Movies, Mom & Me

• 
  Commentary:  I am thrilled that I happened to be reminded of this movie and found it available at a very cheap price. I initially saw this movie when my mother was alive and we were companions. At that time, my mother had a full-tilt subscription to a cable outlet and received, among many, many stations, HBO. I'm sure that my mother also saw this movie. I don't remember her reaction to it because my involvement in it was so intense. My guess is that, being the kind of movie it is, involving the vagaries of working in a hamstrung bureaucracy, which is what the movie is really about, she probably didn't pay much attention. I was riveted by this movie and never forgot it. Doubtless, I probably also watched it more than once through my mother's subscription, which may account for my vivid memories of particular scenes. At any rate, it's been years since I've seen it, so I'm looking forward, with anticipatory pleasure, to it becoming a part of my collection, soon.
  Update 12/31/22:  After having just finished watching this movie the first time since I added it to my collection, well, it's weird, because it's very easy to spend most of this movie bristling with indignation, frustration and depressing disgust at the situations portrayed in this film in which we humans find ourselves simply by virtue of being human. And, yet, at the end, in the last minutes of the movie, and the last day of the legal detention of Andrei Chikatilo, he is broken by a psychiatrist who uses an innovative and very personal technique for eliciting a full confession of his crimes ... and is, by the way, executed. Somehow, the resolution of this nasty, brutal case, despite the many failures that almost allowed Chikatilo to go free, again, gave me hope for humanity. Not that I believe execution is a good idea. I feel the opposite. Not that I can excuse the beaurocratic nonsense that allowed this man to offend against his fellow humans for so long. But, there is something heartening in the fact that a few people stayed with the task, with true hearts, until it was correctly concluded. A lot of the time it is frustrating as hell to be human, but, sometimes, a few humans get it right and renew the faith in humanity that the rest of us desperately want reason to have. That is the crux of this lightly fictionalized version of this true story.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Stephen Rea	Lt (later Cnl) Viktor Burakov	Donald Sutherland	Cnl (later Gnrl) Mikhail Fetisov	Jeffrey DeMunn	Andrei Chikatilo	Max von Sydow	Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky
  Joss Ackland	Bondarchuk	John Wood	Gorbunov	Ion Caramitru	Tatevsky	Imelda Staunton	Ms. Burakova

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1995
    Directed by Chris Gerolmo.

Labels: detective1, docu-drama, donald-sutherland, imelda-staunton, TV3

# posted by gail @ 15:22    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  I was so pleased when I heard a movie was being made featuring my favorite childhood heroine, Maleficent (see write-up for Sleeping Beauty). It took me a long time to get around to watching it. I finally remembered it and checked it out of the library this spring. Upon watching it I knew I had to add it to my collection. Angelina Jolie was made to play Maleficent. The story is interesting and innovative. I especially appreciate the ending. Yes, it is a bit weird that such a kind, sunny, powerful child was named, as an infant, Maleficent. The movie could have included a scene in which a prophetic fairy brooded over her birth and named her in anticipation of what was to come in her life. But, the movie was made for kids, so it probably didn't occur to the makers that a child might know what the name contains in the way of strict definition. Maybe the movie makers didn't know, either. Oh well. The life of the princess was also a bit ho-hum. But I don't care. What I care about is every scene that involved the definition of Maleficent and I was not disappointed. I also enjoy the combination of live-action and animation. Well done, I thought. So, anyway, I'm satisfied and I will watch this movie again and again, just to gaze upon the magnificence of Maleficent. Thank you, Disney.
    Roger Ebert's website also has an interesting meditation provoked by this movie and written by Libby Hill, on how Hollywood, and, thus, our culture, is reimagining women and their roles in society.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Angelina Jolie	Maleficent	Ella Purnell	Teen Maleficent	Elle Fanning	Aurora	Janet McTeer	Elderly Aurora/Narrator
  Sharlto Copley	Stefan	Sam Riley	Diaval	Imelda Staunton	Knotgrass	Juno Temple	Thistlewit
  Lesley Manville	Flittle	Brenton Thwaites	Prince Phillip	Kenneth Cranham	King Henry	Hannah New	Princess Leila

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 2014
    Directed by Robert Stromberg.

Labels: adventure1, drama5, elle-fanning, fantasy2, imelda-staunton, me-favorite1, pseudo-cgi-animation, super-hero2, women's-movie1

# posted by gail @ 20:49    0 comments    email......this post

• Who's watched:  M & G
• Mentions:  *1*
• 
  Commentary:  We watched this one afternoon on TCM and our interest in it surprised us both. Every performance is a delight. The film of the story is much better than the book, full of character scrutinizing scenes. My mother teared up at the end of the movie; very unusual for her. When I saw a copy of it being sold, I had to have it. We watched it again, the day I bought it. Again, my mother was transported to tears at the end. We'll be watching this again.
    It's notable that Roger Ebert reconsidered his initial two-and-a-half star review of this film. The article in which he talks about this is here, but surrounded by many other opinions on many other movies. Thus, I'm going to quote his reconsideration here:
  
  "I didn't give 'Sense and Sensibility' a favorable review when it was first released. I preferred one of the year's other Jane Austen adaptations, 'Persuasion,' a tougher and more thought-provoking film. But as 'S & S' began to emerge as the Oscar front-runner, I went back to see it again. I enjoyed it, yes, and if I had it to do all over again I might be tempted to give it three stars instead of two and a half. (I wouldn't change a word of my newspaper review, however, which expresses both what I liked and didn't like about the film.)
  "What 'Sense and Sensibility' has, above all, is the image of a high-minded, literate, respectable Oscar winner. It is from Britain (the Academy loves British films and actors). It is attached to Jane Austen, one of the most beloved trade names in literature. It has no negatives like sex, violence, or naughty words. Hollywood can honor it and feel good about itself: See here, it can say, what wholesome films we make!"
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Emma Thompson	Elinor Dashwood	Kate Winslet	Marianne Dashwood	Alan Rickman	Colonel Brandon	Imogen Stubbs	Lucy Steele
  Hugh Grant	Edward Ferrars	Greg Wise	John Willoughby	Gemma Jones	Mrs. Dashwood	Hugh Laurie	Mr. Palmer
  Imelda Staunton	Charlotte Palmer	Tom Wilkinson	Mr. Dashwood	Harriet Walter	Fanny Dashwood	Elizabeth Spriggs	Mrs. Jennings

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1995
    Directed by Ang Lee.

Labels: alan-rickman, emma-thompson, imelda-staunton, period4, romance2, shared-favorite, tom-wilkinson

# posted by gail @ 22:37    0 comments    email......this post

• Who's watched:  M & G
• Mentions:  None
• 
  Commentary:  This is one of my favorites. I think we originally watched it on television without Closed Captioning. Mom isn't as familiar with Shakespeare and 17th century English as I am but I think she'll like this story, once she can read the lines. I love it. To me it's an overview of much of the best of Shakespeare.
    Turns out, I was right. She did enjoy it when she could read the lines, even though she's not a Shakespeare buff. The thing about this movie is that it's colorful, there's lots of action that underlines the plot, and the acting is often, on purpose, so close to the top that it's in danger of spilling over, but, that's so much the better for the kind of movie this is.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Joseph Fiennes	William Shakespeare	Gwyneth Paltrow	Viola de Lesseps	Geoffrey Rush	Philip Henslowe	Colin Firth	Lord Wessex
  Ben Affleck	Ned Alleyn	Judi Dench	Queen Elizabeth I	Simon Callow	Edmund Tilney	Imelda Staunton	Nurse
  Tom Wilkinson	Hugh Fennyman	Daniel Brocklebank	Sam Gosse	Rupert Everett	Christopher Marlowe	John Inman	Lady Capulet actor

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1998
    Directed by John Madden.

Labels: ben-affleck, colin-firth, dramedy2, fantasy3, historical3, imelda-staunton, judi-dench, me-favorite4, romance3, shakespeare, tom-wilkinson

# posted by gail @ 02:28    0 comments    email......this post