Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[Reza]

Profumo Di Donna / Scent of a Woman (Dino Risi, 1974) 7/10

A handicapped Captain (blind with a hand missing) is accompanied by a young cadet on a road trip from Turin to Naples. The man, brilliantly acted by the great Vittorio Gassman, is a complete asshole and spends all his time being rude to everyone around him and cruel to the young girl (pretty Agostina Belli) who is madly in love with him. The Captain wants no pity for his condition and hence his cruel actions. Just when you want to write him off as a character he shows his vulnerabilty. The film has everything that the American remake has missing - real people, humor, characters that are in perfect sync with the outrageous Italian sensibility and joy for life. Gassman acts circles around Al Pacino who won his Oscar for the remake.

Young Adult (Jason Reitman, 2011) 7/10

A ghost writer of of teen novels decides to crash the small town where she grew up to snatch back her high school boyfriend now married and a father. Savage black comedy with a brave performance by Charlize Theron playing a very unsympathetic character.

On the Beach (Stanley Kramer, 1959) 5/10

An American submarine reaches the coast of Australia after the Northern hemisphere is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. The Australians wait for the radiation to reach and kill them. Heavy handed and very slow ''message'' film that is enjoyable thanks to a great cast. A ravaged Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire, in a rare dramatic part, come off best.

Shadowlands (Richard Attenborough, 1993) 7/10

An Oxford don, a confirmed bachelor, unexpectedly falls in love with a brash American divorcee. Great performances by Hopkins and Winger and lovely views of the British countryside makes this gentle mature love story a pleasure to watch.

Butley (Harold Pinter, 1974) 6/10

Alan Bates' acclaimed stage performance from London and New York (he won the Tony) is static, talky but extremely savage and witty. He is superb as an English professor who's life is crumbling around him - his ex-wife tells him she is getting re-married and his male lover (and former protege) is also leaving him. Bates is the whole show playing a lonely but intelligent man who relies on his wit to combat the problems in his life.

Beyond Mombasa (George Marshall, 1956) 4/10

An American investigates his brother's murder while on an expedition to find a uranium mine in East Africa. The usual shots of flora and fauna, poisoned darts and cliches about Africa. The cast is energetic and watchable.

The Grass is Greener (Stanley Donen, 1960) 5/10

Chic drawing room (literally) comedy with four huge stars. Kerr, married to Grant, falls in ''love'' with visiting tourist Mitchum. Simmons is the best friend who adds to the confusion. Extremely slow talkfest with Kerr and especially Simmons coming off best. Grant overdoes the staid boring husband role while Mitchum is totally deadpan and at sea amongst the droll British goings on. However, the four stars seem to be having fun and I kept thinking back to their previous pairings - Kerr with a very young Simmons in Black Narcissus, Simmons and Mitchum in Angel Face, Grant and Kerr in An Affair to Remember and Kerr and Mitchum in Heaven Knows, Mr Allysson and The Sundowners. A pity Grant was never paired before with Simmons because he really comes alive in his scenes opposite her in this film.

[anonymous1980]

Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance) - 7/10

[bizarre]

Metropolis (1927, Lang) ... A
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Welles) ... A
Paris, Texas (1984, Wenders) ... A-
Nosferatu (1922, Murnau) ... B
Rapt (1934, Kirsanoff) ... A
The Birth of a Nation (1915, Griffith) ... D
Cairo Station (1958, Chahine) ... A-
The Smiling Madame Beudet (1922, Dulac) ... A-
The Toll of the Sea (1922, Franklin) ... C
Manèges (1950, Allégret) ... B+
The Executioner (1963, García Berlanga) ... A

[anonymous1980]

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki) - 10/10

[Sabin]

Miracle (Gavin O'Connor) - 6/10

On the fence. Gavin O'Connor's movies should make more money. He's a very good director. Gavin O'Connor's scripts are all basically the same though, I must say. Individuals tortured by their honor and their code work inexorably towards a mass event that will restore pride and honor. They're all very simplistic characters and stories. I might like Miracle more if only because the skill in which he brings hockey to life on the screen is pretty awesome. The hockey in this film looks great. It's very suspenseful. And Kurt Russell brings far more to this role than it deserves. Aside from Death Proof, this might be his best work to date. It's a Disney movie that would probably hate other Disney movies. There's no cursing but there's certainly nothing in it for kids. It's for parents who remember being there.

I liked it.

[Reza]

Branagh was very good but I never "saw" Olivier, instead he was just a fed up and at the same time mesmerized director.

Actually if you've read on Olivier and read what colleagues had to say about him then you would know that Branagh's portrayal pretty much captured the real Olivier. It's a fairly wicked take on the great actor.

[Reza]

Branagh was very good but I never "saw" Olivier, instead he was just a fed up and at the same time mesmerized director.

Actually if you've read on Olivier and read what colleagues had to say about him then you would know that Branagh's portrayal pretty much captured the real Olivier. It's a fairly wicked take on the great actor.

[HarryGoldfarb]

- My Week with Marilyn (2011): 7/10
Quite enjoyable. Williams comes second so far in my humble evaluation of the Best Actress nominees (when I first saw The Help, I was really hoping for a better performance than that of Davis. Now I know for sure there are at least two). Branagh was very good but I never "saw" Olivier, instead he was just a fed up and at the same time mesmerized director. Kudos to the starring kid, very effective. Dench was enjoyable, as usual.

- The Iron Lady (2011): 6/10
I can't believe how manipulative and elaborative this film is. It borders the concept of mess but then there's Meryl and you just sat through it and you start to filter (instead of forgive) all the flaws the film is filled with. From scene 1 (specially at that first appearance buying the milk, probably the best images she delivered), she is all that good people say she is in the film and the Oscar is not undeserved. However, the directing is puerile at best, the screenplay chaotic and the bad taste of the hallucinations device (even solved by the end of the film!) is egregious and insulting. I'm tired of Jim Broadbent playing the good husband part (his BAFTA nod is a joke). However, as my wife told me, for some reason, the film was more than tolerable. I guess that reason is Meryl herself.

[Precious Doll]

The Conquest (2011) Xavier Durringer 7/10
Pigeons (1970) John Dexter 5/10
Harvest (2011) Benjamin Cantu 4/10
My Piece of the Pie (2011) Cedric Klapisch 4/10
Coriolanus (2011) Ralph Fiennes 4/10 (Stick to acting Ralph)
Flight For Freedom (1943) Lothar Mendes 4/10
You Will Be My Son (2011) Gilles Legrand 7/10
The Silence (2010) Baran bo Odar 7/10
American Translation (2011) Pascal Arnold & Jean-Marc Barr 5/10
Creative Nonfiction (2009) Lena Dunham 5/10
Contraband (2012) Baltasar Komakur 4/10
The Rum Diary (2011) Bruce Robinson 6/10

[Precious Doll]

I've seen very little of Asia despite living relatively close but have heard great things about everywhere. I've only ever been to Japan (19 years ago) which was fascinating and so different to anywhere else I'd been. Top of my list would be India and Vietnam.

Have a great time living there and eating all that delicious food (one of the best things about Australian dinning is all the fantastic Asian food - I went to a stunning South Indian restaurant tonight). And if you have a liking for anything with coconut milk, keep those to a minimum. Whilst I count myself lucky that I don't like any food with coconut milk in it, I know lots of people love it, but too much can be very harmful.

Great you have all that access to world cinema. Reparatory cinema in Australia is all but dead and I have to rely solely DVD imports. Certainly a great changes from the 1990's and earlier years.

And by the way, though you didn't like Royston Tan's '15' (a film I am rather indifferent to) if you get a chance to see his short film 'Cut' from 2005 and running only about 15 minutes did be put off. It's an hilarious take send up of film censorship in Singapore (hopefully things have become more liberal since then).

[rudeboy]

It was a local (Singapore) DVD version and I'm pretty sure it was the longer version of the movie. I would have seen the western release all those years ago but to be honest don't recall the differences. My memories are that I enjoyed it more first time around but maybe I've simply become a harsher critic with age!

Yes I'm very excited to be here. Its a vibrant, crazy, fascinating melting pot of a city. Love the people, the weather and of course the food, and of course the fact that its such a gateway to Asia. My partner works at the Esplanade Theatre where they have a library with a fairly impressive selection of world cinema, so I am hoping to find the time to work my way through a lot of films I've not had the chance to see.

[Precious Doll]

And one film I haven't seen in many years:

Farewell My Concubine (1993)
Something of an art house smash upon release this meandering epic holds up well enough, to a point. The episodic tale of two boys who become friends and later stage 'brothers' during training for the Peking Opera features superb performances (Li Gong is particularly wonderful as the high-class prostitute who drives a wedge between them), stunning cinematography and many gripping moments. Loses points, however, for its Forrest Gumpish need to spell out the various early-mid 20th Century Chinese historical events which the characters live through with clumsy dialogue "Oh no, its those damn students protesting again!" Still, enough good stuff to hold the attention for almost three hours, and the final moments have impact. 6/10[/quote]

What version of Farewell My Concubine did you see? When it was released in some Western countries back in 1993/94 (the ones for which Miramax had bought the rights to) it was a shorter version (about 140 minutes if I recall) then the one shown at Cannes. That is the only version I have ever seen and I quite likely it but it lacked something. Ironically yesterday I received a Blu Ray version of the 'complete' 171 minute version which I hope to watch some time in the next few months.

Living in Singapore will certainly be a change. I have only step foot in the airport between flights, though in January my partner spent a week there for work. He also goes to KL every now and again, though he hates the travel.

[rudeboy]

I’ve recently moved to Singapore to be with my partner – the long-distance relationship was a killer, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone - and am starting work as a teacher here in a couple of weeks. I’ve been meaning to watch a few local movies. I started with an utter stinker.

15 (2003) Just atrocious. Pretty-much unwatchable schlock about a group of punks (played by teenage non-actors). It really is a hard sit, pointless and virtually plotless, and once the kids started piercing themselves I started skipping through the film. I have a couple of friends here who know the director, Royston Tan, personally so was genuinely disappointed that this was, by some distance, the worst movie I’ve endured for quite some time. 1/10
On a much happier note, I finally caught up with A Separation (2011) which is every bit as wonderful as so many have been claiming. Sorry Woody, but this screenplay is the real deal. What a riveting film, both visceral and exciting and richly detailed in character. A clutch of superb performances crowned by the quite staggeringly good Sareh Bayat. 9/10

Poetry (2010)
Very moving if slightly overlong South Korean drama about an elderly woman diagnosed with Alzheimers, looking for meaning in her life by joining a poetry class while dealing with the aftermath of a terrible crime in which her grandson had a hand. Jeong-hie Yun is superb. 7/10

And one film I haven't seen in many years:

Farewell My Concubine (1993)
Something of an art house smash upon release this meandering epic holds up well enough, to a point. The episodic tale of two boys who become friends and later stage 'brothers' during training for the Peking Opera features superb performances (Li Gong is particularly wonderful as the high-class prostitute who drives a wedge between them), stunning cinematography and many gripping moments. Loses points, however, for its Forrest Gumpish need to spell out the various early-mid 20th Century Chinese historical events which the characters live through with clumsy dialogue "Oh no, its those damn students protesting again!" Still, enough good stuff to hold the attention for almost three hours, and the final moments have impact. 6/10

[Sabin]

Those last images wreck me like very few films I've seen. Just absolutely wreck me.

I know what you mean about it never marrying the tone, but it never really bothered me to be honest. I think what Clement is doing is pretty apparent. He's asking the audience what is sacrilege? And he's certainly stacking the deck in favor of the kids. The adults are buffoons, but they're also warm creatures who fall in love secretly. It's been ages since I've last seen it, but I remember liking how Clement contrasts the community dynamic with private shared moments. He's saying we can't help but misunderstand each other in a group, but together, controlled, and shared we can find something beautiful. Rene Clement is no Jean Renoir and Forbidden Games isn't as sophisticated as The Rules of the Game, but I love it.

[bizarre]

I liked it, but Iwish it had lived up to the promise of its first 15 minutes - here Clément does something interesting, and very appropriate, with the war genre. In shooting these 'action' sequences mainly in medium-long shot, with uncomplicated editing and a lack of intrusive scoring, Clément makes the bridge scene seem both viscerally, immediately gutwrenching and utterly ordinary and cuts to the core of war as the destruction of a mundane reality rather than the enrichment of a cinematic reality with action and bathos. It is what makes the image where Paulette's parents die so shocking and powerful. The film explores other tonal ground as it wears on, and never quite manages to marry its semireligious warmth and comedy with the sober treatment of death it originally sets out to create. And near the end it seems to fizzle out - those last images would have been far more effective with more context. Brigitte Fossey is a revelation and Georges Poujouly is also very strong.