What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)

[Reno]

The Fifth Element is the only Luc Besson directed film I can just about bear and much of it is awful, especially Chris Tucker whose non-stop screeching is like nails on blackboard. That said, it's often visually spectacular and it's so "off" that it's a genuinely weird film, like films that try hard to be funny and completely fail often are. Another thing I quite like about it is it's Paris fashion industry vibe and its soundtrack is gorgeous. Bruce Willis on the other hand looks like he is stuck in the wrong film (and outfit) from beginning to end. Like Barbarella its a self-indulgent, fashion conscious sci-fi spectacular which goes back and forth from inspired to facepalm and back again.

 

[Orang Utan]

I named my cat after a character in The Fifth Elephant. I can't remember much about it tbh. It was a typical Besson film really - swish and empty

 

[butchersapron]

I named my cat after a character in The Fifth Elephant. I can't remember much about it tbh. It was a typical Besson film really - swish and empty

That the sequel?

 

[Orang Utan]

It's what my sister called it and it kinda stuck!

 

[Greebo]

That the sequel?

Another one by Terry Pratchett.

 

[Idris2002]

Most Jews in films do have dark hair but there are plenty of Jewish people with blonde or red hair. I didn't see a cast of blondes in Schindler's List, The Pianist, Bent and the many other dramas about the Holocaust, so not sure what you mean with "...but even there". It seems rather odd to imply that the sort of liberal audience this type of middle brow art house film is aimed at couldn't empathise with a dark haired girl because they are raving anti-semites..

On the other hand you are missing the real issue with the film, which intercuts the trivial, comforting present time scenes of the do-gooding reporter with the war time scenes to soften the blow and therefore it trivialises what it sets out to do.

I think the intention may have been to soften the blow. . . but the scenes in the Drancy stadium are so extreme I'm not sure if they succeed.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

One reason the actress was cast is because she is Jewish. The other is that she has to be able to pass as non-Jewish to suvive, so her blonde hair makes sense for the plot. And that's one other actress, not a conspiracy of having loads of blonde Jewish actors in films about Jews.

I never really thought about it as a conspiracy, but there have been a few of them. Sophie's Choice; Vanessa Redgrave in Playing For Time. Barbara Streisand as Mrs. Focker. etc.

 

[stethoscope]

Stuart: A Life Backwards.

 

[Reno]

I never really thought about it as a conspiracy, but there have been a few of them. Sophie's Choice; Vanessa Redgrave in Playing For Time. Barbara Streisand as Mrs. Focker. etc.

Sophie is a Polish Catholic and not Jewish and in any case, the first two the actresses are natural blondes. Why dye their hair when there are blonde Jews ?

Barbra Streisand on the other hand is totally out of order for dying her hair, being the most famous female Jewish actress and entertainer. How dare she !

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Sophie is a Polish Catholic and not Jewish and in any case, the first two the actresses are natural blondes. Why dye their hair when there are blonde Jews ?

Barbra Streisand on the other hand is totally out of order for dying her hair, being the most famous female Jewish actress and entertainer. How dare she ! She's h

People can do what they want. It's not something I've given a lot of thought to, but if you think about it, there are many blonde american jewish actresses. Goldie Hawn. Tori Spelling. Sarah Jessica Parker. etc

 

[Reno]

I'm glad we seem to agree that it's fine for Jewish actresses to have blonde hair then.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I'm glad we seem to agree that it's fine for Jewish actresses to have blonde hair then.

I think we can certainly do that. The question remains: how often are jewish female roles in films portrayed by actresses with blonde hair?

 

[andy2002]

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: The original Swedish version. Lisbeth Salander's an interesting character but the rest is little more than a slightly above average thriller. The ending's silly, too.

 

[Reno]

I think we can certainly do that. The question remains: how often are jewish female roles in films portrayed by actresses with blonde hair?

Some Jewish actresses who have played Jewish characters who weren't blonde: Rachel Weisz (Sunshine), Embeth Davidtz (Schindler's List), Amy Irving (Crossing Delancy, Yentl), Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl, Yentl, The Way We Were, most of her other films), Jennifer Connelly (Once Upon a Time in America), Natalie Portman (No Strings Attached), Debra Winger (Shadowlands), Carol Kane (Hester Street), Maureen Lipman (The Pianist), Alyson Hannigan (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Tova Feldshuh (Holocaust), Jeannie Berlin (The Heartbreak Kid)

 

[DotCommunist]

Alyson Hannigan is jewish? truly, every day is a schoolday.

 

[Idris2002]

Yes, dear, Hannigan is an old Jewish name. Yes.

Hannigan's character in Buffy is meant to be Jewish, but I don't think she's ever shown doing anything actually Jewish. But Reno wins this round, I think.

 

[DotCommunist]

Given that she spends most of her time dicking around with cod-wiccanism (divination proscribed since the time of King Solomon) she is not very orthodox in Buffy.


hannigan an old jewish name. Who knew? If it isn't berg or stein ending I never realise

 

[Idris2002]

Actually it turns out that she's only Irish-American on her father's side, but that her mum actually is Jewish:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyson_Hannigan

That was a dirty trick to stoop to, Reno.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Four episodes of "The Twilight Zone", season 2, - which were okay but not classics.

 

[Reno]

Actually it turns out that she's only Irish-American on her father's side, but that her mum actually is Jewish:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyson_Hannigan

That was a dirty trick to stoop to, Reno.

It's not a dirty trick. Jewishness is passed on by he mother. If the mother is Jewish then her child is considered to be 100% Jewish.

As to Willow Rosenberg not doing any "Jewish things". She is Jewish by birth but she is a Wiccan by religion, so what Jewish things are there for her to do ?

 

[Idris2002]

It's not a dirty trick. Jewishness is passed on by he mothers side. If the mother is Jewish then her child is considered to be 100% Jewish. Not so if only the father is Jewish.

I was, em, joking. I know about the Halachic thing.

 

[DotCommunist]

aye, matrilineal ennit.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Oh and some more Civil Defence Films. In the event of a nuclear war I need to speak like the Queen it seems.

 

[Part 2]

Contraband this afternoon, bollocks really.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Yes, dear, Hannigan is an old Jewish name. Yes.

Hannigan's character in Buffy is meant to be Jewish, but I don't think she's ever shown doing anything actually Jewish. But Reno wins this round, I think.

No saying Kaddish for dead vampires?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Actually it turns out that she's only Irish-American on her father's side, but that her mum actually is Jewish:ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyson_Hannigan

That was a dirty trick to stoop to, Reno.

I wonder: what is the jewish equivalent of 'touch of the tarbrush'?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

The Raid: Redemption. Indonesian film; very reminiscent of Run Run Shaw in the Seventies. Good action. Novel fight sequences.

 

[ringo]

2nd DVD of Schindlers List. Bit schmaltzy, but some parts were well done. The scenes showing the Nazis exhuming the bodies of people they'd massacred and burning them on pyres to hide the evidence were quite affecting.

 

[Reno]

I borrowed a Blu-ray set of the Star Wars films and made a heroic attempt at watching The Phantom Menace after only having seen it once when it came out. I'll give it another chance, I thought. Maybe its not as bad as I remember.

Somehow the film is even more shit then it was then, it's a film thoroughly inept on almost every level. It's CGI has dated really badly. I remember the film at least looking quite sumptuous at the time. Now it looks cheap as well and doesn't even work as eye candy anymore. Many of the sets are not very detailed and the whole film just looks tacky. It's really an unbelievably bad film, up there with Battlefield Earth, only far less fun. I gave up when Anakin's (worst child actor ever!) mother trys to explain about his virgin birth. That scene just made me feel embarassed for the actress.

Then I watched the haunted hotel film The Innkeepers again, which I really like.

 

[Yetman]

Underworld: Awakening - Bit of a let down really compared to the first 3, seemed to be a filler inbetween the last film and the next one. 6/10
chronicle - pretty good super powers film, as good as whats currently out there in this genre I suppose
Man on a Ledge - not as good as I'd hoped, but quite captivating and cleverly writted, I'd recommend for a rainy day but wouldnt go to the cinema to see it or anything