TV/Movies Megathread

[crazy canuck]

There are some historical inaccuracies in the film, like the "artillery breaks the ice," the cavalry charge (though that does show him as left-handed, something seldom seen in Napoleon depictions - we don't know for sure that he was), and what appears to be Napoleon's artillery blowing up British ships at Toulon.  Probably that's excusable as dramatic license (though there are so many actual dramatic moments in his life that none would seem to need to be made up) but it does raise concerns about how accurate Scott intended to be.

One of the more obvious problems is that Joaquin Phoenix looks like he is fifty years old playing a twenty-four-year-old in 1793 and looks like he is fifty years old playing a 44-year-old Napoleon at Waterloo.  I'm guessing that his face isn't one that takes well to de-aging makeup.

Jesus....movie's not out yet, and Languish is already dissing it.

Look, unless Napoleon takes the tube and talks strategy with the locals, I'm fine with it.

I mean, a group of people who have an interest in history as the one thing that binds us together - shocking that someone would have some interesting comments about the trailer, immediately following a post of a video of an historian making interesting comments about the trailer 

[Valmy]

I don't know. 50 Year old 21st century movie star probably looks younger than a 23 year old in the 1790s 

From a personal level I worry about the POWER OF FILM because when I watch a film like this it has a powerful influence on how I mentally picture the historical figure involved. Speaking of Joaquin Phoenix I do have a little issue separating him with the Emperor Commodus for example.

So generally I find these kinds of films annoying. But I am sure my son will love it and anything to get him to see that France is #1 among Euro countries is good.

[celedhring]

Watched the last Mission Impossible. It's not as good as the previous two - which were two of my favorite popcorn flicks of recent years - but it's still very enjoyable. The climax in particular is deliciously ridiculous. But there's a lot of clumsy plotting and exposition, and some of the action is far weaker (the Venice scene, for example).

[Syt]

Finished the American Gladiators documentary on Netflix. It was all right. Decent behind the scenes look.

Up to S1E5 of The Witcher. It's entertaining enough. It struck me, though, that if you said, "TV show with a gruff male main character with hoarse voice, gruff exterior and struggling to get in touch with his emotions, also he says 'fuck' a lot" it would describe both The Witcher and Ted Lasso.

[HVC]

It gets better as season one progresses. Then it's downhill from there.

[crazy canuck]

It gets better as season one progresses. Then it's downhill from there.

Season one definitely gets very good and once you get near the end everything will start making a lot more sense.

But you have to get to the end of the season to realize just how good it is. I guess the producers thought they had a loyal enough audience that they could gamble with a weak opening and strong closing.

[celedhring]

It gets better as season one progresses. Then it's downhill from there.

Season one definitely gets very good and once you get near the end everything will start making a lot more sense.

But you have to get to the end of the season to realize just how good it is. I guess the producers thought they had a loyal enough audience that they could gamble with a weak opening and strong closing.

They must be compulsive gamblers, then, on account of how bad season 2 was.

[HVC]

It gets better as season one progresses. Then it's downhill from there.

Season one definitely gets very good and once you get near the end everything will start making a lot more sense.

But you have to get to the end of the season to realize just how good it is. I guess the producers thought they had a loyal enough audience that they could gamble with a weak opening and strong closing.

They must be compulsive gamblers, then, on account of how bad season 2 was.

Made it to the third episode of season 3. Better the 2, which wasn't hard, but I kind of lost momentum because of season 2 and Cavill's exit. Kind of feel bad for the second best hemsworth.

[grumbler]

I mean, a group of people who have an interest in history as the one thing that binds us together - shocking that someone would have some interesting comments about the trailer, immediately following a post of a video of an historian making interesting comments about the trailer 

One o the things that Reel History guy got wrong was the significance of Napoleon crowning himself.  He was explicitly rejecting the idea that he was Emperor by divine right (as a crowning by the Pope would imply) by rather by the will of the people.  That's also why he was not titled Emperor of France, but rather Emperor of the French.

He certainly was not placing himself above God (in whom he didn't believe anyway).

[Sheilbh]

Obviously full solidarity with them - but I cannot imagine a picket line more insufferably calling out to be Pinkertoned than actors

There will be street theatre and someone will bring devil sticks.

[celedhring]

I love that Fran Drescher is the SAG-AFTRA president 

Incidentally, the AMPTP planted a pretty dickensian article on Deadline.

https://deadline.com/2023/07/writers-strike-hollywood-studios-deal-fight-wga-actors-1235434335/

Hollywood Studios' WGA Strike Endgame Is To Let Writers Go Broke Before Resuming Talks In Fall

EXCLUSIVE, updated with AMPTP statement: Regardless of whether SAG-AFTRA goes on strike this week, the studios have no intention of sitting down with the Writers Guild for several more months.

"I think we're in for a long strike, and they're going to let it bleed out," said one industry veteran intimate with the POV of studio CEOs.

With the scribes' strike now finishing its 71st day and the actors' union just 30 hours from a possible labor action of its own, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are planning to dig in hard this fall before even entertaining the idea of more talks with the WGA, I've learned. "Not Halloween precisely, but late October, for sure, is the intention," says a top-tier producer close to the Carol Lombardini-run AMPTP.

While some dismiss this as just "cynical strike talk," studio and streamer sources around town confirm the strategy. They also confirm that the plan to grind down the guild has long been in the works for a labor cycle that all sides agree is a game-changer one way or another for Hollywood.

"It's been agreed to for months, even before the WGA went out," one executive said. "Nobody wanted a strike, but everybody knew this was make or break."

Receiving positive feedback from Wall Street since the WGA went on strike May 2, Warner Bros Discovery, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Paramount and others have become determined to "break the WGA," as one studio exec blatantly put it. 

To do so, the studios and the AMPTP believe that by October most writers will be running out of money after five months on the picket lines and no work.

"The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses," a studio executive told Deadline. Acknowledging the cold-as-ice approach, several other sources reiterated the statement. One insider called it "a cruel but necessary evil."

The studios and streamers' next think financially strapped writers would go to WGA leadership and demand they restart talks before what could be a very cold Christmas. In that context, the studios and streamers feel they would be in a position to dictate most of the terms of any possible deal.

The severe method comes out of the guild's successful battle with the agencies in 2021 over dismantling the lucrative practice of packaging. The WGA picked off one agency after another until final holdout WME backed down, a tactic seen as a warning sign by many in the studio and streamer C-suites.

Convinced that "giving in," as another insider put it, to the writers will result in every contract cycle from the WGA, IATSE, the Teamsters and more ending in a strike, the AMPTP is aiming for the bottom line.

Publicly, the AMPTP are refuting the so-called October surprise.

"These anonymous people are not speaking on behalf of the AMPTP or member companies, who are committed to reaching a deal and getting our industry back to work," a spokesperson for the organization says.

Still, since the WGA called its first strike in 15 years in early May, there have been no discussions between the AMPTP and the guild despite persistent public guild offers to meet. Sources close to the AMPTP insist there has been no direct offer from the WGA leadership to resume talks.

Still, as pickets went up and productions shut down in the strike's early weeks, studio bosses almost uniformly offered banal praise to the writers but no public proposals to get the them back to work. In the meantime, as network schedules shift to unscripted shows and streamers buy up foreign content, the studios and streamers have been saving money on shuttered productions and cost-cutting.

On a parallel track and reinforcing the AMPTP's divide-and-conquer approach, negotiations with the Director's Guild in late May proved a success, with ratification coming last month. Even if the 160,000-member SAG-AFTRA joins the WGA on the picket lines, the studios hope to get the actors back to the negotiating table in a few weeks.

A new SAG-AFTRA deal would not see production restart, but it could allow actors to promote projects already set for release. A move that studios hope would further the WGA going into the latter part of the year.

The WGA did not respond to request for comment today from Deadline. If or when they do we will update this post.

And somehow Hollywood gets the liberal elite tag

[Sheilbh]

And somehow Hollywood gets the liberal elite tag

Well of course they will donate millions to the Democrats while trying to break the last union town in America by immiserating their workers

[Syt]

First episode of Foundation's Season 2. Decent start, but as usual I feel that the Empire part is more interesting, not least thanks to Lee Pace.

I hadn't watched the second and third Hobbit movies, but I saw clips a few days ago of him as Thranduil in those. He's basically playing the same haughty, imperious character, isn't he?

And damn, that guy's physique.

[Sheilbh]

I absolutely loved him in Halt and Catch Fire which I think is one of the best TV series in the last few decades but doesn't pop up in the "prestige TV" chat. I think the first season is a bit too derivative of Mad Men but the whole series is incredible - especially the ending.

Separately I see that the studios offered a deal including scanning background actors and paying them for a days work, but then owning the image rights forever with no obligation to get the actor's consent or pay them for re-use. Impossible to imagine why they're strking

[Savonarola]

La Ciénaga (The Swamp) 2001

I saw this at the Detroit Film Theater (probably) the year after its release.  There isn't much of a story; it's more a portrait of an upper class Argentinian family in decay living on a ruined estate.  It made me think of Faulkner, but a lot of reviewers call it Argentinian Chekov (I'm not that familiar with Chekov's writing.)

I saw it on the Criterion Channel, in the extras they had a number of pretentious film critics describe the director (Lucrecia Martel) unconventional use of shot setup and focus.  That's not my thing so much, I prefer a good story, but I think it kept the film from becoming boring.