Screenings, Winter 1998

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Jane Eyre (1996)

With Anne Paquin as the young Jane Eyre, the first part of this movie was worth watching. I see there was a 1940 version with Joan Fontaine--quite the plain Jane was she, what with "Rebecca" and all--and Orson Welles as Mr. Rochester and Margaret O'Brien as young Jane. Whatever else the director did there, for a contemporary audience the 1940 black and white lends an automatic goth that, Zeffirelli or not, this version failed to convey. Explain to me why, esteeming Jane as she does, Joan Plowright as Mrs. Fairfax doesn't happen to mention Bertha. Or how, if Jane was soaked after putting out the fire, her nightgown didn't cling improperly. Anyway. I liked Amanda Root in "Persuasion," but what a flat Miss Temple was she. Oh well. Sing ho to the free movie channel.
980325

Full Monty

Teehee. This as amusing as I hoped it would be, which is pretty amusing.

Business Affair

Jonathan Price, Christopher Walken, eh? Sounds good, eh? Except that you have to see Walken without a shirt and there seems to be no plot. Boy meets girl. Boy ignore girl. Girl finds other boy. After trauma, girl ends up with first boy. Fade out. I'm watching a lot of movies just 'cause they're there, aren't I? Ask me why I don't climb Everest.

Shine

And this won an Oscar for what? A Best Actor role that took up maybe 20 minutes of the whole overlong, unexplained morass of sentiment? Further proof that the world, including the Academy, is run by grown-ups, vis Timothy Hutton being nominated for Best Supporting Actor for "Ordinary People." We never learn if David is disturbed only by his father's mistreatment or if was physically mad, or or why, if it was mostly his father (as is implied), the lack of father later in life didn't ameliorate his condition. Sing ho for the free movie channel.
980314

Spitfire Grill

Clerks

One scene, and one scene only, elevates this movie from worth-seeing to gotta-see: The video clerk tries to cheer up the convenience-store clerk. He holds a jar of salsa and a tortilla chip; he swim-stirs the chip in the salsa like a fin. His voice is immensely deep. "You go into the cage. The cage goes into the salsa. The shark's in the salsa. There, I ruined it for you. But not as badly as I ruined it for RDC, for whom I tried to mimic the scene using as props an only two-thirds full jar of peanut butter and a series of suicidally weak potato chips.
980308

Suddenly, Last Summer

I hadn't known Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor ever co-starred. Taylor co-starred with Spencer Tracy in "Father of the Bride." In which his role was about the same as in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," with Katharine Hepburn. Six degrees of separation, except here not even one, because it was the same role: Pater familias instructs everyone what to believe and do. Anyway. This was a good movie, I began to read the play; just from the set description I have to say that both Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill had impossible expectations of what set design could convey. Can you read the titles of books at the back of the stage even from the front row enough to distinguish a father and son's polar reading tastes? Can you deduce from particular plant life the mental state of an absent character?
980306

Henry IV

Just goes to show what can happen when you take rôle-playing Live Adventure games too far. Also I like it because it demonstrates the Chesire Cat's declaration: "You must be mad, or else you wouldn't have come here."
980306

Far Away, So Close

I heard somewhere or other that "Wings of Desire" had a sequel. When I saw that this movie, shown on Bravo, had Peter Falk and happened in Germany, I deduced that they must be related. I wondered whether I should watch it: Would it offend, would it be true to "Wings of Desire," could I bear it. I liked it. I do suffer enough from a USAn idea that European film is automatically better than USAn cinema just because it is European. So I liked it, even though I missed a lot of references, not reading enough German to puzzle out book titles or billboards in the background. But I wonder if the screenwriter or producer wanted to make a post-Wall angel movie for balance.
980224

Contact

I don't know if "Contact" has been nominated for any special effects awards, but even on the small screen it didn't look as obvious as "Titanic." I thought it was fairly good--and much better for RDC's Cultural Studies class than "Face/Off," which we were forced to see. Heavily Freudian. Heavily religious. I don't know anything about Carl Sagan's religion for certain, but I think he was fairly Christian. Maybe I think so because of Einstein, who despite his vast knowledge did believe in God. Anyway. I hear the movie mauled the book. Quelle surprise. Still I thought it was good. 980221

Titanic

For the special effects, I wanted to see this on the big screen; so I wouldn't feel culturally bereft of the finest films of the day, I wanted to see this at all. I wonder if the Superbowl, which occurred at roughly the same time, was as stupid. Well, it wasn't that bad. I expected the computer rendering to be less obvious. I didn't know the framing story would be so weak--did anyone see Jack Dawson spray any kind of fixative on his charcoal drawing? I don't know for certain, but I expect 80 years in sea water would dissolve a drawing. So Rose never sees her fiancé again, which is believable, but what about her mother? That relationship goes unmentioned: if she had seen her mother, the latter'd tried to force her to marry again; if we were told outright she never sought out her own mother again, she'd've been a less sympathetic character. Supposedly Rose told her story: what she experienced and what other people told her, when they had the time to. Did Jack bother to describe to her how he got the tuxedo? He might have. But did he have time to tell her about Lovejoy punching him in the gut? I don't think so. And did she hear her fiancé tell his gentleman's gentleman where he put the necklace? No. And what about opening that door, as easily as the wind, against nearly two feet of water? And what about retaining fine motor skills despite hours of near-submersion in near-freezing sea water? I can suspend my disbelief somewhat--like to believe in love at first sight and other absurdities the movie included. But if a movie maker spends $200 million on a perfect replica of the Titanic to make the movie setting as accurate as possible, cannot some funds be diverted for simple lessons in physics (the door), physiology (the hypothermia), and--dare I say it--screenwriting (the narrative technique). "Jack!" "Rose!" "Jack!" "Rose!" "Jack!" "Rose!" (repeat as necessary)
980126

Marvin's Room

Both HAO and I had heard good reviews of this. All I can say is that I hope Diane Keaton is not in real life as sexually repressed as so many of the characters she plays--in "Annie Hall," "The Good Mother," "Baby Boom," and this. DiCaprio adds little more than aesthetic appeal. As with "84 Charing Cross Road," some plays should be left to the stage.

Fountainhead

Naturally I watched this during the peak of my Ayn Rand phase. I rewatched a large chunk of it on TCM. Whoever directed it didn't follow Objectivist principles himself: he stole cinematic techniques and camera angles from Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock. And at least in the novel the reader can imagine the architectural work; the movie adopts Frank Lloyd Wright plans.

House of Cards

The girl went mentally absent, the girl returned. I don't see that Tommy Lee Jones or Kathleen Turner had much influence one way or another. And either how she came back was inadequately or not at all explained. I think now that we have a free movie channel, I watch a lot of stuff I'd otherwise not waste time or money on. Or at least not money.

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