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MOVIES: What are you watching?

The Old ManThe Old ManMember
quote:
Originally posted by wine+art:
Constant Gardener


quote:
Originally posted by Wine Sparty:
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - really good


While on the subject of films of LeCarre's books, I believe one of the best is the overlooked Tailor of Panama with a much different spy than the one Pierce Brosnan usually played.

I would rate it number three after The Spy and Who Came In From The Cold and perhaps unfairly the BBC TV production of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
W wine+artMember
quote:
Originally posted by The Old Man:
quote:
Originally posted by wine+art:
Constant Gardener


quote:
Originally posted by Wine Sparty:
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - really good


While on the subject of films of LeCarre's books, I believe one of the best is the overlooked Tailor of Panama with a much different spy than the one Pierce Brosnan usually played.

I would rate it number three after The Spy and Who Came In From The Cold and perhaps unfairly the BBC TV production of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy


Never watched the Brosnan film. Just downloaded it.

BBC production very good indeed. I liked the Constant Gardener better this time around, I think.
V vincentricMember
quote:
Originally posted by wine+art:
quote:
Originally posted by The Old Man:
quote:
Originally posted by wine+art:
Constant Gardener


quote:
Originally posted by Wine Sparty:
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - really good


While on the subject of films of LeCarre's books, I believe one of the best is the overlooked Tailor of Panama with a much different spy than the one Pierce Brosnan usually played.

I would rate it number three after The Spy and Who Came In From The Cold and perhaps unfairly the BBC TV production of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy



Never watched the Brosnan film. Just downloaded it.

BBC production very good indeed. I liked the Constant Gardener better this time around, I think.


The Tailor of Panama was excellent imo. I probably found Tinker Tailor more interesting though, having read several books on/about Philby, Burgess & their contemporaries. Our Man in Havana is another good one in the same vein.
The Old ManThe Old ManMember
quote:
Originally posted by VinCentric:
The Tailor of Panama was excellent imo. I probably found Tinker Tailor more interesting though, having read several books on/about Philby, Burgess & their contemporaries. Our Man in Havana is another good one in the same vein.

Have you seen the BBC production? Due to its length (six parts) it's able to give a a thorough treatment of a very complex book. It is then followed by the equally excellent, six part, Smiley's People.

FWIW I read Philby's autobiography, My Secret Life around 1969.
V vincentricMember
quote:
Originally posted by The Old Man:
quote:
Originally posted by VinCentric:
The Tailor of Panama was excellent imo. I probably found Tinker Tailor more interesting though, having read several books on/about Philby, Burgess & their contemporaries. Our Man in Havana is another good one in the same vein.

Have you seen the BBC production? Due to its length (six parts) it's able to give a a thorough treatment of a very complex book. It is then followed by the equally excellent, six part, Smiley's People.

FWIW I read Philby's autobiography, My Secret Life around 1969.

\

Years ago when it came out, but that was so long ago it would be interesting to see again. How was Philby's autobiography?
The Old ManThe Old ManMember
quote:
Originally posted by VinCentric:
quote:
Originally posted by The Old Man:
quote:
Originally posted by VinCentric:
The Tailor of Panama was excellent imo. I probably found Tinker Tailor more interesting though, having read several books on/about Philby, Burgess & their contemporaries. Our Man in Havana is another good one in the same vein.

Have you seen the BBC production? Due to its length (six parts) it's able to give a a thorough treatment of a very complex book. It is then followed by the equally excellent, six part, Smiley's People.

FWIW I read Philby's autobiography, My Secret Life around 1969.

\

Years ago when it came out, but that was so long ago it would be interesting to see again. How was Philby's autobiography?

Talk about a long time ago. As I remember it's a bit dry and also he never discusses his motivations.
The Old ManThe Old ManMember
Andrei Rublev--1966--No rating.

The film by the second best known Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky ( Solaris--1972) is simply the most difficult film I've ever watched. It's not just the length, 3 hours 25 minutes (which I can deal with especially being able to take breaks) but a number of other factors.

Ostensibly about the 15th century icon painter it is no way a standard biography. Rublev is on screen no more than 60% of the time and he is never shown painting. In fact there is almost no painting in the film even though it also features a number of other famous icon painters of the time.

Divided into 8 parts and a prologue that seems to have nothing to do with the remainder of the film. Except near the end of the epilogue there is a symbol that's repeated throughout the film of the single horse frequently suffering. This brings up a major problem with the film, there is much animal suffering and though supposedly mitigated it's obvious it's in no way eliminated. 15th century Russia is portrayed as a place you certainly wouldn't want to live in and it wasn't much better for animals.

Another problem is with the film itself. The first quarter of the film is often brilliant shots indoors with low, chiaroscuro lighting. The film was banned in Russia upon its release and the print history is checkered; so due to the lack of a good print this is the worst looking restoration in the Criterion Collection. Many of the opening scenes you're looking pretty much at a black screen. Though perhaps this fits with the generally bleak subject matter.

There is however much that makes this an amazing film. Tarkovsky is a master director and there are thrilling sweeping shots of masses of people followed by in-close intimate shots. His camera movements are also of note, blending with deliberate movement of people and animals in unique shot after unique shot.

Finally in the last section, before the epilogue, "The Bell (Spring–Summer–Winter–Spring 1423–1424)", the final two thirds is perhaps the greatest film sequence I've ever seen.

Also of note the epilogue is a feast for art lovers.
Last edited by The Old Man
The Old ManThe Old ManMember
quote:
Originally posted by wine+art:
quote:
Originally posted by The Old Man:
quote:
Originally posted by Wine Sparty:
War Horse - didn't do much for me

Sometimes a play should be left as a play.


Oh, a great topic. Best films derived from a play.

Discounting Shakespeare: The Importance of Being Earnest-1952.
Honorables (sic): 12 Angry Men, Inherit the Wind, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Witness for The Prosecution.
V vincentricMember
quote:
Originally posted by The Old Man:
quote:
Originally posted by VinCentric:
quote:
Originally posted by The Old Man:
quote:
Originally posted by VinCentric:
The Tailor of Panama was excellent imo. I probably found Tinker Tailor more interesting though, having read several books on/about Philby, Burgess & their contemporaries. Our Man in Havana is another good one in the same vein.

Have you seen the BBC production? Due to its length (six parts) it's able to give a a thorough treatment of a very complex book. It is then followed by the equally excellent, six part, Smiley's People.

FWIW I read Philby's autobiography, My Secret Life around 1969.

\

Years ago when it came out, but that was so long ago it would be interesting to see again. How was Philby's autobiography?

Talk about a long time ago. As I remember it's a bit dry and also he never discusses his motivations.


Thanks, saves me the read. Have read the story. Motivations are what make an autobiography interesting.
The Old ManThe Old ManMember
Two Criterion Collection cult horror films:

Carnival of Souls--78pts. Made in 1962 by an industrial filmmaker from Lawrence Kansas--with the great name--Herk Harvey it was made for $30,000. A woman is in a car crash with two friends that only she survives. This causes a change in her life and her perception of reality. It plays like an extended Twilight Zone episode with some notable features. First it's a pretty pretty bloodless horror movie that relies on general spookiness instead of special effects. Second it's the only all organ music soundtrack (with some incidental "practical" music) I know of except for Last Year at Marienbad. Lastly it makes effective use of a location that triggered the idea for the movie in the director's mind; the abandoned Saltair Pavilion in Salt Lake City.

Supposedly this film inspired David Lynch and others. Available on Hulu.

Eyes Without a Face--87pts. A French horror film from 1960 with many interesting elements. A doctor's daughter's face has been horribly disfigured in an accident. The good doctor is on the cutting edge of face transplant technology, but how to get the needed living tissue? You know how!

The director, Georges Franju, was urged to make a mad doctor horror movie without a doctor who is mad and without buckets of blood. To accomplish this he turned to the book writing team of Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Their first work, Celle qui n'était plus was turned into the masterful suspense movie Diabolique by the great, overlooked, director Henri-Georges Clouzot. Supposedly they had written their book D'entre les morts with the intention that Alfred Hitchcock would adapt it into a movie. He did and made his one true work of art, Vertigo. With Eyes they were asked to write the screenplay.

It contains only the second music score of Maurice Jarre--the first was made a year earlier for the same director. Three years after this film he did Lawrence of Arabia. Check his list of films here, you will be impressed: Maurice Jarre.

The most famous cast member is Alida Valli as the doctor's disturbed, and disturbing assistant. Though she made over 100 films and was in dozens of play, mostly Europe, we know her as the unrelentingly loyal Anna Schmidt in The Third Man (where she was billed by as simply Valli by American producers who wanted to give her a mysterious European edge.) BTW she again plays a too loyal character in this film.

A highly recommended, and again influential film, of dark moods, mysterious happenings and a killer ending shot.

Available on Hulu and on TCM this Saturday at 4:15am PDT.
B bates40Member
quote:
Originally posted by Parcival:
Harold and Maude: great flick that I feel like I should have watched long ago


IMHO one of the best movie soundtracks of all time:

Where Do the Children Play?
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


On the Road to Find Out
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


Trouble
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


Don't Be Shy
(1971) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens during the opening credits


Piano Concerto No. 1
(1874-5) (uncredited)
Written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
In the score after a psychiatrist session


Tea for the Tillerman
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out
(1971) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


I Think I See The Light
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


I Wish, I Wish
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


Miles from Nowhere
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


An der schönen, blauen Donau (On the Beautiful Blue Danube), Op. 314
(1866) (uncredited)
Written by Johann Strauß
Danced by Harold and Maude


Greensleeves
(uncredited)
Traditional
In the score while Harold is hanging and during the dinner scene
Played also by a harpist


Sobre las Olas (Over the Waves)
(1887) (uncredited)
Written by Juventino Rosas
Music played at the amusement park
P parcivalMember
quote:
Originally posted by bates40:
quote:
Originally posted by Parcival:
Harold and Maude: great flick that I feel like I should have watched long ago


IMHO one of the best movie soundtracks of all time:

Where Do the Children Play?
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


On the Road to Find Out
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


Trouble
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


Don't Be Shy
(1971) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens during the opening credits


Piano Concerto No. 1
(1874-5) (uncredited)
Written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
In the score after a psychiatrist session


Tea for the Tillerman
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out
(1971) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


I Think I See The Light
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


I Wish, I Wish
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


Miles from Nowhere
(1970) (uncredited)
Written and Performed by Cat Stevens


An der schönen, blauen Donau (On the Beautiful Blue Danube), Op. 314
(1866) (uncredited)
Written by Johann Strauß
Danced by Harold and Maude


Greensleeves
(uncredited)
Traditional
In the score while Harold is hanging and during the dinner scene
Played also by a harpist


Sobre las Olas (Over the Waves)
(1887) (uncredited)
Written by Juventino Rosas
Music played at the amusement park


it was a fantastic sound track.

I'd include "Stand by Me" and "The Mission" in a list of some of the great soundtracks as well
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