Classic Cinema Discussion

[Benjamin]

I would kill to see Sunset Boulevard in a theater. It would be so neat if there was something like that here but alas, the only classic movies we get are either Beauty and the Beast or Titanic during Valentine's Day weekend 😕 

[gunnar hendershow]

Big month of classics on the Criterion Channel this month as well as a lot of other very exciting offerings. As I always remind people, if you're paying for one streaming service to watch movies on make it this one.

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8078-the-criterion-channels-march-2023-lineup

[DFF]

On 08/02/2023 at 05:57, Benjamin said:

I would kill to see Sunset Boulevard in a theater. It would be so neat if there was something like that here but alas, the only classic movies we get are either Beauty and the Beast or Titanic during Valentine's Day weekend 😕 

Some independent cinema will offer the ability to hire a screen out, including getting a print of whichever film you want. Not a cheap way to do it ofc, but a thought. 

[DFF]

Continuing my journey through the 1001 Films to See Before You Die (2020 ed.) list, I watched The Big Red One (1980) and Seconds (1966) in the past couple of days. 

Enjoyed both. The former I think is criminally under discussed when we're talking of damned good WW2 films. It's a 4/5 for me. The way they made an epic on a relatively shoestring budget was impressive. It's also manages to nail a varying tone too (mostly middle of the road drama with a hint of black comedy, but there's one hilarious scene in a tank, and at the other end of scale some near on harrowing parts). 

Seconds was fun, and darker than I was expecting. The middle third sags a little, but the first and last third are really good. It's a sort of psychological thriller / horror / (soft) sci-fi where a company offers to let people (who pay ofc) to create new lives, involving plastic surgery and working up cover stories for the deaths of the original personas. Rock Hudson plays the main character post-surgery. I reckon it would be ripe for a remake these days, possibly as a prestige mini-series. Either way, still a 3.5/5

[Hobo]

Watched RW Fassbinder's 1978 film Despair over the weekend. His first English language movie and I think his biggest budget movie too.

Its based on a novel by Nabokov, from a screenplay by Tom Stoppard, and starred Dirk Bogarde as a chocolate factory owner who convinces an unemployed man to be his double.

I liked it. Fassbinder with along with Michael Ballhaus' cinematography (Ballhaus would later go on to work on Goodfellas, Bram Stokers Dracula, The Departed) and a budget was something else.

I think Querelle was Fassbinder only other big budget film and it also both good and has a really interesting look. Kinda wish he had gotten more big budget films.

[GhostMachine]

On 15/03/2023 at 19:00, DFF said:

Continuing my journey through the 1001 Films to See Before You Die (2020 ed.) list, I watched The Big Red One (1980) and Seconds (1966) in the past couple of days. 

Enjoyed both. The former I think is criminally under discussed when we're talking of damned good WW2 films. It's a 4/5 for me. The way they made an epic on a relatively shoestring budget was impressive. It's also manages to nail a varying tone too (mostly middle of the road drama with a hint of black comedy, but there's one hilarious scene in a tank, and at the other end of scale some near on harrowing parts). 

Seconds was fun, and darker than I was expecting. The middle third sags a little, but the first and last third are really good. It's a sort of psychological thriller / horror / (soft) sci-fi where a company offers to let people (who pay ofc) to create new lives, involving plastic surgery and working up cover stories for the deaths of the original personas. Rock Hudson plays the main character post-surgery. I reckon it would be ripe for a remake these days, possibly as a prestige mini-series. Either way, still a 3.5/5

The Big Red One is one of my favorite WW2 films, but I haven't watched it in a while. Should probably do something about that when I have the time.

Seconds is my favorite non-comedy Rock Hudson movie. If you enjoyed it, I'd like to recommend another film that came out the same year: Mister Buddwing, starring James Garner. Its a movie about an amnesiac, but the ending and reason for his amnesia is a mind-bender. Great cast, as well.

[Benji]

I somehow missed that Albert Finney passed away in 2019, so now I have to rewatch Big Fish for the billionth time because that film just gets me.

[gunnar hendershow]

"I think we should remake a movie widely considered perfect" is a sentence that was presumably uttered at Paramount.

https://deadline.com/2023/03/vertigo-remake-robert-downey-jr-steven-knight-alfred-hitchcock-james-stewart-paramount-pictures-davis-entertainment-team-downey-1235308636/

[Lint]

 

The Music Man was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, its been awhile since I've last watched it.  Should take some time to watch it this weekend

[GhostMachine]

@Lint The Music Man is one of my favorite musicals, along with Guys and Dolls, Brigadoon, and Paint Your Wagon.

 

[Lint]

8 hours ago, GhostMachine said:

@Lint The Music Man is one of my favorite musicals, along with Guys and Dolls, Brigadoon, and Paint Your Wagon.

 

[Hobo]

I haven't seen paint your Wagon in years but i have always loved that a musical starring Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin exists.

And that Lee Marvin had a hit song out of it

[GhostMachine]

Yeah, but my favorite song in it is still They Call The Wind Maria. (Which should be Mariah, actually)

[Lint]

It wasn't until recent years I realized "Paint Your Wagon" was a real movie and not a Simpsons joke

[Hobo]

23 hours ago, Lint said:

It wasn't until recent years I realized "Paint Your Wagon" was a real movie and not a Simpsons joke

A real movie about gold mining and also polygamy.

[Skummy]

On 01/04/2023 at 11:03, Hobo said:

I haven't seen paint your Wagon in years but i have always loved that a musical starring Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin exists.

And that Lee Marvin had a hit song out of it

"Wandering Star" is actually a great tune.

I did Film Studies in college, and we did a module on the decline of the old studio system. The way my lecturer taught it, Hollywood got too complacent in assuming that they knew better than audiences what they wanted, and kept churning out westerns and musicals, so he kept using "Paint Your Wagon" as this ultimate example of Hollywood hubris, that they'd look at an audience sick of those two genres and say "fuck you, you're getting both".

[Hobo]

Watched Das Boot the other week.

I enjoyed it. Its very intense.

[Lint]

On 04/04/2023 at 08:33, Hobo said:

A real movie about gold mining and also polygamy.

Do they sing a song about using oil-based paint to paint a Ponderosa pine wagon?

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

On 23/01/2023 at 11:22, Mx. Canadian Destroyer said:

I am doing the Criterion Challenge this year. Have watched three movies so far.

Random Number Generator Selected - Onibaba (1964) - This was amazing. Two women living in a swamp who trap and kill soldiers leaving a civil war to make money. Things go awry when one of the women's son-in-law returns. 

Made in Beligum - Rosetta (1999) - Also liked this one. Centered on a young girl who does what she needs to to get by. 

Made in Taiwan - A Brighter Summer Day (1991) - A long one coming in at just under 4 hours but a really good story about a time period I wasn't super familiar with. Si'r gets mixed up in street gangs and a woman that leads to him struggling. 

Really enjoying this challenge so far as all three are films I would have never watched and all really enjoyed.

Been keeping up with this!

Made in Canada - Daytrippers (1996)
Made in Portugal - Ossos (1997)
Animals in the Collection - Koko: A Talking Gorilla (1978)
Films to Fall Asleep To - In The Mood For Love (2000)
Black Music Films - Jimi Plays Monterey (1986)
Black Lives Collection - Black Panthers (1968)
Heartbreak Heaven: Films to Watch When You’re Questioning Love - What Happened Was... (1994)
Criterion Double Features - Film #1 - The Hit (1984)
Criterion Double Features - Film #2 - Mona Lisa (1986)
Danny Peary’s “Guide for the Film Fanatic” - The Third Man (1949)
Sundance Hits - Slacker (1990)
Early Women Filmmakers - La Cigarette (1919)

[Your Mom]

It's been way too long but tonight I watched Network! It's really wild how much this movie predicted about how TV would evolve mostly for the worse. Why the hell did Faye Dunaway want to sleep with that old dude though?  I couldn't get past that. Movie took a really crazy turn that I wasn't expecting either but it's one I could see real life mirroring someday  

 

 

 

Classics watched this year:

1. 12 Angry Men (1957)
2. The Maltese Falcon
3. The Third Man
4. The Searchers
5. Network