Recently watched movies

[Magpie]

I saw Black Death this weekend. Awesome movie--best one I've seen this year. Low-budget but hides it very well. Despite the trailers, it's NOT a horror movie--more like a medival flick in the vain of Name Of The Rose. Couple of nice twists near the end.

[c.d.]

"The Body Snatcher" with Boris Karloff. A doctor paying a body snatcher to exhume recently deceased bodies to use in medical training. Karloff is great in it.

"Cape Fear" with Robert DeNiro. He gives a tremendous performance as a complete psycho set on revenge.

c.d.

[Robert]

The Ghost Of St Michael's (for the umpteenth time). Stars Will Hay. Very good.

[Limehouse]

Last night we went to see Made in Dagenham - the story of how women machinists at the Dagenham Ford Motor factory faught a women for equal pay for women doing comparable jobs to males. The campaign result in the Equal Pay Act.

It was a great film - character rather than plot dependent - and with the right blend of humour but fighting spirit.

[Mascara & Paranoia]

Interview with the Vampire; I forgot how good that film was.

[The Good Michael]

Me and Orson Welles. Nothing so great about the movie, but Christian (Christopher?) McKay playing Orson Welles was brilliant. He IS Orson Welles and he may be now typecast in my mind. If he can do another role without me thinking of Welles, I will bow down to his superiority.

Mike

[c.d.]

Watched "Cabaret" last night. The 1972 movie starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey. Set in 1932 Germany. Nominated for an Academy Award for best picture. It was real good and the musical numbers in the cabaret were great. Definitely recommend it.

c.d.

[mariab]

Kirsten Dunst (as a 12 year old) was amazing in Interview with a vampire. Cabaret is a bit dated, but classic Bob Fosse. I liked the redhead/gay conferencier (Joel Grey). He incidentally played the demon who beat up Spike and sacrificed Buffy's little sister in the BtVS episode The gift (end of season 5), forcing Buffy to sacrifice herself for humanity. Sniff...
Late night yesterday I was watching Sliding doors on the VCR. Has anybody seen it? It's quite a bit trivial (like all rom coms), but still interesting and at times very funny. Actually a good flick to watch on New Year's Eve (with the dual possibilities, the “butterfly effect“ etc.).

[sleekviper]

Portman was also amazing at 12 in the Professional.

[mariab]

The professional is the same as Léon, right? For some reason I've never managed to see this flick, although it sounds very good. Natalie Portman is a very solid actress.
Jodie Foster was very good in Taxi Driver at 13, and Mariel Hemingway in Lipstick at 13 and in Manhattan at 16.
It's funny that in the other thread about movies I was expressing the wish to see The ghost writer again, well, they play it just once on Saturday afternoon at the Berlin Sony Center, and we may go.

[sleekviper]

Yes, they are the same. Do go to the Sony Center, one can never see a good film, or read a good book, too many times.

[mariab]

sleekviper wrote:
one can never see a good film, or read a good book, too many times.
Totally with you on this.

[Derrick]

Avatar

I watched Avatar for the first time, this morning on Sky Movies.

What an amazingly beautiful film it was too. The eco-message of man's trashing the planet came across strongly along with other metaphors for Vietnam napalming and 9/11. But both were committed by the same side here, ie humans against their own survival.

James Cameron's most successful films are not the most subtle in terms of character development. Perhaps not even in terms of the likely outcome (Titanic) yet Avatar had enough subtle touches that raises it above the average film fair. Like all good escapist films I was left wanting more.

My top 10 films of all time...those I could genuinely watch over and over again.

12 Angry Men (1957)
The Last Waltz (The Bands farewell concert)
Sleuth (1972)
Field of Dreams
Shawshank Redemption
Godfather Part II
Midnight Run
Life and Death Of Colonel Blimp
A League of Their Own
JFK

Derrick

[Natalie Severn]

Must get to see Avatar!
"Time and the City" was a lovely film about Liverpool -
before it was trashed by developers and "transformers" in the last twenty years.

My top ten films :

Psycho
Some like it Hot
Street Car Named Desire or any film with Brando in it...!
Breathless by Jean luc Godard
Julie Christie in Billy Liar
One flew over the Cuckoo"s Nest
Reds
The Leopard
Dial M for Murder
Bonnie and Clyde

Norma

[mariab]

I've always wanted to see Shawshank Redemption, people keep telling me it's very-very good. From Norma's/Natalie's list my favorite is Dial “M“ for murder. My favorites by Visconti are (instead of The leopard) Death in Venice and (possibly) Conversation piece. À bout de souffle {Breathless} by Godard is very good too. We watched part of Some like it hot on Xmas Eve and I hope not to shock anybody if I say that I found it dated and Marilyn Monroe seriously UGLY in the movie. ()
Yesterday we watched The big chill again, and it really isn't as trivial as people keep saying. We're also keeping watching Salt on DVD, which just arrived, and I like it very much, even though it looks a bit diminutive on a TV screen. Merry Xmas to all