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Post by Crunchy Col on Sept 9, 2019 19:27:55 GMT
Cinemas are showing the new 4K version over the coming weeks. I'm really excited to see it on the big screen for the first time.
It's absolutely one of my favourite films, but by fuck it's a bleak experience.
Was Hoffman ever better? Voight?
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Post by bungo the mungo on Sept 10, 2019 16:51:52 GMT
it's amazing. i got the criterion blu-ray last year and it blew my mind. the book is equally as good.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2019 17:21:44 GMT
Ah, back before Voight became a complete nutjob...
Haven't seen it in years, so it should be interesting to get to see it in actual theaters...Voight was never better...With Hoffman, it could be argued he equaled it with Lenny or All the president's men, but it's still a landmark performance...Crazy it was almost Robert Blake instead ! (And Joe Buck almost being Michael Sarrazin, Kiel Martin (Hill Street Blues) or Lee Majors (!!) )
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Post by lokie on Sept 10, 2019 22:01:33 GMT
I saw a TV show years ago that told about the challenge of filming this scene; how long it took to coordinate the walking and talking with the car. The final result is so seamless. Fantastic film.
I was 11 in '69. I still remember my folks coming home from the theatre, and how shocked my Mom was at the nudity.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2019 21:59:22 GMT
I saw a TV show years ago that told about the challenge of filming this scene; how long it took to coordinate the walking and talking with the car. The final result is so seamless. Fantastic film. There was that whole cycle of verite New York movies...this, French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon, Taxi Driver etc. Just going out into the streets and shooting stuff. It was American version of neo-realism and New York then was perfect for it. Incidentally I discovered today that "Lay Lady Lay" was meant to be the main theme song but Dylan didn't deliver it in time and they substituted "Everybody's Talkin'" at the last minute. I'm glad they did.
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rayge
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Post by rayge on Sept 13, 2019 10:55:18 GMT
I saw it in 1969 on the big screen - as a student without easy access to TV I saw a movie three or four times a week – and never since. I seem to remember I found it a bit embarrassing, for want of a better word. But yes, a great turn by Hoffman, Voight was never (as) good again that I noticed.
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Post by lokie on Sept 13, 2019 20:10:50 GMT
Voight is great in Ray Donovan. Steals the show, I thought.
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Post by Crunchy Col on Sept 13, 2019 20:14:12 GMT
YES - he's excellent in that.
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Post by morgan on Sept 27, 2019 21:39:51 GMT
A firm favourite, saw it when it came out, loved it ever since. Wonderful seedy performance from hoffman.
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Post by Crunchy Col on Sept 27, 2019 21:44:12 GMT
Saw it last night, was once again impressed - especially by Hoffman. It's unremittingly sad, but what I'd forgotten is how 'sixties' a lot of the scenes are. Not sure it that's a good thing.
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Post by lokie on Sept 28, 2019 7:05:47 GMT
It's a good thing.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2019 7:47:00 GMT
Yes I think so. I'd have to know what John is thinking of specifically here (..and it's been years since I've seen the film), but if he's thinking of scenes like the Warhol party, for me they capture a unique time and place and that gives the film real character.
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Post by Crunchy Col on Sept 28, 2019 8:26:18 GMT
The flashbacks, too, are a bit 'psychedelic'. And the Florida dream sequences (I got a laugh out of one - Hoffman cooking on the beach - the only time in this).
I suppose some people might say they provide contrast with the grittier scenes which make up most of the film. But to me it just seems they're there because it was 1969 and that was what people did!
But anyway, it doesn't matter, I'm just picking at it. It's an astonishing film with two amazing central performances. I always think of Kenneth Halliwell's line in one of his movie guides talking about Schlesinger: 'a master showman with no heart'. That rings absolutely true.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2019 19:07:41 GMT
But anyway, it doesn't matter, I'm just picking at it. It's an astonishing film with two amazing central performances. I always think of Kenneth Halliwell's line in one of his movie guides talking about Schlesinger: 'a master showman with no heart'. That rings absolutely true. Really? I don't think it's true at all, but then Halliwell was always hopeless on anything past 1950!
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Post by Crunchy Col on Sept 28, 2019 19:15:42 GMT
Among other things he documents Ratso's decline and eventual death coldly, and at times almost graphically. And pretty much every figure in the film is lost and lonely.
There really is no heart in the film and I'd be surprised if you see it differently.
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