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What are you watching now?

Well yeah, the romance between the characters in The Illusionist is flat (and I think part of that is the girl's acting- that chick is the perfect example of cold beauty, pretty to look at but gives off no passion or humanity), but in a weird way it works- it's just another prop for the tricks.

Memento is a cool flick.
 
I had no problem at all with the romance between Norton and Biel in The Illusionist, nor with Biel's acting, she played that role to near perfection.

As for the rest of Nolan's work.

Insomnia is good, but it both overreaches and is afraid to take the content to the next level. The original is so much better, but Nolan still managed to make a good film.

Memento is a very good idea that never actually gels into a cohesive film. Ideas are great, and putting those ideas forth is even better, but an idea is just an idea unless you can make it work within a thematic setting. Nolan can't do this because he isn't the type of director that can take a new idea and make it actually flow naturally.

Batman Begins was complete crap. A disjointed story that was bloated and had no identity whatsoever. One second it wanted to be a hero's origin story, then the next it wanted to be a bang em up action flick.

The Dark Knight was decent, but not all that good. It was formulaic and pedantic with no noteworthy performances outside of Eckhart as Two Face, it completely got the character of the Joker wrong, it bashed you over the head with the theme of the movie every five seconds and then managed to abandon said theme in the climax of the film for an unecessary technofest. It was a directionless film, and that's not suprising with Nolan as the director.
 
Memento is a very good idea that never actually gels into a cohesive film. Ideas are great, and putting those ideas forth is even better, but an idea is just an idea unless you can make it work within a thematic setting. Nolan can't do this because he isn't the type of director that can take a new idea and make it actually flow naturally.

Obviously, I disagree. It gels very well. As to "flow naturally," the whole point is that nothing flows naturally for the protagonist. What the film does so well is let us see things through his most unnatural vision, by way of its structure.
 
I've loved all the Nolan flicks I've seen so far, and I seem to be a bit of a minority here in actually having loved The Prestige. It's the rare movie that was intriguing for me in the beginning before I knew what was going on, and that actually made sense once I did. Also, I'm a sucker for narratives-in-narratives-in-narratives, as long as the watcher can follow - with which I had no problems here.

I also loved the book.

Greatly enjoyed Insomnia too. Have been meaning to try to get my fingers on the Norwegian movie it's a remake of.
 
I haven't see Insomnia, but I really liked Momento.

I also liked that other film that Christian Bale did (not by the same director that I recall,) called "The Machinist." Talk about dedication to a role. Geesh.
 
Obviously, I disagree. It gels very well. As to "flow naturally," the whole point is that nothing flows naturally for the protagonist. What the film does so well is let us see things through his most unnatural vision, by way of its structure.

There's a difference between what you are saying and what I am saying, probably because of my choice of words. In Memento the narrative doesn't move the way it should for the type of movie Nolan tried to construct, that is what I mean by flow naturally. The fact that the protagonists vision is unnatural is neither here nor there. It was Nolan's job to make that vision clear and to wed it with the other story elements in whatever way he saw fit. But, he didn't do that and instead the movie is a series of ideas that don't gel while the narrative never comes together like it should.
 
Greatly enjoyed Insomnia too. Have been meaning to try to get my fingers on the Norwegian movie it's a remake of.

Both Insomnia movies bored me, but the Norwegian one was better. I just can't tolerate Al Pacino anymore.
 
Insomnia was only the second movie with Al Pacino I've ever seen. I suck.

Talking about stuff everyone else has seen but not me, off to watch "Citizen Cane".
 
Roman Holiday (1953)

I really liked the non-Hollywood ending. It doesn't matter if they may have feelings for each other, they can't be together and that's why he walks away alone. I also liked how Princess Anna yearned to be able to do things like wash clothes, cook dinner, vacuum, etc.. Things that in today's culture are viewed as almost a death sentence for a woman being free. The acting was also choice throughout, and Hepburn is gorgeous. But, for as much as I liked about it, this was a very flawed movie. There were numerous bad cuts, but most of all there was never any real chemistry between Peck and Hepburn, and that's kind of essential in a love story.

An American In Paris (1951)

I'm beginning to notice a trend with Gene Kelly, he likes to knock his movies back a few steps with completely unnecessary numbers right before the big climax. Singin' In The Rain was a darn near perfect movie ruined by the completely unnecessary Broadway show tunes number at the end. An American In Paris was headed towards great movie territory, because just like Singin' In The Rain it was getting the musical theme right. All the song and dance numbers flowed naturally from the story, the singers and dancers were superb, and the story was light, but effective. Then came the ending with the exceedingly long, completely unnecessary and tonally wrong last dance number that just ruined the ending. I realize a lot of people loved the end ballet number, but I felt it was tacked on and really had no place within the movie An American In Paris was trying to be. Plus, Nina Foch's character is just forgotten in the final moments, thrown to the side with no explanation when the story no longer has any use for her. An American In Paris could have been great, but it faltered in the end and because of that it ends up a little bit less, but still good.

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Double Indemnity made me a fan of Billy Wilder, but Sunset Boulevard made me think of the man as a genius. This is his masterwork as far as I'm concerned. It is masterfully crafted from start to finish. It plays with the concept of a linear story, it uses narration in a perfect and haunting fashion. The performances from Holden, Swanson and Von Stroheim are epic. The writing is both witty and snappy, with a hard edge to it while containing immense depth. The plot is tight, concise and it moves along at a brisk pace, never letting up, never allowing a chance for the viewer to breathe. The music is often overlooked, but without it I don't think the movie would have pulled off its foreboding and thick atmosphere anywhere near as well. There is an attractiveness to the film because of how real it is. Sunset Boulevard doesn't hold back at all in regards to Hollywood and films in general. It is an industry that will use and abuse you. Today I think it is harder to relate to because of how much money most actors make, but the story is still very relateable because most people realize there will come a day when their chosen profession won't want them any longer and will toss them to the side for a newer, better model. A tremendous movie, one of my all time favorites and an all time great as well, and a tremendous way to spend a couple of hours immersed in a film.
 
Look at Cell goin' old school.

Sunset Boulevard, a personal favorite, and one of those very few flicks I can watch over and over again. That woman... my god what a fantastically epic scenery-chewing performance.
 
Look at Cell goin' old school.

Sunset Boulevard, a personal favorite, and one of those very few flicks I can watch over and over again. That woman... my god what a fantastically epic scenery-chewing performance.

The one good thing that has come out of my anal retentiveness is that I've spent the last few years actually cataloging all the movies I watch and rewatching older movies so that I could properly catalog them. It's not like it's a concrete list, and it's not like the ratings are actually all that important, but it does give me a good frame of reference, and film/TV is the one thing I am very anal about. But, amazingly enough I had never seen Sunset Boulevard before yesterday, and I'm glad that I did. My quest to try and track down, watch, and rate every movie on a version of the IMDB top 250 I printed out a few months ago led me to it. Well, that and finally having a DVR so that I can easily record all the great movies that TCM shows. Back to Sunset Boulevard, i loved it, I think I immediately placed it in my top 10 films of all time, that's how good I thought it was.
 
Some Like It Hot (1959)

There are some moments that just aren't funny, cutting or ingenious, but they are few and far between. Like all comedies this comes down to personal taste, it's not raunchy, it's not overly simple. It is very smart while at the same time being very base and appealing to the lowest denominator in a lot of moments. Most people overlook that because of how stylishly Wilder hides the lower moments and makes you think you are watching something truly high brow when in fact you are just watching a dude tell a hot blond that she just made his pecker all stiff. It does work though, and finely at that. The timing is there between the actors, both the leads and the supporting cast. That leaves us with the best part of the picture, Marilyn Monroe. I read somewhere that she was a size 16 for this movie, and if that's not a reminder of how Hollywood and the rest of the world at large have lost their minds I don't know what else is. She was beautiful in Some Like It Hot, with curves in all the right places, and when she walks away and you see her bare back you realize this is a real woman you are watching, not some god awful stick figure. I don't care about how much trouble she supposedly was on set either, or how much difficulty she had with her lines. What matters is her performance on screen, and it was great to watch. There's effervescence behind every line, and a sultriness and warmth behind every smile or facial expression. She really does enrapture you and cause you to forget about everyone else in the movie. Great flick, definitely recommended.
 
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I may need a woman to correct me, but I think what the dress sizes mean have changed over time- that is, Marilyn's "size 16" is actually different size than a current "size 16."

All I know is I recently dated a size 14 and, man, lemme tell ya... she wasn't no Marily freakin' Monroe.


Since you're on a Wilder kick, you should be hitting up another personal favorite of mine- The Apartment.
 
Yeah, size 16 today is bigger than it was back then. Makes women feel better about themselves.

Although, the average size for a woman today is 12-14, I believe. Which is probably an 18 back then, just a little bigger than Marilyn.
 
I may need a woman to correct me, but I think what the dress sizes mean have changed over time- that is, Marilyn's "size 16" is actually different size than a current "size 16."

All I know is I recently dated a size 14 and, man, lemme tell ya... she wasn't no Marily freakin' Monroe.


Since you're on a Wilder kick, you should be hitting up another personal favorite of mine- The Apartment.

I figured the sizes were a little bit different, but not so much as to be an extreme difference, although I'm no expert on clothes sizes for women from 1959. This makes me remember a quote from Elizabeth Hurley where she called Monroe a fat cow and said she would have killed herself if she was ever that big. I think that's freaking insane, but there are a ton of women in Hollywood nowadays that think just like that.

That's it for Wilder for a little bit, I need to see The Apartment, but I need TMC to air it so that I can DVR it. I believe I am DVRing another Wilder film, Ace In The Hole when they show that next week. But, they just finished highlighting Wilder last month so who knows when they'll get to airing the Wilder movies I haven't seen like The Apartment or Stalag 17 again.
 
I have two thoughts on this. Sizes 12 and 14 do not seem monstrously huge in the UK. I mean we are hardly talking about walking female tents here!

The second thought is that this whole method of measurement of women's clothing is nonsense. Why don't they just do it the same as men where oooh I don't know, you actually have the waist/inside leg/chest measurements in metric or imperial measurements.... so you actually know pretty much what you are getting.

I might prefer to be a waist measurement down... but atleast I know where I stand. none of this... oooh I'm a 12 in this but I'm a 14 in that.

Honestly I don't know how women cope with that... or why they even want to tolerate it.
 
I figured the sizes were a little bit different, but not so much as to be an extreme difference, although I'm no expert on clothes sizes for women from 1959. This makes me remember a quote from Elizabeth Hurley where she called Monroe a fat cow and said she would have killed herself if she was ever that big. I think that's freaking insane, but there are a ton of women in Hollywood nowadays that think just like that.

That's it for Wilder for a little bit, I need to see The Apartment, but I need TMC to air it so that I can DVR it. I believe I am DVRing another Wilder film, Ace In The Hole when they show that next week. But, they just finished highlighting Wilder last month so who knows when they'll get to airing the Wilder movies I haven't seen like The Apartment or Stalag 17 again.

Yeah, I've boycotted all things Elizabeth Hurley since.
 
Snopes sets us straight:

http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/mmdress.asp

and explains how this false idea that Marilyn was "fat" by today's standards could easily be misconstrued by someone like Elizabeth Hurley. Let's not shit on her too much for making a common mistake- she's famous because she's pretty, not a good researcher. And therefore you can't blame her for being petrified at the thought of being heavy- it would be like a world class violinist losing his hands.
 
Snopes sets us straight:

http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/mmdress.asp

and explains how this false idea that Marilyn was "fat" by today's standards could easily be misconstrued by someone like Elizabeth Hurley. Let's not shit on her too much for making a common mistake- she's famous because she's pretty, not a good researcher. And therefore you can't blame her for being petrified at the thought of being heavy- it would be like a world class violinist losing his hands.

One Quote from E. Hurley: "I'd kill myself if I was as fat as Marilyn Monroe. "

I think her comment is worthy of being called Hollywood's biggest snatch.

Poor thing. Let's feel sorry for her because she has low self esteem and has an all-encompassing fear of being a size 12.

Poor. Poor baby.

How about saying, "I have a fear of being heavy"? Instead of saying that she's rather end her own life than be an average size.

Nothing short of a formal apology would make me consider thinking she was a real human being.
 
Billy Wilder... I know everyone thinks Sunset Boulevard is a great film, so I won't say it isn't. I'll just say it is so maudlin I can't stand it.

I think Double Indemnity is far and away his best film. Ace In The Hole, Witness For The Prosecution, and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes are good too.
 

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