"I've never seen Star Wars" - unwatched classic films...

[Nick Armstrong]

Usually, Disney's vulgarisation of literature repels me

It's Spielberg's vulgarisation of emotion that repels me.

Oh you are men of stones...
You were never in floods at the end of ET?

I remember vividly going to see it in the cinema with a party of university friends when it came out, and being amazed and frankly disappointed at all the sniffling and snuffling at what seemed to me the most blatant emotional manipulation; I did indeed sit stony-hearted, even resentful, at the rank, artificial sentimentalism of what was being perpetrated by Messrs Spielberg and Williams....

I've tried it since, I feel the same way.

Never gasped at the first appearance of the mother ship in Close Encounters, after the long breathless anticipation, and - that profound deep rumbling vibration as it approaches, throwing the whole of Devil Rock into its shadow?

I grant you, some of those moments in CEotTK are magnificent. And I loved the moment when the viewer realises what Richard Dreyfuss is making on his table at home, when it appears on the television news report behind him, and before he knows. That's good story-telling... I've never seem the Indian Jones films, but can imagine they're good story-telling too.

[MrGongGong]

I've always regretted NOT going to see Jurassic Park when it came out and I was in Bucharest, would probably have been a bizarre experience to watch it dubbed into Romanian

[vinteuil]

I've also seen 'Night of the Generals', Cali, and yes it is terrific. I saw it in the cinema when it first came out in 1967. If you can, try to get hold of the book by Han Helmut Kirst. .

"Outraged Nazi general to German major: "Are you wearing perfume?" "I occasionally wear a light after-shave, sir." O'Toole and Sharif utter lines like these with absolutely straight faces... a sub-plot involving a prostitute murderer (quite obviously O'Toole, since he's as nutty as a fruitcake). O'Toole's performance is as over the top as it was in The Ruling Class, but this film ... is far funnier since it takes itself so seriously. Ignore the plot, but revel in the clichés." [Time Out Film Guide]

[Nick Armstrong]

[doversoul1]

Re: ET

If Spielberg had made ET with the same mind set as when he made Duel, the film would have been about the fear of unknown and children would have been kept well out of it. But then, it would have kept the audience well out of the cinema. On the other hand, The Exorcist was a massive hit, so you never know. I didn’t see it and have no intention of seeing it.

From what I have read and the bits I have seen, ET certainly looks a genuinely great entertainment. The extraterrestrial being in recognisably human shape tells the audience that the story will be safely within its comfort zone; it’s a clever variation of a story of a boy and a dog, a horse, or pelican (but never seems to be a cat). Children against (and beating) adult authority is what made Famous Five so famous.

Be entertained if you like this sort of things but I take science fiction and children seriously.

I only saw one Indiana Jones (the one with Sean Connery as Dad) and would like to see more. They look fun and unpretentious.

[ed.] of course The Exorcist had a child. I wonder if the film would have been such a hit if it had been about a man in (or woman for that matter) in his 50s.

[Richard Tarleton]

"Outraged Nazi general to German major: "Are you wearing perfume?" "I occasionally wear a light after-shave, sir." O'Toole and Sharif utter lines like these with absolutely straight faces... a sub-plot involving a prostitute murderer (quite obviously O'Toole, since he's as nutty as a fruitcake). O'Toole's performance is as over the top as it was in The Ruling Class, but this film ... is far funnier since it takes itself so seriously. Ignore the plot, but revel in the clichés." [Time Out Film Guide]

I have to post this, at this point, without further comment

[kernelbogey]

I have to post this, at this point, without further comment

Ja, ja, sehr gut...!

[eighthobstruction]

.... one of the worst film I have ever seen; that took itself too seriously, is Damage....Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche....which had a w/c Bradford audience howling in the aisles.... a film just made for parody....

....having 2 children hooked on films and stories I have sat through and enjoyed (mostly due to their enthusiasm) many of the films it appears that a lot of you have not....Having been glued to the box during childhood and since (when it comes to films)....I feel much of my moral character/compass has been forged (too exotic a word really) by Jack Hawkins, John Mills, Alan Ladd, Randolph Scott, Glenn Ford, Cary Grant,..............but unfortunately (or fortunately possibly) Jerry Lewis, Norman Wisdom and Will Hay too....

Ah Films and Music and Books....3 really great things about being alive....

[vinteuil]

....I feel much of my moral character/compass has been forged (too exotic a word really) by Jack Hawkins, John Mills, Alan Ladd, Randolph Scott, Glenn Ford, Cary Grant....

... o how I recognize this! In my case Paul Scofield in A Man for All Seasons, Gregory Peck in The Big Country...

The Times had some articles on men-crushes the other day (in the wake of the Poldark phwoar factor); I think I had a big crush on those two in those fillums...

[Richard Tarleton]

With the OP in mind, has anyone not seen Picnic at Hanging Rock? My deluxe [sic] edition has three discs - the original film, the director's cut, and a disc with an on-set documentary about the making of the film, including interviews with the director and most of the cast - and the author of the book - and a recent programme featuring the recollections of several surviving cast members. Eye-popping recollections of Rachel Roberts, inter alia.

There were other fine Australian films of the 1970s - Ken Hannam's Summerfield and Sunday Too Far Away for example - but PAHR a work of cinematic genius, IMV. They originally thought the shots at the Hanging Rock location could be wrapped up fairly quickly, but the lighting man insisted on using the brief time each day when the natural light was exactly right....and then there was the music...

[jayne lee wilson]

...Fluttering eyelashes in Bambi?

A gender stereotype - same as in the Seberg/Belmondo relationship in Bout de Souffle (1960).. and what about the much-praised Under the Skin (2014) where Scarl Johanssen's sexually-predatory female alien turns out to be.... controlled by 4 motorcycling male aliens. Just pimps and prostitutes again..
Insidious stereotyping in "Art" movies makes fluttering eyelashes look almost innocent.
(Rejoice in Hit Girl, Gamora etc...)

AS for Spielberg's Duel, gripped when I first saw it, but disappointed in the ending - this ghostly, cunning and relentless truck/driver so easily led over a cliff? Thelma & Louise found a better way out there...
Duel is a onetrick pony, doesn't take repeat viewings at all well.

Finally thought of one I haven't caught yet - Lion King... Sky never offer it, has it ever been on TV? Have to buy it then - hey, no spoilers now!

[doversoul1]

Jules et Jim

I have read and heard about it so much but still haven’t had a chance to see it.

[Richard Tarleton]

Jules et Jim

I have read and heard about it so much but still haven’t had a chance to see it.

Jeanne Moreau's song

[doversoul1]

Jeanne Moreau's song

Ah, yes. It almost makes me feel as I knew the film.

Come to think of it I only know the theme music of Jeux Interdits and have not seen the film.

[Richard Tarleton]

It was one of several French films I saw in the Scala in Walton St (Oxford) in the late 60s, through clouds of other people's cigarette smoke, they all seemed to feature rural settings, rustic food and sex.