This is a great forum! I’m new as of today…
So many films to discuss. Growing up, “Cabaret” excited me with the possibilities of filmmaking, the different kinds of excitement generated through editing as opposed to that of movement within the frame. “The Red Balloon” still moves me, wordlessly, with its extraordinary final image. “Nashville” captured my imagination in college, with its stunning sense of controlled anarchy and political and social astuteness….after my first viewing at a matinee, I dragged all my friends from the dorm to see it. Finally, the quiet beauty and power of “Brokeback Mountain” has been something like the culmination of everything I have loved in movies, things I fear are being lost in the art form.
Hi everyone! I live in Chicago and have been a movie-lover my whole life. I am looking forward to reading the many threads here and contributing to them. Also looking for others who share similar tase in films. I’m off to the city to see “Milk” this afternoon.
I’m sure when I hit Post, I will think of 5 or 6 more. These films have appealed to me on an emotional level, or have revealed more layers of meaning through time and repeated viewings, or continue to leave me with that undefineable “aesthetic thrill” that I spend so much time trying to define in my film journal….. Many of you mentioned other films I love and admire as well. The following list is one that, to people who know me, defines my world view…it’s my own leagcy, in films…
The Best Years of Our Lives
Cabaret
Annie Hall
Nashville
Brokeback Mountain
The Red Balloon
The Crying Game
Psycho
Au Hasard Balthazar
Bonnie and Clyde
Midnight Cowboy
Psycho
The Birds
American Beauty
M*A*S*H
Fellini Satyricon
Easy Rider
A Clockwork Orange
A Room With a View
Lawrence of Arabia
Citizen Kane
All About Eve
The Last Emperor
Mary Poppins
Network
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They
Fiddler on the Roof
Persona
Cries and Whispers
Breathless
The Wild Bunch
Babe
Il Postino
Loves of a Blonde
The Cranes are Flying
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Yearling
The Deer Hunter
The Sound of Music
Darling
Thelma and Louise
Amarcord
The Graduate
The Emigrants/The New Land
Everyone so far has had great mentions. Here are some of my favorites:
Lawrence of Arabia…the long take as Omar Sharif’s character first rides into frame. Looks like a shimmering mirage
Cries and Whispers…The use of red, white and black…all the fades to red fix the images in your mind…the clarity of flesh, of a glass of water….the closeups. The lighting and color and framing are all stunning
The Best Years of Our Lives…the wedding scene, in which 3 layers of story are resolved in one shot….
The Graduate…unusual angles, framing, objective camera…not often mentioned but I thought truly a great visual film
Babel…most especially in the Japanese sequences
Cabaret..lighting, lighting, lighting…and movement and startling framing!
To Stephanie above: My partner and I just watched For the Bible Tells Me So this weekend. It was available at our public library. Excellent collection of interviews about gay people and religion. We also saw Milk over the weekend, and the two are interesting companion pieces.
For your research Halim,, definitely check out “The Times of Harvey Milk” and “Before Stonewall” (both documentaries), “Brokeback Mountain” of course (good call up there, Nicky), “The Boys in the Band” (new on DVD, dated, but fascinating), “Tales of the City” (the PBS Mini-Series), “The Hours”, and possibly “Boys Don’t Cry”.
I must agree with those who disliked—-hated—-“Little Miss Sunshine”! A girl who knows all about pageants but doesn’t realize she is about to embarass herself? A grandfather who teaches her a racy routine and her parents don’t know anything about it? A family that will do a “National Lampoon’s Vacation”-number with gramps’ corpse to preserve their daughter’s dream; yet casually mention the son’s color-blindness and destroy his own hopes just like that? And Steve Carrell has not built up enough good will to put over yet another suicidal gay character. I saw this movie when Jon-Benet Ramsay was again in the news, which added another sickening layer of creepiness. We’re even asked to laugh at a possible pedophile in the audience during the climactic pageant sequence.
Now for a couple of my own rather controversial picks…nothing personal I assure you…
Raging Bull…without De Niro’s admittedly stunning contribution, and some opera on the soundtrack to inflate its self-importance, it would be 2 hours spent with very unpleasant people for no good purpose. Nicely photographed, I’ll concede that…
Pulp Fiction…I admit I was taken in at first…then it hit me how racist and homophobic the film is. A black man is viciously raped on camera, and no one says a word; in fact it’s a cult favorite. In Brokeback Mountain, two men express their love for each other, and there are theater bans, vicious blogs, Academy snub..
No Country for Old Men….I didn’t like the book much either…it’s an effective suspense yarn, but nothing more, and not worthy of weighty recognition.
Valley of the Dolls—the Citizen Kane of bad movies
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (or just about anything by Russ Meyer)
Just about anything by Ed Wood (although Orgy of the Dead is almost unwatchable on many levels)
Some 1950’s b&w sci-fi mutant films: Tarantula, Earth vs. the Spider, The Giant Gila Monster….etc.
Can’t Stop the Music…! Jaw-dropping…like watching an accident scene…you are horrified but you can’t look away…directed by that incomparable auteur, Nancy Walker.
When I was about 12 my parents took me to see “The Magic Christian” with Peter Sellers. They had seen “The Party” recently and thought this would be similar. Well, they were horrified, and I was uncomfortable…we walked out during the Raquel Welch galley scene. I have since seen the entire film….it’s very funny in spots, but a bit incoherent. Funny, it STILL makes me a little uncomfortable…!
“Last Summer” is still available on VHS at our local public library! As a fan of films of the late ’60’s this would be a worthy addition to a collection of youth-oriented films including Easy Rider, The Graduate, The Sterile Cuckoo, Woodstock, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.
I saw “Last Summer” many years after its initial release. (Early newspaper ads for the film show it carried an “X” rating for a while). I was very intrigued by it…Catherine Burns was quirky and heartbreaking. The assault near the end was as powerful, for its time, as Boys Don’t Cry. Could be it was too much for audiences then.
Best of luck in your effort to get it on DVD. (As for Diary of a Mad Housewife, there could be renewed interest after this year’s “Frost/Nixon” with Frank Langella.)
Some that I love for their editing:
Bonnie and Clyde
Cabaret (All That Jazz is also in this league)
Z
Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy (some have complained about them being overdone, but I still find some sequences very exciting)
They Shoot Horses Don’t They (was 1969 some kind of film-editing Renaissance?)
City of God
Persona
Rope (LOL)
Mary Poppins (still the best live action/animated sequences I have seen)
Woodstock
And of course, as mentioned above, Goodfellas, Psycho and Citizen Kane
I haven’t seen Inland Empire yet, so my response doesn’t include it.
(And does anyone else miss double features like I do?)
To me, David Lynch’s work appeals to a different part of the mind and heart, which is why his films can seem so alien.
When he is at his best, he works from his own subconscious, blind to anything but his vision. (Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man which is sadly underappreciated, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive).
When he is lost on me is when it seems like he has one eye on the audience and he is self-consciously making a “David Lynch film” (as Andrew Kay said above it’s as though the joke was on us, the audience: Wild at Heart, Fire Walk With Me)
“The Best Years of Our Lives”, 1946, William Wyler. Elegantly staged, perfectly cast and performed, photogaphed and scored to perfection. It is a product of its time, yet the human relationships and how they are navigated are universal. It’s subtle, compelling, and “lived-in”. You believe these characters exist, know and love each other, are in conflict. Rarely has so much been communicated with a simple gesture, a look, a panorama. Stands as a valuable depiction of a historical moment, but modern audiences will have much to appreciate and enjoy. One of the most complete emotional experiences I have yet had at a movie.
Meryl Streep—Sophie’s Choice
Jon Voight—Midnight Cowboy
Daniel Day-Lewis—My Left Foot
Marlon Brando—On the Waterfront
Heath Ledger—Brokeback Mountain
Liv Ullmann—Face to Face
Paul Newman—Hud
Jack Nicholson—Chinatown & Five Easy Pieces
Anne Bancroft—The Graduate
Julie Christie—Darling & Away From Her
Bette Davis—All About Eve
Jane Fonda—Klute
Michael Caine—Alfie
Robert De Niro—The Deer Hunter & Raging Bull
Hillary Swank—Boys Don’t Cry
Dustin Hoffman—Tootsie
Katherine Hepburn—Long Days Journey into Night & The Lion in Winter
Annette Bening—American Beauty
Wow…some really great selections. Especially “Balthazar”, Deer Hunter" “Five Easy Pieces”……I want to go back and revisit many of these!
Here are some that affected me in different ways:
“Psycho”—the skull faintly superimposed on Norman’s face in his last closeup
“Some Like It Hot”—has been overplayed, but it still makes me laugh
“The Yearling”—I get more emotional as I get older; not just tears, but great wrenching sobs
“The Red Balloon”—Again, hits me harder now..would love to ask others what they thought of the final sequence
“Places in the Heart”..kind of surreal, most unexpected given what had come before
“Brokeback Mountain”…..a postcard, two shirts…and a desolate landscape
3 by Kubrik: “Dr. Strangelove”, “2001”, and Clockwork Orange"
From “Annie Hall”:
—Doctors: How often do you make love?/Do you have sex often?
—Annie: Constantly, maybe 3 times a week
—Alvy: Hardly ever..I’d say 3 times a week
—Alvy: My Grammy never gave presents. She was too busy getting raped by Cossacks.
—Alvy: That’s Okay, I can walk to the curb from here
-Alvy’s Mother (in Alvy’s doctor’s office): He stopped doing his homework!
Young Alvy: What’s the point?
From “The Graduate”:
—Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me……aren’t you?
Jan Troell’s “The Emigrants” and “The New Land”, 1972-73, with Liv Ullmann and Max Von Sydow.
Also: “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”, dir. Sergei Parajanov, mid-’60’s.
The Graduate/American Beauty
Midnight Cowboy/The Odd Couple
Brokeback Mountain/The Times of Harvey Milk
Interiors/Cries and Whispers
Persona/Performance
Hmmm…had a different take on the whole topic. Seems like audiences in general love movies themselves for all the wrong reasons…for 10 months out of the year, we have allowed theaters to become amusement parks and video game emporiums, given most of what appears on-screen. Then for 2 months, the “mature” viewers are lured to the "serious’ movies in order to keep the Oscar-revenue-machine churning…few of these Oscar films have the staying power that they used to. Sorry if I got off-topic……..
It’s hard to ascribe ulterior motives for why people claim to love a film…but I do recall people going by the busload to see Passion of the Christ, claiming it was a religious experience….However, I suspected that the draw was really the promise of gruesome brutality. Even Roger Ebert, in his 4-star review, said it was the most violent movie he had ever seen.
This comment is an outsiders view…I have not seen the movie. provocative discussion topic, though!
I thought I was the only one who thought, at best, the Dark Knight was the most overrated movie of the year. It is not a movie I would have normally seen (as Bobillot16 said above, I usually don’t do comic book movies). But I went mostly as a tribute to Heath Ledger, and he didn’t disappoint. Beyond that, there was nothing for me to take away from this film. I could have gotten the same thrill (and nausea) at an amusement park, the same aethetic pleasure from touring a robotics factory.
“Nashville”….absolutely! If you haven’t seen it, give it a shot. A downer on the surface, but I found the climax thrilling. It’s 2.5 hours of slowly rising (and spreading) action, and at the first real plot point…..BOOM! it’s over. After the first viewing with a group of friends, we discussed it for days.
(Would love to get your opinions on it…perhaps I’ll open up a new topic….)
My all-time favorite novel: “A Confedercy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole.
A few other (fiction) books I love: Middlesex; Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay; Sportswriter/Independence Day/Lay of the Land; The Ambassadors; Bad Dirt (Wyoming Stories); American Pastoral; the Hours; USA Trilogy; Martin Dressler; House of Sand and Fog; I Know this Much Is True; A Farewell to Arms; Tropic of Cancer; The Poisonwood Bible; The Gravediggers Daughter; Great Expectations; Europe Central; Catch-22; The Line of Beauty; We Were the Mulvaneys; The Echo Maker; The Story of Edgar Sawtelle; The Plot Against America; The Tortilla Curtain;Fahrenheit 451; The Blind Assassin; Tales of the City…..many others.
Question…how much do you think today’s screenwriters read?
To Bob (above)—-I composed this reply yesterday and only now have it ready to post…you covered my points very well…..
“Here’s the best way I can frame the discussion to the best of my understanding:
Last year, two individuals who for decades were considered Cinema giants—Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni—died a day apart. The news made me cry. But there was hardly a ripple, beyond a day or two, reported from the industry by the media.
If Cinema were truly thriving and alive, should there not have been a sense of profound loss, and days of discussion from our cultural leaders and tastemakers?
Directors like these were the Fine Art of motion pictures. These were the inspiration to young filmmakers in their heyday. With few exceptions, those who inspire filmmakers today seem to be business-savvy nostalgia-merchants or computer technicians.
Does a general audience, those who still attend movies in a theater, still find thrilling the creative use of cutting, camera movement, and lighting, in service to an intelligent script, finely acted and deftly staged? Are we giving the moviegoing public a fair chance to know these pleasures? Or have moviegoing habits changed irreversibly?
Is it possible that there is a new group of revolutionary thinkers out there, like the French New Wave, willing to back a manifesto to infuse new and creative art into motion pictures? a manifesto of intelligence, informed by literature, music, philosophy, art, great film, and a desire to present the truth of the world around us against all odds? Are they already out there? "
Which film has changed your life forever? over 3 years ago
This is a great forum! I’m new as of today…
So many films to discuss. Growing up, “Cabaret” excited me with the possibilities of filmmaking, the different kinds of excitement generated through editing as opposed to that of movement within the frame. “The Red Balloon” still moves me, wordlessly, with its extraordinary final image. “Nashville” captured my imagination in college, with its stunning sense of controlled anarchy and political and social astuteness….after my first viewing at a matinee, I dragged all my friends from the dorm to see it. Finally, the quiet beauty and power of “Brokeback Mountain” has been something like the culmination of everything I have loved in movies, things I fear are being lost in the art form.
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New to The Auteurs? You Belong Here over 3 years ago
Hi everyone! I live in Chicago and have been a movie-lover my whole life. I am looking forward to reading the many threads here and contributing to them. Also looking for others who share similar tase in films. I’m off to the city to see “Milk” this afternoon.
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favorite films? over 3 years ago
I’m sure when I hit Post, I will think of 5 or 6 more. These films have appealed to me on an emotional level, or have revealed more layers of meaning through time and repeated viewings, or continue to leave me with that undefineable “aesthetic thrill” that I spend so much time trying to define in my film journal….. Many of you mentioned other films I love and admire as well. The following list is one that, to people who know me, defines my world view…it’s my own leagcy, in films…
The Best Years of Our Lives
Cabaret
Annie Hall
Nashville
Brokeback Mountain
The Red Balloon
The Crying Game
Psycho
Au Hasard Balthazar
Bonnie and Clyde
Midnight Cowboy
Psycho
The Birds
American Beauty
M*A*S*H
Fellini Satyricon
Easy Rider
A Clockwork Orange
A Room With a View
Lawrence of Arabia
Citizen Kane
All About Eve
The Last Emperor
Mary Poppins
Network
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They
Fiddler on the Roof
Persona
Cries and Whispers
Breathless
The Wild Bunch
Babe
Il Postino
Loves of a Blonde
The Cranes are Flying
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Yearling
The Deer Hunter
The Sound of Music
Darling
Thelma and Louise
Amarcord
The Graduate
The Emigrants/The New Land
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Best camerawork in a movie...handheld or otherwise. Or best use of the camera to convey the scene's intention. over 3 years ago
Everyone so far has had great mentions. Here are some of my favorites:
Lawrence of Arabia…the long take as Omar Sharif’s character first rides into frame. Looks like a shimmering mirage
Cries and Whispers…The use of red, white and black…all the fades to red fix the images in your mind…the clarity of flesh, of a glass of water….the closeups. The lighting and color and framing are all stunning
The Best Years of Our Lives…the wedding scene, in which 3 layers of story are resolved in one shot….
The Graduate…unusual angles, framing, objective camera…not often mentioned but I thought truly a great visual film
Babel…most especially in the Japanese sequences
Cabaret..lighting, lighting, lighting…and movement and startling framing!
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Gay and Lesbian Cinema over 3 years ago
To Stephanie above: My partner and I just watched For the Bible Tells Me So this weekend. It was available at our public library. Excellent collection of interviews about gay people and religion. We also saw Milk over the weekend, and the two are interesting companion pieces.
For your research Halim,, definitely check out “The Times of Harvey Milk” and “Before Stonewall” (both documentaries), “Brokeback Mountain” of course (good call up there, Nicky), “The Boys in the Band” (new on DVD, dated, but fascinating), “Tales of the City” (the PBS Mini-Series), “The Hours”, and possibly “Boys Don’t Cry”.
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Movies you hated that everyone else loves over 3 years ago
I must agree with those who disliked—-hated—-“Little Miss Sunshine”! A girl who knows all about pageants but doesn’t realize she is about to embarass herself? A grandfather who teaches her a racy routine and her parents don’t know anything about it? A family that will do a “National Lampoon’s Vacation”-number with gramps’ corpse to preserve their daughter’s dream; yet casually mention the son’s color-blindness and destroy his own hopes just like that? And Steve Carrell has not built up enough good will to put over yet another suicidal gay character. I saw this movie when Jon-Benet Ramsay was again in the news, which added another sickening layer of creepiness. We’re even asked to laugh at a possible pedophile in the audience during the climactic pageant sequence.
Now for a couple of my own rather controversial picks…nothing personal I assure you…
Raging Bull…without De Niro’s admittedly stunning contribution, and some opera on the soundtrack to inflate its self-importance, it would be 2 hours spent with very unpleasant people for no good purpose. Nicely photographed, I’ll concede that…
Pulp Fiction…I admit I was taken in at first…then it hit me how racist and homophobic the film is. A black man is viciously raped on camera, and no one says a word; in fact it’s a cult favorite. In Brokeback Mountain, two men express their love for each other, and there are theater bans, vicious blogs, Academy snub..
No Country for Old Men….I didn’t like the book much either…it’s an effective suspense yarn, but nothing more, and not worthy of weighty recognition.
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If you had to pick ONE film as your favorite... over 3 years ago
Brokeback Mountain
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Good Bad Films over 3 years ago
Valley of the Dolls—the Citizen Kane of bad movies
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (or just about anything by Russ Meyer)
Just about anything by Ed Wood (although Orgy of the Dead is almost unwatchable on many levels)
Some 1950’s b&w sci-fi mutant films: Tarantula, Earth vs. the Spider, The Giant Gila Monster….etc.
Can’t Stop the Music…! Jaw-dropping…like watching an accident scene…you are horrified but you can’t look away…directed by that incomparable auteur, Nancy Walker.
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Which Movies Have You Walked Out On? over 3 years ago
When I was about 12 my parents took me to see “The Magic Christian” with Peter Sellers. They had seen “The Party” recently and thought this would be similar. Well, they were horrified, and I was uncomfortable…we walked out during the Raquel Welch galley scene. I have since seen the entire film….it’s very funny in spots, but a bit incoherent. Funny, it STILL makes me a little uncomfortable…!
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WHICH MOVIES...PUT OUT IN LAST 5 YEARS...DO YOU THINK WILL ONE DAY JOIN THE CRITERION COLLECTION? over 3 years ago
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN…with commentary tracks by Ang Lee, Gustavo Santaolalla, Rodrigo Prieto, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
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DOE'S ANYONE REMEMBER "LAST SUMMER" (1969) WITH BARBARA HERSHEY? over 3 years ago
“Last Summer” is still available on VHS at our local public library! As a fan of films of the late ’60’s this would be a worthy addition to a collection of youth-oriented films including Easy Rider, The Graduate, The Sterile Cuckoo, Woodstock, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.
I saw “Last Summer” many years after its initial release. (Early newspaper ads for the film show it carried an “X” rating for a while). I was very intrigued by it…Catherine Burns was quirky and heartbreaking. The assault near the end was as powerful, for its time, as Boys Don’t Cry. Could be it was too much for audiences then.
Best of luck in your effort to get it on DVD. (As for Diary of a Mad Housewife, there could be renewed interest after this year’s “Frost/Nixon” with Frank Langella.)
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Best editing in a motion picture. Or editing that captures the essence of the story. over 3 years ago
Some that I love for their editing:
Bonnie and Clyde
Cabaret (All That Jazz is also in this league)
Z
Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy (some have complained about them being overdone, but I still find some sequences very exciting)
They Shoot Horses Don’t They (was 1969 some kind of film-editing Renaissance?)
City of God
Persona
Rope (LOL)
Mary Poppins (still the best live action/animated sequences I have seen)
Woodstock
And of course, as mentioned above, Goodfellas, Psycho and Citizen Kane
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David Lynch Overrated? over 3 years ago
I haven’t seen Inland Empire yet, so my response doesn’t include it.
(And does anyone else miss double features like I do?)
To me, David Lynch’s work appeals to a different part of the mind and heart, which is why his films can seem so alien.
When he is at his best, he works from his own subconscious, blind to anything but his vision. (Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man which is sadly underappreciated, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive).
When he is lost on me is when it seems like he has one eye on the audience and he is self-consciously making a “David Lynch film” (as Andrew Kay said above it’s as though the joke was on us, the audience: Wild at Heart, Fire Walk With Me)
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David Lynch Overrated? over 3 years ago
(Sorry, I hit SEND twice, cant seem to delete it)
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The Great Cinematographers over 3 years ago
Hard to beat those already mentioned (especially Nykvist, Zsigmond, Almendros, Fields, Guffey, Hall, Toland, Willis)
I would also like to mention:
Rodrigo Prieto
Geoffrey Unsworth!!
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When I say "A Perfect Film", What One Film Pops Into Your Head First? over 3 years ago
“The Best Years of Our Lives”, 1946, William Wyler. Elegantly staged, perfectly cast and performed, photogaphed and scored to perfection. It is a product of its time, yet the human relationships and how they are navigated are universal. It’s subtle, compelling, and “lived-in”. You believe these characters exist, know and love each other, are in conflict. Rarely has so much been communicated with a simple gesture, a look, a panorama. Stands as a valuable depiction of a historical moment, but modern audiences will have much to appreciate and enjoy. One of the most complete emotional experiences I have yet had at a movie.
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Inventive Narrative Structures over 3 years ago
Citizen Kane.
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My Top 25 Performances of All Time over 3 years ago
Meryl Streep—Sophie’s Choice
Jon Voight—Midnight Cowboy
Daniel Day-Lewis—My Left Foot
Marlon Brando—On the Waterfront
Heath Ledger—Brokeback Mountain
Liv Ullmann—Face to Face
Paul Newman—Hud
Jack Nicholson—Chinatown & Five Easy Pieces
Anne Bancroft—The Graduate
Julie Christie—Darling & Away From Her
Bette Davis—All About Eve
Jane Fonda—Klute
Michael Caine—Alfie
Robert De Niro—The Deer Hunter & Raging Bull
Hillary Swank—Boys Don’t Cry
Dustin Hoffman—Tootsie
Katherine Hepburn—Long Days Journey into Night & The Lion in Winter
Annette Bening—American Beauty
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Most Traumatic or Dramatic Film Endings over 3 years ago
Wow…some really great selections. Especially “Balthazar”, Deer Hunter" “Five Easy Pieces”……I want to go back and revisit many of these!
Here are some that affected me in different ways:
“Psycho”—the skull faintly superimposed on Norman’s face in his last closeup
“Some Like It Hot”—has been overplayed, but it still makes me laugh
“The Yearling”—I get more emotional as I get older; not just tears, but great wrenching sobs
“The Red Balloon”—Again, hits me harder now..would love to ask others what they thought of the final sequence
“Places in the Heart”..kind of surreal, most unexpected given what had come before
“Brokeback Mountain”…..a postcard, two shirts…and a desolate landscape
3 by Kubrik: “Dr. Strangelove”, “2001”, and Clockwork Orange"
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Film quotes you love over 3 years ago
From “Annie Hall”:
—Doctors: How often do you make love?/Do you have sex often?
—Annie: Constantly, maybe 3 times a week
—Alvy: Hardly ever..I’d say 3 times a week
—Alvy: My Grammy never gave presents. She was too busy getting raped by Cossacks.
—Alvy: That’s Okay, I can walk to the curb from here
-Alvy’s Mother (in Alvy’s doctor’s office): He stopped doing his homework!
Young Alvy: What’s the point?
From “The Graduate”:
—Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me……aren’t you?
From "Brokeback Mountain:
—Ennis: Jack, I swear…
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Classic movies you can't get on d.v.d. over 3 years ago
Jan Troell’s “The Emigrants” and “The New Land”, 1972-73, with Liv Ullmann and Max Von Sydow.
Also: “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”, dir. Sergei Parajanov, mid-’60’s.
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FANTASY ARTHOUSE DOUBLE FEATURE over 3 years ago
The Graduate/American Beauty
Midnight Cowboy/The Odd Couple
Brokeback Mountain/The Times of Harvey Milk
Interiors/Cries and Whispers
Persona/Performance
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Movies people seem to love for all the wrong reasons. over 3 years ago
Hmmm…had a different take on the whole topic. Seems like audiences in general love movies themselves for all the wrong reasons…for 10 months out of the year, we have allowed theaters to become amusement parks and video game emporiums, given most of what appears on-screen. Then for 2 months, the “mature” viewers are lured to the "serious’ movies in order to keep the Oscar-revenue-machine churning…few of these Oscar films have the staying power that they used to. Sorry if I got off-topic……..
It’s hard to ascribe ulterior motives for why people claim to love a film…but I do recall people going by the busload to see Passion of the Christ, claiming it was a religious experience….However, I suspected that the draw was really the promise of gruesome brutality. Even Roger Ebert, in his 4-star review, said it was the most violent movie he had ever seen.
This comment is an outsiders view…I have not seen the movie. provocative discussion topic, though!
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favorite funniest movie over 3 years ago
I was lucky enough to experience these movies in packed houses:
There’s Something About Mary
Annie Hall
Tootsie
The Party
Airplane
Blazing Saddles
Young Frankenstein
National Lampoon’s Animal House
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Anybody else hate the Dark Knight? over 3 years ago
I thought I was the only one who thought, at best, the Dark Knight was the most overrated movie of the year. It is not a movie I would have normally seen (as Bobillot16 said above, I usually don’t do comic book movies). But I went mostly as a tribute to Heath Ledger, and he didn’t disappoint. Beyond that, there was nothing for me to take away from this film. I could have gotten the same thrill (and nausea) at an amusement park, the same aethetic pleasure from touring a robotics factory.
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Anybody else hate the Dark Knight? over 3 years ago
Nothing else, sorry…
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Most Memorable "Open" Endings in Cinema over 3 years ago
“Nashville”….absolutely! If you haven’t seen it, give it a shot. A downer on the surface, but I found the climax thrilling. It’s 2.5 hours of slowly rising (and spreading) action, and at the first real plot point…..BOOM! it’s over. After the first viewing with a group of friends, we discussed it for days.
(Would love to get your opinions on it…perhaps I’ll open up a new topic….)
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Who do you read? over 3 years ago
My all-time favorite novel: “A Confedercy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole.
A few other (fiction) books I love: Middlesex; Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay; Sportswriter/Independence Day/Lay of the Land; The Ambassadors; Bad Dirt (Wyoming Stories); American Pastoral; the Hours; USA Trilogy; Martin Dressler; House of Sand and Fog; I Know this Much Is True; A Farewell to Arms; Tropic of Cancer; The Poisonwood Bible; The Gravediggers Daughter; Great Expectations; Europe Central; Catch-22; The Line of Beauty; We Were the Mulvaneys; The Echo Maker; The Story of Edgar Sawtelle; The Plot Against America; The Tortilla Curtain;Fahrenheit 451; The Blind Assassin; Tales of the City…..many others.
Question…how much do you think today’s screenwriters read?
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Movie's you just don't like. over 3 years ago
Ditto to No Country for old Men, . My additions: Little Miss Sunshine; Unforgiven; Dark Knight was overrated; so was Pulp Fiction
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Is Cinema dying? over 3 years ago
To Bob (above)—-I composed this reply yesterday and only now have it ready to post…you covered my points very well…..
“Here’s the best way I can frame the discussion to the best of my understanding:
Last year, two individuals who for decades were considered Cinema giants—Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni—died a day apart. The news made me cry. But there was hardly a ripple, beyond a day or two, reported from the industry by the media.
If Cinema were truly thriving and alive, should there not have been a sense of profound loss, and days of discussion from our cultural leaders and tastemakers?
Directors like these were the Fine Art of motion pictures. These were the inspiration to young filmmakers in their heyday. With few exceptions, those who inspire filmmakers today seem to be business-savvy nostalgia-merchants or computer technicians.
Does a general audience, those who still attend movies in a theater, still find thrilling the creative use of cutting, camera movement, and lighting, in service to an intelligent script, finely acted and deftly staged? Are we giving the moviegoing public a fair chance to know these pleasures? Or have moviegoing habits changed irreversibly?
Is it possible that there is a new group of revolutionary thinkers out there, like the French New Wave, willing to back a manifesto to infuse new and creative art into motion pictures? a manifesto of intelligence, informed by literature, music, philosophy, art, great film, and a desire to present the truth of the world around us against all odds? Are they already out there? "
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