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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Apr 30, 2021 14:11:53 GMT
Nancy Drew (2007).
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Apr 30, 2021 16:15:27 GMT
Nothing Sacred (1937)
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Post by persistenceofvision on Apr 30, 2021 18:44:54 GMT
Phoenix (2014) German-Jewish chanteuse Nina Hoss escapes Hitler's death camps and has her ruined face surgically reconstructed. Returning to Berlin, she reunites with her estranged husband (Ronald Zehrfeld), who thought she was dead: he doesn't recognise her, but asks her to impersonate his late wife so he can inherit her money. Hubert Monteilhet's novel Le Retour des cendres was first filmed as Return from the Ashes in 1965. Not seen this, but the reviews make it sound like a decent thriller albeit one that exploits genuine historical death and suffering. (Director J. Lee Thompson made the original Cape Fear and Happy Birthday to Me among others.) Phoenix is a different kettle of fish altogether: German director Christian Petzold seems to want to make a serious movie about the nation's soul, with the heroine's face as a metaphor for war- and Nazi-ravaged Germany reassembling itself. ( Phoenix is the name of a GI-haunted nightclub where some key scenes take place, but of course it's also the mythical bird reborn from ashes.) Unfortunately this doesn't quite gel with the source's thriller elements, including the massive implausibility of the central set-up. Still, the evocation of bombed-out 1945 Berlin is great, as are Hoss as the traumatised heroine and Zehrfeld as her oafish ex; he looks like a roided-up Benicio del Toro. P.S. pretty much all the American characters in this film are crass, insensitive and incapable of speaking even limited German; not sure how well this picture played in the States.
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 30, 2021 19:18:42 GMT
Phoenix is a different kettle of fish altogether: German director Christian Petzold seems to want to make a serious movie about the nation's soul, with the heroine's face as a metaphor for war- and Nazi-ravaged Germany reassembling itself. ( Phoenix is the name of a GI-haunted nightclub where some key scenes take place, but of course it's also the mythical bird reborn from ashes.) Unfortunately this doesn't quite gel with the source's thriller elements, including the massive implausibility of the central set-up. Still, the evocation of bombed-out 1945 Berlin is great, as are Hoss as the traumatised heroine and Zehrfeld as her oafish ex; he looks like a roided-up Benicio del Toro. Totally agreed with your review on this. I love the premise, the performances, and so many elements of Phoenix. But the direction is so kitchen-sink and realistic, and the plot is so over-the-top and surrealistic. The tonal mix doesn’t work, I think; as you say, the movie is just too serious for its (and its plot’s) own good. Which is unfortunate, to say the least, because again much of this wonderful—especially that last scene.
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Post by kijii on Apr 30, 2021 20:24:07 GMT
Passion Fish (1992) / John Sayles I recorded this during the 30 Days of Oscar on TCM. It moved very slowly at the beginning but gained my interest as it proceeded. May-Alice Culhane (Mary McDonnell) and Chantelle (Alfre Woodard) are two wounded and misplaced women who find some peace by helping each other while living by Louisiana lake in Cajan country. David Strathairn plays Rennie Boudreau, May-Alice's secret love from long ago. May-Alice Culhane : His wife's not worried. Chantelle : Should she be? May-Alice Culhane : Why worry about some cripple who's got a freezer compartment for a pussy. Chantelle : Don't be like that.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on May 1, 2021 13:40:00 GMT
Goodbye Charlie (1964)
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Post by kijii on May 1, 2021 17:17:05 GMT
The Truman Show (1998) / Peter Weir
Viewed on TCM during the 30 Days of Oscar. Really quite stupid and dull to me. I just don't get it. However, I never fell in love of "reality TV" either.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on May 2, 2021 4:35:47 GMT
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Post by Prime etc. on May 2, 2021 7:03:27 GMT
QUARANTINED 1970 Tv-movie and presumably a pilot for a medical drama about a family of doctors starring John Dehner, Gary Collins, Gordon Pinsent, Dan Ferrone, and Susan Howard, who are all named "Dr. Bedford." They have to deal with a neurotic movie star (Sharron Farrell) who needs a kidney transplant--lucky for her she has a devoted fan in Wally Cox who volunteers to give her one. There's a cholera outbreak as well and Sam Jaffe as a lonely elderly patient. It's hokey but effective for what it is.
S.H.E. 1980 A woman secret agent movie starring Cornelia Sharpe and Omar Sharif. Score by Michael Kamen. Sharpe was ok but Lady Chaplin was more fun.
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Post by Feologild Oakes on May 3, 2021 0:55:25 GMT
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Post by Nalkarj on May 3, 2021 2:14:36 GMT
I watched Stage Door (1937, dir. Gregory La Cava) tonight for the first time. No, I have no idea why I didn’t see it before. It’s astounding—witty, hilarious, heartfelt, dramatic, melodramatic, beautifully acted… Just wonderful. I like Katharine Hepburn in a lot of things, but I don’t think I’ve seen a performance of hers as good as in this. She’s positively naturalistic here, a word it’s hard to associate with Kate even at her best. And La Cava—wow! I love My Man Godfrey, I knew La Cava was considered an underrated master director, but here his direction was jaw-droppingly good. His style here somehow manages a blend of Leo McCarey (improvisation, actor-centered) and Ernst Lubitsch (stylized direction in comedy, mingling of gaiety and sadness in same scene). The scene in which Kay (Andrea Leeds) goes to commit suicide is reminiscent of—and as terrifying as—anything out of the Val Lewton unit. Yet, coming in the middle of a largely funny movie, it somehow doesn’t feel out of place. Perhaps unsurprisingly, RKO produced this movie as well. (It may just be my favorite film production company of the Golden Age. At least, it’s high up there.) Also—how do I say this?—it seems more modern than modern. Basically the movie feels grown-up and mature and like it should have been made yesterday. Should, not could, because most modern movies don’t have this level of maturity. Our, and our culture’s, loss. Remarkable film. Cannot be recommended highly enough. Don’t be like me and take too long to see this. Oh, and the calla lilies are in bloom again.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on May 3, 2021 13:00:57 GMT
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Post by kijii on May 3, 2021 16:41:21 GMT
Yanks (1979) / John Schlesinger I love this bitter-sweet romantic drama set in a small English town in 1942. The townspeople must deal with a large influx of American soldiers who nest there awaiting Ike's order to invade the mainland. The interaction between "the Limeys" and "the Yanks" varies. Some Brits hate the Yanks, some love them, most tolerate them as part of the war effort. But, young American men and young English women are a combustible combination, and relationships form regardless of the marital status or loves from home. The movie is a time capsule of the period and focuses in on two relationships: Helen (Vanessa Redgrave) and John (William Devane), both of who are married, and Matt (Richard Gere) and Jean (Lisa Eichhorn).
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Post by Feologild Oakes on May 3, 2021 19:23:28 GMT
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on May 4, 2021 21:09:14 GMT
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Post by Prime etc. on May 5, 2021 6:14:31 GMT
CURSE OF THE UNDEAD 1959 --Very interesting eerie western-the villain was fascinating--such a smooth talker and philosophical.
THE GREEN ARCHER 1961 - Pretty good krimi. I see it was made into two serials previously.
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Post by jeffersoncody on May 5, 2021 7:24:59 GMT
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Post by politicidal on May 5, 2021 14:45:33 GMT
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Post by teleadm on May 5, 2021 18:40:14 GMT
Before Shoeshine and Bicycle Thief, Vittorio de Sica did this one, I bambini ci guardano aka The Children Are Watching Us 1944. Made in 1942 though but shelved for two years. Don't worry! the train won't hit the little kid, he was just trying to get to Rome where his father is, since his mother once again has been smooth talked in to a love affair with another man. It's a very sad story, and De Sica is beginning to get into his own. The movie has joyful and comic scenes too even if the main story is sad.
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Post by kijii on May 6, 2021 4:58:20 GMT
The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) / John Schlesinger Christopher Boyce (Timothy Hutton) : I know a few things about predatory behavior. And what was once a legitimate intelligence gathering agency is now being misused to prey on weaker governments.
Christopher Boyce : Every day I get these misrouted cables - the CIA's secret mail. Details of covert action that have *nothing* to do with national security. Manipulations of foreign press, political parties, whole economies. I mean, it's incredible. I had no idea the extent of the lie, the level of deception.
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