Operator


https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052524/

i liked the middle finger better, was the correct emotion ha ha ha

here he’s saying “non capisco” i think, to the angel of literature, after he lost his soul

but damn i love this movie like only a few things, so thanks for the gif(t)

A Futile and Stupid Gesture. Right after a documentary on National Lampoon. Lots of old school comedy today.

Haha, yeah, the finger was better but that would work better if h8kurdt had used it as a rebuttal to me.

But yeah, I'd watched La Dolce Vita again the other day and I couldn't resist. The best of the best.

one thing i’m noticing from my amazon and netflix fix is the lack of a great movie selection on the streaming side.

sure everything they have is at your fingertips, but it’s mostly shit. great movies are few and far between.

i read somewhere that criterion was starting their own service. that’s doomed to fail i think, because where’s the app for it? is it an apple thing? doesn’t show like an option to add to my devices. i’m not gonna watch in a damn computer.

i wish they had an amazon channel so i could add the extra subscription.

The criterion streaming is called FilmStruck. It’s atually a Turner Classic Movies streaming service but you have the option to add the criterion package. I had it for a while but it was very new and not compatible to put on my TV via chrome cast. Now I think they’ve updated it a bit but not sure.

Regardless the selection was off the charts and would constantly be refreshed with a different selection and special features.

I don't have a streaming service so still rely on DVDs, and even there art house films tends to retail higher than regular ones, I suppose because of the relative lack of demand or because fans of art house films are (wrongly) perceived as having more money. Streaming is the future though, so if a company like Criterion gets in on the act (and sorts out comptability issues) I'll consider switching over.

We've the BFI for that. They've some great films one there

Here

Watched Rare Exports yesterday with the wifey.

weird flick. funny, creepy, and whimsical in odd arctic circle ways.

Wow, I'd no idea. Thanks!

Speaking of Helen Mirren, in another thread, I watched Caligula last night. Felt weird being able to buy the fully uncut version in HMV considering bits of it are essentially hardcore porn. The film has a terrible rep, with almost everyone involved having now disowned it, but for what it is, it's actually not bad - certainly better than some more mainstream films I've seen about the same thing. It's still odd though though, seeing the likes of Peter O'Toole, Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren and John Gielgud playing it straight while all kinds of hardcore shenanigans are going on around them.

Would make a great double bill with Fellini's Satyricon.

yep, it’s actually not bad. i watched it after being done with i claudius and enjoyed it. it wasn’t great or anything—i hardly remember it except for some visuals—not the porn, ha ha, i don’t think i saw a porn version, or maybe i did and didn’t register because the internet has made me immune at this point. it’s no satyricon though— actually i didn’t enjoy satyricon the first time i saw it. took me a couple of rewatches. that thing is pure genius, but it’s kinda “out there” and a little inaccessible.

To be honest, I might actually prefer Caligula over Satyricon.

satyricon is fucking sublime but it’s definitely not “entertainment”. you have to really pay attention to get transported. it’s mostly a visual thing in red earths and azures. i can’t recall all of the whole story— and that’s fine. it’ not a novel like the book, but a hallucination.

reminds me somewhat of salò, which i had to really work through. though satyricon was hilarious where salò was dark as fuck and so hard to look at. but both were “work.”

caligula on the other hand is good trashy fun. i’ll watch it with a pitcher of sangía and a bag of spicy chicharrones, and won’t feel tired at the end. totally more enjoyable in that sense.

—

ETA: my wife, who is really a visual person, used to own the satyricon vhs and watch it all the time like a pocorn movie. on the other hand she hates “talky” flicks, with only a few exceptions.

This page of Caligula trivia is mighty entertaining:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080491/...ef_=ttalt_ql_1

I don't know why, but I like this one a lot:

John Gielgud told Malcolm McDowell that he enjoyed the film so much that he paid to see it twice.

Johm Hurt was a definitive Caligula in Claudius

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmum3glL1DA

According to that same page, he told McDowell of the film, "it's wonderful. I've never seen so much cock in my life".

Maybe not in one place John.

I Claudius is great. It's one of those the TV historians drag out (alongside Civilisation and Play for Today) when they talk about a golden age of British TV.

what’s especially fantastic about i claudius for me is how much they did with so little money.

they’d stand on some evident cardboard sets, give speeches to an invisible “crowd” made of sound recordings, and managed to pull off absolutely thrilling tv.

by contrast these days there’d be more emphasis on CGI filler and stunt work and fucking and gore. and sure there’s a place for that in the universe but it’s not the same quality as a good, well-acted plot.

Absolutely. Although that was probably quite a big, expensive production for the BBC back then. But yeah, where it really shines is the sheer quality of the acting and writing.

Always thought Sian Phillips (Livia) would've made a great female Bond villain



Did you ever see The Borgias? Another BBC mini-series from that period. Not quite as good as I, Claudius but still very much in the same vein.