Films

Best Menace Actors: Basil Rathbone, Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom, Robert Mitchum (so unpleasant in the original Cape Fear), and the one-off of Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West. The scene where he and his thugs are shooting dead the entire wholesome little family, where he stands with what were usually warm, humorous eyes in his previous films, now chilly blue, a grim, thin, smile on his lips. Will he spare the tow-headed little boy? Surely he has a heart?

It proved unpopular with his fans, who seemed to mistake Fonda for being the perennial goody-two shoes, but I thought it was mesmeric.
 
Yeah, it was those eyes that did it. I think his baby blues were one of the central reasons Leone wanted him for the part.

You surely meant Night of the Hunter for Mitcham though. Chilling.
 
Mesrine benefitted from the fact that the autobiography on which it is largely based was both exaggerated and perhaps even slightly ridiculous. That allowed the film to still feel 'true' whilst never approaching the tedium that some biopics teeter towards, given that by their very nature their subjects are only human.

That the two Mesrine films can be so good, but also thoroughly eclipsed by A Prophet demonstrates the rude health that French Gangster film remains in.
 
Duh! Of course I meant NOTH, Euro - cheers. Heck - who starred in Cape Fear, then? Ray Liotta can do 'cold eyes', too, but unfortunately his performances tend to be in rather overcooked thrillers of late.
 
Now I know I've gone bonkers! I was sure the gorgeous Robert had, but I'm not a film buff like Euro and the others, so I figured he must know best. Euro - write out 10 times the soliloquoy by Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner, and see me after school!
 
Im not really into films but get roped in by a schoolgirl dosing from study every now and again. Ive seen two lately with John Travolta. When was the last time he made a good movie please?
 
Id have thought so. Amazing he is so good in that and so awful in others including from Paris with love. It was 5/6 your chocie to stay or go after a half hour.
 
Exit Through The Gift Shop

The funniest, oddest, fascinatingly inspiring thing I've seen for ages.
 
Everything from the art itself, the scale, the ambition of the main character, the audacity, the creative process (both of the art and of this piece of film-making), the wackiness, through to Thierry succeeding when he probably never should have!
 
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Seeing Exit through the Gift Shop on Friday; have long been fascinated by Banksy. Have got a theory that he is not one but several people, but Im probably wrong. Feel that he/they decided to make this film as a homage to Man on Wire, and felt the need to be recorded for posterity. All shall be revealed on Friday then, except Banksy's true identity....
 
Thanks, Bets. I'm not sure if it's still up, but when I moved to Brighton in late 98, a huge industrial chimney had the word ZULU painted right down it, very sharply and correctly, in white paint. I had to admire the work of whoever had the guts to climb up what must've been about eight stories in height, and how the heck they ever got the straight lines for the word, I just don't know.

We are blessed with having a superb mural in blue colours which is literally a few feet from my flat, painted by a chap during the course of a few days. It's stunning and people take photos of it all the time. It looks serene, with two huge humpback whales floating along on the line of a blue sea, but at street level, there are the horrid little humans, all looking grumpy and unpleasant, armed for combat with spears. A simple story told gracefully.

We've also got some terrific spray can art (it's beyond graffiti) around town, too. Some with more than a nod to manga, and much that would've graced any New York subway in the 1980s and then some.

Will hope to see the film if it comes our way soon.
 
Krizon posted Pan's Labyrinth some time ago. Watched it yesterday. Emotionally bruising. Courage, compassion, brutality. Horrific in places and so very, very sad. There were some scenes that I just could not watch, the anticipation of horror beating any "horror" film that relies on special effects and buckets of gore to shock. It takes a lot to make me cry, this did - and not just the ending, either.
 
If you liked Pans Labyrinth it might be worth watching The Devils Backbone, a sort of embryonic work by the director along a similar theme. I bought a lot of his films after watching Pans Labyrinth, including Cronos. Can't wait to see his take on The Hobbit!
 
Redhead - well done. It really is a crushing experience and, as you say, the knowledge that the horror of those times was real, makes it all the more oppressive and foreboding in tone. On the upside, the imaginative creations are exquisitely done.

The only "Kronos" I can recall is a 1950s sci-fi B-movie!
 
I did enjoy Exit through the Gift Shop, although it was really the bits with Banksy in that I liked best [especially the bit about the money]. The rest was just like the sort of spoof documentary that I'm not too keen on. The problem is that I have seen Scouting for Boys [excellent, didn't realise that the guy who wrote it did Skins as well; very powerful film] and The Headless Woman [to be avoided at all costs; the most boring film I have ever seen, and I've seen some pretty boring ones] all in one week and I'm a bit filmed out. Still no nearer to knowing who Banksy is, though.
 
I watched Let The Right One In last night. Really good. Some pretty dark themes bubbling under the surface though. I see there is a Hollywood remake already slated. That'll be crap.
 
Nine. Want to watch two hours of Daniel Day-Lewis moping about? This is the film for you. Only worth a view because of Marion Cottilard who is as under used in this as she was in Public Enemies.
 
Normally, I'd be happy to spend two days watching DD-L, moping or not, but perhaps not this time!

Watched Werner Herzog's amazing Fitzcarraldo for the first time a few nights ago, c/o TCM or some old-film channel. Fascinating and eccentric true story which largely involved pulling a 320-ton ship across a small mountain between rivers, courtesy of the Jivaro tribe, in the early 1900s. The wild-haired Klaus Kinski played Fitzgerald, the almost eponymous main character, and Claudia Cardinale played his wife - not much else to do but simper and be adoring, though, so much under-used. The big schtick about the film is that Herzog did actually have a real (not lightweight mock-up) ship hauled, inch by inch, up a small mountain, for authenticity's sake, I assume. Quirky and long, but always curiously engaging.
 
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