If you want good movies....start with the writer and trust him.

[Mithalwen]

I was fairly omnivorous when I was in France because it was convenient and cheap and there was a lot of choice, but I can't think of many action films among my favourites. I am not so faddy. I seldom find action films hold my attention, not keen on animation, still like a story, subtlety, intelligence, wit. Have adored Ealing Comedy and Jimmy Stewart since childhood and don't expect to stop as long as I breath,

I havejust looked at the listings for my nearest proper cinema (ignoring the community cinemas that show one film a week a month or so after first release). Thirteen films, two with 3D which I am unable to watch.

So have the choice of 4 action films, 3 children's animation, 5 alleged comedy (they include Ted in this) and just one drama Shadow Dancer which I have never heard of but might look at since it has a great cast.

Never sat through Ben Hur or Ten Commandments ...but did see Charlton heston on stage in a Man for All Seasons and was quite impressed but I was very young and he certainly had presence.

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

So have the choice of 4 action films, 3 children's animation, 5 alleged comedy (they include Ted in this) and just one drama Shadow Dancer which I have never heard of but might look at since it has a great cast.

I walked into Ted on a whim and found it very amusing. Of course that doesn‘t mean that you will like it.

The best film I have seen since last Chistmas in Hugo, which won five out of elven academy awards and I felt deserved every one.

The most recent film I have seen in a theatre is Beasts of the Southern Wild (based on a play) which tells the adventures of a six-year old girl named Hushpuppy living on the outskirts of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. She lives with her father, without a mother, and the father is fatally ill and trying unsuccessfully to conceal it from Hushpuppy. The father dies, yet the film is magnificently uplifting. None of the actors in this film are professionals. The film has won many, many awards.

There is indeed a large amount of animation films these days that I wouldn’t think of going to. But then there are films by Aardmans and the incomparable Studio Ghibli.

The films available to you depend very much on where you live. I live in Toronto and have a large number of popular cinemas and art houses close at hand, but not so many as some places. Is it possible that when you lived in France that you had more easy access to a larger number of films than now in the place in France where you lived?

Never sat through Ben Hur or Ten Commandments ...but did see Charlton heston on stage in a Man for All Seasons and was quite impressed but I was very young and he certainly had presence.

Charlton Heston was an incomparable actor and probably did the absolute best that he could in Ten Commandments. But a modern critic who presents Ten Commandments and Ben Hur as examples of uncynical film making is deluding himself.

Since I have been able to read I have come across articles claiming that films in general are going down the tubes and usually providing examples of supposedly tremendous films from the good old days. Now I am old enough to see some of these people listing a examples of the good old days the exact same films that previous writers listed as examples of how bad things have gotten.