Originally posted by rwingett
I have seen "Amelie". I thought it was a very good movie, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was the best of all time.
Lol! Neither would I, and I didn't. I said only it was the best I had seen, such a grandiose claim as it being the best of all time would be absurd.
Originally posted by rwingett
My choice for a superbly funny book would be: "Right ho Jeeves" by P.G. Wodehouse. Very funny stuff, a masterful use of the English language.
I stumbled across a First Edition "The Inimitable Jeeves" by Wodehouse (in quite, quite tidy condition sitting in a dark corner of an antique bookshop, where it had been for over 8 years) and purchased it for the tiddly sum of £20 (good condition ones fetch £150+ at auction I believe) as a Christmas present for a very dear friend of mine. She's since lent it to me, and you're sooo right, they are wonderful books, and as you say, masterfully well-written. Well worth investigating 🙂
Mark
These are extracted from a recent email that I received.
They are (supposedly) real metaphors given in English GCSE exam essays (exams are taken at age 16 for non-Brits). My personal favourite is the duck.
Some of them had me giggling so hard at work that I had to go and hide in the toilets. Not a proud moment.
Here we go...
Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a tumble dryer.
She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.
The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup.
Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the centre
Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left York at 6:36 p.m. travelling at 55 mph, the other from Peterborough at 4:19p.m.at a speed of 35 mph.
The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the full stop after the Dr.
on a Dr Pepper can.
John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
The red brick wall was the colour of a brick-red crayon.
Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.
The door had been forced, as forced as the dialogue during the interview portion of Family Fortunes.
Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
The plan was simple, like my brother Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for while.
He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter."
She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.
The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Glenda Jackson MP in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Robin Cook MP, Leader of the House of Commons, in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the suspension of Keith Vaz MP.
The ballerina rosegracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a lamppost.
The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free cashpoint.
The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium.
It was a working class tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with their power tools.
He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a dustcart reversing.
She was as easy as the Daily Star crossword.
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature British beef.
She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened.
It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
Originally posted by T1000Yes, I failed to make that subtle distinction...😕
Originally posted by rwingett
[b]I have seen "Amelie". I thought it was a very good movie, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was the best of all time.
Lol! Neither would I, and I didn't. I said only it was the best I had seen, such a grandiose claim as it being the best of all time would be absurd...
I was looking at the Detroit Film Theatre spring schedule recently. They are showing "Sweet Sixteen" by Ken Loach sometime this spring. I seem to recall you saying...let's see, how did that go?..that it was your *second* favorite film that you had ever seen. Or something to that effect. Am I correct in thinking that it has your personal endorsement?
Originally posted by rwingettI found the post I made on "Sweet Sixteen":-
I was looking at the Detroit Film Theatre spring schedule recently. They are showing "Sweet Sixteen" by Ken Loach sometime this spring. I seem to recall you saying...let's see, how did that go?..that it was your *second* favorite film ...[text shortened]... . Am I correct in thinking that it has your personal endorsement?
[Anyone watched the film Sweet Sixteen? It's Ken Loach's most recent
film. Set in Glasgow, very, very low budget following the life of a ned
as he struggles to stay clean and out of trouble, seeing whether he
can resist the temptations of what that kind of life sucks one into.
I thought it was an unbelievably good film, a must watch for anyone
interested in social class and the lives of somone "different" to
themself. Puts a lot into perspective.]
So nope, no claim here of it being my second favourite film (The Shawshank Redemption is, with Pi up there too), although I did think it very good. The type of film it is has been done several times before, and it could be argued that "Sweet Sixteen" doesn't really contribute anything new or doesn't develop the genre of Socialist cinema. But then I hadn't seen many of the other similar films before I watched Sweet Sixteen.
The story is probably all too familiar for a regular film watcher, but the acting by the main characters is very good indeed, very strong. I gather that the person who played Liam, the central character, had never acted before. It wouldn't be over the top to say it was a powerful film, and there are several rather grim black comedy moments.
So yep, for the little that it's worth, it has my personal endorsement, defo worth a watch.
For sublimity, subtlety, and simply sheer beauty I can't recommend strongly enough the film "Amélie",right, you've done it now! You've recomend the same thing to me twice and now I've gone & bought it (Amazon, gotta love it).
It'd better be good or I'll... I'll... I'll watch it again to work out what I missed first time.
Heehee! Arnie wouldn't be pleased anyway, given that T1000 was the villain of the piece. Everyone's favourite Austrian/American muscleman was a more basic T800 or some such thing (I can't remember and I'm quite glad that I can't!).
It's a nickname my team mates gave me from when I used to play football. I played centre-half and had a tendancy to run in a very upright, scarily focussed style after the centre-forward who was clean through on goal and then to hurl myself into a reckless slide tackle, in a manner akin to when T1000 runs after the car and throws himself at it in Terminator 2.
My my. How interesting that was. 😉
Off to watch 8Mile tonight. I suspect Amélie shall remain numéro uno, but I've read some favourable reviews about 8Mile so fingers crossed that it's not a pile of steaming pap.