Please, be pedantic. The whole thing about applying for licenses is likely to be above anyone’s head for anyone who doesn’t reside in the UK — it certainly was an absolute mystery to us.
I absolutely adored Danny Dyer and was rooting so much for him and KP to get together. Still, way too much rogering, for my taste. Curious if there will be a second season.
Trains in the big cities definitely tend to run on time, but I lived in a VERY regional city, Tokushima, for about 13 years and trains were often late. But the part about “we live under a collective pressure to conform and not bring shame upon our community” is a major tenet of Japanese society, no matter the city/town and TBH, the smaller the city/town, there more pressure there was to not bring shame on that community.
[quote=“Saregama, post:1498, topic:37187”]
What is happening in our schools will shape what our future society will look like. [/quote]
The above is why I often tell friends who don’t know Japan that schools there are more like “conformity factories”. Everyone comes in differently and as much as possible, comes out the same as their classmates. Someone like Steve Jobs would have a very hard time in Japan. The founder of Sony, Morita Akio, was somewhat like him, but such people are not looked kindly upon these days. A somewhat true i. my mind, but also clichéd trope about Japan is the phrase “the nail that sticks out gets hammered in.”. Many foreigners, especially westerners, who have lived in Japan a long time say that the “nail that sticks out…” adage is untrue, but I think it is true and one of the saddest things about Japan.
Double Indemnity (1944) - dir. Billy Wilder
It’s Noirvember at my local micro cinema, so we have a number of classic and neo-classic noir. And this is a fun first one. And a stacked cast, with Barbara Stanwyck as the unhappy 2nd wife, hoping to off her husband and collect the life insurance, Fred MacMurray as the crooked insurance salesman that goes in with her on the plan, and Edward G. Robinson as the insurance company analyst who has a hunch that something is rotten about the whole situation.
It’s easy to forget that before he was Ward Cleaver or the Absentminded Professor, MacMurray had a fine career playing gangsters, thugs, and other heavies. Here, he’s all sardonic cynicism, chewing up Raymond Chandler’s tough-guy dialogue like it’s a big juicy steak. And apparently, the single essential prop a noir tough-guy needs is an endless pocketfull of strike-anywhere matches, which he can, naturally, light by flicking them with his thumbnail.
Tons of fun, and with Wilder directing, you know it looks just as good as it sounds.
In it to the end of the line, baby.
FYI, McMurray was My Three Sons, not Leave It to Beaver.
Ah. I mixed up my wholesome family sitcoms.
You are correct.
One of my all time favorites!
On You Tube . Dream of Italy. Tuscan sun special . Following Frances Mayes around Bramasole and Cortona. Under The Tuscan Sun .My favorite movie. I remember being in Cortona. Yes , I do have Bramasole olive oil in my pantry.
The Long Goodbye (1973) - dir. Robert Altman
Robert Altman famously coaxes very naturalistic dialogue from his actors by allowing them extensive rehearsal time and encouraging improvisation. So it seems like an odd fit to pair with screenplay adapted from a Raymond Chandler novel, given the stylized, tough-guy prose. The solution? Rather than the classic voice-over (“She walked in and I knew she was trouble…”) Altman puts all of private eye Phillip Marlowe’s (played by a fabulous Elliot Gould) colorful internal thoughts into half mumbled asides, where Marlowe is largely talking to himself, or to no one in particular. It’s almost like a preparation for his eventual Popeye movie, with Williams recreating the sailor’s famous half swallowed comments.
Shifting the setting from L.A. of the 40’s to L.A. of the 70’s gives a slightly different feel to the proceedings, like Marlowe’s hippy neighbors who make a habit of topless yoga on the balcony each morning. And Gould continued to showcase the same shaggy, slightly put-upon charm that he used so well in M*A*S*H. It’s not Bogart’s Marlowe at all, but that’s kinda what makes it work on its own terms. It’s funnier than most noir films, though it’s an unusually bleak story, but it’s no less effective for its humor.
The Big Lebowski owes a lot to this particular version of a noir film. The Coens have never denied their love of noir film and literature. The he pointed contrast of the nature of the proceedings versus the modern reputation of silly, sunny, frivolous Los Angeles was clearly a central conceit for Lebowski, and I’m not sure we get The Dude without Altman and Gould’s brighter, more colorful, slightly softer version of the classical stoic, righteous hero.
4 out of 5 cans of catfood
Watched the first episode of Interior Chinatown on Hulu. Jimmy O. Yang and Ronny Chieng play principal characters in the series, which drew us in. Lots of twists and turns and plenty surreal. We’re intrigued so will be watching more.
Watched the first ep of Landman last night. Solid fare. Be thankful you don’t live in the Permian Basin.
Interestingly, I wasn’t sure how to watch this show, which is on Paramount+. Ended up getting it via the Roku channel, which I have completely ignored until now.
In the US, school bells were introduced to indoctrinate kids and prepare them for factory work. Beginning of shift: bell rings. Lunch break: bell rings. End of shift: bell rings. Rinse and repeat, Pavlovian theory in daily application. Japanese culture places a much higher value on conformity, but the same concepts have been applied in the US. I continue to be amazed at American college students who, in their first term, are amazed that there are no bells to signal the beginning and end of classes.
I just remembered that the second season of Sisters started up again last week. I greatly enjoyed the first season, but I will hold off until there are more than 2 epis to binge.
Very much looking forward. @Rooster — have you started watching yet?
Just don’t mix up those silent but strong mother figures😄
Funny you should ask! Just watched 1-3 from Season 2. So good, lots of twists already and the casted addition of Fiona Shaw, brilliant.
When I posted earlier today, I couldn’t for the life of me remember the name of the show we started watching yesterday 
It’s Shardlake, a period drama / mystery series set in Cromwell’s England.
I’m not sure I’m particularly taken by it, but if my PIC insists I might give it another episode or two. ATM, it’s kinda meh for me.
Apparently, a couple of nights ago we also watched Woman of the Hour. Forgettable, clearly, since I had no memory of it the next day
Much better & very fun was the Irish horror comedy Grabbers, which we watched yesterday. It’s from 2012, and I’m not sure how we missed it all these years.
The Lady From Shanghai (1947) - dir. Orson Welles
Noirvember continues as Orson Welles takes on a somewhat questionable Irish brogue in this tale of irresistible dames, queer coded villains, and a twisty frame-up job.
Welles is Michael O’Hara, a sailor, who is pointedly “black Irish”, runs across Elsa Bannister (played by the ever lovely Rita Hayworth), a worldly lady, a gambler who speaks fluent Chinese, and is married to a rich lawyer, while she takes a handsome cab ride through the park. Under the sheer spell of her beauty, he rescues her from a gang of ne’er-do-wells and is somehow roped in to captaining the Bannister’s private yacht, despite his protesting the entire way. We’re also introduced to the very odd, catty, and rather oily acquaintance of the Bannisters, a Mr. George Grisby. Glenn Anders plays Grisby with a sass and sneer designed to make you loathe him, and loathe him, you do. In fact, everyone on this ill-fated voyage seems to loathe one another. Everyone seems to both attracted to and repelled by one another, personally, sexually, and morally.
As far as plots go, this seems to rely completely on every character being the worst possible version of themselves, even as they acknowledge that they realize exactly what they’re doing. There’s a sort of grim inevitablity about the proceedings. It’s obvious as things unfold that this is bound to turn out badly.
The gorgeous photography and the snarky dialogue are the chief pleasures here. It’s hard to summon up sympathy for such a nest of vipers and their apparently all-to-willing prey. But sometimes watching someone be terrible with style is great fun.
great movie. worth it for the hall of mirrors sequence alone (it’s been ripped off innumerable times). filmed partially at Playland in ocean beach (fond memories of that amusement park for S.F. old timers).
speaking of highly influential films, i watched D.O.A. (1949) on TCM which they are running for Noir vember. it kind of ends with a thud, under the weight of it’s overly convoluted plot. but the central idea which sets the plot in motion (revealed in the first minutes of the film) is brilliant.
Trevor Noah’s YOU LAUGH BUT ITS TRUE — a film from a decade ago, before he took over the Daily Show. On Hulu.
Very compelling and also a little heart wrenching, amid the humor. Recommend.
BRILLIANT MINDS with Zachary Quinto.
I’m a sucker for medical mystery type stuff (House anyone?) but the casting is very off, stories are good but execution isn’t working for me.
