Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Wonderful actors
Laura listed her 20 top favorite actors and it's a yummy list. Worth a visit to the post just to gaze on the gorgeous and evocative faces. Here's her annotated list - I've crossed out the ones I'd change : Cary Grant (he's simply the best), Tyrone Power Humphrey Bogart (how could she leave Bogie off - in his character-driven roles there's no one better), Dana Andrews Gary Cooper, Robert Montgomery (one of my all-time favorites), William Powell (ditto), Joel McCrea (ditt0), Robert Taylor (usually ditto but not the westerns), Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark, Ray Milland, James Stewart, Stewart Granger Fred MacMurray (early, not once he became silly), John Wayne Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly Errol Flynn (in his not snazzed-up films), Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Charlton Heston Walter Huston, Ward Bond Ronald Coleman / Lawrence Olivier / Raymond Massey (trade-off between them), Fredric March, Randolph Scott (not listed in any particular order). I'll watch almost anything most of these guys are in and thank heavens for TCM!

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Permalink | 1 comment(s) | posted by jau at 12:10 AM

Sunday, December 7, 2008
Last night's movie
Watched "Two Men Went to War" last night. We had four dvds from Netflix - a virtual plethora of possibilities - but two were dreadful, basically unwatchable. Kings in Grass Castles proves that angry Irish farmers emigrating to Australia are annoying, uninteresting and not entertaining, even if they might have been historically interesting. Peep Show was billed as terrific by viewers who'd liked The Office and Black Adder but we found it entirely unfunny and, worst of all, mean-spirited.

Two Men, on the other hand, was a surprise. (Spoiler alert : if you want no details, read no further....) This is the true story of two British army dentists who decide, in 1942, to take the war (World War II) into their own hands. They sail a very small boat to France armed with some grenades and wire cutters and, most importantly, a lot of gumption. They manage to make two German transport trains crash into each other (although they don't know it) and then they knock over part of a radar station before they hightail it back to England. They're almost court-martialled as deserters but Winston Churchill himself is so pleased with them that, instead, they are awarded the Military Cross along with a brief absent-without-leave sentence. Definitely an intriguing pair and a nice film for a Saturday evening.

The older of the stars of Two Men is Kenneth Cranham. He was married to Diana Quick (who was subsequently and for a long time has been Bill Nighy's partner and mother of their child) and was Helen Mirren's companion for many years (and father of their child). If his onscreen personna conveyed a sort of rugged sex appeal, I guess I must say it's borne out by his biography. The other star, Leo Bill, a mere 28 years old, played his part with a bit of goofiness that I could have done without, but he held his own well. The real character went on to become mayor of Newcastle-on-Tyne, interestingly enough.

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:57 AM

Sunday, November 2, 2008
"The Last Enemy"

SPOILER ALERT

My friend and I watched the final episode of "The Last Enemy" tonight - a five-part miniseries on PBS. It was entirely absorbing to watch, if much too long and drawn out. It was great to see Robert Carlyle again as he did his usual super job as a menacing (probably rogue) government gun-for-hire but most of the acting was cardboardish if not downright leaden.

The plot has been described as near-future fiction rather than science fiction because it starts from the five million surveillance cameras proliferated on the streets of London and other cities around the U.K. (one for every twelve residents, according to some). That amount of being watched is indeed horrible, unacceptable, beyond Orwellian stuff and if this movie helps to alert people enough to be sure to keep governments from going this far, then good for it. The fact that human inattentiveness and error would almost certainly prevent such eyes from working much of the time does not in any way mitigate the unacceptablenss, it just means that whatever does get done will not work as it is meant to.

My serious problem with the miniseries, however is that some plot lines were left dangling and the overall resolution was altogether lacking, unless my own i.q. points have fallen. Here are my questions for which I would be most grateful if any reader has answers and/or can make me feel less cheated. It's one thing to suspend disbelief because someone can hide, undetected, behind a door, and entirely another when things just do not make sense.

-- Why did they fake blow up Michael?
-- Why would it matter that Yasmin thought he was dead? Faking his death wasn't necessary to test his reaction to the "tag" and it seems like an awful lot of work to have gone through.

-- Why kill all those medical workers when they were supposedly looking for the doctor? Especially when it turned out in the end that he was working with them??!!

-- Why was Carlyle running his operation separately and seemingly in intense opposition and hiding from the government? Apparently he was working for - or with - James, Beasley and Harewood, given that they knew where his warehouse was and that he assisted James in that last scene with the Doctor, so that whole conceit seems utterly pointless.

-- Who was the black haired assassin? Who did he work for? What became of him?

-- At various moments, Stephen was highly aware of all the ways in which he was or could be watched - and yet at other times (as when he ran his assault on the Brompton hospital for blood samples), he was surprised that "they" knew where he was. As a savant who was so aware of what was going on, it seems completely nuts that he'd just forget about the cameras.

-- Why kill Michael? He's no longer any danger to T.I.A. or Project Tab since they can keep him out of England with his new tag. And, conversely, surely they should have killed Stephen since he knows everything and can join or even arouse resistance. It's not as if they were reluctant to knock off pretty much anyone.

-- Most importantly: who is the grand manipulator running James, Beasley and Harewood?

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 10:49 PM

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Good movie
We watched The Counterfeiters last weekend. It's an Austrian film that won the foreign film Oscar for 2007 and it's terrific. A master forger is arrested and held in a concentration camp and one day the Nazis decide they are going to forge British pounds and attempt to undermine the British economy. Apparently this idea occurred to Roosevelt and Churchill, too, other way around of course, but they didn't put it into action. The prisoners were so good at it - linen in the paper, complicated printing presses, numbering system of the Bank of England, etc., etc. - that they floated nearly 400 million pounds (~9 million physical pieces of money). After the war the Brits had to change the paper and the size of the bills lest the fake bills inflate their economy. Apparently they were truly indistinguishable from the real ones.

There are slogans on the walls of the forgers' workroom and print shop that are never translated but are a perfect touch of the sadism we all know abounded. "Mit Halbheiten wird nichts Ganzes gewonnen" (Half will never become whole - presumably meaning you must work full-tilt, not half-heartedly), and "Jedem das Seine" (Everyone his own - presumably meaning you get what you put into it) and "Mehr tun als es die Pflicht befiehlt !" (Do more than your duty commands you to). The intensity and uses of such slogans are hard to deal with.

The movie also poses a challenging dilemma. Should you sabotage an enterprise run by evildoers, your enemy, simply because they are doing it? Or should you resist sabotage because your fellow 145 prisoners will be killed if you do? Might it have stopped the Nazis sooner if they had sabotaged the effort? Would sending comrades to their death although foiling the Nazis be the using bad means to accomplish a good end? Would it have been justifiable?

There's also a wry telling of these events in a British series called Private Schultz. Very funny because it shows the utter absurdity of the horrific events and manages to be smart at the same time while yet never ignoring the miserable situation.

The Counterfeiters skillfully presents its story and questions while being neither preachy nor somber and all the while telling an enthralling tale. I highly recommended both the tv series and the film.

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Permalink | 1 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:24 AM

Birthdays
Peter Falk is only 3 years younger than Lauren Bacall??!!! And they are, respectively, 81 and 84 today?? Wow! Well, happy birthday to them both.

It's also Henry V's 621st birthday today. If you've never seen Kenneth Branagh's film of the same name, you must. It's fantastic.

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:09 AM

Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Lit Flicks Challenge
There's a new button on my left sidebar announcing and linking to the "Lit Flicks Challenge." It lasts until the end of February 2009 (six months). The LFC plan is 5 books/pieces of literature that have been made into movies (read them) and at least 2 movie adaptations of same (watch them) and review them. LFC's proprietor is Jessica; her brother, Blake, is running a corollary challenge whose idea is 5 movies adapted from books (watch them) and at least 2 of the books those movies are based on (read them).

Aside from the sheer pleasure of these challenges, there will be monthly activities and giveaways. Jessica deserves a ton of praise for this (does praise come in tons?) and for her "regular" blog, The Bluestocking Society, which is great, where she writes about and reviews lots and lots and lots and lots of books. Blake's blog is all about movies and reviews, and also needs to be added to one's day.

To start the challenge, a participant is instructed to answer 4 questions. Here goes:

  1. Are you more likely to see a movie if it’s based on a book?
    Honestly, I don't think so. I vacillate between thinking I do and thinking I don't so I guess the truthful answer is no.

  2. Do you prefer to read the book first or see the movie first?
    No preference. But whether I approach either with an open mind is a mine field inside my ridiculously judgmental head. I'm puzzlingly prejudiced about books and authors, completely irrational about it, really, so if my internal voice says the author is "good" I'll feel thrilled to watch the movie or read the book in either order whichever presents itself first. (Note to meme: one reason I'm excited about this challenge is to be forced to read and watch things on a schedule and therefore possibly foil the judgmental obnoxious voice in my head.)

  3. List one movie that was better than the book it’s based on, and one book that is better than the movie.
    Tom Jones was without a doubt the most boring movie I have ever seen. Considering that it's based on a quite ordinary but enjoyable novel by Henry Fielding, and that the screenplay was written by John Osborne who is absolutely one of the last century's most exciting playwrights (Look Bank in Anger, The Entertainer, Luther. . .), I never understood why it didn't work at all for me but I've gotten better nights sleep "watching" it than under medication.

    Believe it or not, my choice for the second part of the question is the 1988 tv version of Anna Karenina (WAIT! don't despair of my taste - I'll explain). I loathed the book when I read it when I was really too young to understand it, but it still makes me want to throw a book at Anna's head because she's so relentlessly pouty and unwilling to do anything to fix her situation. But in this version, Paul Scofield conveys an astonishingly two-part emotional impact - on the one hand, loving and care-taking but on the other utterly stodgy and almost imprisoning of his wife and child whom he, nonetheless, clearly and vividly loves. Since I found Scofield very attractive, this portrayal of a man who could not be dashing and exciting even though he wanted to appeal to his wife clicked with me and finally made me understand Anna's misery. Furthermore, Jacqueline Bisset was superficial yet conveyed affection and tenderness so wasn't the idiotic flibbertigibbet that Anna seemed to me in the book. In other words, I understood, appreciated and cared about the emotional truth of the characters because of this movie even though it had eluded me in the book.

  4. In your opinion, what film is the most accurate representation of the book?
    There are several in contention but the winner is the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion. I thought the subtlety and richness of the characters was every bit as deep as Jane had written them and, amazingly, brought quietly and yet intensely to three-dimensional life. It's such an over-used word, but the "truth" of the characters was absolutely intact.

    I must also mention Amy Heckerling's Clueless. As attested to by the Writer's Guild of America's giving her screenplay the best writing award, Heckerling retained Austen's Emma's characters at the core of their emotional lives, and the essential plot, while changing everything on the surface. It was brilliant.

    And I need to add something about another movie from a book. When I was quite young, I saw the Audrey Hepburn/Mel Ferrer/Henry Fonda version of War and Peace which was directed by King Vidor. (It's pretty funny to see "writing credit: Leo Tolstoi".) I was absolutely bowled over by the cinematicness of the experience and was deeply moved by Natasha's and André's love for each other although in the end I was even more touched by Pierre's great love for Natasha and for Russia. Anyway, the experience was so profound that I spent several months reading a wonderful 2-volume edition of the book that is now almost in tatters because I loved it so much. I have no idea whether it really is the best adaptation of a book into a movie but I know that watching it changed my movie-going and reading it changed my reading and reading it would not have happened, at least not then, without having seen the movie.
I'm a bit startled - and embarrassed - to see that evidently I really like literary chick-lit but so be it. I also like many adaptations of detective books (Dorothy Sayers' Peter Whimsey stories, for example) and I thought the British tv series of Jeeves and Wooster (with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry) infused the two men with liveliness and depth.

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Permalink | 4 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:10 AM

Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Kay Francis month
Kay Francis is TCM's featured actress this month. As a result, September will be fantastic, wonderful and sleep-deprived. They're showing 42 of her films, possibly because she is one of the most interesting pre-code and just-post-code actresses. She infused each character with an unusual mix of toughness, feminity and clear-eyed genuineness. I often find her more modern all those years ago than many of today's actors. In fact I can't think of any current performers with anything like her combination of strength and power with charm, sex appeal and occasional silliness. Anyway, for our viewing and recording convenience, here is the schedule:













date / time / title / director and other leading actor(s)

Sept. 4

8:00 p.m. — Raffles (d. G.Fitzmaurice, w/ David Niven)

9:15 p.m. — Jewel Robbery (d. W.Dieterle, w/ William Powell)*

10:30 p.m. — One Way Passage (d. T.Garnett, w/ William Powell)*

11:45 p.m. — Divorce (d. W.Nigh, w/ Bruce Cabot)*

Sept. 5

1:00 a.m. — Man Wanted (d. W.Dieterle, w/ David Manners & Una Merkel)*

2:15 a.m. — Men Are Like That (d. S.Logan, w/ Pat O'Brien)

3:45 a.m. — Comet Over Broadway (d. B.Berkeley, w/ Ian Hunter & Donald Crisp)*

5:00 a.m. — I Loved A Woman (d. A.E.Green, w/ Edward G. Robinson)*

6:45 a.m. — Living on Velvet (d. F.Borzage, w/ George Brent & William Warren)*

Sept. 11

8:00 p.m. — Trouble in Paradise (d. E.Lubitsch w/ Herbert Marshall & M.Hopkins)*

9:30 p.m. — Cynara (d. K.Vidor, w/ Ronald Coleman)*

11:00 p.m. — A Notorious Affair (d. L.Bacon, w/ Basil Rathbone)

Sept. 12

12:15 a.m. — The Feminine Touch (d. W.S.VanDyke, w/ Don Ameche)

2:00 a.m. — Street of Women (d. A.Mayo, w/ Roland Young)

3:00 a.m. — Give Me Your Heart (d. A.Mayo, w/ George Brent)

4:30 a.m. — Stolen Holiday (d. M.Curtiz, w/ Claude Rains)*

6:00 a.m. — Mary Stevens, M.D. (d. L.Bacon, w/ Lyle Talbot)

7:15 a.m. — Passion Flower (d. W.de Mille, w/ Charles Bickford)

8:45 a.m. — Another Dawn (d. W.Dieterle, w/ Errol Flynn)*

10:00 a.m. — The Goose and the Gander (d. A.E.Green, w/ George Brent)*

11:15 a.m. — The House on 56th St. (d. R.Florey, w/ Ricardo Cortez & Gene Raymond)*

Sept. 18

8:00 p.m. — Transgression (d. H.Brenon, w/ Ricardo Cortez)

9:15 p.m. — Secrets of an Actress (d. W.Keighley, w/ George Brent)

10:30 p.m. — Women in the Wind (d. J.Farrow (Mia's father), w/ William Gargan)

11:45 p.m. — King of the Underworld (d. L.Seller, w/ Humphrey Bogart)

Sept. 19

1:00 a.m. — It's A Date (d. W.Seiter, w/ Walter Pidgeon)

2:45 a.m. — Playgirl (d. F.Woodruff, w/ Nigel Bruce)

4:15 a.m. — Little Men (d. N.Z.McLeod, w/ Jack Oakie)

5:45 a.m. — My Bill (d. J.Farrow, w/ Bonita Granville (of Nancy Drew fame))

7:00 a.m. — In Name Only (d. J.Cromwell, w/ Cary Grant)*

8:45 a.m. — The Keyhole (d. M.Curtiz, w/ George Brent)*

10:00 a.m. — I Found Stella Parish (d. M.LeRoy, w/ Paul Lukas & Ian Hunter)

Sept. 25

8:00 p.m. — Mandalay (d. M.Curtiz, w/ Ricardo Cortez)*

9:15 p.m. — Doctor Monica (d. W.Keighley, w/ William Warren)

10:15 p.m. — Confession (d. J.May, w/ Basil Rathbone & Ian Hunter)

Sept. 26

12:00 a.m. — First Lady (d. S.Logan, w/ Victor Jory & Anita Louise)

1:30 a.m. — Always in My Heart (d. J.Graham, w/ Walter Huston)

3:15 a.m. — Stranded (d. F.Borzage, w/ George Brent)*

4:30 a.m. — Storm at Daybreak (d. R.Boleslawski, w/ Walter Huston)

6:00 a.m. — Guilty Hands (d. W.S.van Dyke, w/ Lionel Barrymore)

7:15 a.m. — Allotment Wives (d. W.Nigh, w/ Paul Kelly)

8:45 a.m. — The White Angel (d. W.Dieterle, w/ Ian Hunter & Donald Woods)

*Particularly recommended by me or The Self-Style Siren or Laura or TCM or others (to be added). . . .

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Permalink | 2 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:25 AM

Friday, June 6, 2008
Dirty Zingy Harry
Clint Eastwood's Cannes interview makes for terrific reading - no surprise there.

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 12:36 PM

Monday, June 2, 2008
Charlie Wilson's War
Some friends and I watched Charlie Wilson's War over the weekend. It was terrific and I'm not at all sure why it only rates 7.5 (out of 10) at imdb. There are some slightly scary circuitous and diatribe-esque discussion threads there but unless you like to read various levels of lunacy and bad spelling, just ignore them. Anyway, the movie is better than most of the current movies I've seen but, then again, I'm mainly a fan of movies driven by plots and characters that make logical and emotional sense so my judgment may be impaired according to some points of view.

I read the book about six months ago so I was curious as to how all the thousands of personalities, passions, points of view, events and mere thoughts could be culled from 500+ pages into a movie that wouldn't run ten hours and put everyone to sleep. What's amazing is that they got the important people, facts and stories in, and managed to convey what I believe is at the story's heart: the conviction that a few passionate people can get big things done as long as they are determined and willing enough to play the "games" of politics and inner-circle dealing. Realizing that an awful lot of things happen that way, one wonders why inner circle politicians don't get more done, after seeing this movie.

And I do not think, by the way, that Charlie and Gust caused the events of 9-11-2001. To me that's like saying that rapist attack women because they wear miniskirts, or that husbands burtalize wives when they defend their self-respect. Those who carried out 9-11 had been memorizing their lines and running tech rehearsals for quite a while, long before all this, and it might just have happened sooner but for Charlie and Gust but it certainly wasn't retaliation or a logical outcome.

Anyway, this is absorbing and provocative. Read and/or watch and let's talk.....

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 6:09 PM

Monday, April 14, 2008
Films
Watched several episodes of two British tv series this weekend. Both series are marvelous, though very different. I recommend them highly.

Five Days is, as they say, a taut drama whose over-arching subject is both human nature and modern society but which is told in a small, intense, riveting way. One day a mother drives out with her two children to go visit her beloved grandfather. She stops the car to buy flowers from one of those roadside vans and . . . disappears. What will the two children do? What will her husband do? How will her teenage daughter, whose father lives in France, handle it and what will she do? How will her parents react and what will they do? And what about the police? And what about the media coverage? . . . . There are *so* many ramifications and twists and turns, as there would be, and it's simply engrossing. It's written quietly and without demanding specific reactions, although there are a few times when one feels a bit guided, but they are few and far between. If I have any criticism, and I almost don't, it would be the occasionally sporadic and too-quick way that characters are introduced and/or their motivation shown. I've only been through the first three days so far so I'll update this when I live through days 4 and 5.

The cast is extraordinary - from Edward Woodward (remember the Enforcer?!) to Janet McTeer to Hugh Bonneville to David Oyelowo to Sarah Smart to Penelope Wilton to Patrick Malahyde to a slew of others that you will recognize even if you don't know their names. And Magnus Fiennes' music is perfect - you're aware of it now and then but mostly it just underpins everything.

Hamish MacBeth is the about of a quirky Scottish policeman in a very small stunningly beautiful lakeside town named Lochdubh ('black lake') and oh the scenery. Hamish's overlooks minor crimes but is clever in his ability to snag more serious infractions, all the while committing some of his own as he deliberately avoids promotion. He pines for Alexandra, the daughter of a wealthy local landowner to whom he was once engaged, before she left for Glasgow and a writing career but a local girl pines for him and time will tell what happens there. Meanwhile, Hamish is accompanied everywhere by his witty Weltie, Jock, the silent cast member, and his right arm and friend, John. Apparently the 20-episode series is based on the so-far 24 novels written by M.C. Beaton (pen name for Marion Chesney) and I for one am tempted to start reading them. Hamish is played by Robert Carlyle, possibly the single most unlikely actor in the world to play such a gentle off-beat guy since he's best known for appallingly violent and scary characters who are totally the opposite of Hamish but perhaps that lends a certain je ne sais quoi to this portrayal. Anyway, he's very enjoyable and grows on you in the same way that many British series characters do.

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:16 AM

Friday, March 14, 2008
Simply Audiobooks
Simply Audiobooks is a terrific idea. Kind of Netflix* for books but much more expensive and tons less reliable. It takes almost a week to get a book to or from them, thus taking ten days or more of a month right there. And although they list lots of books, they must have few of each title including the not-best-sellers I usually like, so you can have ten or more books in your queue and still have none available to be shipped. They're very nice when you call or write to ask questions or complain, but it just doesn't quite make the grade. Makes one appreciate Netflix all the more.

*According to Wikipedia, Netflix was founded in 1997 by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings in Los Gatos, California.

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 3:18 PM

Friday, January 25, 2008
Nancy Drew
I watched the Maggie Lawson Nancy Drew movie the other night. Written by Amy Mann, daughter of Michael Mann of smart and fabulously popular tv fame ("Miami Vice"), it was not even remotely as bad as some reviews led me to expect. Lawson's Nancy has vigor and charm in spades, and the mystery itself was certainly passably interesting, and that's really what she's all about. I loved the camera showing us her desk top piles of favorite books and photos - they were wonderful (Sherlock Holmes, Dorothy Sayers, her parents, and others), identifying the person those of us who love her know well. Now that I think of it, perhaps for a dyed-in-the-wool Drew fan, any telling of one of her stories is just fine. Which brings to mind that t2cgitw still have The Secret in the Old Clock ahead of them . . . lucky girls!!!

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 1:37 AM

Friday, January 18, 2008
Last night's movie - Man of the Moment
TCM is premiering some 27 Warners' British films from the 1930's that were snubbed in previous years as being "lesser" because they were made quickly, often as the second feature when double features were the thing and people spent pennies to wile away Saturday afternoon at the movies; then again, they didn't have Tivo.

Man of the Moment is lots of fun and I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so here's just the setup: Mary (Laura La Plante who was a big musical comedy star) is a pretty young secretary in a London firm. She's infatuated with her boss but he, of course, is a cad. That sudden realization upsets Mary so much that she quits and decides to drown herself. Along comes a well-to-do young man, Tony (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. at his relaxed and dashing best before he became too self-conscious), who rather merrily rescues her and takes her home to prevent her jumping back into the water. Once there, antics ensue as we meet his dog (who can leave a room and close the door), his butler, his fiancée (Margaret Lockwood who went on to become a big star in Britain) and her father as well as loads of his pals who have come to regale him at his bachelor party.

Man of the Moment belongs on the same shelf with the stellar charming and delightful screwball comedies of the era, though this is a British version. P.G.Wodehouse of Bertie Wooster fame would be delighted, I am sure, his biscuit-tossing young men being well-matched by the musical chairs revelers and a nutcracking episode at the bachelor party. Also, because it's pre-Code, the unmarried hero and heroine take a hotel room with only one double bed (gasp) and she spends a fair amount of time in Tony's brother's clothes. It's great to see so many actors that one knows, early in their careers, expertly navigating this perky plot for whom we can thank Yves Mirande, a highly successful French playwright, and (among others) A.R. Rawlinson, one of 4 credited writers of the 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much (one of the best stories ever written, in my opinion). There's nothing at all salacious, just a whole lot of good fun, eye candy, and much clever verbal and visual repartee.

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:24 AM

Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Films, books and gossip
One of the best books in the world is Bernard Schlink's The Reader. It challenges tons of thoughts and attitudes about many things and, at minimum, makes you realize how difficult some moral and ethical choices can be, even for good people who have every intention of making good and correct choices and decisions. And it makes you see the tiny bits of frailty and vulnerability that we all have. It's an amazing book.

Not surprisingly, The Reader is being made into a film. Nicole Kidman was to play Hanna and Ralph Fiennes to play Michael. It is fundamental to the entire story that Michael was 15 when Hanna was 30 - it actually wouldn't make sense otherwise. As a result, in the "present" in the book, Michael is around 35ish and Hanna 50. Kidman would be hard pressed to look world-weary-though-appealing and 50 since she is actually 40 and doesn't appear at all world-weary. Fiennes could not possibly look innocent and sweet, except unctiously so, let alone 35, since he is actually nearing 50. It would utterly change (read: ruin) the story if they alter the ages, especially switching who's older and who's younger.

Anyway, it's all moot at the moment because Kidman has withdrawn from the project due to her pregnancy. (I'm happy for her though puzzled in a gossipy and completely rude way; it supposedly was she who couldn't have children with Tom Cruise and that's why they adopted and that was supposedly further backed up by the ever-so-viral proof that he and Katie had Suri so quickly but now Nicole is pregnant and rumors are afoot that Suri was in vitro from L.Ron Hubbard (of all people); can you say scientology is insane and maybe so is Cruise and maybe so am I for even thinking let alone writing about this . . . .) Well, in my perfect and completely unlikely fantasy world, they'll hold off on making the movie until Kidman can do it and that will mean Fiennes will go do something else and they'll have to sign a younger and more appropriate man in his place. My fingers are crossed.

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 11:13 AM

Monday, December 24, 2007
A Christmas Carol
How pleasant to discover that the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol is wonderful. I've long been a huge fan of the Alistair Sims version, but Scott and Roger Rees as his nephew are grand. So is Caroline Langrishe as his nephew's wife - she's always a joy to watch, isn't she?! David Warner is a bit too substantial as Bob Crachit for me, but perfection is pretty much impossible for each and every viewer. In any case, Scott's intensity and bombast are entirely believable. And the happy upshot is that there turns out to be a delightful color version of this sweetly simple and wonderful story too!

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Permalink | 3 comment(s) | posted by jau at 10:04 PM

Sunday, December 9, 2007
"I'll Be There"
Watched a terrific little movie thanks to Netflix's suggestions. I'll Be There is an offbeat Scottish comedy (is that an oxymoron or a tautology, I wonder?) starting, written and directed by Craig Ferguson of the Late Late Show. He turns out to be a powerhouse combination of actor-writer-director-producer-creator-comedian-musician-author. Who knew?! He was the lead vocalist in a rock 'n' roll band and does a nice job in this film, I must say. By far the more surprising, though, is Joss Ackland who was in his mid-seventies when he made this movie - wait til you see him in black shirt and leather pants fronting his own rock band. He's such a revered and terrific part of the stage and dramatic world (his Shadowlands was phenomenal). The rest of the superb ensemble comprises Jemma Redgrave, Ismelda Staunton, Anthony Head, Ralph Brown and Phillipa Law, among others. Charlotte Church's dramatic debut isn't all one might have hoped for but her voice is crystal clear and absolutely gorgeous - even if the character and her appearance are a bit too much of a teenager. Of course, since that's part of the point of her character, maybe ot just proves she's doing a great job! Anyway, this film is hardly great art but it does have absolute truckloads of irony, sarcasm, wit, sweetness and charm all rolled up in a nice turn on an oft-told theme.

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Permalink | 1 comment(s) | posted by jau at 11:05 AM

Monday, November 12, 2007
Larraine Day & Dr. Kildare
Some of the most enjoyable hours of my life have been spent watching reruns of old Dr. Kildare movies. These black and white films offer amusing stories brought to life by magnificent actors : Lionel Barrymore, Nell Craig, Red Skelton, Walter Kingsford, Lew Ayres and (drumroll, please) Larraine Day as Mary Lamont, Dr. Kildare's love interest and, eventually, wife. Sadly, Larraine Day has died, only a few months after her husband of 47 years (!) (she was also married to Leo Durocher of Brooklyn Dodgers fame, for 13 years). We are very lucky to have many movies of hers to watch whenever we can, all of which are delightful but none more so than the Dr. Kildares - of which there will be a marathon on TCM on November 28th (get out your Tivo's!) (most welome h/t Laura).

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 10:03 PM

Saturday, October 6, 2007
Movie star of the day
Two - not one but two - movies are on TCM today with William Warren as the Lone Wolf. These are simply wonderful black & white films that are stylish, a bit mysterious, fairly well written, and just plain lots of fun. They're good enough in so many ways that they bear being watched and rewatched many times. As I have done to my great good fortune. If you've never seen Warren, he's an oddly unknown gem who made nearly 70 films and was both a terrific villain and a dashing leading man. How many actors can do all that? I can't figure out why people like George Clooney and Sean Penn are famous and Warren is not. Little of the Warren oeuvre (must use "oeuvre" when I can since it's so pretentious and so rarely the right word) is on DVD but it's often shown on TCM.

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Permalink | 1 comment(s) | posted by jau at 10:25 AM

Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Being flixy
I'm a big fan of NetFlix but they've slowed down or become less diligent or in any case changed something about the way they process films. It used to be that when you returned a film, it was recorded the second it hit the mail, presumably through some kind of computer notification, and your next selection was sent almost that very millisecond. You'd send a film back one day and have a new film in your hands a mere two days later. But now it's almost a full week turnaround. Did the bad guys figure out how to get the postal code to indicate a film had been returned when it wasn't? All I know is that this is frustrating and it's hard to time things so you get what/when you want. For example, I sent three films back on Monday morning and they still haven't been registered as received/returned and it's Wednesday.

As for alternatives, Blockbuster doesn't carry the quirkier, foreign and not-shoot-em-up films I like and, besides, I swore I'd never go there again after they started editing films to remove things they found distasteful (yes, I'm afraid it's been documented that they do that) and after they pulled that overcharging scam for late returns. And my computer isn't fast or big enough to do downloads easily. Bottom line is that I'd prefer to stick with NetFlix, but I hate being manipulated and this is frustrating.

I remember hearing a rumor a while back that NetFlix deliberately slows things down for heavier users. Do they register a single returned film as son as it hits the post office but wait for physical returns when there's more than one? And although it seems idiotic to mistreat your best customers from a public relations point of view, it makes some dollars-and-cents sense. On the 3-films-at-once plan, if you get 9 films a month, it's $1.70+ each; 3 films is almost double that. Obviously customers having fewer films is better for them (unless customers stop renting at all, of course). Although when you multiply any amount times one or two gazillions of their customers, the numbers are enormous any way you cut it.

I wonder how to figure out if the slower turnaround is deliberate and/or how to "work" their processing.

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 7:28 AM

Saturday, July 21, 2007
The importance of being witty
TCM is showing The Importance of Being Earnest at the moment and I must say that it has always impressed me that decorous wit and conversation are among the finest things in life, literary or otherwise.

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 11:30 PM