Terrific films on DVD & video ... Any suggestions?

Mamet's "House of Games" is another one worth renting more than once (or catching on cable where it often shows up). His masterpiece, however, is definitely "Glengarry Glenross" which exposes the perverse technique of salespeople along with telling a very compelling and human story.

Thanks for the reminders lightwizard, I loved House of Games. Actually there is a good double feature, House of Games and The Spanish Prisoner - did you like that one or no?

Did you see Mamet's about the college professor and his student - Oleanna or Alanna, something like that - alternately absorbing and infuriating. I think it too was a play before it was a movie.

Two oldies from director Otto Preminger: Advise and Consent and The Cardinal.

The nights have been getting chilly & it's time for the video rental thing again ..
Over the past few evnings I've watched a hotch potch of previously unseen & unknown (to me) videos :

SWEET & LOWDOWN
A pretend documentary of jazz guitarist, Emmett Ray, made by Woody Allen. A nicely understated movie of an eccentric life.

SHE'S SO LOVELY
This one rather depressed me... Apart from being very impressed & moved by John Travolta's performance, I found the lives of the (alcoholic & disturbed) characters depressing.

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
WOW! Was quite mesmerised by this one! Left me feeling quite stunned & wistful.

SO what have YOU been watching then?

Repeat post!!!!

The nights have been getting chilly & it's time for the video rental thing again ..
Over the past few evnings I've watched a hotch potch of previously unseen & unknown (to me) videos :

SWEET & LOWDOWN
A pretend documentary of jazz guitarist, Emmett Ray, made by Woody Allen. A nicely understated movie of an eccentric life.

SHE'S SO LOVELY
This one rather depressed me... Apart from being very impressed & moved by John Travolta's performance, I found the lives of the (alcoholic & disturbed) characters depressing.

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
WOW! Was quite mesmerised by this one! Left me feeling quite stunned & wistful.

SO what have YOU been watching then?

The nights have been getting chilly & it's time for the video rental thing again ..
Over the past few evnings I've watched a hotch potch of previously unseen & unknown (to me) videos :

SWEET & LOWDOWN
A pretend documentary of jazz guitarist, Emmett Ray, made by Woody Allen. A nicely understated movie of an eccentric life.

SHE'S SO LOVELY
This one rather depressed me... Apart from being very impressed & moved by John Travolta's performance, I found the lives of the (alcoholic & disturbed) characters depressing.

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
WOW! Was quite mesmerised by this one! Left me feeling quite stunned & wistful.

SO what have YOU been watching then?

The nights have been getting chilly & it's time for the video rental thing again ..
Over the past few evnings I've watched a hotch potch of previously unseen & unknown (to me) videos :

SWEET & LOWDOWN
A pretend documentary of jazz guitarist, Emmett Ray, made by Woody Allen. A nicely understated movie of an eccentric life.

SHE'S SO LOVELY
This one rather depressed me... Apart from being very impressed & moved by John Travolta's performance, I found the lives of the (alcoholic & disturbed) characters depressing.

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
WOW! Was quite mesmerised by this one! Left me feeling quite stunned & wistful.

SO what have YOU been watching then?

The nights have been getting chilly & it's time for the video rental thing again ..
Over the past few evnings I've watched a hotch potch of previously unseen & unknown (to me) videos :

SWEET & LOWDOWN
A pretend documentary of jazz guitarist, Emmett Ray, made by Woody Allen. A nicely understated movie of an eccentric life.

SHE'S SO LOVELY
This one rather depressed me... Apart from being very impressed & moved by John Travolta's performance, I found the lives of the (alcoholic & disturbed) characters depressing.

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
WOW! Was quite mesmerised by this one! Left me feeling quite stunned & wistful.

SO what have YOU been watching then?

The nights have been getting chilly & it's time for the video rental thing again ..
Over the past few evnings I've watched a hotch potch of previously unseen & unknown (to me) videos :

SWEET & LOWDOWN
A pretend documentary of jazz guitarist, Emmett Ray, made by Woody Allen. A nicely understated movie of an eccentric life.

SHE'S SO LOVELY
This one rather depressed me... Apart from being very impressed & moved by John Travolta's performance, I found the lives of the (alcoholic & disturbed) characters depressing.

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
WOW! Was quite mesmerised by this one! Left me feeling quite stunned & wistful.

SO what have YOU been watching then?

WOW!!!
Looks like I've got the same message some thing like 5 times!!!
Sorry folks .... Something's wrong with the post mechanism tonight!

msolga<

For a rather long, chilly evening catch the Biblical messages that abound in Ben-Hur. This film runs about four hours. It is quite an extravaganza.

Even though I have come to despise his politics since this film was released in 1959, I'll give Charlton Heston a thumbs-up here. Quite a performance, quite a long time to sustain the character.

Charlton Heston is lousy in BEN HUR and it is a mediocre film. If you want to see an intelligent epic, check out SPARTACUS, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, and Tony Curtis. Or the best epic of all time, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, starring Peter O'Toole and directed by the matchless David Lean.

Or, the chilliest epic of all time, Dr. Zhivago, which features Omar Sharif, Julie Christie and a sparkling array of ice and snow.

I might just check out Ben Hur AND Sparticus, Williamhenry & larry r .... Haven't done the biblical epic thing for ages & Easter seems as good a time as any, yes?
Actually, I saw Lawrence of Arabia recently, also Dr Zhivago ... From the burning sands of the desert all that freezing snow!
They don't make them like that any more, do they? <sigh>

Another good epic is Warren Beatty's REDS, and another contemporary example is THE LAST EMPEROR. Both worth watching.

Setanta's in for a bit of a 'silly treat' when he gets here. I really want to go see "A Mighty Wind", but Setanta's pretty solid on wanting to not spend too much time away from the dogs while he's here soooooooooooo one of the local places has a big sale on (works out to $1 more to buy a video there, than it does to rent from the place near me) and soooooooo I bought Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke, Woody Allen's Bananas, and Dazed and Confused. It's not exactly going to be haute culture night, but there will be some serious giggling going on - and I do make superb popcorn.

If we finish them right off, I think I'm going to go back and buy some Muppet movies - we both love those. I was hoping they'd have some John Waters films on special, but apparently they sold out the first morning.

Have seen both of them again fairly recently, larry. Agree, both were good.

ehBeth

Sounds like a fun night!
Did you end up watching the lot?... As good as you remembered?
What did the dogs make of all the hilarity????

I mentioned THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (5 times in a madly repeated post!! ) earlier.
Days after seeing this film I'm still thinking about it. Such a haunting quality & a very sensitive treatment of emerging sexuality. I'm wondering if any of you had such as strong reaction to this film as I did? ... I knew very little about it prior to choosing it at the video shop last week & was totally taken by surprise. Just stunning.