misswonderly3

Disappointed...I was kind of hoping there was something "extra" in that new coffee I tried this morning...

I know this is a bit off-topic, but it's still about the films of the Coen brothers. I just saw *A Serious Man* last night (rented the dvd), because I suddenly realized it was a Coen brothers film I hadn't as yet seen. I would love to get others' opinion on it. I'm not sure what to make of it, still thinking about it. I will just say, though, that as usual, the acting was perfect, the "production values" ditto, and I was not bored once. Disturbed, yes, but never bored. Has anyone else seen *A Serious Man* ?

lynn, I swear they were gone when I checked earlier today. I think it was a mistake, and they put them back when I noticed it. Either that, or there was something extra in my morning coffee that I didn't notice (too busy watching Betsy Drake and Dennis Morgan.)

I always thought that the " TCM Remembers" segment was for those connected with the movie business who have died the year that just ended -ie, in this case, those who died in 2010. Francis died in 2011 -very early in 2011, yes, but I'm thinking they will include her in their "TCM Remember" tribute at the end of this year, December 2011. I suspect they make those tributes early in December, so those whose death occurs after time of making would be included in the next year's tribute.

Canadians have a love/hate relationship with Americans. Only problem is, it's only the Canadians who are aware of this. We're like one of those little secretaries in an early 50s comedy, we know we're wonderful, now if only we could get the attention of that guy who wields all the power. He likes us well enough when he thinks about us, which is practically never. Hey, what happened to those posts about *The 49th Parallel* ? They are mysteriously gone -it's like a creepy Twilight Zone episode. There was nothing in the messages to offend anyone, not even Laurence Olivier ( or his estate). Did someone complain to the " mods" to remove them? Tell me it was not a Canadian who did so !

I always think Gillian Welch is a bit Sundayish, with her roots music and her songs that sound like they're about a hundred years old (this is good). Here she is with David Rawlings, both of them guitaring their heads off with Red Clay Halo:

Fedya, I''m not sure whether to laugh or cry. Even if you do imagine me as a female version of Laurence Olivier (?? quoi? where would that come from? ) couldn't you have chosen a more flattering picture of the man? Mr. Olivier was quite good-looking, but not in that pic. (later)..ok, I get it now, I looked up the film *49th Parallel*. Would have been quicker to get your joke if I'd seen it. Sorry. (We Canadians supposedly say "sorry" a lot.) Edited by: misswonderly on Jan 8, 2011 1:02 PM Edited by: misswonderly on Jan 8, 2011 1:03 PM

I love *Holiday*, it's a delightful movie. I even like Katharine Hepburn in it. I agree with the comments about Lew Ayres looking (and seeming) a little like Jack Lemmon, also with the couple, Cary's friends in the story, coming the the rich people's party and being refreshingly unstodgy and unpretentious. It's a sweet film, everything works. And yes, I think it would serve very well as a "Holiday" film. *Holiday* for the holidays ! Maybe next year... By the way, contributing to the discussion about " holiday romances" and how people behave on them, etc., here's a quirky little song by the Kinks, entitled, of course, Holiday Romance : (sorry there are no visuals- there's a lot of potential in the lyrics for some very entertaining visuals.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Sw101-BnE

I saw *Total Eclipse*; it was just all right. I remember it vaguely depressed me, can't remember exactly why. Maybe because my poetry just doesn't measure up to Arthur Rimbaud's or Paul Verlaine's. Not even Burt Bacharach's. As far as I know, U2 have never appeared on this thread. Too bloated, too hugely popular for their own good? Too bossy, telling everyone how to be good? Whatever, I'm not a huge fan, but they did make some very good music. One fine record they made with Roy Orbison, Mystery Girl, features the haunting and beautiful ( not to mention yearning) song, She's a Mystery to Me. Bono's songwriting, U2's musicianship, and Roy's singing make this one of the timeless ones. I picked a vid with interesting stills of women's faces, many of them "classic" stars you'll recognize. Sorry about the emphasis on Katharine Hepburn, guess the uploader likes Kate. Roy Orbison of the soulful voice, giving it his all with She's a Mystery to Me : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECoGoY1Jvus Edited by: misswonderly on Jan 8, 2011 1:06 PM

Sounds interesting, although perhaps of a questionable legality, at least with regard to public places. Personally, I, as a loyal Canadian, always wear fluffy red mules in the house. I combine these with an elegant white dressing gown, thereby proudly sporting the colours of our flag. A patriotic vision in red and white. Here is one of my thousand pairs of indoor footgear: As you can see, they are also available in other colours. But the red works best with the Canadian flag theme.

I, riffing? When do I ever do that?

Wow, those country guys love sparkles, don't they? That guitarist has a sparkly sparkly silver gee-tar. Those ancient tv clips always make me wish I was a big haired, sparkly suited country singer back then, If they didn't have fun, they sure look like they did. Cilla Black had a hit with the angst-ridden Anyone Who Had a Heart back in 1964 (after Dionne Warwick had also had a hit with it the year before.) Most people think that Burt Bacharach wrote this ballad about unrequited love, but in point of fact it was penned a century earlier by none other than the French symboliste poet Charles Baudelaire. Cilla may not have been aware of this; in any case, here is a live rendition by her of Anyone Who Had a Heart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZury-SGt_g

Since this thread seems to be discussing not only *The King's Speech* , but potential Oscar contenders in general, I'm surprised no one has mentioned *Barney's Version*. Now maybe it's because it had a very limited release, late in December, and hardly anyone has seen it yet. In fact, even I haven't seen it yet, because it's not coming to where I live until later in January. But technically it's a 2010 film. It's received good reviews, it stars the always watchable Paul Giametti, and it is based on a Great Canadian novel by Great Canadian Novelist Mordecai Richler ( I don't expect many to have read him, but you should have at least heard of him.) There has been talk that *Barney's Version* may be up for some nominations.It's just struck me that perhaps there's not as much "buzz" about it as there should be because the director, Richard Lewis, has hitherto focussed mainly on televison shows. Anyway, here is a link about it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1423894/

Yup, one of them.

If Brian May from rock group Queen can be an astrophysicist, I don't see why Jayne Mansfield couldn't be a nuclear physicist.

Moonshadow is my very favourite Cat Stevens song. Should have posted it the night of the full lunar eclipse, a couple of weeks ago. Songwriter Gerry Rafferty died this week. It was a toss-up between this song or Baker Street, but Stuck in the Middle with You wins out on account of its cool quotient. Famously used, of course, in *Reservoir Dogs* (but I'm not using the video from that) : Edited by: misswonderly on Jan 6, 2011 6:42 PM

Just proves how versatile Jeff Bridges is. He's very good in last year's *Crazy Heart*, too.

Ah, la nostalgie. "1979", another "yearning" song. They were good, those Smashing Gourds. Well, since you're still thinking about "holiday" music (the Slade tune), perhaps I'll squeeze in something I was going to post New Year's Eve day . ( ended up posting the obvious but good "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" ). The Band played a great concert one New Year's Eve , and it gets off to a kickass start with "Baby, Don't You Do It". Turn your computer volume icon up as loud as it will go, you've got to savour the punchy horns on this. Even though the silly camera person doesn't even show the horn players. Play it, you Canadian rockers ! (except for Levon Helm.)

> {quote:title=traceyk65 wrote:}{quote} > Thanks. I know next to nothing about horse racing and nothing at all about betting. For some reason, that sounds like a film noir line itself. Edited by: misswonderly on Jan 5, 2011 10:50 PM

Well, you know my opinion of Miss Gardner, we've been over this before...I don't "get" the fascination with her. I know, I know, she has some ineffable erotic appeal that heterosexual woman cannot fathom (although having said that, there are plenty of other lovely noir ladies for whom I can understand why men would lust after - that does not sound grammatical -oh well, when speaking of lust, it probably doesn't matter.) Anyway, Ava Gardner almost annoys me, I find her not only not the sex queen she is so often said to be (yes, yes, we've discussed this numerous times -remember the photo of her on the beach that I posted?) , but also rather wooden and uninteresting as an actress. Except, come to think of it, in that African thing with Grace Kelly and Rock Hudson. Ava was funny and likable in that. edit -not Rock Hudson, Clark Gable. I would be terrible at those trivia games. Edited by: misswonderly on Jan 3, 2011 7:07 PM

Hey, I just turned on the set to while away a few minutes, and *Mystery Street* was on ! If I'd known in advance that TCM was airing this today, I'd have posted a heads up about it here. I love it- it's a great little noir.Detective Ricardo Montalban looking askance at racist rich men, Elsa Lanchester being even dottier than usual, the "procedural" format which includes bizarre skeleton faces on slides, trashy but pretty Jan Sterling tripping down the boarding house stairs in mules and a fluffy dressing gown to take a phone call, the battle in the train yard, the bird in the cage with the secret - great stuff ! Anybody else seen this?

Yeah, speaking of guilty pleasures, Abba is everybody's. I'm in a confessional mood: all right, dammit, I saw *Mama MiaI* (the film) when it came out a couple of years ago, and I totally enjoyed it. It was fun, I hummed along to the songs (very quietly) and found myself kind of bopping in my seat a couple of times. Abba Abba Abba ! Now just watch, all the guilty Abba fans will be crawling out of the closet. My favourite is "Waterloo." Change of pace: Calexico is this cool little TexMex band, they're pretty good. Here's a danceable little tune by them, "El Gatillo". Looks as though they recruited Josh Brolin to play the trumpet.

I was wondering about *In a Lonely Place* too. But the Gloria Grahame character didn't do anything, even unconsciously, to make Humph crazier. It wasn't even jealousy that put the Bogart character over the top; he was just a rage-filled kind of guy. It's a very good, very sad film. A "tragedy" in the classic sense of the word: the protagonist brings about his own downfall through a weakness/defect in his character. It's so sad, because when he isn't going crazy with irrational anger, Dixon Steele is an intelligent, kind, and likeable person.

Yes, I've also read that the Coens were fans of *Night of the Hunter*. I'll reiterate that the soundtrack music in Ethan and Joel Coen movies is one of their strengths as filmmakers. Edited by: misswonderly on Jan 3, 2011 1:48 PM

That's it ! "Copacabana" is the title of that song - all I could remember was the first line, "Her name was Lo-lah ! She was a sho-gal" ; not to be confused with the Kinks' "Lola", of course. Well, I suppose Barry Manilow has his place - as cujas said, she only listens to him in the car. Everyone probably has a few guilty car listening pleasures. Gordon Lightfoot was a podiatrist before he switched to song-writing, hence the name change. He legally changed his name to Lightfoot to encourage happy customers. (didn't we have some kind of film noir nonsense about podiatrists a while back?)