the LAST FILM YOU'VE SEEN thread

Intimate Strangers (2004)

Intimate Strangers is yet another middle-of-the-road psychological drama from Patrice Leconte. This time an enigmatic young woman (Sandrine Bonnaire), searching for a psychiatrist, mistakenly walks into the office of a tax-lawyer (Fabrice Luchini). After listening to her concerns, the companionless middle-age lawyer ends up agreeing to see to her again. Thankfully, the tawdry suspense of the initial set-up is released early on but what follows is perhaps even less intriguing. Leconte’s images are always handsome and they want you to look beneath the surface but the narrative isn’t very supportive here. Leconte has been making these half-baked films for quite a while now and its time to move on, but on the other hand, these miramaxical efforts are what selling nowadays in foreign lands. Bonnaire’s facial features have aged rapidly and she hasn’t appeared in a great film in recent years but all that is negated upon a look at her earlier work and she still has a long way to go (she’s only 37!).

Tout Va Bien (1972) - Jean Luc Godard and Jean Pierre Gorin

Enjoyable as it might be, I felt that Godard was starting to repeat himself with this one. The same old direct narratives, long takes, and standard political subtext. Still worth a look, particularly for the supermarket sequence, and set design of the factory, but overall not among Godard's best, imo.

Babes In Arms (1939)

In this one, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney happen to be the children of penniless parents and they need to put on a variety show in order to raise money to save them from being sent back to the farm. Their obstacles include a Hurricane and Margaret Hamilton (yes, from Wizard of Oz). This musical has none of the grandeur Busby Berkeley was famous for and save for "Good Morning," most of the other songs are only passable. Mickey Rooney does a few impersonations which earned him an Oscar nominations which only proves that our Academy was just as clueless back then. The theater I went to admitted anyone over 60 for free - too bad I didn’t qualify.

I'm amazed you sat through Babes in Arms, didn't really sound like a film of note for you, perhaps my ridiculous Oscar research is getting contageous?

I just watched The Incredibles (2004) directed by Brad Bird. Shame I missed it in the theaters, but it was worth the wait. The film was fantastic, as I was hoping it would be. I can't say I jump for joy at every computer animated film, but this one looked good, and it was. One of those rare animated films that gets its assed kiss deservingly so.

As you know, I've been sarcastically critical of your Oscar research but after you're "done," just imagine the knowledge you'll have of classic American cinema. That's where I want to expand since I feel confident with what I know about Foreign, new and old. Films like Babes in Arms can certainly be avoided but I want to see the "classics" in theaters; unfortunately films like these are the kind that are usually playing.

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Originally posted by wpqx
I just watched The Incredibles (2004) directed by Brad Bird. Shame I missed it in the theaters, but it was worth the wait. The film was fantastic, as I was hoping it would be. I can't say I jump for joy at every computer animated film, but this one looked good, and it was. One of those rare animated films that gets its assed kiss deservingly so.

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The Incredibles proved, once again, that it's the idea and the effort that counts ahead of the people who are giving voice to the characters. Having said that, I thought Holly Hunter did a fantastic job as "Elastigirl." I guess you just saw another Oscar winner!

Bride and Prejudice is yet another adaptation from the novel by Jane Austin (poor woman), but this one is set to the rhythms of what you may call a Bollywood musical (many of the films I've seen this week have somehow turned out to be musicals). A rich young man (Martin Henderson) meets a beautiful woman (Aishwarya Rai) while visiting India and they instantly fall for each other (did I mention that we're in Bollywood territory?). Anyway, cultural differences raise their ugly heads, mostly in a cute way, and another man comes into the picture for our Bride to be, but needless to say it all ends well. Chadha is obviously trying to reap the rewards of what she cultivated with her last picture, Bend It Like Beckham, as this one also follows a similar vein. Aishwarya Rai is considered by many to be the most beautiful woman on Earth (I haven't seen all of them so I'm not positive but from I've seen she certainly ranks up there); the fact that there are about a Billion Indians in the World certainly helps her cause. Performance wise I saw better from her in a couple of art films recently (Chokher Bali: A Passion Play and Raincoat) as here she seems to be trying to act for the "western" audiences and it's not very subtle. Also surprising for this big production are its shoddy production values which at times resemble a 70's potboiler starring the Big B. Still, all in all, if you enjoyed Beckham then the Bride probably has enough to please you.

Bride and Prejudice - Grade: C+

*2005 U.S. releases are being graded.

The Incredibles really is excellent and I don't like most animations either; I saw it in a big auditorium of the Regal Union Square in NYC with a very appreciative audience. Their favorite character was the bossy fashion designer but really there are a lot of good ideas and characters in the movie.

There's some value in seeing all of anything, including Oscar-winning Best Pictures. Then you become an authority, of sorts anyway, and you have a wide frame of reference which at the same time has depth.

I don't get the " Yes that's right I am gay" about Hiller's Love Story unless you just thought Ryan O'Neal was cute. Yes that's right I am gay but does that mean I'd want to see this corny movie and that I would cry at it? I can definitely see the value of a good cry though, and sometimes it's easier to cry in a movie than about the real sadness in one's own life.

I think Godard was repeating himself almost from the start. But Wong Kar Wai repeats himself even more closely; that doesn't make him bad but simply a distinctive stylist. I can't remember Tout va Bien though. I stopped seeing all of Godard's films after Sympathy for the Devil and I guess I missed Tout Va Bien. A new Criterion DVD issue, right? MIchael Atkinson of the Voice has some good things to say about it http://www.villagevoice.com/film/050...61365,20.html.

As I've said Amelio deeply impresses me from what I've seen, which is The Housekeys and The Way We Laughed, but while others including Oscar have said Lamerica (which I haven't seen yet) is the great one my Italian teacher said she differed from the majority and was unimpressed by it; The Way We Laughed impressed her much more and we had a long discussion of it.

A friend I go to movies with who is pretty uncritical and open to anything and has Indian friends said Bride and Prejudice is really bad. It sounds more like a C- to me, but I haven't seen it and I admit Bend It Like Beckham left me cold. Bride and Prejudice seems an odd choice to go and see but there isn't a lot out there. I hope you have seen Nobody Knows and Downfall though.

I have bought a DVD of Wong's 2046 (boxed 2-disc Special Edition, Mei Ah Entertainment) and am watching it at home, but I am not in a hurry to finish it or to comment on it. That's one of the virtues of home viewing, isn't it? that you can linger over a viewing. The annoyance of DVD's is you have to go through the warnings and menu (on my machine anyway, not on the pc program) all over again every time you want to go back and pick up where you left off, compared to a videotape that you can just turn on again.

Ravishing images and color. I've just gotten the BFI (British Film Institute) World Directors series Wong Kar-Wai by Stephen Teo (London, 2005), 191 pages (in a nifty DVD-sized format). It seems like the first intelligent and intelligible study of Wong and its penultimate chapter is a discussion of 2046.

arsaib4---

What about Téchiné's latest, have you seen that on TV5, or is it too soon?

I just watched a trailer of it and I like the setting, Tangiers. a largely Arab cast other than Depardieu and Deneuve.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chris Knipp
[B]I think Godard was repeating himself almost from the start. But Wong Kar Wai repeats himself even more closely; that doesn't make him bad but simply a distinctive stylist. I can't remember Tout va Bien though. I stopped seeing all of Godard's films after Sympathy for the Devil and I guess I missed Tout Va Bien.

This is a a bit odd I must say. Even the non-fans see all of his films they can.

A friend I go to movies with who is pretty uncritical and open to anything and has Indian friends said Bride and Prejudice is really bad. It sounds more like a C- to me, but I haven't seen it and I admit Bend It Like Beckham left me cold. Bride and Prejudice seems an odd choice to go and see but there isn't a lot out there. I hope you have seen Nobody Knowsthough.

I'm certainly not open to "anything" but once in a while you have to give in when your partner demands to see a certain film. I still haven't seen Nobody Knows but hopefully will soon. Techine's film opened in France in December so it's still a little early. Loin, I think will play soon on TV5 but I've seen it. The cast is mostly Arab in this one also, I think you'll like it.

Has Wong Kar-wai finished it? On many occasions I've read that the tinkering he has done so far with the film will continue and much like Hero we'll see additional scenes in the future. (Some nude scenes have been cut so far from what I've heard.) Believe it or not, I'm planning to wait until it gets distributed here; I'd like to see it on the big screen first, even though the DVD's are practically available for free now.

Well a pair of silent films for me.

1. The Student Prince in Old Hiedelberg (1926) - Ernst Lubitsch
I was surprised to find out how high a rating this film got on AMG. This was second rate Lubitsch in my opinion. It was neither charming, humorous, or risque. Perhaps it is because I'm not a huge Ramon Navarro fan (at least the Navarro of this film). Hard to see an action star reduced to a little kid in a film like this as well as Across to Singapore. As I've said elsewhere though, my taste in Lubitsch films are slightly off from at least mainstream critics. Good news is that Design for Living (my favorite film of his) is going to be released on DVD in May as part of a Gary Cooper set, so perhaps a few people may jump on the film like me.

2. The Last Command (1928) - Josef Von Sternberg
Won of the last great silent films from the year that Peter Bogdanovich called the greatest year in film history. This was one of the few honored films at the first Academy ceremony that has held up. Jennings might have won the first best actor Oscar for this, but the real star of the film is Sternberg, who makes this film the most visual of all his pictures I've seen. Quite remarkably visually.

Suspicion (1941)

Suspicion is certainly not known as one of Hitchcock’s best but that should be because he simply made better films as Suspicion is not a bad effort by any means. However, it is still ignored by many (partly because of its infamous studio-tampered ending). A rich playboy (Cary Grant) marries a soon-to-be heiress (Joan Fontaine) but as Grant's background (and financial position) is slowly revealed and with his increasingly deceptive behavior it leads Fontaine to believe that her own life could be in danger. This was the first collaboration between Grant and Hitchcock and the master has certainly done some justice to his leading man by presenting him in the proper light and angles that only add to his mysteriousness. Fontaine won both an Oscar and the NYFCC award for her performance.

I agree that Suspicion is second rate Hitchcock. I'm an enormous Joan Fontaine fan, but this film pails in comparisson to Rebecca (which should have brought Fontaine the Oscar).

1. Of Human Bondage (1934) - John Cromwell

I watched this based on exceptionally positive reviews of Bette Davis. I found that Davis' role was supporting, and not very good. Her accent is faulty, and although she has a few shining moments, particularly near the end of the film, overall her performance seems uneven. The film itself is a little uneven in general, and Leslie Howard is just too pathetic for words. Still it has its moments, so can't say it was a waste. Plus it was nominated for best picture, so that gets me one more closer to seeing all the nominees from 1934.

2. House of Games (1987) - David Mamet

Another film watched for a performance, this time for Joe Mantegna. I did think he did a great job, although not Oscar material as Danny Peary would suggest. The film itself was entertaining at parts, but I think I'm a little put off by films about con men. A few subjects just don't seem interesting regardless of the film. I have a similar distaste for pirate movies.