Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club - Page 80

Seth Paxton · 10-12-2004, 04:02 PM

Haggai, one thing about RA's crazy characters though that brings it more in line with Ladykillers is that they are played straight, with real issues and with no awareness of any absurdity nor real flamboyance.

In both cases most of the comedy is delivered in a similar manner of total seriousness rather than trying to hit the comic beat or emphasize the joke.

Brook, despite my heavy output the last few days I can total sympathize with where you are coming from. Part of me feels like I should be posting, somewhat because of the dip in posting in Movies (or so it seems with fewer active threads the last few weeks).

On that note I'll also pass on any Godard comments. Heck, didn't we just go a few rounds on this in the last couple of months?

I think I'm going to shift to some Halloween stuff, some 2004 releases and some of my DVD purchase backlog for a few weeks. I have no S&S on the TIVO and I just bumped some horror flicks to the front of my Netflix list.

All this fun is a lot of work.

Bill McA · 10-12-2004, 04:31 PM

Quote:

We're both members of Gary Tooze's Dvdbeaver listserv.

Not anymore, he isn't!

Brook K · 10-12-2004, 05:02 PM

Oh well, people come and go, it's hard knowing who's in and who's out. I miss the old days when we actually talked about movies I'd heard of rather than whatever the latest DVD from Korea is or which of the 5 editions of Hero is the sharpest.

I'm in Halloween mode. I won't put any S&S to the top of my Netflix list until November, plus Emory is showing The Mother and the Whore on the 2nd or 3rd. Can't say I'm looking forward to watching a 4 hour movie in one of their 50's era wooden student seats. Maybe I should bring a pillow.

I tried watching Love Me Tonight the last time TCM showed it, and I loved the opening couple of numbers once I got used to Maurice Chevalier's accent, but we hadn't put the kids to bed yet and I had to turn it off. We really need Tivo.

Seth Paxton · 10-12-2004, 07:13 PM

Speaking of TIVO...

VIEWING ALERT
TO SLEEP WITH ANGER

Fri, 10/22 on WGN at 7pm (I think Central, better check yourself)

This is one of those non-DVD, harder to catch titles. I got lucky and saw it on film for class a few years ago. I was digging through the TIVO trying to catch To Be or Not To Be. I still have no TIVO hits for Lubitsch.

Haggai · 10-12-2004, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Haggai, one thing about RA's crazy characters though that brings it more in line with Ladykillers is that they are played straight, with real issues and with no awareness of any absurdity nor real flamboyance.

In both cases most of the comedy is delivered in a similar manner of total seriousness rather than trying to hit the comic beat or emphasize the joke.

I don't really agree with that. Cage pretty much plays it straight, and I guess Hunter does too. My favorite scene with her is definitely when she busts out crying in the car right when they kidnap Nathan Jr. ("I love him so much!")--it's totally out of left field, so it's hilarious, but it's also really honest.

But John Goodman and William Forsythe were definitely going for laughs as the escaped convict brothers, as was Trey Wilson as Nathan Sr. So were the people in the smaller roles, like Frances McDormand and Sam McMurry (the guy who played her husband, I just looked that up), and even the guy who played the gas station cashier who gets held up ("Not unless round is funny.") Tex Cobb barely had any lines, and his character was an obviously extreme cartoon-type (hand grenare blowing up the bunny, etc). None of this is criticism, of course, they were all hilarious, and I love the movie. But I sure don't think anyone was playing it straight outside of the main couple. Maybe we just see some of these characters differently?

Brent Hutto · 10-13-2004, 05:57 AM

We just watched Raising Arizona this weekend (first time my wife had ever seen it, first time in 10 years for me) and I'll agree with Haggai, only the two main characters played it straight. The others were often deadpan (the old guy in the service station) but most of the jokes were of the setup, pause, punch line kind of timing. You can look no farther than the "face each other and scream" moments with the brothers.

What was most fun about watching RA at this late date was seeing the first instance (if I'm not mistaken) of tropes that the Cohens have used ever since. We've recently rewatched Intolerable Cruelty and O Brother Where Art Thou and it was neat to notice some of the funnier bits of business from those movies in their cruder, earlier form.

Spoiler:

Seth Paxton · 10-13-2004, 10:06 AM

Whatever.

Actually I'm rolling it around my brain a bit. I need to rewatch it with this topic in mind at this point. I agree that the brothers have the screaming thing as broad comedy.

I'm thinking of jokes like the "you ate sand?" scene, which while it might seem silly to us, is not presented as silly but instead as matter-of-fact, both in tone and character interaction.

And since this is a comparison between Ladykillers and RA I'd say Cobb's character is not that much more cartoonish than the big oaf in Ladykillers. At points RA does become slapstick, such as the chase after the robbery, yet even then much of the humor is based in a calm reaction to the unusual circumstances (its still a screwball scene, just with a dry touch).

Ladykillers has its moments of this too, like when they chase down the parrot ending with them all out on the roof, only to have the bird fly right to Guinness as he comes walking back to the house unaware of the difficulties they've been having.

I mean I think we probably agree that the Coens Ladykillers is definitely broader than RA, and I would say that the broadness stems partially from taking all the original characters 2 steps farther out (Hanks is anything but subdued in his character, though I do enjoy his version, and the rest of the cast are delineated by extreme character differences that hardly exist in the original) as well as the types of humor (bathroom, over the top swearing, etc).

Much of RA is based around a serious family drama placed in a less than ideal situation and set of characters. Ladykillers (original) is a serious caper film also with a less than ideal situation and set of characters. Ladykillers (remake) is completely cartoonish across the board.

Hmm, nice waste of a full thread page on a non S&S film.

I'll dig up an old thread or start a new one if I feel like I need to expand on the discussion any further. You may now return to your 20 films per day Jim_K posts and George vs Lew/Brook debates.

Lew Crippen · 10-13-2004, 11:03 AM

October, Sergei Eisenstein’s portrayal of the Russian Revolution ought to be (and probably is) required viewing for all film students. Almost entirely a montage, the moive draws one right into the time and place. Even though highly polemic, the movie for the most part raises above the strictures of the State and gives us a great time.

The interior scenes in the Winter Palace alone are worth the time, and there are plenty of trademark Eisenstein moments such as the rising of the bridge early on In the movie.

On the minus side, it is amusing to note today that Trotsky is a bit deomoized, though it does seem a bit of an afterthought and there are times when even Eisenstein can’t get past very obvious politics.

Regardless a must-see.

Brook, at least I’m back to a film you have seen.