ValentineXavier

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote} > > PS: They are both very good movies, and if anyone wants to think of them as "holiday movies", that's ok with me. Well, the Cilician pirates would probably consider *Spartacus* to be a holiday movie. After all, they got paid twice, to do nothing.

My favorite Civil War film is *An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge*, 29m, made in 1962, based on an Ambrose Bierce short story. I wish TCM was showing it.

> {quote:title=Jezebel38 wrote:}{quote} > the standard song played for *Apache* dancing in the movies (and cartoons ; Bluto and Olive Oil). > Since there may be a few here who don't know, "Apache" has nothing to do with Indians, it is pronounced 'a-posh,' more or less, and is defined by wikipedia as being popular with Parisian street culture at the turn of the century, that would be 1899-1900, century turning wise...

Roberta seems attracted to the thing in her hand, as if she is pondering if it is a bit too pointed to be comfortable.

Okay, I'd bet that no one else here has seen it, but the absolute best cold war film is 1992's *Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America*. Check it out, you won't believe it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105639/

At 2am, I don't get off work for three hours yet...

> {quote:title=voranis wrote:}{quote} > I do like your contrast of "harder edge" vs. "plucky." One definition of "plucky" is "brave" and Neill's Lois had to be brave to do anything at all, since she usually looked scared out of her wits. (From the book A Game of Thrones: "Can a man be brave, if he is afraid?" "That is the only time he can be brave.") Coates' Lois seemed so confident she was almost oblivious to fear, or reckless in her zeal to get the story. > This is exactly what I was getting at. Given the same script, Coates would come across as tough, almost fearless. Neill would come across doing her darnedest to be brave, and making it. Different characterizations, but I don't see one as being inherently better than the other, just different. Back in the real world, when writing for Neill, they made her rather timid at times. Nothing she could do about that.

Ah, the good old days, when we argued about whether to call a police helicopter a "porkchopper," or a "whirlypig."

Some of my favorites: Michael Caine's Harry Palmer trio, *The Ipcress File*, *Funeral in Berlin*, and the outrageous Ken Russell film, *Billion Dollar Brain*. John Huston's *The Kremlin Letter* *Our Man in Havana*, Carol Reed's classic, with Alec Guinness, and Ernie Kovacs John Boorman's *The Tailor of Panama*, starring Pierce Brosnan, based on a John LeCarre novel, and he helped with the screen play Can't forget the several UK productions for TV of LeCarre novels, starring Alec Guinness as Smiley

*Rififi*, best film of the week, by far.

> {quote:title=misswonderly wrote:}{quote} > I really dislike Peter Greenaway's work. He's all brain and no heart. Don't get me wrong, I like "brainy" movies (sometimes -when my brain's up to it.) > > But Greenaway's movies are always cold as ice. If it were a not summer day and my air conditioning wasn't working, I'd put on a Peter Greenaway dvd (except of course I don't have any, because I don't like him.) I can understand why you would see him that way. He is often a dispassionate observer, bordering on clinical. To me, that just amplifies the traumas and emotions he depicts, making them even more stark by comparison. Films like *Prospero's Books*, and *The Tulse Luper Suitcases* are rather intellectual, sort of the opposite end of the spectrum from the grittiness of film noir. Those are certainly not to everyone's taste, but I find the mental exercise to take them in, try to understand what they are saying, and feel the strong emotions that are expressed almost in code, a rewarding and enjoyable experience. It sounds to me that you feel about Greenaway much like I feel about Ingmar Bergman. Unlike most people, I find him to be a cold, heartless, unemotional nordic b*stard. Except for *The Seventh Seal*, which I think is a great tongue-in-cheek comedy.

> {quote:title=voranis wrote:}{quote} > > {quote:title=ValentineXavier wrote:}{quote} > > I preferred Phylis too. But, in deference to Noel, I would point out that the scripts they were given were responsible for the great difference in the way they played the character. > > ValentineXavier, > > As I pointed out in my previous post: > > >And you have to wonder how much of the "softer" Lois was due to direction and writing, rather than just to Neill's personal style. So put me down as most of the difference due to writing. Sure, acting styles and characterizations are different, but the actor has to follow the script. Lois can't go charging off, if the script calls for her to be reticent, and do as she was told. Given the same lines, I think Phylis would have had a bit harder edge, and Noel seemed more 'plucky.'

About 10,000 of us have said the same thing. Fortunately, most of us used existing threads to say it.

Wow, you folks really gave the newbie a caning, just for a misspelling. But, okay, it's a film 101 question. Anyone who knows Welles' films knows that *Touch of Evil* is his best film.

I also much enjoyed Lang's *Spione*, recently on TCM. I had never seen it before.

I preferred Phylis too. But, in deference to Noel, I would point out that the scripts they were given were responsible for the great difference in the way they played the character.

Fred, while I agree with you, and would prefer the day change at midnight, it has long been the convention, on all stations I have seen, to consider 6am, or sometimes 5am, the start of the 'broadcast day.' Up until a couple of years ago, cable co.s didn't change their clocks for 'spring forward, fall backward,' until 6am!

I'll agree with the others Fred, but to me *Aliens* stunk, compared to the first one. In the first one, no weapons work on one, but one drop of alien blood will eat it's way through a ship. In the second, ordinary weapons work on the alien. Also, the blood flies everywhere, but does no damage. I found the first one frightening, and original. I found the second predictable and formulaic.

In that profile, Sonny Tufts looks so much like Liam Neeson!

> {quote:title=JonasEB wrote:}{quote} > Yasujiro Ozu & Setsuko Hara (and Chishu Ryu) > Kenji Mizoguchi & Kinuyo Tanaka If you cite them, I just have to mention: Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune Akira Kurosawa and Takashi Shimura (who was in more AK films than Toshiro) I'll throw in: Frederico Fellini and Giulietta Masina (Fellini's wife)

Damn, and I thought it was the real Vincent Parry! What can I say... after looking at Houseley Stevenson's face, while he says he could make you look like a monkey, or a bulldog, it's hard to think straight. That, and his anesthetic...

I completely agree with you about TCM's use of the term "underground," as applied to the films they show. They show a very few that could be called true underground. For 18 years I was on the screening committee, and worked on programming, for an avant-garde experimental film festival. That's the kind of stuff that was once called "underground films." I would LOVE for TCM to have a regular program of that sort of film. I realize that many would have been X rated, but there are plenty that they could show that wouldn't have been so rated.

I have three or four shopping bags full of video tape I made of that war, almost all from CNN.

> {quote:title=JefCostello wrote:}{quote} > I mentioned Antonioni, but not Fellini for the 60's. La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2 are probably good enough to get him mention, but his other two films in the decade were abysmal. > Fellini's first color film, 1965's *Juliet of the Spirits* by itself, is enough to warrant consideration of Fellini as "best director" of the decade. I don't usually participate in threads that ask for a single "best of," because I don't think that is really possible. But, I note that many of my favorite directors haven't even been mentioned - like Fritz Lang for the 20s. I like Murnau, but I think that Lang's Dr. Mabuse films, and *Metropolis* beat the pants of of him.

If you're a news junkie like me, Odyssey Dawn is about 9 hours old. I look forward to Khadaffy Duck meeting Charybdis...