Movies, Mom & Me

• 
  Commentary:  Under construction.
    Can you believe I have never seen this movie all the way through, of a piece? I've watched scenes from it here and there, usually in a program about movies and/or horror movies, but I've never seen "the whole thing". I can't even remember why I thought of it this morning when I was doing some clean-up of many of my recent entries in this journal.
    You don't have to look far, as it turns out, to find a very cheap, unused copy of it. It doesn't seem to be very popular, at the moment. So, I purchased it to add to my "horror" collection, on which I've been concentrating, lately. And, of course, now that I've been reminded of it, I'm very curious about it.
    So far, all I've learned about it is that it isn't considered "folk-horror". In addition, I've learned more than a little about what distinguishes "folk-horror" (which I've added as a subject label over there to the left) from just plain "horror". It seems, unless I'm misunderstanding everything I've read this morning, the main differences between the two categories is that folk-horror seems to require a rural setting and attributes "evil" to the setting, rather than to people. "Carrie", of course, does not take place in a rural setting and, if I'm recalling correctly, the "evil" resides within a person, although from what little I know about the movie, it seems to me that an argument can be made for Piper Laurie, who plays Carrie's mother, being the source of the "evil" and Carrie merely being in possession of a neutral talent and a victim of domestic abuse.
    I'll clean up this post, add links and think and write more (about lots of things regarding horror/folk-horror) when I've watched the film, of course, and satisfied myself, as well, that nobody considers this movie an example of folk-horror.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Sissy Spacek	Carrie White	Amy Irving	Sue Snell	William Katt	Tommy Ross	Nancy Allen	Chris Hargensen
  John Travolta	Billy Nolan	Betty Buckley	Miss Collins	P. J. Soles	Norma	Sydney Lassick	Mr. Fromm
  Stefan Gierasch	Mr. Morton	Priscilla Pointer	Mrs. Snell	Piper Laurie	Margaret White	Edie McClurg	Helen Shyres

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1976
    Directed by Brian de Palma.

Labels: brian-de-palma, horror3, john-travolta, nancy-allen, piper-laurie, sissy-spacek

# posted by gail @ 12:01    0 comments    email......this post

• Who's watched:  M & G, ad infinitum
• Mentions:  *1* *2* *3* *4* *5* *6* *7*
• 
  Commentary:  For the most complete coverage of this series in our lives, best for you to click into the first Mention, above. Otherwise, suffice it to say that, as of this date, I still haven't been able to watch any of the episodes of this series (as I haven't since my mother's death), but refuse to pass these DVDs on to someone else.
    * As usual, while there are many directors throughout the seasons, female directors are merely scattered throughout. In fact, the first season had no female directors. I guess that figures, since it's a series underhandedly about the Abrahamic God.
    P. S.: I recall that there are at at least a couple of Christmas stories in this set ... I just don't know which episodes they are.
  Update 2/10/18:  True, not your classic super-hero series but, don't you agree, the angels act miraculously and certainly have what humans would consider super-powers. And, they help people and, in a few episodes, do battle with Satan, their nemesis. What could be more super-heroic than that?!?
  Update 5/24/22:  Yet another post published on 4/09/09 that "disappeared" and I had to recapture.
  Update 11/24/22:  In case you're curious, the Touched by an Angel episode in which Kirk Douglas acted was season 6-episode 18, "Bar Mitzvah".
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Roma Downey	Monica	Della Reese	Tess	John Dye	Andrew	Valerie Bertinelli	Gloria
  Alexis Cruz	Rafael	Charles Rocket	Adam	Paul Winfield	Sam	Cloris Leachman	Ruth

  
    Ossie Davis appeared as Erasmus Jones in "Touched by an Angel" Season 3/Episodes 11 "Promised Land" & 12 "The Homecoming"; "Touched by an Angel" Season 4 Episode 1 "The Road Home Part 1"; Season 5 Episode 2 "Saving Grace Part 1"
    Ossie Davis appeared as Gabe in "Touched by an Angel" Season 6 Episode 10 "The Christmas Gift"
    Ossie Davis appeared as Gabriel in "Touched by an Angel" Season 9 Episode 9 "Remembering Me Part 2"
    Piper Laurie appeared in Touched by an Angel, Season 4/Episode 12, "Venice"
    John de Lancie appeared in Touched by an Angel, Season 4/Episode 5, "Jones vs. God"
    Nancy Allen appeared in Touched by an Angel, Season 1/Episode 7, "An Unexpected Snow"
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1994-2003
    Directed by: See * note above.

Labels: Christmas, edward-james-olmos, enrique-castillo, fantasy2, female-director3, jesse-borrego, john-de-lancie, kirk-douglas, mom-favorite1, nancy-allen, ossie-davis, piper-laurie, spiritual1, william-devane

# posted by gail @ 11:30    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Under construction.
    I'm a Sound Man: Blow Out at 40
    Nancy Allen on "Blow Out", Women in Film
    John Travolta: "Blow Out" in Chicago
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  John Travolta	Jack Terry	John Lithgow	Burke	Nancy Allen	Sally Bedina	Dennis Franz	Manny Karp

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1981
    Directed by Brian De Palma.

Labels: §3, brian-de-palma, john-lithgow, john-travolta, mystery2, nancy-allen, neo-noirA, thriller2

# posted by gail @ 18:39    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  I'm finally catching up (including rewatching) with films I haven't yet commented on. This is one of those films.
    Frankly, it's hard to say whether or not I consider it a "winner" of my affections. This is not a movie I saw, or of which I was even aware, when it was released in 1980 and caused such a furor. It has some spectacular scenes that I love watching, like the flirtatious museum scene at the beginning, and some intriguing split scene work, but the truth is, when I rewatched the film, all of this caught me by repeat surprise. When I looked at the cover of the movie prior to rewatching it, just before writing it up, I didn't recall anything about the film except Angie Dickinson in the shower and the startling reveal of her character's strawberry blonde pubic hair. Having said this, I have a small number of Brian De Palma films that I both enjoy and consider significant in his career. This is one of them.
    Here is a review of the movie 35 years after its initial release by one of the reviewers at RogerEbert.com, which is specifically about the Criterion release, which is the release I have. It is an admiring retrospective that I enjoyed reading and took into serious consideration when deciding whether to keep or cull this movie. I landed, once again, on the "keeper" side.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Michael Caine	Dr. Robert Elliott	Angie Dickinson	Kate Miller	Nancy Allen	Liz Blake	Keith Gordon	Peter Miller
  Dennis Franz	Detective Marino	David Margulies	Dr. Levy	Susanna Clemm	Betty Luce	Ken Baker	Warren Lockman

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1980
    Directed by Brian De Palma.

Labels: §3, brian-de-palma, erotic, michael-caine, nancy-allen, neo-noirA, thriller2

# posted by gail @ 16:28    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  I know, I know. I should probably be ashamed of myself for ordering this movie. I saw it ages ago (probably over 20 years ago ... I think I saw it in a theatre when it was first released), have not seen it since, but have been keeping my eye out for a cheap copy of it, with or without special features, ever since I became really interested in collecting movies, especially those I can't get out of my head. Anyway, on yet another late night jaunt through my lists of really old movies I'd like in my collection, I found this one at an extremely reasonable price, I mean, more than reasonable. Frankly, I never thought I would, as this movie has remained popular and its price reflects this. But, tonight, I picked it up, including tax, for well under a sawbuck, probably the cheapest I'll ever find it, so I ordered it immediately. I don't know if it contains any special features. It appears to advertise special features but, although it's a blu-ray, the package ad says it contains only one disk, so, you know, I hope so, but, in this case, if it doesn't, I won't be annoyed.
    So why am I adding this extraordinarily violent movie to my collection? Because it's also extraordinarily funny and there's something about funny violence, when masterfully done, that just does a number on me. My memories of watching this movie involve several eruptions of surprised, I mean really surprised, like shocked surprised, laughter, including during killings. Apparently, I'm not the only one who reacts to this movie in this way. So, I want to see it again and again, to figure this out. I won't have the movie for a couple of days but I'm already thinking things like, is this a uniquely U.S.A. movie because of the way it presents violence? What does it say about me, a born-into U.S.A. citizen, that I, well, more than like this movie? Anyway, I'll scribble more later, I'm sure.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Peter Weller	Alex Murphy/RoboCop	Nancy Allen	Anne Lewis	Daniel O'Herlihy	The Old Man	Ronny Cox	Dick Jones

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1987
    Directed by Paul Verhoeven.

Labels: §3, action4, dramedy3, nancy-allen, science-fiction2, super-hero2, violence4

# posted by gail @ 23:23    0 comments    email......this post