Films you've seen lately

[gurnemanz]

Anna, I don't think that it was a seperate thread, but referred to in another thread.

I thought I'd seen a pretty poor review of Quartet, which I assumed was in the Guardian, but this one - http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/...dustin-hoffman - is actually very good. It may be that the review/ers in the print edition are not the same as in the on-line edition.

A one star review in the Indie put me off Quartet, even though we are presumably in an age bracket to be its "target audience".

[gurnemanz]

I would call myself a movie fan and we would go the cinema more often but the multiplex experience is not pleasant. Our nearest is Swindon which often doesn't even show the films we might be interested in. The last one we saw was The Artist and previous to that Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - both very good.

[kleines c]

π

[Carmen]

I saw two films last weekend, "Amour" and "Quartet". "Amour" with Jean-Louis Trintingnant, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert, about old age, illness and death, is unbearably honest, brutal, powerful and beautiful all at once. An unforgettable experience. "Quartet" was full of fine actors trying to overcome a poor script and silly plot. Awful!

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

It occurred to me because I would most enthusiastically recommend 'LIFE OF PI', Ang Lee's film based on the award-winning (Booker 2002) Yann Martel novel.

Partly inspired by this thread, I saw The Life of Pi this evening. Other than Met Opera screenings, I only tend to visit the cinema once or twice a year, usually in January as that is when the big films tipped for Oscars success are released. Last year, it was The Artist, the year before it was Black Swan and The King's Speech. I have been a couple of times since - Anna Karenina and Skyfall - but once again it is the January glut which tempts most. I missed The Hobbit - partly because I fail to understand how such a slim volume can be turned into three full length feature films of epic proportions - but Quartet, The Life of Pi and Les Mis have all been on my 'must see' list, the latter partly because some of the external scenes were shot here in Winchester.

As Pi closes here this week, that's the one I opted to catch this evening. I haven't read the book, but understand Yann Martel is very pleased with the results. I was struck by what a beautiful film Ang Lee has produced and it's certainly one that I imagine translates better on the big screen than on a DVD at home. Some of the scenes, I felt, were evidently targeted for the 3D audience (I saw the 2D incarnation). I liked the ambiguity of the final scenes and it gave much to think about on the walk home. It's inspired me to read the book.

[Mandryka]

I remember Quartet when the source play by Ronald Harwood (who wrote a not-bad play about Mahler that flopped in the same time-frame) premiered: the subject matter sounded hugely resistible to me then and I feel no different now.

The film sounds like a nakedly unprincipled bid for the grey pound.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

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.

[Bryn]

What the Butler saw:

[Nick Armstrong]

What the Butler saw:

Great, Bryn!!

[Flosshilde]

What the Butler saw:

Is that as in 'Who ate all the Pi(es)'?

[Bryn]

Great, Bryn!!

Thanks due to A N Other at r3ok.com.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Great, Bryn!!

Second/Third/Fourthed!

[Bryn]

Second/Third/Fourthed!

Look you, I am but sharing what I found at r3ok.com. The credit for the find belongs to Professor Green, of that ilk.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Look you, I am but sharing what I found at r3ok.com. The credit for the find belongs to Professor Green, of that ilk.

Thanks to the Prof for finding it; thanks to you for sharing it, sithee.

[Nick Armstrong]

Funny echo in this corridor...