what movie are you watching now?

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nature

climber

back in Tuscon Aridzona....

Sep 30, 2011 - 11:39pm PT

TFPU

Ihateplastic

Trad climber

It ain't El Cap, Oregon

Oct 1, 2011 - 12:19am PT

Just watched Bridesmaids. Okay but not as funny as I was led to believe. However...

Since when did studios stop allowing renters to see the special features? The disk has them but upon attempting to view them I was informed that I must purchase the disk to see the special features. Now THAT is LAME!!!

Now on to Prom.

EDIT: Well, believe it or not... if you have a teenage daughter watching Prom as a family is an enjoyable evening. Predictable as hell but not painful by any means.

S.Leeper

Sport climber

Pflugerville, Texas

Topic Author's Reply - Oct 8, 2011 - 02:08am PT

just watched "drive" tight tight movie!

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Oct 10, 2011 - 03:06pm PT

A Clockwork Orange is a film that, from beginning to end, drips of irony. It is a brilliant, darkly poetic work that is able to both enrapture and disgust.

The film's poster and tagline advertised its themes of violence in a police state, teen delinquency, technological control, and dehumanization.

The visually-brilliant film is narrated by Alex, the film's main hero/protagonist:

Alex (voice-over): There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence.

Visually, they are harshly backlit and project elongated shadows ahead of them as they walk through the darkened streets with billyclubs, wearing white trousers and white suspenders to match, black combat boots and derbies. Every night, they commit stylized but meaningless acts of terrorism including rape ("the old in-out, in-out"), robbery, and mugging.

The youth gang beat up a drunken bum (Paul Farrell) who has sought refuge in a gutter under a pedestrian underpass, while singing "Molly Malone." The "filthy, dirty old drunkie" taunts them and is severely beaten after masochistically bemoaning the state of affairs in the present society - "a stinking world" where the young show no respect for the elderly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=oWLByMshYIU

On the soundtrack, a balletic overture of violins and woodwinds plays, as the camera pans down from a gilded prosceneum above the stage of a derelict, abandoned opera house/-, a symbol of collapsed civilization. Operatic screams and waltztime music are heard as a young woman struggles during an acrobatically-delivered molestation. On stage, the rape victim has her clothes torn off by five other mad-faced delinquents from a rival gang. The leader, Billyboy (Richard Connaught) and his gang of droogs wear remnants of old Nazi uniforms:

Alex (in voice-over): It was around by the derelict - that we came across Billyboy and his four droogs. They were getting ready to perform a little of the old in-out, in-out on a weepy young devotchka they had there.

From the shadows, Alex and his gang observe the preparation for the rape, and then - preferring violence to sex, challenge them to a fight on the rubbish-strewn floor with a youthful, sexual insult: "How art thou, thou glob by bottle of cheap, stinking chip oil? Come and get one in the yarbles, if you have any yarbles, you eunich jelly thou."

The old-fashioned, stylized rumble, a quick-edited succession of violent images performed as a balletic dance, is dazzling - synchronized with the building music from Rossini's The Thieving Magpie (La Gazza Ladra). In slap-stick style, the adolescent gangs flash switchblades, hurl each other through furniture and plate glass windows, and use judo to smash each other about. Bodies fly through the air, leap and somersault; chairs smash heads.

To underline the assaultive nature of the film's content, much of its camera work is deliberately in-out, with few pans or much lateral/horizontal movement. Because of the copy-cat violence that the film was blamed for, Kubrick withdrew it from circulation in Britain about a year after its release. [Shortly after the ban was instituted, a 17-year old Dutch girl was raped in 1973 in Lancashire, at the hands of men singing Singing in the Rain. And a 16-year-old boy had beaten a younger child while wearing Alex's uniform of white overalls, black bowler hat and combat boots. Both were considered 'proof', after the fact, that the film had an influential effect on violence in society.] In preparation for a new 1972 release for US audiences, Kubrick replaced about 30 seconds of footage to get an R-rating, as opposed to the X-rating that the MPAA initially assigned to it. (The replacement footage was for two scenes: the high-speed orgy scene in Alex's bedroom, and the rape scene projected at the Ludovico Medical Center.) In the spring of 2000, an uncut version of the film was re-released to British screens.

The frightening, chilling and tantalizing film (a morality play) raises many thematic questions and presents a thought-provoking parable: How can evil be eradicated in modern society? If the state can deprive an individual of his free will, making him 'a clockwork orange,' what does this say about the nightmarish, behavioral modification technologies of punishment and crime? Do we lose our humanity if we are deprived of the free-will choice between good and evil?

S.Leeper

Sport climber

Pflugerville, Texas

Topic Author's Reply - Oct 10, 2011 - 07:19pm PT

I never noticed that!! ^^^^

Gal

Trad climber

a semi lucid consciousness

Oct 10, 2011 - 07:50pm PT

I remember reading Clockwork Orange, and it was disturbing. Interesting point, Dingus (I've seen Goodfellows a time or two ;-) / more like 50 times)

Anyway, now watching Trainspotting & Pulp Fiction (it's been a while since i'd seen these).

I keep going back to older movies-is there ANYTHING recent (last 5 months worthwhile)?

Toker Villain

Big Wall climber

Toquerville, Utah

Oct 10, 2011 - 07:53pm PT

Marlow, if you liked Ran then check out King Lear. The plot might seem vaguely familiar.

S.Leeper

Sport climber

Pflugerville, Texas

Topic Author's Reply - Oct 13, 2011 - 12:48am PT

the hustle 2008

what a piece of crap

FRUMY

Trad climber

SHERMAN OAKS,CA

Oct 13, 2011 - 12:58am PT

The big chill.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Oct 13, 2011 - 01:05am PT

I realized yesterday when Aretha sang the Star Spangled Banner at the ball
game that I haven't seen "Blues Bothers" in a few years.

I knew something was wrong - glad I figgered it out.

Sheik aka JD

Trad climber

Oct 13, 2011 - 03:01am PT

This early evening, finished streaming the Mad Men series on Netflix. Witty dialogue, interesting snapshot of early 1960's life, and lessons (still) applicable in the business world.

Just now, watched The Future of Food. Eye-opening argument for sustainable agriculture (i.e. local, organic).

Relic

Social climber

Vancouver, BC

Oct 13, 2011 - 04:50am PT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh2SuJrEjwM

Battleship Potemkin!

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Oct 13, 2011 - 12:46pm PT

Piton Ron

Thanks for reminding me of King Lear which Ran is partly based on.

If you take the films of both Kurosawa and Sergio Leone you have a collection of films I could easily see as the filmatic equivalent to Shakespeare.

And if I had to choose only one filmmaker and put him in such a position it had to be Kubrick.

Humanity, tragedy, comedy.

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Oct 13, 2011 - 01:25pm PT

Branagh's Shakespeare is excellent. One of my best filmatic experiences is connected to seeing him as Henry V completely worn out, tired to the bone, but raising to the challenge once again. And I agree - his Iago is very very well done. I also like his Much Ado For Nothing. Emma Thompson is one of my favorite actresses and to me she IS Beatrice in that film.

Which reminds me of another film - The Winter Guest - where Emma plays against her mother Phyllidia Law - the film is one of my favourites - there is a human touch and fragility to some of the scenes that is extraordinary. Film critics did not appreciate the film very much though.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Oct 14, 2011 - 01:44am PT

Diane Cilento died recently. You might know her as one of the stars of "The Wicker Man", along with "The Agony and the Ecstasy, and "Tom Jones".

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Oct 14, 2011 - 08:34am PT

Sullly

I don't remember the impression Helena B. Carter as Ophelia and Mel Gibson's Hamlet made on me, but Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins in the understated Remains of the Day made a lasting impression. In my view they are two of the best actors ever to have set their feet on the earth. They are able to play very much attracted by each other and at the same time desperately emotionally restrained. They are almost painful to watch, just as they should be. They are also culturally well equiped to make the film - English as they are.