National Railway Museum's You Tube Channel
via youtube.com
Brief Encounters at the NRM - I'll be taking my grandson to see this at the weekend.
Explore Posterous
Search posterous
Search all posts and users. Type a name, type a favorite song title, whatever! See what comes up.
More posterous blogs
Here are posterous posts filed under films...
Blood Diamond
via youtube.com
I'm watching Blood Diamond on DVD at the moment, too early for first impressions - I'll edited when I've time to tell you all what I think!
Favorite Film Directors of Mine and Their Best Films
I had difficulty selecting a single film for some directors; therefore I selected more than one. These are all directors who have consecutively put out great films; I'm not going to list any directors who have only made a single good film (there are lots of those unfortunately).
Anyway, here are my favorite directors and their best film(s) (in my opinion):Steven Spielberg: Best film(s) - Close Encounters of the Third KindMartin Scorsese: Best film(s) - Taxi Driver Nicolas Roeg:Best film(s) - Walkabout Ridley Scott:Best film(s) - Alien/Blade Runner Gus Van Sant:Best film(s) - Drugstore Cowboy Stanley Kubrick: Best film(s) - A Clockwork Orange Werner Herzog: Best film(s) - Stroszek/Aguirre, the Wrath of GodGeorge A. Romero:Best film(s) - Martin David Cronenberg: Best film(s) - The Dead Zone/Videodrome Krzysztof Kieslowski: Best film(s) - Dekalog (TV series) Tim Burton:Best film(s) - Ed Wood/Edward Scissorhands Quentin Tarantino: Best film(s) - Reservoir Dogs Jean-Pierre Melville: Best film(s) - Le samouraï Frank Darabont: Best film(s) - The Shawshank RedemptionHayao Miyazaki: Best film(s) - Spirited Away George Lucas:Best film(s) - Star Wars (episodes IV, V and VI)Roman Polanski: Best film(s) - The Tenant (*NOTE* This blog-post was extracted from this thread of mine on the HikiCulture forums.)
The Top Grossing Foreign-Language Films in the 2000s
1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Taiwan) | 2000 | $128,078,872
2. Hero (China) | 2004 | $53,710,019
3. Pan’s Labyrinth (Mexico) | 2006 | $37,634,615
4. Amelie (France) | 2001 | $33,225,499
5. Jet Li’s Fearless (China) | 2006 | $24,633,730
6. Kung Fu Hustle (China) | 2005 | $17,108,591
7. The Motorcycle Diaries (Argentina) | 2004 | $16,781,387
8. Iron Monkey (Hong Kong) | 2001 | $14,694,904
9. Monsoon Wedding (India) | 2002 | $13,885,966
10. Y Tu Mama Tambien (Mexico) | 2002 | $13,839,658
11. Volver (Spain) | 2006 | $12,899,867
12. Under The Same Moon (Mexico/USA) | 2008 | $12,590,147
13. The Protector (Thailand) | 2006 | $12,044,087
14. The Lives of Others (Germany) | 2007 | $11,286,112
15. Brotherhood of the Wolf (France) | 2001 | $11,260,096
16. House of Flying Daggers (China) | 2004 | $11,050,094
17. La Vie en Rose (France) | 2007 | $10,301,706
18. Talk To Her (Spain) | 2002 | $9,285,469
19. City of God (Brazil) | 2006 | $7,564,459
20. The Orphanage (Spain) | 2007 | $7,161,284
21. The Closet (France) | 2001 | $6,678,894
22. Maria Full of Grace (USA/Colombia) | 2004 | $6,529,624
23. A Very Long Engagement (France) | 2004 | $6,524,389
24. Nowhere in Africa (Germany) | 2003 | $6,180,200
25. Tell No One (France) | 2008 | $6,177,192
26. El Crimen del Padre Amaro (Mexico) | 2002 | $5,717,044
27. Mongol (Russia) | 2008 | $5,705,761
28. Water (Canada) | 2006 | $5,529,144
29. Downfall (Germany) | 2005 | $5,509,040
30. The Counterfeiters (Austria) | 2008 | $5,488,570
via indiewire.com
Rest of article: http://www.indiewire.com/article/b.o._of_the_00s_the_top_grossing_foreign-language_films/#When:16:56:12Z
Bonding Time
I'm currently trudging (slowly) through the 20-over films from the Bond franchise because Mad Men - which recently ended its third season - has me obsessed fascinated with that era.
Some of the films can be yawners though, my picks so far are the ones that seem a little more esoteric when it comes to foreign culture. Like From Russia With Love (based in Istanbul, with a Russian lover and a skirmish with gypsies), You Only Live Twice (which references Japanese culture) and Live and Let Die (influenced much by the blaxploitation-era it was made in).
Then there are the lush soundtracks, which I'll save for a later post.
In the meantime, I've taken a liking to the digital timepieces that 007 dons and wanted to dedicate a post on it. Apart from the Hamilton Pulsar, they all seem to be from Seiko. Pity they don't make more of such watches, no?
The Seiko G757 Sports 100 from Octopussy (the gold-trimmed version is quite fetching too):
via uncrate.com
One of the first digital watches, the Hamilton Pulsar (the same division that made this was interestingly sold off to Seiko), was originally intended to be used in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey but it wasn't developed in time. Worn by Roger Moore in Live and Let Die:
The simple and minimal Seiko 0674 5009 from The Spy Who Loved Me:
Terminator Salvation on Blu-ray: Or, get out of the way of the screen, you ginger gitwizard...
It's all Watchmen's fault, of course. Ever since Zack Snyder introduced this whole walk-on directors commentary malarky, there's been the danger of this happening.
And now, on Blu-ray, there's a way of making Terminator Salvation an even more irritating and worthless experience than it was at the cinema.
Now, I've no problem with director commentaries. They're usually enjoyable, they add something extra to a film you've seen before (usually) and they're a natural extension of the making-of process.
I don't even mind branching extras. They're optional. You don't need to do anything if you don't want to, and if you do then it doesn't disrupt the flow of the film too much.
But this is something different, taking the tedious and unnecessary Christian Bale growlathon sequel and extending the misery.
For, as you'll see above, at seemingly random points of the movie the display goes from a nice HD print of the movie to something resembling a cheap iDVD menu, while some irritating ginger twat stands in front of the picture and talks over what's happening.
'In this scene here,' proclaims McG, 'you can see...' Except we can't We can't see feck all, because there some ginger gitwizard standing between the screen and us. Get out the way, Nichol, some of us are trying to watch the film.
Although to be fair, I'm not trying to watch it. It's a bloody awful film. The man who managed to cock up Charlie's Angels, lets not forget, and who was going to rape the arse off Spaced, has now skewered the once-iconic Terminator franchise. A series which survived the indignities of the Terminatrix and the whacky adventures of the Sarah Connor Chronicles gets turned into a Transformers-meets-Mad-Max mashup.
Sam Worthington tries his best, bless, with an overbooked character, while Anton Yelchin - tagged as comic relief v1.2 in Star Trek - turns in a likeable performance as baby Kyle Reese. But up against Christian Bale's growly Batman With A Gun, it's not enough.
Il Recenzore Portatile: Nemico Pubblico, 2012, Gli abbracci spezz ati
Tanto per non lasciarvi indietro, vi racconterò che ultimamente ho fatto poco assai. In compenso sono stato parecchio al cine, refugium peccatorum degli ignavi, pavidi molluschi inadatti alla vita vera, che consiste nell'uscire baldanzosi all'aria aperta, assaporare il vento sulla faccia e fra i lunghi capelli biondi al vento, col petto nudo aperto alle intemperie. Noialtri le avventure le sublimiamo attraverso le figurine semoventi sullo schermo; talvolta figurone, talaltra figurette microscopiche, indistinguibili da macchie di grasso sulla tappezzeria, causa la inarrestabile frammentazione degli schermi nei multisala, che produce miniaturizzazione dei medesimi, anchilosi degli arti inferiori (incastonati fra file di sedili bonsai) e precoce cecità, detta anche miopia assoluta del cinefilo (da non confondere con quella del pornografo, tipo umano meno rejetto, che raramente si abbassa a frequentare le sale). Comunque. Dicevamo che avevo visto dei films, mi ricordassi quali. Ah, sì. Ho visto "Nemico Pubblico", il films con Johnny Depp che fa Dillinger. Due ore di spara spara ammazza ammazza ambientate negli anni '30, che dice la critica sono da apprezzare nella loro asciuttezza ed essenzialità, dai sentimenti rarefatti come è nello stile di Michael Mann (il regista, quello di Heat, che pero' era mejo). Asciuttezza ed essenzialita' che, tradotte ai profani, si risolvono in personaggi monoespressione che fanno stragi pum pum pum che durano mezzorate buone contrappuntandole con frasi storiche che suonao tipo: "Voglio tutto, e non mi fermeranno mai". E basta. Due ore e mezza di ciò, che ormai è la durata standard per noialtri forzati della sala. Io dico 6--, ma e' perche' son buono che mi piacciono i films con ambientazioni d'epoca e macchinone cromate. 7 al Cinema Nuovo Aquila invece, bello davvero. Poi che altro? Poi ho visto "2012", il filmone sulla Fine del Mondo predetta da Giacobbo, cioe' non proprio da lui ma dagli Incas, ma lui ci ha messo del suo terrorizzandoci debitamente. "2012" e' un film che, a volerlo prendere per il culo per bene, non si sa da dove cominciare, talmente è una stronzata. Io dico: e mò? Dopo che hanno fatto il Film Definitivo sui Disastri, che riassume e compendia in due ore e quaranta (durata standard, ma qui almeno è giustificata, sta finendo il mondo, dagli il tempo) tutti i precedenti films catastrofici su Meteoriti, Comete, Onde Enormi, Vulcani Assassini, Terremoti, Tifoni ed altri fenomeni naturali assortiti, cosa potranno inventarsi, ancora? Niente, questo film ha fatto la summa di tutto, banalizzando e riassumendo frettolosamente tutto ciò che sul tema s'è detto e si dirà, il Bignami dei film catastrofici che chiude, male, un'intero dignitoso filone cinematografico. Requiescat, col mio 4. Infine, siamo stati a vedere il films di Almodovar, "Gli abbracci spezzati", che è un melodramma (due ore e mezza) pieno di frasi struggenti, addii, abbandoni, languori, frociate, citazioni ipercinefile, Penelope Cruz coi suoi bronci adorabili davanti, di dietro e di lato, condito da frasi storiche tipo "l'ultima cosa che ha sentito prima di morire è stato il sapore delle tue labbra, Josè". 6, perchè non voglio fare la figura del maschio bruto e brutto, che non capisce, non entra in empatia con l'universo femminino. Capisco pure ed empatizzo quel che posso, ma che palle.
