AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

So far I've liked and really loved all the movies on the list but the network is coming in from netflix probably tommorrow. There are a few movies on the list that are kind of meh for me, the two that come to mind are American in Paris(Loved Singing in the Rain but this just felt like a rehash of that formula) and Rebel Without a Cause which is horribly dated and pales in comparison to Blackboard Jungle in my opinion.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

The Third Man
Directed by Carol Reed
Rating 5/5

I'm a sucker for Noir, what can I say, one of my favorite movies is "The Big Sleep". I like this because it seems to break free of some the noir formula, one of my problems with the movie Chinatown was it felt just like every other noir movie. First off I love the look of the film, the very depressing look of the whole city, really adds to the atmosphere. It reminded me quite a bit of Fritz Lang's "M" (1933) in turns of the look and style of the film, there very similiar. I like this film also because of the great acting, Joseph Cotton is awesome as always, and the characters. Though the police chief is somewhat two dimensional, I like the complexity of Cotton's character along with the female. Over-all great film, and now one of my favorites :up:

Next 2 Afi Movies I have rented are Network and Amadeus.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Listen, when women go wrong, men go right after them


She Done Him Wrong introduced the world to Mae West’s world ([i]Why don’t you come up sometime and see me? I’m home every night.”) as she blatantly and wantonly uses men for her own purposes—both monetarily and sexually. The movie is filled from beginning to end with wonderful one-liners (almost all containing sexual references: “Have you ever seen a man who could make you happy?” “Sure, lots of times.”).

Cary Grant is the (one of many) boy toy and is mostly as uninteresting as the plot. Watch this one for an over the top Mae West, the dialogue and a couple of the most suggestive songs ever sung on the silver screen.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

Steve McQueen stars as the wealthy bored titular character that plans and executes a bank robbery, just for the thrill and fn of it. Faye Dunaway, as the insurance investigator, quickly realises that he was the man behind the caper, and so the two begin to dance around each other, falling for each other while competing to see who will ultimately win and catch who.

A mere trifle of a film, nothing important at al, but it's good fun. McQueen (unsurprisingly) oozes cool in his role, openly taking pleasure in the dance. Dunaway also gives a very good performance. The film does feel terribly dated at times - witness the frequent use of split screen, which sometimes does illuminate aspects, but often is just done just for the cool effect. It's not a film I'll remember in 20 years, but it was definitely enjoyable to watch.

As for the song, "The Windmills of Your Mind", which put the film in the AFI Lists? I didn't like it when I first heard it, but it has stayed with me over the past 24 hours, and the more I think about it, singing it silently in my head, the more I like it.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Well, I started and didn't post anything yet so, here it is. I will rarely make comments because I have so little time as it is to watch movies and thats my main goal. But, feel free to ask me what I thought of a movie. I'll be glad to then discuss it if somebody else would like to.

Cheers.

Movies: 4, last seen: Singin' In The Rain Laughs: 1, last seen: Singin' In The Rain Passions: 2, last seen: Singin' In The Rain Thrills: 1, last seen: High Noon Heroes & Villians: 1, last seen: High Noon(Will Kane) Songs: 5, last seen: Singin' In The Rain(3 songs) Quotes: 1, last seen: Citizen Kane(Rosebud) Scores: 1, last seen: High Noon Cheers: 1, last seen: High Noon Stars: 5, last seen: Singin' In The Rain(Gene Kelly)

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

What's Up, Doc?

Peter Bogdanovich paid tribute to the great screwball comedies with What's Up, Doc? And the end result it pretty damned enjoyable. Sure, it's insanely contrived, even more so than most screwball comedies (and the genre is known for its absurd contrivance), but a nice sparking wit and winning performance by Barbara Streisand (who I have never before liked), along with a well-measured pace that never really allows you time to breathe, made the film an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon. And I have to highlight Madeline Kahn, who really is wonderful here in her film debut. Well deserved inclusion on the Laughs list, although I'm not sure about its inclusion in the Passions list - there just wasn't quite that passionate spark that I felt was needed for that list. Still, a wonderful film, and well worth watching.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

All About Eve
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Rating: 5/5
What an amazingly sweet movie! So I'm hitting the homestretch when it comes to AFI best 100 movies, and so I'm hitting all those movies I put off, I thought this was going suck but it turned out to be just dandy. All About Eve tells the story of a star-struck fan, Eve Harrigton(Anne Baxter), getting to meet her idol, Actress Margo Channing(Bette Davis), and then having to chance to work for her, it then shows her descention of morals and her rise to the top.
First off this is a writer's movie much akin to last years hit, "Crash" (2005), which means the focus is on the writing and the performances, nothing really amazing caught my eye cinematically. The writing in this movie is sharp, the characters are poignant, real, and complex. I like the way the movie is told, it's told through various perspectives but narriation is never used as a crutch but more as a way to give an inside look into complex characters. I like how every character has a certain charatistic they play to, and none of the characters are the same, there all different, and play off each other.

The writing truely is sharp, it sets up the story with an innocent girl, and seems to villainize Margo Channing, but it simply playing with our prejudices and our love for the underdog, but soon as the movie turns we understand Margo better, and realize that brute and downright rude outer appearance is nothing more than a husk for the fragile yet volatile creature that lurks beneath. And the opposite is true for Eve. And then the pay-off/climax scene is perhaps now one of my favorite scenes ever because the script perfectly built up to it and when Eve gets her comeuppance, I was literally cheering at the screen.

Another strong point is the cast, the cast in this movie is excellent. The best complement I think you can give an actor is when they've seamlessly become that person on the screen and have brought him/her to life. And George Sanders gives a performance that ranks up there for me with Alex Gueiness's in "Bridge on the River Kwai". All in all excellent film :up:
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Gone with the Wind
Directed by Victor Fleming
Rating:4/5

This movie is perhaps one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen, some of the visuals are just beautiful, and the two most striking visuals would be. The end of act 2, right before the intermission, the famous line is said "God as my witness I'll never starve again", the silhouette of her set against the setting sun and then the scene of all the dead/injured men of the confederacy with the confederate flag in the foreground is a great shot. The grandeur of the movie is simply stunning from the elaborate costumes to the multitudes of sets and landscapes. So let me say that the biggest strength of the movie is its beauty of the “glorious south”.

The movie tells the tale of the death of the south due to the civil war, it tells it through the eyes of naïve daughter of the south, the belle of the ball, and a girl who’s got frivolous ideas of love and romance, and how all that is set asunder by the war. One of the things I like about the movie is its very contained cast of characters; mostly everyone in the movie is introduced within the first thirty minutes, and there arcs are followed throughout the rest of the movie. The leading lady does a damn fine job, and her character is very compelling, her story of torment and anguish is compelling partly because as you see her fall, you’re saying to yourself it’s her own damn fault, hence making the last line of the movie very impact. As for the four hour run-time it’s an entertaining movie that manages to hold one’s attention for the entire four hour run, and the entire four hours is used very wisely since it shows in detail the fall from grace of a once belle of the south.

Is this on my favorite list of movies now? No. Was I disappointed considering all the hype and ranking it gets? No. Any movie that successfully holds your interest for four hours, and doesn’t waste any time or feel like it could be shorter, is a damn good movie in my book. It’s a great story with beautiful visuals, the reason I’d rank it at only an eight is for two reasons. Some parts are far too “Hollywood” and hokey for my tastes and two for such a long movie with complex characters, it doesn’t have the depth I feel it should, I wish it had packed a little more into it. Other than that it’s a solid flick :up:
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Modern Times
Directed by Charlie Chaplin
Rating: 4/5

This is the second Chaplin film I've seen, the first being City Lights (1931). One of the most enduring traits of the film is that it's a silent film produce nearly a decade after sound had been introduced to the movies, Jazz Singer (1927), but the film itself uses a syncronized audio track. It's much akin to the Silly Syphonies cartoon short "Skeleton Dance" (1929), in which sound is used more for atmosphere and jokes, rather than to push the plot forward. There are a few actual parts where character speak but these are few and far in between.

First off the comedy still holds up after all these years though it's most likely lost that edge that all comedy has of breaking boundaries, though the coke scene is hilarious. Also being a child of this add ridden culture doesn't help when most shots the same and the editing style is slighty boring so it ends up being a very slow down pace. But other than the very slow pace of the film it's great.

The sets are awesome, the sets of the factory's equipment is very cool indeed. And some of the jokes of the culture at the time is very interesting to watch, and to boot the plot is good too. All in all, solid film and a must see :up:
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Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Love all about eve, for most of the same reasons and I respect and dislike gone with the wind for the sam reasons, incredible production values (good for William Cameron Menzies) but really loath Scarlett. I need to watch Modern times again as I've had the DVD for years and haven't spun it up.

Adam

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

I really like Chaplin because he's just that kind of loveable charactere who gets into all types of mischief, I think I like City Lights more out of the two films I've seen. As for Scarlett she is a dispicable character but I love how it shows when people are push to the limits things that could happen, I mean her father goes insane and Ashley becomes a self-depricating loser

2001: Space Odyssey
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Rating: 4/5

After watching "2001: A Space Odyssey", I was like "WTF", then I went online to find out what the monoliths were. Then I learned they were devices that helped man evolve and I was like, holy **** the entire movie make sense now! THAT WAS AWESOME! This movie is proclaimed by a lot of people as the most boring movie ever made, I disagree, once you get use to the episodic nature, and that it's working a much larger, more grander storyline, that doesn't involve one single character, it flows better. Don't get me wrong I'm too much a child of my time to be tottally engaged the entire time. Half my reviews read... "This was really slow" because I come from a generation of video games and movies that make a **** load of cuts so it harder to focus, but over-all I was entertained and engaged. But it's a fasinating movie and I think it'll end up being like Brazil and Citizen Kane for me, the first time I watched it I thought cool but some parts were boring, and the next time will be like "wham!". To be honest I can't go any deeper than that on this film, it's just one of those movies you either like or don't like
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Philadelphia Story
Directed by George Cukor
Rating: 3.5/5

What a let-down, you think with a cast like George Stewart, Kathrine Hepburn, and Cary Grant you'd be let in for a treat but a disjointed script and misogynistic 40s values, makes this clunker that deserves to stay in the past. The plot is as follows, "Philadelphia heiress Tracy Lord throws out her playboy husband C.K. Dexter Haven shortly after their marriage. Two years later, Tracy is about to marry respectable George Kittredge whilst Dexter has been working for "Spy" magazine. Dexter arrives at the Lord's mansion the day before the wedding with writer Mike Connor and photographer Liz Imbrie, determined to spoil things." I dig the plot-line actually and it's not like I don't like romance or love stories, so that's not the case here.

The problem lies in the script and it set-ups and pay-offs. For example a sub-plot is that Hepburn father was off having an affair with a dancer in New York so Hepburn had her mother throw him out, her mother lonely now. All right there's a lot going on in this subplot such as that Hepburn motivation for marrying someone respectable like Kitridge stems from issues she has with her father and not wanting to end up with someone like that, and of course we want to see her mother happy. How is this tied up? He just shows up, her mother takes him in with open arms, and apparently women should just accept it as nothing more than men having a mid-life crisis, and it leads to a condemnation of Kathrine Hepburn's character, WTF? That has got to be the worst pay-off ever, I can see how it could fly with audiences of the 50s since women were suppose to be home-makers and all that jazz but I just thought it was sickening.

Then it has a disjointed plot and I didn't like the balance of characters. For example Kitridge enters in the beginning as a nice guy, then disappears for the entire movie, returning as a bad guy, there was no subtle change. Then there's James Stewart's character, the entire movie builds to Kathrine Hepburn and him falling in love, but apparently James Stewart's news partner is in love with him and he's in love with her(so it says). You see the implication is something that would only work with a 40s audience, because it's as if just because they work together, they have to love each other, as if that woman was destine to just be with Stewart character, there was no build up to it so I didn't feel for this relationship. The Stewart and Hepburn relationship pay-off is that, apparently because of there relationship, she calls off her relationship with Kitridge, but then because he belongs to his partner, she goes with Cary Grant. The entire movie is set against 40s ideals.

But the move isn't without it's charms. Hell the entire cast is just charming, Cary Grant gives a really great performance that I absolutely loved, he played his role so great as a person in love but in the end just wanted to see Kathrine Hepburn happy. Stewart's usual innocent guy routine never fails. Hepburn playing the strong woman is great too. The movie in the end succedes because of strong performances/strong characters so with that I begrudgely give it a 7. Because under all of the 40s ideals, these are complex characters, and I love the web that is constructed binding all of them together, and how it undoes itself by the end.
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Watched Mutiny on the Bounty (1933) and Yankee Doodle Dandy also I'll post thoughts up in a minute...

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

If you ever get a chance to watch 2001 in 35mm or 70mm, take it, you'll like it even better and it really makes an enormous difference.

I always forget about the father in Philadelphia Story but it is a bit of a problem to modern sensibilities. However by that time I'm having so much fun with this drunken mess of a family that I don't care. there is a definite relationship between Mike and Liz, but it's a subtle piece of acting on both their parts, I think you'd pick it up better on a second viewing.

There's an interesting 1939 film, also directed by George Cukor, called the Women. there are no men in the film at all, and a big part of the plot revolves aroun adultury and divorce and the conflict between the earlier generation of women that's forgive and forget and the new generation of women that want him to get what he deserves (ie divorce him because he's a bastard). Naturally, there is a suggestion of reunification at the end but you find that in modern comedies about divorce as well. So in that context it seems more understandable that the mother would take her husband back because that's what people of her generation (and class/position) did, while Katherine Hepburn would be furious at the thought of her mother taking him back, because that's an ideal women of her generation were fighting against. They wanted the right and social acceptance to be able to divorce an unfaithful man/unfit husband.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Picnic

William Holden arrives as a stranger in small town USA, reconnects with an old college friend, and finds himself attending the town's Labour Day picnic, encountering many of the town's residents and characters, including his friend's girlfriend. And his presence slowly brings out the sadness of lost opportunities in the lives of those he meets.

Halfway through the film, I didn't like the film at all. I liked Holden's character of Hal, a guy full of bluff and bluster but precious little accomplishment, but the film didn't work for me.

And then something changed - I have no idea what - but it just clicked for me. In the end, the whole film is about lost potential and the suppressed desire for more in life - whether it be Madge in a relationship heading for marriage for money and status without love while viewed by her society as having little value other than her beauty, Rosemary the schoolteacher filled with regret at never having married, Mrs Owens at having lost her husband and trying to protect Madge from that. And meanwhile, there's the adorable and intelligent Millie, who really is the treasure of the family overshadowed by her beautiful sister, a stubbornly individual child who will be her own person. Many of the issues these people are fighting have remained suppressed for quite some time, until they encounter Hal and are forced to address the matters.

The other thing that astonished me was how blatantly sexual the entire film is. They really made no effort to disguise this, which was a good thing, because I really don't think the film would have worked at all well without it.

So, a film I'm surprised to be making positive comments about, but that's the great thing about movies. You never really know how you're going to react to a film until you watch it.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

SO CLOSE!

100 YEARS, 100 MOVIES

Movies that STill Need to Be Seen(8 Remain to be Seen):
9. SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)
17. THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951)
21. THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)
32. THE GODFATHER PART II (1974)
54. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)
55. THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)
73. WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939)
90. THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)


Movies Seen (92 SEEN):
1. CITIZEN KANE (1941)- 5/5
2. CASABLANCA (1942)- 5/5
3. THE GODFATHER (1972)-4/5
4. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)- 4/5
5. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)- 4/5
6. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)- 3/5
7. THE GRADUATE (1967)- 4/5
8. ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)- 4/5
10. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)- 5/5
11. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)- 5/5
12. SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)- 5/5
13. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)- 5/5
14. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)- 3.5/5
15. STAR WARS (1977) 3.5/5
16. ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)- 5/5
18. PSYCHO (1960)- 4/5
19. CHINATOWN (1974)- 4/5
20. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975)- 5/5
22. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)- 4/5
23. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)4/5
24. RAGING BULL (1980)- 5/5
25. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) 3.5/5
26. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)- 5/5
27. BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)- 4/5
28. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)- 4/5
29. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)- 5/5
30. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948- 4/5
31. ANNIE HALL (1977)- 4/5
33. HIGH NOON (1952)-4/5
34. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)- 4/5
35. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)- 5/5
36. MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)- 4/5
37. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)- 4/5
38. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)- 5/5
39. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)- 5/5
40. NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)- 3/5
41. WEST SIDE STORY (1961)- Thumbs Down- Boring couldn't finish
42. REAR WINDOW (1954)- 4/5
43. KING KONG (1933)3.5/5
44. THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)- 4/5
45. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)- 3/5
46. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)- 4/5
47. TAXI DRIVER (1976)- 3/5
48. JAWS (1975)- 4/5
49. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)- 5/5
50. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)- 5/5
51. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)- 3/5
52. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)- 4/5
53. AMADEUS (1984)- 5/5
56. M*A*S*H (1970)- 4/5
57. THE THIRD MAN (1949) - 5/5
58. FANTASIA (1940)- 3/5
59. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)-3/5
60. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)- 4/5
61. VERTIGO (1958)- 3/5
62. TOOTSIE (1982)- 5/5
63. STAGECOACH (1939)- 4.5/5
64. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)- 2/5
65. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)- 4/5
66. NETWORK (1976)- 4.5/5
67. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)- 4/5
68. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)- 3/5
69. SHANE (1953)- 3/5
70. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)- 5/5
71. FORREST GUMP (1994)- 3.5/5
72. BEN-HUR (1959)- 4/5
74. THE GOLD RUSH (1925)- 4/5
75. DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990)- 5/5
76. CITY LIGHTS (1931)- 4/5
77. AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)- 4/5
78. ROCKY (1976)- 4/5
79. THE DEER HUNTER (1978)-4/5
80. THE WILD BUNCH (1969)- 5/5
81. MODERN TIMES (1936)- 4/5
82. GIANT (1956)- 3/5
83. PLATOON (1986)- 4/5
84. FARGO (1996)- 4/5
85. DUCK SOUP (1933)- 5/5
86. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)- 4/5
87. FRANKENSTEIN (1931)- 4/5
88. EASY RIDER (1969)- 3/5
89. PATTON (1970)- 5/5
91. MY FAIR LADY (1964)- 5/5
92. A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)- 3.5/5
93. THE APARTMENT (1960)- 5/5
94. GOODFELLAS (1990)-5/5
95. PULP FICTION (1994)- 3.5/5
96. THE SEARCHERS (1956)- 3.5/5
97. BRINGING UP BABY (1938) - 4/5
98. UNFORGIVEN (1992)4/5
99. GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967)- 3.5/5
100. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942) - 4.5/5[/quote]

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

AFI's top 25 Musicals was last night, if I'd realized it, I'd have went, I wasn't doing anything.

1. Singin' in the Rain
2. West Side Story
3. Wizard of Oz, The
4. Sound of Music, The
5. Cabaret
6. Mary Poppins
7. Star is Born, A (1954)
8. My Fair Lady
9. American in Paris, An
10. Meet Me In St. Louis
11. King and I, The
12. Chicago
13. 42nd Street
14. All that Jazz
15. Top Hat
16. Funny Girl
17. The Band Wagon
18. Yankee Doodle Dandy
19. On the Town
20. Grease
21. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
22. Beauty and the Beast
23. Guys and Dolls
24. Show Boat (1936)
25. Moulin Rouge!

Only two new films in this list, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and All that Jazz.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Stalag 17 -
Stars list - William Holden
9/5/2006
OARDVD

Terrific Billy Wilder film, loved it completely, one of his best oh, ten or so (but that's only cause so much of his films are so terrific).

My favorite POW film is still Great Escape but this is equally good with an outstanding ending, unfortunately I'd seen the final five minutes on Turner Classic Movies (actually it was the 'I bet two packs of cigarettes that they never make it out of the compound' up to the moment they neutralize the traitor that I saw before what movie I figured out it was the ending too and quickly switched channels), so I remembered who the spy was, but in some ways that made the film better. I'd add this to my collection...

Adam

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Saturday Night Fever -
Songs list - Stayin Alive
09/05/06
OARDVD

I was blown away, I expected a cheesy and bad seventies movie about disco. What I discovered had a lot more in common with I Vitteloni and Mean Streets.

In short I was blown away and thought this was a truly terrific movie. The power of the film and the complete emotional journies the main characters undergo would be completely undermined by our pg13 era (which this film would be cut to). There's a shocking frankness to the film I was delighted to discover. This was no cousin of Dirty Dancing or Footloose, it didn't feel pappy or sappy. And Maybe a big part of that was Hexler Wexler's work because the photography was unbelievably stunning and the rhythms of the editing and the soundscape were superb. Technically it was fantastic.

But I think the writing and the performances are what I love most about the film. The character development that occurs along the way is so elegantly pulled off it took my breath away.

I love it when I get a complete surprise like this. I guess I"ll actually try and watch footloose and dirty dancing now, since they had been at the very bottom of my AFI prioritylist...

Oddly enough this film made me want to rewatch three films in particular (I thought of these specifically while watching the film)
I Vitteloni
Diner
Once Upon a Time in America

Adam

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

On Golden Pond -

I spent many a long summers day stretching down a river in a canoe with my grandpa.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? -
Stars list - Elizabeth Taylor
Passions list

Martha, could you show her to the; the euphemism?

Superb film. I've been meaning to watch this film for six years, since I taught myself about Hollywood censorship from one of the few books on film history at our public library.

I'm extremely glad I didn't see this back then. The writing is superb, the performances are devastating and the photography is mind blowingly good. I wish I had time to listen to Wexler's commentary.

I'm glad I didn't see this back then because then I had never experienced a devastating relationship. I'd never comforted a woman and tried to keep her sane. I'd never played the game before of what can and cannot be said as you work out how you fit up against another person in a way no one else may quite understand (from the outside looking in).

Powerful, wonderful film.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Just a minute, sweetheart—I don't recall dismissing you.


Arguably Jerry Lewis’ best comedy, The Nutty Professor is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde[ set in an American University in the 60s and played for laughs. Lewis stars in the title role and as the Mr. Hyde character (sort of a mean-spirited combination of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra), Buddy Love to whom Stella Stevens (the love interest) is both attracted and repelled.

The movie runs out of ideas and momentum at the end, but even so should be required viewing.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Song of the South -
Songs list, "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Da"
09/24/2006

Zip a Dee Doo Da is probably the best part of this movie, it's a fun terrific song. But the child acting is something terrible, especially the red-headed stable boys. Johnny and Ginny are okay, charming but not terribly compelling. James Baskett as Uncle Remus is very good if a bit over the top with some of the eye-bugging.

The three animated segments (Brer Rabbit runs away, Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, Brer Rabbit and the Laughing Place) are well done and quite fun. I get the sense they are playing with racial stereotypes more than using them in a hurtful manner, much the way that many comedians today do as well. The film is mostly harmless, and I think most people would be able to figure out that the way the whites and blacks are separated and their attitudes towards each other (amongst the adults) was just how things were back then. It's less clear that the film is post civil war rather than ante-bellum. Ante-bellum nostalgia was a huge part of the era this was made in, so I'm not really bothered by it.

But I've never seen it pointed out that the practice of forcibly separating white children from their black companions (be they older nannies and nurses or caretakers like Uncle Remus or Toby, the boy) after they reached the age of around ten is part of the 'villainy' of the film. Victorian ideals of childhood held children as pure and innocent, therefore it was acceptable in the south for children to have companions and relationships with black people so long as it ended with childhood--such things were never acceptable for adults. So it's interesting that tradition of acceptance-followed-by-segregation is cast in a more negative light than anything else in the film.

Still the film is vastly less offensive than Imitation of Life (34) or Birth of a Nation and other extremely nasty films of their ilk. This is even less offensive than Judge Priest, it's just not all that compelling outside of the charming animated sequences.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Porgy and Bess -
Stars list - Sidney Potier
Passions list
Songs list - Summertime
Ken Kramer's 35mm 4track print
10/6/2006

Porgy and Bess is a grand film but the story is a bit on the blah side. The music, especially the score, is fantastic. The songs are good. But they're mostly all operatic. The only ones I really remember is the opening number, the church picnic number and the Sammy Davis Jr number. All the solos might as well be the same song--they're big operatic style songs with bigger operatic singing.

Dandridge is fantastic in the film, Brock Peters is very good, and Sidney Potier is excellent. But its Sammy Davis Jr. that walks away with the movie. I despised him completely, he plays a dispicable character, and does it brilliantly.

he's also the only one in the film that wasn't dubbed.

Good movie overall, but the ending is a bit meh, and doesn't seem to feel right.

It's mostly shot on one enormous set, the film feels so much more alive when we get outside the proscenium for the picnic section. The costumes feel more like stage costumes than film costumes. Well, no, they feel like Cecil B Demille costumes too, and the lighting is in both of those veins as well. It feels like a stage production, and I think it holds the film back.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Sounds good. I wish I could see it.

Porgy and Bess is an opera, so the operatic tone of the songs doesn't surprise me. I've only seen it on stage once, and that was ten years ago, so I can't really remember the plot at all, but I don't remember being too impressed with it. But then, the plots of most operas aren't great - you watch them for the music, and Gershwin's music is incredible.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

To add to Matthew’s post, I find it interesting that you don’t care for classics such as Summertime and Bess You is My Woman Now.

The appreciation of music, as with any art varies from individual to individual, but it is hard to believe that you love the music in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and at the same time are so dismissive of some of Gershwin’s finest work (at least in my opinion). I use that term because you wrote that all the songs are the same.

Of course if you just don’t like opera, or simply prefer the usually lighter tone of musical comedy to the far more complex music in most opera (compared to that in musical comedy), your views are more understandable.

Even so, I find the movie to be mostly not very good and it is understandable that the Gershwin estate makes every effort to keep it from being shown. I’ve not yet taken credit for seeing this movie, since I’ve not seen it for many years and I’ve so far only included movies that I’ve viewed since 2002. But as I come down to the end of these lists, I’ll probably sacrifice that principle in the interests of closure.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

The problem with expressing how much I like or dislike the songs is that its hard to distinguish the two dozen songs in the film when you've never heard them before. Following Lew's comments I pulled up the track list on amazon.

I see that Summertime is part of the 20+ minute opening number. That was a great combination of music.

I got Plenty of nuthin was probably my favorite song

Bess you is my woman now was excellent

Ain't Necessarily So - was also a highlight (and brought the house down at the screening)

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Show Boat

Really not a fan. Watching the film, it didn't really seem to know what it wanted to be. It starts out looking like a romantic love story between a gambler and a girl raised on the show boat, then for a moment it almost looks like being a discussion about racial attitudes, before focusing on the romance again. Then, when you're expecting the film to end with the marriage, suddenly they're married and the film' only half-finished. Then it turns into a story about how hard it is being married to an unrepentant gambler, before the love story ends and she goes back to the show boat. And then, out of nowhere, and thanks to a horrible coincidence, the lovers get back together and become a family again. Where was the narrative drive? It just meandered from place to place, never actually seeming to go anywhere.

The film makes the list due to the inclusion of Ol' Man River, which I'll just assume everyone knows - it's not exactly an unknown song. It's a wonderful song, great lyrics, and powerful music. And it's a memorable performance by William Warfield as the stevedore Joe, one of the few highlights of the film

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Show Boat
Paul Robeson
Ol' Man River

um, you watched the wrong version, the AFI honored Ol Man River as sung by the truly incomperable Paul Robeson, the 1936 James Whale version.



damn, I was going to watch Last Picture Show (S&S, not AFI) tonight and got distracted by Heroes. I just now remembered, reading this thread.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just assumed...

You mean I need to find another version and watch it. Damn. I have to sit through that awful story again?

Wait a minute.

You mean they filmed that story twice? Why?

Oh well. Maybe I'll enjoy the other version more. James Whale as director sounds promising.
The annoying thing is, the Wellington Film Society earlier this year actually showed the 1936 Show Boat on the big screen, and it happened to be on the one week I couldn't make it.

[Thinks]Next time, check the year of production before watching a film.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

I'd say if you sat through the story once there's no need to see it a second time, except perhaps for the white-girl-chicken-dance. You can probably get away with just watching Robeson's performance and the camerawork and expressionism of the montage that accompanies it.

maybe it's on you tube...
aha! it is on youtube, I searched for Paul Robeson and the first video is the Ol Man River number from ShowBoat

And actually I think the 50s version was attempt number three, there was either a silent version of the stage play done or it was an early talkie...

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Maybe, but I think I'll try and watch it anyway. The point of this challenge is to watch the films that are listed, and if I don't watch the 1936 version, I won't have done that.

It's also annoying becuase I've been finding it so hard lately to squeeze any AFI films in, that when you do watch what you think is an AFI film and then realise you haven't actually accomplished anything at all, it just feels like wasted time. Especially when you can't even say "Well, at least I enjoyed it".

Still, thanks for the YouTube video. I quite enjoyed that. Very nice performance. Warfield's performance was excellent in the 1951 version, but reflecting on it, it did have a bit of a feel of deliberately trying to be a show-stopper performance. By contrast, Robeson's performance doesn't quite have the astonishing power, but it is a lot more natural. It really feels like a man singing while working, and it's a nicer feel.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Seven Chances -
Stars list - Buster Keaton

A quite short, very fun, and very funny film from Buster Keaton. Get that boy to the church on time.

Basically the Chris ODonnell bomb, the Bachelor, remade this film. But Keaton's original is brilliant and often breathtaking in its stunts. I may watch it again before I return it to netflix, because, as always, Keaton's staging and timing are just superb.

Right now I'd put it on a level with Our Hospitality. Not quite the perfection of General, Steamboat Bill Jr or Navigator.

Re: AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2

Lost in America -
Laughs list

Pretty funny film in the vein of Diner/Big Chill style of aging Boomer humor.

and those films, while excellent, make you realize just how superb American Graffitti really is.

Lost in America is very funny, predictable comedy that peaks early (Hoover Dam scene) making the last twenty minutes or so feel about as long as the first seventy.

Albert Brooks is an advertising agent. He's expecting a promotion to senior vice president. Instead he gets a different sort of promotion and has a meltdown at this deviation from the set path he has formulated in his head. He convinces his wife that they should drop out of society like Easy Rider and they head to get lost in America, first stop from leaving LA is Vegas. Guess what happens?

A fun film, but not one of my personal picks for funniest film of the eighties.

The only two laughs films I have left, Arthur, and Private Benjamin, aren't on dvd in widescreen. I"m trying to decide if I should break down and watch them anyway for the sake of finishing the list.

Adam