Films you've seen lately

[vinteuil]

Watched The Favourite - was fairly bored, though stuck with it as Mrs T seemed to be quite enjoying it. With its obvious emphasis on the lead characters the political complexities of the time were grossly oversimplified - what anyone not familiar with the history of the period could have made of it I can't imagine. In fact so much of it is speculative or fictitious that I'm really not sure what the point of it was. The poison/horse/brothel/scar bit total fiction.

Eclectic (random, anachronistic) selection of music (no original score) - among much else, that Handel from Barry Lyndon again, Schubert D960 2nd movement .....

... I loved it.


.

[kernelbogey]

Leave No Trace
dir Debra Granik
US 2018

Deeply touching portrait of a Dad and his 14 year old daughter, living rough and trying to keep a step or two ahead of a well-meaning but inept West Coast social services bureaucracy - and the Dad's demons.

http://www.winchesterfilmsociety.co.uk/

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Leave No Trace
dir Debra Granik
US 2018

Deeply touching portrait of a Dad and his 14 year old daughter, living rough and trying to keep a step or two ahead of a well-meaning but inept West Coast social services bureaucracy - and the Dad's demons.

http://www.winchesterfilmsociety.co.uk/

- outstanding performance by the young actress. And I appreciated how well the Social Services were portrayed, too - their genuine concern for the two, and wishg to accommodate their wishes, whilst preventing harm. (And harm very nearly is what comes of the father's actions.)

[Dave2002]

Rocketman
The best film on at local cinemas right now. Normally I wouldn’t go for this kind of thing, but it seemed both very well done and fascinating. Didn’t convert me to Elton John’s music, but made me realise just how popular and successful he has been. According to some lists he is the 4th all time successful performer/band - in order: The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, then Elton John ....

[kernelbogey]

- outstanding performance by the young actress.

She's a Kiwi, and according to our FilmSoc man, was cast over Skype by the Director. Agree with your assessment of her Ferney. My prejudiced hunch was that many child/teen American actors would do 'cute' very well - but this role is the antithesis of that. She [oops, can neither remember nor find her name] does a perfect American teen accent but the way she plays the relationship with her Dad is spot on: just how such an outsider, orphaned kid with no smartphone would cling to him, buy into his values.

Terrific evening.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thomasin McKenzie (I had to look it up ) - playing a character called "Tom", too! And you're spot-on, kernel - it's a dry (but "warm") performance that completely excludes "cute".

[Stanfordian]

'Rocketman' - biographical musical film based on the life of Elton John

It was ok - generally enjoyable.

[Constantbee]

Apollo 11, Todd Douglas Miller (2019)

It’s not a movie it’s a documentary comprising previously unseen archival footage and unheard audio recordings of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, interspersed with line-draw animations explaining what the various spacecraft are going to do, to a pulsating electronic score by Matt Morton created using only instruments that existed back in 1969. How cool is that! Can’t help thinking that if the film had been made in 1969 the musical vibe would have been a whole lot more triumphalist, but there you go

The most memorable moments must be, among others, Saturn 5’s engines during lift off, and the re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere, shot through a capsule window and showing flames roasting the spacecraft’s heat shield. The landing scene itself will have been doctored quite a bit. According to the book the intended landing was hampered by the unexpected presence of boulders on the moon’s surface. With fast dwindling fuel supplies it took the crew a lot longer to land than planned. Nail biting maybe, but presumably difficult to incorporate into the movie.

See it. It’s a great watch

[johncorrigan]

Mrs C I went to see 'Yesterday', yesterday. It's the latest from Danny Boyle where jobbing musician, Jack Malik, wakes up after an accident to find that only he recalls the Beatles. While hardly earth-shattering some fine central performances and enjoyable Beatlesy tunes made for a very entertaining watch. One thing, however; I'm not familiar with the music of Ed Sheran - he's in the film - but I know he is very, very popular...this film did not give me any indication why!

[pastoralguy]

Mrs C I went to see 'Yesterday', yesterday. It's the latest from Danny Boyle where jobbing musician, Jack Malik, wakes up after an accident to find that only he recalls the Beatles. While hardly earth-shattering some fine central performances and enjoyable Beatlesy tunes made for a very entertaining watch. One thing, however; I'm not familiar with the music of Ed Sheran - he's in the film - but I know he is very, very popular...this film did not give me any indication why!

I think the line where Ed Shersn says to Jack Malik, 'You're Mozart and I'm Salieri' pretty much sums it up. I saw it with a friend on Friday nite in Lancaster. A good movie with excellent performances from the cast. I really liked Lily James!

[LMcD]

A couple of nights ago, Talking Pictures TV served up 'Quartet' (1948), a compendium film based on 4 short stories by Somerset Maugham. Promising early appearances by Dirk Bogarde, whose star quality was evident even this early in his career, and George Cole. It was lovely to be able to hear every word - no need for subtitles (not that there were any!).
Our next film, tonight, promises to be a bit different - Olivia Colman in 'The Favourite'.
Followers of Talking Pictures TV might also like to note 'No Love for Johnnie' (1961), on at midnight tonight. It has a score by Malcolm Arnold, and Oliver Reed makes a brief appearance as a 'bohemian party goer' - who'd have thought!

[Joseph K]

Just caught the latter half of Return of the Jedi on ITV.

Although, needless to say, I don't enjoy it now like I did when I was 10 years old, I still think it captures the imagination. Ian McDiarmid, who plays Emperor Palpatine, is really a great actor - he really brings out the evil of his character! I guess they felt the need to balance his evil by having the Ewoks. And, of course, the music is great, much is pillaged from music c. 1850-1950, but it's done well and I would say a large aspect of my enjoyment as a young child was the music. I think now I find much of it quite funny in a way I wouldn't have done when I first watched it, but that's ok. It is epic. This film has long been my favourite of the trilogy (and for that matter, of the rest of the films too).

[jayne lee wilson]

Did you see Rogue One? One of the best I felt, sharpening those themes of friendship, self-discovery and self-sacrifice. And with a great robot, a hard bitten wisecracking less physically approachable C3PO-type droid with sharp backtalk, who we end up feeling very sorry for....

K-2SO....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-2SO

I thought Force Awakens & Last Jedi went very well - that last scene in VII, where Rey finds Luke on a rocky island and the haunting horn theme sounds again...!
There's still one last main episode to go (IX)......out soon I think. I've always loved how at the end of each film the great fanfaring theme thunders out over the credits ... I still laugh & cry when it comes on!

(BTW - Just seen First Man (twice)... wonderful movie...the sheer clanking, metallic explosive physicality of early spacecraft and the X-15, is scarily evoked (from inside the cockpits!).... personally I can't get enough of Space things...)

[Bryn]

Having a bit of a Jarman binge at the Moment. Jubilee last night, and before than the Eisenstein delowering in Mexico. I missed out on Vol. 1 of the BFI Blu-ray edition but Vol. 2 was delivered yesterday. I might give The Tempest a viewing tomorrow.

[Joseph K]

Did you see Rogue One? One of the best I felt, sharpening those themes of friendship, self-discovery and self-sacrifice. And with a great robot, a hard bitten wisecracking less physically approachable C3PO-type droid with sharp backtalk, who we end up feeling very sorry for....

K-2SO....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-2SO

I thought Force Awakens & Last Jedi went very well - that last scene in VII, where Rey finds Luke on a rocky island and the haunting horn theme sounds again...!
There's still one last main episode to go (IX)......out soon I think. I've always loved how at the end of each film the great fanfaring theme thunders out over the credits ... I still laugh & cry when it comes on!

(BTW - Just seen First Man (twice)... wonderful movie...the sheer clanking, metallic explosive physicality of early spacecraft and the X-15, is scarily evoked (from inside the cockpits!).... personally I can't get enough of Space things...)

I think I've seen Force Awakens and Last Jedi, not sure about Rogue One. TBH, I found Force Awakens all a bit silly - perhaps there are elements of silliness in the original trilogy, but they get away with it through other redeeming aspects, but these redeeming aspects are absent in FA, for me at least, so I didn't enjoy it. I quite liked the Last Jedi though, mainly because of Luke Skywalker/Mark Hamill. And I quite enjoyed Young Han Solo...