Category Archives: Movies

Days of Heaven. Evening of beauty.

MovieNight stuff, Movies

mantz

What a splendid way to introduce our new projector to MovieNight! Terence Mallick’s Days of Heaven was alive with cinematography so grand in scale that it seemed as though our screen might just burst. As Norris remarked some days later, “In magazines, newspapers, and film blogs. we’re used to seeing the same two or three magnificent stills from key landmarks in cinematography. In Days of Heaven, it feels like you see one every two minutes or so.”

Still, Mallick struggled to weave all this stunning footage into a cohesive story until he fell back on the idea of using a narrator (as he had done with Sissy Spacek in his previous masterpiece of Americana, Badlands). 17 year old Linda Mantz (pictured above) just improvised the whole narration. “They took me into a voice recording studio.”, remembers Manz, in a 2011 Village Voice interview. “No script, nothing, I just watched the movie and rambled on . . . I dunno, they took whatever dialogue they liked.”  Brilliant.

Richard Gere and Sam Sheppard looked so fresh and young, then aged 28 and 35, respectively. Is that why there were so many ladies at MovieNight? Hey… I’m not complaining!

More about this film on IMDb imdb

It’s All Gone Pete Tong. What a bubble!

Love and Life, MovieNight stuff, Movies

pete

After last week’s hard-core finale to our kinda f*cked up mini-season, it was time for a good bubble. Oh yeah… “bubble bath” (pronounced boff) is Cockney rhyming slang for “laugh” (pronounced loff), and when using CRS it is common, but not mandatory, to drop the part that actually rhymes, presumably to confuse the uninitiated even more. For instance… “Do me a lemon, wouldya? Get on the dog and call us a sherbet.” translates to “Do me a favor (lemon flavor), wouldya? Get on the phone (dog and bone) and call us a cab (sherbet dab – a kind of sugary sour dipping powder candy).

Anyway, it was a great, fun MovieNight. I got rather Brahms and Liszt!

More about this film on IMDb imdb

Ex Drummer – Mini-season turned up to eleven.

Movies

exd

It’s funny… embarking on a mini-season entitled “Kinda Fuc#ked up” seemed like an interesting idea… indeed, it was a highly successful concept. Ultimately though, there’s an element of dysfunctionality at the core of almost any good movie. For that matter, most great art seems to have been hatched from some seething nest or other.

Ex Drummer is royally fucked up (gloves off!), and perhaps it was a bit too much for some of you. Sorry. Still… brilliant. Thanks, Norris.

Next week we will lighten up… I promise.

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Sometimes a Great Notion. Finally.

Love and Life, Movies

notion

Paul Newman’s second directorial turn, Sometimes a Great Notion, brought in a sweet audience, which included some loving family members of the late Ed Albers, for whom this movie was chosen as a kind of casual memorial. For those of you reading this (and I must assume that someone is) who are not familiar with this story, please click the picture below. Ed was a long time friend and neighbor.

ed2

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Two Days, One Night. Five Inches [of snow].

MovieNight stuff, Movies

2days

Thursday’s soft blanket of snow (hopefully the last this year, please?) put a bit of a damper on MovieNight attendance this week. Still, not a bad turn-out under the circumstances, and those who that ventured forth were rewarded with another treat from the Dardennes. Two Days, One Night is a frank, non-judgemental observation of society in this age ruled by the dollar, or in this case, the euro.

The protagonists in the brothers’ films have traditionally been played by unknowns, so the casting of Marion Coutilliard in the lead role came as something of a surprise. A pleasant surprise: her portrayal of a woman oscillating between emotional fragility and remarkable resilience was mesmerizing. Mdme. Biya (Coutilliard) was almost constantly in motion, almost always in a sporty tank top, almost always with her broad shoulders bound by clear plastic bra straps… a nice touch. Also new for Les freres… a feel-good ending. We like.

More about this film on IMDb imdb