Chabrol was also nominated for Story of Women, but I still find it shoocking that one of the most famous and celebrated French directors was only cited twice.
I think 1985 was much worse tham 1995.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
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Big Magilla
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La Ceremonie (1995) Claude Chabrol 6.5/10
I've had this one on a shelf for a long time, finally watched it after it got 7 mentions including Best Picture in our Best by the Best game.
Was 1995 the worst year for movies ever? If not, it certainly comes close to any you might think of.
This is the only film for which Chabrol was ever nominated for a Cesar (the French Oscar) for which Isabelle Huppert won numerous awards including her only Cesar, so it should be good, right? Wrong.
First off, it's from a novel by Ruth Rendell. That should have been my first clue. I hate Ruth Rendell novels and every single film or TV adaptation I've seen of them. She's the antithesis of Agatha Christie. Her stories are almost always unsettling, when they aren't just plain boring, and not in a good way.
Chabrol has the reputation of being the French Hitchcock, but Hitchcock wouldn't touch something like this with a ten foot pole. The closest film it resembles is Michael Haneke's original version of Funny Games, which is a film I actually liked. The difference here is that you know from the moment you see her that Huppert's character is as nutty as a fruitcake and you know exactly how it's going to end.
The saving grace is Sandrine Bonnaire, whose character is just as nuts as Huppert's, but who doesn't telegraph it. There are also fine performances by Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Virginie Ledoyan and Valentin Merlet as the bourgeois family Bonnaire goes to work for.
I rate it a 5 for the story, a 7 for the performances (except Huppert's) and another 7 for the cinematography and art direction, so 6.5 overall.
I've had this one on a shelf for a long time, finally watched it after it got 7 mentions including Best Picture in our Best by the Best game.
Was 1995 the worst year for movies ever? If not, it certainly comes close to any you might think of.
This is the only film for which Chabrol was ever nominated for a Cesar (the French Oscar) for which Isabelle Huppert won numerous awards including her only Cesar, so it should be good, right? Wrong.
First off, it's from a novel by Ruth Rendell. That should have been my first clue. I hate Ruth Rendell novels and every single film or TV adaptation I've seen of them. She's the antithesis of Agatha Christie. Her stories are almost always unsettling, when they aren't just plain boring, and not in a good way.
Chabrol has the reputation of being the French Hitchcock, but Hitchcock wouldn't touch something like this with a ten foot pole. The closest film it resembles is Michael Haneke's original version of Funny Games, which is a film I actually liked. The difference here is that you know from the moment you see her that Huppert's character is as nutty as a fruitcake and you know exactly how it's going to end.
The saving grace is Sandrine Bonnaire, whose character is just as nuts as Huppert's, but who doesn't telegraph it. There are also fine performances by Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Virginie Ledoyan and Valentin Merlet as the bourgeois family Bonnaire goes to work for.
I rate it a 5 for the story, a 7 for the performances (except Huppert's) and another 7 for the cinematography and art direction, so 6.5 overall.
Me too. Tears of the Black Tiger was the first Thai film I saw that really made me sit up and take notice (I was living in the country at that time), and I've liked each of Wisit's subsequent films so far.
I've seen one of the films in the original Red Eagle series starring the all-time-biggest Thai movie star Mitr Chaibancha. The one I saw was from 1970 and the last in the series, as Mitr died in the midst of filming a helicopter stunt for the film. It's rather chilling to watch that scene with such foreknowledge.
I've seen one of the films in the original Red Eagle series starring the all-time-biggest Thai movie star Mitr Chaibancha. The one I saw was from 1970 and the last in the series, as Mitr died in the midst of filming a helicopter stunt for the film. It's rather chilling to watch that scene with such foreknowledge.
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Precious Doll
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I didn't realise the Wisit Sasanatieng had a new film. He is one of the leading lights of the Thai new wave along with Apichatpong Weerasethakul & Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. Sasanatieng's first two films Tears of the Black Tiger & Citizen Dog are one of a kind gems, whilst The Unforseeable is a classically old style horror film. I look forward to seeing Red Eagle.anonymous wrote:Red Eagle (Wisit Sasanatieng) 7/10 - This is a slickly made Thai action flick. The best way I can describe it is: Imagine if John Woo and Stephen Chow co-directed a movie that's part Green Hornet, part Kick-Ass, this is what you get and by and large the resulting movie is a pretty darn good, entertaining action movie with some really, really nifty and thrilling action sequences (swordfights on motorcycles - holy crap!). It's based from a popular Thai action movie series from the 1960's.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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anonymous1980
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Red Eagle (Wisit Sasanatieng) 7/10 - This is a slickly made Thai action flick. The best way I can describe it is: Imagine if John Woo and Stephen Chow co-directed a movie that's part Green Hornet, part Kick-Ass, this is what you get and by and large the resulting movie is a pretty darn good, entertaining action movie with some really, really nifty and thrilling action sequences (swordfights on motorcycles - holy crap!). It's based from a popular Thai action movie series from the 1960's.
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anonymous1980
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Kano: An American and His Harem (Coreen "Monster" Jimenez) 9.5/10 - This is an extraordinary Filipino-made documentary about an odd duck, to say the least, named Victor Pearson, a decorated American Vietnam war vet who retires in the Philippines and proceeds to bed a lot of women, marrying several of them and gets convicted of 80+ counts of rape. This film is an endlessly fascinating character study of a man you can hate, love and feel sympathy for all at the same time through interviews with the women he was involved with as well as his living relatives. You can a very full picture of a damaged human being. Try to keep an eye for this, it's very well worth seeing. "Kano" is an abbreviated slang Filipino term for American (that's also Victor's nickname with his women; and sometimes the word is borderline derogatory).
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Precious Doll
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Interesting bit of trivia concerning this film. The director Joann Sfar wanted to cast Charlotte Gainsbourg as her father. I believe that she even auditioned for the role, but the director decided against this casting idea.Reza wrote:Gainsbourg, Vie heroique (Joann Sfar, 2010) 4/10
The Housemaid (2010) Sang-soo Inn 8/10
Australia (1989) Jean-Jacaques Andrien 4/10
Fair Game (2010) Doug Liman 5/10
A Room and a Half (2009) Andrey Khrzhanovskiy 7/10
Admiral (2008) Andrey Kravchuk 1/10
No Greater Glory (1934) Frank Borzage 8/10
Due Date (2010) Todd Phillips 4/10
Copacabana (2010) Marc Fitoussi 5/10
Ondine (2010) Neil Jordan 4/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
I posted this in the wrong thread before.
Playing for Time (dir. Daniel Mann, 1980)
Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Alexander, Shirley Knight, Melanie Mayron, Marisa Berenson, Christine Baranski, Maud Adams, Robin Bartlett, Verna Bloom, Marcell Rosenblatt
In one of her most challenging roles, Emmy-winner Vanessa Redgrave takes on the incredible true story of Fania Fénelon, a Parisienne Jewish singer who is taken to Auschwitz and after some trying months, is enlisted in a ragtag orchestra of fellow female prisoners conscripted to play and sing for SS officers and for other Jews who are being taken to the showers. In what seems like a fairly rote storyline of survival we as a 2010 audience have seen any number of times in other films (especially with the Paradise Road angle thrown in there), something about this film slowly creeps right into your heart and then destroys it. Its detailed, piercing focus on the human condition is what lifts it out of the standard Holocaust genre.
And then there are those extraordinary performances. Redgrave's haunting blue eyes, always it seems on the verge of tears, have never been put to greater effect as she sinks deeper and deeper into a malaise, trying to cling onto what's left of her humanity. Her performance as the doomed singer is magnificent. Shirley Knight shines as the SS officer assigned to watch over the group and has a particularly powerful breakdown towards the end of the film. But it's Jane Alexander's Emmy-winning performance (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special, '81) as the steely conductor that is truly extraordinary. The scenes between her and Redgrave are something of a master class in acting. Alexander utterly inhabits her character and up until her final scene, her desires, boiling underneath at a steady simmer for the entire film, slowly lift to the surface and come out on her face. It's unforgettable work. The production values, at times, bespeak the TV-movie roots of the tele-film (stock footage is used in place of actual enactments throughout), but this is definitely one of the best I've ever seen.
Also on deck are Marisa Berenson (Caberet), Christine Baranski ("Cybil", Chicago) and Melanie Mayron ("thirtysomething") as fellow prisoners. Maud Adams has a brief, but powerful role as the multi-lingual Mala.
Trivia: Redgrave's pro-Palestinian political stance made her casting as the Jewish singer into a bit of a controversy. Even the real Fania Fénelon herself suggested that Jane Fonda be given the role.
I highly recommend that you seek out this powerful film.
9/10
Playing for Time (dir. Daniel Mann, 1980)
Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Alexander, Shirley Knight, Melanie Mayron, Marisa Berenson, Christine Baranski, Maud Adams, Robin Bartlett, Verna Bloom, Marcell Rosenblatt
In one of her most challenging roles, Emmy-winner Vanessa Redgrave takes on the incredible true story of Fania Fénelon, a Parisienne Jewish singer who is taken to Auschwitz and after some trying months, is enlisted in a ragtag orchestra of fellow female prisoners conscripted to play and sing for SS officers and for other Jews who are being taken to the showers. In what seems like a fairly rote storyline of survival we as a 2010 audience have seen any number of times in other films (especially with the Paradise Road angle thrown in there), something about this film slowly creeps right into your heart and then destroys it. Its detailed, piercing focus on the human condition is what lifts it out of the standard Holocaust genre.
And then there are those extraordinary performances. Redgrave's haunting blue eyes, always it seems on the verge of tears, have never been put to greater effect as she sinks deeper and deeper into a malaise, trying to cling onto what's left of her humanity. Her performance as the doomed singer is magnificent. Shirley Knight shines as the SS officer assigned to watch over the group and has a particularly powerful breakdown towards the end of the film. But it's Jane Alexander's Emmy-winning performance (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special, '81) as the steely conductor that is truly extraordinary. The scenes between her and Redgrave are something of a master class in acting. Alexander utterly inhabits her character and up until her final scene, her desires, boiling underneath at a steady simmer for the entire film, slowly lift to the surface and come out on her face. It's unforgettable work. The production values, at times, bespeak the TV-movie roots of the tele-film (stock footage is used in place of actual enactments throughout), but this is definitely one of the best I've ever seen.
Also on deck are Marisa Berenson (Caberet), Christine Baranski ("Cybil", Chicago) and Melanie Mayron ("thirtysomething") as fellow prisoners. Maud Adams has a brief, but powerful role as the multi-lingual Mala.
Trivia: Redgrave's pro-Palestinian political stance made her casting as the Jewish singer into a bit of a controversy. Even the real Fania Fénelon herself suggested that Jane Fonda be given the role.
I highly recommend that you seek out this powerful film.
9/10
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Gainsbourg, Vie heroique (Joann Sfar, 2010) 4/10
The surreal and fantasy elements injected into the life of Serge Gainsbourg are extremely annoying. I know Gainsbourg has a huge following in Europe as singer, actor and icon but the script does not try to make the main character interesting. The only saving graces are Anna Mouglalis (as Juliette Greco), Lucy Gordon (as Jane Birkin) and Laetitia Casta (as Brigitte Bardot). Bardot's entrance down a long corridor wearing thigh high boots and holding an Afghan Hound on a leash is a true classic moment on film....apparently that is exactly how he first saw her. In the title role Eric Elmosnino resembles the star and is very good but the film is done in by the script.......perhaps a straight version of his life may be more appropriate. Anyway he will always be remembered for the classic song, Je t'aime... moi non plus. Sad that Lucy Gordon committed suicide before the film's release.
The surreal and fantasy elements injected into the life of Serge Gainsbourg are extremely annoying. I know Gainsbourg has a huge following in Europe as singer, actor and icon but the script does not try to make the main character interesting. The only saving graces are Anna Mouglalis (as Juliette Greco), Lucy Gordon (as Jane Birkin) and Laetitia Casta (as Brigitte Bardot). Bardot's entrance down a long corridor wearing thigh high boots and holding an Afghan Hound on a leash is a true classic moment on film....apparently that is exactly how he first saw her. In the title role Eric Elmosnino resembles the star and is very good but the film is done in by the script.......perhaps a straight version of his life may be more appropriate. Anyway he will always be remembered for the classic song, Je t'aime... moi non plus. Sad that Lucy Gordon committed suicide before the film's release.
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anonymous1980
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anonymous1980
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Precious Doll
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London River (2009) Rachid Bouchareb 7/10
The String (2010) Mehdi Ben Attia 6/10
I Live My Life (1935) W. S. Van Dyke 3/10
Trucker (2009) James Mottern 4/10
A Lady's Morals (1930) Sidney Franklin 4/10
The Actresses (2009) Je-yong Lee 7/10
The Joneses (2010) Derrick Borte 5/10
Cemetary Junction (2010) Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant 3/10
-30- (1959) Jack Webb 4/10
Macabre (1958) William Castle 6/10
Gasland (2010) Josh Fox 6/10
Red Hill (2010) Patrick Hughes 7/10
Edited By Precious Doll on 1290757029
The String (2010) Mehdi Ben Attia 6/10
I Live My Life (1935) W. S. Van Dyke 3/10
Trucker (2009) James Mottern 4/10
A Lady's Morals (1930) Sidney Franklin 4/10
The Actresses (2009) Je-yong Lee 7/10
The Joneses (2010) Derrick Borte 5/10
Cemetary Junction (2010) Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant 3/10
-30- (1959) Jack Webb 4/10
Macabre (1958) William Castle 6/10
Gasland (2010) Josh Fox 6/10
Red Hill (2010) Patrick Hughes 7/10
Edited By Precious Doll on 1290757029
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
Le Temps Qui Reste (Francois Ozon, 2005) 6/10
A gay man diagnosed with a terminal illness reflects on his life and relationships. Sad, funny and very moving. Well acted by Melvil Poupaud in the lead and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as the woman who wishes to have a child by him. The sequence with Jeanne Moreau (as his grandmother) is a little film by itself and she is still magnificent.......as an actress and as a presence on screen. That wonderful face and voice!! C'mon Academy give this great actress an Oscar.
Edited By Reza on 1290658325
A gay man diagnosed with a terminal illness reflects on his life and relationships. Sad, funny and very moving. Well acted by Melvil Poupaud in the lead and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as the woman who wishes to have a child by him. The sequence with Jeanne Moreau (as his grandmother) is a little film by itself and she is still magnificent.......as an actress and as a presence on screen. That wonderful face and voice!! C'mon Academy give this great actress an Oscar.
Edited By Reza on 1290658325
Big Magilla wrote:Reza wrote:Gods and Monsters (Bill Condon, 1998) 8/10
Bill Condon perfectly captures the time and place of the 1950s and the film is anchored by Ian McKellan's superb performance. A pity he lost the Oscar. Brendan Fraser is almost equally as good and should have been nominated as well. Unfortunately I have still not warmed to Lynn Redgrave's broad performance where her character is channelling the ''Bride'' of Elsa Lanchester. And I wonder why a slim actor was chosen to play George Cukor?
I thought Lynn was channeling Una, not Elsa, from Bride of Frankenstein.
Wasn't Cukor thin in the 50s? He famously lost weight along with his hair as he aged.
Yes you are right she was channeling Una.
Cukor was still quite portly during the time this film is set in. I think there is a picture of him in the book ''On Cukor''.
Edited By Reza on 1290657516