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| whiskeypriest |
 Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 9:21 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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gromit wrote: Would the pirates of China let me down with a shoddy edition?
I must have bought the war trilogy at least 5 years ago.
A few times they were out in the to-watch pile (which at times approaches a hundred). |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 9:42 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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That was a little black-market humor.
The rampant piracy here is pretty sophisticated, with a variety of high-end "brands," nice artwork, etc.**
All the Criterions are released here, except for a very few. I'm still waiting for the Martha Graham, the Robeson set and Forman's Loves of a Blonde. In fact the new CC releases routinely turn up here a week or slightly more before the official street date.
A roundabout way of saying that I get the Criterion packaging and transfers at a commie discount.
A nice bonus is that many of the eclipse sets have the 4 old films on just two discs.
I am wondering though if my CC war trilogy is Dvd5 or D9. I bought it so long ago, I assume it's D5. I notice know difference on my not-so-large 31" teevee, but the D9's tend to have all of the extras.
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** Here are two of the pirate brands blogsites:
http://www.mtime.com/my/eedvd/
(just click the link above the dateline to see all of the releases for that 2-3 week period)
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http://photo.blog.sina.com.cn/blogpiclist/u/1427702884
Gay Sex in the 70's -- woo-hoo.
The first manufacturer puts out mostly classic films, the second one mostly recent indie/independent films. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 10:53 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Quote: I have an arthritic finger I could give you.
Finally..........he shows a sign of aging......
I know Marj. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 11:48 am |
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Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't really have an arthritic finger. I do have a touch of gout though. Got it from the maternal side of my family. My mother was virtually a non-drinker, so it just hereditary.
Thanks for the compliment Betsy. I do have signs of aging, most definitely.
What was I saying again? |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 4:10 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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| LOL to you both, Gary and Bets. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 5:23 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Rene Clement's The Deadly Trap was kind of a fun thriller. There's a little bit of a low-budget, slapdash quality tot he film, which was hard to disentangle from the poor quality Dvd (did the film look so washed out like that, or surely it's mostly the transfer, where colors seemed to brighten and fade of their own volition?).
Frank Langella is an interesting presence, with his early 70's Al Pacino vibe and messy 'do, but better looking. That is, until you realize that he doesn't have much to do in the film. He's supposed to be some kind of genius who writes best-sellers about probability theory (maybe he works out that problem mathematically in his spare time), so they stick glasses and a sweater on him at times. Of course that geekiness runs counter to the reason he was hired, that animal Al Pacino vibe.
The plot of the film has to do with some shady "organization" wanting hip-geeky genius Frank to do some unnamed commercial espionage. It's all so secretive that even the scriptwriter and director never learn what it's all about. It's right of a piece with the paranoid thrillers of Pakula and others where conspiracies are vast and multinational and not squeamish about crushing little people to get their way.
Here the baddies are some apparently faceless corporation willing to sink to whatever illegalities. Industrial espionage! I just swapped that in my head for Frank having formerly been a hitman and being sucked back into the criminal enterprise for another hit. It works better, though is more standard (although the Mafia never killed off an entire body of water -- though that apparently was an accident).
Anyway, it's Faye Dunaway's film, and mostly a character study of paranoia and psychological disintegration. Here, it seems to have a good deal in common with Repulsion and even Rosemary's Baby. The storyline of two children being watched over by an unsettled woman also reminded me of The Innocents with touches of Don't Look Back (though now I see that that was made two years later).
Faye is very watchable here, and it'd be nice if someone could summarize her career and why it didn't really go too far after her blinding start in Bonnie & Clyde. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 5:47 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Huh? She was a major star for over a decade, starring in many, many hits including Little Big Man, Network and Chinatown, to name a few of the biggies. She didn't lose her place until the eary 80's with Mommie Dearest, which unfortunately wasn't just a huge flop but an immediate camp classic that damaged her career tremendously. She's never really recovered from that. But she was hardly a flash-in-the-pan after Bonnie and Clyde. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 7:00 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: Huh? She was a major star for over a decade, starring in many, many hits including Little Big Man, Network and Chinatown, to name a few of the biggies. She didn't lose her place until the eary 80's with Mommie Dearest, which unfortunately wasn't just a huge flop but an immediate camp classic that damaged her career tremendously. She's never really recovered from that. But she was hardly a flash-in-the-pan after Bonnie and Clyde.
Ditto on this. Chinatown? Network (for which she won the Best Actress Oscar?) Hardly a one-hit wonder or even close. But Joe is right. Mommie Dearest was a career-killer, as was her disastrous Joan-Rivers-level facial surgery and--reportedly--her horrendously narcissistic, toxic off-screen personality. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 9:04 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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She apparently is quite odious. The only person Bette Davis ever talked worse about than Joan Crawford was Faye Dunaway (ironically, Crawford always said if anyone were to play her in a movie, it should be Dunaway; then Dunaway killed her career by doing so). Didn't stop Robert Altman from carrying on an affair with her in the 70's.
This topic got me to watch Eyes of Laura Mars on Netflix. A somewhat unusual movie, not really well made, and terribly resolved. But still really fascinating. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:03 am |
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| Gromit, what Dont Look Back are you talking about? I only knew the Dylan documentary one, so i looked up the titles and I found one that was American and made for TV and a number with similar names which seemed mighty obscure. . |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:35 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: Gromit, what Dont Look Back are you talking about? I only knew the Dylan documentary one, so i looked up the titles and I found one that was American and made for TV and a number with similar names which seemed mighty obscure. .
I'm sure gromit meant Don't Look Now. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:50 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Damn, I had trouble finding it on IMDb, because I typed in Don't Look Back, finally found it under Don't Look Now, and still typed it wrong in my post.
I rushed a bit. Didn't mean to say the B&C was her only highlight, just that her career was solid for a decade and a few films, and then she really plummeted. I guess I was wondering why she didn't have staying power.
Billy & Joe answered my question -- plastic surgery, a toxic personality, a few bombs ... often harm a career. I was surprised to see that she's been working steadily the past two-plus decades in film and TV. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:54 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I think it's nearly impossible for women these days to have a long-term career, because women aren't allowed to age in movies, and disappear when they do. A decade seems to be the standard run. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 11:44 am |
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| A pretty silly habit of Hollywood, but that's no surprise. If you can go by the porn sites which proliferate the net, mature women are, if not the most favoured, at least a strong second in male preference. Teens might edge them out, which I find not only puzzling, but even sick. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 12:57 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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It truly is a sad fact for women in this industry. And it maybe one reason why Meryl Streep is revered so much. She began her career in the '70s and is still going strong. She has never had any plastic, at least any that I can see, and seems to be more than happy playing older women or character parts.
While so many women complain she and a few others are happily working away. Susan Sarandon is another name that comes to mind. Still for women who rely on their beauty to work, they only get a few decades. And of course there are those few that happily retire to family life. Nowadays one can make a ton of money in a decade of steady work. |
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