Friday
Apr182014
How I Feel / How I Wish I Felt
Friday, April 18, 2014 at 12:26PM As illustrated by Bradley Cooper. Literally this time since I'm so hungover.
Talk amongst yourselves as I convalesce. What's on your cinematic mind?
Friday, April 18, 2014 at 12:26PM
Reader Comments (33)
I want an Into the Woods and L5Y teaser! This year has so many musicals, and Annie's "teaser" is already out. The Jersey Boys trailer doesn't help either.
A perfect visual of lust and hairiness.
I'm so behind on classic movies and cinema in general that I organized my Netflix queue chronologically, arranging it so I have 1 classic and 1 modern at home (right now: Wuthering Heights from 1939 and Catching Fire). But it's taking forever to get through the 30's and I'm debating whether I really need to add certain titles like Dark Victory and The Letter, as much as I loved Bette in Jezebel, which I just saw.
Basically, this project is already taking me forever and so I'm constantly thinking about what movies to add or skip.
@DJDeeJay
Are you watching older titles out of obligation or because you genuinely enjoy older titles?
DJDeeJay-I don't know what else is on your list but both The Letter and Dark Victory are absolutely worth watching. Another great classic of a slightly (very slightly) more recent vintage totally worth checking out if you haven't seen it is A Letter to Three Wives from 1949.
I keep wondering if Amy Adams will be the next Kate a Winslet (nabbing a lead
Oscar on her 6th nom.) or the next Glenn close (becoming a member of
the 6 noms & 0 wins club)...
Mark! The idea of Amy Adams not getting an Oscar depresses me!
@3rtful - oh, definitely because I want to. I've already enjoyed so many in the '20s and '30s (The Passion of Joan of Arc, It Happened One Night, Stage Door, You Can't Take it With You, The 39 Steps, Bringing Up Baby, etc.) but I'm also super excited to get films in the '40s, '50s and so on that I'm antsy. There's just not enough hours in the day and I'd watch a movie a day if I could but sadly I barely get to one a week.
@joel6 - thanks! good to know.
Hey Nathan, all this Bette talk has me thinking about one of my guilty pleasures of hers--In This Our Life. Have you seen this one? Bette and Olivia play bad and good sisters in Mr. Huston's second directorial outing. A Southern potboiler with Bette at her histrionic height. She plays one true bitch, no lie LOL.
Sounds like you had fun last night...very cool.
I liked quite few movies recently that I didn't expect to like Hateship Loveship in which Wiig is fantastic. The Double which was so fast moving and enjoyable and built a credible world for its characters. Plus of course Under the Skin a new favorite movie of him. Loved loved loved.
@Mark
Amy Adams is neither whether she wins for Big Eyes or not.
@Joey
Girl please.
@DJDeeJay
Older titles feel like homework. Especially the golden era, before sound, before color, before widescreen, early television level of censorship. I don't pine or fantasize about this era which renders me invisible.
3rtf-
Amy is similar to Kate if she wins for Big Eyes - similar to Glenn if she loses
For Big Eyes.
So what point are you trying to make by Saying "neither" or no similarity?
She's on neither woman's level artistically. She just Amy Adams Oscar-less and over nominated.
Ugh sometimes I cannot handle 3rtful in the comments section.
I want to see Budapest Hotel and I think its going to skip right past my little corner of the world.
I also love classic films and have no problem with any part of them.
The Hilary Swank hand to mouth shock gesture being her overused mannerism.
Thinking how unlucky García Márquez was with his films adaptations. Not even a good one. :(
I second Iggy. One of my favorite authors and none of those films worked.......Perhaps Notes on a Kidnapping can be adapted.
I didn't have the slightest clue that Clint Eastwood was directing the movie adaptation of Jersey Boys. Was that kept under wraps or was I just that out of the loop?
djdeeday - well, given the response to the dark victory post, preference the 1939 films as we'll be covering (at least) all ten best picture nominees but probably also another 10 important ones that year like The Women and Destry Rides Again (zero noms between them) plus a handful of others.
Feeling like Bradley Cooper, regardless of the mood, is always a good thing.
@brookesboy: Why guilty? That movie is amazing and features (in my opinion) one of Bette's five best performances.
Am having a Felicity Jones Easter. Did NOT-AMAZING SPIDERMAN 2 on Wednesday, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN on Thursday and have the DVD of LIKE CRAZY to finally watch today.
Nat - Thanks for the rec. Yeah, that's what I was thinking as it's this blog that has influenced most of my queue (well, this and the Oscar winners for Picture, Actor and Actress, but I'm not trying to see every single nominee). Frankly, the enthusiasm for Dark Victory seemed to be for Bette rather than the movie which makes me hesitate, so I'm not sure about that one, as well as "Ninotchka." I finally saw a Garbo film ("Camille") and didn't quite get the appeal. She was fine, but nothing special. Now her co-star, Robert Taylor? Wow. Quite the beauty. Doesn't look like he did much afterward but I didn't mind staring at him for an hour and a half.
DJDeeJay : My goal for the past three years has been to watch 100 films - one each from the previous 100 years. I haven't been entirely successful, but my most successful attempt was when I completely ditched chronological order. In fact, I'd suggest doing it so that you never watch the same decade back-to-back. It feels a bit more freeing.
On my cinematic mind: The final 30 minutes of The Cabin in the Woods is really terrific stuff. I really hope Matthias Schoenaerts becomes a huge cross-over star. Desplat's score for<I>Rust and Bone</I> is one of his finest. David Michod's new film better get a release this year. Cannes. <I>Bright Star</I> is terribly underrated.
DJDeeJay-Dark Victory aside from Bette's performance is a well made picture with excellent work by Geraldine Fitzgerald and it does move well but Bette does dominate it because it is her story.
Ninotchka left me cold frankly and I really enjoyed Camille so waiting on it may not be a bad idea.
Robert Taylor was extremely beautiful when he was young but never the most facile actor. He's other notable performance to me is in Waterloo Bridge with Vivien Leigh, although she acts rings around him. Both considered it their favorites of their respective films and he had stated that she inspired him to give his best. A word of warning, it's heavy duty drama, tinged with tragedy.
joel6 - i like waterloo bridge a lot too.
mark & jordan -- i think we're all thinking that with Amy Adams. I think she's hit and miss as a performer but i have to admit that American Hustle really renewed my interest in her acting because i thought she was fascinating in it. I suspect the performance is going to age well. I think she'd have less detractors if the Academy hadn't been so ridiculously generous. It's getting to feel a bit like Streep. Oh she's in something? NOMINATE HER.
@3rtful - so when you say "older" films, what's your cutoff? Nothing before the '60s? '50s? Etc.
@Arkaan - that's interesting, but I do like the chronological order. I like seeing how performers and directors and film itself evolves. I just think the late '30s were such a generous time for good movies that it feels like I'll be stuck there forever, but I have a feeling once I get past the early '40s (can you believe I still haven't seen Citizen Kane or Casablanca?) things will go faster for a bit until maybe the mid-50's?
@joel6 & Nat - looking up Waterloo Bridge on Netflix, it looks like there was a 1932 version of the same story starring...Bette Davis! Weird coincidence.
DJDeeJay-I'd forgotten that Bette was in the original. Coincidences! Her part is secondary and the film isn't a bad pre-code but the Leigh/Taylor version is the one to see.
DJDeeDay - i once got stuck in 1954 for la few months and the boyfriend was about ready to kill me.
Nat - ha! so at one point were you trying to watch films chronologically, too? Or do you pick a time period to focus on, like a year or a decade?
DJDeeJay -- i just pick a year on occasion if i feel i've missed too much from that year
I wish I felt Bradley Cooper!