sadya

I like the Gene Wilder version too and showed my children both movies. They enjoyed some of the music in de Depp version better, but overall they preferred Wilder. Usually my children like Depp very much, especially my son, he keeps watching POTC movies, all of them. I can't even hear the music anymore. Yet both of my kids liked the older version of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, mind you they are 12 and 14.

I love Downton Abbey! My daughter and I are bothincurably addicted to it.

That's allright, my maths is even worse! Thanks for the comparison. I'll keep that in mind when I finally begin reading the book and watch that movie again.

Great choice. I've also watched that movie many times. Every year or once in two years it is shown on tv. It's funny and still enjoyable after all these years.

I think most families from movies and tv-series are families I wouldn't want to be part of, because imagining being part of a family means (to me anyway) being part of a better world, a better family than my own family. So if I'd imagine belonging to another family it'd have to be a family without many issues and if possible with none. There already are too many issues in the real world. Families in movies and series often have problems because otherwise there wouldn't be a story to tell. I guess in that sense none of them are great to be part of for me.

I actually liked East of Eden. From what I understood it's only a small part of the book. I still have to read the book so I can't compare book versus movie in this case to be honest.

Our local library charges €1,50 for any book you order from other libraries. It used to be €1.00, but they're in trouble and about to close down so I understand. We have a great library, I like the way they've arranged the books, the service is excellent and they have a nice collection. It would be a shame if that closed down. I can't always afford to order books from other libraries though, sometimes if I really want to read that book I still use that service, but I've had a membership of other libraries in nearby towns on a bicycle-ride-distance so I could find those books there instead of ordering them here. That saved me a lot of money in the end because I read a lot and being a member of this or that meant I had to pay less for those extra library memberships. Now I read a little less than before since I'm too busy doing other things, but as soon as I will spend more time reading again, I'm planning to rejoin at least one other library in a nearby town.

They should have nominated Hepburn for 'My Fair Lady' too. She played that part from head to toe, every small detail in her performance was Eliza Doolittle. We used to have Performance channel here. Sometimes they showed former tv performances and one of them was the stage performance of Julie Andrews singing 'Wouldn't it be lovely' in a tv show. It was great, but somehow Julie Andrews wasn't really Eliza Doolittle for me. I don't know if I would have had that same opinion if had never seen Audrey Hepburn play that part, but although well done, Andrews just wasn't it completely for me in the way Hepburn definitely was. I like both Andrews and Hepburn, they were both amazing in their own way. Yet between the two, Hepburn is my favourite. I'm afraid I haven't seen all her movies though. I know a few songs from 'Funny Faces', but I've yet to watch that movie. Reading your review interests me even more to watch that one first if I can find it. They don't show movies from the past often here nowadays and that's such a shame, many of these movies aren't even for rent. :-( I'm trying to show my children as many movies from the past as possible to give them an idea of the quality and strength of acting and storytelling. If someone would make me choose between from now on only watching current movies or movies from the past, I'd go for movies from the past.

I would love to watch that movie on the big screen. I wish we had a cinema here which would show movies from the past every now and then, there are many more I'd love to watch there. I have a different dvd of a Hepburn movie, a special edition of 'My fair lady'. That was my introduction to Audrey Hepburn for my children. They love her movies now as much as I do. Even now after all those years I still watch that dvd at least once every year. My special edition has an extra cd in it with the real voice of Hepburn singing a song that was dubbed in the original movie (against the wishes of Hepburn). There is also the real voice of the Freddie character singing, I forgot the name of that actor/singer. They both had lovely voices and as far as I'm concerned, their own voices could have remained in the movie too. You know, whenever I watch a Hepburn movie, afterwards I can't imagine any one else playing that role. I don't have that with every actor or actress. Very few own the part they played the way Hepburn did.

Breakfast at Tiffanys: Last time I watched it I was a little and didn't completely understand the story. I still remembered parts of the movie. Now I watched it with my children. It was wonderful. Not just because I love Audrey Hepburn, the entire movie was funny and touching and lovely. It was a nice afternoon-turning-into-evening of movie watching. I watch theirs with them and they watch my taste of film with me. Often we enjoy each others movie, every now and then we dislike them. But it's fun!

Just finished watching 'Entre les murs' , a French movie from 2008 also known as 'The Class'. It was completely different from other movies in this genre, you know, problem children in a class room, teacher trying to win their trust and help them get better grades at school, etc. Here we only see teachers and children at school, it is filmed in a way that looks like a documentary, yet it is a movie. We hear different viewpoints from teachers and parents about how to treat students and we hear opinions from students about what happens at school. Sometimes the teachers are correct, sometimes the students are correct. The movie doesn't really say 'this is good and this is bad', it just shows what's going on in a compelling manner, tries to create an understanding of the various teacher-student-parent situations and leaves it to the viewers to draw their own conclusions. After it finished I realised I didn't even notice a soundtrack, there probably was one, it just didn't really aim to create the mood of the film which enhanced the documentary style quality. I was about to do some chores at home while playing this movie (I recorded it a while ago from a Dutch tv channel until I would have the time and mood for it), but it was so interesting that I ended up just watching it without doing my chores.

Okay, thanks for the info. I've been saying it's Australian for years!

Chesilbeach, is Almost Salinas from New Zealand or the US or another country?

Being bored or not depends on personal taste. We often like different things, so it's difficult to tell until you watch it. I found this imdb link for you: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252225/ (no reviews there though, only a stars rating, my dvd has a different cover from the one displayed there) This reviewer didn't it like it that much: http://chicago.metromix.com/movies/review/movie-review-almost-salinas/157983/content These reviewers enjoyed it as much as I did: http://www.kaplanvskaplan.com/review.php?id=461

Your topic of Australian movies reminds me of 'Almost Salinas'. Great movie. The topic made me curious enough to buy it and it was worth it.

Tron Legacy. My children bought it some days ago for me. It looks like they're trying to 'modernize' their old fashioned 34-year old mother. We watched it today and it was allright. I didn't think I'd enjoy it to be honest, but it wasn't that bad.

The Godfather II is on tv right now (here in Holland, on a channel from Belgium). Last week they showed part I. I'm not very fond of violent movies and Godfather isn't really my taste of film, but I have to admit there are a few interesting scenes in it. My children wanted to watch the Godfather movies for years and are very happy to get the chance now. They have to go to school tomorrow, so I'm recording the second movie now. Next week the last movie will be shown and then finally peace. I know most people think The Godfather was an excellent movie and they love the main characters, but to me they're all killers and criminals who are just interested in money and power, for myself I'd rather not have such people as my heroes, old fashioned? Maybe I am. It is becoming more and more a trend nowadays to have criminals as heroes. Ocean's 11 comes to mind, I haven't watched the other Ocean movies though. If someone becomes a criminal because that person is very poor and nobody helps to find food or clothing, then to survive that person might steal, that's a different situation. But to become a criminal just to have more money than they already have and/or power and have movies portray such people as heroes, that is just a bit too much for me. Don't mind me, I'm a 34-year old who seems to have become old-fashioned already, before reaching the biological age of old people.

You could if you want to. With more and perhaps different life experience and more reading experience too of course, perhaps you'll have a new experience with that book. Sometimes you still like or dislike a certain book even years later though. You'll never know if you won't try. Reading never hurt anyone, well, only the eyes when you read too much for too long and your back and neck if your body position while reading isn't accurate, but if you still don't like it that much, you could stop after a few chapters when you reread it.

That is so true, when you become older, your reading habits change a bit and you have a different view on literature and a different understanding. Orlando is one of the books I still have to read. Your naming it is a reminder for me that I'm not done reading all the novels by Woolf yet, but still having some of her novels to read is a joy.

Me too, I enjoyed some of the books which were obligatory at school so much that I actually looked for them years later and bought them. I even read them to my children. I discovered many great books at school and authors whom I still admire to this day. Obligatory reading isn't that bad.

I've read 'A room of one's own', 'To the lighthouse' and 'Mrs. Dalloway' some years ago and loved them. My favorite is 'To the lighthouse'. Now I'm catching up on the rest of her work. Recently I've read some of her short stories and yesterday night I finished 'Jacob's Room'. Today I'm going to begin reading 'The Waves'. Woolf is one of my favorite authors of all time. I like the way she explores characters and behaviour and how the scenery becomes a part of life and it's various emotions instead of just a background. Sometimes her words sound like reading poetry.

I seem to be one of few people left who haven't read the Twilight books nor watched the Twilight movies. All I know is the Twilight Zones series from when I was growing up, I still remember a few of those stories. Completely different of course from the description from Twilight movies. I'm not that much into vampires, though I've seen many dracula movies as a child because some family members watched them and I've a read a book or two. I often come across as weird for not having read these popular Twilight books nor watched their movies. Oh well.

Nice blog. That's what I like about these discussions, you find out how many people have similar opinions like your own and what the various different views are, always interesting to find out why and how other people think.