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TV Slut Report
Feb. 8th, 2014 11:21 pm1. Caught up with some television viewing...ie. I was able to delete quite a few things from my DVR. One of them was the film Hitchcock by Sacha Rogen starring Helen Mirren and Anthony Hopkins. It's an okay film about the making of Psycho - focusing on the marriage between Hitch and Alma. What it did convey was how Psycho was a mess, until they re-edited and cut the film. Emphasizing that in movies - 40% of it is editing and cutting.
Got to me to thinking about what my top five favorite Hitchcock films are. Several weren't that successful when they premiered. Vertigo didn't do that well. And Psycho was his most successful film - which ironically the studio fought him on and did not want him to make, until he agreed to finance it himself, cut his fee, in return for 40% of the proceeds. I think they lived to regret that deal.
Top Five Hitchcock films...
1. Shadow of a Doubt...it's a marvelous film about our cultural fascination with serial murders. Features a great character bit with Hume Cronyn, where he discusses murders with a friend.
2. Rear Window - Jimmy Stewart plays a photographer who is stuck in his apartment due to a broken leg, and watches a murder across the way.
3. Strangers on a Train - a Tennis player meets a sociopath on a train, they discuss the people they wish were no longer bothering them, the sociopath makes a bargain with the Tennis Player, I'll kill your person, if you kill mine. The Tennis Player laughs it off...
4. Vertigo....Jimmy Stewart again...plays a man obsessed with a woman, who he saw die and was unable to save...then suddenly sees her look-alike.
5. North By Northwest - a spy thriller with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint...
Honorable mentions: Suspicion, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and To Catch A Thief
2. Sherlock - Saw the final episode tonight. Was a bit surprised by the twist...which I didn't see coming any more than Sherlock did. Now, understand some of the controversy over it online.
( spoilers )
3. Books that rub you the wrong way, and the right way? And stories you avoid?
Interesting question. Will need to ponder some more. Apparently, I'm not found of books that trivalize human relationships. Nor do I like emotionally manipulative books. (Which is about 90% of the best-seller list).
4. Watched Downton Abbey - the Anna/Bates storyline continues to drag down the series with Bates' manpain. Anna keeps asking how she can help him? Come on. She's the one who was hurt, not him. And I like how she states..."I don't see myself as a victim and don't want to be treated as one." Edith, oh dear, can you be any more insipid? Mary? I weirdly agree with Charles Barnes, she does act like she's entitled and doesn't deserve half of what she has or to exist. Although - I think Mary and Charles is the next romance. They do strike sparks with their banter. Loving the Dowager and Isobel, also Daisy, Ivy, the Cook, Mrs. Hughes.
Racism was handled differently in England than in the US during this time period, slightly less horrible than it was in the US. Which I guess makes sense. The English abolished slavery long before the US did. (And I do mean LONNNNG before.) Not bad, not great, sort of slow. And Lord Gratham is growing on me. He's more likable this season. Mary is less likable.
5. Nashville what works is the Juliette/Avery relationship and everything to do with the music industry, what doesn't is everything to do with Rayna's family - which they appear to be getting rid of, mainly because it wasn't working and didn't fit the story.
Got to me to thinking about what my top five favorite Hitchcock films are. Several weren't that successful when they premiered. Vertigo didn't do that well. And Psycho was his most successful film - which ironically the studio fought him on and did not want him to make, until he agreed to finance it himself, cut his fee, in return for 40% of the proceeds. I think they lived to regret that deal.
Top Five Hitchcock films...
1. Shadow of a Doubt...it's a marvelous film about our cultural fascination with serial murders. Features a great character bit with Hume Cronyn, where he discusses murders with a friend.
2. Rear Window - Jimmy Stewart plays a photographer who is stuck in his apartment due to a broken leg, and watches a murder across the way.
3. Strangers on a Train - a Tennis player meets a sociopath on a train, they discuss the people they wish were no longer bothering them, the sociopath makes a bargain with the Tennis Player, I'll kill your person, if you kill mine. The Tennis Player laughs it off...
4. Vertigo....Jimmy Stewart again...plays a man obsessed with a woman, who he saw die and was unable to save...then suddenly sees her look-alike.
5. North By Northwest - a spy thriller with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint...
Honorable mentions: Suspicion, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and To Catch A Thief
2. Sherlock - Saw the final episode tonight. Was a bit surprised by the twist...which I didn't see coming any more than Sherlock did. Now, understand some of the controversy over it online.
( spoilers )
3. Books that rub you the wrong way, and the right way? And stories you avoid?
Interesting question. Will need to ponder some more. Apparently, I'm not found of books that trivalize human relationships. Nor do I like emotionally manipulative books. (Which is about 90% of the best-seller list).
4. Watched Downton Abbey - the Anna/Bates storyline continues to drag down the series with Bates' manpain. Anna keeps asking how she can help him? Come on. She's the one who was hurt, not him. And I like how she states..."I don't see myself as a victim and don't want to be treated as one." Edith, oh dear, can you be any more insipid? Mary? I weirdly agree with Charles Barnes, she does act like she's entitled and doesn't deserve half of what she has or to exist. Although - I think Mary and Charles is the next romance. They do strike sparks with their banter. Loving the Dowager and Isobel, also Daisy, Ivy, the Cook, Mrs. Hughes.
Racism was handled differently in England than in the US during this time period, slightly less horrible than it was in the US. Which I guess makes sense. The English abolished slavery long before the US did. (And I do mean LONNNNG before.) Not bad, not great, sort of slow. And Lord Gratham is growing on me. He's more likable this season. Mary is less likable.
5. Nashville what works is the Juliette/Avery relationship and everything to do with the music industry, what doesn't is everything to do with Rayna's family - which they appear to be getting rid of, mainly because it wasn't working and didn't fit the story.