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Watch, Watched, Watching: We Need This!


Ramsay B.

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Rewatched Possession on netflix.  This film was adapted from an A.S. Byatt novel,  one of my favorites of the final decade of the previous century.  So it arrived on the scene before we learned what a 'rl' twit is Gwenyth Paltrow is.  Lena Heady plays the betrayed lesbian lover of Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth Bennet in that still beloved BBC Jane Austen series with Colin Firth -- same era as Possession).  Jeremy North is the Ehle character's married lover.  That's only four of a large stand-out cast, that is a pleasure to see in action.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possession_(2002_film)#:~:text=Possession is a 2002 British,the year it was published.

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55 minutes ago, Ran said:

 

@Fez

Which podcast was that? I've been listening to the Screen Drafts podcast for awhile, and have been considering getting into some other cinema-centric podcasts. 

Blank Check.

I've never listened to their other episodes, so I can't speak to how good it usually is. For this one, I saw that two comedians I really like, Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas* were guests. That's why I listened. And the movie sounded interesting enough that a little way through I paused so I could watch it before continuing on.

*They also have a movie podcast, How Did This Get Made? Which is really fun, but focuses on bad movies. And Paul Scheer has another podcast, Unspooled, where he and the film critic Amy Nicholson went through all the movies on the AFI Top 100.

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4 minutes ago, Fez said:

 

*They also have a movie podcast, How Did This Get Made?

Yeah, I was going to check that one out, as I've been listening to Mantzoukas on Comedy Bang Bang recently and he plugged it. 

Unspooled and Blank Check sounds great, will check them out.

ETA: Oh, one of the Blank Check hosts was part of the Jim Henson draft on Screen Drafts. Explains why Blank Check sounded  vaguely familiar. Very cool.

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I watched The Aeronauts on Amazon Prime. For a film which I think was mainly seen streaming it would probably have worked well on a cinema screen because there are some spectacular shots during the balloon's ascent and descent. It is a bit episodic (apparently they took various things that happened to different Victorian aeronauts and made them all happen during the same flight) but there was a good variety to the episodes. Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne are good in it even if their characters don't have a huge amount of depth.

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The appearance of SVU season 8 on Prime in Canada has allowed us to watch even more vintage Law and Order. We’ve otherwise been watching two older episodes a week for some time recorded from what I think is the old Fox affiliate in Buffalo. The show was much better written way back then, and still serves as our “light” comfort TV. 
 

Re Gravity - I thought it was pretty impressive and fresh when I saw it. It faded tremendously on the small screen, though, and I agree entirely that it was a writing and character problem. 

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Just finished my fifth or sixth rewatch of David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia. What a magnificent, epic film. O'Toole had the bad luck of going up against Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, otherwise he would have gotten that Oscar. Omar Sharif, especially in the last third as Lawrence begins to spiral out of control, was outstanding. Anthony Quinn was larger than life throughout, but he was terrific at that in general.

Maurice Jarre's main theme is an exultant wonder that I could just listen to on repeat. And the cinematography by Freddie Young is among the greatest cinematic achievements of all time. What a perfect picture.

After that, the next episode of Brave New World (the 4th so far, I think it's 5 more to go) was a bit jejune but was entertaining enough. Feels like it's drifting more and more from the plot of the novel, at least in that they go for big dramatic moments compared to the book (hence the death at the end of episode 3, or the death in this episode.)

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32 minutes ago, Ran said:

Just finished my fifth or sixth rewatch of David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia. What a magnificent, epic film. O'Toole had the bad luck of going up against Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, otherwise he would have gotten that Oscar. Omar Sharif, especially in the last third as Lawrence begins to spiral out of control, was outstanding. Anthony Quinn was larger than life throughout, but he was terrific at that in general.

Maurice Jarre's main theme is an exultant wonder that I could just listen to on repeat. And the cinematography by Freddie Young is among the greatest cinematic achievements of all time. What a perfect picture.

After that, the next episode of Brave New World (the 4th so far, I think it's 5 more to go) was a bit jejune but was entertaining enough. Feels like it's drifting more and more from the plot of the novel, at least in that they go for big dramatic moments compared to the book (hence the death at the end of episode 3, or the death in this episode.)

I fully endorse scheduling a select handful of films for re-watch every few years or so, not just for the pleasure, but to reset one's datum of what cinema can achieve. This is one of those films.  

Two things come to mind when I think of this film. I recall Lean talking about Omar Sharif's entrance (best entrance in all cinema IMHO) and how he worried he would lose the audience if he kept the shot on Omar entirely, so cut away from it to shorten it - oh if he had stuck to his guns.   
And there was an animated movie in the 90's I think, it might have been Prince of Egypt, where the animators were tasked to study the motion and gait of camels in the desert in Lawrence of Arabia as if it was a documentary.

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Saw the latest episode of The Boys. Very good stuff, wish they released it all in one go. I also saw the latest episode of Lovecraft Country. A bit boring, but better than I was expecting. Still regretting that I invested time in this, but I probably won't avoid the sunk cost this time. I'll be seeing the next episode as well.

I also watched the first episode of Raised by Wolves. So far it doesn't really do much to intrigue me, but with Ragnar Löthbrok on board, I'm intrigued enough to give it another chance to hook me.

Now that I list them, there is actually a surprising number of potentially interesting series currently on air. The Boys is far and away the best (Homelander is something else), but the other two might yet redeem themselves.

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55 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said:

I don't where to find it, but I want to watch the rest of this:

I saw that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston read for the parts of Brad and Linda.  I'd very much like to watch it as well.

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13 hours ago, ithanos said:

Two things come to mind when I think of this film. I recall Lean talking about Omar Sharif's entrance (best entrance in all cinema IMHO) and how he worried he would lose the audience if he kept the shot on Omar entirely, so cut away from it to shorten it - oh if he had stuck to his guns.   

Agreed on the entrance.

It reminds me from earlier this year the report that the Better Call Saul team seriously considered getting the "Lawrence of Arabia lens" to film an important desert sequence on the show, but got nervous about potentially damaging it so they used something else. I assume they mean the one-of-a-kind lens Panavision made for Lean and Young, shown here at the start of this video:

 

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8 hours ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

@Veltigar I enjoyed eps 1 and 3 of Lovecraft Country. The other 3 have bored/confused me as well. Kinda like The Outsider where it had a compelling first episode that hooked me and disappointed the rest of the way.

I’ve watched the first 3 episodes and I’m on the fence about it. I actually thought the 3rd one was decent enough, despite the horrible special effects, but not really excited about continuing. Seeing the lackluster opinions about future episodes here isn’t helping things either. 

I watched the first 4 episodes of The Vow. Seeing people in absolute awe of some dickhead cult leader is so fucking weird. Especially one who mouth kisses everyone every time they meet and leave each other. Like come on, people.

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37 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

I’ve watched the first 3 episodes and I’m on the fence about it. I actually thought the 3rd one was decent enough, despite the horrible special effects, but not really excited about continuing. Seeing the lackluster opinions about future episodes here isn’t helping things either. 

If you can get out, then do so Ramsay. Free yourself while you still can. 

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13 hours ago, Astromech said:

That's my plan after work tomorrow. The film will have to be pretty dark to match Donald Ray Pollock's novel.

Let me know what you think, I might watch it right now. I've got two hours to kill before I need to shower and dress up for my grandfather's Bday party, odd as it may be in these trying times.



Unrelated, Tom Hardy appears to be the next Bond. The Bond thread is locked as far as I can tell, and I don't have a witty title in mind so I'll just start the conversation here. Thoughts? I love it.

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