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Cult Fillums


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Not sure if this counts as a Cult Fillum but The Beatles divorce movie Let It Be is being tarted up for theatrical release in August by Disney :rolleyes: which must be the ultimate betrayal of what Apple was about...

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Lennon and McCartney introduced their new business concept on a press conference held on 14 May 1968 in New York City, with McCartney saying it would be, "A beautiful place where you can buy beautiful things… a controlled weirdness… a kind of Western communism".[Lennon said, "It's a company we're setting up, involving records, films, and electronics, and – as a sideline – manufacturing or whatever. We want to set up a system where people who just want to make a film about anything, don't have to go on their knees in somebody's office, probably yours".[McCartney also said: "It's just trying to mix business with enjoyment. We're in the happy position of not needing any more money. So for the first time, the bosses aren't in it for profit. We've already bought all our dreams. We want to share that possibility with others".

Ah well as long as it makes Sir Paul a few extra doubloons...

I'll prob'ly go & watch it...

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  • 1 month later...

What's a guy gonna do these days apart from watch Kidnapped (again) by RLS on't telly, more specifically Film4 - especially an adaptation of one of my favourite novels from childhood?

Again not really a cult fillum the 1971 version stars Michael Caine as the anti-hero Alan Breck Stewart. Although I feel the role could have been written for Shir Shone Canary. Breck-Stewart is an outsider and I don't feel that Caine's accent affects the role, his charisma more than makes up for it. As ever the romantic leads are a bit bland but this version contains a stellar supporting cast including from memory Gordon Jackson, Donald Pleasance Jack Hawkins and Freddie "Eyebrows" Jones seen below...

 
 
Sting, Freddie Jones, Kenneth McMillan, and Jack Nance in Dune (1984)Freddie Jones in Dune (1984)

There's been at least half a dozen versions some of them quite eccentric including the 1960 Disney version featuring John "wur doo-oomed Laurie as Uncle Ebenezer and a hilarious cameo by Peter O'Toole as Rob Roy McGregor with an accent as Scotch as whiskey. 

Anyway I ramble and the fillum is about to start...

Edited by Bud the Baker
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40 minutes ago, Bud the Baker said:

 

Again not really a cult fillum the 1971 version stars Michael Caine as the anti-hero Alan Breck Stewart. Although I feel the role could have been written for Shir Shone Canary. Breck-Stewart is an outsider and I don't feel that Caine's accent affects the role, his charisma more than makes up for it. As ever the romantic leads are a bit bland but this version contains a stellar supporting cast including from memory Gordon Jackson, Donald Pleasance Jack Hawkins and Freddie "Eyebrows" Jones seen below...

 

Keep your eyes open, BtB...

As I've mentioned on this forum in the past - the most annoying bit is where Alan Breck turns to Davey Balfour and tells the lad that they'd better head straight for Edinburgh to sort things out with his naughty Uncle and a Lawyer....and they stride off over the heather.

 

And they WILL eventually reach Edinburgh... after crossing the Atlantic, North America, Asia, bits of Europe and the North Sea.

They are going in the completely wrong direction.  It was filmed on the roadside, by the loch near Ben Cruachan's summits - which powers the hydro plant deep within that hill.

Spoils the whole fillum.  :(

 

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Keep your eyes open, BtB...
As I've mentioned on this forum in the past - the most annoying bit is where Alan Breck turns to Davey Balfour and tells the lad that they'd better head straight for Edinburgh to sort things out with his naughty Uncle and a Lawyer....and they stride off over the heather.
 
And they WILL eventually reach Edinburgh... after crossing the Atlantic, North America, Asia, bits of Europe and the North Sea.
They are going in the completely wrong direction.  It was filmed on the roadside, by the loch near Ben Cruachan's summits - which powers the hydro plant deep within that hill.
Spoils the whole fillum.  [emoji20]
 
Eh a wee spoiler alert wouldn't have gone amiss there. [emoji853]
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 I watched Dog Day Afternoon again recently.

The storyline is so crazy that it would be laughed at by every screenwriter except it's based on a  true story. Al Pacino and John Cazale rob a downtown bank in order to pay for Pacino's boyfriend's (Chris Sarandon) sex-change operation.

The 'Attica! Attica!' scene is electrifying and improvised by Pacino, so much so that Charles Dunning (who is also superb in this) has a genuinely shocked look on his face. The 2nd-last of Cazales amazing 5 movie oeuvre, and Lance Henriksen and Dominic Chianese have small roles.

Edited by Eric Arthur Blair
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58 minutes ago, Eric Arthur Blair said:

 I watched Dog Day Afternoon again recently.

The storyline is so crazy that it would be laughed at by every screenwriter except it's based on a  true story. Al Pacino and John Cazale rob a downtown bank in order to pay for Pacino's boyfriend's (Chris Sarandon) sex-change operation.

The 'Attica! Attica!' scene is electrifying and improvised by Pacino, so much so that Charles Dunning (who is also superb in this) has a genuinely shocked look on his face. The 2nd-last of Cazales amazing 5 movie oeuvre, and Lance Henriksen and Dominic Chianese have small roles.

John Cazale  - His big screen career from The Godfather to The Deer Hunter has got to be unrivalled in terms of quality and success (all 5 of his fillums were nominated for Best, erm, Fillum at The Oscars) and apart from The Conversation all were Box Office hits, took the wise choice of dying whilst at the top. 

Top Trivia - Meryl Streep was his squeeze! 👄 :heart

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21 minutes ago, Bud the Baker said:

John Cazale  - His big screen career from The Godfather to The Deer Hunter has got to be unrivalled in terms of quality and success (all 5 of his fillums were nominated for Best, erm, Fillum at The Oscars) and apart from The Conversation all were Box Office hits, took the wise choice of dying whilst at the top. 

Top Trivia - Meryl Streep was his squeeze! 👄 :heart

The Conversation is a film towards which I'm ambivalent. Gene Hackman is brilliant (he learned to pay the saxophone for this role) and the slow pace entirely suits the subject matter but it's quite deceitful. The dialogue of Cindy Williams (Shirley of "Laverne and Shirley) and Coppola favourite Frederic Forrest changes from when it's first heard to the later version which gives the plot its twist....a bit naughty.

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This popped up on my FB page yesterday...is it a cult film? Up for debate but one thing that's not debateable is its brilliance.

image.png.60f94207f3db3d833768d847e69eab8e.png

The third adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel is widely regarded as the first "film noir". The first two, TMF (1931) and Satan Met a Lady (1936) both deviated from the novel by having a happy ending and it was this which drove John Huston, in his directorial debut, to make a version true to the book.

Outstanding performances by Bogart, Astor, Lorre and Greenstreet (in his film debut), a wee uncredited cameo by John's father Walter and a seven minute long single take capturing the scene between Spade and Gutman.

Apparently it wasn't shown on US TV for over 20 years because of the implications that O'Shaughnessy was promiscuous and Cairo was a homosexual!

Superb from start to finish, if you've never seen it treat yourself and give it a go.

Edited by Eric Arthur Blair
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Falcon author Dashiel Hammett also wrote a gangster novel called Red Harvest set in an unspecified American town which was the basis for Kurosawa's Samurai fillum Yojimbo which was remade by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars and the circle was completed when it was re-envisaged yet again as Prohibition era gangster movie Last Man Standing starring Bruce Willis... 

*****************

Anyway enough of me showing off I kinda think that as you drift out of the mainstream then yeah fillums like TMF do assume cult status...

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15 minutes ago, Bud the Baker said:

Falcon author Dashiel Hammett also wrote a gangster novel called Red Harvest set in an unspecified American town which was the basis for Kurosawa's Samurai fillum Yojimbo which was remade by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars and the circle was completed when it was re-envisaged yet again as Prohibition era gangster movie Last Man Standing starring Bruce Willis... 

*****************

Anyway enough of me showing off I kinda think that as you drift out of the mainstream then yeah fillums like TMF do assume cult status...

My favourite film does vary but Shichinin No Samurai is in the rotation and I got to see it t the GFT as part of the same Glasgow Film Festival that showed TMF.

It's just brilliant from start to finish, taking its time to introduce and develop every character. The battle scenes were a blueprint for pretty much every film containing them thereafter.

3 and a half hours, B&W, subtitles and not even in widescreen...what's not to like?

Kurosawa was an incredible filmmaker. Rashomon, unlike Seven Samurai, is only 85 minutes long and yet it created a new genre of movie narrative.

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10 hours ago, Eric Arthur Blair said:

Although most "Director's Cuts" are better than the original release, (Blade Runner being the prime example), I didn't care much for the DC of CP.

I dunno, I kinda like the voiceover, in the original release version of Bladerunner which was inserted because test audiences found the plot hard to follow, altho' I don't like the happy ending (extra footage from Kubrick's The Shining). Other than that there's not a great difference between the original US release and the Directors Cut.

As an aside ,in the novel BR was based on Deckard decided, on balance, he wasn't a replicant himself, whereas in the fillum the origami animals left by Gaff suggest he was...

Edited by Bud the Baker
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1 minute ago, faraway saint said:

Sounds great, I've got my 9 year old granddaughter this Saturday night, this could be the evenings entertainment. :rolleyes:

To be fair once lockdown is over I can't think of a better idea for a forum night out than a fillum called Braindead - an early work from LotR director Peter Jackson who most definitely did not play on the wing for us back in the early 80s!

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