What's the last movie you've seen?

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

1900 (1st part, about 3h15 IIRC, 1976)

By Bernardo Bertolucci. What we call "une fresque historique" in French, "an historical fresco" if I literally translate but I doubt this translation is accurate, maybe you would use the word "painting" instead of "fresco", what is more or less the same meaning, it's to speak about movies that describe large pages of History and life of people taken in these pages.

1900 is about people in the north east of Italia from 1900 to the end of the second war. Pretty damn well done, at least I enjoyed the quality of the thing. I recognized Robert de Niro and Gérard Depardieu in it. Unluckily I guess I missed the second part on TV, the 1 st one finishing on the raising of fascism in Italia.

I recommend it, the 3 hours just pass like that...

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Quiet Earth

According to what I've seen it's seems a movie from New Zealand, and it seems from the 70's.

After a scientific experiment around the world, and because the American part of this experiment screw up (of course...), it seems it remains only one man on the Earth, and we follow him and what will happen to him...

Well, not that wonderful, but it can be watched...

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

(I still thing Fight Club is way overrated...hehe)

Yep.

First time I saw it: "Amazing".

Saw it a few years after: "Oh in fact it touched the part of teen revolt I had".

Nevertheless, the surprise of the end remains a big surprise. And the talk of the film about the modern society still stands IMO.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

A bunch of us were talking about action movies...which ones were fun, which ones were over the top, etc....and this guy pipes up with that gem.  It was a classic "crickets chirping" moment.  No one knew what to say without simply insulting the guy.  He was a nice enough sort -- but he always carried numchucks (sp?) in the back of his car..."just in case"...LOL  He's a cop now, somewhere in Ohio.  Don't you feel good knowing that?

Beginning of a scenario...?

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

When French films are aired on TVs or cinema in US, are they dubbed most of the time or just subtitled?

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Duel - Spielberg

Not bad, seems to be the one that inspired a lot of copycats, not especially for the scenario, rather for the way of shooting. Maintained the pace all long the movie, just a very few parts were too long I found, he succeeded to create the ambiance of a duel of classical westerns and to make it last during all the movie. I didn't get bored but I really wanted it to end as quickly as possible, he succeeded to make me watch all long.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Slevin

So classical.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Scarlet Dawn - William Dieterle

Starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Nancy Carroll

US/German movie movie of 1932 about a Russian Prince fleeing in Turkey because of the communist revolution, as said the guy presenting the art house cinema program, the movie is only about 55 mins, and it shows well that we can make good movies in that duration, that we may live an epoch in which movies are uselessly too long.

Just before it, I saw:

Sonnenallee - Leander Haussman

German movie of 1999 about the youth in East-Berlin in the '70s. Very good, with a light, funny, ironical tone, tries to give an idea of what could have been the epoch for youth there. Far better than Good Bye Lenin to me.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

The Yellow ticket

Not fantastic but not bad. Would it be just for the face-to-face between the actors Elissa Landi (a beauty) and Lionel Barrymore, as an awful Russian aristocrat, in a kind of beauty and the beast style.

Just before:

Die Legende von Paul und Paula

A movie made in East Germany in 1973. Not bad, really. Me is who is often fed up with the classicism of movies today, with that, I had something to deal with.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Die Legende von Paul und Paula

A movie made in East Germany in 1973. Not bad, really. Me is who is often fed up with the classicism of movies today, with that, I had something to deal with.

Can you clarify?

Mostly the form and the tone of most what Hollywood and the French cinema use to do today. I'm hard-pressed to find something that surprises me, that interests me, brings me something, in all kind of films. How to say it, most of time it's a kind of "politically correct stuff", the expression is to be taken in a wide sens, not especially the moral, I'm not a fan of stuffs that break moral codes just in order to break them, it's just the sceneries, the characters, and the scenarios too. In short most of films today just don't catch me.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

La Cage aux Rossignols

French movie made in 1945, which inspired a cover that made a huge success in 2004 in France, Les Choristes. Simple and refreshing, pretty good.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Gus Van Sant's Elephant. Highly recommended.

I'm not a fan of Van Sant but I would agree.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Requiem for a Dream

Good movie. Fantastic editing/sequencing/etc. Also, Jennifer Connelly was just painfully hot around 2000.

You think life is just plain black, this movie is for you. Just liked the main music of the OST.

Last one I watched, was on TV, was Man on fire.

Wow, didn't expect we could make such an apologia of vengeance and cruelty. 

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0476643/

Required. Viewing.

One of the best movies I've ever seen (with one of the sweetest love scenes I've ever seen to boot) and I don't give statements like this lightly. Watch.

Haven't seen that one but seems that Israel makes good films recently.

Last one I saw:

Million dollar baby

Wow.

Was on TV, at the beginning I hesitate to watch, ecstatic review preceding made me doubt, but, it was Eastwood, so, I watched. Well, during the first 2/3 of the film, i'm like well, it's some basic Clint Eastwood style, nothing exceptional, something a bit more realist than some classical American movie, a bit more fresh, a bit closer to human beings, but nothing exceptional, remained pretty classical, I was thinking that once again the review had still been too much high. And, comes the last boxing match. At first, I think oh no Eastwood fell in 'Rocky paradigm', 'the boxer of the good against the boxer of the evil', the match seems to go this way, and, suddenly...

I can't tell what happens, would break the movie. It is the beginning of the most interesting part of the movie, all the rest before was just here to serve this last part. Comes a part that takes you to the stomach, a part where a tragedy like the human being can know is actually displayed, without compromise, and in which it seems Eastwood really gives us something very strong from his being.

At the end, you think, he dared, you would understand why it is italic if you watch the movie. There are other actual good tragedies in the cinema, and maybe the review has too much focusing on this one, but it deserves some attention nevertheless, and for something coming from Hollywood (the Warner produced) that remains exceptional.

Well, euh, a small dropping comment, the French version gave the voice of...Dumbledore to Eastwood. He had a pretty cool voice in French before, maybe they feel forced to suit with the fact he got older, well, Dumbledore in more speed speaking, say Dumbledore who drank a lot of coffee. Anyways, in the last part, you just don't care about that...

And also, I liked the acting of the girl, Hillary Swank, though I guess it would have been better in OV.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

The last one was:

Allo Berlin? Ici Paris!

By Julien Duvivier, I like that director.

It's a light but good love comedy based on a case of mistaken identity. The two main characters are that kind of good people you like to see and you want them to finish together, just because they are so worth it. And Josette Day, the main French actress is lovely.

Just before saw:

The Black Dahlia

Well, rather boring. Which is what happens most of the time some American directors try to make a movie on 30s/40s. They make everything perfect, the decorum, the costumes, the style, everything, but it seems just empty, you don't feel the actors are evolving in a special ambiance of an other epoch, you just have the feeling they are in a decorum. At least that's the impress i had about this one several other movies.

Plus here, the plot isn't that great, i mean there is not much stakes going on about what's happening in the story.

Well, the only stuffs to be noticed here are the presences of Hillary Swank and especially Scarlett Johanson in 40s looking...

In short a film in costumes in which you mainly notice that this is a film in costumes...

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

"Seems to be"? ???

Yep, he pushed the very big strikes in France to go further last spring, and went to encourage Besancenot while he was here for the Festival de Cannes in which he presented Looking for Eric. When everybody was still wondering, and politicians from govt on TV wasn't very reassured: "what the hell will happen here??????"

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Cool French/Tunisian movie that I think was set in Tunisia but I'm not sure.  It was about a woman in her late forties who was getting the menopause, and having difficulties.  Very good and very sexy.  Alas I didn't catch the name and can't figure out what it was.. it was recent though.

I can think of a one but it doesn't happen in Tunisia but in Western Africa, and it's about, yes, women of the menopause age, but some who go in Western Africa for sexual tourism. Which is something actually happening amongst European wealthy 50+ single women.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Cool French/Tunisian movie that I think was set in Tunisia but I'm not sure.  It was about a woman in her late forties who was getting the menopause, and having difficulties.  Very good and very sexy.  Alas I didn't catch the name and can't figure out what it was.. it was recent though.

I can think of a one but it doesn't happen in Tunisia but in Western Africa, and it's about, yes, women of the menopause age, but some who go in Western Africa for sexual tourism. Which is something actually happening amongst European wealthy 50+ single women.

That sounds great!  Not the same movie I think, but I'd love to see the one you're talking about.  What's the title?

Ah damn, I mixed myself with a document. The film i was speaking about is effectively a French one about 50+ wealthy single women looking for sexual tourism, but that are not about Europeans in Western Africa but about American ones in Haïti, at the end of the '70s. The document was about Europeans seeking for it in Gambia.

Well, i haven't seen it, but the few i've seen of it makes me think it's not the kind i would have liked, it seems to have one of this French trend in French cinema nowadays to make pretty low movies, very close of people but maybe too much for me, finishes in rather boring stuffs. That's the impress i had about that one, but I may be wrong. Its director, Laurent Cantet has made good and bad movies from my pov.

Anyways, here is: http://french.imdb.com/title/tt0381690/combined

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

The Meaning of Life

Damn, sometimes, these British....

Remains amusing but I preferred far more the Graal and Brian.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Several films of Mauro Bolognini lately (there is a cycle dedicated to him in a weekly TV arthouse program currently), those I liked the most:

La Viaccia

Very good, Jean-Paul Belmondo and, especially, Claudia Cardinale are just great.

La Corruzione

And a bit less but still good, Metello.

Just pretty good, these films express a pretty good realism, according to the films in different parts of human society and at different epochs, with all what can exist in human beings, hate, love, passion, stupidity, narrow-mindness, fatality, force, weakness, hope, despair, this with energy and a pretty good sensuality. It shows heavy situation with never being heavy, just with an alternation of strength and sweetness.

Just great, 5 mins of one of these films are worth tens of both French and American current movies in term of substance and intensity.

Italia really produced good things a few decades ago.

Yesterday there was also L'Etau, Topaz in original title, on arte. A spy movie from Hitchcock, well not bad, though my main memory has been this actress named Karin Dor playing a Latina revolutionary, and the scary azure eyes of a revolutionary guy.

Karin Dor in 'Topaz':

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Hmm...last one was...The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, well, SpongeBob...

Though, just before I saw two better anime ones. Thanks to a TV channel that dedicated a part of its programs during about one month to Japan, arte, I discovered Hayao Myazaki. And I like Hayao Myazaki. They have broadcast at least 4 of his movies, I saw 2 of them, Howl's Moving Castle, and especially, the 1st that I saw and that made me want to see a second one, Spirited Away.

I've been surprised to like this last one when I discovered it, first I thought, oh no, a manga, I'm not a fan of anime manga style, and TV review spoke about a great thing which had big big reviews when it has been released, then before going on it I thought, well, one more hype stuff that excited a few hype people during a while, but, nothing else on TV, I tried.

And, well, dunno why but very quickly the ambiance caught me on, dunno, it was something very subtle that caught me, the animation, the pace, but also like something very subtle in the sound of the movie. And this while the stuff is about some fantasy story/magical stuffs and so forth, so much things that use to turn me off. And, if you add to this that quickly enough began a kind of love story of the kind that can touch me (and certainly the child I've been), all in lightness and strength at the same time, I was just caught. Then, I liked quite everything in that movie, ambiance, characters, the way the story evolved.

Fresh, subtle, and light. Just great.

I enjoyed the other movie too, Howl's Movie Castle, for the same kind of reasons, but not as much as Spirited Away.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Fatal

So? Would have Mickael Youn succeeded in doing something quite good? It had good good reviews iirc.

District B13

I wouldn't have expected this one would have had an international life. Didn't see it, but the trailers were like over action movie à l'américaine, and the plot and the dramaturgy of it seem over simplistic.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

The Ten Commandments (1956)

the kids are just glued to this film

Yeah, as a kid I enjoyed.

I watched it later, and...

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

On a retrouvé la 7ème compagnie

Just passed on TF1, biggest French TV channel and which has a constant streaming on internet, then I watched it there.

It's the 2nd part of a very famous and popular trilogy in France, shot in the 70s, of which at least one movie of it if not the three have been broadcast more or less every year on a French channel since I've been a kid.

It's a kind of light comedy on 3 guys from the French army in the beginning of WW2. It kinda show the ridiculousness of the French army during this time by making fun of it but in a kind way. Interestingly enough it doesn't take the easy to make easy fun of Germans, they are shown like not so smart robots at worst, globally French are more mocked than them, but the 3 guys win in the end!

I enjoyed it as a kid, I see I still like it.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Inception

Should have been called Masturbation. Outside of showing how the mind of the writer of this movie can be complicated, I don't really see the point of this movie.

The big Lebowski

Had already seen it a decade ago, but it was on a bad VHS and I hadn't seen the end. Quite enjoyable.

Human traffic

About some youngs who take pills to party in Cardiff, in the 90s apparently, rather fresh and enjoyable.