Nick's Flick Picks: The Blog
A film blog under the influence
Labels: Favorites, Kate Winslet, Masterpieces, Movies 2000-04
posted by NicksFlickPicks at 1:30 AM
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Brooke Cloudbuster said...
To say that I love this movie is kind of redundant, like you said, everybody loves this movie.
But I will say that I love that shot and it's making me want to go out and get that hair colour right at this very moment.
Colin said...
This movie barreled straight into my heart when I first watched it at age fifteen, especially that ending scene which utterly shocked me -- I couldn't believe that a movie was ending on a conversation in a hallway, and I couldn't believe how perfect that decision was, and I choked up at the complete sense that those repeated "okays" made.
It was my first revelation into the possibility that untrammeled genius wasn't simply a thing of black-and-white histories, and I'm glad that your thoughtful entry has brought attention to the entirely human processes of collaboration that served to form this beautiful masterpiece.
Dr. S said...
I love that in this scene she loves the dress she's happened into. (As well she should!) But that's only the smallest thing to love about a great scene in a great film.
NicksFlickPicks said...
@Brooke and @Colin: Yep, it really does hit you all at once the first time, doesn't it? I can't remember if I saw it twice or three times that first week.
@Dr. S: Totally. Winslet's reaction is priceless.
Dr. S said...
By the way, I neglected to mention that if I owned that dress, I would totally wear it in the classroom. Though the way I'm rolling this semester, I'd probably be wearing it with my wool-lined winter boots, since I seem to be working the hard-line refusal to screw up any good shoes (or my joints and toes) by wearing anything fancy in the mud and crap we have around here.
Somehow I think I could still bring the fancy.
tim r said...
Love, love, love. I saw Kate in the flesh the other night. She looked fantastic and seemed slightly drunk, which endeared her to me even more. She's quite good in The Reader, you know, or at least the early scenes -- worth pointing out that her pegging for a supporting nomination is the biggest category fraud of this year, much worse than than the Heath thing. Anyway, I liked her more in that than in Revolutionary Road, that's for sure.
NicksFlickPicks said...
@Dr. S: I don't every worry about you bringing the fancy. We grew up, as it were, in snow and slush, on the side of a mountain. You were styling then, and I'm sure you are now.
@Tim: Your reaction to Rev. Road augurs very poorly indeed; the phrase "white elephant" leaps to mind every time I see the trailer. But I'm glad to have reason to be at least moderately hopeful about The Reader. But we can all agree, right, that '04 should have been Kate's year? Even allowing for her sterling competition?
tim r said...
There are bits of The Reader I like a lot: David Kross is simply terrific, and all his scenes with Kate are pretty electric. And then there's... a growing disconnect. Ralph at too much of a remove. Kate in the ageing fattening make-up. It dissipates. For reasons of time-frame I think that book might be technically unfilmable, and it's a slightly wispy thing anyway, but Daldry does a good job with about half of it, and I really wish he'd pulled the rest off. A challenge for you: try and guess the scenes respectively shot by Chris Menges and Roger Deakins. I didn't know they were co-credited going in...
tim r said...
PS. I agree Kate should have got the Oscar, but I like Kidman in Birth even more, I have to admit.
Colin said...
@Dr. S and @Nick: Even more than that, I love that in this scene, Kate's readily locating that meld of Joel's half-misremembered perceptions of both the babysitter('s legs and voice) and Clementine (who's already gotten more kooky and short-attention-spanned as the erasing process dials back through Joel's memories of her).
Catherine said...
I had the frankly bizarre experience recently of showing this film to a good friend who had never seen it before. When it ended, I was in my usual floods of tears and she was silent. I asked her for her reaction.
"It was fine I guess. Nothing to get worked up about. I mean, what was the point?"
!?!
NATHANIEL R said...
I saw it twice on opening weekend which i have only done a few times though it was certainly a worthier target than the other films that lured me back the very next day... Beastmaster (hey i was a kid), Ladyhawke, Queen Margot, Spider-Man 2
catherine isn't it horrible when that happens? For this reason i almost never show my very favorites to friends who haven't seen them. I just ask gingerly if they've followed the suggestion but watching with them? Too scary if I'm too attached.
Colin said...
@Catherine: That does remind me of a conjecture someone once made, though I forget the source -- that Eternal Sunshine hits closer to home for those who have experienced a break-up. I wonder if there's any merit to that?
David S. said...
@Colin: That couldn't possibly be true. I haven't gone on more than a couple of unsuccessful dates and that's the closest I've gotten to a relationship, and I'm 20 years old, but Eternal Sunshine still punches me in the face with its greatness every single time. I just think it requires a certain sensitivity, and at least the hope of a relationship.
Middento said...
I love this movie. And I love this shot from the film. Did I tell you that I screened it this semester?
*Sigh* Kate, in mod clothes...
TheMovieNess said...
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE IT!
Stacia said...
Holy cow, did I inadvertently steal this picture from your entry? I found it on a Google search... I SUCK. AGAIN.
Colin said...
There is a question I want to pose, though: did anyone else see the opening flash-forward morning scenes as a plot twist when they are referenced late in the film? Inattentive and art-drunk as I was in my first viewing, I didn't notice the references to the beach party being Joel and Clem's first meeting, and seeing the repeated shot of Joel waking up (and other shots from the opening edited into the "next morning" montage) delivered a jolt to my young mind.
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MY PROFILE THE LATEST THE BEST THE FAVORITES THE WOMEN THE REST |
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| The Movies of 2012: |
136 | |
| Amour | A | |
| Anna Karenina | C | |
| Argo | C+ | |
| Barbara | B | |
| The Central Park Five | B | |
| Detropia | B | |
| Django Unchained | C | |
| End of Watch | B– | |
| Flight | B– | |
| Girl Walk // All Day | B | |
| The Guilt Trip | C | |
| Hitchcock | D | |
| The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | C– | |
| Holy Motors | A– | |
| How to Survive a Plague | A– | |
| Hyde Park on Hudson | F | |
| The Impossible | C+ | |
| Life of Pi | B+ | |
| Lincoln | B+ | |
| The Loneliest Planet | B | |
| The Master | B | |
| Middle of Nowhere | B+ | |
| Les Misérables | D– | |
| On the Road | C+ | |
| The Perks of Being a Wallflower | B+ | |
| Rust and Bone | B– | |
| The Sessions | C+ | |
| Silver Linings Playbook | C+ | |
| Sister | B+ | |
| Skyfall | C+ | |
| Starlet | A– | |
| This Is 40 | D+ | |
| Zero Dark Thirty | B | |
| Coming Attractions: | ETA | |
| Any Day Now | Landed | |
| Promised Land | Landed | |
| Feature Films: | 19 | |
| Antiviral | B+ | |
| The Bella Vista | A– | |
| Beyond the Hills | B– | |
| Clip | B– | |
| The Final Member | B | |
| Hemel | C– | |
| Holy Motors | A– | |
| Keep the Lights On | B | |
| Like Someone in Love | B+ | |
| Mekong Hotel | B | |
| Once Upon a Time Was I, Verônica | B– | |
| Out in the Dark | C | |
| Paradise: Love | B+ | |
| Reality | B– | |
| The Repentant | B– | |
| Room 237 | D+ | |
| The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni | B | |
| War Witch | B+ | |
| Westerland | C– | |
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| B+ | |
| D | |
| B | |
| C+ |
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Fifty Key American Films ($27/pbk), new from Routledge,
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Includes my essays on
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The Cinema of Todd Haynes: All That Heaven
Allows ($25/pbk), new from Wallflower Press, and distributed in the USA by Columbia University Press. Includes the essay
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More, too, on Poison, Safe, Far From Heaven, and all the rest of Haynes' films by Alexandra Juhasz, Marcia Landy,
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