Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[walpurgis]

talking about this film recently so have a mind to watch it again..

Barry Lyndon, 1975... Director is Stanley Kubrick.

Tremendous film!

[Barry]

A lens built by the Carl Zeiss Company for N.A.S.A., a 50mm Zeiss lens modified with the Kollmorgen adaptor used in still cameras, was used to shoot scenes lit only by candle. This lens had the largest aperture of any ever built for movie use (f/0.7)

To be precise, the modified lens (modified by Ed DiGiulio) retained the focal length of 50mm with a full aperture of f/0.7. When used with the Kollmorgan adaptor, the focal length of the combination was reduced to 36.5mm, but retained a full aperture of f/0.7, so in effect a little 'slower'.

[walpurgis]

I see Talking Pictures TV have the 1961 classic 'Only Two Can Play', with Peter Sellers on at 11.55 this morning.



I saw it recently and it's well worth a watch.

[struth]

Dances With Wolves, 1990.





Because of budget overruns and general industry reluctance to invest in a Western, Kevin Costner Costner was forced to dig deep into his own pockets and pay $ 3 million to make up the film's $18 million budget to cover overages. As it then went on to gross over $100 million, he himself earned an estimated $40 million from his original investment.

Kevin Costner's spreading out of his arms while doing his suicide run at the start of the film was a completely spontaneous gesture that took his stunt coordinator by surprise.

[struth]

I see Talking Pictures TV have the 1961 classic 'Only Two Can Play', with Peter Sellers on at 11.55 this morning.



I saw it recently and it's well worth a watch.

a good one that geoff. rarely available too

[Macca]

'Oliver Twist' (1948)

Unrivalled adaption of the Dicken's novel that actually improves on it in a number of ways. Great performances, sets, and atmosphere.

There were issues regarding the portrayal of the Fagin character. The original idea was to copy the appearance of Fagin from the illustrations used for the first edition of the book, requiring Alec Guinness to wear a large prosthetic nose. But so soon after the Holocaust this was considered unwise so the prosthetics were toned down and some scenes were shot. The problem now was that Fagin resembled Jesus Christ. So David Lean elected to return to the original make-up.

Consequently 12 minutes of footage of the scenes with Fagin in were removed for the American release.

The film was banned in Israel as Guinness's performance as Fagin was thought to be anti-Semitic. The film was banned in Egypt because it was thought that Fagin was portrayed too sympathetically.

[Barry]

Dances With Wolves, 1990.





Because of budget overruns and general industry reluctance to invest in a Western, Kevin Costner Costner was forced to dig deep into his own pockets and pay $ 3 million to make up the film's $18 million budget to cover overages. As it then went on to gross over $100 million, he himself earned an estimated $40 million from his original investment.

Kevin Costner's spreading out of his arms while doing his suicide run at the start of the film was a completely spontaneous gesture that took his stunt coordinator by surprise.

An excellent film.

[struth]

Harvey, 1950... bluray... Director is Henry Koster.






At the suggestion of James Stewart, the director changed many shots to make them wider so that "Harvey" would be in the frame.

As a joke, the cast and crew would often set a chair for the title character at lunch and order him something to eat.

When speaking with Mrs. Chumley, Elwood describes Harvey as a púca, which is a creature from Irish mythology, and in Celtic as well Nordish myth as well. Referred to as a bringer of either good or bad tidings, a púca can appear in the form of various animals, and sometimes as a human. In most cases, a púca is both friendly and very helpful.

Henry Koster and James Stewart discovered that they worked extremely well together. Koster said later that working with Stewart was "without any doubt one of the most pleasant experiences of my life...It must have been his spirit. There was very little friction, ever, only ambition and craftsmanship and precision, just doing it right professionally. On top of that he put the whipped cream of great talent...He was always the first on the set."

[struth]

Her Comes Mr Jordan, 1941, bluray.. Director is Alexander Hall...






Columbia chief Harry Cohn had serious misgivings about this adaptation of Harry Segall's minor stage play. He preferred to reserve his more lavish budgets for surefire successes (i.e., anything featuring the studio's biggest star, Rita Hayworth). However, Sidney Buchman was eventually able to talk Cohn into forking out for costly celestial sets and Farnsworth's elaborate mansion and also into hiring Robert Montgomery on loan-out from MGM. Buchman was also able to convince Cohn that he had a better appreciation of what the public would pay to see than the Wall Street bankers who Cohn answered to.

James Gleason was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the role of Max Corkle. This is the first time in Academy Awards history for a person to be nominated for a supporting Oscar for a role for which a different person would later also be nominated for a supporting Oscar: Jack Warden was nominated for Best Supporting Actor as Max Corkle in Heaven Can Wait (1978). James Gleason was mainly brought on board to polish the dialogue. Gleason had a knack for authentic sounding vernacular language but also happened to be a great actor.

James Gleason

[struth]

Another film with James Gleason now... The Bishop's Wife, 1947...







Originally Cary Grant played the bishop and David Niven the angel. When original director William A. Seiter left the film, Henry Koster replaced him and viewed what had been shot so far. He realized that the two were in the wrong roles. It took some convincing because Grant wanted the title role of the Bishop. He eventually accepted the change and his role as the angel was one of the most widely praised of his career.