| Archive for langcafe2.myfreeforum.org Come in and have your daily cup of languages! |
| André in Zuid-Afrika |
Your favourite movieI have quite a few... right now, Brokeback Mountain, of course... :wink: |
||||
| Elaine |
Re: Your favourite movie
But that movie was so sad. :cry: I would have to think about this one since there are so many good ones to choose from. Hmmm... Oh, I know... Ice Castles! 
:lol: :lol: :lol: |
||||
| André in Zuid-Afrika |
Re: Your favourite movie
Hmmmm. :wink: I'm watching another of my favourites on DVD now...Under the Tuscan Sun |
||||
| Deborah |
One favorite movie? It's impossible to say. But I've watched North By Northwest more times than any other movie, partly because I happen to have taped it from TV many years ago. Same for Some Like It Hot. I can certainly say that those are among my favorites.
I think This Is Spinal Tap is about as perfect a movie as I've ever seen. I've found something to criticize in just about every movie I've seen, but not Tap. |
||||
| Walker |
What about Flash Gordon?
We had it on tape when I was a kid and I saw it a number of times. Seriously, though, one film that I've seen a number of times that's good is Schindler's List. It's one of my favorites. One of the best comedies of all time is Picassos Äventyr The Adventures of Picasso. Trivia for Picassos Äventys from imdb.
|
||||
| KSa |
Polish:
1. Ziemia obiecana (“The Promised Land”) by Andrzej Wajda 2. Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie (“The Manuscript Found in Saragossa”) by Wojciech J. Has 3. Iluminacja (“Illumination”) by Krzysztof Zanussi Non-Polish: 1. “The Seventh Seal” by I. Bergman 2. “Rear Window” by A. Hitchcock 3. “The Godfather” by F.F. Coppola 4. “Nosferatu” by W. Herzog 5. “Blade Runner” (director’s version) by R. Scott |
||||
| Benjamin [inactive] |
The Black Narcissus. It's about Anglo-Catholic nuns who open a hospital in India. | ||||
| Uriel |
Gosh, that's a tough one. I used to always say it was the Road Warrior, but one must move on with the times, and I'm not 12 anymore ....
I really like the absurd, subversive humor of Fight Club. That movie was so robbed by mismarketing! The quirkiness of Beetlejuice, the rich gothic set piece of Sleepy Hollow. Shaun of the Dead, which managed to be an intelligent spoof of an inherently silly genre. Toy Story, which was so much better than it really needed to be. I enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek slickness of Oceans 11 (but hated Oceans 12). Deborah, have you seen Best in Show? What did you think? |
||||
| Loic |
I have no favourite films, but if I have to choose, it'd have to be this:
I must have watched it a dozen times, at least. I also had the Sega game to it where I had to play Simba. I also had minature figurines of the major characters of the film, except that horrible uncle Scar. Also, I played the Circle of Life for my music exam. Now, I understand why my favourite Shakespearan play is Hamlet. |
||||
| Deborah |
I did see it, unfortunately with someone who, I think, didn't even realize it was a mockumentary and loudly complained throughout the film. As a result, I didn't enjoy it as much as Christopher Guest's other mockumentaries, Waiting for Guffman and A Mighty Wind. I need to see it again. I'm looking forward to the next Guest movie, For Your Consideration, starring the usual cast along with Ricky Gervais of The Office. Speaking of Christopher Guest, I recently watched This Is Spinal Tap for the umpteenth time, although I hadn't seen it in a few years. What a great movie! What did you think of Best In Show, Uriel? |
||||
| Loic |
To the French members or anyone who has caught Indigènes, what do you think of it? Is it a good film?
I am going to the pictures next week and I was wondering if it should be on my list of must-watch. It would be nice to listen to the untold stories of WWII - of colonial regiments fighting a war that wasn't really theirs. Thinking about it makes my eyes water and I feel obliged to recite two poignantly memorable lines of Lord Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade: Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. |
||||
| Uriel |
I enjoyed Best in Show. I saw it with someone who also thought This is Spinal Tap was the pinnacle of comedy; that was a plus. For me, Spinal Tap was amusing, but nothing great -- except I was shocked to see Fran Drescher go on to make a career out of her obnoxious accent! But I love Catherine O'Hara -- have since Beetlejuice -- and it was fun just to watch her in Best of Show. Of course, as an ex-vet tech, I really wanted to neuter all those dogs, and I have a built-in dislike for breeders and purebred snobs, so ....
It's true, though, that when I think of Christopher Guest I invariably picture his cameo in Little Shop of Horrors! Loved that movie, too! I really haven't liked any Disney animation since The Aristocats. I hate the pop scores, and the storylines all seem trite. THe Mouse really needs to hand the baton over to Pixar. I never finished The Little Mermaid and I only vaguely remember The Lion King. I really think their heyday was a long time ago, and their period charm is one of their most appealing attributes -- updating it for the modern day has done them no favors. I feel the same way about Warner Brothers. I like that forties feel, I like the old slang, the period references, the sly plays on words. I like that it has a set place in time. When it was misguidedly modernized and sanitized a few years ago, it really lost all that charm. |
||||
| Deborah |
Uriel, I agree with you about the Disney animated features and the Warner Brothers cartoons. In fact, I didn't even like the Warner Brothers cartoons of the 1950s.
I also agree with you about Catherine O'Hara. I loved her in SCTV and everything else I've seen her in. In their commentary for A Mighty Wind, Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy were full of praise for her skills. And I loved Fred Willard's performances in the Christopher Guest series and in Spinal Tap. One of my favorite scenes in Waiting for Guffman was O'Hara's and Willard's audition scene. Doing intentionally bad acting without overding it requires a lot of skill. |
||||
| Elaine |
I've never seen The Lion King or The Little Mermaid (I just was never interested in seeing them), but I did see Beauty and the Beast and Little Nemo with my niece and I loved them!
On a separate note, I just watched a special on the handsome, talented, and sexy Gene Kelly, and it reminded me of two of my all-time favorite movies-- Singin' in the Rain (love everything about it!) and An American in Paris (beautiful ballet sequence), otherwise I'm not much into musicals except perhaps Westside Story and Sweet Charity (but only because of the wonderful dance numbers). 
|
||||
| André in Zuid-Afrika |
I love Lion King and Finding Nemo! But I agree, there was a charm about the old Disney movies that the later ones don't have. I remember seeing Jungle Book as a little boy, and was overjoyed when I finally found it on DVD last year. It's still as charming and beautiful as I remembered it.
|
||||
| Elaine |
Gosh, big enough for you?
Saw a wonderful oldie on AMC(?) the other day called Two for the Road starring Audrey Hepburn (fabulous as always!) and Albert Finney (didn't realize he was such a looker in his youth). Never seen it before-- loved it! 
|
||||
| Harrenys Targaryen |
By a descendant of the Eddas tellers, I say!
|
||||
| Deborah |
I saw Two For The Road in 1967 with a group of my fellow ballet students. My favorite part was the trip from hell with the progressive American parents (Elinor Bron and William Daniels) and their obnoxious kid.
I saw The Seagull's Laughter awhile back and enjoyed it very much. One movie that I can watch again and again without tiring of it is A Man For All Seasons (1966). The 1960s and '70s were a great time for British costume dramas. 
I suppose A Man For All Seasons is as good a choice as any for my favorite movie. |
||||
| Deborah |
The dance numbers are usually the only reason I like musicals. (With West Side Story, however, I also loved the entire score.) Singin' in the Rain has one of my favorite tap numbers, "Moses Supposes" with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor (I prefer the latter as a dancer). Uriel, I started watching Best In Show last night. It made such a difference to see it with the right audience -- namely, just me. I had the first of many laugh-out-loud moments with the shot of the supposedly traumatized Beatrice reclining in the shrink's office. What is it about Weimariners? I really like Parker Posey and John Michael Higgins in this movie. |
||||
| Uriel |
Well, the only Weimaraner I ever spent any quality time with was a vet's dog that I had to feed, and she was buck-wild and high-strung, but that's a gun dog for you -- especially a young one. The funny part about the one in Best In Show was that it didn't seem to have anything wrong with it at all -- normal canine behavior. Can't same the same for the owner....
I love old musicals, especially from the forties and fifties. Bring on the Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers numbers -- I agree, it's the dancing that makes the singing shine! They definitely had style back them, and beautiful costume design and set pieces. And I really like the big cast-of-thousands choreography pieces. Granted, I kind of like any impressive choreography -- the best parts of Drumline and Bring It On were when they knocked off the tedious dialogue and plot and just did their thang (a little like porn movies, really! :wink: ) I liked Finding Nemo a lot ... except for the three main characters, who were annoying as hell! That speaks to how good the rest of the movie was! Have yet to see Cars, but I hear it's wonderful, and those of my friends who are actual Nascar enthusiasts say that there are a thousand little racing in jokes that take it to an even higher level of funny if you know what they're referring to.... I will, uh, have to take their word for that. |
||||
| Loic |
How could I have forgotten about this classic:
Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, etc. How could I forget the Godfather.... |
||||
| Joanne |
Re: Your favourite movie
Officially, my favorite movie is Goodfellas, but I find myself watching You've Got Mail quite often when I'm on the treadmill. Don't tell anyone... :oops: :oops: :oops: I like Goodfellas, OK? :wink: |
||||
| fab |
" To the French members or anyone who has caught Indigènes, what do you think of it? Is it a good film? "
No, I haven't see it yet. I is hard to tell a favorite movie, I like so much different kind of movies... |
||||
| Uriel |
Hi, fab, good to see you. :)
I don't think I've ever seen any French movies, but I have to say that French actor Jean Reno is tons of fun to watch in every movie I've seen him in -- from the silly French Kiss to the wonderfully over-the-top violent The Professional (who'da thunk from that movie that Natalie Portman would grow up to be such a pretty girl? She was sort of an ugly little kid!) I love a good badass, I guess. Did see The Triplets of Belleville, which was IN French and SET in France, but I think the guy who made it was actually Canadian. Trippy movie. Didn't quite get it, but the concept and the animation were incredible! Oh, I lied, come to think of it -- I did see the Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pacte des Loups -- see, greg, no E!) I forgot it was French because I actually saw the English-dubbed version. Parts of it were pretty good (mostly any part with that Iroquois guy shirtless). Parts of it were crappy, and parts were sort of incomprehensible, but overall it was okay. |
||||
| Joanne |
I'm with you on Jean Reno, he's great at just about everything. I especially liked him in Ronin. Have you seen him in For Roseanna? He's just adorable in it, and he made me laugh and cry :D | ||||
| Uriel |
No, what's it about? | ||||
| Joanne |
Jean Reno plays an Italian man, Marcello, whose wife, Roseanna, is dying of a heart condition. Her last wish is to be buried next to their dead daughter. Unfortunately, the graveyard their daughter is buried in can only fit three more graves, so Marcello has to go to great (and funny) lengths to prevent people in his tiny town from dying before her.
The movie is also called Roseanna's Grave, and they show it on IFC every once in a while. |
||||
| Loic |
Comedian Jamel Debbouze looking wild-eyed as platoon sergeant Bernard Blancan and an algerian corporal argue over the meaning of what it is like for the colonial troops to fight for France. A brief synopsis of “Indigènes”: In 1944, an Algerian regiment was raised as village boys responded to clarion calls by General Charles de Gaulle to fight against Nazism as well as to liberate the French motherland. The Algerian lads responded enthusiastically and even joyeously, treating it as a sacrosanct duty to fight for la patrie. As Jamel Debbouze said to a French girl in Marseille in a bid to impress her: J’aime beaucoup mon pays…..même si je n’ai jamais vu. There were a few scenes in the movie which I found a little incredulous even if they had occurred: the Algerian regiment singing La Marseillaise passionately; the same regiment planting the French flag on top a captured knoll and shouting Vive la France; landing in metropolitan France and pausing to sniff at the soil and concluding that French soil is better than the one at home, etc. So the film might have exaggerated the patriotism of this regiment for cinematic effects. But it recognised the contributions of the African troops in WWII. It was good storytelling. It also made me wonder about the hypothetical scenario where Algeria is still an overseas French département - it is not a spurious possibility but a serious likelihood when one pauses to consider that a simple majority of Algerians were indifferent to continued French rule just after the end of WWII. |
||||
| Elaine |
One of my favorite Bob Fosse dance numbers is the three part Rich Man's Frug from "Sweet Charity". It might seem hokey now, but when I was a young, impressionable girl, I so wanted to be the girl with the ponytail:
The Aloof The Heavyweight The Big Finish |
||||
| Pauline |
I tried post this message before, but it disappeared !!
here i will try again. i didn't watched much movies because i not like tv, or the cinema, but my favourite ones are : comedy : le Placard it's very, very funny !!! general : the english patient beautiful music, scenery and captivating story |
||||
| Deborah |
Yeah, she was great! When I first got a VCR, I taped just the dance numbers from Sweet Charity. I can do without the rest of the movie. As far as hokeyness goes, I think it almost looked more hokey in 1969 than it does now. The original Broadway show opened in the mid-60s, and Fosse's choreography is (loosely) based on the social dancing of that time. By 1969, when the movie came out, no one danced like that anymore. |
||||
| Deborah |
If you happen to watch "The Heavyweight", you should know that the music and movement aren't synched here -- the music is a couple of beats behind the dancing. |
||||
| Porthos |
Hey Deb, what part of bay city do you live in? I love San Francisco! It's just such an awesome town. Beautiful, cold crisp, oceanside weather, great food, great shopping. You can't beat it. Except for the fact that you guys have the hated Giants for a baseball team. Giants Suck!!!! 
|
||||
| Elaine |
Oh that makes sense. I did notice upon watching it again after all these years, the mod fashions already looked dated by 1969 standards. |
||||
| Deborah |
In Bernal Heights, across the street from Holly Park. That's two blocks east and up the hill from Mission Street, at around Cortland Street, if that means anything to you (it's a few blocks south of 30th Street). It's nice because it's in the sun belt (i.e., the fog clears away most days in the summer). And it's close to a part of Mission Street that has a lot of good foreign restaurants (in addition to the profusion of Mexican restaurants, which I don't even think of as foreign). |
||||
| Deborah |
I highly recommend renting/buying the DVDs of Creature Comforts. The first DVD contains the complete first season plus the original short feature. The second DVD contains the second season plus a Christmas special.
This link is to the original short: http://youtube.com/watch?v=P3AAdkfiamU And this one is to the Creature Comforts web page at BBC America: http://www.bbcamerica.com/genre/c...re_comforts/creature_comforts.jsp |
||||