Last Movie You Watched - 2020

I watched The Vast of Night, set in 1950's America where a radio DJ's and switchboard operator discover a strange signal and go on the hunt for it's source. Quite a well-done first contact movie.
 
Westy said:
I watched The Vast of Night, set in 1950's America where a radio DJ's and switchboard operator discover a strange signal and go on the hunt for it's source. Quite a well-done first contact movie.
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Was looking at this one for tonight. Has had good reviews here.
 
And just finished it.

Really, really good. Yes, it's on a budget, and so a lot of it is just talk. But very good. A really good 1950's vibe. Twilight Zone (or is that "Paradox Theatre"? :) ) meets Stephen King.
 
Hobbit said:
Yes, it's on a budget, and so a lot of it is just talk. But very good. A really good 1950's vibe. Twilight Zone (or is that "Paradox Theatre"? :) ) meets Stephen King.
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Agreed! Although I thought the first 15 minutes or so was almost too much talk, it was pretty much non-stop!
 
And fast, for these non-Texan ears!

But I liked those lovely long shots. Remember that in the Orson Welles/Charlton Heston movie Touch of Evil.
 
Hobbit said:
But I liked those lovely long shots. Remember that in the Orson Welles/Charlton Heston movie Touch of Evil.
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...and in Goodfellas for me, but yes thought the same at the time too, especially at one stage in through the basketball court, up through the window and out, it was very effective.
 
Hobbit said:
And fast, for these non-Texan ears!

But I liked those lovely long shots. Remember that in the Orson Welles/Charlton Heston movie Touch of Evil.
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To be (I'm sure) irritatingly pedantic that's a 'long take'. A 'long shot' is a shot with the subject in the distance - the opposite of a 'close up' -and since they can be cut to any length, you can have very short long shots.

My favourite extended take is from Raising Cain by Brian de Palma (who is excellent at them) which (from memory) follows a group of talking people out of an office, along a corridor, down some flights of escalators, into a lift across another floor, down some stairs, and into another room with well acted and interesting
dialogue all the way. And it ends in a jump.
 
As we're talking film history (a little), the Brian de Palma isn't a surprise. As a devotee of Hitchcock, he used a lot of techniques developed by Alfred. Hitchcock's Rope was meant to be almost one take, wasn't it? And one of the first "extended shots" (see what I did there, JM!) was in Rebecca, also directed by Hitchcock.
 
Another of my favourite long takes is Brian De Palma's as well. That shot in the Mission to Mars that takes us right round the spinning section of the ship. Great shot, less than brilliant movie - which is what I seem to end up thinking about a lot of De Palma's stuff that I've seen. I love the way he makes them but don't really like his movies. I have Russian Ark in my To Be Watched pile. A movie that achieves the Hitchcock Rope Experiment with a cast of hundreds in one 99 minute, continuous shot .

Mike Figgis's Timecode is another goodie. Four feature length long takes on screen simultanious! (the screen is split into four quarters) with characters moving from one shot to another and not a crew member in sight. Again breathtaking technically but I was less than sold on the story.
 
last year 1917 has a simulated one-take look that I found hard to spot the cuts that made it up. I thought it was a very good film that was enhanced by the trick
 
Windshadow said:
1917 has a simulated one-take look that I found hard to spot the cuts that made it up. I thought it was a very good film that was enhanced by the trick
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It was, although I watched it with a Film Studies student who explained how it was done. Still very clever.
 
I suppose THE extended shot to beat is Andy Wahol's Empire which runs to 485 minutes - though apparently there is a 60 minute cut - a single locked off shot of the Empire State Building from early evening until nearly 3 am the next day in real time!

What a tosser!
 
Could be one to have as a screen saver.... where did he get all the film to film from? :)
 
AtramentousFlux said:
Almost skipped this one after seeing some pretty lukewarm reviews on imdb, but glad that I didn't - it's quite good.
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It's very talky - be interesting to see if it works as an audio! This is partly due to its shoestring budget, I suspect. and makes it a little slow for some at the beginning, but I liked it.
 
Just Mercy. Streaming on Amazon.
It is not only an excellent film. Grabbing, emotional and extremely well acted.
But particularly relevant to justice in America at these times.
It deals with a group,
The Equal Justice Initiative.
My wife is a better person than I.
When we divided up our annual tithe this year she insisted on them.
Go and (I know that there are hundreds of orgs that do good work) and do likewise.
 
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Finally got around to watching Rocketman, the biopic of Elton John last night. The lead (Egerton) was very good, and whilst there's been a few liberties taken with the story (aren't there always?) I quite enjoyed it. And I'm not really a musicals man. Now: is it as good/better than Bohemian Rhapsody? Not sure.
 
Hobbit said:
Now: is it as good/better than Bohemian Rhapsody? Not sure.
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Good question - I liked both, but think Bohemian Rhapsody was better, mainly because I like the music better...
 
Westy said:
think Bohemian Rhapsody was better, mainly because I like the music better...
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Must admit Queen is more my thing - was lucky to see them on the 1984 Works tour (Radio Ga Ga and all that...) The undeniable musicianship was there, even if I felt they were going through the motions a little at the time...
 
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