Last Film You Watched?

LiamR

LiamR

Well-known member
I didn't see one of these types of threads around, so I thought I would start it, fairly simple concept, post the last film you watched, few words about it, etc... This is a good way to find out about movies you never even knew about.

The Pixar Story
thepixarstorycover.jpg


This is potentially my favorite documentary to watch, I have always been a big pixar fan, and to watch how to company came to. The dynamic of such a successful company, etc.. is amazing. I just wish they did a Vol. 2 or something, so we could see from when the documentary finishes, early 2007, until now. Hopefully they'll do one in years to come.

American History X
american-history-x-dvd-cover.jpg


One of my all time favorites, not much else to say about it apart from, watch it... now!

What have you recently watched?
 
These threads start all the time but get big pretty quick so might as well start a new one.

Rififi - the famous safe cracking scene, daring (for the time) subjects explored, the performances of the inexperienced actors and behind the scenes legend aside - the 'colour' of the images in this film are just staggeringly beautiful. One of my favourite noirs and a case in point of the magic possible with b+w. Makes me want to shoot in black and white. Although I suspect the character of the stock isn't achievable with modern film stock let alone video.
 
Egg Born Son said:
Although I suspect the character of the stock isn't achievable with modern film stock let alone video.
Click to expand...

I shot mostly B&W for 20+ years - from High School in 1974 to 1998, when I switched to 99% color.

I was totally blown away by the color conversion possible in a tool like Lightroom. You can adjust the color to grey conversion of every hue & saturation level. I actually **prefer** to shoot color images for B&W since seeing those tools.

You could duplicate the same thing in Photoshop (Lightroom has sliders laid out for eth conversion, but PS can do it), then import the Video Layer into Premiere.

The same thing with grain. I bet you could emulate it fairly well.

I am busy for 1 more week, but if you want to try, send me an e-mail.


Last movie? Hunger Games.

I enjoyed watching the image coloring, CGI, etc. I think it was a mistake to focus so much on the near and close up shots. The director said he chose that for an internalized/subjective view, but I think he lost the "1984" "big brother" effect.

I am always bothered by obviously clean, healthy, well fed, scrubbed (and hairstyles - the male in eth first hunting scene) portrayed as dirt poor. Only the clothes have an "aged but fresh pressed, scrubbed" look. Oh well, big budget ....

Cheers!
Michael
 
The last movie I watched was "Jeff, Who Lives At Home."

It was pretty much my last Jason Reitman straw. If he touches it, I'll skip it from now on.
 
I'm currently watching the "Harry Potter" series, and am at year 6... I've liked the series and the Wife and I occasionally have these 'marathons' of showing the various series installments over a couple of days or a week.

The last 'art' film, or 'classic' film probably was "The Third Man"(1949), which I watched sometime in May.

These days, sometimes I'll just watch a portion of a film, specific scenes that I read about in some book or another, or just that I recall and want to review.

As for either shooting 'classic' B&W, or using 'color' capture then post processing to B&W(technically monochrome...). There are any number of things that would prevent someone from getting the 'classic' results... film stock... who wants to shoot on ASA 32 stock... or 'fast' of 100 (or so...)... who can afford the lights to make that work, especially in classic 'noir' lighting...

The thing with transforming 'color' to 'B&W'... is that B&W films had different responses to colors, and while there are some 'formulas' or lists of adjustments that are out there to emulate B&W response (for some given stock...), most people don't bother, and just dial out saturation... perhaps boost contrast to compensate for the 'flat' look... Most people these days have never heard of a Wratten 90 filter to view a scene in 'monochrome'...
 
Last edited:
The Departed. That one slipped, missed it at the theatres, and we only get pirated copies here so those aren't even worth trying, and i'm kind of opposed to the whole pirated thing.

So yeah, the Departed has been replaying on my computer on repeat... in between episodes of ... Breaking bad, which is beating a lot of my favorite films even as far as how well done it is.

Those two. The Departed, and Breaking Bad, chalking it up as one big long movie.
 
refocusedmedia said:
He was just a producer.. sounds like you have an issue with the Duplass brothers.
Click to expand...

I would say that, except it hits all the same "indy" bullet points in the exact same order as every other film he's involved with does. It's his thing. It's as much a Jason Reitman film as Poltergeist is a Steven Spielberg film.
 
Apocalypse Now.

And it was the original screening version: no opening or end credits, and ends with a simple fade to black as the boat pulls away. It's weird to watch it now and see these actors in younger (and absolutely brilliant) performances. It's a trippy film, but it's always been one of my favorites from Coppola.
 
Alex H. said:
Apocalypse Now.

And it was the original screening version: no opening or end credits, and ends with a simple fade to black as the boat pulls away. It's weird to watch it now and see these actors in younger (and absolutely brilliant) performances. It's a trippy film, but it's always been one of my favorites from Coppola.
Click to expand...

I've been working on a war essay so I recently watched Deer Hunter, Platoon, Forrest Gump, and Apocalypse Now redux version but I've been meaning to watch the theatrical release again... may just do so tonight!
 
Watched K-19: The Widowmaker for the first time. This is only my 3rd Bigelow film, and I would put it above Point Break but below The Hurt Locker. Overall a good film, but the catharsis didn't completely work for me. There were some really great moments though. I admit it bothered me a teeny bit in the beginning all the different (and sometimes non-existant) russian accents, but I got over it quickly.

In the end I would recommend it, it's a good way to spend 2+ hours.
 
The Adventures of Milo and Otis, finally out on Blu-ray :)

Shame to hear about all the animal abuse rumors though... they're unconfirmed, but seeing the film for the first time in years, they seem likely.
 
http://www.beastsofthesouthernwild.com/

Beasts of the Southern Wild. If you want to be inspired by what an indie filmmaker can do on a shoe-string budget - I highly recommend this movie as it was probably one of the best first time narratives I've ever seen.

Like the main character - the music, cinematography, story and acting moved me in ways I have not experienced at the cinema in a long time.
 
Alán Ortiz said:
http://www.beastsofthesouthernwild.com/

Beasts of the Southern Wild. If you want to be inspired by what an indie filmmaker can do on a shoe-string budget - I highly recommend this movie as it was probably one of the best first time narratives I've ever seen.

Like the main character - the music, cinematography, story and acting moved me in ways I have not experienced at the cinema in a long time.
Click to expand...

Saw that in the theater a couple weeks ago.

It's a neat film, very experimental. Great story, great score and great direction of local/first-time actors. The one thing that bothered me was the cinematography. it was shot on film, but it seemed like it was influenced by the recent school of DSLR filmmaking that shoots everything super-shallow just because it can be done. It's that terrible misconception that shallow DOF is what defines "cinematic" footage. It was a good film in most other ways, but I did get tired of all the soft focus as the DoP was working to keep up with the subjects.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top