[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:6440, topic:1923”]People slate this but I don’t mind it. Did you notice it uses the same soundtrack as Lenzi’s Free Hand For A Tough Cop Phil?
a.k.a. Dirty Gang.[/quote]
Didn’t notice that, no.
[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:6418, topic:1923”]I’ve always wanted to see that, I’ve had the LP for years, great stuff.
Love this track. 8)
Yeah, great soundtrack, that was the motorbike chase music
okay, Dicaprio day is over, so were those movies worth the watch?
certainly, i liked them both
i would give Inception some 4,5/5 and Shutter Island 4/5
when Inception began my first thought was that i´m not very interested in these agents (or whatever) trying to accomplish some task through shared lucid dream, but then i realized i´m pretty engaged with this story - and i was stunned by Dicaprio´s character and his performance
also Tom Hardy was very good, and i haven´t seen him quite a while in some movie
screenplay was well written, although almost totally ignoring real stuff regarding lucid dreaming, but in its own terms and rules it did work very well for me
and superb pompous music by the way
[quote=“Phil H, post:6441, topic:1923”]Didn’t notice that, no.[/quote]It’s in the start credits 
Ring of Death (Detective Belli) (1969) - This one was very slow and not very interesting, imo. I might have liked it more if the musical score wasn’t so dull. And the car chase is pretty silly, risking his own life and damaging property just to get information out of someone.
[size=12pt]Minnie and Moskowitz[/size] (1971) John Cassavetes
I was thinking of starting the year with some kick ass hard boiled kind of SW or 3D action flick, but I’m not alone in this world , the plan after a soft midnight party (with a small kid and 6 moths pregnant wife there’s just no other way) was me and the wife watch something together (it doesn’t’ happen that often), so her requirements for a movie were taking in consideration, thy mostly consist in two things, not old films (and this means nothing less than contemporary), and romantic. So searching in the deeps of my collection I came out with this one, its old but its kind of romantic, and she would fall asleep anyway (as she did).
No need saying I’m a Cassavetes fan, every film he directed are works of art to me, some better than others but all great, these one is no exception.
I felt that the film is not so much a curious or strange bizarre love story, but more about loneliness and how affects people. The behavior of the two main characters of the story, her with a solid job and good life but afraid of the future without someone, and him someone in such a need of attention that he goes into bars just to harass people and get noticed in the process, but in the end they are no more than two lonely souls in their own ways.
Some of the scenes are just pure art in form of cinema, like the one in the begging with Seymour arguing with the crazy poet, or the conversation between a drunk Gena Rowlands and her older friend, also the scene when Cassavetes (he has a small part in the film) arrives home in the morning after a nigh spend with the mistress (Rowland), all so genuine but at the same time so cinematographic.
The use of the camera and framing done by the director is also brilliant; he hides some of the characters making the viewer wondering how they are, and then when you had some mental image, he just put them on screen.
The choice of actors couldn’t be more perfect and one not without intention in Cassel’s case, Rowland was a beautiful woman, while Cassel looked weird to say the least, but the way the story unfolds till the trivial happy end (with a truly well done marriage scene), turns what could have been something of a joke, into something just plain natural.
Films should not be a representation of life right? I agree true life for most people. is boring enough for us to have to watch it again, so in most cases films about real life are boring and pretentious, or so hermetic that you can’t really make a connection with it, but then there are directors like Cassavetes that can do the magic of placing glances of common life in form of film, and still make it look like cinema, that’s the difference.
His films starting from Death of a Chinese Book would start to be different works from the ones he made till that date, but in my opinion anyone who has an interest in Cinema as a form of art, should watch his direction efforts, because in his case, what we are talking about is art and not just and only entertaining.
Queen of the Tartars (Grieco / 1960)
Chelo Alonso. That’s all you need to know. Although, despite her starring here, we don’t get to see nearly enough of her. And when she’s not there, its a snore fest.
Kiss Kiss… Bang Bang - Starring Giuliano Gemma, George Martin, Nieves Navarro.
Written by Duccio Tessari, Fernando Di Leo and Bruno Corbucci.
James Bond spoof and in fact a spoof of Eurospy itself the film for me hits and misses.
The first half was fun and then it felt a bit hard to sit through until the last quarter of an hour or so. Don’t let that put you of though it’s still worth a watch. It’s also got some Bond style scenes pre Bond such as skiiing down a bobsleigh shoot.
I’m glad I finally got to see it in a version I could understand as the Japanese disc was only in Italian and the Thai disc although saying it has English options didn’t.
Great main theme from Bruno Nicolai.
Trailer
[url]http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/210/city20of20life20and20de.jpg/[/url] [size=12pt]The City of Life and Death[/size] (Nan Jing! Nan Jing! / 南京! 南京! – 2009, Lu Chuan)
This brief review probably belongs in the “most controversial thread ever”
The film deals with the battle of Nanking (Nan Jing), the second, “southern”, capital of China, and its horrendous aftermath, usually called the “Rape of Nanking”. It’s no doubt one of the bloodiest, most gruesome pages in the history of mankind, and still (after more than 70 years), the greatest obstacle for a good relationship between the people of China and Japan. The incident is not mentioned in most Japanese history books used in schools, and historians who want to discuss it, often receive death threats from nationalists.
The facts occurred in 1937, during the campaign of the imperial Japanese army into China. After a fierce fight, the Japanese forces take the city. Chinese soldiers who are captured (some of them trying to flee from the city, others still offering resistance within its walls) are led to the beach and executed, in one of the most horrible examples of mass-execution in modern history. Most citizens are murdered too, a lot of them raped and tortured before they were put to death. Some of them seek refuge in the Nanking safety Zone, where they are protected by the ‘good’ Nazi doctor John Rabe. However, at several occasions Japanese soldiers illegally enter the zone to rape women and children. Eventually one hundred women are officially selected as ‘comfort women’. Only few of them survive. Some commit suicide, others are raped so often that they literally die from exhaustion. In an official study of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the total death toll was estimated at 300,000 to 350,000.
The film is not too graphic in its depiction of the violence and brutalities, nor need it be. Quite on the contrary, the rather restrained character, and almost documentary style (it’s shot in black and white) of the movie, make it even more poignant, more devastating. Be forewarned: it’s not a pleasant watch. I watched it late at night and couldn’t sleep for over an hour after I had gone to bed.
How controversial things still are, is shown by the fact that director Lu Chuan received death threats to himself and his family for depicting only one Japanese soldier as sympathetic.
I recently picked up a blu ray of this for £7, looks like I’ll have to watch it sooner than later.
Sure, but don’t expect a classic action movie, Yodlaf. There’s some battle field action in the first half hour, the rest of the movie is concerned with other things.
Private Road - I’ve not really seen many of these “Kitchen Sink” drama’s till recently because to be honest I used to find this sort of thing unappealing but have been getting into them. Bruce Robinson plays a young writer who falls for Susan Penhaligon (who at some angles looks a bit like Susan George) and she moves in with him much to the dismay of her upper class father (played by Robert Brown who went on to become M in the Bond films after Bernard Lee passed away). I found the film enjoyable enough viewing throughout but when it finished I had a feeling it could have done with another 10 minutes or so to finish the story off.
Private Road is worthy of a viewing but I did enjoy Bronco Bullfrog more.
![http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/210/city20of20life20and20de.jpg/[/url]](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/210/city20of20life20and20de.jpg/%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
Susan Penhaligon :-*
Men of a certain age (i.e. mine) will always have fond memories of her in the TV drama series Bouquet of Barbed Wire with Frank Finlay. Oh my lord. The teenage boy hormones that woman got fizzing are beyond counting.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Reisz / 1960)
Some kitchen sink for me too. This one is a classic of the type and still stands up as a very good film to this day I think. Albert Finney embodies the ‘angry young man’ and is supported by a great cast along with a nice jazzy score from John Dankworth. Alan Sillitoe adapted it from his own novel and the script is excellent as a result. British social realist film at its best and a real window on its time I think.
Not sure what print I viewed to this one a while back, but it had an F word in which sort of cut off. Was not sure whether it was filmed like that, or I viewed an edited version…
[quote=“ENNIOO, post:6455, topic:1923”]Not sure what print I viewed to this one a while back, but it had an F word in which sort of cut off. Was not sure whether it was filmed like that, or I viewed an edited version…[/quote]Was she in bed and told her father to fuck off?
If so you hear it properly
[quote=“Phil H, post:6453, topic:1923”]Susan Penhaligon :-*
Men of a certain age (i.e. mine) will always have fond memories of her in the TV drama series Bouquet of Barbed Wire with Frank Finlay. Oh my lord. The teenage boy hormones that woman got fizzing are beyond counting.[/quote]Well if that’s the case you’re in for a treat if you get the BFI disc Phil. There is a half hour short from 1974 with her and Denholm Elliott in which there is a lengthy topless scene.
‘legend of the fist’ with donnie yen, horrible movie!!! a propaganda trash!!
where is the good old kung fu movies?? :o
It’s just gone on my wish list :
[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:6456, topic:1923”]Was she in bed and told her father to fuck off?
If so you hear it properly ;)[/quote]
Yes thats the scene, cheers.