Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
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Movies, DVDs, and Theater
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What MOVIES or DVDs have you watched? (PART SIX - 2013) (ongoing thread)
message 51:
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Nina
(new)
Jan 21, 2013 09:40AM
I totally agree. Maggie Smith's character is subtle and charming. I once attened an afternoon play in London and when Maggie walked on stage, even before the play began, she got a standing ovation from the audience.
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Maggie Smith is superb in her part, although everyone has been so far. I loved the flower show scene where she asks her son, the Earl, about always winning the cup. He said, "I think that's a definite, 'Yes, Dear.' " in such a perfect way that we all laughed loud & hard enough we had to rewind a bit. That's MY line to the girls when asked questions of that nature. He pulled it off better, although I've had a lot of practice over the years.;-)
I loved Maggie's comment when viewing the table setting forEdith's wedding: "There is no such thing as too much excess."
"Nothing exceeds like excess". It's a play on "Nothing succeeds like success" and can be traced to the early 1900s, which makes it perfect for a setting like Downton Abbey.
I wish I had written down some of her other quips. The writing is excellent in this series and thanks for the input on the "excess" line.
I wish I did too. There's so many well written series/movies that I would like to keep the quotes handy. I admire the way Joy collects quotes.I plan on watching Cloud Atlas again, with pad nearby, there were so many excellent quotes. Too bad I was in a dark theater and no pause button, lol
My son bought me a journal, specifically River Song's Journal ( a character from Doctor Who), so I can write down all my favorite scenes and quotes from the show. I think he's sick of hearing me say them all the time, maybe if I write them down I'll be quiet, lol
It doesn't happen too often but when we get writers like Fellowes or Moffat, it's gold.
One of the reasons Downton is so well written is that Julian Fellowes loves the time period, he said he's obsessed with the era. That obsession has given him knowledge which he uses masterfully.
Violet, Maggie Smith, made the BEST COMMENT EVER in the first episode of the second season. Don't read below if you're not that far along.Matthew is bringing his fiance for dinner for the first time & suddenly they find out that Mary is also arriving that evening. She's taking the train. Then Violet hears that Matthew will be driving, so Mary won't meet the fiance until dinner.
Violet says, "Oh, thank goodness." Everyone looks at her & she explains, "I do so hate Greek dramas. All the action takes place off stage."
We laughed so hard I had to pause & eventually back up a bit. I'm glad none of us were drinking anything or we'd have sprayed the room. She delivered the line so perfectly! What a lady & a hoot.
(Can you imagine what she'd say if someone told her she was a hoot?)
;-)
I wish I could remember her remark when they were playing charades. I have borrowed my friend's dvd's of this and I might have to borrow them again and write more down. Don't you agree, they are priceless.
If you do write them down, Nina, please share with me. Here, if the group doesn't mind, or in a personal message.
Jackie wrote: "I wish I did too. There's so many well written series/movies that I would like to keep the quotes handy. I admire the way Joy collects quotes. ..."Thanks, Jackie. One of the reasons I take so long to read a book is that I am compelled to copy down any words I deem precious. I have pages and pages of scribbled notes taken over the years.
I've categorized and saved thousands of quotes on my computer (where the categories are alpabetized) but I must have ten times that amount scribbled on notebook paper and scraps.
My computerized quote collection has over a thousand categories. For years I participated at the alt.quotations newsgroup. I still keep in touch there.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.qu...
PS-I do the same thing when watching TV or listening to the radio or to an audio-book.
I know it must take a long time to compile. When I read, it's usually in bed, I'll come upon a quote and think I'll write that down tomorrow and then totally forget what it was! Once in a while, if it's a really good one, I'll turn the page down so I'll see it the next day and be reminded. What do you think of a new topic, Quote of the Day (or more) and you can share them with us? We can all share some favorite quotes. I think it'd be fun and we can learn new quotes from each other too.
Right now on facebook, I put up one quote a day. Today's was from Albert Einstein: “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” Sounds like he was a funny guy too!
Jackie wrote: "... What do you think of a new topic, Quote of the Day (or more) and you can share them with us? We can all share some favorite quotes. I think it'd be fun and we can learn new quotes from each other too. ..."Jackie, we already have a topic called:
"FAVORITE QUOTATIONS? LIST YOURS HERE."
See it at: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
You might want to continue that thread or if you want to start a similar topic but with a different name, that would be OK too.
I like that Einstein quote about stupidity. Here's another one:
Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%2...
Each time you post a quote, I will try to follow it with a quote pertaining to the same (or a similar) topic or having a related point of view. That might be fun.
In fact, we might start a topic called "Match my quote" or something like that. Any preferences as to which direction we should take?
I didn't realize the was a thread already. That will work. I'll go over to check it out.
Jackie wrote: "I'm watching Nicholas Nickelby http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309912/ Good cast." I watched "Nicholas Nickleby" (2002) on 3/29/11 via Netflix.
I gave it 2 stars out of 5. Don't remember why.
https://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Ni...
NETFLIX: "Life in 19th-century England deals Nicholas Nickleby a difficult hand when his father dies and Nicholas, his sister and his mother, now penniless, are forced to seek help from his twisted Uncle Ralph, who wants to tear the family apart."
IMDb: "A young compassionate man struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his coldheartedly grasping uncle."
CAST:
Charlie Hunnam
Jamie Bell
Jim Broadbent
Tom Courtenay
Alan Cumming
Edward Fox
Romola Garai
Anne Hathaway
Barry Humphries
Nathan Lane
Christopher Plummer
Timothy Spall
Juliet Stevenson
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309912/f...
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
In my Goodreads review I wrote:
=======================================
I have not read the book yet. I watched the film adapted from the book. Some of the cruelty to children in the story is hard to take. Really awful. But they say that Dickens had a hard childhood himself. So he wrote about what he knew.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
=======================================
Your review would explain the 2 stars, Joy, I'm feeling the same. I've already decided not to read anymore Dickens because of the horrid treatment of children, the rich are evil themes, it's all so depressing. But I can give 2 hours to a movie full of actors I like. I can understand why Dickens wrote what he did, I know his life was hard, but it would be nice if there was some hope or something redeeming in his novels. I honestly don't know why his work is so popular.
Actually, Dickens' novels (at least the ones I've read) DO shine a light of hope and redemption in the darkness. There's often tragedy and suffering in the course of the story, but things do come out better in the end and characters often grow and learn lessons, even through adversity. His work is never as totally dark and tragic as, say, Thomas Hardy's sometimes is.
I can't remember much of them, the part that stick with me is the hardship. Good to know about Hardy, that's an author I won't be reading, lol
Thanks for your comments, Werner.Jackie, I really enjoyed the movie adapted from Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. I gave the movie 5 stars out of 5. It was wonderful!
"Far from the Madding Crowd" (1967)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061648/
Alan Bates, playing the part of the sheep farmer, Gabriel, won my heart. The movie was made in 1967; so he was young and handsome and had simpatico, a warm sympathetic quality.
NOTE: Although the feminine lead character is called "Bathsheba", this is not a biblical story. IMO, it was misleading to name the character "Bathsheba".
See my review here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
I also watched the movie adaptation of Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Hardy a few years ago. I gave it 3 stars out of 5.
"Tess of the D'Urbervilles" (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126100/?...
"Free-spirited yet naive, country girl Tess, is caught between her wealthy, manipulative, "cousin" Alec and the handsome, educated, farmer Angel Clare, in this Victorian tragedy from novelist Thomas Hardy."
http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Tess-of-...
"Author Thomas Hardy's tale of love abandoned and virtue lost in Victorian England has captivated readers for decades and comes to life in this lavish adaptation. Violated by one man and forsaken by another, beautiful Tess (Justine Waddell) refuses to remain a victim. But her struggle to endure despite the abandonment of her true love -- and her desperate attempt to attain happiness -- propel her toward a tragic end."
PS-For the origin of the title, "Far from the Madding Crowd, see my Message #36 at:http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/3...
Far from the Madding Crowd is actually Hardy's most upbeat novel. I liked the Alan Bates version, too. It's much less tragic and depressing than Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure (which is spectacularly depressing).Bathsheba's name wasn't meant to mislead. It's just a reflection of the fact that many people in Victorian England gave their kids Biblical names, some of which are less familiar to us today than others.
Werner, thanks for explaining about Bathsheba's name. Even though it wasn't meant to mislead, it misled me for a while.I'll be sure to avoid Hardy's Jude the Obscure. :)
Good call on Jude the Obscure! (I read it, decades ago, but it wasn't one of my favorite reads by a long shot. :-( )
Werner, my Netflix records show that in Oct. 2010, I watched (at least partially), the movie:"Jude" (1996)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116722/
"A stonemason steadfastly pursues a cousin he loves. However their love is troubled as he is married to a woman who tricked him into marriage and she is married to a man she does not love. Living out of wedlock, the two are rejected by the townspeople leaving them to struggle in abject poverty."
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/600...
"... haunting adaptation of Thomas Hardy's final novel, Jude the Obscure."
"With intensity and resolve, stonemason Jude Fawley (Christopher Eccleston) aspires to get a college education, but circumstances work against his bookish ambitions in director Michael Winterbottom's haunting adaptation of Thomas Hardy's final novel, Jude the Obscure. Kate Winslet co-stars as the lovely liberated cousin Jude falls in love with, and Rachel Griffiths plays the farmer's daughter who tricks him into matrimony."
(Kate Winslet was in it.)
I gave it one star out of five. I vaguely remember that it was boring.
I never saw any of the movie adaptations myself. Most often, reading a book will pique my interest in seeing how it's adapted, and even in comparing different film versions --but this was one case where reading the book had the opposite effect. :-)
PS-IMDb shows another version:"Jude the Obscure" (1971– ) TV Mini-Series
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066674/?...
http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Jude-the...
"This faithful Masterpiece Theatre adaptation brings one of Thomas Hardy's most controversial novels to life, exposing the harsh inequalities of Victorian society. With dreams of bettering himself with a university education, the poor but earnest Jude Fawley (Robert Powell) pours himself into personal improvement. But when the immovable reality of his station sets in, the frustration is more than he can bear. Fiona Walker and Daphne Heard co-star."
That Masterpiece Theatre version is the one the BC library had on VHS, and discarded some time ago. (So far, we haven't been able to give it away --nobody wants it!)In the book, Hardy's focus is much more on Jude's marital and extra-marital woes, and on the harshness of Victorian attitudes toward divorce and remarriage, than it is on class differences. And his inability to rise in the world, as Hardy portrays it, is actually more due to his drinking problem than to his lower-class origins. (Though I could see how being married to Arabella could evoke a drinking problem!)
I finished Nicholas Nickelby yesterday afternoon, and there's a couple of things I don't understand. If anyone here has read the book, maybe you can clarify it for me. I have no intention of reading the book.1. Uncle Nickelby. Why such hatred for his brother's children? No explanation whatsoever. I could understand if he was in love with his brother's wife and she chose the brother, or if the brother screwed him over (though he didn't seem like that kind of man), some type of jealousy. Something. I understand that Ralph Nickelby was rich, so by Dickens' standard, evil. But I need something more than that.
2. Why did Booker tell R Nickelby that his son was dead and bring him to that awful school in the north? The only thing that accomplished was to give Smike a horrific life.
Werner wrote: "That Masterpiece Theatre version is the one the BC library had on VHS, and discarded some time ago. (So far, we haven't been able to give it away --nobody wants it!)In the book, Hardy's focus is..."
Werner, I really envy your knowledge of the classics... and all you remember about them.
As usual, thanks for your interesting input.
Jackie wrote: "I finished Nicholas Nickelby yesterday afternoon, and there's a couple of things I don't understand. If anyone here has read the book, maybe you can clarify it for me. I have no intention of rea..."Gosh, Jackie. I don't remember much about the story. Wish I did. It's as if I never saw the film. If it weren't for my Goodreads reviews, I wouldn't remember a thing!
Can't help you out, Jackie; I haven't read the book. I do have it on my to-read list (I'm a glutton for punishment :-) ).Dickens does have a lot of rich characters who are evil, or at least very deeply flawed (he understood that the effects of wealth and power on people's character aren't always for the best). But some of his wealthy characters, like Mr. Brownlow in Oliver Twist, are kindhearted --and some nasty rich people, like Scrooge, learn the error of their ways and change.
Joy, thanks for your kind words; but I'm not really all that well versed in the classics. There are tons of them I've never read yet. (But I hope to have many more years of reading ahead!)
Werner wrote: "... Dickens does have a lot of rich characters who are evil, or at least very deeply flawed (he understood that the effects of wealth and power on people's character aren't always for the best). ..."A QUOTE:
"To suppose, as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and keep absolutely sober." ---Logan Pearsall Smith
Werner wrote: "Joy, thanks for your kind words; but I'm not really all that well versed in the classics. There are tons of them I've never read yet. ..."But Werner, as to the classics you HAVE read... you know them very well!
My plan for tonight is to watch this version of Wuthering Heights: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1238834/Great cast; Tom Hardy is supremely talented. I'm looking forward to it. I read WH years ago but have never seen a movie version. I DVR'd it from Masterpiece a few weeks ago, I'm finally caught up on my regular shows to afford some time on the special programs.
And speaking of special programs, I recorded War Horse but I'm reluctant to see it, I'm afraid to see if the horse gets hurt. I heard good things about the movie, but not enough to know if I should brave it or not. Anyone see it? If so, knowing I'm sensitive to animals, would this be a good movie for me to see? The title gives me pause.
Jackie wrote: "My plan for tonight is to watch this version of Wuthering Heights: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1238834/ Great cast; Tom Hardy is supremely talented. I'm looking forward to it. I read WH years ago ..."I loved the 1939 version of Wuthering Heights with Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier. I don't think you can top that one. The 2009 version with Tom Hardy is streamable from Netflix. I'll give it a try one of these days.
For reference: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
PS-My Netflix history shows that I watched War Horse in May of 2012. I gave it 4 stars out of 5. Can't be that bad. :) I don't remember much about it.
For reference: War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
This version of WH is excellent, Hardy is magnificent as Heathcliff. There's 10 versions listed on imdb! I need to know if I'll be stressed out by War Horse. If it's stressful then I'll pass. When I was a kid, I went to the theater to see a Lassie movie, Lassie was looking for her master in a war and it stressed me out so bad, I had to leave. I haven't changed in regards to animals in the intervening years.
Jackie, "War Horse" should not upset you---the horse does just fine---much of the carnage is implied rather than explicitly shown---Spielberg is always tasteful.
I thought the scene toward the end on the battle field was pretty stressful, but it had its light moments. It all works out, as is pretty obvious from the beginning. I've never seen horses snort so much, though. Marg & Erin both loved it.
Now i think I can watch it, if Marg and Eric can watch it, then I know the horse is OK. I know how silly I must sound, I can't help it.
Jackie, you don't sound silly at all! I don't like to see horses (or any other animals) harmed either.
You are both awesome. Now I'll be able to watch it when I have the time for it, probably next weekend.
My wife is the same way---wouldn't see the "Horse Whisperer" even though I showed her in slo-mo. that the horse wasn't really hit by a truck---that a dummy horse was substituted in the last milli-seconds. She walked out on "Mighty Joe Young" because the ape was being mistreated---of course, I dutifully followed.
I remember reading The Horse Whisperer and then seeing the movie. If I remember correctly, they changed the ending. Also, in other areas it wasn't true to the book (IIRC). So the movie was a disappointment to me. Did anyone else notice the differences?
I know that real animals aren't harmed in the filming, it's the emotional involvement I have with animals and the idea of them being hurt is more than I can take.
I understand that feeling, Jackie. Animals are sometimes so innocent & helpless. They are so dependent on the goodness of man.
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