Originally posted by LHC
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Films you've seen lately
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Originally posted by johncorrigan View Post
Indeed, kb. I saw it last night and was very proud of myself to have lasted without a trip to the loo...mind you, I had been avoiding fluids most of the afternoon. I thought Cillian Murphy was terrific - the camera seemed to love him. Always good, in my opinion, to see Matt Damon, and I was very impressed by Robert Downey Junior; and there were fine performances throughout. I thought I was done with lengthy films but 'Oppenheimer' fairly charged along and I was glad I saw it at the pictures. Although I had been told to expect a big boom, it still caught me unawares when it happened.
I did lose the dialogue in a number of scenes, it’s true, and it’s a flaw when set against the epic quality and clarity of the visuals. I went with someone who knows about these things and yes, it’s a deliberate decision by Nolan apparently but stemming from the absolute racket made by IMAX film cameras (you can find ‘filming of’ videos on YouTube). Nolan prefers nonetheless sticking with the ‘on set’ dialogue rather than re-recording dialogue in post-production. Instead it seems he uses an AI noise filtering system to edit out the clatter of the cameras… the result unfortunately still being the indistinctness in certain dialogue exchanges
It didn’t really spoil an engrossing cinematic experience, for me"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Originally posted by kernelbogey View PostI intend to watch it again, possibly in IMAX, though it's virtually sold out there well into September.
I would also endorse all of the comments made so far. I found it an absorbing experience and the three hours absolutely sped by. I didn't have too many problems hearing the dialogue, which I actually thought was much clearer than in some of Nolan's other more recent films.
I have seen some comments online that some people found the last third too slow or felt it was an anticlimax after the build up to the Trinity test, but I didn’t feel that at all. Indeed, the juxtaposed hearings of Oppenheimer and Strauss were extremely compelling for me.
I also agree with Nick's comments about Robert Downey Jr who I thought was superb as Lewis Strauss. Quite possibly the best thing I’ve seen from him. Emily Blunt was also very good. The dismissive look she gave to Edward Teller towards the end of the film was a brilliant piece of non-verbal communication.
I don't go to the cinema very much, preferring to watch in peace at home on my 'home cinema' set up, but was amazed at the amount of 'food and drink' consumed by the others. I saw one couple a few rows in front who were positively laden with unhealthy snacks as they struggled to their seats with hot dogs, nachos and dips, large buckets of coca cola and even larger buckets of popcorn. They appeared to be determined to eat more calories in three hours than I would normally consume in a week. Happily the sound system was loud enough to drown out any noise.
Having booked for the IMAX I received an email from this week advertising a showing of 2001 A Space Odyssey in September. Ironically, I had watched 2001 in 4K UHD just two days before (I have been working my way through Kubrick's films in order). I was tempted to see it again, but unfortunately the IMAX showing clashes with Les Troyens at the Proms, which I am also going to see.
"I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square."
Lady Bracknell The importance of Being Earnest
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Originally posted by kernelbogey View PostI thought, in retrospect, that he'd made an error in not showing even a few seconds of newsreel footage of post-bomb Hiroshima. The movie is essentially about Oppenheimer, his psyche, his guilt. Not to show even a glimpse of the destruction and shattering physical consequences of the bomb - 100,000 people died in Hiroshima alone - made the movie a kind of expression of American isolationism.
I agree with all the positive comments about Oppenheimer, the superb acting all round - the revelation that was Robert Downey Jr. ! Am I the only forumite who has never watched Peaky Blinders nor encountered the excellent Cillian Murphy until buying a ticket for this film ?
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No, you're not! I didn't see any of Peaky Blinders and was amused at the praise it received for getting Brummies on TV (perhaps after so many dramas about the natives of London, Manchester and Liverpool) despite their being violent criminals.
I've nothing against Birmingham. I lived there fifty years ago and retain a fondness for the place.
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Originally posted by Maclintick View PostThe lack of any contemporaneous newsreel footage showing the destruction in Hiroshima is such a glaring omission in Oppenheimer that it suggests, to me at any rate, that Nolan was making a point by excluding it, maybe on the grounds that the audience would be familiar with the material. The notion that the movie expresses American isolationism was, I felt, undercut in the fraught scene between the guilt-racked protagonist and President Harry S. Truman culminating in the latter's savage dismissal of the physicist from the Oval office "Get rid of this cry-baby".
I agree with all the positive comments about Oppenheimer, the superb acting all round - the revelation that was Robert Downey Jr. ! Am I the only forumite who has never watched Peaky Blinders nor encountered the excellent Cillian Murphy until buying a ticket for this film ?
This would also seem tie in with his division of the film into subjective (colour) and objective (B&W) sections. He does show the audience of Oppenheimer's triumphal speech disintegrating in Oppenheimer's minds eye like victims of a nuclear blast and was interested in Oppenheimer's gradual realisation of the full consequences of creating the first atomic bomb.
Cillian Murphy has made around 50 films in addition to his role in Peaky Blinders (which I have also not seen). He has also been in 5 of Nolan's previous films (including Dunkirk and his Batman trilogy) so is clearly one of his favourite actors (although he was largely shown behind a mask in the Batman films so you can be forgiven for not recognising him from these)."I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square."
Lady Bracknell The importance of Being Earnest
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Originally posted by LHC View Post
It is after all a film about Oppenheimer rather than a documentary about the Manhattan project.
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Saw Hello Bookstore recently - not sure whether I mentioned this here before - probably not.
Adam Zax’s unhurried fly-on-the-wall documentary captures the gentle rhythms and flow of life in a Massachusetts bookstore
Probably a bit long - but of interest to me was that I'm sure I've been to the shop and had a discussion with Matthew who recommended books by Edith Wharton. A very genial film, though probably only of interest to very niche viewers.
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Maybe this is a genre in film, another example being the one about the man who keeps a Manhattan cigar store and photographed the street outside every day.
Two films I've longed to see and found this week:
The Deep Blue Sea . Alexander Korda's 1955 version of Terence Rattigan's stage play, with Vivien Leigh and Kenneth More. I was a little disappointed , perhaps because the extra scenes, inserted to make it a cinema event, break up the very satisfying structure of the original play . And I thought Leigh a little too 'cut-glass' for the character of Hester. I much preferred Penelope Wilton in a fine TV version some years ago.
Cronaca di un amore (Antonioni, 1950) . I don't mind if I'm alone in feeling that Antonioni's earlier monochrome films are better than his later lavish colour ones, perhaps becuase he had to be more creative due to financial and censorship limits. I enjoyed the use of long perspectives in this film, and the careful choice of particular buildings creates an intense mood.
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Originally posted by smittims View PostMaybe this is a genre in film, another example being the one about the man who keeps a Manhattan cigar store and photographed the street outside every day.
Of course the single set film is also a thing - see Hitchcock's Rear Window.
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The 1947 movie So Well Remembered, featuring Trevor Howard, John Mills, and a very young Hayley Mills. I dug this up yesterday after seeing it mentioned in a site devoted to Hanns Eisler, to which I have drawn attention on the Eisler thread (under Composers); as far as I am aware this was the one and only British-made film Eisler composed a score for:
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
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Mrs C and I ventured into Dunders last night to see 'Scrapper', a film based in London about a young girl trying to survive on her own after the death of her mother. Then her long-lost father appears on the scene and moves in to the house - a couple of great performances from Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson as the main protagonists. In parts funny and moving, for what is clearly a low-budget effort, I enjoyed it...it's a BBC film so will probably show up on the box in the not-too-distant future. Entertaining.
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