What DVD have you just watched?
Posted by: u5227470736789439 on 27 November 2005
All the best from Fredrik
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Two Films: Tchaikovsky's Women | Fate [The Christopher Nupen Films]
I suppose you have to die before they start to create all the supposed details of ones life in documentaries. (RE: Kissin film lack of details). Nupen provides a nice program of details here and so this is informative and interesting but didn't quite fulfill my unique need to quench my interest in the piano music of Tchaikovsky. There is a very short interlude with a solo work (same one twice) and again a very brief reference to the Piano Trio (twice).
The Five Pennies: Danny Kaye | Louis Armstrong | Barbara Bel Geddes | Harry Guardino | Bob Crosby \ Bobby Troup | Susan Gordon | Tuesday Weld
When it comes to any film my personal judgement always assesses the visual and aural beauty before the story line. Musically, The Five Pennies is a total winner for me. Being semi-biographical adds to the story line. Louis Armstrong and others including Red Nichols pull this off admirably and visually. Who else has the talent like Danny Kaye these days? One of my favourite movies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRirEDoWWlU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYau8FdhXDM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ9rSeu1CR0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbfb2SYdSqo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCLNTmNj5bI
A very weak film, to put it mildly, and despite decent reviews. The only character I could relate to was the tow-truck driver who showed up in the end for one minute.
Natalie Portman: a Tale of Love and Darkness
Haim, I know you have said you preferred the book to this film but thank you for mentioning this one some time ago. Without knowledge of the book I would say I found it very interesting and I quite liked it - especially some of the cinematography. I know will look forward to reading the Amos Oz book...
I love this ellipitical, highly opaque 1976 movie by one of these islands' best film-makers, Nic Roeg. Bowie is of course perfectly cast as the exiled alien, but there are great performances from Rip Torn, Candy Clark, Buck Henry, etc. Tony Richmond's cinematography is stunning, making brilliant use of the claustrophobic interiors and the desolate, vast open spaces of the American South-West.
The blu-ray transfer on this massive 40th anniversary box-set is exemplary.
Spent so much time in the air this year, I ran out of 'new' films - so I upgraded to the classics. Recent highlights included this trio. Very enjoyable, genre-defining, even if I wouldn't include any of these in my personal top 25.
Cheers
EJ
Enrico Oliveri is a shrewd, experienced politician, a senator and party leader of the center-left whose career is in decline. His party is currently in opposition and by all projections is headed for another defeat in the upcoming elections. Members of his party want to dump him. Suffering depression and exhaustion, he decides to disappear for a while, hiding incognito in Paris, France at the home of a former lover, Danielle, who is now married to a famous film director by whom she has a school-age daughter.
Panic ensues among Oliveri's political intimates when they discover his disappearance. His right-hand man, Andrea Bottini, does not lose faith, but instead gets the idea of secretly substituting Oliveri's twin brother, Giovanni Ernani, an over-the-top writer and philosopher who has previously spent time in mental health care and is still medicated.
Well, you've got to watch at least one Christmas movie, haven't you?
Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani knows his traditional Muslim family would be unhappy with his relationship with his American girlfriend, Emily (Zoe Kazan) — if they knew. Emily finds out that Kumail hasn’t told his parents about her and that if he does, they’ll disown him. Their relationship falters.
We really enjoyed this. The way different time streams for the individual stories are interwoven is very cleverly done, and good to see a modern war film that isn't dripping in gore. Very tense, made more so by the beating heart soundtrack. The 4K picture quality is truly astonishing and so is the 5.1 surround sound; not Atmos but wonderfully immersive nonetheless. Not overlong either.
tonym posted:
We really enjoyed this. The way different time streams for the individual stories are interwoven is very cleverly done, and good to see a modern war film that isn't dripping in gore. Very tense, made more so by the beating heart soundtrack. The 4K picture quality is truly astonishing and so is the 5.1 surround sound; not Atmos but wonderfully immersive nonetheless. Not overlong either.
That's on my post-Xmas shopping list. Now where did I put those gift vouchers?
Bought this a few weeks back but have been saving it for a uninterrupted viewing over the holiday period. A Tarantino film that I haven't previously watched all the way through which, given the way he makes his films, can't really be done. I enjoyed it. Jackson very menacing. As some have said previously, when Tarantino is mentioned this isn't the movie that springs to mind but it is, perhaps, one of his best pieces of work.
From iTunes in HD (but not 4K). Superb movie.
Paris Can Wait but I couldn't wait for the film to be over.. Recommended only to people who are deep into food and restaurants. It is amazing how many movies start with a fluffy soundtrack which is a prelude to a fluffy shallow story.
Rewatched this tonight. I like the whole franchise but this one is the best!
On Netflix. Decent account of an incident I knew little about.
Post viewing research shows it to be quite accurate too, albeit a little condensed in terms of 'what happened next...'
Worth watching.
Planning to watch this over the weekend on Blu-Ray.
Heard the production is very impressive with it being been shot large format film.
Looking forward to Saturday to find out...
tonym posted:
We really enjoyed this. The way different time streams for the individual stories are interwoven is very cleverly done, and good to see a modern war film that isn't dripping in gore. Very tense, made more so by the beating heart soundtrack. The 4K picture quality is truly astonishing and so is the 5.1 surround sound; not Atmos but wonderfully immersive nonetheless. Not overlong either.
Ah, Tony beat me to it. Wonder how the 4K version compares to Blu-Ray? Not that I've got any 4K hardware anyway!. My HDMI 1.3 cables are buried in the wall and connected to a now old hat Full HD Pioneer 50" Kuro, so I'd have to did them out for something that can handle 4K data.
Still think the Pio has a great picture though when fed with Blu-Ray.
tonym posted:
We really enjoyed this. The way different time streams for the individual stories are interwoven is very cleverly done, and good to see a modern war film that isn't dripping in gore. Very tense, made more so by the beating heart soundtrack. The 4K picture quality is truly astonishing and so is the 5.1 surround sound; not Atmos but wonderfully immersive nonetheless. Not overlong either.
I have just spent much of Christmas and New Year with someone who is on the voting panel for BAFTA, so I had a bit of a film fest over the period watching quite a few of the many dozen films that she had been sent for BAFTA consideration. Another BAFTA member came round for some of the showings, so it was extremely interesting to compare their professional opinions with my own. Unfortunately, I did not get to see either 'Dunkirk' or 'Blade Runner', but will be buying them for myself in 4K format, despite them not being rated by the two professionals. They felt that whilst some of the cinematography in Dunkirk was fantastic, the film itself was dreadful. I suspect I will disagree with them when I eventually see the film.
I'm not sure which of the following films have been released yet, but of the ones I watched, I really enjoyed:
'The Post' - excellent performance by Tom Hanks in particular. Again, the BAFTA pros were ambivalent at best about the film.
'Molly's Game' - an interesting debate amongst the watchers of this film about the real life principle character (Molly) and whether or not she deserved any empathy or was simply an attention seeker. It was also fascinating to find out elsewhere the real life identities of the high stake poker players in the game. Ben Afleck and Matt Damon were apparently the 'nice guys', whereas the character representing (allegedly)Tobey Maguire is portrayed as a really nasty piece of work.
'Three Billboards' - one to avoid if you dislike profanity, but after a dubious start turns out to be a very rewarding and almost heartwarming. A superb performance by France's McDormand. Also really loved by the BAFTA pros.
'T2 Trainspotting' - This has of course been out for some time, and I had seen it before long ago, but I liked it every bit as much second time round. Very funny (if you can understand the accents and dialects, and in my opinion even better than the original.
If you have kids, then I would thoroughly recommend both 'Paddington 2' and 'Coco'. I thought Paddington 2 was even better than the original, and the Pixar animation 'Coco' was simply stunning. Very watchable for both kids and adults. Everyone liked them.
Films that were OK, but no more than that: 'Limehouse Golem' & 'Stronger'.
Worst film and biggest disappointment of the week - without a doubt for me was 'The death of Stalin'. I had expected this film to be very funny, but for me it was gratuitously unpleasant from beginning to end, and whatever comedy that was supposed to be there completely missed the mark for me. A couple of those who watched it with me enjoyed it, so you may not agree with my verdict.
A very interesting week for me.
Excellent physchological-thriller-with-a-twist, tautly directed by David Fincher. Rosamund Pike is superb as the calculating psycho, and even Ben Affleck is good. An unexpected delight, and proof positive that when given good material to work with, Fincher's one of the best directors in the business.
