Recent Viewing Part IV

Airing on German TV: West Side Story (1960)

A fine retelling of the Shakespearean love story, great choreographies and timeless music by Leonard Bernstein.

Volker

Best musical ever IMO!

Watched Tremors for the first time in years. A DVD that was a truly horrible transfer. But the film is immense fun, with a great cast. 10/10 for me.

remains a great movie, after all these years. The cast is hilarious and the camera shots are amazing.
Plus, if anybody ever releases Troost and Folk's score as heard in the film, they got a great release on their hands

The film festival in Gent started yesterday! Today Christophe Plummer is coming to accept his lifetime achievement award, and Colin Farell will present the Greek movie The Lobster (which I unfortuntaly cannot go see during the festival. it looks absolutely bizarre). Alan Parker and also Marjane Satrapi are part of the jury. Focus is on British cinema, with quite a bit of British films and also a concert and seminar with Brits talking about British film music in British movies.

I'm going to see 6 movies and 2 concerts.

Has anyone seen?
Ixcanul
The High Sun (Zvizdan)
Rams (Hrútar)
Tale of Tales
Son of Saul
Slow West

Any good? I hope soo, because these are the ones I bought a ticket for!

A few other here often attend film festivals as well. What's does a good festival mean for you?

IXCANUL is being screened at the Films From the South festival, which is currently going on here in Oslo (and which I'm involved in), but I didn't get to see it. My colleague said it was OK, nothing more. RAMS, TALE OF TALES and SON OF SAUL is on my to-see list once I get the chance. My colleagues liked the last two, in particular.

SLOW WEST I've seen, and that is a great movie -- on my Top 20 of the year so far. Gorgeous landscapes used to great dramatic effect!

For anyone curious about what it is that I do, exactly, here are two English-language interviews I've done in the last few days with two of the festival's main guests -- one with Abderrahmane Sissako, the other with Pablo Larrain. Both were Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Film last year with TIMBUKTU and NO, respectively. I'm doing live Q&As with them tonight and on Friday:

http://www.filmfrasor.no/en/news/2015/s … tages.html
http://www.filmfrasor.no/en/news/2015/l … tages.html

Was that Thomas Newman conducting Sam Smith on tonight's Graham Norton Show? Only caught the briefest glimpse so will need to watch again on iPlayer.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu.

Some recent take-ins...

Z for Zachariah
Solid drama at its most elemental, and talk about a commitment to ambiguity with that ending. Heather Mackintosh's score does a sort of folk minimalism, centring on a diegetic hymn that resonates powerfully at the end. Three great strong performances, and it's encouraging to see a director carrying Tarkovsky's flame in Zobel. Great use of New Zealand locations.

Sicario
Props to Villeneuve, Roger Deakins, the designer, editor and Johannes Johannson for bringing a truly oppressive sense of menace that lifts this procedural material into the gravitas of a war film. The set pieces are breathtakingly well executed. More than the film I expected, as simple as it is.

Bridge of Spies
This is the Spielberg I like. Occasionally the Spielberg I don't like is let in for a moment or two. Interesting dramatic territory - in the end, governments are led by people, not the other way around, and the hero of this film is an interesting legal entrepreneur. The layers of society - family, courtroom, Police, CIA, legal fraternity, Stasi, KGB - are surprisingly many. If I could change one thing. That last scene on the train should not glow with satisfaction as much as it does. It's Thomas Newman doing John Williams for a Steven Spielberg ending, but if you play the scene again without the music, the scene the Coens have written seems more suited to the unsympathetic click-clack of the train alone.

Far From Men
Now here's a moving film. The moral ambiguity of the position the Camus tale leads us to is hard to imagine at the outset. Viggo Mortensen is such a fine presence in film. When the Nick Cave / Warren Ellis score lets the tension go and finds the emotional heart at the end, I was in tears.

Notorious
An oldy but a goodie. Didn't realise how much Mi2 was based on the plot of this film. (It works better without slow motion doves and Lalo Schifrin on power chords.)

And it's not a film, but I can't click into now playing to post this as it's 793 unread messages... But what's with the dissing of 'Writing on the Wall'? That's one of the best Bond songs I've heard. Is the idea that real men don't sing falsetto or something?

It's low-brow, quite silly, and has far too much CGI... but damn is it entertaining.

I do like the animatronics used in the scene with the dying Apatosaurus. Good practical effects use, even if it was only "token".

Thanks for those. Sicario and Bridge of Spies is on my to see list. So many good movies lately, and I still need to see Dheepan and The Lobster.


For me that is not the reason. It really is not an interesting song to me. I don't mind it, I just thought it was rather boring.

Symphony No 2 Resurrection Gustav Mahler
London Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein . Ely Cathedral, England, 1973

I own this on DVD. It is also on YouTube. Watch Bernstein conduct this incredible performance. What passion radiates from this man.

Volker

No, it's just not a very good movie. It starts off really well, and then grinds to a screeching halt.
I had the same reaction to it as you did, and so, I think, did Alan and Steven.

RV: The Sting

Seen it before (of course), but WHAT a fine movie this is.
Already being aware of the plot, I took some time taking in the story details, and it all fits SO neatly together!
Aside from that, even if the massive convolutions should bore you (what I really cannot imagine, to be honest), the powerhouse cast -even the secondary characters- is uniformly so good that just the acting is an absolute delight to watch.

The attention to period detail is quite impressive as well. The set design really reflects the depression era: it looks properly vintage, but has this used, drab quality about it.

Excellent film. Just outstanding.