bringing the sky down to earth…

But first, there’s something that been bothering me. Pluto.
Yes, I know that we all heard more than enough about Tombaugh’s posthumous smack-down. But I have some issues with it… The whole “cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit” thing? Ignoring the other planets that haven’t… Pluto’s specific reason is that its orbit overlaps with Neptune? Shouldn’t that disqualify Neptune as a planet, because it hasn’t cleared Pluto out of its orbit? Also, personally, I am of the belief that good ol’ Luna doesn’t orbit around the Earth, so much as they both orbit the sun along the same track. I think that either makes neither one a planet or both Terra and Luna planets. Anyway, they need to come up with stronger reasoning before they downgrade the Scorpio planet. We don’t get a planet anymore? That may work for Cancer’s, but for me? No go… This Pluto thing won’t stick…

Anyway yes, another not soo filmic time. We’re busy trying to find a new apt and getting ready to move, you see, so films are kind of on the backburner… But I did manage to squeeze a few in.

First off, exciting news from DvdSavant! He announces that Facets is releasing Who Wants to Kill Jessie? on DVD. It’s good because this is a brilliant and wonderful comedy that is virtually unknown in the usa, the bad news is that I already have a Ceske PAL dvd of it and I hope this one won’t have some feature that will make me want to replace it! It’s a well-founded and frequent fear to those who impatiently end up buying foreign discs… At some point, a US disc always seems to come out…

And then… Yes, it’s from the acclaimed director of Run Lola Run, but since I haven’t seen that, it don’t know if its good or a bad thing but, I do like this one. Winterschläfer, It is basically a drama about two couples, one maybe splitting apart, one maybe coming together and it’s a nice quiet film with some beautiful alpine scenery. But wait, there’s more. There is a car theft and an accident and a some big plummets and some deaths and a developing mystery plot that the main characters don’t even realize is going on! Some seem to qualify it as an erotic thriller, but it has just got some old Euro-nudity in it and it’s not particularly thrilling, so I don’t buy that description. More like a “romantic” drama with mystery. But it is well done and engrossing in it’s quiet way, with some good tragedy thrown in to keep you interested.

Haute Tension I watched this again. Well, I still like it, it is tense and it looks great. Some fun characters and good startles and nervous-making scenes. Sure it’s not The Descent, but it’s still a great, fun horror movie.

Dragonslayer… Always reminding me of Lake Town from the Hobbit, this is another film which is good to look at. Well, let me rephrase that, the outdoor “scenery” shots are quite beautiful, Scotland or somesuch, the rest of it isn’t that visually great. The lead character is hard to take seriously, maybe he’s right for the role, but all I could think is… “that guy? what is he doing there?” The effects, while certainly dated, remind you that they were quite good in the day. Some of the other charcters are good: Ralph Richardson, of course, does fine in his brief role, and the lame king is good as is his evil henchman. In fact, most of the people do a good job. If only the story were a little better done and please, some other lead…

Also, for a Disney film, it did seem a bit gorey.


dragon3718
dragonslayer, or exercise guru, you be the judge…
dragonslayer 37:18
Well, it started to grow on me. Trying out another fassbinder film, I watched Love is Colder Than Death. The performances are quite stilted, it has the appearance of being filmed in a vacant building (just using whatever furniture was there and sheets for set dressing) and the characters rarely seem to change their clothes… Ulli Lommel came across as a cardboard Alain Delon..

killers… hot or not…
samourai12533
delon…
kalter3220
not delon…
Yet somehow, as it progressed, it started to grow on me. Fassbinder’s puffy solo gangster, the bad impression of Delon, the halfassed femme fatale, the lack of sets or costumes, the eternally unconvincing drama… Anyway, I felt that the film as a whole, the cinematography and most everything else, improved as the film went on. Yes, a first film, in the most collegiate sense of the word, but there was something about it that makes me think I will need to watch it again.

kalter0656
masterful set design
love is colder… 06:56
kalter4322
gangster…
love is colder… 43:22