CinemaInternational
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Posts posted by CinemaInternational
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Just now, LawrenceA said:
Yeah, I love Magnolia (I gave it a 10/10), but it doesn't seem to be maintaining it's standing like I thought it would.
One thing to keep in mind about the movies in this book (and all lists are subjective, anyway), is that these aren't intended to be the best movies ever made, but movies that are noteworthy for some reason. Maybe they kick-started the movie renaissance in some country or another, or had groundbreaking FX, or caused a major cultural discussion, or were a "first" of some kind, or have developed a substantial and influential cult following. And yeah, some of them the writers just think are good. With that in mind, I can usually pinpoint why a movie was chosen for inclusion. But with The Greatest Showman, I have no clue, unless it was because the soundtrack sold well.
I gave Magnolia a 10 as well, and I've seen quite a few give it the grade as well or refer to it as an all-time favorite, so its pretty shocking to me that it was pulled, because I still notice it being talked about a lot. Admittedly, one of the new films is from the same filmmaker (the wonderful Phantom Thread), but it still seems strange to me.
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56 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
The latest edition of the 1001 Movies You Must See book has been released, and here are the newly added titles:
- The Greatest Showman (2017)
- Phantom Thread (2017)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- BlacKkKlansman (2018)
- Capernaum (2018)
- Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
- The Favourite (2018)
- Hereditary (2018)
- Roma (2018)
- Sorry to Bother You (2018)
- A Star Is Born (2018)
- Vice (2018)
I haven't seen A Star Is Born or Capernaum. There's only one among the others that I'd include. The inclusion of The Greatest Showman is baffling. I hope to read the book entry to see why they included it.
Which one would you include, the Spike Lee title, the Paul Thomas Anderson one, or Hereditary? As for Greatest Showman, I didn't see much of it. My mother watched it one night on HBO, and I saw a little bit of it. The only possible reason i could think of for its inclusion is that it became one of the first big word-of-mouth hits in years. Its opening weekend seemingly had it marked as DOA, and yet bit by bit it grossed $174 million in the Domestic market bit by bit and by holding steady every weekend.
That said, I really don't think many of these new adds will be around for long. Most seem like flavors of the month.
These films were removed to make room for those new titles, and a few of them are pretty glaring.....
Removed:Buffalo 66
Magnolia
Kippur
Amores Perros
Yi Yi
Talk to Her
Victoria
Spotlight
Under the Shadow
Dawson City: Frozen Time
Lady MacBeth
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14 hours ago, kingrat said:
In the Patty Duke or the Susan Hayward role?
In some alternate universe out there, there might be a version of Valley of the Dolls with Anthony Perkins as Patty Duke and Liberace as Susan Hayward.....
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Bringing this thread back up again, because I saw one last week that would definitely fit. It was 1987's the Bedroom Window, and while it starts as a variation on Rear Window, it veers off on its own to make for a thriller that might be a bit conventional to some, but it has spark galore thanks to the two female players. Now Steve Guttenberg, playing against type, is the lead, and he's good in it, but Isabelle Huppert, in a rare English-language appearance, oozes Old Hollywood glamour as his married lover, and Elizabeth McGovern is nothing short of sensational. Her role mostly comes in the second half of the film, but she's brilliant as a woman, who when we first meet her, just barely repulses the threat of rape and murder, but the film gets its zing from the fact that she is tough, smart, and savvy and not all sweetness and light. And when she decides to trap her attacker things get really interesting.....
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Just now, jakeem said:Dustin Hoffman (pictured below with actress Kirsten Dunst) won a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance as Hollywood producer Stanley Motss in Barry Levinson's 1997 black comedy "Wag the Dog." The film starred Robert De Niro as a government fixer determined to take the heat off a philandering U.S. president just before Election Day. As a result, he persuaded the savvy Motss to concoct a fictional war in Albania that the country would rally around. Hoffman's character was a thinly disguised version of his good friend Evans.
I wasn't overly fond of that film, largely because it made me feel miserable and depressed after it was over, but Dustin Hoffman was a delight in it, cheerfully upstaging almost everything else in the film as the gregarious producer. Anne Heche was pretty good in it too.
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I flipped through her new book last night, looking most intently at the parts involving the movies. She's very diplomatic, and speaks glowingly of her co-stars. The love she felt for Blake Edwards really shows deeply on the pages. That's Life might not be her best-known film, but it's also clear from the book that it is almost entirely personal (so much of it mirrors real life, and the scene where she loses her cool with Jack Lemmon toward the end was entirely ad-libbed and based on real emotions in her life), so its no wonder it is showing tomorrow night.
A bit surprising though that S.O.B. wasn't showing because she had quite a bit about that to say as well about how great the cast was and how it was a catharsis for she and her husband. (the script was written in the early 70s, but evidently it wasn't made sooner because some studio heads feared that the villains were based on them!)
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On 10/25/2019 at 9:07 PM, LawrenceA said:
This thread reminded me of an article I read earlier today. It seems Netflix is considering adding an option to watch movies at 50% faster speed, so that impatient viewers can get through movies and shows faster. Sure the voices will be sped up, and the pacing and direction of everything will be totally ruined, but it'll be faster! This is a trend that has taken off with audio books in recent years, with people opting to listen to them at quicker speeds. I thought it all sounded like the further decay of western civilization, but maybe you guys will like this kind of feature?
Netflix Testing Variable Playback Speed
Netflix is reportedly testing out variable playback speed of its content, allowing viewers to watch film and TV titles at anywhere from 50% speed to 150% speed.
Android Police broke the news, indicating the streaming service has seemingly been testing the ability on Android devices only at this point. It’s not clear if Netflix will adopt this concept for other platforms.
Faster speed playback has been in common use for audiobooks and podcasts for years, video is a different kettle of fish though YouTube has had variable Playback Speed options available for a while.
http://www.darkhorizons.com/netflix-testing-variable-playback-speed/
I swear the first thing i thought about when I heard about this was Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
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TCM, since we all know you'll be doing this in February, how about getting us a premiere of Isadora or The Day or the Locust?
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I guess this passing should have been expected..... even though he hadn't produced a film since the fluffy 2003 comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (a box-office hit at the time), he still had his production shingle at Paramount until only a few weeks or months ago. Coincidentally, his best production, Chinatown, is airing on Sunday night, and that is a masterpiece.
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Admittedly, i saw Mahogany last week when it was on, and honestly I rather liked it (its really like an old-fashioned Joan Crawford 1930s vehicle updated for the 70s), but I gotta say, some moments were something else especially this....
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On 10/26/2019 at 3:31 PM, speedracer5 said:
The fight between Susan Hayward and Patty Duke is everything.
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On 10/21/2019 at 7:51 AM, Roy Cronin said:
I recall a discussion a few years back when Loretta Young couldn't be identified by the panel of Jeopardy competitors. I imagine that the same would be true for Greer Garson, Jennifer Jones, Rosalind Russell and countless others.
I remember one of the saddest mornings I ever had watching TV was earlier this year when they had an Oscar trivia quiz on nomination morning, and Greer Garson was presumed to be a man....
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The one problem with Oscar month is that although many of the films are very good, they are already films most film fans have seen already, so its really a month of leftovers. Very good leftovers, but still missing the thrill of a new discovery.
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Interesting that the 30s and 40s tie exactly this upcoming month.
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Morning Glory (1933)
Jewel Robbery (1932)
Duck Soup (1933)
But I'm really fond of the pre-codes in general thanks to snappy diologue, the big female roles, and their short succinct runtimes, with no extra fuss.
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18 hours ago, EricJ said:
They have the Fox family films (for those, thank you, who spent the 90's thinking Ferngully was a, quote, "Disney" film because it had songs and Robin Williams was in it), and Star Wars Ep. IV has now rejoined the rest of the Disney Lucasfilm canon.
Mmm., Anastasia was also often mistaken for a Disney film as well. I don't know, I have this sort of perverse longing for Disney to accidentally drop something like 1989's The War of the Roses on this service just for a little jolt of controversy.
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Warner Archive has shown on Instragram that the next batch of Blus are Great Day in the Morning, The World, The Flesh, and the Devil, The Bad and the Beautiful, and Operation Crossbow.
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What's noticeable about this new streaming service is that Fox is barely represented.
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Continuing my avid journey for Paramount titles, past and present, led me into the path of a remake via HBO today. The remake in question was the 2004 version of the 1966 Michael Caine hit Alfie..... and for once I think the remake is better. (This is something I don't say often) It's still basically the same story: compulsive womanizer gets his comeuppance and becomes much humbled by the end, with him talking directly to the audience the whole way through. But, despite the plot remaining the same, its interesting as a sociological experiment to see changing attitudes on illicit behavior in 1966 as opposed to 2004. The Michael Caine character in 1966 was often quite brutal and snide to the women who crossed his path, and almost without exception (the sole one being Shelley Winters' lively, funny turn) he tossed them aside like garbage and they were mostly deeply pathetic victims who had very little future after being tossed about by him. Well, in 2004, Jude Law plays the character with a bit more vulnerability and definitely a bit more kindness than Caine played it, and even if he still uses the women for rolls in the hay, they are a wiser, deeper group that the ones in 1966. Instead of being mostly cardboard cutouts, they are presented as living, breathing individuals and we see the hopes and dreams, as well as the sadness in their eyes. They still have deep regrets, but these women realize that getting over Alfie won't destroy them. They will muddle through, they have the choices the earlier women did not have, and they know how to survive.
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Just now, LawrenceA said:
We're still a few months away from the end of the year, and there's usually one or two surprises left in that time frame. Maybe we'll see somebody new emerge, however unlikely. And I'm sure one or two more of the "shoo-ins" will fizzle out, like The Goldfinch.
Yeah, everything I've heard about Ford v Ferrari says that Bale is supporting, but whether due to a contract stipulation or studio hype, they've decided to submit him as a lead.
A couple of yours above were under my radar. Clemency and Just Mercy. I'm always glad for more recommendations.
True. There's always at least one film that blows out (although Cats looks like its heading that way, and Dark Waters has been very muted as well), and maybe another that surprises.
I saw some words briefly about Clint Eastwood's newest Richard Jewell (regarding the security man briefly suspected of being the bomber at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics), but that has quieted down again. Most of the short-lived talk concerned Olivia Wilde and Kathy Bates.
Knives Out, a movie that is a satirical take on the whodonnit genre by investigating who killed wealthy Christopher plummer, is getting good notices for Ana De Armas, Daniel Craig, and Jaime Lee Curtis.
And some other films like Waves (for Sterling K. Brown) or Motherless Brooklyn (for Edward Norton) or The Good Thief (for Ian McKellan or Helen Mirren) could sweep in as well.
I have this sneaking hunch that Clemency will be the surprise nod on Oscar morning for Alfre Woodard in actress. it ticks all the boxes. Hard-hitting story, veteran actress, long overdue for a second nomination, comeback momentum.
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Just now, LawrenceA said:
I saw an article yesterday that said that Bale will be submitted in the lead category by the studio. I'm not sure if that therefore means he has to be considered, or if the Academy can ignore it and nominate him in whatever category they see fit.
Good question. I think he would have more of a chance in supporting, because the top 6 are pretty much set in stone in Leading, but supporting seems pretty tight though too. I have a feeling he'll just miss out either way.
Also, i don't get this whole process of sending a lead to supporting if there are two men or two women leading a film. They have been doing this since the Thelma and Louise girls split the votes in 1991, and its a bit long in the tooth by now. People like last year's supporting winner Mahershala Ali were not supporting in the least.
There have been times where the Academy has rejecting the classification the studo originally sent, like keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider back in 2003. There are probably others too.
One other thing I'm struck by this year is how many of the would be contenders have been Hollywood veterans for at least 20 years or are previous winners. There are very few up-and-comers or formerly little known names this year.
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Just now, Hibi said:
I believe Macy was part of the original cast of Oh, Calcutta!
He was. A few months ago, he took part in an oral history article that appeared in the New York Times about the 50th anniversary of the show.
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For those who like to follow stars, the likely top contenders in the acting races alphabetically. The ones in italics are the ones I think will get in at this point:
Actor
Antonio Bandaras/Pain and Glory
Robert De Niro/The Irishman
Leonardo DiCaprio/Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Adam Driver/Marriage Story
Taron Egerton/Rocketman
Eddie Murphy/Dolomite is My Name
Joaquin Phoenix/Joker
Jonathan Pryce/The Two Popes
Adam Sandler/Uncut GemsActress
Awkwafina/The Farewell
Cynthia Erivo/Harriet
Scarlett Johansson/Marriage Story
Lupita Nyong'o/Us
Saoirse Ronan/Little Women
Charlize Theron/Bombshell
Alfre Woodward/Clemency
Renee Zellweger/JudySupporting Actor
Alan Alda/Marriage Story
Christian Bale/Ford Vs Ferrari
Willem Dafoe/The Lighthouse
Jaime Foxx/Just Mercy
Tom Hanks/A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Anthony Hopkins/The Two Popes
Al Pacino/The Irishman
Joe Pesci/The Irishman
Brad Pitt/Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Wesley Snipes/Dolomite is My NameSupporting Actress
Annette Bening/The Report
Penelope Cruz/Pain and Glory
Laura Dern/Marriage Story
Scarlett Johansson/Jojo Rabbit
Jennifer Lopez/Hustlers
Florence Pugh/Little Women
Margot Robbie/Once upon a time in Hollywood
Maggie Smith/Downton Abbey
Meryl Streep/Little Women
Shuzhen Zhou/The Farewell-
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19 hours ago, jamesjazzguitar said:
As an atheist I don't find the film unconventional; instead it applies conventional Catholic 'teachings' in the plot. E.g. the 'devil' is an actual being. Aren't these Catholic 'conventions' the reason people that believe in such things are 'freaked out' and what for them, separates such a horror film from those horror films where 99% of people know the 'fear' is made-up folly (e.g. vampires and werewolf don't actually exist)?
I think arsan says it better than I ever could. It's not just the devil, frigtning as it can be. It's inner torment as well.
Awards season 2019-2020
in General Discussions
Posted
I haven't seen it, but if it does get in for Best Picture, a nomination that is, it will probably be most aided by the fact that its a hit (and also that Jennifer Lopez will undoubtedly be nominated in supporting actress, even though its equally clear that Laura Dern will end up with the Oscar, filling the veteran, Industry darling, power player [she is very influential in the Academy] and never-winner ticket all at the same time). I kind of feel that the Oscars are drifting out of their independent phase that they were in since the 90s and are switching back to these big splashy productions. I have a hunch that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is going to be the winning film this year.