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General discussion (archive)Ivory among the women (Valentine's Day giveaway)(83 posts)(83 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 12, 2013
First, thanks for the giveaway.

Second, I have a bit of an off-beat suggestion for you. Adam Sandler's movie The Wedding Singer with Drew Barrymore. I'm not a big Sandler fan. I find most of his movies are either too far to the low-brow side (i.e. Billy Madison) or too schmaltzy (i.e. Spanglish). But somehow in this movie they got it just right.

There's good comedic elements, particularly the satirization of the 80s. But there's also just enough sentimentality so that one element offsets the other. He and Barrymore have good chemistry in it, too. The best way to sum it up is that it's a sweet-natured movie that shoul elicit just enough laughs to keep you and your significant other from rolling your eyes.

PS: Absolutely watch The Princess Bride as suggested. Wonderful film.
Post edited February 12, 2013 by HomerSimpson
Posted February 12, 2013
Thanks for the giveaway!

I also would recommend Before Sunset/Sunrise, but here's another great movie:

Like Water for Chocolate is a mexican movie and book in "magical realism" style that follows the life of a young woman in early 20th century in a rural setting. The plot in itself is a classic tale of repressed love and domestic tyranny but the core of it is actually about food, how it comes to affect people's lives (and deaths!) and represent their passions.
It's a very lively story, disrupting expectations and clichés, always adding that extra magic spice that turns an ordinary situation upside down.
There's a dreamy quality to it that makes it really entrancing, it has strong characters drama, humour, the Mexican revolution, people exploding, and of course a great love story/ hotblooded romance as only latins know how to live=)
Posted February 12, 2013
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans!!

Good luck finding a movie that better gives you the feeling of love. Basically it's a parable-ish story about a man who wants to murder his wife so he can marry somebody else, but at the last moment he realizes he loves her and they have a night on the town. It's a silent movie, so little dialogue; it gets you because of the visual power and performances. And I like how it shows that verbal communication isn't what love's about, unlike most movies.
Posted February 12, 2013
Okay Ivory&Gold, I know from your posts that you're a culture maven and serious film buff (in that you can conscientiously enjoy "serious" flicks and camp/kitsch in equal measure), so with that in mind I'll recommend you a pick I dole out at the arthouse I work at all the time:

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky.

This is a french film made in 2008. It is a creative docudrama imagining a romantic tryst that happened betwixt the famous Russian composer and French clothier/fashion icon. Based on circumstantial evidence that is most likely true, given Stravinsky's philandering tendencies and Coco Chanel's substantiating this with her biographer. It takes place over one summer in 1920 when Coco Chanel, a patron of the arts, invites financially struggling and down-on-his-luck Stravinsky to her summer villa in Paris as a sort of artistic retreat to concentrate on his work. He's married with children to support and at loose ends, so moves his family in, and eventually a dalliance occurs betwixt the two artists, and both enter their most fruitful periods of creative activity (the film's events cover Chanel's collaboration with perfumers to eventually birth her famous "Chanel No. 5" and Stravinsky starting his neoclassical period with the opera Mavra).

The romance that blossoms seems borne both of their mutual attraction for each other as artists as virtuosos in their respective fields, rather than gooey sentimentalism. The love affair is intellectual more than emotional, but no less sexual. It is a highly erotic film (without ever lowering itself to the vulgar or the banal as its often done in America), and I feel it's worth watching based on the enthralling shots of light and shadow alone. I can't stress how beautiful and affecting the cinematography is. Both Mads Mikkelsen (Stravinksy) and Anna Mouglalis (Chanel) are very magnetic actors, and portray our leads as commanding egotistical creative forces, Stravinsky all taciturn and proud genius, Chanel elegance and vanity personified as a sharp-witted godmother of the "Modern Woman" archetype. This love story doesn't twist itself in knots to pander to audiences by making our flawed protagonists "likable," and there are no neat developments or resolutions that deal with, for instance, the very real adultery going on in the face of Igor's wife Catherine. The film is icily and stylishly shot; a force of mood and letting actors really inhabit a scene.

I love this film and keep coming back to it, finding some new wrinkle each time. I hope you take up on it and enjoy it. It blows the rather workmanlike and tepid Audrey Tatou biopic Coco Before Chanel out of the water. To give you an idea of the burst of broody energy it starts off with, there is a ten minute opening scene of Stravinksy's debut performance of Rite of Spring in 1913, which caused a Classical Music Riot riot with the conservative Parisian ballet crowd. This sort of thing doesn't just happen at punk rock concerts!
Posted February 12, 2013
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Wishbone: I'll recommend Kenneth Branagh's version of Much Ado About Nothing. That movie opened my eyes to how funny Shakespeare can be, and the love stories in it are very good too, if rather predictable.
Oddly enough, a frend of mine was just talking about that a couple days ago. Apparently, Shakespeare's plays become a lot more interesting when you're aware of the slang that he uses.
Post edited February 12, 2013 by Soyeong
Posted February 12, 2013
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Ivory&Gold: Yes. I'm giving away a 5.99 bucks GOG game of your choice. All you have to do is recommended me a romantic love story. Medium doesn't really matter. Could be a novel, poem, movie... I'm not a dude who is big into paintings, but even that might do, if it appeals to me enough. Doesn't have to be what is commonly referred to as high art, either. I mean, Romeo and Juliet does it for me, but so does the Scrooge McDuck and Goldie O'Gilt story described in Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Yes, I'm serious. I think it's great.

On Thursday I'll decide upon the winner... it'll be the one who provides the suggestion that stirs my interest the most. So please provide a bit of context, don't just post the name of a book or something, that doesn't help me much. Describe what's so fucking romantic about it. Also, you are are only allowed one suggestion, and don't be a boring smart ass and post the name of a porn movie, or some such crap.

So, take it away, I'm eagerly awaiting your suggestions.
Try the recent Warm Bodies, still in theaters.
Posted February 12, 2013
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Ivory&Gold: ... Scrooge McDuck and Goldie O'Gilt story described in Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Yes, I'm serious. I think it's great.
+1 for the giveaway, I am not in though. I just want to say that I wholeheartedly agree with the above.
Posted February 13, 2013
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Wishbone: I'll recommend Kenneth Branagh's version of Much Ado About Nothing. That movie opened my eyes to how funny Shakespeare can be, and the love stories in it are very good too, if rather predictable.
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Soyeong: Oddly enough, a frend of mine was just talking about that a couple days ago. Apparently, Shakespeare's plays become a lot more interesting when you're aware of the slang that he uses.
Indeed. I actually have a book with the collected insults from all of Shakespeare's plays. It's quite an entertaining read. The man had a sense of humor, no doubt about that.
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Andanzas: Have you seen The Princess Bride?
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Ivory&Gold: I haven't - yet.
Please do, it's amazing.
Post edited February 13, 2013 by Wishbone
Posted February 13, 2013
How about A midsummer night's dream with Calista Flockheart, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christian Bale etc. It is a very nice movie of Shakespeare's classic play. It is both funny and romantic, one of Shakespeare's masterpieces and quite well played.
Post edited February 13, 2013 by Lifthrasil
Posted February 13, 2013
I suggest the movie and the book:

what dreams my come by Richard Matheson

what dreams my come
Posted February 13, 2013
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mitsadoor: I suggest the movie and the book:

what dreams my come by Richard Matheson

what dreams my come
Richard Matheson ? Does romance ?

Shall we be worried ?
Posted February 13, 2013
The Time Traveler's Wife - book or movie although I usually enjoy books over movies.

In brief, a sci-fi love story about a man with a displacement disorder that constantly shifts him around in time and away from the love of his life. Wacky and sweet.

As to The Princess Bride - you've never seen it? Inconceivable!
Posted February 13, 2013
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mitsadoor: I suggest the movie and the book:

what dreams my come by Richard Matheson

what dreams my come
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Telika: Richard Matheson ? Does romance ?

Shall we be worried ?
Yes he usually does not romance, but this is a try to move away from the horror fiction, which he is known.

The story is romance-drama mix. The movie is more focused to romance, while the book is focused to drama.

You should not worry. Watch the movie and if you want more depth and philosophy read the book.
Posted February 13, 2013
BUMP!
Posted February 13, 2013
Not entering but thank you for the giveaway.

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Luned: Wishbone beat me to the post on Much Ado About Nothing, so I will go with Jane Austen's Persuasion. Ang Lee did an absolutely first-rate film version (). Every single performance is just perfect. <a href="http://www.gog.com/forum/general_archive/ivory_among_the_women_valentines_day_giveaway/post32" class="link_arrow"></a></div> Ang Lee directed [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114388/]Sense and Sensibility with emma thompson, kate winslet & hugh grant, not Persuasion. So not sure if you mixed them up? However, I absolutely *ADORE* the linked version of Persuasion. IMO the best Jane Austen adaptation ever made. Its subtleness is perfection (and ciaran hinds is perfection too :)) The 2007 version was horrible though.

Chances are that you've already seen it, but just in case I'd recommend In the mood for love by wong kar wai (persuasion 1995 and this movie are my fav romantic movies).
Quote from imdb cause I'm a lazy ass (and very tired)
"A man and a woman move in to neighboring Hong Kong apartments and form a bond when they both suspect their spouses of extra-marital activities"
It's slow, artsy, melancholic, atmospheric, understated and absolutely beautiful.

I haven't read North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell yet (shame on me for not knowing about this wonderful victorian woman), but a while ago I discovered this wonderful adaptation of the book. Basically about the cultural clash between the pastoral south and the industrial north, the effects of the industrialization on the workers' life and their organized strikes. The relationship between the main characters is reminiscent of pride and prejudice.

Oh and this one is to be taken with a grain of salt I guess, but since i'm a fan of korean dramas I'll mention it. There is this 24 episode historical show called the Princess' Man. The title is...well...not that "encouraging", and the short descriptions on the internet mentioning only the love story and calling it a joseon dynasty version of romeo and juliet are misleading, since the show is much, much more than a love story (friendship, loyalty, betrayal, greed for power, revenge, having high ideals and principles in life and not being afraid to die for them). But since you like romeo and juliet you might give it a try :) Doesn't start that strong, but it picks up soon. It's one of the two korean shows that i'd recommend to absolutely everyone (2nd being the hilarious history of the salaryman), and a show that made me cry more than kazuo ishiguro (which is quite an achievement). Just a word of warning, while i loved the ending, some people disliked it; it had to be that way since it's (loosely) based on real people and events.

Oh dammit XD I almost forgot, It Happened One Night with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Rich spoiled heiress on the run is helped by a reporter who wants a story, and of course they fall in love. Sounds like a chick flick, but it's not, and it beats hands down any stupid modern hollywood rom-com.

Aaaand The scarlet pimpernel from 1982. "During the French Revolution, a mysterious English nobleman known only as The Scarlet Pimpernel (a humble wayside flower), snatches French aristos from the jaws of the guillotine, while posing as the foppish Sir Percy Blakeney in society. Percy falls for and marries the beautiful actress Marguerite St. Just, but she is involved with Chauvelin and Robespierre, and Percy's marriage to her may endanger the Pimpernel's plans to save the little Dauphin. " Lovely, witty, romantic and highly entertaining movie. My fav dialogue from the movie :)
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General discussion (archive)Ivory among the women (Valentine's Day giveaway)(83 posts)(83 posts)
(83 posts)