A rainy morning prompted me to watch A Canterbury Tale. What a strange, beautiful film. I'd agree that John Sweet is too broad but his wide-eyedness, gauche and wooden at the start, is perfect by the end: he's brilliant with the kids, in the cathedral and in the final scenes in the cafe. I haven't really got my head around Colpeper yet. He's a cipher in lots of ways but also the stained glass window of the film (however grubby. I guess it's not a huge leap from 'Colpeper' to 'Peeper'.). Sheila Sim is wonderful.
I've been walking chunks of the Pilgrim's Way over the last few years. I was in a tiny church in a small Hampshire village. I assumed I was alone but as I stood gaping in the doorway a hidden voice murmured 'are you a pilgrim?'. I'm wondering if I'll ever make it to Canterbury but that's quite the question to be asked with all eternity watching on. I'm still shuttling back and forth between yes and no.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Sunday, 15 May 2022 12:11 (one year ago) link
lol
Orson on Powell and Pressburger pic.twitter.com/GLuPiq5khm— John Frankensteiner (@JFrankensteiner) May 7, 2022
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 15 May 2022 12:13 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6N8ADDDs0k
― Don't Renege On (Our Dub) (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 May 2022 12:23 (one year ago) link
a matter of life and death is insane (this is a compliment). the set designs, the special effects, the flamboyant french angel, naked boy tending goats on a beach, giant camera obscura, david niven's face, doctor racing around on a motorcycle, ping pong, time freezes, giant escalator through the universe, the detour into a court proceeding about the character of british people vs american people. not what i was expecting at all.
― na (NA), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 14:07 (one month ago) link
OTM. But what was it that you did expect exactly?
― Al Green Explores Your Mind Gardens (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 17:35 (one month ago) link
idk, something a little more traditionally classy/romantic/understated?
― na (NA), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 18:07 (one month ago) link
Have you seen other films by The Archers before?
― Al Green Explores Your Mind Gardens (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 18:15 (one month ago) link
I watched The Red Shoes last week and it wasn't quite as insane as I'd been hoping.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 7 February 2024 18:22 (one month ago) link
I've heard that complaint before, but to me it's a perfectly balanced work. Almost a concerto in that regard.
― badpee pooper (Eric H.), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 18:42 (one month ago) link
A Matter of Life and Death, tho, is of course bugfuck insane
Peeping Tom too.
I Know Where I'm Going! is in the classic/romantic vein, more toned down than later Archers productions; to me it's the foundational text for every one of those Wacky Hugh Grant English Comedies in mid '90s theaters.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 19:29 (one month ago) link
i've seen a number of them:peeping tom - multiple times, classic obvblack narcissus - saw a long time ago but remember being impressed, probably due for a rewatchcolonel blimp - just watched a few months ago, excellent, more traditional than a matter of life and death but more effective narrativelyi know where i'm going - watched sometime in the past few years, did not make an impession
i started the red shoes at some point but was not in the mood for it and never went back to it
― na (NA), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 19:59 (one month ago) link
Watched A Castle for Christmas last year, which is like a transatlantic pop-trash version of I Know. Was trying to puzzle out whether it was deliberate, got nowhere.
― woof, Wednesday, 7 February 2024 20:44 (one month ago) link
I'd disagree about the Grant films just bcz I know is still a pretty weird landscape, curses, dogs, eagles, whirlpools film, to the point where the romance keeps fading into the background for me.
― woof, Wednesday, 7 February 2024 20:49 (one month ago) link
Yeah it's a long way from Hugh Grant.
― The British Boy of Film Classification (Tom D.), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 21:00 (one month ago) link
A Canterbury Tale really is something special.
― The British Boy of Film Classification (Tom D.), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 21:01 (one month ago) link
― woof, Wednesday, February 7, 2024 3:49 PM (twenty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
― The British Boy of Film Classification (Tom D.), Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Well, yeah, I meant the template, not the narrative complications. Hugh Grant would never muss his hair.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 21:13 (one month ago) link
The Red Shoes is their best and one of the best movies ever made.
― kurt schwitterz, Wednesday, 7 February 2024 23:05 (one month ago) link
Did anyone else read the memoir by Leo Marx, non-Bletchley Park WWII cryptographer and screenwriter of Peeping Tom?
― Al Green Explores Your Mind Gardens (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 7 February 2024 23:52 (one month ago) link
Leo Marks, sorry
― Al Green Explores Your Mind Gardens (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 8 February 2024 00:18 (one month ago) link
*Not* the author of *The Machine in the Garden* presumably?
Although it's a bit all over the shop - formally, tonally - A Canterbury Tale is the one I think about most often.
― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Thursday, 8 February 2024 21:07 (one month ago) link
a canterbury tale is my fav by a fair margin
― ciderpress, Thursday, 8 February 2024 21:09 (one month ago) link
Same, there's nothing else like it
― the most powerful man in cornish politics (Matt #2), Thursday, 8 February 2024 21:10 (one month ago) link