Search

Search only in certain items:

    50in1 Piano HD

    50in1 Piano HD

    Music

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Learn to play the piano, create your own songs and even sing to your compositions! 50in1 Piano HD...

The Neon Demon (2016)
The Neon Demon (2016)
2016 | Horror
A diamond in a sea of glass
Number 1 in my #top10 favourite films of all time is 'The Neon Demon'
------------------------------------------
Not only my #favourite film of all time #theneondemon is all my #passion, my #addiction & my #love for cinema as well as everything that #inspires me, excites me & drives me in life all crammed together into one cinematic masterpiece. In fact this film is so #perfect & such an #obsession of mine I think about it on a daily basis & even have my phone & alarm clock themed around it. Directed by #nicholaswindingrefn (the greatest director of all time) & just like #OnlyGodForgives #neondemon is visually immense, beautiful, intimidating, full of mystery & #emotion. Every scene is rich & stylish with clearly a lot of care/thought put into every single one wether it be the colours or placement of everything it contains. This film invokes & awakens so many emotions with me every single time I watch it & every time it ends I feel I've learnt something new about not only the film but about myself too. With next level acting & such an unnerving yet spellbinding soundtrack 'The Neon Demon' almost sends sends shivers down my spine & catapults me into a hypnotic state of immersion still to this day. I doubt any film will ever replace this film as my top spot & although its slated by pretty much everyone the sheer depth of it & the #horror, #inspiration, courage, enlightenment & joy I personally get from it makes me feel so alive that if I met #nwr I think I'd just burst into tears of gratitude.
------------------------------------------------
#neon #drive #beauty #beautiful #arthouse #art #thursdaythoughts #ellefanning #ryangosling #modeling #model #fashion #filmcritic #glamourous
  
Saint Maud (2020)
Saint Maud (2020)
2020 | Drama, Horror
9
7.4 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Morfydd Clark - astonishingly good as Maud (1 more)
Expert pacing from debut director Rose Glass
"My Little Saviour": Astonishing Saint Maud delivers psycho-religious chills
Saint Maud is the debut feature from writer/director Rose Glass, and it packs a punch. The film was first seen at last year's London Film Festival, but was due for broader nationwide release soon. What a crushing disappointment it must be for Ms Glass that so few people will likely get to see it in the current climate... at least, not for a while. Since it is an effective little chiller.

Maud (Morfydd Clark) is a palliative nurse looking after ex-choreographer Amanda (Jennifer Ehle). Maud is extremely religious and feels God move in her... regularly. Acting on His guidance, Maud sets out to save the soul of her ailing bohemian charge. But is Amanda beyond reach, and how will the zealot-like Maud react to that rejection?

Morfydd Clark appears so young in this film that you would think this was her debut film. But she's actually 30 years old and has quite an impressive filmography already. Although this is her movie-lead debut, she's had a substantial part alongside Kate Beckinsale in the excellent "Love and Friendship" and smaller parts in "Crawl", "The Personal History of David Copperfield" and the fun "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". She's likely to get more worldwide exposure soon as a young Galadriel in Amazon's new version of "Lord of the Rings".

As Maud she is simply superb - expressing such a range of joy, hurt and despair that you must think a BAFTA Rising Star nomination should be on the cards.

Clark is ably supported in the leading role by the splendid Jennifer Ehle, still so memorable to me as Elizabeth Bennett from the BBC's "Pride and Prejudice".

Scarborough is also a star of "Saint Maud". The Yorkshire seaside town is another star of the movie. Clearly filmed before lockdown, the rainy and windswept resort looks bleak and unwelcoming. And that's before Covid! Many of those struggling bars and amusement centres, as in other resorts all around the UK, are now on their last legs.

Adam Janota Bzowski supplies the impressively claustrophobic music, which deserves recognition. A scene with Maud, flicking a lighter rhythmically in time with the sonorous beat, is a masterpiece in musical choreography and editing (by Mark Towns).

At the heart of this horror-thriller is whether, following a Dawkins-style argument, fervent religious followers are less insightfully correct and more mentally unstable and misguided. When is the voice of God just the voice in your head? And how would you tell the difference anyway? Piecing together the plot and motivations of Maud was intellectually challenging and rewarding.

I always get a little tense and nervous when I see the word "horror" on a movie bill. I am NOT a great horror fan! But for me, as a 'horror movie', "Saint Maud" is of the 'horror-lite' variety. Highly watchable, it builds more in the way of creeping dread than cheap shocks. There were only a couple of jump-scares (but for me, the one in the finale was a doozy!).

A BBC interview with Rose Glass I just saw says she relates Maud's relationship with God as like many people's relationship with social media. Always looking for support, guidance and affirmation. Interesting.

This is also an obviously female-led picture. All the men are complete tools. no, really, literally they are. It makes me feel ashamed to be among their number.

Overall, "Saint Maud" is a minor classic. I didn't go in with great expectations of this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. As a small British movie, it packs a punch significantly above its weight. When I came out I was at about a 7* rating. But this is one that really stayed with me, and I've subconsciously thought about little else all day. So for that reason I am going to escalate my rating to something more appropriate.

You might struggle now to see it on the big screen, but if you can do so, it comes with a recommendation from me. I think this one could REALLY be a "Marmite film".... so if you see it, let me know what you thought with a comment on One Mann's Movies here https://rb.gy/9k93ck . (Thanks).
  
The Enigma Variations by Edward Elgal
The Enigma Variations by Edward Elgal
2008 | Classical
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It's funny because it's one of the first classical records that I would have given some time to. I liked it because it felt obviously about something that I could understand and that it had some good tunes on it, in fact it has just one or two main themes and variations on them, as the name suggests. This one has a special place for me, as it's sort of helped me through. 'Nimrod', where the theme is at its purest, is just one of the most amazing pieces of music in history. It hits every kind of right emotional pitch at the right time. I can only listen to once every couple of years, because it just makes me cry, it's really astonishing. I think I listened to it when I was about 17. I am interested in classical music - I could rattle off... The people that seem to do the most for me are between 1900 and 1940, it's Stravinsky and Ravel, Shostakovich. Fauré is a recent acquisition, but I don't want to sound like a dick-ponce [laughs]! I think it's simply because it's where the Romantic movement is morphing into modernity and after the war, it really goes completely mental and I can't handle most of that. Although I do like a few post-modernists like Brant and Glass, people who are a joy as well. It's that period in the twenties, though, where there was some crazy stuff going on. Where they're really using dissonance and incredible syncopation that had never got a look in - for me, that's really enjoyable, where everything's going a bit mental. But they had still got good tunes, that's very important for me."

Source
  
40x40

Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Emma (2020) in Movies

Feb 21, 2020  
Emma (2020)
Emma (2020)
2020 | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Anya Taylor-Joy.... mesmerising (2 more)
Gorgeous to look at; stunning locations and costumes
Witty and well-observed debut script
Music is overly intrusive in places (0 more)
Simply Sublime
I loved the look of "Emma" from the trailer. And I was not disappointed. It is a simply sublime piece of comic entertainment.

Emma Woodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a rich, privileged 21 year-old looking after her elderly and quirky father (Bill Nighy) in the family stately home. She has never loved, despite the persistent presence of 'family friend' George Knightley (Johnny Flynn), but finds it entertaining to engage in matchmaking, particularly in respect to her somewhat lower class friend Harriet Smith (Mia Goth). Emma has high ambitions for Harriet... ideas significantly above what her social station and looks might suggest.

Emma has her sights on a dream.... the mystery man Frank Churchill (Callum Turner), son of wealthy local landowner Mr Weston (Rupert Graves). She has never actually met him, but is obsessed with his myth. #fangirl. As a source of immense annoyance to her, but often a source of valuable information on news of Churchill, is the village 'old maid' Miss Bates (Miranda Hart). "Such fun"!

But Emma's perfect life is about to face sticky times, as her machinations fail to yield the expected results and a stray comment, at a disastrous picnic, threatens to damage both her reputation and her social standing.

If you like your movies full of action and suspense, you are digging in the wrong place. "Emma" is slow... glacially slow... wallowing in beautiful bucolic scenes (with superb cinematography by Christopher Blauvelt); gorgeous costumes by Alexandra Byrne; and hair styling by Marese Langan.

The movie also benefits from a joyfully tight and funny script by debut screenwriter Eleanor Catton (a Man-Booker prize winner). This picks relentlessly at the strata of the class system set up by Jane Austen's novel: "Every body has their level" spits spurned suitor Mr Elton (Josh O'Connor).

I know Anya Taylor-Joy as the spirited Casey from "Split" and "Glass": she was impressive in "Split"; less so for me in the disappointing "Glass". But here, I found her UTTERLY mesmerising. She has such striking features - those eyes! - that she fully inhabits the role of the beautiful heiress who haunts multiple men sequentially. I even muttered the word "Oscar nomination" at the end of the film: though we are too early in the year to seriously go there.

An even bigger surprise was the actor playing George Knightley. Johnny Flynn has been in a number of TV shows I haven't seen, and a few films I haven't seen either (e.g. "Beast"). But I had the nagging feeling I knew him really well. The illustrious Mrs Movie Man clocked him: he's the Cineworld "plaid man"! (For those outside the UK or not patrons of Cineworld cinemas, he was the 'star' of a Cineworld advert that played over and Over AND OVER again for months on end before every film I saw. Arrrgggghhhh!).

Here, Flynn is excellent as the frustrated and brooding Austen-hunk. He even gets away with an ar*e-shot within a U-certificate!

Particularly strong in the supporting cast are Bill Nighy (being delightfully more restrained in his performance); Miranda Hart (being "Miranda", but perfectly cast) and Mia Goth (memorable for that eel-bath in "A Cure for Wellness").

And a big thank-you for a web review in the online Radio Times for naming one of the comical (and bizarrely uncredited) footmen as Angus Imrie - - the truly disturbed stepson of Claire in "Fleabag". It was driving me crazy where I knew him from!

The one criticism I would have is that I found the (perfectly fine and well-fitting) music, by David Schweitzer and Isobel Waller-Bridge (sister of Phoebe) poorly mixed within the soundtrack. There were times when I found it overly intrusive, suddenly ducking under dialogue and then BLASTING out again. Sometimes music should be at the forefront.... but more often it should be barely perceptible.

As you might guess....
...I loved this one. The story is brilliant (obsv!); the film is simply gorgeous to look at; the locations (including the village of Lower Slaughter in the Cotswolds and Wilton House - near me - in Salisbury) are magnificent and a blessing for the English Tourist Board.

All the more impressive then that this is the directorial feature of video/short director Autumn de Wilde.

This comes with a "highly recommended" from both myself and the illustrious Mrs Movie-Man.

(For the full graphical review, please check out https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2020/02/20/one-manns-movies-film-review-emma-2020/ .)