Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
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I think Cabaret is absolutely brilliant when sticking to the music. The scenes at the boarding house do not have quite the same impact.
I recently had the chance to observe the real Christopher Isherwood in the 1978 BBC documentary on Charles Laughton that is part of the Criterion Edition of Hobson's Choice. Isherwood did not resemble Michael York so much as Laurence Harvey who played him in I Am a Camera taken from Isherwood's Berlin Stories.
In I Am a Camera the focus is on Britisher Isherwood (his real name is used) and his relationships with American Sally Bowles (Julie Harris) and his German student Natalia Landauer ( Shelley Winters).
The Broadway musical jettisons the character of Natalia and builds up the character of the landlady, Fraulein Schneider (Lotte Lenya) who is now the one who is in love with a Jewish man (Jack Gilford). The more mature romance gives the story more poignancy and the songs for this couple are among the strongest in the show. "Married", introduced by Lenya is next to the title song the best song in the score.
Also changed in the show were the nationalities of the principals. Christopher Isherwood is now the American Clifford Bradshaw (Bert Convy) and Sally (Jill Haworth) is now British.
The film version went back to the source. The male protagonist (Michael York) is now called Brian Roberts and is once again British. Sally is once again American by birth and Natalia (Marisa Berenson) is back. The landlady is reduced to a minor character.
An even bigger change is that now all the songs are either sung in the nightclub or used as background ("Married") with the powerful exception of "Tomorrow Belongs to Me".
The uncanny thing is that both iterations work, albeit on different levels.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1241980853
I recently had the chance to observe the real Christopher Isherwood in the 1978 BBC documentary on Charles Laughton that is part of the Criterion Edition of Hobson's Choice. Isherwood did not resemble Michael York so much as Laurence Harvey who played him in I Am a Camera taken from Isherwood's Berlin Stories.
In I Am a Camera the focus is on Britisher Isherwood (his real name is used) and his relationships with American Sally Bowles (Julie Harris) and his German student Natalia Landauer ( Shelley Winters).
The Broadway musical jettisons the character of Natalia and builds up the character of the landlady, Fraulein Schneider (Lotte Lenya) who is now the one who is in love with a Jewish man (Jack Gilford). The more mature romance gives the story more poignancy and the songs for this couple are among the strongest in the show. "Married", introduced by Lenya is next to the title song the best song in the score.
Also changed in the show were the nationalities of the principals. Christopher Isherwood is now the American Clifford Bradshaw (Bert Convy) and Sally (Jill Haworth) is now British.
The film version went back to the source. The male protagonist (Michael York) is now called Brian Roberts and is once again British. Sally is once again American by birth and Natalia (Marisa Berenson) is back. The landlady is reduced to a minor character.
An even bigger change is that now all the songs are either sung in the nightclub or used as background ("Married") with the powerful exception of "Tomorrow Belongs to Me".
The uncanny thing is that both iterations work, albeit on different levels.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1241980853
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Two things about Cabaret (about which I can't pretend to be objective, as it was for my young self what Citizen Kane was for earlier generations -- a film that expanded my ideas about the possibilities of film):
Any weakness in the York character likely comes not from the actor but from the role's status as authorial stand-in. Even the best writers tend to imagine their alter egos with less dimension than other characters (e.g., Long Day's Journey, which has three sensational characters, with the O'Neill equivalent tagging along).
The techniques Fosse used in the film have been so widely copied (Moulin Rouge and Chicago the most obvious recent examples), it may be impossible to recapture the excitement they created when they were fresh. It's like watching a Marx Brothers movie and thinking, those jokes are so old. Well, they weren't old when the movie first came out (most of them, anyway).
Any weakness in the York character likely comes not from the actor but from the role's status as authorial stand-in. Even the best writers tend to imagine their alter egos with less dimension than other characters (e.g., Long Day's Journey, which has three sensational characters, with the O'Neill equivalent tagging along).
The techniques Fosse used in the film have been so widely copied (Moulin Rouge and Chicago the most obvious recent examples), it may be impossible to recapture the excitement they created when they were fresh. It's like watching a Marx Brothers movie and thinking, those jokes are so old. Well, they weren't old when the movie first came out (most of them, anyway).
I found Anton Yelchin to be the adorable one. Perhaps a bit too twinkish, but still yummy.dreaMaker wrote:Star Trek (2009)
8/10
Awwww. i loved it!
Fun, spectacular... And Zachary Quinto is gorgeous.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
Christopher Isherwood thought Liza fect as Christopher Isherwood.mlrg wrote:Cabaret (1972) - Bob Fosse
7/10
I had great expectations for this one but was rather dissapointed with the film as a whole. The dance sequences are beatifully directed and the best part of the film. Michael York is miscast in my opinion.
I think both gave great performances.
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The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) Uli Edel 6/10
This film is well made and easy to watch but never probes any deeper then the surface of the subject manner.
It's basically a dramatization (doco drama if you like) of the start and escalation of the terrorist movement in West Germany from the late 1960's until the late 1970's.
Maybe a 10 hour mini series which would have allowed the time to flesh the multiple characters out more then a 2.5 hour film can.
This film is well made and easy to watch but never probes any deeper then the surface of the subject manner.
It's basically a dramatization (doco drama if you like) of the start and escalation of the terrorist movement in West Germany from the late 1960's until the late 1970's.
Maybe a 10 hour mini series which would have allowed the time to flesh the multiple characters out more then a 2.5 hour film can.
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I don't know, I guess I was expecting more from a critically lauded film. It seemed like someone's home movie made on the cheap. Michelle and the dog were good, but this was no Wild Boys of the Road or even Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, two superior films in which homeless boys and girls are forced to ride the railroads in search of a better life.
I felt the dog food theft was an obvious plot device. Like the kid says, people who can't afford dog food shouldn't have a dog. The irony is that she could afford the couple of bucks it would have cost a lot more than the $50 fine she had to pay instead.
I felt the dog food theft was an obvious plot device. Like the kid says, people who can't afford dog food shouldn't have a dog. The irony is that she could afford the couple of bucks it would have cost a lot more than the $50 fine she had to pay instead.
Not if she was going to be able to make it to Alaska.Big Magilla wrote:she is incarcerated for stealing dog food she could easily have paid for.
I loved this film, though I must confess that I think the circumstances under which I saw it helped- I got stood up by my friend who I'd planned to see it with, therefore increasing my sensitivity to her feelings of isolation and abandonment.
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Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt/008) - 3/10
A couple of days in the life of young woman drifter, played by Michelle Williams, whose car breaks down and whose dog disappears while she is incarcerated for stealing dog food she could easily have paid for.
Will the car get fixed? Will the dog be found? Will she find her way out of town? Will you stay awake long enough to find out?
Edited By Big Magilla on 1241936562
A couple of days in the life of young woman drifter, played by Michelle Williams, whose car breaks down and whose dog disappears while she is incarcerated for stealing dog food she could easily have paid for.
Will the car get fixed? Will the dog be found? Will she find her way out of town? Will you stay awake long enough to find out?
Edited By Big Magilla on 1241936562
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Christopher Strong (Dorothy Arzner, 1933) 7/10
Katharine Hepburn's second film and her first starring role as an aviatrix loosely based on Amelia Earhart in which she established her knack for playing strong, independent, yet vulnerable women. Her clandestine affair with public figure Colin Clive presages her own later affairs with Howard Hughes and Spencer Tracy.
Ironically, Billie Burke who played her mother in A Bill of Divorcement is her romantic rival here. Helen Chandler (Dracula) is Burke and Clive's spoiled daughter and Ralph Forbes the upper class philanderer she marries against Burke's wishes.
Hepburn and Burke are perfect, especially in their last scene together.
Week-End Marriage (Thornton Freeland, 1932) 7/10
Pre-code gem with Loretta Young as a working wife whose career takes off as husband Norman Foster's declines.
Aline MacMahon gets the wisecracks as Young's sister-in-law. The jaw dropping ending, which today's audiences would laugh off the screen, must have had sophisticated audience members howling even then. A true artifact and one of Loretta's best.
Katharine Hepburn's second film and her first starring role as an aviatrix loosely based on Amelia Earhart in which she established her knack for playing strong, independent, yet vulnerable women. Her clandestine affair with public figure Colin Clive presages her own later affairs with Howard Hughes and Spencer Tracy.
Ironically, Billie Burke who played her mother in A Bill of Divorcement is her romantic rival here. Helen Chandler (Dracula) is Burke and Clive's spoiled daughter and Ralph Forbes the upper class philanderer she marries against Burke's wishes.
Hepburn and Burke are perfect, especially in their last scene together.
Week-End Marriage (Thornton Freeland, 1932) 7/10
Pre-code gem with Loretta Young as a working wife whose career takes off as husband Norman Foster's declines.
Aline MacMahon gets the wisecracks as Young's sister-in-law. The jaw dropping ending, which today's audiences would laugh off the screen, must have had sophisticated audience members howling even then. A true artifact and one of Loretta's best.