Author Topic: Movies & Books Into Movies (Read 591738 times)

pedln · « **Reply #1480 on:** March 20, 2011, 04:37:28 PM »

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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Your Discussion Leader: pedln

Jean, what an interesting list, covering many different situations involving women. I would add to it The Final Days of Sophie Scholl, about a young woman in Nazi Germany who risked her life to do what she felt was right. I've seen quite a few of the ones on the list. Really likedNot For Ourselves Along, about Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and gave a copy to my daughter and granddaughter one year for Christmas.

Rosemary, I felt just like the woman in your youtube video as I went through every zipper in my unfortunately multi-zippered purse this am, looking for the envelope for the church collection plate. Of course they passed me by before I found it, having put it there last week so I wouldn't leave it at home.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #1481 on:** March 20, 2011, 05:02:44 PM »

Pedln - that is just the sort of thing I do. I also do it with my passport - put it in some safe place in my bag, then have a complete panic when I get to the airport. And my daughters have lost count of the number of times I have turned out my bag looking for keys that turn out to be in my pocket, in the door, on the table, in the bathroom, etc etc.

Once, when my son was about 2, the collection bag came round at church and he stuck in his hand and took out as much money as possible

Jean - that is a fascinating list. I don't think I would have included Mona Lisa Smile. One that I would add is Thelma and Louise, and what about The Hours? Thanks for posting this.

Rosemary

MaryPage · « **Reply #1482 on:** March 23, 2011, 10:05:56 AM »

Elizabeth Taylor has died. She was almost 3 years younger than I, and I am feeling yet another huge gate clanging shut and closing me off from today's society.

I will always think of the twelve year old English girl who played in National Velvet. How we adored her! And WHAT a beauty. I never saw her in person, but a close friend (dead, of course) who did said that her eyes were actually a real amethyst. Imagine!

JoanK · « **Reply #1483 on:** March 24, 2011, 03:29:05 PM »

It's just yesterday she was advertising perfume on TV. It does seem like the end of an era. None of the modern stars have the presence that she did.

roshanarose · « **Reply #1484 on:** March 24, 2011, 11:12:30 PM »

Rosemary - I did love this:

Once, when my son was about 2, the collection bag came round at church and he stuck in his hand and took out as much money as possible

My brother, his wife and three children aged from 10 to 4 were excited about their first trip to the US. They were going to Disneyland! The family had gone out for dinner to a steak restaurant and the waiter asked what they would like for dinner. Master Matthew, 6, asked for a steak. The waiter asked how he would like it. Matthew said "Cooked, please." Poor Matthew has never lived this down.

Ah Elizabeth Taylor. She and Ava Gardner were my idea of goddesses.

CallieOK · « **Reply #1485 on:** March 24, 2011, 11:48:07 PM »

My sons were not allowed to order dessert when we ate out - but that didn't apply when we were with their Grandparents.
Once, the waitress brought the menu for us to look over the choices. My then 9-year-old son asked what "Assorted Pies" were. When he heard that meant all kinds of pie, he shut the menu and announced, "That's what I'll have".
Only a firm nudge from Grandmother kept Grampa from letting him do so.

I wish I had a nickel for every time the grandparents told that story!!

MaryPage · « **Reply #1486 on:** March 25, 2011, 06:16:26 AM »

LOVE it!

pedln · « **Reply #1487 on:** March 26, 2011, 11:40:10 PM »

Smart boy, that Matthew. One wonders at some of those rare steaks.

Grampas and uncles, they sure are the good guys. I'll bet he would have loved it if the waitress had brought out a platter of pies. Good stories, both.

It's been a little slow for movies at my house. I did watch Cairo Time last week. There wasn't a whole lot to it, but it was just pleasant, and with much scenery and sights of Cairo and Egypt. I can't tell you who was in it because I didn't recognize the names, and don't remember them now. In a nutshell, a woman travels to Cairo to meet her U.N. diplomat husband, but he is delayed in Gaza. So another man, a friend of his, meets the woman and introduces her to the city.

My New York girls are visiting this weekend. They recommend a film Irina Palm, about a 50-something woman who turns to the oldest profession so that she can pay her grandson's medical bills, at the same time keeping this a secret from family and neighbors. Has anyone seen it? Does it have captions of subtitles?

marcie · « **Reply #1488 on:** March 27, 2011, 12:41:24 AM »

Pedln, I haven't heard of the film, Irina Palm. There is some info online about it but it may have some spoilers.

I'm going to watch the first episodes of the miniseries, Mildred Pierce on HBO tomorrow evening. It starts at 6pm in my area. I've borrowed the original Joan Crawford version and the book on which it's based, from my local library.

salan · « **Reply #1489 on:** March 27, 2011, 04:57:03 AM »

Marcie, I plan of watching, also. It comes on at 8 p.m. here.
Sally

Babi · « **Reply #1490 on:** March 27, 2011, 09:09:58 AM »

Considering how many men seem to prefer young..and younger...women, I find it hard to
imagine a 50-yr. old woman making a great success of the oldest profession. Certainly not
enough to pay heavy medical bills.

From what I know of Mildred Pierce, I don't think I will want to aggravate myself that
much.

jeriron · « **Reply #1491 on:** March 27, 2011, 09:33:51 AM »

I had never seen Mildred Pierce because I didn't like Joan Crawford. But I watched it on TMC last night and thought it was very good. (But I still don't like JC) I plan on watching the one on HBO tonight.

marcie · « **Reply #1492 on:** March 28, 2011, 11:10:03 AM »

I'm not a big fan of Joan Crawford either though I don't think I've seen many of her films. I've remembered her as rather cold and grim. I thought she was lovely looking in Mildred Pierce. I am going to enjoy seeing the differences between that film and the new HBO series.

So far, the HBO series is more faithful to the book, which I've just started to read. The cinematography is wonderful, as is all of the attention to detail, including the clothes.

Frybabe · « **Reply #1493 on:** March 28, 2011, 07:25:16 PM »

I am just about done reading Jasper Fforde's Something Rotten which is the fourth in the Thursday Next series. What a blast!

I was watching a rerun of one of those BBC shows where the Top Gear guys (or whoever) went to the US, bought junkers, drove from Miami to New Orleans and then tried to sell the junkers. Anyhow, one of the stops was a speedway. They had some big guy drive their vehicles around the course. One of the Brits called him Stig. Now I had seen the show before but the name didn't mean a thing until I now. Stig is a recurring character in the series.

Now for the real fun. Hamlet has been taken out of BookWorld and into the real world for a while. He meets all kinds of actors playing him in the real world. He studies all of them. His favorite is Mel Gibson (I didn't know Gibson did a Hamlet). As he is saying his goodbyes before jumping back into BookWorld he asks, "By the way, have any of you heard of this Branagh fellow?...He's just starting to get going. I've a feeling his Hamlet will be stupendous." I just love it - the quote, not Hamlet. Hamlet is not my favorite Shakespeare play.

PatH · « **Reply #1494 on:** March 28, 2011, 08:36:14 PM »

Frybabe, Fforde is really funny, isn't he. I had no idea that Branagh had played Hamlet. I googled it, and got a youtube clip that didn't impress me, but I've added it to my Netflix queue, since I really liked him as Henry V. Branagh is versatile--he did a great job as Gilderoy Lockhart, the vain professor in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"; in "Rabbit Proof Fence" he was the awful bureaucrat who was fixated on relocating the natives. In "Mary Shelly's Frankenstein", where he both directed and played Victor Frankenstein, he sometimes did a good job of catching some of the spirit of the book, though the movie is so viciously bloody that I don't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a really strong stomach.

Frybabe · « **Reply #1495 on:** March 28, 2011, 08:49:56 PM »

I am afraid I never watched Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I'll have to check it out now that I know Branagh was in it. I didn't like the YouTube clips of Branagh's Hamlet either, although the one of him talking to the gravedigger wasn't half bad. He was just too, oh, non-dimensional or flat for me.

I had no idea that Jasper Fforde was so popular. Here is his website. Has anyone actually been to a Fforde Ffiesta? Anyhow, his Toad News articles crack me up. http://www.jasperfforde.com/index2.html

PatH · « **Reply #1496 on:** March 28, 2011, 09:26:23 PM »

Don't forget--Frankenstein is REALLY gruesome.

Frybabe · « **Reply #1497 on:** March 28, 2011, 11:11:41 PM »

Oh joy, just the kind of movie my sister likes. She probably has it in her collection.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #1498 on:** March 29, 2011, 04:17:55 AM »

Frybabe - Mel Gibson not only did a Hamlet, it was filmed on location in Scotland, partly at Dunottar Castle, which is just south of Aberdeen and very dramatic. You can do a lovely cliff walk from Stonehaven to the castle, which can be seen from afar and is very impressive. The walk used to be literally along the edge of the cliffs - I used to do it years ago, it was often foggy and sometimes a deer would appear out of the mist. The Council has clearly decided that it was unsafe, as they have now built a proper path - it's still a good walk, if not quite so atmospheric!

http://www.dunnottarcastle.co.uk/index.cfm

For some time afterwards, the props were left hanging about - it's that kind of place, all a bit eccentric and not at all National Trust.

Rosemary

Gumtree · « **Reply #1499 on:** March 29, 2011, 04:19:44 AM »

I haven't watched the clip you mention but I have to go against the tide - on the big screen the Branagh Hamlet was brilliant - as was his Henry V

MaryPage · « **Reply #1500 on:** March 29, 2011, 08:27:53 AM »

I think everything Branagh has ever done has been brilliant. My favorite was back in the nineties when he and his then wife Emma Thompson did All's Well That Ends Well. What a marvelous romp that was!

Babi · « **Reply #1501 on:** March 29, 2011, 09:24:18 AM »

FRYBABE, I loved the Toad News article. I'm still smiling.

What a gorgeous setting, ROSEMARY. Thanks for posting it. (It's as close as I'm ever going to
get, so I enjoy!)

Val and I watched "The Boys Are Back", starring Clive Owen and based on a UK sportswriter's
autobiographical book. I thought it well done, and managed to rise above the cliches that so
often accompany this type of story. Which is hard to do, when you're dealing with the loss of
a wife and raising sons alone.

pedln · « **Reply #1502 on:** March 29, 2011, 12:18:13 PM »

That castle looks like a hard place to reach, Rosemary, not to mention getting away from. But beautiful.

Babi, I just saw one that might well follow Boys are Back about a recently widowed father trying to keep up with the news of his grown chidren, something his wife always did for him. This was Everybody's Fine, with Robert DeNiro, Drew Barrymore, others. When his four children cancel out on a weekend visit, Frank, without telling anyone, heads out on public transportation to visit them at their homes spread out across the country . Pleasant, delightful. 4 1/2 stars.

Gumtree · « **Reply #1503 on:** March 29, 2011, 01:17:36 PM »

We watched a documentary on whaling, Into the Deep shown on Aust. TV tonight - it was brilliant. I daresay many of you have seen it. It documents the history of American whaling from 17 century on through to the glory days of the 19th century and combines the story of the whaleship Essex which came to grief in the Pacific after being holed by a spermwhale - and the fate of its whalemen - together with Herman Melville's experience of whaling and how that fed into his subsequent masterpiece Moby Dick. The extracts read from Melville and others were superb. The whole was narrated by Willem Dafoe. It kept us up late but was worth it. I'm just glad I don't have a copy of Moby Dick or I'd have it down and be browsing in it instead of going to bed. 19th century writing really gets to me. G'Nite.

Babi · « **Reply #1504 on:** March 30, 2011, 09:03:18 AM »

I saw that one, too, PEDLN. I was pleased that it mostly avoided becoming maudlin. But
then, I don't think DeNiro ever has wrong instincts about how to act a part.

That does sound good, GUM. I seem to have heard that title before, but I don't believe
I've seen the film. If it crops up somewhere I'll remember your thumbs up on it.

jeriron · « **Reply #1505 on:** March 30, 2011, 09:51:33 AM »

I saw "Everybody's Fine" with DeNiro and enjoyed it. It was a remake of the Italian film with Marcello Mastroianni. I liked that one better,mostly because it took place in Italy. I would like to see it again but it isn't on DVD just VHS.

MaryPage · « **Reply #1506 on:** March 31, 2011, 08:28:44 AM »

Fair Game, with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, is now out on DVD and I have just ordered it from Barnes & Noble on line. Can hardly wait to get it, as it is based on Ambassador Joseph Wilson's book The Politics of Truth. Rainy, rainy day here; a great time for watching films.

pedln · « **Reply #1507 on:** March 31, 2011, 09:15:37 PM »

Fair Game is #3 on my Netflix queue, MaryPage. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Can you believe -- the classic Mildred Pierce is now a "very long wait" on my Netflix queue. I guess the HBO series has everybody wanting to see and compare the original.

I'm in the middle of an oldie -- The House on Telegraph Hill. Someon here must have recommended it. I'd never have thought about it on my own.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #1508 on:** March 31, 2011, 10:18:21 PM »

The Ovation channel is showing a new Dr Zhivago. It looks like it's being shown as a serial..... Jean

MaryPage · « **Reply #1509 on:** April 01, 2011, 09:12:21 AM »

A NEW Doctor Zhivago! Oh, how I would love to see that!

Have you watched any of it yet? Who made it? Do you think it might be available on DVD one day?

jeriron · « **Reply #1510 on:** April 01, 2011, 10:22:03 AM »

MaryPage

You mentioned that you ordered "Dalziel and Pascoe" series 3. I have looked all over and no one mentions CC or subtitles. Netflix does mention Subtitles but they don't have it yet. have you seen it someplace?

marcie · « **Reply #1511 on:** April 01, 2011, 11:18:44 AM »

I checked wikipedia and it says that a 2002 British television serial with Hans Matheson, Keira Knightley, and Sam Neill was broadcast by ITV in the UK in November 2002 and on Masterpiece Theatre in the US in November 2003.

It looks like the episodes are online at http://www.ovguide.com/video/doctor-zhivago-2002-e1-p1-922ca39ce10036ba0e11a5a2e49b8a0c

jeriron · « **Reply #1512 on:** April 01, 2011, 11:32:56 AM »

MaryPage

I found that Dalziel and Pascoe has cc or subtitles. It was mentioned on BBC website.

MaryPage · « **Reply #1513 on:** April 01, 2011, 01:06:07 PM »

Thanks, Marcie. I could not get into that website, but if it was on Masterpiece Theatre here, I saw it. My short term memory is getting so bad. Besides, I thought this was a brand new one being shown.

I have the first two seasons of Dalziel and Pascoe already. They have the English for the hard of hearing subtitles thingy. Very satisfactory. The only ones I own which do NOT have any type of closed captioning whatsoever and therefore drive me MAD are my Ruth Rendell sets.

pedln · « **Reply #1514 on:** April 01, 2011, 05:37:26 PM »

Dalziel and Pascoe are new names to me, but the blurb on Netflix sounds good. Season 1 is now on my queue.

Isn't it funny how some of the golden oldies never get old, always have appeal. Now that I've finished with it, I can't say the same for House on Telegraph Hill. It just seemed dated and without any spark.

MaryPage · « **Reply #1515 on:** April 01, 2011, 07:25:05 PM »

Reginald Hill

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/reghill/bio.html

is my favorite author of British detective murder mysteries. His series about 2 detectives, Dalziel and Pascoe, is hilarious and intelligent. Not surprising, since Hill was a High School teacher and a college professor for years before he retired. The Brits have made heaps of these books into films, but the books are the best thing ever.

Babi · « **Reply #1516 on:** April 02, 2011, 08:13:24 AM »

I'll have to look up Reginald Hill. He's not one I'm familiar with and your description sounds
entertaining, MARYPAGE.

MaryPage · « **Reply #1517 on:** April 02, 2011, 09:28:10 AM »

He is very funny and very cerebral.

MaryPage · « **Reply #1518 on:** April 04, 2011, 07:11:40 AM »

I watched THE KILLING on AMC last night. They showed the first 2 hours of what is a 13 hour series. Only one murder, which takes place in the first hour. The rest of the series is spent on solving the murder. It is one of the best things I have ever seen on TV.

If you missed it, look in your TV WEEK or TV GUIDE or whatever you use. They are going to repeat it on AMC several times this week prior to the next episode on Sunday night at ten.

The acting and the reality are both stunning. It takes place in Seattle.

pedln · « **Reply #1519 on:** April 04, 2011, 06:17:33 PM »

MaryPage, I saw The Killing last night also, and thought it was excellent. I don't remember how I happened to know about it -- a review or blurb somewhere, but I had made a note of it. And then course, forgot about it until it was 20 minutes into the show. So I was glad they showed it for a second time and I was able to catch the beginning and see what I missed.

News:

Author Topic: Movies & Books Into Movies (Read 591738 times)