Saturday night was MOVIE night!

[ellen_datlow]

Well, it was after I was interviewed online by members of the Australian Writers Association--night for me, next morning for them. The questions were fast and furious but I think I caught them all...there wasn't a moderator and members just tossed out the questions. It was kind of fun that way. The interview is being transcribed, and once it is I've been given permission to post it on my website-which I will have my trusty webmistress do.

So...after that I watched The Good German, Steven Soderbergh's most recent movie-- filmed and written in the B&W post-WW II style of movies of the late 50s early 60s. It didn't quite work. Tobey Maguire is one of the first characters we meet and he is soo out of sync with the b&w sensibility that I had a really hard time getting into the movie in the first place. George Clooney (who has done B&W before --in Good Night, and Good Luck) was fine as was Cate Blanchett but I wasn't wild about the movie.

Then I watched Red Eye, which was the enjoyable popcorn confection silliness I expected--with Cillian Murphy as the menacing seatmate of Rachel McAdams on the flight from hell. The brilliant Brian Cox was completely wasted in a role that could have been played by anybody.

And then....I should have gone to bed (it was 1am) but nooooo. I stupidely went to ebay to check out some items I'm always looking at (dolls of different sorts)...oh boy. Mistake mistake mistake. I forced myself offline and went to bed at 3am...and didn't get up till 11am. Bad me!

Comments

[bev-vincent.livejournal.com]

We watched The Good German a week ago and I agree with your sentiments. I didn't like Tobey Maguire at all. Not only his character, but him as a performer in that part. He seemed too modern.

Some of the homages worked (obvious nods to The Third Man and early Hitchcock thrillers like The 39 Steps) but others yanked me out of the movie, especially the Casablanca recreation at the end. Way to destroy the mood.

Blanchett is one of those actresses who disappears into her roles, whereas Clooney is always Clooney—in much the same way that Cary Grant was always Cary Grant. That worked okay in this sort of movie, where the director was recreating that mid-century style of filmmaking.

It had some very nice bits, and the story about the sanitization of the Nazis brought back to America because they have knowledge the Americans needed is one worth telling, because it's not well known.

I also liked that we never really knew what was going on with that German fellow who supposedly didn't understand English. I suspect he had ulterior motives for doing what he did that we weren't privy to.

But, all in all, the artifice of the production worked against the movie more than it enhanced it, in my opinion.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Bev, I agree with you completely --except maybe this: "the sanitization of the Nazis brought back to America because they have knowledge the Americans needed is one worth telling, because it's not well known."

I think I've seen other movies that dealt with this--although perhaps not so baldly.