Film_Fatale
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Posts posted by Film_Fatale
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> {quote:title=ademasblood17 wrote:}{quote}
> where can i find exit smiling to buy?
As the tcm database entry indicated, there is currently no commercially available home video version of this movie. Your best bet might be to wait until TCM plays it and record it.
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> {quote:title=CelluloidKid wrote:}{quote}
> To do Justice to my favorite actress, _Joan Crawford_ ...I broke her career down by the decade!
>
You have not only done justice to Joan, CK, you may actually have elevated her to a higher plane of cinematic reverence. My hat is off to you.
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> {quote:title=OneSharpDame wrote:}{quote}
> Flashback isn't an absolute to noir. Noir is more about the arc of the story and a certain nihilism or moral ambiguity. But flashback is a technique used enough in the story telling that it could go on a list of 'how can you tell if the film you are watching is film noir'. Technically, film noir isn't a genre but a style of filmmaking anyway.
Wow. You do your name justice, that is for sure, OSD.
Would you consider that noir films then belong in the crime genre, or which genre do you usually associate them with?
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> {quote:title=CineMaven wrote:}{quote}
> I want to talk about gaslight.
>
> Naaawwww, not "Gaslight" but gaslight. I swear I saw a thread in this forum for Movie Rambles 2 and it has now totally disappeared. Is it my imagination?? I would begin to think it was my imagination, but nope. I copied and pasted the entire thread in my files so that when I replied, I'd know WHAT it was I was answering.
CineMaven,
There is a good chance you may not even happen to read this, but just in the off chance that you might, I'll give it a try. (And I apologize in advance for having replied to this here, but otherwise there would be even less of a chance that CM might happen to see it).
I've actually been thinking quite a bit about the whole way you seem to have reacted to... a certain thread, it seems, because I actually found the thing to be quite puzzling.
I don't really know what it is that triggered that reaction in you, but I think I may have some thoughts on the matter. See, I believe that when you come across a person who is essentially good but perhaps (at times) a little clueless, well, depending on the circumstances, you may or may not come to believe that this person is trying to be a troublemaker. However, try to imagine what it must be like for a person who is most definitely not trying to be a troublemaker or anything like it to suddenly find oneself being treated that way by people who initially seemed very friendly. If that person truly doesn't have any harm in mind, I guess such a person might choose to either walk away, or else feel the treatment is so unfair that it actually makes it necessary to try to take a stand, out of principle if nothing else.
There are all kinds of things that might make people upset with others in a bulletin board. Don't believe me? Take a look at the Silver Screen Oasis, if you get a chance. I was recently lurking there and came across what seemed like possibly an interesting thread about the Golden Globes. And you know something? I found out, much to my surprise, that many of the people who went there from the TCM forums because they weren't happy here for one reason or another are actually fighting with each other over there now. (And I felt it was really necessary to bring that example up, because at least that is one you could never try to somehow blame on me!)
That discussion degenerated into a lot of attacks, including a person who still sometimes posts here accusing another TCM old-timer of "Mean-spirited intolerance and a lack of human compassion", which was also "couched in hypocrisy". Another TCM old-timer said that he was fed up of "censorship" or something and threatened to leave the SSO (for a 2nd time, apparently). And yet another person there accused the moderators of having double standards, or constantly "shifting the line" of what might be acceptable behaviour in those forums.
I don't think any person who happened to be visiting those forums for the very first time and came across that thread would think that site would be a nice place to frequent - and perhaps unfairly so, I'm not sure. Just one person's comments about the Golden Globes unleashed a lot of accusations and resentment.
And just so Chris and others know, I'm not knocking the SSO, just pointing out something that is there for all to see.
So, as you can see, CM, sometimes even people who are presumably acting with the very best intentions can start fighting with each other over perceived slights and over the intentions of other people in posting certain things, even if they appear to just be giving an honest opinion.
Things become even more problematic, I think, when assumptions are made that may turn out to be entirely false, and people given an unfriendly treatment based entirely on those assumptions. I'm not going to say any names, but I think you might know what I am talking about. There are folks in this forum who have made certain assumptions about others, and acted on those assumptions, not realizing the prejudice that they might imply.
If you should still be reading by this point, I'd just like to leave it at that for now, and if you are still not sure what I am talking about, I would be more than happy to explain further off-site or via PM.
Best wishes,
FF
*I watched The Informer a couple nights ago and I was curious to hear your (and others) thoughts on the film.*
It's a terrific film, one of Ford's best. I love the story, the atmosphere, and the cinematography, which does wonders with shadows. Reportedly, Ford had to shoot it that way at least partly due to a very small budget which didn't allow for a lot of exteriors, therefore shooting them a certain way might make the place seem a bit bigger than it really was.
And Victor McLaglen is absolutely stupendous, in a true tour-de-force kind of way. McLaglen and Ford totally deserved the Oscars they won for their work here.
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CHARLES LAUGHTON
*The Private Life of Henry VIII*
*Mutiny on the Bounty*
*The Hunchback of Notre Dame*
*The Canterville Ghost*
*Hobson's Choice*
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This has already been posted in the *In Memoriam* thread, but I felt it wouldn't be out of place here, as well:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/arts/13berri.html
*Claude Berri, French Filmmaker of Sweep and Charm, Dies at 74*
By BRUCE WEBER
Published: January 13, 2009
Claude Berri, who as a director, producer, screenwriter and actor was among the most influential figures in the French film industry over the past 40 years, died Monday in Paris. He was 74 and was described after his death by President Nicolas Sarkozy as ?the great ambassador of French cinema? to the world.
The cause was a stroke, his agent, Dominique Segall, said in a statement. Mr. Berri had been admitted to the hospital on Saturday with a ?cerebral vascular problem,? he said.
Mr. Berri was, by and large, a filmmaker of mainstream sensibility who favored stories of either quirky charm ? many drawn from his own life ? or grand sweep. His best known films as a director include ?The Two of Us? (1967), which tells a story much like that of his own childhood during the Nazi occupation of France, in which a Jewish boy is schooled in Catholicism and sent off to live with an anti-Semitic old man; and the twin 1986 films ?Jean de Florette? and ?Manon des Sources? (?Manon of the Springs?), together an extravagant adaptation of a classic French novel set in Provence by Marcel Pagnol, ?L?Eau des Collines? (?Water of the Hills?).
But he was probably more influential as a producer, working with directors like Milos Forman (?Valmont?), Roman Polanski (?Tess?) and Philippe de Broca (?L?Africain?).
With his penchant for lush cinematography and scoring and audience-pleasing plot resolution, Mr. Berri was often credited with melding the wry, oblique sensibility of French New Age cinema with the more commercial outlook of Hollywood. Often described as impulsive, imperious and driven, he nonetheless worked successfully with star performers like Yves Montand, Catherine Denueve, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle B?art and G?rard Depardieu.
He did not get along with everyone, however. On the set of his 1997 film, ?Lucie Aubrac,? based on the life of a heroine of the French resistance, he abruptly fired his lead actress, Juliette Binoche, for having too many opinions about how she should play the role.
?When a director is so possessive about his film it?s a nightmare,? Ms. Binoche said in an interview in The New York Times shortly after her dismissal. ?You can?t work with someone like that.?
Mr. Berri?s early work as a director included several comedies in which he played himself or someone very much like him: a character, often named Claude, with a sentimental devotion to his parents and a goofy, Chaplin-esque weakness for women. Among these films were ?Mazel Tov, ou Le Mariage,? (?Marry Me! Marry Me!?); ?Le Sex Shop,? ?Le Cinema de Papa,? and ?Le M?le du Si?cle? (?Male of the Century?).
Mr. Berri was a contemporary and friend of Fran?ois Truffaut, and his work was often compared, though not always favorably, to the Truffaut trilogy ? ?Les 400 Coups? (?The 400 Blows?); ?Baisers Vol?s? (?Stolen Kisses?) and ?Domicile Conjugal? (?Bed and Board?), which featured Truffaut?s alter ego, Antoine Doinel.
Among Mr. Berri?s grander projects were ?Germinal,? an adaptation of Zola?s 19th-century novel about exploited French coal miners, and ?Uranus,? a brooding film about French collaborators during the war that probes the nature of their guilt. Both starred Mr. Depardieu.
At his death Mr. Berri was directing his 20th film, ?Tr?sor? (?Treasure?), a marital comedy. ?Berri was laughing all the time on the set,? Alain Chabat, who was starring in the film, said in an interview on Monday. He last saw Mr. Berri on Thursday, he said. Mr. Chabat described the director as ?brilliant and curious, a very funny guy with incredible intuition,? who was nonetheless sure of his own mind and a bit of a martinet.
?He was very precise, very demanding on a set,? and ?very honest,? Mr. Chabat said. ?Sometimes his honesty would go too far.?
Claude Berel Langmann ? he changed his name as an adult for professional reasons, so it would sound more French ? was born in Paris on July 1, 1934. His parents, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, placed their son in the care of a non-Jewish family during the occupation. They worked as furriers, and after the war young Claude, who had been an indifferent student, started his work life alongside them until he began taking acting classes.
His first film, a short called ?Le Poulet? (?The Chicken?), made with loans from friends, was about a boy who tries to save a pet from becoming dinner by sneaking an egg into its nest every morning. He was wholly inexperienced as a director, but his instincts were sure; it received notice at the Venice Biennale and eventually made it to the United States, winning a 1965 Academy Award ? his only one ? for best short film.
The investment his friends made in ?The Chicken? turned into a company, Renn Productions, that made dozens of films. In the late 1980s Mr. Berri sold half the company ? then worth about $50 million ? to support a new hobby, collecting contemporary art. His collection eventually included works by Cy Twombly, Yves Klein and Robert Ryman and became one of the most important in France.
His survivors include two sons, Darius and Thomas, and a sister, Arlette.
Ma?a de la Baume contributed reporting from Paris.
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> {quote:title=TikiSoo wrote:}{quote}
> > I saw Eric live on stage as Dr. Frank N Furter in _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_!
>
> I'll have to check my old program and see if I saw him in that role too. When it's the stage play, you drop the "Picture" in the title, btw.
>
Did you watch it in Broadway, TikiSoo?
And thanks for the reminder about *Free Enterprise*, I probably haven't seen that since it first came out
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I love that photo of Errol and Olivia with the fencing gear on. What fun they must have had (at least if nobody got nicked).
The photo from the *GWTW* clothing tests does seem a bit bizarre to me, Olivia's expression in that one strikes me as what she'd have looked like in a police mug shot.
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> {quote:title=CineMaven wrote:}{quote}
> * The Wizard of Oz: what did this look like to audiences in 1939?? It must have been a dream. And when they finally see the Wizard...fire and brimstone and colour and fear. Whew!!
The colour, the colour... so very, very nice. :x
> * Gone With the Wind -- Gable had power and authority on screen or when he walked into a room said Dore Schary. He also says about Gable: that he has magnetism masculinity everything about him was manliness. He was a King where ever he went, says Crawford. I drown and die when Rhett asks Scarlett for a kiss on that bridge in "GWTW." An extreme close-up, the burning red background, his opening his heart to her before he goes off to fight a lost cause and says: Kiss me Scarlett. Kiss me...once. His word: once sends me to my doom.
>
It'll be fun to watch it introduced on TCM next April by one of us. B-)
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> {quote:title=ILoveRayMilland wrote:}{quote}
> > {quote:title=Film_Fatale wrote:}{quote}
> > Any sound person should be wary of The Sound of Music, if you ask me.
>
> Same here. I just don't like singing children.
And in Nazi Austria, even! :0
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Thank you, harlowcutie. B-)
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> {quote:title=OneSharpDame wrote:}{quote}
> I think I may have to revise my list and replace The Postman Always Rings Twice with Double Indemnity. While PART is a personal favorite and a hullva story and also come from the important pulp fiction genre, it is missing one of the elements of noir and that is the flashback. Double Indeminity has both of those elements, coming from another pulp fiction novel written by James M. Cain, who wrote PART, and the movie is told in flashback.
>
The part about the flashback being one of the elements of noir, is that your personal opinion, OneSharpDame, or is it something you've read or heard in documentaries? I don't dispute your statement, I am merely curious.
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*The Day the Earth Stood Still is one of the greatest sci-fi films in film history and a wonderful example of the genre. Wise would return to sci-fi later in his career with The Andromeda Strain and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I feel the film also matches Wise's personal beliefs quite well, read on...*
I would totally agree with that, having watched Wise's original in beautiful blu-ray and the not-too-great sequel in theaters.
*Wise is best known for two of his musicals, West Side Story and The Sound of Music. I haven't seen either film in their entirety, but I feel West Side Story to be more accessible for my tastes. I'm wary of The Sound of Music.*
Any sound person should be wary of The Sound of Music, if you ask me. But *West Side Story* is a great musical that expanded the boundaries of the usually studio-bound genre. It is especially breathtaking when watched in 70mm.
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> {quote:title=CineMaven wrote:}{quote}
> Frank Grimes writes: "Ashamedly, I've yet to see 'The Postman Always Ring Twice.' I've seen 'Ossessione', and I like that film a great deal."
>
> Frank, you really must not make confessions like this in public, on a classic film message board. Take that information to your priest, rabbi, shaman, minister, shrink, dentist...but don't let us know you have never seen Lana in delectable, deadly white. It's kind of blasphemous really.
In the TCM forums... some people don't care if they are blasphemous.
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What kind of music do you like, texanna?
Did you ever get a chance to go to SXSW in Austin?
everyone! im watching part 2 of the MGM documentaries and My Greer just came on and they are talking about her whol MGM career! and now my cute Roddy MacDowell is talking about how"she was one of the most romantic creatures in the world"...this is so exciting! i cant believe i missed the beginning of this...i have been wanting to record all three parts, but i missed the first part and i just turned this part on.....banana oil! banana oil!
Isn't Greer Garson just divine? :x
All you need is a box; you've got plenty of hot air to heat it.
Even by the standards of the TCM forums, that does seem like a low blow.
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I was just watching *Gun Crazy* the other day. It's my favourite "lovers on the lam" movie. I liked it better than *You Only Live Once* with Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sydney, and also better than *Bonnie and Clyde*, starring you-know-who.
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> {quote:title=redriver wrote:}{quote}
> No, GROUNDHOG DAY wouldn't make my list. Neither would anything by Scorcese. But as food for thought and discussion, this is a pretty good starting place.
This is the spirit in which I wanted to share it with TCM folks, thank you for understanding my intentions redriver.
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Omar Sharif
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Just a quick reminder for those who may be interested - *Appaloosa* is out on DVD and blu-ray. B-)
I rented the blu-ray version today. The special features include an audio commentary by Harris and the screenwriter; some additional scenes, and 4 featurettes. (The one that looks most interesting is "Dean Semler's Return to the Western" - Semler was DP in several other contemporary westerns.
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Hi texanna, welcome to the boards
Does it make any difference if the movie was _filmed_ in Texas or if it only takes place there?
Nobody else has mentioned *San Antonio* with Errol Flynn. I'm pretty sure San Antonio is still in Texas, although most or all of the movie was probably filmed in the WB backlot.
By the way if you are interested in a nice new site for TCM fans, check out http://tcmfans.ning.com - you can set up a personal profile and upload photos, videos, etc. It's only been up for a couple of weeks so it's still in the testing stage, but most of it is functional.
P.S. Many people also consider *Giant* a Western. B-)
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> {quote:title=ILoveRayMilland wrote:}{quote}
> Thank you VERY much!
>
> Yes, I have discovered that Hitchcock is universal. Everybody thinks he's cool, except this girl I knew once who thought he was stupid and boring, but then said *"Disturbia"* was her favorite movie...sheesh....
You're kidding, right? :0
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> {quote:title=ChelseaRialtoStudios wrote:}{quote}
> And don't you just love that RKO-Pathe logo?!?
It's a great logo. In what year did they drop the Pathe?
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Ann-Margaret was in *Viva Las Vegas*
with _The King_
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I just realized that CineMaven shared some very insightful and entertaining thoughts about Wyliam Wyler's *The Letter* in the Films and Filmmakers forum. I have taken the liberty of reviving that thread and hope folks will enjoy revisiting it.
The films of the amazing Howard Hawks
in Films and Filmmakers
Posted
Coming up Friday, Jan. 16 @ 4:15am ET:
*The Big Sleep* (1946)
Private eye Philip Marlowe investigates a society girl's involvement in the murder of a pornographer.
Cast: Lauren Bacall , Humphrey Bogart , John Ridgely , Martha Vickers Dir: Howard Hawks BW-116 mins, TV-PG