Author Topic: August 2011 MDC: IMDB Top 250 Write Ups  (Read 10034 times)

ses

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Re: August 2011 MDC: IMDB Top 250 Write Ups
« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2011, 06:01:24 PM »
Wait Until Dark is one of the films I picked for FroHam's marathon  :)
Yes, so awesome!!  (I loved all of your choices for Fro, btw. :) )

Anytime I can push In a Lonely Place on someone, I will.
I gave him Bogart, Grant, Stewart, Hepburn.  I hope he loves them all.  :)
"It's a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart"

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oneaprilday

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Re: August 2011 MDC: IMDB Top 250 Write Ups
« Reply #11 on: August 09, 2011, 06:07:03 PM »
Anytime I can push In a Lonely Place on someone, I will.
I have reason to be glad for this.  (Believe it or not, I have it at home to re-watch right now and am hoping to get (FINALLY) to that write-up I owe you.  :o )

ses

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Re: August 2011 MDC: IMDB Top 250 Write Ups
« Reply #12 on: August 09, 2011, 06:13:00 PM »
Anytime I can push In a Lonely Place on someone, I will.
I have reason to be glad for this.  (Believe it or not, I have it at home to re-watch right now and am hoping to get (FINALLY) to that write-up I owe you.  :o )

I can't wait to read it.  :)
"It's a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart"

http://sarahskitchenadventures.blogspot.com/

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: August 2011 MDC: IMDB Top 250 Write Ups
« Reply #13 on: August 09, 2011, 09:01:05 PM »
I need to watch more Audrey Hepburn. According to the credits, this is her introduction and it’s a fantastic one. She’s able to play the prim and proper woman of class and distinction and also the hilariously drugged misfit. Her performance, to me, is the heart of the film. Even a little moment, like losing her shoe in the opening scene, is wonderful to watch Hepburn react to her situations.
Have you seen Wait Until Dark?  She's so brilliant in that, too - so different a character but so wonderful watching her react to her situations there.
I've only seen Two Hepburn: Charade and Roman Holiday and both in the last few months. Shameful, I know.

1SO

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Re: August 2011 MDC: IMDB Top 250 Write Ups
« Reply #14 on: August 09, 2011, 10:03:15 PM »
I've only seen Two Hepburn: Charade and Roman Holiday and both in the last few months. Shameful, I know.
Ranked and colored by quality of her performance. (I could've sworn I've seen more.)

1. Charade
2. My Fair Lady
3. How to Steal a Million
4. Funny Face
5. Two For the Road
6. Wait Until Dark
7. Roman Holiday
8. Always
9. Love in the Afternoon

10. Sabrina
11. Breakfast at Tiffany's

Bondo

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Re: August 2011 MDC: IMDB Top 250 Write Ups
« Reply #15 on: August 09, 2011, 10:27:10 PM »
Only seen six...need to see more...many more. I did give Sam My Fair Lady over in the list of shame so he'll get another one right quick.

My Fair Lady
Roman Holiday

Breakfast At Tiffany's
Always

Nun's Story
Charade

Bondo

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Re: August 2011 MDC: IMDB Top 250 Write Ups
« Reply #16 on: August 14, 2011, 09:51:03 PM »
Patton

So I actually do recognize that the film provides a reasoned portrait of the man, yet I can't help notice the hero worship that the film, if not encourages, but allows. I imagine some neocon conservative cheering on Patton here as he takes wild risks and emasculates the "sissies" who get emotional about war. In the opening speech from Patton there is already a hint of the love of war attitude and how it proves our worth or some such nonsense. Even though I do think there is enough here to support the view that the film exposes Patton's flaws, I remain uncomfortable. He may not be a chickenhawk or a member of the 101st Chairborne, but his attitude is alive and well in modern foreign policy.

At nearly three hours (every film I watch these days seems well beyond two hours) there is some flab, especially in the opening thirty minutes. This has to be among the most boring opening acts I've seen. Once we get to see Patton in action, things pick up a little bit. The performance here by George C Scott is strong but overall it is only of passing interest.

3/5

Bill Thompson

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Re: August 2011 MDC: IMDB Top 250 Write Ups
« Reply #17 on: August 14, 2011, 11:02:26 PM »
I wasn't a huge fan of Patton, but the film is very anti-Patton. It rightfully recognizes his smarts on the battlefield, but it also emphasizes how shitty of a person he was.

Bondo

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Re: August 2011 MDC: IMDB Top 250 Write Ups
« Reply #18 on: August 14, 2011, 11:12:32 PM »
I'm overthinking things but a lot of the things that the film implies are wrong with Patton are things that the people I was talking about would consider virtues. I think my comments were more a critique of society than the film itself.

PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: August 2011 MDC: IMDB Top 250 Write Ups
« Reply #19 on: August 21, 2011, 09:13:30 AM »
Late Marriage

I went into this pretty blind other than knowing it was Israeli, and the first few minutes had me thinking that watching it might not be a good idea. It starts off with a wife bathing her husband setting up a pair of characters who are pretty inconsequential with some awkward cultural humour, and while it wasn't bad none of it really resonated and the production values seemed mediocre. The film got a whole lot better as the focus shifts to more interesting situations, but the tone of that introduction, for better and worse, stays throughout the film.

Soon after the first scene we're introduced to our lead, an apparently smart but not very ambitious man in his early 30s whose parents are anxious for him to get married. Like most of the other characters in the film I didn't find him to be entirely sympathetic, but he's interesting to watch and profoundly human. The rest of the film revolves around his parents trying to get him attached to an acceptable young woman while he ambivalently struggles against them trying to pursue his own interests. The film relies a lot on its performances and that's where it really shines, no matter how I felt about the characters at any given point in time they always felt genuine and complex, and the film really showcased the battle of wills without giving any viewpoint more weight. This in turn made the narrative very organic and the ending came as a genuine surprise, not because it was farfetched but, because any possibility would have been equally plausible given what leads up to it.

In many ways this reminded me of Rohmer, who I love, with it's sympathy for for flawed characters, focus on human interaction, organic development and an inconclusive resolution. More than anything, though, their similarity lies in the way the film left me thinking about the psychology of its characters and the way it extrapolates to society at large. In this case the struggles between individuality and community, the social and cultural mores that influence our actions in even the most intimate settings, and the relationships of parents and children even when those children are grown. Koshashvili is no Rohmer, but I still got quite a bit out of the film. In short, I could have liked it more but I still liked it a lot and I'm glad to have watched something I otherwise would have put off.

 

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