Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[drinkanddestroy]

Speaking of Robert Mitchum and noir, I just have to quote that great line he told Roger Ebert at a noir festival (paraphrased): You guys call it film noir or whatever; back then, we just called them B-Pictures :-)))))

[stanton]

Yes CJ, as I mentioned, there's lots of night scenes, has that noir look, but I wouldn't call it a "noir Western" - in the way STATION WEST is a real noir Western, with a real noir story. BLOOD ON THE MOON is only noir in its look, with the b/w night scenes; but the story is classic Western. Maybe you could call Mitchum somewhat of a noir character with a conflicted past or whatever, but IMO that is going a little crazy. This is a regular Western with some noir lighting.... And yes, stanton, IMO the only thing that elevates this movie slightly above run of the mill AW's is the solid cast. Otherwise, it's the typical land squabble, rancher vs. homesteader, good guy vs. bad guy stuff. Nothing special in how it's made, not a single scene in which I said "Wow," yes, IMO this is a run of the mill Western with a very solid cast

The atmosphere and the directing is far superior to an ordinary western. And then there are more interesting characters than usual and a tense sense for violence. This is definitely an unusual film for the late 40s. 

[stanton]

La vie d’Adèle – chapitres 1&2  - Abdellatif Kechiche

I like these kind of films which have an almost realistic feel, in which I the actors seem not to act but to be. The landscape Kechiche explores is the human face, so the film is filled with lots of close-ups. and the 2 leads are very good. But I wasn't fascinated by the style. The actresses create the emotions, while in other films (which I prefer) the director does this with the actors. Entertaining stuff. 8/10

The elaborated sex scenes are btw not erotic ...

... and they shouldn't have changed the title to Blue is the Warmest Color

[noodles_leone]

"Blue is the warmest color" is actually the title if the comic book the movie is based on.

Anyway, I rest my case:

Still, I'm not saying that Blue is that bad. I'd give it 5/10. Kechiche is not a bad director. He's mostly overrated and I believe his system has strong limitations.

The goal of the movie is to show a lesbian love story (how it starts, how it goes, how it ends, how it changes the people involved) in all the realism possible. Kechiche's way of obtaining this is by letting his actors improvise for 5 months (actual figure), and then not cutting enough of it. The problem with this is that the camerawork is lazy (95% of the shots are just close up in 200mm) and most scenes don't go anywhere and have mediocre dialogues (just everyday dialogues FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO PERSONALITY. If you follow me with a camera for 5 months, you'll get more interesting stuff, not because I'm great, just because I'm above that particular level of emptiness. I don't spend my time only saying "Yes. Thank you. Lol."). You have to organise a little if you want a scene to tell something. When the actress improvise based on a detailed script, it changes everything. The break up and a couple crucial scenes are done this way and you have the feeling to have something to follow and understand here.

Another problem of the film is that it's superficial. Tells you nothing about love and break up. And nothing about gay couples either. People are just caricatures (see: the 2 consecutive diners with the parents) who tell nothingness and ridiculous symboles.
Example? Ok, example. The older lesbian loves oysters. The younger one doesn't (SPOILER: in the end, she likes it too). This is heavy symbolism, right? Now Kechiche didn't think "heavy" was enough so he kept the following improvisation from his actresses:
- "IT MAKES ME THINK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE" (LOL LOL XXX)
- "I'D RATHER NOT KNOW!!!!" (SO TOTALLY LMAO)
I so totally didn't see that coming that I did totally vomit when all this mediocrity was thrown at my face.

Last but not least, I'd be ok with all this if the film felt utterly realistic. It doesn't. To be fair, it DOES from time to time: a nice smile here, a head move there, a whole scene (wow!!!) once... Some young students talk like real young students (which means that most of the other actors DON'T talk like real people)... And that's it. 5 months of intense work (some say "torture") to get a few hints at reality here and there? I call this complete failure, especially because it's supposed to be the biggest asset of the movie.

I'm not crazy about the Dardenne brothers or Cimino, but there is far far more reality (and deepness) in any shot of the Dardenne brothers or from the first 40 minutes of Deer Hunter than in the 3 hours of Blue Is The Warmest Color. These are 2 very different kinds of movies but if you want to get "reality" you cannot just put a 200mm in the face of a (bad) actress without personality and without a script, and then just wait and expect something will happen.

[stanton]

"Blue is the warmest color" is actually the title if the comic book the movie is based on.

I know, but he changed the title, and as I have read he also changed a lot more. For example in the film Emma is the stronger of the 2, but not so in the comic. And the girl isn't named Adèle in the comic.

Isn't the correct translation of the comic title Blue is a Warm Color?

Noodles, I disagree with most what you write about the film's realism. Not completely though.

[noodles_leone]

And the girl isn't named Adèle in the comic.

Yes, he chanegd it because of the actress (and the fact that he changed the character: Adele is now playing almost herself).

Isn't the correct translation of the comic title Blue is a Warm Color?

Yes, that would be the most literal translation. In English, "Blue is the Warmest Color" sounds better to me than "Blue is a Warm Color". If they had to keep the original idea, they got it right.
You're probably right though, for artistic reasons, the title had to change from the original work. The comic was based on the color blue, the film only keeps it in here and there:


More images, some are slightly NSFW: https://www.google.fr/search?q=bleu+est+une+couleur+chaude&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=--zgUrrMBuuX0AX8noG4CQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=979

Now, the title that would have been the most consistent with the movie itself would have been "Adèle", plain and simple: we don't see that much about her life, we see a lot about herself. IMO, that's the main thing the film focuses on. "La Vie d'Adèle" sounds a bit pretentious to me, and isn't what we see on screen. Anyway, it's an ok title, I will not fight against it I just like the posters with the English title, they're all much better than what we got here:

Noodles, I disagree with most what you write about the film's realism. Not completely though.

Do you mean that you disagree with most of my ideas or that you kind of agree but would be far far less radical?

[cigar joe]

I Walked With A Zombie (1943) A Val Lewton produced Jacques Tourneur directed thriller/horror flick great atmospherics/music. 8/0

[drinkanddestroy]

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT 8/10 (2nd viewing)... SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS.... I still have no idea how Tibbs solved the murder - how he connected the girl's pregnancy to the murder, how he knew she would be getting an abortion and that the guy who pays for it is the killer. (And btw, why the hell would the girl get an abortion after the police chief knows she is pregnant? Wouldn't he then know she had an abortion? But that is an unrelated point.) Main thing is I don't see any reason Tibbs would have to connect the impregnation (is that a word?) of the girl to the murder of the businessman, and figure that the businessman must have been killed for $ for an abortion. (or maybe the writers weren't all that concerned with having the solving of the murder make that much sense, since that really is not the point of the movie; it's not a murder mystery, but a racial drama)

[stanton]

I Walked With A Zombie (1943) A Val Lewton produced Jacques Tourneur directed thriller/horror flick great atmospherics/music. 8/0

Incredible film. I was blown away by it's beauty last time I watched it. And it really can generate a horror feeling. 10/10

[dave jenkins]

La vie de boheme (1992) - 10/10. Aki Kaurismäki adapts and updates the famous novel and nods at Puccini en passant. Filmed with high-contrast b&w photography, every frame is a slice of cake. There's plenty of humor baked in, but all the pathos remains. Jean-Pierre Leaud, Louis Malle, and Samuel Fuller provide amusing cameos. Criterion's Blu-ray must be seen to be believed.

[cigar joe]

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT 8/10 (2nd viewing)... SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS.... I still have no idea how Tibbs solved the murder - how he connected the girl's pregnancy to the murder, how he knew she would be getting an abortion and that the guy who pays for it is the killer. (And btw, why the hell would the girl get an abortion after the police chief knows she is pregnant? Wouldn't he then know she had an abortion? But that is an unrelated point.) Main thing is I don't see any reason Tibbs would have to connect the impregnation (is that a word?) of the girl to the murder of the businessman, and figure that the businessman must have been killed for $ for an abortion. (or maybe the writers weren't all that concerned with having the solving of the murder make that much sense, since that really is not the point of the movie; it's not a murder mystery, but a racial drama)

Its a great film, caught just a part of it the other day on TCM will have to do a re-watch before I can comment.

[dave jenkins]

Drink is right, though. The plot doesn't make sense.

[Groggy]

I mostly like Heat for Steiger and Poitier. The actual story is pretty dull and the racial angle hasn't aged well.

[drinkanddestroy]

Steiger and Poitier are real good, and so is Warren Oates. I also like how the movie captures the hick town, like the crappy police station (in which the chief makes less in a month than a Philadephia detective makes in a week), the shitty lunch counter, etc.

[drinkanddestroy]

No Other Woman (1933) 7.5/10

I've always love watching Irene Dunne. Wikipedia says she has been described as the best actress never to win an Academy Award, and who am I to argue with Wikipedia?