Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So what are you WATCHING?

Yeah season 3 was great. That's where my wife and I left off and I can't wait for season 4.

Quarle and related Dixie Maffia are enjoyably multi-faceted, and Limehouse has a rich history and deep personality.

I also love that Raylan's father always maintains a presence as well. The Boyd / Raylan dynamic makes the show for me, and the relationship both have with Ava is equally great, but the father-son dynamic (and how the Crowders are played off of that) is powerful.

Great season... the Black Canary episodes were epic... the melodrama between Oliver and Laurel gets a bit thick at times... and I actually miss Tommy, who I loathed at the start of season 1... lots of good stuff in the works for the rest of the season...

Continuing on with my recent fascination with British cinema of the 60's, I've taken a short foray into a few of the better known comedies from that period.


Whew... rough, rough road.


As I said a few posts back, one of the reasons I had always avoided this period in cinema was because of the extremely bad taste that the Bond parody film, "Casino Royale" had left me with. Most of the English movies that I've watched over the past few months have washed that away, but the comedies of the time? Just... ugh.

It's hard to pin down exactly what I dislike about them but, overall, I guess I'd simply say that they're just not funny.

It was a pre-Monty Python time, where "madcap" seemed to be the rule of the day. Sped-up film... quick jump cuts... set pieces strung together with just the barest hint of narrative connection... to me it all just seems like chaos masquerading as comedy. Perhaps this style is drawn from some earlier British comedic tradition (like farce or something) but I don't connect with it, at all.


The worst part about it is that the actors in these movies are people who - in other works - I really do enjoy.

Peter Sellers is completely off his game in both the aforementioned "Casino Royale" and a hideously extended one-joke film called "The Magic Christian"; Lynn Redgrave and Rita Tushingham (who I previously enjoyed in "Georgy Girl" and "The Knack", respectively) mug their way through the torturous slapstick of "Smashing Time"; the always awesome David Warner's performance is, at least, the one saving grace of the very uneven "Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment".


The one bright light for me in this otherwise dark comedic period is... Peter Cook.

Holy cow, was that dude awesome! It wasn't until the last couple months that I even knew who he was (apart from being the "Mawwiage" guy from "The Princess Bride") but now I'm sad that it took so long for me to discover him.

Part of the "Beyond The Fringe" comedy team, he was often paired with the - in my opinion - much less funny, Dudley Moore. This go-round, he really caught my attention as "The Mad Hatter" from the "Alice in Wonderland" film I linked a few posts back, and then blew me away with a pair of incredibly clever performances - the first with Moore and Michael Caine in the period comedy, "The Wrong Box" and secondly (and far more impressively) as the Devil in a comedic take on Faust called, "Bedazzled".

"Bedazzled" - from 1967... not the modern remake - is a fantastically clever comedy that I would rank up there with anything from Monty Python. Filled with nuanced wordplay, subtle sight gags, and more snicker-worthy moments than all of the other movies I've listed above combined - this is Cook firing on all cylinders. He's again paired here with Dudley Moore, but the two find the perfect balance here.


So, in short, if ever you're up for a British comedy from the '60s... I would only recommend "Bedazzled"... and not a single... other... film.

British Movies: I've been watching British WWII movies as I can find them. The closer to late 30s early 40s the better. I've interest in the movies produced as the war was imminent. Of course, a completely different slant from the ones we see, not so whitewashed. The war was on their doorstep and it shows in their movies. David Niven, never really considered him seriously until I saw some of his WWII movies.



Lilihammer: Italian gangster in Norway. How could it not be good?

First season had to find it's way for me. Some really hilarious moments and some WTFs. Second season the characters are more consistent but they grow. And you don't have to wait a whole season for a pay-off. Plotlines resolve every few episodes.

And with Steven Van Zandt running ship, the music is always good.

Series 3 of Sherlock was probably the best yet. In the past two series I've always found one of the three episodes a clunker, but this year all three were marvelous. This was definitely Martin (Watson) Freeman's year with so many brilliant reaction shots and great acting (and Cumberbatch was his usual unnatural self). Shame we're now a year and a bit out from any more.

You should jump on Youtube and search out Cook/Moore comedy sketches, they are brilliant. "One-legged Tarzan" and "The Frog and Peach" are favourites.

The bed sitting room also has Cook and Moore in a quite unsettling dark comedy.

I checked out some skits and - agreed - these are great.

If the poster Legion Tracker is reading this thread, he should definitely check out this one voluntarily:



as I'd hate to have to make it obbligato.




I just watched this movie on veoh (I mean literally just... I love my job. Well... not really, but... you know. )

Not too shabby. Not a traditional "ha-ha" comedy, but more an absurdist piece (closer to the plays of Samuel Beckett or Eugene Ionesco and such who - given the time period - I'd say writer Spike Milligan was very much influenced by). In any case, it's a nice addition to the oddly specific "men in bowler hats performing symbolic actions in a ruined wasteland" genre that I actually enjoy quite a bit.

And, yes - although they only play bit parts - Cook and Moore are a hoot as the police, floating overhead in a balloon-borne car, demanding that people "keep moving". Since their characters aren't named, I'm going to choose to believe they are just playing post-apocalyptic versions of themselves.

Quite voluntary, and much obliged, Ex. So I spent a guinea on a ticket for you. Hope you like Policemen's balls.

Continuing on with my exploration of British cinema of the sixties, I paused for a few weeks with the "swinging" years of '65 and onward to, instead, go back and watch a passel of films from the movement just preceding this - the "Kitchen Sink" dramas of the late 50's through about '63.

This was an era of British filmmakers taking inspiration from the French New Wave movement, casting their lenses toward the social issues that had rarely ever been addressed in film. Things like racism, homosexuality, unwanted pregnancies, and the overall struggle of the working class.

As with any any cinematic movement, some of these hit the mark... others less so. In retrospect, I probably should have spaced these out a bit more to avoid the fatigue that set in watching film after film about people dealing with overwhelming problems (in fact, I have to admit feeling that - near the end - they got rather repetitious). I'll be a bit more terse this time out, just giving the overall vibe.

Spoilers ahead (for 50 year old movies ):




(1959) Room at the Top - Laurence Harvey (best known to me prior to this as the "Manchurian Candidate") is a working class social climber simultaneously courting the boss's daughter, while also having an affair with an older married woman. Caught between being true to his heart or his ambition, he (after getting the boss's daughter pregnant) chooses the latter... and everyone suffers. Whew... getting off on the right foot here.

(1959) Look Back in Anger - Richard Burton is a working class (there's that word again) guy who is basically an @sshole. Frustrated by his lot in life, he takes it out on everyone around him in some of the most abusive tirades ever put down in film. His long abused (and now pregnant) wife leaves him, but returns after losing the baby (and the cycle of abuse continues).

(1959) Sapphire - Director Basil Dearden tells a racially-charged story about the murder of a young (pregnant) girl who - once the investigation is underway - is revealed to have been a black girl who had been passing as white. Quite a good (and very progressive) film for its time. I'd recommend this one.

(1960) Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - Albert Finney as a frustrated working class (yup) young man who is having an affair with his older co-worker's wife (wait... didn't I already see this?) who he gets pregnant (yeah... I really think I saw this already) and is forced to choose between his heart (oh come on) and... on and on... spoiler: everyone suffers. I'm probably being a bit tongue-in-cheek-edly harsh here. Although the story is kitchen sink boilerplate, the performance of the young Albert Finney does elevate the material.

(1961) Victim - Basil Dearden (really liking this guy) directs Dirk Bogarde (of whom I'm definitely becoming a fan) in a story of London barrister caught in the center of a blackmail racket to shake down a group of homosexual men who (because of the illegality at the time) are forced to live closeted lives. Great direction by Dearden and a great performance by Bogarde. Recommended without reservation.

(1961) A Taste of Honey - Rita Tushingham (who I'd previously seen in "The Knack") is a young girl who has a brief love affair with a black sailor in port and - after he sets sail - discovers she's pregnant (good lord... there are a ton of unwanted pregnancies in these). Leaving her broken home (where her trashy mother has taken up with a loser of a guy), she moves into a cheap little squat with a newly-made friend (who happens to be gay). For a time, the two of them dream that, together, they will be a happy non-traditional family forever. Spoilers: They don't... everyone suffers.

(1962) A Kind of Loving - Alan Bates plays a... you know what? Let's just cut to the chase: Working class guy... gets a girl pregnant... frustrated with his lot... miscarriage... everyone suffers. By this point, I sort of felt there must be some sort of "Kitchen Sink Mad Libs" book out there or something.

(1962) The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner - OK, this one mixes it up a bit. Tom Courtenay (sort of a 1960's Ewan McGregor type - quite charming) is a working class (stick with it) kid who winds up in reform school and - while there - discovers both his talent, and his passion, for long distance running. The administration wants to exploit Courtenay's talents for their own ends... but will he play ball with "The Man"? As a runner myself, I really dug this film... the cross-country shots (albeit in black and white) are beautiful and quite accurately capture the tranquility of being all alone in a run. Eryk Davis Ester should watch this one.

(1963) This Sporting Life - Richard Harris channels Marlon Brando in this story of a rugby player who, similar to the runner above, has to walk a line between his true self and the will of "The Man". Almost all the requisite kitchen sink elements are present... working class, anger, tortured relationship with a woman... but no pregnancy! Then why is the woman in the hospital? Spoiler: because she dies. Double spoiler: everyone who is still alive suffers.

(1963) Billy Liar - All at once, the best of the lot... and the most gut kicking-est. Tom Courtenay again as a charming and absolutely compulsive dreamer. Think "working class" Walter Mitty. Billy spins his wheels around and around, dreaming of glories and adulation, all the while accomplishing nothing in the real world. All of that might change, however, with the introduction of his real-life dream girl, Julie Christie, who may be just what he needs to inspire him enough to finally follow his dreams. Ugh... I don't even want to put a spoiler here... let's just say that for me, personally, the ending just hurt so much. I wanted to actually hit a fictional character. Kudos, movie.


So... in short... English Kitchen Sink dramas:

- Very significant for a historic perspective of cinema
- Incredibly progressive subject matter - seriously, this stuff casts such a strong light on how immature American films of the same era were.
- Very, very repetitive... I get it... life is miserable! I don't recommend ever watching three or more of these back to back.


The best of the bunch:

"Billy Liar" - a fun, engaging film... that waits until the end to kick you in the gut.

"Victim" and "Sapphire" - two Basil Dearden films, dealing respectively with homosexuality and racism, very progressively for the time

"The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" - might just be my personal affinity for running, but quite good.

"This Sporting Life" - the best of the more traditional "angry young men" films.

The thing about kitchen sink is that having just done the dishes, I don't want to spend the next two hours looking at one from the sofa.

But I agree they captured the frustrations, the everyday miseries, anger and lack of control really well. Despite the occasional hopes of an anti hero, you pretty much nailed it with "everyone suffers."

Although I never raced out to watch any of them, I don't think I've seen one that was poorly directed or cast. There's a certain feeling of liberation in there too at actually being able to use film and later TV (with the likes of Play for Today) to make political and social statements about characters outside of a Noel Coward drawing room.

Oh yeah, Billy Liar. My memory cell tells me that it was working on an extra couple of levels of satire, due to the main character's flights of fancy. It also tells me that a toned down Norman Wisdom would have been a good stand in for Tom Courtenay.

As for the ending...

British Movies: 50s

The thing about calling the movies "progressive" is that they surprisingly, were not. The same can be found in 20s-30s American cinema with the addition of power hungry cooperate climbing females. Who knew females could even be considered to be cooperate climbers in the 1930s? I find their existence in cinema even more surprising then the out of wedlock/homosexuality/mixed race themes.

Then the "code" hit.

I wonder if similar occurred in England, pre WWII?

OH, and I'm on a "Psych" binge. How come I never knew this show existed? Was it on cable? Anyhow, I've begun season 4.

I stumbled upon "Pysch" at Comic-con. I came early for another panel and had to sit through a bunch of other stuff. Most of it was highly forgettable, but those guys were insanely awesome. The show still never aired in Canada for a long time after that, but I've sought it out here and there. It's finally landed on Canadian Netflix, so I'm looking forward to watching a bunch.

There are a lot of in jokes for movie quote fans and they go a little 4th wall and take jibes at other shows (particularly The Mentalist), which I find fun. All leads up to the end of season 3, best show of them all but I have to admit, season 4 the lead's schtick is growing and getting on my nerves. They are relying on it much more than in earlier shows and worse, other characters are picking it up. Lassiter is becoming a bit one note. Dule's character is growing though. I'm expecting a better season 5 since it has gone on at least three more after that.

Be interested in your thoughts as you make your way through.

The whacky gets a little whacky sometimes, and I find myself liking Gus and Shawn's dad more than Shawn himself. Still, I like a lot of the 'meta' humor, and it seems like the actors are having a good time (making it sort of like watching the Oceans 11/12/13 movies, which aren't particularly awesome movies, but the fun the actors are having can be contagious).

The way they use guest-stars often feels a little 'fourth-wallish,' in that the characters seem to be reacting to the popularity / notoriety of the actor, more than reacting to the character that actor is playing. (Which seems particularly over the top when someone like Cary Elwes is on.) I don't mind that so much, but it does mean that whenever I'm watching Psych, I'm very much aware that I'm watching a show, and that every character on the show is more or less aware that they are on a show (except for the deliberately straight-man Lassiter, who takes everything so seriously and treats whatever is going on as real-world life-and-death, making him hilarious, in context, as everyone around him rolls with whatever whacky farce is going on and he ends up looking all flustered and uptight).

It's a fun show, and, for me at least, much of the appeal is how it doesn't take itself too seriously.

In the last few weeks I've gone through Magnum P.I., Chuck and Blue Mountain State, in that order. Chuck was great as a sweet show, even with the comedy and action. Blue Mountain State was just eff'in awesome as a bawdy, raucous send up of college life and college athletics.

Alan Ritchson was perfect as Thad. He was the actor that played Aquaman on Smallville. The Alex Moran character was probably the best on the show, considering that he was part of a triangle of actors that were the focus.

Blue Mountain State: found it free on Crackle. I think I'll give that a look.




I hadn't really caught on to that, except as far as I had mentioned, that EVERYONE except Lassie was in on it but it does make sense now that you mention it.

"Top of the Lake." Jane Campion's series starring Elizabeth Moss (Peggy from "Mad Men") as a cop investigating the rape and disappearance of a 13-yr old girl in New Zealand. I've been running through them on Netflix, but got distracted by...

"Veronica Mars" loved it when it came out, I've been refreshing my memory since the film is coming out. I had totally forgotten people like Adam Scott, Alyson Hannigan, Krysten Ritter and others dropped by that show. (Aaron Paul makes a brief appearance as - what else - a really creepy guy and Paris Hilton plays a -- what else -- bitchy rich girl)

"Luthor" I burned through these awhile ago, but for those who haven't seen Idris Elba at his finest, what are you waiting for - see it!!

Oh, sure... I get why he did it. But...




And on that note...


Following my enjoyment of Billy Liar, I decided to go on a mini-marathon, and watch a quartet of Julie Christie's 60's films:

(1965) Darling - "Billy Liar" director John Schlesinger again pairs up with his muse Julie Christie to explore what happens when the small town girl does make it to London. Less a plot-driven movie than a full scale character study, "Darling" shows what happens to a person who wants it all... and then finds it's not enough. Acting as the sort of personifications of two directions in which she's being pulled are love interests Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey. One of the really neat things about watching this era's films so close together is that you see the same actors paired up again and again in different combinations. It's like, "...and featuring... The Swinging London Players!"

(1966) Fahrenheit 451 - Francois Truffaut's take on the classic Ray Bradbury tale of intellectual oppression. It's... well... eh... it's OK. On the one hand, Christie herself is quite good in a dual role as both the protagonist's repressed wife, and also as his free-spirited new friend, but the protagonist himself (Oskar Werner) is so unengaged that he just saps the life out his scenes. I read that Terence Stamp was originally supposed to be the lead. I feel like that would have been such a better pairing.

(1967) Far From the Madding Crowd - And here is where the Christie/Stamp pairing does occur. Stamp is one of three of Christie's suitors (along with Alan Bates and Peter "mad as hell and not going to take this anymore" Finch) in this period action/romance. Equal parts "Wuthering Heights" and "Days of Heaven", the plot, admittedly, takes a back seat at times to the cinematography but - as a whole - I really enjoyed this film. A nice way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon with a significant other. And all four of the primary actors turn in great performances.

(1968) Petulia - Yeah... no. Give this one a miss. Richard Lester (whose other 60s films I actually have quite enjoyed, as evidence by my sig line) directs this inconsequential mess. Ostensibly an early example of non-linear narrative, it actually reminds me more of like the "cut up" technique of writers like William Burroughs. Bleh. I mean how can a movie actually make George C. Scott seem boring? One nice thing I can say is that it does open with a pretty great cameo by Janis Joplin!


There was one other Julie Christie movie I was trying to watch... Doctor... Iago or something... Doctor... Chicago, maybe? But the freaking disc was scratched... stupid Netflix. I'll pick that up later on.

Gosh, this warms some memory cells. I've not seen Fahrenheit 451, Far From the Madding Crowd or Carry on Russian Revolution in ages.

But...

^

On your other point... I see what you're saying, but - as one of the converted - I just have to agree to disagree. No worries.

As an aside... you've seen quite a few of the same films that I'm currently exploring... are you from England?

On my other point... slightly tongue in cheek on my part. Mind you... no perhaps we should have an Achieve Your Potential! thread Keep Moving...Keep Moving...


thothkins looked from an opening of the squinty ziggurat across a world where national boundaries had been rendered obsolete. thothkins was sure this had many social implications, but was mainly concerned that the opening had no glazing. Besides, there was a good film coming on...

OK, another round of 60's Brit-cinema (I know it seems like all I do is watch movies. That's really not the case, but... when I do anything, I really do it full bore, and it just happens that this is my latest idée fixe ).


Anyway... I dug the actor-centric run I did with Julie Christie (still waiting on a playable copy of Doctor Zhivago... I'm on my fourth attempt!) so I followed suit with another... Albert Finney.

I've long enjoyed Albert Finney (he's actually in my all-time favorite film, "Miller's Crossing") so I thought I'd take a stab at some of his earlier work. Having already seen his star-making "kitchen sink" performance in "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" I first took a step back to:


(1960) The Entertainer - really just a bit part for Finney (he only appears in the first five minutes) but it is his debut. This is really more a Laurence Olivier vehicle, with Sir Larry portraying a hammy music-hall performer in the dying days of that genre. A nice enough film... I suppose it accomplished its goal - making me feel pity toward Olivier as he makes bad decision after bad decision - but... eh... overall it didn't make much of an impression. I continued on the Finney track with...

(1963) Tom Jones - Academy Award winning period-comedy (and the last film JFK ever saw), this film unfortunately hasn't aged very well. I mean I understand why it was ground-breaking back in the day. It plays with the conventions of cinema, paying homage to multiple film styles, and is a very early example of "breaking the fourth wall"... but those things have been done so often in the years since that they no longer pack the same sort of punch. David Warner is great in it though, as always... I always thought that guy should have been a bigger name. I did sort of amuse myself by imagining the entire movie narrated by Jon Lovitz's "Tales of Ribaldry" character:




(1964) Night Must Fall - English-noir film with Finney as a psychopathic axe-murderer. What is not to like? Although some of the performances border on hammy, it never goes too far over that line. Kudos to Finney for his "mental regression" scenes with the elder woman that he sort of adopts as a mother figure.


(1967) Two for the Road - Just wow. Framed by a road trip that Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn are making to the south of France in the latter stages of their marriage's collapse, this film's story is then interspersed with non-linear scenes from different stages in the pair's life from other road trips. How they met, how they got engaged, their honeymoon, finding success, growing apart... all of these key moments are blended into the framing story, creating this wonderful tapestry-like picture of a relationship. Fantastic film that hits so many emotional beats that I imagine any married couple would recognize as ringing true. It wasn't, however, until after I read an online review that I realized just how brilliant the film is. I knew that the flashbacks weren't being presented chronologically, but what I hadn't picked up on was the fact that they were being presented geographically... each relating to where they were in their present trip! Just... just... just... wow! So... it turns out that Albert Finney is now in two of my favorite films.

Night fell on the city. It fell every night. But tonight it made the sound of a watermelon being hit with a hammer. Turns out it was a body hitting the side walk. No débutantes to be entertained in this neighbourhood. A shadow brushed past. A man with an axe to grind. Or at least an axe. It looked like Finney was back in town.

Don't forget to get one of the more recent prints of Russian Winter Olympic highlights. The quality is much better, and the two disc set puts all the Kenneth Williams bits back in.