Thread: NonRussian films (work in progress)

Dear All!
Lampada is here.
I want to try to split the huge movie topic in two. So, please, bear with me.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

I have not seen it either, but most people mention that anything Russian-related is shown with a high level of absurdity there (very stereotyped).

In a thread discussing this film someone posted a link to this parody to Holliwood view of Russia:
YouTube - Улицы разбитых фонарей в Голливуде

Okay, so I haven't seen SALT yet either and I wasn't planning on it... maybe I should though.

This whole "Hollywood" image of Russia and Russians goes back to why I joined this forum... I want Dmitri to be REAL not some joke of a Russian. My girls and I have learned soooooooo much already that their views have been irrefutably altered. No matter what they will be taught in school or see in films now, they will always question it. They have "met" all of you and know you. You are like their own Russian family. You each have a personality and view points that have helped them (and me) obtain a better understanding of what things are like and view points that they would never have been able to otherwise get. Oh my... look at me getting all mushy and philosophical here at the same time!

I struggled with where to post this one.. Practice English (British), Literature, Missing Olya, a new thread, or here under nonRussian Films... sigh...

I watched a "brilliant" BBC production of Christopher Reid's narrative poem, The Song of Lunch. The story tells about a book editor who after 15 years meets his former love for a nostalgic lunch in a SoHo Italian restaurant. Starring Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson.

The poem is very descriptive and Rickman does an amazing job of bringing it to life. It is about 50 minutes and is posted on YouTube.

The start of the poem....

He leaves a message, a yellow sticky,
on the dead black
of his computer screen:
gone to lunch. i may be some time.
His colleagues won’t be seeing him
for the rest of the afternoon.
Rare joy of truancy, of bold escape
from the trap of work!
That heap of typescript can be left to dwell
on its thousand offences
against grammar and good sense;
his trusty blue pen
can snooze with its cap on;
nobody will notice.
He shuts the door on the sleeping dog
of his own departure,
hurries not too fast along the corridor,
taps the lift button, and waits.
To meet even one person
at this delicate juncture
would sully the whole enterprise.
But he’s in luck:
the lift yawns emptily,
he steps in, is enclosed
and carried downwards
to sunlight and London’s
approximation of fresh air.
With one bound he is free!

A great two movies I've just watched:

Question.... Are there IMAX movie theaters in Russia (or wherever you happen to live) and if so how many of them are there? What about regular 3D movie theaters?

We have only 2 IMAXes in Ukraine, though they promised to open the third one in a year. Regular 3D theatres are more common. We have at least three of them in my city.

Ace video Rockzmom, I can really relate to that....
Wasn't familiar with this poet.

If you have not seen the movie The King's Speech, I highly recommend it. It is based upon a true story and 60 Minutes did a great piece about the back story and the making of the movie.

I was actually slightly disappointed with The King's Speech! I thought it was a good movie, but in no way had I found it to be an Oscar-winning material.

PS I can hardly recognize this place after not having been on here for a couple of months! It's nice to see some of the familiar nicknames here, though

Kamka

Originally Posted by kamilion

... PS I can hardly recognize this place after not having been on here for a couple of months! It's nice to see some of the familiar nicknames here, though

Kamka

Ой, здорово! Приветик, Камка!

Originally Posted by Lampada

Ой, здорово! Приветик, Камка!

Как-то тихо здесь! Кажется, что немного людей посещает форум. Жаль! Помню ещё как некоторое время тому назад ежедневно было несколько десятков новых постов. Здесь что-то произошло, или просто форум "натуральной смертью" погиб?
Извиняюсь за мой русский, у меня сейчас очень редко есть шанс его употреблять и так мало-помалу забываю всё!
Надеюсь, что дело у Тебя хорошо!

Originally Posted by kamilion

I was actually slightly disappointed with The King's Speech! I thought it was a good movie, but in no way had I found it to be an Oscar-winning material.

PS I can hardly recognize this place after not having been on here for a couple of months! It's nice to see some of the familiar nicknames here, though

Kamka

Kamka,
I'm sorry that you were "slightly disappointed" by the King's Speech. We've talked before how one can watch a film that has soooo much hype and then think "why?" This might have been the case for you. You read and hear so many great things about it in advance and then it is a let down for you. Sadly, it can never live up to the build up or expectation in your mind.

I think the reason it won so many awards is from a technical point of view. The amount of work and research that went into this film and for Colin Firth to be able to portray Bertie really was remarkable. We are not talking special effects and CGI and all those other things that "Hollywood" has been putting out these last few years, we are talking about a great script, a compelling true story and amazing ACTING. The opening scene, when Bertie is giving his first speech you can feel his panic and shame. You suspend disbelief and you are back in history feeling what it must have been like for this poor man to have to speak in front of his country publicly when he could not do so without making a fool or joke of himself or having the nation feel pity for him. And this is all done by a man who in real life does not suffer from any speech difficulties.

To be able to create that type of raw emotion and suck the viewers in so quickly, is why this film is so good. It went old school. Back to basics. It just told a story without any bells and whistles.

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Kamka,
I'm sorry that you were "slightly disappointed" by the King's Speech. We've talked before how one can watch a film that has soooo much hype and then think "why?" This might have been the case for you. You read and hear so many great things about it in advance and then it is a let down for you. Sadly, it can never live up to the build up or expectation in your mind.

I think the reason it won so many awards is from a technical point of view. The amount of work and research that went into this film and for Colin Firth to be able to portray Bertie really was remarkable. We are not talking special effects and CGI and all those other things that "Hollywood" has been putting out these last few years, we are talking about a great script, a compelling true story and amazing ACTING. The opening scene, when Bertie is giving his first speech you can feel his panic and shame. You suspend disbelief and you are back in history feeling what it must have been like for this poor man to have to speak in front of his country publicly when he could not do so without making a fool or joke of himself or having the nation feel pity for him. And this is all done by a man who in real life does not suffer from any speech difficulties.

To be able to create that type of raw emotion and suck the viewers in so quickly, is why this film is so good. It went old school. Back to basics. It just told a story without any bells and whistles.

Colin Firth was, indeed, amazing, and his Oscar is well-deserved, in my opinion. Perhaps you're right and the hype is to blame for my being disappointed with the film, but I just didn't find the story too appealing. I mean, sure it was a good movie - I'm in no way trying to deny that, I just wouldn't see it as an Oscar-winning one.
I was also disappointed with the lack of nomination for "Blue Valentine". Have you seen it, by any chance? It' one of these stories that just gets stuck in your head for day and days, mostly because it's so real. Plus, the acting was brilliant, both Williams and Gosling did an excellent job!

I was just watching a series called Family Guy for the first time. I know it's famous but I've just never seen it before.
Why is the little boy speaking English with a phony sounding British accent even though his family is American?

I’m glad that you were glad. )
This one will hopefully make you even gladder. Scotish Irish English American Eleven How you say eleven - YouTube
I didn’t make out everything the guys said (I wonder if you will) but they were hilarious anyway.

Originally Posted by alexB

I’m glad that you were glad. )
This one will hopefully make you even gladder. Scotish Irish English American Eleven How you say eleven - YouTube
I didn’t make out everything the guys said (I wonder if you will) but they were hilarious anyway.

Another winner Alex!!! You should start a thread of these!!!! Please!!! We do need to all just lighten up and laugh at ourselves (and others) and not be so politically correct all the time. At least with accents, we might be safe from really hurting someone's feelings??

Alex, sorry my response was very grumpy and negative. There was no reason for me to go on a rant about that. It's not very important! And even if it was, one woman's rant about it is not going to change anything! Once again, sorry!

This clip was not funny for me, because it was incorrect!

Americans don't seem to be able to distinguish the MASSIVE difference between how educated and non-educated British people speak. In the video that Alex links to, they are only imitating the working class accent, but saying that the person sounds intelligent. They would not sound intelligent to ANY British people! Quite the opposite!

Two people in Britain might grow up 500 metres (a few hundred yards) apart, and speak with completely different accents because they are from different types of backgrounds. One person will sound educated, intelligent and possibly posh. The other will sound like a blue collar worker. It's a very drastic difference.

Apparently Americans, like the host in this show, can't tell the difference!

If anyone is going to speak British English, then the best accent to imitate is that which you hear on BBC, or spoken by people like scientists.

As an example, the character "Daphne" on Frasier, has a Northern working class accent. Yet Americans think she sounds "posh" and typically English. She definitely does NOT sound posh and her accent is typical only of Manchester.

Originally Posted by Hanna

Americans don't seem to be able to distinguish the MASSIVE difference between how educated and non-educated British people speak. In the video that Alex links to, they are only imitating the working class accent, but saying that the person sounds intelligent.

Hanna, Puleassssse... yes we can. It was a FUNNY bit. Americans just like the British or Australian sound, good or bad. You can have a person with a British accent in a commercial and us Americans will go out and buy the stupid product. Have the same commercial with an American from the deep South with a thick Southern drawl and the people up North will probably never buy the product because they will think THAT person is dumb as bricks. I've mentioned before that people in New York always thought less of our office here in Maryland because, we were IN Maryland (which to them is the "south" and a few of the employees had a touch of a southern accent). It didn't matter that our office had three people who passed a industry related senior exam certification and the New York office had none. We were the stupid ones.

So, to Americans, just hearing a British/Australian accent makes them sound smart, doesn't matter how bad the accent is or well educated they might be or where they come from in the UK. We don't care.

And most Americans of my generation or older do know of this video as well.

Haha, to each his own!

I guess it's along the same principles, that everyone believes that a slogan in English is much cooler than a slogan in Swedish/Norwegian/Danish...

"I'm lovin' it!"

Hanna
Well, of course it’s up to you to decide if the clip is funny or not.
I just thought it had a straightforward answer to your question, had it not?

“Here in America when it comes to the English we mistake accent with intellect.
We think they are all smart because no matter what they’re talking about they sound quite intelligent.”

You said it yourself that according to Americans Daphne sounds posh, didn’t you?
The boy was meant to be smart, so they made him speak with a phony British accent.
And again, isn’t it funny already, even without him saying anything funny, for an American boy, whose parents are as American as apple pie, who having just barely been hatched is not supposed to talk at all, to talk with a British accent? I for one think it is.
You seem to be too serious talking of an unserious subject.