Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[drinkanddestroy]

Casablanca (1942) 10/10 3rd viewing, courtesy of Ingrid Bergman day on TCM's Summer Under the Stars.
Bogie and Bergman are awesome; Henreid is the worst of all the notable players.

[Groggy]

Bogie and Bergman are awesome; Henreid is the worst of all the notable players.

That goes without saying.

[drinkanddestroy]

That goes without saying.

Having Bogie's performance so thoroughly dominate the film takes away any possible conflict the viewer may have; there is absolutely no doubt that our heart is with Rick (despite being a pretty rotten character, compared to the noble Victor) because of the dominating performance by Bogie. (Of course, Bogie received first billing; however), but all 3 of them received above-the-title credits; therefore, I wonder if the producers actually intended that the audience's sympathies be so staunchly with Bogie all along, or if that was partially an unintended result of Henreid's performance being so average compared to the iconic performance by Bogie? I strongly suspect the former (since the script seems to heavily favor Rick), though that makes me wonder wtf they gave Henreid co-equal billing? Wikipedia says Henreid refused the role until he was promised the co-equal billing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_%28film%29#Cast although in retrospect that sort of seems laughable. However, considering that Bogie had only become a first-billed actor after High Sierra , released 1 year prior, does make me wonder a little whether or not the producers knew all along that Rick would completely dominate the film.

The greatest male/female pair of leading performances in a movie that I've ever seen are Jimmy Stewart/Doris Day in The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Bogie/Bergman in Casablanca.


Btw, I have one tiny quibble with a moment in the movie, it's the speech Victor gives Rick (while Victor is bandaging up his cut wrist) about how Rick can't run away from himself and try to convince himself of things he knows aren't true, etc. We already get that: we've seen that despite Rick's cold persona, he ultimately has frequently done the right thing when the moment called for it, so we already know that a lot of Rick's shitick is an act; having Victor stating what we already know is dumb. That's a minor quibble on a classic movie.

Also, when discussing the movie, people don't really speak of Capt. Renault in the same terms as they speak of Major Strasser, but Renault is actually as evil as any character who has ever appeared on screen. The fact that there are several actual Nazis in Casablanca, and Rains's funny and great performance, can mask this on initial viewings; but a funny murderer is no better than a stuffy one:  Renault is the banality of evil, and no better than the people wearing the swastika.

----------------

 I also just saw The Sandpiper (1965), which I rate a 9/10 (and IMO a far better Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton movie than Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf; there too, in the love triangle in The Sandpiper between Burton, Taylor, and Eva Marie Saint, we really don't feel at all for Saint (she was a fine actress, but not given nearly the screen time that Taylor had, and a much more wholesome and less dominating character), so there is really very little conflict on the part of the viewer. As much as I enjoyed this movie, IMO it would have been a tad better if it had given some more time to the Burton-Saint relationship before Taylor entered the picture; that would have given the viewer some real conflict, since she is a very sweet character -- as well as a very good actress who delivers a fine performance, unlike Henreid in Casablanca. Of course, you can argue that if the audience had attained some sympathy for the Saint character, then it would have made us hate the Burton character for cheating on her, and not allowed us to actually connect emotionally with the Burton-Taylor relationship. Who knows 

[stanton]

Bogart starred in The Maltese Falcon and in 4 more films in this year in between (actually nearly 2 years between the releases), and one year was already a long time in the WB calendar.

[drinkanddestroy]

Bogart starred in The Maltese Falcon and in 4 more films in this year in between (actually nearly 2 years between the releases), and one year was already a long time in the WB calendar.

True, but (if that Wikipedia statement is true), why would WB agree to give Henreid co-equal billing as a condition to getting him to take the part? In 2012, I can't know whether or not WB realized in 1942 that they had a potential icon in Bogie; but I'd bet that they didn't, cuz if they had, there's no way they'd have agreed to Henreid's condition -- unless it's just that Henreid was this amazing actor they really loved and were absolutely dying for him to do the part, in which case either: Henreid's capabilities were severely overestimated by WB, or Henreid delivered a vastly subpar performance; or Henreid just had the terrible misfortune of being grouped with Bogie and Bergman (IMO, each would deliver one of the Top 10 performances of all-time by an actor and actress respectively, in Casablanca).

[Groggy]

I would assume because Heinreid was already an established star.

[Novecento]

Nah, there is a new model since summer. And of course 1080p Full HD.

Must be different territories then. Here 1080p plasmas start at 50" now. I was looking for a 42 or 46 but ended up having to convince my wife that 50" wasn't too big

Got mine for half the price.

 Nicely done

[Novecento]

That's not true according to nearly everyone I talked with recently. I even started a poll in a forum. Plasma is still the superior technology if you want the best picture quality, especially if you want to watch mainly movies on it. And when I compared TVs in the shops plasma looked indeed more natural than the LCD/LED stuff.
Only disadvantage is indeed a higher power consumption, but that costs only a fly-shit over a year. And you can't get a plasma beneath 42".

So I have bought me a Panasonic 42 " plasma recently.

I read a great description somewhere saying it's basically a Mac vs PC thing. Two completely different technologies trying to do essentially the same thing.

[chris]

I've seen and experienced all three technologies Plasma, LCD & LED.  Plasma are the cheapest, price to screen size, but are heavier and more bulky and some say they used to be the least reliable.  Some of the older LCD TVs are not as bright as the Plasmas, blur fast action and have a fairly narrow viewing angle.  LEDs may be slightly ahead at present.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387377,00.asp

 

[moviesceleton]

Ted (2012) - 7/10
The basic idea is overly simplistic - now I only have to decide if it's genius or underestimating the audience... I was entertained, but also bothered by the notion that the script is formulaic beyond belief. Robert McKee would be proud. Good jokes but a rather stupid plot.

[Groggy]

Jesse James - 6/10 - Heavy on cliches and old-fashioned silliness, but beautifully shot and well-cast.

[drinkanddestroy]

Jesse James - 6/10 - Heavy on cliches and old-fashioned silliness, but beautifully shot and well-cast.

IMO This is an 8/10 movie.

Stagecoach is often cited as the earliest great sound Western (correctly IMO), but Jesse James -- released about a month earlier -- was the first really good Western, and the first really good color Western.

The color is very poor; I don't know if this film has undergone a serious re-mastering.

I also really liked the sequel with Fonda, The Return of Frank James.

[stanton]

Stagecoach is often cited as the earliest great sound Western (correctly IMO),

Ain't that The Virginian (Victor Fleming - 1929)?
Or The Big Trail (Raoul Walsh), or Law and Order, or Billy the Kid (King Vidor), or The Plainsman (Cecil B. De Mille)?

But King's classic Jesse James gets also a 8/10 for me

[dave jenkins]

It was Gaumont crime flick day at MoMA yesterday and I bagged the limit.
Serie Noir (1979) 9/10. Alain Corneau adapts a Jim Thompson novel, to great effect. Patrick Dewaere gives a wonderfully over-the-top performance as a homicidal salesman who kills for money and a girl. He doesn't get the money, but maybe things will work out with the girl. At times this resembles a Bertrand Blier film, probably due to the presence of Dewaere, but maybe also because Blier's famous father is in the cast. I wish I were francophone enough to appreciate Georges Perecs' dialog.

36 (2004) 4/10. Olivier Marchal's stab at cop drama. The excellent premise (2 department heads compete, playing both fair and foul, for a promotion) is squandered amidst ever-more ridiculous events and an annoying score that produces bathos.

Les Lyonnais/ A Gang Story (2011) 8/10. A much, much better Olivier Marshal picture, possibly because it's based on a true story, but also undoubtedly due to the fact that structurally it leans heavily on OUATIA. There is even a theme about male friendship and betrayal.

[noodles_leone]

It was Gaumont crime flick day at MoMA yesterday and I bagged the limit.
Serie Noir (1979) 9/10. Alain Corneau adapts a Jim Thompson novel, to great effect. Patrick Dewaere gives a wonderfully over-the-top performance as a homicidal salesman who kills for money and a girl. He doesn't get the money, but maybe things will work out with the girl. At times this resembles a Bertrand Blier film, probably due to the presence of Dewaere, but maybe also because Blier's famous father is in the cast. I wish I were francophone enough to appreciate Georges Perecs' dialog.

Deweare killed himself shortly after doing this movie. Claude Lelouche recently stated that Dewaere was probably so emotionaly involved with this movie that he couldn't have got unarmed. I'm not fond of basic psychology but given D's performance, it's very much possible. Anyay, he's the kind of actors that we lack here in France.

36 (2004) 4/10. Olivier Marchal's stab at cop drama. The excellent premise (2 department heads compete, playing both fair and foul, for a promotion) is squandered amidst ever-more ridiculous events and an annoying score that produces bathos.

... you forgot the ridiculous and annoying everything else. Performances, camerawork, dialogues... Which is a shame because when it was released I remember thinking "At last, a French movie that will not look/feel like a TV movie".

Les Lyonnais/ A Gang Story (2011) 8/10. A much, much better Olivier Marshal picture, possibly because it's based on a true story, but also undoubtedly due to the fact that structurally it leans heavily on OUATIA. There is even a theme about male friendship and betrayal.

I have not seen it. If you maintain your 8/0 I'll give it a shot. I really didn't like anything else by Marchal, but if you rate 36 so low, then, I may agree with you on that one.