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


Mr. Breathmask

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Youth. 

 

It was refreshing to hear Michael Caine without his usual strong accent. I also really liked how they immediately cut to the chase in the very first scene. Didn’t know Paloma Faith, but liked how they used captions to announce her song when it started playing. Rachel Weisz was fantastic again, especially during her monologue, but she and her dad had a bit of a weird relationship after that: you’d think she hadn’t said anything hurtful at all. Not sure I needed Miss Universe, but definitely did not need that mountain climber. Harvey Keitel’s character underwent three complete changes of mind in fifteen minutes, there was one really bad dialogue edit in one of his speeches and then I missed his suicide. Other than that, it was quite good.

There was something oddly reassuring and calming about the score and music, which made me feel uneasy for some reason. One song in particular stood out, the one performed by three women. I also didn’t know conductors had the sheet music on a stand in front of them during concerts. Do they still need to read the music at that point? I would have thought they had memorised it. Did Williams do this in Vienna? I even liked the soprano’s use of vibrato and loved how the concert segued into the credits. Oh God, is that American audio-describer going to read all the Italian names to me? Yes, she is. Turning it off.

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Screen-Shot-2021-02-13-at-2-02-50-AM.png

 

Cold War

 

Pawlikowski's film puts the likes of Mank to shame when it comes to black and white photography. Sumptuously shot, this cold war romance feels has a real timeless quality to it. Two broken people try to fix one another across time and geography. It feels both intimate and sprawling in scope.

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JFK

First time I see this one and it's great. Hard to easily follow though as I'm not really familiar with every protagonist of this event.

Otherwise, Williams score is perfect and it's definitely need an expansion!

 

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3 minutes ago, The Big Man said:

Believe me, there's not much missing from the OST.

I think the scene where David Ferrie blows up is missing from the ost, not sure though, but the music in this scene was absolutely perfect, and I would love to hear it again but without the dialogues. Plus a presentation with the Williams-only score separated from the extras materials would be more interesting in my opinion.

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'Hibernating comfort food' Bond double-bill on a freezing and snowy Belfast Saturday afternoon ... LALD and TND. Pleasantly escapist, solidly middle-tier, 3-stars-out-of-5 franchise entries.  

The Little Stranger - well, the first half of it anyway. Call me an impatient git if you will, but I took being an hour into a 'supernatural drama' and nothing creepy having happened yet as a bad sign. So I bailed ... at least it was a TV screening, which didn't make it a waste of money (unlike a cinema screening/DVD/streaming service choice).

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The Shawshank Redemption (in that strange censored version from The Paramount Channel where all the words FUCK has been muted, so finally each word on 2).

 

I don't know what's the matter to censor the word FUCK, as we know that they say it. Did I said FUCK?

 

Anyway.

 

That's a movie I saw a long time ago and I found it very dull and long at the time, but now at 46, I found it amazing.  And we have to remember it's adapted from a Stephen King short story...  

 

And that Thomas Newman score, wow! :heart:

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14 hours ago, Bilbo said:

Midway (2019)

 

I believe I’m not supposed to enjoy this but fuck it, hook it to my veins. 

 

It surely can't be worse than the original movie!

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15 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

I also didn’t know conductors had the sheet music on a stand in front of them during concerts. Do they still need to read the music at that point? I would have thought they had memorised it. Did Williams do this in Vienna?

 

It varies, but generally, conductors will have the score in front of them during the concert. It partly depends on the size and type of ensemble, and perhaps also on the complexity of the music. Having a complex musical work memorised doesn't necessarily mean you have every single detail perfectly in mind, especially in the often highly stressful concert situation*. Some entries, especially in large ensembles and complex works, may be tricky; quasi-repeated passages may be mixed up in your mind; and some details like specific phrasings or dynamics you might simply forget about, especially if they're counter-intuitive, e.g. when your scores are different to a version you're used to, or if they contain mistakes you only noticed later in rehearsals. Having the score is also a simple way to calm your nerves because you don't have to worry about getting lost of forgetting something - part of having the score is making it less likely that you actually need it. But beware of knowing the piece so well/almost by heart that you forget to turn the pages during the concert, then noticing you're slightly unsure about an upcoming bit and realising that you're several pages behind. Happened to me in choir (as a singer) a couple of times, and you can sometimes see conductors frantically leafing through their scores during a performance trying to find where they currently are - I believe there's an animated GIF around of Williams doing that.

 

Our choir conductor (amateur choir, that is) sometimes uses sheet music and sometimes doesn't, depending on the situation - but the general consensus among those focused on the music and performance, as opposed to the show, seems to be that it's better to have the scores unless the situation makes it an inconvenience, e.g. because there's no place to put it, or because the pieces are so easy/often rehearsed & memorised/short that simply having to put the sheet music on the stand and leafing through it is more of a distraction than a help.

 

*) After several notable conductors had died at the podium, Karajan became worried about the stress and had a medical team monitor him while conducting a concert. The resulting data supposedly showed that the stress is comparable to that on an aeroplane pilot during landing. Karajan was also famous for conducting by heart, without sheet music, and with his eyes closed - not ideal, depending on who you talk to, because eye contact can be one of the most important parts of conductor/musician communication during a performance.

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1 hour ago, Bespin said:

 

It surely can't be worse than the original movie!


I’ve actually never seen the original. 
 

Tora! Tora! Tora! Is probably still the best film about the early Pacific War.

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Trust me, the best part of the original Midway, its his score! 

 

Conductors and sheet music...

 

Well conductors have sheets before their eyes mainly to remember the "accents", the volume changes, the breaths, the different tempi they want to give to the orchestra... and well, to assure that some sections of the orchestra starts when it's the time to start.

 

When you're an instrumentist and your partition contains bars and bars of successive silence... yes you can count in your head... but it can be useful to see the conductor showing you some sign when your turn approach! :lol:

 

You never heard that story (I don't know if it's an urban legend or an historical fact) of a completely deaf Beethoven conducting the 9th symphony in rehearsal, and a section of the orchestra didn't start at the right bar at one place, so it was an horrible shambles, which Beethoven didn't hear at all, so he kept conducting for more few bars, before the musicians stopped, completely disheartened... I don't remember in which movie they showed that cruel episode of Beethoven's decline.

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5 minutes ago, Bespin said:

Trust me, the best part of the original Midway, its his score! 


It seems it isn’t very historically accurate either. 
 

I still kinda want to see it now 👀 

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1 hour ago, Bilbo said:

Tora! Tora! Tora! Is probably still the best film about the early Pacific War.

Would you count Letter from Iwo Jima among them or not? It's personally my favourite war movie on the Pacific.

Otherwise there is USS Indianapolis with Nicolas Cage that I like very much but it's mainly because Cage always make me laugh even if the story isn't funny. Must be something with his face. ;)

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1 minute ago, Raiders of the SoundtrArk said:

Would you count Letter from Iwo Jima among them or not? It's personally my favourite war movie on the Pacific.

Otherwise there is USS Indianapolis with Nicolas Cage that I like very much but it's mainly because Cage always make me laugh even if the story isn't funny. Must be something with his face. ;)


Iwo Jima would be late Pacific war! It’s 1945 as opposed to 41/42. 
 

I’m just really lumping Pearl Harbour/Doolittle/Coral Sea/Midway together. 

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1917

1917soundtrack.jpg

 

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a film so beautifully carried by music. I now understand the Academy Award nomination Thomas Newman got for the score.

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The Abyss is on Foxtel right now in what looks like a pristine new HD remaster complete with Cameron's modern teal colour-timing. Looks great! But did anyone else know about this? Did Jim remaster this thing in secret and quietly distribute it to Australian cable TV?

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Passengers

 

Ok, where to begin... the movie starts good, the images are wonderfull, the music of Thomas Newman, again, transports us in an unkown universe... and when the tension begins, Thomas is here!

 

But my God... the scenario???  They read that scenario and really decided to shoot... a movie?  This is perhaps the most macho and sexist scenario in a movie I've seen in a long while.  This dumbass (Chris Pratt really becomes an expert in that type of role!), a mechanician who is alone on the ship... so, he decide to help him... to wake up... the most beautiful and useless (an author) girl on the ship to have company (read "sex").  REALLY?  And she took what, one year before realizing what really happened to her?

 

Unbelievable. And that rushed ending... OMG, It's such a stupid movie... A beautiful movie with great images and music, but a dumb movie, because of it's scenario. Well, I think if you are a straight dumbass, you'll find it okay!

 

At least the excellent score of Thomas Newman will remain. 

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Well it's not awefull, it's sexist and dumb, but not in a comical way.

 

And we see Pratt's butt twice.

 

EDIT: That's the same writer who wrote the next Dune movie. :lol:

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Image result for patriots day movie

 

Patriot's Day

Not too bad, feels like it might have been made a bit too soon and the end gets a little bit corny as a result.  Centering the movie on a fictional character does not help things.

But the direction in certain sequences is very good, the Watertown shootout being the highlight.

 

3/4

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POTC4.

 

‘t Has been a year, nay, more than a year and a half since I last laid eyes upon the convoluted mess that was At World’s End. I therefore postponed this next venture, thinking it would be rash to waste valuable time on yet more supernatural underwater endeavours. Today, however, duty called, aye, so I jumped. (Is there any way I could get Geoffrey Rush to read this?) He was great, incidentally, except for one unfortunate accent slip-up. I hadn’t recognised Richard Griffiths, but loved him too. Jokes were still good as well, but there was too much fighting at the beginning and I’m still sick of prophecies and supernatural crap. God knows why I used to love these movies years ago. Probably because I didn’t know any other films. Angelica (and that stupid Spanish accent) is annoying, Sirena gets way too much screen time, but I loved how Jack and Barbossa ended up working together and it was still much better than I thought it was.

I have mixed feelings about the score. Love female choirs but I’ve heard too many brooding cellos playing funeral music in D minor in appropriate and inappropriate scenes not to lose at least some patience every time I hear them now, even though some of the things they did here were kind of cool. Then, Beckett and Davy Jones’ themes were suddenly used in action scenes for no reason at all, but I did like the pub music and Blackbeard’s theme is just fantastic, as is the Spanish theme, the use of guitars, the mermaids singing and all the other old themes. Be we on the right course?

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1 minute ago, bollemanneke said:

God knows why I used to love these movies years ago. Probably because I didn’t know any other films.

 

This is a realization many of us have at one point in our lives, yes

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At World's End > On Stranger Tides

 

Pirates 4 is the worst movie in the franchise, and that's saying something. Even the fifth movie, which is pretty bad, it still a little better than the abomination that came before. Not even Zimmer was that inspired when he "wrote" On Stranger Tides, so left much of the job to Zanelli and an army of ghostwriters.

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The Emperor's New Groove

 

Eartha Kitt's Yzma is the prime reason this movie is so funny as it is. It veers from the usual Disney formula in favor of Chuck Jones-style gags and one-liners -- and it works so well!

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Get Shorty - breezily fun Elmore Leonard adaptation. If you're of the opinion that Hollywood is already full of gangsters of one sort or another, this comedy crime caper will do little to change your mind.

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15 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

I haven't even watched 5 yet.

 

It's a better movie than the fourth, but is still crap. Zanelli's score is okay though.

 

12 hours ago, Matt C said:

The Emperor's New Groove

 

Eartha Kitt's Yzma is the prime reason this movie is so funny as it is. It veers from the usual Disney formula in favor of Chuck Jones-style gags and one-liners -- and it works so well!

 

I loved this one as well since I was a kid. Very funny and fast paced. Although I haven't heard the original voice actors, because the Portuguese dubbing is great. 

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19 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

POTC4.

 

‘t Has been a year, nay, more than a year and a half since I last laid eyes upon the convoluted mess that was At World’s End. I therefore postponed this next venture, thinking it would be rash to waste valuable time on yet more supernatural underwater endeavours. Today, however, duty called, aye, so I jumped. (Is there any way I could get Geoffrey Rush to read this?) He was great, incidentally, except for one unfortunate accent slip-up. I hadn’t recognised Richard Griffiths, but loved him too. Jokes were still good as well, but there was too much fighting at the beginning and I’m still sick of prophecies and supernatural crap. God knows why I used to love these movies years ago. Probably because I didn’t know any other films. Angelica (and that stupid Spanish accent) is annoying, Sirena gets way too much screen time, but I loved how Jack and Barbossa ended up working together and it was still much better than I thought it was.

I have mixed feelings about the score. Love female choirs but I’ve heard too many brooding cellos playing funeral music in D minor in appropriate and inappropriate scenes not to lose at least some patience every time I hear them now, even though some of the things they did here were kind of cool. Then, Beckett and Davy Jones’ themes were suddenly used in action scenes for no reason at all, but I did like the pub music and Blackbeard’s theme is just fantastic, as is the Spanish theme, the use of guitars, the mermaids singing and all the other old themes. Be we on the right course?

 

If they had taken from the book On Stranger Tides more than just the title and choice of antagonist, it could've been a much better movie. That book is tremendous fun. Big influence on Monkey Island too

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On 2/12/2021 at 8:29 PM, KK said:

There's just something about watching a Parisian woman sob erratically about her vacation plans for two hours that just reeks a little too much of privilege.

 

Haha, true. The Green Ray is probably especially guilty in that respect, though the subject matter throughout his output is the epitome of "First World Problems" presented with a rather tediously conservative outlook. I really like his film-making style despite that. It always feels like a breath of clean air.

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11 hours ago, Edmilson said:

 

I loved this one as well since I was a kid. Very funny and fast paced. Although I haven't heard the original voice actors, because the Portuguese dubbing is great. 

 

Disney usually does a top-flight job dubbing their movies in different languages. But you should see the movie with its original dub, because Eartha Kitt and Patrick Warburton are freaking hilarious as Yzma and Kronk.

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Charade. 

 

My first observation was: why do I need the name of the person in charge of Audrey Hepburn’s clothes in the opening credits? Well, no, that was the second one. The first one was: my God, this sounds terrible. But really, really terrible. And not just because one of my ears isn’t really working. I swear the first James Bond films sounded better. Having said that, the banter was good and all the male actors were great, although Cary Grant’s voice is so comical that I just couldn’t feel any tension when I was supposed to, but that was all right, I had a good time, it made everything funny in a weird way. Hepburn sounded like every other woman in old films and her character was utterly stupid. The hotel phone sounded more like a groaning man and Jean-Louis was left forgotten for a while, but I loved the ending.

The score was mostly nice, but I hated the ridiculous brass cacophony at the end. It’s supposed to be romantic, not scary. Also, I don’t like fights without sound effects.

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Creep

 

Another one of those movies that correctly insists the biggest security vulnerability we have in polite society is how fearful we are at seeming rude to others, and what dangerous feats we'll perform to just not upset other people. Rather like another one I watched recently The Invitation, and I remember The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo stated it explicitly. So yeah, maybe don't be afraid to tell creepy weirdos to fuck off, or else you could end up dead.

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