What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fading Fast]

Phantom Thread...Daniel Day Lewis's last picture. Strange movie, weird ending, totally unsympathetic characters yet strangely compelling. DD Lewis is always worth a watch....perhaps the best actor of this generation. I cannot say I have ever seen anyone better at total immersion in the character. He embodies the characters so well in the physical sense without reverting to the M Streep school of affected tics and mannerisms that she excels at affecting to the point of not being able to watch the character but just observe M Streep put her tics on top of the character. DD Lewis embodies the character.....and for that reason worth a watch.

Agreed, his performance was impressive in an odd but engaging movie. My comments here (feel free to ignore): https://www.thefedoralounge.com/thr...ovie-you-watched.20830/page-1252#post-2402370

 

[Fading Fast]

Hold Back the Dawn from 1941 starring Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland and Paulette Goddard

• A European grifter (Boyer) staying in a Mexican border town is looking for an American "mark" to marry to gain entrance into the US and then divorce

• While doing so, he meets up with a former partner in crime and romantic interest (Goddard), who is basically working the same scam - they team up planning to share resources once they both get into the US

• There's a bit of Casablanca to this one as the town has that feel of the desperation of exiles looking to move on

• Somehow Goddard's screaming-sex character - with her lack of underwear and feral desire for Boyer that is clearly sated outside of marriage - slid right by the censors

• Fulfilling his plan, Boyer meets a schoolmarm (de Havilland -only in Hollywood do schoolmarms look like her), charms and marries her in 24 hours and then she leaves to go back to her job in the US while he waits the four weeks required for even spouses to obtain entry

• So, here's the formula that you probably saw coming at this point: manipulative boy meets sincere girl. They marry, then, he starts to fall in love with her (when she comes back to Mexico for a brief honeymoon during his waiting period)

• That last part surprises Boyer, infuriates Goddard and perplexes the U.S. border inspector keeping an eye on Boyer and Goddard

• It all comes to a head when (spoiler alert) Goddard, in a fit of jealousy (and vicious cattiness), outs Boyer to de Havilland and the U.S. border inspector leading to this money scene:

• de Havilland, despite her heart having just been crushed when she learned that Boyer was only using her, fully supports Boyer's fake cover story when the border inspector interviews her, then, once the inspector leaves, she walks out on Boyer, leaving him broken: he got what he wants and now wants none of it but de Havilland

• And that's were the movie should have stopped - it was a Victor-Hugo-worthy moment of Christian forgiveness meeting mendacity and not blinking. Maybe the code, maybe some "test-audience" feedback or maybe because it was just the norm, the movie kept going until (another spoiler alert) it wrapped-up in a nice happy ending that felt forced and deflating

Only posting this pic because I couldn't find a better one of de Havilland's school "bus," an outstanding woody wagon:

 

[Fading Fast]

Prepping for my trading day with (as almost always) TCM on mute in the background. On now is 1933's "Bombshell," which, from memory, is a pretty good early effort about an actress, played by Jean Harlow, getting a swelled head form success, but also all the BS, hanger-onners and other pressures that's pushed on her by becoming a star that almost justifies her behavior. But even with the sound off, I noticed and was surprised that despite seemingly to be a big-budget picture (plenty of cool Art Deco sets), they didn't have any money in the budget for bras for star Harlow as she's forced to go through the entire movie without a single one on.

 

[belfastboy]

"Phantom Thread" 2017, Daniel Day Lewis

The story, the actors, even Day Lewis' (announced) final performance is outshined by the movie's beyond-beautiful cinematography and period sets. Taking place in both 1950s London and the English countryside, the use of mildly muted, but deep-and-rich colors draws you into a world that looks like Old Masters museum paintings* quietly coming alive where the clothes, cars, furniture, architecture (especially the architecture) and details (a toast rack is perfect, a wool throw feels warm) prepossess to the point of distracting you from the story.

And the story is a narrow character study that unfolds slowly. Day-Lewis plays a fictional fashion designer who, with his laconic-and-severe sister, runs a top London couture fashion house - when couture was a central part of high-society. Their lives are uncomfortably insular with the household - a blend of their private and business lives - tightly ordered until all is slowly but powerfully disrupted when Day Lewis finds a new muse in a high-spirited young woman who is awed but frustrated in his overly structured and bent world.

From there, the three form a push-pull triangle of passions and wills with control and dominance always in play. This tri-part dynamic is fragile but works as drama because it feels human - odd, off, but real - but it won't be everyone's cup of tea. More description would require both spoiler alerts - as lives get battered and bruised in surprising ways - and a discussion of the "things just got much weirder" ending.

While the story holds together - based on its noted humanity and all three leads deeply intense performances - the star of this movie is the visual - 1950s high-society London coming richly and evocatively alive through a warped and uncomfortably narrow inside-out view.



*Smart observation stolen from SGF


N.B. - Lizzie, I have to believe this one would play well with your film-to-boost-one's-self-esteem audience.

Thank you, I agree with your comments re: the visual but as my wife said....."Such God awful dresses!"
Any idea of what car he drove?

 

[Fading Fast]

Thank you, I agree with your comments re: the visual but as my wife said....."Such God awful dresses!"
Any idea of what car he drove?

Check out this link to Internet Movie Car Database (a good site for questions like this):

https://www.imcdb.org/m5776858.html

 

[belfastboy]

Check out this link to Internet Movie Car Database (a good site for question like this):

https://www.imcdb.org/m5776858.html

I never knew of this......sometimes the interweb really is a good thing! Thank you. Stunning car BTW.

 

[MisterCairo]

Dunkirk on dvd. Sadly unable to use the blu-ray in my current military quarters, but thanks to an old padre friend, I at least have a loaner dvd player instead of relying on my laptop!

 

[Worf]

"I Want You" - A middling RKO affair made in 1950 or '51 about the effects of the Korean War and Cold War on a small town. Post Card, Post War America finds itself rudely shaken from its fat, happy slumber by gun totin' communists over across the sea. You get the typical tropes... the 19 year old who can't even buy a beer, the confused lay about who doesn't want to go at all and just wants to raise hell in his Hot Rod and make out with the Judges Daughter. And lastly you get the WWII vets needed in a hurry but feel they've done their share to save the world and now want nothing more than to be happy consumers.

Of course it all works out fine it's patriotic way. The only downer being the 19 year old dies a sober virgin who's never been kissed. But this crime isn't lingered on long. Still I'm surprised I got even that much drama.

Worf

 

[Trenchfriend]

La Belle Saison (2015), right now on arte.

Vive la France!

 

[Fading Fast]

The Hunchback of Notre Dame from 1939 with Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara and Cedric Hardwicke

Sometimes I don't like pre-Industrial-Revolution stories as they lack so many of our modern inventions - transportation, corporations, technology, medicine, etc. - that they can seem remote or foreign to our lives today. But The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the movie and, even more so, the book, is the opposite as its lack of modern distractions helps reveal eternal human truths in all their raw, sometimes crushing, sometimes uplifting, timelessness.

In the book, Victor Hugo boldly sets up extremes: the Hunchback is not just unattractive, but he is horribly deformed, Esmeralda isn't pretty, she is ethereally beautiful, Frollo isn't smitten with her, he is besot beyond all reason and he isn't a bad man, but the devil's stand-in, and on and on. In lesser hands, these characters would become cliches, but Hugo does the impossible by making these hyper-extremes so human that we see and feel ourselves and our lives in these 15th Century people and challenges, while also seeing eternal truths and struggles.

To be sure, this 1939 film had to tamp down some of the boldness of the book; to wit, the character of Frollo, the Archdeacon of Notre Dame, becomes the Deacon's brother in some kind of administrative but not religious position. The irony of this can't be lost on modern audiences as 1939 sensitivity wouldn't allow a Archdeacon to be a deeply evil character; whereas today, the default setting of Hollywood is to make almost every church leader evil or corrupt or a molester or a drug user or an embezzler or....

But once you allow for whatever had to happen to let a movie be made in 1939, you're in for an entertaining and philosophical treat. You'll see: a very open-minded king extolling the benefits of the printing press to allow the people to read and learn for themselves versus authoritarian Frollo wanting the printing press destroyed to keep the public ignorant; mob justice cruelly enjoying the punishment and suffering of the horribly deformed and mistakingly convicted hunchback; a moment of poignant humanity as a "nobody" gypsy girl steps forward to ease the hunchback's pain; the hunchback repaying the gypsy girl with his last-minute gallows' rescue of her and escape to the sanctuary of the church (there might be no better joy-of-defiance scene in movie history); armies of peasants storming Notre Dame to protect sanctuary as the confused hunchback provides a one-man defense - and stunning visual - by pouring boiling oil out of the church's gargoyles. And that list only touches on some of the movie's many, many powerful moments.

The year nineteen thirty-nine deserves its title as Hollywood's greatest year. If it wasn't, a movie like The Hunchback of Notre Dame wouldn't be all but lost amidst the other great '39 movies - Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, for example - that have more popular appeal today. But none of them have Victor Hugo's genuinely timeless classic at its core. Hence, none of them put up on screen The Hunchback of Notre Dame's incredibly wide, powerful and raw array of human emotions - love, hate, forgiveness, compassion, loss, despair, cruelty, mendacity and hope.

 

[Bushman]

Caught a couple movies over the last weekend. I'll post in order of what I watched.

"Midway" (2019) - fantastic war movie, even my mother was impressed and she hates war movies. The movie carries a great balance between story and action, with a fantastic all star cast to fill the shoes of a cast of historical figures from fighter pilots to admirals. Definitely one of Roland Emmerich's best films, if not his best period.

"Knives Out" (2019) - a mix of comedy and murder-mystery, the quirkiness of this one has a Wes Anderson flavor, despite being from Rian Johnson, the bane of Star Wars fans (not me, though, I enjoyed "The Last Jedi."). Johnson continues his talent of subverting expectations though an all star cast where heroes are villains, and what you expect is and isn't what happens. Take, for example, Daniel Craig as a gentleman detective with a Southern drawl. That was not the accent I was expecting when he first opening his mouth. I really enjoyed this one, and the entire movie was an entertaining blast from beginning to end.

"The Lighthouse" (2019) - Loosely based on the unfinished Edgar Allen Poe story "The Light-House", this movie first caught my attention with it's unusual filming techniques. The movie uses a 4:3 aspect ratio and is in black and white with a very noir look to it - strong uses of silhouette and shadows. Like the Poe story, the movie focuses on two men, lighthouse keepers (Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) as the younger of the two (Pattinson) is slowly driven mad by the isolation and having to put up with an abusive and antisocial supervisor (Dafoe). I may have came for the visuals, but the character-driven drama kept my eyes glued. The acting in this movie is phenomenal. Many people look at Robert Pattinson and see him as the sparkly vampire, Edward, in the Twilight Saga, but I must say his talents were entirely wasted in those movies. The man is a greater actor than I'd ever known, and I very much look forward to seeing him in his upcoming Batman movie.

"La Llorona" (2019) - based on the Latin American ghost story, this is another installment in the "The Conjuring" cinematic universe, most famous for its "Annabelle" scary doll movies. The movie does not explicitly focus on this fact and in fact stands very much on its own, only referencing its connected universe in passing. The movie focuses strongly on Latino community Catholicism and culture, making it unique among horror movies. The main character is also a single mother raising two children following the death of her PD husband in the line of duty. A social worker in the Latino community, her life becomes Hell when "La Llorona" follows her son home following the death of both children in one of her cases - killed by the vicious child-murdering spirit La Llorona herself. The move does a great job of immersing the viewer in its version of Latino ghost busting, and, like many of the movies in the "Conjuring" universe, depends mostly upon raising the tension of the viewer for scares instead of going for cheaper jump scares.

 

[belfastboy]

Caught a couple movies over the last weekend. I'll post in order of what I watched.

"Midway" (2019) - fantastic war movie, even my mother was impressed and she hates war movies. The movie carries a great balance between story and action, with a fantastic all star cast to fill the shoes of a cast of historical figures from fighter pilots to admirals. Definitely one of Roland Emmerich's best films, if not his best period.

"Knives Out" (2019) - a mix of comedy and murder-mystery, the quirkiness of this one has a Wes Anderson flavor, despite being from Rian Johnson, the bane of Star Wars fans (not me, though, I enjoyed "The Last Jedi."). Johnson continues his talent of subverting expectations though an all star cast where heroes are villains, and what you expect is and isn't what happens. Take, for example, Daniel Craig as a gentleman detective with a Southern drawl. That was not the accent I was expecting when he first opening his mouth. I really enjoyed this one, and the entire movie was an entertaining blast from beginning to end.

"The Lighthouse" (2019) - Loosely based on the unfinished Edgar Allen Poe story "The Light-House", this movie first caught my attention with it's unusual filming techniques. The movie uses a 4:3 aspect ratio and is in black and white with a very noir look to it - strong uses of silhouette and shadows. Like the Poe story, the movie focuses on two men, lighthouse keepers (Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) as the younger of the two (Pattinson) is slowly driven mad by the isolation and having to put up with an abusive and antisocial supervisor (Dafoe). I may have came for the visuals, but the character-driven drama kept my eyes glued. The acting in this movie is phenomenal. Many people look at Robert Pattinson and see him as the sparkly vampire, Edward, in the Twilight Saga, but I must say his talents were entirely wasted in those movies. The man is a greater actor than I'd ever known, and I very much look forward to seeing him in his upcoming Batman movie.

"La Llorona" (2019) - based on the Latin American ghost story, this is another installment in the "The Conjuring" cinematic universe, most famous for its "Annabelle" scary doll movies. The movie does not explicitly focus on this fact and in fact stands very much on its own, only referencing its connected universe in passing. The movie focuses strongly on Latino community Catholicism and culture, making it unique among horror movies. The main character is also a single mother raising two children following the death of her PD husband in the line of duty. A social worker in the Latino community, her life becomes Hell when "La Llorona" follows her son home following the death of both children in one of her cases - killed by the vicious child-murdering spirit La Llorona herself. The move does a great job of immersing the viewer in its version of Latino ghost busting, and, like many of the movies in the "Conjuring" universe, depends mostly upon raising the tension of the viewer for scares instead of going for cheaper jump scares.

Thank you for this. I will open the lock on my purse strings and spend the $7 to rent "The Lighthouse" I wasted my $7 and two hours of my life on the cursed "Parasite".

 

[LizzieMaine]

We had "The Lighthouse" here for a week a few months back, and it did well -- except for the "Maine accents," which were laughed off the screen.

 

[MisterCairo]

Caught a couple movies over the last weekend. I'll post in order of what I watched.

"Midway" (2019) - fantastic war movie, even my mother was impressed and she hates war movies. The movie carries a great balance between story and action, with a fantastic all star cast to fill the shoes of a cast of historical figures from fighter pilots to admirals. Definitely one of Roland Emmerich's best films, if not his best period.

"Knives Out" (2019) - a mix of comedy and murder-mystery, the quirkiness of this one has a Wes Anderson flavor, despite being from Rian Johnson, the bane of Star Wars fans (not me, though, I enjoyed "The Last Jedi."). Johnson continues his talent of subverting expectations though an all star cast where heroes are villains, and what you expect is and isn't what happens. Take, for example, Daniel Craig as a gentleman detective with a Southern drawl. That was not the accent I was expecting when he first opening his mouth. I really enjoyed this one, and the entire movie was an entertaining blast from beginning to end.

"The Lighthouse" (2019) - Loosely based on the unfinished Edgar Allen Poe story "The Light-House", this movie first caught my attention with it's unusual filming techniques. The movie uses a 4:3 aspect ratio and is in black and white with a very noir look to it - strong uses of silhouette and shadows. Like the Poe story, the movie focuses on two men, lighthouse keepers (Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) as the younger of the two (Pattinson) is slowly driven mad by the isolation and having to put up with an abusive and antisocial supervisor (Dafoe). I may have came for the visuals, but the character-driven drama kept my eyes glued. The acting in this movie is phenomenal. Many people look at Robert Pattinson and see him as the sparkly vampire, Edward, in the Twilight Saga, but I must say his talents were entirely wasted in those movies. The man is a greater actor than I'd ever known, and I very much look forward to seeing him in his upcoming Batman movie.

"La Llorona" (2019) - based on the Latin American ghost story, this is another installment in the "The Conjuring" cinematic universe, most famous for its "Annabelle" scary doll movies. The movie does not explicitly focus on this fact and in fact stands very much on its own, only referencing its connected universe in passing. The movie focuses strongly on Latino community Catholicism and culture, making it unique among horror movies. The main character is also a single mother raising two children following the death of her PD husband in the line of duty. A social worker in the Latino community, her life becomes Hell when "La Llorona" follows her son home following the death of both children in one of her cases - killed by the vicious child-murdering spirit La Llorona herself. The move does a great job of immersing the viewer in its version of Latino ghost busting, and, like many of the movies in the "Conjuring" universe, depends mostly upon raising the tension of the viewer for scares instead of going for cheaper jump scares.

Would you recommend the Conjuring films, my wife is not a fan of most horror films, but we like the classics from the 80s, and things like The Woman in Black.

We loved Knives Out. I hate (HATE) most Wes Anderson films, so I am glad I do not see the influence!

 

[belfastboy]

We had "The Lighthouse" here for a week a few months back, and it did well -- except for the "Maine accents," which were laughed off the screen.

I have a friend about my age that has been a working actress most of her adult life. She was hired for a local shoot to be the dialogue/accent coach for a movie supposedly set in Australia. She admitted that she had no idea how to coach an Aussie accent out of an American......but she needed a gig and she knew the producer. I often wondered how the accents turned out.

 

[Zombie_61]

The MGM Channel is airing a mini-marathon of the first five James Bond movies and we couldn't decide on anything "better" so my wife and I are currently watching Dr. No. (1962). Whether or not we'll watch the next four depends on how much Bond SWMBO is willing to tolerate.

 

[Woodtroll]

I have a friend about my age that has been a working actress most of her adult life. She was hired for a local shoot to be the dialogue/accent coach for a movie supposedly set in Australia. She admitted that she had no idea how to coach an Aussie accent out of an American......but she needed a gig and she knew the producer. I often wondered how the accents turned out.

I have to admit that I'm pretty curious how Vancouver could pass for Australia. I've been to Vancouver a couple of times (brief visits that I enjoyed very much, by the way), but have never been to Australia and I realize the local conditions can vary a lot. Maybe it's not much of a stretch for some places in Australia to look like Vancouver (or vice versa), I don't know?

 

[belfastboy]

I have to admit that I'm pretty curious how Vancouver could pass for Australia. I've been to Vancouver a couple of times (brief visits that I enjoyed very much, by the way), but have never been to Australia and I realize the local conditions can vary a lot. Maybe it's not much of a stretch for some places in Australia to look like Vancouver (or vice versa), I don't know?

I have not been to Aus either so can't comment. We have a very active movie shooting scene up here. In February there were 18 features being shot around the city. The Hallmark movie franchise is all shot here as well as the Man in the High Tower.

 

[Fading Fast]

This Woman is Dangerous from 1952 starring Joan Crawford and Dennis Morgan.

• Joan Crawford was a successful movie-making machine for three decades, but even she had a miss now and then and this is one

• To be sure, it's far from the worst movie made and it has some okay scenes, but as happened in several of her late '40s/early '50s movie, she was simply too old for the role

• Here, she's the head of a small criminal gang whom she temporarily leaves to have surgery at a hospital for eye disease - she'll go blind without the operation - but for some inexplicable reason (she is clearly losing her sight), her gangster boyfriend thinks she's really going away to have an affair

• Then, at the clinic, she falls in love with her doctor (Morgan) and he with her, which only fuels her gangster boyfriend's jealousy

• And this is why her age matters - she's almost fifty here, looks it. And, as always, she doesn't exude an abundance of warmth and sensuality. Hence, it's hard to understand why these men, four and ten years younger than her (Morgan, in particular looks freshly scrubbed next to I've-lived-my-life-hard Crawford), are taking all sorts of risk with their lives (the gangster boyfriend risks capture; physician Morgan risks, at minimum, his career and reputation) for cold and rough-around-the-edges Crawford

• The few pluses are the incredibly beautiful and crisp black-and-white cinematography, Crawford and Morgan are both strong enough pros that they still power a few scenes engagingly forward and there's some nice time travel to early '50s America

• It's not enough to save the effort, but as noted, there are plenty of worse movies out there

 

[Fading Fast]

On TCM right now - How to Stuff a Wild Bikini from 1965


While I am not at all above a mindless beach movie with bikini-clad girls, this movie is unwatchable.

From the twenty minutes I tried, these two observations:

1. Even bikini bodies have a vogue as most of these very thin and pretty young women would be way-too hippy if the movie was cast today (God forbid they make a remake)

2. Few men age as badly as Mickey Rooney did - from cute all-American boy-next-door to stocky, balding, wrinkled old man in twenty years - a land-speed record for aging.



Why is this on Sunday afternoon and not Wednesday at 3am?