I like me some good Lucas bashing, but whatever you think of Phantom Menace and it’s ugly sisters even I believe he had SOMETHING written for the characters on crumpled college ruled notebook paper stuffed in a Trapper Keeper even before filming the first Star Wars scene.
A New Hope just feels like the middle of a story. I think that helped it’s popularity to be honest, it thrusts the viewers into this strange fantastic world from the start.
The spoken French version with subtitles and the English dubbed version are both streaming on the Criterion Channel, if anyone subscribes to them. But they rotate stuff in and out a little more than most services (or so it seems), so maybe don’t wait too long if you want to make sure you can watch it.
I also believe he had something written. I just think what he had written was what Obi-Wan said in the movie. Daddy Skywalker was a Jedi Knight, pilot and friend, who wanted Luke to have his lightsaber, and who was betrayed and killed by Obi-Wan’s young Jedi pupil Darth Vader.
Not Daddy Skywalker was a Jedi who turned to evil, and who I cut to pieces and left to die in a lavaflow, who didn’t know you exist, didn’t know your sister existed, and BTW, here’s the lightsaber I took from his helpless fried chicken looking body.
We watched Judex, a French film last night. Judex means judge, and it’s an homage to a silent series from 1916. It was made in 1964, but was mostly believable as being in the older time period. Mostly, the women’s makeup and hairstyles were a little too contemporary. But it kept our interest and was a fun movie. The unmasking of who the Judex character was was a bit too easy to guess, but the actress who played the main villainess was fun to watch. She also spent about half her screentime running around in a black leoptard and tights which is very true to the early Feuillade series (serieses?). Although the body types were very different in movies from the early years.
I’m a huge fan of all the Irma Vep movies going back to its original silent origins, so this was right up my alley.
The wife and I just watched Winter’s Tale. Slow to start, but a really nice twist ending.
There is a prologue to the Star Wars novelisation (first published in 1976) that hews pretty close to what happens in the prequels. Though it only really talks in general concepts, I can believe that there was much more laid out about the characters and storyline in his yellow ledger tablet.
Tonight we watched a crime/suspenseful movie called Wait Until Dark (1967).
A really good movie. But there was one aspect of it that I couldn’t get out of my head: Hepburn’s appearance: she seemed so gaunt and malnourished. Way too skinny. Not sure what was up with that.
I never noticed. My main memory of that movie is that it contains one of the all time great jump scares.
A website about Hepburn’s thinness:
Seconded. My Favorite Year is a wonderful movie.
The Killing Fields, 1984 film with Sam Waterston and Haing Ngor, about the Cambodian civil war in the 1970s.
Hey, that is the story I would stick with as well if I was in that family. There exist dark alternatives:
“Yes, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) can lead to low adult weight. FAS is a permanent condition that occurs when a pregnant person drinks alcohol, and it’s the most severe form of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). FAS can cause physical and mental defects, including growth deficiencies that can last into adulthood”
The Handmaiden - (Streams on Prime right now)
Highly, highly recommended. Essential.
A perfect movie that earns a full 10/10 from me. I was completely entranced and blown away from this movie from the beginning to the end and not only do I recommend it to everyone, it’s an essential movie from the past 10 years. One of the best movies made in the past 20 years and the kind of movie that confirms I could never do something creatively that equals it.
I’m gushing and it deserves it. I think the essential thing is to go in completely blind. I thought this movie was some kind of interpretation or adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. Nope, not at all. It is entirely original, though there was apparently a novel it was based on.
Just go in blind. Put away your devices for awhile. Enjoy one of the best movies out there.
I loved this. I regret not seeing it sooner.
I notice this came out the same year as Silence from Martin Scorsese. Not related in any way, but what a year for movies.
I saw it in the theater. And I screamed. Wasn’t it also the first one or two of Alan Arkin’s movie roles? He was so creepy.
The only thing that I didn’t like was Audrey Hepburn’s babytalk (something she was prone to). “I’m a wowld champion bwind wady.” Maybe not quite that bad, but not good.
I thought her acting was O.K. in it, but Alan Arkin really stole the show. What a great actor he was.
Yes. He was the best part of that movie.
Inside Out 2. Not quite as good as the first one, but still pretty good. Made my teenaged daughter cry a bit.
Yes; his first big role being The Russians Are Coming.
It seems odd and noteworthy now that the Maguffin in this movie is a quantity of heroin that the average street corner pusher carries in his pocket. The French Connection it ain’t.
Saw it today, and agree. It’s only flaw is that it’s too similar to the original — follows the same template, really (“hits the same beats” as they would say in the jargon).
The Outwaters. I don’t post much on here, but watch a LOT of movies, and few give me much to add. But this one, I think I got off some top horrors of 2023 list, was one to avoid.
A found footage film which makes little sense and you can barely see a thing. Avoid. Spends an hour being boring, then 45 minutes making no sense.