ITALIANO wrote:Traditions can be barbaric, of course; the problem is when - and where - such barbaric acts are committed TODAY. In some countries unfortunately it still happens. Other countries don't have stoning - just the electric chair. Less painful (maybe), not less primitive.
If you're referring to the U.S., "the electric chair" hasn't been used since 1976.
The preferred method of execution is "lethal injection", less primitive but the results are the same.
Reza wrote:[
Wasn't stoning to death as a punishment part of the old Jewish tradition? Wasn't Mary Magdalene threatened by stoning when Jesus intervened? Islam came much later.
Traditions can be barbaric, of course; the problem is when - and where - such barbaric acts are committed TODAY. In some countries unfortunately it still happens. Other countries don't have stoning - just the electric chair. Less painful (maybe), not less primitive.
I don't disagree, but this film was not made by fanatics. It opens with a quote about men who hide behind the Koran.
It is based on an international best-seller about an actual incident in the early 1990s transcribed by a French-Iranian journalist from a recording he made from an eye witness the day after it happened, the middle aged woman played by Shoreh Agdashloo, who at great risk to both him and herself tells her story while he waits for his car to be repaired while passing through the town.
It is not a condemnation of Islam, nor of Iran as a whole, but of the men of the Iranian border town in which it took place. At the end of the film there is a blurb about stoning still taking place in this day and age in countries around the world, mostly of women.
It would have been horrific even if the woman was guilty, but she clearly is not. Even under this town's primitive interpretation of Islamic law, collaboration was required. The husband and the cleric got it by threatening the poor widower into supporting the allegation by telling him if he didn't they would make his young son an orphan. Under the Ayatollahs when a man accuses his wife, she must prove her innocence, when a wife accuses her husband, she must prove his guilt.
In the end the widower tells the mayor the husband and the cleric forced him to lie. There is no punishment for the men, although ironically the husband finds he can't marry the new woman because "her father was executed." Someone remarks "what was it all for?"
Big Magilla wrote:The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009) Cyrus Norasteh 8/10
----------SPOILER ALERT----------
First they dig a hole, then bind her hands, place her in the hole up to her waist, fill the remainder of the hole with sand so that when the stones hit she has no place to go. Her father, her husband and her adolescent sons, one of whom believes his father's lies and one who doesn't, must throw the first stones.
When it's all over, they will not permit her body to be buried. It's left for dogs to eat.
This rarely, if at all, happens in this day and age.
Islamic law is very strict about adultery and four eye witnesses are required to testify that they have witnessed the actual sexual act before anyone is condemned. In the Quran, the Muslim Holy Book, stoning to death has not been mentioned at all but only sanctions a punishment of so many lashes for such an offence not stoning to death.
As with most such incidents fanatics incorporate their own interpretations about Religion.
Wasn't stoning to death as a punishment part of the old Jewish tradition? Wasn't Mary Magdalene threatened by stoning when Jesus intervened? Islam came much later.
In my opinion such films spread the wrong message especially when they are linked to Religion.
It's not often that I completely change my mind about a film, but seven years plus after I've last seen this one, it's time for a reevaluation.
What I disliked about the film in 2002 was the diametrically opposed stylized or artificial look of the film and its cutesy-poo dialogue vs. its realistic portrayals of a closeted gay husband an an interracial relationship. The two didn't mesh for me then, but in retrospect they fit just fine.
The romantic films of Borzage, Stahl and Sirk often involved harshly real situations beneath their glamorous surfaces and if they didn't deal with gay and racial subtexts, so what?
I've always appreciated the look of the film, as well as Elmer Bernstein's magnificent score and the performances of the two Dennises - Quaid and Haysbert, but I've come to appreciate Julianne Moore's portrayal of the naive wife as well. Her character in the same year's The Hours may be closer in reality to what housewives of the era were like, but her portrayal here is very much in tune with the screen personae of Jane Wyman and Lana Turner in Sirk's films of the era.
It holds up extremely well and although my Oscar choice at the time was Diane Lane in The Unfaithful, a film that does not hold up as well, I am very happy to belatedly join the chorus of those who think Moore was robbed.
The film was nominated for four Oscars for Moore as Best Actress, Haynes for his screenplay, Edward Lachman for his peerless Cinematography and Elmer Bernstein for that magnificent score. In retrospect it should have been nominated for six more for Best Picture, Director, two Supporting Actors (Quaid, Haysbert), Mark Friedman's Production Design and Sandy Powell's Costumes and it should have won most of them.
The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009) Cyrus Norasteh 8/10
An unremittingly sad film, but one well worth your time. Shoreh Agdashloo is heartbreaking as the middle-aged Iranian woman desperate to tell the story to the world, and what a story she has to tell.
Her friend, the title character, is married to a brute who has found another woman and wants a divorce. When she refuses to give him one, he fabricates a story with the complicity of the local cleric in which she is accused of committing adultery with the widower whose house she takes care of. The penalty under the harsh interpretation of Islamic law under the Ayotollahs is that she must be put to death by stoning. The details of the actual stoning is like nothing that has ever been put on screen before.
----------SPOILER ALERT----------
First they dig a hole, then bind her hands, place her in the hole up to her waist, fill the remainder of the hole with sand so that when the stones hit she has no place to go. Her father, her husband and her adolescent sons, one of whom believes his father's lies and one who doesn't, must throw the first stones.
When it's all over, they will not permit her body to be buried. It's left for dogs to eat.
----------END OF SPOLIERS----------
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) Rebecca Miller 5/10
Miller's dialogue is often pungent, but more often fanciful and unrealistic. Quirky acting by Robin Wright, Alan Arkin, Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder doesn't exactly help. If you liked Miller's last film, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, you might like this but otherwise this tale of a middle-aged woman and her much older husband with the hots for an even younger woman in a Connecticut retirement community is probably not your cup of tea either.
One of my all-time favorites that I haven't seen in about 10 years. I recently finished reading Born to Be Hurt: The Untold Story of Imitation of Life by Sam Staggs so I thought it would be a good time to revisit the film. True sign of a great film - gets better with each viewing.
Member of the Wedding (1952) Fred Zinnemann 10/10
Wow, Precious, I can't recall you ever giving out 10s, and here you even have a 10+. I'm not surprised that you rate the Sirk so highly (it's in my Top 10 of all time), but I wouldn't expect you to gove a Fred Zinnemann your top rating. (Although I do think Member of the Wedding is better than most of his movies, infinitely preferable to his other 1952 release, the dreary High Noon.)
I'm a big fan of Zinnemann. One of the best humanists in English language cinema. Funnily enough was I first saw High Noon at a reparatory cinema back in the 80's on a double bill with Shane I was impressed with either of the films.
I revisited them a couple of years ago and found myself much more accommodating.
Cairo Station (1958) Youssef Chahine 7/10
The House of the Seven Gables (1940) Joe May 4/10
Downloading Nancy (2009) Johan Renck 7/10
Peter and Vandy (2009) Jay DiPietro 7/10
Ricky (2009) Francois Ozon 1/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
One of my all-time favorites that I haven't seen in about 10 years. I recently finished reading Born to Be Hurt: The Untold Story of Imitation of Life by Sam Staggs so I thought it would be a good time to revisit the film. True sign of a great film - gets better with each viewing.
Member of the Wedding (1952) Fred Zinnemann 10/10
Wow, Precious, I can't recall you ever giving out 10s, and here you even have a 10+. I'm not surprised that you rate the Sirk so highly (it's in my Top 10 of all time), but I wouldn't expect you to gove a Fred Zinnemann your top rating. (Although I do think Member of the Wedding is better than most of his movies, infinitely preferable to his other 1952 release, the dreary High Noon.)
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
I'm Glad That My Mother is Alive (2009) Claude & Nathan Miller 6/10
Regrets (2009) Cedric Kahn 6/10
Alice in Wonderland (2010) Tim Burton 2/10
Green Zone (2010) Paul Greengrass 7/10
The Savage is Loose (1974) George C. Scott 4/10
Repeat viewings
Imitation of Life (1959) Douglas Sirk 10+/10
One of my all-time favorites that I haven't seen in about 10 years. I recently finished reading Born to Be Hurt: The Untold Story of Imitation of Life by Sam Staggs so I thought it would be a good time to revisit the film. True sign of a great film - gets better with each viewing.
Member of the Wedding (1952) Fred Zinnemann 10/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
