misswonderly3
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Posts posted by misswonderly3
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There are at least a couple of film noirs with a gay subtext, or at least side-story. It's hinted very strongly in *The Maltese Falcon* (1941 version) that the Sydney Greenstreet (Gutman) and Elisha Cook Jr. ( Wilbur, "the gunsel") characters have a gay relationship. Bogart keeps referring to Cook as Greenstreet's "gunsel", a word meaning not only "gun man", but also, on a more "underground" level, "of ambiguous sexuality". Also, Gutman is very upset when Sam Spade suggests they "sacrifice" Cook to the police; it's clear Spade believes there is a strong attachment between them.
In another much more obscure film noir, *Port of New York* (1949), there is an unmistakably gay character, "Dolly Carney" (Arthur Blake), who does impersonations at a sleezy night club. He has a quite funny scene near the film's beginning, in which he imitates Charles Laughton ( ! say no more !) from *Mutiny on the Bounty* .
The part where poor Dolly gets whacked is disturbing, because the way he is murdered has a sexual undertone to it. I don't want to describe it in detail, but anyone who has the chance to see *Port of New York* should pay special attention to this scene.
On another note, what about the famous *Bringing Up Baby* incident, where Cary Grant finds himself in Hepburn's aunt's negligee. He answers the door in this, and when the caller asks why he is wearing such a thing, he takes a little jump, and responds, "Oh I just went GAY all of a sudden ! "
No one's going to argue that the Grant character in the film is gay, but it's a funny scene, and some claim is the origin of the expression "gay" for what it means today.
Edited by: misswonderly on Feb 19, 2011 11:02 AM
Edited by: misswonderly on Feb 19, 2011 11:17 AM
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Kitty Wells reminded of the Carter Family, both her looks and her sound. Here are the original country folk, singing Over the Garden Wall :
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What do people think about computer-generated images in film? This is definitely a "high tech" development that had a direct impact on movies.
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Are we done talking about Charlie Chaplin? I think he was one of the masters of silent movies. -Make that movies, period. Oh, well...
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Cheated - I just entered your question verbatim ( "What was the first '60s U.K. "supergroup"? ) into "google" and , voila.
(This is one reason why I stopped participating on the games forum ages ago - too easy to "cheat", and I didn't trust myself to be strong and never yield to the cheating temptation. )
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Thanks, Kinokima, that was exactly what I wanted to know. I clicked your link and read the rest of the Roger Deakins interview. Something he said about the art of movie-making really moved me:
"The trip of actually doing the job ? I operate the camera myself, I always have ? and sometimes you?ll be shooting a shot and you get that tingle down the spine when you realize you?re watching something that?s really unique. That it really works and has something to say that?s more than the sum of its parts. They?re not my images; they work because of their context, because of the script, because of the performances and everything else. That?s what the power of film really is; something can be more than the sum of its parts. It?s something you can?t really describe in words."
(By the way, I was interested to see that this interview was from the now on-line film magazine Movieline . I remember I used to buy it and read it faithfully when it was hard copy. )
Edited by: misswonderly on Feb 18, 2011 4:50 PM
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> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}
> Maybe you havent noticed that he has changed, just within the last couple of months. Hes cleaned up now. He shaved his beard. He acts more maturely. He now wears very nice looking suits. And he no longer makes rude and offensive jokes about the movies he introduces.
I never thougt he made "rude and offensive jokes about he movies he introduces" in the first place. The only "change" I've noticed is the clean-shaven look - I liked his slightly "indie" looking goatee better.
If he doesn't watch it, I'll have to cancel our as yet unscheduled date at Gus and Motley Crue's before it even begins.
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Heads Up, Chaplin fans: *City Lights* on TCM, Tuesday, March 8, at 2:15 a.m. (well, actually early morning of WEd. March 9, but we know how the schedule works.)
If you've never seen this, chug down a caffeine-infused beverage to stay awake or record it ( or, in the case of people like me, videotape it -ah, the freedom of admitting my low-tech ways ! ).
Worth it.
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The "Steampacket" ?
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I have another complaint about complaining. Why do so many people think Ben Mankiewicz is "smug" and "sarcastic" and worst of all, doesn't even like the very films he introduces. I've never gotten that impression about him, and I've watched him hosting the afternoon movies many times. Sure seems to me that he likes what he's talking about. Nor did I ever think he "looked like a slob". Why should someone introducing "classic" movies on a television station wear a suit and tie? Many university professors dress fairly casually, and as long as they come through with good information and background on the film, who cares how they're dressed? Besides, he dressed in, I believe the term is, "business casual".
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At the risk of taking my own thread slightly off-topic, but on the subject in general of new technology:
One thing I deplore about many new films is the injudicious use of computer-generated images. It's everywhere. I truly never know anymore whether something I'm seeing in a recent movie is real or CG.
One example: I saw the Coen brothers' *True Grit*, and delighted in the visual beauty of the penultimate scene, the one where Cogburn and the girl are racing across the landscape on Mattie's horse; it's night time, and we see their silhouette against the starry sky. It's a beautiful, uniquely cinematic image. And it was slightly spoiled for me when I found myself wondering, "Is that real, or is it CG? "
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Keith Richard(s) released his autobiography a few months ago. This put in mind of a rare Stones track in which Keith does the vocals. This song is one of his high points. From one of the Stones' best albums "Let It Bleed", here's You Got the Silver :
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Uncle Leo, like all the supporting character actors on Seinfeld , was absolutely hilarious. I'm sorry to hear that Len Lesser died.
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> {quote:title=thomasterryjr wrote:}{quote}
> . > I recently posted a thread about my three most hideous, psychotic film characters I have come upon: Richard Widmark's Tommy Udo character in "Kiss of Death", Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh character in "No Country For Old Men" and Bob Hoskins' Joe Hilditch character in "Felicia's Journey". I knew as I was writing the post when I stated that "Felicia's Journey" was released in 1999 that this would be a thumbs-down and a turn-off to some of you and you would not even reply to the post.
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Hey, I replied to it ! You didn't reply to my reply.
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Guess you were metaphorically goosed on that. I thought all the @?!&*%# was an allusion to Valentine's post, and the fact that the King in *The King's Speech* incorporates some pretty serious cussing into his speech therapy.
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Interesting stuff, kingrat. The only thing you said that surprised me a little was including Robert Walker in the list - although he definitely has a gay vibe in *Strangers on a Train.* I love Bruno, what a nut case! But I hadn't heard that the man who played him might have been a closet case.
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> {quote:title=Kinokima wrote:}{quote}
> What do you mean why? I said because I am a collector and I like how shelves look filled with DVDs and Books not everything on a hard drive where you can't even see it. If I have to keep everything on a hard drive I don't know what I am spending money for at all. Might as well just rent the videos or take the books from the library. There is no value in keeping it stored where you can't show it off. Maybe there is value for you but not for me.
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> And I also don't need to be told that everything is going digital. I worked in publishing & have a library science degree. I know all about it, it's still depressing to me.
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> I also don't mean that it is depressing that things are available for streaming or downloading. That's great if you just want to watch something. And I have been doing this for a very long time. But if I want to _own it_ I want the physical product not something digital.
Kinokima, I so agree with you about all this. Everything is becoming digitalized, I've even heard that soon instead of pictures on the walls, people will have a computer screen with a work of art they can change every day. Everything I care about - books, music, movies - is becoming less and less physical and tangible, more and more something stored in a computer. I know on some level that it's the art of these things, not the things themselves, that matter. I know it's the text in the e-reader, the music in the iPod, the movie in the Netflix stream, that counts. People will probably argue that why should I care if actual books, records and CDs, and celluloid/video/dvds disappear, the art these objects carry is still around for me to enjoy, just accessible in a different way.
But, it just isn't the same ! I like the physicality of these things, the scratchy sound of the needle on vinyl, or even the sensation of slipping a compact disc into the player , the feel and look and even the smell of books ( no jokes please, books, especially well-bound ones, really do have a scent), and even my videos and dvds, on the shelf where I can kind of gloat over them - I like these things, and lament their inevitable passing.
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> {quote:title=phroso wrote:}{quote}
> Kinokima, I think we're actually supposed to be disappointed when we meet Laura.... By the time she shows up, the goddess who we've been led to expect turns out to be a pouty yuppie in need of a life coach and better taste in men.
phroso, that's hilarious ! And true.
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Guess Mr. O'Toole is just a fortunate son - or not, depending on how you look at things. It must have been a bad moon rising on all those nights he never received an Oscar, but perhaps he's happy with his honourary one - or maybe still hoping to get a "best actor" award, up around the bend.
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Yes, I watched it this afternoon. Plus I taped it (Hallelujah ! I can finally say that - taped ! )
Anyway, I won't post any spoilers, I'll just say I loved it. Janet Gaynor had a very sweet face, suits silent films very well. The young man who plays her beloved is very good-looking and appealing too.
Why am I just talking about the looks of the lead actors ? It was a wonderful film, with that mysterious almost other-worldly look that many silent movies have. I was totally engaged in watching it. After seeing a film like that, I'm more puzzled than ever with people who say they don't like silent movies. The more I watch them, the more I like them.
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???????
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It's much easier to control the degree to which your car windows are up or down if it's manual. The automatic window opener/closer never seems to get it quite right. I've never understood the supposed advantages of automatic car windows.
(Although this isn't exactly "new" technology..."automatic" windows have been around since post-code movies, haven't they? )
hey, by the way, all the edits in my previous post were due to spelling mistakes
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> {quote:title=kriegerg69 wrote:}{quote}
> Do you use the spell checkers in your word processors?
I don't like being told how to spell by anyone who isn't a human being.
Unless it's a dictionary, preferably a hard copy Oxford.
Edited by: misswonderly on Feb 17, 2011 12:28 PM
Edited by: misswonderly on Feb 17, 2011 12:29 PM
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JonnyGeetar wrote of *Laura*:
"1.Clifton Webb plays it too gay, I like him,and I'm thrilled this gave him a (deserved) comeback, but he plays it too gay and it makes the whole thing a little "huh?"
Well, he played it gay because I'm pretty sure he was gay (not Waldo, Clifton). Have you seen him in Dark Corner ? He's pretty much the same, maybe a little less...extreme. There's been talk here before about Laird Cregar, and maybe he does fit the way the character was in the book better, but I love Webb's Waldo Lydecker, I think he's perfect as the asexual obsessed admirer of Laura. And all those incongruities you point out, valid as they may be, I just think add to the quirkiness of this film. In fact, I consider *Laura* to be quite a funny movie, as well as a legitimate film noir. Check out any of the Vincent Price/Judith Anderson scenes...they're hilarious.
ps I love *Laura*, but I also love *Double Indemnity*. They're so different, it's hard to decide which is better.
Edited by: misswonderly on Feb 17, 2011 11:32 AM
Was Chaplin Funny?
in General Discussions
Posted
There are many examples in film where comedy meets pathos, and it works. In fact, much thoughtful comedy has an undertone of sadness to it. There is a fine line between pathos and bathos, but I think Chaplin pulls it off successfully.
Edited by: misswonderly on Feb 19, 2011 3:48 PM