<p>Haha! I like the dancing but wondered the same thing! Especially for the men! I couldn’t imagine the amount of training all of that arm work took!</p>
<p>*found myself watching the elaborate dance scenes and wondering if everyone in Imperial Russia practiced in their basement with a Wii. *</p>
<p>Thanks for my chuckle of the day. :)</p>
<p>Saw Perks of Being a Wallflower. As a librarian it is hard for me to see books I loved turned into movies. Loved this movie, true to book, appeals to mix crowd, great music, filmed in Pittsburgh. This is not just a teen movie, my husband who knew nothing about loved it.</p>
<p>I just watched both No Country for Old Men and Contact yesterday.</p>
<p>NCFOC is OK in term of acting and movie effect.</p>
<p>Contact is better for thought provocation. But I don’t like the sex part. It made movie less suitable for families with kids. Furthermore it’s too cliche. Almost in every movie, a man and a woman meet, go to dinner, then lie in bed together. I don’t see the point of showing this.</p>
<p>On Saturday, I saw a preview of Dustin Hoffman’s first film as a director, called Quartet. It is being released at the end of the month. It is a fine, fine movie – not likely to be a blockbuster by any means, but likely to appeal to the CC parent demographic. </p>
<p>It’s a codg-com, a film about four old (in every way) friends at a gorgeous retirement home for musicians in the English countryside. There’s absolutely nothing original about it – the characters are mostly familiar cliches; the plot is a mash-up of Holiday Inn and Kiss Me, Kate, with a little Best Exotic Marigold Hotel thrown in. They put on a show. Old injuries are re-examined and newer, crueler ones faced with equanimity. There’s a happy ending that tugs the heartstrings so hard there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when the lights came up.</p>
<p>But everything about it is so well done, with such attention to detail, that you don’t mind. The acting is superb – Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, Maggie Smith, and Pauline Collins function as an ensemble, with significant support from Michael Gambon and Sheridan Smith and a host of finely-crafted featured extras, all of whom – the final credits inform you, to no one’s surprise – are in fact retired professional musicians. Every sequence, every shot is a testament to Hoffman’s famous perfectionism.</p>
<p>Ronald Harwood (The Pianist, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly) wrote both the script and the last-century West End play on which it was based.</p>
<p>Ouch - Killing Them Softly got a Cinemascore of F. Bombs away…</p>
<p>Saw Silver Linings Playbook with my husband this weekend and we both laughed through the whole thing. I can understand that some might take offense at a comedy about mental illness, but, having an extended family with similar issues, we thought it was great. This is the first movie that I’ve liked Bradley Cooper in.</p>
<p>Teh new movies that I can at least try to watch are more on a wierd side, but the others I can only attempt for the first 2 minutes. Well out of the wierd bu watchable IMO is Monnrise Country. But as I said, it is very strange and no way I could watch it again. However, I finished and did not fall asleep, which is extremely unusual, but my H. did fall asleep though. They stopped making OK movies, like “You’ve got mail” and others…they think that we are bored with normal regular, I am on another side of the spectrum, I like normal and regular and fall asleep during all the chaisng and some other crasy stuff. and nominated movies are the worst, except maybe for something like “The Blind Side”, I love that one, but again, it is about regular life, nobody is flying, chasing, killing or require 3D to be entertaining.</p>
<p>JHS – thanks sharing Quartet . I’m just fine for sentiment if it’s done well. And I generally love anything Dustin Hoffman is involved with so may very well like his directing.</p>
<p>JHS, there’s also A Late Quartet, which stars Christopher Walken and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I haven’t seen either one yet, but am looking forward to them both.</p>
<p>Im not sure if post #472 is being sarcastic or so verklempt with that clip s/he is speechless. Ive watched the Broadway musical a couple of times in NYC and the 25th anniversary concert in PBS I think and I have the 10th anniversary concert DVD. I dont know how Im going to step down from this version of Fantine, [Lea</a> Salonga - I Dreamed A Dream at the 25th Anniversary Concert of Les Miserables at the London O2 - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube) or [Ruthie</a> Henshall - I Dreamed A Dream (Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert - Royal Albert Hall) - YouTube](<a href=“Ruthie Henshall - I Dreamed A Dream (Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert - Royal Albert Hall) - YouTube”>Ruthie Henshall - I Dreamed A Dream (Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert - Royal Albert Hall) - YouTube) to Hathaways version. </p>
<p>I understand her singing voice is not as the same caliber as Salongas and Henshalls but Im anticipating that her acting would more than make up for it.</p>
<p>Based on post #472s teaser clip, I cringe at the over acting. It may work in the theatre so audience seated in the last rows can feel the pain but it doesnt work for close-up shots. But Hathaways PR team is working in overdrive so I might be swept up too in the hype. I wonder if Marion Cotillard auditioned for the role. I think she would have been a better Fantine. At the end of the day, Im still excited to see the movie. I would love to see the movie interpretation of Master of the House, Do You Hear the People Sing, Bring Him Home, The Confronatation, Javerts Suicide, Empty Chairs and of course, On My Own.</p>
<p>The singing is going to be very different in this movie version of Les Mis since they sang live during the filming. Supposedly, they wanted the singing to complement the acting, rather than overpower it so I don’t think we’ll be seeing any powerhouse vocal performances. Not that these actors could deliver them anyway. </p>
<p>I can think of a lot of actors I would have chosen over Anne Hathaway - she mugs.</p>
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<p>Love Anne Hathaway, loved IDAD in the trailers, loved all the recent clips. I don’t know what else there is to say.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“Les Misérables - Clip: "On My Own" - YouTube”>Les Misérables - Clip: "On My Own" - YouTube]Les</a> Mis</p>
<p>I liked her in The Devil Wears Prada and … I think that’s it.</p>
<p>Booklady-- I LOVED Late Quartet. I’m guessing at least one Oscar nomination, possibly two for Hoffman and Walken. Beautiful music.</p>
<p>
If either of these involve the stars pretending to play the instruments, they will be unwatchable for me.</p>
<p>Saw Life of Pi in 3D. It’s definitely worth seeing in the theaters in 3D. Enjoyed it better than the book.</p>
<p>gosmom, I’m waiting eagerly for the movie to get here. We have a terrific movie theater very near us that plays non-blockbuster/foreign/quirky films, so I’m sure A Late Quartet will show up there.</p>
<p>One of my favorite novels ever is currently being filmed in NYC.
Akiva Goldsman is the director & screenwriter.
So excited. 
[Winter’s</a> Tale | MarkHelprin.com](<a href=“http://markhelprin.com/novels/winters-tale]Winter’s”>http://markhelprin.com/novels/winters-tale)
I like the casting for the most part.</p>