Recently watched movies

[Natalie Severn]

Well I am glad someone else likes the magnificent Visconti!My favourite of his is The Innocent with Laura Antonelli as the baby"s mother,and I also think Death In Venice was terrific but I think the Leopard was one of the the best films ever.
Some Like it Hot is a bit of a cult movie---but Marilyn ugly?Oh sacrilege--- never!
Merry Christmas to you too,Maria!

[Divakind]

Just finished watching "Penn & Teller Get Killed" earlier this evening. It's part of the Warner Brothers Archive Collection of films that hadn't previously been available on DVD. I'm a huge P&T fan & my significant other gave it to me for Christmas. It's a fun little black comedy, directed by the late Arthur Penn, from the late 80's, when the "Bad Boys of Magic" were at the height of their popularity here in the US.

Also watched "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" again last night on Turner Classic Movies. Great film made even better by the fact we were watching it on my significant other's new HDTV. Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like drunken fun & games with George & Martha!

Actually, I'm auditioning for a production of "..Woolf?" next year & have been reading it pretty religiously for a while. Didn't realize how much it was sinking in until I found myself mouthing about 90 percent of Liz Taylor's dialogue along with the movie! He was kidding me over lunch today & said "Next time we have movie night, we're watching something where you don't know all the lines!"

Has anyone here seen either "Black Swan" or the remake of "True Grit"? We're looking forward to seeing both of those...hopefully this week, while I'm still on vacation.

[mariab]

Hello Norma,
I've seen The innocent with Laura Antonelli and I can only say . For its time it must have been very provocative. I think The leopard is more political. My favorite is Death in Venice, since it deals with art and death/decay, which are two of my favorite subjects...(No joke.)

[Derrick]

Yesterday we watched The big chill again, and it really isn't as trivial as people keep saying.

Don't pay attention to other people; just give it a go BUT see The Shawshank Redemption ASAP.

The Big Chill is another film I could watch over and over again.

Another 9 (same criteria as emphasized) to make up another 10 are;

1. The League of Gentlemen (Jack Hawkins)
2. Get Carter (1971)
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark/Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (same film but both highly entertaining)
4. Inherit the Wind/To Kill a Mockingbird (similar themes)
5. The Lavender Hill Mob
6. Oliver!
7. Goodfellas
8. All The Presidents Men
9. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Derrick

[mariab]

Derrick wrote:
The Big Chill is another film I could watch over and over again.
Me too, and that's precisely what we did with my friends in the last couple days. I must have the VCR tape since... a decade?

[Natalie Severn]

Hello Norma,
I've seen The innocent with Laura Antonelli and I can only say . [B]

I think Visconti"s preoccupation here is to expose the extent of the objectification of women as well as the extent of oppression of both women and children in his social strata .

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Derrick,
good list that---Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid was brilliant.

[mariab]

Natalie Severn wrote:
I think Visconti"s preoccupation here is to expose the extent of the objectification of women as well as the extent of oppression of both women and children in his social strata.
Yes, I know. And how he shows it!

[Robert]

Five of my favourites :

Night of the Demon
Dr Terror's House of Horrors
Dead of Night
The Devil Rides Out
Frankenstein

[mariab]

OK, Robert has the same taste in movies as Rob Clack. Maybe they should meet?

[Tom_Wescott]

Actually, I'm auditioning for a production of "..Woolf?" next year

Hi Diva. Did you know Virginia Woolf was a cousin to Ripper suspect J.K. Stephen? Virginia witnessed J.K. stab a loaf of bread once and this ends up in every argument for Stephen's candidacy as the Ripper for evidence of his violent nature!

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Tom_Wescott]

OK, Robert has the same taste in movies as Rob Clack. Maybe they should meet?

Same as myself, also. I'm a huge fan of modern horror, but I also love the classics, going all the way back to Chaney (and Edison now, since I have the 1910 version of Frankenstein on DVD). I also own all the Abbott & Costello movies, along with their TV series. Love those guys. I'm one of those people who is nostalgic about eras that I did not personally experience.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[c.d.]

Hi Tom,

Did you know that Abbot & Costello's financial split was 60/40 in favor of Abbot? This was at Costello's insistence. He said that comedians were a dime a dozen but a good straight man was hard to find.

Also, do you listen to old time radion programs from the 40s? I love them and listen to them every Sunday night here in Washington, D.C.

There is a website -- otrcat.com where you can buy old programs on CDs. Also, they have daily free downloads which you can listen to or download to your computer.

c.d.

[mariab]

Not a huge surprise that (the best) Ripperologists are familiar with horror flicks from the early 20th century. Rob Clack too is too young to have experienced these films when they first came out.
I can't claim I'm a big horror fan, but I've seen lots, because some of my friends dig the genre. The oldest ones I've seen are the original Nosferatu and (I think) the original Picture of Dorian Grey. As a kid I've seen most of the old Dracula films, the Boris Carloff movies, and old black-and-white horror flicks with giant insects and stuff, because on Saturdays my parents were visiting friends whose kids were older than me and around midnight they sent us upstairs and the other kids always wanted to watch black-and-white horror movies on TV. So I remember that from age 6-9 or whatever, almost every Saturday night around midnight I had to brace myself for a marathon of old horror. It wasn't that I was really scared, but I sure as hell would have rather done something else...
I definitely prefer action to horror, but only if it's not too dumb. And I love comedy, even if it's a bit dumb. But I guess my favorite is drama. The genre I'd rather eat bricks than go watch is rom com. Ugh.
Some people probably will cry “sacrilege“ if I say that I've never ever seen Abbott & Costello. No clue if I'd find them funny. I appreciate the artistry in Chaplin movies, but it's not that I'd want to see them again and again.

Tom Wescott wrote:
I'm one of those people who is nostalgic about eras that I did not personally experience.
That's nicely said. It might be that I'm a bit nostalgic, or probably just fascinated by the 1970s. One of my favorite genres who not a lot of people wanna see is sports films and action films, or just outdoorsy films from the 1970s. Maybe I just dig the mullet haircuts and all those shirts with numbers on them. Christy Mc Nichols and her White Dog, Farrah Fawcett on a skateboard, this kind of thing...

[Tom_Wescott]

Maybe I just dig the mullet haircuts and all those shirts with numbers on them.

That's the 80's. I'm very interested in the 20th century eras prior to 1983. Like you, the 70's are very fascinating to me.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott