By Craig Kennedy - February 17th, 2013; 4:56 pm
Of all the movies I’ve rewatched lately for Movie Quote of the Day, Ratatouille easily provided the most pleasure so it’s an easy choice for this week’s Watercooler Musical Interlude. Here’s Michael Giacchino’s “La Festin” sung by Camille, a little number that’s as charming as the film.
Here’s to movies. Here’s to Paris and here’s to great food.
That’s all from me this elongated weekend. Now it’s your turn. Has anyone seen anything worth talking about since last week? Lay it on me.
Filed under: The Watercooler
Oh God I love that song so much Craig! Great show to post it here!
Lucille, Sammy and I saw the following (with Danny and Jeremy for the Whale):
Sound City **** 1/2 (Tuesday night) Landmark Sunshine Cinemas
No **** (Friday night) Angelika Film Center
Frankenstein (1931) ***** (Sunday morning) Film Forum
The Tell-Tale Heart (1953, animated) ***** (Sunday morning) Film Forum
Gone with the Wind (1939) ***** (Saturday night) Lafayette Theater (Suffern)
SOUND CITY, an often electrifying rock documentary is a labor of love of the venerable Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame, who serves as director, interviewer and emcee of this endearing look at a legendary studio set in an industrial park in southern California, that opened in 1969. Grohl, a musical force of nature, imparts raw energy in clips featuring Fleetwood Mac, Rick Springfield, Paul McCartney, Nirvana, Tom Petty and Metalica among others. The documentary’s all-together riveting forward motions makes it one of the best films of it’s kind, and 2013′s first entry in the near-masterpiece bracket.
The Chilean nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, NO, featuring Gael Garcia Bernal is a largely perverse, humorous and ultimately moving film features a superb turn from the actor, a riveting sense of urgency due to the cinema verite style, and excellent incorporation of the news footage of the time to make it seem as if we are right there on the street with the characters. The ‘yes’ or ‘no’ of course has to do with whether the vote will maintain the murderous reign of dictator Augusto Pinochet. Pablo Larraine’s direction keeps things at fever pitch, even with a few dead spots.
The OSCAR NOMINATED LIVE ACTION SHORTS grouping yields two exceptional works and three others that can rightly be framed as ‘very good.’ A moving study of old age with an irresistible employment of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Schumann’s glorious Andante Cantabile from his famed ‘Piano Quartet Op. 47′, HENRY (by Yan England), like Michael Haneke’s Amour and Dustin Hoffman’s Quartet takes a melancholic look at old age and memories with a generous context of classical music to enhance the theme. It builds to a deeply moving climax. DEATH OF A SHADOW features a specter of death that takes photographs of people as they die, while the US made CURFEW has a vivid sense of whimsy and a convincing feel of time and place, as well as some effective dark humor. The other two shorts, ASAD and BUZKASHI BOYS offer a few nifty surprises.
Lucille, Sammy and I traveled up to Suffern, New York on Saturday night to watch GONE WITH THE WIND at the Lafayette movie palace in the scenic town just over the Garden State border. I’ve seen the film well over a hundred times in my life, but introducing it to young Sammy was quite a treat. And then the Sunday morning “Film Forum Jr.” series continued with the 1930 FRANKENSTEIN (another film seen too many times to remember) which was accompanied by the 1953 seven-minute animated classic THE TELL-TALE HEART based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, narrated by James Mason. Sammy, Danny and Jeremy came along with Lucille and I, and after the movie and short we drove up to Times Square and weathered the windy and chilling weather to spend some time in the Toys Are Us megastore, and a three-floor Barnes & Nobles.
I watched The Bad and the Beautiful on TCM today. Amazing classic.
And I rewatched Moonrise Kingdom on DVD. Love this movie.
I just added Ratatouille to my Netflix queue. I love that film and it’s been far too long since I’ve seen it. This weekend I watched Fargo (appropriate given the dusting of snow we got) and ParaNorman, which was fun and featured some impressive stop-motion.
I saw Parker and Side Effects this weekend. I went in to Parker based mainly on a positive review I read elsewhere, and due to the impressive cast. It did not pan out. At all. So that’s all I’ll say on that.
Side Effects was more fun. Not necessarily deep and a bit different from what I expected, but fun none the less. The acting is good and Soderbergh’s direction is superb. The basic premise is a bit tough to swallow, but this is one of those thrillers with just enough momentum to overcome it.
Which was your favorite of the Live Action Shorts, Sam? I’m partial to CURFEW.
Matthew, my favorite was HENRY, but I’ll confess I am extremely partial to Mascagni’s “Cavaleria Rusticanna” and Schumann’s “Andante Cantabile” from his Piano Quartet, both of which were beautifully woven into this dark but strangely moving meditation on loss. But I did like aspects of CURFEW and that delightful twist in ASAD, not to mention the arresting DEATHE OF A SHADOW.
Sam, how would you compare the Shorts this year to previous years? They’re always kind of hit and miss for me and it sounds like this year is similar.
Alison, I was just saying how Kirk Douglas isn’t always my favorite in the OK Corral thread, but I love him in Bad Beautiful. He’s at his best I think when he’s kind of a jerk. Not unlike his son…
WJ, I was a little shocked at how much I loved Ratatouille. I mean I rated it very highly at the time, but it’s gotten even better with age. It might just be a perfect movie.
Joel, I’m torn on Parker. I skipped it because it didn’t look very much like the Parker from the great books, but then again this is based on a newer book (which I didn’t read) which I hear tell is softer than the older ones. Soo, I don’t know. I’ll probably skip it. Still need to see Side Effects though.
I rather liked the group this year Craig. Only one or two left me cold.
My favorite live-action film is HENRY, and my favorite animated short is THE PAPERMAN, though the Simpson’s Day Care is a close second.