Films you've seen lately

[Mr Pee]

Funny echo in this corridor...

Oops, sorry. Post deleted. Didn't spot that Bryn had already uploaded that one.

I must I must I must check threads thoroughly before posting.....

[Lateralthinking1]

Touching the Void.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touching_the_Void_(film)

[amateur51]

I saw Quartet today after work and found it quite wonderful - funny, poignant and rather uplifting, not least because of the warm performances. Tom Courtenay and Maggie Smith both stubbornly 'English' - reserved and bitter with regrets, while Pauline Collins and Billy Connolly offering comic relief and pathos in equal measure. And how Dame Gwyneth Jones can still steal a scene or three!

It did, however, seem unfortunate that the recording chosen to play over the closing credits, as the four old-timers reassembled to sing the Quartet from Verdi's Rigoletto, was so instantly recognisable as the Pavarotti/ Sutherland one. On the plus side, I liked the way their fictional recording was reissued as a 'Decca Classic'. And the credits showed the actors/ singers with photos from their prime, hence John Rawnlsey in ENO's Rigoletto and Nuala Willis in Faust.

Two great names from my opera-going past, IGI - do you know how they are/what they're doing these days

[amateur51]

Second/Third/Fourthed!

Likewise I'm sure - the best laugh I've had for a while

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Two great names from my opera-going past, IGI - do you know how they are/what they're doing these days

Both still active. Nuala Willis is involved with Co-Opera Co - http://www.co-opera-co.org/html/nuala_willis.html

while John Rawnsley is busy in musical theatre: http://www.johnrawnsley.com/index.html

They have been married for over thirty years.

[amateur51]

Both still active. Nuala Willis is involved with Co-Opera Co - http://www.co-opera-co.org/html/nuala_willis.html

while John Rawnsley is busy in musical theatre: http://www.johnrawnsley.com/index.html

They have been married for over thirty years.

That's great to hear, IGI - many thanks

[Mandryka]

Saw Les Miserables on Wednesday. Not my choice - we were stuck in deepest Pembrokeshire and desperate to break the monotony of southern Wales in winter-time. My colleague wanted to see it, so I tagged along - worth it, if only to sit in the fabled (and very impressive) Torch Theatre in Milford Haven (a place that was new to me - nice to see them making use of the puff Shakespeare gives the place (MH) in Cymbeline).

The film, for me, defines the term 'empty spectacle': it looks good, but is also quite empty. Characters are 'good' or 'bad' for no reason other than convenience of the plot. The politics of the period (beyond simplistic 'have nots' against 'haves') were entirely missing, as was any form of characterisation other than the broadest. I have not seen the source stage musical but I have read Victor Hugo's intermittently impressive, if permanently pompous, source novel: that does go into great detail about character/motivation, etc.

The songs are hugely unmemorable: uniformly, they sound like they were composed by a computer, rather than human beings. The 'big comedy number', Master Of The House, is unmitigated doggerel. A Petticoat Lane market trader could have written a better tune. The 'big number', the one now associated with the hirsute Scotswoman, is also weak but Ann Hathaway's delivery of it does impress, I'll concede.

Having the songs sung 'live' works.

However, the whole enterprise is thoroughly manipulative and offensive. My heart remained untouched and my eyes remained dry - though this was certainly not the case with the two old ladies sitting next to me: I hope their bladders weren't as weak as their tear ducts.

[Nick Armstrong]

Les Miserables

It's not a film I shall ever watch. I actually went to the very very first production of it, in 1980 it must have been, while I was living in Paris. It was in the Palais des Sports and all I remember is it was very very loud but otherwise, as you say, empty spectacle.

[EdgeleyRob]

I saw Quartet today after work and found it quite wonderful - funny, poignant and rather uplifting, not least because of the warm performances. Tom Courtenay and Maggie Smith both stubbornly 'English' - reserved and bitter with regrets, while Pauline Collins and Billy Connolly offering comic relief and pathos in equal measure. And how Dame Gwyneth Jones can still steal a scene or three!

It did, however, seem unfortunate that the recording chosen to play over the closing credits, as the four old-timers reassembled to sing the Quartet from Verdi's Rigoletto, was so instantly recognisable as the Pavarotti/ Sutherland one. On the plus side, I liked the way their fictional recording was reissued as a 'Decca Classic'. And the credits showed the actors/ singers with photos from their prime, hence John Rawnlsey in ENO's Rigoletto and Nuala Willis in Faust.

We went to watch this last night and I agree it's wonderful.

[Nick Armstrong]

Just off to the first of two cinema treats this week... This evening a preview of HITCHCOCK, with Anthony Hopkins as AH and Helen Mirren as his wife; and tomorrow, Mr Tarantino's latest, DJANGO UNCHAINED... More anon...

[Belgrove]

Django Unchained is Tarantino's best film to date. I've always been allergic to the idea of his films, but have always found them to be well made and above all, entertaining (sic). He is a cineaste with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the form and the references he makes to other films are always apt. Think Spaghetti Western for this one, with lashings, and lashings of bolognese sauce.

His usual tropes are there but come up freshly minted through being set in a pre-civil war western and refracted through a story about slavery. All the characters that populate this film are at least unpleasant, some downright repellent. Tarantino cleverly manipulates us to side this or the other awful person through his characteristic use of stylised and often very humorous dialogue, and through performances that are quite wonderful. Special mention to Leonardo DiCaprio as the odious plantation owner, Samuel L Jackson as a ghastly Uncle Tom, and Christoph Waltz as a principled(?) bounty hunter. Although well acted by Jamie Foxx, Django is the least interesting character, more a flint off which other characters strike.

Tarantino's basic and oft repeated theme that revenge repairs, is daft, and the last half hour is especially daft. His films recall the books of Tom Sharp, which start off in the 'normal' world, slowly burn, exponentiate, and then explode. There is plenty here to offend if you are that way inclined, it's not politically correct, it's probably not accurate. But it's the best film I've seen about slavery in America, until Lincoln maybe, which is next on the list.

[Resurrection Man]

The only time we now go to the cinema is to see the latest Bond film on opening night. Otherwise the smell of rancid popcorn and the eternal mastication is enough to put us off. So we wait until it comes out on DVD from Cinema Paradiso. Just finished watching a French film.."Hedgehog'...utterly delightful.

[Nick Armstrong]

RM I managed to avoid the horrors for my two cinema trips last week.

The first was a press preview in a mini preview cinema in Soho: Hitchcock. I loved it, Hopkins and Mirren as Mr & Mrs Hitchcock were both spellbinding, and it was a very well written and shot - centring on the conception and making of 'Psycho'. An uncanny turn from English actor James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins...

The second was an early evening showing at a cinema that was maybe 4/5s empty - no untoward munching etc. - 'Django Unchained'. I couldn't better Belgrove's review above, save to add two things: (1) I think 'Inglorious Basterds' is as good, in a similar vein; (2) another special mention for Don Johnson (ex-'Miami Vice'!) as another obnoxious plantation owner. Brilliant.

I didn't recognise Samuel L. Jackson at all (I hadn't remembered he was in the film)....

And the film seemed to me to have a lot of tributes to Mel Brooks's sublime 'Blazing Saddles' - indeed, it's almost a grown-up version of that film: 'Blazing Saddles' with a different sort off humour, gore, bad language, cohones and VENGEANCE!

[Resurrection Man]

RM I managed to avoid the horrors for my two cinema trips last week.

The first was a press preview in a mini preview cinema in Soho: Hitchcock. I loved it, Hopkins and Mirren as Mr & Mrs Hitchcock were both spellbinding, and it was a very well written and shot - centring on the conception and making of 'Psycho'. An uncanny turn from English actor James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins...

The second was an early evening showing at a cinema that was maybe 4/5s empty - no untoward munching etc. - 'Django Unchained'. I couldn't better Belgrove's review above, save to add two things: (1) I think 'Inglorious Basterds' is as good, in a similar vein; (2) another special mention for Don Johnson (ex-'Miami Vice'!) as another obnoxious plantation owner. Brilliant.

I didn't recognise Samuel L. Jackson at all (I hadn't remembered he was in the film)....

And the film seemed to me to have a lot of tributes to Mel Brooks's sublime 'Blazing Saddles' - indeed, it's almost a grown-up version of that film: 'Blazing Saddles' with a different sort off humour, gore, bad language, cohones and VENGEANCE!

Lucky chap being in the smoke! There are indeed some interesting cinemas there. I watched Inglorious Basterds on TV the other night. That opening sequence with the French farmer (?) has to be one of the tensest episodes in the entire history of cinema...the SS captain ...perfect casting/acting. If Django is like Blazing Saddles with gore then I can't wait!

[amateur51]

Many thanks for your reviews Caliban - they're going on the list - and I agree with RM about the opening of Inglorious Basterds - quite chilling.

I find that the best time to go to the cinema is an early showing, particularly on a Monday when the tickets are cheaper and the show sparsely attended. This strategy won't suit everyone, I realise