What classics did you see last week ? (14 Apr - 20 Apr 2019)
Apr 20, 2019 21:51:55 GMT
spiderwort, teleadm, and 6 more like this
Post by mikef6 on Apr 20, 2019 21:51:55 GMT
The Tunnel (aka Transatlantic Tunnel) / Maurice Elvey (1935). Gaumont British Picture Corporation. A futuristic tale of an attempt to build a 2,000 tunnel from England to America. One person, looking back, says that an English Channel Tunnel had been finished in 1940 (five years in the future of this movie; the movie was only off by 59 years-the Channel Tunnel opened in 1994). It also pictures transatlantic non-stop passenger air travel – a relatively new advance – as routine. The story: Driven engineer Richard McAllan (Richard Dix) pitches his tunnel idea to some rich speculative financiers. For various reasons, they invest in the project. The first third of the film is pretty soapy. McAllen, obsessed with the tunnel construction, neglects his wife and child. When his wife is blinded by “Tunnel Sickness” (a mysterious illness) and McAllen goes on a PR tour accompanied by a slinky flapper-type, she leaves him. The action begins (and turns near tragic) when the worker his an undersea volcano. Special effects well done. Some of the scenes of the workmen remind me of “Metropolis.” Also with Leslie Banks, Madge Evans, Helen Vinson, and C. Aubrey Smith. George Arless and Walter Huston make brief cameos as the British Prime Minister and American President. One of the three credited writers is sci-fi novelist Curt Siodmak, brother to director Robert. An interesting curio that maybe should have a larger audience. DVR’d from the Comet cable channel.
![]()
The Detective (Father Brown) / Robert Hamer (1954). Columbia Pictures UK. Adapted from the Father Brown stories by G. K. Chesterton, in particular the first Father Brown story, “The Blue Cross.” Alec Guinness stars as Chesterton’s clerical sleuth who takes on the task of not only foiling the plans of the international thief known only as Flambeau (Peter Finch), but saving the man’s soul in the process. This movie’s Father Brown does not really do a lot of detection, solving “impossible crimes,” so may not entirely please die-hard Father Brown fans. Yet he has the attitude and smarts to go toe-to-toe with Finch’s confident criminal. Finch is very good as the master of disguise and the unmatchable Joan Greenwood is one of Brown’s parishoners who helps the Priest in one of his traps for Flambeau. A bit of a puff piece but very enjoyable just watching some top British actors play off one another.
Peter Finch and Alec Guiness
The Metropolitan Opera HD Live: Verdi: La Traviata. (2018). The Met Opera Saturday matinee which was broadcast live to theaters on December 15, 2018 was given an encore on PBS Great Performances, April 5, 2019 – where I caught it. Verdi was already a popular composer of opera and rising fast in 1853 when this opus, based on the novel “The Lady of the Camilles” by Alexander Dumas fils was first given. Its premiere is one of theater’s most famous opening night failures. The soprano singing the lead role of a young beautiful courtesan dying of tuberculosis was aging and a little on the heavy side. Today we would be offended by the “fat shaming” but the first night audience thought it was hilarious every time she gave a little cough to signify her illness. Verdi himself described the night as “a fiasco” but was confident in the music’s quality. Of course, there will be dozens if not hundreds of performances of “La Traviata” worldwide in 2019, 166 years after the fiasco.
Beoning (Burning) / Chang-dong Lee (2018). South Korea. This film, well-received by critics last year, seems right in my wheelhouse – “deliberately paced,” a slow burn building to a revelation – yet for the first half of this 150 minute drama nearly tempted me to turn it off for good and go to sleep. Jong-su Lee (Ah-in Yoo) is a minimally employed college grad. He meets Hae-mi Shin (Jong-seo Jun) who takes him back to her apartment where they have sex. After, she tells him she is leaving on a vacation to Africa and will he feed her cat. Even though Jong-su is not even sure that she has a cat agrees. When he goes to pick her up at the airport upon her return, she de-planes with Ben (Steven Yeun, The Walking Dead) who she met in Africa. Jong-su then has to sit back and watch Ben dominate her attention – which goes on for a long time. There is a turning point when Hae-mi vanishes along with her possibly imaginary cat. Jumping to the ending which is such an amazing, jaw-dropping, WTF experience that I have been thinking for almost a week whether the last 4 or 5 minutes saves the rest of the film. I have decided “no” but it comes close.
The Detective (Father Brown) / Robert Hamer (1954). Columbia Pictures UK. Adapted from the Father Brown stories by G. K. Chesterton, in particular the first Father Brown story, “The Blue Cross.” Alec Guinness stars as Chesterton’s clerical sleuth who takes on the task of not only foiling the plans of the international thief known only as Flambeau (Peter Finch), but saving the man’s soul in the process. This movie’s Father Brown does not really do a lot of detection, solving “impossible crimes,” so may not entirely please die-hard Father Brown fans. Yet he has the attitude and smarts to go toe-to-toe with Finch’s confident criminal. Finch is very good as the master of disguise and the unmatchable Joan Greenwood is one of Brown’s parishoners who helps the Priest in one of his traps for Flambeau. A bit of a puff piece but very enjoyable just watching some top British actors play off one another.
Peter Finch and Alec Guiness
The Metropolitan Opera HD Live: Verdi: La Traviata. (2018). The Met Opera Saturday matinee which was broadcast live to theaters on December 15, 2018 was given an encore on PBS Great Performances, April 5, 2019 – where I caught it. Verdi was already a popular composer of opera and rising fast in 1853 when this opus, based on the novel “The Lady of the Camilles” by Alexander Dumas fils was first given. Its premiere is one of theater’s most famous opening night failures. The soprano singing the lead role of a young beautiful courtesan dying of tuberculosis was aging and a little on the heavy side. Today we would be offended by the “fat shaming” but the first night audience thought it was hilarious every time she gave a little cough to signify her illness. Verdi himself described the night as “a fiasco” but was confident in the music’s quality. Of course, there will be dozens if not hundreds of performances of “La Traviata” worldwide in 2019, 166 years after the fiasco.
Beoning (Burning) / Chang-dong Lee (2018). South Korea. This film, well-received by critics last year, seems right in my wheelhouse – “deliberately paced,” a slow burn building to a revelation – yet for the first half of this 150 minute drama nearly tempted me to turn it off for good and go to sleep. Jong-su Lee (Ah-in Yoo) is a minimally employed college grad. He meets Hae-mi Shin (Jong-seo Jun) who takes him back to her apartment where they have sex. After, she tells him she is leaving on a vacation to Africa and will he feed her cat. Even though Jong-su is not even sure that she has a cat agrees. When he goes to pick her up at the airport upon her return, she de-planes with Ben (Steven Yeun, The Walking Dead) who she met in Africa. Jong-su then has to sit back and watch Ben dominate her attention – which goes on for a long time. There is a turning point when Hae-mi vanishes along with her possibly imaginary cat. Jumping to the ending which is such an amazing, jaw-dropping, WTF experience that I have been thinking for almost a week whether the last 4 or 5 minutes saves the rest of the film. I have decided “no” but it comes close.