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bart
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:25 am Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Posts: 2381 Location: Lincoln NE
The Man Who Came to Dinner is a real classic, btw. I remember enjoying it hugely when I was young (teens) and largely ignorant of film. Truly timeless.

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tirebiter
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:26 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4011 Location: not far away
Rod: Re. Abe Lincoln in Illinois-- next year brings Steven Spielberg's Lincoln bio with Liam Neeson. You can compare and contrast, early Abe vs. late Abe.
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billyweeds
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:47 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
bart wrote:
Just watched a late 2006/early 2007 release called First Snow, a pretty good tumbleweed noir set in NM, with Guy Pearce, JK Simmons, and William Fichtner. Has a metaphysical element regarding fate and changing the future, which seems to work well against the southwestern backdrop. Recommend it for serious Guy Pearce fans and/or aficionados of tumbleweed noir. Not quite as good as a John Dahl, but better than an Oliver Stone "U-Turn." Piper Perabo plays a GF/Voice of Reason to a coming-unglued Pearce, blandly but not badly.


I reviewed it about two weeks ago or so. Pretty good.
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yambu
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:42 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 6441 Location: SF Bay Area
Rod wrote:

....The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2005)....Cillian Murphy’s hero eventually irritated me, signing on with anti-treaty forces to fight for a Socialist Ireland (yeah right)....
The Irish Republican Socialist Party had been around since before the rebellion, but fell apart during the ferocious civil war, in the face of more existential issues. I loved Murphy in this role.

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ehle64
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:50 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 7149 Location: NYC; US&A
Aye, I did, too. I finally saw it the other night and found it really well done.

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mo_flixx
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:26 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
gromit wrote:
mo_flixx wrote:

gromit --
I don't know if your question was rhetorical or related to present day Romania. When I visited Romania last August, the country had changed tremendously from the Communist days. Bucharest is packed with SUV's and expensive cars. The charming town of Sibiu has a summer-long _free_ cultural festival featuring top musicians. Money from the EU and tourism seems to have poured into the country. Romanians are opening restaurants and B & B's. Sports stars have done well and are making investments in resort/real estate complexes. Even agro-tourism has taken off, especially with French visitors who enjoy working in the fields. You can still see plenty of horse-drawn carts in the countryside (and almost imagine that it's the 19th C.), but I suspect all that will be changing soon.
Nearby Moldova (populated by Romanians) but still heavily under the influence of Russia provides a bleak contrast to the relative prosperity one sees in Romania.


The film was looking at small-town life "east of Bucharest." And I think a part of it is that people's mindsets and habits haven't changed.

But good to hear what's going on there. I expect if it was still so poor, there wouldn't be cinematic renaissance underway. Have you seen any good Moldovan films lately?
I knew a few Romanians in Shanghai about 5 years back so got a picture of what things were like around 2000 (when they had left).

I'd like to get there.


gromit -

my impression is that small town life has definitely changed by now.

And if you'd like to get there, go soon; because life is becoming more westernized every day.

I was struck though at how very religious the country is. The church is a very important part of Romanian life.
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marantzo
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:29 pm Reply with quote
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Why were you surprised? Most all of Eastern Europe is very religious.
mo_flixx
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:39 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533
marantzo wrote:
Why were you surprised? Most all of Eastern Europe is very religious.


I said "struck" - in the sense of being impressed, not surprised. Yes, all of Eastern Europe is extremely religious including Russia where one would not believe how much money has been poured into building the most magnificent new Russian Orthodox churches - even as far as Magadan, Siberia.

The Romanians have devoted much care to the restoration of the painted monasteries in the northern part of the country. They are a huge attraction with scenes of Judgment Day, heaven and hell, and even the symbols of the Zodiac painted on both inside and outside surfaces, even ceilings.
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marantzo
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:15 pm Reply with quote
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It wouldn't have impressed me, but I have a low opinion of a dark ages mindset.
lady wakasa
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 4:30 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 5911 Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
For anyone who may be interested: Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes and a Century will be released on the 15th.

Amazon link

Apichatpong Weerasethakul also directed Tropical Malady.

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ehle64
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:13 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 7149 Location: NYC; US&A
Just now thoroughly enjoyed Once. I can see how it would win an Audience Favorite. Super songs (just DL'd the OST), extraordinarily fresh and charming leads, and a simple, yet, not completely wrapped-up story. A definite rental possibility (i.e., MUST) when you want to feel good for 80 or so minutes.

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marantzo
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:17 pm Reply with quote
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Glad you liked it Wade.

Quote:
Super songs (just DL'd the OST), extraordinarily fresh and charming leads, and a simple, yet, not completely wrapped-up story.


Couldn't agree with you more. And the final shot was perfect.
ehle64
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:20 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 7149 Location: NYC; US&A
the Vermeer window-esque shot? Agreed.

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yambu
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 8:27 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 6441 Location: SF Bay Area
Watched it last night. I've already downloaded "When Your Mind's Made Up" and "Falling Slowly". I loved the movie's studio collaboration and creation of these songs and others.

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Rod
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:26 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 Dec 2004 Posts: 2944 Location: Lithgow, Australia
Viewings

Mysterious Skin (2004)

Took me a while to get around to it; a very hard film for me to watch. But a gutsier and better done movie I’ve barely seen. It’s what American indie cinema should be, but all too rarely is. Between this and Brick Joseph Gordon-Levitt is showing signs of being the Brando of my generation.

No Way Out (1950)

Odd to watch this just a couple of days after This Is England, considering that in many ways Richard Widmark plays virtually the same character, albeit armed with way less subtlety, that Stephen Graham plays in that film – a man whose powerful social resentment manifests as explosive displays of racist hate and borderline psychosis. This film is a classic piece of Old Liberal Hollywoodism – a story composed of simplistic philosophy class dilemmas, stirred together with high-octane melodrama. There’s the usual godawful passages of do-you-get-the-point rhetoric, but the film is notably brave for the time in its raw language and Widmark’s willingness to push the envelope – at that time, actors like him and Kirk Douglas made a virtual religion out playing absolute assholes, and became stars doing it, which not so many mollycoddlers these days could claim. Sidney Poitier in his film debut is his usual spiffily upright self, shown up in the five lines of dialogue delivered by Ossie Davis with a peerless sense of realism (Davis and Ruby Dee are also making their debuts). Linda Darnell gets down and dirty and gives probably the best performance of her career. Director Joe Mankiewicz puts down all accusations that he wasn’t a good visual director with a brilliantly shot riot in a junkyard.

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