ValentineXavier
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Posts posted by ValentineXavier
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Those are the biggest pitted olives I've ever seen!
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I liked it quite a bit. I'll admit that I would have at least liked a few more hints as to what was real. There is some discussion of this film in the *Spiral Staircase* thread.
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First, TCMHD isn't true HD, it is upconverted to 1080i. The benefit to that is that you can see a widescreen film filling the HDTV frame from side-to-side, without having to zoom, which loses resolution. The best picture quality on TCMHD is like that of a anamorphic DVD, which makes it better than SD, but not quite as good as true HD.
In virtually all cases, if a film is shown as letterboxed on TCM's SD channel, it will be shown in widescreen on TCMHD, with no loss of image. On TCMHD, with most 1.85:1 films, and all 1.78:1 films, you will see an image that fills the screen, while the same film on TCM SD will show letterboxing. For 2.35:1 films, you will still see some black bars on the top and bottom of TCMHD.
There may be rare exceptions to this. *Merry Andrew* was recently shown in 2.35:1 anamorphic, on TCM SD. This means that you would have to select "Wide" on your HDTV, to see it in it's correct aspect ratio. I suspect that this was an error of some kind.
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> {quote:title=Slicks71 wrote:}{quote}
> It ends by the the brother recalling off a cliff I think.
Hmmm... "recalling off a cliff." As in, he fell off a cliff, and his whole life flashed in front of him?
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Thanks. So, maybe there is hope that we'll see it. OTOH, it's strange that it hasn't been seen in so long, when the others seem to be shown sporadically.
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I used to build custom stairways, but never built a helical stair. Most true spirals come from kits, because those are cheaper than custom made.
DNA testing, using a helix staircase?
But, there might be a market for custom made helical staircases, where each step corresponded to the base pairs in a DNA sequence of the customer. One could use different woods for each of the purines and pyrimidines, producing four different steps. Or, one might use Neanderthal DNA as a pattern for a stairway in an anthropology museum, horse DNA for a stairway at a racetrack... lots of possibilities.
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> {quote:title=Fedya wrote:}{quote}Technically, it's a helix, not a spiral. ;-)
Yes, a true spiral staircase has a center column. But, that sort of staircase is commonly referred to as a spiral staircase.
I was quite taken with *The Innocents*. I was looking for more of a resolution, or at least more clues as to what actually took place. But, even with the ambiguous ending, I liked it quite a bit anyway. I was convinced of various explanations, at various points, including the possibility that like 1995's *Haunted*, everyone but the protagonist was a ghost.
*Haunted* is my favorite contemporary ghost story. They don't make them like that any more.
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> {quote:title=InFlynn wrote:}{quote}
> Yes, **** ends today and upon looking over my recordings for the past several weeks I couldn't find "Boston ****'s Rendezvous". I wonder if I missed it or was it not shown.
Somewhere, in another thread, someone mentioned that TCM never shows *Boston ****'s Rendezvous*, but did not know why. It is unfortunate that TCM does not, or perhaps cannot, show us this one, so that they would have shown us all the Chester Morris Boston Blackies.
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Living:
Malcolm McDowell
Dead:
Robert Mitchum
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Although I am a fan of both Bradbury, and Truffaut, I don't care for the film *Fahrenheit 451*. I suggested in the other thread that TCM show the 1980 TV miniseries of The Martian Chronicles as a Bradbury tribute. It is excellent, and may not have been on the screen since it was originally broadcast. It has a huge and impressive cast.
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*THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975* was shown on PBS. It's a good film.
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> {quote:title=loranrec wrote:}{quote}
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> And a few days ago, TCM showed Merry Andrew in a squeezed image in a 1.85 aspect ratio. They have shown it many times before in the correct 2.35 aspect ratio.
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I accidentally recorded *Merry Andrew* on TCM's SD channel, instead of on TCMHD, as I would normally do with a WS film. I was very surprised to find that TCM showed *MA* in 2.35:1 anamorphic, on the SD channel! So, if you had a HDTV, you could select the "Wide Picture" mode, and see it unsqueezed, filling the screen from side-to-side.
Since most people have HDTVs by now, I think that all SD channels should show their WS programs in anamorphic, rather than letterboxed. But, I don't know of any that actually do that. I suspect that TCM made some kind of a mistake with their equipment settings, or, when making the file that the film was shown from. Did anyone watch it on TCMHD? What did it look like there?
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> {quote:title=Arturo wrote:}{quote}
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*It's been dead for years, but doesn't know it. *It's, like, dead channel walking.>
> Finance, actually your reference is to THE SIXTH SENSE.
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> VX, please no such suggestions. They already program enough non-classic crap round-the-clock.
Arturo, my suggestion that they should show more zombie films was intended as a jest, because zombie films would seem appropriate on a "dead channel walking." I dislike the new commercial format, with fewer classic films as much as anyone.
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That shot of Frankie Burke makes him look like Cagney.
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If Eugenia had a female sheep, it would be you genius, you.
I once had a girl friend named Eugenia, and she liked that joke...
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> {quote:title=willbefree25 wrote:}{quote}
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> When did watching television become work?
Well, at least we no longer have to keep playing with the vertical and horizontal hold knobs, like in the old days. Now, when you get your set, you read the manual thoroughly, set it up, and forget it.
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> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}
> I don't know if I'm right about this or not, but I've generally thought of the English/British title of Lord as being something of a high-class honorary title, especially for wealthy people and large-area landowners.
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> I think it was an old English tradition to make non-titled people look up to and admire the people with titles, and feel inferior to them. Sort of a class structure.
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That's my understanding too, Fred. But, a "lord" is not quite the same as an Earl, or a Duke. They are members of the nobility, while "Lords" usually aren't. I just looked it up, and indeed, one must be a member of the ruling family to be a "Royal." I thought that "Royalty" was pretty much interchangeable with "nobility," but I was wrong.
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> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}
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> At the very end of the film I smelled a sequel, since Anton Chigurh survived, leaving alive his strong and interesting character, who police can never find, and thus he will be available for future films.
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> So, wheres the sequel?
Probably a lot of us would like to see Anton get his, myself included. But, the Coens don't do sequels. If they were ever going to do a sequel, it would probably have been for *The Big Lebowski*.
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> {quote:title=skimpole wrote:}{quote}L.A. Confidential is my choice. The film is very elaborate and clever, until the last half hour where it becomes a conventional vigilante movie.
I think the ending is clever too, but perhaps a bit too clever. It has appeal to me, but is just a bit too neat and tidy.
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The best version of *The Martian Chronicles* I ever saw was a 1980 TV miniseries. I'd love for TCM to show it as a tribute to the King of Sci Fi writers!
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I thought all titled people, by bloodline, anyway, were considered royalty, so an Earl would be royalty. Perhaps I'm wrong. As to being fiction - IMO, *all* "royalty" is fiction, thus my little joke.
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I'm a fan of *Candy*, over the top though it may be. I do like Brando's part in it. But, I think my favorite bit is When poet Richard Burton is delivering a lecture indoors, but the wind is blowing his hair! It is always blowing his hair.
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Lots of nice posters ans photos, but none of my favorite film about British Royalty - *The Ruling Class*.
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> {quote:title=Sepiatone wrote:}{quote}
> I know it's been shown a lot before, but because June 6 is D-DAY, I wouldn't object to an airing of *The Longest Day* , or any other movie dealing with this historic event.
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I was disappointed that they didn't celebrate Tallahatchie Bridge Day on June 3rd.
"All Hands on Deck" sped up?
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The *Merry Andrew* error seemed rather odd, atypical, because it happened on the SD channel. I would assume that running things on the SD channel doesn't require messing with OAR settings. But, I would assume that their upscaler needs to be set with the OAR of whatever is going out on the HD channel, or the file needs a flag to tell the upscaler the OAR, making for easy errors. Of course, this is just guessing. I wish one of their tech people would give us some hard info, including info on why they have no true HD yet, and when they will. It's probably more likely that I would win the lottery...