TV/Movies Megathread

[Valmy]

Why is BBC America running The Patriot, knowing full well it does absolutely nothing for transatlantic relations.

Did you know that slaves didn't want to be free but worked on those plantations because they wanted to and the Nazis actually based their massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane on what the Redcoats did in the Revolution? History!

[CountDeMoney]

Why is BBC America running The Patriot, knowing full well it does absolutely nothing for transatlantic relations.

Did you know that slaves didn't want to be free but worked on those plantations because they wanted to and the Nazis actually based their massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane on what the Redcoats did in the Revolution? History!

"Tell me about...Ohio."
"It's going to be a shithole of stupid white people.  Florida without the beaches."

[Savonarola]

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Cocteau's film, La Belle et La Bête, is a masterpiece even though (or rather because) it uses the most basic special effects.  Cocteau uses a "Less is more" aesthetic to bring his surrealist film to life.  Every frame in this film, on the other hand, is over-stuffed with CGI in a "Too much is never enough" aesthetic; a fitting film for Donald Trump's America.  The film makes amends to Hil's true believers by portraying the rural white people as even more nasty an ignorant than in the cartoon version.  Through the power of vulgar taste and bigotry Disney has made a film that appeals to all America.   

(Well, all of America except Valmy.  The aristo does defeat sans-culottes after all.   )

I knew going into the film that I wasn't going to be seeing a Cocteau twin.  While I prefer the cartoon version this film did have some delight surprises.  Hermoine can sing and Gandalf can dance.  Plus even as a CGI clock Ian McKellen manages steals the show.  Young Obi-Won-Kenobi's "French" accent on the other hand left something to be desired.

The "Gay controversy" in the film is laughable; even if you were a traditionalist.  Belle's reward for toil and virtue is a handsome husband, a large home overstuffed with tasteful knick-knacks and servants to do all the housework.  I don't think anyone can seriously accuse Disney of promoting alternative lifestyles with this one.

For this reason Belle has to be a paragon.  In the Cocteau film she was beautiful, virtuous and kind.  In the cartoon she was all that plus tough, intelligent, independent minded and well read.  In this version she's all that and an inventor.  In the next version she'll have to be a champion pole-vaulter as well.

Even by the standards of a Beauty and the Beast story this film goes into weird areas of female wish fulfillment.  Belle's father, Maurice, abandons Belle's mother on her death bed to be with Belle.

The happy ending seemed strange; since the film was set in the 1780s.  The unwashed peasants were going to be back in a few short years with their torches and this time there wouldn't be magical tea-pots to defend the over-fed, decadent aristocrat.  So there's even a ray of hope in the film for Valmy.

[Valmy]

Young Obi-Won-Kenobi's "French" accent on the other hand left something to be desired.

However, it was the most authentic French accent in all of this section of France.

[Duque de Bragança]

No mention about how multicultural was France before the French Revolution? Lots of free black people in the French countryside according to the movie. 

As for French accents, did they even try?  The hunter... 

[Savonarola]

No mention about how multicultural was France before the French Revolution? Lots of free black people in the French countryside according to the movie. 

That caught me by surprise when they did it in Cinderella (2015.)  This time I expected it.

As for French accents, did they even try?  The hunter... 

Ewan McGregor was trying to do a French accent the way Jerry Orbach had in the 1991 cartoon.  Even Ewan has admitted that his accent sounded more Mexican than French.  No one else was even trying to sound French, which did made his attempt seem even stranger.

[Valmy]

I liked the film quite a bit actually. It was more in the spirit of the cartoon than Cinderella (I am a strong independent woman! Who lives with my abusive family anyway!) or Maleficent, which was truly wretched. So maybe my standards were just low. I certainly did not expect something authentic to France or the original story.

[Savonarola]

I liked the film quite a bit actually. It was more in the spirit of the cartoon than Cinderella (I am a strong independent woman! Who lives with my abusive family anyway!) or Maleficent, which was truly wretched. So maybe my standards were just low. I certainly did not expect something authentic to France or the original story.

I liked it as well; but I kept finding myself comparing it to the Cocteau film (which it was never going to be) or the cartoon (which I thought was better paced).  I wasn't expecting an authentic period piece (in fact they did much better at that than I thought they would have.)  I'm happy I saw it on the big screen; my only regret is that I couldn't talk my wife into shouting "Give me back my beast" in a Swedish accent at the transformation scene. 

[Oexmelin]

No mention about how multicultural was France before the French Revolution? Lots of free black people in the French countryside according to the movie. 

As for French accents, did they even try?  The hunter... 

It's a movie about spells, monsters, dancing teapots and singing candlesticks, and a public lending library in "18th c. France", and somehow, the presence of black people is what makes it unbelievable?

Set the movie in Brignoles (Var). Twenty free black people live there in 1778.

[garbon]

He is afraid of getting rubed.

[viper37]

Did you know that slaves didn't want to be free but worked on those plantations because they wanted to

Give me liberty or give me death, they said.  Since they didn't die, it's obvious they chose to be slaves.

[Duque de Bragança]

No mention about how multicultural was France before the French Revolution? Lots of free black people in the French countryside according to the movie. 

As for French accents, did they even try?  The hunter... 

It's a movie about spells, monsters, dancing teapots and singing candlesticks, and a public lending library in "18th c. France", and somehow, the presence of black people is what makes it unbelievable?

Pas la peine de monter sur ses grands chevaux politiquement corrects, il s'agissait d'une boutade, comprise par celui qui était visé. Move on, ou comme dit : En Marche ! 

[Valmy]

It's a movie about spells, monsters, dancing teapots and singing candlesticks, and a public lending library in "18th c. France", and somehow, the presence of black people is what makes it unbelievable?

I just figured it was color blind casting. I mean they certainly made no effort to cast any french people. I didn't think 18th c. France was so full of British people either.

[The Minsky Moment]

I didn't think 18th c. France was so full of British people either.

Did you ever try 18th century British cooking?
If it wasn't full of British people it should have been.

[Savonarola]

Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002)

This is a documentary about Motown's house band, The Funk Brothers.  There's a concert they put on at one of the smaller suburban Detroit venues to make this documentary.  They show that,some interviews with the surviving musicians, family members and people who knew them.  Significantly both Berry and Smokey are absent from the film.  The only Motown star they talk to is Martha Reeves.  I had seen this when it first came out, before Martha's stint on the Detroit city council.  Today it's a little eyebrow raising, like going back and seeing OJ's fine work in the Naked Gun movies.  Still it's a good documentary of one of the greatest bands ever assembled.  As it says in the intro; they played on more number one hits than Elvis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys combined.