Ask The Forum - Film & TV Edition

[Kinketsu]

Maria Bello also gets fairly graphically screwed on a staircase. I wouldn't watch it with my mum, personally. The violence is fairly spaced out but it's quite brutal when it happens.

[Alask]

ok, cheers all - consider me forewarned

[Rsdio]

So nobody helped me with my Fassbinder enquiries I'm hoping someone on here will at least be more knowledgable about Bunuel (I'm looking at you, Rsdio).

Oops.. First time I've checked this thread in ages, sorry

For Fassbinder I'd only have said that Fear Eats the Soul is a great starting point anyway, mainly because it was where I started with him and I absolutely love it. Plus even if you think it's shit you get to see a big willy. Have you watched it?

The only Bunuels I've seen that I haven't fully taken to were L'Age d'Or and The Milky Way so I reckon any of his more well-known stuff you'd be on safe ground with, they're mostly the ones I've seen anyway barring a couple of others from Cinema Obscura and Los Olvidados at the NFT last year. The latter is an absolute must-see but you'd probably have to go the torrent route for it, his Mexican stuff doesn't seem to be that well treated on DVD at the moment. Maybe The Young One would be a good one to recommend just to show he can do something more conventional and still make it thoroughly compelling. You can't go wrong with the Optimum set at just over £3 per film, amazing value and the transfers are generally very good.

[lordcookie]

Oops.. First time I've checked this thread in ages, sorry

For Fassbinder I'd only have said that Fear Eats the Soul is a great starting point anyway, mainly because it was where I started with him and I absolutely love it. Plus even if you think it's shit you get to see a big willy. Have you watched it?

The only Bunuels I've seen that I haven't fully taken to were L'Age d'Or and The Milky Way so I reckon any of his more well-known stuff you'd be on safe ground with, they're mostly the ones I've seen anyway barring a couple of others from Cinema Obscura and Los Olvidados at the NFT last year. The latter is an absolute must-see but you'd probably have to go the torrent route for it, his Mexican stuff doesn't seem to be that well treated on DVD at the moment. Maybe The Young One would be a good one to recommend just to show he can do something more conventional and still make it thoroughly compelling. You can't go wrong with the Optimum set at just over £3 per film, amazing value and the transfers are generally very good.

I did see Fear Eats the Soul a few weeks ago and found it largely disappointing if I am honest. Thanks for the heads-up on Bunuel though. The Independent seem to sporadically include one of his films with the Sunday paper every now and again.

[Rsdio]

I'm surprised you didn't like Fear Eats the Soul, I found it to be an absolute revelation the first time round. The lovely colours, the performance of the older lady who makes it all so affecting and Fassbinder himself out James Dean-ing James Dean without even trying as the comically arsey son-in-law. Brilliant stuff. If you want to try something else of his have a look at Veronika Voss, there's some lovely widescreen black and white photography in that one.

[Salsa Party Animal]

There is a TV series with young Jessica Biel in it.

7th (Seventh) Heaven

Any good or not ? (Especially Jessica)

[Couch Corpse]

There is a TV series with young Jessica Biel in it.

7th (Seventh) Heaven

Any good or not ? (Especially Jessica)

From the very little I've seen of the show I'm confident it's a load of crap, even if you're solely interested in it for Biel. Biel was very homely in the show, in an attempt to shrug this image she did a sexy photo shoot for Gear in 2000. It pissed off the shows producers and almost cost Biel her spot. For Biel eye candy, I'd stick to her movies from Summer Catch and on.

[wedgeh]

Slightly random this, I need to watch some westerns for an essay, which have train chases (or something approaching that) in them. They aren't the easiest things to locate on Google

Anyone know of any? The more iconic the better

Thanks!

[Skeeez]

The French connection?

[Rsdio]

Off the top of my head there's a holdup in The Wild Bunch and trains feature very prominently in Once Upon a Time in the West, there's a sequence where Harmonica sneaks aboard one. I can think of a few others along similar lines but I'm struggling to think of an all-out chase.

What's the essay about, exactly? The action scenes in Stagecoach might be worth watching since it was so influential. even though there aren't any train bits as far as I can remember.

[Kinketsu]

Slightly random this, I need to watch some westerns for an essay, which have train chases (or something approaching that) in them. They aren't the easiest things to locate on Google

Anyone know of any? The more iconic the better

Thanks!

Do you mean train hold ups or what? Have you seen The Great Train Robbery? Or Man of the West? Are you meant to examine train chases or robberies? If it's just big set pieces involving trains, have you seen The General and Marx Brothers' movie Go West?

[wedgeh]

I'm doing an essay on Wallace & Gromit's The Wrong Trousers (as you do). I need a film to compare the train sequence in the end to, basically. Nick Park mentioned Westerns in the commentary, so I figured I'd go down that route, but I have no Western knowledge at all.

I shall check out those films though, thank you!

[lordcookie]

The Great Train Robbery and The General were the ones to come to mind first but they have already been mentioned so I'll add The Last Bandit and Sholay (although it isn't a traditional Western - you can watch the chase

).

However, if you are referring it to The Wrong Trousers wouldn't a chase scene such as the mine cart chase in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom be more relevant?

[Vin]

A bit of news on the Warner Independent Pictures closure.

After Warner Bros. absorbed New Line as an in-house production label, industryites wondered which Warners specialty unit would be kept, Warner Independent Pictures or Picturehouse. The answer came Thursday: Neither.

In a move that sent ripples of shock around town, Warners said it is was shuttering both divisions, citing cost savings and an elimination of redundancies.

Most of the units' 70 employees are expected to lose their jobs, including all 43 Picturehouse staffers. WIP president Polly Cohen said that some of her 27 staffers will remain on board to shepherd projects to the studio. The 11-year Warners vet's contract runs for about two more years, and she will stay within Warners for now, though she's unclear in what capacity.

Some Picturehouse staffers also might remain.

The future of Picturehouse president Bob Berney was unclear Thursday, but a close associate said the exec is likely to form his own independent distribution venture, adding, "Bob is a very resourceful guy." No immediate announcement on his plans is expected.

Warner Bros. president and COO Alan Horn said that in the competitive movie marketplace, which sees upward of 600 movies being released each year, profit margins are tough to eke out, and that is exacerbated by overhead. Because New Line is part of Warners, the company is able to handle films across the entire spectrum of genres and budgets without overlapping production, marketing and distribution infrastructures.

"We can't justify a third overhead," Horn said. "It just doesn't make sense."

Picturehouse had made a name for itself in recent years with films like The Orphanage, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Rocket Science, Pan’s Labyrinth, and A Prairie Home Companion.

Warner Indepedent Pictures filmography includes: Before Sunset, March of the Penguins, Good Night, and Good Luck., The Science of Sleep, A Scanner Darkly, The Painted Veil and In the Valley of Elah, among many others.

Gutted.

[Kinketsu]

That's a shame, especially if absorbing the drowning New Line was the cause.

Apart from some of the great movies they have put out and how much Hollywood studios need to keep these kinds of divisons, I have another petty regret about this. I always thought the WIP logo and intro animation was very classy! It's especially nice at the start of Good Night and Good Luck, of course, because of the colour scheme!

[JohnC]

Possibly a bit obscure, but I've been wondering about something I've seen in credits for some time. Not in the movie itself, but on posters and the back of DVD boxes and the like. Sometimes a name (I think I've only seen it being an actor or music composer) has a box around it. Anyone know what that's about?

[lordcookie]

In all honesty I have no idea. I did wonder if it was for people who weren't a member of a union at the time of filming but that is next to impossible for me to research (although if that was the case Rodriguez would be boxed out on Sin City posters even though he isn't). The box outs appear on one of the Taxi Driver posters:

And a bit of research shows that both Foster and Boyle were nominated for major awards in the year of Taxi Driver's release so it may just be a way of highlighting that.

[johnT]

Here's one that's been bugging me for a long time. In Goodfellas, there's a scene where one of the characters holds up an airline ticket, but it's been blacked out censor-style. Anyone know if this was genuinely censored for some reason or is there some artistic reason for it?

[JohnC]

Here's one that's been bugging me for a long time. In Goodfellas, there's a scene where one of the characters holds up an airline ticket, but it's been blacked out censor-style. Anyone know if this was genuinely censored for some reason or is there some artistic reason for it?

It was blacked out to hide the airline name. I don't know why they didn't just use a fictional name. Maybe they did have an agreement to use the airlines name, but the airline pulled permission after the movie was shot. The movie did have terrible screening results before release.

[johnT]

Thanks, I had just started a search on the net when you posted that and most results said American Airlines didn't want their name associated with it as it may imply that they appear to condone cocaine trafficking through their airline.

[Chase]

Can anyone tell me if this idea has been done before in a film or tv show: A guy gets hounded by extremists. Eg the Salman Rushdie fatwa type scenario, though with a younger and perhaps more oblivious target.

Cos it's the summer, I've got a lot of time on my hands for the next three weeks and I figured I'd finally try writing a screenplay (something I've been meaning to do for like 5 years now). Came up with this and I wanted to see what had already been done in that sort of area.

Google shows up some no-budget nonsense thriller called Fatwa released a couple years ago, and not much else. Anything you guys have seen or heard of which vaguely follows that plot? Was there any similar stories in 24 to do with one specific person being the target of an extremist group? Thanks.

[Salsa Party Animal]

What was the American football film advertised on Disney Blu Ray (With Green shirt) Just want to know

[lordcookie]

Are you sure it wasn't red shirts?

[Salsa Party Animal]

Had a look at blu ray again and it is part of picture went into Disney logo. No clue on the film. So don't worry about it.

[lordcookie]

Found it. The film is called Invincible (didn't realise it was a Disney movie).

[Salsa Party Animal]

Wow that is good work Lord Cookie. Order both Gridiron film

[Couch Corpse]

Can anyone recommend some recent hand animated movies? I'd prefer totally CGI free, but that's probably very rare these days.

[Salsa Party Animal]

Try those Studio Ghibli Collection from Japan as there are plenty of wonderful animation film from them.

[lordcookie]

Can anyone recommend some recent hand animated movies? I'd prefer totally CGI free, but that's probably very rare these days.

How recent?

Here is a brief list of films that have been recommended on this forum or by critics. However, some I felt were deeply disappointing.

CLICK ON THE NAMES FOR THE FILMS TRAILER.

(looks great but has a pretty poor story. Check out Mind Game and Cat Soup first if you haven't already)

(on second viewing it is actually one of Kon's weakest films to date but worth a watch. See Millennium Actress if you can)

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Everyone on this forum seemed to love this film but I thought it was crap. Worth checking out though).

(Looks great but not deserving of the hype).

Kakurenbo (this is actually cel-shaded but it is pretty cool. I posted about it here)

The Little Match Girl (Disney's short adaptation of The Little Match Girl was up for an Oscar this year and is a lovely movie. It was originally conceived for the now shelved Fantasia 2006 project but did get a release on the Little Mermaid DVD.)

Not seen these yet but they have had good reviews and are a little different.

(IMDB synopsis: Due to his sister's death, the 32 year old August returns and consequently abandons his profession as a missionary priest. His beloved sister Christina, who went from greatness to decay as the famous porn-star The Princess, is dead after years of drug abuse. She leaves behind her 5-year old daughter Mia, whom August feels obliged to take care of. Weighed down by grief and guilt he decides to revenge the dead of Christina - and takes Mia on a mission to destroy all existing pornographic material featuring The Princess. The mission escalates into a brutal and violent rout, where August is desperately trying to protect the only precious thing in his life, Mia, why he is forced to make a fatal decision.)

Genius Party (an anthology of Studio 4°C short films - there is a sequel too)

(Made by the acclaimed director Michel Ocelot he has a Marmite style but his films are always memorable)

And what about some older films you probably haven't seen?

Twice Upon a Time - A forgotten animated movie from 1983 which used the animated technique called lumage (translucent cut-out fabric with light shone through it). It was exec produced by Lucas and had the likes of David Fincher and Henry Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas) working on the film too. It totally bombed when it was released and if it wasn't for an article in Animation Blast I would have totally missed it.

The animation is really interesting and gives it a stained glass look. It also blends live action and animation to interesting effect. The story is about two would be heroes trying to stop nightmares being spread through the world. There is a 'restored' version up on Youtube here which will probably have to do.

- Also known as The King and the Mockingbird this 1980 French film took 28 years to finish (it was originally going to be a short adaptation of Anderson's The Sheperdess and the Chimney Sweep but it was never finished so the director - Grimault - bought back the rights and expanded on the story). The story is about a hated king who is in love with a painting (the sheperdess) and at night the sheperdess and the chimney sweep (another painting) leave their frames and escape. They get chased by the portrait of the king who has now deposed the real king.

It is a standard story of an evil king trying to take what is not his but it is done with such imagination and passion it really does stand as one of the greatest animated films of all time. It is plain to see that the film is a big influence on Miyazaki with a number of elements evident in Laputa and his recent Howl's Moving Castle.

Unfortunately there is no English language release at the moment and it doesn't look like there will be one any time soon but the French version is still worth a purchase as the dialogue in minimal and it is very easy to follow.

Plague Dogs - The second Richard Adams novel brought to the screen by Martin Rosen (the other being Watership Down of course) and this is a far darker affair and not really suited to a family audience. The film is about two dogs that escape a research lab which causes a national panic when they think the dogs might be carrying the bubonic plague.

It is a grim story with a very anti-animal cruelty stance but it does have light moments and the bond between the two dogs (voiced brilliantly by Christopher Benjamin and John Hurt) is beautifully realised and just like Watership Down it really pulls at the heart strings.

[Couch Corpse]

Holy crap, thanks cookie. By recent I mean anything since CGI started to take over, mid nineties I suppose, basically I'm looking for good examples of traditional animation, the less CGI the better.