Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

I realized that when he started pushing his untalented kids on us.

Yes, I like character-driven films a lot, maybe why I like a lot of the 50's black/white film Noir, which dealt with conflicts in human situations."Double Indemnity." Barbara Stanwyck. Fred MacMurry. Just saw "The Caine Mutiny" again yesterday. "The Virgin Suicides". Boy, that's a rough one.It's her, director's, best film.Supposed to come from a true story. The modern version of "The Postman Always Rings Twice," with Jessica Lang.(it was truer to the book.) and "Mildred Pierce," both versions.Donnie Darko was great, but not horror. More like satire. "Six Degrees of Separation" must have been even better on stage; but the movie still is haunting. Tennesee Williams like "The Fugitive Kind" and his other movie versions. Almodovar. Oh, HITCHCOCK, the tv shows! HAH HAH!! Attachment 20003

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"We Want To Believe The Lies We Want To Be True, NOT The Real Truth."

Me too! On the Double Indemnity commentary track, screenwriter Lem Dobbs, said that he believed there was no bad film noirs. Come to think of it, even the cheesiest, lowest budget noir is still good fun to watch.
I've only seen 2 Sophia Coppola directed films, Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette, both were really good. So I'll have to see The Virgin Suicides. When you say it's a 'rough one', what do you mean?

I've never seen, Six Degrees of Separation, but I've been thinking I should watch it too.


I haven't seen the remakes of Postman Always Rings Twice and Mildred Pierce. I did see Donnie Darko and I agree it's not horror, I reviewed it here:
http://www.movieforums.com/community...05#post1162305

And geez! was that a short review or what! Have I got long winded these days

Transcendence (2014)

Director: Wally Pfister
Cast: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murpy
Genre: Sci-Fi Drama

Transcendence is an intriguing sci fi film about a brilliant scientist and his attempt to upload a human consciousness into a supercomputer. There by creating an artificial intelligence so vast that its intellect is far greater than the combined IQ of all the humans who have ever lived. Lurking in the shadows is an anti-technology terrorist group who believes creating an all powerful A.I. computer will spell the end for mankind.

This film didn't get great reviews but bear in mind many people want to see action, explosions and fantastic scenes. There's some action in the film and some mystery too, but it also tries to be a little different than your average block buster movie.

For those who think Johnny Depp is always playing weird characters...give this film a look. He plays his role as: subtle, down to earth and reserve, showing he has a wide range of acting ability.

There are some plot holes but if you overlook those, the story and ending are unique. I bet you can't guess how this turns out?

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Downfall (2004)

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Cast: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes
Genre: Biography Drama
Language: German

Premise: The last days of the Third Reich as told by Hitler's 22 year old secretary, Traudl Junge. As Nazi Germany falls, Hitler and his staff are hold up in the Fuhrer Bunker in Berlin, waiting for the advancing Soviet army and the fate that befalls them.

This German made film accurately portrays Hitler's last days on Earth. Unlike Hollywood films that show the Nazi leaders as two dimensional monsters, Downfall shows them as real people who have done monstrous acts. That's an important distinction, as humans are capable of the most vile acts.

Nothing is sugar coated we can clearly see Hitler is insane and he will not listen to reason and doesn't care about human life. He doesn't even care about the lives of the German civilians trapped in Berlin with no food or medicine. We get a feeling of the frustration of those individuals around him who are trapped by his insanity. Those who disobey his orders are executed. We get the feeling that being in the bunker was a nightmare and with the Soviet Army encircling Berlin, escape was not much of an option.


One of the most disturbing scenes are the last moments of Eva Braun and the Goebbels family. Eva is married to Hitler in the bunker. For a honeymoon so gets a vile of poison. I'm not sure the real Eva was so wild eyed as the one in the film, but her fate was the same as shown in Downfall.

The most disturbing scene is of the suicide-murder of the Goebbels family. In the movie, as in real life Mrs Goebbels places cyanide in the mouths of her children. A very sad scene...especially when you know this actually happened.



Downfall was Oscar nominated for 'Best Foreign Language Film of the Year' and won several prestigious awards in Germany. I highly recommend this film.

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I had Downfall on my millenium list. It's a great film and I recommend watching weeman's Sexy Hitler video.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

I'm glad you mentioned that! I wasn't hear for the Millennial list so I forgot about it.

I see Downfall was number 43 on the Millennium list. I guess I have good taste

Darn, for a minute I thought this was a review for Weemans video.

Ha! Nope...I don't even know who Weeman is?

Pickup on South Street (1953)

Director: Samuel Fuller
Writers: Samuel Fuller (screenplay), Dwight Taylor (story)
Cast: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter
Genre: Film Noir, Crime Melodrama

Skip (Richard Widmark) is a three time convicted pick-pocket. When he unknowingly lifts stolen film from a woman's purse, his troubles then begin. The film contains a secret chemical formula that was being sold on the black-market to the Communist.

Candy (Jean Peters) is the young woman who was carrying the film. She's sent by her ex-boyfriend to recover the stolen film. When she can't find the film on her own, she seeks out Moe (Thelma Ritter). Moe's profession is selling information and Moe has heard about the film. Meanwhile the FBI and police are looking for Skip and the hot film too.

What's special to me about Pickup On South Street is, Samuel Fuller is an auteur film maker. He wrote it, cast it and directed it. It's full of human expressions and details that other directors don't always bother to show.

Here's an example of why I think Jean Peters is one of the best femme fatales I've seen. She's acting with 'method acting' like James Dean and Marlon Brando did. She's not just giving a dramatic reading of her lines....she's actually become her character.

Watch this 1 minute clip (it's not a trailer, no spoilers). You can see and feel her emotions at work. I love the way she instantly responds in character when she is impromptu bumped in the face with the chop sticks. The scene itself, the dialogue and the characters are rich. The actor who plays Lighting Louie is pretty great too.



Pickup on South Street is a classic film noir, one that should not be missed. It contains what might be some of the best acting in a film noir. Jean Peters is so real in this film with her expressions that you would think she was the real Candy, a street wise B-girl. Jean's performance in this film is one of my all time favorites.

Richard Widmark is no slouch either. He's one heck of a colorful, smart and defiant pick pocket, who's living on the edge while thumbing his noise at the Police, FBI and the Reds. He's one cool dude.

Thelma Ritter's performance as Moe, the old lady informer with a heart of gold and a head for money, is amazing. Thelma was Oscar nominated for best supporting actress. She deserved to win.

The bulk of the credit for this fine film goes to director/writer Samuel Fuller. He populates his movie with rich scenes and well though out details that makes what we're watching so rewarding.

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Noir rarely does it for me and this one was no different. The film you descrbe and the one I saw are different films. I don't think it's bad, btw, it's just another noir that I didn't really see what was special about it.

Pickup on South Street was one of my favorite movies from the Noir HoF. It made me want to watch more movies with Richard Widmark.

Honeykid, I can respect your opinion on noir and won't try to change your mind.

For me, I love noir films. Everything about them, from their style, to their story and characters. Just like some love horror, I love noir. I've seen a ton of them.

What's special to me about Pickup On South Street is Samuel Fuller: it's an auteur film. He wrote it, cast it, directed it. It's full of human expressions and details that other directors don't always show.

Here's an example of why I think Jean Peters is one of the best femme fatales I've seen. She's acting with 'method acting' like James Dean did. Shes not just giving a dramatic reading of her lines....shes actually become her character.

Watch this 1 minute clip (it's not a trailer). You can see and feel her emotions. I love the way she instantly responds in character when she is bumped in the face with the chop sticks. The scene itself, the dialogue and the characters are rich.

I ignored Transcendence at first mostly because of Johnny Depp, whom I think of these days as Adam Sandler, knowing that his performance and films he's in will get worse and worser. And the fact that director had no experience in direction whatsoever before this movie. Maybe I'll check it out, but that would require me to have a lot of free time.

Downfall is a great film, it's kind of sad that people overlook it as something silly because of the countless parody videos (including Weeman's one, but since its hilarious that's an exception ).

Pickup on South Street looks like an interesting noir. I think I'll add it to the watchlist.

I really like Pickup on South Street but Shock Corridor is my fav Samuel Fuller film. I watched The Naked Kiss (on your recommendation, citizen) and it was great as well.

You're right Gatsby, these days Depp seems to pick bad movies. I do think he's a good actor, he just needs to be more picky with his projects. If you like sci fi and are OK with Depp, then you might like Transcendence. But otherwise you might not care for it.

I had never heard of Downfall until coming to MoFo. I've never seen a parody video. I know several non-movie buffs who seen Downfall and were impressed.

Howdy 101, I just requested Shock Corridor and will be reviewing it soon. I'm glad you liked The Naked Kiss. Myself I plan on watching more Samuel Fuller films.

I forgot to mention that in Pickup on South Street, there's this brutal scene where Jean Peters is beat up and pushed around the room by her ex boyfried played by Richard Kiley. I watched that scene several times. It's a long camera shot, which Fuller say he likes for fight scenes as it adds more believability....Anyway, it was Jean Peters doing the entire scene herself! She must have ended up with some nice bruises after that, geez!

Enjoy Shock Corridor, it's an exquisite character study. Yep, I agree with Fuller's theory. Long takes add more to fight/struggle scenes, cuts kinda disrupt the flow of things.

Before Orson, Richard Widmark was my avatar. I look nothing like Widmark so I changed it, but Widmark is just a great actor. He did a lot of film noirs. His first movie was Kiss of Death, he played the psycho-killer Tommy Udo. You've probably scene a clip of that. In Panic in the Streets a film noir, he plays a health inspector trying to stop a plaque.
He did a lot of westerns too, Warlock, The Alamo, How the West Was One, are 3 of his most popular. He made a LOT of films, I got to get busy watching them

Yup that's true. He explained in an old interview that it took a lot of skill to have a fight scene stage and filmed with a wide angle (long shot) lens. Because so much of the background is in view that any mistakes like badly faked punches become apparent.

Fuller doesn't get much respect these days.

I like this quote from Martin Scorsese who said, “If you don’t like the films of Sam Fuller, then you just don’t like cinema.”