What movie have you watched lately

Did you like it??

It was kind of OK, kind of cool for the old Proto Italic / Latin they were speaking, pretty violent, not exactly the story I’ve read :)
 
Cool! I heard about that movie a while ago. I want to check it out.
Just in case, make sure to turn on the close captioning or you will spend the first hour wondering what the heck is going on. LOL :)
 
In this year of the plague, what movies are you watching while you self-cocoon? (I'm tired of talking about the virus)

My wife and I are in our isolation watching The Age of Innocence. What an amazing movie, based on an amazing novel, and, inexplicably, made by the director of Raging Bull!!!

The novel, which repays re-readings, is a 19th century book of manners by a female author brought to the screen with amazing faithfulness by a director who has made some of the most violent male-centric films of our era. Yet it is beautiful, stirring, romantic and absolutely faithful to its source. It has many strong scenes, but the most moving to me is when the hero simply unbuttons his paramour's glove and kisses her wrist. It is wrought with sexual innuendo and undeniable passion. The perfect example of saying more with less.
 
In this year of the plague, what movies are you watching while you self-cocoon? (I'm tired of talking about the virus)

My wife and I are in our isolation watching The Age of Innocence. What an amazing movie, based on an amazing novel, and, inexplicably, made by the director of Raging Bull!!!

The novel, which repays re-readings, is a 19th century book of manners by a female author brought to the screen with amazing faithfulness by a director who has made some of the most violent male-centric films of our era. Yet it is beautiful, stirring, romantic and absolutely faithful to its source. It has many strong scenes, but the most moving to me is when the hero simply unbuttons his paramour's glove and kisses her wrist. It is wrought with sexual innuendo and undeniable passion. The perfect example of saying more with less.

Fabulous movie, isn't it? That was indeed a wonderful scene, but the end also did me in.

Oh, what might have been...
 
Since it's lockdown, I'm watching old movies every night. So the last one is Jumanji.
 
Fabulous movie, isn't it? That was indeed a wonderful scene, but the end also did me in.

Oh, what might have been...

The part in the end that my wife loves, and quotes repeatedly, is, when speaking of the wife, who is relatively clueless, the narrator says, "And she had died thinking the world a good place, full of loving and harmonious households like her own." We think the same, and it keeps us happy.
 
Since it's lockdown, I'm watching old movies every night. So the last one is Jumanji.

I'm old enough that when I think of old movies, that is, those before my time, I think Busby Berkeley and 42nd Street (it's really quite good).

Last night we watched Psycho . . . not something to calm your nerves, but an interesting case study in the change in movies and audiences. While it shocked audiences in 1959, it wouldn't stir many emotions in today's youth. I love it however, especially all of the misdirection Hitchcock pitches at the audience.
 
The part in the end that my wife loves, and quotes repeatedly, is, when speaking of the wife, who is relatively clueless, the narrator says, "And she had died thinking the world a good place, full of loving and harmonious households like her own." We think the same, and it keeps us happy.

One of my favorite scenes:

"If we act in any other way I’ll be making you act against what I love in you the most….Don’t you see, I can’t love you unless I give you up."



Sorry, but I couldn't abide May. She knew much more than she let on and was ruthless in getting what she wanted. The lovers sacrificed themselves, in my opinion, for an innocence which never existed. They were the real innocents, and it destroyed their lives.

I have no doubt your own household is loving and harmonious, but hers was not. She was lying to herself in order to live with herself.


Btw, Scorsese says this is the most violent film he's ever made. If you think about it, you can see it's true.

Meanwhile, I've been watching crime serials, first "Thou Shalt Not Kill", from Italy, which is available on Amazon through the PBS subscription, and now the "Valhalla Murders" from Scandinavia on netflix. They're both good, but I'm getting a little tired of the fascination in the latter countries, and the U.S. for that matter, with serial murderers.

I know from first hand experience, not just studies, that you're infinitely more likely to be killed by a family member or close acquaintance. Although less jazzy, I like those character studies better.

Just my two cents, as always.

Also, I just finished up "Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin." Can't recommend it enough.
 
It's not a movie; it's a series on HBO, and I'm kicking myself for having started it because it's scaring me to death. Or maybe scary is the wrong word; seriously disturbing maybe, or both. :(

It's called "The Outsider".

I just stopped it in the middle of Episode 5. When I find I'm saying to the characters repeatedly "Don't go in there", it's time to take a break. My husband refuses to watch these kinds of things, and my son already watched it, and it's scarier when I'm alone.

Stephen King has a seriously disturbed mind to think up something like this.
 
Watched "1917" this week-end. It's one of the best war films I've ever seen, and one of the saddest.

Of all the stupid, useless, wars, this one is high on the list. The flower of a whole generation of European young men dead for the lust for power and land of old men.

There are a lot of great lines in the film; this is one of them:

"Who would start a war like this? Answer: They must hate their wives and mothers. "

Previously posted by me in the music section: music from the film

I think it's a travesty this didn't win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
 
The Professor and the Madman

I really liked it! Mel Gibson, and Sean Penn are fantastic in it.

I was thinking about watching it; now I will. :)

I finished "Queen's Gambit" the other night and thought it was good.

Now I'm watching the documentary on the Yorkshire Ripper. I know it's not everybody's "thing", and frankly, the fiction version was better. Also, when I have to listen to "feminists" retelling their reactions at the time based on feminist "ideology", I want to throw something at the screen and/or throw up. Yes, it's terrible that the Ripper targeted women, but that wasn't the fault of the police. Telling women not to go out alone at night was the sensible thing to do. Had they not said that it would have been negligent. Right after that part one of these women says, well, nobody was going to tell me I can't go out to the pub late at night. She went, and he attacked her. She was lucky to survive. Of all the bloody stupidity. Most people are just so goddamned "DUMB" that it's beyond belief.

Of course, most of the police were incredibly dumb. Of all the bungled investigations.

It's an object lesson for all sorts of situation. When you start with your "preference" in terms of possibilities, you can miss or dismiss relevant facts and wind up absolutely wrong.
 
To anyone who has access to MHZ, the French series "Spiral" or "Engrenages" is back for its 7th season and is as good as ever. No, not good, "great" as ever. It's annoying they're parceling them out 2 episodes a week, but they say they do all the subtitles themselves and its time consuming.

I have to say they do better with the French than the Italian although that's perhaps because there's so much foul cursing in some of the Italian ones that they feel they can't translate precisely, and more Italian idiomatic expressions perhaps have no English equivalent. You lose a lot of the "flavor" of the scenes, however.

Some of that happens with the French too. What they say constantly is "putain", and it's never translated accurately. It's not the English equivalent of "merde". The most frequent in Italian films is "cazzo" or some version of "rompere le palle" or "fare girare le palle", the latter of which is impossible, I think, but interesting and funny as a visual.:) Those are never translated precisely either.

You can tell a lot about a people by looking at their favorite curse words. :)
 
^^You're right. Since I had so many leftovers from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I had extra "me" time, and so I spent part of it binge watching "Master Chef Italia" 2020. I loved it, and I thought as I watched it how I wished that someone would do English subtitles so people other than Italian speakers could enjoy it; it's so unbelievably witty, spirited, and funny, but also emotional, for the judges too. Locatelli cried at one of the stories already, and the other too looked on the verge more than once, and not only Locatelli and Cannavacciuolo but also Barbieri looked sincerely sad to have to tell some of them to go, although Barbieri, as always, does sometimes look really exasperated at some of the mistakes. :) Like my uncles, who were great chefs even though not Michelin starred, he is an uber-perfectionist, and lacking in patience and hot tempered at times.

It's such a different experience from the English speaking ones I've seen. On reflection, though, they speak so quickly I don't know if subtitles could be done. More importantly I just don't think you could capture the "feeling" of it; there are no precise translations for some of the phrases, or you'd have to know too much about Italy, and I don't think the translators could do justice to the "spirit", for lack of a better word.

 
Last night watched "The Dig" on netflix about the discovery and excavation at the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo site.

It was inspirational; about time Brown, a self taught archaeologist, was recognized for his work.

Ralph Fiennes was unrecognizable physically and vocally. He did a superlative job.
 

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