|
Post by Maolsheachlann on May 4, 2019 12:39:46 GMT
Is anyone going to see the Tolkien film that's currently out?
The Catholic Herald gave it a poor review, and said it rather ignores his Catholic faith. I hope to see it eventually, but perhaps not during its cinema run.
Tolkien was a major influence on me in my childhood, but I never really gained a deep knowledge of his work, certainly compared to many Tolkien aficionados.
|
|
|
Post by Tomas on May 4, 2019 13:07:01 GMT
Is anyone going to see the Tolkien film that's currently out? The Catholic Herald gave it a poor review, and said it rather ignores his Catholic faith. I hope to see it eventually, but perhaps not during its cinema run. Tolkien was a major influence on me in my childhood, but I never really gained a deep knowledge of his work, certainly compared to many Tolkien aficionados. I´m not so keen to see it. Too likely to be disappointing beforehand. I read Humphrey Carpenter´s biography once (and Joseph Pearce´s) and if I would return to his life it would probably rather be via another book, Carpenter´s own semi-sequel The Inklings has been favourably reviewed but is hard to find secondhand at a reasonable price.
|
|
|
Post by Maolsheachlann on May 4, 2019 13:12:58 GMT
Is anyone going to see the Tolkien film that's currently out? The Catholic Herald gave it a poor review, and said it rather ignores his Catholic faith. I hope to see it eventually, but perhaps not during its cinema run. Tolkien was a major influence on me in my childhood, but I never really gained a deep knowledge of his work, certainly compared to many Tolkien aficionados. I´m not so keen to see it. Too likely to be disappointing beforehand. I read Humphrey Carpenter´s biography once (and Joseph Pearce´s) and if I would return to his life it would probably rather be via another book, Carpenter´s own semi-sequel The Inklings has been favourably reviewed but is hard to find secondhand at a reasonable price. I've read the Inklings. It's very good, though I don't remember specifics that well.
|
|
|
Post by Tomas on May 4, 2019 13:24:38 GMT
(One gets to know the man quite well also in reading "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien".)
|
|
|
Post by Maolsheachlann on May 4, 2019 13:26:45 GMT
(One gets to know the man quite well also in reading "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien".) I often wonder how a volume of collected emails would compare to collected letters. I suppose they are harder to collect, as people die and then their email accounts are not accessible.
|
|
|
Post by Tomas on May 4, 2019 13:30:58 GMT
(One gets to know the man quite well also in reading "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien".) I often wonder how a volume of collected emails would compare to collected letters. I suppose they are harder to collect, as people die and then their email accounts are not accessible. Despite being an archivist by profession I am a lousy collector in private. Emails would make a good bargain in their contents no doubt, just as good as letters if you just simply overlooked the literary aspects! Only some minor appraisal would do?
|
|
|
Post by Tomas on May 4, 2019 13:33:57 GMT
Is there any film made, recent or classic, where letters - or even archives - play a major part?
|
|
|
Post by Maolsheachlann on May 4, 2019 13:38:49 GMT
Is there any film made, recent or classic, where letters - or even archives - play a major part? Interesting question! None come to mind, but I would be very interested in such films, too...
|
|
|
Post by assisi on May 4, 2019 16:21:02 GMT
Is there any film made, recent or classic, where letters - or even archives - play a major part? Interesting question! None come to mind, but I would be very interested in such films, too... 'Les Liaisons dangereuses', a novel by the Frenchman Choderlos de Laclos, is written almost totally in the letter form. I read this in my 20s and it was very powerful because of the sheer cruelty and manipulation used by the two main protagonists as they contrived to seduce and ruin the lives of several naive young adults, mostly out of malice and boredom. It was made into a film starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich (Dangerous Liaisons, 1988). I don't think I watched the movie so I'm not sure if they dropped the whole epistolary style for a more conventional storyline approach.
|
|
|
Post by Séamus on May 5, 2019 1:33:04 GMT
Is there any film made, recent or classic, where letters - or even archives - play a major part? P.S. I LOVE YOU, based on Cecilia Ahern's chic-lit novel could be included. The film setting was moved from Ireland to USA apparently I saw a French language LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES advertised recently but I can't find any reference to it, so am assuming that it's an old film being screened (as part of a festival perhaps) A lady told me last night that she brought her grandchildren to see Peppa Pig film, which I didn't know existed. Without giving me a intricate critique she mentioned finding it odd, like six episodes were fused together. Good to know
|
|
|
Post by cato on May 5, 2019 9:18:58 GMT
The movie 84 Charing Cross Road deals with a correspondence between a New York writer and a London book shop manager. Anne Bancroft plays the American and Anthony Hopkins the English book buyer.
I found it a wonderful and gentle film about the love of finding old books and discovering writers we haven't yet read.
Charing Cross Road was a Mecca for book buying once apon a time but most of the old firms have closed shop.
|
|
|
Post by Maolsheachlann on May 5, 2019 20:01:54 GMT
The movie 84 Charing Cross Road deals with a correspondence between a New York writer and a London book shop manager. Anne Bancroft plays the American and Anthony Hopkins the English book buyer. I found it a wonderful and gentle film about the love of finding old books and discovering writers we haven't yet read. Charing Cross Road was a Mecca for book buying once apon a time but most of the old firms have closed shop. I haven't seen the movie but I loved the book.
|
|
|
Post by Tomas on May 6, 2019 8:04:07 GMT
Thanks for the tip-offs. So far I have only seen narrow scenes within various films.
|
|
|
Post by Maolsheachlann on Jun 12, 2019 9:10:29 GMT
I went to see the film Ma recently. It's an American horror film about a middle-aged woman who lets a bunch of teenagers party in her basement, but who turns out to have more sinister motives. I liked it. It wasn't a gore-fest, the suspense built steadily throughout the movie, and there was an element of pathos as well as horror. I liked the fact that the Ma of the title was an African-American, but there isn't a lot made of this. A little but not a lot.
If I don't go to the cinema for a few months, I get a craving for it-- for the whole cinema experience. In my twenties I went several times a week, sometimes several times a day. The background picture of my email, phone, and work desktop is a shot of a cinema audience, seen from behind (looking towards the screen).
I don't know how many people on this forum have read "The Abolition of Britain" by Peter Hitchens. If not, I absolutely recommend it! Anyway, in an excellent chapter called "The Telescreen Triumphs", lamenting the cultural influence of TV, he compares TV to the cinema:
"But why is television so unique? Compare it first of all with the cinema, a medium which is at first sight so very similar. Cinema is a concentrated experience, available only for two or three hours at a special time and place. It is surrounded by ceremony -- even now many theatres still use curtains to signal the start of a programme, and there is a ritual to the order of trailers, advertisements, censor's certificate, sale of food and so on. Until thirty years ago, performances ended with the national anthem, incredible as this now seems even to me. It is also usually done in company of around the same age, with children still excluded by law from the most violent or sexually blatant films. The cinema-goer usually prefers to go with a companion, and is in any case watching with all the other people in the audience. Films, even nowadays, are often applauded. There can also be genuine infectious laughter." Or screams and delighted squeals, in the case of horror....
|
|
|
Post by Maolsheachlann on Jul 11, 2019 12:18:40 GMT
I went to see "Yesterday" yesterday. It's a film about some chap finding himself in a world where the Beatles never existed. He passes off their songs as his own and becomes a mega-star. There is a love interest as well, of course. It was pretty good, feelgood and formulaic. I think it could have been better, though. I've often found myself wondering if great works of art/entertainment would always be just as successful whenever they appeared, or whether timing and context is a major part of it. If the Beatles appeared today, would they be just as successful? If Yeats was writing today, would he be published? The story could also have delved into questions of originality and imagination and authenticity, but it didn't really. The cultural legacy of the Beatles wasn't really addressed, either. Personally I think this can be overstated, and that, if it hadn't been the Beatles, it would have been some other band who were the flag-bearers of 1960s youth culture. It's interesting that you can see the liberal-conservative divide even within the Beatles; John Lennon was a revolutionary who despised Paul McCartney's hymns to domestic comfort (like When I'm Sixty-Four), describing them as "granny s---". This is what Paul Johnson had to say about Beatlemania at the time. His predictions were hardly accurate, but I think there is something to be said for his perspective. The film is worth going to see. (Incidentally, do you say "movies"? A female friend used to take me to task for this, saying it was an Americanism.)
|
|