Friday
Aug072020
What's on your cinematic mind?
Friday, August 7, 2020 at 10:33AM Apologies for the lack of a morning post. Rearranging our schedules a bit at TFE HQ. More soon. In the meantime, what movie are you thinking about RIGHT NOW?
Reader Comments (33)
Right this second I'm re-watching I Want To Live. Susie is much better than I'd remembered (If still at bit OTT).
Just realized this is the longest I've ever gone without seeing a movie in a theater.. I miss it.
I miss getting there early, eating overpriced concession snacks, watching the dumb movie trivia play on the screen beforehand. Wondering what trailers will be shown before the film.
The last movie I got to see was THE WAY BACK, back in March. It's now August and the depression is still as real now as it was when this pandemic first started.
For many people like me, moviegoing was an escape from everyday life. A place to forget any troubles and just escape for 2 hours. I miss it. :-(
When is the Nicole Kidman/David E. Kelly HBO Miniseries coming out, and why is it taking so long?!?
Just posted my latest on 'North by Northwest' as part of an Alfred Hitchcock blogathon.
https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2020/08/north-by-northwest-1959.html
Cheers, Rick
Hal Ashby - I watched the doc 'Hal' last night and was reminded how spectacular his films are. What an incredible run!
What is on my mind is that the type of movie I'm watching at home is so different from something I'd seek out at a theater. I guess it's that going to the theater and spending the big bucks forces you to stay in your seat and concentrate on what is on the screen. I would normally seek out something beautiful and epic, or at least "serious".
What I find myself watching at home are "over and over" comedies and musicals, even Youtube snippets of musical or dance performances.
I have been trying to watch Casque d'Or for days and weeks now and even though it's pretty great with a beautiful Simone Signoret, I just can't seem to focus on the movie. Is it the subtitles? Is it the black and white? Is it the leading men who are kind of boring? Not sure.
To be completely honest?
My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks.
It's such a great movie full of toe-tapping songs and a memorable trio of villains. It's not high cinema but man is it fun.
CRUEL INTENTIONS popped into my head. When is Sarah Michelle Gellar going to grace our screens again!? She is fabulous in that movie!
Enjoying Dollar, an 1938 Swedish comedy with Ingrid Bergman.
Why is Mary Reilly with Julia Roberts not appreciated more.Just got the Blu Ray and it's reappraisal is needed.
Gallipoli... I saw it for the first time and it is fantastic. Why doesn't Peter Weir have an honorary Oscar?
jules -- that is a great question. I always wonder what they're waiting for.
mark -- i haven't seen that since the year it came out
bhuray -- good question
dave -- i was having that trouble for a while -- focusing. But i'm watching 1938 movies right now and giving myself a project helps me to focus.
David - you and me both!
And Dave (in H), I always have that problem with seeing movies at home, which is why I always try to see movies I really want to see/appreciate in theaters. I suppose I should say "used to try," but that depresses me.
It also reminds me of how much I appreciated seeing ROMA in theaters - that feeling of complete immersion. Whereas, several friends told me they tried watching it on streaming and just could not get through it - yet I feel like at least some of them would have ended up appreciating it more if they'd been in a theater.
The Dardennes' 'Young Ahmed' opens digitally in the UK this weekend so I'm planning that with a bucket of wine tonight (the wine is the only way I can get through a Dardenne movie without falling into a pit of depression).
Thinking about Emma and Anthony, since I'm reading Remains of the Day these days.
And kind of always thinking of David Cronenberg, since I'm doing a deep dive on him, and finally saw Videodrome for the 1st time, and it's SO MESSED UP AND AMAZING! Nikki Brand should have icon status.
BLACK IS KING but mostly because I kind of need a movie that revolves around Beyonce's song "Brown Skin Girl" starring Lupita (who's also on the video) of course. And it should either be an epic romance or simply a romcom. Basically as long as Lupita gets some, I'm in.
Just watched Egoyan's "The Adjuster" because someone praised Gabrielle Rose's performance in the comments section for the 91' smackdown. Reminds me why I love films- intoxicating, disturbing and so strange. Highly recommended!
Judas and The Black Messiah the most exciting trailer I've seen in years.
Plus, that is a A++ title. Everyone kept making the same "Give Daniel Kaluuya the Oscar now!" reactions
In between somber film scores and Viking metal bands, I listened to Wilford Brimley's jazz album with the Jeff Hamilton Trio. He sang unsentimentally in that sonorous bass, even ballads such as 'I Have Dreamed' came out like a seen-it-all rumination.
Also listened to Danny Aiello's album of standards. This is a swingier set that is more Rat Pack than Chet Baker.
I watched The Snoop Sisters starring Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick. Natwick had such comic timing, why don't I know this? Listened to this obscure musical she did in 1979 called 70, Girls, 70 on Youtube, music by Fred Ebb. Quaint.
I've been doing house DJ stuff lately and as a homage to Aiello, Brimley and Natwick, I mixed their music with '70s Brit funk. Not sure I was successful though but oh what fun curating anachronistic sounds.
Just thinking how Allyn Ann McLerie squeezed her Calamity Jane role for all it's worth (while looking absolutely luminous)and would've been a worthy supporting actress Oscar nominee that year. (I also didn't realise she had They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, The Way We Were and All the President's Men in her filmography)
You should watch it again Nat,I know the accent from Julia is off but she is soild in it,the music,the supporting cast,the cinematography are all worthy of note,
@jules- I've been thinking about Picnic at Hanging Rock. He deserves an Oscar for that movie alone.
@Tom G. - Picnic at Hanging Rock is SO GOOD! I saw it for the first time this summer.
As sad as it is to not be able to see movies in theatres this summer, I imagine a lot of us have spent the time filling in gaps in our own viewing.
1987. I'm about to go deep in 87 as it's the last year of the smackdown summer season. Today I've watched all the supporting actress films and honestly Moonstruck is a perfect movie that really made me happy.
I too also miss the cinema because with my membership to my local cinema i'd go to 5 movies a day weekly at the cinema. I miss sitting in a cinema all day and experiencing cinema.
The positive in regards to cinema's and everything being locked down is it's given me an excuse to watch a lot of classic films that because of live I've never had the opportunity to watch
Girl with a Suitcase (1961)
CARMILLA, the first adaptation of La Fanu sapphic vampire classic (the source for Dryer's VAMPYR, Vadim's BLOOD AND ROSES and the Hammer Horror entry THE VAMPIRE LOVERS) actually directed by a woman. It's available as a PPV title on the Film Movement website. It's a slow burn but it delivers the goods!
Eoin -- but you still have time. we're doing 1938 and 1965 first! so the smackdown summer is extending into the fall!
Just finished watching Underworld U.S.A. by Samuel Fuller as it's an amazing film. When will Criterion release a box set of all of his films?
BACURAU, a powerful and poignant film from Brazil that premiered last year in Cannes. It´s like 3 movies in one with 3 different genres creating an ode to the spirit of the community.
So relevant today where the collective versus the individual needs are in discussion around the world in each country. Colonialism, the advance of technology, capitalism, dehumanization policies, american reductionism, the power of culture and memory... there is so much to talk about this movie. I don´t have this feeling very often after watching a movie. This film is relevant and necessary.
BEYOND BORDERS. I remember seeing a billboard for it for many weeks when I was driving on the freeway to my first set of college classes. Then I saw that SNL parody with Kelly Ripa as Angelina Jolie, and knew I just had to see the movie. I remember liking it, and have watched it a couple times but not in a few years. Debating to do a rewatch tonight, and pondering if I should change the TV settings to make it look like a B&W film.
Sometimes I remember the scorching hotness of James Franco in "Milk." Then I shed a tear Harris Savides is no longer with us :-(
Tom G. - I love Picnic at Hanging Rock! The Year of Living Dangerously is underrated as well - it has perhaps my favorite score of all-time.
Weir and Mike Leigh are at the top of my wish list for Honorary Oscars, with Ridley Scott just behind. I wish they'd honor one of the great directors of that generation this year.
House of the Devil with Greta Gerwig... JA posted about it (and her) recently.
Going to try to convince the hubby to watch it tonight!