TV/Movies Megathread

[Josephus]

It will be a train wreck. Python were great, all of them, and in all the solo projects as well. (Michael Palin did a great series a while back that was really good.)
But lately, no. Did anyone see that train wreck that was a Python reunion a few years back. It was so sad.
I can't see anything good coming of this. I know Cleese needs money, as we all do. But do what classic rock artists do; put out a HD, 7.1 reissue of Holy Grail or something.

EDIT: The only thing that might give it some credibility is Rob Reiner is involved. He may tame Cleese's excesses or he may not. Reiner is also super left, so we'll see where this goes.

[The Larch]

Did anyone see that train wreck that was a Python reunion a few years back. It was so sad.

Do you mean the live shows they did in 2014? I went to see them in London back then. Sure, they were old and had lost a few steps (in fact it was later revealed that by then Terry Jones was already in the early stages of dementia), but I can't say it was sad, and it certainly felt special to me.

[grumbler]

(snip)

EDIT: The only thing that might give it some credibility is Rob Reiner is involved. He may tame Cleese's excesses or he may not. Reiner is also super left, so we'll see where this goes.

Yeah, I would normally trust Reiner on a project, but the fact that he is willing to be involved in such a project tells me that he can't approach it critically.  He should know that you can't recapture the time and place that made FT so successful.

[Josephus]

Did anyone see that train wreck that was a Python reunion a few years back. It was so sad.

Do you mean the live shows they did in 2014? I went to see them in London back then. Sure, they were old and had lost a few steps (in fact it was later revealed that by then Terry Jones was already in the early stages of dementia), but I can't say it was sad, and it certainly felt special to me.

Seeing it live may have been fun, the sort of thrill kids these days get watching the Rolling Stones or something. I saw it on TV and to me it looked quite sad.

[Maladict]

Did anyone see that train wreck that was a Python reunion a few years back. It was so sad.

Do you mean the live shows they did in 2014? I went to see them in London back then. Sure, they were old and had lost a few steps (in fact it was later revealed that by then Terry Jones was already in the early stages of dementia), but I can't say it was sad, and it certainly felt special to me.

Seeing it live may have been fun, the sort of thrill kids these days get watching the Rolling Stones or something. I saw it on TV and to me it looked quite sad.

I was there too, it was good fun apart from Terry's dementia becoming painfully apparent.
Definitely more of a celebration than anything else, and I probably wouldn't have watched it on TV either.

[Savonarola]

La Chienne (1931)

Jean Renoir's second sound film (and the first in French cinema to have voices recorded on site rather than later recorded in studio.)  There's a few bad ideas in this; for instance it's introduced by puppets, but overall works well for an early sound film.  It's a story about a mild middle aged cashier in an unhappy marriage who falls in love with a prostitute who, in turn, loves her pimp.  Tragedy ensues.  It's not as bleak as similar German films (Pandora's Box, The Blue Angel), but it's somewhere in that range.

Question for the French speakers; the puppets introduce the pimp as "Un Dédé" does that connote anything in French other than a diminutive from of Andre?  (While the film retains it's original French title in English, I thought they could have called it "Who's your Dédé.") 

[Tamas]

Did anyone see that train wreck that was a Python reunion a few years back. It was so sad.

Do you mean the live shows they did in 2014? I went to see them in London back then. Sure, they were old and had lost a few steps (in fact it was later revealed that by then Terry Jones was already in the early stages of dementia), but I can't say it was sad, and it certainly felt special to me.

Same here.

[Duque de Bragança]

La Chienne (1931)

Jean Renoir's second sound film (and the first in French cinema to have voices recorded on site rather than later recorded in studio.)  There's a few bad ideas in this; for instance it's introduced by puppets, but overall works well for an early sound film.  It's a story about a mild middle aged cashier in an unhappy marriage who falls in love with a prostitute who, in turn, loves her pimp.  Tragedy ensues.  It's not as bleak as similar German films (Pandora's Box, The Blue Angel), but it's somewhere in that range.

Post-sync voicing or rather dubbing was famously described as an infamy by Renoir. Makes sense.

Question for the French speakers; the puppets introduce the pimp as "Un Dédé" does that connote anything in French other than a diminutive from of Andre?  (While the film retains it's original French title in English, I thought they could have called it "Who's your Dédé.") 

I guess it just means a guy called André. Other words for pimp would be maquereau or julot.

Dédé or rather dédé used to be a diminutive form for Dungeons & Dragons. Badly translated as donjons (keep(s) in French) when they meant "oubliettes".

[Sheilbh]

Mabe it won't be such a bad idea (from gossip press)

>> Fawlty line <<
Keeping in character

John Cleese's plan to revive Fawlty Towers got a pretty tepid reception, with fans fearing how he'll adapt Basil Fawlty for the modern era – but he won't be starting from cold. Cleese has been keeping the character alive these last few decades.

Those working in tech support at a particular mobile phone company became very used to dealing with Cleese as he was a regular caller to their helpdesk. He would always begin his calls by saying "Cleese here!", then let rip with a long monologue about how his new-fangled tech had gone wrong, in full Fawlty mode.

The team quickly learned not to try to speak with him while he was venting. The strategy they developed was to put the call on speaker with mute engaged and let him rant away, so that everyone could enjoy it as a character piece. Then, after a few minutes, he'd run out of steam and become perfectly pleasant to deal with. Then they'd take the call as normal.

[Savonarola]

Question for the French speakers; the puppets introduce the pimp as "Un Dédé" does that connote anything in French other than a diminutive from of Andre?  (While the film retains it's original French title in English, I thought they could have called it "Who's your Dédé.") 

I guess it just means a guy called André. Other words for pimp would be maquereau or julot.

Dédé or rather dédé used to be a diminutive form for Dungeons & Dragons. Badly translated as donjons (keep(s) in French) when they meant "oubliettes".

Thanks, I'm not really sure what he meant by that then.  Maybe it was supposed to be how we use "Joe" in English (like, just an average Joe.)

I read that the leading lady (Janie Marèse) was from a privileged background.  To get her to sound like a lower class prostitute Renoir told her to imitate Maurice Chevalier (as her speaking voice, I mean, he didn't tell her to look at the camera and make funny faces while singing).  I thought that was funny.

[The Brain]

OMG there's talk of more Spartacus!

[mongers]

Mabe it won't be such a bad idea (from gossip press)

>> Fawlty line <<
Keeping in character

John Cleese's plan to revive Fawlty Towers got a pretty tepid reception, with fans fearing how he'll adapt Basil Fawlty for the modern era – but he won't be starting from cold. Cleese has been keeping the character alive these last few decades.

Those working in tech support at a particular mobile phone company became very used to dealing with Cleese as he was a regular caller to their helpdesk. He would always begin his calls by saying "Cleese here!", then let rip with a long monologue about how his new-fangled tech had gone wrong, in full Fawlty mode.

The team quickly learned not to try to speak with him while he was venting. The strategy they developed was to put the call on speaker with mute engaged and let him rant away, so that everyone could enjoy it as a character piece. Then, after a few minutes, he'd run out of steam and become perfectly pleasant to deal with. Then they'd take the call as normal.

[HVC]

The Last of Us episode 2 was better than the pilot, but the dialogue and some of the activities were cringingly video-game-like. It feels almost surreal to watch the show and see stuff like that pop out.

The first episode did not seem too bad, but the second episode made it clear that it is just a live action video game.  Not my cup of tea.

Have you two kept watching, and if so have your opinions changed at all? Episode 5 released early to avoid competition with the Super Bowl.

[Habbaku]

My opinion's gotten worse. While episode 3 was great, episode 4 was merely decent and 5 was actively bad.

I really don't have high hopes for the show as each time I watch it, I see the video game scenes despite never having played it. The best example was the most recent episode where Joel gets to play an arcade game scene while the other characters do things. There's even a boss!

[celedhring]

My opinion's gotten worse. While episode 3 was great, episode 4 was merely decent and 5 was actively bad.

I really don't have high hopes for the show as each time I watch it, I see the video game scenes despite never having played it. The best example was the most recent episode where Joel gets to play an arcade game scene while the other characters do things. There's even a boss!

Yeah, I only watched the first episode and there were so many bits that felt videogamey, it was kinda quaint to be honest.