Off Topic The Review Thread

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Twelve Monkeys on BBC4 now. It’s so long since I’ve seen it I can’t remember if it’s any good, but a Terry Gilliam film is always worth a watch.

It’s based on a film called La Jetee by a French bloke called Chris Marker who was a genius. The original was about 25 minutes long and had no dialogue, black and white, and if I remember correctly not actually a movie, just a series of still frames. I think it’s on YouTube. Marker’s other great film was Sans Soleil which I have probably rambled on about before. Basically a series of home movies (with similar quality) from Japan, Iceland, San Francisco and Guinea Bissau with a hugely pretentious but incredibly thought provoking voice over, musing on memory, banality and ‘things which quicken the heart’. All to a soundtrack of experimental Japanese electronic noise. Of course, as a pretentious old pseud I absolutely adore it and have since I first saw it in about 1984. My desert island film.
 
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Well, I enjoyed Twelve Monkeys, largely because I watched it with my daughter and she was taken with some of the ideas in it. Not a great film, but above average science fiction (which I have a weakness for) marred by a very irritating performance by Brad Pitt (look at me I’m acting as someone with a mental illness!)

But then I re watched the film which inspired it, La Jetée, and realised that what Chris Marker used as a vehicle to make a brilliant and beautiful essay on memory, the pretty cliched sci-fi time travel plot, becomes the entire film in Twelve Monkeys which replaces all the depth of the original short film (it is on YouTube) with hyperactivity.
 
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Stroller said:
Nice interview on R5 with 3 members of James - although Tim Booth does nearly all the talking as you might expect.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06gv2lk

Just about my favourite all-time band.
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Seen them a few times, he's a brilliant showman. They're heading out on a big arena tour at the end of the year, with The Charlatans as support who are well worthy of catching live on their own - they constantly re-invent themselves but with a familiar "twang" to their songs.

James' new stuff is as good as anything they've produced for a long time....

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sb_73 said:
Well, I enjoyed Twelve Monkeys, largely because I watched it with my daughter and she was taken with some of the ideas in it. Not a great film, but above average science fiction (which I have a weakness for) marred by a very irritating performance by Brad Pitt (look at me I’m acting as someone with a mental illness!)

But then I re watched the film which inspired it, La Jetée, and realised that what Chris Marker used as a vehicle to make a brilliant and beautiful essay on memory, the pretty cliched sci-fi time travel plot, becomes the entire film in Twelve Monkeys which replaces all the depth of the original short film (it is on YouTube) with hyperactivity.
Click to expand...

We've just watched the latest in Mark Kermode's excellent Secrets of Cinema series. This, the fourth in the series, was on Science Fiction and is a must watch. He talks about Twelve Monkeys (which I haven't seen, but want to) and its inspiration, La Jetée (which I wasn't aware of before you mentioned it, but now want to see), but also a surprising influence on Chris Marker's film - Hitchcock's Vertigo (which I now want to see again).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episo...secrets-of-cinema-series-1-4-science-fiction#

He also talks lovingly about one of my all-time favourite films, Silent Running (which is not the one about the Jamaican bob-sled team as my wife was about to say before my daggers pierced her tongue).

Utterly brilliant TV.
 
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Uber_Hoop said:
Am I the only one to not find Mrs Brown’s Boys the slightest bit funny? Irritating in fact.
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I'm certainly not a fan, but I have laughed once or twice. Something I never did watching British comedy 'classics' such as Dad's Army, 'Allo 'Allo, Are You Being Served? and the like. 'Gentle humour' - not funny then.
 
Stroller said:
We've just watched the latest in Mark Kermode's excellent Secrets of Cinema series. This, the fourth in the series, was on Science Fiction and is a must watch. He talks about Twelve Monkeys (which I haven't seen, but want to) and its inspiration, La Jetée (which I wasn't aware of before you mentioned it, but now want to see), but also a surprising influence on Chris Marker's film - Hitchcock's Vertigo (which I now want to see again).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episo...secrets-of-cinema-series-1-4-science-fiction#

He also talks lovingly about one of my all-time favourite films, Silent Running (which is not the one about the Jamaican bob-sled team as my wife was about to say before my daggers pierced her tongue).

Utterly brilliant TV.
Click to expand...
He knows his stuff does Kermode. Chris Marker had an obsession with Vertigo, a section of Sans Soleil is about it and both in that film and La Jetée he references it, especially the scene where James Stewart and Kim Novak are by the cross section of a giant redwood tree with historical events marked on its rings.....the time motif again. I’ll watch the Kermode programme later.

I hope you enjoy both films. I would watch Twelve Monkeys first.

Is Silent Running the one with Bruce Dern, sort of space ecology thing? Vaguely remember it from years ago. From the same era I recommend John Carpenters first film, Dark Star, a very black comedy about a disintegrating spaceship on a 20 year journey destroying ‘unstable’ planets, a terminally bored and borderline insane crew and intelligent bombs which need to be talked out of deploying at the wrong time. Low budget and very funny.
 
Uber_Hoop said:
Am I the only one to not find Mrs Brown’s Boys the slightest bit funny? Irritating in fact.
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It’s an insult and the fact that is so popular is a cause of despair for me. The only programme that the remote is deployed as swiftly for to change channel is Question Time.
 
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sb_73 said:
Is Silent Running the one with Bruce Dern, sort of space ecology thing? Vaguely remember it from years ago. From the same era I recommend John Carpenters first film, Dark Star, a very black comedy about a disintegrating spaceship on a 20 year journey destroying ‘unstable’ planets, a terminally bored and borderline insane crew and intelligent bombs which need to be talked out of deploying at the wrong time. Low budget and very funny.
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Yes, the Bruce Dern movie. Very hippy, but beautiful and moving (says the aging hippy). I was bought the DVD recently - sometimes dropped hints are caught.

I've seen Dark Star - very funny.
 
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Just in from seeing Van Morrison at Kelvingrove Bandstand - for a 72 year old, he certainly puts on a good show. I was a bit apprehensive before going, as he's turned into a bit of a jazz-lovey, playing a lot of sax, and re-working some of his old hits into the genre. He started out like thia for the first 30 minutes, and I was starting to get a little worried that the rest of the gig would be like this, when he reverted to his old R&B style and knocked out hit after hit.

In total, he was on stage for about 1hr 45min, with a finale of Brown Eyed Girl followed by a brilliant rendition of Gloria. He left the stage but the band stayed and did a 15minute jam session, keeping the Gloria theme going throughout - spell-binding.

To top it all off, it stayed dry for the whole gig, after threatening to piss down earlier in the day! Gotta love outdoor gigs.....

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Steelmonkey said:
Just in from seeing Van Morrison at Kelvingrove Bandstand - for a 72 year old, he certainly puts on a good show. I was a bit apprehensive before going, as he's turned into a bit of a jazz-lovey, playing a lot of sax, and re-working some of his old hits into the genre. He started out like thia for the first 30 minutes, and I was starting to get a little worried that the rest of the gig would be like this, when he reverted to his old R&B style and knocked out hit after hit.

In total, he was on stage for about 1hr 45min, with a finale of Brown Eyed Girl followed by a brilliant rendition of Gloria. He left the stage but the band stayed and did a 15minute jam session, keeping the Gloria theme going throughout - spell-binding.

To top it all off, it stayed dry for the whole gig, after threatening to piss down earlier in the day! Gotta love outdoor gigs.....

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I saw him at the halls in Chelsea last year. He put on a great show and wasn’t quite the miserable old git he’s often reported to be.
 
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Apparently Bob Dylan did two hours last night
Didn't speak between songs
didn't acknowledge the band
Don't think he even acknowledged the audience

That's great because if I was paying over 200 a ticket I would want him to play as many songs as possible

I do hate bands going on about their politics
I generally know how they stand before i go
I am buying tickets to hear the music
 
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Steelmonkey said:
Just in from seeing Van Morrison at Kelvingrove Bandstand - for a 72 year old, he certainly puts on a good show. I was a bit apprehensive before going, as he's turned into a bit of a jazz-lovey, playing a lot of sax, and re-working some of his old hits into the genre. He started out like thia for the first 30 minutes, and I was starting to get a little worried that the rest of the gig would be like this, when he reverted to his old R&B style and knocked out hit after hit.

In total, he was on stage for about 1hr 45min, with a finale of Brown Eyed Girl followed by a brilliant rendition of Gloria. He left the stage but the band stayed and did a 15minute jam session, keeping the Gloria theme going throughout - spell-binding.

To top it all off, it stayed dry for the whole gig, after threatening to piss down earlier in the day! Gotta love outdoor gigs.....

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I’ve seen him 4 or 5 times since the 80s. It used to be pot luck whether it was brilliant or a disaster because he was in a bad mood, leaving the stage after 30 minutes. Now he seems to be delivering highly professional but less emotional shows, not surprising at his age.
 
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Stroller said:
We've just watched the latest in Mark Kermode's excellent Secrets of Cinema series. This, the fourth in the series, was on Science Fiction and is a must watch. He talks about Twelve Monkeys (which I haven't seen, but want to) and its inspiration, La Jetée (which I wasn't aware of before you mentioned it, but now want to see), but also a surprising influence on Chris Marker's film - Hitchcock's Vertigo (which I now want to see again).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episo...secrets-of-cinema-series-1-4-science-fiction#

He also talks lovingly about one of my all-time favourite films, Silent Running (which is not the one about the Jamaican bob-sled team as my wife was about to say before my daggers pierced her tongue).

Utterly brilliant TV.
Click to expand...
Watched the Kermode sci fi programme last night. Excellent, but I could easily have coped with that content being spread over 3 programmes of similar length, there was so much crammed in there.
 
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