What Was the Last Movie You Watched?

ChiroDoc said:
Yeah, I think Tarantino has a violence fetish. Great director, but his penchant for gore has kept me away from several of his films that I'm sure were very good, but didn't want to fade the gross violence.

I was leery of seeing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood for that reason. But I knew so much about that particular era, having lived in Hollwyood at the time, that I saw it anyway. I was very pleasantly surprised, and very much enjoyed the film. There was almost no gore except at the end, which was treated as comedy.
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I could have written this post as I also lived in H'wood during that era and was leery of Tarantino films. My reaction to the film and the ending mirrored yours.
 
StarSong said:
I could have written this post as I also lived in H'wood during that era and was leery of Tarantino films. My reaction to the film and the ending mirrored yours.
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What a coincidence. I lived in Laurel Canyon at the time, just two canyons over from Benedict Canyon. Everyone was creeped out, not knowing where they might strike again.
Other than that it was a great era.
 
Great film noir, Michael. It's one of Hitchcock's best, and reportedly his favorite film. In real life he liked the central Calif. coast so much that he made 3 movies there (Shadow of a Doubt, Vertigo, and The Birds); and he also bought a home there up in the hills.

I thought Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright had great chemistry, and they made a couple of more films together. Also I think this was Hume Cronyn's first major picture.
 
I asked Gemini to summarize Hithcock's ways of making such suspenseful movies. See iff this isn't a short, to the point, and comprehensive.

Hitchcock made his films dramatic primarily by manipulating audience information to create suspense, a feeling he famously differentiated from mere shock. He used techniques like subjective camera work (point-of-view shots) to immerse the viewer in the character's experience, making the audience complicit.
Key Techniques for Suspense
Hitchcock frequently employed several key cinematic techniques to build tension:
* Information Imbalance (Suspense vs. Surprise): He'd show the audience a threat, like a bomb hidden under a table, while the characters remain unaware, making mundane conversation agonizing.
* Camera Control: He used close-ups to intensify emotion, the dolly zoom (like in Vertigo) to physically convey disorientation, and dynamic movements or low-angle shots to create anxiety or powerlessness.
* Editing: He utilized fast cutting (as in the Psycho shower scene) and cross-cutting (parallel editing) between simultaneous events in different locations to heighten urgency and chaos.
* Suggestion Over Graphic Detail: He often implied violence rather than showing it directly, believing the audience's imagination creates horror more effectively than explicit visuals.
* Sound and Silence: He used sound design, sometimes stripping away dialogue to emphasize music or ambient noise, to amplify tension.
* Humor: He balanced suspense with humor to heighten the dramatic contrast when danger inevitably struck.
 
I just watched Witness for the Prosecution, with Tyrone Power, Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich. Directed by the great Billy Wilder. Wow. It was most excellent, they don't make em like this anymore. I couldn't give a synopsis even if I wanted to bc so many tropes and turns in the plot. Just when you think you know what's going on, something happens to change it drastically.
 
Paco Dennis said:
Our family drove over to Half Moon Bay to see the filming history of the film the Birds. I loved the coast in mid Ca. Too. It changes a lot as you motor south on Hwy 101. :)
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I went to Bodega Bay years back, and was surprised (and delighted) to see that the schoolhouse and, I think, jungle jim was still there. Is it still there now?
 

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