Dietrich is great sizing up Congresswoman Jean Arthur in A Foreign Affair:
"I see you do not believe in lipstick. And what a curious way to do your hair, or rather not to do it."
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 6 June 2018 03:16 (five years ago) link
Man, those early shots of John Lund driving his jeep to Dietrich's place through the ruins of Berlin... while "Isn't It Romantic?" plays on the soundtrack.
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 7 June 2018 02:51 (five years ago) link
Dont know this one, put it on my watch list
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 7 June 2018 02:58 (five years ago) link
It's one of BW's most enjoyable movies and it's a shame it's not more well-known. Even John Lund is good.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 7 June 2018 03:20 (five years ago) link
it has real emotional depth, i think due to Wilder and Dietrich's biographies.
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 7 June 2018 03:27 (five years ago) link
The Fortune Cookie, which i hadn't seen in at least 20 years, is obv second-tier but better than i remembered. Matthau is positively Fieldsian.
I don't think the NFL would cooperate with this script today.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 16:16 (five years ago) link
Some of Whiplash Willie's best line are throwaways ("Unwed mothers... I'm for that").
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 16:23 (five years ago) link
Kino Lorber Studio Classics drops A Foreign Affair on Blu August 6th!
― a large tuna called “Justice” (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 20:59 (four years ago) link
tried to watch Avanti! a few wks ago and got about as far as the kitch-y coroner w/ the color-coded italian forms and turned it off. none of it was funny or charming and there was no reason to think it'd get better imo. there was a line where jack lemmon outright refers to juliette mills' character as fat that seemed really mean-spirited and would probably draw protesters today― johnny crunch, Sunday, February 14, 2010 2:05 PM
After 1964 the guy totally lost it.― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, February 14, 2010
wrong and wrong!
Rewatched Avanti! last night and it's pretty good. Lemmon and the screenplay make no attempt to present him as much more than a blinkered louse for the first half of the movie. Clearly the female lead should've been cast with a plus-sized actress, but they only got character roles then. Also Wilder wanted to rescue Juliet Mills from her "Nanny" sitcom, and she comes through charmingly. Clive Revill is a great poised fixer/hotelier. And the last line of the film has Lemmon recanting his fat-shaming. (Also, the coroner scene is not "kitschy" but marvelous.)
In the "lost it" late period I also like the Holmes movie and Fedora.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 00:45 (four years ago) link
also i rewatched Some Like It Hot last night and the skeptics can go to hell, or Spats Colombo's place.
Much of the Lemmon and Curtis interviews on the CC are to do with their costuming.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 17:38 (four years ago) link
Are there really a lot of Some Like it Hot skeptics out there?
― 🚶♂️💨 (Eric H.), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 17:41 (four years ago) link
apparently, Woody Allen!
I also saw a Letterboxd comment that it's now "problematic." [redacted]
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 17:42 (four years ago) link
I watched Avanti! on Amazon last month: leaden and way too long.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 17:46 (four years ago) link
A little too long, othwise disagree.
I do think one layer of Some Like It Hot now lost on almost everyone under 50 is its feeding off the pop culture, particularly the movies, of 1929-33 or earlier films about the period (Raft, Pat O'Brien, George E Stone, Rudy Vallee refs etc).
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 17:48 (four years ago) link
admit a lot of those references do go over my head, still a fun movie tho
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 26 February 2020 17:49 (four years ago) link
I mean I know George Raft and Rudy Vallee but I don't doubt there's stuff I miss
Joe E Brown was kinda the Jim Varney of early '30s comedy.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 19:05 (four years ago) link
ok, Fedora isn't bad. definitely his best post-Irma movie. Avanti is good but way too long, and Fedora slows to a crawl once the interminable flashbacks begin. But there's pleasure in any Wilder because he never shot any coverage and every shot means something. and the bits of business he gives everywhere, like Antonia with the gloves (looking like Mario 64). really lush colors in this music, elegiac, again not bad for his second to last movie (I think), and yes, it is very nice to see Fassbinder actors in a Wilder movie. Gottfried John grabbing William Holden from behind? there are moments here
― flappy bird, Monday, 7 December 2020 06:15 (three years ago) link
Showed Double Indemnity tonight for the small-town film club/society/whatever I've been trying to launch. (Fourth monthly screening. Total attendance to date, including me: 18.) Someone noticed that Walter Neff wears a wedding ring the whole way through. Which is...an oversight, a mystery, evidence that Fred McMurray was one devoted husband.
― clemenza, Friday, 10 February 2023 02:48 (one year ago) link
Sabrina is nearly flawless filmmaking, I’m stunned to come here and see zero votes. Any NYers catching the Film Forum retrospective?
― Josefa, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 01:48 (nine months ago) link
Haven’t made it over there yet
― Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 02:40 (nine months ago) link
Saw Sabrina there tonight and sensed the astonishment in the audience. It got applauded.
― Josefa, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 02:58 (nine months ago) link
I remember enjoying the first hour a lot, but then drifting as the romance takes precedence over the comedy
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 10:44 (nine months ago) link
^^^ same.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 11:48 (nine months ago) link
Fedora is the real sleeper.
― Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 13:36 (nine months ago) link
I can't with the late Wilder: he loses any semblance of rhythm, tonality, humor.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 13:49 (nine months ago) link
Yeah, Fedora just seemed like an especially dull giallo, though it was nice to see Gottfried John outside of RWFworld.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 13:53 (nine months ago) link
UCLA’s new restorations of The Major & the Minor and A Foreign Affair look absolutely gorgeous
― beamish13, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 15:12 (nine months ago) link
Love love love Foreign Affair.
Now I've finally watched some Lubitsch on Criterion, it's tarnished Wilder for me very slightly -- it's easier to see what he was aiming for but (sometimes) missing.
Unrelatedly: when I was younger I never understood The Apartment, but I just hadn't been disaapointed by life yet.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 16:03 (nine months ago) link
Foreign Affair is pretty good, but I mostly feel bad for Jean Arthur in that.
― Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 28 July 2023 18:11 (nine months ago) link
Kiss Me, Stupid tonight. I was really with it for the first 40 minutes or so when it felt like a pretty funny, kinda sharp satire (on mid century American society blah blah blah). Then the sex farce mechanics kick in and the film loses much of its weight. Kim Novak, though physically right for the role, is not good here. Ray Walston was fine but original casting choice Peter Sellers would’ve been much better in his role. I was expecting some kind of dark twist at the end but it ends quite conservatively. Btw why is this film in black & wihite, it screams out for color.
There was an overloud laugher at my screening, it felt like having a constant intrusive laugh track.
― Josefa, Saturday, 29 July 2023 01:10 (nine months ago) link