices.

i saw it at the castro back in about '83...it was one of those amazing "communal" movie experiences...i've had a soft spot for it ever since. no, it's not a perfect movie, but i think it has a very specific charm that i'm kind of a sucker for. rosalind russell? that's a car wreck i enjoy watching!

speaking of that particular theater, i'm heading over there tomorrow night for a "sing-a-long sound of music". that should yield a few laughs.