Films you've seen lately

[Dave2002]

45 Years

Directed and written by Andrew Haigh. The film is based on the short story "In Another Country" by David Constantine.

Moves rather slowly. Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling. Some interesting ideas, and some interesting film "techniques" e.g Charlotte talking to Tom who is out of sight, with Tom's replies [J cots, L cuts]. One idea is based on real life events, and in the film this (I'm not going to spoil it here ...) has obviously affected the pair for many years.

The end was not quite what I expected, but perhaps it might have been predicted. The gradual revealing of Tom's character was quite well done. In retrospect I thought that Charlotte was less well "explained" - who was she before she met him, and what did they really do together? Maybe they didn't really have a life together at all? Which raises a question - "why?".

Seems also to be a film about getting old - not exactly an action movie.

[gurnemanz]

A recommendation for the film "Even When I Fall" (also a bit of a plug - our daughter edited it), an unusual and uplifting documentary which gives a vivid introduction to Circus Kathmandu with its background in the trafficking of young women from Nepal to India. It's touring the country at the moment. We saw it at Bristol Watershed.

[Stanfordian]

I loved the 'Black Panther' comics back in the 70s so I thought I'd take in the most recent Marvel offering, now that the snow's gone. Looked great, good acting, excellent special effects but lacked that certain oomph (humour perhaps). Pleasant enough entertainment. Best thing about it was that if you go to Cineworld in Dundee in the afternoon you buy your ticket at the food counter. I was standing behind this guy and he was taking ages...I realised he was buying 'SNACKS' with his ticket. Giant hotdog, large popcorn, big cup of coke...with ticket £22.30...I reckoned he paid twice as much for the nosh as for the ticket to Black Panther. When I eventually got in I saw him already sat up the back row getting tucked in... but, I mean, Twenty-two pound and thirty pence!!!!

Consuming food and drink in cinemas has become so, so commonplace these days, especially with young people.

[johncorrigan]

'Moonrise Kingdom' was probably the first film where I took much notice of Wes Anderson as a film maker. I thought it, perhaps, one of the finest uses of music in a film that I had seen with its great mixture of 'Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra', Francoise Hardy and Hank Williams, and it was just an all round excellent film.
I've caught a few of his films in the intervening years, and they have never yet failed to impress. So I was looking forward to his new offering, 'Isle of Dogs', and Mrs C and I headed to see it today. It's an animation very much in the spirit of a Japanese comic and looks fantastic, as all his films do. The story was good...I had a good few guffaws throughout, and there was lots to enjoy. But most of all was the music which I thought was sensational - I sat in my seat right to the end of the credits listening to the wonderful Taiko. All in all a terrific piece of art, I reckon.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I watched the Sean the Sheep Movie this afternoon: virtuoso visual imagination, a superb narrative invention, and by far the funniest thing I've seen on telly all week. (I was going to say "all month", but I remembered the date!)

[EdgeleyRob]

Short notice I'm afraid but there's a chance to hear some rare RVW film music in context today.
Talking Pictures TV are showing The Flemish Farm today at 10 am.
Also the same channel is airing Night Mail (Britten) at 1.35 pm tomorrow

[gradus]

Short notice I'm afraid but there's a chance to hear some rare RVW film music in context today.
Talking Pictures TV are showing The Flemish Farm today at 10 am.
Also the same channel is airing Night Mail (Britten) at 1.35 pm tomorrow

Missed the VW but will try for the Britten, thanks for the prompts. Talking Pictures is so interesting.

[Bryn]

Missed the VW but will try for the Britten, thanks for the prompts. Talking Pictures is so interesting.

The Flemish Farm is repeated at 02:50 Friday morning.

[Stanfordian]

On Talking Pictures TV on Thursday, showing is 'Whistle Down the Wind' with filmscore by Malcolm Arnold. One of my favourites.

[EdgeleyRob]

On Talking Pictures TV on Thursday, showing is 'Whistle Down the Wind' with filmscore by Malcolm Arnold. One of my favourites.

[Tevot]

Hello there,

It’s been a wee while since I’ve posted on this thread and it has been interesting to hear your views about some of the films you’ve seen recently.

In short I thought Dunkirk a brilliantly designed, engaging and well executed film – and I must admit not seeing the howlers that other viewers noticed

Paddington 2 was a hoot – and I thought even better than the first film. Loved Hugh Grant and the musical number during the end credits. High Camp is well and truly an understatement as Sir Billy Butlin never ever said

The Shape of Water left me puzzled and with a sense of somehow having been cheated. The film was many things (that perhaps was its main problem?) but Oscar winner of Best Film, Director and Original Score !!?

I can only conclude that somebody had tampered with the winning Oscar envelopes again and that as a result “King Kong: Skull Island” was robbed of its rightful glory !!

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[greenilex]

Anyone seen Isle of Dogs?

Fascinating and not as grim as I expected.

[Richard Tarleton]

Paddington 2 was a hoot – and I thought even better than the first film. Loved Hugh Grant and the musical number during the end credits. High Camp is well and truly an understatement as Sir Billy Butlin never ever said

Wonderful films both - where was Paddington 2's Oscar? I saw an interview with the man responsible for the colour, how they achieved that scene where the prison kitchen was washed with colour from left to right as the camera panned while the prisoners made their unlikely confections

Helen Mirren was bemoaning the other day how Netflix was ruining the communal cinema experience - I think that was achieved a long time ago by smelly food, mobile phones, talking, etc. (she obviously goes to a better class of cinema). I last went to an actual cinema in October 2007 (on a night off during the ROH Ring cycle - the cinema at the Angel, Islington). We went to see Ratatouille. What between the stuff they put on beforehand, the noise levels, the sticky seats, the audience, the film itself, it was such an appalling experience that we left about 15 minutes into Ratatouille and went to the pub. It's strictly on the sofa, at home, on a decent TV and sound system these days.

[Ferretfancy]

I saw La Land and Call Me by Your Name recently, luckily they were both on Blu Ray DVD on a good system. They were both interestingly awful in my view, especially Call Me by Your Name. It was neither a drama nor a gay film, just a load of intellectual pretension -unbelievable at every level.

[Tevot]

Helen Mirren was bemoaning the other day how Netflix was ruining the communal cinema experience - I think that was achieved a long time ago by smelly food, mobile phones, talking, etc. (she obviously goes to a better class of cinema). I last went to an actual cinema in October 2007.....

Hello there,

To be perfectly honest with you Richard, I can't remember when I last visited a cinema or what I watched - definitely pre 2001 which was before we moved abroad to teach. After that it was a case of buying your entertainment cheaply from street vendors or stores which sold bootlegged DVDs at absurdly low prices. They were cheap as chips so you didn't mind the variable quality.

Now with streaming and torrents, DVDs are essentially obsolescent so much of what I watch has been downloaded since around 2014. Today for example I watched an excellent Danish film called "A Hijacking" which I downloaded in May 2015. Gosh - it's only taken me almost 3 years to get to see !!

We subscribe to a service called TV Mucho so we can get our fix of UK programming such as Tipping Point, The Chase and Pointless (yes - we are indeed that sad!!) and of course we have Netflix where such delights as "Ru Paul's Drag Race" can be provided at the flick of a switch for my wife's delectation

My wife incidentally boasts that she last attended a cinema back in 1986 !!

Interesting what you say about Netflix - and I was fascinated to read that they are not putting any of their films into competition at Cannes next month. To be honest I think a lot of this is down to the poor quality of some of their new releases - for example two of their recent big budget films "Bright" and "Mute" received critical maulings.

That said I've recently enjoyed "Annihilation" even though I wouldn't really be able to tell you what its ending was all about and Netflix have some pretty decent documentaries too imho - such as Tower; Best of Enemies and 13th.

Indeed looking at the new releases I see that Netflix's reboot of "Lost in Space" is now available to watch. This is bad news because that award winning Slovenian masterpiece I downloaded last month may now have to wait until 2021 before it gets a viewing !!

All the best,

Tevot