Topic: The Movie Thread

@Ralizah

@nessisonett 😂 The irony of Disney telling a future tale of the dystopian world it was instrumental in creating. Genius.

I watched Mangrove tonight, the first instalment of the Small Axe anthology by Steve McQueen (not that one, the other one). I’d say it counts as the movie thread as it was in all intents and purposes, a movie, despite airing on TV. It was utterly brilliant as I expected it would be. Steve McQueen’s directorial style is as captivating now as it was when he first debuted with Hunger. I’m ashamed to say I probably know more about Black American history than Black British history, despite being from here. It’s just not as heavily discussed and so I’m happy to be educated. It’s an anthology of 5 movies so I’m definitely excited for next week’s instalment.

@RogerRoger Length of copyright is the life of the author plus seventy years. Cliff Richard was referring to Performers Rights which is different as he did not own the copyright for his songs (having not written or produced them) and can expire within the lifetime of the performer.

@RogerRoger The Berne Convention is simply the minimum term. Many countries have legislated longer terms of copyright protection, including the US and EU countries. It's interesting that it's media companies such as Disney that successfully lobbied to have the term extended. There's certainly an argument to be made that long IP protections stifle creativity and the ability of people to economically exploit their own work without being heavily sued.

This link outlines the UK's own copyright terms. https://www.gov.uk/copyright/how-long-copyright-lasts
Films 70 years after the death of the director, screenplay author and composer
It's worth mentioning that terms based on publication date (such as where copyright is owned by a corporation), have been well extended beyond 50 years.

Obviously Disney is a US company, but the length is generally the same there. Works such as Steamboat Willie will enter the public domain in a few years, creating a headache for them. However, I've no doubt they will lobby for terms to be extended again.

Damn, 70 years + Cliff Richard equals... the Dark Ages?

@RogerRoger No worries, it’s a topic I find fascinating. I don’t get split ends either. The main issue with the Berne Convention and the TRIPS Agreement, is that countries are forced to sign up to in order to gain WTO membership. Its primary aim is to protect Western European and North American IP. And of course, the US can continue extending its copyright terms into perpetuity at the behest of corporate lobbyists, and other countries will follow suit. The question is should IP ownership be concentrated in enormous companies such as Disney and for such long periods, thus leading to a depletion of truly original ideas? It doesn’t matter whether Disney are in the wrong, their sheer economic power enables them to crush anyone that stands up to them. IP litigation is very costly and most individuals and small businesses simply can’t afford to stand up to Disney - whether they are in the right or not.

Copyright is one thing but when we get into patents, it is quite nefarious as it enables large Western companies such as pharmaceutical firms to patent the natural resources used in medicines, preventing the poor countries that hold the bulk of the world’s natural resources from exploiting them. The medicines are then sold back to them at exorbitant prices. It stifles economic development in poor countries and runs counter to the idea that WTO membership enables development. It doesn’t, it keeps rich countries rich and poor countries poor. Anyway that’s veering well off topic so I’ll stop!

@RogerRoger I can see it now, a Noir thriller with Mickey Mouse on the stand. He’s smoking of course and is basically Al Capone. The jury have been paid off or intimidated.

@RogerRoger We'll change the names, make Mickey a raccoon and Donald an emu.

The Snyder Cut’s trailer got a new official black and white version which honestly looks amazing. I wouldn’t think of it working at all in B&W but it strangely totally suits it. I’d probably watch the whole thing in B&W if they gave us the option.

Honestly the idea of watching a film like JL in black and white feels unnecessary to me

Logan Noir worked because that film was considerably more grounded, smaller scale and could pass off as a non-comic book related film.

@TheFrenchiestFry It did to me too until I saw the trailer. The special effects look a lot better and it just works, I dunno why.

Terminator Dark Fate. Not awful but not great either, and just felt like I was watching a rubbish version of T2 with some tweaks. Not too keen on some of the ways they handled the story and some of the characters either.

@JohnnyShoulder I'd say it was a fair bit better than terminator 5 but overall it was just a bit generic. They took the really cool and originally named skynet and renamed it Legion which is just bland and used in everything.

I quite liked the new characters though played by Mackenzie Davis and Gabriel Luna but yeah overall I thought it was not great but miles better than genisys

@ralphdibny @Arugula Not seen anything past the 3rd film, so can't comment on how it compares with those. I can see why that did what they did, but it didn't work for me. None of the cast were awful, but they came across as a bit bland. And it made absolutely no sense why Arnie's character was the way he was. Just like the Alien films, they really need to just stop making these films.

@JohnnyShoulder I actually enjoyed Dark Fate for what it was. It’s not a ‘good’ film but it’s a fun ride which is more than can be said for pretty much everything after 2.

The second film in the Small Axe anthology, Lover’s Rock, was every bit as good as the first one. It’s incredible how you don’t really notice that there really aren’t many black British romance movies until you see one. It was filmed in a way that I haven’t really seen before, following a house party with sweeping camera shots and heavy use of changing focus. You could really tell that Steve McQueen was recapturing an era almost forgotten, out of absolute reverence. Not many movies can truly transport you back in time and immerse you in the culture, sights and sounds of a specific setting but Lover’s Rock manages it and more.

@Arugula I went to the pictures to see that. Enjoyed the extremely held in pee afterwards more than the movie. Man, Nolan so wants to be Kubrick.

@Arugula Went on a Nolan binge not too long ago and though there are elements of Interstellar that I really love it's not my favorite. It was better than I'd remembered it though.

Interstellar was a potent mix of fantastic cinematography, (reasonably) hard sci-fi themes, a genuinely awe-inspiring scope, likable characters, and a terrific ending. Not necessarily Nolan's best film, and definitely not the equal of lizard person Stanley Kubrick's one truly excellent film, but it's one of the better science-fiction films I've seen, and was really cool in cinemas.