TV/Movies Megathread

[CountDeMoney]

[spoiler]First guy whacked at the trough was Hippy Sam, the guy from last season. Remember him and his hippy girlfreind in the episode Rick abandons Carol?  Nice catch on the Nazi thing. I noticed that too. [/spoiler]

[spoiler]Yeah, there are only so many guys with yellow hair running around in the post-apocalyptic world that exchanged looks of recognition with Rick.

And the table with all the stuffed animals was sad.  Damned Nazis.  [/spoiler]

[Savonarola]

Where the hell is Savonarola?  I wanted to fight about Cat and the Canary.

I haven't seen it yet, sorry.   

Have you seen Häxan?  That's a good Halloween movie.  On it's own it's a bizarre Danish exploitation film; but the version with the bebop soundtrack and William Burroughs narration is like nothing else.

[FunkMonk]

Finally watched all of Season 4 of Walking Dead this weekend and caught the season premiere for 5.

Season 4: [spoiler]The Lizzie Borden/child murder episode is probably the best of the entire series. That episode was genuinely chilling.

"Look at the flowers Lizzie."[/spoiler]

[Ideologue]

Where the hell is Savonarola?  I wanted to fight about Cat and the Canary.

I haven't seen it yet, sorry.   

:o:o:o:o:o

Well, you've still seen a lot more silent movies than me.

I started to watch Pandora's Box the other day, which is supposed to be good/great, though it is a superb lesson in the most severe weakness inherent to the silent form in comparison to talkies, which is that they can't easily be about people talking about nothing interesting in a boring normal room.  (Of course, there's an excellent chance I'd have found it dull even if it were in sound.)

Have you seen Häxan?  That's a good Halloween movie.  On it's own it's a bizarre Danish exploitation film; but the version with the bebop soundtrack and William Burroughs narration is like nothing else.

Nerp.  But I mistrust umlauts.

Actually, I looked it up and it seems... interesting.  The documentary part sounds dull, the dramatization of torture part sounds rad.

[Savonarola]

I started to watch Pandora's Box the other day, which is supposed to be good/great, though it is a superb lesson in the most severe weakness inherent to the silent form in comparison to talkies, which is that they can't easily be about people talking about nothing interesting in a boring normal room.  (Of course, there's an excellent chance I'd have found it dull even if it were in sound.)

Did you notice Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction has Louise Brooks hair-do?   

Pandora's Box is based on a couple plays by Frank Wedekind; these were also turned into the Opera "Lulu" by Alban Berg:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfdP4II20Cg

Germans seem to love the sinister sexuality present in that film.  The film "The Blue Angel" and Berg's other famous opera, Wozzeck cover similar ground.  The French have something similar Zola's "Nana," but Nana is consciously a man eater, while Lulu is not.

[Savonarola]

Nerp.  But I mistrust umlauts.

Mötley Crüe ruined it for everybody. 

Actually, I looked it up and it seems... interesting.  The documentary part sounds dull, the dramatization of torture part sounds rad.

It's one of a kind.

[Ideologue]

I started to watch Pandora's Box the other day, which is supposed to be good/great, though it is a superb lesson in the most severe weakness inherent to the silent form in comparison to talkies, which is that they can't easily be about people talking about nothing interesting in a boring normal room.  (Of course, there's an excellent chance I'd have found it dull even if it were in sound.)

Did you notice Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction has Louise Brooks hair-do?   

Hmm, close, but Louise Brooks' bob is much shorter.  I notice these things.  The back of her neck was quite alluring.

Pandora's Box is based on a couple plays by Frank Wedekind; these were also turned into the Opera "Lulu" by Alban Berg:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfdP4II20Cg

Germans seem to love the sinister sexuality present in that film.  The film "The Blue Angel" and Berg's other famous opera, Wozzeck cover similar ground.  The French have something similar Zola's "Nana," but Nana is consciously a man eater, while Lulu is not.

I'm probably gonna pick it up again one of these days, it's just I found my senses readily dulled by the opening few scenes (maybe just the one scene), which is just this endless conversation with her johns or whatever-they-were.

Between Leni and Lang and Dreyer, my prejudice against early 20th century Germans is becoming a judgment.  I just need to see the rest of Pandora's, and maybe something from Murnau and Ophuls and Stroheim, to confirm it.  But, hell, Lubitsch aside, you'd think there was something deeply wrong with the whole nation.

[Eddie Teach]

Nosferatu and Sunrise were pretty great as far as films from the 20s go.

[Savonarola]

I'm probably gonna pick it up again one of these days, it's just I found my senses readily dulled by the opening few scenes (maybe just the one scene), which is just this endless conversation with her johns or whatever-they-were.

It's never explained what the relationship between Lulu and Schigolch is.  Pimp seems a likely suggestion; but in the play he's her father.

Between Leni and Lang and Dreyer, my prejudice against early 20th century Germans is becoming a judgment.  I just need to see the rest of Pandora's, and maybe something from Murnau and Ophuls and Stroheim, to confirm it.  But, hell, Lubitsch aside, you'd think there was something deeply wrong with the whole nation.

Lubitsch was (to the best of my knowledge) the only major German director from the era who wasn't influenced by Expressionism.  He had gone to Hollywood before that became dominant.  Most of the other major directors in the era cover themes like insanity, obsession and disguising your true self.  (I've read that some critics have seen this as signs of a sick society which led to the rise of National Socialism; but I'm not well versed on this enough to make the case one way or the other.)

You might like von Stroheim; but he wasn't German, he was Austrian.  The thing to watch out for in his films is his use of iconography; how he'll use objects around the person to reveal their character.

(Oh, and Dreyer was Danish.)

[Savonarola]

Nosferatu and Sunrise were pretty great as far as films from the 20s go.

Murnau's The Last Laugh (Der letzte Mann) is one of my favorites; but based on Ide's tastes I suspect he won't like it.

[celedhring]

The Last Laugh is wonderful. I don't like Sunrise as much, however; probably at the time it was great but today it comes off as quite overwrought.

[Ideologue]

Oh, yeah, Dreyer was Danish.  I knew that.  Ordet is Danish, hence Dreyer is Danish.  I forgot he also did The Passion of Joan of Arc.  In fairness to me, I almost just said "the guy who did Vampyre" and simply hurriedly looked it up without recalling either of those facts.

As for Stroheim, German-speakers, then.  (I did remember that he was technically Austrian )  Was Austria different enough, culturally, to separate German and Austrian films of the period?  I mean, for example: David Cronenberg is a Canadian filmmaker, but an Anglophone, and distributing films to a North American Anglophone audience, and it's easier to place him in the Anglophone body horror/cosmic horror current that includes John Carpenter (USA), Wes Craven (USA), Clive Barker (UK), Ken Russell (UK) and Stuart Gordon (USA) than it is to say "This guy is operating in a specifically Canadian movement."  Edit: Ridley Scott (UK) too.

The Last Laugh is wonderful. I don't like Sunrise as much, however; probably at the time it was great but today it comes off as quite overwrought.

Hm.  I do like things that are overwrought.

[Savonarola]

Oh, yeah, Dreyer was Danish.  I knew that.  Ordet is Danish, hence Dreyer is Danish.  I forgot he also did The Passion of Joan of Arc.  In fairness to me, I almost just said "the guy who did Vampyre" and simply hurriedly looked it up without recalling either of those facts.

As for Stroheim, German-speakers, then.  (I did remember that he was technically Austrian )  Was Austria different enough, culturally, to separate German and Austrian films of the period?  I mean, for example: David Cronenberg is a Canadian filmmaker, but an Anglophone, and distributing films to a North American Anglophone audience, and it's easier to place him in the Anglophone body horror/cosmic horror current that includes John Carpenter (USA), Wes Craven (USA), Clive Barker (UK), Ken Russell (UK) and Stuart Gordon (USA) than it is to say "This guy is operating in a specifically Canadian movement."  Edit: Ridley Scott (UK) too.

Von Stroheim never made films in Austria; he emigrated to the United States in 1909 and began working in Hollywood films in the middle part of the next decade.

[Admiral Yi]

How many of these early German directors were Jewish?

[Ideologue]

Oh, yeah, Dreyer was Danish.  I knew that.  Ordet is Danish, hence Dreyer is Danish.  I forgot he also did The Passion of Joan of Arc.  In fairness to me, I almost just said "the guy who did Vampyre" and simply hurriedly looked it up without recalling either of those facts.

As for Stroheim, German-speakers, then.  (I did remember that he was technically Austrian )  Was Austria different enough, culturally, to separate German and Austrian films of the period?  I mean, for example: David Cronenberg is a Canadian filmmaker, but an Anglophone, and distributing films to a North American Anglophone audience, and it's easier to place him in the Anglophone body horror/cosmic horror current that includes John Carpenter (USA), Wes Craven (USA), Clive Barker (UK), Ken Russell (UK) and Stuart Gordon (USA) than it is to say "This guy is operating in a specifically Canadian movement."  Edit: Ridley Scott (UK) too.

Von Stroheim never made films in Austria; he emigrated to the United States in 1909 and began working in Hollywood films in the middle part of the next decade.

Nuh-uh.  He was a famous officer of the Imperial German Air Service.  I saw part of a documentary about it once.