|
Post by Bayne on Jul 15, 2004 18:32:02 GMT
[glow=red,2,300]I still need to replace my Wyndham books. (insert the most vehement expletive you know here) Thieves! So it's been over a decade since I last read Triffids. I rented the film a couple of years ago to watch with a couple of friends, but they had no taste and got bored quickly and talked all the way through it. Now said video store has sold all there old (read good) movies. [/glow]
|
|
|
Post by Bayne on Jul 19, 2004 0:51:39 GMT
[glow=red,2,300]I watched the Invisible man, quite a good film, straying not too far from the original text (despite the addition of a love interest!). There is a pretty good documentary on the disk too.
[/glow]
|
|
|
Post by dudalb on Mar 8, 2005 20:41:30 GMT
I remember the 1967 musical "Half A Sixpence" which is loosely based on "Kipps". "Days Of The Comet" is one of Well's weaker novels IMHO, and the first in which he preaching dominated the story... a tendacy which was to become more and more prevalent. I always rather liked the Ray Harryhausen version of "First Man In the Moon".
|
|
|
Post by Lensman on Mar 30, 2005 9:40:02 GMT
I think the old B&W "The Invisible Man" is a real classic, a near-great movie. Perhaps not true to the novel in every detail, but it's true to the spirit and IIRC does follow the basic plot.
The recent "Dr. Moreau" was one of the worst pieces of drek I've ever paid money to see. And yes, Brando is truly awful in it. Haven't seen any older version.
"First Men in the Moon"... OK I'm a Harryhausen fan, so have a soft spot in my heart for that, but objectively I admit in many ways it's embarrassingly bad. Another fine Wells story made into another silly kids' movie, just like "The Time Machine" only worse.
|
|
|
Post by Bayne on Apr 9, 2005 0:21:10 GMT
[glow=red,2,300]I watched Things to Come the other day, very preachy propaganda but very effective. Rather timely too.
I heard that Wells himself was involved with the making of this film, anyone have the details? [/glow]
|
|
|
Post by EvilNerfherder on Apr 9, 2005 7:36:29 GMT
|
|
|
Post by mctoddridesagain on Apr 11, 2005 8:44:47 GMT
Yup, Wells was very closely involved with the making of the film - the best book about it is Christopher Frayling's engagingly written and thoroughly informative 'Things to Come', part of the BFI's Film Classics series. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES SEEK OUT THE 1979 'REMAKE'!!! It cannot be over-emphasised just how mind-numbingly dreadful it is, it's nothing but sub-Cormanesque dreck. Apart from the title and the fact that the lead good-guy (played by Barry Morse) is named John Cabal, it has nothing whatsoever to do with TTC. It's cheap, shoddy, exploitation vileness, and would be unwatchable even without the forced (and irrelevant) Wells connection. On second thoughts, if it's shown on TV, watch it and laugh. But don't bother buying it. Back to TTC... In his autobiography, Raymond Massey (who played John and Oswald Cabal) said that Wells was out of his depth in the world of film-making; that he frequently visited the sets and made impracticable suggestions to the technicians; and he soon confined himself to taking a close and detailed interest in the ladies' costumes... In its day it was huge, a prestige project for Alexander Korda's London Films. Think of it as the 1930s equivalent of '2001', with Wells in place of Clarke, and Korda in place of Kubrick. The music, by Arthur Bliss, is superb (get the Chandos recording, 'The Film Music of Sir Arthur Bliss', conducted by Rumon Gamba, the score has been meticulously reconstructed from the fragments that remain and is the most complete version that it's possible to buy). Wells published a treatment of the screenplay in 1935, which someone has conveniently put online: leonscripts.tripod.com/scripts/THINGSTOCOME.htmHere's a photo of Wells on-set (there's a better one somewhere else, but as usual I can't find it): Good links include: Good selection of stills: www.fantascienza.com/cinema/vita-futura/Incomplete, but with many screengrabs: www.625.org.uk/ttc/
|
|
|
Post by EvilNerfherder on Apr 11, 2005 10:21:41 GMT
... that he frequently visited the sets and made impracticable suggestions to the technicians; and he soon confined himself to taking a close and detailed interest in the ladies' costumes... LOL! That was very funny.. Good post, McToddRA.. It's always good to get some more in-depth stuff from Wells' life and work. Is there much about the filmaker's experiences with Wells in that book or just the one anecdote?
|
|
|
Post by mctoddridesagain on Apr 11, 2005 10:48:42 GMT
Blimey, it's years since I read Massey's autobiography, and even then it was from the library so I don't actually own it. As far as I recall, he spends a page or two on TTC, not bad considering he was in around a million films during his long career... At a tangent, the woman in the photo (the other chap being Massey) is Pearl Argyle (there's a good reproduction of the photo in Frayling's book). Frayling quotes extensively from Massey - really, you must get the book, Frayling appears to have read everything there is to read about the film - including: Massey described the Cabals as extremely difficult to act, and wrote, among other things: And here's the exact quote about Wells and costumes: As you can see, Massey had a wonderfully dry sense of humour! There are many more anecdotes, but I'll recount this one (which says something for Wells' character): Again, you really should get Frayling's book, get the DVD of the film, and the soundtrack CD I mentioned before!
|
|
|
Post by Lensman on Apr 15, 2005 22:05:48 GMT
There are parts of "Things to Come" which I love. The FX were some of the very best from the era, and you can see the influence on films to this very day; compare the hi-tech cityscapes seen late in the film to the aircar "trains" flying in the background of the Jedi Council scenes in "Attack of the Clones". But overall the film has aged so painfully that the preaching and naivete are at times embarrassing, even laughable. And whoever mentioned the 1979 travesty "The Shape of Things to Come" -- which was in no sense a remake and had nothing to do with the book or the original movie -- should have his keyboard washed out with soap.
|
|
|
Post by mctoddridesagain on Apr 15, 2005 23:13:14 GMT
You can see its effects on hotel design too... Everytown, 2036 - Things To Come Hyatt Regency, San Francisco
|
|
|
Post by Lensman on Apr 19, 2005 9:30:27 GMT
Mega coolness! Thanx McTodd.
|
|
|
Post by mctoddridesagain on Apr 19, 2005 10:05:12 GMT
Nae problem - that hotel is used in Mel Brooks's 'High Anxiety'.
Oh God, I'm so sad, take me away... *gibber*
|
|
MarkG
Full Member
Posts: 116
|
Post by MarkG on Apr 22, 2005 13:03:18 GMT
Personally I thought it was a hilarious piss-take of fascism.
Then I read the book and realised that Wells actually thought that fascism (or at least his 'scientific fascism' variant) was a _good_ thing.
But still, when I'm bored and in need of a good laugh I stick it in the DVD player. Unfortunately I suspect that people like Tony Blair did actually take the movie seriously, I can just see them as kids having wet dreams about prancing around in black PVC outfits telling everyone else in the world what to do because 'they know best'.
|
|
|
Post by mctoddridesagain on Apr 22, 2005 13:30:50 GMT
...I can just see them as kids having wet dreams about prancing around in black PVC outfits telling everyone else in the world what to do because 'they know best'. Reminds me of that brilliant episode of Father Ted when Ted's accused of being a fascist, and he tells Dougal, "The Church is nothing like fascism! Fascists dress in black and tell people what to do, whereas priests..." *immediately changes subject*
|
|
MarkG
Full Member
Posts: 116
|
Post by MarkG on Apr 22, 2005 14:32:13 GMT
LOL.. I don't think I've seen that episode .
|
|
alabaster
Full Member
Watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's...
Posts: 112
|
Post by alabaster on May 31, 2005 20:03:49 GMT
calling the Frankenheimer Island of Doctor Moreau "Crap" doesn't quite do it justice. Many films are crap; that one was something else entirely.
Val Kilmer screaming how he wants someone to help him get to Dog Heaven; Marlon Brando walking around with a bucket on his head and a midget on his shoulder; a title sequence that will make you swear off acid for life; it's simply beyond description. The only way to explain this movie is to assume that it was assembled in some freakish parallel universe where every rule of aesthetics and logic held dear by the human race is reversed, and then sent through the portal to be inflicted on ourselves.
|
|
Ulaaaa!
Full Member
Ulaaaaa!
Posts: 102
|
Post by Ulaaaa! on Jul 20, 2005 21:38:53 GMT
Wow I think a remake of Day of the Triffids is definately in order.
Memories..... flooding back!
|
|