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I remember enjoying Little Buddha, though I can’t remember why. I haven’t seen any of Bertolucci’s Italian movies and very few of the ones in English. Last Emperor was a tolerable drag and you’re absolutely right, Stavros, about Last Tango, it’s not worth the time it takes to watch it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prospero
I thought I'd skip it and wait for 2014...Apparently, there's a meteor!
Colombiana.
A bit shite really, but worth a look just for Zoe Saldana in a catsuit!
Le Weekend. Trite
Have gotten through watching three Vietnam war movies: Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, and Platoon. I liked Platoon best. I know that the sole goal of a movie is not be realistic, but when you're dealing with something as visceral as war, what the director has to say isn't going to be any more relevant or interesting than what happened. I think Platoon provided a very nice slice of that.
I wasn't in Vietnam and so personally I don't know whether it was realistic at all, but watching Platoon was a very intense experience for me. Apocalypse Now was the worst of the three for me because I found it convoluted even if it's considered by some a masterpiece.
I haven't seen Last Tango in Paris since it first came out. i was going to see it again - but I am not sure, having read the judgements here, that I will bother. I liked Maria Schneider far better in The Passenger.
About Elly (Asghar Farhadi, 2009)
I saw this on tv last night, a film from the director of A Separation, using some of the actors from that film, except for the amazing Golshifteh Farahani who now lives in exile in Paris. Owing to the limitations imposed on Iranian directors, the films tend to revolve around human relations in confined spaces. Like a Mike Leigh film, Farhadi puts people in a situation for one purpose -in this case a weekend at the seaside- and then throws in something unexpected in order to see how individuals try to negotiate their way through a crisis in the process being forced to lie, confess, obfuscate, and show some decency. The director uses limited resources to great effect and gets utterly believable performances from fine actors. The last shot in the film is a classic statement. But if I get to Iran I think I'll pass on the seaside...
ABOUT ELLY - Official UK Trailer [In Cinemas 14th September] - YouTube
"Kill Your Darlings" in which Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) gets to have passive anal sex with a man and is given a blow job by a girl while playing a very young Allen Ginsburg. So Hogwarts is in a parallel universe now.
A thin low budget film about the very early and formative yes of Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs in New York. Watchable but very unsure of it's tone. And why did the first time director John Krokidas decided to take his title from William Faulkner.
Kill Your Darlings Official Trailer #1 (2013) - Daniel Radcliffe Movie HD - YouTube
I remember hearing about this when Harry Potter was cast for it. Sounded... not good at the time, and your review has done little to encourage me to see it, lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by Prospero
Also, why do so many former child actors have such poor taste when it comes to selecting "serious, artistic" projects which will mark their transition from commercial film to art film? Shia LeBeouf did the same thing a few years ago, and thankfully it seems to have brought an end to his career, meaning we can stop having to collectively pretend that he had the stage presence of a leading man or action hero.
I met Radcliffe at the screening and he assured me that he chose the role because Ginsberg fascinated him - not to somehow break the straitjacket of the Potter image. Nice guy actually - but I do wonder if he'll ever manage to transcend the Potter image. His acting is okay but the film is small. (as he is - a tiny little guy)
I thought the earlier film about Ginsberg, Howl (2010) was wonderful -James Franco didn't really look like the young Ginsberg but it didn't matter. Taking on the Faulkner reference which I also don't get, Franco has been in As I Lay Dying (2013) and is currently filming The Sound and the Fury for which he has co-wrote the screenplay -I think this is probably a mistake, like trying to film Conrad or Virginia Woolf, but who knows. Have no real idea who Ratcliffe is, Harry Potter has passed me by.
I agree. The look is in most respects very unimportant and, sadly, i didn't see Howl. It is Radcliffe, not Ratcliffe... and, Stavros, while i would not for a minute think you'd want to read or view Harry potter, I am astonished that the phenomenon and the young actor who starred in all the movies would not register on your radar.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0705356/
I know the name, I know he is in the Potter films with a red-headed boy with freckles and a young girl and a cast of sturdy English/Irish/Scottish actors, that is about it. I made a sincere effort with the first Potter book but it was so bad I lost interest although I can imagine the films are superior to the books -witches, magic, vampires are of no interest to me so why would I know more about the lad? Didn't the lad who played Frodo in the Lord of the Rings have a similar image problem and fail to go on to anything more mature? Other than Christian Bale how many child stars of recent years have developed relatively trouble-free careers? McCauley Caulkin? The weird boy in A.I.?
recent years... well maybe she doesn't count, but Tatum O'Neill certainly went on to become a respected adult actress after "Paper Moon" but i guess that might not count as recently. Otherwise, you're right... few make the leap.
I think Radcliffe has a bigger problem than most - for the immense success of the Potter films (love them or hate them) means that he is always going to b associated with them to the wide general public. A little film about Allen Ginsburg won't shift that.
Oh and i agree - I gave up after the first Potter book. But in filmic terms the Lord of The Rings series were much worse than the Potter film. They lacked any humour to ameliorate their po-facedness. But I know i out on a limb here.
Not sure how young they have to be but Natalie Portman was 12 or so when she was in The Professional. She's had a decent if not spectacular adult career.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stavros
True -Mickey Rooney I suppose must be the one with the longest career.
I watched the redux version of Apocalypse Now this evening, it is even worse than I recall. The script in particular is poor, as is the music over which Coppola seemed to spend so much time and effort -he wanted ethereal electronic music to take over when the boat heads past the bridge towards Kurtz, but it sounds like cheap sci-fi music from 1960s tv shows. The overall theme, if there is one, that the conduct of war undermines its strategic purpose and drives soldiers mad, is not original; the anarchic scenes at the Kurtz compound are quite well done -mostly using the Ifugao in the northern Philippines who sacrifice a Carabao - but the pseudo-anthropology in the script is desperately poor and the 'poet warrior' Kurtz just uninteresting as a character even though the entire films builds up the the confrontation with him. In Conrad Kurtz is a trader, in this film a soldier; in Conrad capitalism is a key factor in the narrative, but not in this one. Civilisation features in both, but where it is scrutinised in an elliptical, ambiguous way by Conrad, it is condemned as a sham in this film. The editing also suggests Coppola didn't know what he wanted at the time or after. One minute Willard is talking to Kurtz, then he is locked in a cage; Chef has his head cut off but the radio connection -which in an earlier version is the means whereby the compound is destroyed in an air strike- is not touched and anyway Willard in the Redux version just sails away. Some people like the anarchy of the film, but the whole experience is unsatisfactory. The acting is also unimpressive, except maybe for Denis Hopper but there seems to be a feeling he wasn't acting...hmmm.
http://i.imgur.com/VvbyILo.jpg
i rather enjoyed this. a simple made-for-tv drama about the lee oswald's killing of kennedy. the guy that played lee really did a good job with the sometimes minimal script, and the babe that played his wife was smoking. rob lowe and the honey playing jackie o were both kinda awkward. you'd think they'd have made them look better than the oswald's.
Yeah...off the top of my head I would also say Joseph Gordon-Levitt is turning out to be impressive.Quote:
Originally Posted by broncofan
I think one of the reasons successful child actors are hard to think of is that to be successful they have to completely re-invent themselves. Once they do you forgot they were child actors. The ones who don't fail because you remember they were child actors.Quote:
Originally Posted by fred41
Joseph Gordon Levitt is no longer the skinny goofy kid he was on third rock. He was still kind of that kid in transition when he did Ten Things I Hate About You but no longer.
I think Dakota Fanning will probably have a career as an adult actress. She was in Man on Fire as a kid, and I just recently saw her in The Motel Life. The Motel Life was a touching film, even if the story was a little under-developed. Not a big role for her but I think she'll develop into a pretty good adult actress.
I agree...but sometimes they grow up kinda weird looking like Haley Joel Osmond...Quote:
Originally Posted by broncofan
I agree Dakota Fanning will continue her career, as will, most likely - Chloe Moretz...perhaps with differing degrees of success.
I hope Stewie from "Family Guy" grows up okay (fingers crossed) if cartoon drugs don't do him in first.
Oh shit. I just looked up pictures of Haley Joel Osment. So brilliant as a child. Are we really so superficial? Yes. Yes. Yes. :)
Edit: and Stewie's burning out harder than Corey Feldman.
Don't know if it's been mentioned here yet, but I went to see Philomena, with Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. It's based on a true story about an Irish woman whose baby was sold by nuns in the 1950s. Judi Dench is, as always, terrific. But the revelation is Steve Coogan - restrained, mature, and moving.
And I can already hear the sneers revving up in certain places, but I thought it was a really good film.
Tonight I'm off to see Gravity, in 3D.
I agree with RobertLouis judgement of "Philomena" I posted some comments about two weeks ago. Tonight i am seeing "12 years a slave'.
In London? Just checked to see it's on at the IMAX in London, as I would like to see it there. Do review it as some claim once you get over the visuals there is no story.Quote:
Originally Posted by robertlouis
No. I moved last month. Seeing it at City Screen in York.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stavros
Typical... can't be bothered to come to London with all it's treats and delights. Provincial through and through...Quote:
Originally Posted by robertlouis
More on child stars maturing into adult performers: Jodie Foster an obvious omission, and also one of the best although some of her films are slight.
http://www.biography.com/imported/im...9556-1-402.jpg
how about leo di caprio? or neil patrick harris? ron howard would probably be the most suck-cess-ful though, but he was a kid about 5 generations ago right?Quote:
Originally Posted by Stavros
It's not as if we have done exhaustive research -does Ron Howard count if he stopped acting? Not sure. Not aware of di Caprio's earlier career and no idea who Harris is.
I saw "12 Years a slave" this evening. Will post comments tomorrow. Too emotionally drained right now.
Northern and proud, you soft southern git.Quote:
Originally Posted by Prospero
Now, excuse me, I have to walk the whippet by the canal, buy new clogs for the cat, polish up my cornet (ooh matron!) and breathe in some tar fumes for my emphysema.....
In fact, this is where I now live, and when you see the pics you'll understand why I moved.
so leaving aside your new found Northern pride how was the film RL?
Going later today, after I've mucked out the pigeons.Quote:
Originally Posted by Prospero
"12 Years A Slave'.... phew, an emotional tour de force. Women in the film business were weeping at the screening I attended last night. This is almost unrelenting in its grimness, in its presentation of a story that takes us to the very heart of the inhumanity that was the slave trade. Some scenes are almost unwatchable. It is a terrific antidote to Tarantino's crass "Django Unchained" film on the slave trade from last year which presented it as a mass entertainment shoot-em-up film. (It did have its moments - but only as a cartoon). This film is NOT entertainment. Chiwetal Ejiofor might well win an Oscar for his portrayal of the central character in this true story, but that is beside the point really. So might Steve mcQueen the director. It's focus is unrelenting. His directing awesome in creating a mood of intense oppression. (The river journey into slavery is haunting and clever in its use of thrashing paddles and noise to evoke the journey from freedom to enslavement). And one scene captures perfectly just how cowed and terrified slaves were. The main figure, Soloman Northrup, faces a near lynching. He is left dangling in a sunny glade near the plantation house his feet scarcely touching the muddy ground and keeping him from death. The afternoon passes as he dangles almost choking, his face a rictus of agony. In a single long long shot McQueen shows us the other slaves coming and going, children playing, but no one daring go to him and help.
In some ways the film echoes some of the issues that Primo Levi dealt with in "The Drowned and the Saved" - his last book about the Holocaust. In another scene the central character is forced to whip someone. He does it eventually after some resistance. Not to save his own life but because of pressure to protect others. The film is unflinching at looking at the compromises and cowardices that are forced upon the wretched at the hands of their oppressors - forcing complicity from those who are powerless. But at a terrible loss to the sense of self of those who do survive.
The viewer's salvation from despair is to remember that, in the West at least, this is now history - even if the complex legacy remains a festering sore at the heart of our culture. But it is also a reminder that inhumanity and cruelty are at the heart of human affairs. Not entertaining - but a film of majesty and demythologising power.
I'm watching Prisoners at the moment. It's really intense and definitely not a happy movie.
Prisoners (2013) - IMDb
Holy fucking shit it was a good movie. Best movie I've seen in a really long time. Definitely worth a watch if you're up for a suspenseful gritty drama.
Hugh Jackman is really intense and Paul Dano is excellent as a creepy simpleton.
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV...0,214,317_.jpg
Paul Dano is finding a niche in that sort of role. He is a creepy slaver in "12 years a slave"
Apprehensive about seeing the film. But Dano was very memorable in There Will Be Blood.Quote:
Originally Posted by Prospero
And I haven't seen Gravity yet.
I saw "The Act of Killing" yesterday. Perhaps two grim films in a row is destined to make a person feel very bleak indeed. It had that effect on me. This is a remarkable piece of documentary making. It features a host of now quite elderly "gangsters" as they style themselves talking at length and recreating the murders they committed on behalf of the regime in Indonesia in the 1960s when a million or more so-called Communists were slaughtered by the military regime. These guy joke and laugh and reminisce about they killed people - casually talking about beheadings and garottings. They recreate a scene where they killed a man by crushing him - sitting on a table singing and giggling. They drive through Jakarta giggling about throwing bodies into a river "they were beautiful - like a parachute falling" and are unrepentant. What is so remarkable is that the film makers got them to talk so freely and create weird dramatic re-enactments of their crimes. A truly chilling film about the bestiality humans can enact. These guys are now national heroes in a movement called Pancasila Youth - which is close to government. Truly horrifying
http://www.smh.com.au/world/filmmake...123-29ypj.html
The Act of Killing Clip - YouTube
The Act of Killing - Clip - YouTube
THE ACT OF KILLING [Clip] "Jeans For Killing" - In Theaters July 19. - YouTube