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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Dec 28, 2019 5:01:51 GMT
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
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Post by Prime etc. on Dec 28, 2019 6:31:21 GMT
A CHRISTMAS CAROL 1938 - Finally was curious enough to watch this as I had no Christmas-themed viewing planned except The Silent Partner. Usually one takes the 1930s movies as somewhat iconic--Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Robin Hood, yet this is not the case with the Reginald Owen version. It's not a bad version, I especially like the Marley and Cratchett in this one-the spirits of Christmas past and present are good too--but I think they lingered way too long on the Cratchett Christmas feast scenes (it was funny how they showed the dead goose with the swinging head at the beginning yet later saw fit to cover the head when they showed them again --the children's fascination with wanting to play with the dead goose was a little creepy). Owen is ok. Seems like they took a major chunk out of his story by not having his fiancee'! So I would agree it doesn't feel as classic as the Alister Sims version, but I found myself tearing up when he visits his nephew so it worked well enough for me.
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Post by Prime etc. on Dec 28, 2019 19:32:34 GMT
Another odd thing--Cratchett gets fired yet spends big on food for Christmas-so the next day when Scrooge buys him an equally large Christmas dinner, it doesn't seem so charitable. They were already eating well!
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Post by BATouttaheck on Dec 28, 2019 20:15:10 GMT
millar70RE: Casablanca …. did you notice that little nod that Rick gives to the orchestra just before they start to play the Marseilles ? Somehow I had missed it until one of our stalwart CFBers pointed it out ! Your next viewing ( there WILL be more ! ) watch for it !
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Post by millar70 on Dec 28, 2019 20:21:43 GMT
millar70RE: Casablanca …. did you notice that little nod that Rick gives to the orchestra just before they start to play the Marseilles ? Somehow I had missed it until one of our stalwart CFBers pointed it out ! Your next viewing ( there WILL be more ! ) watch for it ! Oh yeah, I noticed it. There was no way the band would start playing anything that controversial unless Rick gave his approval, that was my take. I read that on some random day of shooting, they had Bogart stand there alone while they filmed him nodding. He supposedly had no idea what that nod was for when they filmed it. I'm still thinking about the movie the next day, always a good indication of the quality of a film. I'm thinking of starting a thread about Claude Rains's character, but that's still in the works!
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Post by teleadm on Dec 28, 2019 21:08:28 GMT
millar70 RE: Casablanca …. did you notice that little nod that Rick gives to the orchestra just before they start to play the Marseilles ? Somehow I had missed it until one of our stalwart CFBers pointed it out ! Your next viewing ( there WILL be more ! ) watch for it ! Oh yeah, I noticed it. There was no way the band would start playing anything that controversial unless Rick gave his approval, that was my take. I read that on some random day of shooting, they had Bogart stand there alone while they filmed him nodding. He supposedly had no idea what that nod was for when they filmed it. I'm still thinking about the movie the next day, always a good indication of the quality of a film. I'm thinking of starting a thread about Claude Rains's character, but that's still in the works! That scene still give me chills, in a good way: That guitar woman, Corinna Gurra, seams to have disappeared into oblivion, though she did appear at a White House concert for FDR.
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Post by millar70 on Dec 28, 2019 21:53:10 GMT
Oh yeah, I noticed it. There was no way the band would start playing anything that controversial unless Rick gave his approval, that was my take. I read that on some random day of shooting, they had Bogart stand there alone while they filmed him nodding. He supposedly had no idea what that nod was for when they filmed it. I'm still thinking about the movie the next day, always a good indication of the quality of a film. I'm thinking of starting a thread about Claude Rains's character, but that's still in the works! That scene still give me chills, in a good way: That guitar woman, Corinna Gurra, seams to have disappeared into oblivion, though she did appear at a White House concert for FDR. Powerful scene, especially when you consider so many folks in that scene weren't exactly "acting", they were singing it straight through their hearts. I'm also very glad they don't show Bogart/Rick singing along. We don't know exactly what he's doing during the song, other than that he approved the band playing the anthem. A lesser filmmaker may have opted for a crowd-pleasing shot of Rick singing along with the crowd, but that would have maybe cheapened the moment, and altered how we viewed Rick at that time in the film.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Dec 28, 2019 23:10:40 GMT
millar70 RE: Casablanca …. did you notice that little nod that Rick gives to the orchestra just before they start to play the Marseilles ? Somehow I had missed it until one of our stalwart CFBers pointed it out ! Your next viewing ( there WILL be more ! ) watch for it ! Oh yeah, I noticed it. There was no way the band would start playing anything that controversial unless Rick gave his approval, that was my take. I read that on some random day of shooting, they had Bogart stand there alone while they filmed him nodding. He supposedly had no idea what that nod was for when they filmed it.
I'm still thinking about the movie the next day, always a good indication of the quality of a film. I'm thinking of starting a thread about Claude Rains's character, but that's still in the works! That's quite common, and has long been pretty much standard procedure for the piecemeal, out-of-sequence, "jigsaw puzzle" nature of film making. Consider the extended closeup of Bergman as Ilsa listens to Sam playing "As Time Goes By;" she'd have been the only performer needed on the set for that shot, Dooley Wilson was probably nowhere around and there was likely not even any music playing. Perhaps Michael Curtiz coached her through it as she was doing it. Although her face remains almost entirely immobile, a viewer can sense a dozen different emotions flickering across it. This was a particularly favored method for Alfred Hitchcock, whose films heavily utilized reaction shots to events filmed at another time. He might say, "Okay, Jimmy, look to your right and then chuckle silently; now look straight ahead into the distance at something that interests you, but which you don't fully understand." Players like James Stewart were quite comfortable with this sort of direction, understanding Hitchcock's method of supplying the meaning of those reaction shots in the editing room, intercutting footage of the events to which Stewart would appear to be reacting. Actors like Montgomery Clift, on the other hand, found it difficult to deal with, and would in turn make it difficult for Hitchcock with demands to know why they were looking up or down, frowning, smiling or whatever, and considering his explanation, "Because I'm the director, it's what I need and have asked you to do," insufficient. But probably half of motion picture acting is a matter of mechanics: hit your mark; don't lean or shift your stance so you go out of focus, out of frame or lose your key light; begin your cross to the other side of the set on this word of this line, because that's how the camera crew will time their movements to follow you. And so on. It's especially emblematic of the "studio era" of assembly-line film making, of which Casablanca is an example of that system at its pinnacle: everything is accomplished with polish and assurance, in spite of any uncertainty on the part of players, screenwriters and director alike about how it would all turn out. And in the end, it was all assembled with the precision of a fine timepiece, after hundreds of little adjustments here and there, and owing to expertise within the crafts of everyone involved. By all accounts, that uncertainty during production was more than just Hollywood myth, but when all was said and done, director Curtiz and screenwriters Howard Koch and Philip and Julius Epstein returned time and again to the text of Everybody Comes To Rick's, the 1939 play on which Casablanca was based, and the dramatic arc of which tracks quite closely with the finished film. As BATouttaheck suggests, it's a film that bears multiple re-viewings, and even benefits therefrom. On the first viewing, for example, we don't know exactly why Ilsa becomes so wistful as she listens to Sam play; with re-watches, knowledge of the backstory provides even more texture to that simple scene. It's also a film in which nothing - but nothing - is wasted. Every last detail, no matter how seemingly insignificant at first, provides crucial information and subtext that pays off when connected to later plot and character developments. The amusing and rapid patter of Curt Bois as the pickpocket in an early scene is a case in point, laying the groundwork for an understanding of how "law and order" functions in Casablanca under Vichy government, and under the loosely-principled licentiousness of Capt. Renault in particular. I'm very pleased to read how much you appreciated it, as films carrying as many years of advance hype and legendary status as Casablanca can sometimes disappoint viewers of lesser discernment and taste, and I'll be hoping you proceed with your thread on Claude Rains's Renault. That should be fun.
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Post by Prime etc. on Dec 28, 2019 23:19:09 GMT
Well since Casablanca is still being discussed I will chime in. It is a skillful example of film used to manipulate one's sense of physical space and scale--like Bergman being taller than Bogart or the cardboard airplane. BUT I am STILL going to emphasize, that the story is about a mercenary who renews his love affair with fighting. Anyone who think it is a love story between Rick and Ilsa is not paying attention.
He is a mercenary who lost in Spain and is having good times in Paris. Ilsa thinks her mentor political boyfriend is dead so she and him share this kind of limbo from their political beliefs. But then she leaves with Lazlo and Rick is crushed--why? Because he is not really being himself. He wants to fight-and she comes back into his life and forces him to confront his fears and doubts--about fighting. Lazlo shows him that he needs to be true to himself.
Didn't Bergman say she was confused about who she was supposed to love? Yeah--because the love story is about fighting, not between her and Rick. The big flourish with the music at the end and him saying "we'll always have Paris" is to indicate that although war is more important, they can still remember their good times together in-between fighting. The fact that she loves Rick more than Lazlo is creepy--because it means she is sacrificing her personal life for a political cause. And Renault, who I think is the most sincere character, he finds his national pride (in self-interest)--so he feels like the most real human of the lot of them. Everyone else is motivated by plot or cause.
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Post by millar70 on Dec 28, 2019 23:30:24 GMT
Well since Casablanca is still being discussed I will chime in. It is a skillful example of film used to manipulate one's sense of physical space and scale--like Bergman being taller than Bogart or the cardboard airplane. BUT I am STILL going to emphasize, that the story is about a mercenary who renews his love affair with fighting. Anyone who think it is a love story between Rick and Ilsa is not paying attention. He is a mercenary who lost in Spain and is having good times in Paris. Ilsa thinks her mentor political boyfriend is dead so she and him share this kind of limbo from their political beliefs. But then she leaves with Lazlo and Rick is crushed--why? Because he is not really being himself. He wants to fight-and she comes back into his life and forces him to confront his fears and doubts--about fighting. Lazlo shows him that he needs to be true to himself. Didn't Bergman say she was confused about who she was supposed to love? Yeah--because the love story is about fighting, not between her and Rick. The big flourish with the music at the end and him saying "we'll always have Paris" is to indicate that although war is more important, they can still remember their good times together in-between fighting. The fact that she loves Rick more than Lazlo is creepy--because it means she is sacrificing her personal life for a political cause. And Renault, who I think is the most sincere character, he finds his national pride (in self-interest)--so he feels like the most real human of the lot of them. Everyone else is motivated by plot or cause. Very interesting post. I probably should have just started a Casablanca thread because this thread has gone a bit off-course, but I want to bring up one more thing that may tie in with your post. I noticed in the La Marseillaise scene that teleadim posted that you see close ups of Ilsa as Lazlo led the band that show (to me anyways) that she may have really loved him. At the very least, you see a pride in her face as her man stands up against the Nazis. Perhaps in her mind, she knows that this is not something that Rick would do, but Lazlo will. Maybe for that moment at least, her heart was with Lazlo. In the hands of a good director and great actress, these little flourishes of moments can say so much. Bergman pulls it off incredibly well.
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Post by Prime etc. on Dec 28, 2019 23:40:34 GMT
The one thing that grates on my nerves is at the start when the narrator says "With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became the great embarkation point. But, not everybody could get to Lisbon directly." The way he says "everybody" sounds so off key, like he switched into a Bronx accent. lol
Also, the band scene reveals the mancrush Rick has for Lazlo!
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Post by louise on Dec 29, 2019 15:58:26 GMT
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). Charming musical comedy set in England during WW2 with Angela Lansbury on great form as trainee witch Evangeline Price hoping to help the war effort with her magic. David Tomlinson also a delight as the incompetent magician who is drawn into her plans. The children are excellent, very natural acting and without any cloying sentimentality. I particularly like the Portobello Road musical number.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Dec 31, 2019 10:26:17 GMT
A League of Their Own (1992).
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 2, 2020 7:29:02 GMT
The Ring (2002).
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Post by teleadm on Jan 3, 2020 17:05:26 GMT
The Talk of the Town 1942 directed by George Stevens. It carries a very serious story about malfunctioning laws, and spices it with great humour and biting satire, showing how the law can be bought when the power is in the wrong hands, and even mob rule is about to happen. Yet it manages, thank's to the great balance George Stevens keeps, it never looses it's humrous moments. Cary Grant plays a man on the run for an arson charge he never did, who seeks refuge in a house owned by a an old school firend (Jean Arthur), soon to be inhabited by a "relatively young" law professor (Ronald Colman) soon maybe appointed as a new judge at U.S. Supreme Court, and can't be involved in local matters. The three stars is at the top of thier forms. Also notable, you have to have Borscht soup with an egg! Another notable aspect is the very non-stereotypical part of Rex Ingram as Colman's butler and chauffeur.
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Post by teleadm on Jan 4, 2020 16:20:53 GMT
Any movie based on a novel by Sir Walter Scott, and stars two Taylors, and have George Sanders as a bad guy in armour can't be bad. and it wasn't, after seeing a few too many modern versions of noble knights, it was nice seeing this old fashioned Knights in armour adventure, even if Robert Taylor is a bit boring.
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Post by louise on Jan 4, 2020 17:33:38 GMT
History is Made at Night (1937). Absurd melodrama with Jean Arthur as a woman trying to divorce her evil husband and Charles Boyer as the man who gets involved with her. Extremely silly film which culminates in a ludicrous shipwreck. Boyer and Arthur could have made a really good film together. This isn't it.
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Post by louise on Jan 5, 2020 12:06:44 GMT
Together Again (1944)Fairly amusing comedy with Irene Dunne as a widow who is now mayor of the town her late husband was previously mayor of. The head of her husband's statue is knocked off during a thunderstorm and her romantic stepdaughter wants a new statue made. So Dunne goes to New York to ask a famous sculptor (Charles Boyer) to make a new statue. This leads to complications. Charles Coburn is particularly good as Dunne's father-in-law.
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Post by louise on Jan 5, 2020 14:33:36 GMT
Footsteps in the Dark (1941). Comedy thriller with Errol Flynn as a financial adviser who has written a detective novel in his spare time, and finds himself getting involved in a real life murder case. Quite amusing.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 5, 2020 20:53:56 GMT
Little Women (1994).
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