Movies & Books Into Movies

[JimNT]

 

So many movies – how do  you choose what to watch? Reviews?  Recommendations?  Actors?  Availability? Do you choose a movie the same way you choose a book? And where do you like to watch most of your movies? Do you stream movies from Netflix and other places? Where’s the strangest place you’ve ever watched a film?

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Join us in an ongoing discussion of your favorite movies right now.
Pull up a chair, take off your shoes, pour yourself a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, and join in!

Your Discussion Leader: pedln

Alas, life is full of disappointments.  After seeing There Will Be Blood I was certain that Daniel Day would rank as one of my movie hero's, and I still feel that he is a wonderful actor.  However, James Fenimore Cooper's books should never be allowed to screen.  The Last of the Mohican's movie was a monumental bore.  I read the book some years ago and while I wouldn't rank it a classic, as many readers do, it was a fine book.  I ended the evening watching Wesley Snipes couched in a multi story bldg taking potshots at people associated with the weapons industry.  I thought old Wesley made his living using those weapons??

[roshanarose]

JimNT - We obviously have different tastes in movies. 

Babi - I did a bit of research on Robert Mitchum and "Dead Man".  "Dead Man" was directed by Jim Jarmusch and released in 1995.  Robert Mitchum died July 1, 1997.

[Babi]

Ah, that explains why I'm not familiar with Sheppard Strudwick. By
the time I was old enough to go to movies and care who the actors were,
Strudwick was playing character roles.  And his best work appears to
have been on stage. My introduction to stage plays was around age 8-9,
from a traveling troupe that came through once a year.  If I remember correctly,
they were called the "Madcap Players".
  Thanks, ROSE.  I was sure it must have been late in Mitchum's life/career.

[JimNT]

I viewed The Diary of Anne Frank last eve.  I've read the book and seen the movie some years ago, probably more than once, and  I find it to be a very fascinating, but tragic story.  I've never had the least doubt about the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime upon the Jewish people during the 30s and 40s while our country looked the other way. But that's another story.  I seem to remember that the Anne Frank diary has been the subject of much research and discussion in the past but I can't remember if it has ever been officially documented by recognized historians.  Have any of you some thoughts and references on the subject?  I'm about to "google" it and hopefully find some data there. 

[marcie]

Jim, I've seen a couple of versions of The Diary of Anne Frank and we read the recently released "original" version of the book during one of our PBS discussions here in April when PBS broadcast a new production.

There is some information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank#Denials_and_legal_action, with footnotes, about the diary's authenticity.

There are links to other resources on the PBS site at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/annefrank/index.html

[JimNT]

Marcie:  Thank you.  I did "google" the book/movie, but I wanted to know more and I'll review your references.  The ink and paper Anne used were authentic for the period.  Otto, her father, had the book published in 1947 which was hugely successful.  Being a cynical old geezer, I couldn't help but wonder about his motivations.  But given the pain and suffering endured by him and his family and friends, I feel a bit guilty about even the slightest doubt.

[pedln]

Marcie, thanks for those links.  And Jim, you got me looking too, to see what else could be found.  If you google "Otto Frank" you may find some more, or perhaps you have.  Amazon describes a book The Hidden Life of Otto Frank.

[pedln]

Please Vote for Me.

Have you had enough of that?  This is a Chinese documentary -- about three 8-year-olds running for Class Monitor of the Third Grade, complete with campaign committees, debates, earmarks, and of course helicoptering parents. Their techniques and language were fascinating.  You definitely know you're in China.

I had read a short blurb about it in yesterday's NYT, and since it was less than an hour long, I streamed it from Netflix to my computer.  Very interesting and sometimes a hoot.  With English subtitles.

[marcie]

Pedln, what a documentary. Thank you for mentioning it. I was able to see a bit of it on youtube. The 3 minute beginning is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCEB-uH49AQ and there is some back-room (backstabbing!) campaigning at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwARnU2xrao&feature=related. Gosh, the first taste of democracy
for the third graders is not so different from our own politicking.

[JimNT]

My wife and I saw the movie Hereafter yesterday.  Kathleen Kennedy and Stephen Speilberg were two of the executive producers, directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Matt Damon.  All the right names, huh?  Damon played a reluctant pyschic and performed well, as I believe he usually does.  The guitar music soundtrack was written by Eastwood and was beautiful.  The movie has some slow scenes that I'm not sure could have been done better given the subject.  Eastwood is a very talented man and seems to give his movies a magic touch.  Despite the slow scenes, I think one should see this movie.

[marcie]

Thanks for the review of Hereafter, Jim. I've seen some previews and have been wondering about it. It's good to know that you've given it a thumbs up.

[Tomereader1]

The friend who accompanied me to see Hereafter, commented that her daughter said it was "slow".  However, she and I did not find it slow at all, and totally enjoyed it.  It was, IMHO, sad, uplifting and thought provoking. 

[JimNT]

Tomereader1:  I enjoyed your review of Hereafter. Frankly, I fibbed; it was my wife who said there were some slow scenes.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and plan to view it again when it debuts on Netflix.  I might not even invite my wife.

[marcie]

 

[pedln]

It's on my queue now, Jim.


Here’s for the Harry Potter fans.  Just how long would it take to watch all of them in one day?

Six in One Day


I borrowed the grandkids’ DVDs and kept them a year.  Watched two, guess I’m not a fan.  Maybe I'll try it again when they've all left home.

[PatH]

I'm definitely a Harry Potter fan, from the books first, and secondarily from the movies.  Thanks,  Pedln, for the link.  I won't watch all the movies in one day, but maybe it's time for me to do some rereading in preparation for the very soon to be released next segment.

[maryz]

We've read all the books, but have seen only 4 of the movies.  We have the rest in our Netflix queue, so we'll be ready when the latest one is released on DVD.

[rosemarykaye]

My husband has the dubious distinction of falling asleep in the first H Potter film.

I have read some of the books to my younger daughter - but a couple of years ago she decided that she had had enough of my reading aloud and wanted to do it herself; I was redundant  .  However, reading them aloud does draw your attention to the flaws - JK Rowling, whom I admire greatly for her achievements in the face of real adversity - has a habit of repeating the same adjectives over and over again, and as for adverbs!  If I read that Hermione said something "shrilly" one more time......Someone once said that JKR "never met an adverb that she didn't like".

I have also seen some of the films at the cinema with the children.  They are OK, but I wouldn't rush - although I have already agreed to take daughters to the latest, which is on general release here from Friday.  My in-laws, who are in their 80s, absolutely love H Potter - they are into science fiction (mother-in-law is a great fan of Terry Pratchett, and despairs of me who can't stand him), so maybe that's why.

Does anyone else miss reading aloud to their children?  I used to love doing the voices for characters like Ann of Green Gables until one of my daughter's friends told me that her Mummy did it much better!

Rosemary

[Mippy]

Question for all you H. Potter fans:  Are any of the DVD's suitable gifts for grandchildren (ages 6-9)?

[Babi]

 PatH, I'm so glad to hear the next Harry Potter film will be released 'very soon'.
I'd about given up and decided it would never happen.
  ROSEMARY, I suspect that being read to is somewhat like reading the book before the movie.
'Mummy' has her way of voicing the different characters and the young listener feels that is
the way they are supposed to sound.  Other 'voices' don't fit, much like the characters in the
movie don't really look/sound the way we envisioned them from the book.

[JimNT]

Rosemary:  My kids are beginning to read to me.

[pedln]

Does anyone else miss reading aloud to their children?  I used to love doing the voices for characters like Ann of Green Gables until one of my daughter's friends told me that her Mummy did it much better

If only ALL parents would read to their children, and talk about what they're reading. Talk about the pictures, talk about the story.  As my mother used to say, it's important for their "reading readiness."  Even when they are able to read, kids like to be read to.  Improves listening skills, too.  Adults, too -- I remember a college children's lit class, and the prof read The Trumpeter of Krakow to us.

I remember someone saying it was a lunch time ritual at their house.  Mom would read aloud while the kids ate lunch.  (That probably beats listening on the radio to Stella Dallas, a  girl from a little mining town in the West .   .    .)

Are any of the DVD's suitable gifts for grandchildren (ages 6-9)?

Mippy, the first time I watched a Harry Potter years ago I thought it was scary, but I felt safe with granddaughter Lizzie who was about 5 then, and it was all old hat to her.

[JimNT]

Stella Dallas?  I don't remember her or the Green Hornet, or The Squeaking Door, or Jack Armstrong, The All American Boy, or etcetera.

[rosemarykaye]

JimNT -  .  think I'll try suggesting that.  My son's now ex girlfriend used to get him to read to her down the phone at night (they lived in different cities) - I always used to wonder why, as he is not exactly a fluent out-loud reader - then he told me it helped her to get to sleep!

When I was very small, lunchtime (or really, just after lunchtime) was Listen With Mother on the radio, which always began "Are you sitting comfortably?  then I'll begin.....".  Later it was Watch with Mother on the television, my favourites being The Woodentops and Andy Pandy.  For my son it was Postman Pat (which I liked), for my first daughter The Tweenies (which were very funny if you were an adult) and for my second daughter, the Teletubbies, which I absolutely loathed, along with every other parent I knew.

I'm looking forward to reading to grandchildren one day, though by the time they materialise I'll probably be in my dotage....

R

[mabel1015j]

My grandson, who is not fond of reading, has become hooked on the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and i see there is a movie in the works. Oh, btw, he's 8 yrs old......jean

[PatH]

I came from a family where reading aloud was a way of life.  We didn't just get bedtime stories, we would also take turns reading aloud to entertain someone doing stuff like ironing, or just for fun.  We worked through a tremendous number of books, some of them a bit too grown-up for JoanK and me, but I've always been glad for the start it gave me, and the fun it was.

Rosemarykaye, fortunately my children were almost grown up when teletubbies came along, but I tried to watch them once and didn't even last 5 minutes before the retch factor got too high.

I'm a huge Harry Potter fan.  For the last 3 or 4 books, I even went to local bookstores to stand in line to buy the next book at midnight, along with teenagers and overtired younger children with  their parents.  (I also like Terry Pratchett, he's one of the funniest writers I know.)  The latest movie will be released here Friday also.

In spite of your very justified complaints about Rowling's adjectives and adverbs, Rowling does read well aloud.  When my husband was sick, he couldn't focus well to read, so I read all sorts of things to him, including the first 5 Harry Potter books (all that had been published at the time).  It was interesting to see what books did well: Sherlock Holmes was good, but Agatha Christie was poor. 

[Babi]

You owe the author of "The Wimpy Kid" a debt of gratitude, JEAN. Thank goodness for
the books, whichever ones they are, that capture the imagination of a kid and start
him/her reading!
  Agatha Christie made poor out-loud reading?  I never would have thought of that, but
considering how pompous Poirot could sometimes be, I can imagine how he would sound
read out loud.

[PatH]

I was surprised too, Babi.  Perhaps my choice of which books was unfortunate, but Christie's prose seemed quite wooden when read aloud.  I guess it's not so noticeable when read silently and rapidly.

[MaryPage]

Am an unabashed HARRY POTTER fan, as well.  The words she uses describe the story she is telling, and the story is the epitome of vivid imagination.  She has also made up a lot of delightful words, and I am addicted to the clever game Quidditch, which bloomed totally from Rowling's head.

Two of my daughters (have 5) and I went to one of the book store midnight parties.  Believe it was for book 4, the one that opens on June 21.  Whichever book, we got there at eleven PM on June 20, and sipped drinks while watching the excited throng of children.  First in line?  A fortyish man, who bought 4 books and had them in 2 bookstore bags and was grinning from ear to ear as he made off with his (paid for them, of course) loot!

Have loved the movies, and will see movie number 7, part one, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving with a daughter and granddaughter I have seen every one with!  We 3 generations are like the same generation when we take our traditional troop to the moving picture theatre for a new Harry Potter film!

And, of course, I own every movie on DVD.

[roshanarose]

I remember seeing the first Harry Potter film in a holiday coastal town of about 100 residents.  I even remember what I was wearing.  In holiday mode I was wearing just a loungi (sarong I guess is what you would call it); knickers; rubber thongs and a suntan. It was a midday matinee and the majority of women in the audience were dressed similarly.  The men were dressed in board shorts and rubber thongs, and the kids were dressed like the adults.  My fondest memory of the  film was the white owl (called Hedwig as I recall, altho I may be wrong) who delivered so many letters to Harry.  I love owls - they are my totem I suppose. 

My oldest grandson was frightened of Voldemort/Valdemort (unsure of the spelling) - he was just ten when he developed this fear.  When he told me I took him aside and showed him a pic of Ralph Fiennes on my photostream on Flickr.  I asked him what his opinion was of Ralph - Jack replied that Ralph was very handsome and had beautiful eyes.  I told him that was what Voldemort really looked like - that it was all make-up that made him appear evil and as tho he had no nose.  My grandson learned a lesson that day - that many things are never what they seem.  He now sees through Voldemort's disguise and enjoys Harry Potter movies more.

I remember (and have never forgotten) a movie I saw when I was quite young about a puppet that was only ever seen in shadow terrorising a person/family.  At that time it was the most frightening image I had ever seen, although I could never explain why.  Does anyone else have similar disquieting memories of movies seen when young?

[rosemarykaye]

roshanarose - I don't remember any frightening films, but when I was about 3 my parents saved up and bought me a life size Looby Loo doll (a character in Andy Pandy).  they left it in the box and brought me into the room to open it - I opened the lid and ran screaming from the room.  I remember it as if it was yesterday - the yellow sofa, the long brown box, and the scary rag doll face looking out at me.  My poor parents were really hard up and had no doubt scrimped and saved to buy that doll, but I never liked it.

When we first moved to this house, Madeleine was also 3, and the horrible boy next door (long since moved away) put the severed head of his sister's doll into our sandpit.  She was so traumatised I could cheerfully have severed his head in revenge 

Rosemary

[roshanarose]

The little boy next door - the bane of many a toddler.  He is most likely now a surgeon

[rosemarykaye]

   what a thought!

[Babi]

Oh, yes, ROSHANA. I well remember the giant tarantula that terrified me in a Tarzan
movie. Surprisingly, I was more angry than relieved when my mother explained that it
was a fake. I felt betrayed!
  As for the brat who cut off the doll's head and left it in the sandbox,  I can't help hoping
he didn't wind up a serial killer.  Something like that is a big red warning flag to me.

[marjifay]

As a youngster, I loved the Tarzan movies and read the books with a flashlight under my bed covers when I was supposed to be sleeping.  It never occured to me, but someone asked why Tarzan in the movies was beardless.

Marj

[JimNT]

Re frightening films, it's interesting how age affects ones imagination.  About 1964 or 5, William Castle produced a movie starring Joan Crawford titled Strait Jacket.  My wife and I saw it in Houston, Tx and witnessed dozens of people leaving the theater until only a handful remained.  We were terrified too but were determined to see it through.  Today that movie causes hardly a blip on our fright scale; in fact, few movie do frighten us if any.  In a sense, I miss the fun of being frightened by movies.  It was innocent fun and unlike the real life atrocities we are bombarded with today.

[Tomereader1]

Frightening Movies:  I can remember one from when I was pretty young; Title escapes me, but I think it starred Peter Lorre, and was about a hand that crept around, and something to do with the piano.
The absolute scariest was when I was about 18-19 and "Psycho" came out.  I went to the movie with about 3 or 4 other young ladies that I worked with. We stayed for the entire show, but I was so frightened, I couldn't sleep for several days afterward!

[salan]

It was several months before I could take a shower--had to bathe in an open tub!   Psycho was a really scary movie.
Sally

[roshanarose]

Tomereader - The Peter Lorre movie you mentioned:

The Beast with Five Fingers 1946
"
"There's some underhanded business going at the gloomy mansion of former piano virtuoso Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) in this mystery set in rural Italy in the early 1900s. Confined to a wheelchair and only able to use one hand to play, the bitter Ingram lives with his devoted nurse (Andrea King); an antiques dealer (Robert Conrad), and a craven secretary (Peter Lorre). When Ingram is killed in a mysterious accident, some dislikable British relatives (Charles Dingle and John David) come to claim the mansion, but find more than they bargained for when Ingram's disembodied hand starts crawling from the grave at night to play piano, and strangle horrified victims.

Robert Florey (MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE) directed this odd combination of "old dark house" mystery and rural Italian period piece. The highlights are Lorre's priceless scenes of confrontation with the disembodied hand, and the starkly beautiful photography that captures every creepy shadow from the fireplace's flickering flames. Max Steiner did the toweringly horrific score. Curt Siodmak (THE WOLFMAN) wrote the screenplay based on a short story by William Fryer Harvey."

Deliciously scary.  

My daughter wouldn't drink milk for months after seeing "Alien".

[Babi]

 You never know how kids are going to take things.  My aunt told the story of taking her 5-yr
daughter to see Godzilla, only to be horrified to find the monster picking up people from the
street and popping them in his mouth.  She turned to her daughter, fearful that she had seriously
traumatized the child. My young cousin, however, simply popped more popcorn in her own
mouth and said, "Well, he got one."