Films you've seen lately

[jayne lee wilson]

I found it repaid a second watch. The first time I was getting sidetracked by inwardly scoffing at the cod science too much, while the second I was more relaxed about it. New Scientist? If you want the most up to date news on what scientists are actually doing you need to look at Nature and Science... I stopped reading NS when the glossy graphics started taking up more space on the page than the words!

I really don't find that to be the case now (more editorial print than I can usually get though, always a few weeks behind with the "bedside reading"......).....NS always very uptodate on everything from Covid to Consciousness to Quantum... but I do enjoy their cartoons, centre-spread photos and backpages humour**...
so I'm sticking with it!

I was just re-reading their 4/12/21 piece on "Nature", "the myth of the wild"... for someone who lives at the heart of it (and can't live without it, like the 100+ Fieldfare flock I just returned to today).. , this was very welcome....

(** eg...
"Always get your medical advice from reputable sources. And always get your advice about that advice from humour columns at the back of science magazines..."

[RichardB]

Russell's The Devils, for which Jarman was the set designer, as a prelude. Some interesting use of sound by Brian Eno et al., including an uncredited short clip from a performance of Cardew's The Great Learning, Paragraph 7.

In The Devils you mean? I didn't know that. I watched it a month or two ago. I can't have been paying full attention.

[Bryn]

In The Devils you mean? I didn't know that. I watched it a month or two ago. I can't have been paying full attention.

No, no, not The Devils. The music for The Devils was by PMD. Try the closing credits of Jubilee.

[RichardB]

The music for The Devils was by PMD.

Indeed, and your post did make it rather ambiguous as to whether it also contained some non-PMD material I had missed. I don't remember much about Jubilee though, not having seen it since it came out!

[pastoralguy]

FINALLY got round to see ‘House of Gucci’ this afternoon. Very much enjoyed it although I’m not convinced the picture was 100% in focus. Normally I’d complain about this but I suspect there’s no resident projectionist so I’d be as well saving my voice to cool my porridge.

[johncorrigan]

I've been looking forward to seeing the 'West Side Story' especially after Belgove's post last month. Mrs C and I headed into Dundee this afternoon and both came out agreeing that it was wonderful. As someone who loves the original, I have to say this was even better. Terrific performances throughout. 'America' was so vibrant, similar yet different from the first version. My favourite scene was as the Jets and Sharks headed to the rumble, while Maria was singing 'Tonight' en route to the underground and Anita was also singing. The way the four sets came together was a delight. Also really impressed by 'Officer Krupke'...so funny, so clever. Two and a half hours flew by, and we left with the soundtrack running round our heads. A delight!

[Bryn]

This afternoon I fetched the RYKO CDs of 200 Motels off the shelf. Lo and behold, tucked into the folds of its poster was the DVD-R I had burned of a rip and edit (original aspect ratio with stereo audio from the CDs where possible) by "MCGRUPP2000". In many ways, it's better than the 2018 MVD official version. I quite forget how I came to have the VOB files, etc. but they copy to hard drive without a hitch. The DVD put out by visuals director Tony Palmer (who falsely credits himself as sole director) is to be avoided. Very poor quality, his claims to have produced it from the original videotapes notwithsatanding. The aspect ratio is wrong and the video quality is sub-VHS standard.

[Belgrove]

Paul Thomas Anderson has made some of the finest films this century, and although Licorice Pizza does not attain the lofty heights of There Will Be Blood or Phantom Thread, it is nevertheless a funny and delightful tonic at this bleak time of the year. It’s a kind of 70’s version of American Graffiti with jukebox soundtrack (augmented by Jonny Greenwood) that follows the burgeoning friendship/romance between a spotty 15 year old youth and an ‘older’ woman in suburban LA. It’s a picaresque and carefree film that embraces the serendipitous to open up fresh chapters in the freewheeling comedic narrative. Utterly charming performances by principals Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman, with a host of cameos. Worth seeing alone for the Japanese restaurant owner (who’s not Japanese).

[LHC]

This afternoon I fetched the RYKO CDs of 200 Motels off the shelf. Lo and behold, tucked into the folds of its poster was the DVD-R I had burned of a rip and edit (original aspect ratio with stereo audio from the CDs where possible) by "MCGRUPP2000". In many ways, it's better than the 2018 MVD official version. I quite forget how I came to have the VOB files, etc. but they copy to hard drive without a hitch. The DVD put out by visuals director Tony Palmer (who falsely credits himself as sole director) is to be avoided. Very poor quality, his claims to have produced it from the original videotapes notwithsatanding. The aspect ratio is wrong and the video quality is sub-VHS standard.

For someone who as been involved in film making for most of his professional life, Tony Palmer's failure to understand even simple things like aspect ratios is really perplexing. His documentary about the Wagner family is similarly afflicted. Although the modern footage is widescreen (16:9), all of the historic 4:3 footage is stretched to fit the 16:9 frame, rather than being shown in its original aspect ratio.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of his other DVD releases are also in the wrong aspect ratio. The DVDs of All You Need is Love are listed as 16:9, even though the documentary series would have been produced in 4:3 for TV. So these have probably been stretched as well.

[Belgrove]

I dislike writing negative reviews since most of what I see is not worth writing about, but when critics begin to praise an Emperor who wears no clothes, they need to be called out. The Observer’s Mark Kermode would have us believe that Guillermo del Toro should be regarded the equal of Orson Welles. His latest film, Nightmare Alley, is a curious melding to two seemingly separate films whose styles clash. The first half is set in the sleazy freak show of a travelling circus, where our anti-hero is introduced to the phoney arts of mind-reading and spiritualism. In the second half, he moves to the big city to dupe a more affluent class of clientele, whereupon it turns into a (unsleazy but implausible) noir-thriller, complete with a femme-fatale psychiatrist called Lilith, with revenge on her mind. The film does look rather good, Lilith’s consulting room is an Art Deco fantasy, with walls clad in maple wood whose patterns resemble Rorschach marks. I understand that this film’s score is being feted for awards, but it does not work. The first half is musically lush, but without the jolting edges the subject and images require, the second half is more languid lushness, but without the sultriness required by noir - if you are peddling cliches, at least stick with the ones that work. It’s a very long film that seems to be saying little more that spiritualism and psychiatry are the two faces of the hucksters loaded coin. Welles made a couple of B-movies and turned them into high cinematic art whereas del Toro just makes B-movies.

[RichardB]

Guillermo del Toro should be regarded the equal of Orson Welles.

(splutter) I haven't seen Nightmare Alley but I did see Crimson Peak a few weeks ago, which was not without its moments, although none of them were original in any way, and I was impressed with Pan's Labyrinth. I thought The Shape of Water was quite bad. Of course Welles made some dodgy films as well, but I agree with you, del Toro is a B-movie maker, for better or worse.

[Nick Armstrong]

I was impressed with Pan's Labyrinth. I thought The Shape of Water was quite bad.

Agreed on both counts. The latter was the most over-awarded film I can recall. (The music drove me up the wall, too).

I like the look of his new one from the trailer, but am braced for disappointment…

[jayne lee wilson]

I loved it, and I sobbed my heart out at the end of, Shape of Water...I identified with it on many levels........maybe it is an outsider-girl-thing....
....
Del Toro is a visionary - a fascinating Artist of the Surreal - I also like the Hellboy Movies (Loves his many Cats, so...) .

Have to wait until Nightmare Alley streams somewhere...but Kermode (trying to reassure Jane Hill on BBC24 that it isn't a horror movie - she avoids them as assiduously as I do) said its ending is unflinchingly dark....

Not sure I need anymore Darkness in my Life right now...

***
I do find Bradley Cooper a bit of a screen magnet: great range, from Limitless to American Hustle to American Sniper....

[gurnemanz]

Somewhat bemused by the B movie jibe as an attempt to belittle Guillermo del Toro, since I am old enough to remember actual B movies. Edgar Wallace Mysteries come to mind. I only know two of his films. Pan's Labyrinth was one of best films I've seen in recent years.

The Shape of Water was touching and original if not adding up to a masterpiece, but it was a palpable hit which grossed 198 million dollars on a budget of 19 million.
.

[Dermot]

Nightmare Alley

Compare and contrast with Edmund Goulding's original 1947 version with Tyrone Power and John Blondell. In his review of it, James Agee wrote, ''They [screenwriter and director] have
seldom forgotten that the original novel they were adapting is essentially intelligent trash, and they have never forgotten that on the screen pretty exciting things can be made of trash.''

https://m.ok.ru/video/275566168739