saw a talkie at the picture show: new film thread

[auto-da-fey]

just saw it myself last weekend, and while I'm more with you than against you, Almanzo, that damn opening sequence was just fucking wretched. I didn't actually realize I was admiring the film until another half-hour in just because of the residual ill-will it left.
apparently I am in the minority on that, however, as even critics who hate the film seem to single it out as a bravura sequence. meh.

saw The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu too, now THAT was grueling, rigorous cinema of the best sort.

and Babar, hell yes to Safe. Is that even on R1 DVD? I haven't seen it since it came on video like 15 years ago, would be great to do a double-feature 90s-Haynes revisit, since my lady hasn't seen Velvet Goldmine, which is one of my favorite films of the decade.

[Babar]

I was a Todd Haynes virgin before [Safe] (that's right, with brackets) and I'm definitely gonna check out the rest of his films. I got Far from Heaven lined up, then I'll take Velvet Goldmine since you loved it.

[auto-da-fey]

it's a divisive film in my experience, but I trust that you won't side with the philistines.


meanwhile, EDWARD YANG FANS WAKE UP AND TELL ME WHAT HERE IS WORTH SUFFERING TO SEE:

http://www.filmlinc.com/films/series/a-rational-mind-the-films-of-edward-yang

(it will, alas, require suffering for me to make any of these; honestly, it's not even likely, but godDAMN would I like to dive into this series. leaning toward The Terrorizers because I'll already be in the area, but oooooooooh maaaannnnnnnnnnnnnn)

[auto-da-fey]

what is THE MOST worth suffering to see, that is. I suspect they all are. but top 1 or 2.

[peacocks]

Gushing, I just watched Manhattan Murder Mystery! So great. I really have to try and channel Angelica Huston more. I was thinking "wow, she's so sexual, without even doing anything" right when she said "but I have an abundance of sexual energy" or something like that. And the way he folds in The Lady From Shanghai. I hadn't seen that movie in a couple years but who could forget the mirrors.

[fishjim]

Finally saw the film version of The Last Unicorn, and think I liked it even more than the book. Read the book years ago, so maybe I'm just experiencing the story differently. But what a wonderful myth. I'll never look at ocean foam the same way again.

[Trousers and Pat]

it's a divisive film in my experience, but I trust that you won't side with the philistines.


meanwhile, EDWARD YANG FANS WAKE UP AND TELL ME WHAT HERE IS WORTH SUFFERING TO SEE:

http://www.filmlinc.com/films/series/a-rational-mind-the-films-of-edward-yang

(it will, alas, require suffering for me to make any of these; honestly, it's not even likely, but godDAMN would I like to dive into this series. leaning toward The Terrorizers because I'll already be in the area, but oooooooooh maaaannnnnnnnnnnnnn)

How much suffering are we talking here?
I've only seen the obvious ones but man are they good. So, uh, 1. Yi yi and 2. Brighter Summers Day
But from what I haven't seen terrorizers would be the first!

I watched the french-dubbed version of Legend starring tom cruise the other day, and I really felt like I had seen it but then there was nothing familiar that happened. Except Tim Curry as "Darkness." Maybe there's some other movie where tim curry plays a big horny guy?

[G.C.R]

Shoot the Piano Player was really good, as you all said it would be.
Bridesmaids was funny, with characters more interesting than the cardboard cutouts they could so easily have been. But so terribly paced! I don't think it was just the vodka sodas I was knocking back either.
Only Angels have wings was good Hawksian "real-men-don't-express-their-feelings-but-instead-risk-their-lives-in-thrillingly-dangerous-aeronautical-stunts" and had Cary Grant being handsome, and it was pretty good if fairly unmemorable.
Visconti's The Leopard: I still have 25 minutes or so to watch of this, but I don't think I'm being too premature in saying that it's great.

[peacocks]

Finally saw the film version of The Last Unicorn, and think I liked it even more than the book. Read the book years ago, so maybe I'm just experiencing the story differently. But what a wonderful myth. I'll never look at ocean foam the same way again.

love this movie. I want to see Shoot the Piano Player! Next I want to see nightmare alley and a touch of evil. My friend was talking about the book, nightmare alley, and it sounded pretty cool.

[C of heartbreak]

Only Angels have wings was good Hawksian "real-men-don't-express-their-feelings-but-instead-risk-their-lives-in-thrillingly-dangerous-aeronautical-stunts" and had Cary Grant being handsome, and it was pretty good if fairly unmemorable.

This is my least favorite Cary Grant movie. All of the dickhead Cary Grant without any of the charm. And for some reason they're flying planes? I guess it was supposed to appeal to men.

[G.C.R]

Real Men. Men who don't cry when they send young men up in tiny rickety planes in thunderstorms and then totally surprisingly crash and die. Men who are so manly they totally don't care about that needy broad Rita Hayworth.

Peacocks, Nightmare Alley is pretty patchy but Of Interest. Have you seen Freaks? That is by far the better Carny Life movie, though Nightmare Alley does have some impressive drunkenness IIRC. And Touch of Evil is great.

[clare]

I'm about to watch True Grit. Wish me luck, I guess. We also watched a weirdo 80s movie last night called Body Double on TV. Not really my kind of thing, but kind of interesting...

[JamesSchneider]

I've been thinking of revisiting True Grit, as last time it was in the theater and I was watching everything with sort of a critical eye toward awards season, and in retrospect it seems like it may have been a lot of fun if I let it.

[clare]

I think so. I'm really tired and I kept falling asleep. Bugger.

[jebreject]

I loved it!

[Babar]

I'm about to watch True Grit. Wish me luck, I guess. We also watched a weirdo 80s movie last night called Body Double on TV. Not really my kind of thing, but kind of interesting...

True Grit was a piece of shit. You are probably talking about the Brian De Palma film and it happens to be the next movie of his that I'm gonna check out on my journey through his filmography.

[G.C.R]

I'm a bit embarrassed to be giving this film a more thoughtful post than I gave to Shoot the Piano Player, but last night I watched Babies! I'd got it out because it had all the criteria I was after a)something I was pretty sure I'd like a lot and b)something that would require virtually no effort, thought and only the most minimal concentration on my part after work on a Sunday night. It was great! Watching babies generally is pretty fun, and it was interesting to see both how different lives are in other places, but also how babies are all pretty much the same - crying and sleeping and crawling and hitting things. I think you'd have to be total churl to dislike this film.

[clare]

Yeah, it was Brian De Palma. And like I said, not usually my bag (I've never seen any Hitchcock from what I can remember) but I thought it was pretty good. Having never seen any Hitchcock, it reminded me more of The Rhinoceros (with Gene Wilder, yay!) than anything else. Very consciously arty.

[peacocks]

Alright. I don't know how this happened but I just saw the new twilight movie. I have one thing to say that is a spoiler alert: how the f is a vampire going to GOOGLE vampire baby? They should already know that shit! He didn't even use google, he used yahoo. Maybe that was the problem.

[jebreject]

How is vampire babby formed

[elpollodiablo]

(common sense)

[JamesSchneider]

Guys, this is what I wanted to talk about after I SAW THE FUCKING MOVIE AT OPENING MIDNIGHT.

Vampire baby formed when undead sperm (shall we assume it sparkles?) slams hard into a human egg. Then it gestates for (I think) about three weeks, then it needs to be eaten out of the carrier by her husband, at which point his werewolf nemesis makes a psychic eventual fuck contract with the newborn. I swear to fuck this thing is a Cronenberg movie made by idiots with lots of feelings.

[dieblucasdie]

He didn't google it!  Dude used yahoo.

It was sort of a callback to that hilarious scene in the first movie where Bella first suspects that Edward might be a vampire, and goes home and googles "vampire."  

As is my custom, I got super-baked and went to Breaking Dawn last night.  I was leaving afterwards, literally still in the theatre's lobby, when I got a FB notification on my phone from Anne about how she just went to see it drunk.  Lulz.

A werewolf fell in love with a baby!  It was amazing.  I was prepared to be let down by the birth scene, given that the movie's PG-13, but damn, that shit was awesomely horrific.  Kristen Stewart with the fake pregnancy belly did not disappoint either.

I was a little sad that they elected not to show him fucking her unconscious, though.  The way they glossed over that was pretty hilarious; the flashbacks to the sex scene are all soft-focus and candlelit and sensual, but then... the room's destroyed?  She has tons of bruises?  Zah?

Man, that book is so fucked up

xpost

haha, yep, James, I always think of this piece hannah posted way back:

http://www.chud.com/21684/the-devins-advocate-why-breaking-dawn-must-be-made-into-a-movie/

[peacocks]

He didn't google it!  Dude used yahoo.

Alright. I don't know how this happened but I just saw the new twilight movie. I have one thing to say that is a spoiler alert: how the f is a vampire going to GOOGLE vampire baby? They should already know that shit! He didn't even use google, he used yahoo. Maybe that was the problem.

That's what I said!

[peacocks]

What would your vampire babby name be? Take your mom's first name and your babby daddy's or babby mommy's first name and combine 'em.