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  1. #61
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    Another title for Don't Look Back could be "Don't Peel Back" or "On the Defense, Driving" or "Wannabe Rimbaud?"
    How awesome was Donovan's Dylanesque "I'll Sing For You" song?
    He took the piss out of Bob, and even Bob liked it!!

    I'll see what I can dig up on Harryhausen's methods. He was a genius. Learned from Cooper & Schoedsack.
    As for the actors in Clash of the Titans, maybe they agreed because it was Ray's last film? Because they love him? I'm not sure.
    Desmond Davis directed it, but who's HE??
    Last edited by Johann; 06-30-2020 at 12:08 PM.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  2. #62
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    There’s a one-hour documentary called The Harryhausen Chronicles narrated by Leonard Nimoy that is fantastic. It has all the insight into Ray’s M.O. and methods you need.

    I’d like to link to it on www.youtube.com but my iPad won’t let me...
    Seeing Dennis Muren wasn’t a surprise- I wonder if he suggested to George Lucas copying the “Swinging Sinbad” scene with the princess as an homage for Star Wars.
    Ray Harryhausen is another inspiration for George Lucas, as that doc illustrates.
    Last edited by Johann; 06-30-2020 at 12:10 PM.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  3. #63
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    Sorry, this makes no sense.

  4. #64
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    What makes no sense?
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  5. #65
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    BOB DYLAN (DON'T LOOK BACK)
    Sorry - our posts overlap because you're putting up so many. "What makes no sense?" you ask. I mean your argument about why you reject Pennebaker and tried to make DON'T LOOK BACK an anonymous film (but you can't do that, and it's not fair) makes no sense. Why is making a documentary film for history a fault? I asked and you replied
    It's a fault when it's only done for posterity, as Pennebaker seems.
    He doesn't care about the Monterey Pop festival OR Bob Dylan- he's capitalizing on the moment.
    He even names the film "DON'T LOOK BACK"- because you might not like what you see.
    He's no Ken Burns. Michael Wadleigh and Scorsese are better. They're more genuine...
    That is what makes no sense. And by the way, in my book being "no Ken Burns" is not a problem but a plus. Ken Burns is a bore. It's preposterous to suggest Pennebaker is less "genuine" when this is a pioneering work of vérité documentary filmmaking, of authenticity. That's what's so fascinating about it, it's so unvarnished and authentic - not the kind of canned voiceover narration and collection of stock film footage that Ken Burns produces.

    I just looked up the Wikipedia article on DON'T LOOK BACK and it's good. About the title:
    In the commentary track to the DVD release, Pennebaker said that the title came from the Satchel Paige quote, "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you," and that Dylan shared this view.
    In the opening of the article:
    The film shows a young Dylan: confident if not arrogant, confrontational and contrary, but also charismatic and charming.
    That states the mixture very nicely. I don't quite agree "if it weren't for his musical genius he could be written off as a punk." I think that's a simplification, a misreading of something more complex. He's too clever and witty to be written off as a punk, whether he is a genius or not, which in 1967 was not decided. The Nobel Prize was a long way away. I think you misread Donovan in the film. I don't think Donovan comes off very well. I didn't see much in the "anarchist" label, a red herring I'd say (and not mentioned in the Wikipeida article for the film).

    BILLIE HOLIDAY[ (LADY SINGS THE BLUES)
    On to our other subject, LADY SINGS THE BLUES...you posted:

    I consulted Queen Pauline about Lady Sings the Blues:
    "I LOVE IT. Factually it's a fraud, but emotionally it delivers."
    Touché - you know how I admire Pauline. That's a very effective soundbite on your part and it's true, though again, Pauline's response, in her review, is more complicated than that. She did write on a piece of paper in the theater "I love it," and she stuck by that, but the bulk of her typically somewhat over-verbose New Yorker piece (which I've just reread) is what's wrong with this kind of movie about this kind of figure. Final words of her review:
    "Lady Sings the Blues" is as good as one can expect from the genre--better, at times--and I enjoyed it hugely, yet I don't want Billie Holiday''s hard, melancholic sound buried under an avalanche of pop. When you get home, you have to retrieve her at the phonograph; you have to do restoration work on your own past.
    -The New Yorker, Nov. 4, 1972.
    Kael points out how the movie passes over a whole string of very important facts about her: that Holliday was very promiscuous, had many men in her life (the movie makes her virtually monogamous); that her life was much worse than this, much grimmer, that her lows were lower and more pathetic; her immense skill and ability to make it in a competitive market - evidenced by the fact that she had made 100 records by the time she was 25; the wry, ironic quality of songs as she delivered them; above all, the fact that she was a jazz singer, and the complexity of her interpretations and the backups with jazz greats in the best recordings.

    I want to remind readers that last year's new documentary What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (Rob Garver 2018) is available via virtual theater on a host of locations, and worth watching.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-30-2020 at 05:51 PM.

  6. #66
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    Pennebaker strikes me as a guy who struck when the iron was hot, and the results vary.
    He's not a pioneer to me. A shaky camera makes him Dogme 95?

    As for Lady Sings the Blues, Kael was right, and she loved the movie. A lack of facts doesn't dimimish it's beauty one bit.
    I didn't know much about Billie Holiday before seeing it and I feel like I got a good idea of who she was.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  7. #67
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    I didn't know much about Billie Holiday before seeing it and I feel like I got a good idea of who she was.
    Not that good an idea. You can say the movie moved you. We all say that, you, me, and Pauline Kael.

    "Kael was right, and she loved the movie." I tried to explain how that's reductive of her actual view as expressed in her lengthy review for The New Yorker.

    Similarly I'm not convinced the way Pennebaker "strikes" you is a valid judgment if you're not recognizing his historical importance. Your dismissal of his use of a handheld camera doesn't even recognize the importance of his pioneering work. Would you take the trouble of reading Variety's obituary assessment?
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 07-01-2020 at 12:00 PM.

  8. #68
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    I've already given D.A. too much credit, and I recognize his historical importance.
    To be honest I don't think we'd be missing him if he didn't exist- he's not essential.

    Did you notice that he only has films of big stars? Monterey: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and David Bowie?
    Chuck Berry, Brandford Marsalis, Depeche Mode...
    He's an opportunist, no matter how much historical importance. Where are his follow-ups? They're only padding!
    Where are his in-depth docs? He makes his films as much for the subject as his own glory.
    He got a career out of riding coattails, and I noticed he's had several marriages.
    Last edited by Johann; 07-01-2020 at 06:50 PM.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  9. #69
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    The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

    Errol Flynn is Maj. Geoffrey Vickers, a British officer who leads a famous counter attack in India.

    This is a poor man's Gunga Din, and not very faithful to history or the poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson.
    It's got visuals that seem authentic: palaces, forts, vistas, horses and nice costumes.
    It's also got the gorgeous Olivia de Havilland, who starred with Flynn in several Warner Brothers classics.
    I'm glad I saw this, but I don't need to see it again.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  10. #70
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    Top Hat (1935)

    This is my second favorite film from the 1930's.

    100% pure entertainment from start to finish, it must've cleared a lot of sorrows away during the Depression.
    The 4th of ten films starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, this one is solid gold, and probably their best teaming.
    It's got a thin plot- one of a simple misunderstanding- but it doesn't matter. This is all about the stunning dance numbers.
    It opens with Fred doing a dazzling tap dance in a hotel room, which keeps Ginger awake in the floor below.
    The "Cheek to Cheek" number is legendary, as are all dances between these two cinema greats.
    I'll always have a mad crush on Ginger Rogers. She was talent on fire with the looks of an Angel.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  11. #71
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    Directed by john ford

    Today is the start of John Ford month on TCM, and there's 7 (of the 36) films showing today.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  12. #72
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    Clash by Night (1952)

    Nice examination of infidelity from Fritz Lang.

    Barbara Stanwyck plays a "blue-blue-eyed" lonely woman who marries a "not-so-bright or rich" fishing boat owner named Jerry.
    But did she marry for love? A friend of Jerry's named Earl enters the picture, turning everything upside down.
    Barbara and Jerry have a daughter, and the affair with Earl throws their lives into utter chaos...
    I enjoyed this slow-burner, which co-stars a young Marilyn Monroe in an early role.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  13. #73
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    Wagon's West!!!

    WAGON MASTER (1950)


    Nobody makes a western like John Ford.

    Here the wagon master is the star, and two of them get hired by a Mormon wagon train headed west to San Juan.
    They encounter a travelling medicine show troupe down on their luck and the dastardly Clegg boys, who are wanted men.
    They also encounter some Navajo Injuns and this western is pretty great.
    Old-Timey songs, gunfights, chuckwagons, romance/a-courtin' & peril- what more do you need?
    Starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond.
    Last edited by Johann; 07-03-2020 at 01:40 PM.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  14. #74
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    Feliz Navidad

    3 GODFATHERS (1948)


    This was a surprising movie from John Ford.
    Robert, William and Pedro are three outlaws on the run in the desert, and they come across a woman about to give birth.
    They don't know what to do, but they help her nonetheless, as mid-wives, lullaby singers and promising her to be Godfather to the infant.
    The harsh desert is a character itself, like it was in Lawrence of Arabia! Two of the men die in their trek across it, and Robert ("BOB"-played by John Wayne)
    ends up being Biblically Redeemed by protecting the baby until he reaches safety.
    Great movie from John Ford, one I'd never seen and wasn't expecting.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  15. #75
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    "Never Apologize. It's a sign of weakness".

    SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON (1949)




    This is a great movie, and a showcase for John Wayne.
    He plays Captain Nathan Brittles, commander of a U.S. Calvary troop, post-Custer's Last Stand.
    This is a very manly movie and Wayne plays his role to the hilt.
    There's a sub-plot of romance between two soldiers and a girl who wears a yellow ribbon in her hair.
    The cinematography is great, showing Monument Valley in all it's glory.
    I'd never seen this one before, and it gets high marks. Nice little military movie. (with more Indians!)
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

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