7 posts tagged “entertainment”

I heard about Danny Boyle years ago.  His movie Trainspotting was all the rage when it came out.  As a recovering alcoholic, the idea of watching a movie about heroin addicts just didn't appeal to me at the time.  As a matter of fact, I didn't see any of his films, as acclaimed as they were, until I came across a DVD of Millions at the local AIDS thrift store.  I loved that movie.  Indeed, it now ranks in my pantheon of favorite Christmas movies, along with Love Actually, Miracle on 34th Street (the original) and Christmas Story.

Now Danny Boyle has made a great film.  I don't use the word great lightly.  But his depiction of the life story of three poor orphans from the slums of Mumbai Slumdog Millionaire is destined to become considered a classic.  I would not be at all surprised to see Oscars in its future.  Told in flashbacks during a sequence of episodes of a Hindi version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, the story is positively Dickensian in scope and ambition.  And that ambition succeeds.  From Anil Kapoor as a sleazy game-show host, to Irfan Khan (who was brilliant in The Namesake) as a police detective to each of the actors playing the children through time, there is not a single false note in the casting.

Here is a clip of the trailer, which does not do the movie justice:

It's only open in 32 theaters in the US so far, so you may need to keep an eye out.  (LC, it's due to be released in India in late January).   

This is a film which deserves to be seen.  After Millions, and now this film, I am willing to call Danny Boyle the new Frank Capra.  Oh, and if you do go, stay through the credits.  Trust me on this.

Alicia de Larrocha, one of the great female pianists of the twentieth century.

And Douglas Fairbanks, the original action hero, part of the first Hollywood power couple (with Mary Pickford).  Here shown in Zorro.  He did all his own stunts.

What is your favorite movie that was released in the 1980s?

It is hard for me to overstate the impact the following movie had on me at the time I first saw it.  I went to see it with a group of friends, and walked out of the theater unable to speak for several minutes.  This clip is the best I can find to give you the tone of the movie.  Unfortunately, there are no subtitles, and the movie, directed by Wim Wenders, is primarily in German.  Imagine the words you hear as the interior thoughts of the people you see on the screen.  The man with the wings is an angel listening to the people.

If you could perform alongside any artist (actor, dancer, musician, etc.), who would it be, and what would you perform? 
Submitted by Kristin. 

I had to think about what scene I would most like to play.  It came down to two:  A Lion in Winter, with me as Henry II, versus a great actress.  Alas, since I won't cheat by choosing an actress who has passed, I couldn't think of an actress still living who could compare with Katherine Hepburn.  (Close tried and failed, Streep would not be hard in the right way, and Blanchett is too young)

So that left me with Inherit the Wind, with me playing Matthew Harrison Brady, in the critical trial scene where Drummond cross-examines Brady.  I thought of some great "name" actor, but could not convince myself of them in the role.  So I went for a great "working" actor: Chris Cooper.

Here's much of the scene I would like to do, from the classic 1960 film production:

Inherit the Wind

Which TV show never "jumped the shark"?
Submitted by healthypanda. 

The Prisoner.  A total mind**** from start to finish.  Here are the opening credits, and a scene to persuade you:

The Prisoner Titles

You must conform!

1 comment

Film & TV writers are on strike, which means everything except reality TV could halt production.  Do you support the strike?  Are any of your favorite shows in jeopardy?

I don't watch TV.  I do love films.  But I know the deal.  The writers are underpaid already.  The owners are trying to screw them even more with the new technologies.  The cost of production has gone down, and for some of the new media, costs virtually nothing.  It's a layup to support this strike.

What movie did you expect would be terrible, but was actually really good?

To say that I hated disco when I was in my late teens would be a gross understatement.  I was into R&B, funk, classical, jazz, and just a little rock and roll music.  Disco was for brain dead shallow wannabee never-wases.  So, naturally, when Saturday Night Fever came out, I never even considered going to see it.  (Another part of my refusal to see it was that I had actually read the New York Magazine article which was the basis for the movie.  It was cooler not to spoil that brag by seeing it.) 

When I did finally see it for the first time, if was on TV, in an edited version which took its soul away.  More than fifteen years after it was released, having fallen in love with a younger woman whose formative years were permeated by disco and dancing, I finally saw an unedited tape.  What a great movie.  The storyline and character development and acting and rawness were wonderful.  What a fool I was.

Here's Tony Manero's solo: