TV/Movies Megathread

[Josephus]

Watched the first episode of Moffat's Dracula. It's actually pretty fun if you dig the tone, Hammer film homage with plenty of cheesy one-liners. 

I've read the show takes a nosedive in the following two episodes. We'll see.

Let me know before I take my own dive into it.

[The Brain]

After reading Einstein's book on Relativity, I watched an episode of Nova: Black Hole Apocalypse.  They did explain the General Theory of Relativity in the episode.  I thought that was admirable, that PBS was still fighting the good fight FOR SCIENCE! as an increasing number of people believe that the earth is flat.

Have you ever looked at a map?

[Sheilbh]

Watched the first episode of Moffat's Dracula. It's actually pretty fun if you dig the tone, Hammer film homage with plenty of cheesy one-liners. 

I've read the show takes a nosedive in the following two episodes. We'll see.

It's very Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. If you like the other stuff they've done it'll be fine - if not, then it has all of the issues you've had with whatever else you saw by them do last.

[celedhring]

Watched the first episode of Moffat's Dracula. It's actually pretty fun if you dig the tone, Hammer film homage with plenty of cheesy one-liners. 

I've read the show takes a nosedive in the following two episodes. We'll see.

It's very Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. If you like the other stuff they've done it'll be fine - if not, then it has all of the issues you've had with whatever else you saw by them do last.

Binged the other two episodes. Yeah, I enjoyed it, but it certainly has a downward slope, and that twist at the end of episode 2 is pretty rolleye-worthy and nearly ruined the show for me (and the Lucy storyline is really really bad). Anyway, Drac and Sister Agatha make the show, less charismatic actors in those roles and it would have sunk. Moffat/Gatiss are pretty good when crafting these over the top leads and their rivalries, certainly.

[The Larch]

I watched the first episode last night. The nun is awesome.

[celedhring]

She has some of the best one-liners

Mother superior: "Why are the forces of darkness attacking our convent?"
Agatha: "Maybe they are sensitive to criticism"

[The Larch]

Btw, poor Jonathan Harker, a truly pathetic character in the purest sense of the word.

[Savonarola]

Roma Città Aperta (Rome Open City) (1945)

While not the first neo-realist film (Ossessione is usually credited as that) this is the one that brought the term to the world.  It's not even all that realistic; a lot of the film is shot in a hastily constructed studio that looks stagey.  The scenes on the street, however, are amazing.  Due to wartime conditions the filmmakers had to work with what they had (production was repeatedly shut down due to lack of film stock); consequently the street scenes with their shaky camera and low grade film stock look like they came out of a documentary.  This is a big change in Italian cinema, which had been known for its lavish spectacles before this (even in the pre-Fascist period; Cabiria for example.)

This was filmed immediately after the liberation, and while the war was still going on.  There's one scene in which the Germans arrest the heroes (a priest, a communist leader and an Austrian deserter.)  A passerby saw this and pulled out a revolver to stop the abduction.  The character playing the priest was genuinely terrified at that and begged him not to shoot (they dubbed his line, but left the scene in the film.)

Due to reconciliation laws at the time the Italians couldn't be depicted as committing atrocities.  The Germans are therefore depicted as totally evil, and the collaborators are depicted as either unwilling or incompetent.

Federico Fellini was one of the screenwriters as well as an assistant director.  There is one Felliniesque scene: the priest goes into a statue shop, sees a statue of Venus Genetirix and St. Francis next to each other.  He proceeds to turn the statues so that they're no longer facing each other.  (Isabella Rossellini insisted that her father had a sense of humor much like Fellini but, if so, it doesn't come through on any of his other films.)

The film depicts a moment of hope in Italian politics; that the communists and the Catholic partisans work together.  Only the evil German leader is allowed to point out that Peppone and Don Camillo aren't going to be friends tomorrow.  (Amusingly in "The Bicycle Thieves" the communists and the Catholics don't work at all, much less together.)

[Sheilbh]

Binged the other two episodes. Yeah, I enjoyed it, but it certainly has a downward slope, and that twist at the end of episode 2 is pretty rolleye-worthy and nearly ruined the show for me (and the Lucy storyline is really really bad). Anyway, Drac and Sister Agatha make the show, less charismatic actors in those roles and it would have sunk. Moffat/Gatiss are pretty good when crafting these over the top leads and their rivalries, certainly.

I love Mark Gatiss but am kind of thinking he may be the weakest writer of the League of Gentlemen. Though he's done a couple of good ghost story adaptations on BBC4, I think solo.

But having watched Sherlock, Dracula and Dr Who I am a little tired of the eccentric, brilliant, charismatic man with some sort of wonderful, witty, clever woman who ends up almost entirely in his orbit and defined by it. It sort of feels like despite hopping genres, he may have a Woody Allen-style limited range

[celedhring]

Binged the other two episodes. Yeah, I enjoyed it, but it certainly has a downward slope, and that twist at the end of episode 2 is pretty rolleye-worthy and nearly ruined the show for me (and the Lucy storyline is really really bad). Anyway, Drac and Sister Agatha make the show, less charismatic actors in those roles and it would have sunk. Moffat/Gatiss are pretty good when crafting these over the top leads and their rivalries, certainly.

I love Mark Gatiss but am kind of thinking he may be the weakest writer of the League of Gentlemen. Though he's done a couple of good ghost story adaptations on BBC4, I think solo.

But having watched Sherlock, Dracula and Dr Who I am a little tired of the eccentric, brilliant, charismatic man with some sort of wonderful, witty, clever woman who ends up almost entirely in his orbit and defined by it. It sort of feels like despite hopping genres, he may have a Woody Allen-style limited range

Yeah, I indeed had the "they are making the same show" feeling, and then when [spoiler]the time jump twist[/spoiler] happened I was like 

They also love to overcomplicate plots unnecessarily as some odd display of writer wit. But I still found it enjoyable, only the last episode was a bit of a chore to go through, and the resolution [spoiler]Dracula's secret is that he's ashamed of himself![/spoiler] was weak and rushed.

[The Larch]

She has some of the best one-liners

Mother superior: "Why are the forces of darkness attacking our convent?"
Agatha: "Maybe they are sensitive to criticism"

Just watched the 2nd episode.

[spoiler]Captain: Are you alright?
Agatha: No, no, I'm dying, but don't get distracted.[/spoiler]

[Duque de Bragança]

I studied Italian several years ago.  The professor encouraged us to watch "Divorce Italian Style"; but warned us not to honor kill spouses - unless we were in the Mezzogiorno or on the island of Sicily, in which case it was perfectly acceptable.  (She was from Milan.)

That's a classic indeed. Though I see the "poor" noble as a victim of an absurd patriarchal and matriarchal combo who then could only resort to crime. 

[crazy canuck]

She has some of the best one-liners

Mother superior: "Why are the forces of darkness attacking our convent?"
Agatha: "Maybe they are sensitive to criticism"

Just watched the 2nd episode.

[spoiler]Captain: Are you alright?
Agatha: No, no, I'm dying, but don't get distracted.[/spoiler]

Yeah, she makes the show

They also love to overcomplicate plots unnecessarily as some odd display of writer wit. But I still found it enjoyable, only the last episode was a bit of a chore to go through, and the resolution [spoiler]Dracula's secret is that he's ashamed of himself![/spoiler] was weak and rushed.

I have to disagree.  That character arc was developing from the first scene in the first episode - [spoiler]it is just that we could only see it in hindsight because they played into all of the normal conceptions about Vampires.
[/spoiler]
I also didn't find the plot complicated.  The pacing is what is off beat but enjoyable.  That is what really caught my attention in the first episode.  Well that and the great one liners. 

Very enjoyable series.

[Savonarola]

Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970)

Did you know that Elvis's hair was actually brown?  He dyed it black to look more like Tony Curtis, and he only got weirder from there.



Rehearsal, concert and backstage footage of Elvis () in his third season in Las Vegas.  The concert is great; Elvis was still in decent shape and the drugs hadn't really started taking over at that point.  He was an incredible performer, Dave Barry once pointed out that the sneering, preening movements that Elvis impersonators use are severe over-exaggerations.  The real Elvis never took himself that seriously (in fact Andy Kaufman was his favorite Elvis impersonator) and instead he has sort of a goofy charm on stage.  The ladies sure loved him, though.  He still was able to reduce one girl to hysterical tears (much to his own embarrassment.)  During "Love Me Tender" he went out into the audience to kiss women and boy did they line up for that.

The original version of the film had Elvis singing then contemporary songs usually associated with other artists ("Bridge of Troubled Water" and "Get Back.")  The version I saw took those songs out (though he does rehearse them) and put in songs like "Hound Dog" instead.

[The Brain]

Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970)

Did you know that Elvis's hair was actually brown?  He dyed it black to look more like Tony Curtis, and he only got weirder from there.



Rehearsal, concert and backstage footage of Elvis () in his third season in Las Vegas.  The concert is great; Elvis was still in decent shape and the drugs hadn't really started taking over at that point.  He was an incredible performer, Dave Barry once pointed out that the sneering, preening movements that Elvis impersonators use are severe over-exaggerations.  The real Elvis never took himself that seriously (in fact Andy Kaufman was his favorite Elvis impersonator) and instead he has sort of a goofy charm on stage.  The ladies sure loved him, though.  He still was able to reduce one girl to hysterical tears (much to his own embarrassment.)  During "Love Me Tender" he went out into the audience to kiss women and boy did they line up for that.

The original version of the film had Elvis singing then contemporary songs usually associated with other artists ("Bridge of Troubled Water" and "Get Back.")  The version I saw took those songs out (though he does rehearse them) and put in songs like "Hound Dog" instead.

It's great.