Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)
This is one time where I have nothing cute to say. This was one of the saddest movies I've seen in a long time. I haven't cried this hard since Whoopie Goldberg danced with Demi Moore and Patrick Swazye in Ghost (1990). I'm serious. This is a sad movie, but beautiful and funny. It constantly reminds us throughout the film that WWII is about to begin and that there are only two people in the whole movie who have any idea what had happened just 20 years earlier. The ending was overwhelming especially when I realized that the title really meant she was just living for each day as it came and that particular day happened to be the day England declared war on Germany. It just brought up more emotion than I had felt for a long time. I might have felt a little more emotional since we had just watched The Edge of Love and the scenes of England at war made it all very fresh. England had just been through a terrible war but everybody except two people in the movie acted as if tragedy couldn't happen again. It's obvious who one of those characters is but I would be giving away to much to say who the other one is.
The director is from India (and pronounces his first name "Bart") and says in the commentary that he hoped people would see the drama unfold throughout the movie. He had just finished a TV documentary on the tsunami that hit SE Asia in 2006 and said his own personal experience with tragic loss helped him see what the English might have felt. He changed a detail in the original 1938 book and had the day in question be the day that England declared war in 1939 (although that day was actually a bright sunny day, according to Wikipedia). He also cast a male character to be of an age that would mean he was probably going to be shipped off to war very soon. He wanted to show the disregard most other people had for the impending war and the then-current Depression by creating an extravagently elegant apartment, even spending 40,000 dollars on the wallpaper for the bedroom (which got cut up after the filming).
Monday, July 20, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
The Edge of Love (2008)
The Edge of Love (2008)
Not an overly bad film about the friendship of the two women who were in love with Dylan Thomas, one of which was married to him. Most of the film is fairly accurate which makes Thomas look like the jerk he tried to be. His line in the movie about why he acts the way he does: "because I'm a poet . . ." He also sucked the life out of everybody else around him. But goodness, his poetry is beautiful. I've had two cassette tapes since I was 16 of him reading his poems.
But the movie really isn't about him. Keira Knightley stars. The screenwriter is her mother. The producer is the granddaughter of her character and either Thomas of her husband. Hard to tell from how the article phrased it.
The rating is R and somewhere it says partly due to "constant historical smoking." That's an understatement. The extras include a fairly funny "gag reel" which shows the cast trying to act while having to smoke so much. The commentary extra is fairly worthless.
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (2008)
aka "I've Loved You So Long" -
Kirsten Scott Thomas is great as a just-released-from-prison woman who goes to live with her sister and the sister's family. The ending seems a bit overdone until you realize the prison sentence is about Thomas' response to her actions. In French with subtitles. Her bio quotes her as saying one of the benefits of e-mail and text messaging is that people aren't as afraid of subtitles as they used to be. Oh, she smokes a lot in the movie but then she's lived in France longer than she lived in her native England. The commentary on the deleted scenes is worth watching.
Friday, July 17, 2009
July 5 is the birth anniversary of Cl...
Yesterday was the 233rd anniversary of the independence of our country. Happy Birthday! Since hitting the Restore button isn't going to work, let's be grateful for what we have and that what we have, even with all the mistakes and bad stuff, is not Iran. Or England. Or the bottom of Brule Lake in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota.
July 5 is the birth anniversary of Clara Zetkin (1857), women's rights advocate who is credited with being the initiator of International Women's Day.![]()
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It's also the annual cherry pit spitting contest in our backyard. It would be watermelon spitting but that summer tradition is extinct since seedless watermelons become the dominant life form in the grocery store. Apparently nothing is sacred not even my writing which apparently some people are reading in the bathroom on their IPhone. So if the IPhone drops into the bowl and no one can read the words, is it still a metaphor?
We are also concerned that some people feel that my whining about the rain and wind in the Boundary Waters was a little too much. Let me remind you that this is Minnesota in June which means it was also cold. Ha! How's that for misery?
Whoops! It's late. Time for bed.
July 5 is the birth anniversary of Clara Zetkin (1857), women's rights advocate who is credited with being the initiator of International Women's Day.
It's also the annual cherry pit spitting contest in our backyard. It would be watermelon spitting but that summer tradition is extinct since seedless watermelons become the dominant life form in the grocery store. Apparently nothing is sacred not even my writing which apparently some people are reading in the bathroom on their IPhone. So if the IPhone drops into the bowl and no one can read the words, is it still a metaphor?
We are also concerned that some people feel that my whining about the rain and wind in the Boundary Waters was a little too much. Let me remind you that this is Minnesota in June which means it was also cold. Ha! How's that for misery?
Seven Pounds (2008)
Will Smith's latest. It's a tearjerker. Woody Harrelson is great. The factual errors are obvious but really doesn't seem to matter that much which is an incredible thing for me to say since I get upset if the wrong camel gets used in a movie.Whoops! It's late. Time for bed.
More Virgin Spring
More Virgin Spring
My earlier post was a little hasty. Here's the link from Wikipedia for the original 12th or 13th century Swedish ballad which Bergman used for The Virgin Spring. Also, I had said that the foster daughter did not seem to have found redemption. I forgot that she's the first one to drink from the miraculous spring that comes up after the family finds their daughter. The symbolism is almost enough to hit you over the head but, I thought, still very effective as a movie device. It's interesting to read the original story. Bergman didn't write most of the movie version which some reviewers thought made it less of a good film along with the heavy-handed acting by several characters. Still, all in all, a fascinating film to spend an hour and a half with especially for me since I was confused as to who Bergman was and since it was in black and white I thought I was watching a film from 1920. It never occurred to me to wonder how the sound came out of their mouths. There is an option to listen to it in dubbed English which one reviewer made an interesting case for that being preferable to subtitles in every foreign language film.
"Töres dotter i Wänge" ("Töre's daughter in Vänge"), "Per Tyrssons döttrar i Vänge" ("Per Tyrsson's daughters in Vänge"), etc., is a medieval Swedish ballad on which Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring is based,[1].
Oh, I finally decided to actually read a certain sibling's FaceBook page and found out whose birthday is whose. Wow! How clever of me!
My earlier post was a little hasty. Here's the link from Wikipedia for the original 12th or 13th century Swedish ballad which Bergman used for The Virgin Spring. Also, I had said that the foster daughter did not seem to have found redemption. I forgot that she's the first one to drink from the miraculous spring that comes up after the family finds their daughter. The symbolism is almost enough to hit you over the head but, I thought, still very effective as a movie device. It's interesting to read the original story. Bergman didn't write most of the movie version which some reviewers thought made it less of a good film along with the heavy-handed acting by several characters. Still, all in all, a fascinating film to spend an hour and a half with especially for me since I was confused as to who Bergman was and since it was in black and white I thought I was watching a film from 1920. It never occurred to me to wonder how the sound came out of their mouths. There is an option to listen to it in dubbed English which one reviewer made an interesting case for that being preferable to subtitles in every foreign language film.
"Töres dotter i Wänge" ("Töre's daughter in Vänge"), "Per Tyrssons döttrar i Vänge" ("Per Tyrsson's daughters in Vänge"), etc., is a medieval Swedish ballad on which Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring is based,[1].
Oh, I finally decided to actually read a certain sibling's FaceBook page and found out whose birthday is whose. Wow! How clever of me!
Guilt and Rebirth
Guilt and Rebirth
The Visitor (2007/I)
The visitors in this very thoughtful and musically-insightful film may not be the ones who are there illegally. Richard Jenkins goes to his Greenwich Village apartment and finds it occupied by two illegal immigrants. The guilt that each character takes on for different reasons (especially the mother later on) and the process of each one finding a purpose in life makes for a lovely film. The musical theme is essential to the rebirthing theme.
Jungfrukällan (1960)
aka "The Virgin Spring"
Ingmar Bergman (who shares a birthdate, tomorrow, July 14, with Woody Guthrie; also Bastille Day). Great movie. Guilt and rebirth: savage violence and sweet redemption (not for all since the foster daughter gets left out of any redemption, sadly, although her guilt in the murder may have been too great.
The Visitor (2007/I)
The visitors in this very thoughtful and musically-insightful film may not be the ones who are there illegally. Richard Jenkins goes to his Greenwich Village apartment and finds it occupied by two illegal immigrants. The guilt that each character takes on for different reasons (especially the mother later on) and the process of each one finding a purpose in life makes for a lovely film. The musical theme is essential to the rebirthing theme.
Jungfrukällan (1960)
aka "The Virgin Spring"
Ingmar Bergman (who shares a birthdate, tomorrow, July 14, with Woody Guthrie; also Bastille Day). Great movie. Guilt and rebirth: savage violence and sweet redemption (not for all since the foster daughter gets left out of any redemption, sadly, although her guilt in the murder may have been too great.
The Life of David Gale (2003)
The Life of David Gale (2003)
Kate Winslet, Kevin Spacey and Laura Linney made a fascinating movie about a death row inmate and a reporter who interviews him. Well-worth the time to watch, especially since the family coincidences are weird (which is a joke from the movie, the part about coincidences being weird). OK, hang on: The role Laura Linney plays is a shoo-in for our late Aunt Patsy Morris who was described (by a death row inmate) in a 1979 Time magazine article as "The Queen of Death Row;" a pivotal character in the beginning has the first name of Berlin; the director's name is Alan; his son does some of the music and his name is Alex; a central character has the last name of Wright which is Tish and Deborah's middle name; there's a Chris in the sound department; and Leonard Cohen has a song in the soundtrack (he isn't family but I really like his music).
Kate Winslet, Kevin Spacey and Laura Linney made a fascinating movie about a death row inmate and a reporter who interviews him. Well-worth the time to watch, especially since the family coincidences are weird (which is a joke from the movie, the part about coincidences being weird). OK, hang on: The role Laura Linney plays is a shoo-in for our late Aunt Patsy Morris who was described (by a death row inmate) in a 1979 Time magazine article as "The Queen of Death Row;" a pivotal character in the beginning has the first name of Berlin; the director's name is Alan; his son does some of the music and his name is Alex; a central character has the last name of Wright which is Tish and Deborah's middle name; there's a Chris in the sound department; and Leonard Cohen has a song in the soundtrack (he isn't family but I really like his music).
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Changeling (2008)
Changeling (2008)
Horrific and well worth watching. Most of the script is taken verbatim from court testimony and news clippings. Mostly about "female disempowerment" in the character that Angelina Jolie plays but also about the murders of the children. The movie says "A true story" which was a point argued with the producers as to whether it should be "Based on a true story" since a crucial fact is left out. It doesn't really matter for telling the story but it does make it more horrible. The man who is caught and then confesses was not acting alone. The movie leaves out the part about his grandmother and that she also confessed. Everything else, including the mental hospital issue, is taken from the newspaper although the movie does leave out the fact that the police chief is back in the same job within two years. LAPD: Our motto: Nothing much changes.
Horrific and well worth watching. Most of the script is taken verbatim from court testimony and news clippings. Mostly about "female disempowerment" in the character that Angelina Jolie plays but also about the murders of the children. The movie says "A true story" which was a point argued with the producers as to whether it should be "Based on a true story" since a crucial fact is left out. It doesn't really matter for telling the story but it does make it more horrible. The man who is caught and then confesses was not acting alone. The movie leaves out the part about his grandmother and that she also confessed. Everything else, including the mental hospital issue, is taken from the newspaper although the movie does leave out the fact that the police chief is back in the same job within two years. LAPD: Our motto: Nothing much changes.
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