Films you've seen lately

[kernelbogey]

....I'm going to see Oppenheimer at the BFI IMAX next week and am looking forward to it.

I intend to watch it again, possibly in IMAX, though it's virtually sold out there well into September.

[Nick Armstrong]

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.

Similar experience here at the Science Museum IMAX last weekend (inc. fluid avoidance strategy ). Gripping and memorable - and I was amazed that it took me 15 minutes or so to realise it was Robert D Jnr. (I make a point of trying to know as little about a film as possible beforehand, including casting). Terrific underplayed performance (& make-up) - one hopes he’s entering a new mature phase of performances (like our Hugh Grant).

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

[LHC]

I intend to watch it again, possibly in IMAX, though it's virtually sold out there well into September.

I'd certainly recommend a viewing in the IMAX format, which is stunning.

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.

[Maclintick]

I 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.

The 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 ?

[smittims]

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.

[LHC]

The 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 ?

I am sure it is a deliberate omission. There is a scene in Oppenheimer when the scientists at Los Alamos watch newsreel footage of Hiroshima but Nolan focuses on Oppenheimer's face and his reaction rather than showing the actual newsreel footage. I wonder if he felt it would be too overwhelming and unbalance the film so he concentrates on Oppenheimer. It is after all a film about Oppenheimer rather than a documentary about the Manhattan project.

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).

[gurnemanz]

It is after all a film about Oppenheimer rather than a documentary about the Manhattan project.

Yes, hence I was very glad to have watched the recent documentary shown on TV which does give more of the science. My knowledge of physics is minimal (scraped an O Level umpteen years ago) but I did gather from that doc that a key breakthrough was to move to the preferable implosion method, which was what they tested at Trinity and used at Nagasaki. As I understand it, the Hiroshima bomb was based on the original gun-type design which was untested.

[Dave2002]

Saw Hello Bookstore recently - not sure whether I mentioned this here before - probably not.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jun/28/hello-bookstore-review-indie-bookshop-owners-story-is-the-perfect-page-turner

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.

[smittims]

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.

[Dave2002]

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.

Do you remember what that was called?

Of course the single set film is also a thing - see Hitchcock's Rear Window.

[AuntDaisy]

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.

Do you remember what that was called?

Is it Smoke?

[gradus]

I enjoy the Jumanji films now frequently on Film 4.

[Serial_Apologist]

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:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nqPTQj4g6l

[smittims]

Thanks for posting that. I'm a Trevor Howard fan but had not heard of that film. I will look it up when I have time.

[johncorrigan]

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.