Thursday, July 7, 2016

Thursday Movie picks-Single Location movies


I can't believe it's July already and it's hot, hot, hot....which I hate, hate, hate. Now I am Canadian which means we always bitch about the weather. The good news is next week my hubby and I are travelling to Quebec to visit his Aunt who lives right on the Richelieu River. He will be bringing his kayak and we will enjoy being away from our home and I am Hoping to see a dear friend of mine who will be in Montreal  for his sister's wedding. I am also hoping his aunt has wi-fi but I just don't know. So if you don't see me much, then that's the reason. So this week, at Wandering Through The Shelves, the theme is one location films and since I already used Lifeboat(Alfred Hitchcock) I had to think of others and here are my 3 picks...

1.  THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC- 1928



If I said I had a religious experience watching this film would you think I am nuts? Would I care? Well, I bet you know the answer to that:) I had the honour of viewing this film with my best friend last year in a church with Chorus Niagara singing to this silent masterpiece. The set is very minimalistic and you don't care because you are watching a tour de force performance by Falconetti playing Joan of Arc. The camera is almost always on her face and her acting is sublime. The fear, pain and majesty that this saint would have is brilliantly shown in this actress's hands. If you ever get a chance to see this film...see it!

2. REAR WINDOW-1954




This stars James Stewart and Grace Kelly  with the great Alfred Hitchcock directing. I love this film because it is just so well handled from the director and stars down to the sets. This all takes place from the scene you see in the film. Stewart plays a photographer with a broken leg who is completely immobilized and must depend on his girlfriend and his support worker to see to his basic needs. He fills his days watching the goings on of all the tenants he can see from his livingroom window. We meet Miss Lonely hearts, the newlyweds to the gal who likes to dance in her underwear. We also view a menacing Raymond Burr attend to his ailing wife. One day his wife is no longer in her bed and We become embroiled in Stewart's theory that she is no longer of this earth. We become the voyeurs and enjoy watching what everyone is up to. It speaks to who we are as humans.

3. 12 ANGRY MEN-1957




I can watch this movie again and again. I may have even talked about it before but I am talking about it again. It starts off that we see the face of the accused and we can tell that this kid is innocent but that is just the beginning. We are brought into a room with 12 jurors who must determine whether the kid is guilty or not.  We not only feel the sweltering heat from outside but the heated exchanges between most of the jurors and the one man who says the kid is innocent, played by Henry Fonda. This is not only an excellent character study but a study on race, age, ignorance, anger....a brilliant film that is another must see.

So what films would you choose??

52 comments:

  1. As soon as I saw the theme, 12 Angry Men came to mind.
    Another bizarre one is The Cube. A group of people are trying to escape from this maze and every time they leave one cube, they enter another exactly like it.

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    1. The Cube sounds like an interesting film. I have marked it down

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  2. Never saw the first one but love the other two. My first thought for one location was 'Arsenic and Old Lace', though not sure if they leave the house or not. It's been awhile.

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    1. I think that film would be a good one. We briefly see Grant's character marry at the beginning and when he makes a phone call to the sanitarium but otherwise, it all takes place in the house

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  3. Hi, Birgit!

    I can't get over that brilliantly preserved/restored 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc. I can see how watching it would be a religious experience. I have seen Rear Window and 12 Angry Men. The art of making movie trailers has fascinated me all my life. Hitchcock's trailers were especially creative and compelling. Notice how bold, powerful orchestra music is used to heighten suspense and sell the picture. I also liked the fact that James Stewart breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience.

    Another single location Hitchcock suspense film comes to mind - Rope (1948).

    I will miss you if you need to break away from blogging for a while, dear friend, but I wish you a safe and happy vacay in Quebec.

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    1. The passion of Joan of Arc was amazing to see especially with Chorus Niagara behind us singing-excellent. The music is often what sells a picture I think. I still have to see Rope and I actually rented it twice in my past and never got around to seeing it. I must rectify that. Thank you about missing me....I found out they do have wi-fi but will not be on too much to responding

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  4. Never did see Rear Window never heard of the Joan of Arc movie but 12 Angry Men is one of my all time favourites. Our local theatre group presented it too and did it very well.

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    1. I think you would really like Rear Window...it's fun to wt h

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  5. I also chose 12 Angry Men! That's one of my favorite films to come from my Blind Spots. I have Rear Window in my Netflix queue, The Passion of Joan of Arc is one I watched for my Blind Spot this year and I didn't care for it. I watched the silent version though, I think I should've chosen the music.

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    1. 12 Angry Men is excellent and so grabbing. I hope you like Rear Window as it's also fun to watch and you realize you are as much a voyeur as Stewart's character is. Silent films were never silent! There was always music accompanying the film so to see it with music is stellar and I was lucky to have it live.

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  6. 12 Angry Men and Die Hard popped on in right away. The Breakfast Club and Panic Room also popped in.

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  7. I watched the clip from Joan of Arc, very moving! The only one that came to mind was 12 Angry Men, very powerful movie and I thought about that movie when I was part of a jury a few years back. We never got the case to deliberate as the defendant took a plea bargain, but I think our deliberations might have been similar to that.

    Enjoy your week away! Sounds fun!

    betty

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    1. It is very moving and riveting. 12 Angry Men is excellent and so well acted.

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  8. I also chose 12 Angry Men. That film is spectacular! I also loved Rear Window, and I can't believe it didn't even cross my mind.

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    1. It's such a good film isn't it? Rear Window is one of my favourite films

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  9. Great choices! Joan of Arc is a terrific way of looking at the theme that never occurred to me. It is a powerful experience.

    I'm a little surprised to see 12 Angry Men as the title of the week. Wonderful film with tremendous performances I don't know anyone who doesn't like it and it is a friend of mine's favorite movie.

    LOVE Rear Window!! One of my top five Hitchcock's and one of my favorite pictures ever. Jimmy and Grace are wonderful but Thelma Ritter walks away with every moment she's on screen.

    I've gone outside the lines a little for a couple of my picks. My first has a brief preamble elsewhere leading up to the main action and my bonus is a strange time shifting thing.

    Albino Alligator (1997)-Starting with a trio of bungling thieves running from a robbery gone wrong they quickly take refuge in an underground bar in New Orleans. Suddenly the joint is surrounded by police but who the cops are pursuing is a murky issue. While the standoff endures emotions run high and dangers escalate. Kevin Spacey directed this stylish throwback with outstanding performances from Matt Dillon, Gary Sinise, William Fichtner, Viggo Mortensen and a wonderfully tough Faye Dunaway.

    Ten Little Indians (1965)-Ten guests arrive at a remote mountaintop mansion only to discover they don’t know each other nor their missing host. Before too long they start being killed off one by one in the fashion of the poem Ten Little Indians. Can any of them solve the mystery before it’s their turn? Second screen version of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” updated to the swingin’ sixties with more hep identities for most of the characters, i.e. Fabian as a rock star and the former spinster now a movie star!

    Rope (1948)-Two men murder a third, a friend of theirs, just to see what it feels like than throw a party while his body resides in a trunk in the middle of the room. Alfred Hitchcock directed this version of the Loeb/Leopold murder. An interesting experiment, the entire film was shot in sequence in extremely long takes, but very stagy. Good performances by James Stewart as the professor who innocently plants the idea in the men’s minds and Farley Granger & John Dall as the murderous lead pair. For a film released in the 50’s the leads are surprisingly obviously gay though it is never explicitly mentioned.

    Oddball Extra:

    “Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?” (1969)-Superstar Heironymus Merkin (Anthony Newley) is filming a movie of his life surrounded by piles of junk and a bed on a ribbon of beach as his mother and children bear witness. While the Greek chorus of devil’s advocate Goodtime Eddie Filth (Milton Berle) and The Presence (Georgie Jessel) battle for his soul Merkin works his way to the top of show biz becoming a drug loving sex addict along the way. Yet he longs for his lost true love, Mercy Humppe (Connie Kreski) despite his marriage to Polyester Poontang (Joan Collins-Newley’s wife at the time, their real life children play their kids in the film-Thaxted and Thumbelina!). Watching the uncompleted footage in a parallel time the producers of this opus scream for him to come up with an ending. Merkin shuffles through his memories to find some value in his life while singing a couple songs and screwing like a rabbit.
    Confused? What with a title like that you were expecting coherence? Watching the film won’t clear anything up for you! Newley directed, produced, wrote & composed the music (all badly) for this exercise in vanity which was originally rated X. This one’s a stretch but in the bizarro world in which it exists it fits, even though it seems to take place in multiple locations it all turns out to really happen at different spots on that damn beach!!

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    1. So glad you like my choices and I'm surprised as well about 12 Angry Men. Glad you like my choices. I never heard f the first movie and now I really want to see it. I almost picked And The There Wrre None but I hadn't seen it in such a long time but I know it fits the challenge really well. I have yet to see Rope. I actually rented it twice, I. The past, and both times, never saw it. I have to rectify this

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  10. I ADORE The Passion of Joan of Arc - Falconetti's may still be the greatest screen performance ever given and she doesn't speak a word. What I love most about it is how Dreyer built what at the time was a huge, hugely expensive set, and then shot the whole thing in close-up, so you can barely even see the set!

    Rear Window is one of my favorites, and easily one of Hitchcock's best - perfectly cast and paced and shot. I almost picked it this week myself.

    Love 12 Angry Men, too, another that I almost picked this week. Pretty much a perfect film from start to finish.

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    1. I'm so glad you have seen Joan of Arc because it's such a fabulous film and she is an amazing actress. Glad you liked my picks

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  11. 12 Angry Men is a classic. I appeared in a stage adaptation a few years ago. It was titled "12 Angry Jurors" to reflect the male and female cast.

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    1. It's funny but I feel having women in this production would take away from it but glad you actually acted in a production of this.

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    2. It did cause some problems. The Henry Fonda part was played by a woman, so when the originally-cast man (Juror #8) threatened to "kill" her, the director realized he had to replace that actor with an actress.

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  12. I never saw the Joan of Arc movie but the other two are fantastic. I'm right there with you on hating the heat! I am already anxious for autumn. I hope you have a fantastic trip!!

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    1. This heat is awful and I wish for fall as well. I hope you have a great trip!

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  13. Rear Window is fantastic and 12 Angry Men is one of my all-time favorites. Great call. I still need to see Joan of Arc.

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    1. Thanks...they are great and I hope you see Joan of Arc

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  14. I love Rear Window and 12 Angry Men. I've never seen Joan of Arc. Seeing it with a choir singing sounds transcendent.

    Love,
    Janie

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  15. I've never seen Joan of Arc or 12 Angry Men (I've seen bits of it, and I've read bits of the play). Rear Window, however, I know quite well. There's an episode of Castle where they play with that premise.

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    1. I have seen that episode of Castle...it was really great

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  16. Good choices, BB. The only one I can think of is the "Rainmaker" with Hepburn and Lancaster. Well, maybe it doesn't count. There is that one scene where the younger brother is steering his car with his foot while making out with his gal in that big field.

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    1. I have not seen Rainmaker but it sounds like it would fit. It's amazing how many films are out there

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  17. Haven't seen the Joan of Arc movie, but the other two are fine movies.

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    1. They are and I bet you would like Joan of Arc

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  18. Rear Window is my favourite Hitchcock and my go to movie for anything. I haven't seen Joan of Arc but I have heard nothing but great things about it.

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    1. It's a great film and I hope you see it one day. Love Rear Window!

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  19. What a trio of great and diverse movies! I've seen them, but I can't remember what two of them were like. I do remember Rear Window--distinctly.

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    1. Glad you saw these films and just love Rear Window

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  20. I've always wanted to learn more about Joan of Arc so I am interested in seeing The Passion of Joan of Arc.

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    1. This is simply an amazing experience and if you can see it, see it...simply stunning

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  21. REAR WINDOW was such a great movie. I can't think of any off hand but you picked some good ones!

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  22. This is a challenging theme. It's been awhile since I've seen REAR WINDOW and 12 ANGRY MEN.

    Does the entire story take place just in one room? Or predominately in one room?

    If it's the latter, then would MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON count? How about FIGHT CLUB, which takes place predominately in one mind?

    I KNOW there is some GREAT choice escaping me at the moment. I can "feel" it in the back of my brain. Damn!! What is it? (It's not 'WESTWORLD'. Not even sure if that qualifies.)

    How about 'THE WIZARD OF OZ'? Another one that takes place in a single mind on a single farm... depending upon how one interprets the film.

    ~ D-FensDogG
    'Loyal American Underground'

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    1. I bet others may disagree but I like how you think there because it really is in their mind. I think these are great choices

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  23. I'd swap you hot hot hot for wet wet wet, which is what we have at the moment!

    I was really impressed with the Joan of Arc clip and think it would be amazing the way you saw it with a choir.

    Hope you have a great time in Quebec.

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    1. I'd rather have the wet wet since it is so dry right now the grass is ugly. Seeing this film with the Chorus was amazing

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  24. Hmm, that's a tricky question. I'd definitely pick The Breakfast Club, The Amityville Horror, and Shawshank Redemption (yes, Red leaves at the end, but I think it should still count!)

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    1. Oh I love Shawshank and I think it fits. Such a great film

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  25. Love your picks! I have seen 12 Angry Men and Rear Window and have Passion of Joan of Arc coming up on my Blind Spot list this year.

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  26. Seen your bottom two picks and they're great of course.

    Anyway I didn't know you're in Canada. I think because you've mentioned your Mom a few times, so I've sort of assume you were in Germany. I hate the hot weather too and it's summer all year round where I'm at :(.

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  27. I have been meaning to watch The Passion of Joan of Arc and Rear Window for the longest time! Both classics

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