It is currently Sat May 18, 2013 9:08 pm

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 271 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11  Next
Author Message
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:26 am 
User avatar

Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:19 am
Location: Cape Cod
David Ehrenstein wrote:
Quote:
It also has the "traditional" issue of characters bursting into song which movie audiences no longer accept.

Don't be ridiculous. Have you ever heard of a little phenom called High School Musical?

The notion that that audiences "won't accept" actors "bursting into song" is a noxious bugaboo that should have been buried ages ago.

Yes, I have heard of "High School Musical", but I am disinclined to talk about Disney and Scorsese at the same time and I'm not really sure a Disney film wins you the point. Remember as far back as "Cabaret" when Fosse put all of the songs into the cabaret stage show? Remember when the movie version of "Little Shop of Horrors" was promoted as a horror-comedy with no clue that it was a musical? Remember as recently as "Chicago"' where the songs were "imagined" by the characters? I hope I am flat wrong and that this noxious bugaboo has indeed been buried, but I don't think so. Since we are supposed to be talking about Scorsese, let me say that "New York, New York" was one of his weakest movies (is it over yet?) and that one DID have the music integrated into the story.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:51 am 
User avatar

Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Belmondo wrote:
David Ehrenstein wrote:
Quote:
It also has the "traditional" issue of characters bursting into song which movie audiences no longer accept.

Don't be ridiculous. Have you ever heard of a little phenom called High School Musical?

The notion that that audiences "won't accept" actors "bursting into song" is a noxious bugaboo that should have been buried ages ago.

Yes, I have heard of "High School Musical", but I am disinclined to talk about Disney and Scorsese at the same time

You might be "disinclined" but Scorsese did ostensibly make a film for them (Gangs Of New York).

Furthermore, it wasn't all that long ago that Chicago took home the Best Picture award. In addition, you don't really have to look much further than the reality show looking for the newest lead characters in Grease to see that people still willingly "accept" people "bursting into song". And you will see further acceptance once Johnny Depp does the same in Sweeney Todd later this year.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:02 pm 

Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:30 pm
The first film I ever saw was Singin' in the Rain, when it opened at Radio City Music Hall back in 1952.

I was five years old.

Naively, I expected all movies would be as good. Boy was I ever wrong! With a few striking exceptions its been all downhill since 1952.

And because of Singin' in the Rain I find it unrealistic when characters in films DON'T break into song.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 7:58 pm 
Take a chance you stupid ho
User avatar

Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:23 am
Location: three miles from space
Amen to that. Deep down, aren't we all bursting into song every time we walk down the street, do the dishes, collect the bins or tickle the fancy? Or is this due also to Singin' in the Rain and Wizard of Oz on the big screen at age 3-4 in the early 70s?

For someone who has been in the game for as long as Scorsese, his innocence and genuine sincerity at finally being 'accepted' by winning big one shines through in those photos. He looks like a child again, who has finally discovered Oz, after years on the yellow brick road....


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:12 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:01 pm
Location: WoopWoop
I was just commenting on Casino elsewhere -which I still think is Scorsese's last great movie. The musical soundtrack is relentless - it just never stops - and clearly foreshadows PTA's terrific Boogie Nights. Both these movies are musicals in some meta-musical sense. (Just as Walters can do Dreyer as Judy singing Harry Warren and Mack Gordon.)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:28 pm 

Joined: Tue Nov 21, 2006 9:06 pm
While we're at it, is Columbia/Sony ever going to release a new edition of Taxi Driver? I've been holding off buying the current edish for a while. We all know the transfer could be improved.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 12:38 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
moreysurf8 wrote:
While we're at it, is Columbia/Sony ever going to release a new edition of Taxi Driver? I've been holding off buying the current edish for a while. We all know the transfer could be improved.

I'm sure the next edition will be for HD. You could always get the Japanese Superbit.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:15 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
The Independent has a great profile on Thelma Schoonmaker.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2007 6:00 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
Associated Press sez Scorsese's next is The Silence, but it won't shoot until summer '08. He's currently wrapping up the Stones doc (set for a September 14 release).


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2007 7:08 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:49 pm
Location: Denver, CO
Matt wrote:
Associated Press sez Scorsese's next is The Silence, but it won't shoot until summer '08. He's currently wrapping up the Stones doc (set for a September 14 release).

Sounds good. Scorsese says, "It raises a lot of questions about foreign cultures coming in and imposing their way of thinking on another culture they know nothing about." I know he's taking a dig at American foreign policy here, and I have not read Silence, so I don't know if this is at all appropriate, but I'm really hoping he goes for the vibe of the Powell & Pressburger films he is so fond of with this one.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2007 7:54 pm 

Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2007 12:15 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Quote:
I was just commenting on Casino elsewhere -which I still think is Scorsese's last great movie. The musical soundtrack is relentless - it just never stops - and clearly foreshadows PTA's terrific Boogie Nights. Both these movies are musicals in some meta-musical sense. (Just as Walters can do Dreyer as Judy singing Harry Warren and Mack Gordon.)

Casino's soundtrack definitely elevates the whole movie, the use of Devo's cover of "Satisfaction" is especially great. Compare that to The Departed, which had the cliched (but still effective) use of "Gimme Shelter" and then that terrible "Comfortably Numb" cover.

Still, I don't know if Scorsese has done anything as good as the opening shot of Boogie Nights set to "Best of My Love" since Goodfellas.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2007 8:21 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:21 pm
patrick wrote:
that terrible "Comfortably Numb" cover.

eh, I like it :(


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2007 9:07 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Indiana
I love it now.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2007 9:11 pm 
Take a chance you stupid ho
User avatar

Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:23 am
Location: three miles from space
I guess the Dean Martin project/musical-bio-pic has been completely shelved, which is a damn shame. All the themes and ingredients that Scorsese has spent his life dealing with are here - growing up as an Italian/American; the male vs. male ego-bondship; empty sexual obsession; Golden period Hollywood; public image; and music, music, music.

Or maybe he's just waiting for DeNiro to age a little longer. For we get a glimpse of how great this film could be with the last images in Casino, with DeNiro (as Deano) and those sunnies, accepting fate's hand.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 10:49 am 
User avatar

Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
Unfortunately, Dean was always supposed to have been played by Tom Hanks.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 11:43 am 
User avatar

Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Egad.....perhaps we're better off.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 11:53 am 
User avatar

Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
Antoine Doinel wrote:
Egad.....perhaps we're better off.

Oh, it gets worse. Travolta was to play Sinatra, Jim Carrey was to play Jerry Lewis, and Adam Sandler was being considered for the role of Joey Bishop. Here's an ancient news item to that effect, and here's an interview with Scorsese (circa the release of The Aviator where he discusses what happened to the project.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 11:54 am 
User avatar

Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
:shock:

That casting sounds like a bad SNL sketch.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 12:13 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Indiana
Who would you cast?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 3:42 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
I think Richard Gere would be a great Dean Martin.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 8:15 pm 
Take a chance you stupid ho
User avatar

Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:23 am
Location: three miles from space
Thanks for the link Matt. The last quote is interesting -

'I actually thought the strongest story there beyond the Rat Pack thing, before that was his relationship with Jerry Lewis and the creative relationship and how that worked out. Ultimately, having gone through such fame, having such a close working relationship, how he then pulled back seemingly creatively, seemingly, and had gone through such a close relationship - like a marriage. That's a very strong thing. That's really the story, I think. And it's the story of creative collaboration whether you're writers or painters or composers, musicians, anything, filmmakers, comedians. This is it. This is the story of two people and how they worked together over the years.'

From what I've read, this may be the autobiographical story arc DeNiro wants to sort out with Scorsese over the next few years.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 8:20 pm 

Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2007 12:15 pm
Location: Philadelphia
I think Jim Carrey would actually be a good choice to play Jerry Lewis, given his apparent skill for mimicry.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 8:31 pm 
Take a chance you stupid ho
User avatar

Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:23 am
Location: three miles from space
flyonthewall2983 wrote:
Who would you cast?

Personally, I would set it in the late 80s/90s, with DeNiro as old Dino, spending most of the movie sitting alone in restaurants with his thoughts, beer and cold meats, as family, friends and fans come, bother and go. The occasional flashback; cuts into dreamland; lots of space; a low budget piece on blanking out creatively, spiritually and emotionally from everything and everyone - the long, empty wait.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 9:13 pm 

Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2007 12:15 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Oddly enough, that's how I imagine Jerry Lewis today.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 9:30 pm 
User avatar

Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:05 pm
Location: Connecticut
patrick wrote:
I think Jim Carrey would actually be a good choice to play Jerry Lewis, given his apparent skill for mimicry.

Go with Peter Bogdanovich -- he can play both Martin and Lewis.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 271 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11  Next

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group




This site is not affiliated with The Criterion Collection