"Play Misty for me" and "The Beguiled" are by far my favourite Clint Eastwood movies.

Chavs, I loved "Inglourious Basterds". Fun from start to finish. I still haven't made my mind up about "Django", though. I enjoyed myself while watching, I know that.

I'm a big Quentin Tarantino fan and I loved "Inglorious Basterds" too. I'd put it right up there with "Pulp Fiction" as his two best movies. I also enjoyed "Django Unchained" very much.

Tarantino's films are not for everyone because of the often over the top violence and language, but if you appreciate great dialog and interesting characters, you can't go wrong with any of his movies.

I've got "The Beaver" here from the library and was planning on watching it tonight. I think I'm just gonna go with "Pulp Fiction", though - I'm sure there's a copy on the shelf.

Just finished a four-hour adaptation of "Les Misérables" -- in French with subtitles. This is NOT the 2012 film, of course, but a black-and-white movie filmed in East Germany (even though it's in French) and released in 1958. Definitely the most faithful to the book.

I actually can't remember the name of the movie but it kept me guessing till the end.

It's been a few years since I've seen "Pulp Fiction" but I think it still is the very best movie of its kind. I can understand people not liking that kind, but if you are going to do this sort of thing, this is the way to do it.

"War Horse". I believe I've mentioned earlier that everyone should watch it. I've seen it 4 times now (it keeps showing up on sat tv, but I can't help myself and watch it anyway - not sure whether I'm really addicted to the horse, or the boy lol).

I liked Pulp Fiction and InglorB's (despite the fact that I really don't like Mr. Pitt). Not sure what that says about me ~.

hmmm, re: the Hays thing. Lots of folks and their movies were affected by that one, including Mae West and also was considered the ultimate demise of a comic book "heroine" (Betty Boop). Sad really.

Watched the most recent Men in Black. Didn't mind it at all. Of course, I sort of have a slight "crush" on TLJones. And Sam Elliott too (but I digress).

The recent Spiderman wasn't bad (hubby bought the movie, since you can't "rent" anything anymore unless it's PayperView). Was less melodramatic than the ones with TobyM.

Last week was apparently an "Aubrey" week on classic movies watchable on tv. Watched 3 in a row on the weekend: "My Fair Lady" (I have a soft spot for that one since some nice boy in grade 5 asked his mother to ask my mother if he could take me to the movie - with his mother as the "escort/chaperone") - still not sure WHAT he found interesting enough in me for that amount of effort LOL. Then "Wait Until Dark" (the movie where she was blind), then thirdly "Always". If you've seen that last one even once, you can't help crying no matter which point in the movie you tune in to for the second time. The cool part, is that the movies were all COMPLETELY different in plot/portrayal (they also played other movies of her classics such as "Breakfast at Tiffany's" etc, but I could only stay awake for 3) but that just proves how truly VERSATILE an actress she was. Ms. Doolittle might have been a chameleon in that movie, but so was Audrey as an actress

I just caught part of "Love in the Afternoon" the other day, and there she was again.. Just like a flower - Mr Cooper, not so much.

I watched The Pirates! band of Misfits. with the boy. Good fun

The Eastwood Icon Collection:

"Coogan's Bluff" - Entertaining and of historical reference when showing the 60's pre-hippie pad of Flowerchild Linny Raven. Was this a popular movie just 'cause o' Clint? Think so but it did lead to a TV series "McCloud".

"The Beguiled" - A movie unlike any other of his works.

"Play Misty for Me" - Surely this goes on everyone's list of best movies at some level. It sure did lead the modern genre of stalker films.

"The Eiger Sanction" - his example of a spy film. I liked it for the vistas shown during the mountain climbing scenes. But the story seemed to falter for a reason, so why did I like it? A review of the credits shows that John Williams wrote the score. This was the year he also wrote "Jaws", so he was at a high point in his composing. A rewatch and I noted how much his music added to the climbing drama and brought the viewer along as it soared high above the ground. Brilliant but mostly an unrecognized bit of his (Williams) work.


NON-Eastwood:

"The Magnificent Seven" - Another film that usually places somewhere on everyone's "watch list", with reason.

I love, love this movie! I cry at even the mention of it.

"Jason and the Argonauts" (1963)
Not true to the established myth (but what's a myth if not to be played with?) and yet still a moral tale teaching that with commitment comes success. Possibly the best thing to relate about this movie comes from stop-motion animator extrordinaire himself, Ray Harryhausen: "I think this is my best effort." 'Nough said.

This one really doesn't count, because I didn't finish it - "The Beaver". Yeah, yeah, it's heartwarming and sensitive and all, but something came up so I had to pause it and it sat in the DVD player for three days and every time I thought "I should finish that movie" something more appealing would come up, like organizing my sock drawer.

I guess after living twenty years with a depressed person I reached my limit of watching other people's depression.

This one's a bit of a cheat because it was a documentary on TV last night - but it is a film, was made as a film, funded as a film...

Dreams of a Life

In 2006 bailiffs entered a London flat only to find the resident was deceased.

The TV was still on, the heating was still on, there were Christmas presents wrapped and ready to be handed out, but the remains were unrecognisable, a skeleton, and had been there for about 3 years without anyone noticing: a) a decomposing body or b) that their sister and friend Joyce has disappeared.

Whatever picture comes to mind about what Joyce must have been like to have been able to slip away in such circumstances, forget it. She was 38, beautiful, talented, popular, ...but this only emerged after a long search by the film-maker. This film talks to the people who came forward during that search and slowly tries to piece together the story.

Baffling, interesting, and sad. Excellent piece of work.

Repeated tonight on (British TV) Channel 4 - available on the Ch 4 player @
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dreams-of-a-life/4od






Oh good! I'll look forward to seeing Django then.

"Cat People" (1942) - Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Elizabeth Russell
Trivia first: In the bonus material we find out that Tom Conway is George Sanders older brother and that they'd fled from St. Petersberg to England to avoid the Russian Revolution. If you've seen the remake with Kinski and McDowell you essentially know the plot of this one and even some scenes in that are faithful copies of the original. This one has an interaction of a larger cast. It portrays the human/panther without ever showing it. We just see shadows of the action and shots of the aftermath, the way the better scary movies are done (without the gore). This is also the origin of a thing called the "Lewton Bus" which is a substitute startlement thrown in to cut the suspense when it gets too tense.


"The Curse of the Cat People" (1944) - same cast plus Ann Carter as the young girl
Not at all a human/panther scary movie. This is much more like "Heidi"! Scene: several years have passed since the first tale and all seems well except for a young girl struggling to adjust to life. This really is so much like "Heidi", I think some might even like it more. Instead of the Alps it takes place in Tarrytown (Sleepy Hollow). Instead of the Foster family there's the Farrens, a bizarre mother and daughter team. Instead of the goats there's the imaginary friend. Christmas, running away... Not a scary movie at all. The studios blew another one by putting the wrong tag on it. If you can, catch it.

"Scarlet Street" 1945

This is on a collection called "Classic Film Noir" - I haven't heard of any of the movies on it, so wasn't expecting much.

Edward G Robinson, Dan Duryea and Joan Bennett in a love and murder triangle, of a sort. Duryea is unbelievably greasy, Bennett is totally heartless, and Robinson so sympathetic that I was cheering for him to get away with everything and spend the rest of his life happily painting. Highly enjoyable.

"Detour" 1945 Tom Neal, Ann Savage. Incredibly low budget, and with a fairly implausible plot, but this one is like the distillation of film noir. Ann Savage is astonishing - and looks exactly like Elizabeth Perkins.

"The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" 1946. Not really noir, this one, but more of a melodrama. Kirk Douglas' first film role and doesn't he just own it. His character rings true from start to finish - weak, drunk, and petulantly in love with Barbara Stanwyk. I kept forgetting that Lizabeth Scott was not Lauren Bacall - an amazing resemblance.

My DVD watching is confined to whatever the juniors feel like watching on any given day. Recently it's been the Pirates of the Carribean series, 1-3 (none of us liked the 4th one), and the Lord of the Rings movies for the nth time!

I also recently watched and thoroughly enjoyed War Horse and The Aviator, and got a laugh out of the silliness of the whole Police Academy series, which my youngest boy put on one after the other over a couple of evenings. I guess you could say he was mildly hooked.

Next on my list: The Artist, Les Misérables ...

I just saw Zero Dark Thirty incredible movie the best 2 & a half hours i have ever spent watching a movie

I just watched it and indeed, it is something else. The only thing I can compare the tenor and story line to is the film presentation of Shakespeare's "Titus (Andronicus)" (1999). It has to be one of the best tragedies to come out in years. Colin Farrell is unbelievable in his quirky performance ("They're filming midgets!" as if it was the greatest thing to ever happen.)
Thank you for mentioning it. This Thread is good for something.

I just watched some of the Batman movies, "Batman Returns", "Batman & Robin", "Batman Begins", & "The Dark Knight".

I think I like the Tim Burton films best. In this list, I think the only one Tim Burton directed was "Batman Returns". (He also did the first "Batman", but that wasn't on the menu). I certainly prefer the grotesquerie and camp of the Burton/Schumacher films over the really, really dark stuff of the 2000s.

I'm not a huge Tim Burton fan, but I really enjoyed Nightmare before Christmas, and to a lesser extent, The Corpse Bride. Both were kind of crazy but with a message to transmit, the attention to detail was great!

"A Star is Born" the 1937 version with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March.

The Judy Garland/James Mason version of this film is one of my favourites, but this holds up well against it. Janet Gaynor especially is adorable.

I haven't seen the 1976 version of this - is it worth watching?

Haven't seen any of them (that puts them on the wish list in release order).

"Ashanti" (1979)
Michael Caine, Peter Ustinov, Beverly Johnson, Omar Sharif, Rex Harrison, William Holden
A nice travelogue across equatorial Africa following the route of a modern day slaver and the folks chasing him from the abductions to the sales. It's a shame that this is still an accepted practice in a part of the world that also... well, some of the world just doesn't understand what enlightened means. (Note: use caution if purchasing this on-line. There is another "Ashanti" out there but it is about the singer Ashanti and is just a music video. I found out and now own a copy of it.)

The most recent film I watched was....

Escape From Planet Earth.

I enjoyed it.

I had a few days in hospital last week and managed to watch two films I'd missed when they were released - Bridesmaids and One Day. I laughed my way through one and cried at the other - a perfect pairing!

Anne Hathaway's English accent wasn't bad either.

The last film I saw was Laws of Attraction. It was hilarious, especially the court scenes...and when the divorce lawyers were arguing as if they were the ones getting the divorce. Juliannne Moore was a very convincing Audrey Wood. Pierce Brosnan was...um, hmm...rather soppy (although very funny) compared to when he was James Bond.

Also rewatched snippets of Step Up 3D, which never gets old for me.

Salami_Swami, you might enjoy a similar animated effort of '07 done in 3D imagery called

"Battle for Terra".

In this the humans are the invaders of a planet populated by a peaceful race with a hidden history. Some of the voice actors you may recognize: Evan Rachel Wood, Justin Long, Luke Wilson, Dennis Quaid, Amanda Peet, Chris Evans and James Garner.

"Breezy"
(1973)
William Holden and Kay Lenz
This was Clint Eastwood's third stint directing (after "Play Misty for Me" and "High Plains Drifter"). I really enjoyed this movie (yes, it took me back to the days of hippy hitchhiking, floppy leather hats, bell bottom jeans and scrounging quarters for a cup of coffee). It is the inverse of the Lolita story. In this one a young teen girl falls in love with a 50-ish man. The story is about her struggle to get him to accept her love. Eastwood may have made a mistake by not loading it up with the music of the era. There is certainly opportunity to use tunes. But I think this is one example where his stick to schedule and budget held the finished product back.
My enjoyment wasn't hindered by the striking resemblence between Lenz at this age and Valerie Quennessen just a few short years later. Their presence on screen is almost identical in expression, demeanor and line delivery. I am now on a quest to expose myself (in a legal sense) to as much Lenz as I can. Her listing in IMdB is at 107 roles over 50 years!