― Soukesian (Soukesian), Friday, 19 January 2007 18:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 19 January 2007 18:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― AllyzayEisenschefterBDawkinsFlyingSquirrelRomoCrying.jpg (allyzay), Friday, 19 January 2007 18:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 19 January 2007 19:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― Abbott (Abbott), Friday, 19 January 2007 19:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 19 January 2007 20:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 19 January 2007 20:06 (seventeen years ago) link
R.I.P. excellent charactor Actor Vincent Schiavelli
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 19 January 2007 20:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― nickn (nickn), Saturday, 20 January 2007 00:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, 20 January 2007 00:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 20 January 2007 03:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 20 January 2007 03:12 (seventeen years ago) link
I caught an advance screening of Goya's Ghosts last Friday. The film should be trickling into theatres over the next few weeks. It's pretty good (not great), yet another Forman biopic, this time concerning Francisco Goya and others during revolutiontime in Spain.* Natalie Portman's in it. It looks like she's angling for an Oscar--not only is her part a duel role, she also spends a good chunk of her screentime ugged-up with bad teeth, stringy hair, the works. She's also not very good. However, Javier Bardem was superb, as were Michael Lonsdale and Stellan Skarsgård.
*Parallels are even drawn between the french invasion and a current quagmire for those who pay attention.
― C. Grisso/McCain, Monday, 16 July 2007 17:24 (sixteen years ago) link
revolutiontime
More a civil war. As for the parallels, I'm seeing that in other places as well (recently historical overviews of the Napoleonic era in general, etc.) It appears to be the snooty version of Vietnam comparisons.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 16 July 2007 17:27 (sixteen years ago) link
let me guess its about a wild individualistic hedonist who is destroyed by the conservative mediocracy of his contemporaries
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 16 July 2007 17:27 (sixteen years ago) link
Well, Yes and No. There is a individualistic hedonist who is ultimately destroyed by his own arrogance and, well... the conservative mediocracy of his contemporaries. Though it isn't Goya, who serves more as a connective tissue, a reporter chronicling the events as they go down. It's funny though, because the first scene sets Goya up to be that first character, but alas, it doesn't pan out.
― C. Grisso/McCain, Monday, 16 July 2007 18:23 (sixteen years ago) link
I just saw People vs. Larry Flynt and was kinda disappointed by it.
― Abbott, Friday, 27 July 2007 17:19 (sixteen years ago) link
But you gotta admit, Courtney Love was well-cast.
― kenan, Friday, 27 July 2007 17:20 (sixteen years ago) link
Boy, I hope she doesn't get typecast. :(
HAHAHAHA
Yeah, v. well cast, though later reasearch did not help me discover whether IRL wife dressed like one of the first spo0o0o0ooky club folx at the Batcave.
― Abbott, Friday, 27 July 2007 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link
there are a couple funny sequences but overall yeah its a squandered opportunity. lolz @ Courtney Oscar-talk when that came out
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 27 July 2007 17:44 (sixteen years ago) link
OMG you're kidding.
I think the Xtian conversion scene was the best. I don't know, based on interviews with Forman, I thought it'd be this totally triumphant celebration of free speech and challenging censorship & whatnot, whereas, it kind of ... was dissatisfying in that department. Made me wish I'da just rewatched "Pleasatville" for that kinda vibe. That movie does it for me every time.
Edward Norton was mighty attractive, tho.
― Abbott, Friday, 27 July 2007 17:46 (sixteen years ago) link
TAKING OFF is still unavailable on dvd or vhs.
― pisces, Wednesday, 29 August 2007 13:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Taking Off playing tnite at NYC's Film Forum, guess I have to go.
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 1 August 2012 18:33 (eleven years ago) link
was issued on region 2 dvd earlier this year - uses many of the same stylistic tricks as Firemen's Ball and Blonde in Love, w/out ever quite matching them for poignancy or humour. Still worth a watch, tho.
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 2 August 2012 11:59 (eleven years ago) link
RIP Miroslav Ondříček (tho I think If.... and O Lucky Man! are my faves that he shot, not the Formans)
http://deadline.com/2015/03/miroslav-ondricek-dies-cinematographer-behind-amadeus-was-80-1201400839/
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Monday, 30 March 2015 19:15 (nine years ago) link
RIP
― flappy bird, Saturday, 14 April 2018 07:08 (six years ago) link
Apparently music rights are holding it up (at least in Region 1). I saw it in a double feature with AUDITION (1964). ILM types might especially be interested in its portrait of pop music behind the Iron Curtain--lots of domestic songs that sound just enough like their Western inspirations to tip them into the uncanny valley.
And I'm sorry to see the man go, but he did have a respectable run of work.
― Polly of the Pre-Codes (j.lu), Saturday, 14 April 2018 12:50 (six years ago) link
"Cuckoo's Nest" is one of my all time favourite movies. I really need to see his Czech films
― well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Saturday, 14 April 2018 12:59 (six years ago) link
Dangerous Liasions is by far the best of his post-Czech international successes
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 April 2018 13:03 (six years ago) link
(I meant his take on DL; should never type w/one thumb)
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 April 2018 13:12 (six years ago) link
Cuckoo's Nest, D L, Amadeus all great movies. I absolutely loathed that Larry Flint travesty.
― calzino, Saturday, 14 April 2018 13:15 (six years ago) link
I don't think any of those Oscar winners are great films, but they're fun to watch for being ribald.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 April 2018 13:20 (six years ago) link
(by Oscar standards)
I'd re-watch any of them, I suppose I just meant "great" as thoroughly enjoyed them much more than most other dross in the last 20 years!
― calzino, Saturday, 14 April 2018 13:23 (six years ago) link
Never had any interest in Amadeus, but I think Cuckoo's Nest--because of the performances, because of the moment--is a pretty great movie. (This is unfair, but I'm guessing it's an improvement on the book.) I've always meant to see his two well-known early films, but they just never seem to play in Toronto.
― clemenza, Saturday, 14 April 2018 13:24 (six years ago) link
I agree it's an improvement on the book, and as a crowd pleaser it can't be beat (I think it and Forrest Gump are the only Best Picture winners that are also the highest-grossing films of their respective years).
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 April 2018 13:26 (six years ago) link
Amadeus > Cuckoo's Nest
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Saturday, 14 April 2018 13:26 (six years ago) link
too brute-eh
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 April 2018 13:36 (six years ago) link
Reducing films to one fantastic image:
http://i.imgur.com/88jCL.jpg
― clemenza, Saturday, 14 April 2018 13:39 (six years ago) link
I wouldn't One Perfect Shot that movie, really.
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Saturday, 14 April 2018 13:45 (six years ago) link
I always get Taking Off, Little Murders, and Getting Straight confused--a quick check tells me that Taking Off is the one I haven't seen.
― clemenza, Saturday, 14 April 2018 13:50 (six years ago) link
Amadeus belongs on the stage, and even there it's a trifle.
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 14 April 2018 15:29 (six years ago) link
roundup
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5552-the-daily-milos-forman-1932-2018
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 15 April 2018 07:55 (six years ago) link
I've seen The Loves of a Blonde bigged up on here so many times and still haven't got round to watching it.
― calzino, Sunday, 15 April 2018 10:12 (six years ago) link
I'd forgotten about later should-have-been-betters like Man on the Moon and Larry Flynt. He was directing so infrequently they felt like events at the time, and Carrey and Harrelson were good. They just didn't seem to say with me for very long. The first produced a great song and video, though (not directed by Forman).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_JnCWT-_O8
― clemenza, Sunday, 15 April 2018 13:50 (six years ago) link
I was looking up Sarah Paulson (because I just spent the entirety of a very bad movie thinking she was Kristen Wiig) and came across this--Netflix is producing a prequel about Nurse Ratched?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7423538/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1
― clemenza, Thursday, 9 August 2018 03:04 (five years ago) link
Louise Fletcher gave such an iconic performance, not sure how this is going to work
― Dan S, Thursday, 9 August 2018 03:11 (five years ago) link
The description's amusing: "A young nurse at a mental institution becomes jaded, bitter and a downright monster to her patients." So it's basically Better Call Saul--she starts out as Florence Nightingale, but her patients, or bureaucracy, or some personal betrayal will ground her down and turn her into Mussolini.
― clemenza, Thursday, 9 August 2018 03:18 (five years ago) link
watching it again after decades, it’s interesting to see that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has some of the beguiling homeliness of Milos Forman’s two great Czech films, Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen’s Ball, both of which I’ve only seen recently
― Dan S, Tuesday, 21 June 2022 01:54 (one year ago) link
I remember being really affected by the theremin in the soundtrack at the time, but it didn’t seem like a big component of the film now
― Dan S, Tuesday, 21 June 2022 02:07 (one year ago) link
I don't know if Brad Dourif understood at the time what being a stutterer meant or how exactly to act the part, but he leaned in to the role in a very engaging way
― Dan S, Tuesday, 21 June 2022 02:31 (one year ago) link
Amadeus was amazing, too. F Murray Abraham got all the accolades for the film, but Tom Hulce was more mesmerizing I thought.
― Dan S, Sunday, 21 August 2022 23:31 (one year ago) link
he portrayed someone immature, with bad sartorial taste and an inability to read social situations, as well as someone with musical genius and an incredible arrogance, all believable as part of the same persona
― Dan S, Sunday, 21 August 2022 23:39 (one year ago) link
the soundtrack of the film was great. I'm reminded of my music teacher saying that all music is Mozart
― Dan S, Monday, 22 August 2022 00:01 (one year ago) link
RIP Louise Fletcher. from the NYT: Although Ms. Fletcher’s most famous character was a portrait of sternness, she often recalled smiling constantly and pretending that everything was perfect when she was growing up, in an effort to protect her non-hearing parents from bad news.
That control of emotions, which she only broke through reluctantly in the film, defined the greatness of that performance
― Dan S, Saturday, 24 September 2022 23:30 (one year ago) link