Good Performances in Subpar films
I explained my issue with CHAPLIN and I don’t think it’s UN-believalble Danny, but it IS hard to believe.
I for one had a lot of issues with DO THE RIGHT THING…I think Spike Lee is frequently inflammatory for the sake of being inflammatory, but I can’t deny DO THE RIGHT THING is one of the best films of the last 30 years.
and BTW….I think R Attenborough is a fine director. GANDHI, YOUNG WINSTON, MAGIC, OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR are all good movies….he’s an even finer producer (SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON, L SHAPED ROOM, etc)
@ Danny
I agree with you in regard to Cloris Leachman giving the best performance in “The Last Picture Show,” however I don’t view “The Last Picture Show” as a subpar film.
I like “Lilith.”
Jean Seberg’s best performance.
My favorite Kim Hunter performance.
My favorite Warren Beatty performance.
Also, Gene Hackman is rather good in “Lilith.”
For me, Peter Fonda’s performance is the worst in the film. I understand if you don’t care for “Lilith,” but to view Fonda’s role as a “good performance,” is difficult to grasp.
@Matthew Griffiths
There were certain scenes in Lilith where Warren Beatty couldn’t keep up with Peter Fonda’s dialogue. It was as if Beatty had no chemistry in the scene.
This was also a nothing performance for Kim Hunter. She was MUCH better in Streetcar Named Desire, Matter of Life and Death, and Planet of the Apes.
Last Picture Show was nothing but bland scene after bland scene. I could have made a better film and also gotten Oscar attention like Bogdanovich. I liked Paper Moon better.
In Lilith, Beatty’s character and Fonda’s character are after the same girl, it would be illogical for their characters to have chemistry. I don’t understand what you mean in regard to “Beatty couldn’t keep up with Peter Fonda’s dialogue.”
I was sincere in writing “Lilith,” as his best performance, which is a rather bold statement considering his work in: Mickey One, The Only Game in Town, The Parallax View, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, All Fall Down, Bonnie and Clyde, Shampoo, and Splendor in the Grass.
Hunter was good in Matter of Life and Death, but in no way is her performance in Lilith a “nothing performance.” The amount of time an actor is on screen is irrelevant to the quality of their performance. After Lilith, I find Hunter’s best performances to be in: The Swimmer, The Seventh Victim, and Matter of Life and Death.
I too like Paper Moon more than The Last Picture show, but that doesn’t make The Last Picture Show a subpar film. Bogdanovich may be a subpar director, but The Last Picture Show is distinctly American, aesthetically significant, and authentic in the way few period pieces are.
I got the vapors.
Danny – You threw down the gauntlet, and I accept your challenge.
Please, now, make a movie better than The Last Picture Show.
When do you plan to begin shooting so we all can monitor your progress?
Lilith is an interesting film, mostly the incredibly delicate cinematography. I wish that it might have been made a decade later when relaxed standards might have allowed a director to do justice to its themes in a more straightforward and frank manner. Unfortunately, Rossen was dead by then.
Lilith certainly features a more interesting performance from Seberg than her work in Breathless, where she was rather blah. Beatty is almost always blah. His smile and the eye twinkle that he can mainfest have carried him along for most of his career. I do like The Parallax View and Bonnie & Clyde, but that’s in spite of Beatty, not because of him.
And Reds cured my insomnia.
hold on there CSTEVE….REDS CURED MY INSOMNIA? Did you really even see it?
it’s my all time favorite…here’s a quiz:
Which “witness” states: I tihnk there was just as much fucking going on then as there is now…"?
What does Jack tell Louise to come to NY as?
Where is/was Jack Reed buried?
Henry Miller
A turkey.
The Kremlin. And he’s the only American, born in Portland Oregon. Now isn’t that something?
Very good Roscoe….
it’s so fitting that Henry Miller would be the one to drop the F bomb too.
Merci, Jaspar. I saw this film when it was released, seeing it several times because assorted groups of friends kept wanting to see it. I should give it another look, it has been a long time.
Tom Hardy – Lawless
Léa Seydoux – Farewell, My Queen
even in some of Sidney Lumet’s lesser efforts there is still good acting
The Offense
The Wiz
Death trap
sign of a good craftsman
Liv Ullman – Cries and Whispers
@Joey Noodles
Cries and Whispers is the furthest thing from being subpar. Everything about that film was the definition of excellent cinema (eg. Direction, Cinematography, Acting). To call that film subpar is like calling the Mona Lisa or a Beethoven symphony garbage.
Danny said, To call that film subpar is like calling the Mona Lisa or a Beethoven symphony garbage.
Well, at 12 I probably thought those things were garbage or didn’t have much interest in them. Joey likes Taxi Driver, Godfather II and It’s a Wonderful Life. Any twelve year old that really likes It’s a Wonderful Life is A-OK in my book.
James Woods
@Danny, I am saying it is subpar compared to other Bergman, which I have enjoyed immensely, I really did not connect with Cries and Whispers as much however, and I did appreciate the good cinematography, direction and acting, but for me it just didn’t click as much as other Bergman.
@Jazz, thanks, but of course I still do like other cinema such as Bergman and Angelopoulos
Danny Bailey
@Jaspar Lamar Crabb
What’s so unbelivable about liking Chaplin and not Do the Right Thing? Richard Attenborough can bulldoze Spike Lee any day of the day week month year decade….and so forth.