p e n g u i n d e v i l

Well it’s been a long odd while. Watched some movies but not much time or inclination to scribble anything here due to repeated trips to the hospital. Parents aging is a tough pill to swallow, one that doesn’t leave much urge for anything as frivolous as this little pastime. Well, anyway. Fresh home after two days at Edgefield, which were good but not very restful. I feel the urge to catch this list up…

Out of some dim memory of my youth, we rented and watched The Out of Towners. I recall a fondness for it from when I was young, and I probably gained most of what knowledge I had about NYC when I was a kid from it. Now? It didn’t really do it for me. Though I am very fond of Jack Lemmon, his “run around freaking out” thing in this I didn’t find as engaging as his freaking out role in Glengarry Glenross. Maybe that was a sequel? Anyway, it was entertaining and fun, but it seemed a bit too repetitive… Also, I really didn’t like Sandy Dennis. She may have been perfect for her role, but I found her very unpleasent. And, of course, the couples behavior was ridiculous. It is hard to imagine someone reacting in those terrible ways to what was going on. I do like Jack Lemmon though, and I guess it was good to see the movie again and get it out of my mind, but I’m probably not going to need to visit it again.

Touchez pas au grisbi is a nice French noir. Well, it’s not quite Delon and Melville but I did find Jean Gabin to play a compelling character and I like the quiet pace of the film. The plot proceeded at such an easy going pace that it was just pleasent to watch and there are some good twists. Also, some very nice pajamas were in evidence and I liked the whole scene around that, but the movie didn’t really stand out. Worth watching for Gabin’s nice role and the attractive quiet tone of the film.

We also watched some of The Twilight Zone. I don’t know how they picked those episodes. Disc 1 features three episodes, one would assume numbers 1, 2 and 3… No, more like 47, 51 and 81. The first two were pretty bad, especially the second. I just don’t know. Those “spacemen”, too much and not enough all at once… In that soo bad it’s good vein, episode 51 might be worth watching just to see it and think: “Did they really? Is this a joke?” The last episode might have been better, I just couldn’t watch anymore.

And now, the PBS showing of the new Bleak House. Though I’ve only seen a bit of the older BBC production and though this one featured Gillian Anderson with some impressive cheek action going on, I must admit that I find the older one more to my taste. This newer version features a more more pleasent Esther in the form of Anna Maxwell Martin and some other good casting choices and, of course, the story is very good, engaging with lots of tension. But some aspects of it I found to be unfortunately distracting, primarily the cinematography. I found it seemed silly: modern fast edits, shooting scenes from the next room with the door eclipsing the scene and other contrivences… They just seemed showy yet pointless. So a good production, but sullied a bit with annoying camera work.

Onto a classic that has shown why it is a classic. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. A sickly exciting, wonderful, horrible entrancing film. One of the best discoveries of the last year or so, right up there with Sunset Boulevard in the, “Ah, now that’s film!” Sandy Dennis, again, being irritating and unpleasant but Burton and Taylor were both outstanding and the cinematography was very good and it was just a tight, at your throat movie all the way through. I also like George Segal who we don’t seem to see appear in much since the good old days, he does a nice job in this. But I just can’t say enough about the Burtons. Riviting.

who’s afraid of virginia woolf? 1:11:40

So last year or so we watched Kingdom Hospital. It was bad. In just about all of the ways that something could be bad. But there was something about it, some silly sense it had, that made me not really feel too strongly about my dislike. The occasional memories that I have of it prompted us to rent the original. Um… The Kingdom. maybe it’s better than the american remake, but it was too boring for us to get far enough into it to find out. Really boring.

Beat That my Heart Skipped. A very nice movie with nice music, not only the piano but also the “electro” coming through the headphones. Though I did like the movie alot, my interest did start to wane after the midpoint or so. But I still thought it was good. The lead was a good combination between likable and dislikeable. I hear it may have been a remake of Fingers, which I didn’t like. But back to this, a good looking movie and again, the soundtrack. Of course, I have learned that it is only available as a french 2 cd set, generally only from overseas sources, so I don’t know if I am up for the 25 smackers or so it would cost. Too bad it didn’t come with a soundtrack cd like Slow fade did.

And our newest viewing club feature? Le Corbeau. Well, it was just as described. Not quite as intriguing as I had expected, but honestly, I find that alot with films that old, but there were some good actors and good characters and some good biting dialogue. I like the story, though they really wanted to line up the suspects for us, it was a clever little plot. Also, some of the shots were really nice, good things with shadows.

Then, to finish this off, the most successful film of all. Gone with the Wind. It was pretty good. I was suprised as to it’s length and the nastiness of the Scarlett character, there were not really any sympathetic characters in the film. Rhett was the only really interesting character, I found. The plot was much fuller than I had imagined, but again, I was shocked as to the nature of ol’ Scarlett and I was a bit suprised with how sympathetic it seemed towards the confederate culture, one which I have never had the most positive feelings about. One thing that must be mentioned is the quality of the DVD. The picture looked soo good it was shocking clear, bright and clean.