Topic 11 of 69: What movies have you been seeing?
Sat, Feb 15, 1997 (17:05) |
Amy (Amy)
We have a topic for "Favorite non-Austen movies," but the one I saw last night would not fit into that category.
449 responses total.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 1 of 449: Amy (Amy) * Sat, Feb 15, 1997 (17:08) * 4 lines
I rented Total Eclipse last night, a biographical account of one part of Arthur Rimbaud's life. I don't know if I will see it again for another 10 years, but I am pretty sure I am glad I've seen it once.
http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Total%20Eclipse%20%281995%29
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 2 of 449: Ian Davey (geekman) * Sat, Feb 15, 1997 (17:16) * 3 lines
Amy, you've been busy here all the while I've been viewing this conference. Now I know why things kept changing. :-)
Now, I have recently seen, Persuasion (again), Shine, Romeo + Juliet and GP and JN's Emma. :-)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 3 of 449: Cheryl Sneed (Cheryl) * Sat, Feb 15, 1997 (20:46) * 3 lines
I just got home from seeing Shine and liked it very much. Some wonderful performances there and fabulous music. I loved the whole Rach 3 sequence, starting from when he was working on it with his teacher (great job here by John Gielgud) and the concert itself was amazing!
But I must disagree with my friend (and little brother) Ian and say that Geoffrey Rush does not deserve the Oscar. It was a good performance but he was only in half of the movie! Now if they could split it between him and Noah Taylor (the adolescent David) I might go for it. ;-) But that will never happen, so I continue to believe that Ralph Feinnes (*sigh*) will win the Oscar.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 4 of 449: Rebecca Davey (Becks) * Sun, Feb 16, 1997 (04:30) * 5 lines
What have I seen lately---hmmmmm
All of the Oscar contenders, except for Breaking the Waves. Portrait of a Lady, Hamlet, Everyone Says I Love You.
I really loved Hamlet and Everyone....Both really entertaining, and worth the money.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 5 of 449: winter (winter) * Sun, Feb 16, 1997 (14:00) * 8 lines
i've been on a HUGE movie-kick this past week; seeing films for the second time, renting a film though i'd seen it twice before...
trainspotting (rented)
life is sweet (rented; seen it twice before)
the english patient (my 2nd viewing)
secrets & lies (my 2nd viewing)
hamlet (that's this afternoon--my first time)
and of course...P&P2 gets popped into the VCR (i watch it as i fall asleep occasionally)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 6 of 449: Luisa Barros (Luba) * Sun, Feb 16, 1997 (15:52) * 5 lines
Hi, Luisa here.Back again!
Recently I saw films I don`t think I will forget that soon. Breaking the Waves is one of the most moving and interesting love stories I have seen in years. Well, apart from ours truly P&P2...Very different altogether. This one was about immortal and all-consuming love with a huge tenderness and spiritualtity. Loved it!
I also saw Secrets and Lies. Made me laugh, cringe with embarassment and gasp. Well the normal stuff that makes a movie exciting, I guess. Brenda Blethyn is very, very good.
Shine was wonderful and I have to agree that the younger, adolescent actor deserved some recognition for his touching portrayal. Geoffrey Rush was good, but the movie is not all about him.
The Mirror has two faces is one movie I would advise as a great comedy about love and hazzard. Left me in a jolly great mood. :-)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 7 of 449: Carolyn Esau (Carolyn) * Mon, Feb 17, 1997 (06:46) * 9 lines
I just saw "Fools Rush In" this weekend. I really like it. Matthew Perry & Selma Hayek have a good chemistry together. And it was very funny.
Star Wars--special edition--Still great after all these years and the new special effects just enhance the story, and don't distract from it.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 8 of 449: Amy Wolf (amy2) * Mon, Feb 17, 1997 (11:25) * 5 lines
Instantly forgettable: VACATION IN VEGAS. Save your money!
I highly recommend: THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD with Rene Zellwegger & Vince D'Onofrio. Awesome! A powerful romance that is the story of Robert E. Howard, the man who created CONAN.
Saw SHINE this weekend. Was not blown away. The lesson: playing piano drives you to madness?? (Cheryl?)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 9 of 449: Cheryl Sneed (Cheryl) * Mon, Feb 17, 1997 (12:17) * 9 lines
Amy2: Saw SHINE this weekend. Was not blown away. The lesson: playing piano drives you to madness?? (Cheryl?)
Now, now Amy, this is the conclusion you came to from seeing the film? ;-) Replace "playing piano" to "living with a controlling, manipulative father" and I'll agree with you!
For the record: Learning to play the piano does not drive one to insanity.
There, I feel better having defended my beloved piano. 
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 10 of 449: Inko (Inko) * Mon, Feb 17, 1997 (17:22) * 3 lines
"living with a controlling, manipulative father"
Good for you Cheryl. That's what I got out of "Shine" too, it was the father not the piano playing that did the harm. Still liked the movie, though, even though the father was such a monster, albeit a believable one considering everything he'd been through.
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Response 11 of 449: Laura McCarthy (LauraMM) * Tue, Feb 18, 1997 (11:19) * 1 lines
I just saw Primal Fear which was excellent, I think Edward Norton deserves the oscar for Supporting Actor. A Time to Kill, Matthew McConaughey (gorgeous) and I just saw Trainspotting, Ewan McGregor is to die for, drop-deap gorgeous, the best scottish actor of his age group. Oh and I just saw A very Brady Sequel.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 12 of 449: Amy Wolf (amy2) * Tue, Feb 18, 1997 (11:34) * 1 lines
I am of course being facetious. But you have to admit that having young David actually HIT THE FLOOR after playing the Rach III kind of conveys the impression that this piece can drive you to madness. I saw the film with my sister & brother-in-law, two accomplished pianists, and they agreed. I didn't like the "Hollywood" version of having David go mad right at the pivotal moment. If this actually happened in real life, I will eat Cheryl's Steinway!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 13 of 449: Dina (Dina) * Tue, Feb 18, 1997 (14:30) * 1 lines
I saw Shine and Sling Blade recently. Well written, well acted but very hard to sit through. Just kept shaking my head. Boy, have I had an easy life. The Whole Wide World is also very good. Take a hanky. Looking for time to go see Hamlet Got to see some good stuff at the Sundance Film Festival (aka: The Wear Black and Use Your Cellular Film Festival). Best of show: House of Yes I think Miramax bought it so look for it this Summer.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 14 of 449: Cheryl Sneed (Cheryl) * Tue, Feb 18, 1997 (17:05) * 6 lines
Amy2: If this actually happened in real life, I will eat Cheryl's Steinway!
According to my Australian source, Ian, and every newspaper article printed in the country about the movie that he has read, it is TRUE!!!
Amy, I do not happen to own a Steinway at the moment, but I do have a fine Yamaha. While I shall mourn its loss, it may be worth it to see you eat it...would you like some catsup or perhaps a fine dijon to accompany it? ;-)
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Response 15 of 449: kathleen (elder) * Tue, Feb 18, 1997 (19:08) * 2 lines
Oh, Cheryl & Amy2 -- please do not start this fine repast until we can all be present to watch. And what wine goes best with a Yamaha piano, pray tell? :P
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 16 of 449: Cindy Bernhard (bernhard) * Tue, Feb 18, 1997 (20:35) * 1 lines
maybe saki instead of wine
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 17 of 449: Johanne (JohanneD) * Tue, Feb 18, 1997 (20:42) * 1 lines
and teriyaki sauce ;)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 18 of 449: Ann (Ann) * Tue, Feb 18, 1997 (22:46) * 1 lines
Served over some nice white steamed rice.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 19 of 449: Cheryl Sneed (Cheryl) * Wed, Feb 19, 1997 (01:06) * 2 lines
hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee
;-)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 20 of 449: CAssandra (cassandra) * Sun, Feb 23, 1997 (15:16) * 5 lines
Everyone says I love you, HAmlet(why didn't KB get nominated???), the Crucible, Evita, and Portrait of a LAdy.
I also should confess that my friend(she's a major TIm Dalton fan-he's her one and only JAmes Bond) dragged me kicking and screaming to the Beautician and the Beast. If you're ever suffering from insomnia, watch/rent that one! What happened to Dalton-Scarlett was bad enough, but this one? A few weeks ago, Wuthering Heights was on TV and he was so wonderful in that-dark, brooding...
Oh and if there is any justice in the world, Ralph Fiennes will win the Oscar for the English Patient. Besides EMMA2 and my first viewing of Casablanca, seeing TEP was the only time I ever cried in a movie theatre. The tissues were flying. The woman next to me could barely stand up after it was over. The cave scene-I will come back. I'll never leave you. oOOH BABY!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 21 of 449: Claudia Bond (Pandora620) * Sun, Feb 23, 1997 (22:51) * 5 lines
I'm sure you have all seen Barry Lyndon long ago but I rented it today. It is so great. Everything was so authenic from the Georgian period. I didn't remember that it was an Acadamy Award winner in 1975.
Also heard Restoration was from the periods we are interested in. I don't know a thing about it. Anyone know anything about it?
Will see The Madness of King George for the second time tomorrow.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 22 of 449: Kate (kate) * Sun, Feb 23, 1997 (23:19) * 3 lines
] Restoration
Haven't seen it, but its from the 1670s (ie the Restoration of the British monarchy after the civil war), and about 140 years before our period.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 23 of 449: Cheryl Sneed (Cheryl) * Sun, Feb 23, 1997 (23:24) * 3 lines
I just got home from seeing The Empire Strikes Back. My whole family went, four die hard fans and my sister-in-law who has never seen these movies before! (too young, it seems...;-p) Well, afterwards she said "Oh no! Darth Vader is Luke's father? And poor Han Solo! And who is "the other?" And now I have to wait three weeks to find out what happens next?" I said, "Oh honey! We had to wait two years!"
It's fun seeing these movies in the theater again, and Empire has always been my favorite of the three. I may have to go see it again! ;-)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 24 of 449: Kate (kate) * Mon, Feb 24, 1997 (08:32) * 7 lines
Cheryl I went on Saturday too. Every one went crazy when Yoda said "No there is another"
In fact everyone went crazy every time some key line was said, or some key character appeared. (Han, R2D2 and Yoda got the biggest cheers)
The best bit was just before Han was about to kiss Leia for the first time some guy yelled out "DO IT Han!" It brought the house down...
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Response 25 of 449: Tracey Peake (Tracey) * Mon, Feb 24, 1997 (12:37) * 3 lines
I saw Cold Comfort Farm this weekend. In the wake of Emma3, it was really interesting - there are quite a few parallels between KB's characters in these 2 films.
And, The Madness of King George! Watched that for the first time 2 weeks ago, and was totally bowled over! It really should have won Best Picture when it was nominated; what beat it? Forrest Gump?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 26 of 449: Ann (Ann) * Mon, Feb 24, 1997 (17:34) * 1 lines
Forrest Gump also beat Shawshank Redemption which was clearly the best picture of that year. I was very depressed that oscar-night.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 27 of 449: Rebecca Davey (Becks) * Mon, Feb 24, 1997 (17:44) * 1 lines
I was so angry that S&S was beaten by Braveheart last year. ALthough it was a good film, S&S was much better.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 28 of 449: Cindy Bernhard (bernhard) * Tue, Feb 25, 1997 (00:21) * 3 lines
and Braveheart won for makeup, too
"let's see is that blue on the left and red on the right, or red on the left and blue on the right?"
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 29 of 449: Amy (Amy) * Tue, Feb 25, 1997 (00:23) * 1 lines
But Braveheart was a fine movie.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 30 of 449: Cheryl Sneed (Cheryl) * Tue, Feb 25, 1997 (00:41) * 4 lines
Ann: Forrest Gump also beat Shawshank Redemption which was clearly the best picture of that year. I was very depressed that oscar-night.
Ann, I felt the same way! Shawshank REdemption was a remarkable movie, riveting, very moving...definately the best movie of the year!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 31 of 449: Tracey Peake (Tracey) * Tue, Feb 25, 1997 (08:44) * 3 lines
I stayed up 'till 2 am last Friday watching Shawshank Redemption on Flix and I agree - what a great film!
By the way, have you ever read the Stephen King story it's based on, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption? A really good piece of writing, and translated into film very well, just like his short story The Body, which became Stand By Me (love that movie!)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 32 of 449: Amy (Amy) * Tue, Feb 25, 1997 (09:32) * 2 lines
Stand By Me is wonderful.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 33 of 449: Amy (Amy) * Tue, Feb 25, 1997 (09:34) * 4 lines
Did anyone else find the Ken Burn's film on Jefferson a disapointment? It showed on most PBS stations last week. It didn't seem so compelling as Civil War or even Baseball and I love Jefferson.
Maybe there are not enough colorful and knowledgable people to talk interview -- no Shelby Foote. Is Dumas Malone dead now? He is or was probably boring. Horrible generalization I know, I hope I am wrong.
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Response 34 of 449: maud dixon (maud) * Tue, Feb 25, 1997 (13:47) * 1 lines
Speaking of the Regency period I rented Princess Carabou last night. A wonderful story and strong cast, including Kevin Kline, Stephen Rea, Wendy Hughes and John Lithgow---I recommend it. Also Anna Chancellor is in it!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 35 of 449: Ann Rydberg (Ann2) * Tue, Feb 25, 1997 (14:31) * 3 lines
Is there anybody out there
at all familiar with the work of Dennis Potter? 'The singing detective'
and 'Pennies from Heaven' ? Now they(Swedish TV2) have sent 'Karaoke', a very fine and heart-tearing piece staring Albert Finney and in a smaller part Anna Chancellor; they are both very good. And it is now followed by the last film he wrote before he died, 'Cold Lazarus' about how the author from Karaoke has been frozen for hundreds of years and scientists in the future are getting into his memory. One scientist played by Ciaran Hinds !
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Response 36 of 449: Cheryl Sneed (Cheryl) * Tue, Feb 25, 1997 (16:25) * 17 lines
Those of us who are in the thralls of a new Star Wars addiction may enjoy this David Letterman, Top Ten signs that you are obsessing over Star Wars:
10. Your poodles are named "C," "3," "P" and "O"
9. You won't sleep with your wife unless she says, "Help me, Obi Wan, you're my only
hope"
8. You spent $10,000 trying to Rogaine yourself into Chewbacca
7. You're continually stunned when the President makes major decisions without consulting
Mark
Hamill
6. Your favorite pickup line: "Would you like to handle my light saber?"
5. You keep referring to your lawn mower as "that crazy droid"
4. You spend most of your days trying to use "the Force" to open a can of pears
3. You once saw an eggplant that looked kind of like Darth Vader and almost had a heart
attack
2. Your sex life is strictly "Han Solo," if you know what I mean
1. You like Yoda so much, you voted for Ross Perot
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Response 37 of 449: SusanC (Susan) * Tue, Feb 25, 1997 (23:56) * 3 lines
#33 Amy, I taped Burns's Jefferson, but haven't watched it yet. I'll let you know what I think when I do. TJ is by far my most favorite historical character. There's an excellent biography out on him by Fern something (can't remember her last name) -- it's huge, but reads like a novel. I recommend it highly.
#36 Cheryl, those are great. Even though I've watched Star Wars enough that I don't need to see it again, I can still remember enough to appreciate the humor. Thanks for sharing!
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Response 38 of 449: Carolyn Esau (Carolyn) * Wed, Feb 26, 1997 (06:42) * 5 lines
#33 Amy, I watched Burn's Jefferson, and was disappointed also. Our local station was able air an interview with Ken Burns after the first episode. I do not know if it was available to other PBS stations.
PS--I did get kind of choked up during the Tristam Shandy quote piece.
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Response 39 of 449: Amy (Amy) * Wed, Feb 26, 1997 (06:56) * 2 lines
I liked hearing about his ideas for the university. I'd like to read more about that.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 40 of 449: Laura McCarthy (LauraMM) * Wed, Feb 26, 1997 (08:35) * 2 lines
I started to watch Jefferson, but I too found it extremely boring. I really do prefer A&E's Biography specials. Speaking of what we have been watching. Last nite on one of our PBS stations in Boston, they repeated Prime Suspect 3. And who was in it but Ciaran Hinds and Mark Strong. I personally liked MS in this, he is much balder as he has a very close haircut and well CH really did nothing for me. I have seen this series before but watching it again is great fun. Oh yeah, David Thewlis is also in
his one and he totally reminds me of Rod Stewart.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 41 of 449: Amy Wolf (amy2) * Wed, Feb 26, 1997 (15:53) * 1 lines
Speaking of the makeup in BRAVEHEART -- I didn't see the film, so can someone please explain to me why a Scotsman is wearing the blue makeup of A PICT? Thank you.
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Response 42 of 449: Donna (Donna) * Wed, Feb 26, 1997 (16:07) * 1 lines
It is "war paint" Amy. It does have a lot of unexpected violence that I really didn't want to see.
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Response 43 of 449: Ann (Ann) * Wed, Feb 26, 1997 (16:56) * 1 lines
Where would they have gotten the blue pigment? It is fairly rare in nature.
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Response 44 of 449: Kate (kate) * Wed, Feb 26, 1997 (17:06) * 1 lines
From their local face paint store of course.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 45 of 449: kathleen (elder) * Wed, Feb 26, 1997 (18:49) * 2 lines
Kate -- I believe you must be right! And most likely this store had a sale on blue face paint. :-)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 46 of 449: Donna (Donna) * Wed, Feb 26, 1997 (22:41) * 1 lines
indigo-(natural source-anil) a plant that yeilds blue dyestuff.:-)
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Response 47 of 449: Elaine (Elaine) * Thu, Feb 27, 1997 (11:10) * 1 lines
Ha anyone read why Hamlet received so little attention from the Oscar nominations? I thougt K. Branagh was a favorite of theirs.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 48 of 449: Laura McCarthy (LauraMM) * Thu, Feb 27, 1997 (12:22) * 1 lines
Elaine I have searched hi and lo looking for why it was snubbed. but to no avail. For anyone who has seen it, it is the most glorious adapations of a Shakespeare play. Filmed in Blenheim Castle and part of Denmark, it is visually stunning. Branagh just looks amazing. I would see this movie again and again and again and again and again. Wait until you see the costumes which did indeed get a nomination, they are so beautiful.
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Response 49 of 449: Tracey Peake (Tracey) * Thu, Feb 27, 1997 (13:04) * 1 lines
My husband and I are going to see it this Saturday night. I do have one slightly "unelevated" question, though: is there an intermission, or does the RFF (Rear fatigue factor) become an obstacle to enjoying the film?
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Response 50 of 449: Laura McCarthy (LauraMM) * Thu, Feb 27, 1997 (15:59) * 1 lines
at the 2:30 hour mark there is a 10 minute break, just enought time to use the ladies and gents and get a drink. I advise not to get a drink for the first half as you will probably have to use the loo during that time.
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Response 51 of 449: Amy Wolf (amy2) * Thu, Feb 27, 1997 (20:25) * 1 lines
I know that Picts used blue body makeup, but the Scots? This doesn't seem historically accurate to me. Anyone?
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Response 52 of 449: Inko (Inko) * Thu, Feb 27, 1997 (20:31) * 1 lines
Maybe the cold made them blue!! It's bitter up in the north! Just being facetious - don't know the answer!;-)
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Response 53 of 449: Ann (Ann) * Thu, Feb 27, 1997 (21:27) * 1 lines
I believe Russians used blue war paint as well.
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Response 54 of 449: SusanC (Susan) * Fri, Feb 28, 1997 (00:31) * 3 lines
Ha anyone read why Hamlet received so little attention from the Oscar nominations?
I haven't seen Hamlet yet, but heard that Branagh was considered to have been hamming it up quite a bit and that it was WWWWAAAAAYYYYY too long.
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Response 55 of 449: Amy Wolf (amy2) * Fri, Feb 28, 1997 (10:36) * 1 lines
The industry was surprised at the snub to Branagh and HAMLET too. Don't know why they chose to totally overlook this -- maybe they found their Academy "epic" in THE ENGLISH PATIENT, and didnt' need to look any further. . .
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Response 56 of 449: Johanne (JohanneD) * Fri, Feb 28, 1997 (11:25) * 1 lines
A MAJOR oversight from the Academy, utterly vexing, this production is of epic proportion the like we haven't see in a very long time. Worth every minute and every penny. Riveting and many more superlatives...
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Response 57 of 449: Dina (Dina) * Fri, Feb 28, 1997 (12:42) * 5 lines
Claudia - A little late but.... Restoration is about an English physician (Robert "Dope head" Downey Jr.) who is asked to the Palace to help the King with some "healing", because it seems he has quite and knack is a dedicated Dr.. He is asked to stay and be the King's physician. He lives at the palace and becomes quite decadent. The King asks him to marry his mistress and they go live in Surrey off the Thames. He falls in love with her, but she loves only the King. The King finds out and our boy is
banished. Thus, the beginning of his Restoration. Great costumes (last year an Oscar?) and sets.
I saw Sling Blade this past week. I thought Shine was hard to sit through....The violence is not really seen and Dwight Yokam's character has a potty mouth, but Billy Bob Thornton's acting is incredible!!!! I think he deserves the Oscar (though sentimentally I want Ralph to win and realistically Jeffery Rush will win it). I say GO SEE IT!!!!
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Response 58 of 449: Claudia Bond (Pandora620) * Sat, Mar 1, 1997 (19:30) * 7 lines
Dina and Kate, thanks so much for your comments on Restoration.
Ann, re your #53 - are you into Russian History? Comment sounded like you were. Pre 1917 Russian history is my passion and has been for many years.
Cheryl, your comments are always SO witty. Enjoy them and ROTFL.
Forgot to say that Anthony Calf (our own dear Col. Fitzwilliam) was in Madness of King George. He was rather nondescript and sullen. Not at all agreeable as our Col. was.
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Response 59 of 449: Ann (Ann) * Sat, Mar 1, 1997 (21:08) * 1 lines
No, I'm not into history, but I have a mind like a steel trap when it comes to trivia.
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Response 60 of 449: Hilary Talbot (Hilary) * Sun, Mar 2, 1997 (17:28) * 1 lines
Ann2, I consider 'The Singing Detective' one of TV's finest programs. I only saw a little of "Karaoke', but did catch 'Cold Lazarus' and thought it interesting and good. Did you ever see the interview with Dennis Potter shortly before he died? Now that was one of TV's finest interviews.
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Response 61 of 449: Ann Rydberg (Ann2) * Mon, Mar 3, 1997 (09:01) * 3 lines
I'm glad Hilary to share this experience with one friend from Pemb!
Interview with Dennis Potter no I have not heard anything about that but shall keep my eyes open as they have sent Karaoke recently and directly followed by "Cold Lazarus".You would have liked Karaoke, Hil.It was sad and funny and Albert Finney did this great love scene. Did you see that; in the hospital!?
And did you not love when he said goodbye to his old agent friend:' I'll even cake tare '.?
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Response 62 of 449: Hilary Talbot (Hilary) * Mon, Mar 3, 1997 (20:49) * 2 lines
NO, I must have missed that part. What a pity.
The interview was extraordinary apart from what he said with regard to his work, because it was basically en-edited: therefore long, rambly, and included him smoking like a train, asking for medication, talking about death approaching. Very unusual.
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Response 63 of 449: Ann Rydberg (Ann2) * Wed, Mar 5, 1997 (01:38) * 1 lines
Hil I taped this interview yesterday comming back from a journey and just happened to catch sight of it's being aired in the paper...Looking forward to it
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 64 of 449: winter (winter) * Sat, Mar 8, 1997 (01:38) * 5 lines
hi all...
just came back from catching an evening feature of 'smilla's sense of snow.' it was pretty good-- nothing spectacular. gabriel byrne and julia ormond were cast appropriately, and you can see the chemistry definitely kicking in in some scenes. they've been going out in real life since then, and so there you have it.
one thing that i wnated to share with you all was the trailer for 'paradise road', movie set during WWII. IT FEATURES JENNIFER EHLE! I was pretty proud when they announced her name along with Glenn Close, frances McDormand and Julianna Marguiles. That says a lot about the exposure she's gotten since P&P2.
anyway, the movie i think is about a large group of women (allied--US, Brit, etc) who are taken into an internment camp by the Japanese. Kinda like a female version of empire of the sun, i'm guessing. anyway, they start up a choir during their time in internment, and learn about life, each other, etc...
comes out this spring. (anyone in the l.a. area want to catch it sometime?)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 65 of 449: Kate (kate) * Sat, Mar 8, 1997 (10:03) * 4 lines
Winter I saw this trailer ages ago and couldn't remember what the film was called.
It does look really good. Also reminiscent of "ATown Like Alice", which will be very familiar to the Aussies, but perhaps not everyone else.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 66 of 449: Inko (Inko) * Sat, Mar 8, 1997 (12:41) * 1 lines
Kate, I love "A Town Like Alice" - read the book first and later saw the movie. Of course, Nevil Shute is also one of my favorite authors!! "Paradise Road" also reminds me of the TV series "Tenko". Did anyone see that?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 67 of 449: kathleen (elder) * Sat, Mar 8, 1997 (14:32) * 2 lines
"A Town Like Alice" was a wonderful movie. It was my introduction to Bryan Brown, and I found him quite attractive. And a good actor, besides! I ought to read the novel sometime, but I seem to have a list of books longer than the number of days in a year. Maybe in my next lifetime!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 68 of 449: Donna (Donna) * Sat, Mar 8, 1997 (16:42) * 1 lines
Tenko liked that on very much,but this reminds me of "Playing for Time" with Venessa Redgrave,watched both seires and movie when aired. Tenko hasn't been on A&E for a while.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 69 of 449: Joan, too (jwinsor) * Sun, Mar 9, 1997 (04:50) * 11 lines
the movie i think is about a large group of women (allied--US, Brit, etc) who are taken into an internment camp by the Japanese. Kinda like a female version of empire of the sun, i'm guessing. anyway, they start up a choir during their time in internment, and learn about life, each other, etc...
The plot is based - very loosely, I'm afraid - it's been pointed out that it's a dramatization, not a documentary, on something that actually did happen during WWI. 600 Dutch, Australian, and British women and children were interned for 3 1/2 years by the Japanese in a series of prison camps on Sumatra. Thirty-seven percent did not survive.
During their internment, as a way to rise above their inhumane conditions and dehumanizing experiences, a group of the women formed what became known as a vocal orchestra. Two of the women wrote down from memory classical orchestral works and arranged them for womens' voices which became the instruments, singing on a series of neutral syllables. The concerts given by this "orchestra" was instrumental in maintaining morale among the internees. The concerts ceased when 19 of the 30 singers had died.
One of the survivors and singers in the vocal orchestra later attended Stanford University, and 40 years later decided to donate her copy of the music to the University's music library. The archivist of the library was interested in having some record of how the music would have sounded, and approached the director of our local women's chorus about preparing a few sample pieces to be recorded for their archives.
The chorus agreed to do this, and thus began a project that took over our lives for the next 4 years. In the process we sang the music of the vocal orchestra for the first time since it was sung on Sumatra in a concert which was attended by the original conductor and 8 of the original singers who were still surviving and came from their current homes in England, Australia, Indonesia, the Netherlands, and the United States.
The original concert led to a series of concerts, recordings and a documentary film which was shown on PBS. Some of the survivors have also had books published about thier experience. Many of us who were a part of re-creating this moving real-life experience have very mixed feelings about what "dramatic license" will have been taken with the story when it reaches the movie theatres in the name of making it a "commercial" success.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 70 of 449: Cindy Bernhard (bernhard) * Sun, Mar 9, 1997 (10:17) * 1 lines
Oh, Joan, is this when you cam eto San Antonio? I am awed.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 71 of 449: Ann Rydberg (Ann2) * Sun, Mar 9, 1997 (11:54) * 2 lines
Many of us who were a part of re-creating this moving real-life experience have very mixed feelings about what "dramatic license" will have been taken with the story when it reaches the movie theatres
I can understand that. This must have been a very revolting experience for your choir and you were able to transfer some hints of it in this account ,Joan.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 72 of 449: Joan, too (jwinsor) * Mon, Mar 10, 1997 (01:07) * 7 lines
is this when you came to San Antonio?
Right. :-) And also to honor composer Kirke Mechem with a program of his works for women's chorus.
This must have been a very revolting experience for your choir
Really, the best word for it was "inspiring"- what those women were able to accomplish though starving, ill and malnourished and living in subhuman conditions, yet maintaining their connection with "civilization" and rising above all of the squalor in this way. The name of the PBS film was "Song of Survival." I find it difficult to imagine how they settled on a title like "Paradise Road" for such an experience!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 73 of 449: Susan (Susan) * Mon, Mar 10, 1997 (07:22) * 1 lines
Joan, this topic interests me greatly because my father was a Japanese POW for 44 months. How people can rise above such things is a source of endless astonishment and admiration! What an honor for you and your choir! I can't wait to see this movie.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 74 of 449: Kali Pappas (Kali) * Wed, Mar 12, 1997 (04:25) * 1 lines
Kathleen's copy of A Fatal Inversion is going around this group like it's a disease. If you like Jeremy Northam, or if you're just into really twisted mysteries, I suggest you get your hands on a copy. Those of us who've seen it agree that it's REALLY worth it...;)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 75 of 449: Susan (Susan) * Sun, Mar 16, 1997 (00:02) * 1 lines
Has anyone seen The Crucible or Portrait of a Lady who is willing to share their opinion? I am interested in both, but have not heard first-person accounts of either.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 76 of 449: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Sun, Mar 16, 1997 (21:02) * 15 lines
I saw the world premiere Saturday night of "Still Breathing" which is one of the
best movies I've seen in a long time. The audience was held spellbound by this
remarkable love story. It starred Brendan (Encino Man) Fraser and the lovely
Joanna Going (both of who I get to meet in person). It took place in San Antonio
and LA and had some really cool twists and turns and emotional moments.
Since, this was the world premiere, everyone in the theater a free CD with the entire
soundtrack of the movie. The only pressing there will ever be of this CD. The movie
had a remarkable soundtrack, specifically the "Berceuse" by Chopin, which was the soul
of the film, as well as Verdi's "La Traviata" and the Jim Cullum Jazz Band playing
Louis Armstrong. I met Paul Mills along with the cast and production company at a
fabulous party after the movie that went into the wee hours, it was quite an experience.
Highly recommended. I predict good things for this movie.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 77 of 449: Jane (jane) * Sun, Mar 16, 1997 (22:11) * 3 lines
Terry, I didn't know you were part of the arty scene in Austin! Sounds like fun, and I'll look out for the movie. Now I'll tell you about the premiere party I went to last week. I was in a fantastic modern hotel in Munich with my boss, on a business trip of course.. The huge atrium of the hotel had been decorated in white with black spots. Turned out to be the German premiere of "101 Dalmatiner". Not a kid in sight, just lots of cool looking Germans dressed in black (with a little white and red visi
le) smoking cigarettes like crazy. Claudia Schleiffler (sp?), the supermodel, was the MC. I usually don't go to parties that I have not been invited to, especially when everyone is speaking a language I don't understand, but my boss really wanted to wander in so we did. I did not eat or drink anything, however, out of respect for the hosts and my questionable status. There was a really wacky fantasy fashion show with dalmation-inspired clothes worn by very gorgeous giant models. The grand door prize
as a white Macintosh with black spots, of course. I can't believe that I just confessed to my Austen friends to crashing a party---not even Wickham would go to a party without a proper invitation.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 78 of 449: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Sun, Mar 16, 1997 (22:16) * 2 lines
Claudia Schieffer! We'll have to move this discussion to celebrity lusts
in 'drool'. If Claudia Schieffer was there, it was worth crashing. Good work.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 79 of 449: winter (winter) * Mon, Mar 17, 1997 (00:18) * 1 lines
hey! i just caught "cinema paradisio" on bravo tonight. i had seen this so many times before, but this was when Colin Firth was not part of my vocabulary. so... imagine my surprise when i see this again, and the actor (don't know his name) who plays the old salvatore/"toto" (the main character) is the spitting image of colin firth!!! older, but just as dreamy!! a colin clone who speaks italian! i'm sure livia would just love that!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 80 of 449: Anne (Anne3) * Mon, Mar 17, 1997 (09:33) * 4 lines
Susan: Has anyone seen The Crucible or Portrait of a Lady who is willing to share their opinion? I am interested in both, but have not heard first-person accounts of either.
I saw The Crucible last week and was very disappointed. I thought that both Arthur Miller and Nicholas Hytner blew the opportunity to make a really gripping film. As I remember it, the play was a tense human drama, but Miller sabotaged his own work by opening it up for the screen--the addition of so many new characters and scenes detracted from the central moral dilemma of the hero. And Hytner, who is primarily a stage director, still has a lot to learn about film directing (although I like his
irst movie, The Madness of King George). It makes me nervous because Hytner's next project is a film version of a novel I absolutely adore, The Object of My Affection by Stephen McCauley, and I'd hate to see him mess it up.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 81 of 449: Kate (kate) * Mon, Mar 17, 1997 (10:22) * 10 lines
I quite enjoyed the Crucible, but as I have said before, I was in a production of it at school, and I was really interested in what they had done to it.
Portrait of a Lady. Don't bother. I found it long, dull, and depressing. She should have KNOWN that any character played by John Malkovich was going to be trouble. There is supposed to be all this sexual tension, and I just didn't get it at all. Very disappointing, because I really like Jane Campion.
But I went last night to see HAMLET. It's fantastic. I cried (even though I knew what was going to happen) The incredible depth of the ideas expressed, which came across so clearly. Branagh really made Hamlet a real and believable person, caught up in complex events beyond his control, frustrated by his own fears and doubts. It also made the Ophelia/Hamlet relationship make sense to me in a way it hadn't before - when he realises she's dead and cries "I loved Ophelia" you can really believe it, even
though he treated her so badly.
Go and see this film. But make sure you're in a comfortable seat. The first half is 2 1/2 hours, the second half 1 1/2 hours.
And Derek Jacobi was great too.
Jack Lemmon was awful, but he's only on the screen for about 15 minutes.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 82 of 449: Rebecca Davey (Becks) * Tue, Mar 18, 1997 (00:58) * 7 lines
Yes, I didn't like Portrait of a Lady or the Crucible. What talent, and completely wasted. DDL is nowhere near droolable in this one!
Kate, JM gives me the willies too!
And Hamlet is one of the most exciting films I've seen in years. Everyone-go see it!
And add Sling Blade to your list--it didn't hit me till after I left the theatre. There are so very few films that stay with you, and this movie certainly does.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 83 of 449: winter (winter) * Tue, Mar 18, 1997 (01:16) * 1 lines
saw "marvin's room" this afternoon. it was good. i really didn't think too much of it-- i mean, no one stood out, no spectacular performances. but perhaps, because of the mood of the film, no one was supposed to have stood out. leonardo di caprio was a little TOO attractive, to play his character-- his looks definitely were a distraction. but i'm not complaining!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 84 of 449: Rebecca Davey (Becks) * Tue, Mar 18, 1997 (01:38) * 1 lines
Winter, besides the helicopters, what is Oscar week like? See anyone? Who are they predicting will win?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 85 of 449: Cheryl Sneed (Cheryl) * Tue, Mar 18, 1997 (01:50) * 1 lines
Kate, you must join us over at the Kenneth Branagh topic at Drool...we are all agog over Hamlet, have tons of pictures, but not the elusive undershirt pic yet...:-(
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 86 of 449: winter (winter) * Tue, Mar 18, 1997 (01:56) * 6 lines
oscar week is like living in the middle of an obstacle course. they have to set up scaffolds for the press, bleachers for the fans (you can sit on them, but get there on saturday or sunday if you want a seat), they've got people with walkie talkies all around looking like the secret service, catering trucks, satellite trucks vying for spaces on the parking lot, and those big gold statuettes get hauled in. all this, and i'm trying to just drive into my garage without getting into an accident or being block
d. it's exciting, because you feel the 'electriciyt' of it all, because 364 days a year, the shrine is a real dump. you'd be surprised at how unglamorous it looks in real life.
but also local residents get to short end of the stick because getting in and out of your street becomes a 10 miniute nightmare.
everyone's hidden in their limos, so i never see people, but i always hang about for a half hour or so, just in case i get lucky. as for winners, i predict a sweep for the english patient (but ralph fiennes won't even be there :( )
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 87 of 449: Ann (Ann) * Tue, Mar 18, 1997 (13:15) * 1 lines
Some people say that he will be at the Oscars. The play he is in must have given him time off.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 88 of 449: Laura McCarthy (LauraMM) * Tue, Mar 18, 1997 (14:54) * 1 lines
I thought I had the undershirt one. Well anyway, I saw SHINE, didn't like it. But I have been watching a movie my aunt videotaped THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX with James Stewart, Ernest Borgnine, Dan Duryea, Ian Bannen, Sir Richard Attenborough. Its about 2:45 mins long, but I only have seen 1:30 of it will finish tonite. Was very good. Beginning reminded me of TEP.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 89 of 449: Amy (Amy) * Tue, Mar 18, 1997 (18:00) * 2 lines
I love that movie, Laura. Have you reached the part yet where they all learn what the designer really designs?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 90 of 449: Laura McCarthy (LauraMM) * Wed, Mar 19, 1997 (09:55) * 1 lines
Model Airplanes!!!! But he got it to fly. I figured he must have been a genious. I felt bad because Ian Bannen's character who was jewish kept giving Dorfman a horrible time. I thought the movie was wonderful. I kept getting very thirsty.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 91 of 449: Donna (Donna) * Wed, Mar 19, 1997 (12:27) * 1 lines
I just watched Babette's Feast. I loved it. It is about gratitude,faith,love,scarfices,commitment and choices you name it is there.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 92 of 449: Amy (Amy) * Wed, Mar 19, 1997 (13:37) * 4 lines
I kept getting very thirsty.
__
LOL, Laura. Those cracked lips. Made you want to rush up to the screen with pitchers of water.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 93 of 449: Laura McCarthy (LauraMM) * Wed, Mar 19, 1997 (14:35) * 1 lines
Not just cracked lips but skin, oh god they looked like there were melting. I don't know when you saw it last but the beginning is just like THE ENGLISH PATIENT.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 94 of 449: Cheryl Sneed (Cheryl) * Wed, Mar 19, 1997 (14:42) * 1 lines
I saw Secrets and Lies last weekend and liked it very much. It was overflowing with emotion and had some marvelous performances. Wasn't brother Maurice Rosencrantz in Hamlet? (Or was that Guilderstern?!)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 95 of 449: Bill (Quarky) * Wed, Mar 19, 1997 (15:32) * 1 lines
Just watched Spellbound last night after a lapse of many years. The attrraction between Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck is ... well, spellbinding. If I ever take my friends advice, I would only have my head examined by the likes of an Ingrid Bergman. Very good tense story line with some dream sequences by Salvidor Dali.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 96 of 449: Kate (kate) * Wed, Mar 19, 1997 (18:22) * 1 lines
Cheryl, yep, maurice was Rosencrantz.... or possibly Guildenstern ;-)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 97 of 449: winter (winter) * Wed, Mar 19, 1997 (19:41) * 3 lines
don't remember which one maurice was, but he was BRILLIANT!!! i know i keep mentioning it, but "life is sweet" , another mike leigh flick, has got him as a real slime ball sleaze, who makes a pass at alison steadman (mrs. bennet from P&P2). really hilarious. please rent it if you haven't already seen it.. it's just one of those movies that constantly get overlooked.
i'm getting dragged to see 'private parts' tomorrow. it's part of a deal. wish me luck. anyone seen it?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 98 of 449: Linda (LKenn) * Sat, Mar 22, 1997 (10:52) * 1 lines
Winter - haven't seen "Private Parts" yet and really don't desire to, but I too agreed to see it as part of a "deal." My husband accompanied me to TEP which he moderately enjoyed, so I told him I would go to PP. The reviews have been great but I'm not much of a Howard Stern fan.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 99 of 449: Luisa Barros (Luba) * Sat, Mar 29, 1997 (05:53) * 2 lines
On Thursday, I saw The English Patient. Man, what a truly marvellous film! I cried, laughed at some point, and for the rest of the time, was completely enraptured with the photography, the music, the actors,sp.Juliette Binoche and Kristin Scott Thomas, and small poetic details, like the seduction scene with the candles in the courtyard, the murals in the church, etc. I just loved it, it left me with a deep feeling of peace, though it`s so sad in a way.
Poor Colin Firth, I felt so sorry for his character. Such a nice guy, didnīt deserve to be cheated on...oh well... :-)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 100 of 449: Charlotte (Charlotte) * Sun, Jun 7, 1998 (16:47) * 10 lines
Last night I saw The Truman Show. Everything you may have
heard or read about this film is true. You will never think
of Jim Carrey the same again. I have never liked Carrey, and studiously
avoid his films, but on the other hand, I will pay to see anything
directed by Peter Weir, so I went last night.
I want to see it again. It was enchanting. Carrey blew me away.
And the music was spellbinding. I can't wait to buy the soundtrack!
Go see it. Tell me what you think.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 101 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Sun, Jun 7, 1998 (20:42) * 1 lines
Charlotte, I will put this on my must-rent list. Anything that can be described as "enchanting" winds up on my list!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 102 of 449: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Mon, Jun 8, 1998 (02:42) * 1 lines
Sounds great. I'll check it out.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 103 of 449: Charlotte (Charlotte) * Fri, Jul 10, 1998 (15:38) * 15 lines
I saw Armageddon last night. Enjoyed the ride.
I've been a longtime fan of Bruce Willis, but last night I fell in love with
one of his costars. I have spent the entire morning searching the web for
a photo of him, without success!
So if anyone ever comes across an image of William Fichtner, could you
please email it to me (cbridges@esri.com)? He also starred with Jodie Foster
in Contact, and in Quiz Show, and Strange Days.
You think with that kind of resume, I would be able to find at least one
image of him on the internet! sheesh! :)
If you saw Armageddon, he played Colonel Sharp, the nemesis of
Bruce Willis's character.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 104 of 449: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Jul 10, 1998 (22:27) * 19 lines
From http://www.armageddon.com
Commander of the overall mission is no-nonsense Colonel Willie Sharp,
played by William Fichtner ("Contact"). "I don't want to use the term
'straight man,' but he's going to complete the mission no matter what it
takes, no matter what it costs," says Fichtner.
Fichtner declares that Touchstone Pictures' "Armageddon" has been his
favorite film experience to date and credits the crew as well as the
technical advisors for his having had such a good time. "Being around
people like Joe Allen and Chuck Davis [from the Department of Defense]
and the other astronauts was like having a virtual encyclopedia of space.
I also spent some time up at the Niagara Falls Air Force Base where my
sister is a major and with the pilots at Edwards when we were there. For
most of them the dream is to qualify for NASA. I watched those guys and
they're not kidding. They're the real deal."
http://www.movies.com/armageddon/Main/TheMovie/prodnotes/index.html
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 105 of 449: Riette Walton (riette) * Sat, Jul 11, 1998 (01:30) * 2 lines
I am defenitely going to see that movie if and when it comes to
Switzerland. My sister says it's fantastic.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 106 of 449: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Sat, Jul 11, 1998 (19:28) * 1 lines
Believe me, it will come to Switzerland.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 107 of 449: Riette Walton (riette) * Sun, Jul 12, 1998 (01:36) * 2 lines
Yes. When you have all long forgotten about it. Then I rave about it in
here, and you will all think me slow! So be warned!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 108 of 449: Charlotte (Charlotte) * Mon, Jul 13, 1998 (10:30) * 11 lines
Thanks, Terry. I had found that link, but was surprised and disappointed
to see that the Russian astronaut got higher billing than my Colonel! :)
No photo to be found at that site.
I went to see it again last night. Hoping to rid myself of this juvenile
obsession.
Didn't work. :)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 109 of 449: Riette Walton (riette) * Mon, Jul 13, 1998 (15:02) * 1 lines
Good!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 110 of 449: Charlotte (Charlotte) * Mon, Jul 13, 1998 (15:19) * 3 lines
hahaha!
Riette, are you saying "Good!" to me, or to Terry?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 111 of 449: Riette Walton (riette) * Tue, Jul 14, 1998 (01:24) * 1 lines
To you! For the juvenile obsession.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 112 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Fri, Jul 17, 1998 (21:12) * 3 lines
Charlotte, what role did he have in "Quiz Show"? Was he the blond cutie with a name like Van Dorn?
Saw "Bean" (big snooze), "Good Will Hunting" (pretty good, but I can only hear the F word so many times) and "Conspiracy Theory" (interesting without being very good, if you know what I mean) this week. When it rains it pours!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 113 of 449: Riette Walton (riette) * Sat, Jul 18, 1998 (00:55) * 1 lines
Saw none of those!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 114 of 449: Charlotte (Charlotte) * Sat, Jul 18, 1998 (09:38) * 7 lines
Autumn,
naw, that was Ralph Fiennes who had the starring role of van Doren in
Quiz Show. Fichtner had a very minor role as the stage manager.
Last night I rented Sphere (big snooze), and Switchback,
which was a passable suspense thriller.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 115 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Sun, Jul 19, 1998 (11:52) * 3 lines
Wow, how could I not remember Ralph Fiennes?? Must've been early on in his film career...
Saw "Reality Bites" last night (on TV), and really enjoyed it. I'm not usually big on Winona, but the ensemble cast worked well. My husband and daughters are going to see "Madeline" today.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 116 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Mon, Aug 17, 1998 (18:37) * 1 lines
OK, I have a big problem--my VCR cut out on the last 5 minutes of "The Usual Suspects" (Kevin spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Suzy Amis) and I missed the exciting conclusion. Spoiler, please!! Who is Kaiser Sozay and how does this film end???
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 117 of 449: Leplep le Plep (jgross) * Tue, Aug 18, 1998 (02:45) * 50 lines
Autumn, Sandrine Bonnaire is Keyser Soze. And your beauty eclipses hers.
Your VCR is nasty....what was it thinking when it did that to you?
Seriously, the following will spoil the surprise ending for anyone who hasn't
seen the movie, so don't read this if you want to experience some day one of the greatest surprise endings in film history:
Film Review: "The Usual Suspects"
MA in Disability Studies
Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies
University of Sheffield
Yaara Di Segni Garbasz
December 1996
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't
exist' ("Verbal" Kint, The Usual Suspects, 1995). The greatest trick the
mysterious criminal overlord, Keyser Soze, ever pulled, was to convince the
world that he was just a pathetic, harmless cripple.
A truckload of gun parts is hijacked in Queens, NY. Five suspects: Michael
McManus, Todd Hockney, Dean Keaton, Fred Fenster and Roger "Verbal"
Kint, are arrested for the night and questioned. A sequence of crimes
involving the five follows, reaching its climax when a ship docked at the San
Pedro Harbour, explodes leaving 27 charred bodies, a dying man in a hospital
and no sign of the presumed cargo of $91 million in cocaine. "Verbal" Kint is
arrested at the harbour and released the next day with total immunity due to
pressure from high up. Special Agent Dave Kujan of the United States
Customs Department is not willing to let the matter drop. He is convinced that
Dean Keaton, a corrupted ex-cop who, according to Kint's testimony, was
shot at the harbour before the explosion, is alive. For Kujan, who has been
after Keaton for years, this is a quest. Kujan is convinced that Kint knows
something, and is determined to find out.
In a cluttered police station, "Verbal" Kint, the pathetic cerebral palsy victim,
tells Agent Kujan his version of the events that started with the line-up in New
York six weeks earlier and ended with the explosion at the harbour the night
before.
As Kint tells his story, new details emerge. He provides Kujan with an
explanation to the name "Keyser Soze" screamed by the dying man at the
hospital. The body of an Argentine criminal washed down to the beach
provides an explanation for the missing cocaine. As the story unfolds, Agent
Kujan becomes convinced that Keaton is no other but Keyser Soze, the
mysterious overlord criminal, and that Kint is lying in his testimony on the
death of Keaton/Soze.
As Kint limps away from the police station to his freedom, Agent Kujan has a
short moment of satisfaction. His questions are answered. But his satisfaction
lasts only for minutes, as he suddenly realises his terrible mistake. Kujan
rushes after Kint, but it is too late. Outside, a no longer limping and
semi-paralysed Kint lights a cigarette, steps into a car driven by Soze's
middleman, the lawyer Kubayashi, and drives away.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 118 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Wed, Aug 19, 1998 (13:17) * 1 lines
Wow!!!! What a mind-blowing ending! I may just have to rent that one now and fast-forward to the end to see it for myself after all! Where did you get this review, Jim? Have you been rummaging through filing cabinets at the sanitarium again??
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 119 of 449: Leplep le Plep (jgross) * Thu, Aug 20, 1998 (21:18) * 7 lines
Mia Farrow's sister called me to ask if I wanted to go see "The Purple Rose of Cairo" with her. A harsh light shone on the wall, I talked into the phone receiver forgetting it was packed with cocaine, and the white stuff blew all over the place, I coughed, "Stephanie, I'll be right over." We got to the theater and entered without my car. The movie started, Jeff Daniels looked at us and of course motioned for us to come in. We stepped into the film. I immediately took refuge in the projectionist's ear
, by calling out to him, way up there in the projection room, "Hey Ziegmund, could you splice in 'Shock Corridor'?" I saw what I heard---his own voice negotiating an attractive YES! I barely had time to rewire my future or fuse with a rental rectal android---there we were, me and Stephanie, shuffling down the corridor looking for the heart of Saturday night. She helped a man zip back up, brushed his hair, spoke to him in wall-to-wall lumberjack talk. I lost her and scooted around the corner, into a ro
m that had thousands of folders of information on open shelves above the lobotomist's wide and delicious sketches of a Thai Buddhist monastery. I went through all the usual suspects until I came to a folder labeled "Kubayashi". When I opened it, Stephanie walked into the room with a straightjacket that she said used to belong to Keyser Soze. I asked her how she knew. Kevin Spacey walked in and shook my hand, slapped me on the back, began apologizing and edging us out to the door and back into the corr
dor. I looked back, but he was gone behind the closing door. Jeff grabbed the file out of my hands, perused its wrenching innards, and said, "Oh I knew it would end like that." He gave it back to me and pushed me outa the movie. No Stephanie to be seen. I went home alone, although my car kept me company. What was in the file folder was the review you read, Autumn. I couldn't piece together how all the new information got in the folder and how all the old information got out, but the Kinko's guy, wh
scanned it onto a diskette for me, said, "Sir, if Marie-France Pisier, Isabelle Adjani, Jacqueline Bisset, Marie-Christine Barrault, Nathalie Baye, Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Huppert all like you, you'll do all right. If they don't, you'll starve and be known as a dope."
So anyway, what I actually did was, I went to the 'Internet Movie Database', one of those 3 websites that I gave the url to, in another topic, and searched for 'The Ususal Suspects', then within that, I clicked on reviews, and I think it was about the last of some 20+ reviews, because it was the only one that gave away the ending.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 120 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Thu, Aug 20, 1998 (21:37) * 3 lines
You skimmed through 20 movie reviews for me?? What a prince! Had you seen this film before, Jim?
Saw "Flirting with Disaster", which was marginally funny, and "Chasing Amy", which had its moments, but all in all pushed the envelope of good taste too much for me to endorse it. Watched "The Vanishing", a Dutch film, which was disturbing and dramatic, in a mildly interesting way. It's definitely been a lukewarm rental week.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 121 of 449: Leplep le Plep (jgross) * Thu, Aug 20, 1998 (23:12) * 14 lines
I'd skim 120 and just ask, "What do you mean, is that all?"
You're worth it.
I did see "The Usual Suspects" when it first came out, but
get this, Autumn, I couldn't, when you asked and everything,
I couldn't even remember how the darn thing ended.
And so many of those crazy reviews would tease the reader by
saying, "Who was Keyser Soze? Was it 'Verbal' Kint?
Was it Mephistopheles? Was it agent Kujan? Was it Keaton? Or Kubayashi?
Was it that Hungarian survivor who died in the hospital?
Was it Kenneth Starr? Was it Osama bin Laden? Perhaps Trigger or Lassie?"
I saw those movies you mentioned, all of 'em, on their initial run in the theaters......"Chasing Amy" would've made my week, though, movie-wise.
It, I wanted it to push my envelope some more---I wish it had gone on another 4 hours or so.
Your comments are really interesting, no matter what they are.
I love to listen in to your train........of thought.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 122 of 449: Riette Walton (riette) * Fri, Aug 21, 1998 (01:20) * 3 lines
Serial Jim.
Going to see Lethal Weapon 4 today. I loved the other Lethal Weapon films, so I'm quite looking forward to it. But this is very old news for you, huh?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 123 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Sat, Aug 22, 1998 (13:15) * 4 lines
You enjoyed "Chasing Amy", Jim? I thought the roommate "Banky" was terrific--I'd love to see him in something else. He was responsible for some of the most clever and funny moments in that movie. But there was just zero chemistry between the girl and the guy (I've forgotten THEIR names already!), and he seemed so repulsed by her it was incredulous that a couple days later he decides he's in love with her. I saw this guy's first film, "Clerks," which I absolutely loathed as it was so insipid and un-fun
y. I didn't realize this film was one of his until she makes that reference to the girl having sex with the dead guy in the convenience store bathroom, and then it clicked.
What films have YOU been seeing lately, movie man??
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 124 of 449: Leplep le Plep (jgross) * Sun, Aug 23, 1998 (02:35) * 48 lines
"Blade" hatched an egg for me. The shell cracked when my eyes touched it,
and there wasn't anything inside. Within its own genre (action/vampire) it
was okay, cuz I didn't expect too much. The archnemesis was a good contrast
to the usual action movie nemesis. Society looked like it acted the same, even though
half of the power-structure was controlled by vampires. The opening
nightclub scene got real intense with tension building and building and then
all out action mayhem. The film was speeded up to show how fast vampires
move. I don't know what it needed---lotsa stuff.
Will see "Your Friends and Neighbors" sometime this week. I expect much from
it, though....I won't walk in the theater for it anticipating little, like I did for "Blade."
Seemed like most of what was going on in "Chasing Amy" was discord, to you, right? Same with me. He, Holden, took an immediate liking to her, Alyssa, but she had to overcome her own bias for lesbian exclusiveness. Even while she
was doing that, she was having a great time with him. He definitely got to
her, she admits to him while saying she wants to find the....well, here she
is saying it herself:
Alyssa:
I've given that a lot of thought, you know? I mean, now that I'm being
ostracized by my friends, I've had a lot of time to think about all of this. And what I've come up with is really simple: I came to this on my terms. I didn't just heed what I was taught, you know? Men and women should be together, it's the natural way---that kind of thing. I'm not with you because of what family, society, life tried to instill in me from day one. The way the world is---how seldom you meet that one person who gets you---it's so rare. My parents didn't really have it. There was no
example set for me in the world of male/female relationships. And to cut oneself off from finding that person---to immediately half your options by eliminating the possibility of finding that one person within your own gender.....that just seemed stupid. So I didn't. But then you come along. You---the one least likely; I mean, you were a guy.
Holden:
Still am.
Alyssa:
And while I was falling for you, I put a ceiling on that, because you were a guy. Until I remembered why I opened the door to women in the first place---to not limit the likelihood of finding that one person who'd complement me so completely. And so here we are. I was thorough when I looked for you, and I feel justified lying in your arms---because I got here on my own terms, and have no question that there was someplace I didn't look. And that makes all the difference.
[she snuggles into him and closes her eyes. Holden stares at the ceiling]
Holden:
Can I at least tell people that all you needed was some serious deep-dicking?
[she hits him with her pillow. They kiss, deeply---the calm before the storm]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
That scene was all pretty convincing for me (chemistry was in flow and fluid---heat was going back and forth). But the movie did have alotta storms.
I couldn't understand why his character would fall for such a bias against what she was doing in high school (her past, which was past). I liked Jason Lee (Banky) alot, too. Ben Affleck (Holden). Joey Lauren Adams (Alyssa).
I think Kevin Smith (director) was trying for a movie about a stormy relationship with powerful conflicting forces pushing up into their faces. The dialogue and characters made me feel the atmosphere, and it felt like what I could walk into in alotta different places around town, here.
They felt closer to my real life than characters in soooooooo many movies.
I wondered why so many people didn't react to it like I did.
I wondered why it didn't take off like "sex, lies and videotape" did, or "The Crying Game" or "Trainspotting"---they all started out small and gained momentum and got acclaim.
I guess "Chasing Amy" had the effect of repulsing as much as pulling people into it.
It's a real luxury, Autumn, to hear your take on these movies you see.
Somehow your viewpoint is a living thing regardless of how it turns out.
It's fun to travel back through a movie by way of your reactions and interpretations.....something has to happen.....whatever this might mean, it brings a peculiarly festive glow to my face which I can feel going on in, and that impresses me.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 125 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Mon, Aug 24, 1998 (21:01) * 3 lines
I can tell you really appreciate cinema verite! It is truly the "seventh art", as the French say (though exactly what the first 6 are is unclear). I appreciate and understand your defense of "Chasing Amy" (indeed, your opinion seems to prevail amongst my circle of friends), and I think you characterized it perfectly when you talked about the in-your-face conflicting forces driving them all together/apart.
I have never heard of "Blade" or "Your Friends and Neighbors." I am not big on the horror/sci-fi genre, so I'll skip the first (especially since you panned it!) I'd be interested to know what the latter is all about and read your review.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 126 of 449: wer (KitchenManager) * Tue, Aug 25, 1998 (23:58) * 1 lines
What's your three favorite Vampire flicks, Jim?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 127 of 449: Riette Walton (riette) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (01:05) * 3 lines
'The night of the Hermit'
'The true confessions of a justified boat maker'
'Nightmare on Sorewilly Street'
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 128 of 449: Leplep le Plep (jgross) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (10:29) * 330 lines
Goin' around the city, easing on the gas, crossin' over a dry river
under a drunk moon, then feeling that displacement of the black clock,
no sense of time.....but still finding myself going down that long narrow
Old Cemetery Road, I just wanted to say to ya, wer, it's a giddy good
feeling hearin' from you, and now I wait for your car, just sitting
here, motor purring, now it's off, WHAT A THIRST I feel comin' on....
in park in the dark.
___________________________________________________
Hear are sum 5 vampers that're ma faves, with "Vampire's Kiss" coming way
out on top of the others:
Vampire's Kiss (1988) [Nicolas Cage, Elizabeth Ashley, Jennifer Beals, Maria Conchita Alonso]
Near Dark (1987) [Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Bill Paxton]
Andy Warhol's Dracula (1974) [Joe Dallesandro, Udo Kier]
Nadja (1994) [Elina Lowensohn, Galaxy Craze, Suzy Amis, Martin Donovan, Peter Fonda]
The Addiction (1995) [Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken]
____________________________________________________
Plot Summary for Vampire's Kiss (1989)
A publishing executive is visited and bitten by a vampire and starts exhibiting erratic behavior. He pushes his secretary to extremes as he tries to come to terms with his affliction. The vampire continues to visit and drink his blood, and as his madness deepens, it begins to look as if some of the events he's experiencing may be hallucinations.
`Vampire's Kiss' (R)
--reviewed by Hal Hinson (Washington Post)
"Vampire's Kiss" is a one-of-a-kind movie, proving --
for all time, perhaps -- that singularity can be as much
of a curse as it is a blessing.
What it also proves is that it is possible for a person to
stay in New York too long. Take Peter, for example:
young, well-to-do, handsome, a successful literary agent
by day, womanizing bar crawler by night -- a
dictionary-definition yuppie.
As yuppies go, Peter is one of the stranger ones,
particularly as Nicolas Cage plays him. One night, he
picks up a sultry number in a red dress (Jennifer Beals)
who proceeds, once they're in bed, to satisfy herself by
feasting on his jugular. Almost immediately he begins to
feel run down and anxious. Little tensions become
gargantuan. When his secretary (Maria Conchita
Alonso) is unable to locate a contract, he jumps up on
top of her desk, shouting madly and wagging his
forefinger in her face. Mirrors, too, become something
of a sore point.
Gradually, as his behavior grows more and more erratic,
Peter becomes convinced that he has turned into a
vampire. He hasn't, though -- not really. Of course,
metaphorically, he's been a kind of parasite for years,
preying on young women, using them and disposing of
them. It's on this symbolic level that the picture sets up
camp. But using words like metaphor and symbol is a
stretch in this context. It makes the picture appear to be
up to something, and it's not -- at least not something
worthwhile.
Directed by Robert Bierman, "Vampire's Kiss" is
stone-dead bad, incoherently bad, but it goes all the way
with its premise -- and when I say all the way I mean all
the way. You've heard of actors making a strong choice
and going with it? Well, see it in the flesh! Stomping,
snorting, his hair hanging over his eyes like a curtain of
foppish dementia, Cage acts as if he has been taking hits
off of Dennis Hopper's gas mask. There's no way to
overstate it: This is scorched-earth acting -- the most
flagrant scenery chewing I've ever seen. Part Dwight
Frye in "Dracula," part Tasmanian devil, Cage makes
the previous champ -- Crispin Glover in "River's Edge"
-- look like Perry Como.
If Bierman had been able to create a compatible comic
atmosphere the movie might have become an instant
cult classic. And even with Cage, you have to fight your
way through the uncertainties of tone, the funereal pace
and the inept staging to find any enjoyment. Still, you're
not exactly sure if the material is meant to be funny or is
laughable merely by default.
Cage makes sure that we're never bored, though. In one
scene he gobbles down a live pigeon; in another, he
converts his sofa into a makeshift coffin by turning it
upside down and lowering it down on himself. No
amount of description can prepare you for these mad
excesses. They have to be seen to be believed.
_______________________________________________________
Nadja (1994)
This ultra-hip, post-modern vampire tale is set in contemporary New York City. Members of a dysfunctional family of vampires are trying to come to terms with each other, in the wake of their father's death. Meanwhile, they are being hunted by Dr. Van Helsing and his hapless nephew. As in all good vampire movies, forces of love are pitted against forces of destruction.
`Nadja' (R)
By Hal Hinson
Washington Post Staff Writer
September 22, 1995
Early on in "Nadja," Michael Almereyda's insanely
brilliant fantasia on the Dracula legend, the protagonist
confesses over drinks with a stranger that she has no
job, no interests, no skills. "I'm not really good for
much of anything," Nadja asserts, pausing to drag
deeply on her cigarette. "I want to change my life."
Typical singles-bar talk, but Nadja (played with feline
elegance by Elina Lowensohn) is not like most girls you
meet at happy hour. With her hair pulled back to
accentuate her high, sculpted forehead and black,
hypnotic eyes, Nadja isn't cruising the bars looking for
love. Nadja is a vampire.
The daughter of Count Dracula and a peasant woman
he fell in love with by "the shores of the Black Sea," she
prowls the nightspots of New York City looking like a
Eurotrash Garbo. But Nadja is burned out on the club
scene; she's ready to move beyond the night to more
simple, normal things_sunlight, a lake, a dog.
How, exactly, the undead diva intends to achieve this
metamorphosis is not clear. Actually, a good portion of
the film's story is confusing; plotting is obviously not
Almereyda's strong point. Still, this idiosyncratically
talented writer-director ("Twister," "Another Girl
Another Planet") manages to keep a lot of elements in
equilibrium. Almereyda uses New York clubs as the
backdrop for this vampire saga_a stroke of genius_
much the way Jean Cocteau did when, in "Orphee," he
set the myth of Orpheus among a group of squabbling
Left Bank poets_as a means of giving a classic story a
sharp, contemporary edge.
Almereyda shares some of Cocteau's sense of film as a
magic plaything. Shot in hallucinatory black-and-white
by Jim Denault_who also works the Pixelvision camera
used in some sequences_the film has an atmosphere
that fluctuates between languid and hysterical. Visually,
it's a thrilling movie, gorgeously, hypnotically textured.
Images fly in from all over_a snippet of Bela Lugosi's
Rorschach eyebrows, a few frames of a ravishing
peasant girl, a grainy long shot of a skulking, caped
figure_as if Almereyda had found a way of patching
directly into the collective pop id.
Somehow through all this, the picture's effects remain
appealingly low-key. For all its stylishness, it never
becomes a mere exercise in style. Almereyda has a great
sense of postmodern comic inflection; he knows exactly
the precise mixture of irony and conviction needed to
maintain the film's droll sense of the absurd. And yet,
even when he's riffing on vampire lore and wildly
throwing together incongruous elements, he keeps us
engaged by his muddled story.
The cast of "Nadja" is a sort of A-list of independent
filmmaking superstars. Executive producer David Lynch
makes a brief but memorably pathological appearance
as a morgue attendant. Peter Fonda, wired, with a long
gray-streaked ponytail down his back, plays Dr. Van
Helsing, the intrepid vampire killer. Galaxy Craze makes
an appealing zombie as Lucy, the depressed girlfriend of
Van Helsing's nephew, who is played by a
baffled-looking Martin Donovan.
Not everyone stands out. As Cassandra, Suzy Amis is
mostly wasted, and Jared Harris, who plays Nadja's
dying twin brother, Edgar, looks as if he's dosed on
cough medicine. Still, in Lowensohn, Almereyda has
found an actress in perfect sync with his haywire vision.
Nadja is rated R.
________________________________________________________
plot summary for Near Dark (1987)
A mid-western farm boy reluctantly becomes a member of the undead when a girl he meets turns out to be part of a band of southern vampires who roam the highways in stolen cars. Part of his initiation includes a bloody assault on a hick bar.
NEAR DARK (reviewed by "Mike's Movie Reviews")
Released the same year, NEAR DARK showcases the sharp unbridled style and originality lacking in 1987's "other" young vampire thriller, the more publically-embraced Hollywood product THE LOST BOYS. In my opinion, the latter was overrated and did not deserve the attention it recieved. NEAR DARK, on the other hand, is an amazing, stunning, and sometimes brilliant horror film that is so much better than you could expect.
Caleb (Pasdar) falls in love with Mae (Wright) from the moment he sees her in his small Texas hometown. He picks her up, but this night will soon go to hell ... and fast.
Mae is a vampire, a child of the night, forced to wander through eternity killing helpless mortals with her motley "family" of bloodsucking criminals. There's the cult's leader, Jesse (Henriksen), his love Diamondback (Goldstein), the psychopathic Severen (Paxton), and Homer (Miller), trapped forever as an ageless youth. And lucky Caleb makes six. They spend their nights killing and their days sleeping, or wrapped up in protective rags and sunglasses driving the countryside in
a van with the windows spray-painted black.
Splicing in a "cowboy-noir" element (not unlike the Coen Brothers' BLOOD SIMPLE, or John Dahl's RED ROCK WEST) to the common vampire film, Bigelow (who would soon direct actioners like POINT BREAK and STRANGE DAYS) creates a stand-out, watchable film influenced just as much by art as violence.
During the production of this film she was married to James Cameron, who had just completed the sci-fi horror sequel ALIENS. Note the large number of ALIENS cast members (Paxton, Henriksen, and Goldstein), and how much Severen's final scenes resemble Cameron's THE TERMINATOR (and 1991's TERMINATOR 2).
NEAR DARK has is failed moments (where exactly did Thomerson run off to in the last ten minutes?), but the effect and entertainment survives each and every deficit. One original action sequence involves a shoot-out at high noon (remember how vampires react to light ...), and an unnerving bloodbath in a bar is surreally calm.
The final shot is stunning and brilliant, owing more to TAXI DRIVER and THE SEARCHERS than anything else. (Did she really want to be saved?) One of the greatest minor masterpieces of horror filmmaking. Brutal violence, horror, coarse language.
MPAA: R
____________________________________________________
Andy Warhol's Dracula (Director: Paul Morrissey)
--reviewed by "Find-A-Video"
Spawned by the commercial success of Flesh
for Frankenstein, this campy treatment of the
well-worn Transylvanian tale features Udo Kier
as Dracula, the creepy vampire in search of ripe,
succulent throats and virginal blood. Leaving
Hungary for the purer pastures offered in
Catholic Italy, the Count's toothy appetite for a
fix of virgins proves elusive as the strapping
Joe Dallesandro makes sure that the Count's
intended victims are no virgins -- even if it
means deflowering a 14-year-old. (aka: Blood
for Dracula)
Rated PG
___________________________________________________
The Addiction
--reviewed by Walter Addiego (San Francisco Examiner)
FINALLY, A film that truly captures the
graduate school experience. Abel Ferrara's
"The Addiction" posits an NYU
philosophy student who's bitten by a
vampire and becomes less interested in
metaphysics than in fresh blood.
Sometimes you really need a break from
the books.
Actually, it's a funny conceit - Nietzsche
and neck-biting - and enjoyable as long as
you overlook Ferrara's speculation on
ultimate evil and redemption. The film
works better as straight horror - it's quite
gory and the inky black-and-white
photography adds intensely to the mood -
than as a meditation on morality.
In short, it's a typical Ferrara production,
mixing high aspirations with the sleaze and
shock of exploitation pictures (his first
commercial feature was "The Driller
Killer" ). The combination has made the
director a brand name, at least on the
art-house and festival circuits, where "The
King of New York" and "Bad Lieutenant"
created a loud buzz.
The buzz focused on the more sensational
aspects of those pictures - over-the-top
violence, drug use, unsavory sex, Harvey
Keitel's frontal nudity and, at least in
"Lieutenant," a Catholic sensibility about
moral choice and the possibility of
salvation. It's not a mix calculated to
appeal to a mass audience.
In "The Addiction," New York is again the
scene for one of Ferrara's walks on the
murky side. Kathleen (Lili Taylor),
working on her philosophy doctorate,
delivers a sermon on collective guilt after
watching a film on the My Lai massacre.
Shortly thereafter, she is dragged into a
dark alley by an extremely scary-looking
woman (Annabella Sciorra), who, taking
enormous pleasure in her victim's fear,
bites her neck.
As Kathleen slowly descends into
vampirism, she verbally spars with fellow
student Jean (Edie Falco), who doesn't
share her increasing sense of futility and
despair. In fact, with her oracular
pronouncements ( "There is no history" ),
she sounds not like a monster but your
average humanities grad student on the
road to burnout. Soon her studies fall by
the wayside; she devotes all her time to
finding victims (a homeless man, a cab
driver, a professor) and observing her own
reactions to her newfound "life" as one of
the undead. ( "It's the violence of my will
against their's." )
The director offers two payoff scenes.
One is Kathleen's encounter with an
experienced vampire (Christopher Walken)
who advises her on how to cope with the
changes in her life - try to blend in with the
humans, and treat your condition like a
controllable addiction. She listens to this
wisdom, finishes her studies and throws a
hellacious party to celebrate. (This
sequence is a strong dose, even in black
and white.)
Ferrara and writer Nicholas St. John try to
draw an analogy between vampirism and
what they call mankind's ultimate addiction
to evil (we're shown photographs of
Dachau). The vampire's high is to
dominate a victim completely. But these
grim reflections don't mesh well with the
narrative. Much better to remember the
glum Kathleen - Taylor does quite a good
job with the role - offering this insight as
her friend munches a hamburger:
"Medicine is just an extended metaphor for
omnipotence."
In a recent interview, Ferrara described his
audience, in a crack he attributed to Keitel,
as "six guys dressed in black living in
Berlin." He's being modest. Between here
and the East Village, he has at least a
dozen more.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 129 of 449: wer (KitchenManager) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (10:43) * 1 lines
intriguing choices...
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 130 of 449: Stacey Vura (stacey) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (11:19) * 1 lines
I feel so inadequate knowing that Salem's Lot is the only (pseudo) vampire movie I've seen...
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 131 of 449: Leplep le Plep (jgross) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (11:26) * 4 lines
But that's a LOT.
See, that's the one, it's the one that drank the blood of all the
other vampire movies ever made.
Guess that jus' means ya ain't got no mo inadequacies, Stacies.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 132 of 449: Stacey Vura (stacey) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (11:30) * 2 lines
*smile*
thanks
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 133 of 449: wer (KitchenManager) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (11:46) * 4 lines
*wide-eyed*
that's the only one, Stacey?
if'n we lived closer, I'd suggest we start having
Beer and Blood nights...
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 134 of 449: Stacey Vura (stacey) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (12:51) * 2 lines
sounds like a winner!
(nope. probably not the only one but I've been feeling pretty confident lately... so, nothing to bemoan!)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 135 of 449: wer (KitchenManager) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (12:55) * 1 lines
*thumbs up*
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 136 of 449: Stacey Vura (stacey) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (12:57) * 1 lines
bottoms up!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 137 of 449: wer (KitchenManager) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (13:24) * 1 lines
it's my turn to buy the next round, isn't it?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 138 of 449: Stacey Vura (stacey) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (14:37) * 4 lines
oh!
you're thinking THAT kind of bottoms up...
oh well...
sure... yea, your turn to buy!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 139 of 449: wer (KitchenManager) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (17:59) * 2 lines
naw, actually I was talking about the plane ticket
and hotel room...
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 140 of 449: Stacey Vura (stacey) * Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (18:01) * 2 lines
Groovy!
when ya coming? (to Colorado, that is...)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 141 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Fri, Sep 11, 1998 (10:35) * 1 lines
OK, let's hear some fresh reviews...come on, Jim, I know you've been seeing 'em: Rounders, Simon Birch, Next Stop wonderland. Talk to me!
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 142 of 449: Leplep le Plep (jgross) * Fri, Sep 11, 1998 (11:26) * 18 lines
I do like to talk to you. No doubt about it.
Rounders and Simon Birch hit town today.
I'll be all over 'em.
Next Stop Wonderland I fell asleep during, about 20 or so minutes from the end.
These 2 main protagonists still hadn't met yet and it was over an hour into the movie, even though time and again, like about 10 times, it was being telegraphed that they would meet.....like they would pass each other and then the camera would be on his face with him wondering about what it was that he just saw.
The stuff that was going on in the meantime was dorky AND wonky.
I fell right to sleep out of impatience, plus I'd had this big deli sandwich
and 2 beers out in the car right before I walked into the theater, plus I was already a little tired.
I woke up during the last 10 seconds of credits, the movie went dark, I stood up, turned around, the place was empty.
I was glad to see a pack of messages left for me.
They were placed in my sleeping left hand.
Written by the people who watched the movie and noticed me sound asleep.
Their notes to me were full of hate.
Like it was the best movie they'd seen in centuries.
One said: "I hope Rounders comes round and smacks you a good one for me."
Another said: "You probably had sex with Clinton and now I bet you want to apologize to us and everyone else for it."
Another said: "I hope you like the way I emptied my soda can on your head."
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 143 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Fri, Sep 11, 1998 (12:08) * 1 lines
Ha-ha!! I hate it when my fellow theatre-goers turn on me! I heard NSW was a lot like "Sliding Doors", but that didn't mean a whole hell of a lot to me because I didn't see that, either. So, it's wonky, eh? One of the local candidates running for office was described by the newspaper as "wonkish and nerdy." I had to laugh! Of course, I'm voting for him. He's not going to have to worry about making any apologies, I sense.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 144 of 449: Leplep le Plep (jgross) * Fri, Sep 11, 1998 (12:36) * 5 lines
I bet he was in NSW.
I do like that actress, Hope Davis; she was pretty good in "The Daytrippers."
She's good in NSW.....and I wonder what did happen when she and Alan Gelfant finally do meet up....what if it was like Ellen and Newland....ack! wonk wonk wonk....
It was compared to "Sleepless in Seatle", here.
I compare it to sleeping soundly in Austin.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 145 of 449: wer (KitchenManager) * Fri, Sep 11, 1998 (13:38) * 2 lines
(I actually, *gulp*, finally saw Titantic and Good Will Hunting
this past week...)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 146 of 449: Leplep le Plep (jgross) * Sat, Sep 12, 1998 (00:30) * 5 lines
alotta people in Titanic gulped....
and they kept gulping when they saw good Will hunting....
hunting underwater for them with an underwater harpoon gun....
then again, they mighta just been seein' things as they were losing consciousness....
maybe they were seeing a movie that was showing around that time in Waterworld
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 147 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Sun, Sep 13, 1998 (20:51) * 3 lines
Wer, we had a deal!! No seeing Titanic, remember?? Oh well, at least it's still my claim to fame. What did you think of Good Will Hunting?
Jim, heard high praise for "Daytrippers"--what did you think? Another sleeper? (double-entendre, there!!)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 148 of 449: wer (KitchenManager) * Mon, Sep 14, 1998 (00:00) * 3 lines
Zoe made me watch it, her mommy bought it for her...sorry, Autumn...
Will Hunting is very much like you-know-who, but much smarter...
didn't care for the ending much, but it was a decent flick...
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 149 of 449: Leplep le Plep (jgross) * Tue, Sep 15, 1998 (21:30) * 24 lines
Rounders left me and didn't come back.
Left me wanting more.
More than it could give.
Lotsa things just didn't come off and could have.
They were there waiting to happen.
What it gave me was good, just not near enough.
It's funny trying to talk about a movie without giving anything away.
Don't wanna ruin anyone's movie-going experience.
If a person wants to watch a film that's gonna be great, this isn't it.
Unless you're not me, which is the case with many people I've run into in my life (they're not me.....and that worries me.....when I was a kid I used to think everyone was me, thought like me, felt like me....which never happened,
but I could convince myself otherwise.....but it too astounded me when I found out for real that other people were actually not me.....that took alot outa me).
Rounders would be a great flick for someone wanting to get feeling for what it's like to gamble at cards.
I missed half of what the narrator said about playin' cards.
And the narrator says alot in this movie.
What I did catch was pretty interesting, though.
Here's the most interesting thing: they, professional card players, get tons
of information by observing minute details in what's going on in another player's face and other body language and nonverbal behavior.
Alotta that gets explained.
Movies like Rounders are great learning experiences.
They take you way in, way into the story, a good story.
But it's not enough if you want more'n some learnin'.
Unless you're not me, and if ya liked Rounders for more'n I liked it for.
If schools could teach stuff like Rounders taught cards, look out, kids.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 150 of 449: Leplep le Plep (jgross) * Tue, Sep 15, 1998 (21:54) * 21 lines
'Simon Birch'.
Yeah. I mean, okay.
See, it was good, but it felt too Norman Rockwell directed, for me.
But it was good, no doubt.
Simon definitely falls into that 2% of the population who are unattractive people.
But by the end of 'The Elephant Man', I felt John Merrick was attractive.
There were some great scenes in 'Simon Birch'.
It's just amazing to see someone feel things so different from what other people around them are feeling, and then to see that person be soooooo true to theirself.
Simon has TREMENDOUS strength of character.
There's this other thing that happens that I haven't really seen before:
he will do something amazing (I'm really only thinking of one scene in particular), and after it happens he'll be alone with his friend and talking about himself in a self-congratulatory way like 12-year-old kid would do it, instead of being in awe of what he did or real quiet about what he did.
That humanized him for me.
It was funny.
I really liked the little guy.
But I bet tons of churches and their church members all over the place are telling each other to go see the darn thing or asking each other if they've seen it yet.
Cuz it's got sorta heavy religious overtones.
But that didn't ruin it for me.
It's held in check and tempered well enough by story and characterizations
that would work and hold up under any conditions.
Still, too Norman Rockwelly, for me, for it to be a great movie.
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 151 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Wed, Sep 16, 1998 (21:16) * 5 lines
I've heard alternately that "Simon Birch" is heartwarming and touching, and sappy and overly sentimental. Have you read John Irving's "Prayer for Owen Meany?" It was soooo good, I'm sure the movie doesn't come close. For one thing, Vietnam isn't even in the movie, is it? Damn Hollywood.
"Rounders" sounds like something I'll skip. I don't need a primer on poker, I want to be entertained!! And there's a narrator?? (*shudder*) I hate the feeling that I'm being read to in place of just being shown. You know, I didn't realize there was such a resemblance between MD and LD till you mentioned it, wer...both "golden boys" (remember all the hype surrounding Brad Pitt a few years ago?)
Saw "The Truman Show" tonight. It was a very interesting premise and Jim Carrey gave a terrific performance. However, it wasn't executed/developed as well as it could have been, I thought--I can't say I'd even recommend it, but it was thought-provoking (in a "Future Shock" sense). What else is playing?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 152 of 449: Charlotte (Charlotte) * Wed, Sep 16, 1998 (21:19) * 4 lines
I can recommend "Smoke Signals".
But you may not want to listen to me..."The Truman Show" is one of
the best films I've seen all year. I adored it. :)
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 153 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Wed, Sep 16, 1998 (23:13) * 3 lines
Really! Tell me what impressed you so much, Charlotte. Maybe I just didn't "get it."
What is "Smoke Signals" about?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 154 of 449: any movie recommendations? (terry) * Wed, Sep 16, 1998 (23:36) * 1 lines
I haven't seen a movie in a long time! Maybe this weekend. Maybe Smoke Signals?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 155 of 449: Leplep le Plep (jgross) * Thu, Sep 17, 1998 (03:11) * 7 lines
Didn't know 'Simon Birch' was based on a book (then again, I don't know much).
Prolly said so, somewhere in very beginning (which I missed) or in the credits.
Barb, one a my sisters, really wanted me to read Irving's 'Prayer for Owen Meany'---and that was about 5 years ago or so.
But it had like more'n 50 pages in it, and every page had a whole buncha words on it.
That'd wear me plum out.....make me into plum pudding, betcha a plum.
Some day I gonna have ta sit down by somebody who's readin' one a them thick books, take a good long look at 'em in action, and just try'n figger out how they maybe do it.
Do you guys actually read every page, or do ya skip hunks of 'em at a time?
Topic 11 of 69 [movies]: What movies have you been seeing?
Response 156 of 449: Autumn Moore (autumn) * Fri, Sep 18, 1998 (16:19) * 1 lines
Ha-ha, Jim! Actually, my eyes glazed over at a lot of the Reagan-bashing in that novel. But if the reading gets you dow