slaytonf
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Posts posted by slaytonf
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11 hours ago, Hibi said:
YES! I think Funny Face is my favorite Hollywood musical (not based on a stage musical, though it used some of the score from Fred's version). Loved watching it again Sunday night. Great songs; numbers; casting; PARIS!
11 hours ago, speedracer5 said:I love Funny Face. My favorite part is the photo shoot in Paris. Audrey looks fantastic in that red strapless gown. I also love Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson's "Clap Yo' Hands" number.
This is such a great film--so much color, fun music, Fred, Audrey, what else more could you want?
10 hours ago, jamesjazzguitar said:The real star of the film is Hubert de Givenchy.
Ok, I'm partly joking. I also like that the film features Gershwin music and the fine chemistry between Fred and Audrey (despite Fred being just as old as Cary Cooper in Love in the Afternoon, Fred is full of life and works very well with Audrey). The entire film has such energy and 'life' and that reels me in.
10 hours ago, Hibi said:I know. And there's not a dull moment in the entire movie. It just moves from one gorgeous scene or number to the next......Very funny script too.
9 hours ago, Princess of Tap said:But working with Gene Kelly on those musicals oh, no one ever really gave him fair credit for "Singin' in the Rain" or "On the Town" or anything.
Stanley Donen, along with Vincente Minnelli, was principally responsible for the look of MGM musicals in the golden age; and by extension all major studio musicals--as the others tried to copy or out-do them. Consider the list:
On the Town (1949)
Royal Wedding (1951)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Give a Girl a Break (1953)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
Deep in My Heart (1954)
It's Always Fair Weather (1955)
Funny Face (1957)
The Pajama Game (1957)
Damn Yankees! (1958)
Granted, not all of them are for the ages. But you won't find anyone with a better line-up. As with Minnelli, he had a masterful sense of light, color, composition, and action. But they manifest in different ways. The impression I get is that while Minnelli tended to create spectrums of color on the screen, Donen tended to triads. And overall, Donen's musicals tended to have a greater focus on dancing along with the singing.
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Robert Osborn said it, and now Ben Mankiewicz continues it. They say 'Charade is the best thriller he never made.' It seems Stanley Donen will always be robbed of credit for putting together a smart, entertaining, and stylish serio-comic thriller. That other thriller director, not content with plaudits for his own work, must be garnering the laurels from others. And so, they say it. Why don't people say 'North By Northwest is the best thriller Stanley Donen never made?' The fact is that there is nothing in the look, style, or atmosphere of the movie remotely reminiscent of him. Donen's movies have a human dimension to them that is lacking in those of the other director. And Donen is certainly better at humor, and integrating it with a serious and exciting story.
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Say, sepiatone and NipkowDislc, I was serious. If you have doubts about them, I refer you to The Spider and the Fly (1949), and Tulsa (1949) for Rolfe and Hayward, respectively:
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No, I haven't heard of it. But I'm not a big consumer of contemporary culture.
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I'm sorry. You'll have to translate that last one for me.
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Yeah, ain't it always like that. . . .
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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968):
A pivotal theme in the movie is the nature of intelligence and consciousness. It explores the possibility of whether HAL really has self-awareness. Would the artificial creation of an intellect violate some vital principle? The movie sets up viewers' expectations for some major failure by HAL's claims of perfection. Thoughts of hubris are inevitable. As it turns out, HAL does fail. But since imperfection is a hallmark of the human race, doesn't that imply HAL has human qualities? It seems though humanity can create an intelligence, it doesn't do a great job at it. HAL may be vastly superior to people in many ways, but it is still woefully naive in others. This leads it into the arrogant conclusion that it is in control, when actually its success as far as it went was due to Dave and Frank never suspecting (until it was almost too late!) that it was up to anything. HAL is overweeningly smug when it thought it had the upper hand with Dave trapped out of the ship, and pitifully inept when the conditions reversed.
When Dave starts shutting HAL down, the movie's tone changes from one of ironic parody. As it sees Dave continue, it drops all pretense. We hear a consciousness desperate for its existence. Its pleading is so artless and futile, it almost seems sincere. Is it death we are witnessing? Surely no human ever died this way, with its mental functions one-by-one inexorably drained away (in such a short time, that is). It's one of the most harrowing sequences in movies, accomplished with no action, violence, or frenetic music. We are almost tempted to feel sorry for HAL--which only increases our horror, and recognition of the absolute necessity for Dave to shut it down.
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Susan Hayward
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2 hours ago, TopBilled said:
Would a movie like this fly today? Doubtful.
Am I supposed to feel there's something wrong about that?
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Guy Rolfe
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I saw it when it was first restored in a large single screen theater (now, sadly gone to condos). When you see his movies on TV, you think David Lean is a great director. Then you see something like Lawrence of Arabia (1962) on a real screen and you see just how great he was. It is astonishing and spellbinding. Movies like this or 2001 (1968), or Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) need to be seen on a really big screen to understand the effect they have on an audience.
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11 hours ago, NipkowDisc said:
this is really stupid. any movie with the word damn in it the word is dubbed out and you hear only silence for that second.
nobody considers that word inappropriate anymore. how dumb can this channel be? it is completely asinine to run prints of movies where 'damn' is dubbed out and by dubbing out such a commonly heard word unnecessarily affects a film's overall dramatic impact.
so if movies! shows something where someone says hot dam! are you're gonna hear is hot.
the first movie I watched when I noticed this idiocy was HUD. first thing I said to myself was "they dubbed THAT out? ****?"
And, so, like you've only noticed that now?
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Thanks to everyone who helped with my two movies! And we have definite answers!
The first one is Two Thousand Women (1944).
And the second is A Town Like Alice (1956).
I also thought at first it was Three Came Home (1950), but it didn't fit what I remembered. I like it, though. Claudette Colbert did a good job. Not sure if it fits in the women ensemble category, but I'll watch it again.
Another movie occurred to me: Life Begins (1932), with Loretta Young, Aline MacMahon, and Glenda Farrell.
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But Margaret Sullavan doesn't have a choice in what she says or does. It's in the script. All she can do is animate the character. And if it's drawn too one-dimensionally, that's the script, not her.
And I have to say, I saw something different. I saw a woman driven, yes, short with the weaknesses of others, yes, even brutal in the single-minded focus on her work. But what were the conditions? She had an impossible task, with too few supplies, and too few people. If she didn't pull out everything she could from the nurses in her command, what would have happened to the wounded in her care?
The other movie I was thinking of is A Town Like Alice (1956), with the fine Virginia McKenna, and Peter Finch:
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2 minutes ago, lydecker said:
I agree about Margaret Sullavan -- hard to admire such a cold, nasty b----.
But--but, that's how she's supposed to be. That's her character. Aren't you saying really that she did a good job portraying her?
I found the first movie I mentioned above. It's Two Thousand Women (1944):
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No, this was a b/w movie made during the studio era. Maybe even during the war.
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12 hours ago, TikiSoo said:
I dislike Danny Kaye but have requested this title based on your recommendation.
The Court Jester (1955) is great precisely because his usual shtick is kept to a minimum (due to what cause I cannot say). As a result, we get to see Kaye's other considerable abilities in dialog, and characterization. The dialog is brilliant, deft, hilarious. And it's delightfully delivered by a cast of pros who know their stuff. Witness: Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury, Cecil Parker, and Mildred Natwick. Add to this also a lot of fine songs by Sammy Cahn and Sylvia Fine:
"I had a little bow, and I learned to shoot.
I had a little horn, and I learned to toot.
Now I can shoot and toot, ain't I cute?"---(how did that get by the censors?)
There's a lot more than the famous pellet-with-the-poison scene. I'm tempted to post a couple of links to clips with them, but I don't want to deprive you of the pleasure seeing them in the movie.
Come to think of it, I was wondering what I was going to watch tonight. . . .
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There are two movies that take place during WWII whose titles I can't recall. One takes place in Nazi Germany, or an occupied land, and concerns women held prisoner in a converted hotel, who shelter a couple of allied airmen whose plane has crashed. The other takes place in Malaysia, I think, and follows a band of women forced to march by the Japanese from place to place in grueling conditions.
Another category of women ensemble movies I can think of concerns nurses in training at hospitals.
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4 hours ago, Fedya said:
Stage Door.
How could I have overlooked this? Good call. And in competition for the best.
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Thanks for the all the titles. The Favourite was recent, no?
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There aren't too many ensemble pictures with women predominating in the casts. Offhand, along with Steel Magnolias (1989), none others come to mind. Cry Havoc I like the best. It's a little talky and claustrophobic, being based on a play, but the women in the cast do a crackling job bringing it to life. A lot of familiar faces are there (especially Joanie!), more accustomed to movie environs of penthouses, country clubs, and garden parties. No doubt they relished the chance to get down and dirty, gritty and sweaty. It's not prettified or sanitized, either. A lot of tough things happen. Yeah, a lot of the characters are too much of a type, and story lines are predictable. This is overcome by the performances, and Richard Thorpe's direction keeping it moving along.
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My comment now seems a non-sequitur.
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They Might Be Giants (1971):
If ever there were a type-specimen for a flawed masterpiece--well, this isn't it. It's still a magnificent movie. And it is flawed. There are moments of exquisite beauty, brilliant hilarity, and searing honesty. And clunky slapstick, attempts at dry wit that end up as merely arid, and uncomfortable encounters that are painful to watch. In spite of the flaws, or because of them, the movie is intensely affecting, even if you don't know exactly why.
There are many fine scenes, such as when Playfair (George C. Scott) as Sherlock Holmes, deciphers a mental hospital patient's silence; or when Playfair and Dr. Watson (Joanne Wodward) each objectively and brutally assess the other's character; and the magnificent battle royale in the supermarket between Playfair's followers and the forces of conformity. But this final scene is the most powerful. Playfair and Watson have gone to meet Moriarty. As hoofbeats signal Moriarty's approach, they stand side by side, exposed in darkness, eager for the confrontation.
Of course they are mad. And they leap headlong into the abyss. But the reason we are moved and joyful is that they also have abandoned themselves to their love. John Barry's lush music helps at this point, too. It could be viewed as manipulative, but is so well done it stabs you to the heart.
Gina Gershon Defends Working on Woody Allen's Next Film: "This Man Is Not a Sexual Predator"
in General Discussions
Posted
Another instance in the ongoing russian campaign to sow discord in the American populace.