Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[Reza]

Susan Slade (Delmer Daves, 1961) 4/10

Dated film that has three positive things going for it......only. The lovely location/scenery, Dorothy McGuire and Lloyd Nolan.

The two leads, Connie Stevens and Troy Donahue are just lovely to look at......nothing more.

Susan Slade is one of my favorite bad films of all time -- it's hilarious. When the baby catches on fire, well it doesn't get much better than that.

LOL

It was so obvious they used a doll in that shot.



Edited By Reza on 1256971068

[Hustler]

The Burning Plain by Guillermo Arriaga 6/10

[Damien]

Susan Slade (Delmer Daves, 1961) 4/10

Dated film that has three positive things going for it......only. The lovely location/scenery, Dorothy McGuire and Lloyd Nolan.

The two leads, Connie Stevens and Troy Donahue are just lovely to look at......nothing more.

Susan Slade is one of my favorite bad films of all time -- it's hilarious. When the baby catches on fire, well it doesn't get much better than that.

[Damien]

How about, Damien, instead of ridiculing me, which has seemingly been your favorite activity these past few months (and thus the source of my curiousity into why certain people are cruel and enjoy humiliating other people), how about elucidating your reasons why Au Hasard, Balthazar is a worthy film?

Oh, don't be such a self-involved drama queen. If your idea of cruelty is someone saying "There are no words" and posting an emoticon next to your rating, as well as calling you out on Hilary “Skank” and pointing out your error in word usage, then life must have been pretty good, and people very kind, to you over the years. (Or, more likely, you are ridiculously thin skinned.) A couple of posts do not constitute a “favorite activity.” Sheesh. (If you want to see real spite and nastiness from me, go to the Baseball post-season thread.)

As for Au Hasard Balthazar, it’s among the most affecting movies I've ever seen, and even as it makes one personally contemplate our time on earth through the empathetic quality of Bresson's vision in combination with his objective style, it's also filled with mystery and an unsettling wondrousness. Through the character of Balthazar, Bresson conveys such a rich catalogue of human experience, both in what he experiences and in what he observes. The brilliant opening of the film, in which a bray from Balthazar interrupts a musical piece by, I think. Schubert, is a perfect crystallization of how every human wants his figurative voice to be heard and how so few will have contributed anything lasting – and yet in Bresson’s universe everyone can achieve something great – redemption. (For a director who doesn't deal in overtly religious subjects -- other than in Diary Of A Country Priest -- Bresson is one of the most spiritual filmmakers imaginable.) Thus is Bresson’s clear-eyed meditative style – he is rigorous but his handling of all cinematic elements (camera placement, editing, sound, the unique way he handled the performers in his film – most weren’t actors) is so precise and perfectly attenuated that his films make you want to shout with joy. One of Bresson's great accomplishments is his realization that we'll look at a donkey in a different way than we observe other humans, and while we feel affection, concern and sympathy for Balthazar, his plight reflects, complements, and enhances our understanding of, the human characters and ourselves. It's an utterly beautiful and heartbreaking movie.

But I guess as donkeys in film go, you’d better stick with Francis, The Talking Mule. Or maybe, better still, some hunky character on One Life To Life will have a long-lost brother, who turns out to be a donkey. (Now, THAT’s cruel.)



Edited By Damien on 1257058895

[Sabin]

/Kings & Queen/ (dir. Arnaud Desplechin) - 7/10

I don't think I'm going to ever love Kings & Queen which is a shame because I'm rather stricken with this brave new director. Esther Kahn and A Christmas Tale are glorious films, and in a way so is Kings & Queen. I don't know whom to attribute this to but I've read his films are like whirligigs forever spinning. Kings & Queen feels as though it's ready to lift off the ground, but after two viewings I must confess that I'm only really consistently interested in the Mathieu Amalric scenes, which is a shame because it's, as Nora says at the end, the story of the four men that she has loved. Her story is sometimes incredibly engaging and she is no doubt a wonderful actress, but for me Kings & Queen is the story of Ismaël, that nutter played by Mathieu Amalric in one of my favorite performances of all time. From his very first scene in the film, I almost felt embarrassed for Devos because her solemn Nora had to compete for attention. Desplechin says that he wanted to make a melodrama about a woman and counter that with a burlesque style of comedy. In his attempts to counter the manic energy of Amalric, he has made the Devos story all the more quietly pained.



Edited By Sabin on 1256938018

[dws1982]

I didn't see anything mean in what Damien posted. It seemed like good-natured faux outrage. I haven't read the other posts that Damien has directed towards Penelope lately, but I didn't think there was anything mean about that one.

[Eric]

I've not seen the film, nor am I ever likely to

This is the incorrect decision.

[anonymous1980]

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Mike Nichols) - 9/10

(I felt Richard Burton should've won too).

[flipp525]

How about, Damien, instead of ridiculing me, which has seemingly been your favorite activity these past few months (and thus the source of my curiousity into why certain people are cruel and enjoy humiliating other people), how about elucidating your reasons why Au Hasard, Balthazar is a worthy film? Can you do that without resorting to invectives against another person? I mean, it is rather ironic (and hypocritical) that you ridicule a person for not liking a film that is specifically about spirituality and kindness as opposed to cruelty and humiliation.

Yeah, why have you been (so very obviously) picking on Penelope lately, Damien? It hasn't even been done in a clever way either, just snide, bitchy and cruel, like he's now an enemy of yours' who needs to be emotionally destroyed.

[Sonic Youth]

So, let's improve the level of discourse here and let our extreme feelings towards individuals be replaced by extreme feelings against Joel Schumacher or Michael Bay or something more constructive.

How dare you speak of Joel and Michael that way! Why, I oughta...

[OscarGuy]

I've not seen the film, nor am I ever likely to, but let's try to keep things civil. I know we all get hot-headed when our personal favorites are attacked whether unnecessarily or not, but we all have opinions. We all have likes and dislikes. They are not a shared item. We are film lovers and as such we share a commonality. We might not all agree on this film, but we might agree on others that still more will dislike.

Let's keep in mind that this is a community unlike any other and that, like it or not, we're all family. Just because you don't like someone or someone's opinion is no cause to treat them like shit.

So, let's improve the level of discourse here and let our extreme feelings towards individuals be replaced by extreme feelings against Joel Schumacher or Michael Bay or something more constructive.

[ITALIANO]

One of the few times I am totally on Damien's side.

[Reza]

Susan Slade (Delmer Daves, 1961) 4/10

Dated film that has three positive things going for it......only. The lovely location/scenery, Dorothy McGuire and Lloyd Nolan.

The two leads, Connie Stevens and Troy Donahue are just lovely to look at......nothing more.



Edited By Reza on 1256896317

[rudeboy]

Balthazar is a film which I adore - just thinking about it makes me feel like weeping - but to balance things for poor Penelope - who seems to be coming in for some pretty unreasonable ridicule here - my best friend, whose taste lines up pretty closely with mine on most things, despised it.

[anonymous1980]

I have to interject here and say I have seen Au Hasard Balthazar twice and the ending never fails to move me.



Edited By anonymous on 1256882514