Films you've seen lately

[gurnemanz]

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.
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.
All the best,
Tevot

We go probably about once or twice a month. The reason why we don't go more often is not the prevailing conditions at the cinema, unappealing as they can be, but the fact that the films we might like to see are frequently not shown at our nearest multiplex (Swindon) and nearest "arthouse" cinemas are an hour or more's drive away at Bath, Bristol or Oxford. Seeing on the small screen is not really a substitute for the cinematic experience, in terms of technical quality, sound, communal watching, concentration. We have quite a few DVDs which we have never got around to watching. If we want to save money, the Empire at Swindon does tickets for £4.50 on Tuesdays. We recently paid around £16 in London. They also do morning "Seniors" screenings (free tea and biscuit!) for £3.50 once a week. These are useful for catching up on films just beyond their main release. We saw "I Tonya" the other day - not a film I would have necessarily rushed to see, although reviews were good, but my wife was keen. It was a good film, interestingly put together in a semi-documentary sort of way.

Re Netflix: Our daughter and her partner are in the film industry and obviously want to watch a lot of stuff. She has kindly added her password to our setup for us. We have started watching "The Crown", which is excellent, but we haven't use it much. As you say, the new releases are not always great quality. They use Curzon Home Cinema quite a lot.

[johncorrigan]

Anyone seen Isle of Dogs?

Fascinating and not as grim as I expected.

I mentioned it in http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...971#post672971, greenie. I'd add to what I said, what a great cast of voices, and that it also paid tribute to Kurosawa in places, which can never be a bad thing.

[LMcD]

Last night we watched 'The Sense of an Ending'. I hope 'quietly absorbing' doesn't make it sound boring, 'cos it wasn't...it's just that it's one of those films that refuses to be hurried....and Jim Broadbent, as usual, managed to convey as much by his silences as he did by his words.
We usually check the imdb ratings of the films we watch, as its assessments are often close to our own. We were bit surprised to see it rates only 6.3 - a bit harsh.

[vinteuil]

I saw ... Call Me by Your Name recently. ... interestingly awful in my view ... It was neither a drama nor a gay film, just a load of intellectual pretension - unbelievable at every level.

... ah well, we loved it. I thought it was beautiful, and beautifully observed. And very funny...

.

[Stanfordian]

'The Leisure Seeker' starring Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren - Quite good but ran out of steam!

[Ferretfancy]

... ah well, we loved it. I thought it was beautiful, and beautifully observed. And very funny...

.

Perhaps you have to be gay like me to appreciate what nonsense it was.Woody Allen's intellectual families are much more fun.

[aeolium]

I thought Asghar Farhadi's film "The Past", which was recently shown on BBC, one of the most powerful and intense studies of relationships within families I've seen, recalling some of the best work of Losey in the 1960s and 1970s. The concentration and attention to detail in the screenplay and camerawork, matched by excellent performances from the whole cast including the children, made for a film of rare intensity. It's still available on iplayer for another 20 days or so, and I recommend wholeheartedly this work from a director at the very peak of his form:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09sqss5/the-past?suggid=b09sqss5

[Richard Barrett]

Last night we watched 'The Sense of an Ending'. I hope 'quietly absorbing' doesn't make it sound boring, 'cos it wasn't...it's just that it's one of those films that refuses to be hurried....and Jim Broadbent, as usual, managed to convey as much by his silences as he did by his words.

By coincidence, we watched that one last night and I'm afraid I would have to say that I think it IS boring, saved only by Broadbent's acting. I haven't read the novel it's based on, and I'm not a Julian Barnes fan anyway, but I found the script ponderous and at the same time skating over the surface of the various philosophical/psychological/social issues raised. Especially in comparison with the last film seen here, The Square, which I thought was really excellent on many levels.

As for Call me by your name, that didn't leave much of an impression either, I found it completely unconvincing.

[Richard Tarleton]

.

... a wonderful film -

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

We saw it yesterday, and it is still reverberating (in a good way). Yes, I know the critics have raved over it, and given it five stars &c - for once I think they're right.

Stonking performance by Frances McDormand, and excellent Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell and others. Written, produced, and directed by Martin McDonagh, who did In Bruges and The Guard. Beautifully paced, literate script, which wrong-foots you again and again. The best thing in quite a time.





.

Superb film - watched last night on Sky Store. One to keep. Reverberating, yes - took a while to get to sleep last night.

A word for the eclectic soundtrack - it had me from the start, with Renée Fleming singing The Last Rose of Summer in Flotow's version from Marta (in English), from this CD - more of the song/aria recurs later in the film. Also, Joan Baez with The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - by coincidence my sister was in Paris last night, at invitation of no.2 niece, to attend the Paris leg of Joan Baez's (current ) farewell tour - haven't heard how that went yet

[richardfinegold]

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.

And the other factor—the age demographic. Not only do I wish to take advantage of my home surround system, but between my back problems, arthritic knees, and decreased bladder capacity, sitting in 1 place for more than an hour comfortably is a challenge. I thought I was bad but all of my friends feel the same way, not to mention all of the issues mentioned by RT. I think that I have been to an actual cinema twice in the past 5 years.
I still attend concerts and the theatre—Macbeth tonight at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre—but most of the time one can move around after one hour . And I now give every piece at the CSO at standing ovation regardless of what I think of the performance because I need to stand and stretch.
I’ve been wanting to seeThe Death Of Stalin for some time now, the only time in 2 years that I have contemplated going to an actual cinema. I finally bought it from iTunes last night for $15, which is still less than I would have paid had we gone to a movie theatre. It was worth every penny

[Nick Armstrong]

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.

I had no idea, never heard of this VW score. Will look out for the inevitable re-run

Cheers Rob

Talking Pictures is so interesting.

I'm a sucker for the late 50s/early 60s British police series filmed by the vanished Merton Studios et al. - like Scotland Yard, Gideon's Way, Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre... Some shocking acting but often absorbingly atmospheric with nostalgic street scenes (and a few times, arrestingly familiar locations - a few scenes were filmed at my road-end: I'd jump and realise I was watching where I live before or shortly after I was born). They have been on series-record, and are very agreeable watching with a cup of tea at the end of an afternoon!

An additional interest in those series is watching some big names in their very earliest and minor roles - in one, the get-away driver for a villain was a familiar youth, with a couple of lines and an ignominious death scene: Michael Caine. Donald Sutherland turns up in another. Plus loads of actors who I remember as aging character actors in TV series in my teens appear in their heyday - the elderly waiter from Duchess of Duke Street playing a police inspector in his prime, "Mrs Bridges" from Upstairs Downstairs very glamorous playing a gangster's moll

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

An additional interest in those series is watching some big names in their very earliest and minor roles - in one, the get-away driver for a villain was a familiar youth, with a couple of lines and an ignominious death scene: Michael Caine. Donald Sutherland turns up in another. Plus loads of actors who I remember as aging character actors in TV series in my teens appear in their heyday - the elderly waiter from Duchess of Duke Street playing a police inspector in his prime, "Mrs Bridges" from Upstairs Downstairs playing a very glamorous gangster's moll

Oh, yes - anyone remember Harry H Corbett in Cover Girl Killer a couple of years before Steptoe? Meant to be a "thriller" - and, presumably helpful to the public in that it shows that serial killers wear dirty macs and bottle-thick glasses!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvrtNEmKg4I

[Tevot]

Oh, yes - anyone remember Harry H Corbett in Cover Girl Killer a couple of years before Steptoe?

Actually no I don't tbh - but I remember him in the ineffable Carry on Screaming. A fantastic snapshot of swinging 1966 what with Charles Hawtree's ground breaking turn as Daniel Dann the Lavatory Man and Jon Pertwee's grisly demise-at the hands of Odd-Bod Jnr in a public convenience. As for Fenella Fielding she was so hot she set off fire alarms - and that was even before she started smoking - literally !!

And to this day - I remain scandalised that it never received the adulation and Palm D'Or it truly deserved !!

With tongue firmly in cheek,

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[LMcD]

I had no idea, never heard of this VW score. Will look out for the inevitable re-run

Cheers Rob




I'm a sucker for the late 50s/early 60s British police series filmed by the vanished Merton Studios et al. - like Scotland Yard, Gideon's Way, Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre... Some shocking acting but often absorbingly atmospheric with nostalgic street scenes (and a few times, arrestingly familiar locations - a few scenes were filmed at my road-end: I'd jump and realise I was watching where I live before or shortly after I was born). They have been on series-record, and are very agreeable watching with a cup of tea at the end of an afternoon!

An additional interest in those series is watching some big names in their very earliest and minor roles - in one, the get-away driver for a villain was a familiar youth, with a couple of lines and an ignominious death scene: Michael Caine. Donald Sutherland turns up in another. Plus loads of actors who I remember as aging character actors in TV series in my teens appear in their heyday - the elderly waiter from Duchess of Duke Street playing a police inspector in his prime, "Mrs Bridges" from Upstairs Downstairs very glamorous playing a gangster's moll

I happened to catch the end of an episode of 'Gideon's Way' - on Talking Pictures I think it was - when browsing my Freesat channels the other night. The hapless villain - at least I think that's what he was - was played by Derek Fowlds, who many years later ended up trying to please 'Humpy' in Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister'. The episode in question dated from 1965.

By the way...have you seen a young Robert Redford in 'The Twilight Zone' (1962)?

[Tevot]

I thought Asghar Farhadi's film "The Past", which was recently shown on BBC, one of the most powerful and intense studies of relationships within families I've seen, recalling some of the best work of Losey in the 1960s and 1970s. The concentration and attention to detail in the screenplay and camerawork, matched by excellent performances from the whole cast including the children, made for a film of rare intensity. It's still available on iplayer for another 20 days or so, and I recommend wholeheartedly this work from - a director at the very peak of his form:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...uggid=b09sqss5

Many thanks for the recommendation aeolium ! I will look it up.