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I had an unplanned marathon of sorts with four different versions of A Christmas Carol.
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The Animatrix (2003, Shinichiro Watanabe, Koji Morimoto, Peter Chung, Andrew R. Jones, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Takeshi Koike & Mahiro Maeda)
This was my first time watching all these movies. Definitive ranking: ani,2,3,1,4
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I found one this year that I hadn't heard of before. It won the Best Animated Short Oscar in '72, and features Sim (again) as Scrooge, with narration by Michael Redgrave. It's only 28 minutes long which means it has to speed through the plot too quickly, so it's not the best place for a newcomer to experience the story for the first time. But the animation is great and it really leans into the creepy side of the story, so it was up my alley.
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Catching up on my Christmas movie watches. Two of my all time favorites:
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Dir. Peter Godfrey
Remember the Night (1940)
Dir. Mitchell Leisen
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Dir. Peter Godfrey
Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan, with the riotously funny and ever charming S.Z. Sakall and Sydney Greenstreet rounding out a talented cast! This movie puts a smile on my face for the entire runtime. Quite the intelligently written script that's both clever and funny. Loved the cooking aspect of it and Barbara Stanwyck too.
Remember the Night (1940)
Dir. Mitchell Leisen
Four years before Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray steamed up the screen in Double Indemnity, they were charmers with oodles of chemistry in this Christmas drama about redemption. Stanwyck is a petty thief who's going to spend Christmas in jail thanks to a tricky prosecuting attorney, Fred MacMurray. The attorney feels guilty for his actions in court so pays Stanwyck's bail so she could at least have a few days of freedom. We later learn that Stanwyck's life of crime stems from a cold and distant mother who doesn't want a thing to do with her daughter. The story is well written and Stanywck acts up a storm and the ending is very well done and balanced.
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EDIT: Oh and I tried watching the FX version with Guy Pearce and got about halfway through the three and a half hour runtime before I gave up on it. This was right around the time that hunky Scrooge (Pearce) rides up (on camelback no less) to his old school with Ali Baba (Ghost of Christmas Past). Then they go on to reveal that
What the hell?!!!
I've got the book right in front of me and it is literally just 71 pages long!!!
Three and a half hour run-time?!!!
What the hell?!!!
I've got the book right in front of me and it is literally just 71 pages long!!!
What the hell?!!!
I've got the book right in front of me and it is literally just 71 pages long!!!
WARNING: spoilers below
The movie opens with some random guy cursing Marley and pissing on his grave. And then ... get this ... it trickles down through the soil, drips on his face and wakes him. He then goes wandering around the spirit world and eventually meets the blacksmith that forged the chain that he's forced to wear. Meanwhile Scrooge and Bob Cratchit are having this somewhat disjointed and prolonged Socratic discussion.
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I did go a bit butt wild on the Christmas Carol front this year but it's such a great story. A lot of the dialogue and story was of course identical but the fun was in comparing the different interpretations and production design.
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I had an unplanned marathon of sorts with four different versions of A Christmas Carol. The '38 version with Reginald Owen, the '51 with Alastair Sim, the '84 with George C. Scott and the '99 with Patrick Stewart. I had already seen the '38 and '51 versions some time ago and the '84 last year I think but I rewatched all of them over the last couple of days and finally caught Stewart's performance yesterday.
As far as Scrooge portrayals go Sim still wins out with Stewart's in second place. Owen edges out Scott for third. If you go with the overall experience I still prefer '51 simply because it includes more scenes with Scrooges sister Fan (which never fail to hit me right in the feels) and a slightly deeper dive with regards to his fiance Alice. Patrick Stewart also takes a fine, naturalistic turn in his version.
1938 (Reginald Owen) 75/100
1951 (Alastair Sim) 88/100
1984 (George C. Scott) 75/100
1999 (Patrick Stewart) 85/100
...
As far as Scrooge portrayals go Sim still wins out with Stewart's in second place. Owen edges out Scott for third. If you go with the overall experience I still prefer '51 simply because it includes more scenes with Scrooges sister Fan (which never fail to hit me right in the feels) and a slightly deeper dive with regards to his fiance Alice. Patrick Stewart also takes a fine, naturalistic turn in his version.
1938 (Reginald Owen) 75/100
1951 (Alastair Sim) 88/100
1984 (George C. Scott) 75/100
1999 (Patrick Stewart) 85/100
...
If you've never seen The Green Man (1956), it's a riot, with both men at their finest. I think you'd like it. It's a daffy fairly black comedy. One of those great Brit comedies from the 1950s.
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Catching up on my Christmas movie watches. Two of my all time favorites:
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Dir. Peter Godfrey
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Dir. Peter Godfrey
Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan, with the riotously funny and ever charming S.Z. Sakall and Sydney Greenstreet rounding out a talented cast! This movie puts a smile on my face for the entire runtime. Quite the intelligently written script that's both clever and funny. Loved the cooking aspect of it and Barbara Stanwyck too.
Remember the Night (1940)
Dir. Mitchell LeisenRemember the Night (1940)
Four years before Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray steamed up the screen in Double Indemnity, they were charmers with oodles of chemistry in this Christmas drama about redemption. Stanwyck is a petty thief who's going to spend Christmas in jail thanks to a tricky prosecuting attorney, Fred MacMurray. The attorney feels guilty for his actions in court so pays Stanwyck's bail so she could at least have a few days of freedom. We later learn that Stanwyck's life of crime stems from a cold and distant mother who doesn't want a thing to do with her daughter. The story is well written and Stanywck acts up a storm and the ending is very well done and balanced.
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I heartily agree-- both good pictures, with my favorite being "Connecticut". Stanwyck really shows her acting chops at comedy, having already distinguished herself as a top dramatic actress. She might have been the best actress of the '30s/'40s.
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I heartily agree-- both good pictures, with my favorite being "Connecticut". Stanwyck really shows her acting chops at comedy, having already distinguished herself as a top dramatic actress. She might have been the best actress of the '30s/'40s.
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Two unusual Christmas movies I seen recently.
The Great Rupert (1950)
Rupert is a squirrel who can dance thanks to the magic of stop motion and producer George Pal. Yeah that George Pal that made a lot of neat stop motion classics that were ground breaking in their day. I had to rewatch the scenes with Rupert the squirrel doing a Scottish folk dance as it looked so real. Maybe it was! Jimmy Durante heads up this forgotten Christmas themed movie. He plays a down and out, but not hopeless vaudeville performer that talks his way into a cheap, dingy basement apartment for free, where money starts falling from the ceiling (Yes there's a logical reason for the raining dough).
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Deanna Durbin is a prostitute working in a New Orleans brothel. Gene Kelly is her husband who's a compulsive gambler and kills a bookie. Neither sing nor dance. Christmas noir. Worth a look.
The Great Rupert (1950)
Rupert is a squirrel who can dance thanks to the magic of stop motion and producer George Pal. Yeah that George Pal that made a lot of neat stop motion classics that were ground breaking in their day. I had to rewatch the scenes with Rupert the squirrel doing a Scottish folk dance as it looked so real. Maybe it was! Jimmy Durante heads up this forgotten Christmas themed movie. He plays a down and out, but not hopeless vaudeville performer that talks his way into a cheap, dingy basement apartment for free, where money starts falling from the ceiling (Yes there's a logical reason for the raining dough).
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By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65408954
Sound of Metal - (2019)
My long journey through the Best Picture nominated films for this year continues, and it reveals yet another really good film that didn't quite break the 'fantastic' barrier for me. Ruben Stone (Riz Ahmed) is a heavy metal drummer who starts to lose his hearing, doesn't follow doctors advice and before you know it he's deaf. The rest of the film shows how he really fails to come to terms with what has happened to him, makes wrong choices and pays no attention to what people are telling him. He reacts to what happens when he loses his hearing as an addict would to losing a source of drugs - and Ruben is a recovering addict, so I guess that makes sense. It's slow-paced, and really uses sound to put ourselves inside Ruben's head (this won an Oscar for sound - which must have been an easy choice for academy members.) It's the kind of film which sets up a cathartic ending which has an impact. Pretty good - but for me, The Father is the pick of the nominated films I've seen, which is now 6/8, only leaving Mank and The Trial of the Chicago 7 to go.
7/10
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Encanto
I liked some things about it, but I really hated the songs and there were too damn many of them.
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cause elizabeth olsen is one of my favorite actress and shes is nominated golden globe awards hope she wins it cause she deserves an award instead always same people. jessica lange is one of my favorite people on american horror story shes a good actress. tom felton is one of my favorite on harry potter 
his a good actor!
like i said elizabeth olsen is one of my favorite actress and is nominated golden globe
his a good actor! like i said elizabeth olsen is one of my favorite actress and is nominated golden globe
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The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski, 2021)
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Memoria (2021, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
There were a couple of things about the ending that made me raise an eyebrow just a little bit, but otherwise this is exactly the kind of film I expected from Weerasethakul. If I were to describe it in one word, it would be hypnotic. You literally feel time slow down to a standstill and linger in meditation, with moments that are filled with mysteries that no words can describe — the scene of Jessica's (Tilda Swinton) conversation with Hernán while he's scaling fish is as simple as it is transfixing. It's as pure and diegetic a viewing experience as one can possibly imagine, cathartic and impenetrable at the same time.
