What DVD have you just watched?

Jamiel,

Sorry for the late reply. Wild Grass was a bit uneven but fun to watch. The characters, depressing as they were, sometimes irrational, portrayed sincerely a set of relationships which developed along the plot till the sad end. It is definitely worth watching it, especially if you liked Alain Resnais previous works.

Haim

Inglorious basterds - Typcial Tarantino celluloid comic - good in places and disgusting in others.

Seasons of the witch - total pants - laughable ending - appalling miscasting

Little Ashes - biopic of the early life of Salvador Dali - various dreary scenes of people smoking. Some good photography. Fell asleep half way through.

At the cinema - The Rite. Quite good. Hopkins brilliant as always.
          - The King's Speach - brilliant all round. Hugely enjoyable.

This is not a recital DVD; it is a documentary film of sorts on pianist Piotr Anderszewski.  This is one of my favourite DVD's and I watch this a couple times a year.  If you have any interest in Anderszewski, pianists, or classical musicians in general, then I'd heartily recommend this for you too.  It is a nice way to get to know him and I find it very inspiring and so interesting.


REVIEW:
From the pianist Piotr Anderszewski's first comments in 'Unquiet Traveller' ('Voyageur Intranquille'), a new documentary film that follows him on a concert tour by train through his native Poland, you would think that this fiercely individual artist found being a pianist an agonizing impossibility. In a winter coat and a hat with thick wool lining, Mr. Anderszewski walks solitarily along snow-covered train tracks at a railroad station, as we hear his reflections in a voice-over, in English. 'When I play with orchestra,' he says, 'I sometimes tell myself I'll never play a concerto again. Too many artistic compromises.' Yet, he continues, when confronted with 'the extreme loneliness of the recital, the heroism and also the cruelty involved, I sometimes think that I 'l never do recitals ever again. I'll only make recordings.' Then again, he says, in the recording studio, when he is free to repeat the work as often as he desires, the possibility of always doing better creates another kind of terrible pressure. 'In fact,' he concludes, 'the real, the ultimate temptation would be to stop everything, lie down, listen to the beat of my heart and quietly wait for it to stop.'. . . Mr. Anderszewski, who speaks Polish, Hungarian, French and English in the film, is shown during a recording session, playing and conducting Beethoven's First Piano Concerto with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. On the concert totour, he travels in a specially appointed train car, complete with a kitchen, a dining area and a place for his Steinway grand, which we see being lifted onto the train by movers. In one scene he hosts a New Year's Eve dinner party on board for friends. Early in the film, right after Mr. Anderszewski's confession about his frustrations with the pianist's profession, he is shown in concert playing the lively Gigue from Bach's Partita No. 1. Though he takes a brisk, nearly breathless tempo, the playing is so articulate that all the notes come through. Sometimes he really thumps out the bass notes, with clanking tone. Yet there is such zest in the playing over all that the effect is wonderfully ambiguous like dangerous whimsy. There is something extreme in this performance, exactly the quality that gave me reservations about Mr. Anderszewski's early work, which was unquestionably brilliant and intensely expressive but strong-willed and feisty. Maybe he has mellowed or maybe I have gained insight into his approach. But in recent years I have found almost everything he does riveting. --New York Times, Anthony Tommasini, July 31, 2009

Syriana was a pretty good watch, up until the final blatant "LNG will kill us all here in Malibu" hollywood-liberal anti-advertisent against the then-current proposal for an LNG off-load facility off the coast from many movie-stars' beach houses (which would spoil their views).

Underwhelming.

I thought so too. Can't see where the hype comes from.

Life is not exactly sweet! for some.

Winky, I think that you will like this one.

My previous post should have been this!


Life not so sweet for some!

Exit Though the Gift Shop,  contender for oscar.  Friends had told me about this, and I remember the big show in LA and all the news outrage.  I feel some graffiti is good, most of it bad.  I think Banksy is very good.  I remember seeing some of his work and the OBEY posters around LA.  Thankfully we have quite a few good murals around town.

Very educational about street art.

But is the whole movie just another spoof?

No excuse for not watching this recent documentary of the financial meltdown of 2008.

Unfortunately we Have to watch this first

Winky, it is all a spoof, can't trust anyone these days.  Look at those people involved they're not really trying to benefit society.

In LA times today a woman had a back alley fence of hers painted by a local high school group and she was cited $600 fine for graffiti.  An angry neighbor complained yet it's a beautiful composition, colors rich but some people don't want to advance.  I don't like taggers with just scrawled letters but some of this stuff is amazing around town.

There are so many beige stucco walls around that would be beautified but taggers want their stamp on everything, they don't let other work stand.  Banksy has some really interesting stuff to me.

Martin Chuzzlewit:



Had to buy this as double sided region 1; much like my favourite version of Pride & Pred. Both available in the US but not in Blighty!

This is a GREAT adaptation. Scofield, Wilkinson and Postlethwaite at the tops of their game.

Typical Dickensian characterisations brilliantly realised.

BUY IT!!!!