TV/Movies Megathread

[Syt]

Season 9 of Curb Your Enthusiasm. At the end of S8 I thought about actually taking a break from the show; and apparently so did the creators. Season 8 finished in 2011, and Season 9 started in 2017.

I liked that they shook up the dynamic a bit by having Larry get divorced (probably playing on the trope of jerk husbands in sitcoms having unreasonably loyal/understanding wives). Torn on the addition of Leon. He has some good bits, but he seems incredibly one note (maybe more so than some of the other characters, like Susie).

Overall, the show seems to have gone from comedic situations and absurdities arising mostly organically and then have the characters (mostly Larry) reacting unreasonably and getting his come-uppance to the characters going out of their way to manufacture and create absurd situations and plots, making this basically "just another sitcome". Bit sad, really. (Though I did appreciate the Salman Rushdie cameo in the last episode I watched.)

With much delay I finally finished S9 of Curb Your Enthusiasm. It got a bit better at the end, but the whole season felt like a bit of a slog.

Three episodes into S10 (in which Larry is accused of sexual harassment) and I feel it's already miles better than S9.

[Syt]

[Maladict]

And Jaws is halfway between us and Metropolis.

The Matrix doe feel rather dated by now.

[celedhring]

And Jaws is halfway between us and Metropolis.

The Matrix doe feel rather dated by now.

The Matrix even got its nostalgia reboot already.

Incidentally, I was discussing the other day how all those nostalgia reboots/sequels are so much more prevalent this generation when compared to others. You had stuff like the 1950s revival in the 1970s and 1980s (Grease, Back to the Future, Peggy Sue Got Married, etc...), but those were at least new original movies.

[Tamas]

Yeah but in parallel, TV is better than ever.

Cinema is dying, we are seeing the death rattles.

[Syt]

The marriage in Cabo episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm featured renditions of La Paloma, a tune I connect to Hamburg more than Mexico as it's one of the most famous songs in German cinema.

Helmut Käutner was active as director from the 1940s till 1970. Even though he started making films in the 3rd Reich, he was not exactly a fan of the regime and tried to keep their propaganda out of his works.

Shot in 1943, Große Freiheit Nr. 7 is a drama set in the red light district of Hamburg. Sailor Hannes (originally Jonny, but the propaganda ministry didn't approve of the English sounding name), played by Hans Albers, promises to look after his dying brother's girlfriend. He falls in love with her, and wants to settle down and marry her, but she falls in love with another guy, Georg. Georg, on the other hand, thinks she's in love with Hannes and working as a prostitute. Hannes and Georg brawl, and in the end the girl goes to Georg to clarify matters with him and stays the night. Hannes was waiting all night for her to return and finally decides to go back to sea, signing up on a freighter.

Due to the bombings, the movie could not be shot in Hamburg (or Berlin, for that matter) besides a few scenes, and it was completed in Prague in 1944. Käutner was asked to make numerous edits for the propaganda ministry who didn't like this somber tale about extramarital affairs and lower class drunks, had concerns about some lines of song lyrics (e.g. "at some point it will all be over") They had hoped for a movie about the heroes of the sea and celebrating the merchant navy. After a first trial screening in Prague in December 1944 they banned the film. The official German premiere had to wait till September 1945.

The movie features a number of songs, the most famous ones being "Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins" and, of course, La Paloma:

Also, it turns out the whole movie with nicely restored image/sound and English subtitles is also available on Youtube: https://youtu.be/7WHlwxrugGw

[celedhring]

Yeah but in parallel, TV is better than ever.

Cinema is dying, we are seeing the death rattles.

I think TV peaked in the mid-to-late 2010s, quality has been sliding down, although it's still historically high.

I'm a bit optimistic about movies, since people look like they are finally getting tired from franchises, and there have been hints at the return of the mid-budget movie.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah totally agree. I think TV's on the slide and I think as with Westerns in the 50s people are getting a little tired/over the big franchises.

I think it's probably all just moving in cycles.

[Josquius]

It'll probably keep going downhill till the dust settles on the current mess around streaming. The million services model isn't sustainable for sure. But which will be the ones to last.

[Duque de Bragança]

Well, cinema was deemed without future by one of the Lumière brothers, who invented it. 

A bit early to judge. 

Could not go rewatch Jason and the Argonauts at the Cinémathèque due to a métro problem.

[FunkMonk]

Succession tonight was incredible. The scene in the karaoke bar

[Josephus]

Succession tonight was incredible. The scene in the karaoke bar

It's like Jaws, but if everyone in Jaws worked for Jaws.

[Sheilbh]

I saw Mehdi Hassan saying that scene was exactly like when he was a Sky News producer and Rupert Murdoch decided to do a walk around the newsroom

[Savonarola]

Strange Cargo (1940)

This is the eighth and final pairing of Clark Gable and Joan Crawford.  Crawford had just had a successful comeback co-starring in "The Women," while Gable was on top of the world having just been Rhett Butler.  Consequently, while Joan got top billing on the print, Gable (for the first time in Crawford-Gable pictures) got top billing on all the publicity material and Mommy Dearest was none too pleased.  (Even worse Gable had just gotten married and was being faithful to his wife (Carole Lombard) allegedly much to Joan's chagrin.)

The story is... different.  Eight men on Devil's Island bust out and are trying to make it to the mainland.  One of the men, Ian Hunter (no, not the lead singer of Mott the Hoople) is a mysterious stranger/Christ figure with some sort of supernatural power.  They're joined by a chanteuse/putain (Crawford) who has been Shanghaied by one of the convicts (Gable.)  One by one the convicts die, but not before experiencing a conversion experience with the help of Hunter.  At the same time Crawford-Gable have a standard Hollywood romance where the macho hombre (or maybe macho homme in this case) becomes civilized after falling for a dame.  The two stories don't always mesh together.  It sort of reminded me of Cool Hand Luke, (if we saw the film through Dragline's eyes rather than Luke's and if the evil is inside of us, rather than society or "The Man,") but with a love story.

[HVC]

Saw the blue beetle trailer. Might be good, as far as super hero movies go.  Has more of a marvel rather then DC vibe, which is a plus already.