It was a lot of fun, he had some cinéaste from the BFI droning on who slowly got faded out and replaced by Parker himself playing the organ. I lol'd.
hooray for phillistinism
Parker was Chairman of the BFI in the late 1990s, and said some truly moronic things abt 'uncommercial' british filmmakers like Peter Greenaway.
Shoot the Moon is far and away his best movie, but it's more of a scriptwriter's film, imho
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 8 October 2013 09:06 (ten years ago) link
Found the doc, it was called A Turnip Head's Guide to the British Film Industry:
http://alanparker.com/earlywork/a-turnip-heads-guide-to-the-british-film-industry/
There's a nice clip there of him having a (staged) argument with a kid. "It's MY film, ok? UN FILM DE."
Anthony Smith was the BFI guy who Parker took the piss out of in the film. No way is Parker a philistine. Populist, yes. And for the record, I like both Parker and Greenaway.
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 12:38 (ten years ago) link
Both have made plenty of crap.
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 14:30 (ten years ago) link
What's he been doing since David Gale? Strange for a journeyman director like Parker to go 10 years without making a film.
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Tuesday, 8 October 2013 19:11 (ten years ago) link
Diane Keaton's best perf ever is in Shoot the Moon, so he's got that going for him
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:34 (ten years ago) link
I'd have to rewatch, but not sure it can compete w/ iconic Woody roles or even Crimes of the Heart & Marvin's Room
but *headshake* there you go again
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 9 October 2013 23:55 (ten years ago) link
It's on DVD (at last!) with an excellent Bo Goldman-Parker commentary track in which Parker doesn't come off as an aborigine.
Oh come on! What's so rebarbative about that judgment?!
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 October 2013 00:00 (ten years ago) link
it's very Pazz & Joppy
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 10 October 2013 00:32 (ten years ago) link
I'd have given her #1 album for Annie Hall and STM.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 October 2013 00:37 (ten years ago) link
Kael and not many others loved her in StM... I remember Kauffmann complaining that she called Finney 'Chorch'!
http://www.keatonshoot.blogspot.com/
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 10 October 2013 00:52 (ten years ago) link
I dunno: she wins a majority in that compendium.
I read Kauffmann's criticism years ago and disagreed, especially in comparison with Reds, in which Beatty asks her to do embarrassing things.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 October 2013 00:59 (ten years ago) link
thx for "rebarbative," wow
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 10 October 2013 01:19 (ten years ago) link
very comfort
― balls, Thursday, 10 October 2013 01:45 (ten years ago) link
with an excellent Bo Goldman-Parker commentary track in which Parker doesn't come off as an aborigine.
noted in passing
― pervilege as a meme (contenderizer), Thursday, 10 October 2013 01:50 (ten years ago) link
many xps but I think David Gale kinda put him in director jail for a while, as it was a truly truly dire movie
― papa smango (fadanuf4erybody), Thursday, 10 October 2013 01:58 (ten years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Friday, 11 October 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Saturday, 12 October 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
WTF
― it was discovered that there's no rule that a dog cannot play basketball (bends), Saturday, 12 October 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
Haha David Gale vote.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 October 2013 02:26 (ten years ago) link
jesus The Wall is terrible.
― piscesx, Saturday, 12 October 2013 03:08 (ten years ago) link
well anyone w/ ears knows that
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 12 October 2013 03:16 (ten years ago) link
all of these movies are terrible
― balls, Saturday, 12 October 2013 03:52 (ten years ago) link
The Wall is great
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Saturday, 12 October 2013 05:33 (ten years ago) link
I think in 30 years it will be agreed that Zero Dark Thirty is approximately as offensive as Mississippi Burning.
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 13 October 2013 07:26 (ten years ago) link
RIP
Still no plans to go anywhere near Pink Floyd—The Wall or Evita.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, 31 July 2020 16:16 (three years ago) link
He was like the English Joel Schumacher.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 31 July 2020 16:33 (three years ago) link
that's needlessly cruel and inaccurate
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, 31 July 2020 16:36 (three years ago) link
Coming from Morbs! Anyway, I think it's pretty accurate. A sort of anonymous journeyman career that managed a few interesting hits, a bunch of stinkers, a couple of kitschy pop culture staples and more or less no impact or identity as a director, per se. Though Parker was rarely inept as a director, so at least he had that going for him.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 31 July 2020 16:41 (three years ago) link
I shiver at pondering Joel S's version of Shoot the Moon
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, 31 July 2020 16:56 (three years ago) link
I'm really unexpectedly sad about this. I think i'd seen pretty much everything he'd ever done (including Tv's The Evacuees) by the time i was about 15, there was nothing i didn't at least like and i loved most of his stuff. What's weird is the after-life so many of his movies had; The Commitments was a massive hit album and spin-off band afterwards, Fame had the Tv show and records, and Bugsy Malone took on a life of its own in theatreland. That's not.. common is it? All that continuance. Pretty neat trick to be able to write things at such opposite ends of the emotional spectrum screenplay-wise too; Bugsy Malone is daft as a brush but heartfelt and touching, Angel Heart is properly dark and unsettling, and he wrote both by himself.
I love that he had a whole scene from a totally different movie in ‘Fame’ when the kids go on a date to see ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’, he just… plonks it in there! He even invited the local ‘regulars’ in their Rocky outfits. Such a fuckin cool idea that totally works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T3wrbOr68w
― piscesx, Friday, 31 July 2020 19:29 (three years ago) link
Shoot the Moon came out of nowhere.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 31 July 2020 19:39 (three years ago) link
Fame and The Wall are fine; wasn't allowed to watch Angel Heart or Mississippi Burning when my parents rented them, and never bothered to catch up later. All I know about Midnight Express comes from Terror in the Aisles (and The Simpsons). Birdy and Shoot the Moon look interesting, and I've always been sorta curious about Bugsy Malone. Being a gay teen in 1996 who didn't give a shit about Evita was plenty alienating.
― A White, White Gay (cryptosicko), Friday, 31 July 2020 19:49 (three years ago) link
STM has Albert Finney and Diane Keaton's greatest performances and an unusually sharp script.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 31 July 2020 19:53 (three years ago) link
I'd only starting hearing good things about it in recent years; before that, I always kinda slotted it in with the whole AOR cinema genre.
― A White, White Gay (cryptosicko), Friday, 31 July 2020 19:55 (three years ago) link
That is a very high compliment for Finney especially, he's had a ton of great roles. I'll have to check it out. Tbh I always wrote off Parker as a near total hack.
― the quar on drugs (Simon H.), Friday, 31 July 2020 19:55 (three years ago) link
That's a nice post, piscesx. I had no idea he'd written Fame, which I still love.
― Gerneten-flüken cake (jed_), Friday, 31 July 2020 20:58 (three years ago) link
Discussion of Shoot the Moon in this thread, with flappy bird particularly rhapsodic:
Albert Finney's Own Thread
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 31 July 2020 21:51 (three years ago) link
I'm fairly averse to marriage-ending, couples-bickering movies fwiw, is it one of those? My exception to that is Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, but that's perhaps another thing entirely.
― Gerneten-flüken cake (jed_), Friday, 31 July 2020 22:28 (three years ago) link
kinda that yes
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 1 August 2020 02:26 (three years ago) link
nothing in common -- closer to Scenes From a Marriage.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 1 August 2020 02:31 (three years ago) link
oh yeah, i didnt mean it was like Va Woolf (that couple is staying together til death)
bickering, it's got bickering
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 1 August 2020 02:39 (three years ago) link
Evita is one of my favourite musicals and i've never felt the urge to watch Madonna fuck it up
― À la recherche du scamps perdu (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 1 August 2020 09:10 (three years ago) link
roundup
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7037-alan-parker-there-is-an-identity-to-my-films
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Monday, 3 August 2020 19:40 (three years ago) link
Watching Evita right now, for somebody's Spanish class. Really don't like. Wonder who was the one vote for.
― It Is Dangerous to Meme Inside (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 11 April 2021 14:43 (three years ago) link
Strange that I've heard of most of his movies, but I've only seen one (The Commitments). Very enjoyable movie it is, even if it's nothing groundbreaking
― Vinnie, Monday, 12 April 2021 01:12 (three years ago) link