ValentineXavier
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Posts posted by ValentineXavier
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*Timecode*, and Andy Warhol's *Empire*, 485m of - guess what? The Empire State Building.
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Now, on the other end of the scale of movie going experiences, I think my strangest was when I was about 7. Part of a friend's birthday party consisted of taking us to a theater for two films. One was *World Without End,*, and the second is a better-remembered 50's sci fi film, *Attack of the Crab Monsters*. AotCM was pretty scary to a 7 year old. Well, the kid behind me 'enhanced' that scare, by grabbing the back of my neck, and squeezing, every time a giant crab came on the screen!
By far my strangest movie watching experience happened at home. I had just driven home, about 80 miles, from my mother's funeral. We have no relatives in this part of the country, so I was alone, and as you might imagine, rather despondent. I decided to try an take my mind off things by watching a movie. I decided on *Treasure of the Sierra Madre*, because, to me, the film is about what has real value in life. I had seen the film many times before, but there was something I had never noticed. The film starts in 1925, the year my mother was born, The poster for the lottery says that the drawing was on Feb. 14th. It seems to me that it is now the day after, or Feb. 15th, 1925. That is when my mother was born.
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They also had great cocoanuts.
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> {quote:title=HarryLong wrote:}{quote}
> Well, it's a masterpiece of kitsch...
I love the parting of the Red Jello!
I guess I was 7 or 8 when my grandmother took me to see it, for the first time.
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From *Sanjuro*
The Chamberlain's wife, to Sanjuro: "Killing people is a bad habit."
Sanjuro to the earnest young samurai: "Are you tired of being stupid yet?"
The Chamberlain, after he was rescued by Sanjuro and the young samurai: "Once, as I rode by, someone said 'the rider has a longer face than the horse.'"
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> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote}
>
> As for the film clips, it all comes down to budget. You can blow through your budget obtaining the very best looking clips available very quickly. Make no mistake, film clips for this type documentary are not cheap. And the rights clearances may have something to do with the versions chosen as well.
>
The owners of the best prints may well want a small fortune to use their material, but I don't think rights would be an issue. Short clips in a documentary should all be fair use.
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> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}
> A lot of his attention was also focused on "getting" as many Hollywood women as possible.
Like I said, for him, it was a hobby...
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> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}
> What do monkeys and gorillas have to do with Thanksgiving? Am I missing something?
You don't know my relatives.
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When I go over the TCM schedule to make a list of what I want to watch/record, I always look up the films on the IMDb, check timings, check aspect ratios, and check to see if they are available on DVD. Of the films I am interested in watching, I'd say that less than half are available on DVD, with a few available on VHS only. LD's are no longer available. I count the things that were on VHS and LD, but not on DVD, as as big a treat as films not released at all. I do own about 500 LDs, and wish some of those were available on DVD. I have transferred a few myself.
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Even though your link in another thread didn't work, I found your post. I hadn't been in this forum before, as there are so many, and time is finite. I agree that 24fps is an issue. The 'no dedicated R/L stereo outs' will be an issue for very few people, only those who would want both R/L outs, and multichannel analog outs at the same time, The multichannel outs can be configured to produce only R/L stereo outs.
I have an OPPO DVD player now, and it produces a superior image with its upscaling. Everything I've read about the OPPO BDP 83 says the SD DVD upscaling was significantly better than the SD OPPOs, and pretty much everything else out there. I see that the BDP 93 will use a different upscaling chip, purported to be better. But of course you are correct, we must await release, and reviews, of the BDP 93, before we know if it is as good as the 83.
I'd say that the main thing you missed in my OP on the subject is that I was comparing the OPPO's price to other reference players, not just BD players in general. Just a guess, but I think most of us will have more DVDs than BDs for quite a while, so really good upscaling of DVDs is an important factor. Also, the 83 plays DVD-As, and SACDs. Hopefully, the 93 will as well. Also, there will be an audiophile edition of the 93, as there was of the 83.
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Well, not perfect, what is? But, TCM shows at least three times as many films I really want to see, as I have time to see. So, if they show some I don't like while I have time to watch, I can lower the DVR's content a bit, and that's a good thing.
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Yeah, I don't want to draw the thread off topic. When I click your link, I get "Specified thread (0) not found." If I run across the thread, I'll respond there.
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> {quote:title=MyFavoriteFilms wrote:}{quote}
> Howard Hughes could've turned it into a much more powerful studio. But he lacked the vision that Zanuck and Mayer had.
I don't think Hughes lacked vision, what he lacked in the movie business was attention. Remember, he was a millionaire businessman, inventor, pilot. Films were a small part of all he did. I still think he should have been buried with the Spruce Goose.
Films and actresses were a hobby to him. If they had been central to his business life, he would have crafted a much more powerful studio.
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Lena Olin is very sexy, but not all that beautiful.
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> {quote:title=PrinceSaliano wrote:}{quote}
> I'm hard-pressed to come up with any "pros" re the Production Code.
Well, the Hays Office people all thought they were pros at what they did. But, as far as I am concerned, they should all have been "cons," convicted of violating the Constitution of the USA.
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Sequel to be *Donovan's Reefer Madness*...
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> {quote:title=joefilmone wrote:}{quote}
> I agree there is something strange about this story- *unless you are blind and deaf* one could clearly SEE and HEAR the train approaching the station- also he would really have to be leaning into the tunnel.
Or, unless you were stoned, drunk, or suicidal.
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Thanks for the correction. I was just going by what was on my copy. I did know the production company, but did not know of it's association with WB.
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Just in case there is anyone here who doesn't know, "teddy bears" were named after Teddy Roosevelt.
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> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote}
> Ollie,
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> That music covers all the bases - it evokes old Vienna so well - the joie de vivre, the "little Paris" atmosphere, and yet as you and Ro say, it is so WRONG it's right! There is something kind of .... corrupt about it.
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To me, it is wistful, longing, sad, world weary, nostalgic, unable to resist any longer, tired of enduring yet continuing to endure, accepting what it has no choice but to accept, surviving, and, of course, haunting. It's part of what makes the film great.
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You should check it out, it's pretty funny, and available on DVD. I haven't seen the remake, and wouldn't go out of my way to do so.
Another US film shot in Italy, is Spike Lee's WWII film, *Miracle at St. Anna*. I liked it quite a bit, but some complain about the liberties it took with the true story it was based on.
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> {quote:title=filmlover wrote:}{quote}
> Valentine, sorry, but two things I disagree with:
> 1. Sony is usually the very first to provide an update if one is needed for the Blu-ray player. I've seen people who own Samsung, LG, etc. complain on boardss that because Blu discs can have new technology on them that the companies have to develop a software upgrade for standing players. But Sony players keep on handling almost everything new without an upgrade of any kind, but they do keep aneye out for one and provide it right away. And I have found the to be very helpful when I have had to call them (they will even send you a disc with a software upgrade free of charge, if one prefers that to downloading it).
Agreed about Samsung and LG, but we must frequent different boards. I read a lot on the AVS Forum, and have kept up with the threads about Sony's two new BD changers, and for a long while kept up on the OPPO BD players when they came out. The vast majority of posts I read would place OPPO customer service as amazingly good, and their equipment, likewise. Almost all posters who mentioned any comparison would place OPPO over Sony. My 400 disc Sony 995 DVD changer has worked well for me, but many people on that forum have had many problems with it.
> 2. I don't think you can say Oppo is 25% the cost of other players. 400% the cost is more likely. >Next to Pioneer, it was one of the most expensive players out there. For it to have been 25% as >you say, and you paid $500, that would mean the other players would have had to been $2,000.
>unnecessary when others provide as good a picture for a lot less.
I said the the OPPO (at $500) is about 25% the cost of other reference grade players. Obviously, you can buy 6 or 8 BD players for that. Other reference grade players start at about $2,000, and go up to $5,000 and above. OPPO's new BDP 93 will be out soon, at $500, with improvements over the 83, including streaming, but still at the same price. According to the concensus of the posters on the AVS Forum, the 83 provided a much better picture than anything that cost less, and many players that cost far more, on both BD and SD DVDs. Alas, I still have only an OPPO SD DVD player. It's picture is clearly superior to my Sony, which cost three times as much (ok, it IS a changer,) or my Pioneer or my Philips, or my Toshiba, (which died.) So, when I do buy a BD player, it will be an OPPO.
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> {quote:title=TheTexasKid wrote:}{quote}
> scary is in the mind of the beholder.
Indeed it is. When I was a kid, I found lots of things scary, like *King Kong*, *Rodan*, and *Attack of the Crab Monsters*. As an adult, I can only think of two films which succeeded in scaring me, *Alien* and *Platoon*. That doesn't mean that I don't like horror films, I do like some of them. I'm surprised that no one has listed any films by Mario Bava, or Dario Argento, both have made some rather good horror films.
*Brotherhood of the Wolf* is one of my favorite films. I bought the multidisc Canadian DVD. I guess that nominally, it is a horror film. But, it really includes so many genres - historical fiction, martial arts, adventure. And, it has Monica Bellucci.
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Republic released my favorite film noir western, *Pursued*, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Robert Mitchum. Yes, they made some gems.
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*I Wake Up Screaming*