spiderwort
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@spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Sept 5, 2017 2:11:44 GMT
If John Ford had shown some closeups of flowers in gardens he might have included : Tradescantia andersoniana aka spiderwort Thank you, bat, for clarifying my genus and species. I'm a gardener so I thought spiderwort would be a good name.
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Post by mattgarth on Sept 5, 2017 2:16:22 GMT
So THAT'S where that intriguing name comes from!
The head-scratching is finally over.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 5, 2017 3:09:09 GMT
So THAT'S where that intriguing name comes from! The head-scratching is finally over. I've been re-doing the garden this summer and pulled out a lot of spiderwort and transplanted it to the orchard. Comes in pinks and purples. Purdy ! I always knew that spiderwort was a flower but that is sooooo cool !
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Post by taylorfirst1 on Sept 5, 2017 15:20:36 GMT
John Ford is probably the greatest director of all time.
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spiderwort
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@spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Sept 6, 2017 1:42:10 GMT
John Ford is probably the greatest director of all time. At my age I have a hard time selecting only one, taylor. But I agree Ford was certainly one of the greatest, and most influential, and so many of his films will be remembered forever, like the plays of Shakespeare. I wonder if he had any sense of that all those years ago when he started his career making shorts in the silent era?
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Post by telegonus on Sept 7, 2017 19:00:06 GMT
The art of mise-en-scene seems to be fading, as technology is replacing artfulness, attention to detail and creativity everywhere I look. On that cheery note, John Ford was a true master in this area, and thanks for bringing the subject up, Spiderwort. Also memorable: the entire Stagecoach sequence in the Lordsburg saloon, where Luke Plummer awaits the arrival of the Ringo Kid. To die for editing, The music perfectly matches the images on screen,--no, not in a "Mickey Mouse" way--emotionally, dramatically. I love the tune the pianist plays, the words spoken in Spanish to Plummer, the watchful bartender.Also great, in the next year's Grapes Of Wrath, the diner scene with the bargaining over (literally) nickels and dimes, the children wanting the striped candy, the wordless charity of the truck drivers as they drop coins, paying back what the kids (and the Joads generally) got, with interest.More mannered and yet masterful all the same: the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor at the bar in They Were Expendable, as the place grows silent, not immediately but in short time, as the men file out wordlessly, knowing that big trouble is ahead, especially given where they're stationed: the Philippines. Great examples, telegonus, and beautifully described. I'm particularly fond of The Grapes of Wrath scene, but all are beautiful and moving.Thanks, Spiderwort. I could go on for a long time with scenes from Ford's earlier films, however it seems that after 1950 his powers of observation began to fail, leaving aside his pictorial sense. I don't care for the way The Quiet Man was made. Mister Roberts features some fine scenes but it's difficult to determine what's Ford's doing and what's Josh Logan,--or Ward Bond or Leland Heyward--it's somewhat messed up in that respect, crashes through in the end. I don't think that Ford cared much for the play anyway. Later on, The Rising Of The Moon is nicely done but not exceptional, while The Last Hurrah is just too corny for my tastes. Even the great The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance features a lot of near juvenile humor of the sort you'd expect in a Disney pic. Aimed at kids. Overall, it works due to the story, the acting, its deeply felt elegiac qualities. I think that John Wayne's performance is one of his best, and this is seldom commented on by critics. He runs the gamut, from tough guy to good pal to spurned lover to bitter, older man; and always credible.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 8, 2017 16:42:38 GMT
I haven't said anything on this thread, but I have enjoyed reading it.
So just a few notes
Stagecoach 1939, seeing it again after nearly 20 years, i knew I must have mixed it up with many other movies in a few scenes that I thought was missing. What catched me was a small speach the banker (Berton Churchill) said "I can't get over the impertinence of that young lieutenant. I'll make it warm for that shake-tail! I'll report him to Washington - we pay taxes to the government and what do we get? Not even protection from the army! I don't know what the government is coming to. Instead of protecting businessmen, it pokes its nose into business! Why, they're even talking now about having *bank* examiners. As if we bankers don't know how to run our own banks! Why, at home I have a letter from a popinjay official saying they were going to inspect my books. I have a slogan that should be blazoned on every newspaper in this country: America for the Americans! The government must not interfere with business! Reduce taxes! Our national debt is something shocking. Over one billion dollars a year! What this country needs is a businessman for president!"
Donovan's Reef 1963. The last party of John Ford with his drinking pals and Paramount pays. Apparently it was a big hit at the box-office. The lazines of this movie is actually what intrigues me. It could also be an answer to the press who slammed him after The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Spank a woman to obedience, now that sounds like something from another era, and dates it badly. With that said I actually use it for my December Christmas movies.
Variety in the second half of 1950s wrote about John Ford as: (from what I remember) Give John Ford 20 horses and 500 cattles and he still creates a great movie.
When Peter Bogdanovich asked how he created a certain scene (I don't remember what movie they talked about, but it doesn't matter), John Ford's answer was simple: We used cameras!
Richard Widmark in a Swedish Television interview talked about John Ford, he said Ford new exactly were all cameras should be placed, and when a young camerman moved a camera once to what he thought was a better place, Ford noticed it immediately and placed the camera back at it's original position. Widmark explained that the young camerman might have been right if it was an individual scene, but Ford had the whole movie in his head.
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Post by kijii on Sept 9, 2017 17:49:44 GMT
This is a totally new concept TO ME. But, it is very interesting!!!!
I am wondering if this Mise-en-scene talent (skill) hasn't been lost to modern directors. It seems that many newer films are only filling in scenes with background videos, while focusing in on the main actors only.
For example, the scene at Fenway Park in Spotlight shows a crowd, but it seems that the actors are shooting it in front of video previously shot of a Fenway at another time. In other words, the background seems to have no connection to the actors supposedly at Fenway: the "décor, props, and costumes" have been lost to modern movie making techniques.
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spiderwort
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@spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Sept 9, 2017 22:27:24 GMT
I am wondering if this Mise-en-scene talent (skill) hasn't been lost to modern directors. It seems that many newer films are only filling in scenes with background videos, while focusing in on the main actors only. There are always exceptions, of course, but, yes, it would seem to me that the use of static mise-en-scene in which the frame is constructed to convey layers of information without cutting is pretty much a lost art, at least in America. An unfortunate development, in my opinion.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 9, 2017 23:43:03 GMT
Just a few notes on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, some say it boring and some say it's a middle production, it took me three viewings to get it's essence. Yes it has it's flaws, some overacting, but none of that matters when you put it all together. It's John Ford's good-bye to a genre he has lived on, the wild west was never a rosy cheek place in the first place. Using many of his old standards like the drunk doctor, but suddenly as progress comes and goes from a comic figure to something more caring, asking Liberty, "Another one of your so called accidents?" (played by Ken Murray). John Wayne gives one of his best acting roles, going from light and humourous to very dark when he knows his existance is threatened (simple things became complicated with law and order), but smart enough to know that he is a relic from a bygone era by the end of the movie. James Stewart is the epitome of all politicians, naive and rightous at the beginning, but he also made a career of a lie, and he knows it. Liberty Valance as played by Lee Marvin (He plays that slime great) is the villian of the old hold em up era, frustrated with progress tries to prevent it at a new thing called political rallys. When the obvious villian is shot dead, nothing is actually solved, personified by John Carradine (he's very funny here) as a pompous politician that serves the big money vs the real hard working americans represented by James Stewart, it's also here John Wayne's character steps in and knowing he is now a relic and gives in to Stewart to go forth and beat big money.
Not gonna turn any heads around, but give it a chance
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2017 0:12:39 GMT
teleadm I have mentioned this in other threads BUT John Wayne is often put in that collection of "wooden actors" and the "he just plays himself" gang. Watching Liberty Valence with the sound off (in my case, due to a phone call going on in the room) allows one to just WATCH Wayne act and react to what is going on around him. Imo, he deserves more credit for being an "actor" and not "just a movie star". Re: your note above
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Post by teleadm on Sept 10, 2017 0:22:37 GMT
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Post by taylorfirst1 on Sept 10, 2017 0:41:36 GMT
Just a few notes on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, some say it boring and some say it's a middle production, it took me three viewings to get it's essence. Yes it has it's flaws, some overacting, but none of that matters when you put it all together. It's John Ford's good-bye to a genre he has lived on, the wild west was never a rosy cheek place in the first place. Using many of his old standards like the drunk doctor, but suddenly as progress comes and goes from a comic figure to something more caring, asking Liberty, "Another one of your so called accidents?" (played by Ken Murray). John Wayne gives one of his best acting roles, going from light and humourous to very dark when he knows his existance is threatened (simple things became complicated with law and order), but smart enough to know that he is a relic from a bygone era by the end of the movie. James Stewart is the epitome of all politicians, naive and rightous at the beginning, but he also made a career of a lie, and he knows it. Liberty Valance as played by Lee Marvin (He plays that slime great) is the villian of the old hold em up era, frustrated with progress tries to prevent it at a new thing called political rallys. When the obvious villian is shot dead, nothing is actually solved, personified by John Carradine (he's very funny here) as a pompous politician that serves the big money vs the real hard working americans represented by James Stewart, it's also here John Wayne's character steps in and knowing he is now a relic and gives in to Stewart to go forth and beat big money. Not gonna turn any heads around, but give it a chance Agreed. It is an excellent and multi-layered movie. I also agree with Bat Outaheck. John Wayne was an underrated actor. He gave many powerful performances that conveyed many emotions but in the way his characters could convey them. They were often leaders who had to set an example of calm and confidence to his men in desperate situations. Or they were men on a lawless frontier whose life depended on strength, toughness, and never showing fear or weakness. Within that context, Wayne could show a wide variety of emotion with just the look in his eye or the curl of his lips or the slight change in tone of his voice.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 10, 2017 0:51:42 GMT
taylorfirst1 " Wayne could show a wide variety of emotion with just the look in his eye or the curl of his lips or the slight change in tone of his voice. "
or just in a shift in the way he was standing. OR that little thing he did with his eyes ... just a tad more open than they were. This whole "wooden actor" or "bland" business for ANY actor drives me but more so for one who obviously was doing something right for ages and ages,
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