but Hammett at his spare best.
Excellent last line too.
She ain't movin'. Serenity's not movin'.
Kaylee ,'Out Of Gas'
Buffista Movies 5: Development Hell
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
DavidS - Jan 26, 2007 6:57:18 am PST #7218 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Hayden - Jan 26, 2007 7:00:06 am PST #7219 of 10001
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
I've forgotten it, unfortunately. Can you post a reminder?
Frankenbuddha - Jan 26, 2007 7:03:26 am PST #7220 of 10001
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
Wasn't that a continental Op story? Was MALTESE FALCON the only Sam Spade book? I really need to get up to speed on Hammett.
Hayden - Jan 26, 2007 7:07:30 am PST #7221 of 10001
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
Wasn't that a continental Op story?
Yes.
Was MALTESE FALCON the only Sam Spade book?
It was the only novel, but there were a few short stories. I wrote that sentence before double-checking, but Wikipedia agrees: [link]
Frankenbuddha - Jan 26, 2007 7:11:26 am PST #7222 of 10001
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
So, Wim Wender's HAMMET: was it ruined by interference, or would it have been a botch anyway? THE AMERICAN FRIEND leans me towards the former; even if it wasn't a true representation of Highsmith, it was a damn fine movie anyway.
DavidS - Jan 26, 2007 7:19:54 am PST #7223 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I've forgotten it, unfortunately. Can you post a reminder?
"The old man gave me merry hell."
Hayden - Jan 26, 2007 7:24:51 am PST #7224 of 10001
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
Oh yeah.
§ ita § - Jan 26, 2007 7:41:50 am PST #7225 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
“Smokin’ Aces” is a Viagra suppository for compulsive action fetishists and a movie that may not only be dumb in itself, but also the cause of dumbness in others.
Hmm. I wonder how they'd compare it to Crank, which I found deliciously outré in its internal oneupmanship. And which, miraculously, was the first movie in about a year to neither cause nor exacerbate a migraine of mine. If you've seen it, you'll know why that's notable.
Frankenbuddha - Jan 26, 2007 7:46:53 am PST #7226 of 10001
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
Hmm. I wonder how they'd compare it to Crank, which I found deliciously outré in its internal oneupmanship.
Well, I've heard it compared to the Guy Ritchie school of gangster film (as opposed to failed Madonna vehicle) in its ADD stylings, but apart from Jason Statham, I'm not sure how that compares to CRANK (which I didn't see).
Jessica - Jan 26, 2007 7:48:36 am PST #7227 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
To quote (or more likely paraphrase) Crow T. Robot, "No one in this movie knew when to stop decorating!"
According to Zhang Yimou, the costumes and set decorations are period-accurate, with only minor concessions made to modern paint color availability. (Of course, since the play the film is based on takes place in the 1930's, he technically could have chosen a less garish time period to reset it in, but then he wouldn't have had an excuse to put Gong Li in a pushup bra, since cleavage was only fashionable in dynastic China for about ten minutes.)
I saw an absolutely amazing movie last night -- The Lives of Others, which is coming out Feb 9th and is up for an Oscar right now. It takes place in East Berlin in the early 1980's, and is about a Stasi agent who is assigned to wiretap a playwright. He very quickly finds out that this man is not under suspicion of any crime, and that the reason he's being watched is because a high-level Party official is interested in the playwright's girlfriend, and he starts to have doubts about his government for the first time.
What's really wonderful about the film is how personal and specific the story is -- it's not a polemic against wiretapping, or even really against socialism (though you do come out of the film thinking that both of those things are bad). It's a story about two men whose lives are changed by the things that happen to them. Everyone should go see it, and then go see it again.