What Was The Last Movie You Saw? Welcome Cinephiles.

suebee · 12-14-2011, 11:59 AM

"The Smurfs" with Neil Patrick Harris. We absolutely LOVED it!

So then we decided to go see "The Totally Forgettable New Muppets Movie"......oh. Wait. That wasn't the name. (we left before it was over)

Da is not afraid to admit to having an inner child.

SoNotHer · 12-14-2011, 07:36 PM

And here's another I cannot wait to see...

The Director of 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy': 'It's a Demanding Film'
By Robert Levin
An interview with Tomas Alfredson about his adaptation of John le Carré’s best-selling novel

It’s been helmed by Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson, whose similarly subdued adolescent vampire romance Let the Right One In (2008) earned major accolades while inspiring an acclaimed American remake. So it’s no surprise that the story of George Smiley (Gary Oldman) investigating a Soviet mole at the top of MI6 is rendered in pauses and close-up shots: It explores the burdens of silence and the mysteries in what’s left unsaid.

Gone from this adaptation, written by Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, are the genre’s usual propulsive narrative techniques, like the fast-moving action scene. Instead, there’s a general sense that the filmmaker wants you to do the work, to make the connections that foster an understanding of the combustible shared history of Smiley and his cohorts. Here, Alfredson speaks about his attraction to the material, the process of assembling his all-star cast (Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Tom Hardy are among the many notables) and more. The film opens in Los Angeles and New York today, and heads to wider release in the weeks to come.

What drew you to the material, especially given that the novel already had been brought to the screen in an acclaimed miniseries?

It was the book itself, of course. And also I remember the miniseries, when I must have been 10, 11-years old, seeing it. I didn’t understand much of it, but it was a very intriguing and interesting world to watch. It was also the people that wanted to do it with me, the production company and Mr. le Carré himself. "It is a demanding film. I want it to be demanding."

What about the draw of making a quiet, subtle spy thriller?

I don’t consider this a spy thriller, really. It’s much more about the victims of the Cold War and the sacrifices they made. That was what interested me the most — to actually try to understand what they suffered, these people. For instance, there was a very gripping detail John le Carré described for me: Some of the spies were decorated by the Queen. She would put a medal on their chests and ten minutes afterwards someone would take it away and hide it in a cupboard. I thought that was so, so touching and cruel, and really interesting, what they had to carry.

There is a lot of interesting stuff to explore in silence. If I would, for instance, ask you a question and you don’t answer me, that is also an answer. Silence between people is a very useful cinematic element.

What would you say to the possibility that some audience members might expect something more conventional and leave the film feeling perplexed?

A lot of people involved in the making of films are obsessed with clarity. I think it’s much more interesting to invite the audience to be an active partner in creating the experience. I really love the idea of trusting the audience to look upon them as adults that can have ideas themselves of what’s happening.

It is a demanding film. I want it to be demanding. And it’s quite true to the book as well. If you compare, there are so many films that decide for you what to feel and what to think and what you see. Film can be very decisive for you, but I believe that the more open you get the more the viewer can participate. But it’s not an easy film to watch. We haven’t promised anything else.

Smiley is a tough part to cast for a lot of reasons. What led you to Gary Oldman?

It was very hard to come up with the right idea of who to play Smiley. We struggled with it for six months or something. We almost said, “Let’s not do this. We can’t find the right one to do it.” And Jina Jay, the casting director, came up with this idea and I thought it was a brilliant one, to ask Gary for it. He is like a chameleon. He has done so many and so different kinds of portraits in his career. It would take a lot of courage to stand in front of the camera and have so much screen time without saying so much. And he really knows how to express himself with subtle moves and using his body language to communicate this. We thought that the camera should be like George’s mirror. He’s communicating with the camera. He shows stuff to the camera that he doesn’t show to the other characters around him. So the camera is like his mirror, or his little megaphone.

How hard was it to corral so many gifted actors into the same movie?

It was quite easy after we found Gary and he accepted. It was quite easy to get people on board or into a room for a meeting. I think 95 percent of the cast are first choices. It was easy to get them into the project.

In what sense do you think the film is informed by your outsider perspective, as a Scandinavian making a movie set in ’70s Britain?

I don’t think I know exactly what I see or what I don’t see. Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m a foreigner and that I maybe see stuff that people from the same country don’t see, because they get blind to a lot of stuff that is specific to that culture. I’d seen a lot, as a kid, of British television and I visited England for the first time when I was 7 or 8, in the beginning of the ’70s and I tried to recall my memories from that. [Britain] was quite different from what it is today.

When you make a hit like Let the Right One In, you must be presented with all sorts of offers. In a general sense, what’s your process for choosing a project?

I don’t know. It’s a very emotional thing to choose material to work with. It’s not so important where it’s done or what the budget is. I think a film should have its proper budget and it should be interesting. You should try to see if you can do something with it and deliver something that’s interesting. Otherwise you shouldn’t. So I tried to finalize the work with this film and promote it now and then sit down and have a nice cup of tea and see what’s on the table.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...g-film/249724/

ButchEire · 12-14-2011, 08:29 PM

Hmm, let's see.

Horrible Bosses: Meh
Page Eight: Well done, as is every movie done by Bill Nighy.
Midnight in Paris: Not bad, unique enough to be interesting.
Being John Malkovich: I FINALLY get to see it, after years of wanting to see this flick. It didn't disappoint either.
Margin Call: Meh
50/50: Okay, mildly entertaining.
The Runway: Fun movie, if you're Irish like me, you'll get it.
Columbiana: Pretty good, surprising.
The Thing: Stick to John Carpenter's version.
Breaking Dawn: Zzzzzz.....huh, wha?

kannon · 12-14-2011, 08:43 PM

I watched Immortals yesterday. I liked it.

kittygrrl · 12-14-2011, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ButchEire

Hmm, let's see.

Horrible Bosses: Meh
Page Eight: Well done, as is every movie done by Bill Nighy.
Midnight in Paris: Not bad, unique enough to be interesting.
Being John Malkovich: I FINALLY get to see it, after years of wanting to see this flick. It didn't disappoint either.
Margin Call: Meh
50/50: Okay, mildly entertaining.
The Runway: Fun movie, if you're Irish like me, you'll get it.
Columbiana: Pretty good, surprising.
The Thing: Stick to John Carpenter's version.
Breaking Dawn: Zzzzzz.....huh, wha?

What was so Zzzz about it?? i haven't seen it yet, but kind of want to. I really loved the first two movies..I thought the movies much better than the books actually, I wasn't impressed with Breaking Dawn (as a book) so I've misgivings about seeing the movie..god, I should just see it and get it over with

ButchEire · 12-14-2011, 10:53 PM

I enjoyed the first Twilight movies as well, but felt this one dragged out. It's almost like Harry Potter's last two; dragged out what could have been a single movie into two loooong movies.

Kobi · 12-16-2011, 10:06 AM

Ready. Set. Bag!

Okay it is a documentary about grocery baggers contending to attend the National Bag Off Championship in Vegas. Love the plaques with the open paper bag sitting on it.

It is weird but I loved this movie. Could be cuz I am a bagger of old who thinks proper bagging is an art form. It was nice to see them show how to correctly square a bag - cans and boxes at the bottom, glass in the center, paper/boxes on the sides, top with crushables. Pack heavy to light, evenly dispersing weight. Harder than it sounds when speed is factored in.

They follow a number of individuals contending to go to the competition which was cool cuz they went from part time teenagers, to fulltime older career baggers, to retirees....all talking about both their lives and their jobs/careers. It's nice to see people proud of their work, wanting to be better at it, and getting a chance to compete.

Yeah I'm weird but I got a thing about bagging groceries correctly.

Chancie · 12-16-2011, 02:58 PM

I borrowed this video from Pete's mother.

bbdoll · 12-16-2011, 09:29 PM

I saw the breaking dawn with our daughter and its amazing. you should see her wedding dress. two words coming from a fashionista femme.....OH MY !!! *Drools*

Quote:

Originally Posted by kittygrrl

What was so Zzzz about it?? i haven't seen it yet, but kind of want to. I really loved the first two movies..I thought the movies much better than the books actually, I wasn't impressed with Breaking Dawn (as a book) so I've misgivings about seeing the movie..god, I should just see it and get it over with

SnackTime · 12-16-2011, 10:16 PM

Watched Fast Five a few nights ago

Just got done watching Source Code.

I liked them BOTH!

MysticOceansFL · 12-16-2011, 10:24 PM

The Green lantren!!!!

12-14-2011, 11:59 AM	#1
suebee Member How Do You Identify?: TOWANDA! Preferred Pronoun?: Queen Bee Relationship Status: Good 'n married. Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Eastern Canada. But if I make a wrong turn at the lights I get stopped by a border guard. Posts: 1,499 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 2,355 Thanked 2,756 Times in 820 Posts Rep Power: 16450093	"The Smurfs" with Neil Patrick Harris. We absolutely LOVED it! So then we decided to go see "The Totally Forgettable New Muppets Movie"......oh. Wait. That wasn't the name. (we left before it was over) Da is not afraid to admit to having an inner child. __________________ "Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind." -Albert Schweitzer

12-14-2011, 08:43 PM	#4
kannon Member How Do You Identify?: bloke Preferred Pronoun?: He Relationship Status: Happy is the heart that believes in angels Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Land of Milk and Honey Posts: 884 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,920 Thanked 2,066 Times in 584 Posts Rep Power: 21474852	I watched Immortals yesterday. I liked it. __________________ Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.

12-16-2011, 10:16 PM	#10
SnackTime Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Transgender Preferred Pronoun?: He Relationship Status: UNattainable Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Feeling the ocean breeze... Posts: 4,868 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 10,393 Thanked 13,228 Times in 2,883 Posts Rep Power: 21474857	Watched Fast Five a few nights ago Just got done watching Source Code. I liked them BOTH! __________________ "There's something to be said for not saying anything"

12-16-2011, 10:24 PM	#11
MysticOceansFL Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Butch, Preferred Pronoun?: People call me by my nic name. Relationship Status: Not Single, Not Desperate. Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Florida Posts: 3,833 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 4,645 Thanked 4,033 Times in 1,720 Posts Rep Power: 21474855	The Green lantren!!!! __________________ Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation. It is said, " Some lives are linked across time..... Connected by an ancient calling that echoes through the ages "......

12-14-2011, 07:36 PM	#2
SoNotHer Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Professional Sandbagger and Jenga Zumba Instructor Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: In the master control room of my world domination dreams Posts: 2,811 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 6,587 Thanked 4,734 Times in 1,409 Posts Rep Power: 21474852	And here's another I cannot wait to see... The Director of 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy': 'It's a Demanding Film' By Robert Levin An interview with Tomas Alfredson about his adaptation of John le Carré’s best-selling novel It’s been helmed by Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson, whose similarly subdued adolescent vampire romance Let the Right One In (2008) earned major accolades while inspiring an acclaimed American remake. So it’s no surprise that the story of George Smiley (Gary Oldman) investigating a Soviet mole at the top of MI6 is rendered in pauses and close-up shots: It explores the burdens of silence and the mysteries in what’s left unsaid. Gone from this adaptation, written by Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, are the genre’s usual propulsive narrative techniques, like the fast-moving action scene. Instead, there’s a general sense that the filmmaker wants you to do the work, to make the connections that foster an understanding of the combustible shared history of Smiley and his cohorts. Here, Alfredson speaks about his attraction to the material, the process of assembling his all-star cast (Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Tom Hardy are among the many notables) and more. The film opens in Los Angeles and New York today, and heads to wider release in the weeks to come. What drew you to the material, especially given that the novel already had been brought to the screen in an acclaimed miniseries? It was the book itself, of course. And also I remember the miniseries, when I must have been 10, 11-years old, seeing it. I didn’t understand much of it, but it was a very intriguing and interesting world to watch. It was also the people that wanted to do it with me, the production company and Mr. le Carré himself. "It is a demanding film. I want it to be demanding." What about the draw of making a quiet, subtle spy thriller? I don’t consider this a spy thriller, really. It’s much more about the victims of the Cold War and the sacrifices they made. That was what interested me the most — to actually try to understand what they suffered, these people. For instance, there was a very gripping detail John le Carré described for me: Some of the spies were decorated by the Queen. She would put a medal on their chests and ten minutes afterwards someone would take it away and hide it in a cupboard. I thought that was so, so touching and cruel, and really interesting, what they had to carry. There is a lot of interesting stuff to explore in silence. If I would, for instance, ask you a question and you don’t answer me, that is also an answer. Silence between people is a very useful cinematic element. What would you say to the possibility that some audience members might expect something more conventional and leave the film feeling perplexed? A lot of people involved in the making of films are obsessed with clarity. I think it’s much more interesting to invite the audience to be an active partner in creating the experience. I really love the idea of trusting the audience to look upon them as adults that can have ideas themselves of what’s happening. It is a demanding film. I want it to be demanding. And it’s quite true to the book as well. If you compare, there are so many films that decide for you what to feel and what to think and what you see. Film can be very decisive for you, but I believe that the more open you get the more the viewer can participate. But it’s not an easy film to watch. We haven’t promised anything else. Smiley is a tough part to cast for a lot of reasons. What led you to Gary Oldman? It was very hard to come up with the right idea of who to play Smiley. We struggled with it for six months or something. We almost said, “Let’s not do this. We can’t find the right one to do it.” And Jina Jay, the casting director, came up with this idea and I thought it was a brilliant one, to ask Gary for it. He is like a chameleon. He has done so many and so different kinds of portraits in his career. It would take a lot of courage to stand in front of the camera and have so much screen time without saying so much. And he really knows how to express himself with subtle moves and using his body language to communicate this. We thought that the camera should be like George’s mirror. He’s communicating with the camera. He shows stuff to the camera that he doesn’t show to the other characters around him. So the camera is like his mirror, or his little megaphone. How hard was it to corral so many gifted actors into the same movie? It was quite easy after we found Gary and he accepted. It was quite easy to get people on board or into a room for a meeting. I think 95 percent of the cast are first choices. It was easy to get them into the project. In what sense do you think the film is informed by your outsider perspective, as a Scandinavian making a movie set in ’70s Britain? I don’t think I know exactly what I see or what I don’t see. Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m a foreigner and that I maybe see stuff that people from the same country don’t see, because they get blind to a lot of stuff that is specific to that culture. I’d seen a lot, as a kid, of British television and I visited England for the first time when I was 7 or 8, in the beginning of the ’70s and I tried to recall my memories from that. [Britain] was quite different from what it is today. When you make a hit like Let the Right One In, you must be presented with all sorts of offers. In a general sense, what’s your process for choosing a project? I don’t know. It’s a very emotional thing to choose material to work with. It’s not so important where it’s done or what the budget is. I think a film should have its proper budget and it should be interesting. You should try to see if you can do something with it and deliver something that’s interesting. Otherwise you shouldn’t. So I tried to finalize the work with this film and promote it now and then sit down and have a nice cup of tea and see what’s on the table. This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...g-film/249724/

12-14-2011, 08:29 PM	#3
ButchEire Timed Out How Do You Identify?: Permanent ban 3/17/2013 - TROLL Relationship Status: Partner to my best friend Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: For now, Buffalo Posts: 701 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,618 Thanked 1,872 Times in 485 Posts Rep Power: 0	Hmm, let's see. Horrible Bosses: Meh Page Eight: Well done, as is every movie done by Bill Nighy. Midnight in Paris: Not bad, unique enough to be interesting. Being John Malkovich: I FINALLY get to see it, after years of wanting to see this flick. It didn't disappoint either. Margin Call: Meh 50/50: Okay, mildly entertaining. The Runway: Fun movie, if you're Irish like me, you'll get it. Columbiana: Pretty good, surprising. The Thing: Stick to John Carpenter's version. Breaking Dawn: Zzzzzz.....huh, wha?

12-14-2011, 10:53 PM	#6
ButchEire Timed Out How Do You Identify?: Permanent ban 3/17/2013 - TROLL Relationship Status: Partner to my best friend Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: For now, Buffalo Posts: 701 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,618 Thanked 1,872 Times in 485 Posts Rep Power: 0	I enjoyed the first Twilight movies as well, but felt this one dragged out. It's almost like Harry Potter's last two; dragged out what could have been a single movie into two loooong movies.

12-16-2011, 10:06 AM	#7
Kobi Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: Biological female. Lesbian. Relationship Status: Happy Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Hanging out in the Atlantic. Posts: 9,234 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 9,840 Thanked 34,617 Times in 7,640 Posts Rep Power: 21474860	Ready. Set. Bag! Okay it is a documentary about grocery baggers contending to attend the National Bag Off Championship in Vegas. Love the plaques with the open paper bag sitting on it. It is weird but I loved this movie. Could be cuz I am a bagger of old who thinks proper bagging is an art form. It was nice to see them show how to correctly square a bag - cans and boxes at the bottom, glass in the center, paper/boxes on the sides, top with crushables. Pack heavy to light, evenly dispersing weight. Harder than it sounds when speed is factored in. They follow a number of individuals contending to go to the competition which was cool cuz they went from part time teenagers, to fulltime older career baggers, to retirees....all talking about both their lives and their jobs/careers. It's nice to see people proud of their work, wanting to be better at it, and getting a chance to compete. Yeah I'm weird but I got a thing about bagging groceries correctly.

12-16-2011, 02:58 PM	#8
Chancie Senior Member How Do You Identify?: queer femme-inist Relationship Status: I'm lucky. Join Date: May 2010 Location: Western Mass Posts: 3,774 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 9,518 Thanked 14,540 Times in 2,744 Posts Rep Power: 21474855	I borrowed this video from Pete's mother.