The more I see of Wilder’s films (and some I must have watched dozens of times), the higher I rate him. And beyond the laugh-out loud moments and the brilliantly cynical lines, I am more and more impressed by his visual sensitivity, especially to interior space, and the emotional resonance of some of the quieter moments (Tony Curtis walking down the stairs to say goodbye to Marilyn Monroe and watching her singing in Some Like It Hot; the first scene between Shirley MacLaine and Fred McMurray in the Chinese restaurant in The Apartment). If I could take only one film to a desert island, I think it might have to be The Apartment. Such wit, such humanity…
Ingmar Bergman
John Ford
Alfred Hitchcock
Jean-Pierre Melville
Kenji Mizoguchi
Jean Renoir
Martin Scorsese
Luchino Visconti
Orson Welles
Billy Wilder
Mizoguchi is a bit of a dubious one as a “favourite”, as it’s been many many years since I saw all but a handful of his films, but I just know in my heart he’s one of the greatest of all directors.
Ingmar Bergman
John Ford
Alfred Hitchcock
Jean-Pierre Melville
Kenji Mizoguchi
Jean Renoir
Martin Scorsese
Luchino Visconti
Orson Welles
Billy Wilder
Mizoguchi is a bit of a dubious one as a “favourite”, as it’s been many many years since I saw all but a handful of his films, but I just know in my heart he’s one of the greatest of all directors.
Does anyone remember a film by Miklos Jancso that came out in the mid-1970s called “Private Vices, Public Virtues”? It caused quite a stir at the time, and I remember finding it unusually erotic, but it seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
Thanks for that, Susan M. Here in the UK, we don’t get Netflix as far as I know, and the DVD has never been released here, which must be why I’ve never come across it.
Another thumbs-up for the excellent “Flicker”, which, apart from the brilliance of its complicated thriller plot, has some quite profound things to say about the cinema and the responsibility of the film-maker.
Having seen most of Potter’s work as it emerged on British TV, from the 1960s onwards, but not having had the chance to see any of it again since, my feeling at the time was that “Pennies from Heaven” was his absolute peak, an extraordinarily ambitious, heartbreaking work, and that after that, having discovered the mini-series format where before he had done single dramas, his work became more self-indulent by being stretched out to series length. For me, “The Singing Detective”, brilliant as much of it was, was the beginning of this decline, which continued with series like “Blackeyes” and “Lipstick on your Collar”. As I say, this was my feeling at the time, and I haven’t seen any of these series since they first appeared.
A similar tendency to self-indulgence at series length, in my opinion, affected another great British TV playwright, Alan Bleasdale.
The logical ending for “Vertigo” would have been for Scottie to push Judy off the tower (which, if memory serves me correctly, is how the original novel ends), but I guess they couldn’t have a major star commit murder and get away with it in a Hollywood film of that period, so they introduced the nun, which I agree was an unsatisfactory touch – the only one in an otherwise perfect film.
The story goes that Visconti wanted to do a much more radical reinterpretation of the novel, taking into account later political developments in Algeria, but Camus’ widow was very protective of her late husband’s work, and she had some kind of contractual agreement with the producers, so in the end Visconti had to keep very close to the book, which made, if my decades-old memory serves me well, for a slightly flat and academic film. Also, Mastroianni (not Visconti’s first choice) was a bit miscast in a role that cried out for Alain Delon at that stage in his career. Brilliant cinematography, though.
Edge of Darkness. God knows what the upcoming Mel Gibson feature remake will be like (though it does have the same director), but the original BBC series from 1985 is very special, perhaps the best TV miniseries ever.
I can’t really comment on Nine as a version of 8½ as it’s about 40 years since I last saw the Fellini film, but as a great admirer of the stage musical – having seen the original Broadway production, with Raul Julia’s brilliant performance and Tommy Tune’s incredible staging, and having had a recording of the score for years – I found the film to be something of a travesty of the show, at least from a musical point of view, with the score cut to shreds. In particular, the rather flat ending of the film was no match for the very moving last twenty minutes or so of the show, which had three or four great songs, one after the other, all of which were cut from the film, including the title song, for God’s sake! (What on earth was the title Nine supposed to mean in the context of the film?)
In general, I thought the dramatic scenes worked better than the musical ones, with some excellent performances and some nice 60s Italian atmosphere. The only two songs I thought worked really well were the ones which were staged relatively simply: Unusual Way, sung by Nicole Kidman, and My Husband Makes Movies, beautifully performed by Marion Cotillard. The other songs all seemed to be used as excuses for over-the-top production numbers, with lumpish choreography, flashy costumes, and very clumsy camera movements and editing.
What a wasted opportunity.
Good to be reminded that Nine is not meant as a remake of 8 1/2. I stick to my original opinion that the film, for all its incidental pleasures (performances, art direction) is a travesty of the stage musical, with the score massacred and the emotional heart of the show sacrificed for glitzy, hyped-up production numbers.
I can’t really allow Roscoe’s denigration of Anthony MInghella to stand, because in my opinion the man was mostly a terrific filmmaker, and at the very least someone of taste and sensitivity – qualities that seem lacking in Rob Marshall. It’s hard to know how much influence either Minghella or Tolkin had on the finished film of NINE. I thought the dramatic scenes actually worked pretty well. What sank the film for me, as I’ve said before, were Rob Marshall’s musical choices: jettisoning most of the songs from the original that advanced the plot or expressed the characters’ emotions, and keeping in (or even adding) other songs that did nothing to advance the plot but were there purely as excuses for his (mostly) vulgar and derivative choreography.
3 Favourite Movies From 5 Favourite Directors about 3 years ago
BILLY WILDER
Double Indemnity
Some Like It Hot
The Apartment
ALFRED HITCHCOCK
Notorious
Vertigo
North by Northwest
MARTIN SCORSESE
New York New York
Goodfellas
The Age of Innocence
JEAN RENOIR
Une Partie de Campagne
La Grande Illusion
La Regle du Jeu
INGMAR BERGMAN
Winter Light
Persona
Fanny and Alexander
But then what about Welles (for Touch of Evil), Melville (for Army of Shadows), or Ford, or Ozu, or Mizoghuchi, etc. etc….?
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Best Billy Wilder Movie? about 3 years ago
The more I see of Wilder’s films (and some I must have watched dozens of times), the higher I rate him. And beyond the laugh-out loud moments and the brilliantly cynical lines, I am more and more impressed by his visual sensitivity, especially to interior space, and the emotional resonance of some of the quieter moments (Tony Curtis walking down the stairs to say goodbye to Marilyn Monroe and watching her singing in Some Like It Hot; the first scene between Shirley MacLaine and Fred McMurray in the Chinese restaurant in The Apartment). If I could take only one film to a desert island, I think it might have to be The Apartment. Such wit, such humanity…
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Top 10 Directors. about 3 years ago
(Alphabetical order)
Ingmar Bergman
John Ford
Alfred Hitchcock
Jean-Pierre Melville
Kenji Mizoguchi
Jean Renoir
Martin Scorsese
Luchino Visconti
Orson Welles
Billy Wilder
Mizoguchi is a bit of a dubious one as a “favourite”, as it’s been many many years since I saw all but a handful of his films, but I just know in my heart he’s one of the greatest of all directors.
Go to Comment
Top 10 Directors. about 3 years ago
(Alphabetical order)
Ingmar Bergman
John Ford
Alfred Hitchcock
Jean-Pierre Melville
Kenji Mizoguchi
Jean Renoir
Martin Scorsese
Luchino Visconti
Orson Welles
Billy Wilder
Mizoguchi is a bit of a dubious one as a “favourite”, as it’s been many many years since I saw all but a handful of his films, but I just know in my heart he’s one of the greatest of all directors.
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WHO IS / WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FILM ACTRESS EVER? about 3 years ago
Anna Karina forever!
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Most erotic films you've seen. about 3 years ago
Does anyone remember a film by Miklos Jancso that came out in the mid-1970s called “Private Vices, Public Virtues”? It caused quite a stir at the time, and I remember finding it unusually erotic, but it seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
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Most erotic films you've seen. about 3 years ago
Thanks for that, Susan M. Here in the UK, we don’t get Netflix as far as I know, and the DVD has never been released here, which must be why I’ve never come across it.
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Last movie you saw and rate it about 3 years ago
Synecdoche New York (only just opened in the UK). 10/10
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Great Books on Film about 3 years ago
Do novels count? If so, Theodore Roszak’s brilliant “Flicker”.
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Novels about Cinema and Cinephilia about 3 years ago
Another thumbs-up for the excellent “Flicker”, which, apart from the brilliance of its complicated thriller plot, has some quite profound things to say about the cinema and the responsibility of the film-maker.
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Singing Detective (TV series) & The Works of Dennis Potter almost 3 years ago
Having seen most of Potter’s work as it emerged on British TV, from the 1960s onwards, but not having had the chance to see any of it again since, my feeling at the time was that “Pennies from Heaven” was his absolute peak, an extraordinarily ambitious, heartbreaking work, and that after that, having discovered the mini-series format where before he had done single dramas, his work became more self-indulent by being stretched out to series length. For me, “The Singing Detective”, brilliant as much of it was, was the beginning of this decline, which continued with series like “Blackeyes” and “Lipstick on your Collar”. As I say, this was my feeling at the time, and I haven’t seen any of these series since they first appeared.
A similar tendency to self-indulgence at series length, in my opinion, affected another great British TV playwright, Alan Bleasdale.
Go to Comment
GREAT MOVIES WITH BAD ENDINGS... almost 3 years ago
The logical ending for “Vertigo” would have been for Scottie to push Judy off the tower (which, if memory serves me correctly, is how the original novel ends), but I guess they couldn’t have a major star commit murder and get away with it in a Hollywood film of that period, so they introduced the nun, which I agree was an unsatisfactory touch – the only one in an otherwise perfect film.
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Visconti's The Stranger almost 3 years ago
The story goes that Visconti wanted to do a much more radical reinterpretation of the novel, taking into account later political developments in Algeria, but Camus’ widow was very protective of her late husband’s work, and she had some kind of contractual agreement with the producers, so in the end Visconti had to keep very close to the book, which made, if my decades-old memory serves me well, for a slightly flat and academic film. Also, Mastroianni (not Visconti’s first choice) was a bit miscast in a role that cried out for Alain Delon at that stage in his career. Brilliant cinematography, though.
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Greatest Film Taglines of All TIme. almost 3 years ago
“As boys, they swore to die for one another. As men, they did.” – Once Upon a Time in America
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Great TV Series Recommendations over 2 years ago
Edge of Darkness. God knows what the upcoming Mel Gibson feature remake will be like (though it does have the same director), but the original BBC series from 1985 is very special, perhaps the best TV miniseries ever.
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8 1/2 becomes NINE over 2 years ago
I can’t really comment on Nine as a version of 8½ as it’s about 40 years since I last saw the Fellini film, but as a great admirer of the stage musical – having seen the original Broadway production, with Raul Julia’s brilliant performance and Tommy Tune’s incredible staging, and having had a recording of the score for years – I found the film to be something of a travesty of the show, at least from a musical point of view, with the score cut to shreds. In particular, the rather flat ending of the film was no match for the very moving last twenty minutes or so of the show, which had three or four great songs, one after the other, all of which were cut from the film, including the title song, for God’s sake! (What on earth was the title Nine supposed to mean in the context of the film?)
In general, I thought the dramatic scenes worked better than the musical ones, with some excellent performances and some nice 60s Italian atmosphere. The only two songs I thought worked really well were the ones which were staged relatively simply: Unusual Way, sung by Nicole Kidman, and My Husband Makes Movies, beautifully performed by Marion Cotillard. The other songs all seemed to be used as excuses for over-the-top production numbers, with lumpish choreography, flashy costumes, and very clumsy camera movements and editing.
What a wasted opportunity.
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8 1/2 becomes NINE about 2 years ago
Good to be reminded that Nine is not meant as a remake of 8 1/2. I stick to my original opinion that the film, for all its incidental pleasures (performances, art direction) is a travesty of the stage musical, with the score massacred and the emotional heart of the show sacrificed for glitzy, hyped-up production numbers.
Go to Comment
8 1/2 becomes NINE about 2 years ago
I can’t really allow Roscoe’s denigration of Anthony MInghella to stand, because in my opinion the man was mostly a terrific filmmaker, and at the very least someone of taste and sensitivity – qualities that seem lacking in Rob Marshall. It’s hard to know how much influence either Minghella or Tolkin had on the finished film of NINE. I thought the dramatic scenes actually worked pretty well. What sank the film for me, as I’ve said before, were Rob Marshall’s musical choices: jettisoning most of the songs from the original that advanced the plot or expressed the characters’ emotions, and keeping in (or even adding) other songs that did nothing to advance the plot but were there purely as excuses for his (mostly) vulgar and derivative choreography.
Go to Comment