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Jonathan Demme, Oscar-Winning Director, Is Dead at 73
New York Times ^ | April 26, 2017 | Bruce Weber

Posted on 04/26/2017 10:27:35 AM PDT by Cecily

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To: Borges

That’s the claim but I’ve never bought it. He got it in England so it shouldn’t have been an American copy. Of course who knows, the copy of the book I checked out from an American library was the British version and had it.

Yeah, Shining just keeps getting better. Did you see Room 237? While the moon landing conspiracy parts of that doc are silly the other parts are actually pretty good and point out a bunch of stuff I’d never actually noticed. Like Jack’s typewriter changing and Danny’s big wheel path changing floors. Definitely worth checking out before your next Shining viewing.


41 posted on 04/26/2017 2:54:38 PM PDT by discostu (Stand up and be counted, for what you are about to receive.)
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To: discostu
Listening to Stop Making Sense, still one of the finest concert movies ever

I have it on Blu-Ray - outstanding.

42 posted on 04/26/2017 2:55:28 PM PDT by windsorknot
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To: Cecily
I always wondered whether "Silence of the Lambs" was really the best movie that year.

It looks like it wasn't a good year for films, so it might well have been, but it did a lot to feed America's fascination with serial killers.

Anyway, maybe the best way to honor him is to do what we can to make "Santa's Souped-up Sleigh" a Christmas classic.

43 posted on 04/26/2017 2:58:00 PM PDT by x
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To: simpson96
Haven't heard of him in many years.

It looks like he's been doing a lot of television, music videos, and documentaries lately.

Ricki and the Flash, Rachel Getting Married, The Manchurian Candidate, and The Truth About Charlie were some of his later flicks.

His nephew, director Ted Demme, collapsed and died some time back, and it's possible Jonathan Demme's own career took an introspective, less dynamic turn about that time.

44 posted on 04/26/2017 3:03:38 PM PDT by x
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To: x

“Silence of the Lambs” was a well-told story with memorable characters.

Like others, I also love “Stop Making Sense.” “Melvin and Howard” and “Married to the Mob” were also charming and funny films.


45 posted on 04/26/2017 3:32:01 PM PDT by Cecily
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To: discostu

I’ve seen ‘Room 233’ and it valorizes the rise of cheap online film ‘experts’. People who don’t know anything about film history or aesthetics blabbing on about conspiracy theories. It’s not really well made either. Incidentally the spatial incongruity of the hotel was intended by Kubrick. His brother in law has said so.


46 posted on 04/26/2017 3:33:13 PM PDT by Borges
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To: Borges

The big “theories” in it are silly. But the other side of that is the obsessive watcher who can point out stuff. I’d never noticed the spatial incongruities before, just didn’t register on how I watch movies. Yeah the “watch a movie a million times and go off on some weird tangent” folks can be kind of sad, but sometimes they point out some cool stuff. You just gotta know which parts of their presentation to ignore.


47 posted on 04/26/2017 3:38:32 PM PDT by discostu (Stand up and be counted, for what you are about to receive.)
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To: discostu

You didn’t see that the big ballroom could never have fit in the hotel as we see it from the outside?


48 posted on 04/26/2017 3:55:33 PM PDT by Borges
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To: Cecily

Enjoyed his work. RIP.


49 posted on 04/26/2017 11:07:13 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Je Suis Pepe)
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To: Borges

No. Of course I hadn’t even taken geometry yet when I first saw it, much less learned to pay attention to it. That’s the problem with movies you see early, I saw Shining at least 15 years before I’d even heard of the concept of mise-en-scène much less learned to understand it, and you never get to see a movie for the first time again. And in many ways I’m still very much Spielberg’s child when it comes to watching movie, I believe what the director tells me to. If the director “says” that ballroom is in this hotel OK, I have to make a conscious effort to pull myself out and watch a movie differently to see that kind of stuff. Which I can do, but I don’t always. It really depends on the movie, anything “art house” I will but anything “mall” I don’t, and until I’d seen Room Shining was a “mall” movie for me.


50 posted on 04/27/2017 7:52:06 AM PDT by discostu (Stand up and be counted, for what you are about to receive.)
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To: discostu
Listening to Stop Making Sense, still one of the finest concert movies ever, and not just because of the music. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to watch it soon.

I wasn't much of a Talking Heads fan until I saw that movie. But it really turned me on the the somewhat weird genius of David Byrn.

The live music is awesome, and I've sort of gotten into DB's latest work, with St. Vincent.

Mark

51 posted on 04/27/2017 10:36:46 AM PDT by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
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To: discostu

It’s actually very artful for a film like that. 2001 was a huge commercial success in its day.


52 posted on 04/27/2017 6:19:29 PM PDT by Borges
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To: Borges

It is, but I was 10 when it came out. I didn’t even know about that kind of stuff, and by the time I did I’d seen the movie half a dozen times. And it’s really hard to see a movie again for the first time. That’s why I like things that make you think about a movie differently, they kind of help you watch with new eyes. Especially the movies I discovered as a teenager, I had really good taste in movies without the knowledge to understand what I was watching. That little bit of rejiggering opens whole new worlds.


53 posted on 04/28/2017 7:43:24 AM PDT by discostu (Stand up and be counted, for what you are about to receive.)
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