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Cakebug Tranch

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Everything posted by Cakebug Tranch

  1. Cakebug Tranch

    Musical Mondays-Week 4-Beauty and the Beast

    Cakebug Tranch replied to Cameron H.'s topic in How Did This Get Made?

    Is there a class system going on here? Is this a commentary on the struggle of the faceless proletariat? It seems to me that the servants of a certain class are given a voice, but the serfs who shovel coal and clean out the stables become plates. They have no mouth, but they must scream.
  2. Cakebug Tranch

    Musical Mondays-Week 4-Beauty and the Beast

    Cakebug Tranch replied to Cameron H.'s topic in How Did This Get Made?

    Yeah, like, they're sentient, and have opinions, but they also have a job to do, so let's fill them up with delicious grey goop DON'T WORRY THEY LIKE IT JUST ASK THEM
  3. Cakebug Tranch
    Hey Cameron, since the genie looks like it's out of the bottle in regards to the discussion beginning, maybe we should move the discussion thread up to today? Otherwise Taylor Anne and Fister will post all their excellent insight in this thread and the discussion thread will be less rich. Just a thought...!
  4. Cakebug Tranch
    So glad to pique your passion for Pelham 123 Cam! The remake is trash compared to the original (no kidding), and the Robert Shaw-Walter Matthau dynamic, along with my beloved gritty New York vistas, make this a brilliant chase movie. There's something so satisfying about the detective element when there's no high-tech help (which Denzel had in the remake). As for Ran: absolutely, I'll put that on the to-review list!
  5. Cakebug Tranch
    Agreed - I went through a phase when my eldest child was a baby where we recorded everything that came on the movie channel, so we could watch them in the middle of the night while rocking him back to sleep (way to parent!). I saw Casablanca in this way, but don't have much of a memory of it so would welcome a second viewing. One 'classic' that I caught in this way (reminded by Cam Bert mentioning Some Like It Hot) was 'The Prince and the Showgirl', with Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier. I was blown away by how good Marilyn was - I had always just assumed she was the Meghan Fox vapid pretty face. I couldn't have been more wrong - what an incredible comic actress! I'd love to revisit some more from that era. Speaking of eras, my absolute favourite film era is the 'Easy Riders, Raging Bulls' era of 1970's Hollywood, prior to 'Jaws'. (I do LOVE Jaws, but I mean the shoestring output of the 70's that stopped happening after blockbusters started being made). I love the gritty, filthy streets of 1970's New York City in movies like 'Serpico', 'The Taking of Pelham 123', 'Dog Day Afternoon', 'Taxi Driver' and the like. I have only ever been to the Disneyfied NYC, so seeing the gritty, sleazy New York is always a huge fascination for me. Of course, the 'Easy Riders, Raging Bulls' I refer to is in regards to Peter Biskind's AMAZING book on the era. Read it if you haven't already. It's one of my favourites ever. I'm down with Cam Bert on Kurosawa. I have my first classic film suggestion already queued up. Can't wait to get going on it!
  6. Cakebug Tranch
    Not to speak for everyone or anything, but you should definitely forget about feeling like you've alienated anyone. Come back, comment often, move on.
  7. Cakebug Tranch
    Oh, ABSOLUTELY. After more than half of my lifetime as an avid (and professional) Shakespearean, I can trace my passion directly to seeing Branagh's 'Much Ado' on a school field trip, aged 15.
  8. Cakebug Tranch
    +1 to 24PP's comment. He was likely the weakest link in a stunningly competent cast, but he did the job he was asked to do. And, dude's got Shakespearean chops... If you have a few minutes, enjoy reading this article, 'To Thine Ownself Be Excellent' (seriously) at the Canadian Shakespeares project... http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/essays/reeves.cfm
  9. Cakebug Tranch
    He did! It was a condition from Castle Rock that they would make his four hour version if he also made a 2 hour cut for smaller markets. Apparently the two hour cut was so virulently hated by all who saw it that the studio buried the short version and threw their hands up. Russell Jackson, who was the script advisor on all of Branagh's Shakespeare films, is an acquaintance of mine, and a few years ago, when I was thinking of writing something on the two-hour version, I asked him what he knew about it. He said: If you can find it nowadays, it's a collectors' item. I'd stick to KB's full-length version.
  10. Cakebug Tranch
    The film exists in at least five versions - the 90 minute version I linked is the Criterion version, the American cut. The longer is (I think) the version they released after Welles' death, and from memory I think it's worth it for the story elements included. I've always been fond of the economy of storytelling in Welles' Othello and I think that was based on the 90 minute version. So, honest answer: possibly, but not sure.
  11. Cakebug Tranch
    Trust me, I wish my students were as exacting in their analysis as this! And if you're watching an 'Othello' tomorrow, go right for Welles (ignore the Fishburne/Branagh, it's sorta okay, which is a terribly damning thing to say) and watch as Desdemona's hairstyle changes from scene to scene, since it took Orson years of piecemeal filming and funding to get it in the can.
  12. Cakebug Tranch
    Well, don't forget that Roderigo's dead, Othello's dead, Desdemona's dead, Emilia's dead. Cassio's the only surviving player, and he doesn't have all the details of the conspiracy, only that Rowdy Roddy messed up in trying to kill him, and Othello's own confession. He's withholding details of why from the authorities, but of course we as the audience have more details than the arresting officers at that point. So whether 'what you know, you know' is for us, or the people on stage who don't have all the same information, that's a directorial choice. He's not about to give details about the strawberry hanky or Bianca or the scheme against Cassio. All you need to know is that the people who needed to be dead, are dead, but I'm not going to solve the mystery for you about why Othello killed her. To everyone (except the audience), they have no single clue about how Othello goes from doting husband to murderer in two days, so I think it's more directed that way. He's also refusing the opportunity to repent. That's important.
  13. Cakebug Tranch
    No, you're not wrong at all about the silence. Iago absolutely wins in the end. I always liked Welles' film adaptation that showed Iago being hauled up the side of the castle in a tiny cage, presumably to starve to death for his treason. The film started that way, then flashed back to the reason he's in the cage. One thing I think you're maybe a little off about is the point about presumed subtext: there's no subtext in Shakespeare. We can interpret any way we like, but ultimately the characters tell us what they'll do and why they'll do it, and anything else is guesswork. From what we can glean, Iago has an unhappy marriage, an unfulfilling military career, has been passed up by an "arithmetician" in Cassio, and has seen his boss's focus go from war to women. He's lashing out at the injustice of the world in front of him, and uses Roderigo as his agent of chaos. Because, when he is told that he will now be Othello's lieutenant after Cassio is brought down, and says "I am your own forever", if his whole deal was the promotion, he could stop there, and there's no need for Desi to die. But he carries it on to its worst conclusion, because he's the kind of man who wants to see the world burn (insert Michael Caine gif)...
  14. Cakebug Tranch
    He tells us straight up that it's because he was overlooked for his promotion, and also has a quick throwaway that he thinks Othello has been having sex with his wife, Emilia - 'And it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets / He hath done my office' - although there's nothing in the play to suggest that's true. Emilia seems like too nice a lady (and not exactly Othello's type), and when she figures out he's murdered Desdemona, there's no hint of a past relationship. I don't know if racism as we know it today comes into it - the anti-Moorish references in the play are casual and descriptive, and there's nothing to suggest Iago hates Othello because he's a Moor, but rather he hates him because of what he's denied him ('thought abroad' links in to what Cassio says later about his most important possession being his 'reputation'). Laurence Olivier has a lovely story about how he played Iago to Ralph Richardson's Othello, and during Othello's epileptic fit scene, Olivier kissed Richardson passionately to break him out of it, working on the subtext that Iago is actually in love with Othello and vengeful because he's been spurned. Richardson didn't jive with that interpretation (and nor did Shakespeare!). I played Iago once years ago. It's a bloody delight of a role to take on - scene chewing and audience ingratiating, and some lovely slimy scenes to work within. Remains a career highlight.
  15. Cakebug Tranch
    Well... it's not a paraphrase, exactly. It's a substitution of two words that makes the phrase more quotable - 'We are such stuff / As dreams are made on' (Tempest, IV.i.156-57) - as opposed to 'The stuff that dreams are made of'. It's not a paraphrase if the three active words from Shakespeare (stuff/dreams/made) are left intact, definitely drawing attention to the Shakespearean link. One of the points I make in my article is that it's not likely a reference designed to have us scrambling for connections to The Tempest so much as it's a phrase from the canon that's passed into a general usage and been corrupted (Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well is another example) and then quoted by the screenwriter. I agree, that Sam Spade isn't revealing his love for the bard, but I stand by my point that it's a misquotation, or at very least, a repackaging for the context. Paraphrasing would usually remove the active reference words but maintain its meaning. For example, see Josh Hartnett's 'Hugo Goulding' - the Iago figure in Tim Blake-Nelson's O - and how his final lines in that film are “Ask me nothing, I did what I did, and that’s all you need to know. From here on out I say nothing," which very consciously paraphrases Iago's "“Demand me nothing. What you know, you know. / From this time forth, I never will speak word.” With all that said, I agree with your reference position. I'd just be curious to know whether the screenwriter knew the line from Shakespeare or from the inherited common vernacular.
  16. Cakebug Tranch
    Bogey misquoting Shakespeare! I talk about this bit in a chapter I wrote for a book that should be coming out later this year with Cambridge University Press (Shakespeare and Quotation): my joint's called “Populating Film-Worlds: Quoting Shakespeare on the Twentieth-Century Screen.” Bogey's butchery of The Tempest is considered one of the seminal quotes from 20c film but no one notices that he gets it wrong. Anyway. (really, it's true)
  17. Cakebug Tranch

    Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

    Cakebug Tranch replied to SethScoblionko_110013's topic in Bad Movie Recommendations

  18. Cakebug Tranch
  19. Cakebug Tranch
    *gets ready to suggest 'It's Pat'*
  20. Cakebug Tranch
    Is there necessary Phish music?
  21. Cakebug Tranch
    I think there'd be plenty of interest. Particularly if we can find classics that not many of us have seen (which might be a challenge), or even if we just subjected each other to our absolute favourite movies (although I guess TAP is doing that for us this week).
  22. Cakebug Tranch
    Well, one leads to the other, but mostly the
  23. Cakebug Tranch
    Yeah, the not talking about it thing is just killer in the book. That's the danger of adaptation - you try to recreate the same impact for a different medium, and unless it's done really cleverly, it rarely works. The non-mention of the death is all up to the reader filling in gaps. When you show a scene in a movie, you're seeing everything, so non-mention becomes 'we don't care anymore'. Man, that part is so hard in the book. If it weren't for 'The Cider House Rules' i would suggest that Irving isn't meant to be adapted.
  24. Cakebug Tranch
    Oh, the aftermath of that moment is DEVASTATING in the book. They move to Jenny's house to recuperate, talk about how they're all progressing, slowly move through their day to day, and then, about 20 pages into the chapter, you realise one family member's name hasn't been used that chapter. Fuckin' did me in. I'm pretty sure the very presence of that scene in the film will ensure I won't watch it, actually. Too much.
  25. Cakebug Tranch
    I think I know the moments you're talking about. If they're the same ones as the ones in the book, I just reflexively crossed my legs. I kept having to remind myself as I read the book that Robin Williams was Garp. Mork as Misanthrope. Ticket line starts to the right! Irving's sketching of Roberta in the book is hopelessly of its time, particularly in terms of the language we have today to talk about transgender people or transitioning people: i am very happy to hear that Lithgow's performance is more than a caricature (or caper-scene outtake from 'Third Rock') because as I was reading I couldn't quite picture how it could be well filmed. I didn't get the sense it was an unfilmable as 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' (a way better book, and let's pretend 'Simon Birch' never happened), but it still seemed like a stretch. I'll put it on my to-watch list. PS - Hey Cam - my Jackson Five play is just about finished. Interested in some light reading for the next 5am wakeup call?
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