# List the films you've seen at the cinema: 2013



## belboid (Jan 6, 2013)

'cos the DVD thread is for home viewing , not cinema going, despite what some people seem to think.....  And cos I've just come back from

Life of Pi - hadn't wanted to go and see it, but belatedly catching up with some reviews, I was convinced to change my mind. And it did look great, some stunning scenes, but the story....hmmm.  'It will make you believe in God' they said - but only if you're a fucking idiot who doesn't understand the meaning of the word 'allegory.'


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## maomao (Jan 6, 2013)

Half of Skyfall. I walked out cause it was shit and the audience was too noisy.

Edit: Apologies. That was 2012. I have no plans to go to the cinema again until they ban eating.


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## Sue (Jan 7, 2013)

maomao said:


> Edit: Apologies. That was 2012. I have no plans to go to the cinema again until they ban eating.


 
Went to the pictures yesterday (Sunset Boulevard/To Catch a Thief double bill) and I swear half the audience had a packed lunch with them. (Still, not as bad as the time I went to see Hunger and the people in front of me had sandwiches, big bags of crisps and litre cartons of juice and proceded to munch their way through the film. Which seemed a touch...inappropriate...given the subject matter --though maybe they thought it'd make them feel hungry so brought their own provisions...? )


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jan 7, 2013)

Jack Reacher


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## Kid_Eternity (Jan 7, 2013)

Life of Pi, typical Ang Lee, looks very nice but is emotionless and flat in terms of story...


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## Reno (Jan 17, 2013)

I caught a screening of The Sessions, based on the real experiences of a profoundly disabled man who in his late 30s decide to loose his virginity to a sex surrogate. This could easily have gone horribly wrong and ended up sentimental, embarrassing or coy, but it's surprisingly funny, touching and matter of fact. Mainly checked it out because of John Hawkes (Deadwood, Winter's Bone, Martha Marcy May Marlene), who is one of my favourite actors. Helen Hunt is very good too and I believe she has snagged an Oscar nomination for this.


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## blossie33 (Jan 17, 2013)

The new Great Expectations film and Jiro Dreams of Sushi, documentary about an 85 year old sushi chef who runs a tiny sushi bar in Tokyo which has been awarded 3 Michelin stars.


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## pennimania (Jan 17, 2013)

La Source des Femmes

at our little film club


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## RubyBlue (Jan 18, 2013)

The Impossible and Les Miserables so far but Lincoln next week.


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## Big Gunz (Jan 18, 2013)

The Hobbit, disappointed.


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## redsquirrel (Jan 20, 2013)

Hitchcock - Not terrible but just totally and utterly directed/plotted by the numbers. Hopkins fat suit isn't as annoying as I thought it might be but I still think the correct way to play such as role is just to go for and use your acting abilities rather than make-up (like he did for Nixon). Nice to see Danny Houston turn up even if it was just as the stock sleaze character that he seems to be stuck playing these days.


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## belboid (Jan 24, 2013)

Spy In Black. 

The first Powell/Pressburger collaboration,one I've never seen on the big screen before. And,wow, but it was magnificent. The ninety minutes flew by, and I'd forgotten how everything panned out. It is a really clever, Hitchcockian, movie, with Conrad Veidt and Velarie Hobson being just superb. Whether it was entirely internally consistent is debatable, but is a much overlooked gem, should be seen much more than, eg,Dambusters.


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## mk12 (Jan 24, 2013)

Django Unchained - 9/10
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D on Saturday
Lincoln in the next few weeks.

2013 is already shaping up to be a better year for film that 2012!


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## DexterTCN (Jan 24, 2013)

I have one of those oscar ripped djangos to watch 'for your consideration' heh.   Looking forward to it.

Sadly not relevant to this thread.


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## Big Gunz (Jan 24, 2013)

Les Mis, pretty grim but really well performed, Huge Jackman surely for the Oscar?  Bit overlong though.  7/10


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## Reno (Jan 25, 2013)

Big Gunz said:


> Les Mis, pretty grim but really well performed, Huge Jackman surely for the Oscar? Bit overlong though. 7/10


 
I usually like Hugh Jackman but I think all the other nominees in that category are more deserving. Anne Hathaway deserves her nomination though, not least because she gave two stellar supporting performances this year.


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## framed (Jan 25, 2013)

The Hobbit... I took the weans.

Whilst they are technically very impressive, I find these type of CGI-loaded films a bit like watching one of the kids playing a computer game.


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## Maltin (Jan 26, 2013)

I saw Lincoln last night. It was exceptionally good. Very interesting and excellent performances throughout, especially Day-Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens.


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## pennimania (Jan 26, 2013)

Beasts of the Southern Wild.

The Road meets The Colour Purple.

Liked it but could have done without the magic realism.


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## belboid (Jan 28, 2013)

Django Unchained. Excellent film, hilarious, revolting, absurd, and all to real. Obviously, its too long (get a fucking editor, Quentin!) but it is brilliant. More on the DU thread (or there will be, later)

Oh, I must add: what (or, maybe, why) the fuck was that accent all about, Quentin?


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## Reno (Jan 28, 2013)

belboid said:


> Django Unchained. Excellent film, hilarious, revolting, absurd, and all to real. Obviously, its too long (get a fucking editor, Quentin!) but it is brilliant. More on the DU thread (or there will be, later)
> 
> Oh, I must add: what (or, maybe, why) the fuck was that accent all about, Quentin?


 
Sally Menke who was Tarantino's editor for all his previous films died before Django Unchained, which may be a reason why this one drags a little more than some of his other films.


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## Nanker Phelge (Jan 28, 2013)

Reno said:


> Sally Menke who was Tarantino's editor for all his previous films died before Django Unchained, which may be a reason why this one drags a little more than some of his other films.


 
What was the excuse before.....


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## belboid (Jan 28, 2013)

Reno said:


> Sally Menke who was Tarantino's editor for all his previous films died before Django Unchained, which may be a reason why this one drags a little more than some of his other films.


as I say on the other thread, they've been getting progressively worse (in terms of editting) right from the beginnning.  This is slightly less bad for it than _Inglorious_.


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## Reno (Jan 28, 2013)

belboid said:


> as I say on the other thread, they've been getting progressively worse (in terms of editting) right from the beginnning. This is slightly less bad for it than _Inglorious_.


 
I far prefer Inglorious Basterds to Django and thought it was better paced. I got bored during the last half hour of Django, seriously bored.


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## belboid (Jan 28, 2013)

Reno said:


> I far prefer Inglorious Basterds to Django and thought it was better paced. I got bored during the last half hour of Django, seriously bored.


I got bored with the second hour of Inglorious, but that made up for it with the stupendous final part. With this, the bit after the dull bit would, I think, be great, if we weren't too busy going 'wtf is that accent?' for ten minutes of it.


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## Reno (Jan 28, 2013)

...and I like decent female characters, which Django lacked.


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## belboid (Jan 28, 2013)

there is no denying that. I know why he had Brunhilda be so passive, a princess requiring rescuing, but I wish she'd been allowed to play a bigger part.


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## Dr. Furface (Jan 29, 2013)

Zero Dark Thirty - 8.5. Very impressive, maybe a little over-dramatised here and there, but that's only to be expected. The final scenes are excellent and, considering we all know how it ends, are surprisingly tense.


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## youngian (Jan 29, 2013)

If Zero Dark Thirty is an accurate representation of events it shows the hunt for Bin Laden is either a long slow haul which needed a bit of luck or a resource starved low priority run by a bunch of amateurs. They were hardly the Wire's Lestor Freeman and nor were Al-Quaeda's security even as sophisticated as a Balimore drug gang.

Also saw Lincoln which was interesting reather than gripping. I enjoy procedural politics and it wasn't as asorbing as Recount or Game Change, where the stakes were not as high as the subject of this film.

Did like Daniel Day-Lewis's Lincoln and I'm not usually a fan of his scenery chewing big parts. He bought the iconic figure to life without doing JFK in a top hat. Whether it was accurate I wouldn't know but he was credible as a leader you believe men would follow as well as showing what a bore he could be with his endless folksy stories.
A lot of a dialogue in the congressional debates was great rhetoric and even poetic at points. Especially Tommy Lee Jones as the house leader in a terrible wig that made him look like Nigel Lawson.


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## Reno (Jan 29, 2013)

youngian said:


> If Zero Dark Thirty is an accurate representation of events it shows the hunt for Bin Laden is either was a long slow haul which needed a bit of luck or a resource starved low priority run by a bunch of amateurs. They were hardly the Wire's Lestor Freeman and nor were Al-Quaeda even as sophisticated as a Balimore drug gang.


 
At the risk of pointing out the obvious but the drug gangs in The Wire were right under the cops' noses, while finding Bin Laden hiding in one of several possible countries was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Mind, I'm not sure either how I feel about the film. Just like with The Hurt Locker I found it a bit too obvious and superficial, to the point where I questioned myself if I missed something, considering other see so much more in Bigelow's recent war films.


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## Dr. Furface (Jan 29, 2013)

youngian said:


> If Zero Dark Thirty is an accurate representation of events it shows the hunt for Bin Laden is either was a long slow haul which needed a bit of luck or a resource starved low priority run by a bunch of amateurs. They were hardly the Wire's Lestor Freeman and nor were Al-Quaeda even as sophisticated as a Balimore drug gang.


Heh! It clearly was a long slow process but apart from that I doubt that the film was very realistic in terms of the detail (apart from maybe the closing scenes). Jessica Chastain put in a good performance but I don't for one second believe events happened much like they're shown in the film, with her almost single-handedly chasing the bad guy down. But I'm prepared to accept that it would've been a very difficult task gathering the quality of intelligence they were prepared to act on, and in that respect for me the film succeeded.


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## youngian (Jan 29, 2013)

Reno said:


> At the risk of pointing out the obvious but the drug gangs in The Wire were right under the cops' noses, while finding Bin Laden hiding in one of several possible countries was like looking for a needle in a haystack.


 
Thinking about it I'm might retract my earlier thoughts because wasn't the earlier part of the film trying to convey they were just lashing out and peeing in the wind with the rendition policies and getting nowhere. The point when the new Whitehouse representative (Tony Soprano) was around 2010 and it was the beginning of a more focused tactical FBI type of invesitgation which of taken little over a year.


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## Dr. Furface (Jan 29, 2013)

youngian said:


> Thinking about it I'm might retract my earlier thoughts because wasn't the earlier part of the film trying to convey they were just lashing out and peeing in the wind with the rendition policies and getting nowhere. The point when the new Whitehouse representative (Tony Soprano) was around 2010 and it was the beginning of a more focused tactical FBI type of invesitgation which of taken little over a year.


That's more like it. The jihadists gave them nothing - they couldn't beat it out of them or buy it from them. But after 8 years of failure and frustration - which cost the USG god knows how many billion$ and much international outrage - for the price of a Lamborghini they finally got their man.


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## redsquirrel (Feb 2, 2013)

_Zero Dark Thirty_ - as a piece of film-making I was impressed by it. It's not quite as tight as _The Hurt Locker_ and there are some flaws (it's too long, I can't believe anybody would get away with talking to there bosses like that and why would they fly her out to Afganistan just to make a visual inspection of the body, loads of other people could have done that) but it has some excellent moments and the last half hour is tense as hell. Chastin's performance is ok but some of the supporting cast are brilliant, Mark Strong is great, as usual, and it's absolutely wonderful to see Jennifer Ehle in even a role this large these days (though if I'd been casting it I'd have given the lead).

Politically, I found it absolutely repugnant. Not so much due to the torture issue that has been in news but US patriotism and the utter idolisation of the CIA I found hard to take. Worse still was the justifications for the Iraq invasion, utterly vile.


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## Reno (Feb 2, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> _Zero Dark Thirty_ - as a piece of film-making I was impressed by it. It's not quite as tight as _The Hurt Locker_ and there are some flaws (it's too long, I can't believe anybody would get away with talking to there bosses like that and why would they fly her out to Afganistan just to make a visual inspection of the body, loads of other people could have done that) but it has some excellent moments and the last half hour is tense as hell. Chastin's performance is ok but some of the supporting cast are brilliant, Mark Strong is great, as usual, and it's absolutely wonderful to see Jennifer Ehle in even a role this large these days (though if I'd been casting it I'd have given the lead).
> 
> Politically, I found it absolutely repugnant. Not so much due to the torture issue that has been in news but US patriotism and the utter idolisation of the CIA I found hard to take. Worse still was the justifications for the Iraq invasion, utterly vile.


 
"Repugnant" is taking it a little bit far, there were enough ambiguities and the film to make it merely "questionable" for me. 

Agree with you on the casting, Chastain pre-raphelite beauty seems at odds with the role. She is just too movie star glamorous and Ehle comes across as more believable as an actual human being.


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## youngian (Feb 2, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> Politically, I found it absolutely repugnant. Not so much due to the torture issue that has been in news but US patriotism and the utter idolisation of the CIA I found hard to take. Worse still was the justifications for the Iraq invasion, utterly vile.


 
I didn't take any of that away from the film, if anything the CIA were portrayed as lashing out and getting nowhere.


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## redsquirrel (Feb 3, 2013)

But they got their man in the end, and quite clearly they were the good guys, their crimes were completely whitewashed.


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## Thimble Queen (Feb 3, 2013)

Life of Pi. Looked great, worth watching in 3D... Read the book a few  years ago so it was quite nice to revisit the story


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## belboid (Feb 7, 2013)

49th Parallel

The third Powell & Pressburger movie, another I'd never seen at the pics before, and one that had never grabbed me before either.  It's possibly the P&P with the least characterisation (everyone plays 'types' rather than people) and the least sense of place - they'd fairly obviously never been to Canada before, and it just didn't come across as well as it should have.

That said, I did enjoy it more than I thought I would, some great bits, especially the Anton Walbrook speech.  the fact that the film broke twice didn't even spoil my enjoyment too much.


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## 8115 (Feb 8, 2013)

Lincoln.  3 hours of my life I'll never get back.


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## redsquirrel (Feb 9, 2013)

belboid said:


> 49th Parallel
> 
> The third Powell & Pressburger movie, another I'd never seen at the pics before, and one that had never grabbed me before either. It's possibly the P&P with the least characterisation (everyone plays 'types' rather than people) and the least sense of place - they'd fairly obviously never been to Canada before, and it just didn't come across as well as it should have.
> 
> That said, I did enjoy it more than I thought I would, some great bits, especially the Anton Walbrook speech. the fact that the film broke twice didn't even spoil my enjoyment too much.


Great cameo from Olivier too


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## belboid (Feb 9, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> Great cameo from Olivier too


Fuck off it is! Him n Leslie are a large part of why I always disliked it. Each bit has its charm, but overall, it's an above average propaganda movie, but not really much more.


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## Sweaty Betty (Feb 9, 2013)

I think the last time i made it to the cinema was vanilla sky!


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## Kid_Eternity (Feb 9, 2013)

Seven Psychopaths, fucking great film. Django Unchained was pretty fucking good too.


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## redsquirrel (Feb 9, 2013)

belboid said:


> Fuck off it is! Him n Leslie are a large part of why I always disliked it. Each bit has its charm, but overall, it's an above average propaganda movie, but not really much more.


Oh come on how can you not love that great French accent


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## magneze (Feb 10, 2013)

Lincoln
First hour is pretty ropey but the rest is fine. It's totally concentrated on the 13th amendment to the US consititution, rather than Lincoln's life. As a result it's more about the political theatre around the abolition of slavery. I couldn't help thinking that Borgen does political theatre so much better though - maybe that's just because of it's more contemporary setting. It's an ok way to spend 2.5 hours and there are some interesting bits, but I wouldn't really recommend it as a must see.


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## redsquirrel (Feb 10, 2013)

magneze said:


> Lincoln
> First hour is pretty ropey but the rest is fine. It's totally concentrated on the 13th amendment to the US consititution, rather than Lincoln's life. As a result it's more about the political theatre around the abolition of slavery.


And that's why it's good. 

There are a couple of mis-steps where Spielburg can't rein in his sentimentality, and I don't think extending the film to cover Lincoln's death worked but overall it's an excellent piece of film making.


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## magneze (Feb 10, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> I don't think extending the film to cover Lincoln's death worked


Yes, that felt tacked on.


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## 8115 (Feb 10, 2013)

I thought that was the only good bit. I didn't know he died, and it was the only dramatic moment in the whole film for me. The votes counting was ok too.


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## Maltin (Feb 10, 2013)

8115 said:


> I didn't know he died


 you are aware it was set in 1865?


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## 8115 (Feb 10, 2013)

Maltin said:


> you are aware it was set in 1865?


 
Well obviously he died at some point.  I was unaware of the manner of his death.


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## Maltin (Feb 10, 2013)

8115 said:


> I thought that was the only good bit. I didn't know he died, and it was the only dramatic moment in the whole film for me.


I thought that was probably the least dramatic They didn't really cover the assassination properly, although I liked the way they did. As the others have said, it did feel a bit tacked on but with the timeline of the film, it makes sense to cover it. I'm not even sure they bother to mention the name of the assassin.


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## Maltin (Feb 10, 2013)

8115 said:


> Well obviously he died at some point.  I was unaware of the manner of his death.


That's quite surprising to hear.  I would assume that most people are aware that Lincoln and Kennedy were assassinated, as they are pretty famous presidents. Having said that, I felt very ignorant about that period of US history watching the film. For non-US audiences, the opening is different to give some historical background.


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## 8115 (Feb 10, 2013)

Maltin said:


> For non-US audiences, the opening is different to give some historical background.


 
I can't even remember the opening.


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## Maltin (Feb 10, 2013)

8115 said:


> I can't even remember the opening.


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/photos-new-lincoln-opening-made-412691


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## Reno (Feb 11, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> And that's why it's good.
> 
> There are a couple of mis-steps where Spielburg can't rein in his sentimentality, and I don't think extending the film to cover Lincoln's death worked but overall it's an excellent piece of film making.


 
It's not like they had to extend the film by much. Lincoln did get assassinated only three months after the 13th amendment got passed by the House, so it fit well within the time frame the film covers. It would have been strange not to address it. And I liked that the way it was dealt with was remarkably non-exploitative.


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## little_legs (Feb 11, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> There are a couple of mis-steps where Spielburg can't rein in his sentimentality, and I don't think extending the film to cover Lincoln's death worked but overall it's an excellent piece of film making.


I disagree, I think it was appropriate to show that Lincoln only had 2.5 months to bask in the glory of the passage of the 13th amendment by the HOR before the bastard Booth decided to shoot him. The coverage of his death is, in my view, directly related to the questions he asks in the film _'Do you think we choose the times into which we are born? Or do we fit the times we are born into?'_ It seems that he was born to do one thing only, and as soon as he completed that one thing, he was gone.


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## little_legs (Feb 11, 2013)

May I add that Lincoln was one of the few films that made me want to find out who the composer of the film was. I had no idea who John Williams was, but fucking hell, that solo piano music that is played when Lincoln visits one of the battle fields and sees the bodies of dead soldiers... Respect.


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## Maltin (Feb 11, 2013)

little_legs said:


> May I add that Lincoln was one of the few films that made me want to find out who the composer of the film was. I had no idea who John Williams was, but fucking hell, that solo piano music that is played when Lincoln visits one of the battle fields and sees the bodies of dead soldiers... Respect.


If you didn't find out already, John Williams is one of the best film composers/conductors of all time and has scored many of Spielberg's films. 

He's most famously associated with Jaws, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters, Harry Potter...


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## Reno (Feb 11, 2013)

Not counting early TV movies, I think The Colour Purple is the only Spielberg directed film Williams didn't score. He is the most famous living film composer and while he can be very good, his scores can be overly manipulative and bombastic, but his more low key score for Lincoln was very good.


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## redsquirrel (Feb 11, 2013)

Reno said:


> *It's not like they had to extend the film by much.* Lincoln did get assassinated only three months after the 13th amendment got passed by the House, so it fit well within the time frame the film covers. It would have been strange not to address it. And I liked that the way it was dealt with was remarkably non-exploitative.


I think that's part of the problem for me, all the stuff after the bills passage just felt tacked on to me. The film, rightly IMO, didn't show any of the build up to the debate so I don't know why the post-amendment was needed.


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## Jeff Robinson (Feb 11, 2013)

I'm toying with seeing Lincoln this evening but I'm feeling quite tired and this film appears to be both dialogue heavy and with a long running time. Is this film engaging enough to keep my intention (I am genuinely interested in the events depicted)? I've got to say I'm generally pissed off by this increased tendency to make films the best part of three hours, I can't remember the last time I saw a movie that I thought was _too short. _


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## Reno (Feb 11, 2013)

Jeff Robinson said:


> I'm toying with seeing Lincoln this evening but I'm feeling quite tired and this film appears to be both dialogue heavy and with a long running time. Is this film engaging enough to keep my intention (I am genuinely interested in the events depicted)? I've got to say I'm generally pissed off by this increased tendency to make films the best part of three hours, I can't remember the last time I saw a movie that I thought was _too short. _


 
I liked it but maybe not one to see when you're tired.


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## redsquirrel (Feb 12, 2013)

Jeff Robinson said:


> I'm toying with seeing Lincoln this evening but I'm feeling quite tired and this film appears to be both dialogue heavy and with a long running time. Is this film engaging enough to keep my intention (I am genuinely interested in the events depicted)? I've got to say I'm generally pissed off by this increased tendency to make films the best part of three hours, I can't remember the last time I saw a movie that I thought was _too short. _


I don't think _Lincoln_ is as bad as many others on the length issue, while I don't think the extending the time line worked it doesn't actually add much to the running time. For such a long movie I thought it passed quite quickly, I certainly wasn't looking at my watch.


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## Yuwipi Woman (Feb 12, 2013)

Lincoln (Ok. Was a bit distracted by the obvious miming of old patriotic bio-pics from the 40s and 50s. Liked the period set dressing.).

Hansel and Gretel (Please, please don't waste your money).

Warm Bodies (Wasn't expecting much, was suprisingly entertained, but don't expect "art".  It's hard to go wrong with zombies.)

Chasing Ice (Documentary on global warming. Couldn't decide if I was terrified beautifully or beautifully terrified.)

Dear Mandela (Documentary on "informal housing" in South Africa. Well worth seeing).


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## blossie33 (Feb 12, 2013)

Caesar must Die,  a documentary about prisoners in a top security Italian prison putting on a Shakespeare play.

Ballroom Dancer, documentary about a Russian ex Latin champion trying  to make a comeback with a new partner.

Mai Mai Miracle, Japanese  animation film.

I Wish, Japanese film about two brothers who want to get their separated parents together again.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Feb 12, 2013)

Saw Django today, but whilst watching it, was trying to remember the name of previous film I'd seen.  Couldn't remember Jack Reacher at all.  Struggling to remember what it was even about


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## Reno (Feb 12, 2013)

blossie33 said:


> Caesar must Die, a documentary about prisoners in a top security Italian prison putting on a Shakespeare play.
> 
> Ballroom Dancer, documentary about a Russian ex Latin champion trying to make a comeback with a new partner.
> 
> ...


 
Might be more useful if you told us what you though of them.


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## Reno (Feb 12, 2013)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Saw Django today, but whilst watching it, was trying to remember the name of previous film I'd seen. Couldn't remember Jack Reacher at all. Struggling to remember what it was even about


 
Is that all you thought about for nearly three hours ?


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Feb 12, 2013)

Reno said:


> Is that all you thought about for nearly three hours ?


 
No, not at all, just the 20 minutes we sat watching the adverts


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## blossie33 (Feb 12, 2013)

Reno said:


> Might be more useful if you told us what you though of them.




Yes, sorry!
Liked them all, I'm quite easily pleased ;-)
I only go to see films I pretty much know I'll enjoy.


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## Reno (Feb 13, 2013)

Yuwipi Woman said:


> Hansel and Gretel (Please, please don't waste your money).


 
I won't. Film posters with characers in black leather, striking "cool" poses is the first thing to make me run screaming in the opposite direction. By now leassons should really have been learned from Van Helsing (or any film franchise starring Milla Jovovich or Kate Beckinsale)


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## belboid (Feb 15, 2013)

seeing as yesterday was Valentines, there was only one film anyone in there right mind could want to go and see, so I did.

Harold and Maude.

It's been so long since I've seen it I was a little afraid that it might not have stood the test of time, but, boy oh boy, did it!  Still hilariously good, superb performances from Cort and Gordon, so many little touches that I'd forgotten about - Maude letting us catch a glimpse of her tattoo brought an audible intake of breath from almost the whole cinema (a charming place, proper old fashioned theatre that holds 50 people).

The only minor drawback with it, is that I am now going around humming Cat Stevens tunes.


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## Remus Harbank (Feb 15, 2013)

Wreck it Ralph, which was actually quite good (I'm a bit of a Sarah Silverman fan)


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## Sue (Feb 18, 2013)

Lincoln -- enjoyed it, will probably win lots of Oscars.
Silver Linings PLaybook -- quite enjoyable.
Gangster Squad -- looked good but contained every cliche in the book.


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## Reno (Feb 19, 2013)

Mea Maxima Culpa, a documentary which starts out as a case of a priest abusing hundreds of deaf children at a boarding school over decades, which then turns into an investigation into child abuse in the Catholic church that implicates everybody up to the highest ranks. Made me want to nuke the Vatican more than ever before.


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## belboid (Feb 21, 2013)

The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp.

Such a damned awesome film, every time you see it there is something else brought out. I think I'd previously missed the line (during the Boer war part):  'the Germans are spreading such awful lies, they claim we have set up concentration camps in South Africa.' It's hardly the only bit where one is led to think 'the buggers have a point you know.'

Roger Livesey and Anton Walbrook particularly are superb, just astoundingly good. Anyone ever wanting to know what 'pathos' is only needs to go and watch the 'interview' scene with him 2 hours in, just beautiful.


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## belboid (Feb 24, 2013)

Cloud Atlas

Hmm. Probably as good a job as could be done from an until able book, I was hooked for the first third, but got bored in the last third - the various stories endings all started an hour before the film actually finished, and it was just a bit...get on with it. 

It was interesting how different stories grabbed me in this version than had done so in the book. The Adam Ewing story was gripping in the book but possibly the weakest element in the film (tho, no, the last story was definitely the weakest), and the Sonmi story really came alive. I can't remember any significance at all attached to bridges in the book, tho they were very obvious in the film. 

All in all, glad I went to see it, Doona Bae's Sonmi is worth it by itself, but it's no masterpiece. I suspect that's down to the failings of the book - a stylistic work of wonder, and some stupendous writing, but not really _about_ anything at all.


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## youngian (Feb 24, 2013)

belboid said:


> The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp.
> 
> Such a damned awesome film, every time you see it there is something else brought out. I think I'd previously missed the line (during the Boer war part): 'the Germans are spreading such awful lies, they claim we have set up concentration camps in South Africa.' It's hardly the only bit where one is led to think 'the buggers have a point you know.'
> 
> Roger Livesey and Anton Walbrook particularly are superb, just astoundingly good. Anyone ever wanting to know what 'pathos' is only needs to go and watch the 'interview' scene with him 2 hours in, just beautiful.


 

Never tire of this wonderful film. One scene I noticed last time that is so full of heart is when Kretschmar-Schuldorff nervously announces to Candy he is to marry the Deborah Kerr character.
Candy congratulates his friend with a hearty handshake and assures him she a great girl but not his type.
Behind the big stiff upper lip smile you can see his heart is breaking.


----------



## blueplume (Feb 24, 2013)

have just come out of Sugar Man the docu about Sixto Rodriguez, such an amazing story!
is there a urban thread about?


----------



## redsquirrel (Feb 24, 2013)

_Elevator to the Gallows_ - Jeanne Moreau film (her first I think), French crime flick from the 50s. Not quite as good as Melville's stuff IMO but still great.

_Amour - _simply amazing, easily the best of any of the Oscar nominated films I've seen. Horrifying in some parts there are others bits which are very funny and/or beautiful. Both the stars are fantastic. For me it confirms Haneke as the best modern director there is.


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## Dr. Furface (Feb 25, 2013)

Hitchcock - not something I'd normally have gone to see, but I needed something to do with my mum over the weekend, so i took her to see this. Very watchable, excellent central performances by Anthony Hopkins (particularly) and Helen Mirren as Mr and Mrs Hitch. Also great to see Danny Huston again at his smarmy best.


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## Reno (Feb 25, 2013)

I saw the Spanish/Canadian horror film _Mama_, which was a very pleasant surprise. Didn't expect much from it, but it was great fun. Two little girls are left abandoned in the woods after their father goes mental. Thought dead, they are found alive five years later. They've gone feral and it appears they have been brought up by something scary which they call Mama. When they are taken in by their uncle and his girlfriend, Mama follows them.

It's a little too reliant on jump scares and a thunderous score, but the film is very stylish, genuinely creepy and often quite beautiful. It doesn't all make sense and the characters do dumb horror film things (when investigating a spooky cabin in the forrest you believe is the home of something scary, you should always do so in the middle of the night), but it has a fairy tale quality that gives it a feel that it doesn't quite take place in our world. The film is more intriguing in the first half than in the second when the conventional horror tropes kick in, but at least when Mama fully reveals herself towards the end, she doesn't disappoint. I thought it was all CGI, but the creature was mostly played by the skinny actor who played the horrible thing in the attic in [REC]. Jessica Chastain, who seems to be in every second film these days, plays the lead as the goth rocker girlfriend who finds herself saddled with the girls. She may not convince as a bad girl with her Joan Jett wig but she is fine when her maternal side kicks in.

It was expanded from a 3 minute short which caught Guillermo del Toro's eye:


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Feb 28, 2013)

Just seen latest Die Hard

Preferred the first one


















and the second

























and the third


























and the fourth


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## DJWrongspeed (Mar 1, 2013)

Anyone seen 'Lore' ? i found it problematic, beautifully shot german countryside aside.


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## belboid (Mar 1, 2013)

DJWrongspeed said:


> Anyone seen 'Lore' ? i found it problematic, beautifully shot german countryside aside.


How so? I was considering going to that this weekend


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## DJWrongspeed (Mar 1, 2013)

belboid said:


> How so? I was considering going to that this weekend


I questioned it's historical accuracy about what information Germans knew about the holocaust straight after the war. I guess I couldn't work out whether the 15yr old was a metaphor for the German nation or was her story just one singular experience.


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## Reno (Mar 1, 2013)

DJWrongspeed said:


> I questioned it's historical accuracy about what information Germans knew about the holocaust straight after the war. I guess I couldn't work out whether the 15yr old was a metaphor for the German nation or was her story just one singular experience.


 
I think it would be extremely stupid and arrogant to have one character be a metaphor for the entire experience of the German population. I don't think the film is meant as an apology for the Germans and this is what you seem to imply by questioning its historical accuracy. One reason Lore deals with a 15 year old girl is because it is entirely plausible for a child not to have been aware of what really went on.

My dad who lived though the Dresden blitz was 13 by the time the war ended and he had no idea. A socialist for his entire adult life, he has always been very honest about who in the family were or weren't Nazis, so I don't think this is something he'd lie about. My stepfather, who is about the same age, is half-Jewish and survived by passing as Arian, growing up in the Bavarian country side where he was less conspicuous. His mother kept the truth about his father (an American Jew) from him and he had no idea how much he had been in danger till the war was over. I'm pretty sure he would admit to knowing about the Holocaust, but he didn't till after.

Check out the documentary Blind Spot - Hitler's Secretary, a feature length interview with Traudl Junge. She also wrote a book much of the film Downfall is based on and she makes a persuasive case for how ignorant Germans could be, even when they were in the eye of the storm. Then again there certainly were plenty of Germans who did know or sort of knew but there never is only one way of how a population experiences history.


----------



## thedockerslad (Mar 1, 2013)

I haven't been to the pictures at all this year but now reading this I want to go


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## Orang Utan (Mar 1, 2013)

I just joined my local cinema. Woo! I shall try and go there once a week from now on, starting with Stoker tomorrow


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## redsquirrel (Mar 2, 2013)

DJWrongspeed said:


> I questioned it's historical accuracy about what information Germans knew about the holocaust straight after the war. I guess I couldn't work out whether the 15yr old was a metaphor for the German nation or was her story just one singular experience.


I didn't think it was problematical at all.
There were Germans (and others) who didn't (or refused to) believe the reports about the death camps. And I'm not sure how having some of the characters refuse to accept the truth makes the film problematical? It's not like the film is endorsing that point of view.



belboid said:


> How so? I was considering going to that this weekend


I totally recommend it, very good film, with some excellent performances from the child actors.


----------



## bolshiebhoy (Mar 2, 2013)

Seeing Ken Loach on BBCQT made me fantasise about a Loach remake of Argo. Very short film. The USA sends the Shah back to Iran to face justice for his crimes. The embassy hostages go home. The End. Running time ten minutes. Wouldn't win an Oscar but a much better film


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## Reno (Mar 2, 2013)

bolshiebhoy said:


> Seeing Ken Loach on BBCQT made me fantasise about a Loach remake of Argo. Very short film. The USA sends the Shah back to Iran to face justice for his crimes. The embassy hostages go home. The End. Running time ten minutes. Wouldn't win an Oscar but a much better film


 
Judging from Loach's recent films, which were about as subtle as a sledge hammer and as cinematic as an episode of Coronation Street, it would be less commercial and far more worthy, but I doubt it would be a much better film.


----------



## pennimania (Mar 2, 2013)

No - Pablo Larrain.

About the campaign against Pinochet. Excellent.


----------



## Reno (Mar 2, 2013)

*Stoker* by Chan-wook Park, which is more proof that when Asian directors go Hollywood, most of them make films so bad, it makes me question whether they were ever any good in the first place. And yet the fans of the director were ready to love this long before it came out and have convinced themselves that it is great, hence this dross has a 7.9 rating on Imdb.

Taking Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt as a jumping off point, without understanding how it works formally, emotionally or as a thriller, it's an empty, airless film which just lies there to be stylish. You may just as well leaf through an issue of Elle Decor and get the same result. The screenplay is basic and totally predictable for anybody who ever has seen a psycho thriller. Wentworth Miller the TV actor turned screenwriter of the film basically replaces Hitchcock's and Thornton Wilder's rite-of-passage heartbreak with glib misanthropy and otherwise gets out of the way for the life style magazine images.

The characters are as thin as cardboard and none of them seem to have interior lives or a single recognisably human emotion. Everything they do is to fit into the visual design which is really just an aesthetic overfamiliar from the type of commercials which in turn have borrowed liberally from David Lynch and Tim Burton.

Fuck off back to Korea Chan-wook Park and make more vengeance films.


----------



## redsquirrel (Mar 2, 2013)

When I heard that this was using _Shadow of a Doubt_ as a sort of template I was looking forward to seeing it, but pretty much every review I've seen of it has been at best mediocre.


----------



## Reno (Mar 2, 2013)

...and 'mediocre" is being kind.


----------



## redsquirrel (Mar 3, 2013)

_Anna Karenina -_ I love the book (it's probably my favourite of all time) but I'm realistic enough to realise that no film adaptation is ever going to manage to really do justice to it, so I was prepared to (or at least try to) judge the film for itself. Unfortunately, even this fails even on that level.

The device of setting the film as a play on the stage was an interesting idea but it doesn't work either on a cinematic level (it makes the film seem very busy and annoying) and thematically (it removes the books greatest strength - it's amazing subtly). What's even worse is that at times Wright seems to forget the theatre idea and sometimes simply switches between scenes in a normal manner. While I think they should have jettisoned the theatre idea, if they wanted to use it I think they should have gone all the way using it half the time just makes more of a mess.

The casting is also problematical, the bloke playing Vronsky was pretty bland and while she gave a good try Kiera Knightly didn't manage to convince me as Anna (though in fairness I think it's an incredibly difficult part to play, I can't think of many actresses who could pull it off).

The best bits of the film are the Kitty and Levin parts, which IMO capture the essence of that part of the book. Unfortunately, they account for only a smallish part of the film.
I kind of wish I could be positive about the film as the cast and crew obviously put a lot of effort into a difficult project but the result just doesn't work.


----------



## Sue (Mar 3, 2013)

Reno said:


> *Stoker* by Chan-wook Park, which is more proof that when Asian directors go Hollywood, most of them make films so bad, it makes me question whether they were ever any good in the first place. And yet the fans of the director were ready to love this long before it came out and have convinced themselves that it is great, hence this dross has a 7.9 rating on Imdb.
> 
> Taking Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt as a jumping off point, without understanding how it works formally, emotionally or as a thriller, it's an empty, airless film which just lies there to be stylish. You may just as well leaf through an issue of Elle Decor and get the same result. The screenplay is basic and totally predictable for anybody who ever has seen a psycho thriller. Wentworth Miller the TV actor turned screenwriter of the film basically replaces Hitchcock's and Thornton Wilder's rite-of-passage heartbreak with glib misanthropy and otherwise gets out of the way for the life style magazine images.
> 
> ...


 
Saw this earlier. Very disappointing.


----------



## Reno (Mar 4, 2013)

Sue said:


> Saw this earlier. Very disappointing.


Glad to see that I'm not alone. I can't believe the generous reviews this has been getting and on another forum I got a lot of hate for stating that the film isn't any good. Some people seem to be determined that this is a good film thanks to the director and they stick to it despite all evidence to the opposite.


----------



## Sue (Mar 4, 2013)

Reno said:


> Glad to see that I'm not alone. I can't believe the generous reviews this has been getting and on another forum I got a lot of hate for stating that the film isn't any good. Some people seem to be determined that this is a good film thanks to the director and they stick to it despite all evidence to the opposite.


 
Thought it started out reasonably well but then there just wasn't anything there (or not anything that wasn't quite predictable). Felt very 'was that it?' at the end which is disappointing when you know the director can do so much better.


----------



## Silverghost (Mar 5, 2013)

Cloud Atlas.


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## Reno (Mar 5, 2013)

...and ?


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## pissflaps (Mar 5, 2013)

Silverghost said:


> Cloud Atlas.


easily the worst film anyone will see this year. like watching 7 shit films at once. All with Tom Hanks in them.

torturous.


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## Callie (Mar 5, 2013)

Reno said:


> ...and ?


 tbf the thread title is 'list the films youve seen in the cinema:2013' doesnt say owt about having an opinion


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## Silverghost (Mar 5, 2013)

pissflaps said:


> easily the worst film anyone will see this year. like watching 7 shit films at once. All with Tom Hanks in them.
> 
> torturous.


 
Damn. I was going to say it resembled some of the recurring fantasies in my mind.

THANKS FOR TELLING ME MY MIND IS MADE OF 7 SHITE FILMS. I guess it speaks for me being a horrible director of my own life. Mmph.

[Though, I'll've to agree with you on the Tom Hanks not being particularly suitable a cast, but I'm grateful it isn't another Ryan Gosling or Ryan Reynolds - I did, however, enjoy Tom Hanks in 'The Green Mile', I must say.]


----------



## Reno (Mar 5, 2013)

Callie said:


> tbf the thread title is 'list the films youve seen in the cinema:2013' doesnt say owt about having an opinion


 
Who gives a shit what you've seen without letting anybody know what you though about it.


----------



## pissflaps (Mar 5, 2013)

and 'yellowing up' is the new 'blackface'.


----------



## Silverghost (Mar 5, 2013)

Reno said:


> Who gives a shit what you've seen without letting anybody know what you though about it.


 
..AND I wondered as I always had if all our faith and what we worshiped isn't simply another fallen leftist hero[in], after and as I was watching the film. 

[Cheers for wanting to know my opinion, still.. why would you subject yourself to such torture, Reno? Tsk.]


----------



## pissflaps (Mar 5, 2013)

I wonder if tom hanks signs all his cheques with " T.hanks" ?


----------



## Callie (Mar 5, 2013)

Reno said:


> Who gives a shit what you've seen without letting anybody know what you though about it.


  ANGRY


----------



## Silverghost (Mar 5, 2013)

Silverghost said:


> Damn. I was going to say it resembled some of the recurring fantasies in my mind.
> 
> THANKS FOR TELLING ME MY MIND IS MADE OF 7 SHITE FILMS. I guess it speaks for me being a horrible director of my own life. Mmph.
> 
> [Though, I'll've to agree with you on the Tom Hanks not being particularly suitable a cast, but I'm grateful it isn't another Ryan Gosling or Ryan Reynolds - I did, however, enjoy Tom Hanks in 'The Green Mile', I must say.]


 
Oh! OH! There was a fairly satiating soft-porn-esque scene which I was highly anticipating knowing the courtesy of the Wachowski brother - yes, it was mildy enjoyable because it made my sex life look amazing.


----------



## Sue (Mar 5, 2013)

pissflaps said:


> easily the worst film anyone will see this year. like watching 7 shit films at once. All with Tom Hanks in them.
> 
> torturous.


 
Haven't seen it (don't fancy it at all) but a friend said the makeup was the worst she'd ever seen in a film...


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## pissflaps (Mar 5, 2013)

Sue said:


> Haven't seen it (don't fancy it at all) but a friend said the makeup was the worst she'd ever seen in a film...


see point about yellowing up.


----------



## Reno (Mar 5, 2013)

Callie said:


> ANGRY


 
I see little point in speaking if you have nothing to say.

BTW, Cloud Atlas does look horrible from the trailer, but it has been getting some surprisingly good reviews in the UK. I'm mildly intrigued by the film, so I'm interested by what people make of it.


----------



## pissflaps (Mar 5, 2013)

Reno said:


> I see little point in speaking if you have nothing to say.
> 
> BTW, Cloud Atlas does look horrible from the trailer, but it has been getting some surprisingly good reviews in the UK. I'm mildly intrigued by the film, so I'm interested by what people make of it.


really? who. name and shame.


----------



## Reno (Mar 5, 2013)

pissflaps said:


> really? who. name and shame.


 
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cloud_atlas_2012/

It can't be worse than the "well reviewed" _Stoker_ though which is an early candidate of worst film of the year for me.


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## DJWrongspeed (Mar 5, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> I didn't think it was problematical at all.
> There were Germans (and others) who didn't (or refused to) believe the reports about the death camps. And I'm not sure how having some of the characters refuse to accept the truth makes the film problematical? It's not like the film is endorsing that point of view.


 
My problem was with the 15yr girl making a very clear rejection of her elders in light of the holocaust. That didn't seem plausible with the scant information she'd picked up during her journey. I'm not sure things could be so resolved in the days and weeks after the war.


----------



## Silverghost (Mar 5, 2013)

Reno said:


> I see little point in speaking if you have nothing to say.
> 
> BTW, Cloud Atlas does look horrible from the trailer, but it has been getting some surprisingly good reviews in the UK. I'm mildly intrigued by the film, so I'm interested by what people make of it.


 
I enjoyed it, in spite of all the flaws one couldn't begin to end pointing out. I suppose it might be because it represented something from my mind - give it a go.


----------



## Reno (Mar 5, 2013)

Silverghost said:


> I enjoyed it, in spite of all the flaws one couldn't begin to end pointing out. I suppose it might be because it represented something from my mind - give it a go.


 
I didn't realise the film-makers had access to your mind.


----------



## Idris2002 (Mar 5, 2013)

Hyde Park on Hudson.

50 Shades of Grey meets the Waltons meets The West Wing meets Downton Abbey meets the King's Speech.

It's a film you could take your Mum to, if your Mum was broadminded enough to watch a US president getting a hand job in a vintage car.

I'm not joking. An annoyingly weak and passive fifth cousin of Franklin Roosevelt is tapped by the Great Man to be his latest bit on the side. I mean, this woman is so vapid, she might as well be made out of patches of cloth stuffed with straw. Bill Murray plays FDR, and is not bad at all as the architect of the New Deal. Laura Linney is the  cousin, Daisy.

The angle is that the King and the Queen Mum are visiting the president in the hope that they can persuade him to help out when the inevitable European war arrives. I'm not sure how much of this is based on historical fact, mind, but the King is presented as an inexperienced youth who benefits from the mentoring handed out by Roosevelt (the lass who plays the Queen Mum is the spit of Frances de la Tour, which I found a bit distracting).

It's very much a country house film, even if the country is a supposedly democratic one that purports to shun the aristocratic trappings of the UK. At one point, I began to wish for a cameo by Joe Stalin, who could remind the rest of the cast that in the USSR he could have them all shot.


----------



## Nanker Phelge (Mar 5, 2013)

Reno said:


> I didn't realise the film-makers had access to your mind.


 
it's the future of cinema.

Just imagine all the great films based upon what people are thinking.

'I Must Remember Tea Bags'

'I Can Make That Train If I run'

'She's Not Wearing a Bra'

'I suppose I should Get Up'

'Fuck Him and His Deadline!'


----------



## Silverghost (Mar 5, 2013)

Reno said:


> I didn't realise the film-makers had access to your mind.



they didn't. It's syncronosity, my luv.. synchronosity. 

To David Mitchell, really. 

Care to watch it now? I dare you to step in to a little bit o' what minds're made of. Nonsense and the depth of it.


----------



## Reno (Mar 5, 2013)

Silverghost said:


> they didn't. It's syncronosity, my luv.. synchronosity.
> 
> To David Mitchell, really.
> 
> Care to watch it now? I dare you to step in to a little bit o' what minds're made of. Nonsense and the depth of it.


 
I will watch it, but I will wait and rent the Blu-ray.


----------



## Silverghost (Mar 5, 2013)

Reno said:


> I will watch it, but I will wait and rent the Blu-ray.



Alternatively, I could send you a pirated version of what I could get a hold of from over here in the equatorial band where I am currently.


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## Reno (Mar 5, 2013)

Silverghost said:


> Alternatively, I could send you a pirated version of what I could get a hold of from over here in the equatorial band where I am currently.


 
Thanks for offering, but that's fine. I'm in no rush and I prefer watching a Blu-ray to a DVD-rip..


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## redsquirrel (Mar 5, 2013)

DJWrongspeed said:


> My problem was with the 15yr girl making a very clear rejection of her elders in light of the holocaust. That didn't seem plausible with the scant information she'd picked up during her journey. I'm not sure things could be so resolved in the days and weeks after the war.


Hang on before you said that the problem was that there were characters who refused to believe the Holocaust happened now it's the opposite?

And the "rejection of her elders" wasn't just based on the new information about the Holocaust but also on the fact that she lost both her parents and went through an extremely traumatic journey.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 5, 2013)

Managed to avoid all reviews of Stoker and now regret it as it was balls. Sumptuous poo. The plot was predictable, so had no suspense whatsoever. And everyone is dressed fabulously and has nice curtains and sofas for no particular reason but to fill the screen with pretty.


----------



## Sue (Mar 5, 2013)

I Wish. Too long* and quite dull. Should've gone to see something else.

* When did films all get so long? Can't remember the last time I came out of a film and thought, 'God, I wish that'd been longer'. Normally I feel like it's been half an hour too long and they didn't spend enough time or effort on the script.


----------



## treelover (Mar 7, 2013)

Anyone been to see Lore?, its getting very good reviews, its about a young girl from a Nazi family who crosses the devastated country at war's end and is also about her coming of age, i have heard they use the hand held camera a lot though...

oops, just seen posts, didn't come up on search though...

still would like more reviews though..


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## DJWrongspeed (Mar 7, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> Hang on before you said that the problem was that there were characters who refused to believe the Holocaust happened.


re: Lore
Don't recall stating that but your explanation of the rejection is good.

Treelover, urbs seem to like it.


----------



## treelover (Mar 7, 2013)

It looks like it is shot in a 'terrence malick' style...


----------



## belboid (Mar 7, 2013)

A Canterbury Tale.

The last in the P&P season, and as great as ever.  I hadn't really realised just how minxy Alison looks when we first see her.

Is Thomas Colpeper a holy fool?  can't quite decide.


----------



## redsquirrel (Mar 7, 2013)

belboid said:


> A Canterbury Tale.
> 
> The last in the P&P season, and as great as ever. I hadn't really realised just how minxy Alison looks when we first see her.
> 
> Is Thomas Colpeper a holy fool? can't quite decide.


My favourite P&P, not their best film but I just adore it. Eric Portman is brilliant in it.



treelover said:


> It looks like it is shot in a 'terrence malick' style...


Ermm, I guess it depends what you mean by a 'Terrence Malick' style. I mean there are some beautiful shots of nature but I don't think the comparison is particularly close (though I've only seen The Thin Red Line and Tree of Life so it might be closer to Malicks other films).

Anyway it's definitely worth going to see, really good performances from a young cast and it's shot well. The ending might be a touch heavy handed but that's probably been a bit picky.


----------



## Maltin (Mar 8, 2013)

Arbitrage

Thought it was a very absorbing thriller, watching Richard Gere as a billionaire businessman try to juggle lots of balls while his world is potentially falling apart during the financial crisis. 

Not really a spoiler but one issue that other people in the cinema seemed to have:



Spoiler



Judging by the reaction of some in the cinema, not everyone will appreciate the ending. I thought it worked very well. I don't think it helped that as soon as the film ended they switched the lights on rather than giving people time to think.



Whilst Gere plays a character who morally is pretty bankrupt, having him played by someone as handsome and charming as Gere suits the role perfectly.


----------



## Dr. Furface (Mar 8, 2013)

Side Effects. Steven Soderberg's latest (and final?) film is not his greatest, but nontheless it's still an enjoyable watch, even though ultimately it's a load of old tosh. Fortunately I didn't read any reviews in advance, so I didn't know what to expect (I only bothered with it because it's showing at my fave cinema, The Tricycle) - and as it's a sort of homage to Hitchcock, if you fancy seeing it, I'd advise you not to either. It's well made (as you'd expect) with decent central performances from Jude Law and Rooney Mara as a psychiatrist and his patient respectively. It at first seems to be a film about depression and the pharmaceutical industry (which could have been interesting) but ends up something else altogether, which really stretches your credulity, but as I said it's enjoyable enough and I never felt bored. 6.5/10


----------



## Part 2 (Mar 9, 2013)

Anyone seen Broken yet?


----------



## Reno (Mar 10, 2013)

Chip Barm said:


> Anyone seen Broken yet?


Had a chance to go to a screening, but it's been getting middling reviews, along the lines of it being well meaning, but not that great, so I left it.


----------



## redsquirrel (Mar 10, 2013)

_The Paperboy - _Pretty good, there's a few mis-steps along the way, for examples I don't think the David Oyelowo character really works, but Cusak, Kidman and McConaughey are all good and there are some genuine laugh out load moments. There are also some very nice touch like having a photograph of George Wallace in the background of the scene at the lawyers office. It's not fantastic but it's a pretty enjoyable 90 minutes.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 12, 2013)

Chip Barm said:


> Anyone seen Broken yet?


Off to see it tonight, but it looks a bit worthy.
It is my new resolution to go to the cinema every Tuesday, but I'm having trouble finding films I want to watch every week. It was a choice between Broken, Argo, Lincoln, Robot & Frank and Side Effects


----------



## boing! (Mar 12, 2013)

Cloud Atlas - I liked it. If you can forgive some slightly cloying pseudo philosophy (as present in the book as the film) it's a decent, enjoyable and ambitious film.


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 12, 2013)

Broken was ok.
Really likeable cast/characters
Rory Kinnear is notable as a surprise hardnut and the young girl is outstanding
But the plot is overly melodramatic and contrived esp these unnecessary and annoying mini-flashbacks/flashforwards to increase tension.
Worth a watch


----------



## Part 2 (Mar 12, 2013)

Sounds like a film I can go to with the Mrs this Friday


----------



## Schmetterling (Mar 13, 2013)

Reno said:


> I think it would be extremely stupid and arrogant to have one character be a metaphor for the entire experience of the German population. I don't think the film is meant as an apology for the Germans and this is what you seem to imply by questioning its historical accuracy. One reason Lore deals with a 15 year old girl is because it is entirely plausible for a child not to have been aware of what really went on.
> 
> My dad who lived though the Dresden blitz was 13 by the time the war ended and he had no idea. A socialist for his entire adult life, he has always been very honest about who in the family were or weren't Nazis, so I don't think this is something he'd lie about. My stepfather, who is about the same age, is half-Jewish and survived by passing as Arian, growing up in the Bavarian country side where he was less conspicuous. His mother kept the truth about his father (an American Jew) from him and he had no idea how much he had been in danger till the war was over. I'm pretty sure he would admit to knowing about the Holocaust, but he didn't till after.
> 
> Check out the documentary Blind Spot - Hitler's Secretary, a feature length interview with Traudl Junge. She also wrote a book much of the film Downfall is based on and she makes a persuasive case for how ignorant Germans could be, even when they were in the eye of the storm. Then again there certainly were plenty of Germans who did know or sort of knew but there never is only one way of how a population experiences history.


 
In the book/short story/chapter the film is based on the girl is about 12. I think the age was chosen so that it would have been plausible for her to have lived entirely throughout a period of ideological indoctrination.

I really liked it and would like to see it again. Both my parents went Auf die Grosse Flucht (the flight); they were born in 1936. To my Papa it was 'exciting'. Though as he becomes older and older he understands more and more (recently he has become, not obsessed, but preoccupied with a memory of his mother taking him and his younger, by four years, brother by the hands to stand atop a bridge with the intention of jumping into the river below. She came to her senses, thinking: 'I have two more daughters.' - (too old to be allowed on the trains with my grandmother so had to make their own way (14 and 16) from Lower Silesia to the 'relative' safety of as far west as they could get.). I see a lot of his habits/selfishnesses have a basis in the privation of the last war years and immediate post-war years.

My mother was completely traumatised - having lived in Stargard and then Stettin - the bombings, the alarms, the planes, the burnt bodies in the street, the smell of burnt flesh. Their boat was one of the last to cross the Baltic without being directly bombed - though boming went on around them.

So I recognised a lot of details from the stories we heard growing up. I don't necessarily think she was meant to represent the whole country; it was just her story.

As for the knowing/not knowing: I think that more people knew than admitted and conversely think that a lot less people knew than the rest of the world thinks. Just as there was a lot more dissent/underground resistance than was known at the time.

But on the whole I think the film makes most sense to Germans.  Did I just state the obvious again?


----------



## smorodina (Mar 13, 2013)

Nanker Phelge said:


> it's the future of cinema.
> Just imagine all the great films based upon what people are thinking.
> 'I suppose I should Get Up'


I'd go watch this!
I am assumming comedy/ drama/ thriller/ elements of horror/ triller/ documentary plus an amazing soundtrack.
Spielberg to direct..


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## fakeplasticgirl (Mar 14, 2013)

just back from seeing side effects. thought it started brilliantly, but my god, the final third was ridiculous


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## Sue (Mar 15, 2013)

Orang Utan said:


> Broken was ok.
> Really likeable cast/characters
> Rory Kinnear is notable as a surprise hardnut and the young girl is outstanding
> But the plot is overly melodramatic and contrived esp these unnecessary and annoying mini-flashbacks/flashforwards to increase tension.
> Worth a watch


 
The acting was good (but then, it does have a very good cast) but not overly cheery. And yes, the ending was a bit much.


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## Sue (Mar 15, 2013)

Side Effects. Hadn't seen any reviews and turned out not to be the film I thought it was going to be. Enjoyed it though.


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## Part 2 (Mar 16, 2013)

Orang Utan said:


> Broken was ok.
> Really likeable cast/characters
> Rory Kinnear is notable as a surprise hardnut and the young girl is outstanding
> But the plot is overly melodramatic and contrived esp these unnecessary and annoying mini-flashbacks/flashforwards to increase tension.
> Worth a watch


 


Reno said:


> Had a chance to go to a screening, but it's been getting middling reviews, along the lines of it being well meaning, but not that great, so I left it.


 
We watched it last night. It was pretty much as OU described. I was worried it might be one of those films where having watched the trailer there wasn't much else to see but at least there was a bit more to it. I didn't think much to the dialogue at times.

I knew my Mrs would like it, she thought it was great. I'd probably give it about 6.5/10.


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## Orang Utan (Mar 16, 2013)

There were some great moments of 'reality' that really rang true, eg the peg scene with her brother, and were rather heart warming. I think Rufus Norris is definitely a talent to watch. It was a good first effort.


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## Gramsci (Mar 18, 2013)

Chip Barm said:


> We watched it last night. It was pretty much as OU described. I was worried it might be one of those films where having watched the trailer there wasn't much else to see but at least there was a bit more to it. I didn't think much to the dialogue at times.
> 
> I knew my Mrs would like it, she thought it was great. I'd probably give it about 6.5/10.


 
My two (female) friends were in tears at the end of "Broken" as they found it so moving. I was not so sure about it. I think it works as a film that people can relate to. I agree with Orang Utan Orang Utan there were little touches of "reality" that were well observed.

I  thought it had some humour in it to balance out the grim parts of the film. He did manage to not make it mawkish and overly sentimental. Which I thought was an achievement. It could have slipped into that mode.


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## Gramsci (Mar 18, 2013)

Reno said:


> *Stoker* by Chan-wook Park, which is more proof that when Asian directors go Hollywood, most of them make films so bad, it makes me question whether they were ever any good in the first place. And yet the fans of the director were ready to love this long before it came out and have convinced themselves that it is great, hence this dross has a 7.9 rating on Imdb.
> 
> 
> Fuck off back to Korea Chan-wook Park and make more vengeance films.


 
I saw it at Screen One in the Ritzy. It looks stunning. It still had the Korean pyscho-sexual weirdness despite being transferred to the US. It was kind of bizarre. I kept on thinking why are they not speaking Korean? Made me think partly why his films ( made in Korea) work on a western audience is that they are seen as exotic. Its not the same when u have Nicole Kidman.

Its not going to US that meant he made a bad film. I think your second point is nearer the mark. Where they ever any good in the first place? I think he has been making films where style counts for more than substance. Take the Vengeance films. "Sympathy for Mr Vengeance" I rate as one of his most interesting films. (Only seen it on DVD as I do not think it was released here.) It was related to the Korean financial crisis some years ago. By the time of the third "Lady Vengeance" it was style above substance. Lady Vengeance was just as stunning to look at as Stoker.


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## Gramsci (Mar 18, 2013)

"Beyond the Hills" (Dupa dealuri ) Trailer here

I went to see this fine example of Euromisery at the Ritzy. Two and a half hours of unrelenting grimness. Not a crowd puller then. Lots of room as the cinema only had about ten people in it Saturday afternoon. I liked it. Great way to spend cold Saturday afternoon.

Its made by the director Cristian Mingiu. He is known for his film about abortion in Communist Romania "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile)".

After seeing it I read it is loosely based on a real event. A women who undergoes an exorcism at a Monastery. No its not melodramatic. The Father is not a "Rasputin". Its very claustrophobic. You are not told the time it is set in. But there is a jolt when you realise its around now. The monastery is almost medieval. Its not an exploitative place but a refuge from the harshness of present day Romania. It expressed a disappointment with the West. Communism is gone but the West ( as the Father says at one point) is no alternative. The self imposed poverty of the Father makes his church more popular. Also gets him in trouble with the church hierarchy. However the real world impinges itself on the monastery when a confused women turns up.

The film contains no music until right at the end when the credits come up. Another jolt as I then realised the sound in the film was the wind more than anything.

It reminded me of the work of Bela Tarr (Satantango). In the post Communist times people look to something they can believe in. But , with the black humour of East Europe, it turns out into a disaster and a false trail.

The cinematography is very good. Particularly the way he lets you get to know people through there faces.

I would say it is definitely worth seeing. If not light entertainment.

Shows that Mingiu is not a one off director. This is an assured piece of film making. I look forward to his next film. Good to see Romanian film is getting released here.


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## Part 2 (Mar 21, 2013)

Watched it on the train a few weeks ago. My earphones aren't up to much and when there was screaming going on I could see the woman next to me checking to see what I was watching.

Great film, bleak as fuck though.


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## Orang Utan (Mar 21, 2013)

The Paperboy
Meh!
Silly unbelievable plot developments
ACTING, esp from Kidman
Sweaty and leaden
Was knackered so almost nodded off a couple of times
Efron and McConnaughey were good though.
This Daniels chap is a bit heavy handed
the Woodsman was similar nonsense. Haven't seen Precious.


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## Part 2 (Mar 21, 2013)

Ah, I thought I might go see that tomorrow. I was gonna see Compliance but just downloaded it.


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## DJWrongspeed (Mar 22, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> "Beyond the Hills" (Dupa dealuri ) Trailer here
> 
> 
> Shows that Mingiu is not a one off director. This is an assured piece of film making. I look forward to his next film. Good to see Romanian film is getting released here.


 
Certainly agree. It's chilling throughout. You actually feel cold when it's cold on screen even. Even when it's sunny it looks cold ! Like his previous film the lack of music really focuses on the on screen 'actualité'

UK citizens should watch it to remind everyone how great the NHS is ! Wonder what Mingiu will do next.


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## Gramsci (Mar 26, 2013)

Just seen "Side Effects"​​I was a bit nonplus-ed by it. It looks goods and is a film noir plot with twists and turns. But I could not help but think I have seen this kind of thing before. Also it seemed old fashioned in the way that the man is the victim who has to pull out the stops to save his life. Women they are devious creatures. Reminded me a bit of Basic Instinct in that sense.​​I did like the way that none of the yuppie New Yorkers were portrayed as nice people. Below the surface they got nastier and nastier as the film went on. Good portrayal of the complacent middle class who will stab there fellow workers in the back if necessary.​​Also takes apart the therapy culture of these people. Got a problem- get a pill or a shrink.​​Is the film supposed to be a comment on present day corporate US or an exercise in film noir? Never sure whilst I watched the film.​​Unlike satire this was played straight as a thriller. A satire on corporate business and middle classes can work as in the Norwegian film "Headhunters".​​I got the feeling this film was trying to be more sophisticated than that. Or thought it was.​


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## Orang Utan (Mar 26, 2013)

I Wish - a sweet little Japanese film in which a group of kids get together to make a wish at the moment two bullet trains (new in the film) pass each other. It's a bit like Stand By Me in feel. I really liked it. The kids are ace and it looks ace. Has got lots of eating in it. Yum.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Mar 26, 2013)

I almost liked that.  Sounds interesting


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## DrRingDing (Mar 26, 2013)

Stoker. It was shit. Don't bother.


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## DJWrongspeed (Mar 27, 2013)

Post Tenebras Lux, recommended. Experimental in an ambiguous way. It's trying to find it's way throughout. Has a shocking penultimate scene !


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## Sue (Apr 2, 2013)

Orang Utan said:


> I Wish - a sweet little Japanese film in which a group of kids get together to make a wish at the moment two bullet trains (new in the film) pass each other. It's a bit like Stand By Me in feel. I really liked it. The kids are ace and it looks ace. Has got lots of eating in it. Yum.


 
I saw this a few weeks ago and was struggling to stay awake...


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## Sue (Apr 2, 2013)

Caesar Must Die. Not the Jet Li flick () but a film set in an Italian high security prison where the inmates are putting on a production of Julius Caesar. Thought it was excellent.


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## Sue (Apr 5, 2013)

Finisterre -- 10th anniversary screening with a Q&A with St Etienne and the director(s). Basically just a series of shots of London with some voiceover. Quite enjoyed it.

Trance -- not bad.

Spring Breakers, not quite sure what to make of this. Better than it looked from the trailers and had a few quite bizarre and funny bits. Interested to hear what other people think.


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## Dr. Furface (Apr 6, 2013)

Neighboring Sounds (O Som Ao Redor). Well made - if a little overlong - Brazilian film exploring class tensions and social anxiety in a residential suburb. It's one of those films I think I'd get more out of watching it a second time round, although I'm pretty sure I won't bother. 7/10


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## blossie33 (Apr 7, 2013)

Spring Breakers, not quite sure what to make of this. Better than it looked from the trailers and had a few quite bizarre and funny bits. Interested to hear what other people think.[/quote]


I've just seen Spring Breakers. Saw a trailer for it last week and just decided to go this afternoon.
It's not really the type of film I would be drawn to see but I actually enjoyed it.
Not quite sure what to make of it myself - whether it was meant to be a bit of a send up of the Gangsta thing? The story was a bit bizarre but interesting. Thought the acting and actual photography was really good.


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## moonsi til (Apr 8, 2013)

I saw 'spring break' last night choosing it over 'trance' and for quite a long time I thought I had made a bad decision. I discovered I had become involved in the film when the girls met alien and he took them back to the party (where they were playing pool). I started to feel fear in my stomach about what was going to happen to them and about what I was going to see. I hadn't expected that.

I found the scenes with the girls in their my little pony balaclavas to give light relief in the tension and to help portray the absurdity and innocence. Thankfully the whole cinema laughed at that part. I'm glad I have seen it but I could have easily walked out after 30-40 mins.


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## redsquirrel (Apr 8, 2013)

_Barbara -_ this cam out in the UK lat year but has only been out here the last couple of weeks. Set in East Germany not long before the fall of the war, a much much better film than _The Lives of Others _that I've seen it compared to, it's far less simplistic than that piece of rubbish.

_Bonjour Tristesse_ - I'd never seen this before, but I'm a Preminger fan and was looking forward to it. Unfortunately it's not one of his best, despite a very good cast - Deborah Kerr, David Niven and Jean Seburg. Jean Seburg's character is the big problem IMO, she's such a spoiled child that I just wasn't able to have any sympathy for her at all, Seburg is also looks too old for the role making the character even more dislikable.


----------



## cyprusclean (Apr 8, 2013)

The cinema.

Saw The Hobbit, and loved it.

Missed Jack Reacher. Did anyone see it?


----------



## DrRingDing (Apr 8, 2013)

The Hobbit - disapointing jape.
Stoker - Load of old bollocks
Trance - A shaved clunge does not make a great film.


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## Sue (Apr 9, 2013)

moonsi til said:


> I saw 'spring break' last night choosing it over 'trance' and for quite a long time I thought I had made a bad decision. I discovered I had become involved in the film when the girls met alien and he took them back to the party (where they were playing pool). I started to feel fear in my stomach about what was going to happen to them and about what I was going to see. I hadn't expected that.
> 
> I found the scenes with the girls in their my little pony balaclavas to give light relief in the tension and to help portray the absurdity and innocence. Thankfully the whole cinema laughed at that part. I'm glad I have seen it but I could have easily walked out after 30-40 mins.


 
I thought he did a very good job of making the whole Spring Break thing look awful -- like a Club 18-30 holiday -- but yes, bits like the party scene (did feel menacing) and the Britney bit were good (don't know whether that was meant to be funny or not but everyone in the audience was laughing). As I said, better than expected.


----------



## Sue (Apr 9, 2013)

Dans la maison, Francois Ozon's latest. Interesting idea, funny and well acted though the end was a bit .


----------



## Reno (Apr 9, 2013)

*Spring Breakers*, which I went back and forth as to weather I enjoyed it or not while watching it, but I probably did. It's shot by Benoit Debie, my favourite cinematographer working and it looks and sounds gorgeous in a dreamy sort of way. But Harmony Korine's films always feel more like animated hipster style-magazine pages, than actual movies. It reminded me a little of watching Stoker which was also a style-over-content film, but I far preferred the fluid, neon pop look here to the anal retentive, airless quality of Stoker. At least unlike Stoker this didn't pretend to have a complex plot or characterisation and then fell flat on its face. Spring Breakers is little more than a candy coloured moral void in which pretty people shimmy around brandishing guns to a great soundtrack.


----------



## Reno (Apr 10, 2013)

*A Hijacking,* Danish docu-drama style film about the hijacking of a Danish cargo vessel by Somali pirates. It follows the events on the ship and the hostage negotiations at the company who owns the ship. Not bad, quite tense in places, with some familiar faces if you follow Danish telly like Borgen and The Killing. Could have maybe been a little tighter in its pacing.


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## Dr. Furface (Apr 13, 2013)

*


Reno said:



			Spring Breakers is little more than a candy coloured moral void in which pretty people shimmy around brandishing guns to a great soundtrack.
		
Click to expand...

**I thought there was a bit more to it than that, or at least I hope so. I think the moral void was the main point of it, that the values and ambitions of American youth today - or at least many of them - are morally bankrupt. Maybe. Whatever, I really enjoyed it - it was well paced, looked great, was sporadically amusing, James Franco was great as Alien, and as you say the soundtrack was ace. 8/10*


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## Reno (Apr 13, 2013)

Dr. Furface said:


> *I thought there was a bit more to it than that, or at least I hope so. I think the moral void was the main point of it, that the values and ambitions of American youth today - or at least many of them - are morally bankrupt. Maybe. Whatever, I really enjoyed it - it was well paced, looked great, was sporadically amusing, James Franco was great as Alien, and as you say the soundtrack was ace. 8/10*


 
It's Rorschach cinema on which you can impose your own meaning. Personally I think like all of Korine's films this is a display of hipster apathy. If the film was as moralistic as you say it is, I would have hated it. I quite liked its vagueness and the confidence that it didn't feel the need to prop up its playfulness with some sort of statement.


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## Tankus (Apr 13, 2013)

cyprusclean said:


> The cinema.
> 
> Saw The Hobbit, and loved it.
> 
> Missed Jack Reacher. Did anyone see it?


 
Seen Reacher and Oblivion  , don't normally like Cruise but these were both of his better efforts ...worth a punt


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## Reno (Apr 14, 2013)

I went to a screening of Oblivion. The first half is intriguing and I loved the designs, but when it comes to explaining everything it falls apart and gets a bit rubbish. Tom Cruise as always appers as a Ken doll shaped void who you have to replace with an actor of your choice in your mind. Not terrible, but could have been better.


----------



## pissflaps (Apr 14, 2013)

is Patrick Swayze dead? fuck me. that is news.

Roadhouse was fucking great.


----------



## Dr. Furface (Apr 15, 2013)

The Place Beyond The Pines. Starts off great for about an hour when Ryan Gosling is doing his motorcycle bankrobber thing, but thereafter becomes less entertaining, increasingly overwrought and far too contrived to be convincing. The presence of Gosling's character persists throughout the film, and his performance and charisma totally overshadow the second half of it. Ray Liotta's role as a bent cop in the second half, good as he is, feels like a wasted opportunity - much more could have been made of him rather than just the cameo role he's afforded. Not a bad film by any means, but ultimately a bit disappointing. 6.5/10


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## blossie33 (Apr 16, 2013)

Dr. Furface said:


> The Place Beyond The Pines. Starts off great for about an hour when Ryan Gosling is doing his motorcycle bankrobber thing, but thereafter becomes less entertaining, increasingly overwrought and far too contrived to be convincing. The presence of Gosling's character persists throughout the film, and his performance and charisma totally overshadow the second half of it. Ray Liotta's role as a bent cop in the second half, good as he is, feels like a wasted opportunity - much more could have been made of him rather than just the cameo role he's afforded. Not a bad film by any means, but ultimately a bit disappointing. 6.5/10


 
I went to see it at the weekend, I did enjoy it but I agree with what you say.
The character I thought was least believable was the policeman's son.


----------



## bi0boy (Apr 20, 2013)

Reno said:


> I went to a screening of Oblivion. The first half is intriguing and I loved the designs, but when it comes to explaining everything it falls apart and gets a bit rubbish. Tom Cruise as always appers as a Ken doll shaped void who you have to replace with an actor of your choice in your mind. Not terrible, but could have been better.


 
I agree it was all rather predictable, but the visual design, cinematography and the soundtrack were pretty epic. Definitely one to see on the big screen.


----------



## redsquirrel (Apr 21, 2013)

Marco Bellocchio double bill; _In the Name of the Father _and _Good Morning, Night_

_In The Name of the Father _is set in a Catholic boarding school where the priest's are unable to any real order unlike a new student who seems to be able to control his fellow students as well as most of the priests. The film is really about the different forms of authority, with Transeunti's (the student) version of authority borrowing from fascism, communism and a sort of weird scientific technocracy.

_Good Morning, Night_ - is a fictional account of the Moro kidnapping, with some members of the the Red Brigades cell holding Moro becoming increasingly unsure about what they are doing. I doubt know enough about the historical background to say how accurate the (fictional) portrayal is (? butchersapron, chegrimandi, Fedayn) but I found the _The Front Line, _which dealt with similar themes in a very different way, a more convincing picture of the thinking behind such actions/groups.


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## Sue (Apr 21, 2013)

Dr. Furface said:


> The Place Beyond The Pines. Starts off great for about an hour when Ryan Gosling is doing his motorcycle bankrobber thing, but thereafter becomes less entertaining, increasingly overwrought and far too contrived to be convincing. The presence of Gosling's character persists throughout the film, and his performance and charisma totally overshadow the second half of it. Ray Liotta's role as a bent cop in the second half, good as he is, feels like a wasted opportunity - much more could have been made of him rather than just the cameo role he's afforded. Not a bad film by any means, but ultimately a bit disappointing. 6.5/10


 
Just saw this. Disappointing. Felt like they'd cobbled together a couple of different films so it really didn't hang together. Was utterly unconvinced by the second half.  And yes, Ryan Gosling was the best thing about it by quite a long way. Was also a bit confused about when it was meant to be set -- assume the first bit was meant to be in the 80s by the music? Really didn't feel like it apart from that (well and RG's rather dubious trousers...)


----------



## el-ahrairah (Apr 21, 2013)

Fuck For Forest.  A documentary following a group of hippies who have decided to make porn and use the profits to save the planet.  absolutely hilarious and a bit sad seeing as a few of the group are really quite damaged people and there's some occasions where i feel really sad for them.  but mostly it's funny because they are everything you hate about hippies.


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## Reno (Apr 21, 2013)

el-ahrairah said:


> Fuck For Forest. A documentary following a group of hippies who have decided to make porn and use the profits to save the planet. absolutely hilarious and a bit sad seeing as a few of the group are really quite damaged people and there's some occasions where i feel really sad for them. but mostly it's funny because they are everything you hate about hippies.


 
I'm quite intrigued by that one, sounds really loopy. Will rent it when it's of on DVD.


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## Dr. Furface (Apr 21, 2013)

el-ahrairah said:


> Fuck For Forest. A documentary following a group of hippies who have decided to make porn and use the profits to save the planet. absolutely hilarious and a bit sad seeing as a few of the group are really quite damaged people and there's some occasions where i feel really sad for them. but mostly it's funny because they are everything you hate about hippies.


You got that right! I've just seen it, and if I hadn't known it was a documentary I'd have thought it was a spoof. I loved the director's narration, sparse as it was - you could tell he thinks they're ridiculous. I won't spoil it for anyone but the ending, where they meet up with the indigenous Latin American natives they're seeking to help, is both sad and inadvertently hilarious. To be honest it isn't really worth paying for at the cinema, but definitely watch out for it coming on tv or dvd. 6/10


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## blossie33 (Apr 22, 2013)

Dr. Furface said:


> You got that right! I've just seen it, and if I hadn't known it was a documentary I'd have thought it was a spoof. I loved the director's narration, sparse as it was - you could tell he thinks they're ridiculous. I won't spoil it for anyone but the ending, where they meet up with the indigenous Latin American natives they're seeking to help, is both sad and inadvertently hilarious. To be honest it isn't really worth paying for at the cinema, but definitely watch out for it coming on tv or dvd. 6/10


 
Agree with you both.
I saw it a couple of weeks ago, it was the member's preview film at the ICA so I didn't pay to see it.
It was interesting in a bizarre sort of way!


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## MillwallShoes (Apr 22, 2013)

hardly ever go now due to money. once cash flow improves, we'll be back


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## redsquirrel (Apr 25, 2013)

Start of the Otto Preminger series at Melbourne Cinemathque

Opened with two films that I've not seen before _Carman Jones_ and _The Man With The Golden Arm_.

Despite some good central performances from Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte _Carmen Jones_ doesn't really work. I think the main problem is that the music is wrong, setting a version of Carmen in the Deep South you'd think that Preminger/Hammerstein would have added blues/jazz/gospel to the score but they haven't and even decided to dub Dandrige and Belafonte. It's by no means bad but it's an interesting film rather than a good one.

_The Man With the Golden Arm _is better, though IMO still not quite in the top rank of Preminger's work. Considering it was made in 1955 it still seems very modern and must have been startling at the time. The scene of Sinatra shooting up compares with any modern film. The ending is a bit pat - going cold turkey seems pretty easy and the death of the wife was too convenient - but Sinatra is very good and Novak looks good and does pretty well in a largely thankless role.


----------



## Sue (Apr 25, 2013)

Rebellion (L'order et la morale), Mathieu Kassowitz's latest about an incident involving insurgents in New Caledonia in the late 80s. Wasn't familiar with this at all so was quite interesting to find out more. Okay but a bit worthy.

Compliance. Thought this was excellent -- one of my top films so far this year -- though pretty uncomfortable viewing.


----------



## not-bono-ever (Apr 26, 2013)

Trance. not boyles best, but a decent way to while away an evening- always have to give boyle a go - bit hit and miss and too much style maybe


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## redsquirrel (Apr 27, 2013)

Sue said:


> Rebellion (L'order et la morale), Mathieu Kassowitz's latest about an incident involving insurgents in New Caledonia in the late 80s. Wasn't familiar with this at all so was quite interesting to find out more. Okay but a bit worthy.


Saw that reviewed in Guardian looked pretty interesting.


----------



## Gingerman (May 5, 2013)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/apr/25/scarecrow-review?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
Saw this little gem of a film at the BFI today,a lovely little off beat classic from the '70s.


----------



## Gramsci (May 5, 2013)

I saw Pedro Almodovar new film "Im So Excited" at Ritzy.

It is very good. Effortless is the word I would use. At one level its a light comedy. Its also a farce on todays Spain.

An airliner going around in circles above Spain trying to find somewhere to land. The economy class are drugged up to keep them quiet. The Spanish wealthy live it up in the business class. A banker on the run, a women who has comprimising videos of the 600 most wealthy and powerful men in Spain etc.

An intelligent comedy is how I would put it.

Trailer makes it out to be very camp. The trailer put me off but when you see whole film it works.

Also some swipes at relations between Spanish and there Spanish speaking South American cousins. Which I would like to know if are general.

Not much on new at Ritzy this week that interested me except this. Well worth seeing.


----------



## Gramsci (May 5, 2013)

Gingerman said:


> http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/apr/25/scarecrow-review?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
> Saw this little gem of a film at the BFI today,a lovely little off beat classic from the '70s.


 
I almost went to see it. A film I had never heard of before.


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## Gramsci (May 5, 2013)

I saw Pasolini "Canterbury Tales" at the BFI a few weeks ago. I’ve seen a few of his films before but not this one. It did not appeal to me for some reason. Anyway passed by BFI to see what was on. Canterbury Tales was in screen one in 40 mins so I thought id check it out.

What a wonderful film. Took me a bit to get into it but a Pasolini film is an experience. Its so different from what I often see.

Sex, death and humour. If Chaucer had been alive now I think he would have liked Pasolini take on his work.

Bits of it still stick in my mind now.

Thats a lesson in film going. Sometimes just go to and take a chance and see whats on. Sometimes one is surprised.


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## Gramsci (May 5, 2013)

MillwallShoes said:


> hardly ever go now due to money. once cash flow improves, we'll be back


 
National Gallery has cinema and its cheap about £6. Usually weekends. Its pot luck whats on.

Worth checking regularly to see what is on.


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## redsquirrel (May 5, 2013)

Yesterday I saw
_Breakfast at Tiffany's _- Never seen this before, but even with the Mickey Rooney's utterly racist Japanese and slightly too saccharine ending, I can see why it's a classic.

_A Place Beyond the Pines_ - I pretty much agree with this


Sue said:


> Just saw this. Disappointing. Felt like they'd cobbled together a couple of different films so it really didn't hang together. Was utterly unconvinced by the second half. And yes, Ryan Gosling was the best thing about it by quite a long way. Was also a bit confused about when it was meant to be set -- assume the first bit was meant to be in the 80s by the music? Really didn't feel like it apart from that (well and RG's rather dubious trousers...)


if by second half you mean the 15 years later bit? I thought the second third (after Gosling's death) while not as good as what preceded it was still decent. Totally agree with you about Gosling being the best thing tho. I didn't have a problem with the "out of time" nature of the film I just thought the last third didn't work at all.

_Spring Breakers_ - Quite enjoyable, as others had said I don't think there's much substance there but Korine pulls it off. The weird absurdity of it all works pretty well.


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## toblerone3 (May 5, 2013)

Best (and only) film I've seen so far is "In the House". An almost perfect French thriller (?) that nobody seems to have seen. I'm not good at describing plots. But....schoolteacher, star pupil writes about his weekend and having finally got inside the house of his fellow pupil. The ostensible reason was to give him lessons in Maths, but he has an ulterior motive.

Still on at the Soho


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## little_legs (May 5, 2013)

So I saw A Place Beyond the Pines and there is one thing that won't stop bugging me. I have this weird thing going on: sometimes I'll watch a movie and something happens in it which probably bears no significance but I'll think about it obsessively for days. It happens in this movie too. Does anyone know/understand why AJ (Avery's son) was grinning when he was ushered on stage when Avery Cross wins the NY State Attorney General election? Was it to say: _LOL, voters, you have no idea what kind a guy you just got elected_? or was it to say: _I am an insecure fucked up kid and I am smiling because I feel smug but totally insecure?_

I did like the film, although given the length of the film, it could probably do a smoother transition into the present time. Overall, I thought it was interesting to see how a child whose parent had been absent from his life can still be influenced by the absent parent. It makes you wonder if children's attitudes and life decisions are almost predetermined or influenced by their parents regardless of how much input the absent parents make in the upbringing of a child. Makes you also wonder to what extent Eva Mendes' character should have been open with her son in his early childhood.


Sue said:


> Was also a bit confused about when it was meant to be set -- assume the first bit was meant to be in the 80s by the music? Really didn't feel like it apart from that (well and RG's rather dubious trousers...)


I think I understand what you mean but I am convinced that it's exactly what the director was trying to achieve so it did not bother me. Seriously, there are places in New York state and New Jersey now where people dress, behave and do things in a way that will make you feel that you are on the set of an early Madonna music video shoot. Schenectady is the UK equivalent of Isle of Sheppey.

I'd like to add that I like Dr. Furface and redsquirrel's reviews. The soundtrack is excellent, it made me want to go and find out who Mike Patton is.... hot damn!

The Ozzie actor Ben Mendelsohn was terrific:


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## redsquirrel (May 5, 2013)

little_legs said:


> The Ozzie actor Ben Mendelsohn was terrific:


Mendelsohn's a good actor I guess  _Animal Kingdom _is the reason why he's started to more parts in US films but he's also excellent in _Beautiful Kate._


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## little_legs (May 5, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> Mendelsohn's a good actor I guess _Animal Kingdom _is the reason why he's started to more parts in US films but he's also excellent in _Beautiful Kate._


 
I am sure his performance in _Animal Kingdom_ was deservedly noticed by the Holywood types. This year, he also appeared as Jessa's father in HBO's show _Girls_, he was incredibly good.

Thanks for mentioning _Beautiful Kate, _I'll put it on my to watch list.


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## redsquirrel (May 5, 2013)

Nearly everybody in it turns in a decent performance, the overall film has some flaws but it's definitely worth watching.


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## Reno (May 6, 2013)

Animal Kingdom is brilliant, one of my favourite films of the last few years. Jackie Weaver is the one who really steals the show though and she too has now had several Hollywood roles.


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## Sue (May 8, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> I saw Pedro Almodovar new film "Im So Excited" at Ritzy.
> 
> It is very good. Effortless is the word I would use. At one level its a light comedy. Its also a farce on todays Spain.
> 
> ...


 
Just saw this. Lots of laugh out loud bits but there were a couple of pretty dodgy bits I found quite uncomfortable and which ruined it a bit for me.


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## DrRingDing (May 8, 2013)

Sue said:


> Just saw this. Lots of laugh out loud bits but there were a couple of pretty dodgy bits I found quite uncomfortable and which ruined it a bit for me.


 
The comedy rape parts?


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## DrRingDing (May 8, 2013)

​ 
Watch El Topo last night at the Prince Charles cinema.

Twas grand. My poor poor girlfriend.


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## Sue (May 8, 2013)

DrRingDing said:


> The comedy rape parts?


 
Yep.


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## DrRingDing (May 8, 2013)

Sue said:


> Yep.


 
I felt it marred the whole film.


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## Sue (May 8, 2013)

DrRingDing said:


> I felt it marred the whole film.


 
Me too. Found it really bizarre actually.


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## Gramsci (May 9, 2013)

Sue said:


> Just saw this. Lots of laugh out loud bits but there were a couple of pretty dodgy bits I found quite uncomfortable and which ruined it a bit for me.


 
Which bits?

BTW here is the Torygraph on the film. With what Almodovar says.




> The plane has departed from Madrid on its way to Mexico City, but has developed a fault and is circling Toledo, waiting for another airport’s runway to become available. “The passengers are going around in circles, they don’t know where they’re going to land or how they’re going to land. And in real life we don’t know how we’re going to get out of this [economic depression], who will be in command, what the risks are and how dangerous it is. For the Spanish people it’s a very clear metaphor for society.”
> There are other topical touches – a joke about the king’s supposed lovers; a reference in a newspaper headline to “Top 10 political scandals”; a passenger who is a bank president, fleeing from a scandal involving embezzlement. All the action takes place in business class; economy passengers are sound asleep, drugged on the pilots’ orders, thus having no say in what happens to the plane.
> Even the difficulty in finding the plane an airport to land has real-life echoes: many of Spain’s recently built airports are unprofitable “white elephants”, and one, Ciudad Real in the province of La Mancha, where Almodóvar grew up, closed down last year after four disastrous years. The director used Ciudad Real (a “ghost airport”, he calls it) as a location for the film’s final scenes.
> All this subtext is crucial for him – he is a vociferous critic of the centre-Right People’s Party that governs Spain. He has spoken out against banks evicting people from their homes. He has allied himself with demonstrators who have taken to the streets in several Spanish cities against politicians “selling out” to corporate and banking interests. And he has voiced his support for 15-M, a youth protest movement disenchanted with all political parties.
> “The government hates me for it,” he says ruefully but with a sly grin. “Public Enemy number one is Javier Bardém and the second is me. We’re the bêtes noires of Spain for the government. Maybe I’m number one right now because I’ve just released this movie, but Javier was bigger when Skyfall opened because it was his moment to talk. At the premiere on opening night, he went over and talked to the [anti-government] protesters. I admire Javier. He resolves the situation of being a star and a citizen at the same time.”


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## Sue (May 9, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> Which bits?
> 
> BTW here is the Torygraph on the film. With what Almodovar says.


 
The 'sex' scenes between the psychic and the man and those between the bride and groom.


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## Sue (May 9, 2013)

Newly restored Point Blank. Fab.


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## cyprusclean (May 12, 2013)

Saw Iron Man 3 in 3-D during the week.

  Enjoyed it, and thought it was well done. Good cast, witty dialogue , and skilful direction.


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## cyprusclean (May 12, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> Yesterday I saw
> _Breakfast at Tiffany's _- Never seen this before, but even with the Mickey Rooney's utterly racist Japanese and slightly too saccharine ending, I can see why it's a classic.


 
The book didn't have the same ending.  They didn't reunite in the pouring rain.


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## Reno (May 12, 2013)

cyprusclean said:


> The book didn't have the same ending. They didn't reunite in the pouring rain.


 
That's because in the book the relationship between Holly and "Fred" the narrator isn't a romantic one. The book is a very loose adaptation of the novella. Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe for the lead. The studio cast Hepburn to play down the character's sexuality and the fact that she lived off it.


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## cyprusclean (May 12, 2013)

Reno said:


> That's because in the book the relationship between Holly and "Fred" the narrator isn't a romantic one. The book is a very loose adaptation of the novella. Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe for the lead. The studio cast Hepburn to play down the characters sexuality and the fact that she lived off it.


 
 That's right. You read the book too?


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## Reno (May 12, 2013)

cyprusclean said:


> That's right. You read the book too?


 
I've read every shred of Capote published.


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## cyprusclean (May 12, 2013)

Reno said:


> I've read every shred of Capote published.


 
 I've read a lot too. I went through a Capote phase. A long time ago though.


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## Reno (May 12, 2013)

cyprusclean said:


> I've read a lot too. I went through a Capote phase. A long time ago though.


 
Same here, mostly in my 20s, which was over 20 years ago.


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## Paulie Tandoori (May 12, 2013)

Hackney Updated at the Rio yesterday, lovely collection of old movies made in the borough that took in slum clearances and pest fumigation, street parties and performance, and was beautifully nostalgic and humorous as well.


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## redsquirrel (May 13, 2013)

_Iron Man 3_ - Nothing groundbreaking, but very enjoyable. The cast are obviously enjoying themselves, especially Ben Kingsley, and the balance of humour and action is good.


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## cyprusclean (May 13, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> _Iron Man 3_ - Nothing groundbreaking, but very enjoyable. The cast are obviously enjoying themselves, especially Ben Kingsley, and the balance of humour and action is good.


 
 I liked some of the one liners. Like Downey near the end of the movie, to Paltrow; *I wish you'd dress like that at home*

I can take any genre, as long as it's well done. Even the gruesomeness of the Coen Brothers.

 Now with the The Great Gatsby coming up and all the hype attached, I have my doubts. I'm not keen on  Baz Luhrmann's style of direction. Sort of over the top.


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## Sue (May 14, 2013)

Our Children (A perdre la raison). A Morocco-Belgian couple marry and have kids, all under the control of the man's adoptive father. Very well done and quite gripping in a low key kind of way. Sad.

ETA Also saw the trailer for Shane Meadows' Stone Roses rockumentary which is out on the 5th of June. Looks fab.


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## Reno (May 14, 2013)

cyprusclean said:


> Now with the The Great Gatsby coming up and all the hype attached, I have my doubts. I'm not keen on Baz Luhrmann's style of direction. Sort of over the top.


 
They hype for this The Great Gatsby is nothing compared to the hype for the Robert Redford version in the 70s. It inspired a 1920s fashion craze before the film was even released. Everybody thought it would be the biggest thing ever and when the film came out, it got poor reviews and ended up quickly forgotten about.


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## Sue (May 16, 2013)

Gimme me the loot. Two young graffiti artists ducking and diving in New York. Not much happens and maybe a touch long but thought it was quite likeable.


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## Reno (May 19, 2013)

*The Great Gatsby*. I'm no Baz Luhrman fan and the best thing I can say is that I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would and that for the first two thirds at least, I wasn't bored. It's also one of a small handful of films that uses 3D well. Luhrman's films always look like cut out paper dioramas and that look is well suited for 3D film, which always looks more like flats on different levels, rather than like a real 3 dimensional space. I would go as far as saying that the 3D is the best reason to see the film. The soundtrack works fine too, as always with Luhrman. Otherwise it's the usual kitsch-fest, not quite as grating as Moulin Rouge and not as embarrassingly terrible as Australia.

Nothing connects on an emotional level for me with any of Luhrman's films, as the characters are always secondary to all the glitter he chucks at the camera. With its visual overkill, the film works hard not to be a stuffy literary adaptation but goes too far the other way and overwhelms its source. DiCaprio makes for a better Gatsby than Redford, which isn't saying much as the 70s film was deadly dull. At least this isn't dull but it's no more than superficial eye candy and just made me feel like I'd eaten too many sweets.


----------



## cyprusclean (May 19, 2013)

Thought that was a fair critique, Reno.

Not that I've seen the movie.... yet.  

Who do you think would have made a more senstiive director?


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## Reno (May 19, 2013)

cyprusclean said:


> Who do you think would have made a more senstiive director?


 
Almost anybody else. 

To be fair, I don't think The Great Gatsby is a novel that translates well to the screen. The characters make sense on the page where Fitzgerald's prose makes them come to life, but when you don't understand what makes them tick, then they simply aren't very interesting. It seems an impossible task to make Daisy into an engaging character on film (the 70s film also failed to do so) and when you don't understand what Gatsby sees in her, the love story doesn't work. On film you are only left with the opulence of Gatsby's life, but the interior lives and motivations of the characters don't run very deep. The plot of the novel devolves into to melodrama by the end, something that the beauty of the prose deflects but on the screen that comes across as cheap contrivance.


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## redsquirrel (May 20, 2013)

_Star Trek Into Darkness_ - Inferior to _Iron Man 3_ as a blockbuster, Benedict Cumberbach gives it a passing grade but only just. At times it almost comes across as a parody of the previous series/films, an example being the character of Kirk, who's been made into an idiot who's first impulse is to attack. 

_The Birds_ - Enjoyed it again, not quite in the top tier of Hitchcock films but still great. I particularly love the first half with the interplay of Melanie, Annie and the mother.

_Tabu - _Looks great but I didn't love it. I think I took some time to get into it, meaning that I found the second part of the film much more engaging than the first half. I'm not sure if that was my fault or the films.

_The Hunt - _Very, very good. I think there's one bad misstep early on, the actions of the headteacher, which really strained my disbelief and brought me out of the film for a while. But besides that its very well made indeed, despite the obvious manipulative nature of some scenes (children's choir at the church, Klara in the kitchen at the end) they still work fantastically, making me incredibly uncomfortable.


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## Sue (May 20, 2013)

A Highjacking. A Danish ship is highjacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. Low key, tense, very good.


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## Sue (May 22, 2013)

Mud. Set on the Mississippi, two kids get embroiled with a man on the run. A touch long but really good.

My actor friend used to say, 'Every time Matthew McConaughey gets a part, a real actor dies'. On the strength of this (and Killer Joe), this no longer applies.


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## belboid (May 28, 2013)

Star Trek Into Darkness

Perfectly enjoyable action flick, based loosely around the ST characters. Quinto and Cunmberbund make it worth watching.


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## Sue (May 28, 2013)

belboid said:


> Star Trek Into Darkness
> 
> Perfectly enjoyable action flick, based loosely around the ST characters. Quinto and Cunmberbund make it worth watching.


 
Really don't fancy this. Saw the last one the same week as Moon and did it suffer from the comparison...


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## Sue (May 29, 2013)

Reno said:


> *The Great Gatsby*. I'm no Baz Luhrman fan and the best thing I can say is that I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would and that for the first two thirds at least, I wasn't bored. It's also one of a small handful of films that uses 3D well. Luhrman's films always look like cut out paper dioramas and that look is well suited for 3D film, which always looks more like flats on different levels, rather than like a real 3 dimensional space. I would go as far as saying that the 3D is the best reason to see the film. The soundtrack works fine too, as always with Luhrman. Otherwise it's the usual kitsch-fest, not quite as grating as Moulin Rouge and not as embarrassingly terrible as Australia.
> 
> Nothing connects on an emotional level for me with any of Luhrman's films, as the characters are always secondary to all the glitter he chucks at the camera. With its visual overkill, the film works hard not to be a stuffy literary adaptation but goes too far the other way and overwhelms its source. DiCaprio makes for a better Gatsby than Redford, which isn't saying much as the 70s film was deadly dull. At least this isn't dull but it's no more than superficial eye candy and just made me feel like I'd eaten too many sweets.


 
Agree with most of this -- don't think it's a very filmable book and Daisy's problematic in this context, didn't dislike it as much as I'd feared, thought Leonardo DiCaprio was good -- but don't agree with the 3D thing. I felt it was often really intrusive -- was okay in the party scenes but for much of the rest of it, found it very annoying, as well as making me feel a bit seasick. Not a terrible film, just don't think Luhrman's style is at all suited to an adaptation of the book. Saying that, I'm generally not keen on films of books I really like so could just be that.


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## Reno (May 31, 2013)

Byzantium, Neil Jordan's new vampire film. Thought it was tedious. It felt very dated and not in a good way, with a clunky, old fashioned flashback structure which stops the film dead every time it goes back and one of those horrible exposition heavy voiceovers which either tells you what you are watching or puts in words what should be conveyed in visuals. A suspenseless horror film without scares and a clumsily conveyed message. The dialogue was terrible, the usually good cast didn't stand a chance and the "action" climax was laughable. This type of Camilla/Countess Bathory inspired vampire film has been done better many times before, most notably in the 70s cult classic Daughters of Darkness, which also takes place in an abandoned hotel, which still feels a lot more edgy and looks far more stylish than this sorry mess does.

Jim Jarmusch has just premiered his vampire film at Cannes, which sounds very similar and will hopefully be a bit more interesting: Only Lovers Left Alive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Sue (Jun 6, 2013)

Populaire. French, 50s set rom/sex com in the Doris Day/Rock Hudson mode with added typewriter. Hated it which is maybe a bit unfair as mainly down to the shite sexual politics and sleazy/annoying male characters which I guess are of a piece with these kind of films. (Haven't seen any of the orginals since I was a  kind -- my mum used to love Rock Hudson  -- so could be they'd annoy me just as much if I watched them these days.)


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## Sue (Jun 7, 2013)

Behind the Candelabra. Michael Douglas is excellent, Matt Damon's pretty good too (no idea how old his character's meant to be but feels like he's way too old for the role though) and Rob Lowe's kind of scary. Quite fun.

ETA Didn't recognise Debbie Reynolds at all.


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## Reno (Jun 8, 2013)

*Before Midnight*. Like with Toy Story this is a series of films that gets better with every instalment. I didn't care much for Before Sunrise when it came out, because the pseudo-intellectual philosophising got on my nerves, but it was of course understandable for someone in their early 20 to try and win over a pretty French girl that way. Before Sunset I liked a lot more and it made me appreciate the previous film retrospectively. And this is great too as the film catches up with Celine and Jesse another 9 years later. As the characters are put through the disappointments and frustrations of daily life, they have become more interesting and oddly enough the films get more entertaining the more mundane their story gets. Like with all the best sequels this can be watched on it's own, but it's far more rewarding if you have seen the earlier films. Looking forward to Before Noon in another nine years time.


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## Sue (Jun 9, 2013)

The Iceman, story of a hitman. Reasonably well done though probably not worth going to the cinema for. Lots of laughter at David Schwimmer playing a gangster with dodgy tache, ponytail and dubious tracksuits. In fact, lots of dodgy facial hair all round.


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## Nanker Phelge (Jun 12, 2013)

The Iceman. Good, but didn't feel like a film for the cinema. It felt a lot like a HBO film, ir an episode of The Sopranos. Shannon was very powerful in the lead role. Without the cast this could have easily been just been another piece of low budget hitman pulp.

I'm not sure where the Gangster genre has to go currently with TV doing those stories so well in the form of Sopranos/Boardwalk Empire.


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## Gingerman (Jun 14, 2013)

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/bfi-film-releases/aguirre-wrath-god
Going to see this at the weekend,one of those films I've always wanted to see but never got round to watching.


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## Sue (Jun 14, 2013)

Therese Desqueyroux, Rich young woman marries bit older rich man in 1920s France and feels suffocated by bourgeois provincial life.
Based on the novel by Mauriac (which I haven't read). Assume there must be a lot of inner dialogue or something in the book that's not conveyed in the film because going by the film, Therese is spoilt, sulky and just not very interesting. In fact, everyone's quite unpleasant and uninteresting which is a bit of a major problem -- if I hadn't paid to see it, I wouldn't have sat through this to the end. (Had been going to see something else but screwed up the times which is why I ended up seeing this.)


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## Gingerman (Jun 15, 2013)

Gingerman said:


> http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/bfi-film-releases/aguirre-wrath-god
> Going to see this at the weekend,one of those films I've always wanted to see but never got round to watching.


Well I saw this last night,really drew me in,looked fantastic and Kinski was mesmerising, my mate who watched it with me thought it was dull as fuck


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## Sue (Jun 15, 2013)

Gingerman said:


> Well I saw this last night,really drew me in,looked fantastic and Kinski was mesmerising, my mate who watched it with me thought it was dull as fuck


 
My ex was really into Herzog, I never really got his films at all. (Building an opera house in the jungle -- WTF?) Maybe should have another go...


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## 5t3IIa (Jun 15, 2013)

Sue said:


> My ex was really into Herzog, I never really got his films at all. (Building an opera house in the jungle -- WTF?) Maybe should have another go...


 

It's all so different  Try The Grizzly Man


----------



## Reno (Jun 15, 2013)

Sue said:


> My ex was really into Herzog, I never really got his films at all. (Building an opera house in the jungle -- WTF?) Maybe should have another go...


 
I've never been big on Herzog and his films mostly leave me cold. I think the documentary Burden of Dreams about the making of Fitcarraldo crystallised some of the problems I have with him, where he was insistent that dragging a ship over a mountain has to be staged for real and exploiting the indigenous people hired as extras. And then he sees himself rather self-pityingly as the victim of his own, driven genius.

His films may look beautiful, but Herzog's type of hubris doesn't appeal to my sensibility. There is something of the German romantic in him, the type of romanticism embraced by the Nazis, which as a fellow German seriously put me off. His reasoning and type of auteurship is not that far from that of Leni Riefenstahl, whose early films and aesthetic were not dissimilar from Herzog's (check out her film The Blue Light for comparison). Anything seems justified in pursuit of their "vision".

I'm also dubious about the supposed genius of Klaus Kinski, an actor who mostly operated with everything dialled up to 12 and such an unbelievable asshole in his private life and interactions with the media, I found it hard to seperate his on- and offscreen personality.

Herzog has mellowed and is less full of himself now. I find him quite amusing in interviews and the one where he is interviewed by Mark Kermode, gets shot by someone from a car and carries on like this happens to him every day, is his finest moment. I still don't care that much for the films. Some of the documentaries are interesting, but he still keeps imposing his bullshit on his subject matter.

Fassbinder is my favourite of the 70s German New Wave directors, but he mostly dealt with specifically German subject matter, so his work travels less well. I don't think Herzog ever made a film as beautiful, intelligent and profound as Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul.


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## redsquirrel (Jun 15, 2013)

*My Neighbor Totoro *- Unfortunately it was the english language version (and not dubbed/translated as well as most Studio Ghibli films are these days) but even so the quality of the original film is such that it cane through.

*Mud* - very, very impressive. Both the young kids were excellent, indeed the whole cast are top notch. The film looks pretty good and the characters were well drawn - not just the major roles but also the minor parts like Ellis' parents and Neckbone's uncle. I quite liked the directors previous film 'Take Shelter' but this is even better.

*Broken* - I don't think the idea of using _To Kill a Mockingbird_ as the inspiration/basis for a book/film set in modern Britain is a bad one. OK you're unlikely to capture the brilliance of the original but the idea appealed enough to me to make me go see this. Unfortunately, the decision to use some shitty cliche's - working class people are sexually promiscuous, violent thugs who constantly swear; mentally ill people are a danger - is not only offensive and stupid (particularly given the source material) in and of itself but also weakens the film significantly. Which is a real shame because there is a potentially good film in there, the performances of Tim Roth and Eloise Laurence (who plays the Scout character) are good and their scenes together are believable and moving, but they can't overcome the crappy cliched plot.


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## Gramsci (Jun 16, 2013)

The Act of Killing​​I saw this at the BFI today on screen one.​​It is coming to Ritzy in London from 28th June. So I guess its will be on release in other parts of the country.​​The opening night at Ritzy will show the extended version 159 mins ( the version I saw at BFI) with Q&A with director.​​Thought I would flag this up now as its a must see on the big screen rather than TV/ computer.​​It is the best film I have seen for ages. Riveting if gruesome viewing.​​It is a documentary about those who killed communists during military rule in Indonesia. The military encouraged local gangsters to kill communists.​​The director got a few of these now old men who were killers to talk. These killers have never been punished. In fact they are publicly lauded for there actions even now. So they were very open about how they killed people.​​The two gangsters the director focuses on were smalltime hoods who used to sell tickets at the local cinema. One of them loved films. Particularly Hollywood. So the director got them to re enact there murders by using scenarios from films they liked. Musicals, Cowboy, gangster and police films.​​The film starts turning into a surreal nightmare that one cannot get out of. But that is the position of the main "gangster" in the film. He , whilst hating the communists, confesses he still has nightmares about what he did.​​Using scenarios from fictional film genres provides a way to show what happened. Its like film is a distancing technique.​​The documentary makes one question film as well.​​They discuss at one point a famous Indonesian propaganda film , still shown , that is about how terrible communists are supposed to be. The main killer in the film said watching that film always made him feel better about what he did. Even though he knows its a blatant piece of propaganda.​​There is something particularly scary about watching someone direct a scene of an interrogation and killing of an alleged communist who is a killer.​​Some of the most amazing bits are when the killers talk amongst themselves about how the cope with the memories they still have of what they did.​​It does show how relatively ordinary people can end up doing monstrous things.​​At one point it reminded me of the history of the holocaust I read a while back. The Germans found it difficult to kill lots of people in cold blood so developed less bloody ways of doing it. So did the Indonesian killers.​


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## Gramsci (Jun 16, 2013)

Reno said:


> I've never been big on Herzog and his films mostly leave me cold. I think the documentary Burden of Dreams about the making of Fitcarraldo crystallised some of the problems I have with him, where he was insistent that dragging a ship over a mountain has to be staged for real and exploiting the indigenous people hired as extras. And then he sees himself rather self-pityingly as the victim of his own, driven genius.
> 
> His films may look beautiful, but Herzog's type of hubris doesn't appeal to my sensibility. There is something of the German romantic in him, the type of romanticism embraced by the Nazis, which as a fellow German seriously put me off. His reasoning and type of auteurship is not that far from that of Leni Riefenstahl, whose early films and aesthetic were not dissimilar from Herzog's (check out her film The Blue Light for comparison). Anything seems justified in pursuit of their "vision".
> 
> Fassbinder is my favourite of the 70s German New Wave directors, but he mostly dealt with specifically German subject matter, so his work travels less well. I don't think Herzog ever made a film as beautiful, intelligent and profound as Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul.


 
I went to see Aguirre Wrath of God at BFI. I had seen it years ago at the Scala. First time I had seen one of his films. It did leave me cold this time around despite the fact I found it gripping to watch. Particularly unnerving were the shots where the actors looked directly at the camera.

However I took it as a critique of the kind of Germanic romanticism and hubris that the Nazis used. ( in the case of Romanticism misused ).It has moments of very black humour. As at the end when Klaus is left with the monkeys on the raft. So whilst influenced by Leni I do not think she used humour in her films like Herzog did here. Which undercut the hubris. Her later films for the Nazis were done completely straight.

Klaus/ Aguirre  leads the men into disaster like Hitler did with the German people. Like Hitler he is a commoner not an aristocrat. He like Hitler did with Germany manages to gradually take over the expedition from the aristocrats. The men either willingly or grudgingly accept his leadership until to late.

Whether Herzog meant this film to be read in this way I do not know. But its one possible reading imo.

I agree with you about Fassbinder. I still have not seen all his films.


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## BipsonPressure (Jun 16, 2013)

The Hobbit (in New York) - a film the phrase 'by-the-numbers' was invented for

Star Trek: Into Darkness - cracking fun


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## Sue (Jun 16, 2013)

The  Best Years Of Our Lives. What happens when three veterans return from WW2. Shamefully,  I'd never seen the whole thing before. What a great film.


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## Reno (Jun 17, 2013)

Sofia Coppola's true-crime black comedy _The Bling Ring_ based on the case a group of pampered L.A. teenagers who robbed the houses of the celebrities they admired. I thought it was pretty funny. It is probably her most conventional film so far, but also quite entertaining and much better than the dreary Somewhere, her last film. Like all her films it's beautifully shot, has a dreamy atmosphere and a great soundtrack. The Bling Ring has been accused of being superficial, but then it's a satire about superficial people and her take on it is that of an anthropologist. She observes, but she doesn't judge. The characters have enough rope to hang themselves with and that they do.

Reading up on it, it sticks closely to the real case and it's quite incredible that the robbers got away with it for so long and that it was so easy for them to get into the houses. The likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan who they robbed just have so much stuff, they didn't catch on for ages that things went missing. And they went out leaving patio doors unlocked. I always thought celebs would have lots of security or at least burglar alarms. Emma Watson gives the best performance of the bunch, as a dead eyed dimwit who is amazingly self-deluded. This is very different from what she's done before and she's becoming a pretty good actress.


http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwi...ve-a-problem-with-privilege-or-do-her-critics


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## DaveCinzano (Jun 20, 2013)

Wow - this looks... unmissable:



> *Bula Quo*
> Tuesday July 2, 7.30pm
> Rocking All Over the World, Status Quo legends Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt witness a murder in Fiji. Fleeing a gang trafficking body parts; have they played their last gig? Parfitt and Rossi are on the run taking along their manager, Simon (Craig Fairbrass) and cheeky intern Caroline (Laura Aikman) along for the ride.


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## DaveCinzano (Jun 20, 2013)

Reno said:


> Sofia Coppola's true-crime black comedy _The Bling Ring_ based on the case a group of pampered L.A. teenagers who robbed the houses of the celebrities they admired...


 
There's a moderately interesting article in the current LRB on said gang of halfwits:

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n12/andrew-ohagan/so-many-handbags-so-little-time


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## belboid (Jun 21, 2013)

Aguirre.

My favourite film in a language other than English, and in a really cracking print.  It still manages to maintain its power, beauty and wit like no other. And I'd pretty much agree with Gramsci that it is using a visual romanticism as a way of criticising the romanticism of the nazis.


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## Reno (Jun 21, 2013)

belboid said:


> Aguirre.
> 
> My favourite film in a language other than English, and in a really cracking print. It still manages to maintain its power, beauty and wit like no other. And I'd pretty much agree with Gramsci that it is using a visual romanticism as a way of criticising the romanticism of the nazis.


 

Which I would possibly buy that had I only been talking about Aguirre, but I wasn't.


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## belboid (Jun 21, 2013)

Reno said:


> Which I would possibly buy had I only been talking about Aguirre, but I didn't.


I think its used and undercut in most of his films tho. Its the same in Fitzcaraldo fer sure.  And while I fully take your point about the egotistic excesses of a director, and the way he has exploited people to create his vision, I cant help but admire it as well.

There's a bit toward the end of Grizzly an where he sums it up, Treadwells naive romantic view of the bears and nature versus the brutal reality of it. grizzly indeed.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Jun 21, 2013)

Behind the Candelabra - hate Michael Douglas as an actor usually, but I have to say that he is quite superb in his portrayal of Liberace, its a very understated movie considering the subject matter, and I loved this, sometimes the hype is justified.


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## Dillinger4 (Jun 22, 2013)

Before Midnight. I liked it.


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## Gramsci (Jun 23, 2013)

belboid said:


> There's a bit toward the end of Grizzly an where he sums it up, Treadwells naive romantic view of the bears and nature versus the brutal reality of it. grizzly indeed.


 
Good point. But on further thinking this came to mind as a possible reading of Herzog doc:

Going back to read Reno original post Reno did say German Romanticism.

I think what Herzog was criticising was a type of romantic view of nature. Treadwell thought he could get closer to nature. It was new age type romanticism.

Where as another type of Romanticism is being in awe of nature and its inhuman power. Which is Herzog standpoint.




> The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities,


 
Romanticism as an idea is a lot more complicated than I realised.


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## Sue (Jun 29, 2013)

World War Z. Not great but not terrible either. The set pieces are pretty well done and Glasgow looks zombie-tastic .  A few years since I read the book but it doesn't seem to keep a great deal from it -- can see the episodic nature would present difficulties but it does lose quite a lot by having a more conventional narrative. Found some of the dialogue a bit difficult to hear at the start which was a bit annoying.


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## redsquirrel (Jun 30, 2013)

belboid said:


> There's a bit toward the end of Grizzly an where he sums it up, Treadwells naive romantic view of the bears and nature versus the brutal reality of it. grizzly indeed.


I'm not sure Herzog's view of nature is that much more realistic than Treadwell's.


_Days of Heaven - I_t's been raved about time and again so I won't bother repeating what plenty of others had said, just really glad I got the opportunity to see it at the cinema.

_In The House _- Francis Ozon's newest, the first of his I've seen since _Angel. _It's very Ozon so if you don't like his style/game playing you probably won't like this. I really enjoyed the first hour which had some very funny moments but the ending didn't really work for me.


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## Reno (Jun 30, 2013)

Sue said:


> World War Z. Not great but not terrible either. The set pieces are pretty well done and Glasgow looks zombie-tastic . A few years since I read the book but it doesn't seem to keep a great deal from it -- can see the episodic nature would present difficulties but it does lose quite a lot by having a more conventional narrative. Found some of the dialogue a bit difficult to hear at the start which was a bit annoying.


 
Saw it yesterday and felt exactly the same about the film. Actually I can't think of anybody else on here who I tend to agree with on just about every film like I do with you. Are we the same person ?


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## Sue (Jun 30, 2013)

Reno said:


> Saw it yesterday and felt exactly the same about the film. Actually I can't think of anybody else on here who I tend to agree with on just about every film like I do with you. Are we the same person ?


 
I'm very flattered... Wish I had your knowledge of films though -- I'm an amateur by comparison...


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## Reno (Jul 1, 2013)

I just saw a preview of _Rush_, Ron Howards new film about the 1976 Formula 1 season and the rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt. While Daniel Bruehl's Lauda acts circles around Chris Helmsworth's Hunt, this is very entertaining and genuinely exciting and I'm someone who has absolutely no interest in Formula 1. Maybe fans may will find more stuff to criticise, but I thought it got the mix between racing and their private lives right.

While Helmswoth feels too American for Hunt, but Bruehl really has Lauda down and he emerges as a fascinating character. The whole thing moves at a tremendous clip and while this isn't a Hollywood film because Hollywood doesn't make films like this anymore (all the money came from Europe) this is the most satisfying mainstream films I've seen this year. Sure, it's a little cheesy here and there, but it's also how a biopic should be done. It's not a cradle to crave epic, but tightly focused on one thing, the complicated relationship between those two rivals and it makes for a great story. The film also looks good and the 70s art direction is spot on.


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## Sue (Jul 3, 2013)

The East. Woman infiltrates ecoterrorist cell and has to decide where her loyalties lie. Interesting-looking trailer but the film itself is the worst I've seen in quite a long time. (Was there a cliche that they hadn't disinterred? Erm, no.)

I did laugh out loud at the dinner scene in a cringey way but not sure you were meant to...


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## Gramsci (Jul 3, 2013)

Sue said:


> World War Z. Not great but not terrible either. The set pieces are pretty well done and Glasgow looks zombie-tastic . A few years since I read the book but it doesn't seem to keep a great deal from it -- can see the episodic nature would present difficulties but it does lose quite a lot by having a more conventional narrative. Found some of the dialogue a bit difficult to hear at the start which was a bit annoying.


 
It had mixed reviews. My friend saw it and like it.

I enjoyed it. I agree about set pieces. Some great set pieces: The beginning, the lost platoon in Korea and nutjob Zombies invading Israel.

The storyline did not grab me in the end. I am not sure why. As it was interesting at start. I think I would have like a darker more ambiguous ending. The opening credits gave impression that this is how the story would go. Not Brad Pitt saving the world.

I found dialogue ok. So maybe the cinema you were in?

I also saw it in 2D. Fine I thought. Did not feel I was missing anything for not paying more to see it in 3D. Perhaps the novelty of 3D is wearing off.


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## Gramsci (Jul 4, 2013)

I saw the documentary "Stories we Tell" at Ritzy. Looks like last chance to see it at Ritzy on Thursday.

It is very good. And I am not a fan of autobiographical docs. There are serious issues in the world that need coverage ( see "The Art of Killing") not navel gazing.

However this is more, at times, philosophical look at how we construct stories and the past.

It starts with quote from the writer Margaret Atwood. Saying that a novel/story starts as chaos. It is the act of writing that brings it to coherent narrative. But whilst one is in the process it is not coherent. A writer does not start with a finished story in the head.

One thing that one learns from this is that people do not lie. They construct and reconstruct there past and present. Sometimes through choice and often by chance.

I found this documentary more interesting than I imagined it would be. It is definitely more than just the director unearthing her family secrets.


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## redsquirrel (Jul 4, 2013)

I'm really looking forward to that, unfortunately it doesn't come out here for a while.


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## Sue (Jul 4, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> I saw the documentary "Stories we Tell" at Ritzy. Looks like last chance to see it at Ritzy on Thursday.
> 
> It is very good. And I am not a fan of autobiographical docs. There are serious issues in the world that need coverage ( see "The Art of Killing") not navel gazing.
> 
> ...


 
Just saw this. Hmm. Quite a lot to like but ultimately left me feeling a bit bleargh. The two strands -- the actual story and the 'exploring how people remember stuff' thing -- didn't really add up to anything that interesting. Could see her sister's point about who would be interested in it apart from their family and there didnt seem to be that many differences in the way people remembered things for the second strand to really work. Also could've lost 15 minutes but I almost always think that .


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## Sue (Jul 7, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> The Act of Killing​​I saw this at the BFI today on screen one.​​It is coming to Ritzy in London from 28th June. So I guess its will be on release in other parts of the country.​​The opening night at Ritzy will show the extended version 159 mins ( the version I saw at BFI) with Q&A with director.​​Thought I would flag this up now as its a must see on the big screen rather than TV/ computer.​​It is the best film I have seen for ages. Riveting if gruesome viewing.​​It is a documentary about those who killed communists during military rule in Indonesia. The military encouraged local gangsters to kill communists.​​The director got a few of these now old men who were killers to talk. These killers have never been punished. In fact they are publicly lauded for there actions even now. So they were very open about how they killed people.​​The two gangsters the director focuses on were smalltime hoods who used to sell tickets at the local cinema. One of them loved films. Particularly Hollywood. So the director got them to re enact there murders by using scenarios from films they liked. Musicals, Cowboy, gangster and police films.​​The film starts turning into a surreal nightmare that one cannot get out of. But that is the position of the main "gangster" in the film. He , whilst hating the communists, confesses he still has nightmares about what he did.​​Using scenarios from fictional film genres provides a way to show what happened. Its like film is a distancing technique.​​The documentary makes one question film as well.​​They discuss at one point a famous Indonesian propaganda film , still shown , that is about how terrible communists are supposed to be. The main killer in the film said watching that film always made him feel better about what he did. Even though he knows its a blatant piece of propaganda.​​There is something particularly scary about watching someone direct a scene of an interrogation and killing of an alleged communist who is a killer.​​Some of the most amazing bits are when the killers talk amongst themselves about how the cope with the memories they still have of what they did.​​It does show how relatively ordinary people can end up doing monstrous things.​​At one point it reminded me of the history of the holocaust I read a while back. The Germans found it difficult to kill lots of people in cold blood so developed less bloody ways of doing it. So did the Indonesian killers.​



Just saw this. God. The casual way they talk about killing people is quite surreal. And there seems little understanding of how this will be viewed by others outside Indonesia.  Also assume the 'Anonymous' credits are to protect those involved in making the film which tells its own story. Really worth seeing.


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## Sue (Jul 8, 2013)

The Bling Ring. Enjoyed this, thought it was funny if it did make me roll my eyes at stupid celebs -- when was not even bothering to lock your door a good idea? -- and the whole vacuous culture of celebrity. Think that was kind of the point though. (Also what was the whole  'Emma Watson pole dances' outrage about?  Thought she was pretty good in this.)


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## Reno (Jul 8, 2013)

Saw a preview of *Only God Forgives*, Nicolas Winding Refn's follow up to Drive, again with Ryan Gosling. I loved Drive but this was pants. While Drive was a minimalist film everything here is reduced so much further, it ends up as a 'nothing' film. There are no characters here. While Gosling was an enigma in Drive, here he is so inactive, he simply is a total blank and the same is the case for his opponent, a Thai cop. Kristen Scott Thomas as his drug lord mother is the closest to something like a character by the virtue of being totally one dimensional. She is defined by being vindictive and vulgar, but there is no depth there either. In terms of looks she is reminiscent of Anjelica Huston similar character in The Grifters, but that was a complex character out of a Greek tragedy compared to this cartoon harpy. Otherwise the revenge plot of the film is predictable and overfamiliar from so many other films.

There is something questionable about how the film exploits its Thai backdrop for its exoticism and as an excuse for lots of mega-violence. I don't mind a bit of mega violence, hut only when there is something at stake. As there are no characters to care about, there is no nothing to invest in. The film does look and sound stylish, but even there I was a little underwhelmed. There is an attempt at Kubrick style editing and composition, but despite its neon night Bangkok setting it doesn't even look as good as Drive did. Cliff Martinez brooding score is interesting, but again, not a patch on the score for Drive. Biggest disappointment of the year.


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## Sue (Jul 17, 2013)

Sue said:


> Just saw this. God. The casual way they talk about killing people is quite surreal. And there seems little understanding of how this will be viewed by others outside Indonesia. Also assume the 'Anonymous' credits are to protect those involved in making the film which tells its own story. Really worth seeing.


 
Was talking to a friend of a friend last night whose family are Indonesian Chinese. Her parents and much of her family left in the 60s and 70s and many of those left 'Indonesianised' their names. She's keen to see this -- warned her it wasn't easy viewing and suspect she may find it more difficult than those of us with no connection to the country -- and was wondering about trying to send copies to her family there. Said I thought there had been some screenings there which she was quite surprised about. Anyway, rambling a bit but just found it interesting that she says she knows little of those times, I think because her family (understandably) didn't want to talk about it and apparently books on that period are quite difficult to find.


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## Sue (Jul 17, 2013)

We Steal Secrets, the Wikileaks documentary. Found this quite fascinating. Was already aware of most of it but didn't know how Bradley Manning was found out -- he comes across as extremely vulnerable, naive and pathetic (in the true sense of the word). Pretty balanced and interesting on the differentiation (or not) between Wikileaks and Julian Assange who really doesn't come out of this very well. Also interesting to see what those involved at the time think about it/him now.


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## blossie33 (Jul 17, 2013)

I went to see We steal secrets about Wikileaks on Friday, thought it was fascinating.

Eta posted the same time as Sue!


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## Superdupastupor (Jul 18, 2013)

*The Deep  * - Icelandic fillum about fishers and the briney wet stuff. You know what it is like as a human- we feel like conquerers of the globe but most of it is water- we know nothing really. quite understated and full of emptiness


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## Reno (Jul 18, 2013)

Superdupastupor said:


> *The Deep * - Icelandic fillum about fishers and the briney wet stuff. You know what it is like as a human- we feel like conquerers of the globe but most of it is water- we know nothing really. quite understated and* full of emptiness*


 
I've got a chance to see this next week. You are not selling this to me.


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## pissflaps (Jul 18, 2013)

has anyone seen Specific Rim yet? it looks fucking ace.


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## Superdupastupor (Jul 19, 2013)

Reno said:


> I've got a chance to see this next week. You are not selling this to me.


 

erm I just meant the sea is a pretty barren place- I seem prone to daft wordplay when I have taken a drink. 

I thought it was pretty good- I am glad I saw it. A bit wierd seeing it in the summer heat though- it would've mad more sense at winter time


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## redsquirrel (Jul 20, 2013)

Reno said:


> Saw a preview of *Only God Forgives*, Nicolas Winding Refn's follow up to Drive, again with Ryan Gosling. I loved Drive but this was pants. While Drive was a minimalist film everything here is reduced so much further, it ends up as a 'nothing' film. There are no characters here. While Gosling was an enigma in Drive, here he is so inactive, he simply is a total blank and the same is the case for his opponent, a Thai cop. Kristen Scott Thomas as his drug lord mother is the closest to something like a character by the virtue of being totally one dimensional. She is defined by being vindictive and vulgar, but there is no depth there either. In terms of looks she is reminiscent of Anjelica Huston similar character in The Grifters, but that was a complex character out of a Greek tragedy compared to this cartoon harpy. Otherwise the revenge plot of the film is predictable and overfamiliar from so many other films.
> 
> There is something questionable about how the film exploits its Thai backdrop for its exoticism and as an excuse for lots of mega-violence. I don't mind a bit of mega violence, hut only when there is something at stake. As there are no characters to care about, there is no nothing to invest in. The film does look and sound stylish, but even there I was a little underwhelmed. There is an attempt at Kubrick style editing and composition, but despite its neon night Bangkok setting it doesn't even look as good as Drive did. Cliff Martinez brooding score is interesting, but again, not a patch on the score for Drive. Biggest disappointment of the year.


Just saw this agree and by and large I agree, disappointing and I think you're right about the Thai background, definitely something a bit dodgy there IMO. I did like Kristen Scott Thomas' performance though, it took me a while to recognise her.


Also seen 

_Look of Love_ - I'm quite a Winterbottom fan, I think that even when his films don't total work there's normally at least something interesting there. Unfortunately that's not the case here, a very boring by the numbers biopic, rags to riches to the pain of fame story. Coogan's performance is dialled in and I felt it was rather too sympathetic to a bloke who made his money exploiting women.

_To The Wonder - _Not impressed by this either, I saw some reviews saying that it's almost a pastiche of Malick's work and I have to say I agree. It just seems to be a much inferior version of _Tree of Life_. I don't have the dislike of Affleck that a lot of people seem to have but I don't think he has the screen presence that the part requires for the film to really work IMO.

_Much Ado About Nothing - _I didn't go into this with particularly high expectations, as I thought it wouldn't be able to compare with the Kenneth Branagh version, and while this version is probably not quite as good as that it's certainly very enjoyable. The two lead performances from Alexis Densiof and Amy Acker are both very charming and it looks good shot in black and white and set in modern upper class LA. Not amazing but very solid and enjoyable.

_Before Midnight _- I've not seen either to the two earlier movies but I still found this to be excellent, two top notch performances and well developed characters. The kids are also insanely cute (and I say that as someone who can't stand cute children).


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## little_legs (Jul 20, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> _To The Wonder - _Not impressed by this either, I saw some reviews saying that it's almost a pastiche of Malick's work and I have to say I agree. It just seems to be a much inferior version of _Tree of Life_. I don't have the dislike of Affleck that a lot of people seem to have but I don't think he has the screen presence that the part requires for the film to really work IMO.


 
I've only seen Malick's _Tree of Life _(yes, yes, a ciné-ignoramus here), which I thought was excellent, so I expected much of the same from _To the Wonder_. I know exactly what you mean about Affleck. The whole time whilst watching _To the Wonder_, I kept thinking if it would work better had Malick picked a talented but less known actor, I kept thinking that it could have been a great breakthrough role.

Women, on the other hand, were very good and carried the film for me. I especially liked Rachel McAdams, hers was the only character that I didn't need to say more than she did to be able to understand the strength of the woman she played and the pain she was going through. Same goes for Romina Mondello of whom I wasn't ever aware of before this film. A fleeting appearance, but my Gosh so beautiful: _Life is a dream. In a dream you can't make mistakes. In a dream you can be whatever you want._


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## butchersapron (Jul 21, 2013)

Reno said:


> Saw a preview of *Only God Forgives*, Nicolas Winding Refn's follow up to Drive, again with Ryan Gosling. I loved Drive but this was pants. While Drive was a minimalist film everything here is reduced so much further, it ends up as a 'nothing' film. There are no characters here. While Gosling was an enigma in Drive, here he is so inactive, he simply is a total blank and the same is the case for his opponent, a Thai cop. Kristen Scott Thomas as his drug lord mother is the closest to something like a character by the virtue of being totally one dimensional. She is defined by being vindictive and vulgar, but there is no depth there either. In terms of looks she is reminiscent of Anjelica Huston similar character in The Grifters, but that was a complex character out of a Greek tragedy compared to this cartoon harpy. Otherwise the revenge plot of the film is predictable and overfamiliar from so many other films.
> 
> There is something questionable about how the film exploits its Thai backdrop for its exoticism and as an excuse for lots of mega-violence. I don't mind a bit of mega violence, hut only when there is something at stake. As there are no characters to care about, there is no nothing to invest in. The film does look and sound stylish, but even there I was a little underwhelmed. There is an attempt at Kubrick style editing and composition, but despite its neon night Bangkok setting it doesn't even look as good as Drive did. Cliff Martinez brooding score is interesting, but again, not a patch on the score for Drive. Biggest disappointment of the year.


 
Read a lot of reviews that seemed to be trying to excuse/explain the reception its got as being due to viewers not understanding the allusions to asian film and the blurring of the more straightforward bits (seen as american) and the more abstract bits (seen as asian - i know, just 'asian' as if one homogeneous lump!). I really don't buy that, i've been seriously watching 'asian' films for 25+ years (thanks to tartan and other similar distributors before the internet) and that just doesn't work for me, it's a bit desperate actually.


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## Gramsci (Jul 22, 2013)

pissflaps said:


> has anyone seen Specific Rim yet? it looks fucking ace.


 
"Pacific Rim"?

As much as I tried to like it its not as good as Hellboy or the directors other work. Has its moments. But I would say its patchy.

Director said unlike his other films this time he had a big budget. Which he liked as it was not a struggle to make. Money was no object on this film. A tight budget gets the best out of Del Toro imo.


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## Gramsci (Jul 22, 2013)

little_legs said:


> I've only seen Malick's _Tree of Life _(yes, yes, a ciné-ignoramus here), which I thought was excellent, so I expected much of the same from _To the Wonder_. I know exactly what you mean about Affleck. The whole time whilst watching _To the Wonder_, I kept thinking if it would work better had Malick picked a talented but less known actor, I kept thinking that it could have been a great breakthrough role.


 
My favourite Malick film is his philosophical war film ( I kid u not) The Thin Red Line

Like all his films really needs to be seen on the big screen. But u might find it interesting if u like "Tree of Life".


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## Gramsci (Jul 22, 2013)

Sue said:


> Was talking to a friend of a friend last night whose family are Indonesian Chinese. Her parents and much of her family left in the 60s and 70s and many of those left 'Indonesianised' their names. She's keen to see this -- warned her it wasn't easy viewing and suspect she may find it more difficult than those of us with no connection to the country -- and was wondering about trying to send copies to her family there. Said I thought there had been some screenings there which she was quite surprised about. Anyway, rambling a bit but just found it interesting that she says she knows little of those times, I think because her family (understandably) didn't want to talk about it and apparently books on that period are quite difficult to find.


 
There have been some screening in Indonesia. But for invited audiences. The film was not attempted to go on general release there as the director thought it would be banned completely.


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## Gramsci (Jul 22, 2013)

Scandinavian crime film "Shabba Cash"


Renamed as "Easy Money" for english speakers. I liked this a lot. Student moonlights as taxi driver to try to make money to keep up with his posh mates. Gets involved in drugs gang who need him as a front to launder the proceeds. His education in business administration comes in handy. Ha Ha. Some interesting tips on how to run a drugs business.

What I particularly liked about this film was the emphasis on the characters rather than on violence or car chases ( though its got good action scenes). The Student, the Serbian and the South American all have reasons to do one final job to set themselves up and get out of this industry. Even though they were all double crossing each other I could not but help feel sympathy for all three of them. Particularly the Serbian and his young daughter. He is clearly is sick of the violence and brutality. To make it clear the film manages to get ones sympathy for the characters without getting mawkish.

And the drugs business is a business. The film is about how peoples relations with others is warped by money. The film is a critique of a world in economic crisis of capitalism. As the students lecturer say a crisis is also an opportunity.

Two hours but did not feel like it. Worth seeing in the cinema as the cinematography is good. See before the Hollywood remake. Yes there is already one up for production. For people who cannot read subtitles.


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## Sue (Jul 22, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> There have been some screening in Indonesia. But for invited audiences. The film was not attempted to go on general release there as the director thought it would be banned completely.



Actually, since posting this, read an interview with the director. Apparently they've had 500 screenings in Indonesia so far and have provided versions in various formats throughout the country. Next step is to provide it in downloadable format so anyone who wants to can access it. One of the 'Anonymous' crew is cautious but says thus far, some of the perpetrators are at least no longer openly boasting about their part in this. Was really pleased to see they're making a real effort to get it out there locally.


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## Gramsci (Jul 22, 2013)

Sue said:


> Just saw this. Hmm. Quite a lot to like but ultimately left me feeling a bit bleargh. The two strands -- the actual story and the 'exploring how people remember stuff' thing -- didn't really add up to anything that interesting. Could see her sister's point about who would be interested in it apart from their family and there didnt seem to be that many differences in the way people remembered things for the second strand to really work. Also could've lost 15 minutes but I almost always think that .


 
Thinking on this.

The second strand was about Fatherhood. Or her ( the directors) search for a Father. Or rather what her Father meant for her. Which I thought was sad and moving for the two , now, old men. It moved from being about her Mother to the two men.

Still think it was a moving documentary.


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## Gramsci (Jul 22, 2013)

Sue said:


> We Steal Secrets, the Wikileaks documentary. Found this quite fascinating. Was already aware of most of it but didn't know how Bradley Manning was found out -- he comes across as extremely vulnerable, naive and pathetic (in the true sense of the word). Pretty balanced and interesting on the differentiation (or not) between Wikileaks and Julian Assange who really doesn't come out of this very well. Also interesting to see what those involved at the time think about it/him now.


 
I really wanted to see this but it was only at Ritzy for one week. I like Gibneys work. Seen this on DVD:

Taxi to the Dark Side

His docs are not just rants for or against but go into a subject in depth.

Heard Gibney talk about Wikileaks and documentaries. He defended docs as a form of film making to be shown in a cinema not on TV. As he said people go to watch a film in a cinema and concentrate on it for one and a half or two hours. Not like watching a news report at home on TV. The cinema length documentary can also go into a single news item in depth. Which in modern news media is less and less likely due to rolling 24 hour news, Twitter etc.


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## Sue (Jul 22, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> I really wanted to see this but it was only at Ritzy for one week. I like Gibneys work. Seen this on DVD:
> 
> Taxi to the Dark Side
> 
> ...



Agree with all this. Definitely worth catching if you get the chance. I also rather childishly laughed at the 'wank worm'.


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## little_legs (Jul 23, 2013)

Many thanks Gramsci


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## Reno (Jul 27, 2013)

_Frances Ha_, which was a joy from beginning to end and the rare film these days that clocks in at just under 90 mins, which made it even better. I suppose the things to say are that it's a bit like a Woody Allen film when he was still good (somewhere between Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters) and that it's reminscent of Lena Dunham's Girls, in that it also deals with a 20something New Yorker who struggles to pay her rent and who hasn't found her path in life yet. It even co-stars Adam Driver from Girls. But it has its own feel and Greta Gerwig is great, reminding me a little of Buffy's Willow in her mannerisms and akwardness. She's likeable, funny, flawed and feels too real to ever get twee (which I'm sure some people will accuse the film of being)

It was directed by Noah Baumbach whose films have never quite clicked with me, but this one is very different, probably because he co-wrote it with Gerwig. It's by far the best thing he has done. It's shot in beautiful black and white, has a great soundtrack and features a really shit trip to Paris, which distinguishes it from the phoney mush Woody Allen comes up with these days. Greta Gerwig starred in Allen's To Rome With Love, but like all his European jaunts, that film appeared to be financed by the tourist board of the countries he shoots in these days.

I first noticed the film when I saw the poster while I was in New York this spring. It looks like posters for 70s independent films did, like something for a John Cassavetes film, so I was intrigued:





Footnote, probably only of interest to me: it features US indie music legend Dean Wareham (Galaxy 500, Luna) and his wife and musical partner Britta Phillips in small roles and they also did some of the music. But I nearly yelped "That's Dean Wareham !", which would have been a Frances Ha thing to do.


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## Dr. Furface (Jul 28, 2013)

Reno said:


> _Frances Ha_, which was a joy from beginning to end and the rare film these days that clocks in at just under 90 mins, which made it even better. I suppose the things to say are that it's a bit like a Woody Allen film when he was still good (somewhere between Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters) and that it's reminscent of Lena Dunham's Girls, in that it also deals with a 20something New Yorker who struggles to pay her rent and who hasn't found her path in life yet. It even co-stars Adam Driver from Girls. But it has its own feel and Greta Gerwig is great, reminding me a little of Buffy's Willow in her mannerisms and akwardness. She's likeable, funny, flawed and feels too real to ever get twee (which I'm sure some people will accuse the film of being)


 
I just saw this and I loved it too, Greta Gerwig is an absolute delight to watch, which means the film as a whole is too as she's in every scene. At first I thought it was going to be a bit too wet but it changed when her flatmate/best mate tells her she's moving out, which reminded me of when something similar happened to me once and left me in similar circumstances. You feel as betrayed and dumped as if you were in a 'real' relationship - out of the blue it throws your life into turmoil as you have to quickly find yourself somewhere new to live while the other person's got their life sorted out, so you have all that resentment to deal with too, while you try to seem all cool about it at the same time. I thought that was brilliantly done and I don't remember seeing that in a film before, but it's something that must happen to so many people, especially in cities like London or New York. Yes, it is slightly reminiscent of Manhattan era Woody but it's much more of a 'real' film simply because Frances is skint - which has never been a problem for anyone in a Woody Allen film!


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## magneze (Jul 28, 2013)

*The World's End*
Excellent end to the trilogy that no-one knew was a trilogy until the end. Probably the best of the lot too with drinking, action, aliens, pathos and silliness aplenty. I laughed a lot.


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## pissflaps (Jul 28, 2013)

^ thanks for that, mister S.Pegg of North London.


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## magneze (Jul 28, 2013)




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## Sue (Jul 29, 2013)

Reno said:


> _Frances Ha_, which was a joy from beginning to end and the rare film these days that clocks in at just under 90 mins, which made it even better. I suppose the things to say are that it's a bit like a Woody Allen film when he was still good (somewhere between Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters) and that it's reminscent of Lena Dunham's Girls, in that it also deals with a 20something New Yorker who struggles to pay her rent and who hasn't found her path in life yet. It even co-stars Adam Driver from Girls. But it has its own feel and Greta Gerwig is great, reminding me a little of Buffy's Willow in her mannerisms and akwardness. She's likeable, funny, flawed and feels too real to ever get twee (which I'm sure some people will accuse the film of being)
> 
> It was directed by Noah Baumbach whose films have never quite clicked with me, but this one is very different, probably because he co-wrote it with Gerwig. It's by far the best thing he has done. It's shot in beautiful black and white, has a great soundtrack and features a really shit trip to Paris, which distinguishes it from the phoney mush Woody Allen comes up with these days. Greta Gerwig starred in Allen's To Rome With Love, but like all his European jaunts, that film appeared to be financed by the tourist board of the countries he shoots in these days.
> 
> ...


 
Just saw this. Thought it might be a bit too twee and hipster at the start but it actually made me feel really sad in a good way -- been there, felt like that. Definitely in my top five so far this year.

ETA Just read some reviews (normally read them after seeing the film as they often give far too much away) and according to Peter Bradshaw, it 'lacks insight', while Philip French says Greta Gerwig 'shines in an unsympathetic role'. I wonder if we saw the same film... (Still at least it answered my 'what have I seen her in' thing -- Damsels in Distress.)


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## redsquirrel (Jul 30, 2013)

Sue said:


> (Still at least it answered my 'what have I seen her in' thing -- Damsels in Distress.)


I absolute love her in _Damsels in Distress,_ I'm looking forward to _Frances Ha_, it's currently showing at the Melbourne International Film Festival but seeing as it's coming out on general release a couple of weeks later I think I'l just wait and save my money.

Over the weekend I saw

_Behind the Candelabra _- a very solid film, well acted, well made but I don't think it's as interesting as some of Soderbergh's other films. Not quite sure why it's getting _such_ good reviews.

_Spirit of '45_ - It has some good moments, some of the interviewees are great but can't say it enthralled me. Maybe if you didn't know much about the Attlee government it would have had more impact, and while I accept that a 90 minute film isn't going to have time to do much more than a surface look at subject it felt very simplistic in some parts, for example the 29 year jump from 1950 to 1979; the failure to mention that the initial attacks on unions came from the Labour Party etc.

_Stories We Tell - _Loved this, probably my favourite film of the year so far, I just found it really moving and very funny. I thought the super 8 "re-"creations of the family's home videos really worked.


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## Orang Utan (Jul 30, 2013)

I think I may start Mark Cousins' The Story Of Film tonight. Anyone seen it?


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## belboid (Jul 30, 2013)

Orang Utan said:


> I think I may start Mark Cousins' The Story Of Film tonight. Anyone seen it?


it's great, less 'personal' than the versions Scorcese or Godard produced. As in any of these things, most people (or most filmy types anyway) will find a bunch of films that 'should' be referred to but aren't, but so it goes. Very well worth watching indeed.


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## Orang Utan (Jul 30, 2013)

Oops wrong thread 
<mutters> this wouldn't happen if we just merged all the film threads and had done with it


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## Sue (Jul 30, 2013)

Blackfish. Documentary about Sea World covering up orca whales killing and injuring their trainers. Not massively surprising that cooping whales up and forcing them to perform is cruel and makes them act in ways they wouldn't in the wild. The footage of some of the actual incidents is very disturbing and the background stuff interesting but probably one to watch on TV.

The World's End. Oh dear, wanted to like it -- good cast and soundtrack, recognised the cool goth/rock kid who wore a long coat and for whom school was the high point of their life (as I'm sure do most people ) -- but it just wasn't good. And the end is rubbish and nicked from elsewhere.

ETA And the worst of the trilogy by a long way.


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## blossie33 (Jul 30, 2013)

I've seen the trailer for the Blackfish film, looked really good but I'm not sure if I'd find it upsetting to watch.


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## Sue (Jul 31, 2013)

blossie33 said:


> I've seen the trailer for the Blackfish film, looked really good but I'm not sure if I'd find it upsetting to watch.


 
It's worth seeing.


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## Sue (Jul 31, 2013)

Dial M for Murder in 3D. Think being in 3D doesn't really add anything and it's obviously not a patch on Bourne  but...


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## Paulie Tandoori (Jul 31, 2013)

Went to watch Frances Ha tonight, didn't think it would be my kind of movie but I enjoyed it a great deal indeed, really warm and affectionate production that is quite optimistic in a fractured dislocated manner, isn't schmaltzy and which has a bit of a deliberate french new wave feel about it. Worth a watch definitely.

Also went to see The World's End recently, and enjoyed it, although it wasn't as good as SOTD or Hot Fuzz. There's certainly lots of laughs, but it takes a while to get going, the characters weren't the strongest, and the end is a bit duff. I gave them both 7/10 on IMDB, but I think I have liked Frances Ha more on balance.


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## Sue (Aug 3, 2013)

Reno said:


> Saw a preview of *Only God Forgives*, Nicolas Winding Refn's follow up to Drive, again with Ryan Gosling. I loved Drive but this was pants. While Drive was a minimalist film everything here is reduced so much further, it ends up as a 'nothing' film. There are no characters here. While Gosling was an enigma in Drive, here he is so inactive, he simply is a total blank and the same is the case for his opponent, a Thai cop. Kristen Scott Thomas as his drug lord mother is the closest to something like a character by the virtue of being totally one dimensional. She is defined by being vindictive and vulgar, but there is no depth there either. In terms of looks she is reminiscent of Anjelica Huston similar character in The Grifters, but that was a complex character out of a Greek tragedy compared to this cartoon harpy. Otherwise the revenge plot of the film is predictable and overfamiliar from so many other films.
> 
> There is something questionable about how the film exploits its Thai backdrop for its exoticism and as an excuse for lots of mega-violence. I don't mind a bit of mega violence, hut only when there is something at stake. As there are no characters to care about, there is no nothing to invest in. The film does look and sound stylish, but even there I was a little underwhelmed. There is an attempt at Kubrick style editing and composition, but despite its neon night Bangkok setting it doesn't even look as good as Drive did. Cliff Martinez brooding score is interesting, but again, not a patch on the score for Drive. Biggest disappointment of the year.


 
Agree with this. The whole thing felt like a pointless waste of time -- though to be fair at least it was relatively short -- and just found it pretty boring as I really didn't care about any of it. Still, can't remember the last time a hero/anti-hero was called Julian (Famous Five?) so it maybe gets one out of five for that.


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## Sue (Aug 4, 2013)

The Seven Samurai.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Aug 4, 2013)

Sue said:


> The Seven Samurai.


Was that at Rio? Was tempted  but went cycling instead.

I saw Only God Forgives on Friday, was superb, have to say. Haven't really enjoyed director's previous two works but this hit the spot somehow. It was smart and simple, yet intriguing and incisive (in more ways than one, nice little Ichi the Killer touch I noticed). Ryan Gosling is minimal in many ways, but Kristin Scott Thomas is outstanding, and Vithaya Pansringarm is brilliant.  Moods, music (v.good), atmospheric repetitive shots that don't seem to do much, Winding Refn hasn't changed his style much necessarily, but this feels to me like the first time that its come together quite so well.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3307918/?ref_=tt_cl_t3


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## Sue (Aug 4, 2013)

Paul T said:


> Was that at Rio? Was tempted but went cycling instead.
> 
> I saw Only God Forgives on Friday, was superb, have to say. Haven't really enjoyed director's previous two works but this hit the spot somehow. It was smart and simple, yet intriguing and incisive (in more ways than one, nice little Ichi the Killer touch I noticed). Ryan Gosling is minimal in many ways, but Kristin Scott Thomas is outstanding, and Vithaya Pansringarm is brilliant. Moods, music (v.good), atmospheric repetitive shots that don't seem to do much, Winding Refn hasn't changed his style much necessarily, but this feels to me like the first time that its come together quite so well.


 
Yes, thought it might've been busier to be honest. Love their Sunday (normally) double bills and there're a few coming up I'm looking forward to.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Aug 4, 2013)

Sue said:


> Yes, thought it might've been busier to be honest. Love their Sunday (normally) double bills and there're a few coming up I'm looking forward to.


Yes, the Sunday double bills are generally worth looking at, good value and some very good movies as well. Did they have an intermission for Seven Samurai, we were wondering whether they'd make people go for nearly 4 hours straight....?  At least you don't get adverts on most Sundays either.


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## Sue (Aug 4, 2013)

Paul T said:


> Yes, the Sunday double bills are generally worth looking at, good value and some very good movies as well. Did they have an intermission for Seven Samurai, we were wondering whether they'd make people go for nearly 4 hours straight....?  At least you don't get adverts on most Sundays either.


 
Yep, 15 minute intermission bit over half way through. Quite a lot of people nipping to the loo during the film as well.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Aug 4, 2013)

Rush on for half time samosas?


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## Sue (Aug 4, 2013)

Paul T said:


> Rush on for half time samosas?


 
Coffee for me but yes, there were samosas.


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## Throbbing Angel (Aug 4, 2013)

Went to see a 50th anniversary screening of The Great Escape yesterday with my 16yr old son.

Much fun.

We're off to see The Cornetto Trilogy at the same place next Saturday - with a free cornetto thrown in


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## redsquirrel (Aug 12, 2013)

_The World's End_ - Decent enough, I do think that having Paddy Considine and Eddie Marsden acting alongside Pegg and Frost was a mistake. They're in another class as actors and I kept on wanting Frost and Pegg's characters to piss off and for the film to really be about the other three.

_Beyond The Hills - _Excellent, the narrative has two young girls who were friends re-uniting after some time apart, one of them is now an Orthodox nun the other has been working in Germany, and the effect her appearance has at the monastery. Really well made in just about every way (acting, shooting, script all of it) and very very interesting. I only saw it at the weekend but I'd like to watch it again as I'm sure that it's a film that you get more out of each time you watch it. Raises loads of interesting questions.

_Persons of Interest (part 1) - _A documentary about the files ASIO (the Australian equivalent of MI5) keep on people, using the case files/stories of four people to illustrate the wider point. It was showing as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival but it has actually been made for TV (and should be shown on SBS later in the year if any Australian posters are interested) and it felt very much like a TV documentary. Despite the interesting subject matter it was pretty bland IMO. TBH it could have easily been a radio program the visuals were pretty uninspired ,as were some of the interviews TBH.

_The Punk Singer - _Documentary about Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre), one of the leading lights of the riot grrl scene. Like _Persons of Interest_ (and a lot of film documentaries IMO) the subject matter was good, Hanna is a really interesting person and charismatic, but the film hasn't been made in a way to do it justice. The direction was very much 'music documentary by numbers' - get a bunch of talking heads and friends to say how important/great/influential Hanna was/is and show a bunch of clips. I just come out thinking that a more talented director could have made a much better film.


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## Throbbing Angel (Aug 12, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> _The World's End_ - Decent enough, I do think that having Paddy Considine and Eddie Marsden acting alongside Pegg and Frost was a mistake. They're in another class as actors and I kept on wanting Frost and Pegg's characters to piss off and for the film to really be about the other three.
> 
> _snip_


 
I know what you mean.

We went to see the Cornetto Trilogy at the weekend and, to be honest, I felt World's End was the weaker of the three. Could have been movie fatigue I suppose but I reckon it wasn't as strong as the others. 

Eddie and Paddy are a different class of actor and it showed I thought.

Got a free Cornetto, though


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## Part 2 (Aug 12, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> _Beyond The Hills - _Excellent, the narrative has two young girls who were friends re-uniting after some time apart, one of them is now an Orthodox nun the other has been working in Germany, and the effect her appearance has at the monastery. Really well made in just about every way (acting, shooting, script all of it) and very very interesting. I only saw it at the weekend but I'd like to watch it again as I'm sure that it's a film that you get more out of each time you watch it. Raises loads of interesting questions.




Brilliant film but fuck it's grim. I watched it on a train journey. My earphones weren't very good and I had them turned up. There were points where people were looking across as if to say 'what the fuck are you watching?'


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## redsquirrel (Aug 12, 2013)

Chip Barm said:


> Brilliant film but fuck it's grim.


I didn't find it so, I mean it's hardly a barrel of laughs but IMO it's not in the same league as _Sweet Sixteen_, _Tyrannosaur_ or _The Pledge._


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## Paulie Tandoori (Aug 13, 2013)

Werner Herzog double bill at the Rio on Sunday, with The Enigma of Kasper Hauser, which was as fractured and disjointed a film as the main character was throughout, a very odd movie but quite captivating in a pleasing kind of way. It's a good idea to read the real-life back story I think, as that fills in some of the blanks that Herzog either omits or muddles with, but the main character is riveting, a street musician that Herzog had seen previously and wanted to give an opportunity to. Aguirre: Wrath of God was the other, Klaus Kinski going crazy up the river in a German speaking exposition of Spanish conquistadors conquering South America natives with English subtitles, and despite the heady mix of cultures, it's quite a solemn and silent affair, with occasional outbreaks of mayhem and violence under a bright blue sky. Reminded me of Apocalypse Now (of course) and Valhalla Rising (which I didn't really enjoy).


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## Dr. Furface (Aug 18, 2013)

Call Girl. Excellent Swedish film about teenage girls who get caught up a high-class prostitution ring in 1970's Stockholm. If you're a fan of the tv series like The Killing then you'll love this as it uses the central storyline in the broader context of political and government corruption and cover-ups, and is also a comment on the social and political liberalisation of that era. Apparently it's based on real-life events, and although it's no doubt dramatised for effect here and there it certainly has a very authentic feel to it, both as a story and in terms of the period - the clothes, hair, music etc are spot on, and everyone smokes like a chimney too! Highly recommended.

Also this was the first time I'd been to the new Barbican 2+3 cinema and I was well impressed by that.


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## Sue (Aug 19, 2013)

The Night of the Hunter. Looked great on the big screen. I'd also forgotten just how scary Robert Mitchum is in this.


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## youngian (Aug 25, 2013)

As Nicolas Winding Refn is becoming one of my favourite directors around at the moment, I saw Only God Forgives.

Not without merit on many levels but a cold empty film for all its overblown cinematic flare and mood with nods to David Lynch and Powell/Cardiff cinematography. Kristen Scott Thomas was terrific but Ryan Gosling seem to be doing a send up of his unsaid broody menace in Drive. Not much storytelling pace or substance but still the work of an interesting director.


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## wiskey (Aug 26, 2013)

We took Werv (4) to the cinema for the first time today to see Dispicable Me 2... He was bowled over and really enjoyed both the film and the experience


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## redsquirrel (Aug 29, 2013)

_Frances Ha_ - I won't bother repeating what others have already said, but like Reno, Sue etc I really enjoyed it.

_Upstream Color_ - Fantastic, looks beautiful and very emotional despite the fact that the plot is so ambiguous. THe lead female actor is excellent, her performance really allows you to connect with the film despite the fact that you aren't entirely sure of what's going on. It could have been a very cold film but it actually isn't and I found it really moving. Certainly in my top five films of the year.

_What Maise Knew_ - A not bad adaptation of the Henry James book (which I've never read) updated to the modern day. I felt that the parents were so unsympathetic and the step-partents so nice that any sort of ambiguity was missed. Steve Coogan wasn't bad as the father, it's a decent enough two hours but is nothing compared to the other two films


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## DJWrongspeed (Aug 29, 2013)

Paul T said:


> Went to watch Frances Ha tonight, didn't think it would be my kind of movie but I enjoyed it a great deal indeed, really warm and affectionate production that is quite optimistic in a fractured dislocated manner, isn't schmaltzy and which has a bit of a deliberate french new wave feel about it. Worth a watch definitely.


 
Agree here, it's quite refreshing, feels very contemporary, struggling to afford to live anywhere in NYC ! Not as Woody Allen as reviews have suggested.


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## Sue (Sep 2, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> _Frances Ha_ - I won't bother repeating what others have already said, but like Reno, Sue etc I really enjoyed it.
> 
> _Upstream Color_ - Fantastic, looks beautiful and very emotional despite the fact that the plot is so ambiguous. THe lead female actor is excellent, her performance really allows you to connect with the film despite the fact that you aren't entirely sure of what's going on. It could have been a very cold film but it actually isn't and I found it really moving. Certainly in my top five films of the year.
> 
> _What Maise Knew_ - A not bad adaptation of the Henry James book (which I've never read) updated to the modern day. I felt that the parents were so unsympathetic and the step-partents so nice that any sort of ambiguity was missed. Steve Coogan wasn't bad as the father, it's a decent enough two hours but is nothing compared to the other two films


 
Upstream Color. Enjoyed it, if I really have very little idea what is was all about.

What Maisie Knew. Agreed. Not bad -- could've been dreadful.

Bonjour Tristesse. I've read the book but never seen the film. Thought it was a bit strange -- very dated in some ways but the touchy feely relationship between David Niven and Jean Seberg was bit uncomfortable.


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## redsquirrel (Sep 2, 2013)

Sue said:


> Bonjour Tristesse. I've read the book but never seen the film. Thought it was a bit strange -- very dated in some ways but the touchy feely relationship between David Niven and Jean Seberg was bit uncomfortable.


Yes, it's not terrible but it's definitely not one of Preminger's best.


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## Sue (Sep 3, 2013)

Les Invisibles. French documentary about elderly gay people talking about their lives, with interesting stuff about the fight for gay/abortion/contraceptive rights -- apparently homosexuality was classed as a mental illness in France until 1981. Funny and moving.


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## Sue (Sep 6, 2013)

The Great Beauty. More a series of of vaguely connected scenes than a proper storyline but could've sat and watched this for hours and hours. Looks absolutely beautiful. It reminded me a bit of Holy Motors in that even if you're not quite sure what's going on, it's still really entrancing.


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## belboid (Sep 9, 2013)

Alpha Papa.

Fucking hilarious, funniest thing at the cinema this year by a mile.


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## Orang Utan (Sep 9, 2013)

Everyone's gone mad! It's like a Cannon & Ball tv film.


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## belboid (Sep 9, 2013)

No it isn't.  Its not especially 'cinematic' but its fucking funny, maintains its pace for the entire 90 minutes and expands characters which have only been peripheral before.  Brilliant.


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## Orang Utan (Sep 9, 2013)

I think it's hilarious for the first act, quite a bit less hilarious for the second, then so atrocious for the third act (from when he loses his pants), that all hilarity from before is forgotten.


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## belboid (Sep 9, 2013)

the pants bit was fine, and there is plenty to laugh at after that.


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## Orang Utan (Sep 9, 2013)

Did like the character of the alcoholic fella played by Phil Cornwell though


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## Orang Utan (Sep 9, 2013)

belboid said:


> the pants bit was fine, and there is plenty to laugh at after that.


It was just rubbish slapstick - like a bad episode of Some Mothers Do Have Em


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## belboid (Sep 9, 2013)

I beg to differ.


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## Orang Utan (Sep 9, 2013)

So do most, it seems. Went with a couple of mates and we three remained stony faced at Alan dangling from a window and lying in a septic tank, while all around us guffawed.
Lots of people think Lee Nelson is funny mind.
There's no accounting for taste


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## Sue (Sep 11, 2013)

Pain & Gain. Entertaining black crime-gone-wrong comedy. Some ace lines -- 'don't be a don't-er, do be a do-er.'

Even better, discovered the Genesis in Mile End Road is £3.50 all day on a Wednesday. Never been there before but nice building, if it was bloody freezing.


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## redsquirrel (Sep 12, 2013)

_Stoker_ - After some of the reviews it got on here I didn't go into this expecting much but I quite liked it. It's not _Shadow of a Doubt_, but didn't dislike it. I thought Matthew Goode was pretty good and the sets/props/customs were excellent.

_Man of the West_ & _The Man From Laramie _- First two films in the Anthony Mann mini-season at the Melbourne Cinematheque. Mann is a personal favourite and I've seen both before but it's wonderful to see them on the big screen. Unfortunately the print for Man of the West was only 16 mm and not in best of condition but The Man from Laramie looked fantastic - the dusk scenes are really evocative.


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## Dr. Furface (Sep 13, 2013)

Sue said:


> The Great Beauty. More a series of of vaguely connected scenes than a proper storyline but could've sat and watched this for hours and hours. Looks absolutely beautiful. It reminded me a bit of Holy Motors in that even if you're not quite sure what's going on, it's still really entrancing.


Yes and no. It certainly looks great, no argument there, but there's a much more coherent story than Holy Motors. It doesn't always hang together in a clear way but there's a coherent narrative about a man trying to find some meaning and spirtuality in a life which he's frittered away in an endless round of partying, fashion and arts events with a vacuous social circle. He's lived the life that the he wanted to, but now wonders what the point of it all was. And man, I know just how he feels! I thought it was brilliant, and very funny sometimes too.


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## Sue (Sep 13, 2013)

Dr. Furface said:


> Yes and no. It certainly looks great, no argument there, but there's a much more coherent story than Holy Motors. It doesn't always hang together in a clear way but there's a coherent narrative about a man trying to find some meaning and spirtuality in a life which he's frittered away in an endless round of partying, fashion and arts events with a vacuous social circle. He's lived the life that the he wanted to, but now wonders what the point of it all was. And man, I know just how he feels! I thought it was brilliant, and very funny sometimes too.



There's a general theme of regret and emptiness but don't really agree there's much of a coherent narrative. Still, think we agree it's a great film ;-).

And funny. Loved the interview with the performance artist...


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## redsquirrel (Sep 14, 2013)

_Blue Jasmine_ - I don't know what the critics who gave this 4/5 stars are on but it should be made illegal as it obviously causes you to make very stupid choices. While it doesn't reach the nadir of _Scoop_ or _Cassandra's Dream_ it's still pretty bad. I found it far less enjoyable than even _Vicky Christina Barcelona_ and _Midnight in Paris_ which while they were pretty average had enough in them that I didn't find the 90 minutes they lasted totally worthless. This on the other hand couldn't end soon enough for me, the characters were so one-dimensional and unlikable that I just wanted to get away. Drawing with _Broken_ for the worst thing I've seen at the cinema this year.


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## Sue (Sep 15, 2013)

Rush. James Hunt and Nicki Lauda battle it out. Very well filmed racing sequences. Enjoyed it.


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## gosub (Sep 15, 2013)

Sue said:


> Rush. James Hunt and Nicki Lauda battle it out. Very well filmed racing sequences. Enjoyed it.



Thought it was really good, Daniel Brühl should get an oscar nomination, hangs together well as a film, though the real events had even more drama:the near riot at the British Grand Prix. 
Tend the avoid films with a massive marketing spend, but this one deserved to be more than 3/4 full on the Saturday night of first week of release


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## belboid (Sep 15, 2013)

Too many films to list, but last night was spent at the marvellous Cheap Thrills Zero Budget film festival. 50 short films by a mix of kids, locals, oddballs and film students. Some hilarious, some gorgeous, some quite scary. HMA Tiffin and the one about the lost cats were my faves. 

Coming to Loughborough soon too. http://www.zerobudgetfilmfest.com/


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## redsquirrel (Sep 19, 2013)

_The Bling Ring_ - Considerable better than Sofia Coppola's last effort, _Somewhere, _it's not a major piece of work or anything but it's not bad. I didn't think Emma Watson was particularly good, she seemed far less natural than most of the other actors. Leslie Mann, as her mother, overdid it too IMO.

Then I continued with the Anthony Mann season
_Bend of River_ - James Stewart is a reformed gunfighter leading a bunch of settlers into Oregon and trying to find a new life. Like all the Mann-Stewart westerns it's a classic.

_Raw Deal _- One of Mann's Noirs from the 40s. It's not a first rate noir and not a patch on his later films there are some good little moments in there. Raymond Burr plays the part of the mob boss and rather steals the show.


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## Dr. Furface (Sep 21, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> _The Bling Ring_ - Considerable better than Sofia Coppola's last effort, _Somewhere, _it's not a major piece of work or anything but it's not bad. I didn't think Emma Watson was particularly good, she seemed far less natural than most of the other actors. Leslie Mann, as her mother, overdid it too IMO.


I'm glad I didn't see her last one then as this was so forgettable that I'd forgotten I'd seen it until you reminded me. If it hadn't been based on a true story I wouldn't have bothered at all. It wasn't terrible but there's not much to it. But I guess there's not that much to the original story either: bunch of dumb kids rob bunch of dumb celebs while they're out of town. I guess it says something that one of the victims, Paris Hilton (not really much of a victim though!) actually appears as herself, but what that says I'm not sure. Ultimately this was just a big 'so what'.


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## DJWrongspeed (Sep 21, 2013)

Sue said:


> The Great Beauty. More a series of of vaguely connected scenes than a proper storyline but could've sat and watched this for hours and hours. Looks absolutely beautiful. It reminded me a bit of Holy Motors in that even if you're not quite sure what's going on, it's still really entrancing.


Loved this.  Just point the camera at Rome and you've got something wonderful already. I wonder how many more amazing scenes didn't make it to the cut. Even the final credits are really atmospheric.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Sep 21, 2013)

last cinema film i saw  was  the original superman  at prince charles.

really good.  the origin story was great  and  christopher reeve totally sold  clark and superman.  

lex  was  a bit  silver age  so his stuff felt  kinda like  an adam west villian  but  that  kinda was what  comics were like


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## fieryjack (Sep 22, 2013)

Sue said:


> Rush. James Hunt and Nicki Lauda battle it out. Very well filmed racing sequences. Enjoyed it.


Rush, tonight. Thought it was embarrassingly bad. Am genuinely baffled by the praise. Cringe-inducing.


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## Mr Smin (Sep 22, 2013)

Went to see Metro Manila tonight. Strong story about a poor family who move to the city when they can't make a living farming. I found it easy to care about the characters and I liked the photography. I thought the score was a bit intrusive in places.


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## Gramsci (Sep 23, 2013)

"Metro Manila"

At Ritzy this week.

Cracking crime thriller set in Philippines. Directed and produced by new British director Sean Ellis. Did well at Sundance ( the only festival that would give this film a chance.) 
Its a genre crime film so the premise is not that original. But does that matter when its as well made as this film? With plenty of twists and turns. I have a soft spot for films where the honest little man trying to feed his family is up against it it the big bad world where only money talks. 

Heard the director talking about the film after I had seen it. He wrote script in English and then filmed it in Manila. The subtitles were part of the film editing. So its not like a foreign language film with the subtitles put over the film. He made sure that the subtitles did not interfere with the look of the film. 

Its also well acted and shot.


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## Gramsci (Sep 23, 2013)

Saw "Rush" .

Its about the Formula one rivalry in 70s between Hunt and Lauda. 

You do not have to be into Formula one to enjoy this film. Its about the rivalry between two men. This is the 70s and women are girlfriends and wives. No sign of feminism.

This film is almost old fashioned in the way that its made. It is unpretentious. Its not an art movie like "The Great Beauty". It tells a story. Its nostalgic about the 70s. This has been done before. The police tv series a while back for example (Life on Mars). 70s portrayed as a time when men ( and it is men) did not have to be part of the corporate world. Both Hunt and Lauda are in a way "drop outs". Both obsessed with speed and danger not money. 

The film is unashamedly full of stereotypes. British amateurism versus Teutonic efficiency. 

The film shows how dangerous it was in 70s. Which is true. It does not glamourize the risks. This helps to make the film work. 

The film is evenly divided between the racing circuit and the lives off circuit of Hunt and Lauda. 

The scenes on the track are very well done. Takes u right there and gives feeling of what it must have been like. 

I would call this film part of the new successful genre of nostalgic film. Like "The Kings Speech". Class is there but treated uncritically. Individuals might not fit well into there class (King, Lauda , Hunt) but they do not go against it. Ultimately these two films want to go back to a time that never really existed. They present themselves as about individuals and how they surmount problems.


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## Gramsci (Sep 23, 2013)

doc on Stuart Hall 

It is worth seeing in the cinema. As with Akomfrah other work it is beautiful to look at.

It is a companion piece to Nine Muses. Nine Muses is a visual poem ( that is the only fitting way I can describe it). It uses footage of the Windrush generation coming to UK intercut with readings from the Odyssey and other works of literature. Not a straightforward history or sociological look at migration its more a psychological study using literature.

Likewise in this doc on Stuart Hall archive footage and voice of Stuart on various programmes over the years builds up a picture of the man and his work.

Plus the music if Miles Davis. Stuart is a great fan of his work. The doc cleverly used his music throughout the film. 

It is riveting viewing and not your standard documentary.

Stuart Hall was a pioneer of modern cultural studies/ postcolonial studies. This doc shows how his own life lead him to questions of social theory. He grew up in Jamaica at the end of the colonial period. His parents a middle class Jamaican family.

The major theme running through his life and work is the idea of "Hybridity". He says the Caribbean is a hybrid culture. To the question of where he comes from he can say several places. His family ancestors are African, Portuguese, and possibly East Asian. This is the norm in the Caribbean.

He translates this to say that a component globalisation is hybridity. Cultures are not pure. Do not worry this film is not an Open University course. It is , like Stuart comes across, a very humane film.

Like the protagonists in the Nine Muses Stuart has always felt out of place in different degrees. That also is an effect of hybrid culture.

For him this is a positive. The film charts his life in Britain. From a committed youthful intellectual in the radical 60s to know.

In the film, its interesting that he comes across as almost at home in 60s early 70s Britain. At end of film he says he feels out of place in post Thatcherite society.

Cannot help feeling that the concept of hybridity as a positive has not turned out in the way that he foresaw. Modern Britain is a hybrid of neo liberalism and social liberalism. Modern Capitalism can accommodate itself to hybridity of culture. Or co opt it.

I also disagree with his idea that hybridity can be extrapolated globally. The Caribbean was made out of slavery and imperialism to produce a new hybrid society. But other parts of the world do not have this history. Japan for example was never colonised. It is not a hybrid society.


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## Gramsci (Sep 23, 2013)

Sue said:


> The Great Beauty. More a series of of vaguely connected scenes than a proper storyline but could've sat and watched this for hours and hours. Looks absolutely beautiful. It reminded me a bit of Holy Motors in that even if you're not quite sure what's going on, it's still really entrancing.



Good point about Holy Motors. I did not think of that. I went to see The Great Beauty at Curzon Mayfair big screen one. This film has to be seen in cinema. I agree I could have watched it for hours.

It is entrancing. That is what cinema is about imo. There are to many films that are just about ok. But could be seen on TV/ DVD.  The Great Beauty is a cinematic experience.

I also found The Great Beauty an optimistic humane film. Which might sound strange given it follows a man who reaches 65 who finds his life has been empty. But taken as a whole it is.

Rome is The Great Beauty. I liked the way he shows you Rome brooding in the shadows throughout most of the film . Its only at the end when the credits role that he takes one down the river in the sunlight.


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## Cheesypoof (Sep 23, 2013)

Elysium, loved it.


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## Sue (Sep 23, 2013)

Classe tous risques. 1960's French gangster on the run film. Had never even heard of it but thought I'd give it a try as it's on locally. Thought it was really good.


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## Callie (Sep 23, 2013)

Cheesypoof said:


> Elysium, loved it.


Saw that the other week, it was OK, fulfilled expectations but felt very clichéd and kind of a repeat of District 9 but in a different setting. It was watchable but I wouldnt bother watching again or recommend it to others particularly.

I also saw Rush which I really enjoyed. Wasnt overly sure what to expect from it and although it wasnt ground breaking, heartbreaking or an immense visual masterpiece it was a good story (biopic), well filmed and had us all talking about it after the film. I would watch Rush again and would encourage others to go and see if they fancied going to their local cinema  yay Racing Thor!


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## Cheesypoof (Sep 23, 2013)

Callie said:


> Saw that the other week, it was OK, fulfilled expectations but felt very clichéd and kind of a repeat of District 9 but in a different setting. It was watchable but I wouldnt bother watching again or recommend it to others particularly.



Yeh perhaps 'loved' is too strong a word, i was drunk when i posted that so lets say i enjoyed Elysium for its zaniness....i never watch sci fi and havent seen District 9 so found it interesting and provocative, with stunning visuals. The thinly veiled Jesus theme wasnt overplayed but i think they lost some satire among the startling visuals. It all got a bit gun ho after a while, in a Terminator 2 kind of way. A fun film for its 'fuck you' to capitalism and acid-trip props.


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## moonsi til (Sep 24, 2013)

I watched Rush last week choosing it due the time I wanted to go. I knew nothing about F1 or James or Niki so the whole story was a total surprise. I really enjoyed it and was quite in awe at Niki. I went to see 'we're the millers' today which was funny in a roaring laugh out way.

I'm hoping to catch 'beyond the candleabra' on Thursday as I missed it when it was on general release.


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## Sue (Sep 24, 2013)

The Wall, Austrian film (based on a 1960's book) about a woman who suddenly finds herself surrounded by an invisible wall. Started out quite well but all got a bit bleak. Too long and a bit boring.


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## redsquirrel (Sep 26, 2013)

_The Best Offer_ - New film from Giuseppe Tornatore, director of (the insanely overrated) _Cinema Paradiso. _The plot is that a, shady, art auctioneer who lives for his work and art becomes enamoured of an agoraphobic client. It was quite clearly written as an Italian film but it's in English and has Geoffrey Rush and Donald Sutherland in it so the location has been switched to London, which doesn't really help the film. The main problem though is that it want's to be an arthouse film while still being a thriller and it fails on both scores. The thriller part of it just isn't written well enough and is nowhere near tight enough, while the drama/arthouse part is about as deep as a puddle. It's not absolutely terrible but it's not worth going to see at the cinema.

_I'm So Excited_ - Quite a long way from Almodovar's best, it's very light and frothy but it's an ejoyable enough 90 minutes.


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## ruffneck23 (Sep 26, 2013)

*
iron ma 3
star trek into darkenss
man of steel
kick ass 2

thats the most ive been to the cinema in years...*


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## youngian (Sep 27, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> _Blue Jasmine_ - I don't know what the critics who gave this 4/5 stars are on but it should be made illegal as it obviously causes you to make very stupid choices.



I thought it was the best thing Allen has done for years. The film hangs on the two leads and Blanchett's performance was compelling. Which is remarkable considering she illicits little sympathy even though her world has fallen apart and she is descending into mental illness.


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## Sue (Sep 27, 2013)

youngian said:


> I thought it was the best thing Allen has done for years. The film hangs on the two leads and Blanchett's performance was compelling. Which is remarkable considering she illicits little sympathy even though her world has fallen apart and she is descending into mental illness.


 
Think I'm going to give this a miss. Midnight in Paris was meant to be a return to form (and I thought that was terrible) so not convinced really... Don't know, when did he last make something decent? (Genuine question, haven't seen that many of his films and don't really get the Woody Allen love thing, maybe because he'd done his best stuff when I was too young to see it at the cinema.)


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## youngian (Sep 27, 2013)

Sue said:


> Think I'm going to give this a miss. Midnight in Paris was meant to be a return to form (and I thought that was terrible) so not convinced really... Don't know, when did he last make something decent? (Genuine question, haven't seen that many of his films and don't really get the Woody Allen love thing, maybe because he'd done his best stuff when I was too young to see it at the cinema.)



I would say his last very good film was Sweet and Lowdown with Matchpoint as his best subsequent European effort. None of which are terrible but mediocre with some worthy highlights. 

For what its worth I didn't rate the popular Midnight in Paris and Blue Jasmine is not a comedy and has an altogether different mood and structure. 
I suspect Allen got the idea for Midnight in Paris while flicking through the channels in his hotel room while working on his previous British picture and came across Rodney in his 1940s time travel shop. Owen Wilson was a very good Allen stand in but Michael Sheen's annoying pompous intellectual as the highlight.


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## redsquirrel (Sep 27, 2013)

youngian said:


> I would say his last very good film was Sweet and Lowdown with Matchpoint as his best subsequent European effort. None of which are terrible but mediocre with some worthy highlights.


You don't think _Scoop_ and _Cassandra's Dream_ are terrible? I think you must be taking some of the stuff that the critics are, both are appalling.


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## youngian (Sep 28, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> You don't think _Scoop_ and _Cassandra's Dream_ are terrible? I think you must be taking some of the stuff that the critics are, both are appalling.



Don't remember any critics liking Scoop which was a silly enjoyable caper. Cassandra's Dream- you got me there. How long did Farrel and MacGregor spend on those parts, two days tops?

Although they were probably stretched more than the star of Whatever Works; "Larry I want you to play a grumpy misanthropic New York Jew with no social skills. Do you think you can handle it?"


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## ChrisD (Sep 28, 2013)

Blue Jasmine.  
Good film ie good script, good acting. Typically good observations of the human condition but neither any endearing characters nor a feelgood ending made it seem like education rather than entertainment.


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## Dr. Furface (Sep 29, 2013)

*Blue Jasmine. *The critics are saying this is Woody Allen's best film for years. Given Allen's recent output, that's really not saying much - but the fact is that this pisses on anything he's done (at least that I've seen) for a long long time, and I'd go as far to say it could be his best ever. This is Woody Allen on another level - it is genuinely funny, laugh out loud at times, but it's also a very sad tale and ultimately a tragic one, brilliantly performed and directed throughout. It certainly contains the best single performance I've ever seen in one of his films - Cate Blanchett is absolutely stunning as the central character, and I'll be putting money on her winning the best actress Oscar next year for it (although knowing them, they'll probably give it to Naomi Watts for Diana!). I won't be betting on it winning the best film award though because, just like Blanchette's character, the Academy can't stand too much reality that's not sugar coated and doesn't all turn out right in the end. If all you want or expect from a Woody Allen film is just a few laughs then this probably isn't for you (like the bloke behind me today who thought it was 'a bit too grim'), but if you want a film that's entertaining but also makes you think and says something about the human condition, then don't miss this. Welcome back, Woody!


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## Sue (Sep 29, 2013)

Dr. Furface said:


> *Blue Jasmine. *The critics are saying this is Woody Allen's best film for years. Given Allen's recent output, that's really not saying much - but the fact is that this pisses on anything he's done (at least that I've seen) for a long long time, and I'd go as far to say it could be his best ever. This is Woody Allen on another level - it is genuinely funny, laugh out loud at times, but it's also a very sad tale and ultimately a tragic one, brilliantly performed and directed throughout. It certainly contains the best single performance I've ever seen in one of his films - Cate Blanchett is absolutely stunning as the central character, and I'll be putting money on her winning the best actress Oscar next year for it (although knowing them, they'll probably give it to Naomi Watts for Diana!). I won't be betting on it winning the best film award though because, just like Blanchette's character, the Academy can't stand too much reality that's not sugar coated and doesn't all turn out right in the end. If all you want or expect from a Woody Allen film is just a few laughs then this probably isn't for you (like the bloke behind me today who thought it was 'a bit too grim'), but if you want a film that's entertaining but also makes you think and says something about the human condition, then don't miss this. Welcome back, Woody!


 
I'm going to have to go and see this now, Maybe on Wednesday when it's only £3.50 to get in. If it's as bad as Midnight in Paris, I'll be having a stern word with one or two of you... 

ETA It's not on at the £3.50 cinema but this is:

Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman

A powerful Chilean gangster uses everything in his power to stop the woman that wants to kill him, a sexy mercenary known as "the machinegun woman". The staggering sum of cash he offers for her head sets in motion an army of hitmen. And also, by accident, bursts in the life of naïve DJ Santiago, a common youth that will have to steel his guts against the underworld, and above all, survive the irresistible - and bloodthirsty - Machinegun Woman.


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## youngian (Sep 29, 2013)

Sue said:


> I'm going to have to go and see this now, Maybe on Wednesday when it's only £3.50 to get in. If it's as bad as Midnight in Paris, I'll be having a stern word with one or two of you...



Where do you get in for £3.50?


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## Sue (Sep 30, 2013)

youngian said:


> Where do you get in for £3.50?


 
Genesis, Mile End Rd, £3.50 all day on a Wednesday. Hackney PH/Rio both £4 all day Monday if you're a member (more if you're not but still cheaper than usual).


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## youngian (Sep 30, 2013)

Sue said:


> Genesis, Mile End Rd, £3.50 all day on a Wednesday. Hackney PH/Rio both £4 all day Monday if you're a member (more if you're not but still cheaper than usual).



If I could bunk the train thats a whole 50p cheaper than Monday at the Ritzy for which I will do tomorrow evening for the new Wicker Man cut.

So impressed with the Genesis offer I had a look at their site. There is also a special £25 pass for their whole Danny Dyer season. They're really spoiling us now.


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## RubyToogood (Oct 1, 2013)

I went to see Blue Jasmine. It's pretty bleak and none of the characters are very nice. Nobody seems to have any motivation other than money or sex. Plus the central character is so on edge it put me on edge. Its message seemed to be "shallow people are shallow". I expect it's a masterpiece or something but I wasn't in the right mood for it.


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## Steel Icarus (Oct 1, 2013)

Despicable Me 2. It was ace.

_fin_


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## Sue (Oct 2, 2013)

Blue Jasmine. Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins were both good, found the film itself pretty meh (though that's a massive improvement on his last few films IMO). Didn't really care about anyone in it which was a bit of a problem. And missed the 'laugh out loud funny' bits Dr. Furface..?


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## skyscraper101 (Oct 3, 2013)

Also saw Blue Jasmine last night. Rather enjoyed it. All the actors were good too, especially Sally Hawkins.


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## Gramsci (Oct 5, 2013)

skyscraper101 said:


> Also saw Blue Jasmine last night. Rather enjoyed it. All the actors were good too, especially Sally Hawkins.



Yes she is good.

The problem for me is that she played exactly the same character in Mike Leighs "Happy go Lucky". Thats ok if he acknowledged the influence. 

After seeing the film I heard Woody being interviewed about it. He said that his casting agent found Sally Hawkins. I cannot believe he had not seen Mike Leighs film.


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## Gramsci (Oct 5, 2013)

Went to see "The Perverts Guide to Ideology". Weighing in at over two hours it is a tour de force from Zizek and well put together by Fiennes the director.

I did think that this might be dumbed down version of Zizek thought. He is better known as the "Elvis" of theory. Who is good at provocation. 

Its not. It uses examples from high and popular culture to show how ideology works. This is subtle analysis of how ideology operates in late Capitalism. 

I never understood his take on Christianity until now. The lesson to take is that we are alone. The is no "Big Other". Christianity is precursor of atheism. In that way Christianity is truly radical.

He makes use of film to show how ideology works. There is a great analysis of the Titanic. Be sure to wait at end of credits for Zizek to give one final swipe at the film. 

I particularly liked the way that Fiennes recreated sets of films from which Zizek propounds his theories. It shows that film is not necessarily escapism. Film is a social construct not just entertainment.


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## Gramsci (Oct 5, 2013)

Dr. Furface said:


> *Blue Jasmine. * It certainly contains the best single performance I've ever seen in one of his films - Cate Blanchett is absolutely stunning as the central character, and I'll be putting money on her winning the best actress Oscar next year for it (although knowing them, they'll probably give it to Naomi Watts for Diana!). I won't be betting on it winning the best film award though because, just like Blanchette's character, the Academy can't stand too much reality that's not sugar coated and doesn't all turn out right in the end.



I agree. Be interesting to see if Cate does get best actress Oscar. She deserves it for this performance. 

However its not so much to much reality as the wrong kind. I was surprised that this film was a critique of post crash USA. Its a reminder of the kind of people who caused the crash. 

The film shows how class operates in US. I wonder how well it did in US. Here its been doing very well.

I also liked the way Woody confounds ones expectations. At one point it looked like it would be sugar coated.


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## youngian (Oct 5, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> The problem for me is that she played exactly the same character in Mike Leighs "Happy go Lucky". Thats ok if he acknowledged the influence.
> 
> After seeing the film I heard Woody being interviewed about it. He said that his casting agent found Sally Hawkins. I cannot believe he had not seen Mike Leighs film.



He's a bit odd about casting questions and sometimes pretends he's divorced from the process. On other occasions Allen waxes lyrical about where he first saw the actor and why they were right for the role. One such occasion was him talking about Jim Broadbent in Bullets over Broadway and how he first saw him in a Mike Leigh's Life is Sweet. I know he hardly interacts or even talks to actors before performance so he obviously picks them from watching their previous work.

I hadn't thought of the Happy Go Lucky similarities and Sally Hawkins is certainly not a one note actor. So yes maybe Mr Allen was rather taken by the performance and wanted a bit more.


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## blossie33 (Oct 6, 2013)

I went to see the shorter Zizek film last weekend and was interested to read Gramsci's review of the Ideology one as I've been thinking whether to go and see it.

I really enjoyed Zizek, it's more of a documentary about  him, he's certainly very entertaining. However I must admit I didn't really understand some of what he was saying so I'm wondering if the Ideology might be a bit lost on me!


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## Gramsci (Oct 6, 2013)

blossie33 said:


> I went to see the shorter Zizek film last weekend and was interested to read Gramsci's review of the Ideology one as I've been thinking whether to go and see it.
> 
> I really enjoyed Zizek, it's more of a documentary about  him, he's certainly very entertaining. However I must admit I didn't really understand some of what he was saying so I'm wondering if the Ideology might be a bit lost on me!



I would recommend trying this one. I think I have seen the one ur talking about. This is better as it focuses on the subject less on him as a media star.

One thing I do like about him is that he uses film to help explain how ideology works. So makes it understandable.

I do not understand all of it. But that is ok as he raises a lot of questions.


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## redsquirrel (Oct 7, 2013)

RubyToogood said:


> I went to see Blue Jasmine. It's pretty bleak and none of the characters are very nice. Nobody seems to have any motivation other than money or sex. Plus the central character is so on edge it put me on edge. Its message seemed to be "shallow people are shallow". I expect it's a masterpiece or something but I wasn't in the right mood for it.





Sue said:


> Blue Jasmine. Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins were both good, found the film itself pretty meh (though that's a massive improvement on his last few films IMO). Didn't really care about anyone in it which was a bit of a problem. And missed the 'laugh out loud funny' bits Dr. Furface..?



Excellent, I thought I really had missed something in _Blue Jasmine, _I just can't understand the praise it's getting. And the idea that it has anything interesting to say about class in the US is ludicrous. 

Anyway this weekend I saw

_The Turning_ - An anthology of short films adapted from a collection of short stories by the Australian author Tim Winton. All the stories are set in WA and some of the same characters turn up in multiple films, played by different actors each time. As you might expect some pieces work better than others, and some should have probably just be left out, the most obvious example being the penultimate film, a modern dance piece and while the performances of the dancers are pretty amazing it merely weakens the film as a whole. Overall it's a bit of a mixed bag, though it was great to see the excellent Kate Mulvany (a brilliant Australian theatre actor) get a film role.

Then I saw a couple of classics

_Chinatown _- It's been a while since I last saw this and to see it again on the big screen is superb. All it's brilliance just comes back to you. Everything about it is superb, Huston's portrayal is fantastic, his character is almost so evil that he could become a melodrama villain but somehow he (and Towne/Polanski) manage to stop that. The nose scene still makes me cringe.

_A Matter of Life and Death_ - Don't really know what to say about this that hasn't been said a hundred times previously. One of the greatest British films ever made, if you haven't see it you should.


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## RubyToogood (Oct 9, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> Yes she is good.
> 
> The problem for me is that she played exactly the same character in Mike Leighs "Happy go Lucky". Thats ok if he acknowledged the influence.
> 
> After seeing the film I heard Woody being interviewed about it. He said that his casting agent found Sally Hawkins. I cannot believe he had not seen Mike Leighs film.



I didn't know Sally Hawkins or that she'd been in a Mike Leigh film, but that actually nails for me one of the things I didn't like about it. I don't like Mike Leigh films because they always strike me as being a bit patronising to working-class characters, and this was the same.


Gramsci said:


> I agree. Be interesting to see if Cate does get best actress Oscar. She deserves it for this performance.
> 
> However its not so much to much reality as the wrong kind. I was surprised that this film was a critique of post crash USA. Its a reminder of the kind of people who caused the crash.
> 
> ...



Actually on reflection I did think that the one level on which it did work was as a metaphor for the US economy - the realisation that the finances were all founded on nothing and the failure to really get to grips with the issues or understand that the party is over (or whatever it is he's arguing).


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## Gramsci (Oct 9, 2013)

In the Name of

Saw this Polish film which is on limited release in UK.

Mainly Polish audience at the Ritzy (London). Shows there is a market in London for more Polish film.

Malgorzata Szumowska is the new generation of Polish film makers. I have seen two of her previous films "33 Scenes From Life" and "Elles".

Both good films but flawed. I thought she had a very good film in her and this is it. Its is beautifully shot. Many scenes work through images rather than dialogue. What film should be. 

This film was a controversial hit in Poland. It deals with homosexuality and Catholic Church. Heard at the Q&A at Hackney there was one irate person took objection to it.

It is a subtle film not agitprop. And better for it. Its not an attack on religion in the sense of spirituality. Its worth a second seeing. 

I also felt it was an interesting look at masculinity in all male institutions. Quietly subversive film.


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## Ax^ (Oct 9, 2013)

has anyone seen filth yet?

worth seeing or no..?


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## Sue (Oct 9, 2013)

Sunshine on Leith was fun and Edinburgh looks great. I'm probably biased though.


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## RubyToogood (Oct 11, 2013)

Sue said:


> Sunshine on Leith was fun and Edinburgh looks great. I'm probably biased though.


I really enjoyed it too. I'm not a fan of the Proclaimers at all but thought the singing and dancing were great, as well as things like the casting and costumes. They did a great job of creating a lot of convincingly ordinary people.


----------



## marty21 (Oct 12, 2013)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2871116/

1st film in over a year! 

2 automnes 3 hivers 

French relationship film- saw at at the London Film Festival - really enjoyed it - the French do this sort of thing well - british movies get a bit Richard Curtis about it


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## Shippou-Sensei (Oct 12, 2013)

aparently there is a live action ruroni kenshin movie out now.   almost tempted to see it.


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## belboid (Oct 13, 2013)

Fifth Estate

Cumberbatch and Bruhl are good, but otherwise....it's confused about what it wants to say, and is flashy in a way that gets boring very quickly. The portrayal of the Guardianistas is quite funny. Rusbridger is the spit of George from Workers Power, which amused us. Daniel Radcliffe would have brought a more appropriate gravitas.


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## marty21 (Oct 13, 2013)

1. 2 Automnes 3 Hivers
2. Stop the Pounding Heart 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2855026/

fairly miserable film about a Christian goat farming family and some  gun toting rodeo riders who lived next door - part of a trilogy - won't be seeing the other two  part  documentary, part drama, all miserable...


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## redsquirrel (Oct 14, 2013)

_The Act of Killing_ - I've been waiting to see this for some time and I wasn't disappointed. It's often horrific, the scene were the killer's go on Indonesian daytime TV and boast about their crimes is both chilling and disgusting. Huge credit has to go to the film makers to making this film not only because of the danger they have put themselves in but also their ability to show the real nature of the killers and how sicking they are. At times the subjects seem to cotton onto the fact that they've revealed too much and try to back off and the film captures their fear. A hard watch but totally worth seeing.	  

_The East_ - Tripe, very, very silly rubbish. Fails on nearly every level poorly written, terribly plotted and not very well acted. One to avoid.


----------



## _pH_ (Oct 15, 2013)

Ax^ said:


> has anyone seen filth yet?
> 
> worth seeing or no..?


Saw it yesterday. Worth seeing, yes (well I think so) and definitely needs to be seen on the big screen.


----------



## Gramsci (Oct 19, 2013)

Captain Phillips.

This is on at Screen One in Ritzy (London). It was actually warm in there this morning . Must have sorted out the heating. 

Greengrass , the director, did the excellent "United 93" about 9/11 fourth hijacked plane. Captain Phillips is made in similar way to United 93. It starts using an observational documentary style as u follow both the Captain and the Somali pirates starting the day at work. So to speak. 

I have also seen ( at Ritzy ) the Danish covering the same subject "The Hijacking". 

So I compared the two. The Hijacking concentrates on the negotiations to release the crew. Set in both Denmark and Somalia. It build tensions through discussions between both sides. 

Both films are done in a documentary observational way. Both situate the films in a particular aspect of the globalized insecure world that is now emerging. 

Captain Phillips concentrates with the cat and mouse game the pirates and the tanker play with each other on the high seas in the first half. This works well. Barry Ackroyd the cinematographer deserves credit for what must have been arduous circumstances to film in. No CGI in this film. And the better for it. 

The second half is on the confrontation between the crew and the pirates. I was impressed by the Somali who plays Muse as a mixture of desperation, courage and intelligence making sure this film is not just goodies vs baddies. 

Evening Standard reviewer Charlotte O Sullivan says that, 

"The first half of the film provides tough , spartan fare; the stuff on the lifeboat is American cheese."

I do not entirely agree. The stuff on the lifeboat is tense and claustrophobic. Reinforces the fact that these pirates are driven to it by economic reasons. They lost there livelihoods as fishermen because of war. As in the Danish film they are no different from the rest of us. Reminded of the discussion that the Captain has with his wife in beginning. Telling her the world has become tougher and more competitive. That he wants his children to be able to deal with this when they leave home. In a future his children could end up as pirates. Its an accident of history and politics that Muse did.

However this film is made for a US audience. The bad guys cannot win. Bits of it in second half reminded me of Bourne film which Greengrass directed.

United 93 stuck to spartan documentary style. Also on purpose Greengrass did not use big name actors. I was expecting that more with this film. Also I am sure that United 93 used little music. As Captain Phillips is done in doc style I found the music in it deflected the realism. Turned parts into an action film. 

Its an uneasy alliance of realistic spartan film and Bourne style action. But this reflects the America of being at once critical of itself but also proud of the power it can project. So in that way a comment on US.

What saved the film from "American Cheese" for me was Tom Hanks performance in last ten minutes of film. Will not say what happens but it undercuts the American Cheese that O Sullivan rightly criticizes.


----------



## Belushi (Oct 19, 2013)

Saw Hirokazu Kore-Eda's *'Like Father, Like Son'* at the Ritzy as part of the London Film Festival tonight. A really beautiful exploration of fatherhood. A movie that could have easily turned into a schmaltz fest, but instead is one of the most genuinely moving films I've seen in a long time.


----------



## Sue (Oct 19, 2013)

Filth. Don't think it really worked very well but James MacAvoy was excellent. Looked at the reviews and the DM appears to have given it one star so maybe worth seeing for that alone...


----------



## redsquirrel (Oct 20, 2013)

_In Bob We Trust_ - Australian Documentary about Father Bob McGuire and his battle to remain the priest in his South Melbourne parish over a three year period. I doubt he's known outside Australia but he's pretty well known down here, he does a number of radio shows and is generally the man the media go to when they want someone inside the Catholic Church who's going to give a different line to the official one. The set up of the film is that when he turned 75 the Bishop of Melbourne basically tried to kick him out despite the fact neither Bob nor his congregation wanted him to go. It's a pretty good story, and very moving in some parts, but unfortunately the film isn't especially well edited and doesn't do justice to it's source material (IMO a very common failing of documentary films these days). That said McGuire is charismatic enough to make it worth going to see and his belief/fight for a new more democratic church is pretty inspiring, even if you believe like me that it's futile.

_Mystery Road_ - Ivan Sen's new film, it's got a great Aussie cast - including Hugo Weaving, Jack Thompson and Roy Billing - and the premise, the murder of an aboriginal girl is investigated by an aboriginal cop in outback Queensland is up my ally. The setup is all pretty good, the acting as good as you'd expect from the cast involved and there are some great twilight shots. Unfortunately the last third of the film is a mess and shows when having feedback screenings can be useful. I can't believe anybody who wasn't involved in the making of the film wouldn't have come out and told the filmmakers that they seemed to be missing a couple of scenes. The ending of the film simply doesn't make sense.


----------



## Maltin (Oct 20, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> _Mystery Road_ - Ivan Sen's new film, it's got a great Aussie cast - including Hugo Weaving, Jack Thompson and Roy Billing - and the premise, the murder of an aboriginal girl is investigated by an aboriginal cop in outback Queensland is up my ally. The setup is all pretty good, the acting as good as you'd expect from the cast involved and there are some great twilight shots. Unfortunately the last third of the film is a mess and shows when having feedback screenings can be useful. I can't believe anybody who wasn't involved in the making of the film wouldn't have come out and told the filmmakers that they seemed to be missing a couple of scenes. The ending of the film simply doesn't make sense.


i saw this last night too and felt similar. I was getting tired towards the end and assumed I dozed off and missed some of it! It's a shame because it could have been a pretty decent film.


----------



## redsquirrel (Oct 20, 2013)

Maltin said:


> i saw this last night too and felt similar. I was getting tired towards the end and assumed I dozed off and missed some of it! It's a shame because it could have been a pretty decent film.


Yes, real pity that they didn't put the end together right.

Have you seen Sen's first film, _Beneath Clouds_? That's a very good piece of work probably his best IMO.


----------



## Maltin (Oct 20, 2013)

redsquirrel said:


> Have you seen Sen's first film, _Beneath Clouds_? That's a very good piece of work probably his best IMO.


No, but will seek it out on your recommendation.


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## lt35 (Oct 20, 2013)

Sue said:


> Filth. Don't think it really worked very well but James MacAvoy was excellent. Looked at the reviews and the DM appears to have given it one star so maybe worth seeing for that alone...



Just seen it too - didn't like the cartoonish representation of schizophrenia to be honest but don't see how else they could have done it frankly.  Had to look away during the sex asphyxiation scenes but it takes all sorts I suppose!  Defo agree with the previous poster who said this is one for the big screen not DVD. You wanna hear everyone elses's reactions during the shocking and funny bits!  All in all good but easy to poke holes at.  But even the _Telegraph _gave it 3* so in your face Daily Mail


----------



## magneze (Oct 20, 2013)

wrong thread


----------



## oryx (Oct 20, 2013)

I meant to say on this thread that I finally saw The Great Beauty (_La Grande Bellezza)_ a couple of weeks ago. It blew my mind.

We got to the cinema ever so slightly late and walked in on one of the full-on, colourful party scenes. These are contrasted with the quiet melancholy of the convent the protagonist lives next door to, and the reflections on lost love and the looming certainty of death.

I can totally understand how it got rave reviews. I'd highly recommend it while it's still around. Last but not least, utterly beautiful shots of Rome.


----------



## slightlytouched (Oct 23, 2013)

Django unchained - decided Tarantino has tanked.
Flight - Denzel has yet to play a role I like him in.
A good day to die hard - love Bruce! 
Star Trek - loved jj Abrams style
Iron man 3 - put me off the comic book style films, although I did like the building smash up.
The worlds end - I didn't realise it would all go sideways prior to seeing the film, so was a little bemused! 

Not many films seen this year as I've just been too busy


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## heinous seamus (Oct 23, 2013)

The Wee Man
Olympus Has Fallen
Mud
Populaire
The Iceman
Man of Steel
The Purge
The Hangover III
From Up on Poppy Hill
Byzantium
Admission
The Internship
This is the End
Frances Ha
The Way Way Back
Kick Ass II
Filth
Sunshine on Leith
How I live now
Romeo and Juliet

I'm delighted to say I only paid for one of these. There's a couple of them I'd have been crestfallen to have paid to watch!


----------



## 8115 (Oct 26, 2013)

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2.  Passably good, not as good as the first one (obviously).  6.5/10


----------



## Frances Lengel (Oct 26, 2013)

The Selfish Giant. 
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_selfish_giant_2013/

Pretty good. Sad though.


----------



## blossie33 (Oct 26, 2013)

Went to see Muscle Shoals this afternoon, an excellent documentary for anyone who likes music about the studios in Alabama which produced some brilliant music from artists like Wilson Picket, Percy Sledge, Aretha, Etta James, the Stones, Jimmy Cliff, Traffic.
It's also a personal story about the founder producer of the studio Rick Hall.

Very well made and very interesting. I am familiar with the studio and sounds but there was lots of stuff I didn't know about.


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## Dr. Furface (Oct 26, 2013)

heinous seamus said:


> The Wee Man


You've actually seen that?! I only ask because I did a few scenes on it as an extra. I haven't seen it myself - I'm not even sure if it was released down here, as far as I know it was only released in Scotland. I don't suppose it's much good but obviously I'd like to see it just to see if I made any scenes or not. What did you think of it?


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## Dr. Furface (Oct 26, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> Went to see "The Perverts Guide to Ideology". Weighing in at over two hours it is a tour de force from Zizek and well put together by Fiennes the director.


I forgot to mention that I went to see this a couple of weeks ago thanks to your recommendation. I really enjoyed it for the most part - it was a bit overlong and there were some bits that I'm not sure I got, but no doubt it'll be on Film4 or something soon as it was funded by C4 so I look forward to watching it again and seeing if I can understand it all next time! I didn't know of Zizek before and it was funnier and more entertaining than I thought it was going to be.


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## blossie33 (Oct 27, 2013)

Yes, I went to see the Ideology film too a couple of weeks ago after seeing the Zizek doc film. I was unsure about seeing it as  I thought it might go over my head but I could understand the general ideas of what he was talking about. Enjoyed it. He is very entertaining even if you can't understand too much!


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## Part 2 (Oct 27, 2013)

Frances Lengel said:


> The Selfish Giant.
> http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_selfish_giant_2013/
> 
> Pretty good. Sad though.



I've been really looking forward to watching that, got there today and it was sold out. 

Of course I'd been talked into going for a meal first by the mrs and sent the kids off to watch Bad Grandpa at the AMC. £85 paid out and didn't even get to see the film. Gutted.


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## heinous seamus (Oct 27, 2013)

Dr. Furface said:


> You've actually seen that?! I only ask because I did a few scenes on it as an extra. I haven't seen it myself - I'm not even sure if it was released down here, as far as I know it was only released in Scotland. I don't suppose it's much good but obviously I'd like to see it just to see if I made any scenes or not. What did you think of it?



I don't remember that much about it to be honest. I definitely wasn't that impressed at the time though. What were you upto in the film?


----------



## Dr. Furface (Oct 28, 2013)

heinous seamus said:


> I don't remember that much about it to be honest. I definitely wasn't that impressed at the time though. What were you upto in the film?


Weirdly, it's showing at the moment on Sky Premier so I've recorded it, but Ive not yet watched it. I filmed 2 scenes, one in a pub and one a fight in a prison courtyard. It was low budget (obvs!) so I just did it for fun, not pay. When we were filming I thought it would go straight to DVD so I was surprised it got a cinema release at all, even if it was only in Scotland!


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## redsquirrel (Oct 28, 2013)

_Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa_ - Pretty good, there's a few jokes that fall flat but there's also a lot of very funny moments.


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## heinous seamus (Oct 28, 2013)

Dr. Furface said:


> Weirdly, it's showing at the moment on Sky Premier so I've recorded it, but Ive not yet watched it. I filmed 2 scenes, one in a pub and one a fight in a prison courtyard. It was low budget (obvs!) so I just did it for fun, not pay. When we were filming I thought it would go straight to DVD so I was surprised it got a cinema release at all, even if it was only in Scotland!



It was quite popular up here, all the riff raff came to see it


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## Dr. Furface (Oct 28, 2013)

heinous seamus said:


> It was quite popular up here, all the riff raff came to see it


FYI it should have been filmed in Scotland but the cops up there wouldn't sanction it, so it was filmed in London


----------



## 8115 (Oct 28, 2013)

Frances Lengel said:


> The Selfish Giant.
> http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_selfish_giant_2013/
> 
> Pretty good. Sad though.


I just went to see that.  I really enjoyed (probably not exactly the right word) it, but I didn't think it was the most accomplished film.  But a good story.  It made me think (assuming that it's accurate) about the massive gap between the north and south of this country.


----------



## Gingerman (Nov 10, 2013)

Went to see Rush yesterday,very enjoyable,the racing scenes were very well done and both leads were the spitting image of Hunt and Lauda.


----------



## moonsi til (Nov 10, 2013)

I enjoyed Rush too though prior I had no idea who they were. On friday I saw Gravity in 3d andconsidering going to see it again. The cinema audience was respectfully quiet and it really felt like we were all sharing something beautiful. On Saturday I watched Thor again in 3d but 2d would have been fine. 3d chosen due to time of film only. Thor was much better than I thought it would be with a twist at the end to lead onto the next film. There is a final scene after what seems like the end credits so if you go to see Thor don't rush off.


----------



## catinthehat (Nov 22, 2013)

This is worth a look, I thought I would have to wait longer to see it.


----------



## Gramsci (Dec 1, 2013)

Saw "Blue is the Warmest Colour" at Renoir yesterday. 



At 3 hours you need to set aside half a day for this film. Its worth it. Its a love story. The fact that its between two women is not the point. Its the kind of film the French do well. Its about ordinary people. But its not patronizing nor is it banging you over the head with its politics. And it does contain politics. Its just the way it does it makes it seem a normal part of life. But I think this is also a difference in political culture. In France its perfectly normal to be on the left.

The length of the film works. After a while you settle into their world. Its engrossing. It refers to a novel several times near beginning. “La Vie de Marianne,” by the 18th-century author Pierre de Marivaux. A novel about love at first site and passion according to what is said in film. ( I had never heard about it). This film also shows two people falling for each other.

Its a film that gradually builds up to become a serious look at relationships between two people. Whilst there is a lot dialogue the film depends on the unspoken look. It allows the viewer to work out what is going on. Rather than being told. Two great performances from the leads.


----------



## smorodina (Dec 1, 2013)

Gravity. 
Emotional..


----------



## Sue (Dec 1, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> Saw "Blue is the Warmest Colour" at Renoir yesterday.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Just saw this. Very good and excellent acting but it was way too long. And the ending felt a bit stuck on.


----------



## redsquirrel (Dec 1, 2013)

Really want to saw BITWC, it's not in Aus till next year.

_Adoration _- this doesn't seem to have got especially good reviews but I thought it was pretty good. Both Naomi Watts and Robin Penn give excellent preformances. It's based on Doris Lessing's book _The Grandmothers_ though I've not read the book so I've no idea about close the adaptation is. The story is about two close friends (Watts and Penn) who each begin to have an affair with the others son. Not outstanding but worth checking out IMO.

_Them Ain't Bodies Saint - _I had quite high hopes for this but despite the excellent cast, Casey Affleck, Keith Carradine, Roony Mara, it's nothing special. It's not terrible but it doesn't really go anywhere either.


----------



## Gramsci (Dec 1, 2013)

Sue said:


> Just saw this. Very good and excellent acting but it was way too long. And the ending felt a bit stuck on.



I did think the paintings were a bit crap. But apart from that I liked it. 

To make a 3 hour commercial film is rather brave. I felt it was one of those films were you had time to think. Rather than a lot of fast cutting that a lot of films contain. 

There is conversation about the novel "La Vie de Marianne" where the teenager says its a long novel and he never finishes novels. I think that was comment on this film. She replies to him that you have to get to the end to see the point of the novel.


----------



## Gramsci (Dec 3, 2013)

"Leviathan" is on at Ritzy this week. Its a documentary about a fishing trawler. 

Its not traditional doc. There is no voice-over or interviews. It is images and a soundtrack. This is best film I have seen for a long time in its pure use of image and sound. It immerses the viewer in the sea. 

I was Q&A with the makers of the film. In reply to the questions the film makers said that it could be read in different ways. There is no right or wrong meaning to take. Some see it as aesthetic experience ( which I did) and other see it as ecological film. 

I like the fact that the film was open ended in this way. 

The 2 film makers are anthropologists. This film is observational and they used to cameras to get viewpoints of the fishermen. So I can see the influence of a kind of anthropology which does not read meaning into peoples actions. But tries to observe them in there own environment without bringing any pre judgement on there activity. 

Most of the cameras broke except for GoPro cameras. Which are small and designed for sports. Definitely a good buy as tested in these tough conditions. 

The cameras also picked up sound. Which the two film makers got a sound engineer to put together with the film footage. Great sound track works with the images. 

If you want to see something that is not run of the mill this definitely is a must see. 

I saw this film as a crossover between documentary and art film. Pity there is not more of this. Its what cinema was made for.


----------



## belboid (Dec 16, 2013)

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

why oh why did I go and see this in HFR? It's atrocious. The first hour looked like a dodgy 1970's Play for Today.  Then I got used to it, and, with the same provisos as for the first movie (far far too long, doesn't need the shit chase element, dodgy as fuck female added) it's not bad at all. Smaug himself looks/sounds superb. Not enough Freeman.


----------



## Fozzie Bear (Dec 16, 2013)

Sue said:


> Just saw this. Very good and excellent acting but it was way too long. And the ending felt a bit stuck on.


 
Completely agree. Did you see it at the Rio? It was waaaaay too long and some of the sex scenes were comdically long?

Great film but the first half was much better than the second half.


----------



## bi0boy (Dec 16, 2013)

belboid said:


> The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
> 
> why oh why did I go and see this in HFR? It's atrocious. The first hour looked like a dodgy 1970's Play for Today.  Then I got used to it, and, with the same provisos as for the first movie (far far too long, doesn't need the shit chase element, dodgy as fuck female added) it's not bad at all. Smaug himself looks/sounds superb. Not enough Freeman.



I saw the standard frame but yeah pretty boring to start with, Laketown was wonderfully realised though as was Smaug.


----------



## Sue (Dec 16, 2013)

Fozzie Bear said:


> Completely agree. Did you see it at the Rio? It was waaaaay too long and some of the sex scenes were comdically long?
> 
> Great film but the first half was much better than the second half.


 
Yep, at the Rio. A very lesbian audience I'd say and a bit disconcerting that there was lots of laughter during the lesbian sex scenes...

Agree that the first half was much better than the second.


----------



## friedaweed (Dec 17, 2013)

Cant believe me and the wee man wasted 3 hours tonight and they didn't even kill the fuckin dragon


----------



## agricola (Dec 18, 2013)

belboid said:


> The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
> 
> why oh why did I go and see this in HFR? It's atrocious. The first hour looked like a dodgy 1970's Play for Today.  Then I got used to it, and, with the same provisos as for the first movie (far far too long, doesn't need the shit chase element, dodgy as fuck female added) it's not bad at all. Smaug himself looks/sounds superb. Not enough Freeman.



Just got back from watching it, thought it was absolute garbage throughout.  The screenplay seemed to have been come up with by someone who had seen a list of what happens in the book, but not actually read the book and filled up the spaces in between the bullet-points with some chases, some bits recycled from the LOTR trilogy, and some bits that made absolutely no sense whatsoever.


----------



## Sue (Dec 21, 2013)

The Innocents. 1961 film based on The Turn Of The Screw. Excellent.


----------



## Belushi (Dec 22, 2013)

Finally got round to catching Gravity at the Ritzy, really enjoyable.


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## Sue (Dec 23, 2013)

Who's going to do the traditional 'Your top ten films of 2013' thread? I would but after a quick Google, can't see where I'd get a complete and easily pasteable list of 2013 releases -- know I need that anyway to jog my memory about what's been on/I've seen. Reno (if you're about), Gramsci?


----------



## Maltin (Dec 23, 2013)

Sue said:


> Who's going to do the traditional 'Your top ten films of 2013' thread? I would but after a quick Google, can't see where I'd get a complete and easily pasteable list of 2013 releases -- know I need that anyway to jog my memory about what's been on/I've seen. Reno (if you're about), Gramsci?


Whilst US focused, here is a list of films eligible for The Academy Awards this year. Not really an easy list to paste. 

http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/rules/reminderlist.html


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## Maltin (Dec 23, 2013)

Here's the BAFTA list, which also isn't necessarily a list of films released in the UK in 2013. 

http://static.bafta.org/files/film-1314-entered-films-list-2122.pdf


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## Maltin (Dec 23, 2013)

This is probably the easiest source to get a pasteable UK list (although I used the US version last year). 

http://boxofficemojo.com/intl/uk/yearly/

The list can be easily copied into Excel and then sorted in alphabetical order. Probably better to split it between the major releases/earners and then the rest.  I might do it and post it later today.


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## Gramsci (Dec 24, 2013)

Sue said:


> Who's going to do the traditional 'Your top ten films of 2013' thread? I would but after a quick Google, can't see where I'd get a complete and easily pasteable list of 2013 releases -- know I need that anyway to jog my memory about what's been on/I've seen. Reno (if you're about), Gramsci?



Did not know about this top ten thread.

Looking through what I’ve seen.

Rough guess on top films. Had other stuff on some missed some films or did not put them in diary.

Amour 

Boxing Day

What Richard Did

Jin (  Saw at theTurkish film festival - not released here. Goes to show that there are a lot of good films out there we never see in UK.)

Beyond the Hills

The Act of Killing

Blue is the Warmest Colour

Leviathan 

The Selfish Giant

I’m So Excited!

  Will try to remember what else I’ve seen.

Also liked Easy Money and the Patience Stone.


----------



## Orang Utan (Dec 25, 2013)

I have only seen The Act Of Killing out of that lot but on the small screen.
What an amazing film. Glad I watched it at home, mind, as I found myself laughing at a lot of totally wrong things.


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## Gramsci (Dec 25, 2013)

Sue said:


> Yep, at the Rio. A very lesbian audience I'd say and a bit disconcerting that there was lots of laughter during the lesbian sex scenes...



Have been told that the sex scenes are unrealistic to gay women. So its laughable for them. It was criticism of the film by the author of the original graphic novel the film was based on.


----------



## Gramsci (Dec 25, 2013)

I have been told the Renoir cinema( in Bloomsbury , London) will close some time next year to be refurbished. 

Unfortunately it will be changed to five screens. So will be much smaller as it was two screens.

I like the Renoir. It specializes in arthouse cinema. I have been told that it remain arthouse cinema. The idea of five screens is that Curzon will be able to show wider range of films. Including one screen devoted to documentaries. 

Still I will be sorry if they change the Renoir. It is such a nice experience to go there as it is.


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## farmerbarleymow (Dec 25, 2013)

None - I think it must be two or three years since I last went to the pictures. I sometimes see a film advertised and think I'd like to go and see it, and promptly forget all about it for weeks. By which time the run has ended.


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## Dr. Furface (Dec 29, 2013)

Gramsci said:


> I have been told the Renoir cinema( in Bloomsbury , London) will close some time next year to be refurbished.
> 
> Unfortunately it will be changed to five screens. So will be much smaller as it was two screens.
> 
> ...


Oh no. Yeah it's one of my faves too and I don't like the sound of that. I can imagine it with 3 screens but 5 sounds like they'll be pushing it a bit in terms of size - unless they can find more space from somewhere (which I doubt) they'll be really small. Also, if they're going to change it that much it'll probably be closed for months - I remember the last time they refurbed it, it was closed for ages and all they seemed to do was just repaint it! Have you any idea when they'll be starting?


----------



## oryx (Dec 29, 2013)

Finally got to see Blue Is The Warmest Colour last night.

What a sensuous, touching and emotional film. Sometimes the camera is so close to its subjects it's uncomfortable - not the sex scenes, which are explicit, but the close-ups of eating, crying and raw emotion betrayed on faces. The two lead actresses are fantastic.


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## Dr. Furface (Dec 30, 2013)

And my last film for 2013 is....

All Is Lost, the new film starring Robert Redford, a boat and the Indian Ocean. And that's all. If that sounds dull to you, I promise you it isn't - it's a brilliant performance by Redford as he battles against the elements to keep his stricken yacht afloat and keep himself alive. It's often edge-of-your-seat stuff with some amazing scenes. In an odd way it bears some similarity to Gravity, in that it's a film about man battling to survive against nature, outside of his natural habitat, with just his craft and his wits to save him from certain death. Like Gravity it stretches credulity sometimes, but not into unbelieveability (as Gravity did for me) but unlike Gravity it thankfully does not have any unnecessary cheesy backstory you couldn't give a shit about. In fact you don't know anything about Redford's character or what he's doing sailing about on his own or where he's going. And you don't need to - it's all about what's happening in the moment on the screen. Excellent.


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## belboid (Dec 30, 2013)

Dr. Furface said:


> All Is Lost, the new film starring Robert Redford, a boat and the Indian Ocean.


just back from this - quite, quite brilliant. Just astoundingly tense, there's more suspense in one sextant reading than in twenty minutes of being chased down a river in a barrel. The 'boring' details that would get ignored in most films are centre stage here, which just makes you more admiring of Redford's resilience.

mrs b & I had differing views of the ending, tho.


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## heinous seamus (Dec 30, 2013)

Saw Cinema Paradiso on Saturday, a lot different from the version I saw a few years back! Mostly the love story had been cut out / changed.


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## Gramsci (Jan 1, 2014)

Dr. Furface said:


> Oh no. Yeah it's one of my faves too and I don't like the sound of that. I can imagine it with 3 screens but 5 sounds like they'll be pushing it a bit in terms of size - unless they can find more space from somewhere (which I doubt) they'll be really small. Also, if they're going to change it that much it'll probably be closed for months - I remember the last time they refurbed it, it was closed for ages and all they seemed to do was just repaint it! Have you any idea when they'll be starting?



No I do not know when they are thinking of starting.

I agree 5 screens is a lot. Unless they gut the whole space and start again from scratch (losing the downstairs bar) I cannot see how they could fit in 5 screens. 

It will also depend a lot on how well they design the screens. Some preview screens in Soho I’ve seen are small but comfortable with big seats and plenty of leg room. So even though small do not feel cramped. Unlike screen 2 and 3 at Soho Curzon which I do not like that much. 

There is a dispute going on at Curzon cinemas about paying the Living Wage (£8.80 in London) and official Union recognition. Curzon have increased pay to £7 and hour but say they are only just breaking even so cannot pay more.


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## Dr. Furface (Jan 1, 2014)

belboid said:


> just back from this - quite, quite brilliant. Just astoundingly tense, there's more suspense in one sextant reading than in twenty minutes of being chased down a river in a barrel. The 'boring' details that would get ignored in most films are centre stage here, which just makes you more admiring of Redford's resilience.
> 
> mrs b & I had differing views of the ending, tho.


Without wishing to give anything away, I gotta say that the ending stretched it a little too far for me. But I can forgive it that.


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## belboid (Jan 2, 2014)

Dr. Furface said:


> Without wishing to give anything away, I gotta say that the ending stretched it a little too far for me. But I can forgive it that.


aah, I didnt, but then i thought



Spoiler



that he dies. He's swimming 'towards the light' - classic death metaphor.  mrs b thought he lived tho.  when he went under at the end i couldnt help but wonder why he hadn't taken the life preserver from the boat!


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## editor (Feb 17, 2014)

How fucking smug, self satisfied and annoying was Stephen Fry at the BAFTA awards last night?


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## Sue (Feb 17, 2014)

editor said:


> How fucking smug, self satisfied and annoying was Stephen Fry at the BAFTA awards last night?


Didn't see it but he always is. Just do not get the Stephen Fry love thing at all.


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## editor (Feb 17, 2014)

Sue said:


> Didn't see it but he always is. Just do not get the Stephen Fry love thing at all.


He was worse than ever, correcting the grammar of other people and just looking awfully pleased with himself over his tediously clever wordy announcements.


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## Sue (Feb 17, 2014)

editor said:


> He was worse than ever, correcting the grammar of other people and just looking awfully pleased with himself over his tediously clever wordy announcements.



 Tbh, I just won't watch anything he's in because he annoys me so much. I also reckon he's not half as clever as he thinks he is.


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## DaveCinzano (Jul 25, 2015)

Gramsci said:


> Scandinavian crime film "Shabba Cash"
> 
> 
> Renamed as "Easy Money" for english speakers. I liked this a lot.



I liked it too. I see there are a couple of sequels too. Anyone seen them?


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## DJWrongspeed (Jul 25, 2015)

Saw Eden   last night.  French house film. One for the soulful house fans definitely. It's quite drifting and the narrative is somewhat aimless but it gets there in the end after a long 20yr arc. The club scenes are authentic and feel real.

Oops, this on the wrong thread


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## not-bono-ever (Jul 26, 2015)

The Legend of barney Thompson at the Ritzy

enjoybable dark hokum- not universally liked by the critics, but I can deal with that


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## DaveCinzano (Jul 26, 2015)

not-bono-ever said:


> The Legend of barney Thompson at the Ritzy
> 
> enjoybable dark hokum- not universally liked by the critics, but I can deal with that


This is the 2013 thread btw


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## not-bono-ever (Jul 26, 2015)

FUCK


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