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What was the last film you watched?
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<blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 411516" data-attributes="member: 8"><p>A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (1964)</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]54616[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>The Beatles: Folie à Quatre.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]54617[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]54618[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Is it a film or is it a Beatles film? All I know for sure that it isn't a musical.</p><p>The story shows the Beatles responding mildly anarchistic to their pop stardom, further complicated by the shenanigans of Paul McCartney's on-screen grandfather. It wasn't clear to me from the beginning that he actually was a Beatles grandfather but it seemed improbable to keep him around for a such a long time if he wasn't.</p><p>The film also creates the opportunity to look <em>at</em> The Beatles, and what surprised me the most is that George Harrison whom I sacrilegiously refer to as "the fourth Beatle" gets way more screen time than Paul McCartney. It's almost as if the grandfather fills in for Paul.</p><p>John Lennon is obviously the one with the most sex-appeal, and Ringo Starr seems to be the most comfortable in front of a motion picture camera (although he was awful in the 1968 cult classic "Candy").</p><p></p><p>I can only speculate about the reasons this film was made, it certainly isn't particularly flattering or salesman-like. Not that their confidence needed a boost in 1964, of course.</p><p>It's also not a film to inform us that "see? The Beatles can also act!", and it's cleverly interspersed with montages of the band members behaving most energetically.</p><p>The one thing that always puts a big smile on my face is the hysterical fans, and while The Beatles were undoubtedly loved for their youth and sound I think it also shows - from the fans' point of view - a craving for celebrity for the sake of celebrity, and a mass hysteria that basically feeds itself as long as the band is considered relevant.</p><p></p><p>The music sounds as good as ever except that the more ballad-style songs only emphasize that they <em>didn't</em> do the greatest pop ballad of the 20th century: Sealed With A Kiss. But then again, if you play the 45 of <em>All My Loving</em> at 33rpm it kinda sounds like Sealed With A Kiss.</p><p>The story climaxes with a performance of She Loves You and sounds really great, but when I think about the fact that most Beatles songs of that time were versions of "she loves you yeah yeah yeah" I wonder what kind of impact it had on the artistic aspirations the band members <em>may</em> have had during this Beatlesmania.</p><p>There is something slightly disheartening about watching them performing those fantastic popcorn tunes in one consecutive sitting, and from that point of view the staged anarchy seems more than justified.</p><p></p><p>The editing is tight and I found it impossible to "get" the many gags, and if I have to be painfully honest, there were a few moments when I caught myself zoning out.</p><p>The performances by the supporting cast is uniformly good, and Victor Spinetti's knitted sweater is a real scene-stealer.</p><p>I put the DVD on the shelf, it's currently sitting between Disney's<em>The Sword In The Stone</em> and <em>Séance On A Wet Afternoon</em>. I just love it that this chronological order makes no sense whatsoever. I call it my "decorative confusion" although a less anally retentive person might point out that my DVD collection looks painfully neatly organised.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Willie Oleson, post: 411516, member: 8"] A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (1964) [ATTACH type="full"]54616[/ATTACH] The Beatles: Folie à Quatre. [ATTACH type="full"]54617[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full"]54618[/ATTACH] Is it a film or is it a Beatles film? All I know for sure that it isn't a musical. The story shows the Beatles responding mildly anarchistic to their pop stardom, further complicated by the shenanigans of Paul McCartney's on-screen grandfather. It wasn't clear to me from the beginning that he actually was a Beatles grandfather but it seemed improbable to keep him around for a such a long time if he wasn't. The film also creates the opportunity to look [I]at[/I] The Beatles, and what surprised me the most is that George Harrison whom I sacrilegiously refer to as "the fourth Beatle" gets way more screen time than Paul McCartney. It's almost as if the grandfather fills in for Paul. John Lennon is obviously the one with the most sex-appeal, and Ringo Starr seems to be the most comfortable in front of a motion picture camera (although he was awful in the 1968 cult classic "Candy"). I can only speculate about the reasons this film was made, it certainly isn't particularly flattering or salesman-like. Not that their confidence needed a boost in 1964, of course. It's also not a film to inform us that "see? The Beatles can also act!", and it's cleverly interspersed with montages of the band members behaving most energetically. The one thing that always puts a big smile on my face is the hysterical fans, and while The Beatles were undoubtedly loved for their youth and sound I think it also shows - from the fans' point of view - a craving for celebrity for the sake of celebrity, and a mass hysteria that basically feeds itself as long as the band is considered relevant. The music sounds as good as ever except that the more ballad-style songs only emphasize that they [I]didn't[/I] do the greatest pop ballad of the 20th century: Sealed With A Kiss. But then again, if you play the 45 of [I]All My Loving[/I] at 33rpm it kinda sounds like Sealed With A Kiss. The story climaxes with a performance of She Loves You and sounds really great, but when I think about the fact that most Beatles songs of that time were versions of "she loves you yeah yeah yeah" I wonder what kind of impact it had on the artistic aspirations the band members [I]may[/I] have had during this Beatlesmania. There is something slightly disheartening about watching them performing those fantastic popcorn tunes in one consecutive sitting, and from that point of view the staged anarchy seems more than justified. The editing is tight and I found it impossible to "get" the many gags, and if I have to be painfully honest, there were a few moments when I caught myself zoning out. The performances by the supporting cast is uniformly good, and Victor Spinetti's knitted sweater is a real scene-stealer. I put the DVD on the shelf, it's currently sitting between Disney's[I]The Sword In The Stone[/I] and [I]Séance On A Wet Afternoon[/I]. I just love it that this chronological order makes no sense whatsoever. I call it my "decorative confusion" although a less anally retentive person might point out that my DVD collection looks painfully neatly organised. [/QUOTE]
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