Sukhov
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Posts posted by Sukhov
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2 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
(part of me kinda wishes THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI had been done as an EALING COMEDY- it actually has ALL THE RIGHT ELEMENTS- starting with the absurdity of it all)
If it had been done as an Ealing comedy, there would be a good opportunity for a close-up of the "this Bridge was completed by British Unit ____" sign as the Colonel blows up the bridge he worked so hard to build.
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2 hours ago, TheCid said:
Short answer: No. "The [Geneva] Convention lists in detail the types of work a prisoner of war may be compelled to perform, “besides work connected with camp administration, installation or maintenance”.[2] This list builds upon the general prohibition found in the 1929 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War that “work done by prisoners of war shall have no direct connection with the operations of the war”.[3]https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule95
Not saying POW's were not involved in performing forced labor on war related projects and that their commanders did not resist it. However, in Bridge Nicholson not only cooperated, but took over construction and made it better and quicker. That is collaboration.
Nicholson was collaborating with the enemy in order to construct a bridge to be used to support the Japanese war effort. The part about transporting "his" troops to a hospital was BS and he would have known that. The Japanese would never have given up space on the trains to transport POW's to a hospital.
The below is form Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_on_the_River_Kwai
Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey of the British Army was the real senior Allied officer at the bridge in question. Toosey was very different from Nicholson and was certainly not a collaborator who felt obliged to work with the Japanese. Toosey in fact did as much as possible to delay the building of the bridge. While Nicholson disapproves of acts of sabotage and other deliberate attempts to delay progress, Toosey encouraged this: termites were collected in large numbers to eat the wooden structures, and the concrete was badly mixed.[24][25] Some consider the film to be an insulting parody of Toosey.[24] On a BBC Timewatch programme, a former prisoner at the camp states that it is unlikely that a man like the fictional Nicholson could have risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and, if he had, due to his collaboration he would have been "quietly eliminated" by the other prisoners. Julie Summers, in her book The Colonel of Tamarkan, writes that Boulle, who had been a prisoner of war in Thailand, created the fictional Nicholson character as an amalgam of his memories of collaborating French officers.[24] He strongly denied the claim that the book was anti-British, although many involved in the film itself (including Alec Guinness) felt otherwise.[30] Ernest Gordon, a survivor of the railway construction and POW camps described in the novel/film, stated in a 1962 book, Through the Valley of the Kwai: "In Pierre Boulle's book The Bridge over the River Kwai and the film which was based on it, the impression was given that British officers not only took part in building the bridge willingly, but finished in record time to demonstrate to the enemy their superior efficiency. This was an entertaining story. But I am writing a factual account, and in justice to these men—living and dead—who worked on that bridge, I must make it clear that we never did so willingly. We worked at bayonet point and under bamboo lash, taking any risk to sabotage the operation whenever the opportunity arose."[23]
The bridge was destroyed by Allied air raids, not sabotage.
Thanks for clarifying. From Toosey's page-
Behind the backs of the Japanese, Toosey did everything possible to delay and sabotage the construction without endangering his men. Refusal to work would have meant instant execution. Termites were collected in large numbers to eat the wooden structures and the concrete was badly mixed. Toosey also helped organise a daring escape, at considerable cost to himself. (In the film the fictional colonel forbids escapes.) The two escaping officers had been given a month's rations and Toosey concealed their escape for 48 hours. After a month the two escapees were recaptured and bayoneted. Toosey was punished for concealing the escape.
I wish they had included this in the film. It's an example of the real person being more heroic than portrayed in the film.
13 minutes ago, sewhite2000 said:Been a while since I've seen this movie. Doesn't Nicholson go on a hunger strike early in it because the Japanese want the officers to perform manual labor, in violation of the Geneva Convention? That always rubbed me the wrong way. He's got the commitment to die just to prove a point, but it also seems kind of elitist.
I think we're meant to have mixed emotions about him. He's an inspiration to his men under extremely challenging conditions, but obviously at the end, he's gotten so wrapped up in the completion of the project, he seems to have momentarily forgotten which side of the war he's on, and (spoiler alert!), Holden and others probably die needlessly because of it. Though he takes advantage of a chance to redeem himself.
I felt his desire to build the bridge was half his own pride and sticking it to them and also half to genuinely help his soldiers not perish (like the massive death toll seen at the beginning of the film). By the end of the film, this line is blurred.
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In Bridge on the River Kwai, Colonel Nicholson is shown as a bit of a traitor for helping the Japanese Col. Saito and even mutters "what have I done?" at the end of the film but I don't really think he was a traitor. He only did what he was instructed to by building the bridge and was even told the train would help take ill prisoners to hospitals where they could be cared for. He followed the rules of the Geneva Convention and did what he had to help his own men. If anything, the headquarters at the beginning who told him to just surrender were to blame for him even getting captured. Was he justified with building the bridge or should he have sabotaged it like some of his men had wanted?
Also, I must say this was another great performance from Sir Alec Guinness. Probably my favorite alongside his Ealing Comedy performances.
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It was probably to give the eyes a more pronounced look so the facial expression would turn up clearly on the antiquated cameras.
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12 hours ago, darkblue said:
Not 'Never Say Never Again' (1983).
Welcome back, DB. It's good to see you're okay.
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2 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:
I must confess I have zero memory of the soundtrack, other than "I Believe I Can Fly", which is hard for me to listen to now, given what we know about the guy who wrote it.
I was just too old for Space Jam. I was pushing 30 when it came out. It felt to me at the time like a horrible attempt at modernization of my beloved characters, but I probably haven't given it enough credit for keeping long-dormant characters relevant. I know from some people I interact with that it's really, really loved by a large number of people of your generation, who maybe never even saw the cartoons I grew up with, or even if they did, the old cartoons just don't resonate with your generation the way Space Jam did.
I'm in his generation and I can't stand that movie.
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Connery is also my favorite. Moore's films were definitely cartoonish with the gadgets getting more zanier and improbable (boats transforming into on-land vehicles out of nowhere) and with midget sidekicks and overweight red neck tourists. All his films are enjoyable though.
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I wouldn't even really consider Montalban as non-caucasian because he was pure Spaniard/ European descent.
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49 minutes ago, TopBilled said:
But it shows they have no issue including foreign films for Star of the Month honorees. That's the point.
Francois Truffaut also got a month of his movies played on Friday nights, a while ago. I still think a foreign SOTM would be different because it is a different series and also takes up much more of primetime. I wouldn't be opposed to such a thing, I just think it would cause an outrage and is just not likely to happen.
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27 minutes ago, AndyM108 said:
Let me respectfully disagree 100% with that sentiment.
First, I think we can safely assume that most TCM viewers are capable of reading subtitles in foreign movies just as they are with silents. Great movies don't consist of nothing but the Hollywood version, and the sad truth is that if we confine our non-white SUTS choices to "classic Hollywood" we're going to invariably wind up showing the same movies that play many times a year. Another sad truth is that until Poitier came along, the featured African American roles primarily consisted of embarrassing stereotypes of maids and other servile types, even if the actors and actresses did make the best of what they were given to play.
Second, we've already had several foreign actors and actresses featured under SUTS, with most of the films being subtitled rather than dubbed into English or made in Hollywood. Why should it be any different for Toshiro Mifune than it was for Catherine Deneuve or Jeanne Moreau?
I like foreign films too but I think the majority of the TCM audience probably would not care for that. We would get a million "Why are there subtitled movies" threads popping up here. That said, I would still like to see more Ruan Lingyu on TCM and hope they would at least give her a SUTS.
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23 hours ago, Dargo said:
Seems to me what made the classic W-B cartoons especially funny and entertaining were always all the topical popular cultural references and/or the inclusion of send-ups to classical literature/history which were geared to the adult audience members when these animated shorts were first released to the movie theaters back when a visit to the cinema included these, a newsreel, and then the main feature.
This sort of thing also worked well later on when animation moved from primarily being made for movie theaters to the made-for-television era during the late-'50s, and what would make successes of such animation as The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show, and even decades later during the '90s with The Animaniacs.
Also, the breaking of the fourth wall by the various characters would quite often be utilized, with often the "slow-burn" look given directly to the audience by them to show their frustrations with whatever situation they might find themselves embroiled in the various scenes.
(...and so, and unless these new editions of the adventures of Bugs, et al, ALSO include these very aspects within them, and do NOT just solely rely upon the frenetic actions I saw in the above clip, I don't think they're going to be all that successful)
I agree with what you mean and think that is why many of the newer cartoons fail but also keep in mind that this was just a one minute sample of what the shorts will be like.
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Wow, this one was boring. It had some nice shots but the droning narration did not help things. Also more than a few times, the noise on the street made the narration hard to understand. This film seems like a very personal film from Akerman and not knowing her mother or family, it just left me cold. It's hard to care about the letters read when you don't personally know any of those people. That said, the cinematography is itself quite exquisite. It's amazing that she managed to make this at age 27. I feel this would have been a better film if she had gotten rid of the narration and just used a Philip Glass score for the soundtrack like Koyaanisqatsi.
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Considering how controversial the subject of gun violence is in society today, I would not be surprised if they don't include guns in the new shorts but keep in mind the official merchandise associated with the series does include the characters with their guns.
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8 hours ago, Bogie56 said:
This may be on the imdb under a different title?
Here is the director's IMDB page. It might be up here.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2173701/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1
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Another clip from the short Wet Cement taken at a French animation festival. The smooch at the end reminds me of the 40s Daffy.
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News from Home
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Fellini Satyricon (one of the revelers in the dinner scene has an extremely poor quality wig)
Next: a shootout
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8 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:
My favorite Looney Tunes cartoons have always been from the '50s, when some of the original anarchic spirit was lost, but the plots were extremely tight, and the gags never missed. What's Opera, Doc?, for example. I think modern writers probably couldn't recreate those very well, but this is the next best thing.
My favorites are from the same era as well. I especially enjoy the ones with Marvin in them. I hope this new series captures the feels of the 40s and 50s toons as well. I think the clip released looks decent enough.
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Bugs Bunny avoids the axe chop by Elmer Fudd in a new cartoon.
WARNER BROS. ANIMATIONGet ready for anvils, axes and wascally wabbits galore. The Looney Tunes crew is officially back, and on Wednesday their first video in a new series rolled out at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where earlier this week Disney made headlines by confirming a Chip 'N Dale reboot for its new streaming platform.
Warner Bros. Animation (WBA) had announced the new 'toons were cominglast month, but Wednesday marked the first time any footage had been released.
The new series will feature all the old favorites from the Looney Tunes heyday, including Bugs Bunny, who stars in the first short, naturally. He's pursued by Elmer Fudd in "Dynamite Dance," which continues the WBA long-running obsession with dynamite and features clever, always violent interplay between the rabbit and the hunter set to a classical music background.
David Gemmill directed the short, which bowed in front of a standing room-only crowd at Annecy.
This first short is basically to whet everyone's appetite for the main event, which is 1,000 minutes of Looney Tunes action that will debut across digital, mobile and broadcast platforms. They're slated for release later this year.
All the classic characters will be in them, such as Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester and more.
Warner Bros. produced the original series of Looney Tunes cartoons from 1940 to 1969. Bugs Bunny, the shorts' trademark character, bowed in 1940and will celebrate his 80th birthday next year. He was originally voiced by Mel Blanc.
-I like that this one is closer in animation style to the original 1940s shorts. Very nice
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This one brought a tear to my eye when I first saw it-
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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48648278
Film director and cultural icon Franco Zeffirelli dies aged 96, Italian media reports
The Florence native directed stars including Elizabeth Taylor in the 1967 film Taming of the Shrew and Dame Judi Dench on stage in Romeo and Juliet.
Italian media said Zeffirelli died after a long illness which had grown worse in recent months.
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1. Downfall, Oliver Hirschbiegel, Germany
2. Before the Fall, Dennis Gansel, Germany
3. Sternenberg, Christoph Schaub, Switzerland
4. House of Flying Daggers, Zhang Yimou, China
5. The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson, USA
6. 2046, Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong
7. Moolaadé, Ousmane Sembène, Senegal
From the foreign editions-
Brides, Pantelis Voulgaris, Greek edition
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On 6/13/2019 at 4:59 PM, Hibi said:
Lynch wasn't really involved much with the series after the Laura Palmer mini-series, was he? Wasn't it mostly Frost's baby? I know he did that cameo and directed a few? (I think). I don't think they really thought through what was going to happen after Laura was wrapped up. Just kept throwing stuff at the wall. I enjoyed the humorous sub plots, but they got caught up in the weirdness which was more distracting than interesting. Some stuff went nowhere (the James Postman Rings Twice stuff; Jane Greer's visit; All that boring stuff with Richard Beymer and the Civil War, etc.
In season 3, Albert even says something like "I didn't watch season 2" after being asked a question about Annie.
Music videos influenced by classic Hollywood musicals
in Musicals
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