What is The Last Movie You Watched?

[Stavros]

I hated this movie...to me - one of the most disappointing endings in a movie of this nature.

I saw it when it was first released and was also disappointed, but have now seen it five or six times and I wonder if you should try it again -the end you don't seem to like is visually present in the first shot in the film where Donald Sutherland is editing a slide of a Venetian church -I won't say precisely how as that would be a spoiler. Let's just says that primary colours are an important part of the film's narrative, as are the colours and contours of Venice out of season. Its also one of Du Maurier's ghost stories -it has more and more in it the more you see it, please give it another chance.

[fred41]

I hated this movie...to me - one of the most disappointing endings in a movie of this nature.

I saw it when it was first released and was also disappointed, but have now seen it five or six times and I wonder if you should try it again -the end you don't seem to like is visually present in the first shot in the film where Donald Sutherland is editing a slide of a Venetian church -I won't say precisely how as that would be a spoiler. Let's just says that primary colours are an important part of the film's narrative, as are the colours and contours of Venice out of season. Its also one of Du Maurier's ghost stories -it has more and more in it the more you see it, please give it another chance.

okay, I will...but seeing Donald Sutherland naked was the scariest part of the movie for me...eeecch.

[Stavros]

okay, I will...but seeing Donald Sutherland naked was the scariest part of the movie for me...eeecch.

Ok but it doesn't last that long...

[Stavros]

Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut was on tv last night, I missed the first half hour but watched most of the rest, and its even worse than I thought. I have turned against most of Kubrick's films, not for their technical prowess but largely because Kubrick's depressing view of life is repeated throughout his oeuvre: however hard you try to change things, they always remain the same. There isn't much more to the core of his films, the rest, like David Lynch is wrapping paper. Now I find there is someone called Jeremy Bernstein whose labours of love include a shot-by-shot analysis of Eyes Wide Shut, I read through some of it and unfortunately it only confirmed for me how self-indulgent this film is; but I will let BM's make their own minds up. The Bernstein link is here:
http://www.jeffreyscottbernstein.com/kubrick/index.html

[Prospero]

The praise accorded to Don't Look Now by Stavros is holly apprirate. This was a superbly well structured film - hahnting and clever. The notion of a remake is just plain idiotic. It is deeply depressing that the money guys who run the Hollywood film system these days cannot bring themselves to fund clever new writing, but instead sanction re-makes. Are there any remakes that are better than the original? Maybe - if you think of films that were originally made as silent films or as obscure B Movies. But this is like commissioning a sunday painter to re-do the Last Supper by Michelangelo.

Nicholas Roeg at his best was one of the finest british film directors of the past few years - starting with his work with Donald Cammell on Perfomance and then getting into his solo stride with Don't Look No, Walkabout, The man Who Fell to Earth and then Bad Timing. After this something happened and he lost the plot. Most of his latest films went straight to video without a cinematic release. Before he was a director he was a DOP - and worked on many film films including Fahrenheit 451

[Prospero]

Anyone seen "Tree of Life' yet?

[Stavros]

Before he was a director he was a DOP - and worked on many film films including Fahrenheit 451

He was second unit director for David Lean, working on Dr Zhivago, and as 2nd Unit director on Lawrence of Arabia, mostly the action scenes in the desert, much of which was shot in the Wadi Rum...

Bad Timing is a work of genius -I never tire of watching it; and yes, his films deteriorated thereafter, I have Eureka and have seen it 3 times now, but it doesn't work; there is a similar lack of focus in Insignificance, Track 29, and Castaway which is an uncomplicated film for a man who loves/loved complexity. Although I would have thought Roeg is the only director (in the English-speaking world) who could do justice to Joseph Conrad's elliptical prose, Roeg's Heart of Darkness is apparently a disaster, according to this review:
Heart of Darkness (TV 1993) - IMDb@@AMEPARAM@@http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTYwMzUzOTg1MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDQ5NTAyMQ@@._ V1._SX76_SY140_.jpg@@AMEPARAM@@BMTYwMzUzOTg1MV5BMl 5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDQ5NTAyMQ@@@@AMEPARAM@@SX76@@AMEPAR AM@@SY140
Maybe he lost touch with his genius when Teresea Russell left him...

ps Tree of Life has not had good reviews..

[Prospero]

No totally true - I've seen glowing reviews for Tree of Life... though all say it is flawed...

[Edwoodwoodwood]

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Recorded of TV the other week and watched at weekend.

Not a classic in my opinion, long, drawn out and pretty damm wierd.

[Prospero]

Benjamin Button - gawd... when i saw it i wondered if it were ever going to end. Unremitting drivel and I'd have walked out, but was in a place where awe and respect for the industry is the prevailing tone and no escape was possible.