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What Is The Last Film You Watched? (Older Films)


Mr. Breathmask

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49 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

 

Not confrontationally of course, but is this something you would like to elaborate on, or is it more just a vibe you get from the movie?

 

Does Alien feel pretentious to you at all?

 

Blade Runner is somewhat pretentious. That doesn't mean it's not a great film, it certainly is. One of the best. But yeah, it's a wee bit pretentious.

 

Which again is OK, it had to be given its subject matter. Most of Nolan's films are pretentious as well, and more often than not he pulls it off.

 

On the other hand, I don't find Alien to be pretentious at all (though Prometheus certainly is). Go figure. And don't ask me to explain the difference, it's just something you know when you see it!

 

But we don't want to get into semantics. ;)

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4 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

 

Can you define semantics in this case? 

 

No.

 

But for pretentious, allow me to present a JWFan example.

 

Alex's taste in cinema is pretentious; Chen G's is not.  Alex appreciates film, Chen G. appreciates movies.

 

Does this help? ;)

 

 

2 minutes ago, Norma's Corpse said:

Anti-Semantic!

 

You beat me too it! Curse you! 

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1 minute ago, Nick1066 said:

No.

 

But for pretentious, allow me to present a JWFan example.

 

Alex's taste in cinema is pretentious; Chen G's is not.  Alex sees films, Chen G. sees movies.

 

Does this help? 

 

I think we have a different view of semantics. Alex sees films and talks about them like they're movies,  Chen G. sees movies and writes on them like they're films!

 

 

(...I'll do it just this once, just to make sure, and plus maybe @Jurassic Sharkneeds a pick-me-up...

 

;))

 

5 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

Alien is just a straight up hunted house movie. It just happens to be in space. 

 

 

 

See now, I'm one of those people who make Alien seem pretentious: I don't like it when it's categorized as a "slasher in space"; sometimes it deels like a film snob's pretentious way of avoiding pretentiousness.

 

The movie is so much more! But I don't want write specifics 'cause I don't want to sound pretentious.

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1 hour ago, Nick Parker said:

But seriously, first Price performance!? Damn, amigo, you gotta watch Masque of Red Death!

 

I'm going chronologically, guess which movie was made in 1964 and comes today!

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5 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

The Norwegian word for film is in fact film. We have no word for movie. :)

 

O com'on you would have been able to add a strange accent in it, like FÏLM.

 

So lazy.

 

🙄

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29 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

 

I think we have a different view of semantics. Alex sees films and talks about them like they're movies,  Chen G. sees movies and writes on them like they're films!

 

 

😂 Perfect!

 

Nothing against either of course, just taking the piss. I enjoy reading both.

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In old Québec slang (Joual), we call them "vue" (a view).

 

We go to theater to see the "vues" (views).

 

Young people don't say that anymore.

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58 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

 Alex sees films and talks about them like they're movies,  Chen G. sees movies and writes on them like they're films!

 

<uber-pretentious mode>You do course know that technically, the difference between the two is that film is shot on film-stock, whereas a movie can be shot on film, tape or digital.</uber-pretentious mode> 😉

 

1 hour ago, Bilbo said:

Alien is just a straight up hunted house movie. It just happens to be in space. 

  

I prefer Aliens though. Cause 'splosions. 

 

Only after the midpoint: before the midpoint it is (rather ingeniously) a science fiction film. That's why it flies by, even though for the first half of it nothing really happens.

 

Aliens is an unusual case where the sequel switched genre from sci-fi horror, to sci-fi action. That's why I never put stock into the Alien vs. Aliens comparison: even though one's the sequel of the other, they're not really comparable.

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The Masque of Red Death (1964)

 

Now that was... an experience.

Price actually acts in this one, and quite well. The redhead's not bad, either, there's some fine production design with a cruel atmosphere, and a cool trippy dream/vision sequence but nothing really happened and I wasn't really on board that much. Then came the last 15 minutes and it all ascended to utter greatness. The tasty, striking, gorgeous cinematography and use of colour take center place, then come Price's best moments, then the script and themes of the whole thing... Without letting it sit, the most complex way I can sum up my feelings on it is "Whoaaah".

 

I did not expect this, perhaps I wasn't even ready for it. But I do look forward to seeing it again sometime in the coming years now with a different mindset. This is the second one I'll keep around after The Wolf Man from the movies I've seen for the first time in this Holkoween.

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Beauty and the beast, 1991.

 

The remake is definitely better. I know you're supposed to love this one because it's a classic and all that, but I just couldn't like it. The biggest problem for me was its pacing: some parts just felt too rushed, especially the father-Belle exchange in the castle and I think they could have done a much better job if they hadn't wasted so much time singing. At times, it felt like they had a checklist of things they had to get out of the way while they really should have been telling a story. Having said that, I really liked Paige O'Hara, although I'm still not a big fan of vibrato and my first impression of her was a YouTube video of her singing extremely operatically. Sometimes she was rather bland (as were most of the voices), but then at other times she was downright brilliant. Part of me still prefers the auto-tuned Emma Watson, but Paige is a much better and lovable speaker. I was always going to prefer Emma Thompson to Angela Lansbury, though, the Beast's American accent was annoying and the fact that I didn't know any of the other actors didn't help either, but even if I had known them, you can't outdo Ian McKellen.

Now, the score. I'm becoming more demanding by the day when it comes to appreciating music, but the romance in this one is absolutely exquisite. I couldn't fully appreciate all the music because of the bad audio quality of the source file and didn't like all the action music, but will investigate the score as soon as I can.

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2 hours ago, Holko said:

The Masque of Red Death (1964)

 

Now that was... an experience.

Price actually acts in this one, and quite well. The redhead's not bad, either, there's some fine production design with a cruel atmosphere, and a cool trippy dream/vision sequence but nothing really happened and I wasn't really on board that much. Then came the last 15 minutes and it all ascended to utter greatness. The tasty, striking, gorgeous cinematography and use of colour take center place, then come Price's best moments, then the script and themes of the whole thing... Without letting it sit, the most complex way I can sum up my feelings on it is "Whoaaah".

 

I did not expect this, perhaps I wasn't even ready for it. But I do look forward to seeing it again sometime in the coming years now with a different mindset. This is the second one I'll keep around along after The Wolf Man from the movies I've seen for the first time in this Holkoween.

 

 

Yes!...Yes! The film does a great job at offering what it's about in small doses, while keeping you at bay, until that climactic sequence. And then it gives context and meaning to everything before. People don't like this movie 'cause it "butchers" the short story, but I absolutely love how they took the original idea and wove it into a tale about things like the nature of spirituality...not bad for a relatively low budget film! I love it when a film uses drastic, dramatic visual ideas as literalizations of metaphors, and this film throws them constantly at you, particularly at the end. It can all be as camp, of course, but so be it.

 

And the music at that climax is awesome!

 

Now you understand, Holko my friend.....

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Insidious: The Last Key

 

Fuck this movie and its high pitch whistle, supersonic sound effects, and ear piercing jump scares! They really don't give a toss about tinnitus sufferers when making these flicks, huh. Anyhoo, the first one in the series with Lin Shaye in the lead. That's actually kind of cool and bold making a horror flick with a 75-year-old woman as the main character. She really carries this film well.

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Thelastwave.jpg

 

Peter Weir, with his extraordinary filmic staging skills and intellectual sincerity designs an oppressive vision of the Apocalypse. He also succeeds in making the beliefs, rituals and tribal signs of the aborigines accessible to western eyes. Good movie!

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16 hours ago, Nick Parker said:

 

Not confrontationally of course, but is this something you would like to elaborate on, or is it more just a vibe you get from the movie?

 

 

Nick, I took my time with a really long thought out reply to this great question, but as I was getting to the end, my phone's keyboard (fucking GBoard) suddenly screwed me over by somehow opening Google Now, forwarding this page to a search I never made, and then when I worriedly pressed the back button in the hope of finding my text still here, it was gone. And now I'm fucking annoyed about it and for totally wasting my time. 😤😤😤

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On 10/12/2018 at 9:51 PM, Nick1066 said:

 

I'm going to try to watch Once A Time in America (the uncut version, of course) and Miller's Crossing this week.  

Once Upon a Time in America

is the perfection of atmosphere, pace, character drawing and contemplation on a past era. It's so nuanced and extraordinarily made, no wonder the production period was over ten years. It epitomizes 'epic' and 'great cinema'.

 

Miller's Crossing

doesn't have atmosphere, pace, character drawing or contemplation at all. It's just a plot ... and dialogues.

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I’d take Miller’s Crossing over Leone’s overstuffed bore any day of the week.  The former has wit and interesting characters.  Does that Coen thing where they can subvert and fulfill genre tropes at the same time.

 

Watch Miller’s Crossing, it’s a classic.  Listen to the OUATIA soundtrack, it’s a classic.

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1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

Leone’s overstuffed bore any day of the week. 

 

Leone's films can get a bit overlong: The original American cut of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is just the right length; but the recent "extended" cut is overlong. And its not like its some studio cut - its essentially a redubbed version of the film as Leone presented it in "his" country.

 

As for "Once Upon a Time in America" - I dunno. From memory, a few sequences run a touch too long, but not so much that I'd call the film as a whole "overstuffed". Its just operating in a different mode with regards to pace than most films do.

 

As for wit - Leone's got it in spades.

 

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6 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

Once Upon a Time in America

is the perfection of atmosphere, pace, character drawing and contemplation on a past era. It's so nuanced and extraordinarily made, no wonder the production period was over ten years. It epitomizes 'epic' and 'great cinema'.

 

Miller's Crossing

doesn't have atmosphere, pace, character drawing or contemplation at all. It's just a plot ... and dialogues.

 

2 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I’d take Miller’s Crossing over Leone’s overstuffed bore any day of the week.  The former has wit and interesting characters.  Does that Coen thing where they can subvert and fulfill genre tropes at the same time.

 

Watch Miller’s Crossing, it’s a classic.  Listen to the OUATIA soundtrack, it’s a classic.

 

I'll be watching both this week and will report back on which of you is correct!

 

In general I've heard more people rave about Miller's Crossing, but the people who do love OUATIA seem to love and appreciate it deeply. 

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7 hours ago, Quintus said:

 

Nick, I took my time with a really long thought out reply to this great question, but as I was getting to the end, my phone's keyboard (fucking GBoard) suddenly screwed me over by somehow opening Google Now, forwarding this page to a search I never made, and then when I worriedly pressed the back button in the hope of finding my text still here, it was gone. And now I'm fucking annoyed about it and for totally wasting my time. 😤😤😤

 

I've been there before, amigo. In the past couple months though, I've been having good fortune with the auto recovery feature that kicks in when you click reply in the thread that you were typing in before your phone decided to take a trip to Rio and search God knows what. Your text wasn't saved that way, Quint? :(

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2 hours ago, Chen G. said:

As for "Once Upon a Time in America" - I dunno. From memory, a few sequences run a touch too long, but not so much that I'd call the film as a whole "overstuffed". Its just operating in a different mode with regards to pace than most films do.

It's consequential pace. You have to be prepared mentally, start early enough and not be tired, but objectively not one shot or one second is wasted.

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6 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

 

I've been there before, amigo. In the past couple months though, I've been having good fortune with the auto recovery feature that kicks in when you click reply in the thread that you were typing in before your phone decided to take a trip to Rio and search God knows what. Your text wasn't saved that way, Quint? :(

 

The auto recovery always works great for me...a very useful feature once I discovered it!

 

That said, for some reason my iPhone struggles with this site (and only this site)...slow and buggy. On the other hand JWFan loads and works great on my Kindle Fire HD. Go figure.

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The auto recovery did work, but only for the very beginning of what I'd eventually typed up. See, I had a very short part-reply already saved there from last night, but then I decided to expand on my points further and so I left it till this morning to pick up from where I'd left off, using the aforementioned initial response which the forum had actually saved. 

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14 minutes ago, Quintus said:

The auto recovery did work, but only for the very beginning of what I'd eventually typed up. See, I had a very short part-reply already saved there from last night, but then I decided to expand on my points further and so I left it till this morning to pick up from where I'd left off, using the aforementioned initial response which the forum had actually saved. 

 

 

Aww man. :( Your phone:

 

 

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5 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

It's consequential pace. You have to be prepared mentally, start early enough and not be tired, but objectively not one shot or one second is wasted.

 

Yeah, it’s just that different filmmakers have different fortes: Steven Spielberg’s the master of the reveal, Martin Scorcese is the master of constantly moving the camera, and Sergio Leone - well, he’s the master of the build-up, which is why his films are so long. If you think about the plot of any of his westerns - there really isn’t too much happening, and often the plot doesn’t come together until an hour into the film.

 

Think about the final showdown in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of five minutes of close-ups until someone shoots someone else. Tons of buildup for a very brief, but effective, effect.

 

In films like “Once Upon a Time in America” he also does another kind of buildup: through numbness. He intentionally bores the audience to make the impact of what follows that much greater. I think it was William Wyler who said: “if you want to shock an audience - bring them almost to the point of boredom before doing so.”

 

Leone’s films do all of this much better than all the “epics” of his time, and his compositional choices were decades ahead of their time. And his partnership with Morricone, pfff. That’s part of what makes the sustained buildup work: that it’s so often filled so very well by Morricone.

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3 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

In films like “Once Upon a Time in America” he also does another kind of buildup: through numbness. He intentionally bores the audience to make the impact of what follows that much greater. I think it was William Wyler who said: “if you want to shock an audience - bring them almost to the point of boredom before doing so.”

 

Leone’s films do all of this much better than all the “epics” of the time, and his compositional choices were decades ahead of their time.

What you say is really confusing and I am declined to agree. Can you give me an example of what you explained?

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Think about when the bad in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” sits down and eats soup for a minute or two. Just this repetitive, mondane action for a relatively long period of time, without some exciting music under it (as opposed to final showdown) and without anything too clever with regards to camerawork. It’s especially appearant because the previous sequence was much more exciting.

 

Makes the impact of the violence that ensues that much greater.

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