Last Movie Watched

[mylittledemon]

Originally Posted by Villavic

The Bucket List

great movie. Morgan Freeman is a great actor. And no need to mention Jack Nicholson!

Cool...I never saw it, but wanted it to be good.

I just saw "Vantage Point"--nothing life altering, but it was entertaining.

[David]

Le Carrosse d'or (1953)
(The Golden Coach)
dir. Jean Renoir

I spent the afternoon with Magnani & her troupe of actors in the New World. I first saw "Carrosse" (see my Top 10 Movies list) on campus in college. The print was in bad shape but I was under its spell from the beginning: the artifice is constructed -- literally & figuratively -- when the actors arrive at the inn & see a dusty old courtyard populated by livestock, but transform it into a "proper" stage. In this movie, propriety is actually a function of the needs & lineaments of art & of theater. At first, Magnani wants the golden coach to carry her out of the exhausting microcosm of the actors; money is hard to come by, & the lure of the gold necklace & coach is powerful to the artist. Camilla believes that she's beneath the courtiers not only in social rank but in interest; but what I think Renoir is saying is that these creators of theater, in their ability to construct artifice with such color & panache, are far more absorbing than their audience (who are stupid enough to turn their backs on the stage in order to applaud the bullfighter as he strolls in). (The movie is doubly ironic, because several of the performances of the actors playing the philistines -- some of the nobles as well as Magnani's mundane lover Philippe -- are monotonous & unsatisfactory.)

At the end, Camilla is confronted with the "truth" of her art: the gold & the lovers & the scramble for rank & favor are immaterial to the artist, diversions that prevent her from practicing her true calling, which is -- again ironically -- her only hope of happiness. Everybody knows Magnani is great in this movie. It's as if she had two or three different performances going on simultaneously, sometimes within the space of a few lines, as if the movement in her face had its own dialog going, playing themes on the actual dialog, the way the Vivaldi themes emphasize & variegate the action.

[darklinensuit]

Goodbye, Columbus (Peerce).
Suffered through the dated music and direction and jokes and (groan) Ali MacGraw.

Last movies before that were Hester Street (Micklin Silver) (not much better), Kippur (Gitai), Love at First Bite (Dragoti), Birthplace/Miejsce urodzenia (Polish documentary by Lozinski - by far the best on this list), and What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (Katzin) (a waste of Ruth Gordon and Geraldine Page).

- Jake

[Villavic]

JUMPER
I saw it on sunday and I enjoyed it

[Moz]

Last movie I watched was THE WIZARD (1989). "I love the Power Glove. It's so bad."

[David]

I saw a picture called DON'T BE A MENACE TO SOUTH CENTRAL WHILE DRINKING YOUR JUICE IN THE HOOD (1996), which I enjoyed greatly. From gangsta rappers to emergency room receptionists to Korean minimart owners, each slice of urban life in this work is truthful & illuminating. There are scenes of great emotional power: a wheelchair-bound cripple is hit by a lowrider & sent sprawling onto the pavement, only to breakdance like MC Hammer; a front-yard barbecue sizzles dramatically as young men & women dance, make out, drink, & remember their dead, who lie next door in a pile; the protagonist (Ashtray) reads a touching bedtime story to his younger brother, who jacks off under the covers & then falls into a peaceful sleep; a young man heads off to college, accompanied by his lifelong friends, only to get popped on the campus steps. The writing & direction are masterly. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Favorite character: Grandma

[Miss Vicky]

Sweeney Todd.

I hate musicals.

Cool story. Love Depp. Love Burton.

But damn I hate musicals.

[macmar71]

American Gangster

[BTFLCHLD]

Into the Wild

[gretchen]

Can't Buy Me Love

I love this movie... so cute...Patrick Dempsey is so skinny and geeky in this and look at him now!!!

[mylittledemon]

Just watched Sweeney Todd on DVD. Quite possibly a perfect movie... Unrequited love, and blossoming love. Revenge and justice. Humor and gore. Amazing.

[Lee]

It was free HBO during Easter Fri-Sun from our cable provider, so we (my husband & I) watched Blades of Glory on that Saturday. I thought it was really funny. I haven't had much of a chance to watch any movies with all the reality shows that I've been watching lately. So it was really nice to actually sit & watch a funny movie.

Lee