No-one for Kurosawa, e.g. Kagemusha, Yojimbo, etc.?
Pather Panchali?
Or Walkabout or Ten Canoes?
I tried to do this some years ago and couldn't do seven films. I couldn't even do seven directors. I had to do top X films from Y directors
As for Kurosawa, well I'll raise you "Ran". Not for its plot but for its brilliant use of colour.
Speaking of colour, nobody said A Matter of Life Or Death, Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes (there are no bad ballet movies), Black Narcissus. We are starved of colour up there...☹️
No Terrence Malick. No Badlands, no Thin Red Line, no Tree of Life. No Coppola. No Apocalypse Now, no Godfathers. Scorsese apparently never existed, nor did Hitchcock. No Hitchcock blondes, no Cary Grant in a powder blue suit. Eastwood is unforgiven and Unforgiven is lost. Nobody made our day. Tarantino still works in a video store. You could fill seven great films just by his or Kubrick's filmography. No Villeneuve: Rachael is still alive with no incept date and Dune is the month between May and July. Nolan is noman: no Dunkirk, no Tenet. All these moments have been lost, like tears in...and we're back to Scott: no Alien,no Blade Runner. Ah, we are poor in the midst of plenty.
And no "Lifeforce". We are Bad People.
Been watching lots of Hitchcock on archive.org, and not as impressed as I expected to be. N by NW is outdated and superseded by good Daniel Craig JB films (and btw Layer Cake is superb), Rear Window is creepy voyeurism, Vertigo a bit ho hum.
Fair points, but they do get a fair way on style. As does Layer Cake, come to think of it - a good film held back by a bathetic speech by Michael Gambon at the end. Every decade or so the Brits make a great crime movie: Get Carter, Long Good Friday, Layer Cake, Snatch/Lock Stock. And then we forget.
Michael Mann! Thief! Last of the Mohicans! Heat! Manhunter! Collateral! Yes, it is his briefcase...
Still never seen Airplane. I've seen in quoted so many times I've probably heard most of the movie anyway.
But really the key question is what sorts of political movies would it be expected political anoraks will have watched, and has everyone indeed seen them?
I remember watching The Iron Lady, and thinking it was pretty dull, but then that's generally the case with biopics, even of remarkable people (I also find Meryl Streep overrated - it may be unfair, but I'm always very aware its her in her films, rather than the character she is portraying).
Good Political movies
All the President's men Frost vs Nixon
and of course Don's Party
Nixon (Hopkins/Stone) The Parallax View All The Way (Cranston as LBJ) Path To War (Michael Gambon as LBJ)
Stone’s Salvador, though flawed, was possibly his best film. Also, obviously, political.
Still never seen Airplane. I've seen in quoted so many times I've probably heard most of the movie anyway.
But really the key question is what sorts of political movies would it be expected political anoraks will have watched, and has everyone indeed seen them?
I remember watching The Iron Lady, and thinking it was pretty dull, but then that's generally the case with biopics, even of remarkable people (I also find Meryl Streep overrated - it may be unfair, but I'm always very aware its her in her films, rather than the character she is portraying).
Good Political movies
All the President's men Frost vs Nixon
and of course Don's Party
Nixon (Hopkins/Stone) The Parallax View All The Way (Cranston as LBJ) Path To War (Michael Gambon as LBJ)
Stone’s Salvador, though flawed, was possibly his best film. Also, obviously, political.
White Men Can't Jump Goodfellas Withnail And I The Blues Brothers Pulp Fiction The Commitments Dazed And Confused
I think these are my favourite seven movies
I know there are better made films with much better acting, but those are the ones I have enjoyed again and again as an adult
Oh, and all the Monty Python films
My favourites mostly seem to be romcoms, but there it is:
Four Weddings and a Funeral Amelie Shakespeare in Love Pride & Prejudice (2005) Master and Commander Gravity Airplane
Casablanca It's a Wonderful Life The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Toy Story 3 Titanic Frozen Manon des Sources.
Casablanca is a stone cold classic which doesn’t pall however many times you watch it.
Titanic leaves me cold. Frozen has a nice soundtrack.
I don’t understand the appeal of Goodfellas (or indeed any of those interminable mafia movies where Joe Pesci seems to be playing the same role he did in the last one, or the one before that).
I adore Titanic. I think it's one of the few modern films that feels like a movie from the golden age of Hollywood, with charismatic stars, glamour and adventure. It is a romantic film, an adventure, a historical movie, a disaster movie, a summer blockbuster, all rolled into one. The two leads are brilliant actors with a genuine chemistry. The special effects are incredible and haven't dated. Even the really corny bits that should be terrible somehow work - that last scene where they are reunited in a kind of Titanic heaven should be completely absurd but leaves me a blubbering wreck every time. Frozen is more than the brilliant soundtrack - I find the relationship between the sisters very affecting. Perhaps because I have an older sibling who was a bit troubled and had a difficult childhood and adolescence, it has a lot of resonance for me. It feels emotionally real, which is very hard to get right in art. And it's gorgeous to look at. And it has one of the best songs ever written.
I have never been interested enough to watch either film. Regarding Titanic, I have a strong prejudice against films where I know the outcome. Especially if that outcome is most people get drownded.
With Frozen, I've only heard the 'main song' (which I think is very poor - don't think a song that poor would have even made soundtrack on The Little Mermaid.
Yes, spoiler alert, the ship sinks. On Let it Go, sorry, you are simply wrong. This is a song that is so good that it forced them to rewrite the entire film.
It's hard to be objective about any piece of art. I don't listen to much 'show music', but I think great show tunes are great tunes/songs to begin with and then the 'Broadway' style gets put on top. This seems all surface, and I think is just a weak song. I don't rate the melody - in fact I can't even remember the melody at all beyond the first repeated 'Let it go', and I've heard it several times. The lyrics are similarly unmemorable. 'Let it go' is a fairly solid foundation phrase for a song (if not an especially original one), but what memorable stanzas do they create around it? The chorus just seems to wail 'Let it go' all the time. To go back to TLM (I don't know why I'm stuck on this - it's the 1st film I saw in the cinema, older sister's birthday treat), where is the 'up where they walk, up where they run, up where they stay all day in the sun'?
I'm glad you enjoy it and that it means something to you.
The Lives of Others The Secret In Their Eyes the original Argentinian film and not the garbage US remake All About My Mother, Volver directed by Pedro Almodovar , the latter has a quite brilliant performance by Penelope Cruz , even better than her performance in All About My Mother .
Christ I totally forgot Almodovar! And Fassbinder - Rainer Werner, not Michael.
Well, "Rear Window" is _about_ voyeurism, and filmmaking, and the impulse to watch. To me it stands up better to memory than "Vertigo" or "North by Northwest", which have plots that are silly in some aspects - even though in the moment they more-than-deliver the dreamlike emotional state so I don't care. And the technically tricky pieces like "Rope" or "Lifeboat", or by contrast the TV-like "Strangers on a Train" or "Psycho", or classic Hollywood pieces like "Rebecca" or "Shadow of a Doubt", or British classics like "The 39 Steps" or "The Lady Vanishes" and I've named too many already.
The Railway Children Goldeneye Chariots of Fire Silence of the Lambs Rear Window The Third Man Ghostbusters The Fifth Element Gosford Park
Oh the Railway Children... Daddy my daddy... Kills me every time. Rear Window is probably my favourite Hitchcock too. James Stewart and Grace Kelly, what's not to like? Ghostbusters, though? I feel like that is the poster child of films you enjoyed as a child that are actually fucking terrible.
I only ever saw the cartoon when I was little - I got into the cinematic release a little later, watched the directors commentary n' everything. I just think it's great - alive with colour, comedy, great cast with Bill Murray at his best. Great special effects. It's junk food but delicious junk food.
North by Northwest The Leopard Chinatown The 400 Blows The Apartment The Shining The Sound of Music Amarcord Kind Hearts and Coronets There Will Be Blood
North by Northwest The Italian Job Avanti! Charade Back to the Future Gregory's Girl To Catch a Thief Bullitt Dirty Harry The Titfield Thunderbolt
White Men Can't Jump Goodfellas Withnail And I The Blues Brothers Pulp Fiction The Commitments Dazed And Confused
I think these are my favourite seven movies
I know there are better made films with much better acting, but those are the ones I have enjoyed again and again as an adult
Oh, and all the Monty Python films
My favourites mostly seem to be romcoms, but there it is:
Four Weddings and a Funeral Amelie Shakespeare in Love Pride & Prejudice (2005) Master and Commander Gravity Airplane
Casablanca It's a Wonderful Life The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Toy Story 3 Titanic Frozen Manon des Sources.
Casablanca is a stone cold classic which doesn’t pall however many times you watch it.
Titanic leaves me cold. Frozen has a nice soundtrack.
I don’t understand the appeal of Goodfellas (or indeed any of those interminable mafia movies where Joe Pesci seems to be playing the same role he did in the last one, or the one before that).
I adore Titanic. I think it's one of the few modern films that feels like a movie from the golden age of Hollywood, with charismatic stars, glamour and adventure. It is a romantic film, an adventure, a historical movie, a disaster movie, a summer blockbuster, all rolled into one. The two leads are brilliant actors with a genuine chemistry. The special effects are incredible and haven't dated. Even the really corny bits that should be terrible somehow work - that last scene where they are reunited in a kind of Titanic heaven should be completely absurd but leaves me a blubbering wreck every time. Frozen is more than the brilliant soundtrack - I find the relationship between the sisters very affecting. Perhaps because I have an older sibling who was a bit troubled and had a difficult childhood and adolescence, it has a lot of resonance for me. It feels emotionally real, which is very hard to get right in art. And it's gorgeous to look at. And it has one of the best songs ever written.
I have never been interested enough to watch either film. Regarding Titanic, I have a strong prejudice against films where I know the outcome. Especially if that outcome is most people get drownded.
With Frozen, I've only heard the 'main song' (which I think is very poor - don't think a song that poor would have even made soundtrack on The Little Mermaid.
Yes, spoiler alert, the ship sinks. On Let it Go, sorry, you are simply wrong. This is a song that is so good that it forced them to rewrite the entire film.
It's hard to be objective about any piece of art. I don't listen to much 'show music', but I think great show tunes are great tunes/songs to begin with and then the 'Broadway' style gets put on top. This seems all surface, and I think is just a weak song. I don't rate the melody - in fact I can't even remember the melody at all beyond the first repeated 'Let it go', and I've heard it several times. The lyrics are similarly unmemorable. 'Let it go' is a fairly solid foundation phrase for a song (if not an especially original one), but what memorable stanzas do they create around it? The chorus just seems to wail 'Let it go' all the time. To go back to TLM (I don't know why I'm stuck on this - it's the 1st film I saw in the cinema, older sister's birthday treat), where is the 'up where they walk, up where they run, up where they stay all day in the sun'?
I'm glad you enjoy it and that it means something to you.
Part of your World is also a brilliant song, especially the reprise where she sings it on the rocks. Halle Bailey in the new version sings it particularly well. I think the power of Let it Go lies in its emotional content as much as the music. It captures a huge sense of emotional release (some see it as an alegory for coming out - the idea that someone finally stops trying to shape themselves to fit society's expectations and simply revels in being themselves). But musically it has a nice arc that matches well the content, with three versions of the chorus that go from tentative, to decisive, to triumphant. The bridge is very good for building the emotional charge towards the payoff of the final chorus. The Broadway/West End version of the song is even better IMHO - it's the end of the first act and so has a proper big finish (accompanied by a spectacular costume change). I'm probably a bit of an outlier on this forum in terms of my love of musical theatre...
Some other good movies that left me transfixed upon first watching: Laura (1944), Jackie Brown. Taxi Driver came close.
Some other good movies, mostly not mentioned: La belle et la bete (Cocteau), La grande illusion, Dreyer's Joan of Arc, Cria cuervos, Battle Royale, Branded to Kill, Funeral Parade of Roses, most of Tarantino, There Will Be Blood, High Noon, Anatomy of a Murder (with Duke Ellington!), Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Touch of Evil and most of Welles, plus The Third Man in that connection.
White Men Can't Jump Goodfellas Withnail And I The Blues Brothers Pulp Fiction The Commitments Dazed And Confused
I think these are my favourite seven movies
I know there are better made films with much better acting, but those are the ones I have enjoyed again and again as an adult
Oh, and all the Monty Python films
My favourites mostly seem to be romcoms, but there it is:
Four Weddings and a Funeral Amelie Shakespeare in Love Pride & Prejudice (2005) Master and Commander Gravity Airplane
Casablanca It's a Wonderful Life The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Toy Story 3 Titanic Frozen Manon des Sources.
Casablanca is a stone cold classic which doesn’t pall however many times you watch it.
Titanic leaves me cold. Frozen has a nice soundtrack.
I don’t understand the appeal of Goodfellas (or indeed any of those interminable mafia movies where Joe Pesci seems to be playing the same role he did in the last one, or the one before that).
I adore Titanic. I think it's one of the few modern films that feels like a movie from the golden age of Hollywood, with charismatic stars, glamour and adventure. It is a romantic film, an adventure, a historical movie, a disaster movie, a summer blockbuster, all rolled into one. The two leads are brilliant actors with a genuine chemistry. The special effects are incredible and haven't dated. Even the really corny bits that should be terrible somehow work - that last scene where they are reunited in a kind of Titanic heaven should be completely absurd but leaves me a blubbering wreck every time. Frozen is more than the brilliant soundtrack - I find the relationship between the sisters very affecting. Perhaps because I have an older sibling who was a bit troubled and had a difficult childhood and adolescence, it has a lot of resonance for me. It feels emotionally real, which is very hard to get right in art. And it's gorgeous to look at. And it has one of the best songs ever written.
I have never been interested enough to watch either film. Regarding Titanic, I have a strong prejudice against films where I know the outcome. Especially if that outcome is most people get drownded.
With Frozen, I've only heard the 'main song' (which I think is very poor - don't think a song that poor would have even made soundtrack on The Little Mermaid.
Yes, spoiler alert, the ship sinks. On Let it Go, sorry, you are simply wrong. This is a song that is so good that it forced them to rewrite the entire film.
Naah, just had a listen. Standard issue musical filler. Elaine Paige (Page?) on Sunday stuff.
Yes, but I learned all the words so I could sing it to my nieces
When will the Sun be providing proof that Edwards paid for the pics/videos?
The police found no criminality . The Suns pathetic backtracking is vomit inducing and they’re now accusing other media outlets of misconstruing their original reports.
Absolutely desperate stuff from this garbage excuse of a newspaper.
The Sun's mealy mouthed explanation is on a par with Jenrick's justification for painting over Mickey Mouse and Tom and Jerry.
I ask again, has Johnson handed over his phone yet? We are now 15 minutes shy of three days late.
White Men Can't Jump Goodfellas Withnail And I The Blues Brothers Pulp Fiction The Commitments Dazed And Confused
I think these are my favourite seven movies
I know there are better made films with much better acting, but those are the ones I have enjoyed again and again as an adult
Oh, and all the Monty Python films
My favourites mostly seem to be romcoms, but there it is:
Four Weddings and a Funeral Amelie Shakespeare in Love Pride & Prejudice (2005) Master and Commander Gravity Airplane
Casablanca It's a Wonderful Life The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Toy Story 3 Titanic Frozen Manon des Sources.
Casablanca is a stone cold classic which doesn’t pall however many times you watch it.
Titanic leaves me cold. Frozen has a nice soundtrack.
I don’t understand the appeal of Goodfellas (or indeed any of those interminable mafia movies where Joe Pesci seems to be playing the same role he did in the last one, or the one before that).
I adore Titanic. I think it's one of the few modern films that feels like a movie from the golden age of Hollywood, with charismatic stars, glamour and adventure. It is a romantic film, an adventure, a historical movie, a disaster movie, a summer blockbuster, all rolled into one. The two leads are brilliant actors with a genuine chemistry. The special effects are incredible and haven't dated. Even the really corny bits that should be terrible somehow work - that last scene where they are reunited in a kind of Titanic heaven should be completely absurd but leaves me a blubbering wreck every time. Frozen is more than the brilliant soundtrack - I find the relationship between the sisters very affecting. Perhaps because I have an older sibling who was a bit troubled and had a difficult childhood and adolescence, it has a lot of resonance for me. It feels emotionally real, which is very hard to get right in art. And it's gorgeous to look at. And it has one of the best songs ever written.
I have never been interested enough to watch either film. Regarding Titanic, I have a strong prejudice against films where I know the outcome. Especially if that outcome is most people get drownded.
With Frozen, I've only heard the 'main song' (which I think is very poor - don't think a song that poor would have even made soundtrack on The Little Mermaid.
Yes, spoiler alert, the ship sinks. On Let it Go, sorry, you are simply wrong. This is a song that is so good that it forced them to rewrite the entire film.
The kids don't lie. Frozen is the movie that took over their childhood.
Whereas in the 1970s, we had The Aristocats, Robin Hood with the fox, and Pete's blooming Dragon.
If you weren't there, you don't know how bad it was.
You had Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which has an all-time classic song.
I'll stop being an old curmudgeon on Frozen, but I really think the hype on the Let it go song is just that.
North by Northwest The Leopard Chinatown The 400 Blows The Apartment The Shining The Sound of Music Amarcord Kind Hearts and Coronets There Will Be Blood
North by Northwest The Italian Job Avanti! Charade Back to the Future Gregory's Girl To Catch a Thief Bullitt Dirty Harry The Titfield Thunderbolt
Not necessarily in that order.
For me in akind of order but not exact
Blade Runner Casablanca Local Hero Some Like it Hot Master and Commander The Maltese Falcon Grand Budapest Hotel Dark Star Bullitt Kelly's Heroes
My guilty pleasure is The Great Race - Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis are just perfect.
North by Northwest The Leopard Chinatown The 400 Blows The Apartment The Shining The Sound of Music Amarcord Kind Hearts and Coronets There Will Be Blood
North by Northwest The Italian Job Avanti! Charade Back to the Future Gregory's Girl To Catch a Thief Bullitt Dirty Harry The Titfield Thunderbolt
Not necessarily in that order.
Italian Job is almost entirely excellent. Marred by that awful "self preservation societee" song at the end. Get Carter and Long Good Friday excellent. Lock Stock marred by the fact that vintage shotguns, esp hammer guns, just aren't worth that much. £10 000 at auction for that pair if you are lucky, even if they are Purdeys. This would be a needlessly pedantic point except that the whole film and the title are based on it.
There was a very odd post this morning about the Sun “popping champagne”.
But they’ve fucked this up, haven’t they?
One does hope so.
I can't bear the smug Edwards, but the Sun's vile sting operation has been truly evil.
I cannot help but feel that if these revelations were coming out about Andrew Neil, or Jacob Rees Mogg, or the Duke of York, the PB-ers currently clutching their pearls about 'mental health', 'vile sting operation' etc. would be singing a somewhat different tune.
Well I wouldn't. I would say exactly the same thing if this were Sadiq Khan, Nicola Sturgeon or James O'Brien, all of whom I fucking detest.
No one who has not committed a crime deserves to have their private lives turned upside down like this just to sell a few newspapers or launch a thinly veiled ideological attack on the state broadcasting service. And again I say that as someone who would gladly see the BBC privatised.
This has been a despicable act by the Sun and by all those other commentators who jumped on the band wagon. It shows our media and our country at its very worst and is something to be ashamed of.
You should perhaps consider the ramifications of what you're saying - do you want a country where the media (and by extension people speaking on social media) are forbidden to speak about the private lives of the powerful? That strikes me as wholly illiberal. I am sorry that this has been a bad time for Edwards and his family - it sucks. But worse things happen at sea, and a free press is more important to me.
White Men Can't Jump Goodfellas Withnail And I The Blues Brothers Pulp Fiction The Commitments Dazed And Confused
I think these are my favourite seven movies
I know there are better made films with much better acting, but those are the ones I have enjoyed again and again as an adult
Oh, and all the Monty Python films
My favourites mostly seem to be romcoms, but there it is:
Four Weddings and a Funeral Amelie Shakespeare in Love Pride & Prejudice (2005) Master and Commander Gravity Airplane
Casablanca It's a Wonderful Life The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Toy Story 3 Titanic Frozen Manon des Sources.
Casablanca is a stone cold classic which doesn’t pall however many times you watch it.
Titanic leaves me cold. Frozen has a nice soundtrack.
I don’t understand the appeal of Goodfellas (or indeed any of those interminable mafia movies where Joe Pesci seems to be playing the same role he did in the last one, or the one before that).
I adore Titanic. I think it's one of the few modern films that feels like a movie from the golden age of Hollywood, with charismatic stars, glamour and adventure. It is a romantic film, an adventure, a historical movie, a disaster movie, a summer blockbuster, all rolled into one. The two leads are brilliant actors with a genuine chemistry. The special effects are incredible and haven't dated. Even the really corny bits that should be terrible somehow work - that last scene where they are reunited in a kind of Titanic heaven should be completely absurd but leaves me a blubbering wreck every time. Frozen is more than the brilliant soundtrack - I find the relationship between the sisters very affecting. Perhaps because I have an older sibling who was a bit troubled and had a difficult childhood and adolescence, it has a lot of resonance for me. It feels emotionally real, which is very hard to get right in art. And it's gorgeous to look at. And it has one of the best songs ever written.
I may be unfair to Frozen, since it came out after my kids were grown up. But aside from the central sibling relationship, the rest of it seems a bit boilerplate to me, animation included.
And I 'm afraid there's a whole string of funny in theory, don't work in practice comedies: Blues Brothers, Withnail, Spinal Tap. All in the "I laughed until I stopped" category for me. How funny, really, is "11 on a scale of 1 to 10"?
Why is there a dispute over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas film?
To ask the question, is to make a category error, because who said there is such a thing as a Christmas film anyway? It's not like there are Easter or Ramadan or Diwali films.
Why is there a dispute over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas film?
It gives people something inconsequential to argue about passionately.
For me it doesn't really count (a movie merely being set at a specific time of year I don't think counts), for others it does, and however much people argue it doesn't really matter.
Why is there a dispute over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas film?
To ask the question, is to make a category error, because who said there is such a thing as a Christmas film anyway? It's not like there are Easter or Ramadan or Diwali films.
And I 'm afraid there's a whole string of funny in theory, don't work in practice comedies: Blues Brothers, Withnail, Spinal Tap. All in the "I laughed until I stopped" category for me. How funny, really, is "11 on a scale of 1 to 10"?
Try Top Secret. More sketches-made-into-a-film than film, but the laughs don't stop.
Why is there a dispute over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas film?
To ask the question, is to make a category error, because who said there is such a thing as a Christmas film anyway? It's not like there are Easter or Ramadan or Diwali films.
Miracle on 34th Street is a Christmas film, although I've only seen bits of it myself.
There was a very odd post this morning about the Sun “popping champagne”.
But they’ve fucked this up, haven’t they?
One does hope so.
I can't bear the smug Edwards, but the Sun's vile sting operation has been truly evil.
I cannot help but feel that if these revelations were coming out about Andrew Neil, or Jacob Rees Mogg, or the Duke of York, the PB-ers currently clutching their pearls about 'mental health', 'vile sting operation' etc. would be singing a somewhat different tune.
Well I wouldn't. I would say exactly the same thing if this were Sadiq Khan, Nicola Sturgeon or James O'Brien, all of whom I fucking detest.
No one who has not committed a crime deserves to have their private lives turned upside down like this just to sell a few newspapers or launch a thinly veiled ideological attack on the state broadcasting service. And again I say that as someone who would gladly see the BBC privatised.
This has been a despicable act by the Sun and by all those other commentators who jumped on the band wagon. It shows our media and our country at its very worst and is something to be ashamed of.
You should perhaps consider the ramifications of what you're saying - do you want a country where the media (and by extension people speaking on social media) are forbidden to speak about the private lives of the powerful? That strikes me as wholly illiberal. I am sorry that this has been a bad time for Edwards and his family - it sucks. But worse things happen at sea, and a free press is more important to me.
Rather sadly, that is the one we have. British libel laws are built to fit the rich. Whilst comprehensible - they do have a lot to lose - it does lead to asymmetry. I prefer the American model where the bar is a lot higher for speech suppression. Its more unpleasant but it is free.
Unethical behaviour is not necessarily the same thing as illegal behaviour. I've been talking this over with my wife, who is an HR professional.
Paying a drug addict, who is aged over 18, to provide sexually explict photos, on the part of somebody like a senior local government officer, would be considered an act of gross misconduct. The officer would be suspended, and in all likelihood be dismissed. He might well lose pension rights. He would not be getting away with the argument that "a good chap has the right to a private life." And, if some local rag reported the issue, attempts to blame the local rag would fall flat.
Whether one hates The Sun or not, is immaterial. There is a public interest in reporting this story.
Presumably "drug addict" is doing the work there, rather than making anyone who pays for OnlyFans eligible for loss of pension?
It's the issue of bringing your employer into disrepute, if you're senior enough.
About a decade ago, there was a guy who was Assistant Director of Housing at Hammersmith & Fulham. He had a Nazi fetish, and he liked posting pictures of himself online having sex with other Nazi fetishists. One of the tabloids reported the story to general mirth, but there was no question of the man keeping his job.
Why? Given some of your posts, I’ve long suspected you of quite odd sexual fetishises, but I’d never dream that it ought to cost you your job.
Fortunately, I'm self-employed. If I were a partner in a magic circle law firm, who did what is alleged here, I probably would be on my way out.
Because partners are not employees with rights under law.
Too many of your examples are irrelevant to the assertion that OnlyFans is grounds for summary dismissal. And, no, I wouldn't necessarily trust HR to know the law, especially when it protects the employee.
As a point of fact, is there any evidence this took place on OnlyFans?
I'm inquiring specifically about Sean_F's bare-bones scenario where gross misconduct includes paying for porn in one's own time, to a person who turns out to be an addict. No, I don't know much at all about the details of the current controversy.
You can make the argument that the law goes too far in allowing employers to dismiss people for actions outside of the workplace that they say will bring them into disrepute.
However, it is the case that employment law allows them considerable latitude to do so.
I know a very good and capable 35-year old guy, who had a good career in project management of complex systems integration in the rail industry totally destroyed - forever - because he took cocaine at a party with some friends on a Sunday night, and was randomly drugs tested at 9.30am the next morning (it happens to a random pool once a year) and he got unlucky and it was still in his system.
It's not my cup of tea but I thought that was a bit harsh. The problem with zero tolerance is that it really is zero tolerance.
For sure, that is harsh to my mind. But the intersection of lawbreaking outside the workplace, plus potential intoxication while working, gives them a starting point under law.
Unless it impacts your work and yes still being under the influence when you start would cover that. Then no company should have any say over your life outside work. They should be told by the courts to fuck off and none of their business
There was a very odd post this morning about the Sun “popping champagne”.
But they’ve fucked this up, haven’t they?
One does hope so.
I can't bear the smug Edwards, but the Sun's vile sting operation has been truly evil.
I cannot help but feel that if these revelations were coming out about Andrew Neil, or Jacob Rees Mogg, or the Duke of York, the PB-ers currently clutching their pearls about 'mental health', 'vile sting operation' etc. would be singing a somewhat different tune.
Well I wouldn't. I would say exactly the same thing if this were Sadiq Khan, Nicola Sturgeon or James O'Brien, all of whom I fucking detest.
No one who has not committed a crime deserves to have their private lives turned upside down like this just to sell a few newspapers or launch a thinly veiled ideological attack on the state broadcasting service. And again I say that as someone who would gladly see the BBC privatised.
This has been a despicable act by the Sun and by all those other commentators who jumped on the band wagon. It shows our media and our country at its very worst and is something to be ashamed of.
You should perhaps consider the ramifications of what you're saying - do you want a country where the media (and by extension people speaking on social media) are forbidden to speak about the private lives of the powerful? That strikes me as wholly illiberal. I am sorry that this has been a bad time for Edwards and his family - it sucks. But worse things happen at sea, and a free press is more important to me.
But Edwards is NOT powerful. He's a newsreader. He's well-known, which is something quite different. The press should be absolutely free to uncover misuse of power, and powerful hypocrites should also be exposed. But Edwards has no influence over the news rhat he reads, he doesn't even cross-examine people or express his personal views on Twitter. We should have newsreaders who calmly tell us what's happening without evident bias, and in return we shouldn't express a prurient interest in their private lives.
North by Northwest The Leopard Chinatown The 400 Blows The Apartment The Shining The Sound of Music Amarcord Kind Hearts and Coronets There Will Be Blood
North by Northwest The Italian Job Avanti! Charade Back to the Future Gregory's Girl To Catch a Thief Bullitt Dirty Harry The Titfield Thunderbolt
Not necessarily in that order.
For me in akind of order but not exact
Blade Runner Casablanca Local Hero Some Like it Hot Master and Commander The Maltese Falcon Grand Budapest Hotel Dark Star Bullitt Kelly's Heroes
My guilty pleasure is The Great Race - Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis are just perfect.
I was debating Local Hero or Gregory's Girl. Bill Forsyth is vastly underestimated.
North by Northwest The Leopard Chinatown The 400 Blows The Apartment The Shining The Sound of Music Amarcord Kind Hearts and Coronets There Will Be Blood
North by Northwest The Italian Job Avanti! Charade Back to the Future Gregory's Girl To Catch a Thief Bullitt Dirty Harry The Titfield Thunderbolt
Not necessarily in that order.
Italian Job is almost entirely excellent. Marred by that awful "self preservation societee" song at the end. Get Carter and Long Good Friday excellent. Lock Stock marred by the fact that vintage shotguns, esp hammer guns, just aren't worth that much. £10 000 at auction for that pair if you are lucky, even if they are Purdeys. This would be a needlessly pedantic point except that the whole film and the title are based on it.
All good selections. Get Carter would probably be in my Top 12. I love the Quincy Jones Soundtrack for the Italian Job, including "Get a bloomin' move on".
@Anabobazina In the Heat of the Night is a great selection, Steiger is superb!
There was a very odd post this morning about the Sun “popping champagne”.
But they’ve fucked this up, haven’t they?
One does hope so.
I can't bear the smug Edwards, but the Sun's vile sting operation has been truly evil.
I cannot help but feel that if these revelations were coming out about Andrew Neil, or Jacob Rees Mogg, or the Duke of York, the PB-ers currently clutching their pearls about 'mental health', 'vile sting operation' etc. would be singing a somewhat different tune.
Well I wouldn't. I would say exactly the same thing if this were Sadiq Khan, Nicola Sturgeon or James O'Brien, all of whom I fucking detest.
No one who has not committed a crime deserves to have their private lives turned upside down like this just to sell a few newspapers or launch a thinly veiled ideological attack on the state broadcasting service. And again I say that as someone who would gladly see the BBC privatised.
This has been a despicable act by the Sun and by all those other commentators who jumped on the band wagon. It shows our media and our country at its very worst and is something to be ashamed of.
You should perhaps consider the ramifications of what you're saying - do you want a country where the media (and by extension people speaking on social media) are forbidden to speak about the private lives of the powerful? That strikes me as wholly illiberal. I am sorry that this has been a bad time for Edwards and his family - it sucks. But worse things happen at sea, and a free press is more important to me.
That is by no means the ramification as you claim. The Sun and its fellow travellers set out to paint a picture of somone who had committed criminal sexual offences. They lied by exaggeration and ommission and knew EXACTLY what they were doing as they knew the basic story would not have enough legs. They could have checked the details but they either didn't bother or they decided to ignore the bits that reduced the impact of the story.
There can be no defence for this and I hope they get taken to the cleaners.
Why is there a dispute over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas film?
It gives people something inconsequential to argue about passionately.
For me it doesn't really count (a movie merely being set at a specific time of year I don't think counts), for others it does, and however much people argue it doesn't really matter.
I haven't seen the film, so I'm genuinely interested to know the technicalities of how there can be an argument like this. You'd have thought it would be pretty obvious whether or not a film has a Christmas theme. Maybe I should just finally watch it and see for myself.
And I 'm afraid there's a whole string of funny in theory, don't work in practice comedies: Blues Brothers, Withnail, Spinal Tap. All in the "I laughed until I stopped" category for me. How funny, really, is "11 on a scale of 1 to 10"?
There was a very odd post this morning about the Sun “popping champagne”.
But they’ve fucked this up, haven’t they?
One does hope so.
I can't bear the smug Edwards, but the Sun's vile sting operation has been truly evil.
I cannot help but feel that if these revelations were coming out about Andrew Neil, or Jacob Rees Mogg, or the Duke of York, the PB-ers currently clutching their pearls about 'mental health', 'vile sting operation' etc. would be singing a somewhat different tune.
Well I wouldn't. I would say exactly the same thing if this were Sadiq Khan, Nicola Sturgeon or James O'Brien, all of whom I fucking detest.
No one who has not committed a crime deserves to have their private lives turned upside down like this just to sell a few newspapers or launch a thinly veiled ideological attack on the state broadcasting service. And again I say that as someone who would gladly see the BBC privatised.
This has been a despicable act by the Sun and by all those other commentators who jumped on the band wagon. It shows our media and our country at its very worst and is something to be ashamed of.
You should perhaps consider the ramifications of what you're saying - do you want a country where the media (and by extension people speaking on social media) are forbidden to speak about the private lives of the powerful? That strikes me as wholly illiberal. I am sorry that this has been a bad time for Edwards and his family - it sucks. But worse things happen at sea, and a free press is more important to me.
But Edwards is NOT powerful. He's a newsreader. He's well-known, which is something quite different. The press should be absolutely free to uncover misuse of power, and powerful hypocrites should also be exposed. But Edwards has no influence over the news rhat he reads, he doesn't even cross-examine people or express his personal views on Twitter. We should have newsreaders who calmly tell us what's happening without evident bias, and in return we shouldn't express a prurient interest in their private lives.
If he is just a talking head spewing out news, what justifies his extraordinarily high pay?
And if someone his age is consistently pestering teenagers I am not going to lose sleep over press inquiries into the matter
North by Northwest The Leopard Chinatown The 400 Blows The Apartment The Shining The Sound of Music Amarcord Kind Hearts and Coronets There Will Be Blood
North by Northwest The Italian Job Avanti! Charade Back to the Future Gregory's Girl To Catch a Thief Bullitt Dirty Harry The Titfield Thunderbolt
Not necessarily in that order.
For me in akind of order but not exact
Blade Runner Casablanca Local Hero Some Like it Hot Master and Commander The Maltese Falcon Grand Budapest Hotel Dark Star Bullitt Kelly's Heroes
My guilty pleasure is The Great Race - Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis are just perfect.
I was debating Local Hero or Gregory's Girl. Bill Forsyth is vastly underestimated.
North by Northwest The Leopard Chinatown The 400 Blows The Apartment The Shining The Sound of Music Amarcord Kind Hearts and Coronets There Will Be Blood
North by Northwest The Italian Job Avanti! Charade Back to the Future Gregory's Girl To Catch a Thief Bullitt Dirty Harry The Titfield Thunderbolt
Not necessarily in that order.
Italian Job is almost entirely excellent. Marred by that awful "self preservation societee" song at the end. Get Carter and Long Good Friday excellent. Lock Stock marred by the fact that vintage shotguns, esp hammer guns, just aren't worth that much. £10 000 at auction for that pair if you are lucky, even if they are Purdeys. This would be a needlessly pedantic point except that the whole film and the title are based on it.
All good selections. Get Carter would probably be in my Top 12. I love the Quincy Jones Soundtrack for the Italian Job, including "Get a bloomin' move on".
@Anabobazina In the Heat of the Night is a great selection, Steiger is superb!
I learned today that he turned down the role in Patton to play Napoleon. It messed his career up but I love his performance in Waterloo. I don't care that he looks nothing like him.
Why is there a dispute over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas film?
To ask the question, is to make a category error, because who said there is such a thing as a Christmas film anyway? It's not like there are Easter or Ramadan or Diwali films.
No-one for Kurosawa, e.g. Kagemusha, Yojimbo, etc.?
Pather Panchali?
Or Walkabout or Ten Canoes?
One only watches Walkabout for the bush.
Talking of which Jenny Agutter...
No, we got it without you having to explain...
I thought I'd add a little topicality on account of today's news. I believe I have used the same gag recently on PB too. Although one can never have enough of Jenny Agutter or the Bush.
Another three coins in the fountain might be anything with Leslie Phillips, Terry-Thomas or strictly 1950s Peter Sellers.
There was a very odd post this morning about the Sun “popping champagne”.
But they’ve fucked this up, haven’t they?
One does hope so.
I can't bear the smug Edwards, but the Sun's vile sting operation has been truly evil.
I cannot help but feel that if these revelations were coming out about Andrew Neil, or Jacob Rees Mogg, or the Duke of York, the PB-ers currently clutching their pearls about 'mental health', 'vile sting operation' etc. would be singing a somewhat different tune.
Well I wouldn't. I would say exactly the same thing if this were Sadiq Khan, Nicola Sturgeon or James O'Brien, all of whom I fucking detest.
No one who has not committed a crime deserves to have their private lives turned upside down like this just to sell a few newspapers or launch a thinly veiled ideological attack on the state broadcasting service. And again I say that as someone who would gladly see the BBC privatised.
This has been a despicable act by the Sun and by all those other commentators who jumped on the band wagon. It shows our media and our country at its very worst and is something to be ashamed of.
You should perhaps consider the ramifications of what you're saying - do you want a country where the media (and by extension people speaking on social media) are forbidden to speak about the private lives of the powerful? That strikes me as wholly illiberal. I am sorry that this has been a bad time for Edwards and his family - it sucks. But worse things happen at sea, and a free press is more important to me.
But Edwards is NOT powerful. He's a newsreader. He's well-known, which is something quite different. The press should be absolutely free to uncover misuse of power, and powerful hypocrites should also be exposed. But Edwards has no influence over the news rhat he reads, he doesn't even cross-examine people or express his personal views on Twitter. We should have newsreaders who calmly tell us what's happening without evident bias, and in return we shouldn't express a prurient interest in their private lives.
I don't think that quite hits it though. As I said before we the public should not have a prurient interest exactly, but it seems pretty well accepted that news readers through their gravitas and inherent credibility have an influence on the public when it comes to how people receive, interpret and imbibe their news content. I don't want corporations policing the morals of employees outside work as much as the next man, but whether we think he is powerful or not, he is a public figure. I don't watch TV news, I get pretty much all of it online in written form, but even I could name a handful of newsreaders, and many of them are absolutely household names. If that person was engaging in behaviour which would be a massive distraction once known (however it become known), would the corporation still want to employ them as in effect the face of their news branding?
If your premise that he is essentially just reading from a script and thus not powerful were true (as it is indeed the basic function of the job) then they wouldn't need to pay people like Edwards many hundreds of thousands of pounds to do it. However good they are at it, I think we can guarantee someone else can look credible and speak clearly into a camera for half the price. We know that because most don't earn as much as him even among the big names.
It may be The Sun should never have broken this story, as it may be simply a private matter. But there will be lines to these things. And even if they shouldn't have, the subject was a public figure. That doesn't mean they are fair game for any media shenanigans, we've seen how that goes very wrong, but it does mean it's not the same as a random person.
The problem with Cabaret and A Taste of Honey or Sweet Charity is that the sexuality depicted is no longer shocking.
On the other hand, the sexuality of Last Tango in Paris, Christiana F or The Rocky Horror Picture Show, tells a lot about what went wrong with attitudes to sex in the 1970's.
As, in a different way, did all those Confessions of a Door to Door Cucumber Salesman type movies.
The musical numbers in Cabaret work, and do a lot of driving the story forward. But the bits in-between much less so. What musicals managed to avoid that- start big and just keep going even in the words between the songs? There must be something before Moulin Rouge, but it's the first one I can think of.
The Lerner and Loewe musicals combine strong plots with good songs - most people like My Fair Lady, which combines a plot with some social commentary (from Shaw's Pgymalion, of course), but in some ways I like Camelot more, for its depiction of the tragic failure of honourable intentions (the songs are less memorable, though) - I admire the way they don't finish up with a climactic battle, but just a messenger of hope for better times. I liked Gigi too, even though its theme of a teenage girl being trained to be a courtesan is treated too lightly for modern eyes, even though she fights it off in the end. They all have much stronger plots than the Rodgers and Hammerstein shows which preceded them.
Why is there a dispute over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas film?
It gives people something inconsequential to argue about passionately.
For me it doesn't really count (a movie merely being set at a specific time of year I don't think counts), for others it does, and however much people argue it doesn't really matter.
I haven't seen the film, so I'm genuinely interested to know the technicalities of how there can be an argument like this. You'd have thought it would be pretty obvious whether or not a film has a Christmas theme. Maybe I should just finally watch it and see for myself.
For me it's a decent action film which happens to be set at Christmas, and people for fun go to great lengths to interpret minute details as being part of a Christmas 'theme', but that you could have set it at any time of year and any kind of office party and it would be fundamentally the same film.
But of course how does one define what constitutes a Christmas theme in the first place? So if people want to think it does it's no less true than my view. And that it has become a tradition to see it as one kind of makes it one anyway.
No-one for Kurosawa, e.g. Kagemusha, Yojimbo, etc.?
Pather Panchali?
Or Walkabout or Ten Canoes?
One only watches Walkabout for the bush.
Talking of which Jenny Agutter...
No, we got it without you having to explain...
I thought I'd add a little topicality on account of today's news. I believe I have used the same gag recently on PB too. Although one can never have enough of Jenny Agutter or the Bush.
Another three coins in the fountain might be anything with Leslie Phillips, Terry-Thomas or strictly 1950s Peter Sellers.
...or Alec Guinness or Alastair Sim.
Two Way Stretch, I'm Alright Jack and Heavens Above are just brilliant films.
No-one for Kurosawa, e.g. Kagemusha, Yojimbo, etc.?
Pather Panchali?
Or Walkabout or Ten Canoes?
One only watches Walkabout for the bush.
Talking of which Jenny Agutter...
No, we got it without you having to explain...
I thought I'd add a little topicality on account of today's news. I believe I have used the same gag recently on PB too. Although one can never have enough of Jenny Agutter or the Bush.
Another three coins in the fountain might be anything with Leslie Phillips, Terry-Thomas or strictly 1950s Peter Sellers.
...or Alec Guinness or Alastair Sim.
Two Way Stretch, I'm Alright Jack and Heavens Above are just brilliant films.
Boulting Brothers and Ealing Comedies are largely overlooked these days. They work as well today vas they did in the 1950s.
I thought that Liz Truss's new 'Growth Commission' was just a pretentious sounding think tank (albeit with a cause I applaud), but it seems it's actually a rival forecasting tool/organisation to the OBR, like an 'independent sage' - which is much more interesting and necessary. Could result in very interesting debates if its forecasts prove more accurate than the OBR's. Frankly they'll struggle to be less accurate...
No-one for Kurosawa, e.g. Kagemusha, Yojimbo, etc.?
Pather Panchali?
Or Walkabout or Ten Canoes?
One only watches Walkabout for the bush.
Talking of which Jenny Agutter...
No, we got it without you having to explain...
...or Alec Guinness....
We left out David Lean...
I thought about adding Oliver Twist as my favourite, but I ran out of space for that. Someone mentioned Brief Encounter, which is not actually my favourite.
Laurence of Arabia, Dr Zhivago, and The Bridge Over the River Kwai : there’s an entire dream of the 20th century in there.
No-one for Kurosawa, e.g. Kagemusha, Yojimbo, etc.?
Pather Panchali?
Or Walkabout or Ten Canoes?
One only watches Walkabout for the bush.
Talking of which Jenny Agutter...
No, we got it without you having to explain...
I thought I'd add a little topicality on account of today's news. I believe I have used the same gag recently on PB too. Although one can never have enough of Jenny Agutter or the Bush.
Another three coins in the fountain might be anything with Leslie Phillips, Terry-Thomas or strictly 1950s Peter Sellers.
...or Alec Guinness or Alastair Sim.
Two Way Stretch, I'm Alright Jack and Heavens Above are just brilliant films.
Boulting Brothers and Ealing Comedies are largely overlooked these days. They work as well today vas they did in the 1950s.
I’m Alright Jack is a classic. Much better than its synopsis suggests. I obviously need to check out the others.
The problem with Cabaret and A Taste of Honey or Sweet Charity is that the sexuality depicted is no longer shocking.
On the other hand, the sexuality of Last Tango in Paris, Christiana F or The Rocky Horror Picture Show, tells a lot about what went wrong with attitudes to sex in the 1970's.
As, in a different way, did all those Confessions of a Door to Door Cucumber Salesman type movies.
The musical numbers in Cabaret work, and do a lot of driving the story forward. But the bits in-between much less so. What musicals managed to avoid that- start big and just keep going even in the words between the songs? There must be something before Moulin Rouge, but it's the first one I can think of.
The Lerner and Loewe musicals combine strong plots with good songs - most people like My Fair Lady, which combines a plot with some social commentary (from Shaw's Pgymalion, of course), but in some ways I like Camelot more, for its depiction of the tragic failure of honourable intentions (the songs are less memorable, though) - I admire the way they don't finish up with a climactic battle, but just a messenger of hope for better times. I liked Gigi too, even though its theme of a teenage girl being trained to be a courtesan is treated too lightly for modern eyes, even though she fights it off in the end. They all have much stronger plots than the Rodgers and Hammerstein shows which preceded them.
The costume design in My Fair Lady was never bettered.
About two dozen Hitchcock movies have made an impact on me upon watching. Sometimes I will still think suddenly about, say, that scene with Doris Day near the end of The Man Who Knew Too Much, or the two fellows chatting at the start of Strangers on a Train. The only problem is that the thrill the first time was really visceral and you know you are only recreating it in part as an intellectual thrill.
I was quite impressed by Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot (from 1976). Very silly but enjoyable nonetheless.
One of my favorites among political movies is "Duck Soup". (I suspect I would give a nod to Chaplin's "The Great Dictator", too, if I had seen it within the last 40 years.)
Only the most acclaimed film of all time by film makers and film critics, see umpteen Sight and Sound polls passim.
EPG put it wonderfully when he talks about the sheer visceral thrill delivered by Hitchcock films; no better than Vertigo.
My personal favourite is NbNW, but only because it’s so frolicsome and I can watch it in any mood. But Vertigo is the ne plus ultra.
Though I remember that people were a little surprised by Vertigo's topping Sight and Sound. There had been a decade or two of coordination by the participants around one movie to finally replace Welles. Hitchcock having proved the strongest candidate his other films began to drop down the list, and it seems that this process finally worked rather than being about the merits of Vertigo as such. Same way none of the 2022 participants would really die on the hill labelled "Jeanne Dielman is the greatest film of all time". It's just about coordinating on a signal.
I suppose it worked because at the level of Sight & Sound participants, Vertigo is read as a metaphor about filmmaking, like Rear Window, but it's more about Hitchcock's own approach and method, like Spellbound, but unlike Spellbound it's a half-decent movie.
I'd go with North by Northwest as the best first time. But after a half-dozen viewings each, I now find Rear Window retains more repeat interest, because I find the mise-en-scene and plot are tighter. I'm also starting to appreciate the more matter-of-fact, less dreamlike approach of his more televisual movies, namely, Strangers on a Train and Psycho.
The most interesting film experience I've ever had was when the Exorcist was re-released about 20 years ago. The cinema (in a city centre on a Friday or Saturday night IIRC) was full of people in their late teens / early 20s (including me incidentally), and at the start most of them were larking around, making lots of noise, chatting to each other, etc. They'd obviously gone to see it because it had a certain reputation, but didn't really believe a film from the early 1970s could have that much of an effect on them. The opposite proved to be the case. The film totally silenced them. Never witnessed anything like it before or since.
What's interesting about Die Hard is millennials and Gen X consider it to be a Christmas movie whilst those older and younger don't according to that polling
There was a very odd post this morning about the Sun “popping champagne”.
But they’ve fucked this up, haven’t they?
One does hope so.
I can't bear the smug Edwards, but the Sun's vile sting operation has been truly evil.
I cannot help but feel that if these revelations were coming out about Andrew Neil, or Jacob Rees Mogg, or the Duke of York, the PB-ers currently clutching their pearls about 'mental health', 'vile sting operation' etc. would be singing a somewhat different tune.
Well I wouldn't. I would say exactly the same thing if this were Sadiq Khan, Nicola Sturgeon or James O'Brien, all of whom I fucking detest.
No one who has not committed a crime deserves to have their private lives turned upside down like this just to sell a few newspapers or launch a thinly veiled ideological attack on the state broadcasting service. And again I say that as someone who would gladly see the BBC privatised.
This has been a despicable act by the Sun and by all those other commentators who jumped on the band wagon. It shows our media and our country at its very worst and is something to be ashamed of.
You should perhaps consider the ramifications of what you're saying - do you want a country where the media (and by extension people speaking on social media) are forbidden to speak about the private lives of the powerful? That strikes me as wholly illiberal. I am sorry that this has been a bad time for Edwards and his family - it sucks. But worse things happen at sea, and a free press is more important to me.
Huw Edwards is well paid but not all that powerful. Of the individuals listed by Richard only O'Brien is in the same ballpark. Sturgeon's power has passed but she was undoubtedly so in a way Edwards wasn't. Edwards is/was an establishment mouthpiece. An establishment of which Randy Andy and JRM are undoubtedly part.
The Man Who Would Be King The Lion In Winter Excalibur. Yes it's terrible. But it's also very good.
An American Werewolf in London of course combines Brian Glover, a young Rik Mayall, a werewolf and (again) a disrobed Jenny Agutter (as a nurse) no less! What's not to like?
Hitchcock's "Notorious", from his Selznick period, would be the best movie by most other directors instead of, what, the sixth- to tenth-best by Hitchcock. It's tight, romantic, has a nice plot, and reunites Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains from that other movie you probably know, albeit with Cary Grant instead of Humphrey Bogart. Grant is also excellent in "Suspicion" a few years before. I'm less moved by "To Catch A Thief" which puts him at three good turns as leading man to Stewart's four.
The problem with Cabaret and A Taste of Honey or Sweet Charity is that the sexuality depicted is no longer shocking.
On the other hand, the sexuality of Last Tango in Paris, Christiana F or The Rocky Horror Picture Show, tells a lot about what went wrong with attitudes to sex in the 1970's.
As, in a different way, did all those Confessions of a Door to Door Cucumber Salesman type movies.
The musical numbers in Cabaret work, and do a lot of driving the story forward. But the bits in-between much less so. What musicals managed to avoid that- start big and just keep going even in the words between the songs? There must be something before Moulin Rouge, but it's the first one I can think of.
The Lerner and Loewe musicals combine strong plots with good songs - most people like My Fair Lady, which combines a plot with some social commentary (from Shaw's Pgymalion, of course), but in some ways I like Camelot more, for its depiction of the tragic failure of honourable intentions (the songs are less memorable, though) - I admire the way they don't finish up with a climactic battle, but just a messenger of hope for better times. I liked Gigi too, even though its theme of a teenage girl being trained to be a courtesan is treated too lightly for modern eyes, even though she fights it off in the end. They all have much stronger plots than the Rodgers and Hammerstein shows which preceded them.
One of my favorites among political movies is "Duck Soup". (I suspect I would give a nod to Chaplin's "The Great Dictator", too, if I had seen it within the last 40 years.)
I spent years mocking Chaplin, and then I saw "The Great Dictator". It was good.
Political films? How about The Ruling Class (1972), featuring Peter O'Toole and Alastair Sim? It was the British entry at Cannes. Beautiful film. The butler character played by Arthur Lowe was somewhat strangely written, though.
Then there was the 1969 British entry, If.... (1968). The British ambassador went to Cannes, demanding that it be withdrawn. It insults the country and makes it look ridiculous, he fulminated to Lindsay Anderson. Anderson told him a country with a culture that was so ridiculous deserved to have it insulted. The film stayed in, and it won the Prix d'Or.
Here we now are, half a century later, and the f***ing private boarding schools, House of Lords, and monarchy are all still with us. Big difference is there's hardly any opposition now.
The most interesting film experience I've ever had was when the Exorcist was re-released about 20 years ago. The cinema (in a city centre on a Friday or Saturday night IIRC) was full of people in their late teens / early 20s (including me incidentally), and at the start most of them were larking around, making lots of noise, chatting to each other, etc. They'd obviously gone to see it because it had a certain reputation, but didn't really believe a film from the early 1970s could have that much of an effect on them. The opposite proved to be the case. The film totally silenced them. Never witnessed anything like it before or since.
It is an extraordinary cinematic masterpiece
Greatest film ever is hard to say, how can you compare Exorcist to Withnail to Apocalypse Now to Raging Bull to Andrei Rublev?
But it’s definitely in my top ten for being so damn scary. Along with THREADS, of course
One of my favorites among political movies is "Duck Soup". (I suspect I would give a nod to Chaplin's "The Great Dictator", too, if I had seen it within the last 40 years.)
I spent years mocking Chaplin, and then I saw "The Great Dictator". It was good.
C'mon, Modern Times is good as well. Probably 40 years since I saw The Great Dictator too. Didn't think it was much good then. Might like it now, though.
Comments
Michael Mann! Thief! Last of the Mohicans! Heat! Manhunter! Collateral! Yes, it is his briefcase...
Also, obviously, political.
I'm glad you enjoy it and that it means something to you.
Miracle on 34th street - considered one of the top 5 greatest Christmas films - was released on June 11th 1947.
And Holiday Inn - the original 'White Christmas' film - was released on August 4th 1942
The Italian Job
Avanti!
Charade
Back to the Future
Gregory's Girl
To Catch a Thief
Bullitt
Dirty Harry
The Titfield Thunderbolt
Not necessarily in that order.
I think the power of Let it Go lies in its emotional content as much as the music. It captures a huge sense of emotional release (some see it as an alegory for coming out - the idea that someone finally stops trying to shape themselves to fit society's expectations and simply revels in being themselves). But musically it has a nice arc that matches well the content, with three versions of the chorus that go from tentative, to decisive, to triumphant. The bridge is very good for building the emotional charge towards the payoff of the final chorus. The Broadway/West End version of the song is even better IMHO - it's the end of the first act and so has a proper big finish (accompanied by a spectacular costume change). I'm probably a bit of an outlier on this forum in terms of my love of musical theatre...
I ask again, has Johnson handed over his phone yet? We are now 15 minutes shy of three days late.
I'll stop being an old curmudgeon on Frozen, but I really think the hype on the Let it go song is just that.
Blade Runner
Casablanca
Local Hero
Some Like it Hot
Master and Commander
The Maltese Falcon
Grand Budapest Hotel
Dark Star
Bullitt
Kelly's Heroes
My guilty pleasure is The Great Race - Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis are just perfect.
Doesn't Maureen O'Hara play Betsy?
A different World!
For me it doesn't really count (a movie merely being set at a specific time of year I don't think counts), for others it does, and however much people argue it doesn't really matter.
@Anabobazina In the Heat of the Night is a great selection, Steiger is superb!
There can be no defence for this and I hope they get taken to the cleaners.
And if someone his age is consistently pestering teenagers I am not going to lose sleep over press inquiries into the matter
(And yes, Bill Forsyth is underrated)
Another three coins in the fountain might be anything with Leslie Phillips, Terry-Thomas or strictly 1950s Peter Sellers.
...or Alec Guinness or Alastair Sim.
If your premise that he is essentially just reading from a script and thus not powerful were true (as it is indeed the basic function of the job) then they wouldn't need to pay people like Edwards many hundreds of thousands of pounds to do it. However good they are at it, I think we can guarantee someone else can look credible and speak clearly into a camera for half the price. We know that because most don't earn as much as him even among the big names.
It may be The Sun should never have broken this story, as it may be simply a private matter. But there will be lines to these things. And even if they shouldn't have, the subject was a public figure. That doesn't mean they are fair game for any media shenanigans, we've seen how that goes very wrong, but it does mean it's not the same as a random person.
I'll come in with
Dr Strangelove
Ferris Bueller's day off
& The Terminator
But of course how does one define what constitutes a Christmas theme in the first place? So if people want to think it does it's no less true than my view. And that it has become a tradition to see it as one kind of makes it one anyway.
Only the most acclaimed film of all time by film makers and film critics, see umpteen Sight and Sound polls passim.
EPG put it wonderfully when he talks about the sheer visceral thrill delivered by Hitchcock films; no better than Vertigo.
My personal favourite is NbNW, but only because it’s so frolicsome and I can watch it in any mood. But Vertigo is the ne plus ultra.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/liz-truss-resurrects-her-pro-growth-agenda/
Laurence of Arabia, Dr Zhivago, and The Bridge Over the River Kwai : there’s an entire dream of the 20th century in there.
THE EXORCIST
The greatest movie ever made
I suppose it worked because at the level of Sight & Sound participants, Vertigo is read as a metaphor about filmmaking, like Rear Window, but it's more about Hitchcock's own approach and method, like Spellbound, but unlike Spellbound it's a half-decent movie.
I'd go with North by Northwest as the best first time. But after a half-dozen viewings each, I now find Rear Window retains more repeat interest, because I find the mise-en-scene and plot are tighter. I'm also starting to appreciate the more matter-of-fact, less dreamlike approach of his more televisual movies, namely, Strangers on a Train and Psycho.
A good use of Tubular Bells mind.
The Lion In Winter
Excalibur. Yes it's terrible. But it's also very good.
Breaker Morant
Countess Alexandra Tolstoy has had her bank account closed by NatWest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY-kqwRGIso
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12278983/Countess-Alexandra-Tolstoys-accounts-suddenly-closed-years-impeccable-banking.html
Then there was the 1969 British entry, If.... (1968). The British ambassador went to Cannes, demanding that it be withdrawn. It insults the country and makes it look ridiculous, he fulminated to Lindsay Anderson. Anderson told him a country with a culture that was so ridiculous deserved to have it insulted. The film stayed in, and it won the Prix d'Or.
Here we now are, half a century later, and the f***ing private boarding schools, House of Lords, and monarchy are all still with us. Big difference is there's hardly any opposition now.
Greatest film ever is hard to say, how can you compare Exorcist to Withnail to Apocalypse Now to Raging Bull to Andrei Rublev?
But it’s definitely in my top ten for being so damn scary. Along with THREADS, of course