Seen any good films lately? [3]

I cant remember off hand- and not an old film as such- but did Arnies' Conan have the ringing swords- I cant recall

What about the Eroll Flynn era Robin Hood films, there were quite a lot of those from all the studious at the time.

It wouldn't surprise me to discover it first appears in radio. A hanger on for the days of radio dram- as I can see how having a 'swords drawn' noise would be useful in that medium.

No, Errol Flynn's 1938 Robin Hood is actually a very carefully made movie, and the swords sort of a "thuff" sound as they're drawn.  

There follow a whole bunch of knockoffs in the 40's and 50's with Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Tyrone Power, Ronald Coleman, etc. where the soundtracks are pretty haphazard for the sword fights. Like 3 or 4 guys banging prop swords, garden tools and trashcan lids together while french horns play rousing martial music. It's pretty cheesy but I can't help loving it!

You're probably right that this is the old radio school of sound affects, but the thing is, it's not standardized. The same sword may appear to go ringgg, clank, or thud depending on which garden implement happened to be in the guy's hand at the time (apologies to any old foley artists lurking here.)  

So if you want a consistent Shiiinnnggg! you're going to have to look later.

Note: 'Seven Samurai' katanas go "thack" like bamboo when they're drawn.

So for now, my Quest continues.

Maybe it started outin film as a comedy sfx. Would makes sense they used a lot of experimental sounds in early comedy.
What about Laurel and Hardy? The Foreign Legion one has swords I think. Is it a talkie though?

I think we're looking for later than that. The sound quality in the 1930's is pretty murky (remember the technology is less than 10 years old) and the sound effects not so sophisticated. Audiences were happy if they could hear most of the words, and music filled most of the voids.

It's really after WWII that they start having the tools to really cut and splice a good soundtrack. I'm going to keep looking into the 50's and 60's, but it's going to require buying a few more $1 used movies on Amazon. (Thanks for the excuse! )

Here to help!

But the 50's and 60's sees you into sand and sandals territory- there are thousands of those buggers!

Well I watched The Double (2013, not the 2011) the other night.

It starred Jesse Eisenberg (talking even faster than before), Mia Wasikowska, the loveable Wallace Shawn (Vizzini from The Princess Bride), Yasmin Paige, Noah Taylor (Locke, from Game of Thrones, among other more respectable roles).

I quite liked it!
It was set in a dystopian future of 80's computers and eternal night (not that you really notice that or that it's emphasized, everything's just always happening at night). Apparently the story is adapted from a Dostoevsky novel, so the script was co-written by the director, Richard Ayoade.

I know him from Submarine, which is an absolutely excellent movie if you ever get the chance to see it. It's odd and familiar at the same time, with a mixture of teenage malice and adorableness. I was quite delighted to find most of the cast of that film reprised  roles in this film. Paddy Considine, for example, plays a ludicrously poorly-acted sci-fi action star that has brief cameos on televisions in the film.

The musical score was very good I think. Ayoade used to be a music video director, and just like in Submarine (the score of which is an endearing original production by Arctic Monkey's lead singer Alex Turner) this is obvious from his mastery of the mish-mash of images and music. One scene stands out to me in particular: in it, the steady strike of a dramatic composition for the strings perfectly matched the passage of fence-posts as they passed by the walking actor.

The score is mostly dramatic string-work which accentuates the film's brooding imagery and dark story. Alongside the dark themes, however, is a lot of deadpan (and just bizarre) comedy that is accentuated by several 1960/70s? Japanese pop tracks that really lighten the mood of the film and leave you with a satisfied feeling afterwards. Really it's very similar to Submarine in that sense.

My favourite parts of the film were the cinematography, Eisenberg and Wasikowksa's performances, the various delightful cameos that kept showing up (my favourite was Yasmin Paige as a moody secretary, and the light and dark score.

In other words, most of the film.

P.S.
It was kind of like Brazil, but without the cannibalism, warfare, graphic violence, dream sequences (although Paddy Considine's television show filled that role somewhat), and ending.

I watched a really rubbish film last night. Snow White and the Huntsman. garbage. Kristen Stewart totally over-rated.

What were you expecting!


On another note, the film for which Kristen Stewart won the Cesar, Clouds of Sils Maria, is just coming out in theatres here in the U.S.
I'm curious as to whether you'll enjoy that performance either.

All this Philip Glass has reminded me of a movie I saw a long time ago that uses his violin concerto as the soundtrack.



I think I may have rented the DVD on Netflix back before they had streaming. I only watched it once, but I remember it being really good.

Ooooo, I love quirky films like that

Forest Shepherd wrote:

What were you expecting!

whatever it was I didn't get it.

Forest Shephed wrote:It was kind of like Brazil, but without the cannibalism, warfare, graphic violence, dream sequences (although Paddy Considine's television show filled that role somewhat), and ending.

Brazil had cannibalism?

halfwise wrote:

Forest Shephed wrote:It was kind of like Brazil, but without the cannibalism, warfare, graphic violence, dream sequences (although Paddy Considine's television show filled that role somewhat), and ending.

Brazil had cannibalism?

That's all you found to respond to?

It's been a while since I actually watched Brazil, so I might be misremembering that detail. I guess the strong visuals of the woman's body dissolving or falling apart or whatever it did at the funeral combined with the disturbing dinner scenes left me with an impression of cannibalism. I mean, really, in a sense the film did contain cannibalism, albeit a sort of metaphorical cannibalism as a description of how society functions. Reaching?

Reaching.

Gilliam said the film was about the banality of evil, how people just go along with it because that's what society does. I suppose cannibalism would be a nice example of this, but saying Brazil is about cannibalism is like saying a Pepsi commercial is about candy, because both are sweet.

Well both contain heavily processed sugars, so...

Anyway, 4 out of 5 correct at least.

I watched A Most Violent Year last night over at my sister's house. She and her fiance fell asleep about three-quarters of an hour into the movie, but I really enjoyed it.
It falls into the same category of social-critique, self-aware American filmmaking that films like Syriana, American Gangster, or any of the classic mafia films (Goodfellas, etc.).

It felt very much like a morality play, but set in New York City in the early 1980s. The main character was surrounded by unavoidable corruption, deceit and violence that he tries to keep himself clear of throughout the film. Not that the story is broken down along simple black and white lines, of course. Ultimately, well you should watch the movie if you want to see what ultimately happens to the main character's struggle with evil.

I liked that the film was surprisingly nonviolent considering its title (well, relatively speaking, for it's genre). Thankfully it was more concerned with presenting the ethical struggles and determination of the main character than showcasing violent crime for shock value. In that sense it stood out to me from other less interesting, but similar, movies.

I watched "Calvary" today, ( staring Brendan Gleeson ) I forget now but, was it Forest who  also likes Gleeson ? but anyhoo,

Spoiler:

Forest and I both like Gleeson as well, I think. I just saw The Guard recently and he mentioned/recommended Calvary (can't remember if Forest has seen it himself yet) and it's definitely on my list of films to get to.

Hi Eldo, I liked "The Guard" thought it was very natural. The ending to "Calvary" was not what I expected

Calvary was very good.

Its main shortcoming was just how far the film took the idea of communal prejudice against Gleeson's priest character. I understand the toxic sort of response people can have to an institution like the Irish Catholic church with its history of abuse, but the extent to which nearly everyone in the movie had a heavily negative response to the church was overdone in the film.

On the other hand, this emphasis on the hidden pain and suffering of the community works as a metaphor for the greater theme of human suffering. By focusing only on the people in this community that are in pain because of the church or who feel like the Gleeson's character has nothing to offer them, the film stresses the ways in which the church has failed: and this makes for interesting and meaningful viewing.

But not everything was unpleasant. There are moments of redemption in the film as well, and these feel so good amidst the unpleasantness and cruelty of the rest of the story that they make up for everything else, in my opinion. Even just the moment near the end of the movie when Gleason tells the aging author that "he really is a talented writer." And the author, taken aback at such a plain-faced compliment from this guy who usually mocks his work in a humorous Irish sort of way, is pleasantly surprised and grateful. He feels the value of his long friendship with the priest, and, I imagine, spends the rest of the day with a cheery outlook on life and a smile on his face (which means quite a lot for the author, who feels that life has little left to offer him).

I really liked its dark themes, as I feel they made the film more powerful. This came at the expense of believability perhaps, but it's worth it in the end.

Has anybody else seen Scotland PA? It's not really a good movie, but....
well it's an adaptation of Macbeth... set in a fast food restaurant...in the 1970's...with Christopher Walken...playing Columbo.  The director says of it that the fans he wrote it for were "the ones that were reading the [Macbeth] Cliff Notes and getting stoned."

It's one of those that is sometimes pretty good, sometimes really bad, and sometimes so bad that it comes full circle back to good again.  I give it one thumbs up, one thumbs down.

How come I can find a podunk film like Scotland, PA on Netflix, but not Ragtime?

Rewatched In the Loop- a spin off film from the political tv satire The Thick of It (and from the people who then went on to make Veep in the US). Its basically about the Iraq war in all but name, its a war in the ME, and hawks on both sides of the Atalntic are for it and Doves against and accidentally finding himself in the middle is a useless MP of a unimportant department.
Its at its best when its comparing the two political systems but its not as good as the tv series, which I highly recommend.

In the Loop-



The Thick of It (where you will meet the unforgettable Malcolm Tucker and his attack dog Jamie)-

NSFW

Love the Caledonian Mafia.

Has anyone here seen Ex Machina? I first heard of it when someone posted the trailer for it on here and was really intrigued. Its been out for a bit but I went to see it today and was really impressed. It definitely succeeded at making me think and had some really good performances. I already liked Oscar Isaac from Drive, but it was nice to see that Domnhall Gleeson can act well too when he's given a chance (which he didn't really get in Deathly Hallows). And I'd never heard of Alicia Vikander but she was phenomenal.

Definitely recommend this to anyone with an interest in science fiction or sophisticated, serious movies in general. I sort of cringe at saying "sophisticated" because I didn't find the movie snooty or faux-deep for its own sake. It has an interesting story that meshes naturally with the philosophical ideas of AI that it wants to explore, and is well-shot and just the right amount of creepy to boot.