"That sounds like a cheap novelette." "Well, I write cheap novelettes."
So. Movies! (I said I would)
To be addressed to some extent in this post:
Tell No One
The Godfather Part II
The Public Enemy
M.A.S.H.
The Thin Man
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Third Man
I do not think I will be especially eloquent or in-depth. :/ Sorry.
I really should have posted about Tell No One about a month ago, because it's probably totally out of theatres by now. But I encourage you to catch it on dvd when it comes out. It's a Hitchcockian thriller, but...French. It's about a man who ends up framed for a crime he did not commit, and whose only hope may be the wife he had thought was dead. Quite Hitchcock. It's even got some of the humorous sensibility you might remember from things like North by Northwest. But it's got a lot of sort of class struggle stuff that ends up worked in, which is rather European, and it has a lot of fun just being in different sort of subcultures. Oh, and it doesn't mind nudity as much as Hollywood tends to. It's also actually extremely romantic. An excellent thriller which could also function well as a date movie. It was very much worth the ticket price. (Why don't we see this kind of thriller very often anymore?)
Fun fact. I've seen The Godfather Part I three times or more, but somehow I never saw Part II. Well, now I have. This came up in conversation with my parents about two weeks ago now and they were like "WHAT?" and we fixed the problem that very night.
I believe I'm going to turn out to be one of the people that prefers II. I refuse to say this definitively until I've watched both I and II side by side on dvd (we still only have tapes of them, which is cruel), but my take on the whole is the same as my fathers. I is better constructed, but II has more heart, which is mainly brought through young Vito. (I'd say II also has more classical tragedy to it, which I like examining.) There are so many astounding scenes, which is only to be expected. The festival was definitely my favorite. In fact, it may be my favorite scene from any Coppolla movie I know.
But an interesting little note. My mother talked about how in this film death is always accompanied by something grand, or at very least by hugely dramatic overtones. Case in point, the festival scene. However, there is really one very noticeable exception to this. When Vito returns to Sicily and kills the don who had killed his parents. That scene is really quite understated, to the point, and kinda brutal. Which to my mind at least, actually really drives home that this is the basic heart of the lifestyle of these people. Not galas in Cuba, but people being simply, plainly, ruthless. For whatever purpose. For revenge, family, power. It's an honest an unapologetic scene, and coming as it does near the end of the film, it says that while we may be fascinated by these people, we should have no illusions about them.
In a completely different gangster mode, we have The Public Enemy, in which Jimmy Cagney is a Irish gangster in Chicago. Now, the script isn't exactly genius, and most of the acting is really more serviceable than anything. But it's entirely worth watching for two reasons, the directing and Cagney. Seriously, this film has amazing direction. It has what I think was one of the first trench shots (where a car drove right over the camera), this wonderful way of framing shots (Wellman has a great flair for highly impacting visuals too, which is very evident in the last scene), and in 1931, when many directors were still struggling with dealing with sound in the first place, Wellman used it to full cinematic effect (there's a death scene where you don't see it happen, you hear it through the piano). Cagney is somewhat odd but completely fascinating. He works on the screen, he's energetic, quirky, and compelling. He's just extremely well suited to being filmed, which is always nice to watch.
Of course, on the subject of sound direction, you can't beat Robert Altman. (Though you can tie him, if you're, say, Francis Ford Coppolla.) M.A.S.H. was Altman's first film. Which is evident to my ear, the soundtrack itself is a little more conventional than his later works. In any case, it's brilliant. It's the chaotic life in war. And I spent a lot more time laughing out loud at it than I have at anything in quite a while, I think. It's really quite racy, by the way. As well as extremely subversive, what with the theme song being "Suicide is Painless" and a scene that sends up Da Vinci's "The Last Supper." Of course, if you're familiar with the later show it can be kind of hard to distance Hawkeye from Alan Alda, for example, but it's worth it.
Fun fact: The screenwriter hated Altman's guts. After all, Altman let the actors change the lines and improvise and made them talk over each other. The screenwriter did, however, still accept his Oscar. (Which arguably kind of should have been at least shared with Altman.)
I was completely thrilled by The Thin Man. It's a fun little mystery, but it's mostly about the fun little characters. Some great noir-style visuals with a script which draws just as much from screwball comedy as it does from mystery. But the really wonderful thing about it is, of course, Nick and Nora. This is a kind of couple you really don't often see in movies. Two people who love and trust each other completely but don't make a big deal out of it. For example...
Distressed girl collapses against Nick. Nora walks in. Nora just basically raises her eyebrows and comes in to talk about matters.
And William Powell and Myrna Loy are just perfect. I'd say that Powell is especially good at capturing Nick at different times and in different moods/circumstances. The movie also has a priceless "parlor scene." Anyway, if you haven't seen this, you've got to. You'll have a ball.
Now for the things I'd seen before but want to talk about anyway.
Last week I was at the bookstore finally buying the last season of Foyle's War, and while I was there, out of habit, I checked their selection from the Criterion Collection ("A continuing series of important classic and contemporary films," noted for having a lot of work by major directors such as Kurosawa and Bergman, as well as things like The Passion of Joan of Arc and The Third Man). And I was amazed and pleased to discover that a movie I have wanted for a while, a movie that was just released in 2002, had not only recently become part of the collection, but was also still only 20 bucks. I now have The Royal Tenenbaums.
The Royal Tenenbaums is an interesting film. It will make you believe in things you may not have otherwise. You will believe that Owen Wilson can do a damn good job co-authoring a script. You will believe that Ben Stiller can give a rather grounded and actually rather touching performance. You will also come to realize that the family in Little Miss Sunshine was in some ways very high functioning. And ask important questions like, "Is it incest if they're not related by blood?" Basically this is an excellently framed very dark comedy. And the world always needs more good black comedy, if you ask me.
Oh, and guess what I found at the annual poster sale today? A poster for The Royal Tenenbaums. It's the month for this movie, or something.
Also last week, I finally showed karakael and aubergine_pilot The Third Man. (This is something of a pattern with me. Befriend people, make them watch classic movies. >.>) I've seen the thing a decent amount of times, but it had been about two years, and I am ashamed to admit that I had forgotten just how brilliant that thing is. The soundtrack, the sound direction, the script, the acting, the framing oh how I love the tilt of that camera, the sets and street shots (they turned London into post-war Vienna). And of course, the ending. Not the sewer chase scene that's often ripped off, but the very ending. Brilliant. Because even if it's true that there are sometimes heroes in this world, they don't get rewarded in this life. God I need my own copy of that movie so badly.
And now I shut up. Well, except...
On a not movie note, I want to belatedly say "HELL YES, DAMN RIGHT 30 ROCK IS THE BEST COMEDY BEING AIRED THESE DAYS. AND DAMN RIGHT TINA FEY AND ALEC BALDWIN ARE MASTERS OF THEIR CRAFT. AND OF COURSE FEY DESERVES THAT EMMY FOR WRITING "COOTER." My complaint is that Jack McBreyer was not even nominated for best supporting when his work as Kenneth is awe-inspiring.
Also, Alec Baldwin is everywhere, whut.
To be addressed to some extent in this post:
Tell No One
The Godfather Part II
The Public Enemy
M.A.S.H.
The Thin Man
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Third Man
I do not think I will be especially eloquent or in-depth. :/ Sorry.
I really should have posted about Tell No One about a month ago, because it's probably totally out of theatres by now. But I encourage you to catch it on dvd when it comes out. It's a Hitchcockian thriller, but...French. It's about a man who ends up framed for a crime he did not commit, and whose only hope may be the wife he had thought was dead. Quite Hitchcock. It's even got some of the humorous sensibility you might remember from things like North by Northwest. But it's got a lot of sort of class struggle stuff that ends up worked in, which is rather European, and it has a lot of fun just being in different sort of subcultures. Oh, and it doesn't mind nudity as much as Hollywood tends to. It's also actually extremely romantic. An excellent thriller which could also function well as a date movie. It was very much worth the ticket price. (Why don't we see this kind of thriller very often anymore?)
Fun fact. I've seen The Godfather Part I three times or more, but somehow I never saw Part II. Well, now I have. This came up in conversation with my parents about two weeks ago now and they were like "WHAT?" and we fixed the problem that very night.
I believe I'm going to turn out to be one of the people that prefers II. I refuse to say this definitively until I've watched both I and II side by side on dvd (we still only have tapes of them, which is cruel), but my take on the whole is the same as my fathers. I is better constructed, but II has more heart, which is mainly brought through young Vito. (I'd say II also has more classical tragedy to it, which I like examining.) There are so many astounding scenes, which is only to be expected. The festival was definitely my favorite. In fact, it may be my favorite scene from any Coppolla movie I know.
But an interesting little note. My mother talked about how in this film death is always accompanied by something grand, or at very least by hugely dramatic overtones. Case in point, the festival scene. However, there is really one very noticeable exception to this. When Vito returns to Sicily and kills the don who had killed his parents. That scene is really quite understated, to the point, and kinda brutal. Which to my mind at least, actually really drives home that this is the basic heart of the lifestyle of these people. Not galas in Cuba, but people being simply, plainly, ruthless. For whatever purpose. For revenge, family, power. It's an honest an unapologetic scene, and coming as it does near the end of the film, it says that while we may be fascinated by these people, we should have no illusions about them.
In a completely different gangster mode, we have The Public Enemy, in which Jimmy Cagney is a Irish gangster in Chicago. Now, the script isn't exactly genius, and most of the acting is really more serviceable than anything. But it's entirely worth watching for two reasons, the directing and Cagney. Seriously, this film has amazing direction. It has what I think was one of the first trench shots (where a car drove right over the camera), this wonderful way of framing shots (Wellman has a great flair for highly impacting visuals too, which is very evident in the last scene), and in 1931, when many directors were still struggling with dealing with sound in the first place, Wellman used it to full cinematic effect (there's a death scene where you don't see it happen, you hear it through the piano). Cagney is somewhat odd but completely fascinating. He works on the screen, he's energetic, quirky, and compelling. He's just extremely well suited to being filmed, which is always nice to watch.
Of course, on the subject of sound direction, you can't beat Robert Altman. (Though you can tie him, if you're, say, Francis Ford Coppolla.) M.A.S.H. was Altman's first film. Which is evident to my ear, the soundtrack itself is a little more conventional than his later works. In any case, it's brilliant. It's the chaotic life in war. And I spent a lot more time laughing out loud at it than I have at anything in quite a while, I think. It's really quite racy, by the way. As well as extremely subversive, what with the theme song being "Suicide is Painless" and a scene that sends up Da Vinci's "The Last Supper." Of course, if you're familiar with the later show it can be kind of hard to distance Hawkeye from Alan Alda, for example, but it's worth it.
Fun fact: The screenwriter hated Altman's guts. After all, Altman let the actors change the lines and improvise and made them talk over each other. The screenwriter did, however, still accept his Oscar. (Which arguably kind of should have been at least shared with Altman.)
I was completely thrilled by The Thin Man. It's a fun little mystery, but it's mostly about the fun little characters. Some great noir-style visuals with a script which draws just as much from screwball comedy as it does from mystery. But the really wonderful thing about it is, of course, Nick and Nora. This is a kind of couple you really don't often see in movies. Two people who love and trust each other completely but don't make a big deal out of it. For example...
Distressed girl collapses against Nick. Nora walks in. Nora just basically raises her eyebrows and comes in to talk about matters.
And William Powell and Myrna Loy are just perfect. I'd say that Powell is especially good at capturing Nick at different times and in different moods/circumstances. The movie also has a priceless "parlor scene." Anyway, if you haven't seen this, you've got to. You'll have a ball.
Now for the things I'd seen before but want to talk about anyway.
Last week I was at the bookstore finally buying the last season of Foyle's War, and while I was there, out of habit, I checked their selection from the Criterion Collection ("A continuing series of important classic and contemporary films," noted for having a lot of work by major directors such as Kurosawa and Bergman, as well as things like The Passion of Joan of Arc and The Third Man). And I was amazed and pleased to discover that a movie I have wanted for a while, a movie that was just released in 2002, had not only recently become part of the collection, but was also still only 20 bucks. I now have The Royal Tenenbaums.
The Royal Tenenbaums is an interesting film. It will make you believe in things you may not have otherwise. You will believe that Owen Wilson can do a damn good job co-authoring a script. You will believe that Ben Stiller can give a rather grounded and actually rather touching performance. You will also come to realize that the family in Little Miss Sunshine was in some ways very high functioning. And ask important questions like, "Is it incest if they're not related by blood?" Basically this is an excellently framed very dark comedy. And the world always needs more good black comedy, if you ask me.
Oh, and guess what I found at the annual poster sale today? A poster for The Royal Tenenbaums. It's the month for this movie, or something.
Also last week, I finally showed karakael and aubergine_pilot The Third Man. (This is something of a pattern with me. Befriend people, make them watch classic movies. >.>) I've seen the thing a decent amount of times, but it had been about two years, and I am ashamed to admit that I had forgotten just how brilliant that thing is. The soundtrack, the sound direction, the script, the acting, the framing oh how I love the tilt of that camera, the sets and street shots (they turned London into post-war Vienna). And of course, the ending. Not the sewer chase scene that's often ripped off, but the very ending. Brilliant. Because even if it's true that there are sometimes heroes in this world, they don't get rewarded in this life. God I need my own copy of that movie so badly.
And now I shut up. Well, except...
On a not movie note, I want to belatedly say "HELL YES, DAMN RIGHT 30 ROCK IS THE BEST COMEDY BEING AIRED THESE DAYS. AND DAMN RIGHT TINA FEY AND ALEC BALDWIN ARE MASTERS OF THEIR CRAFT. AND OF COURSE FEY DESERVES THAT EMMY FOR WRITING "COOTER." My complaint is that Jack McBreyer was not even nominated for best supporting when his work as Kenneth is awe-inspiring.
Also, Alec Baldwin is everywhere, whut.