Emma's News Archive
Video Watch
'10: Watched Avatar on Blu-Ray and couldn't help but think how much better it would be on the big screen and in 3D!
'09: We started the year with a few action movies to put our new widescreen TV and Blu-ray Disc player to the test: The Dark Knight (2008) and Iron Man (2008). Clint Eastwood's Changeling (2008) and a first-time writer/director's Frozen River (2008), starring Oscar-nominated Angelina Jolie and Melissa Leo respectively, were both excellent. Recently we enjoyed Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino (2008). What's next? I'm on the waiting list for the 1979 TV adaptation of John Le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Alec Guinness as Smiley; for some reason there's a 'Very Long Wait' - go figure!
'08:We saw a lot of rubbish DVDs this year. Some of the better movies were: Ruby (1992); Nixon (1995); Hoffa (1992); Wilde (1997); American Gangster (2007); Becoming Jane (2007); We Own the Night (2007); The Brave One (2007); Into the Wild (2007); The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007); Steve Buscemi's Lonesome Jim (2005) and Trees Lounge (2006); MIT-students-take-on-Vegas in 21 (2008); and Vantage Point (2008).
07: Inspired by Lauren Bacall's book, I rented How To Marry a Millionaire (1955) - in which she stars alongside Monroe and Grable - and caught a rerun of her in Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind (1956) with Rock Hudson. Other old movies I've enjoyed watching on TV this year include: the David Lean/Noel Coward tear-jerker Brief Encounter (1945) with Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard; Sayonara (1957) with Marlon Brando, Red Buttons and James Garner as military men in 1950s Japan; Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce (1945); and Tom Hanks in the more recent classic Forrest Gump (1994). Back to DVDs, I liked The Lake House (2006) for its architectural shots of Chicago; Mike Binder's The Upside of Anger (2005); Emmanuelle Devos in Gilles' Wife (La Femme de Gilles) (2004); the Oscar-nominated Little Children (2006); Almodόvar's quirky Spanish film Volver (2006); Christopher Nolan's The Prestige (2006) with Jackman and Bale as duelling Victorian-era magicians; and Siamese-twin spoof rock documentary Brothers of the Head (2005) (most interesting!). I enjoyed Kinky Boots (2005); Bobby (2006); Breach (2007); Infamous (2006) and Factory Girl (2007) (for Toby Jones' and Sienna Miller's portrayals of Truman Capote and Edie Sedgwick respectively); Junebug (2005); and, in particular, The Painted Veil (2006) with Naomi Watts and Ed Norton in 1920s China. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) was an intriguing little tale set in France; and Zodiac (2007), based on the true story of a Californian serial killer, was good - but, then again, I do like Mark Ruffalo! Other enjoyable DVDs include: The Lookout (2007); Secretary (2002); Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002); and Ladies in Lavender (2004). Mike particularly enjoyed 300 (2006).
'06: My first recommendation is Walk the Line (2005), which got me into the music of Johnny Cash and June Carter, followed by Noah Baumbach's Oscar-nominated screenplay The Squid and the Whale (2005), starring Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney, and the totally engrossing French-produced Sundance documentary film The Staircase (2004). Those who like suspense and gore should rent Australian horror flick Wolf Creek (2005); or if you want the original Prison Break, then watch Clint Eastwood in Escape From Alcatraz (1979), which we viewed again following our visit to the island last year. I really enjoyed Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things (2003), based on Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, Steve Carell's The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and Paul Walker in Running Scared (2006), a non-stop actioner by Wayne The Cooler Kramer. Fans of Vanilla Sky should check out the Spanish original Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) (1997); or if you want to know how Capote's novel turns out, then watch In Cold Blood (1967) with Robert Blake. I liked Gore Verbinski's The Weather Man (2005) for the gorgeous shots of Chicago's lakefront in winter and Lasse Hallström's Wyoming-set An Unfinished Life (2005) with Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez.
'05: Here are some of the better films we've seen on DVD this year: John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940); the Coen brothers' Barton Fink (1991); French thriller Read My Lips (Sur Mes Lèvres) (2001); Fernando Meirelle's City of God (Cidade de Deus) (2002); Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle (Gong Fu) (2004) and Shaolin Soccer (Siu Lam Juk Kau) (2001); David Cronenberg's Spider (2001); Doug Liman's Swingers (1999); South Korean revenge thriller Oldboy (2003); Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things (2003); John Leguizamo in Crónicas (2004); Elia Kazan's East of Eden (1955) (filmed in Mendocino where we recently vacationed); Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger in The Door in the Floor (2004); "this year's Memento" Dot the I (2003); an early Coen brothers' movie Blood Simple (1984); and French farce Après Vous (2003).
30 Sep '05: I can't let today go by without mentioning the 50th anniversary of the death of James Dean (right now I'm listening to a radio documentary on his short life). It was in 1985, on the 30th anniversary, that, at age 15, I became a James Dean fan: BBC2 showed his three movies and the Radio Times carried a photo spread; I bought a James Dean t-shirt on Carnaby Street and that was the start of my love affair with the 1950s!
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