I just enjoyed "Summer Lovers" (1982) with Daryl Hannah, Peter Gallagher and Valerie Quennessen as the characters involved in a successful love triangle on the island of Santorini. I was taken with Valerie's beauty and tried to find out more about her. She'd played the princess Conan saves in "Conan the Barbarian". She left movies after "SL" to raise a family in France. After about 5 years she was making a comeback but was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident.
You know how they say things come in threes. Well, years before "Splash" in "SL", Daryl H said she often fantasized about being a mermaid as a teen. In SL on a scene intended to show the bonding that was developing between the three characters, Valerie's gets into a moped accident when she is run off the road by a tourist bus. One prophecy remains to be garnered from this film. If I were Peter Gallagher, I'd know this film by heart.

Following on the superhero theme, we watched "Thor" the other night. Appealing and kinda cute, with about as much coherence as you can expect from a comic book movie.

Thor was my favourite comic superhero when I was a kid, ('cause he was so goodlooking, natch) and I thought they did a good job of capturing the feeling of Asgard from the comics - or at least it matches my forty-plus year old memories.

Never heard of it but that sounds my type of movie, thanks for the tip off.

We Need To Talk About Kevin.


5 stars plus! Sublime. Best film I've seen in years. Just... watch it.

Edited to clarify: Sublime film-making (not a second of film wasted, from story to cinematography every detail was thought out, every scene compelling) but it's a dark film and horrific story.

The Manchurian Candidate, the Denzel Washington version. Very decent but it really made me want to see the original again - a much better film.

We Need To Talk About Kevin
-----------------

I tried to read the book, but as a child care professional I found it very hard. I just wanted that baby taken away from his mother so bad - clear emotional abuse. I don't think I could watch it, I'd be throwing things through the screen.

Yes, I could understand that. I originally avoided it for similar reasons, & it was only a comment on these forums that made me give the film a try - it wasn't what I thought it was going to be, it was more complex. Maybe the book is different. Can't guarantee that you wouldn't throw things at the screen though; I averted my eyes occasionally.


Edited to add:

Agony, I've been thinking about what you said and I find that the film didn't leave me with feelings about the "mother's emotional abuse" of her child - in fact I don't think that phrase is really applicable.

So I'm wondering if the book really was different or whether you might have felt differently had you finished the book or watched the film. In the film, the story reveals itself slowly and so earlier scenes might not give a fair summary of the story.

Either way, if you ever decide to watch it I would be very interested to hear what you thought, so even if it's years from now I hope you update us.

I couldn't even finish the book, as I couldn't stand the way she was treating that baby. I also saw a lot of, um, nonsense, in the way the author was setting up the child to be a monster. It was like a "demon seed" movie from the fifties rather than anything reflecting what we know about how children develop empathy. I mean, sure, it's their book, their movie, they can have him sprout horns and forked tongue if they want to, but that's not how children with empathic personality disorders work. The book was presented as a serious look at children who do unspeakable things, but really it was just cheap horror.

Maybe I can give the movie a chance at some time, though, when I'm feeling well grounded.

I was channel flicking the other day and stumbled across Hitchcock's The Birds, so I ended up watching it along with my learning disabled daughter who loves most films that involve people being eaten, colonised or dismembered by abnormally large or genetically mutated animals.

Not surprisingly she loved it ... and we're now awaiting arrival of the DVD from Amazon (at her insistence). It really hasn't lost any of its power over the years, despite the almost laughable staginess of the bird attacks. Great film!

(After the film I asked my daughter if she'd like to pop outside and garage the car for the night ... as there were a few birds about that I didn't like the look of ... but she was having none of that!!)

Searching for more of Valerie Quennessen's work I came across 1979's "French Postcards".
Choppily edited together, it still presents a fair window on coming of age in a foriegn culture for some American students in Paris. It is the first major billing for the following artists:
Miles Chapin (left acting to run the family business - Steinway Pianos)
Blanche Baker (Carroll Baker's daughter and a steady supporting actress through the years)
David Marshall Grant (Did mostly Broadway work)
Valérie Quennessen (the princess saved by Arnold in Conan the Barbarian")
Debra Winger (many big roles)
Mandy Patinkin (many big roles)

The film was shot almost entirely in and around Paris, often highlighting some of the famous destination's major attractions.

Edit to add for other Valerie fans: She rides a moped in this movie too. In fact, she jump starts it by running in high heels, jumping on it and poppong the clutch!

Totally understand not wanting to watch WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN. I know I could never get through it. It was difficult enough for me to watch MY NAME IS KHAN, though I'm extremely glad I did.

As the mother of a son with autism, I would either be too overwhelmed emotionally by the film or hyper-critical of it. Either way, it just wouldn't work.

The Kingdom.... What a great action film that is! Highly recommended.

In the past two weeks I've watched:

-"Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" - Good story but weak on character empathy and portrayal. Until the ending of course.

-"Titus"(Andronicus)- The Julie Taymor exquisite presentation of what they say was Elizabethan Shakespear's most successful effort. Her mix of modern elements with Roman parts makes the telling seem like the material is good for any age. It has Antony Hopkins, Jessica Lange and Alan Cummings at their very best.

-"Boondock Saints" - Irish South Boston as filmed in Canada? Why? But the time spent with the brothers McManus fighting the Russian mob is well choreographed and stunted.

-"Fail Safe" - still relevant, maybe even more so today with 9(?) known nuclear bomb capable nations.


Edit: I put "The Kingdom" on my buy list. Thanks Sisterseagull.

Just watched "The Descendents". Very very good indeed - a real movie for grownups. I thought it dealt beautifully with the mixed feelings we have when a much loved but imperfect person dies - "my pain, my joy..."

I've been watching a lot of superhero movies this summer, and it was so nice to see something adult in the best sense of the word.

I last watched Alexander Korda's "The Private Life of Henry VIII" with Charles Laughton in his Oscar-grabbing title role. Co-starring were Robert Donat (future Oscar-winner for "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"), Merle Oberon (who Korda later married, and whose life nephew Michael Korda would fictionalize in the novel "Queenie") and Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester (best known for playing Mary Shelly and the title role in "Bride of Frankenstein"). Laughton and Lanchester had a long marriage (despite Laughton being homosexual) and co-starred in other films, such as Korda's "Rembrandt" and Wilder's "Witness for the Prosecution".

tjoeb};>

John Grisham’s “The Rainmaker.” (I bought it on audio from my local community library in a book sale. Still on tape one of four, but so far it’s very good.

The last book I read (in Braille) was “Firestorm” by David Klass. It’s the first in his “Caretaker Trilogy,” and I actually read it twice. It’s an environmental thriller, and I highly recommend it to those who are interested in that kind of thing. Well written, to say the least.

I watched Battleship last night. For a film based on a boardgame it was good and worth watching.

The Princess Bride.

Mom got the DVD from her friend, and thought I'd enjoy it, not realizing it was already on my list of favorite films (years ago, I used to watch the made-for-TV version). Nothing compares to the DVD!

"Sweet and Lowdown" Jazz biography, Woody Allen style. Sean Penn plays a fictional Depression-era jazz guitarist. Hilarious.

Just watched the modern remake of "The Italian Job" - enjoyable and quite a lot of fun, but with this much star power, it should have been better. Getting the original with Michael Caine from the library - love his movies from the 60's so looking forward to it.

"In Bruges". Definitely not for everyone, but if you like dark humour, and don't mind violence and profanity on the way, this is quite the film.

Except for the opening sequence, the two "The Italian Job" movies are very different but each enjoyable in their own way.

Over the past week I've done eye strain with:
"Superman II" - Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Terence Stamp

"Superman III" - Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor, Jackie Cooper, Annette O'Toole, Annie Ross, Pamela Stephenson, Robert Vaughn, Margot Kidder

"Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" - Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Mariel Hemingway, Jon Cryer

"Sixteen Candles" - Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Michael Schoeffling, Paul Dooley, Blanche Baker, Justin Henry (Oh, that Blanche Baker again! Have I mentioned "French Postcards" and "The Girl Next Door"?)

"The Mask" - Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, Peter Riegert, Peter Greene, Amy Yasbeck

The "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" I found to still be pertinent to the debate about whether more nations should be allowed into the Nuclear Arms Club or whether the club should be disbanded altogether.

Upcoming: "Rent" and the first seven "Hellraiser" films. There are two more "Hellraiser"s I may look into. Anyone have input on #'s 8 & 9?

Ohmygosh, I had no idea there was even a 2nd Hellraiser! lol




Well described. I loved "In Bruges".

Made yet another attempt to watch "Dangerous Liaisons". Failed again. Apart from the pretty costumes - and they are very pretty - I just cannot concentrate on it and always end up doing something else like writing on forums or sleeping. Is it just me?

LOL, not just you Chavs. I've never been able to get all the way through it either.