What film did you watch last night?

[Beebo]

"Victoria" was a German one-shot film a few years ago. Over two hours long, it was mesmerising to watch it. As Wiki says:

'The film was shot in a single long take by Sturla Brandth Grøvlen [de] from about 4:30 AM to 7:00 AM on 27 April 2014 in the Kreuzberg and Mitte neighborhoods.[2][3] The script consisted of twelve pages, with most of the dialogue being improvised.[4]

To get financers onboard, director Sebastian Schipper promised to deliver a version using traditional shot cutting as “plan B” if he couldn’t achieve the final product in a true single take. The cut version was filmed first, over ten days, as a series of ten-minute takes, so that Schipper would have a completed film in the bag even if the one-take version failed. Schipper has characterized the cut version as “not good”.[5] The budget permitted only three attempts at the one-take version. According to Schipper, the first attempt was dull because the actors were too cautious, being afraid to make mistakes; the second attempt was the opposite, as the actors went “crazy”. Schipper says he became “angry” and “terrified” after seeing the second take and realizing he had only one chance left; in a subsequent meeting, he gave the cast a “hairdryer speech ... [it] was not a meeting that ended in hugs and 'good talk.' It was crazy. But the tension was built on knowing we wanted the same thing”. Schipper believes the final attempt was successful because there was an element of “aggression” missing from the other versions.'

That sounds crazy but is different to 1917. Which was filmed as separate takes but edited with CGI to make it appear like a single take.
a bit like the Indian fight scene in Revenant, which is shown as a single scene, but clearly has edit points that have been smoothed over with CGI.

 

[The Crofted Crest]

Birdman was also a series of long takes edited to look like a single shot. Victoria is a single cameraman filming non-stop for about 140 minutes going through several scenes and settings (bars, streets, metro, nightclub, hotel rooms) without taking his finger off the record button. The film itself is good but the camerawork is astounding.

ETA: The trailer will give you a taste of the film, unfortunately it is edited.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp8wcV3GjW0

 

[swee'pea99]

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Not much by way of story, plot, character development, that sort of thing, but Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe never looked better - and the latter in particular plays her 'blonde' part with greater acting ability than she's generally given credit for. Slight, probably grossly sexist by 21st century standards, but quite a lot of fun in its own frothy way.

 

[MontyVeda]

Start for 10... a british rom/com set in 1985. Charming, funny and Mark Gatiss is almost perfect as Bamber Gascoigne.

I really wasn't bothered about seeing 1917 until I heard an interview with Sam Mendes on 5Live the other week, I can't quite get my head around the real time/one take idea so I'm hoping to go and see it soon.

There are a few single shot/take scenes in the brilliant Children of Men, which were apparently incredibly difficult to pull off, so a whole film is mind boggling.

there's lots and lots of cleverly edited cuts in 1917... but you can't see them.

 

[Deafie]

The Upside - turns out this was a remake of a French original, to which The Guardian's critic compares it unfavourably, giving it 1/5 and describing it as 'horrific'. A tad strong, I feel - we enjoyed it thoroughly. Simple tale, based on a true story, about the developing relationship between a quadriplegic and the carer he hires from the projects, who livens up his life, not least by flouting the 'normal' behaviours of the uber-wealthy society in which he finds himself. No masterpiece, and yes, perhaps on the sentimental side, but a perfectly pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. 7.5/10 from me.

The original French version is one of the funniest movies I've ever watched. Most of my ribs were fractured a few days before seeing it so as a result of the pain it took me a day to finish the whole movie. It was called the Intouchables, I haven't seen the remake

 

[postman]

For the third time The Two Popes,apart from my Xmas dvd's the other films i have watched more than once Shawshank Redemption,Rambo First Blood i dooooo like that.Plus Harry Potter.The Two Popes has just blown me away.The friendship they build over the film is amazing.

 

[keithmac]

Last night was mockumentary night...

David Brent, Life on the Road followed by Kenny (2006)... an Australian film about a plumber who specialises in delivering and maintaining portable toilets to festival and other events. Documentary cameras follow Kenny as he juggles his family life with his excrement-soaked travails. Despite the off-putting synopsis, this utterly charming gem of a movie is recommend to everyone.

edit... looking at the cast on Wiki, it looks like Kenny's brother, dad and son are his real life family
​

Shane Jacobson as Kenny Smyth​

Clayton Jacobson as David Smyth​

Ronald Jacobson as Bill Smyth​

Jesse Jacobson as Jesse Smyth​

In the interval we watched an episode each of Cunk on Britain and W1A, but they're not films so I'll not mention them.

Managed to watch Kenny a few days back, what an excellent film!.

I'm sure that's his real job, you can't really act that one out so well..

 

[Nigeyy]

"The Captain" (B&W German, in subtitles, 2018). Quite a bit disturbing.... Based on a true story of Willi Herold, who as a German army deserter towards the end of WWII found an abandoned Luftwaffe captain's uniform and then gathered a bit of a following from fellow deserters and soldiers, conning them into thinking he was truly a captain on a special mission. He proceeded to then participate in some horrible war crimes -executing other deserters.

Some great acting performances, and I found I was fascinated in how someone who was a deserter would then turn around and be so brutal to other deserters and how it would turn out. Maybe not everyone's cup to tea and not exactly an uplifting film, but an 8 out of 10 for me.

 

[lazybloke]

Assassin's Creed - my better half was watching it. Didn't know anything about it, so was surprised to see a scifi angle. I love scifi but this just seemed to be very fast fight scenes with a lot of blurry cgi. Tedious.

0/10 (I'm feeling generous)

 

[gbb]

Hurricane on Netflix.
Garbage.

 

[johnnyb47]

A brilliant film due to start on BBC 2 at 11 tonight.
The boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Well worth a watch (one of my favourite films)

 

[Profpointy]

David Coperfield - Armando Ianucci's telling of the story: great cast including Iannucci regular Malcolm Tucker (sorry Peter Capaldi) as Micawber, Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, Paul Whitehouse
as well as Dev Patel as the lead, and an excellent Jairaj Varsani as the younger title character.

Clever, funny, and brilliant bit of entertainment and storytelling

9/10

 

[slowmotion]

An old documentary about the folk-rock band Fairport Convention. I'd heard them back in the 1970s, and the film played some of their wonderful music. The real shock came when I learned that Sandy Denny, their singer with the voice of an angel, had died, aged thirty one, 42 years ago. I had never known, and I felt rather old.

 

[Mrs M]

Downtown Abbey
Not as good as hoped for

 

[Drago]

Cold Pursuit.

At first I thought it would be a formulaic Liam Neeson character out for revenge because his son/family/chick/dog had been murdered, but it's so much more than that. Several subtle plot twists, and some darkly comic moments elevate it a little bit above the Neeson revenge thriller norm. The end scene is tragically funny.

And he got through the whole thing without threatening to murder any ethnic minorities.

7/10.