The 13TH Hall of Fame

At the time of viewing I didnt know if I liked this or not. Same as you, I thought it was a really well made and acted movie but it was just too sad for me, especially the reveal, and the appalling women who were hitting on him. I didnt understand his temper outbursts but I like your explanation, Nesto, and that makes sense to me. This movie just gets better and better for me in retrospect. It really stayed with me, and I feel the ending was uplifting rather than depressing. He really deserved that oscar and I'm happy I finally nudged myself to watch it. I will see this again but need some space for a bit.

I actually thought Viggo's nude scene was hilarious, but I did not like the child's nude scenes, even if they were from behind and not done in a distasteful manner.

I thought so as well. Just the look on his face as the oldies walked by trying not to gawk.

I'm with you on the nude kid as well. The way it was shot was fine but yeah no, I'm very conscious of not photographing nude kids these days when I travel. It's just become a social taboo because of a certain element around the world..

You know, when you see little kids having fun jumping in the river nude. Not sure what else I might have implied. I see people photographing them and I dont think it's acceptable.

There was a time... when clothes had not been invented yet.

Just think.

Naked people everywhere.

I don't think I've seen anything like that for a long time.

I mean, I'm from Europe. Here we don't care who or what is naked, basically.

It's kinda just like,


Walking on the street like...


Buying groceries like,


It's just like ALL OVER!

and I love it...

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Adults, especially men, cant even photograph clothed kids here without someone screaming. It's just the climate these days. Still, I had no problem with Viggo being in the buff. He does it frequently, and has a rocking physique for a man his age. It's just a body. I just thought the reaction from the oldies and him staring at them without a care in the world as they walked by was really funny.

Earlier this evening my room mate stops as he walks by to look over my shoulder at what I'm watching, as he so often does.

Roomie: Which version of The Three Musketeers is that?
Me: The 1973 one with Oliver Reed.
Roomie: Okay, I was just checking to make sure it wasn't the Paul W.S. Anderson one.
Me: ...does this seriously look like it was made in like...2012, or whatever year that came out in?
Roomie: Well, Paul W.S. Anderson does make some terrible* looking movies.
*-that's not the word he used

After finishing the film, I decide to look up the other version in question to see what year it did come out (it was 2011, so I wasn't far off). My room mate coincidentally is walking by again.

Me: I made the mistake of looking up the Paul W.S. Anderson Musketeers film. Both Christoph Waltz and Mads Mikkelsen are in it!
Roomie: No! Nooooo.
Me: Don't worry, I'm not going to watch it.
Roomie: Yes, you will.
Me:

And that's my review for The Three Musketeers (1973). Hope it helps!

(I will post something for real, though maybe not tonight.)

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Manchester By the Sea

I had a few days to think about this one. I almost wasn’t going to write anything right now, but I said I would, and so I am. My reason for wanting to hold off is because I wasn’t sure of what I wanted to say, and I wanted to say the right thing.

As I have previously said before in this thread, I was going to watch this, anyway. It was just convenient that it was nominated in this HoF while I was expecting it from the library. I very rarely go to the movie theater anymore. This has been the way of things for the past 10 years or so. And if I do go, it has to be for a film that I think would be best seen on the big screen, or it is to see something at the budget theater. I am finding it harder and harder to spend that kind of money on a movie ticket (the prices are absurd). A few years ago it suddenly hit me that I should just borrow the movies from the library for FREE rather than pay the price of a ticket. And as tempting as it might be, I don’t even bother to see the big films that get nominated for Best Picture like I used to. I just wait until all is said and done, borrow them from the library and then complain to everyone I know if I feel that the Academy got it wrong.

Now, I don’t know, as of yet (I still have a few more that I am waiting to see), if the Academy actually did, in fact, get it wrong by not giving the Oscar to this film for Best Picture, but I think it deserved it SO MUCH MORE than Moonlight. I watch something like Manchester By the Sea, and then I wonder if there was something else behind the Academy ignoring a film like this and giving their top prize to something like that. It confuses me.

Anyway, I am always glad to see that Matthew Broderick has a job. Even if it was a small, nothing special sort of role.

Truthfully, I wasn’t 100% sure where this film was going to go. I wasn’t even sure if we were ever going to find out – even with the flashbacks that we’d already seen – what the backstory was to Lee. That was OK. I was alright with the way he was, actually. I just figured he was an unhappy man. It never dawned on me that there was going to be such a situation that would let us know the root of his unhappiness. And what a situation it was! I have been finding myself yelling, or just speaking very loudly, with my reaction to what I am seeing on the screen in front of me lately. And the reaction that THAT scene got was probably my most vocal. It was a pretty upsetting scene for me to watch.

Is it a depressing story for me? No. Lee is a depressed man, but I didn’t really find it to be depressing. It definitely wasn’t uplifting. It was just, I guess, what I would call real. And, unfortunately, sometimes real life is incredibly somber, which may come across as being depressing. The worst part was the situation I was talking about in the above paragraph. Other than that, nothing bothered me much in this film.

I didn’t care for his nephew, though. I understood his behavior in the morgue, and when he had his “breakdown”, but other than that, I kind of just wanted to slap him so hard across his face. I just really wanted to give him a good whack. And, to be honest, I was tired of his girlfriend situation. I really had no interest in that aspect of the story. Now, I am not saying the actor wasn’t good. He was really good at playing this punk, but I really disliked the character itself.

As for the girlfriends, I also wanted to slap one of them, too. That was just ridiculous that she said it was an inappropriate time to talk about Star Trek, but it wasn’t inappropriate to spend the night? I just don’t get it (which, by the way, I wouldn’t have allowed – at least not that first night for sure).

I have an immense dislike (maybe even borderline hatred) for Michelle Williams. I just don’t like the sight of her. I don’t get her. I don’t understand why she is ever given any roles. But she is and then I am allowed to complain about her. I don’t think her performance was worthy of any acknowledgement. Why? Because of that scene with her and Casey Affleck? Just the idea that she said all of that to him irritated me. I know why she did, but come on! Just leave the guy alone. And you know what?

Like I said, maybe I just dislike Michelle Williams so much that it is affecting my feelings towards her character. Who knows?

Anyway, despite some minor issues, I really liked this film. To be completely honest, the person who made the entire film for me, the only one that I honestly cared about from the very beginning, was Casey Affleck. And I mean from the VERY beginning. Even though he was quiet, kept to himself and could easily hit a guy in a bar without a second thought, I liked him. And as the film went on, I felt sorry for him. Casey Affleck did a fantastic job. He completely deserved an Oscar for his performance. Thus far, from what I have seen, he was the most deserving. And I highly doubt anyone else is going to come close to his performance. He is just another one of those actors that I think deserves more credit for his acting talent than he receives. I have been wanting him to get an Oscar since The Assassination of Jesse James (I could go on that rant but I don’t feel like receiving any sort of backlash from the No Country for Old Men lovers ). This movie was all his in my opinion. His story, his character and his performance. And I was very satisfied by the entire film (with the exception of Michelle Williams ).

As for the ending


So I thought this was an excellent film and a very good nomination.





By the way, I am thinking Casey is looking less like Ben, but he is starting to sound more like him. Just a silly observation of mine that I wanted to mention.

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I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity - Edgar Allan Poe

I didn't like her character at all, and I have no feelings one way or the other for the actress, so it might not just be because of how much you dislike her.

I don't think I mentioned it in my write-up, but I really didn't like that apology scene with Williams and Affleck that most people seem to love. I didn't like her, and didn't think that it was appropriate for her to corner him on the street like that, so her performance meant nothing to me and had no impact whatsoever.

Though it's possible that I'm just heartless instead haha.

They are in love. But they can't be together because it's too painful. It's an incredible scene. Michelle Williams is an incredible actress.

It was just very difficult for me to watch after one hour when The movie is great but this is kind of movie I simply avoid to see again.

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Very nice review Silent! I wonder who would you cast to Randy Chandler character? I think Williams is the right choice for this character because audience supposed to direct all their sympathy towards Lee. And I think she did just that

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The Great Dictator

This was my third Chaplin Feature (City Lights and The Kid) and i've also seen one of his Shorts (A Dog's Life), it was my first sound film of his. I've heard Chaplin speak before but only in interviews where he looks unrecognizable to his usual look in films so it was pretty jarring hearing him talk here. Half expected him to have a horribly grating squeaky voice like whatever the characters name was in Singin' In The Rain haha. Nah, he sounded like a normal dude, pretty quiet and soft spoken but that was clearly a character thing. So many things about Chaplin being in the war at the start were wrong that even not including any of the jokes that scene was hilarious. I mean he's clearly English from his voice no attempt at an accent while all of the others have American accents (other than Schultz), he's what 4foot2, Charlie was in his 50's at the time and the makeup doesn't do a great job of covering this up so it's so odd seeing him as a low down 50 year old soldier; not impossible of course especially during a World War but it is weird and lastly his usual Hitler Tache that Hitler obviously ruined for him haha, again i know it was set in WW1 and plenty would have had this type of facial hair but it was so weird to see. Then couple that with his hopelessness and that whole opening scene was really funny to me even outside the more blatant jokes, i also laughed at the missile scene where it follows him around before it goes off and him swirling around on the machine gun turret or whatever it was , this scene really got me in the mood.

Don't have a problem with Chaplin playing both the barber and the dictator obviously the film wouldn't be the same without that but i would have preferred the barber character to have been clean shaven, just how Chaplin looked in real life or whatever as long as he was a bit different, with only their clothes being diifferent it took me out of the film a bit. I understand it's an iconic look but it still would have been on display if only one character looked like that and him changing his appearance would have been perfect here since it was his transition into sound films. Of course this was done so he could impersonate Hynckel later and i knew that was going to happen as soon as i saw both of them but that makes it even more jarring for me since no one (unless i'm forgetting, i'm not right?) acknowledged their similarities before this. He could have even been the same without the moustache and it would have annoyed me less, then all he'd need was a fake moustache which would have taken 30 seconds to fit in. This is not really a problem of the films as it had a logical purpose but it did bother me somewhat. I liked the barber, he was basically just the tramp to me. After finishing this i looked up the wiki page for Paulette Goddards name and i saw a part of the article devoted to the debate on whether the barber and the tramp where the same. I really dunno i'm probably wrong but that's how i thought of him throughout the film, he was similar anyway. Think jokewise i probably preferred the dictator, only because a few of the barbers didn't work; the coin in the cake one for instance that went on too long and wasn't really funny to begin with for instance. He had good chemistry with Goddard, i'm happy that didn't really turn into a romance as i thought it was headed in that direction and as i noted earlier Chaplin looked really old here so it wouldn't have felt right. His speech at the end was outstanding it really opened my eyes even more to Chaplin's qualities as a dramatic actor and writer if he wrote the speech. I've always been impressed with Chaplin as a dramatic actor but it's always been variations on the down on the luck tramp finds happiness theme so it was good to see something different. I spoke to my mum about that and she said the part where he addresses Hannah made her cry haha. Well it didn't make me cry but it was a powerful scene.

I think seeing so many parodies of Hitler over the years Hynkel's speeches or the other times he ranted and raved didn't work as well as they could have for me, there was at least one funny part in each though i really can't point any of them out as they are difficult to describe i'm sure people will know what ones though; just about anytime he deviated from straightforward serious impression basically, and alot of his silly facial expressions. It was a really well done comedic performance on Chaplin's part i just think it will be ruined for anyone at least a little now because we've all most likely seen multiple both good and bad Hitler impressions. Outside of the speeches when he wasn't shouting in what i'm guessing was gibberish that sounded vaguely similar to German he was excellent though. It was really ripe for parody and mocking as dictators of course control the information and image they project to the world which is often mighty, strong, brave, etc; so a look behind the scenes during the powerful dictators goofy moments was very well done.

Humour-wise it was really no different to any other Chaplin film for me, some miss some hit, there's always at least a few big hits that i find hilarious as well as a few jokes i find overly silly. One extremely random throwaway joke that completely cracked me up was when Hynckel had been pacing about doing various things then he walked into some room and stood posing for a portrait and sculpture for about 5 seconds before he had to leave. It was how out of the blue it was and after he left the painter threw his brush away and the sculpter started pulling his hair out implying that they've been standing in that room for a very long time waiting to make the slightest bit of progress . Quite a few throwaway jokes like that worked for me, in the same scene actually where Hynckel is walking across the corridor and he clumsily almost trips up. Another standard tramp (barber) clumsily hurts himself gag that worked was after he tossed the stormtrooper who was going to attack Hannah out the stormtrooper turns to look at him and the barber has this stern face after acting all brave he then goes to lean on something and falls haha. It was his failure to not look silly after a brave moment that made that joke. Anyway no point in going through every joke i found funny. Good film, i still prefer City Lights but i may have this above The Kid not sure. I've not mentioned any of the films commentary because if i'm honest i can't think of anything to say that isn't really obvious, needless to say i find it very impressive that this was made one year into the war; before America entered the war even, i think as well as being funny and entertaining it is an important film especially for its time. Thanks for nominating Vamp.

Wings of Desire next for me.

It was indeed gibberish, with the occasional real but irrelevant words thrown in, as well as a few nonsense (yet plausible) German-sounding words that are mostly English. It's pretty hilarious.

I've got Dancing with Wolves coming from Netflix for Saturday, and I'll probably rewatch Forbidden Games during the week. I think I might have Intouchables coming for the weekend as well. I know we haven't heard from tutu but I want to see it anyway.

The Hunt (Jagten) (Thomas Vinterberg, 2012)
Imdb

Date Watched: 04/24/17
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: 13th HOF, Neiba's Nomination
Rewatch: No.

This is the tenth nominated film - out of fifteen, not including my own - that I have watched for this Hall of Fame. While there were some nominated films that I respected, I was really starting to lose hope that I would find at least one that I genuinely enjoyed.

It finally happened. Like the other Vinterberg film I've seen - Festen, which I also watched for a HOF - Jagten tells a story that deals with deeply disturbing and damaging accusations and it is brought to heartwrenching life through stellar performances and very unsettling scenes. But where Festen examined the long lasting damage caused when those accusations are true, Jagten takes the opposite approach - showcasing the destruction that results from false accusations.

Ultimately, I found this film to be both challenging and frustrating - but in a very good way. It was very frustrating to know the truth behind the lies and to have to watch as a man's life was ruined. And yet I had to ask myself how I would react if such accusations were made against someone I knew. Who would I believe? If that person was shown to be innocent, would I still have doubt? And all I can say is I don't know. But I love that this film had me asking these questions. I love that it did more than just entertain, it really made me think. Still, having seen it only once I won't call it a favorite and I'm hesitant to rate it any higher than this but it will take something extraordinary for Jagten to not take second place on my HOF ballot.

+

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