Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

Don't know it, but William Bendix was one of my favourite actors and Steinbeck was a great writer.

It was a bit of an unknown cast at time but they mostly all went on to good careers. Fabulous film imo.. very much worth watching

[Barry]

Billy Wilder's Five Graves To Cairo, 1943. Starring Franchot Tone, Erich von Stroheim and Anne Baxter.



Eureka's newest remastered 4k transfer bluray.


Sourced from a brand new 4K master, newer even then the one used for Eureka’s recent release, Kino’s transfer is simply stunning, with a consistently sharp, richly detailed image that’s free of all signs of debris. Ample and evenly distributed grain helps preserve the original film-like texture of the 35mm print, while the high contrast ratio produces inky blacks and an impressive range of grays, which go a long way to highlighting John F. Seitz’s moody cinematography. The DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is well balanced, capturing the full depth of Miklós Rózsa’s rousing score and sporting perfectly clean dialogue.

I remember enjoying that film when it was shown on TV many years ago.

[struth]

Contact, 1997. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Jody Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, Tom Skerritt, William Fichtner, John Hurt, Angela Bassett, Rob Lowe, Jake Busey and David Morse.






Carl Sagan conceived the idea for Contact in 1979. The same year, Lynda Obst, one of Sagan's closest friends, was hired by film producer Peter Guber to be a studio executive for his production company, Casablanca FilmWorks. She pitched Guber the idea for Contact, who commissioned a development deal.[2] Sagan and Ann Druyan (who were later married) wrote a more than 100 page film treatment, finishing in November 1980.[5][6] Druyan explained:

Carl's and my dream was to write something that would be a fictional representation of what contact would actually be like, that would convey something of the true grandeur of the universe.

[walpurgis]

Contact, 1997

I liked that film. Not sure why really, 'cos it's a bit anticlimactic and the story does not make much sense. Carl Sagan was a great guy though.

[Macca]

The longest shaggy-dog story ever.

[Barry]

I saw the film when it came out, but wasn't impressed at the time. As you say the anti-climax is a big let down.

[struth]

I quite like it.. Its a story that cannot have an end, only a beginning i guess.. The known universe is huge.. but how big is it outwith the knownn, and what is it?

[struth]

The 39 Steps, 1935. Robert Donat stars with Madeleine Carroll. Hitch directs.





Alas not the criterion reworked blueray but an sd file from Amazon prime

[struth]

Forbidden Planet, 1956. directed by Fred M. Wilcox, that stars Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen.





In times long past, this planet was the home of a mighty, noble race of beings who called themselves the Krell. Ethically and technologically they were a million years ahead of humankind, for in unlocking the mysteries of nature they had conquered even their baser selves, and when in the course of eons they had abolished sickness and insanity, crime and all injustice, they turned, still in high benevolence, upwards towards space. Then, having reached the heights, this all-but-divine race perished in a single night, and nothing was preserved above ground.

'We're all part monsters in our subconscious, so we have laws and religion!'

'The beast. The mindless primitive! Even the Krell must have evolved from that beginning.'

[walpurgis]

Forbidden Planet, 1956

Great movie, an absolute classic of its time!