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movies can be okay...
Sophie's Choice (1982)



"Sophie's Choice" follows a friendship between a Polish immigrant (Meryl Streep), her unpredictable lover (Kevin Kline), and their newest neighbour (Peter MacNicol), as they go through their ups and downs, fights and make ups, laughs and tears.

I wasn't too excited about watching this movie beforehand, since it was never on my radar, hence me leaving it as my last watch. Fortunately, It surprised me with how much it had to offer, I was mostly impressed by the elegant cinematography, there were quite a few scenes that had me in awe, due to to their visual element. Having shots in this film framed similarly to a beautiful photograph, is something I definitely didn't expect.

As everyone has already mentioned countlessly, Meryl Streep gives an amazing performance, and ultimately stands out and overshadows her two other cast-mates, not saying that they were bad, although there were some annoying holes in their respective performances, but they were easily nowhere near Streep's league.

The parts of the movie that completely won me over are the flashbacks, those in their own are a whole other and better film, I so wish there was more of them. It also seems as if extra work was put into crafting these scenes especially, because it really feels that a whole gap is there between their level, and the level of the rest of the movie.

My issues with "Sophie's Choice" are the same issues I expected to encounter with this type of film, the melodrama and cheese can sometimes be annoyingly obnoxious and heavy-handed, thankfully though, there wasn't an excessive amount of it. And while I was fond of the three-way friendship, I disliked the fact that it predictably turned into a hidden love triangle, though the movie did make up for it by Sophie's decision by the end, since any other choice would be way out of character.

"Sophie's Choice" was a pleasant surprise, and while I don't imagine myself ever revisiting it, I can recommend it.
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"A film has to be a dialogue, not a monologue — a dialogue to provoke in the viewer his own thoughts, his own feelings. And if a film is a dialogue, then it’s a good film; if it’s not a dialogue, it’s a bad film."
- Michael "Gloomy Old Fart" Haneke



movies can be okay...
And with that, I'm done with all of the nominations. This was a pretty pleasant time, I got to watch films I never would even consider, and almost all of them were pretty good, so thank you @Citizen Rules for organising this hall of fame.



And with that, I'm done with all of the nominations. This was a pretty pleasant time, I got to watch films I never would even consider, and almost all of them were pretty good, so thank you @Citizen Rules for organising this hall of fame.
Thanks Okay for joining! I enjoyed watching your nomination!

I have the very first voting list sent in by Okay



I won't dance. Don't ask me...
@Okay
Ive got the same opinion. Its good movie, but I don't need to watch it again.
About friendship which turned out into affair... I don't understand this part. I know from the book that Stingo desired Sophie, but what pushed her into Stingos arms?





The Graduate

This is a revisit from a long time ago, I was working through the AFI list in high school and this was one of the first ones I rented. I remembered the music and the plot but I didn't get the themes and the incredible visuals. It was nice to watch it a second time and try and grasp the character motivations that I didn't really understand at 16.

Unlike Sophie's Choice the casting did very well, the 20/21 year age differences worked even though in reality most of the cast was 10 years apart. I credit this by picking relative unknowns who looked like they were related as opposed to big names and hoping it worked. William Daniels looks like an older Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft looks like an older Katharine Ross.

I'd be interested to see if their was supposed to be more to the Mr Robinson character, that seemed like a meaty role that was cut down.

Anyways good movie, probably saw the movie to young to really fully appreciate it (it might have been on VHS) .

Last up is Leon another movie I saw decades ago.






The Graduate

...I'd be interested to see if their was supposed to be more to the Mr Robinson character, that seemed like a meaty role that was cut down.
You know I kind of wondered that too. It seemed like there should have been something more about Mrs Robinson?

Thanks! for posting your review...and we're just about done with the Virgin Hof. Thanks to all who've been participating



You know I kind of wondered that too. It seemed like there should have been something more about Mrs Robinson?

Thanks! for posting your review...and we're just about done with the Virgin Hof. Thanks to all who've been participating
I got Mrs Robinson's character, she moved on from alcohol to sex to fill the vacancy in her relationship switching one vice for the other. Benjamin was an easy target but what was wrong with Mr Robinson that I wish we would have seen. Gene Hackman and Frank Sinatra were both up for the role.



I got Mrs Robinson's character, she moved on from alcohol to sex to fill the vacancy in her relationship switching one vice for the other. Benjamin was an easy target but what was wrong with Mr Robinson that I wish we would have seen. Gene Hackman and Frank Sinatra were both up for the role.
Gene Hackman would have been good in that role. I always like him in his movies.



I won't dance. Don't ask me...
Thank You all Virgin HoF participants and all guests. It was great pleasure
But the greatest thanks are for the person who figured out this amusement and has been the best host in the Universe.
Ladies and Gentelmen... Citizen Rules!



Normally in an Hof the total points per movie are announced and the movie with the most points wins...But one member couldn't find one of the movies to watch, so what I did was to add up the points and then divide by the number of votes each movie got, for an average points-per-vote (PPV).

Starting at the bottom of the list.

#6 Deep Cover - 1.33 ppv
#5 Bottle Rocket - 3.66 ppv
#4 The Graduate - 4.33 ppv
#3 Sophie's Choice tie - 4.66 ppv
#3 The Return tie - 4.66 ppv
#2 Leon - 5 ppv

The winner of the Virgin Hof is
#1 My Favorite Year - 6.5 ppv


Congratulations Siddon!


A big thank you to @Ms. M @Siddon @Okay
for participating and finishing!



I won't dance. Don't ask me...
Big thanks to You, CR for being our irreplaceable host. It was great fun
Congratulation for @Siddon, who nominated a winning movie
And thanks to @Okay for a lot of entertaining conversations about movies.