so today i woke up and watched judgement at nuremberg. not a real cheery flick to watch first thing but i was really impressed. it goes for 3 hours but doesn't seem drawn out. spencer tracey rules as always, burt lancaster is amazing. judy garland was a weird addition for sure. only gripes were the dvd was mastered in 4:3, not 16:9. i looked at the back and the editon i have is dated 2004, which makes this anamorphic oversight kind of inexcusable (unless - and this is likely - it's just a direct copy of an initial release dvd from the 90's or something with new packaging). also, the transfer was made from a distribution print, a black and white positive instead of from the negative. you can tell because the reel change marks appear. this happened with the original dvd transfer of michael mann's heat aswell which was puzzling considering they had the negative for the re-release anyway. why don't they just nail things like that first time around? pretty disappointing, but it wouldn't surprise me if mgm lost the original judgement at nuremberg negative. i guess we'll see whether or not when they do a re-release (which they will do).
then i watched brick. now when i shared a room with jono he was always hassling me to check this flick out cause it was one of his favourites. turns out it rules. well shot, well acted, well written. impressive for such an ambitious idea. the noir touches were obvious but still quite sneaky. joseph gordon-levitt is a great actor and it was sweet to see richard roundtree in there (shaft!). the interview with the director was the only extra on the dvd but it was pretty good. for a half hour of the guy just talking it was better than expected. it took him 9 years to get his film finished...that's daunting but inspiring.
then i watched rounders. i'd forgotten this film even existed until recently when i saw it at JB for like 6 bucks. i think REL have bought up all village roadshow's distribution library in australia cause they're re-releasing all the films as exactly the same discs but with very slightly altered packaging and mega cheap. all the usual village hallmarks are there but it's just an REL release now. reminds me of miramax's releasing strategies in the 80's...anyway. rounders is about poker and it's flipping sweet. matt damon is rad as always, edward norton too...martin landau, nice surprise. john malkovich is hilarious as a russian poker joint owner named kgb. production design was great and it was shot so well...amazing a film like this slipped under the radar. so good.
then some german backpackers came over cause they're staying for a few days. two girls and a guy. jord's registered on couchsurfers.com and they saw us on there. they were rad. they taught us about german stuff for like 2 hours. beer, geography, dialects...the works. at times it was awkward to search for things to talk about but that's to be expected. i look forward to hanging out with them in the days to come.
finally i watched buffalo 66. it's a film that really sneaks up on you, that you can't judge in the first 20 minutes or so. you're not quite sure what to think of it. christina ricci is great, so is gallo. everyone in it rules in some way. even jackie treehorn from the big lebowski is in it! nuts. cool music and some great scenes, especially the bit where ricci tapdances in the bowling alley...heaps rad. the film looked...70's. must have been the stock, i don't know what it was. it almost looked like they shot on colour positive film. actually i think i read that somewhere. everything looked so warm and lush but muted, if that makes any sense. awesome.
now after nerding out, i gotta sleep.
until tomorrow, bye.
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