nick_md wrote:

Well now.

Brilliant. Just what’s needed now.

I always worry that stuff like this gets taken the wrong way by certain Americans. Watched a great satire about Proud Boys on Twitter the other day and people were actually explaining that it wasn’t real and a joke smh.

Cineworld are closing across America too.

Watched an old Woody Allen film I hadn't seen in years. Love and Death It was the last of the early work that had a bit of slapstick in.

It's in between Sleeper and Annie Hall, the latter being quite probably in my top 10 films ever. This shows Allen starting to really show his eye - in places this film is beautiful. It was shot in France and Hungary. It's set in Russia during the Napoleanic Wars and even has some decent battle scenes - cleverly conveying a sense of scale on what was probably a modest budget.

The first Allen film I ever saw was Sleeper and I remember loving it - I literally rolled with laughter in places at it. I was pretty young - maybe 12 or so - and would have missed a lot of the more adult gags. I remember a short Allen season shown around Christmas time many years ago made up of his early stuff. I was still pretty young and the memories of watching them late at night on BBC2 with my father are very happy so these films really resonate the old nostalgia glands with me even though I remember nothing matching up to the laughs I got out of Sleeper. There was a quality in his work that kept me watching.

Love and Death has aged well but a some of the jokes are for those of a literary bent with Russian literature references. There are take offs of some of Bergmann's films too.  I recognised a bit that's a reference to Personna. There's an early dream scene that feels Fellini-esque too. It could be accused of being a bit too clever for its own good. It's also an awkward mix of this and more bawdy comedy with a side order of slapstick but it still holds together. Diane Keaton is really very good in it and the supporting cast help a lot too.

I never really watched much of his stuff after that but I always knew him as being prolific. A quick imdb lookup and my goodness he's been busy. I have a notion to try and do some catch up with him. So if anyone has recommendations I'd appreciate any pointers.

I must be weird in that I actually really like some of the later Woody Allen stuff - everyone says I love you and so on. But Annie Hall is a cracking film, Hannah and her sister's - just cannot be arsed to watch them. I am less into cinematography though, I notice it unconsciously I guess but mainly when I watch a film it's about what happens and how it makes me feel.

regmcfly wrote:

I liked Midnight In Paris as a film.

Yes that is also great. I think his late stuff is really underrated and different. Only other series that make me feel somewhat similar are the Before trilogy, two days in Paris, I dunno. Like the feel of these flicks. Lantana in Oz is another one. Proper melancholy but weirdly uplifting films. Life eh

regmcfly wrote:

I love Annie Hall but find it hard nowadays to watch. That does not reduce the comedy, rapport, and warmth of the film. There's something there. But when the guy comes in saying

Spoiler:

twins, 16 year olds[/spoiler can't help but see the filmmaker.

That line is certainly stark today. Not all together fantastical sadly. It makes a point - not maybe the one that was intended at the time - but it still does. The film is brilliantly made. Its swoops and time jumps are really quite modern - ahead of its time.

Allen is haunted by a lot of what was said about him by Mia Farrow who was a fruitcake. But the filmmaker does have that baggage. 

Manhattan is a beautiful looking film but I'm not sure if I'd like it now.

regmcfly wrote:

I liked Midnight In Paris as a film.

Loved it. Until that final scene.

Tenet the biggest cinema movie of 2020.

Cinéma is fucked, it was fucked before. Thinks like premium cinema with reheated gourmet Waitrose pizza going for 14.99 might survive - Curzon here.mostly, and things like the prince Charles cinema if it can survive with capital / get a rent holiday.

It genuinely upsets me, what happens. Flora and I have spent £30 on two films, portrait of a lady on fire and bill and ted, and we are happy to do so, but I am so worried about the ongoing status of cinema.

Cinema has long made the play for experiencing the big film on the big screen. They are the expensive ones of course - and that ship's sailing time is long overdue.  The make their money on the pick n mix anyhow I'm guessing?

I love a big daft film but a surfeit of confectionary isn't satisfying. See what I did there?

Smaller, smarter films are what I'd like too - but I'm not sure if cinema enhances them enough to be a draw. I'd go but I'm not mainstream by any stretch of the imagination.

Cinema has been on its last gasps before. The multiscreen was the concept that brought it back. Ownership may change as a result of this but I cant imagine it wont be back.

Thats no solace to those facing redundancy of course. Absence of any discernible government strategy is the bigger challenge to these industries.

They needn't have bothered.