SansFin

> {quote:title=dpompper wrote:}{quote} > Interesting that Johnny Depp in a context of "personality vs. performance" has not been raised. I find that watching his movies is the perfect balance between my perverse interest in crazy people and my instinct to remain safe by being outside striking distance of them.

> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote} > It was the shawl I wanted! ... > Unfortunately, I could probably only wear it here about 1 day a year, it just never gets that cold here on the shoreline for any length of time. I believe this scarf would not be overly warm: http://www.natalieluder.ch/shop.htm I must wonder if you might be stalked by wee beasties when you wore it as Bronxgirl48 often is.

> {quote:title=Sepiatone wrote:}{quote} > The most famous people I ever met were the late Michigan governor George Romney ... > The other was guitarist Earl Klugh ... > I once shook John McLaughlin's hand ... That is three more than I have met. I have been in the same room with famous people as part of my duties and business but I have never met them face-to-face. I believe that other than Capuchin the only time any person I have met has been mentioned in a newspaper was when it was reported how many years they had to serve after their trial.

> {quote:title=dpompper wrote:}{quote} > I appreciate "sinbag" in all its forms! Is that not a thing you take when you go on coed camping trips?

> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote} > Call me a Scrooge Poof! You are a Scrooge! > I don't care for THE BISHOP'S WIFE. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE and MIRACLE ON THIRTY FOURTH STREET are a different story. They are different stories because they have different plots, different settings and different actors. I like *The Bishop's Wife* very much because it is gentle humor. I like *Miracle on 34th Street* but I feel it tries very hard to be more than it is. I feel *It's a Wonderful Life* is teen angst melodramatized for a simpering audience. I very much wished to grab the lead and shake him and tell him to act as an adult because I do not like whiny and self-centered characters.

Could we have a group introduce movies? Members of the group could appear alone or in concert depending on the type of movie. If The Muppets would do it then genre of movie and introducer might be: Romance: Miss Piggy Science Fiction: Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker Musicals: Dr. Teeth and Zoot Americana: Sam the Eagle Adventure: Crazy Harry Politics: Animal Children's: Annie Sue and Robin the Frog Comedy: Fozzie Bear I believe The Village People could also be interesting.

> {quote:title=Dothery wrote:}{quote} > I saw a movie in Tokyo which had in the lead a very ruggedly handsome actor named Tetsuro Tamba, playing a gangster. He was very active and I remember seeing him in many things. I like in particular the work he did with Nobuo Nakagawa. I have not seen it in many years now but I remember well liking very much *The Depths* (1957). I thank you for sharing such a wonderful experience. I must wonder if I am the only person who does not have a connection with a famous person. I have had no contact with great aviators, politicians, editors or actors.

> {quote:title=AndyM108 wrote:}{quote} > I opened my own shop in 1984, where I met my wife (she was my best customer, so I'll always suspect ulterior motives) and had a great time for 23 years. I have great respect for people who open book shops. I know it is a labor of love. They say that love is blind and when it applies to book shops it is plain that love is blind to financial realities. Your work with I. F. Stone must have been inspirational as well as educational. I thank you very much for sharing!

I find *Ace in the Hole* is overacted and the plot is very contrived. It is one of the movies which are often in "best" lists but in which I find no redeeming value. I like *Double Wedding* much more than the script deserves. I feel that William Powell and Myrna Loy are not at their best but there is still great chemistry and they do all of their classic double-takes, muggings and quips. I like to watch *Some Like It Hot* once a year. There is much wrong with the movie and it is overblown in many ways but it is a funny little thing that makes me feel good. I like *Witness for the Prosecution* because it works for me on several levels. It has a nice balance of drama, mystery and comedy. I often find a thing in it which I had failed to notice before.

> {quote:title=Sepiatone wrote:}{quote} > On the other hand, mine was a pretty much unremarkable upbringing. It does not seem typical in that you recognized and embraced the differences between communities. I believe most people grow up within far narrower confines or they are unable to see the good in things which are unfamiliar to them as you did. > "My life is in the hands of any fool who can cause me to lose my temper." That is a wonderful quote and your grandmother was a very wise woman. I find that sentiment is true particularly when dealing with obstreperous posters! I thank you very much for sharing.

> {quote:title=Dothery wrote:}{quote} > Not too much different to share here. I love what you wrote! It shows well your great wit and gentle nature. I am very much impressed! I know now to pay special attention when you write of movies you may have seen first while you were living in Japan and England. I feel it adds much to a person's perspective when they watch movies with an audience of the people for whom the movie was made. I thank you very, very much for sharing!

> {quote:title=RMeingast wrote:}{quote} > I think if you go to the "Classic Film Union" listed under "Fan Community" on the menu board above and below "TCM Turner Classic Movies" at the top of the page, you can join the "Classic Film Union" and post your biography there. I thank you for your suggestion. There was an accident of some type which caused me to become a member of it. I had to ask that it be undone quickly because it meant receiving e-mails from strangers and that is a problem for me because of filtering. It appears to me that it is a social networking site for people who like movies. I prefer this forum as it is about movies first. I began this thread because I feel that it helps me to add perspective to a poster's opinions and suggestions if I know their age, gender and other basic facts and I believe there are others who feel the same way. The information on social sites such as the names of their pets, what they ate for lunch or where is their favorite place to vacation would not greatly add to that perspective and I feel it is a distraction.

> {quote:title=willbefree25 wrote:}{quote} > What a lovely post I thank you for your kind words. > Such candor, such dignity. My grandmother taught me that success in life depends on having the world seeing you as a graceful swan gliding across a pond while never letting them see that under the surface you are paddling for dear life. > I love your connection to Capuchin, I did not know. We have been in love for forty years. It has helped greatly that we saw little of each other for thirty-six of those years. He says we have a strange and wonderful relationship: I am strange and he is wonderful. > If only all the posters on all the message boards in all the world were like you. I believe it would then be a very boring place.

> {quote:title=fxreyman wrote:}{quote} > A very nice thread to start. It is merely my response to your friendliness and openness in the other thread. I believe such things should not be buried in threads which are of different subjects and where they are not easy to find. > There are many ways that anyone can find you. Unfortunately you make it sound like big black helicopters are out there right this minute searching for you. It is not authorities which concern me. My copies of all the paperwork I have done for coming here and being here weighs now seven pounds. I believe it is possible that it contains even information whether my navel is an innie or an outie. A Sheriff's Deputy came to my home to tell me of an event I may wish to enter. An FBI Agent has sent me a birthday card. My concern is for a person who takes great offense at a thing I write and they desire to bring the matter into the real world. I know of no way to stop those who are capable of hacking user accounts for information but the majority of them will be stymied if they are unable to discern a name or location in postings in various forums. One such person harassed Capuchin some years ago because of his presence in a Usenet group and it took much energy and the intervention of police to end it.

> {quote:title=hamradio wrote:}{quote} > On the internet, the LESS people knows about me the better. I have a very long list of things I will not say. It begins with my name and where I live. Capuchin knows people who work in Internet security and I can ask them if a thing I wish to say can be used to trace who I am. They have saved me on two occasions by pointing out things I did not know were so unique as to be dangerous to say. I wish to be as open as I can be but I know well that one must take care in this world and in the cyberworld.

> {quote:title=Dargo2 wrote:}{quote} > YOUR English is clearly as good as MINE! I thank you for your kind words. > (...though that may not be sayin' all that much, seein' as how I'm a graduate of the American public school system!) It should be easier for me than it is for you as I did it as special study and I was not distracted or confused by bad examples. I did not grow up reading the back of Corn Flakes boxes or notes passed in class. My first main exposure to written English was technical journals and classic literature. I should by these things have an excellent command of the language. It is sad to say I have a great disconnect between reading and writing and so I can look at what I write and know it is bad but I do not know how to fix it.

A poster has given us a short biography of himself in a thread which has become side-tracked into discussion of non-actor personalities. It reminds me that we share much in our posts but it is always in bits and dabs here and there so it is difficult at times to assemble a complete image of our fellow posters. That this is true is evidenced by the fact that it happens often that a person will mistake the gender of a poster with whom they have discussed many things. Some posters have introduced themself when first coming to this forum but it is nearly always very bare-bones and hesitant as they feel they are coming into a group of strangers. I can not and will not ask nor expect any other person to provide information about themself and I surely will reveal no secrets about myself but I think it may be handy to have a single place with as much information as some posters are willing to share. I will go first to inspire confidence and because I love to talk of myself. I am female but please do not think that I am a girly-girl. It has been said of me often that I have a pair of big brass ones. I was born in the upstairs-back-bedroom of a house which has since been torn down in Odessa, Ukraine. I will not say the year as my age is not important but I will give the clue that I was a young officer in the military when I met in 1972 the man who posts in this forum as Capuchin. My uncle would tend me when my mother worked. He ran a movie house and he played mostly foreign movies so he was in trouble with the authorities often. I sat next to his projector. It became a family joke that I could read a foreign language before I could speak because I would be very quiet all the time a movie played but I would begin to fuss the moment "Fin" appeared on the screen as if I knew it meant the movie was done. He became later a cameraman making documentaries for the government and he made short films of his own using their equipment and supplies. He gave me all rights to two of his movies in his will. My father was concierge for a hotel for foreign visitors. They had a small theater and I would go there after school and watch foreign movies until he could take me home. My mother was tour guide and interpreter and she at times took me along to movies when the people had children so we could then flank the children so we would know if they left their seats. I grew up in the remains of an elegant world made shabby by decades of the Soviet. Our first home that I remember was in a grand house which was split up for many families. I believe our part of it had once been the apartment of a butler and his family. I grew up believing the world was made of marble and dark woods and flaking gold leaf. I learned English and German in school because I wished to know what was being said in many foreign films which I liked but which did not have subtitles. I choose the classes where we learned to understand and speak the languages but not to read nor write them. Those classes were said to be harder but there was a foreign movie each week and we had little written homework! The military asked me to join when I graduated school and they sent me to University. I hoped to become a doctor but my hands were poor so I became a nuclear nurse. I have never been with patients other than what was required for my education and training. My primary job in the military was processing information for doctors, writing reports and checking preparations. I had many good postings because I could be listed as both administration and medical to meet personnel quotas. I traveled much also because I understood several languages. The military taught me also to read and write English. I had little cause to write it but it opened for me the worlds of Shakespeare, Poe and P. G. Wodehouse. I met Capuchin when his military and my military met for talks. Our superior officers did not like our romance and so we were separated. My first husband was military and he died in an accident. My second husband was an expert in Japanese Cinema and we traveled there often as part of cultural exchanges. He died two weeks before our tenth anniversary. In 2008 things were not going well for me. The company where I worked closed. I was living with my mother and working odd jobs. Capuchin brought me to United States. He does not have very much money but he employs me as his care-giver. He had full time care-givers before and there are times he would have to be in care facility for constant heart monitoring if he did not have me so it is legitimate employment. I have also been going to school so that I can have licenses to practice as a nuclear nurse here. I have one partial and one full semester before that it possible. Next year it will be five years that I am here and so can begin the process to become a citizen. There are faster ways but there are peculiarities of the situation which make it safer to use the old-fashioned ways. Capuchin made me join this forum so that it would be necessary for me to write more in English than is usual in my life. I am very grateful that all here have been patient with me as I know I often write as if I am a backwards child pecking at the keyboard. I like mostly movies which are fun. I love to laugh and to feel silly. I like especially caper-comedies and crime-comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. I prefer mostly non-American epics and personal dramas. I find the works of Akira Kurosawa, Sergei Bondarchuk and Hiroshi Inagaki are far richer than those of any American director. I find Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu and Grigori Aleksandrov made movies which touch my soul deeply. I am sorry this is so very long but it takes much to explain me even although there may be no excuse for me. Does any other person wish to share?

> {quote:title=misswonderly wrote:}{quote} > But he'd moved on, musically, and perhaps philosophically too. One of Capuchin's favorite lines is: "Never die for your beliefs. If you live long enough, you might reform."

The first time I had heard of "re-gifting" was that a person gave a friend a box set of three movies and then received two of them back as a gift the next year.

I like the PM function very much because it allows me to ask things in private so I am not showing all the world my ignorance. It allows also for me to share things with one person which might be misunderstood or taken out of context if it could be read by all and sundry. > {quote:title=misswonderly wrote:}{quote} > I've never put anyone on "ignore", so haven't experienced that problem. I have a few posters on "ignore" because it reduces my level of frustration and reduces the risk of me being banned. Imagine that you see a kitten mired in the mud. It hisses and scratches each time you try to rescue it. You see it do the same to all others who try to help. You also see that when it believes no one is watching it it purposely goes to a deeper part of the mud even although the outer edge is closer. You feel as if you must keep trying to help but it will not let any person rescue it. There are a few posters here who I feel are mired in ignorance and stupidity and who resist all people's attempts to give them facts to help them. It frustrates me because I want to help but it is obvious that I can not. It reduces the potential for frustration if I do not see their posts. It is sad to say that I am also weak-minded to the extent that I can be drawn into an exchange which causes me to lose my temper. That is not a good thing. The only things which have prevented my being banned from these boards are the kind considerations of the moderator and the fact that I must change the keyboard to Cyrillic in order to really let loose and they are not worth the effort. So it is that my use of "ignore" is not so much against them as it is for me.

I like Ben Mankiewicz much more after his makeover. He looks now casual and friendly instead of grubby. It appears to me that he is not comfortable in a suit and tie and I feel that is not a good look for him. The only negative comment I have of his looks on weekends now is that I do not like his glasses. They lack personality and they seem to me to be awkward. I have seen the YouTube video of the announcer who was on AMC once. This has made me realize how blessed we are to have Robert Osborne.

It was for me an opportunity to buy some things which I would like to have but which I can not justify purchasing when they are at normal price. An example of this is that we have a one-and-one-half gallon Shop-Vac in the workroom which must do double duty for being easy to carry around to clean nooks and crannies and having to sit in one place to catch dust from a machine. It was not worth $40 to buy a vacuum just for the latter task. It was worth $24 which was the price yesterday for a five gallon Shop-Vac at Wal-Mart. It is in similar way that it is not worth $50 to have full-sized finish blade and ripping blades for the table saw but it was worth $19 for a set at Lowe's. I have the advantage that we give most often one gift on St. Nicholas Day and then many gifts on New Year's Day. I can by this do most of my "Christmas shopping" during the after-Christmas sales.

> {quote:title=darkblue wrote:}{quote} > The number of Ukrainians (either directly from or descended from) in Canada is second only to Ukraine itself! That does not surprise me. I believe that the weather in many parts of Canada is a nearer approximation of what is felt in much of Ukraine. I did not pursue it deeply because I did not want any to think I was dissatisfied but I did ask in the early 1970s and I found it would be much easier to gain permission to emigrate to Canada than to USA.

I do not know if this will affect many here but I have found an issue with my new Blu-Ray player and I have researched it and I have found that this is not a fault of the unit but it is an issue with all Blu-Ray players: it does not allow displaying the Closed Captioning of DVDs recorded by the user. The great majority of our collection is movies which we have recorded from broadcasts. We replace movies we recorded previously when a Closed Captioning version is aired. This is of particular importance because we have some movies which are in a foreign language and do not have subtitles but are Closed Captioned in English. I have read that this is a situation due to the HDMI and if a unit has component cables then it will display the Closed Captioning properly when using that input to the television instead of the HD. It is fortunate that my new player is for a room where we will be doing other things and the movies will be playing as background and noise cancellation.

> {quote:title=darkblue wrote:}{quote} > Now there's an interesting sidebar to the conversation - would those who can't separate the artistry from what they believe is the artist's sins ever be pornography viewers? "I will never watch his movies again! He was seen volunteering at a soup kitchen and they say he is kind to his mother!"