laffite
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Days Won
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Posts posted by laffite
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7 minutes ago, sewhite2000 said:
I haven't seen the series, but I had acquaintances tell me they found both the character and actress much improved in the final season.
I don't seem to remember that. With characters like that the only way for improvement is to stop breathing.
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On 10/2/2021 at 9:43 AM, TopBilled said:
Catching up on yesterday's episode of Emmerdale.
How do you go back and start from there? You mention E often and my curiosity is piqued but I don't want take it up now. I would like to go back to I think is 2012, where an actor named Ray Coulthard began. I have only seen a miniseries he was in (2004) but I think I like him, if I had his looks I could have any woman I want, ha, or so I think. But is there a way to start with episodes from the past. I have BritBox via Amazon Prime.
1 hour ago, TopBilled said:Two days ago they added a digitally restored copy of the classic 1981 miniseries BRIDESHEAD REVISITED.
I had trouble with this and I won't go into detail. I just want to mention that I regard the finale as a show in itself and revisit it from time to time due to the performance of Lawrence Olivier. He appears in just two episodes and I don't remember the earlier one. He is the master of the estate but lives in Italy. Olivier is really good in this. Stephane Audran appears as his wife in that final episode and doesn't say much but but she is nice to look at (for her screen presence I mean, though she is a handsome lady, not doubt about that). We get furtive looks from her which serve as silent commentary on the behavior of here husband but they are endearing ones.
1 hour ago, TopBilled said:The quality has dipped a bit since they stopped adapting the books and are coming up with original storylines
This almost always fails. Although my interest was sustained until the long awaited and bitter end of Game of Thrones, a similar thing happened there, IMO. They ran out of book and starting making up their own story. They got permission from the author to do this. The author was still writing and I don't think he has finished yet. But the book and miniseries part ways about halfway through the story.
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I can't think a movie right now but my first thought to mind was this:
If I had been Hank [Breaking Bad ] I would never have made it to the end of the story. I would have been jailed for murder. His wife must the Golden Award of All Time for being the most Aggravating Beyotch NAG in the History of Screen. At one point after some profuse yelling at the screen I bellowed, "If you say 'case closed' one more time ... " And I don't blame it on the character. The actress (who shall go unnamed due to lack of respect) was the agony. A most glorious scene actually occurred. She at her worst while nagging, nagging, nagging, at her sister when the sister finally yelled back, to wit : "Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up , shut up..." and at least that many times, no kidding. One of the most gratifying scenes ever. I was fairly overwhelmed with joy. I would have performed cartwheels if I had known how do to it. so I did a few back flips instead. Seriously folks, she was hell. And she was in so many episodes. Torture.
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34 minutes ago, Vautrin said:
From my limited reading of Greene I can't recall many overt political themes, though they may appear in other novels. Being an agnostic Catholic,
as he once described himself, and a leftist makes an interesting combination.
A gang whose most technologically advanced weapon is a razor is rather pathetic. Not to be nationalistic, but a small group of Yanks
could blast away Pinkie and his gang in a day or two. And then spend the remainder of the week getting rid of the rest of these razor wielding
limeys. 🪒
Interesting that GG was an "agnostic" Catholic. I didn't know that. He imbues some of his protagonists with such passionate attachment, whether it give solace or more often when they are in some spiritual crisis. It might seem that it he might be a devout Catholic with issues himself in order to write like that. Or, conversely, maybe he thought it simply good material. If so, he really punched it.
Never underestimate the power of a wee razor ... or the box cutter for that matter.
9 minutes ago, Thompson said:Pinkie, right, not Pinky. That’s a toe. But notice how all them boys had one of them safety razors in their breast pocket. I’m going to get me one of those razors tomorrow, pawn shop would sell them probably, right? Gotta practice all them moves, but it’ll give me something to do. Much more effective than a knife.
This has probably already been mentioned, but i am thinking of the miniseries Pinky Blinders, referring to a gang with that name for having a razor embedded in the lining of their caps.
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22 hours ago, Thompson said:
Laffite, have you read that John Kennedy Toole novel A Confederacy of Dunces? I live in this city, very close to where Ignatius hung his hat. The Prytania theater is walkable. Good work of art that book, how many books make you laugh out loud while reading it alone in your room?
I fear I had not the same reaction. I couldn't believe that a book could be so bad. It's hard to remember details but I do remember the writing was embarrassingly bad. The novel is the biggest flop I will ever know. There were a couple of people who were in my camp but most were talking about in a serious vein as if there was nothing at all wrong with it. I was dumbfounded. I became not just someone who did not like something that others seemed to like but rather I became seriously disillusioned. I was way beyond scratching my head in wonder. I fully expected Rod Serling to emerge from the darkness and initiate an episode. Dumbest book ever. Even how I hardly remember what it was so I couldn't even discuss it now but I remember these reactions quite vividly. It was not the story as I remember, it was the writing.
I am so curious now, I must revisit. I will call my sister. She was in that conversation. She could see what I mean but she couldn't so far as that.
Sorry, Thompson, but don't get me wrong, i am not dissing your judgement. I seem to be the one out in left field. I am fairly burning up with curiosity right now. What was was going on with me with this?
MissW, thanks for your comment. We may be on the same page at least to some extent. Maybe we are in the same chapter at least. So it was supposed to be funny then. I don't remember laughing either. I was just simply incredulous that anyone would publish it.
🙄
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1 hour ago, misswonderly3 said:
I hope you're not saying I'm lacking in intuition,
Oh no, not at all. I wince now because it may have sounded like that. But no, I saw an opportunity to make a quip about the expression "woman's intuition" which seems so archaic and therefore quip-worthy. e.g., the old expression, "Oh, how did I know that, it must have been women's intuition." I haven't heard the expression used in years. It was one of those pre-women's lib expressions, along with others in the same vein of "Oh women drivers, watch out," or "women talk too much" or "women take so long to get ready," and other such nonsense. And yes, I am sure that your intuitive faculties are well intact.
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26 minutes ago, Vautrin said:
Getting the trowel out and laying it on pretty thick. Oh well, nobody's perfect. Greene was also a leftie for a large chunk of his
life, though perhaps as individualistic on that account as on the religious one.
...but more bearable, I'm sure. At least from my POV.
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20 minutes ago, Vautrin said:
I can't recall how subtle or unsubtle Greene is in his presentation of his religious themes; it likely varies from novel to novel. I've never skipped over anything
in his novels, especially as they are not particularly long. Guess one has to do the best one can. I do agree that Greene is a very gifted writer and still worth
reading.
Pretty bad in The Heart of the Matter.
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On 10/10/2021 at 2:11 PM, misswonderly3 said:
Another 20th century British writer who converted to Catholicism was Evelyn Waugh....although off-hand I can't think of any novels he wrote that could be described as "noir".
I'm not sure but you're probably right. I know a little about him but I haven't read much. Although with a few changes I think A Handful of Dust could be fashioned into a noir-ish story. Bringing the characters to mind, I have the male noir male protagonist, the femme fatale, the ne'er-do-well, and a villain, the villain comes near the end of the novel so that might be a problem. Ah, I know, just bring him in the story earlier and give him some sinister screen time in the form of foreshadowing, YES! (I'm on a roll.) If you know the story, that disparate ending where the setting transmogrifies to an Amazon jungle could be relocated to an urban setting and instead of having our hero being virtually imprisoned with no escape, change it to an urban setting with some fine elements of blackmail. Gosh, I get excited just thinking about it. Whenever I have these brilliant ideas any attempt to realizing them, even in an elementary admittingly amateurish way, results in dismal failure. My last attempt at this was an attempt to transcribe Conrad's Nostromo into an opera. I can't write music but I can assign the roles to an appropriate fach (soprano, baritone, contralto, etc.) and fashion fit it for the stage, determine when the arias come in and what is sung, and with the orchestration to come later (but not by me). I did splendidly until the final act. That turned out to be a mess and I had to abort the project. Still another literary claim to fame down the tubes. In the case of Waugh, the title could remain the same. That sounds pretty noir.
P.S. I have saved my Nostroma: the opera in my files and I am hoping after I see glory it may be discovered vaulting me to apotheosis and stupendous and celestial immortality.
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37 minutes ago, Vautrin said:
No doubt it was important to Greene to have the religious
themes in some of his novels, but they can still be read and enjoyed even if the religious aspects are put aside
I suppose that is true but there is with me the nagging feeling that I might be a sloppy reader skipping all the religio-babble passages as it must be (probably) an integral part of the novel especially with regard to main characters. Probably best avoid these novels altogether but which has it's draw backs since GG is a good storyteller in the main.
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On 10/9/2021 at 11:04 AM, lilypond said:
It's an interesting question as to why performances are divided by sex. Why not just have a category for "best performance", period? But it makes it more fun to have two of each category,
And, I'm one of those who's so smitten with what Olivier does, in virtually anything, would have to hand him the award in almost any contest, including this one. His 'Hamlet' was so good.
Yes, because if have another divine flood, they can get on the Ark. (Ouch, bad)
Refreshing that anyone so would praise Olivier. He was great, I agree ... but he gets a lot flack around here as well. He was better in Richard III, IMO.
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44 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:
Sorry, laffite, but no, I did not see what you meant, not even an inkling.
It does sound as though you do like British films and tv shows that feature a different class of Brits, if only because you can actually understand what they're saying.
I am surprised that you are inkling-less with regard to my comments. Seriously. But fine. I fault you not, you are honest. An inkling can be likened to the intuitive, but I guess all that about a woman's intuition is bunk. (Yeah, I know, that really dates me. I think that expression is hopelessly forgotten. Really, if I didn't know as the fine person you are, I would think you were pulling my leg. I don't ask that anyone need agree with me, but I do say that the qualities I mentioned are not so obscure as that.
I like English stuff "if only because You [ I } understand what they're saying." !!!! O, Wonderly, please afford me a little more credit than that."
...and I like Classical Music because well golly gee I listen to the 1812 overture. Just kidding, Upstairs, Downstairs is truly a classical and probably among the very first of the BBC big hits. And so much more followed. Of course if there are Cockney accents I will avoid them like the plague.
...and so on to next week, The Dark Past, ooo-boy, that's a good one, innit?
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I fear that our Katie will be on my case but I cannot believe how unconscionably boring baseball is. All those pitches and nothing happens. It's just one damn pitch after another, as Winston might say. Foul balls, strike outs. Thousands and thousands of folks in the stands. They are not bored however, after all they are paying $8 for a hot dog. Cognitive Dissonance, you know. I don't care if nothing is happening, I am enjoying myself because I paid $300 for this ticket. The games are so long that they bring their sleeping bags. The last time I went to a game I brought my copy of War and Peace to read between pitches. Sometime I take two copies because if the game goes extra innings I can read it again. Do you realize if each team gets 10 hits (which is a lot these days) and game last three hours, that's less than seven hits an hour. Okay, so hockey teams don't score much but at least the players are moving. It kills me that if something does happen, the announcers go berserk in order to either convince themselves or the audience that come on hey, baseball is good. Baseball good (says Peter Boyle). The announcer, methinks, is trying to hard. Home runs are so ubiquitous these days that have lost their drama. They used be the be and end all of all sports events. New Rule : for now on any ball hit over the fence is an out. And if you draw a walk, get sacrificed to second, steal third, and score on a fly ball, you get two runs instead of one. New rule : if a pitcher has a no-hitter going, you can't take him out because he has thrown 100 pitches. He can throw as damn many pitches he wants so long it's a no-no. I hate expressions like no-no and walk-off. I am watching the Braves and the Brewers. They are in the eighth and there have been only seven hits in the game. Eleven strikeouts. Just this with 222 pitches having been hurled, and counting. It's amazing how numbing it all is. Truly. Take me out the ballgame? No thanks.
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46 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:
I'm wondering if you and he just don't connect with English films, or at least, old English films
So fair and foul a film I have not seen. Fair because it English, foul just this present case. I don't have any resistance to old English films that I can tell. My thoughts expressed are peculiar to this one film. Even if you don't agree with me I would be surprised if you did not see what I mean, at least an inkling. I don't believe those qualities i pointed out would be necessarily inimical to the main of a typical audience, it just seemed to encroach on my own sensibilities. All that bouncing around, exaggerated characters, frantic paced, clipped and hard-to-understand speech seem to bowl me with its relentless force. I had to put on pause to breathe.
It's ironic because those stuffy old BBC period pieces and the like are my fave screen events ever. Including British films, BBC or otherwise. Maybe those boring old characters with the way the stiffly walk around and act in accordance to real life instead of cranked up cinematic exuberances are commensurate for my doddering old self. I think that it was the pretense to noir that BR seems to to amiss for me. Instead of all the mania I guess I prefer that boring and doddering English Reserve.
And now if you'll excuse me, It's high time and jolly good well that I presently take a spot of tea and a crumpet or two. Let me know when The Pallisers come on again. I am ready for all 26 episodes.
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4 minutes ago, Mr. Gorman said:
I dig reading short stuff dat makes no damn sense! 👍🤪
Then you love Lewis Carroll.
He is a good one for Jabberwocky.
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6 minutes ago, Shank Asu said:
Cool, people are talking about James Joyce books
Dubliners has been mentioned and is somewhat more accessible (for some at least, and certainly me) than some of the "problem" novels mentioned. The short stories contained in the Dubliner collection gives us "The Dead," probably the most famous of the bunch (and what a bunch!). I read it long ago and didn't seem to do anything for me. More recently it was the subject of a Book Club meeting and this time I was enthralled. I have read that it is considered by many critics perhaps the finest short story in the language. It is beautifully crafted and leaves a palpable ambience. An excellent movie was done in 1986. absolutely stellar. I like Angelica Huston generally, but she is now firmly etched into my personal hall of fame actors. She has an important and difficult scene near the end and on which the movie relies ... and she nails it. If, by chance, you have not read or seen, i recommend the book first. The book will not spoil the movie but the movie will rob you of the reading experience ... IMHO.
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5 minutes ago, Thompson said:
No not off tract. I had to study this poem in college. And I studied it. And I got it. Lucid is the perfect word. Art is a wonderful thing. It has a life of its own. It doesn’t depend on critics or anything else. We are so lucky to have artists. Where would we be without them? That experience of “getting” Prufrock after hours of trying was that epiphany feeling. Been chasing that high ever since.
Well, the next time you have and are longing it, try this:
(Yeah, I know ; so sad, but so poignant.)
***
There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.
***
SHAKESPEARE ; Hamlet IV vii ; Gertrude
//
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So far I have not been able to get through BR. The acting and general story-telling seems hyper and affected. Slapstick without the comedy. Phony and forced. Rambunctious. I don't know. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, please elaborate. I'm not sure either. The movie is too in my face. Over the top. I feel smothered. Whatever the problem, it's not by accident, it is very much intentional. It's what they wanted. I'm sure it works for many ...
13 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:I also really like the old disbarred (?) lawyer who keeps quoting Shakespeare.
That sounds interesting. Maybe I'll skim the movie for quotes.
This is not a test, dear MissW, but can you remember one (or two).
(Remember Dixon Steele's friend, the old actor who was a little soused. He slung a few.)
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13 hours ago, Thompson said:
it’s something unexplainable, like The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock
Given the whole of Eliot, this poem is lucid. (I may be off the track with your context) It is certainly one of the finest of all poems ever written. It has the ambience of Shakespeare. I'm glad you mentioned it.
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On 10/9/2021 at 2:28 PM, Vautrin said:
Brighton Rock a few times, though not lately and if I recall it correctly the movie is less focused on those religious themes than
the book.
They know what they were doing leaving out the religious stuff. If you're not a Catholic it can get really tedious. I can't get through the religiously-based novels of Greene. The Heart of the Matter was fine for a long time but later the religious angst became unbearable. I got through it somehow but the book did get frayed on the edges for having been hurled against the wall so many times.
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The Egg and I ('48)
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Jordan, Dorothy
Movie Titles-AKA
in Games and Trivia
Posted
Oh sorry, I am so popular I have been rather booked up.
However, next time put Minnie out there instead of Mickey, and in a mini skirt. Actually, that cartoon is quite cute anyway.
Laffite is hither, in any case. Thanks for beckoning.
Speaking of hither,
Hither until thither, with the latter just about for-ither. [i.e. forever]