Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Cold Comfort Farm

Just watched Cold Comfort Farm a BBC 1995 film. I like British movies - a lot! I also watch British sitcoms and miss Are You Being Served. This summer I enjoyed watching From Larkrise to Candleford which was featured on our local PBS station on Friday evenings at 7 p.m. Or, if I missed seeing it on Friday, I could watch it on Saturday at 8 p.m.

I loved the contrast of country folk and the town people - their lives, their culture and as we say today "values". The earth-bound, pagan-loving, frugal Larkrise families "vs" the upscale villagers of Candleford finally resulted in having their lives intertwined through a central figure, the postmistress of Candleford - a happy meddler. In the "background" was a "knowing" that something big and possibly monstrous would change all of their lives forever - the railroad. The railroad train with it's huge steam-driven, puffing, screeching, fire-billowing engine! It brought with it the industrial age - transportation - an opportunity to leave the country, to leave the village and leave family and friends forever.  It was The End.

So, today's movie Cold Comfort Farm picked up (in my mind) where I left Larkrise to Candleford of Victorian times - of corsets and many petticoats to streamlined undergarmets - bras and such those of the early twenties.

The heroine  of Cold Comfort Farm moved to a "falling-apart farm" filled with horrid, grizzly characters who were to be "changed forever" by her presence. She saw it as an opportunity to gather interesting material for her own "Jane Austen" novels (why not?). She was orphaned, but quite able to take care of herself and those whose lives she touched. She was a "meddler" - a "take charge" person. She made it "her business" to show the country people (her relatives - cousins and a matriarch aunt) how life could be "completely different" if a person could see past limitations and self-imposed restrictions.

Many changes did take place without "murder and mayhem" (Thank God!).

It's a "happy-ending" film with a couple of "quirky" unanswered questions. Oh my! (Nothing like leaving things "up in the air".)

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Something' Gotta Give!

Watching Jack Nicholson and Jill Clayburn again in "Something's Gotta Give" again is "just too funny", yet heart-wrenching, too. I continue to line up more movies on my Netflix queue that are humorous. I've rented nearly 150 films during the past few years.

Other favorites that I've watched "more than once" include:

Shall We Dance
Brassed Off
Waking Ned Divine
Kitchen Stories*
Cats of Mirikitani*
Best in Show
Grey Gardens
Strangers in Good Company
Strictly Ballroom
Chocolat
A Man Named Pearl
Waiting for Guffman

*Foreign, with subtitles.

Thanks to Netflix I'll keep adding to my queue!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Summer Viewing

I decided to start watching films that star Richard Burton and ordered some from Netflix. So far: "The VIPs" with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Orson Welles. The I watched "Sea Wife" which was "OK" but so "of the Fifties" that it doesn't compute with today's value's. To be a nun with Richard Burton and walk away from him (looks like she didn't "buy" the script either . . . in real life).

The war film was good, but another one of those "treks through the desert" and the mean-hearted "other" person who didn't save his partner from a Scorpion! Alexander the Great was great, too. Helped me understand some "lost history".

This was followed by a film about "A Man for All Seasons" (Henry VIIIth) starring that guy that was in "The Sting" with Orson Welles (no Richard Burton) but about Thomas Merton - splitting away from his boss (the king) to "keep the faith" and lose his family and head in the process.

Watched "Summer Cleaning" which was OK if you want to increase your income cleaning up other people's DEATH debris. A lot of "YUK", but not so funny.

"Men Who Stare at Goats" (George Clooney & Co.) got my attention - because I listen to "Coast to Coast" (sometimes) where "remote viewing" is a serious topic of discussion as well as climate control and other amazing phenomena that can be accomplished through "mind control".

"The White Ribbon" was a strange story of subjugation and cruelty. Patriarchy, punishment, justification, mystery. The ending seems to be "unresolved". Question: Why not?

Sometimes I watch the movie, stick it back in the envelope and absolutely forget what I saw. Must mean it didn't mean much. My "Queue" is empty. Will rethink whether I want to revisit Richard Burton, although he is magnificent!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Stramgers in Good Company

The name of the film I couldn't remember is "Strangers in Good Company". I continue my interest in films by participating in the Cincinnati World Cinema events. I follow them through Meetup.com and am on their email list.

I get a lot of films from Netflix which makes it easier to watch on my "own time". I'm watching a series from HBO called "Six Feet Under" - a bizarre look at dysfunctional people struggling to move through life - somehow.

My interests have moved to playwriting through Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative. Interesting "readings" offered to the audience who are asked for "input". And, I'm going to many more plays!