What Movie Are You Watching Or Watched Today?

[O'Blivion]

My Sweetie and I showed our daughter Cassady "Help!", the
Beatles' 2nd movie. We all enjoyed it immensely.

Most critics write this one off as inferior to their previous film "A Hard
Day's Night", also directed by Richard Lester.

I like 'em both, but "Help!" has a whole lot of personal significance for me.

I saw this flick at the drive-in when it came out, in 1965. I was eight.
The Beatles were the "boy band" of my generation. How lucky I am in
that respect!

Seeing "Help!" at that tender age turned me into a total
Beatlemaniac. I was influenced by absolutely everything about it -
the absurdism of the humor (it seems very Pythonesque now, but
it predated Python by several years.Lester had done some work with
the Goons, and I think they were probaby a big influence);


the quality of the music, because the songs had gotten noticeably more
amazing since their initial "yeah yeah yeah" phase;


Case in point: "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away"



Later on I found out the music had gotten so amazing partially because
they'd been smoking some illicit substances, or "having a larf" as they
put it.. I made a mental note to myself to have a larf myself as soon as
possible.

You can REALLY tell they're stoned in a lot of the movie. It's pretty funny.



I LOVED their cool-ass apartment and especially the pit Lennon slept in;

(Notice he's reading his own just-published "A Spaniard in the Works")


the scene in the recording studio really fascinated me. From then on, when I was secretly
pretending to be a Beatle (something I did several times a day), I no longer pictured myself
on the Ed Sullivan show, but in a recording studio.

I just loved everything about this movie, and still do. And now it makes me feel like
I'm EIGHT again, just a little bit, and that's pretty special.



I wonder where the statue of Kali is now. It would look great in my backyard.

[philipchevron]

On the Monty Python point, the Pythons had numerous precursors on British TV throughout the 1960s, some, though by no means all, featuring future Pythons. Though the Goons were certainly seminal, if only because they gave Spike Milligan a headstart, posterity would also have to nod towards the Beyond The Fringe crowd (Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennet, Jonathan Miller) on stage and That Was The Week That Was on television. What these did was signal the death of deference in Britain, they opened the floodgates of unrestrained satire. Britain truly was an extraordinarily transformational place in 1963 and I don't believe the Beatles could quite have happened without the post-war freedom unleashed by the comedians and comic writers, many, perhaps most of whom had seen War service. No accident either that George Martin began his career at EMI as Producer of recorded comedy, it was the most natural thing in the world for him to allow The Beatles the same liberty in the studio. By the time TV shows like Not Only But Also and At Last The 1948 Show, as well as Milligan's solo series and several other examples of comic surrealism-in-embryo appeared, the die was cast for both Monty Python's Flying Circus and Magical Mystery Tour.

After That Was The Week That Was and Beyond The Fringe, no British leader could ever again be asked, as Harold MacMillan routinely was, "Prime Minister, is there anything you wish to say to the British people?", by way of rigorous scrutiny of power. The Beatles picked up on that and made music from it, God bless them. It was our Elvis moment.

[Mick Molloy]

In Bruges - finally a film this summer I didn't stop watching before the end. It was great!

[Low D]

Is that the one where the family are under a mattress as a nuclear bunker?
Maybe that might have been called threads I remember watching it when i was about 9 or ten and scared me shitless

Maybe you mean When the Wind Blows, which was animated & features a soundtrack by Roger Waters? The couple use a couple of doors nailed lean-to style against a wall as their shelter, as per instructions in their gov-t issued guide. Then they patiently wait for help... starts funny, and is terrifying by the end. Just watched that last year.

I saw The Day After as a child, whenever it was on tv... 1983, so i was also 9 or 10 years old. Scared me shitless too. Made me a big fan of Helen Cauldicot.

The other night i watched Cloverfield 'cause somebody lent it to me. Way too much on the love (like, in case you didn't get it, we'll just pound it in with multiple reminders) but interesting to see a giant monster movie set in the USA. Havn't really been many of those since the glory days of nuclear mutant films, like Them, speaking of nuclear fears...

[soulfinger]

Not a movie as such, but I have had a couple of nights watching the complete Early Doors. Sheer brilliance. The start of series two where they do "Previously on Early Doors" just cracks me up. Craig Cash is a genius.

[twood50785]

[firehazard]

Patti Smith: Dream Of Life

Which played at the local film festival. Beautiful, poetic film. Ms Smith is glorious.

[moose]

"in the name of my father" for the umteenth time.

[Mike from Boston]

Watched Cars for the 1,000,000th time with my son Sean -in memory of Doc Hudson (Paul Newman).

[Low D]

We watched Be Here To Love Me, about the late, great, Townes Van Zandt. I'm a big fan of his music and songs, but didn't know much about his life. I found it quite sad and cried, actually. Electro shock therapy is what we have - in part - to thank for his beautiful songs.

The bastards.

A good film, though.

[dublinrambler]

We watched Be Here To Love Me, about the late, great, Townes Van Zandt. I'm a big fan of his music and songs, but didn't know much about his life. I found it quite sad and cried, actually. Electro shock therapy is what we have - in part - to thank for his beautiful songs.

The bastards.

A good film, though.

Very haunting film, especially the interviews with his kids. TVZ still isn't appreciated the way he SHOULD be though,he still remains one of my favourites of all time. "Quicksilver Daydreams(Of Maria)" and "Tower Song"being 2 of my faves....Wonderful doc. Must watch again!

[Eckhard]

"Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex", German film about the history of the RAF ( The Rote Armee Fraktion, not the Royal Air Force ). Pretty good film.

[Christine]

"Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex", German film about the history of the RAF ( The Rote Armee Fraktion, not the Royal Air Force ). Pretty good film.

I hope they show that here, it got very mixed reviews. Did you think it was glorifying them, in the glossy manner of Bonnie and Clyde? That was sort of the gist of criticism I read. I did very much like the scenes of the Deutschland im Herbst collection but that's ancient now.

[Eckhard]

"Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex", German film about the history of the RAF ( The Rote Armee Fraktion, not the Royal Air Force ). Pretty good film.

I hope they show that here, it got very mixed reviews. Did you think it was glorifying them, in the glossy manner of Bonnie and Clyde? That was sort of the gist of criticism I read. I did very much like the scenes of the Deutschland im Herbst collection but that's ancient now.

It fortunately doesn't glorify them at all imho. Quite the contrary I think. IMHO it pretty well shows the insanity behind those crimes. Meinhof is depicted as a mentally rather instable person and Baader as the egocentric, spoiled wanker that he probably was: preaching the revolution while driving a cream-coloured Porsche and wearing fur coats.

[Christine]

"Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex", German film about the history of the RAF ( The Rote Armee Fraktion, not the Royal Air Force ). Pretty good film.

I hope they show that here, it got very mixed reviews. Did you think it was glorifying them, in the glossy manner of Bonnie and Clyde? That was sort of the gist of criticism I read. I did very much like the scenes of the Deutschland im Herbst collection but that's ancient now.

It fortunately doesn't glorify them at all imho. Quite the contrary I think. IMHO it pretty well shows the insanity behind those crimes. Meinhof is depicted as a mentally rather instable person and Baader as the egocentric, spoiled wanker that he probably was: preaching the revolution while driving a cream-coloured Porsche and wearing fur coats.

Well, I was just watching Scarface, and that is glorification.