The Movie Reel

[MargaretMcAleer]

Finally got the time yesterday to sit down and watch 'Roma' which I loved.
The director Cuaron is a great storyteller,he explores loneliness and motherhood which applies to two woman in this film also a bond that can be formed being alone together.The film shot in black and white really highlighted the 'darkness' or tragedy in the film at times.I was really 'touched' by this film.A must see film!.

 

[Moxie]

Finally got the time yesterday to sit down and watch 'Roma' which I loved.
The director Cuaron is a great storyteller,he explores loneliness and motherhood which applies to two woman in this film also a bond that can be formed being alone together.The film shot in black and white really highlighted the 'darkness' or tragedy in the film at times.I was really 'touched' by this film.A must see film!.

I'm so glad you gave it the time, and that you loved it, as I did. It's gorgeous, but aesthetically and emotionally. It's also a very personal film for the director, and you feel that. It's a memory piece. I was in a puddle at the end, for no good reason. (A friend of mine said, "sloppy-crying.") But it's not sad. It's just an emotional journey.

 

[Jelenafan]

Got my "The 7 Samurai" fix this week.

There are about 20-25 films that are my "all time favorite" as soon as I see them again LOL and Seven Samauri is definitely one of them.

Through the years I cajoled friends who said they weren't samaurai action film buffs, or foreign films, etc to see this movie.
If Kurosawa's movie was just a spectacular action film that would be enough, but it's also a study of a way of life and code which is dying away, and themes of honor and courage in a fully inhabited world. The fluidiy of this film is amazing.

This one of those movies I have to see every few years and it's power is as raw as ever.

 

[tented]

Finally watched "Rocket Man," the Elton John biopic. I didn't really like it that much. I thought Taron Egerton, who played Elton, and all of the actors were really good, but it really bothered me how much the songs were used out of sequence from when they came out. Maybe that's puny, and just shows my age that I remember. Clearly the film is not meant to be a straight-forward (pun unfortunate) take on John's life, and vamp, camp and license makes a certain sense, given the subject. But while so much was well-done, it didn't add up for me. Anyone else see it?

Same reaction. The out-of-sequence use of songs bothered me a lot. That’s when I realized: this is just a warm-up for a Broadway musical.

 

[Chris Koziarz]

Finally watched "Rocket Man," the Elton John biopic. I didn't really like it that much. I thought Taron Egerton, who played Elton, and all of the actors were really good, but it really bothered me how much the songs were used out of sequence from when they came out. Maybe that's puny, and just shows my age that I remember. Clearly the film is not meant to be a straight-forward (pun unfortunate) take on John's life, and vamp, camp and license makes a certain sense, given the subject. But while so much was well-done, it didn't add up for me. Anyone else see it?

I haven't watched this particular movie but I see your point. Most movies are naive or even stupid (often incorrect) portrayal of true reality, often buffeted up with physically improbable effects (action movies), targeted at the audience who does not know the facts or never experiences the subject reality, to entertain said audience, rather than teaching. So while, movies are good for entertainment and a little bit of trivia knowledge to non-experts, the experts would note the factual inaccuracies & buffeted up reality. Some experts may not mind it and sill like the entertaining part of movies portraying their fields but I'm not the one. That's why I can't stand the action movies that defy laws of physics or e.g. movies about "genius computer hackers" who single-handed break a long, encrypted security code by just looking at it. Similarly in other fields: historian don't like historical movies, literate people who read books first, don't like subsequent inaccurate trivialized movies made after the books.
If you know the life of EJ very well, it's inevitable that you notice historical inaccuracies. A good director can introduce such inaccuracies on purpose and be upfront with them, in order to create an "intriguing" version, that may be interesting even though historically inaccurate. A bad director just doesn't know the true facts or trivializes the facts or buffets them up emotionally for an entertainment of average audience. But even in the former case, some historians won't be always happy what they see.

 

[Horsa]

I haven't watched this particular movie but I see your point. Most movies are naive or even stupid (often incorrect) portrayal of true reality, often buffeted up with physically improbable effects (action movies), targeted at the audience who does not know the facts or never experiences the subject reality, to entertain said audience, rather than teaching. So while, movies are good for entertainment and a little bit of trivia knowledge to non-experts, the experts would note the factual inaccuracies & buffeted up reality. Some experts may not mind it and sill like the entertaining part of movies portraying their fields but I'm not the one. That's why I can't stand the action movies that defy laws of physics or e.g. movies about "genius computer hackers" who single-handed break a long, encrypted security code by just looking at it. Similarly in other fields: historian don't like historical movies, literate people who read books first, don't like subsequent inaccurate trivialized movies made after the books.
If you know the life of EJ very well, it's inevitable that you notice historical inaccuracies. A good director can introduce such inaccuracies on purpose and be upfront with them, in order to create an "intriguing" version, that may be interesting even though historically inaccurate. A bad director just doesn't know the true facts or trivializes the facts or buffets them up emotionally for an entertainment of average audience. But even in the former case, some historians won't be always happy what they see.

I've got a lot to say about this but haven't really got time to say it now. A lot of what I have to say goes more into the realm of history so I've also got to think about whether to risk putting it here & having Mr. Zz. call the moderators on me & get it moved into history or whether to put it into history anyway or whether to start on film then say what I have to say about history then move onto talking about hippodramas before moving it back to film & make it fit. Oops! I forgot. You told me a bit since I'm not to type long, complex posts so I'd better behave.

 

[Horsa]

I've just read that there was a 1993 film version. Is that true? If so, what's it like, please? I'd never heard of that. I've read the story of Mazeppa & Lord Byron's Mazeppa, seen Gericault's painting of Mazeppa & heard of Pushkin's poem, Mazeppa & Liszt's piece of music & the hippodramas based on the story but didn't realise there was a more recent dramatization than the hippodramas which died when cinema began.

 

[Chris Koziarz]

I've just read that there was a 1993 film version. Is that true? If so, what's it like, please? I'd never heard of that. I've read the story of Mazeppa & Lord Byron's Mazeppa, seen Gericault's painting of Mazeppa & heard of Pushkin's poem, Mazeppa & Liszt's piece of music & the hippodramas based on the story but didn't realise there was a more recent dramatization than the hippodramas which died when cinema began.

Appears to be true. I found Mazeppa (1993) movie description on Wiki. But I haven't seen it. I've read Lord Byron's drama at school, as well as other stories based on it but I find hard to understand what Gericault's life (subject of said movie) has to do with Ivan Mazepa. One needs to watch the movie to understand/have opinion if a French guy who put in on scene was right/insightful.

 

[Horsa]

Appears to be true. I found Mazeppa (1993) movie description on Wiki. But I haven't seen it. I've read Lord Byron's drama at school, as well as other stories based on it but I find hard to understand what Gericault's life (subject of said movie) has to do with Ivan Mazepa. One needs to watch the movie to understand/have opinion if a French guy who put in on scene was right/insightful.

Thank you very much for your answer, Chris.

What Gericault has to do with Mazeppa is he painted a picture based on the story of Mazeppa. It was supposed to be Mazeppa strapped to his horse with his horse running round.

 

[Horsa]

I haven't watched this particular movie but I see your point. Most movies are naive or even stupid (often incorrect) portrayal of true reality, often buffeted up with physically improbable effects (action movies), targeted at the audience who does not know the facts or never experiences the subject reality, to entertain said audience, rather than teaching. So while, movies are good for entertainment and a little bit of trivia knowledge to non-experts, the experts would note the factual inaccuracies & buffeted up reality. Some experts may not mind it and sill like the entertaining part of movies portraying their fields but I'm not the one. That's why I can't stand the action movies that defy laws of physics or e.g. movies about "genius computer hackers" who single-handed break a long, encrypted security code by just looking at it. Similarly in other fields: historian don't like historical movies, literate people who read books first, don't like subsequent inaccurate trivialized movies made after the books.
If you know the life of EJ very well, it's inevitable that you notice historical inaccuracies. A good director can introduce such inaccuracies on purpose and be upfront with them, in order to create an "intriguing" version, that may be interesting even though historically inaccurate. A bad director just doesn't know the true facts or trivializes the facts or buffets them up emotionally for an entertainment of average audience. But even in the former case, some historians won't be always happy what they see.

I'm very sorry for interrupting when you were speaking to Moxie but I really felt I had to say something. I'm warning you it could be quite long.

Firstly, you can't class all historians the same. History is a very broad field & historians normally specialise. You have equine historians, military historians, medical historians, food historians, medieval historians, etc. The parts of history these historians specialise in are still broad. E.G. medical historians specialise in medical history right from prehistoric history to the discovery of penicillin & equine historians specialise in the history of the horse right from eohippus to Heck's breeding programme. History isn't all cut & dried. There are a lot of dates & events but there are a lot of conflicting opinions too. I'm going to give a couple of examples with connections to the film industry. Most Westerns depict the Native Americans as the bad guys but when I learnt about the American West in history we learnt that the Native Americans were nomadic tribes who followed the buffalo which they killed for their food, shelter, clothing & everything & they were the innocent party. They didn't believe that land should be owned but that it belonged to everyone. When the Cowboys came they killed the Native Americans & kicked them off their land. Not many Westerns show the Native Americans point of view but some do. Not only that but Westerns normally only show Native Americans & Cowboys when there were Mountain men, Homesteaders & Cattle-ranchers too. Their stories are normally forgotten about. There is only 1 film about a Mountain man & that's Davy Crockett but he wasn't the only Mountain man. Jim Bridger was another. Mel Gibson doesn't do a very good job in Braveheart. He doesn't have a realistic Scottish accent for one. According to historic records the real William Wallace was tall & fat & had a beard & moustache. Braveheart shows Robert the Bruce betraying Wallace where according to historic records someone betrayed Wallace to Edward I (Longshanks/Hammer of the Scots) but no-one knows who exactly & that it was thought to be Robert the Bruce. The Scots are often depicted as the bad guys in British history but Edward I was 1 of the cruelest kings in British history in my opinion. He wasn't content with running England but wanted to rule Scotland & Wales too. I'm not saying the Scots were innocent. There was a lot of clan warfare & betrayal fighting for land & power.

Some films actually do a good job of depicting books. In my opinion these are the older versions which use narration & try to abide by the story-line in the book as much as possible. (I did drama & theatre arts at school so know some of the rules.) Actors are told not to act anything that could bore people. If films were complete adaptations of books they'd be very long & boring.

I'm very sorry to Moxie for answering you for her & hope she's happy with what I put. If she's not I'm in the firing line.

 

[Moxie]

I watched "Thelma and Louise" again last night. It is definitely a film for our time. There is a level of rage and outrage in that film, that speaks to the unheard and those lacking power.

 

[tented]

Unsubscribe: The $0-budget movie that ‘topped the US box office’

 

[Horsa]

@Moxie

I read Warhorse & watched that video you posted a bit since before watching Warhorse. I did this because I had to read & write about warhorses & thought that because Warhorse was aimed at children it would be milder & get me ready for all the gory details in my equine history book. I actually enjoyed it.The video you shared was interesting. Thank you very much for sharing.

 

[Moxie]

I re-watched "The Martian" last night. A film for our time. We didn't even understand loneliness and isolation when that film first came out. Now we do. And it has a happy ending!

 

[Jelenafan]

Watched the new version of "The invisible Man" and I thought it cleverly updated this horror genre staple in interesting ways. Psychological as well as physical terror and I can't say enough about Elizabeth Moss as the central protagonist.

 

[Horsa]

Call me a child if you like but I watched Annie & Annie 2 last night.

I've been watching a lot of D.V.D.s recently. I've watched "A beautiful mind" yet again & I've watched "A home of your own" & "An American in Paris". The other D.V.D.s I've been watching have mainly been musical tours of Scotland, concerts, history programmes & horse programmes.

 

[Horsa]

I've just watched "A place for Annie".

 

[Horsa]

Call me a child if you like but I've just watched Black Beauty.

 

[britbox]

Call me a child if you like but I've just watched Black Beauty.

The theme tune to that show used to creep me out a bit. I can't explain why.

 

[Horsa]

The theme tune to that show used to creep me out a bit. I can't explain why.

I loved the T.V. show but unfortunately don't have the series box set. I love the music. Thank you very much for sharing. I was referring to the film based on Anna Sewell's book with Mark Lester as little Joe.