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Reviews
Me and My Pal (1933)
Probably their best
This short shows Laurel & Hardy at their best. Very little slapstick, as the comedy itself is played to the hilt. It's the essence of the running gag, the joke that keeps coming back, and back, and back, each time in a different way and funnier than before. The storyline is simple, and elegant - a common human obsession - getting addicted to a jigsaw puzzle - is first played rather normally, than slowly but inescapably grows and grows. This is like a Seinfeld episode before there was a Seinfeld.
It really shows their genius to create something like this, with a minimum of props and a direct storyline that doesn't get sidetracked, and all the byplay, including the wedding, eventually fits together like a jigsaw puzzle itself. Soon all the characters are involved in the puzzle, in one way or another, and it sucks them in like a giant vortex.
Obviously, this is one of my favorite shorts and is a good one to introduce someone to Laurel & Hardy.
Knocked Up (2007)
Wretched
The point to this movie is that, no matter how disgusting and unredeeming you are, if you knock up a pretty girl, she can't help but fall in love with you. Which makes this the perfect date movie for today's youth mentality.
There really was no connection between Heigl's "I find you disgusting" to her "I love you, too" except for the pregnancy. If this movie had made just one bit of transition material between the two polar extremes, it might have made it almost believable.
There were a couple of chuckles in it, Heigl is lovely; Ben didn't know whether to be a lovable teddy bear or a junkie. It really suffers from lax editing -- were the editors smoking weed while they did it? -- trim an hour from this film and you might have something.
Conclusion: Too little comedy; too little relationships; too long a movie.
Babel (2006)
Case Closed
Ladies & Gentleman of the Jury, as the defense attorney for Yusef, the young Arab boy accused of shooting the American with a rifle, I will show to you that this young boy is innocent and has been setup by others to take the fall for this crime. First off, if you look at the angle of the bus as it comes down the road, the right side of the bus is the nearest side, from the boys' point of view, the left side, where Cate Blanchett was sitting would not have been visible.
However, even supposing that the bus veered unexpectedly just as the bullet was shot, let's look at the bullet hole and Cate's wound. The bullet makes a nice even impact in the glass, even though the camera shows that it's being shot at about 50 degrees below horizontal. That bullet fired from that position should have come in making at least a large ovoid hole in the glass, if not shattering it completely. In order to actually hit Cate, it would have had to enter the glass a lot higher than the bullet hole that was made in the window.
The answer is shockingly obvious: Cate was not hit by a bullet fired from my client's gun, but, in fact, the true shooter was undeniably in the grassy knoll on the far side of the bus. It could only have been fired by Lee Harvey Oswald, and I expect a full enquiry by the FBI and the National Enquirer at the cessation of this trial.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I rest my case.
Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
A bit choppy - follows the book
Eastwood did a pretty good job of following the book, for the most part. Interestingly enough, Eastwood shows that both the famous still photographer and a not so famous movie camera followed the troops up for the second flag raising. The movie camera shots (which have been shown in other documentaries, but not here) pretty well dispel the rumor heightened in the film that the shot was posed by the photographer. I didn't care too much for Eastwood's music, much of it sounded like a perversion of Brahms Lullaby.
The worst sin is the choppy editing, which makes it hard for the viewer to figure out which slice of time he's currently in.
Der Barbier von Sevilla (1973)
A Great First (or second, or thirtieth) Opera
If I had to recommend to someone who had never seen an opera an opera film, it would be this one. Here's what it has going for it: 1) It's a short opera, more the length of a feature film 2) The music is easy to assimilate, no difficult harmonics here 3) It's funny 4) the cast is excellent.
Hermann Prey is a great Figaro, and most of this cast is terrific.
This is a usually showpiece opera for sopranos, but Teresa Berganza is upstaged by the two villains, Enzo Dara and Paolo Montarsolo, who are nothing short of delightful in their blustering incompetence. Luigi Alva sings with style and flair, and you get to see the young Claudio Abbado with 70's hair leading members of the La Scala Orchestra.
A couple of points for new listeners: Rossini's music features two things that you'll hear a lot in this opera: 1) vocal ornamentation, where the singer will put a lot of "frills" on the notes and 2) the music will often be increasing in volume (Rossini is noted for his"crescendos")
If you liked this one, you'll want to see the other Ponnelle video, "The Marriage of Figaro", also with Hermann Prey as Figaro. I would have recommended "Marriage" instead of "Barber" for beginners, except that the four hour length of "Marriage" might be too much for first timers.
Le nozze di Figaro (1976)
Great, except for the lip synching
This is one of the best performances of Figaro in recordings. Bohm's conducting is superb, it's an outstanding cast overall, they work well together, and the recorded sound is great. The only drawback to this tape is that the arias were recorded separately and lip-synched (or, often, not even lip synched) in the video. I guess Ponelle's idea was to convey the concept that the arias were the thoughts of the character, and not spoken aloud. However, the effect is distressing, particularly Cherubino's first aria. Notwithstanding, the voices are all solid here. Prey [Figaro] has a wonderfully hearty voice and plays the character with swagger. Freni [Susanna] is the embodiment of the sweet servent girl who gets wised up to the facts of life. Fischer-Diskau is great as the menacing count. Listen to the duet scenes between him and Freni, they've both taken such care to blend in together. The Countess is one of Te Kanawa's signature roles, and she plays the part elegantly. Also, the duet's with her and Freni are particularly wonderful. If they took the soundtrack to this film, and put it on CD, it'd be the best CD recording of this work. If you can deal with the lip synch, you'll really like this.
Richter: The Enigma (1998)
Biography of Pianist Sviatoslav Richter
A very good documentary-style biography of a fascinating pianist. Even people not interested in classical music per-se can enjoy this film for the insight it gives to Richter's character. Richter was a very private person, but he did agree to do this film, the story of which is directly taken from his diaries. Throughout the film there are excerpts of his playing, which is at such an emotional fever pitch that even non-musicians can understand why Richter is considered one of the best pianists of all time.