What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

Just last night watched for the umpteenth time "The Year of Living Dangerous"
Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt as Billy Kwan, the man photo journalist who befriends Mel's charachter, she won an Academy Award for this portrayal...Now a big star as Hettie in NCIS LA

"Frantz" 2016

A French - German film set in the aftermath of WWI centered on a young woman who lost her fiancee in the war and is now living with her fiancee's kind, but also grieving, parents. A former French soldier and putative pre-war friend of her dead fiancee shows up at the fiancee's grave in Germany to set the story in motion.

It's hard to say more without giving too much away, but broadly, the film explores, at a very personal level, the conflicting morals all war brings to the individual soldier, the conflicting morals of post-war forgiveness and the general malaise that overhands "normal" life after the fighting is over. And at its heart, it's a "boy meets girl, they fall in love and have obstacles to overcome or not" story.

It's a very good but not great movie that takes a bit too long to kick into gear and does end a bit nebulously - but well worth the time. Visually, the movie is ninety percent black and white - with a few color scenes to emphasize a dream state. While I love (really, deeply love) black-and-white films, the B&W here is too "fresh" or "bright" (I won't say clear as '50s B&W is incredibly crisp and clear) or something in a way that throws off its usual warming effect.

Still, it's a very good story and visually pretty movie overall with some great Fedora Lounge eye-candy (the German bar and doctor's home office are outstanding) that - despite its flaws - is better than most of today's offerings.

⇧ Lizzie, did your theater get "Frantz?" I think it would have gone over pretty well with your audience.

Yep. I thought it was an excellent picture -- we only had it for a couple of days though, which was a pity. We could have easily gotten a week out of it if the schedule hadn't been so jumpy that month.

"One Crowded Night" 1940 (but feels mid-'30s with no real war-looming backdrop, but more of a life-in-the-30s vibe)

This "B" movie works today as an incredible time-capsule of late-'30s America at a roadside motor court and diner. The details - the small, stand-alone cabins, the diner with its icebox, swinging (and banging) screen door, metal napkin dispensers, etc. - are Fedora Lounge eye-candy to the max. Add in the clothes - from three piece suits to chambray work shirts and leather jacket for the men, to simple mid-'30s print dresses and oxford shoes for the women* - and the cars, the trucks and the gas station out front and you are transported back in time.

The characters, overall, are interesting, especially the female characters which are more developed than the two-dimensional men. Women worry about their businesses, their reputations (a bunch of mini scandals are in motion), having enough to eat (no modern-day diet obsessions here) and if this or that man would make a good husband (as a person not just - as too-often stereotyped - a "provider"). In this way, the movie feels pre-code as the women are more interesting and nuanced than the men and, basically, dominate the story.

And the story is the movie's weak point. It's a bunch of silly plots about past scandals coming back with too many coincidences causing interconnected people to wind up at the motor court on the same night. Cops, escaped convicts, mobsters, ex-lovers all arrive to "melodrama" the messy stories into a climax of gunfighting, child birth and life-changing decisions. Yawn - whatever.

Watch this one for the time-travel to the thirties - it's incredible - and to see real women face real problems in a way few movies did after the code was enforced.

Also, if motor courts interest you, Ghostsoldier recently started an outstanding thread on them here:



* Women's clothes in the thirties are such a dichotomy. The work-a-day dresses, shoes, sweaters, coats worn by the "regular" people are - overall - beautiful, classic, simple and timeless despite being the not-high-end choices of the period. Conversely, the high-society clothes, as seen in all the uber-rich-people movies made in the depression, are (overall) a mess of silly designs of impractical materials with little connect to life's day to day functioning. Proving this out, the "regular" people clothes are still around today (simple print dresses, twin sets, oxfords, etc.); whereas, the highfalutin' clothes have long since disappeared.

On Saturday night for our Movie Night get-together, Key Largo. Enjoyed by all-

The BIG SLEEP (1946) with Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall

Rough Riders (1997) Saw it back in the day, I think it did a good job at showing how The Spanish American War was our most popular war. Plus, they show how William Randolph Hearst manipulated the war. Still get a kick out of Gary Busey as the malaria crazed Confederate Major General Joseph Wheeler, giving orders to get those Yankees! Though it is still a little over the top when you see the American flag waving, and behind it is a water tower with the advertisement Imperial on it!

Worf said:

(Gosh I hate to admit this) After seeing it on Netflix day after day I finally broke down and watched "The Human Centipede". I knew it was going to be stupid and possibly gross as all get out but I couldn't resist any longer. Bizarre in a David Lynchian sort of way with the creepiest mad scientist in recent memory. Not as much gore as expected but plenty of horrific doings. If you can get by the premise, and that's a BIG if, you'll be entertained for an hour and a half, and probably disgusted for an equal amount of time. Lord above what were they smokin' when they dreamt this one up.

Worf

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Never seen it, and really don't want to, but what a great review!

On Monday, The Battle of Algiers. Yesterday, What Price Hollywood?, the film upon which A Star is Born is based. Missus Shellhammer had never seen it and was quite taken by it.

"Magnificent Obsession" 1954 with Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman

• If the word melodrama hadn't already been created, they'd have needed to create it to describe this movie
  • The melodramatic (there's no other word) story of the arrogant playboy / lovely woman who becomes victim of playboy and loses her sight followed by playboy reforming / going back to medical school / operating on lovely woman - who have now fallen in love - and getting her sight back is really, really hard to take (and I left out a few additional schmaltzy twists and turns)

• Okay, that ⇧ is the painful part - and it is painful - but there are still a few things here playing on in the background that - while they don't quite save the movie - at minimum, keep you engaged at times
  • There's a deep Christian / Christ theme wrapped in a spiritual circle of life and giving philosophy that is enjoyable to see as, IMHO, Hollywood would never put that in a mainstream release anymore (and, for the record, I'm agnostic and have never practiced religion, but respect Western Civilization's Judeo-Christian roots and appreciate the respect it used to receive in our culture)
  • Hudson's acting is good (still a bit cardboard, but good for him) while Wyman brings all her acting prowess to bear to hold together the silliness of the plot
  • Some great mid-'50s "time travel" cars, clothes, architecture, airplanes and boats all in "equal to the melodrama" Technicolor. I'm not a big fan of Technicolor, but this over-the-top movie cries out for its exaggerated brightness

Doubt I'll ever watch it again, but glad I saw it once.

Stearmen said:

Rough Riders (1997) Saw it back in the day, I think it did a good job at showing how The Spanish American War was our most popular war. Plus, they show how William Randolph Hearst manipulated the war. Still get a kick out of Gary Busey as the malaria crazed Confederate Major General Joseph Wheeler, giving orders to get those Yankees! Though it is still a little over the top when you see the American flag waving, and behind it is a water tower with the advertisement Imperial on it!

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Well, after saying what a good movie it was, turns out it is mostly rubbish! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118453/goofs A really good read.

Stearmen said:

Well, after saying what a good movie it was, turns out it is mostly rubbish! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118453/goofs A really good read.

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Filmmakers have never let facts get in the way of the story they want to tell, and that includes most documentarians.

Re the movie "Magnificent Obsession" that I commented on above, left out one thing - there's a faint echo to Cary Grant's "People Will Talk" which has a wonderful "otherworldly" quality to it and medicine. However, as with everything in "Magnificent Obsession," the spirituality is heavy handed, in "People Will Talk" the spirituality washes over you pleasantly. "People Will Talk" probably belongs in the "Underrated" movie thread.

THE MUMMY (1959) starring Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing

Lost Continent (1968) There is not a single adjective in any language to describe how bad this movie is!

"Flamingo Road"

• A bit of redux story line from several other movies, but still a fun "post-war corrupt small-town politics" movie
• The movie bit off more than it could chew and ended up with too many characters and subplots so that none got the needed attention leaving the movie feeling "surfacey" and, then, rushed at the end as there was too much to tie up
• Joan Crawford was too old for the role and this is not some stupid sexist comment - it's just a fact that the role called for a younger woman (I enjoy Crawford's post-war movies, but in this one, she is miscast)
• Great Fedora Lounge eye candy in particular some stunning cars pop up
• I'm not surprised Sydney Greenstreet - a favorite of mine - retired shortly after making this one - he seemed not well and not up to his usual picaresque self

Fading Fast said:

"Flamingo Road"

• A bit of redux story line from several other movies, but still a fun "post-war corrupt small-town politics" movie
• The movie bit off more than it could chew and ended up with too many characters and subplots so that none got the needed attention leaving the movie feeling "surfacey" and, then, rushed at the end as there was too much to tie up
• Joan Crawford was too old for the role and this is not some stupid sexist comment - it's just a fact that the role called for a younger woman (I enjoy Crawford's post-war movies, but in this one, she is miscast)
• Great Fedora Lounge eye candy in particular some stunning cars pop up
• I'm not surprised Sydney Greenstreet - a favorite of mine - retired shortly after making this one - he seemed not well and not up to his usual picaresque self

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If you take Flamingo Road for what it is, an overheated melodrama, filled with characters who border on caricature, performed by people at the top of their game (i.e., who got their chops), then it is thoroughly enjoyable. (Should this be on the guilty pleasures thread?)