25 new of 241 responses total.
London tabloids are reporting that Jennifer Lopez has insured her body for $1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars). "$500,000,000 per cheek," as the N.Y. Post observed. That is one insurance policy I would love to see.
BTW, I do believe that in England, the insured value of Jennifer Lopez's body would be "one thousand million dollars," and a "billion" would be "one million million."
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I bet her premiums cost an arm and a leg..
I just caught the remake of "Psycho" on cable the other night. What a complete waste of film stock.
After watching the "Psycho" remake, my question was "Why?" The fact that talented people were involved made the existence of this movie all the more puzzling.
We're living in the 90's (for another three weeks, anyway..) The studios are required to produce at least one high-profile remake for every new idea they produce.. You don't think anyone *wanted* to produce a version of Diabolique with Sharon Stone instead of Simone Signoret, do you? As far as "Psycho" goes, though, I chalk it up to the Gus van Sant factor. I've met people who have claimed to enjoy his films but they're obviously seeing different versions of them than I am..
The cool thing to do with Psycho is to rent the DVD of the original film and the videotape of the remake, and play both at the same time, so you can jump back and forth. Since the sequel is a scene for scene, shot for shot remake, watching both at the same time is really eerie.
Again, this begs the question: Why? (of course my stock answer is that Hollywood has no original ideas left and resorts to remakes to keep the myth floating)
Yeah, Van Sant did a carbon copy of the Hitchcock masterpiece, but lost all the wit and humor. Hitchcock's "Psycho" is actually a wickedly funny film.
This summer, I was briefly parked in Van Sant's space at the Universal lot. Apparently, *that's* an exact duplicate of Hitchcock's, too.
Except for "Psycho", I've mostly liked the Van Sant films I've seen: "My Private Idaho", "To Die For", "Good Will Hunting".
I turned off "To Die For" about 2/3 of the way through, after waiting in vain for it to go somewhere or start developing a point (that is, a point other than "Look! Nicole Kidman!") "Drugstore Cowboy" didn't do much for me, either (except for the sndtrk.) And must I really dredge up "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues"?
The Seven Samurai is being shown on TCM at 7:30pm Dec 9. I strongly suggest taping it, or watching it. I think it just might get the bad taste of that terrible Psyco out of your mouth. It IS 4 hours long so be prepared for that as well.
I made a mistak. It was on at 10:30pm.
Yes, with "The Magnificent Seven" (Hollywood version of "Seven Samurai") on just before.
I have also got wind that both the silent and the 1959 versions of Ben-Hur will be shown as well as Gone With The Wind. Uncut. In one piece. I'm not sure I'm worthy of such good programming. ;)
I got myself an early christmas present yesterday-- the new Criterion Collection DVD of Jean Renoir's classic "La Grande Illusion" (which actually translates into 'the Great Illusion', but everyone calls it 'Grand Illusion'. This is widely regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made-- a story of people trying to maintain their humanity and decency while caught up in the chaos of World War I. Renoir was the son of the famous artist of the same name and became France's greatest film director The DVD has a clip of Renoir introducing the film, saying that it summed up his hopes for the world, and what he felt was the most dangerous threat to our futures, the gradual loss of humanity in the modern world. The film details the travails of prisoners of war in a german prison camp, how they cope with being in prison, without losing their basic essential decency. This DVD is the new uncut digitally remastered version made directly from the original negative. Hitler's cronies saw the film as propoganda and attempted to destroy all copies. For years until recently, there were no uncut copies and scenes were missing. But, miraculously, the original negative was smuggled out of Nazi occuppied France during World War II by an american captain, and with the wonders of modern technology this one of the greatest of all films has been beautifully restored. One of the extras on the DVD is the story of Criterion's restoration process, comparing chopped up and missing scenes from previous issues with the uncut digital version offered here. This also has the 1937 radio broadcast of Renoir accepting the 1937 Academy Award for Best Foriegn Film, and a radio interview with great German director Eric Von Stroheim, who plays the German prison camp commander here. And of course the trailer for the film and a whole bunch of other stuff (the Criterion DVD's are loaded with more extras than most) Suffice it to say that being able to own this DVD of "Grand Illusion" is by itself worth the price of buying a DVD player. It is one of the prizes of my movie collection. GRAND ILLUSION (***** five stars, masterpiece...DVD version 5+ stars!)
I am somewhat less than patiently for the restored "Grand Illusion" to make its way to an Ann Arbor theater.
(Make that "I am waiting somewhat less than patiently...")
Criterion released the restored version in theaters back in august because the early reviews of the new dvd were raves. Since the DVD is now out, I think the theatrical run is probably done. French films with english subtitles from the 30's arent the sort to have long theater runs. They are now working on restoring Renoir's other classic, "Rules of the Game"...I cant wait
Actor Desmond Llewellyn (sp?) who played the character Q in the James Bond series was killed in a trafic accident today. He was 85. A sad loss.
Re resp:237 - On the other hand, Ann Arbor has a theater (the Michigan) which commonly does short runs of foreign films and restorations, so I'm puzzled why they haven't shown "Grand Illusion". Perhaps I should ask them.
Maybe they figure that the last lingering shards of the Cinema Guild hold a monopoly on campus-area showings of Renoir's films..
Grand Illusion played out here at the DIA last November. I was in awe. it was well worth the wait. i recommend it to all the film watchers out there
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