Jim

Saw this film as a nipper; 2 things stayed in my mind; as an immature mind would remember, is the ping pong ball suspended and the glass walking stick of Marius Goring!! An excellent film!

Watched 'Angels One Five' on Saturday - did our middle classes ever talk the way that the film stars did. I know a 'working class' accent was never tollerated unless the part called for a working class accent!

Still, at least you could understand what they were saying, unlike today's mumblers!!!!

Good morning boys.

Billy Liar

AMOLAD is a wonderful work of art, even for me a self confessed athiest. The film is chock full of humanistic qualities that make it somewhat endearing.

When a film touches both religous and non-religous people in equal measure, you realize just how powerful the cinema of P & P is.

DB7

Whilst watching this again on CH4 it dawned on me that if the year was apparently 1945 then the Churchill speech flying over the airwaves was broadcast a few years earlier.

I will now don my flying jacket and man my guns as Mr Crook shoots me down in flames [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img]

Steve Crook

Not totally, but I'll put you into a tailspin by reminding you that this was heard from outer space after our tour through the universe and if you're far enough away, it can take some years for the radio waves to reach you

But the physics training I had tells me that however far away we are, if we can see the "burning point of fire" that had the thousand bomber raid, the radio waves would reach us at the same time as the light waves.

Maybe there was a programme on an early version of Channel 4 where listeners could vote for their favourite Churchill speech

I'd definitely vote for "dramatic licence" rather than a real goof.

Steve

Fellwanderer

Anyway, it would have be a bit much to expect the audience to sit in the cinema until 1950ish to hear the speech

FELL

stevie boy

I watched this last night and that must have been the 20th time I have seen it. I was particularly looking for things that I may have missed and again I was not disappointed. How do P & P do that?? anyway the scene was when Niven wakes up on the beach and thinks that he is in the afterlife. He sees the boy with the flute and the animals and asks the boy where he should go. This scene up to now was breathtaking but when the boy says 'do you mean the airfield' and Niven says'Airfield' and at that very moment a plane flies over. That was an absolutely fantastic piece of filmaking. Dialogue,acting,scenes and timing, absolutely awesome. P & P were/are the Kings of English Film Making.

Steve Crook

English? Or British? They did a few in Scotland as well, and Powell made an early film in Wales

But generally I won't argue with that last sentiment

It always amuses me to see that although we see one of the statue plinths labelled Mohammed we never see him - because of course it is wrong to portray any representation of the prophet

Steve

batman

I have only seen AMOLAD once ... and that was very recently. I suppose that, in a way, I am quite lucky. I have seen it once, enjoyed it, now I get to watch it again and again and experience for the first time all the bits I missed on my initial viewing.

It still hasn't dislodged ACT and TSBR as my favourite P&Ps ... but there's plenty of time.

Bats.

essaljay

I envy you seeing it for the first time.

I did have one thought. Do you think they chose an actor with a big nose deliberately to play the judge so that viewers would recognise that he was the surgeon whilst wearing a mask?

stevie boy

I have become obsessed with AMOLAD and the acting of Roger Livesey. I have been reading some of the reviews on IMDB and am fuming at one of them. It quotes that the film is wonderful but flawed?? The film is flawless !!
another quote is that the film just about hangs in there in the middle section where Peter falls in love and has his supposed hallucinations !!!!!!!!!!!! unbelievable comment, lastly no mention by name of the great Roger Livesey. This film is a masterpiece and if it is shown on a big screen I will be there!!

Just about hangs in there !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DB7

Just the thread for you:
http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/ge...k-edition.html

Steve Crook

I think the close-up on him as the judge and the surgeon should have made that clear. I think they went for his air of gravitas and that wonderfully authoritative voice - but with a kindly smile

Abraham Sofaer (for it is he) was a well respected actor although he usually got lumbered with just playing Levantine types. Born in Burma to Burmese-Jewish parents he lived in London for much of his life and made a good living on stage.

Steve

TimR

My reponse to this film was very different than my initial responses to A Canterbury Tale, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Tales of Hoffman. It was comparable to my thoughts on I Know Where I'm Going when I first saw it. I enjoyed it thoroughly and had no complaints - but I was not overwhelmed as I was by those first three.

At the same time, I thought as I was watching: "There is a lot here that I am not quite getting. I will have to watch it again - and probably again after that". I have rarely seen a film that ended so quickly. I thought: it can't be over already - it just began!

Those scenes on the stairway are marvelous: the scenic design, the camera work, the music (brilliant) and the juxtaposition of the dialogue - combining wit and urgency. I especially liked the shots of the statues majestically moving by from below.

I enjoyed the inclusion of an American as one of the leads, just as in A Canterbury Tale, and as I mentioned in another thread - it was intriguing to see an American in a British film who did not have an accent.

And when did Kim Hunter learn how to act with such sincerity and depth? She was excellent in this. She was only acceptable in her other roles, later on. Maybe it wasn't her fault in those later roles. Hmmmm.....

Raymond Massey took a little getting used to. My first thought was: I would have liked to have seen a Bostonian playng a Bostonian - but that is mere carping. I'm so used to thinking of him as Abraham Lincoln that I had to adjust my thinking.

I didn't fully understand the medical aspects - it seems that it was all just a hallucination. Maybe I'm wrong?

I will be watching it again this weekend.

TimR

By the way - this thread took some time to find here. I assumed there must be a thread for a film as well loved and respected as this, but no one had posted on it for almost exactly a year!

Oh, this should be addressed at highest level!

What about a seperate section for Powell and Pressburger films?

All in favor, say.....

Steve Crook

Maybe it was all just a hallucination. But maybe it wasn't

As it says at the beginning:
This is the story of two worlds,
the one we know and another
which exists only in the mind ...
of a young airman whose life and
imagination have been violently shaped by war.

Any resemblance to any other world, known or unknown, is
purely coincidental.


I like that you thought there was a lot you're not getting, there is. That's how it got me. Every time I see it I see something else in it.

But you can still see it the first time and appreciate it as a romantic drama with a bit of a mystical twist. And what a powerful romantic drama. I shed tears every time I see it. Not because it's sad, although some parts appear to be heading towards tragedy, but because it's so joyous and noble and wonderful and full of everything that I love.

But I'll try not to say too much about what I think about it because I don't want to steer you (too much). It's much better if you discover it for yourself


You said about the medical aspects. They are rather detailed aren't they? In fact they intrigued Diane Friedman, a Nurse Practitioner specializing in neurology and sleep disorders. She became interested in this film in 1990, having worked as an epilepsy nurse specialist at the Cleveland Clinic. Her original work in discovering the origins of the medical scholarship in the film has since been further researched and expanded.

Steve