26th Hall of Fame

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And Then There We're None



I loved this which is pretty cool considering I was pretty apprehensive about it's induction due to it being a miniseries. But perhaps like my original hesitancy with things like Documentaries it's just that I haven't had much experience with them. It's movies like this that want to get me back into reading too, I have a feeling this would be one heck of a read as well. I thought the acting was real good too, nothing too over the top yet calm and collected performances from everyone. The atmosphere of the film was something I really dug, the mansion has a real nice dark tone going for it. Someone said they disliked the flashback scenes but really I couldn't disagree more, they were very properly placed for me. It was cool the entire time I was trying to solve the mystery and I couldn't have been more wrong about the conclusion. Very worthy HOF entry.




The trick is not minding
Going to try to watch The Celebration tonight. Link I have insists I download the latest flash player or something, and didn’t want to be bothered with it unless there’s another link that doesn’t require one….



Going to try to watch The Celebration tonight. Link I have insists I download the latest flash player or something, and didn’t want to be bothered with it unless there’s another link that doesn’t require one….
It's probably malware! don't do it! Besides web sites aren't using flash player anymore and haven't for a long while. It's all about HTML5 now.

Send me that link and let me check it out.



Going to try to watch The Celebration tonight. Link I have insists I download the latest flash player or something, and didn’t want to be bothered with it unless there’s another link that doesn’t require one….
I sent another link.
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For the putlocker link I originally sent, I haven't run into that message yet and I can watch movies on the site just fine. Are you sure it's not a pop up ad you're seeing? If so, you can just ignore those. Regardless, the second link I sent should work fine.



The trick is not minding
Festen (The Celebration)

I’ll admit right away I’m not sure how to feel about this film.

Certainly it should resonate in some way, emotionally. But I feel the camera work hurts it, as I’m unable to properly sympathize or emphasize with anyone very much. The camera doesn’t linger enough to allow us to.

It isn’t until the final 30 minutes that the film finally settles down and we’re able to feel the chaos that surrounds the Celebration.
Perhaps that’s the way it’s meant to be?
Like the celebration being filmed, it started off chaotic, as the families secrets and lies all come out during the festivities. It isn’t until the end, when the truth is officially laid out for all the guests, that the camera focuses as well. Perhaps that was the point?
And what we have, in the last 30 minutes, is the emotional payoff I was hoping for.
Good pick, and I suspect it will likely improve upon further viewings.



I just finished watching The Celebration (1998). Directed by Thomas Vinterberg, this is the first film of the Dogme 95 movement. It is about family drama and secrets that are revealed at a birthday party. The film is highly rated and very well regarded, but I'm sorry to say that I did not like this one. At all. I didn't find the characters interesting enough and it takes too long to get the story going. Once it starts, I still found it rather unengaging. I didn't care for the way the film looked and I was not impressed by it. I loved The Hunt and liked Another Round, but this one is a miss for me. My rating is a
.



I just finished rewatching Daisies (1966). Directed by Vera Chytilová, this Czechoslovakian film is about two cute young women who frolic around, have a good time, and get in to mischief. I had seen this before and enjoyed it quite a bit. Once again, I had a good time with it. The young women are very cute and charming and the film is fast paced and fun. I love the use of colour and there are some really nifty editing and camera techniques used in the film. Daisies is a delightful and quirky film with a lot of energy and it was nice to revisit it. And did I mention that the two leading ladies were very cute?



I just finished rewatching Daisies (1966). Directed by Vera Chytilová, this Czechoslovakian film is about two cute young women who frolic around, have a good time, and get in to mischief. I had seen this before and enjoyed it quite a bit. Once again, I had a good time with it. The young women are very cute and charming and the film is fast paced and fun. I love the use of colour and there are some really nifty editing and camera techniques used in the film. Daisies is a delightful and quirky film with a lot of energy and it was nice to revisit it. And did I mention that the two leading ladies were very cute?
That sounds like my reaction



Let the night air cool you off
Quick little update: I plan on getting through Marienbad and Daisies this weekend. I've been having a little bit of difficulty due to some health stuff. I'm pretty sure I have sleep apnea, I scheduled an appointment to have a sleep study done on the 15th (their earliest opening). It's giving me problems because as I sleep, my body is not getting the rest it needs and I wake up frequently throughout the night, which leaves me dead tired throughout the day, and I find myself dozing off any time I try to watch anything. I should be able to work through this even if it means watching movies in short bursts. That's not ideal, but it'll have to work for now. Hopefully they'll be able to get me one of those Darth Vader machines and I can start making some lifestyle changes, but that'd most likely be after this has finished.



Quick little update: I plan on getting through Marienbad and Daisies this weekend. I've been having a little bit of difficulty due to some health stuff. I'm pretty sure I have sleep apnea, I scheduled an appointment to have a sleep study done on the 15th (their earliest opening). It's giving me problems because as I sleep, my body is not getting the rest it needs and I wake up frequently throughout the night, which leaves me dead tired throughout the day, and I find myself dozing off any time I try to watch anything. I should be able to work through this even if it means watching movies in short bursts. That's not ideal, but it'll have to work for now. Hopefully they'll be able to get me one of those Darth Vader machines and I can start making some lifestyle changes, but that'd most likely be after this has finished.
Hopefully, you'll feel better soon.



I rewatched Cinema Paradiso (1988) on blu ray. Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, this award winning film is about the experiences of a boy growing up, falling in love with cinema and his friendship with the local theater’s projectionist. I enjoyed this film the first time I saw it and I enjoyed it again this time. Salvatore Cascio was the highlight of the film, playing the main character as a young boy. He was adorable and gave a delightful performance. The other actors in the film were all good too. I really liked the look of the film and thought the story was told in a beautiful and effective way. My rating is a



I rewatched The Wizard of Oz (1939) on blu ray today. This beloved, Oscar winning classic is my 26th favourite film of all time. That is one of the reasons why I nominated it for this 26th Hall of Fame. The Wizard of Oz is a masterpiece. I love everything about it. The story is wonderful and the characters are all fantastic. Judy Garland is wonderful as Dorothy and Terry the dog is perfect as Toto. The whole cast is great. The cinematography is beautiful and vibrant. The songs are memorable and enjoyable. The Wizard of Oz is a true crowdpleaser and an extremely entertaining and satisfying film.



I forgot the opening line.


All the President's Men - 1976

Directed by Alan J. Pakula

Written by William Goldman
Based on a book by Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein

Starring Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman

It was the decade of paranoia that came after the decade of revolution, a decade of cynicism, corruption and the end of any innocence that may have remained after the traumas in the 1960s that ended the optimism of the post-World War II world and triumph of good over evil. Now evil wasn't goose stepping in a loud and extravagant way in Nuremberg - it was instead whispering in hushed tones in the halls of power, where paper bags stuffed with cash were quietly changing hands. Richard Nixon had seemingly wrecked the presidency - a once trusted and venerated position that was revealed in secret tapes to be nothing more than a seat for foul-mouthed tirades and utterly corrupt practices. It was the decade of Alan J. Pakula's "paranoia trilogy" - which consisted of Klute, The Parallax View and his portrait of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein : All the President's Men. Optimistically, Pakula and co-producer Robert Redford would not focus on Richard Nixon and his dirty dealings but would instead venerate the newspaper reporter - the warrior who stood against the evil whispering in the quiet halls. Those who would shine a light to hopefully lead everyone out of this wilderness.

I swear you can smell the ink as the typewriters go clickety clack in the busy recreation of the Washington Post's newsroom. Cinematographer Gordon Willis bathes it in brilliant fluorescent light, as per direction. Light illuminates truth, and many scenes in Washington, especially those where Woodward meets source Deep Throat in a tiered car park, are as dark as you can get. Willis was not only used on all of Pakula's paranoia trilogy films but also the Godfather films and many of Woody Allen's best pictures - he knows what he's doing. Our two reporters are framed as to be absolutely tiny beneath symbolic concrete monsters in Washington - real Davids to our presidential Goliath, and in one glorious shot Robert Redford is not only dwarfed by his surroundings but utterly alone. There is also a lot going on at times - and Hoffman and Redford rarely react, such is their laser focus as Woodward and Bernstein. One long shot gives us a clear depiction of what is going on in the background, all while Redford keeps going with his telephone - all alone, digging, prying, questioning - desperate not to let the fish get away. Holding on. Knowing a word here or there could be vital. A battleground of the mind.

What Pakula and Redford were hoping to capture is most evident early on, in a scene where the Watergate burglars are being brought before a judge. Redford as Woodward zeroes in on a conspicuously well-dressed individual (Douglas Caddy) that at first tries to brush him off. Woodward finds him again, and insists on knowing more. Caddy continues to resist but Woodward keeps on coming back, knowing that there's much more here to find out - and that his persistence will be one of his best weapons as an investigative reporter. This persistence will be showcased again and again, in person and on the telephone. Bernstein has tricks up his sleeve also, as he manages to outwit the secretary of an investigator in Miami (Dardis - played by Ned Beatty) in order to get past her and reach his goal for one small piece of crucial information. Producer Walter Coblenz in conjunction with Redford and Pakula want to show us how these two young reporters, and many of their ilk, don't just stumble into or get given the stories that are essential for people in democracies to know. The legwork and insistence of Woodward and Berstein are put on full display in All the President's Men - and are never put aside. We're shown that they never rest. Day and night they follow this story and it seems they hardly even stop to sleep, though we catch them quickly getting a bite to eat in fast food restaurants (while working on the story of course.)

The score, barely intrudes. In fact, much of the film continues without a score or with one so unobtrusive as to be barely audible. Composer David Shire, who I remember from Zodiac (he also, very appropriately, scored The Conversation,) was very unhappy about that as Redford recalls, as his imprint on the film was mainly from his absence, but it makes his subtle entry during certain parts much more noticeable. In any case, the music of All the President's Men comes from instruments such as the typewriter, the teletype machine, telephone and television - all working away in that brightly lit room. The television has a special place in the film, that of a contrast to newspapers. We hear the government line - non-denial denials, put-downs and lies coming from televisions while Woodward and Berstein work at finding the truth. As Woodward concentrates on listening to sources, we see people gathering around televisions. As Nixon gives his second oath of office on a television, our two intrepid reporters work on in the background. There is always that distinction being made between television and newsprint - perhaps something even more relevant today considering how the internet has further degraded the information we recieve.

William Goldman's adapted screenplay won an Oscar, and it's all the more a shame that there is so much debate today on how much of the finished product really came from Goldman and how much from Redford or other sources. Redford wasn't happy with Goldman's script, and Berstein himself along with Nora Ephron are said to have tried their hand at writing one. Pakula and Redford were to claim that they made so many changes during filming that they were the principle authors, but over time evidence has piled up to suggest Goldman was deserving of his Oscar and that virtually all of All the President's Men comes from the work he did. Excellent work at that. Jason Robard's stern and somewhat paternal portrayal of the Washington Post's Executive Editor Ben Bradlee won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as well. He does provide a strong presence that backs up the brave but young and sometimes naďve reporters he oversees, and it's his strength at the end that provides the backbone to everything our young protagonists have been spearheading.

The rest is provided by Washington itself - the structures, architecture and monoliths of power that dwarf our heroes. The courtroom scenes were filmed in a real courtroom. The Washington Post set was reconstructed in a way only a perfectionist could accomplish - the places that provided the desks and the very manufacturers of the wastepaper baskets were contacted and duly provided the production with the same products they supplied the real Washington Post. Set designers George Jenkins and George Gaines were rewarded with an Oscar nomination for their work. The Library of Congress provided an impressive enough place for Willis to take Bernstein and Woodward, searching through an innumerable amount of library cards for Howard Hunt's name, and pull back and pull back towards the ceiling once again leaving us in no doubt just how small these people are compared with power and Washington (you could almost say history) itself. Places like that seem almost made for shots of that caliber. No stone was left unturned when it came to making this a production of the highest order, and technical aspects rose to the first rate acting, screenwriting and direction that brought the investigative journalism that uncovered Watergate to life.

In the end there was no need for embellishment and thankfully that was recognized. There are no love stories, or car chases or fights. Nobody screams and nobody cries. In fact, Goldman saw straight away that for the sake of this film's structure, the second half of Woodward and Berstein's book shouldn't be covered at all. What we get are all the events that lead up to that first domino falling - the point of no return for both the investigators and the investigated. Once White House Chief of Staff Haldeman is definitively connected to the growing scandal the film ends - and each succeeding domino - each event that led to further revelations up to and including the first ever resignation of a President of the United States is simply communicated to the audience in a series of teletype press announcements. It's a novel substitution for simple text overlaid onscreen as a coda. For some, perhaps, this is an anti-climax or leaves us feeling unfulfilled, but it works for the movie as a whole. This was never about what Nixon or his staff did - it was about how the reporters at the Washington Post uncovered the truth, and it is what the film sticks to doggedly. When we leave Woodward and Bernstein, they're still at their desks, working away at the story. They're still at their posts.

All the President's Men is a great detective story full stop. It shows us the power the telephone and the typewriter had in the 1970s, and the power small people can wield if they're persistent and inquisitive enough. In that sense it's far more than just a history lesson about Watergate - it's telling us something that's universal and something that is hopefully still true to this day. Two young reporters (Woodward had only been a reporter for 9 months) - alone for the most part - eventually brought down the most powerful person in the United States. Their weapons were their minds, and (despite how corny it sounds) the truth. No matter how many times they were stonewalled, or how many times their assertions were denied on television, they stood behind the journalism they were doing and their integrity. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman successfully brought their story to life and Walter Coblenz with Redford brought to the screen one of the greatest stories of the 20th Century in a compelling and interesting way. As far as journalism goes, it's an unequalled tale that will be forever linked to this 1976 film.

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Remember - everything has an ending except hope, and sausages - they have two.
We miss you Takoma

Latest Review : Le Circle Rouge (1970)



Ok I'm back and back on my bull**** straight away because this is definitely one of my wackest takes yet.


The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)

Listen, you make a musical with no dancing and the songs being the least interesting part of the film I'm gonna be mad. Every song just having the characters in a close up standing in place the whole time sucks. Who wants to watch that? Not to mention the songs are all quite drab and oddly sour. The whole film has a sour quality to it that I'm not really into. Like the film certainly has bright colours but there's no warmth to them at all and the cramped sets don't help. Obviously you'd have to shoot this whole movie on a sound stage but rarely does it not hinder the look and feel of the film. The Kansas set and the poppy field are the only moments that even feel like they're taking place outside. This all maybe doesn't sound like all that much but it really kills any vibe or feeling the film is going for.

Now, despite these overarching problems that make the film impossible for me to love there's a good number of smaller things that I do enjoy which I will now discuss. First off, our main cast are quite likeable (Dorothy to a lesser extent, she's kind of annoying) and their costumes are immaculate. Unfortunately its almost an hour in before they're all together and the scenes where we're introduced to them are quite tedious. The Emerald City is where the film finally gets going for me (an hour in btw) but from this point on I do generally like the film. While my overarching problems aren't solved they are at least lessened and all the good moments happen in the back 40 as well. The horse changing colour, Lion's king speech, Tin Man getting grabbed by a ghost, Lion just jumping out a damn window because why tf not. This stuff finally felt like the film was letting loose and having fun. It felt so stiff and unnatural before. So it definitely gets some marks back towards the end (the ending itself is kinda just whatever) but overall I think its still too held back by its limitations and just doesn't take advantage of its genre.



And Then There Were None: Had high hopes for this one. I like good thriller/mysteries and I really tend to like the long form storytelling as it gives much more time for character development. Unfortunately this one didn't work for me very much. The structure kind of got on my nerves after a bit and the climax was really unsatisfying. Not all bad. Certainly high in production value and casted well. That just wasn't enough to carry it for me.
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