Movie Meme, and tv movie rant

[selenak]

shezan posted some breathtakingly beautiful photos from Czarist Russia in a series of posts. Go. Admire.

From reannon

Movie Moments

Funniest Movie Moment:
The final exchange from Some Like It Hot. Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe kiss in the background. Meanwhile, Jack Lemmon, in drag, tries to explain to his dream millionnaire why they can't marry. After bringing up the inability to have children etc. in vain, he finally takes off his wig and yells: "Don't you understand, I am a man!" To which said millionaire replies, dead-pan: Nobody is perfect.. End of film. Any Billy Wilder script is full of funny moments, often with an acid undertone, but that about sums his oeuvre up and is completely benevolent to boot.*g*

Most Intense Movie Moment:
The meme I saw interpreted this as "most scary", which I'm not sure was the question. If intense does mean intense and scary, I'm going with Ripley and the Alien in the original Alien, the moment when she's undressed and thinks it's over, and we see the Alien finally unveiled. It has become a horror movie cliché - the monster returning after we think it's defeated - and of course the sequels were to offer many more showdowns, but just as I prefer Ridley Scott's original, I also choose this moment, with its fear and disturbing eroticism and Ripley holding on with her fingernails to sanity, humming a song in order not to lose it completely. (She's not yet the warrior goddess of the later films.)

If "intense" does NOT mean scary, I'm going with another Ridley Scott film, or rather, two of 'em. Roy Batty's death scene from Blade Runner. Batty, played by Rudger Hauer, is dying, but after hunting down the man who hunted him (and killed most of the other androids), Deckard (Harrison Ford), Batty chooses not to kill Deckard but to safe him. The two just stare at each other. Batty's final monologue was adlibbed by Hauer and has a weird poetry, and so has the image of the rain (with the clouds breaking just when Batty dies, which could have been kitsch with a lesser director but not with Scott), and the bloody and nearly nude man.

Runner-up, or rival, depending on my mood: The final scene of Thelma & Louise; the two women kissing, and driving over the edge, with that moment frozen. It pays homage to another suicidal exit, of course, Butch and Sundance, but that doesn't lessen the impact, or the intensity.

Most Heart-Wrenching Movie Moment: Oh dear. Just one? Hm. Of more recent films, the LotR trilogy jumps up and down for attention - "I will take the ring, though I do not know the way", and Gandalf's look when Frodo says this, from FotR, Boromir's death, Theodén's death, Frodo and Sam at the end of things, in Mordor, the goodbye, etc. But though my heart is assurely wrenched by all of these, I will banish them and go far back in cinematic history instead. The Kid: the Little Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) and his foster son (Jackie Coogan) reunited after social services tried to take the kid away. It's pure emotion, it's heartrendering, and I'm chocked up each and every time. (Flippant critics point out that this is also Chaplin's most passionate on-screen kiss and would be impossible today, because adult actors do not kiss child actors on the lips. Which sadly, says something about our perception, because this scene really carries not the slightest taint with it - it's pure parental love. If you want to get biographical, though, it's also Chaplin using one of his ongoing childhood traumas, periodically ending up in orphanages due to his mother's poverty and madness, in a creative way.)

Best Dance Number in a Movie: Hard not to go for Gene Kelley in Singing in The Rain. But. I'm going with the opening sequence of Westside Story, in close competition with Cool, same movie. In both cases, the aggression and tension of the gang is perfectly conveyed through the dancing, and everything, Leonard Bernstein's music, Jerome Robbins' choreography and Robert Wise' directing flow togther.

Special mention: All That Jazz in Chicago, because Catherine Zeta Jones really is incredible there.

Best Adaptation of a Classic Work: Again, oh dear. My raving about Wellesian Shakespeare notwithstanding, I have to do with Great Expectations by David Lean. Filming Dickens is far more difficult than you'd think, especially due to the sheer volume and all the wellknown details. This was Lean before his big international successes, Bridge over the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, and with a far smaller budget, but no less great. The opening sequence on the moor, Miss Havisham in her rotting house, the young pert Jean Simmons as the young Estella (and you wish they'd let her play older Estella, too), the social and emotional agony of the dinner of Pip, Herbert (a young Alec Guinness in the first of six films he made together with Lean) and Joe Gargary, the emotional release at the end...

If you're wondering: I did of course consider LotR, but these are three movies, not one, and that's a different class. At least it should be.

Favorite Bond Moment: Can I cheat and go with Bashir, Julian Bashir, in the DS9 episode Our Man Bashir, one of the best Bond films never made? If so, I'm picking (of many great moments this episode has) the one where Bashir-as-Bond recites Garak's what-it-means-to-be-a-spy speech and saves the day by destroying the (simulated) world for sheer ingenuity.

But okay, true Bond films: the ending of the big outsider, In Her Majesty's Secret Service, in which Bond is played for the first and last time by George Lazenby, and they actually use a scene from the book almost word for word - Bond's new wife Tracy (Diana Riggs) dying, and Bond, holding her dead body in his arms, telling a bystander they have all the time in the world. It's one of the few examples of Bond as something other than a quippy icon in the films.

Runner-up: when a villain gets the better of our James verbally: "Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die." from Goldfinger. See, Goldfinger has read the Evil Overlord Rules, even if he doesn't always follow them.

Greatest Martial Arts Moment:
I'm not an expert. A lot of the scenes from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero were stunningly beautiful, and I couldn't just pick one. The original Matrix had Trinity's opening sequence, and the Neo-Agent Smith showdown. But I think I'm going with Uma Thurman and the Bride's showdown with O-Ren in Kill Bill I, for martial arts, and the very different titular action, killing Bill, in Kill Bill 2, for emotional impact.

***
Speaking of films: When discussing Der Untergang, a friend told me to watch Hitler: Rise of Evil, and now I wish I hadn't. Very mediocre. They get some of the politics right, but some cabaret interludes do not a picture of the Weimar Republic make. Of the fleshed-out characters, you get an invented one as the upstanding journalist covering Hitler's rise and being a lone voice in the wilderness about it (and if you feel the need for a positive character so the audience has someone for emotional identification, what's wrong with actual historical journalists or writers like Carl von Ossietzky, who ended up in a concentration camp, may I ask? Too leftist? Tucholsky - too depressive, because he committed suicide?), and Liev Schreiber, who is arguably the most convincing actor in this tv production, as Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, being presented as an opportunist in over his head.

The rest of the cast, including Robert Carlyle as Hitler himself, are stock characters without even an attempt at more. This isn't helped by a script who things subtlety is for wimps. Thus you get little Adolf being a sadistc twerp burning his uncle's bees, and young Private Hitler kicking his dog in the trenches. When you compare this to the two most recent attempts of getting Hitler on film, Max (young Hitler) and Der Untergang (old Hitler during the last two weeks of his life), this is just pathetic. The fact that Hitler was a vegeterian and adored dogs is used to far more chilling effect there (because believe me, seeing a man going on about how the people who failed him deserve to die while patting his dog on the head is far more frightening in Der Untergang than Carlyle's "Son of Satan" scenes, and Noah Taylor as young A.H. in Max manages to be both a monster in the making and a human being so you understand why on earth anyone would feel drawn to him.

Speaking of people drawn to Hitler: No Winifred Wagner, no Unity Mitford. Helene Hanfstaengl goes from being repelled by him to believing in him without us really understanding why, especially since she does so after a rathy creepy moment in which he kneels down and declares her the perfect woman. Which brings us to the admittedly creepy subject of Hitler's love life. The film's interpretation of his relationship with his niece Geli, arguably the person he did love, is that he obsessed about her but didn't do anything until one cathartic moment in which he kisses her, promptly resulting in Geli committing suicide. Which, okay, is as plausible an interpretation of events as any, since anything Geli-related was very carefully hushed up before Hitler ever came to power, let alone after, and is impossible to prove one way or the other. Eva Braun, otoh, is completely implausible. Not only does the film let her fangirl Hitler and make passes at him in front of other people (a full assembly of followers, no less, when E.B. was about the most invisible woman ever, with her very existence unknown outside of Hitler's immediate circle until after the war), but in a rather embarrassing scene the script kindly tells us he sees her as a Geli replica and never does more than kiss her, either. Mind you, the thought of "love" scenes involving Hitler is even more squirm-worthy, but this smacks of cheap Freudianism (i.e. he is a psychopath, so he can't have sex, or perhaps he's a psycho because he can't have sex; considering the equally vile Joseph Goebbels - who together with Goering, Hess et all shows up in this two parter to deliver clues, without the audience having any idea about any of their personalities - they could as well be named Nazi 1, 2 and 3, saying "yes, my Fuehrer" at random intervals - was famous for having sex with every actress in sight, you'd think the idea of the sexless Nazis was given up long ago). I suppose you could give the film credit for inner consistency: Carlyle is so nonstop repellent and psychopathic as Hitler that it would have been impossible to show obviously intelligent women like Winifred Wagner being charmed, or pretty young girls like Unity Mitford swooning. Eva going fangirl is incomprehensible as it is, but then the film never bothers to give her a personality, either.

Oh, and let's not get into the cultural details. Unless I'm very much mistaken, Friedrich Hollaender (who serves as a shorthand for the Weimar Republic, see above, with some Cabaret scenes) never lived in Munich, but then, why bother to come up with a caberet and comedy artist who did live there and embodied the time, Karl Valentin? Also, everyone knows Hitler was into Wagner. So obviously, picking two operas at random (Lohengrin and Parsifal) and letting him mention them on a regular basis would do; never mind that his favourite Wagner opera was actually Rienzi (not surprising, since that one, an early Wagner work, is one of those Misunderstood Great Man Dying In Glory stories which would appeal). Strangely, nobody is ever on the streets except for Nazi and very rarely Communist demonstrators. You'd think that showing queues of unemployed people, among them a lot of crippled war veterans, something Alfred Andersch, who lived in Munich during that period, wrote about vividly, would have illustrated something of where the increasing radicalization of the Republic came from, but again, no. (And again, Max proved you can do without losing screentime.) Plus, ironic for a film, there is a complete lack of cinema, and the great fascination it exerted over the top of the Nazi hierarchy, the fact that making an alliance with UFA owner Hugenberg (think Silvio Berlusconi only without him ever having become actual head of state - someone who owns most of the media) was a crucial element to Hitler's success. And so forth, and so on.

Comments

[zandra-x.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed reading about your opinion of Hitler, Rise of Evil, even though I have eye-tracking trouble on long entries on the computer. Since I avoid Nazi themed movies, I doubt that I'd ever see this one but that doesn't mean I don't want to read about it. Especially since you know more about the era than I do, and already I've learned things. Still, Robert Carlyle and Liev Schreiber ( I saw him in Spring Forward and now know who he is) might have tempted me to watch it, but usually I just say no to Nazis. But reading a good review is better than seeing a bad movie.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I saw Liev Schreiber first in an excellent film abouth the making of Citizen Kane in which he played Orson Welles, and Robert Carlyle in a number of movies, and I agree, they're good actors. It's just a shame about the script.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Jeepers! Long post! Deep post! Must read tomorrow and comment!

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

dear Lord, I've only watched DS9 intermittently, and I had no idea there was a Bashir-as-Bond. Sigh. . .I don't think these are on DVD, are they? if so, do you know the season and episode?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

All of DS9 is out on DVD, and this particular episode is early in the fourth season and called Our Man Bashir. It's genius. They get the Bond formula better than most of the recent Bond movies, even the music is 60-ish, and the imagined spy versus real spy bickering between Bashir and Garak is wonderful. Oh, and everyone in the cast has a blast as various Bond types. (Avery Brooks is the villain, Colm Meany the henchman, the women are Bond girls with wild names and wilder accents, etc.)

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Thank you for pointing at the Prokudin Gorskii colour photos! They are wonderful, aren't they?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Magnificent. As you said, like a window to a different world...

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Hitler's favourite Wagner opera was Rienzi? How kitscher can you get?

Have you ever seen the British-US made-for-TV movie Conspiracy, on the Wannseekonferenz, with Kenneth Branagh as Heyrich, Stanley Tucci as Eichmann, & Colin Firth as Dr Stuckart?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Hitler's favourite Wagner opera was Rienzi? How kitscher can you get?

Not much.*g* (I mean, born some decades earlier and not only would he have done less damage to the world but would so have rooted for Bulwer-Lytton as the novelist of the century.) Yes, it was. Supposedly he saw it about 20 times (standing) in Linz or Vienna, I forget which.

Have you ever seen the British-US made-for-TV movie Conspiracy, on the Wannseekonferenz, with Kenneth Branagh as Heyrich, Stanley Tucci as Eichmann, & Colin Firth as Dr Stuckart?

Yes, I did. Very well made, chilling, and it got "the banality of evil" exactly right.

[janewt.livejournal.com]

It's been ages since I saw the Great Expectations but I remember how good it was--and particularly how good it was as an adaptation of a novel. Not trying to squeeze every last thing in, but really understanding how best to use their medium. Another good one is the old Wuthering Heights--Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier. They cut off half the novel: as they should have, in order to make a good movie. Beautiful job of getting the feel of the book and picking elements that work in film.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Another good one is the old Wuthering Heights--Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier. They cut off half the novel: as they should have, in order to make a good movie.

I was so dissappointed by this version. Not just because they cut out half the novel; as you say, it's possible to justify that by cinematic economy. No, what galled me was the prettifying and bowlderizing. One of the fascinating things about W.H. the novel is that neither Cathy nor Heathcliff are in any way nice people. And Nelly, though she sometimes feels sorry for them, can't stand either and much prefers the nice (but dull) Lintons. Instead of the sharp-tongued Nelly of the book, however, we get the Doting Old Housekeeper. Out is the sadism displayed by Heathcliff and Cathy (only Hindley is allowed to behave somewhat cruelly, since there needs to be some justification for Heathcliff's issues) towards quite a lot of people. (No pinches and slaps from Cathy to Nelly, or the taunting of Isabella by Cathy who tells Heathcliff Isabella is in love with him in front of the girl, for example.) In is conventional morality; where in the novel Cathy openly displays her joy at Heathcliff's return and expects her husband to share it, movie Cathy literally hides behind her husband. All of this has the interesting result that Merle Oberon pales against the actress who plays Isabella, because the later actually is allowed to display some Brontean ferocity by disclaiming "if Cathy dies maybe I can start to live" (not a line from the novel, but in tune with Isabella's state at that point of it).

And of course Heathcliff goes from cruel force of nature to Misunderstood Byronic Hero. Spare me.

No, the only film version of Wuthering Heights which I really liked is the one with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. Which does use the entire novel, and not in a page-by-page manner, either; it has the courage of getting the fierceness across, and, a big plus for me, retains the relationship which is imo the second most interesting of the book, between Heathcliff and Hareton Earnshaw, Hindley's son whom he originally decides to raise as a parody of himself but ends up forming an unwilling bond with.

[janewt.livejournal.com]

I dare say you're right; I remember enjoying the movie when I watched it but that was some years ago. Foolish of me to comment without having refreshed my memory.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Not at all - you made a point according to your fond memories of a movie, which is after all the purpose of the exercise (i.e. the meme). It's just that my own reception of this particular film was different...

[janewt.livejournal.com]

It may also be that I wasn't especially in love with the book to begin with. I like my Victorians prosaic and city-bound, more or less. Middlemarch over Mill on the Floss. So that WH felt to me like a book of mood rather than--I don't know, rather than anything that especially caught me as realism. Such that to me the movie did a good job.

But I have a very bad habit of opining without much data to back me up.