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What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

KY Gentleman

One Too Many
Messages
1,882
Location
Kentucky
I watched Oliver Stones' "W." twice this weekend.
Love him or hate him (Bush) I think this was a good movie. Stone did a pretty good job presenting things and allowing the viewer to decide how they felt about the facts.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,837
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
We're running "Rachel Getting Married" this week, and in three years at the theatre, it's the first film I haven't been able to watch all the way thru. Not because of the acting or the script, but because of the insufferable photography and direction -- the whole "jittery hand held camera" schtick was so overdone it actually made me carsick, and I had to go do something else after watching the first hour. I don't know what Demme was thinking, but I hope he never thinks it again.
 

LordJohnRoxton

One of the Regulars
Messages
198
Location
Back in Los Angeles, California
The Name of the Rose... Sean Connery and Christian Slater. STILL one of my favourite films. The Franciscan sleuthery (if that isn't a word, it should be!) of William of Baskerville and his clueless novice, Adso of Melk (who gets to taste a bit of the forbidden, courtesy of The Girl (played by the lovely Valentina Vargas) is riveting!
 

CopperNY

A-List Customer
Messages
428
Location
central NY, USA
"Name of the Rose" should be regarded as more of a classic than it typically is.

last night was "Dark Passage". the wife had never seen the whole thing and loves Lauren Bacall.

next weekend will be "The Thin Man".
 

Macheath

One of the Regulars
Messages
254
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
I saw Blade Runner and I was underwhelmed. It was supposed to be a prime example of "future noir", so I thought it might be worth a look.

There were some noir-ish elements, but overall, the pacing was too slow and the style was just too 80's for me, and having been raised on post year 2000 futuristic films, I found the flying cars just a bit tacky.

Film noir's somewhat ill-defined, and it seems that modern interpretations are often disappointing.
 

Hondo

One Too Many
Messages
1,655
Location
Northern California
FUR

2006 Fur, Diane Arbus story with Nicole Kidman,
very interesting subject story. :)

Amazon.com
Modeled loosely on Patricia Bosworth's 1984 biography, Fur opens with an independent, working Diane Arbus (Nicole Kidman), free of the familial restraints that previously prevented her from making art. Flashing back three months, the viewer comes to learn that she has just left her husband and children to photographically investigate her fetishes through observing the extraordinary. When Lionel (Robert Downey Jr.), a wig-maker who suffers from hypertrichosis, or excessive hair growth, moves into Arbus's apartment building with his entourage and basement full of carnival props, Arbus is seduced by this opportunity to visually feast on freaks. The split with her conventional family becomes inevitable. Confusing love with her desire to make art, Arbus is overwhelmed when Lionel perishes, though its made clear to the viewer that this event provides Arbus necessary artistic impetus. Early scenes establishing Arbus's distaste for society parties, such as the fur fashion show her parents host, her boredom during her husband's dull, ridiculous commercial photo shoots, and her initial fascination with Lionel and his bizarre friends are strange and funny, successfully separating Arbus from the 'average' people surrounding her. But as Lionel and Arbus fall in love, pretentious whispering replaces their regular conversations, and overacting spoils Lionel's death scene, in which they both float dramatically through the ocean, followed by Arbus crying in the surf like a weenie. Arbus desperately huffing air from a life raft Lionel inflated before he died is completely cheesy. The tortured artist myth has, once again, been pushed too far. For a film that has such fine costuming, production design, and cinematography, it's a shame that Fur succumbs to that Hollywood convention of reducing the entire plot to a tragic love story. For a project with so much potential, and with so many Arbus fans eagerly awaiting this tribute to the great photographer, it's unfortunate that Fur falls flat, due mostly to injected sentimental melodrama in scenes where it has no place. If Arbus sought to expel saccharine emotionality from portrait photography, then it's odd that a biopic dedicated to her memory would be so unabashedly corny.--Trinie Dalton
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,262
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
Fur

I recently saw this and liked it a lot, although I've never seen a quasi-biographical film with so many disclaimers in its opening titles! I wondered why they didn't just invent a completely new character, rather than making it kinda, sorta, almost about Diane Arbus. Especially since they didn't use any of her actual photos.

But I thought Kidman gave an excellent and brave performance, and - as somebody who grew up in a mom and pop commercial photo studio near NYC in the late 50s and 60s myself - I found the photo technology and overall look and feel to be very accurate.

A decidedly odd film with some pretty strange stuff in it, but I found it pretty compelling.
 

Hondo

One Too Many
Messages
1,655
Location
Northern California
Odd film indeed

I hear you that, I also think regarding photos, there may
have been copyright problems, and couldn't get approval,
I don't know, I did enjoy the period, clothes and all.
Wonder how I missed this one, never heard of it until now.
 

LordJohnRoxton

One of the Regulars
Messages
198
Location
Back in Los Angeles, California
Macheath said:
I saw Blade Runner and I was underwhelmed. It was supposed to be a prime example of "future noir", so I thought it might be worth a look.

There were some noir-ish elements, but overall, the pacing was too slow and the style was just too 80's for me, and having been raised on post year 2000 futuristic films, I found the flying cars just a bit tacky.

Film noir's somewhat ill-defined, and it seems that modern interpretations are often disappointing.

If you want to be underwhelmed, you should try reading the book! Really... I can understand your take on the film. In fact I could almost agree with you... except, I actually love the film. Odd.... perhaps I just miss the 80's?
 

Cricket

Practically Family
Messages
520
Location
Mississippi
Joie DeVive said:


I love this movie. I have it on VHS and I watch it when I need a musical. Being in the newspaper business, I love it even more. Only I am not quite sure if I could have worked for Robert Duvall. :D
 

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