AFI 100 Years Series Discussion & Challenges, vol. 2 - Page 8

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Last Tango in Paris - 10 of 10
Passions list
OARDVD
08/03/07

more thoughts later, but for now:

Wow.

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

Barefoot in the Park - 9 of 10
Passions List

Brilliant script and wonderful performances from Redford and Fonda. Charles Boyer does a lovely job of hamming it up. Stage but charming, overall this is a tremendous, wonderful, romantic and fabulous film. It should be rated much higher.

Cabaret - 6 of 10
Songs list - Cabaret
Musicals list
10th anniversary movie list

I don't get what all the fuss is about. The songs are terrific, the performances are good except for Michael York, who I could never believe is ever interested in women or Liza Minelli in the slightest bit. The movie sort of picks up after York says "So do I" to Liza Minelli when their lover skips out on them, but it's also sort of self important and calculated because of it's setting and time period when it's set and they include the story of the rich jewess and the gigolo with a heart of gold as a sideplot. And the emcee facepaint dude won an oscar? really? over al pacino for the godfather?

That one shot of Minelli and rich lover dancing where drunk York approaches them and they get pulled in together into an almost threeway kiss was fantastic, though.

In a lot of ways this strikes me as the Chicago of the 70s, lots of style but the substance is kinda over the top, sledgehammer to the head type of story. Definitely wouldn't include it on the 100 movies list.

Adam

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The Goodbye Girl - 7 of 10
Passions list

Another Neil Simon script, and while this is a better movie, the dialogue isn't as sharp, it's not as stagey, it's much more naturalized but I liked the hyperreality of barefoot in the park more. Richard Dreyfuss is brilliant, but overall the film wasn't hugely compelling, but again, definitely worth it for Dreyfuss alone.

The American President - 7 of 10
Passions list

I have definitely seen this film before but it's been more than decade. The film really is charming and quite strong, and a highly enjoyable romance. A bit preachy in some respects, but it's good natured preachiness with tongue firmly in cheek.

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Driving Miss Daisy - 9 of 10
Cheers list

For all that Morgan Freeman's portrayal is offensive it is also probably searingly accurate, and by the end of the film I had been completely won over by the film. I think it manages to say quite alot about racism and how its most insidious elements exist, and what sort of chilling effect it has even on decent people (Dan Akroyd's monologue about why he can't go to the MLK speech comes to mind) who are more racist than they realize by being complicit in the culture and environment that allows racist attitudes to continue. At the same time, Miss Daisy never really sheds that attitude completely, even though she intellectually wants to, she can't let go of it, at least not until dementia begins to take effect. And I think that is both accurate and very sad and actually says quite a lot towards the complexity of the characters here, that they much more shades of gray in their beliefs and their arcs than I believe is often given credit to in this film.

And somethign should be said for the very powerful ending scene, with morgan Freeman helping her eat some pie, a tremendous and powerful earned emotional moment that you almost don't notice just how superb the acting is in that scene.

Outstanding.

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Working Girl - 7 of 10
Passions list
Cheers list
Songs list - "let the river run"

To a certain extent, watching some of the first films about women in the white collar workforce are always a little horrifying. It's a little disconcerting to remember that the era of eighties Power Women was not so long ago, and by no means have these problems been eradicated. But at least now we have 90s Soccer Moms giving away to a new generation of Alpha Moms that really have found a much more healthy way to cause the system of employment to adapt to a diversified workforce.

Working Girl is a very entertaining film. Tess is a secretary, she's hauling ass to get up just one more rung on the career ladder. She does a lot of self improvement, erasing her Brooklyn accent with lessons and improving her speaking voice. She's also very practical, she wears tennis shoes to work, and switches to work shoes once there, why try to dash through manhattan in nice shoes, or heels, for that matter. She's got her degree, she's ambitious, innovative and a good thinker. There's just two things that bar her path. She's a woman, she's a secretary.

Tess gets fired from her job when she responds quite rationally to a filthy prank by some idiot coworkers. her next job is her first working for a woman, a woman a few days younger than herself. Katherine is a Dartmouth educated Power Woman, she gives Tess a few pointers and is willing to listen to her ideas. She's also willing to steal those ideas and deny Tess the credit.

But when Katherine breaks her leg on a ski trip, Tess discovers Katherine has been betraying her. In revenge she decides to essentially take over Katherine's life while she's laid up. She sets up and negotiates a major merger and acquisition. She's a complete novice, but she's got the panache to pull it off.

She meets up with Jack Trainer who will negotiate the hard parts of the deal, and she falls in love with him.

Sharp dialogue, excellent chemistry elevate this above a generic rom com. The performances are excellent as well. And you can definitely see how it is inspiring in how Melanie Griffith refuses to be beaten and thoroughly transforms herself. A lovely little gem of a movie.

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the Way We Were - 5 of 10
Passions list
Songs list "The Way We Were"

The best part of this film is Striesand singing the title song, damn but she can sing better than just about anyone. The Way we Were also has superb chemistry between Streisand and Redford, and the first half of the film, when they're falling in love or making sparks of conflict fly in college are really outstanding. It's beautifully shot and very well constructed. And the first half is a genuinely powerful romance.

Then it fizzles out because the characters just have nothing to do without the plot helping them along. And it's hard to believe that these characters would stay together, Streisand is a needy, abrasive, wet blanket bitch of a woman in this film, and it's hard to see why an easy-going party on dude like Redford stays with her. The film is pretty clear in the end that he doesn't have many residual feelings towards either his daughter or his ex wife, and it didn't take him more than a second to have the affair, so it's hard to believe he ever really loved her at all, rather I think the only way his character works is if you assume that he merely liked (or loved) the idea of someone else loving him that much. And in some respects I think he loved the idea of rebelling against his 'Everything comes too easy' life and lifestyle, I think he wanted love to be hard, that he didn't deserve an equal relationship because his life had been too easy.But that's a little too complex for a vietnam movie whose screenwriter got mixed up with the dates, because the other big problem with the film was Striesand's character felt completely out of place in the 30s and 40s and even the 50s, she only felt real in the film's coda. This is a case of 'write what you know' gone bad, because the whole character just seems off from the beginning, a little too much Connecticutt Yankee in King Arthur's Court in her character.

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The Sheik - 6 of 10
Passions list

A very good silent movie, with interesting characters and a fun story. I'd watch it again.

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Beyond the Forest - 7 of 10
Quotes list

I honestly have no idea why the AFI thinks this is the movie that made the phrase 'what a dump' a famous line. It's completely in passing comment that you'd miss if you weren't listening for it. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (which was what the special used for the entire segment on what a dump, other than a brief look at the two seconds of the clip itself) made the phrase famous.

Bette Davis is pretty good as an 'evil' woman who engineers her own destruction by trying to sleep her way up and out of the small Wisconsin town she's native to. And as the opening narration tells us, she's on trial for murder, most of the rest of the film will be about telling the story leading into that murder. Again we know she's 'evil' because the opening title card says, "This is a story about evil..." as it justifies the scandalous material of infidelity, divorce, prostitution, murder and abortion.

The dialogue is fairly sharp and the story is interesting, but the film never really grabs you. It's a sort of an 'of the moment' film from the late forties, but still mired in the production code era of filmmaking can't break free of the heavy constraints it places on making the story and characters as powerful as they could be. In a way it's a perfect movie for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf to reference, because Elizabeth Taylor's character is very much like Bette Davis, and that film went a long way to shattering the codes that held back the film of Beyond the Forest from greatness.

An interesting and well made curiosity but not a great film.

Finished the quotes list.

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Midnight - 10 of 10
Stars list - Claudette Colbert
"Every Cinderella has her midnight"

This overlooked, brilliant, witty gem of a film is simply superb from beginning to end. Scripted by Charles Brackket and Billy Wilder, directed by Mitchell Leisen, and starring Colbert, Ameche, Astor, and John Barrymore, this film is fantastic from its enjoyable start to pitch perfect ending.

Eve Peabody has lost it all in Monte Carlo, she's an all washed up golddigger and she drifts ashore in Paris on a third class train ticket at midnight with only the gown on her back. She immediately runs into Tibor Czerny, a hungarian cab driver, who she tempts with a potentially lucrative proposition. Drive her around to the various Parisian night clubs until she lands a gig, and then she'll pay him double the cab fare. They fall in love as she fails at finding a job, but she runs away from him before things go further. She runs right into a high society Chopin recital and promptly begins to fall asleep. She's noticed by the lascivious, womanizing Jacques Picot and the cuckolded, world wise Georges Flammarion. Picot thinks she belongs, but Georges knows better, and when she's nearly thrown out, both men come to her rescue. Before she knows it, Picot is putting the moves on her during a low stakes (and long) game of bridge, while Georges quizzes her about who she is, she says her name is Czerny, and he promptly helps her out by identifying her as the recent American wife of Baron Czerny, the famed Hungarian ancient family. Georges has an ulterior motive, he intends to set her up as a Baronness in order to humiliate Picot because Picot was the one who cuckolded him.
She can't quite believe what's happening to her, and isnt' quite ready to become a french aristocrat's mistress until she realizes it's a prank and decides to go along with Georges game to seduce and then abandon Picot.

But wait there's more. Czerny has been looking all over for the woman of his dreams, and he organizes all the cab drivers in Paris to search for her, upon finding out that she's using his name, he storms off to confront her, only to be swirled up unwilling (and completely misunderstanding) the elaborate set-up himself.

Like any good screwball, the situation is even more complex than even the barest plot line can hope to express, and the delicious dialogue and superbly written scenes bring off each exceptional and hilarious progression perfectly. one of the best films and comedies of the thirties. absolutely superb.

Adam

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Hamlet - 8 of 10
stars list - Laurence Olivier

a questionable entry on our list (british or american?), but an excellent film
nonetheless. Better than other Hamlet's I've seen ,overall, but not as good as the play itself, a little too self serious with 'greatest play ever' self importance dulling the film. The death of Ophelia was beautifully handled, and the Get thee to a nunnery scene was outstanding, not crazy about the mix of narration for the soliloquys, but it did work by the end of the film.

Out of Africa - 5 of 10
passions list
scores list

last night I gave this a film a 5, today I'm thinking a four. today is a college football day, and the most appropriate thing I think can think of for this film is the classic chant, "OVER-RATED" which pretty much sums up my feelings regarding this film, it's win of best picture, meryl streeps deadly cold, lifeless performance and it's top twenty placement on the passions list over just about any other film on the list.

And the movie is really really long too. Robert Redford is excellent, there are some good scenes and overall I do like the story. But I don't like Streep at all here, which is a shame because I usually enjoy and admire her performances.

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Reds - 8 of 10
passions list

Excellent film with a fascinating script. I loved how they presented the exposition via testimonial from survivors of the politics and era being portrayed. Diane Keaton is outstanding, and this is possibly Beatty's best role. I wish I'd made time to see one of the many screenings of this that played in town in the last year. Storaro's photography is especially standout. I think it'll improve with age, though it is a bit full of itself in terms of it's blatent political leanings, at least the filmmakers have figured out that the communism these people so blindly desired was a million times worse than the imperialist competition that festered the tensions that erupted into world war I--though at times the story seems just as enamored and idealistic as the people being represented so tragically are.
The socialist reforms and unions they fought for have made my way of life possible, so I can't complain too much.

Pretty Woman - 9 of 10
passions list

Like Love Story, I expected this to be much worse, and it turns out to be a superb, delightful and immensely enjoyable and sexy film. The hooker with a heart of gold may be a cliche, but rather than taking a thin role and turning it into cheese, Roberts pours the craft on and delivers one of the all time great female performances. Gere is sort of dull, both as written, and as a performer next to her, he may have been an A list actor, but he was definitely out of his league in comparison. The script is excellent, as is the direction, a great comedy and love story. A very fine modern film, that deserves it's modern classic status that audiences have bestowed upon it by keeping it alive with women, at least. This film will have much more respect in twenty years than it can garner now. Of course this also set the template for the 1990s romantic comedy, and now we have to suffer through a million clones like Maid in Manhattan, so I can understand some of the bitterness men tend to direct towards this film.

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Anna Karinina - 9 of 10
Passions list

Excellent film with outstanding male performances from Fredric March and Basil Rathbone, I'd venture that Rathbone was never better, one of his best roles ever. Freddie Highmore and Greta Garbo are also excellent. This is also one of Clarence Brown's best films, second only to The Yearling, imo.

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Picnic - 10 of 10
Passions list


I never expected to really love this film, but from the sizzling script to the incredibly stunning photography to the wonderful performances this is an absolute gem of a film. William Holden is especially astounding. You really believe he is just that dumb of a lunk, you can see in his eyes the desire to better understand the world and his frustration at being unable to 'get it'. Considering how wonderfully he has also played incredibly intelligent characters and displayed their wit and slyness, this performance is an extraordinary achievement. Kim Novak is gorgeous and torn between a rational golddig just waiting for the okay, and a lustfilled romance. Susan Strasburg outdoes her (with a better role), as the jealous, witty, childish and bookish younger sister. How Rosalind Russell didn't earn an oscar nomination will forever mystify me, most actresses would kill for a role that good. She probably didn't get a nomination (nor any of the women in Picnic, because it was a four way split between Betty Field, Susan Strasburg, Rosalind Russell and Verna Felton for supporting actress, they all deserved a nomination. Montgomery Clift is also excellent, even though he doesn't have much to do and is completely outshone (deliberately) by William Holden.

Hal drifts into Salina Kansas looking for his old fraternity brother, Alan, and hoping for a job. It turns out the railcar he jumps out of backs up to a set of properties with a bunch of lonely women, before he quite knows what's happening his shirt is off and he's doing yard work while they oogle and dote on him. He especially catches the eye of 20 year old Madge, and her 18 year old sister Millie, and the nearly old maid school teacher Rosemary. And it turns out Madge is very nearly engaged to Hal's buddy Alan. They direct him to the other side of town, where the wealthy folks live, and Hal reconnects joyfully with Alan. It's labor day, so noone is working and there's a big county picnic that everyone participates in. Hal takes Millie, Alan takes Madge, and a sweet older lush, Howard, takes Rosemary, but all the women want to be with Hal. This puts a great deal of worry into Flo, the girls mother, and absolutely delights Mrs. Potts, the plump widow woman next door, who heartily approves of young trysts, and sexy men in particular.

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

The whole movie is simply tremendous, a terrific masterpiece and one I'd watch again in a heartbeat. It's a goddamn shame the film is only in pan and scan on DVD and in a very ugly transfer as well. I wish Warner owned the film, we'd have an incredible two disc set with an ultra resolution restoration, alas, Columbia does not care so much about their films.

Adam

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Coming Home - 9 of 10
Passions list

A great film with outstanding casting, an excellent script, and one of the best soundtracks of all time. The directing and cinematography are especially standout, a shame that the Deer Hunter won out over this at the oscars. The love story between Fonda and Voigt is extremely well done and features some incredibly sexy love scenes. In particular I love how they turn off the light, and on the black screen, Voight says to turn it back on, but when the light does come back on they're in the act, it elegantly manages to skip time forward without making us feel as though we've missed anything, very impressive editing and camerawork here, I like how the camera lingers on fonda's hand with her wedding ring to underscore the affair she's finally consummating.

Excellent ending too, fine literary allusion to the Awakening with Bruce Dern into the ocean, and also a very elegant way to end the picture. I was sort of put off by the speech to the class, but it was very powerful and moving, and counterpointing it with Dern's 'swim' really made it work. Today you couldn't get away with that sort of idealism, unless you're Paul Haggis.

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On the Town - 9 of 10
Stars list - Gene Kelly
Musicals list
Songs list - New York, New York

An absolutely fantastic, funny wonderful musical from Kelly and Donen, almost as good as 7 Brides and Singin in the Rain, but the script isn't quite as sharp, and outside of New York New York the lyrics aren't as memorable, though the numbers and set pieces certainly are very memorable. An incredibly good time, and almost too short. A whizbang screwball creampuff of a musical. The only downside to viewing it was that it still had reel markers burned in and the print was a big faded (saw it on TCM).

Can't get New York New York out of my head at all, incredibly catchy awesome song, one of the best songs on the list.

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Superb film with a fantastic script and terrific performances from Richard Gere, Debra Winger and Louis Gossett Jr. superb from start to finish, one I wouldn't mind owning that I think would get better on repeat viewings. Very finely crafted, exceptional film.

---

Another film I'd like to see again, excellent film all around, with a great thrilling final sequence, and a wonderful love story to fill out the movie.

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

Outstanding romance with Greer Garson and the superb Ronald Coleman. Colman plays a WWI veteran in an asylum in England, having lost all his memory during the war. On Armistice day he manages to escape the Asylum into town. There he runs into Paula, a woman who likes him instantly and takes him to her local to celebrate. They have a good time, but he collapses with a fever. They care for him for several days and as he doesn't want to return to the asylum, and the other members of Paula's theatre troupe don't want someone on the run from an asylum with them he and Paula run off to the country. Eventually they marry, have a child and he gets a job oppurtunity in Liverpool, just before the interview he is struck by a car he is revived with all the memories of who is is and his old life, but none of his new memories with Paula and his new life.

Performances, script and story are all superb, I'm surprised this hasn't been remade

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

I got this mixed up with Splendor in the Grass and thought it was on the passions list. :p

Sidney Potier's tremendous performance makes this charming film absolutely wonderful. A film I think will get better with repeat viewings. From the moment Potier starts to teach the nuns English I was hooked. Superb.

Homer stops at a rundown farm to fill his radiator, some recent immigrant nuns are running the farm, and before he quite knows what happens, Homer has been roped into helping them with this and that while teaching them english... all of a sudden he's their contractor and is building them a chapel.

AFI definitely nailed this one, it firmly belongs on the cheers list, outstanding.

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

This was an incredible film. A great romance, a great melodrama, and a great commentary on society. The performances, script, editing and photography were all superb, especially the supporting performances. Both leads, Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood knocked me out, absolutely stunning work from both of them, amongst the best of their careers.

Deeny and Bud are in love, in their last year of high school in a small southeast Kansas oil town. Deeny's father runs a store and Bud's father is the town oil magnate. Bud's father has nothing against the couple, he just thinks his son should do what he's told, meaning go to Yale and forget about marrying this girl. But as the film starts their relationship has hit the peak of heavy petting and they both long for the next stage but neither can bear to go forward with it. Bud breaks it off to avoid damaging Deeny's reputation and as it becomes unbearable for Deeny to not be with Bud she breaks down under the strain of repression and constant evil eyed scrutiny--especially from her mother who is convinced that Bud 'spoiled' her, otherwise why would Deeny be so upset. Their biggest problem is that while both kids seek counseling from their parents, their parents are no help at all, Deeny's mother tells her that her feelings and urges are meaningless and frivolous because women don't have sexual desire. Bud's dad tells him to 'ease his pain' with a prostitute or a different girl, Bud's family doctor is no better, telling him there is nothing Bud can do and nothing he can do for Bud, and offering no advice other than to repress it. Both crack under the strain as they're held so tightly apart they might snap at any moment. It all wraps up with a pitch perfect ending.

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Brilliant, perfect film with a flawless script and terrific performances. Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah are wonderful and the supporting cast was perfectly hilarious. Great direction and handling of the comedy and adaptation of Cyrano.

Charlie is older, witty, and has a big nose, Chris has great looks, Roxanne is the brilliant astronomer they both like--between the two of them they might make the perfect man to appeal to her. Charlie is afraid she'll laugh at him, like every other girl he's ever openly expressed interest in has laughed. Chris is afraid she won't take him seriously since she's way out of his intellectual league. They're both firemen in a small mountain resort town, and the rest of the firemen are all volunteer locals. Chris recruits Charlie to woe Roxanne for him since he's not witty enough to hold a conversation with her. thus begins a romantic comedy of errors as good as any I've seen.

I thought my next one would be Postman Always Rings twice, but netflix sent me the 81 version because I didn't realize I had that one in my queue rather than the original. Still only three Passions left.

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

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

What a shame that in this day and age a film like this is available only in MAR DVD. Initially I did not really care for the film, the story didn't seem very compelling and sort of dull. But then I was sucked in by the quality of the performances and writing. Meryl Streep's accent was offputting for a good 3/4 of the film because it was soooooo pre-cise it felt wrong. Clint Eastwood is excellent in one of his finest performances and carries the film until he hands it over to Meryl for the emotional climax. The way the last parts of the film are handled is what transforms this from above average to a masterpiece, everything came together beautifully and paid off in fine form. Both Meryl's decision and her agony with it, and her excellent reasons for it and her children's divergent reactions to it, everything was just superbly handled. And Clint Eastwood standing in the rain, staring at her in her car, one of the all time great scenes right there.

1 more film to go and the Passions are complete.

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

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

Thanks, Passions was one of those I doubted I'd finish, but I think is overall the second best list AFI has ever done, the best being the 10th Anniversary Movies list. And it helps to finish off these films when you can watch one at work.

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