Movies We've Just Watched discussion
Unforgetable yet Obscure
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Manuel, what a blast from the past! Back in college I took a Fiction into Film course and this story was on the syllabus. We had to watch the The Swimmer and it has stayed with me all these years, although I can't remember all of the details of it.Although a favorite movie of mine--My Mother's Castle--is not unknown, I find it's one that a lot of people haven't seen or haven't seen in a long time. The ending is so beautiful I think about it a lot.
I don't know how many people have seen Vincent & Theo, but it's also somewhat obscure IMO, even though Robert Altman directed it.
thank you TressaI had forgotten about those films jems.
that is why I love to check things in here. Everyone has something new or interesting to say and share.
There's a beautiful little movie called HOUSEKEEPING, from a novel by Marilynne Robinson. Directed by Bill Forsyth with Christine Lahti. Lovely, moving, disturbing, perfect little film, and the only people I know who saw it were people I bullied into seeing it when it was first released. So sad that it has been allowed to fall off the map this way.
Tomis that the movie set in the 1950's about the aunt who moves in with her two teenage nieces?
Has anyone here seen "Everything is Illuminated"? Came across it on HBO and was just blown away by the visual journey you take with these characters as well and the emotional and soul searching one. Elijiah Wood is AMAZING in this as are the other actors (who are mostly Russian actors~most of the movie is subtitled). In reading about it on IMBD, I found that Liev Schreiber wrote the screenplay. It was just an amazing film and very heart wrenching as well. I highly recommend it.
Dawn -- I haven't seen the movie, but I liked the book a lot.
It was kind of quirky and enjoyable. Makes you think about what conformity means to other people.wonderful little film.
Everything is Illuminated. Well, I'm a big fan of Sammy Davis Junior, Jr. And, the grandfather really should have been at least nominated for a best supporting oscar.It's an astonishing film on many levels. So many different things happening simultaneously. And rarely what you are led to think is happening, is in fact, the primary plot. Very layered, with time for both great beauty and great horror, occaisionally simultaneously.
i have never heard of the swimmer. i will have to look it up!i have some that i love but i find few if any that have heard or seen them
boondock saints
equilibrium
waking the dead
mind walk
intersate 60
I am anxious actually to read the book. The movie just blew me away. It was SO complex. I do NOT understand why it didn't get more press. To me (and I mean NO disrespect here), I think its just as an important movie as "Schindler's List". Maybe even more so. And you would have to have seen it to understand why. I am now on the hunt to find it and buy it. And I too am a HUGE fan of Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. :)
We loved this movie too and have sent emails somewhere -- DVD heaven -- to release it to DVD. We saw it again on regular television a few years ago and taped it. Christine Lahti is wonderful. If anyone knows where to email pleadings for release of DVDs like this, let me know. We also adored "Dark Eyes" a Russian/Italian production with Mastroianni -- also called "Ochi Ciornie" or some such.
A great overlooked courtroom drama with Orson Welles as Clarance Darrow and based upon the true 1924 Leopold/Loeb murder trial. Here's my review:COMPULSION (Richard Fleischer, 1959) The headlines declared the 1924 Leopold & Loeb murder case (on which this film is based) as the crime of the century! Oh, how innocent were those times and how deeply depraved our culture has become. Though rather mundane by our modern standards, two young men from wealthy families murder a cohort to prove their Nietzschean superiority (Hitchcock filmed ROPE from the same premise). Orson Welles channels Clarence Darrow and steals the film with his courtroom oration that seeks sympathy from the Court to spare these murderers and denounces the Death penalty. : The Judge spares their young lives. Fleischer wisely films in Black & White Cinemascope and utilizes the wide-angle to good effect. The acting is first-rate and the homosexual undercurrents add an unspoken drama to the story. This is one of the great “True Crime” films and should be viewed immediately. (B)
You know I know of another really great film, but I have NO idea what the name of it is...I have seen it several times and never had the presence of mind to write the name down. I do know that it has Jean Reno and Mercedes Ruehl....OK...went to IMDB and actually found it....Its called Roseanna's Grave. Sounds morbid, but its not. Has anyone else seen this fantastic movie???
Tom, I saw Housekeeping when it first came out. Before that I read the book. Christine Lahti is a favorite actress of mine. So beautiful and charismatic and a natural on screen. She is a truly underrated gem.Has anyone ever seen the movies Playing for Time and Testament? Jane Alexander played in both of them. She is another Hollywood gem that we don't see too much of anymore. Testament came out in 1983 and is about a small California town after an atomic bomb is dropped. Everyone in it is excellent, especially the children. Very sad and upsetting. My husband was depressed for a while after watching it. He said he never wanted to see it again.
Playing for Time also starred Jane Alexander and Vanessa Redgrave as musicians in a concentration camp. It's a true story. I think about this movie a lot, although I saw it over twenty years ago.
Another seldom seen movie is Once Around with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfuss. It's a wonderful, sad, funny ensemble piece about an old maid who gets swept off her feet by a charismatic man. It's really a great film.
I just watched a movie starring Peter O'Toole called Venus. I recommend it highly.
I've been wanting to see Everything Is Illuminated but for some reason keep passing it up. I think I'll try to get it for this weekend. Thanks for the suggestion.
Mississippi Mermaid (1969):My French college professor showed this film in class. It was one of those edge of your seat thrillers dealing with sexual obsession, betrayal, murder.
Jean Paul Belmundo is a plantation owner on a tropical French island. He has been sending letters to France to his mail-order bride and he eagerly waits for her arrival. Finally a beautiful woman (Catherine Deneuve) arrives and he is really happy with her until certain irregularities start showing up, making him question her identity.
My college French class was one hour long and hence we had to stop the movie halfway through. I remember we couldnt wait to come back the next day to see what happened.
I forgot about this movie until I saw the horrible American version starring Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie.
Dave: I don't think I've seen any of the ones you mentioned. I'll have to do some digging...And then watch some movies.
Leo The Last is an unforgetable film. Marcello Mastriani plays an Italian Prince living in a slum English Neighborhood. He's been sheltered all of his life by aristocracy. He comes to terms to modern society by peeping through his window at the rest of the world.
I saw Mississippi Mermaid a few weeks back, but in spite of the director and Catherine Deneuve, I didn't feel it was all that. Still I would most definitely agree it was better than the American version in Cuba. Now, if you want to watch a really good movie with Mississippi in the title, I would recommend Mississippi Masala, a Mira Nair film with Denzel Washington that looks at an East Asian family from Uganda that become refugees in Mississippi after Idi Amin's takeover.
Has anyone seen, "The Ambassador", with Robert Mitchum? It's an awesome movie about not just throwing the "peace" word about, but by implementing it. The government should make this a mandatory film for anyone taking office. I loved it.
Tressa:Did you get to see "Everything is Illuminated" yet? What did you think?
Dawn, I haven't seen the film yet because I want to read the book first. I checked it out from the library yesterday and will try to read it this weekend.
Leave her to Heaven:1945I discovered this movie on one of TNT classic movie marathons. Apparently one of the most popular movies when it first came out.
Gene Tierney is in love with Cornel Wilde. So in love; she will do anything to ensure she marries him; so in love, that bad things start happening to the people Cornel loves. She becomes so obsessed with him, she even becomes jealous of her own unborn child. Gene Tierney is deliciously and slowly becoming unhinged in her determination to get her way. Well ahead of its time regarding certain themes.
Manuel,I loved that film although it's been many years since I saw it. Gene Tierney was wonderful at being wicked, and it was such a different role for her.
Alejandro Jodorowsky's "Fando y Lis," and Jan Svankmajer's "Lunacy" are two really good, really strange films. I'd recommend to anyone into the surreal or the borderline horror.
I haven't seen El Topo, but I've heard about how it pretty much singlehandedly started the midnight movie. I definitely would like to see it. "Fando y Lis" is so strange and is definitely going to be a love-it-or-hate-it for a lot of people. "Lunacy" is kind of like that too, except much closer to a horror film. You should check it out--I've certainly never seen anything quite like it and you might like it.
Good call, Rob and Mike! The Jodorowsky films are great pretentious works of art and a "must see" for all cinephiles. Jan Svankmajer is like the Coen Brothers crossed with Ray Harryhausen...on LSD. Cool stuff. I would recommend THE NIGHT OF SHOOTING STARS, an Italian film by Paulo & Vittorio Taviani about a village terrorized by the Nazis durring World War II.
Interesting, I'll have to check that one out.
The more and more I grow older the less and less I try to attach relevance to the word "pretentious," which used to bind me pretty well. Yeah, Jodorowsky might be seen as pretentious, but I think that's almost like talking past him. Generally, unless someone is forcing you to watch something I wouldn't call it pretentious. Homeboy just wanted to make some weird creative movies, and people who will enjoy them will enjoy them. I get the impression you like him too, but I think a lot of people will take the word 'pretentious' the wrong way.
I had to look up who Harryhausen was, but I'm glad I know now! I've always really liked Clash of the Titans and I've been told to check out the Sinbad movies...now I know the guy responsible! Thanks, Alex!
The more and more I grow older the less and less I try to attach relevance to the word "pretentious," which used to bind me pretty well. Yeah, Jodorowsky might be seen as pretentious, but I think that's almost like talking past him. Generally, unless someone is forcing you to watch something I wouldn't call it pretentious. Homeboy just wanted to make some weird creative movies, and people who will enjoy them will enjoy them. I get the impression you like him too, but I think a lot of people will take the word 'pretentious' the wrong way.
I had to look up who Harryhausen was, but I'm glad I know now! I've always really liked Clash of the Titans and I've been told to check out the Sinbad movies...now I know the guy responsible! Thanks, Alex!
I really enjoy Jodorowsky's films and meant pretentious as more the exaggerated visual elements typical of his distinct style. I recognize the often negative connotation but great films don't please everyone. Check out the Sinbad movies: GOLDEN VOYAGE is my favorite. Then check out JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS.
Unforgettable yet obscure:1. Sixty-Six (2006)
2. Neverwas (2005)
Alex: yeah, that was more meant to clear up for other people. You obviously liked the movie, so I wasn't trying to chide you for calling it pretentious or anything.
Old Rob: (haha) Yeah, I've seen the original King Kong--haven't seen The Lost World. Stop motion really is a beautiful and tremendously distinct film style. If you like it, you should really check out some of Svankmajer's films. The main plot of "Lunacy" is continuously interrupted to show stop motion sequences of pieces of meat pervading the scenery. His version of Alice in Wonderland also has tons of odd stop motion work in it.
Old Rob: (haha) Yeah, I've seen the original King Kong--haven't seen The Lost World. Stop motion really is a beautiful and tremendously distinct film style. If you like it, you should really check out some of Svankmajer's films. The main plot of "Lunacy" is continuously interrupted to show stop motion sequences of pieces of meat pervading the scenery. His version of Alice in Wonderland also has tons of odd stop motion work in it.
I've got the Jodorowky boxset collecting dust on my shelf - might be time to break it open now!
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Equilibrium...I first thought it was cos of Christian Bale, I guess it was a little...He is an amazing actor and a dream to watch..but i think it is the movie itself..beautifully written, it is so aesthetic and 'clean' even the bloodshed looks like poetry in motion.
i would like to watch 'housekeeping' if it ends well. I don't think i will go for 'the swimmer'i don't to cry. I am not especially into Russian mob movies so i guess i will pass on "Everything is illuminated"...The only Russians I knew were geeky college boys, and I wouldn't want to scratch the surface too much. I caught bits of "Gorky park" and i don't want to know more.
I just tried to read Everything is Illuminated. I hated the way it was written. Didn't even get past the first chapter. What is the big deal with this story? Should I try reading it again?
anybody remember a movie about a guy who carries around a hand grenade just in case?
Kai, the answer is no. But that's a good idea.
The movie "Leon", another rendition of "The Profestional", Leon carries around a slew of Hand Grenades "Just in case". First he does the Ring Trick- and blows up a drug dealer; then he blows up Stansfield (I think that's how he spells it) and himself in the end.
Every is Illuminated has nothing to do with the Russian mafia. It's not Eastern Promises. It's about an American Jewish man who returns to Ukraine to try to find the village his family came from early in WW2, which was destroyed in the war. He hires a driver and translator to take him around the countryside. The translator is a young man, very slick, or at least thinks he is, very caught up in modern rock culture. The driver is his elderly grandfather, who takes his seeing eye dog around on the trip. The story is all about connections, mystical ones in many respects and while the young man goes on his trip of discovery, he takes the driver/translator along with him for their own discoveries. The film itself is frequently quite beautiful and tragic, sometimes simultaneously and very poignant and moves in many unusual directions, sometimes with a lot of oddball humor. Personally, I highly recommend it.
Mike and Rob, I've seen several Sinbad movies, but I never realized he was animated. Very realistic. He certainly looked real enough on that trip to Yugoslavia with Hillary.
Everything Illuminated is a favorite of mine as well - Elijah Wood's best work yet. Has anyone seen Playing By Heart? It never gets old to me...of course, I love dialogue driven movies, so what do I know? It ties together several different stories and lives just beautifully...and what a cast! Everyone from Jon Stewart and Gillian Anderson to Sean Connery and Gena Rowlands. And besides Girl Interuppted and Gia, it's the best acting Angelina Jolie has done.
But my all time favorite "obscure flick" is definitely Happy Accidents. Crazy plot that just works! Vincent D'Onofrio and Marisa Tomei - two under-rated actors with some awesome chemistry.
Just looked up "Playing by Heart" and am going to go and see if I can rent that. HOW amazing it looks. Will let you all know what I think.Everything Illuminated has NOTHING to do with the Russian Mob. This story has everything to do with family, love and what you are willing OR not willing to do for said things. Its one of the most amazing movies I have ever seen and I am STILL recommending it to people.
Tressa: I have not read the book (I have been unable to find it), so I cannot tell you if it gets better or worse. I think you should just go and see the movie. Maybe that will help you read the book. I know the movie will have an impact on your life.
Good call Rob! Lilya 4-Ever and Maria Full Of Grace are very sad, realistic, and powerful dramas.
Could not agree more with those who recommend "Playing by Heart". This is a film I always bring up when someone says "You wanna watch a movie?" because it is amazing and almost no one has seen it. Every individual story would be worth it's own film. Soundtrack is terrific. And the acting, as Sally point out, is really some of the best you'll have seen from these actors and actresses. I fell in love with Jon Stewart by watching this film, I think it is Angelina Jolie's best film (and I am not ashamed to say I love her). I was so taken with this film when I first saw it that I somehow got it into my head that it was based on a book due to a quote from a monologue Jolie gives at the beginning of the film, "Talking about love is like dancing about architecture." I kid you not, I have spent 3-4 years looking for this fictitious book because the thought of getting to read the book the film was based on was THAT intriguing. Thank God for my burgeoning understanding of search engines and the internet or I'd still be looking. Boondock Saints should be a classic, cult or otherwise. While it is vile, crass, and violent, it is utterly hilarious in a way that we are often not allowed to enjoy in film. For those of us who do not find Adam Sandler getting hit in the balls over and over again titer-inducing, we are often left wanting. Fair warning though, for those of you contemplating checking out this one, if you did not find the scene in 'Goodfellas' when Joe Pesci is repeatedly stabbing the guy in the trunk and cussing him out because he won't die funny, than the brand of humor you will experience in Boondock Saints may not be for you. If you did not fall out of your chair laughing at the end of Out of Sight when the guy trips down the stairs and shoots himself, maybe not for you. But this film is far better than 'Snatch' and better than 'Lock, Stock, and Two Smokin' Barrels'. And honestly, even if this movie were bad, Willem Defoe's role is worth the rental.
Well, there's certainly a solid reason why anti-clericism has had such a solid run in Ireland and elsewhere. If you'd like to know why The Magalene Sisters is as good a place to start as any. It is indeed a very solid film and well worth watching.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)I mentioned this movie at work a few times and I was saddened no one had heard of it, though its not THAT old. It got Maggie Smith a best actress oscar 1969 (my coworkers know her from the Harry Potter films)
Everyone loves Miss Brodie, the Bohemian art teacher at a private girl's school in Edinbourgh during the 1930's.
Miss Brodie has a handfull of favorites girls, (the Brodie Set) she takes under her wing.Miss Brodie is in her PRIME so, they go places and the do things and she gradually molds them into looking at life with a differnt slant.
The movie follows Miss Brodie and her Brodie Set over the course of a few years. The girls seem to thrive under her attention. However, instead of becoming more independent; they continue to adore her, and Miss Brodie seems to like the attention.
Eventually Miss Brodie's plan for the girls takes on an unhealthy twist. She is grooming one of the girls to take her place in the love affair she is conducting with anther teacher.
Above all, Miss Brodie expects loyalty from her girls. She is in store for a great surprise.
Unforgettable performances by Maggie Smith and Pamela Franklin. Well worth a video rental.
OK, some great films mentioned here!For starters, since it's so close to my post, Maria Full of Grace was a really fine film.
And speaking of Jodorowsky (it's about time) my favorite is Holy Mountain. I prefer it to El Topo, but liked that as well. I saw them as a double feature once...whoa, what a workout. I don't find him pretentious, just challenging. We fear what we do not understand...and he gives us a lot to puzzle over.
And Swankmeyer! Yeah!!!!!
I am a huge fan of his "Alice" and "Faust". I've also performed improvised music with several of his shorts in some of the local venues around the bay area that feature live improvised music with film.
I'm also a Tarkovsky fan, with Stalker, Solyaris and Ivan's Childhood at the top of the queue. His films are too slow for a lot of American audiences, but if you can relax and pay attention, you might just get your groove on with him. His work has been very influential on my playing over the past 7 or 8 years.
Rob, thanks for suggesting Lilya-4-Ever. I'm a fan of Russian cinema and don't know that one. I'll look for it.
Solyaris is one of the best films I think I've ever seen.
I remember being home from college and watching the late late late movie.
The Swimmer: with Burt Lancaster (1968).
Burt spends the entire movie wearing his speedos. He belongs to the "Town and Country" set of suburban
Connecticut.
One day, he is at a party and he gets the idea to "swim home" by taking a dip into a river of pools on his friend's and neighbor's estates.
Visually its a very beautiful film, as we see Burt going from pool to pool and neighbor to neighbor. After each visit/confrontation with the people along his route we get a clearer picture of who he is/was.
Finally you realize the journey is a sort of metaphore for life's journey.
The ending was very tragic.
Most of my friends have never seen or heard of this movie.