Roman Polanksi's THE GHOST WRITER

really, can't let Scorsese dominate the doddering auteurs' new films discussion.

I like 'serious' Pierce Brosnan, at least in The Tailor of Panama.

kind of excited about this!

me too!

are u joking about tailor of panama morbs? i mean i liked that movie ok but he's playing a parody role! "serious"?

this got me stoked:

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2010/02/the-ghost-writer.html

awesome still too.

glenny ken was weirdly committed to polanski during rape-gate and i kind of wonder if he's working an angle (because i think he's a hack). otoh, im relatively psyched for the film.

yes, his positive review is part of a plan to advance the cause of rapists.

im not afraid to go there

i think the secret of the prime minister in this flick is that he is strongly pro-rape

http://www.rickstv.com/tvo/gwjamal.jpg

Thank you Crütz.

roman polanski's the HOST RAPER

wow, you guys! ;-) :-O

mark, by Serious Pierce I mean moreso than Remington/007 -- ie, everything.

so is it like Frantic, only better?

i'm hopeful, but after Men Who Stared At Goats I'm worried its another film where Ewan McGregor plays a boring lead learning about a far more interesting character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKE9W0O8bX8

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8526500.stm

was watching At The Movies last night and the basic message of the whole show was "fuck Shutter Island, son, The Ghost Writer is that shit"

i believe those were A.O. Scott's exact words, in fact

so he won best director in Berlin now

What a disaster for auteurism this weekend is.

Oh wait.

mark, by Serious Pierce I mean moreso than Remington/007 -- ie, everything.

― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Saturday, February 20, 2010 1:53 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ya it's just that tailor of panama is totally him being a bond parody, right?

he's a better Bond in Tailor than in his Bond movies.

i actually like his not-bond in "the matador."

i like his gay hustler assassin in the last good friday

rapington steele

I wish this was an adaptation of the Roth novel.

i wish this were a remake of the nic cage film

i wish this was http://www.scaryforkids.com/pics/ghost-writer-01.jpg

s1ocki, I boycotted the Brosnan Bonds.

did you picket them too?

this was ok. polanski is still p. great at music & mood imo. pierce was good, wilkinson is always awesome (only has 1 scene unfortunately).

i do wish the ending was a bit more uncertain/subtle

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*spoiler talk~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

er isnt it rather stupid/implausible that the us govt/cia would deem the book a threat to nat'l security and attract/validate any suspicion ? i mean, i really liked the tenuousness of wilkinson's character's link 2 the cia (ewen sez "it's on the internet") and feel like everything was v. rushed from the pt pierce gets murked

a hard-drinking hack of a ghost writer

^minor pt but this bugs me from GKs review. guy has a few drinks, like most ppl. it marginally helps me think of him as more of a real person. i know i remember depp's character in the 9th gate was the same way

this reminded me strongly of the ninth gate. not in a good way, but not in a terrible way either. i didn't like the script. overall wasn't really feeling it.

it also reminded me very heavily of eyes wide shut, not in a good or bad way.

partly it was the filmmaking style, also the weird europe-subbing-for-america ambience. and the portentousness of it all.

oh and kim cattrall's accent was HORRIBLE.

actually the more i think about it this was kind of superficial and dumb, if reasonably well-made. something kind of antiseptic about polanski's work since the 70s though. maybe that's the kubrick connection.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr at that old "antiseptic = Kubrick" BS

Finally watching it this afternoon; will clean teeth with antiseptic mouthwash.

This was a solid movie.

Kim Cattrall's accent WAS truly atrocious. I think it's pretty pathetic that actors in a local community theatre can approximate a better English accent than someone who is paid millions of dollars and can, I dunno, PAY FOR ELOCUTION LESSONS.

I'd no idea it was Kim Cattrall.

I didn't either till the credits. Liked this movie a lot leaving the theatre. 2-3 weeks later, I like it a lot less but by no means dislike it. Had opposite reaction to Shutter Island. Thought it well executed but almost couldn't believe Scorsese was doing something so gimmicky, but now am genuinely enthusiastic about it.

If I regard it as a nasty political comedy instead of a thriller (it's got little to no suspense), it's terrific.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr at that old "antiseptic = Kubrick" BS

― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Saturday, March 20, 2010 7:43 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark

it has a lot to do with camera movements and acting. i'm not some kubrick hater. it's just there.

I never thought I'd see RP make an Alan Pakula Lite movie, even if it's a diverting one.

Was annoyed by the blatant looping of all the "fucks" (except one) so they could avoid an R rating. They think teens are gonna see this?

I never thought I'd see RP make an Alan Pakula Lite movie, even if it's a diverting one.

well it wasn't exactly a pakula lite movie but the 9th gate or whatever that one w/ johnny depp was had a lot of the same qualities (or lack thereof) as this one. both have pretty bad scripts.

re. kim cattrall's accent, she's actually of british origin and she still can't pull off an even halfway credible accent. she's a shit actress, no wonder she can't get work outside of sex and the city.

these sort of medium-budget european-financed movies always have weird c-list american casting choices, cf. terence davie's the house of mirth with eric stolz and LOL dan ackroyd.

nah, this wasn't a BAD script. Holding the plot to plausibility standards is a mistake, tho that hoary decoding thing at the end was very unfortunate. As for Cattrall, sometimes the accent vanished completely.

(My main problem was believing Olivia Williams is supposed to be about 55.)

ok, maybe it wasn't BAD, but it wasn't too good.

yeah--olivia williams and pierce brosnan were supposed to have been classmates at college, but he's about 15 years older than her and it shows. olivia williams is pretty hot btw.

honestly the more i think about it, a lot of the smaller roles here were pretty badly miscast. even macgregor, who can do no wrong in my eyes, was probably a bit too pretty-boy for the part. pierce brosnan was great though.

oh and tom wilkinson did a good job with his bit.

as for your HoMirth gibes, Stoltz and Aykroyd are fine actors who unfortunately have lived through an era where the industry doesn't give them good roles.

Tom Wilkinson is in a kind of "morally compromised" rut.

they are i guess ok actors (ackroyd is a good comic actor but i have yet to see him in an effective dramatic role to say the least) but they were dreadfully miscast in that film. that was the point of my analogy.

*spoiler*

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Really, this is one of those "conspiracy" thrillers about a conspiracy that has no need to exist IRL. Every post-Thatcher British PM might as well be working for the CIA!

the HoMirth gibes are apropos of what?

My take.

Basically the nicely calibrated ambiguity -- Polanski's reluctance to choose sides in the dramatization of a genre film, fer god's sake -- really annoyed me.

but all the characters are essentially dicks, including MacGregor and the rogue minister.

But Polanski did it in Chinatown!

Polanski and Robert Harris don't see anyone who matters choosing sides. Dubya, Blair, Rumsfeld and Cheney will die free.

I mean, I always thought the Chinatown ending was fatalistic twaddle, but the climax on this one, however well-choreographed, is just risible.

well, Polanski imposed the C'town ending on Robert Towne! He's a fatalistic guy, it appears.

(but yes, it's pretty ridiculous)

There are lots of good-looking films out at the moment in the UK...do I need to make time to see this?

The script is a tad goofy, and Kim Catrall is absolutely atrocious, but apart from that me and Mrs Chuck thought it was top notch. Not much action but somehow still pretty exciting. It's in the vein of Michael Clayton and The Constant Gardener, except good.

Also, er, plenty spoilers above so be careful. Brosnan is great, McGregor in Shallow Grave mode.

this is mostly very good. there are some problems with dialogue and accents, but it's the best put together thriller i've seen in a long-ass time. olivia williams kills in it too.

"best put together" sounds like faint praise, but after going through basically spastic arse-stains like "green zone" it's a relief to see shots put together right. i did enjoy "shutter island" but where this has holes, that... um well, yeah.

im with morbs, the 'decoding' thing at the end is really dummmmm

and also with morbs on olivia williams age

not that she didnt look good

the 'decoding' thing at the end is really dummmmm

sort of like the last 140 minutes of your fave WW2 fantasy!

I need to rewatch this. So long as it stayed nasty it was a great time. But in the last third Polanski wants it both ways. The lack of outrage at the perfidy of Brosnan and Tom Wilkinson looks like a loss of nerve. It’s as if Polanski thinks he’s too smart to choose sides; the film could have been directed by the Ghost.

This is the opposite of one of those Wilder comedies where his insistence on letting everyone have it looks cynical. It's like Polanski finally came around to accepting the nihilistic ending of Chinatown as insightful.

the ending of Chinatown is not nihilistic, it's how things work.

looking forward to rewatching this

that house was pretty nice though huh

the ending of Chinatown is not nihilistic, it's how things work.

...in thrillers.

Also: plz more Pierce Brosnan in old-rotter roles.

ya his whole self-backlash at being bond is really producing his best work ever

I'd no problem with Olivia Williams here; like Brosnan, she's good at being brittle. So is Kim Cattrall (whom I'd never seen before -- gasp, shock, etc).

my problem wasnt with olivia williams, it was just that theres no way shes brosnans age

Did you learn her age from the book? I don't remember hearing it in the movie (I could have missed it).

it's how things work.

...in thrillers.

no, Alfred. Examples: Steinbrenner will go in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Bush, Cheney and Obama will stay out of prison.

no but its implied that her and PB went to college together

yes, they are sposed to be contemporaries

theres that thing about him registering as a labour party member in like... 72? or 75? which has got to be only a couple years after olivia williams was actually born

But we're talking about films, not life, and Polanski's pretty maixm is too pat by half.

*maxim