the films of IRA SACHS (Keep the Lights On, Forty Shades of Blue etc)

His new one with Alfred Molina and John Lithgow kinda sounds like... a gay Make Way for Tomorrow! Seeing next week, hoping for a happy ending.

I've been close to two or three couples, gay and straight, who have been together for 45 years. I have a sense of the chapters in those stories. I think as a screenwriter, you want to reveal that history as organically as possible. And it's interesting how quickly you can accomplish something, you know? And that also helps that those two actors, I think, are they're doing something for both of them was very new, particularly Lithgow. This kind of naturalistic performance where you fully buy the history, I think is something that he does beautifully in the film but it's not something that he's been asked to do previously.

http://gawker.com/tribeca-ira-sachs-love-is-strange-is-more-than-a-gay-m-1564388578

not entirely on topic but: oh man i didn't know pearl paint was closing!

i can't think that i've seen any of this guy's stuff, receptive to recommendations if you're enthusiastic about anything, dr m

The two mentioned in thread title I quite like.

Add this one to the list. Maybe closer in spirit to Tomorrow's more famous antecedent, tho.

it was ... oooookay

This one's going to stick with me a lot longer than Forty Shades.

Admittedly, it seems inherently easier to engender sympathy for a) the elderly or near-elderly, and b) kids.

I loved this movie.

One of the rare movies whose script is sometimes better than the direction. It got poky in a couple of spots -- mostly when Chopin played for long interludes -- but I forgive them because those spots happen to be when Ben and George are working (with a student and painting, respectively), and cameras so rarely gaze on characters doing what they love. Career best from Molina and Lithgow, and Tomei and her son are fine too.

nice to see the table stage left in Julius where J0rdan, Stevie D, L0u, and I had drinks in spring '13.

Also: that spontaneous chat about infidelity was staged and acted with a freshness I rarely see in movies.

i believe there's a plaque there

liked the cop parties

Quite liked Love is Strange. Sachs' method of leaving out expository connecting scenes has a considerable emotional effect, eliminating moments that would have belaboured the melodrama. The "spontaneous chat about infidelity" that Alfred cited above is likely the best scene in the film--there's a complete lack of hysteria to this moment that I found frankly astonishing (had they had this conversation before?).

Not sure how I feel about a gay film ending with a shot of a young hetero couple, though, and the book-stealing subplot was...puzzling?

Little Men is in a similar key to the last one. viewing Brooklyn gentrification through the friendship of two recognizable NYC boy types. Goes fairly easy on the hero-villain stuff; possible breakthrough performance (in the arthouse realm, at least) by one Paulina Garcia as a Chilean-American dressmaker. And there's Greg Kinnear!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk9-5M-PerQ

One of the main locations is down the block from Williamsburg noisedude bar Daddy's.

currently in a couple dozen theaters (Coral Gables, Soto), expanding thru September

what happened to starting a thread

(watching it tomorrow night)

i object when a thread devoted to a director's other film has nu-film content. this is not the case here.

possibly in yr burg now

My review.

saw Love Is Strange again, it is a really nice film

of his other films I’ve only seen Keep the Lights On. Would like to see Frankie. The imdb page for Ira Sachs includes a future entry for a miniseries based on Christodora, one of my favorite novels of the last few years

Little Men was impressive too. understated in a very appealing way

I like your review Alfred

there wasn’t much going on plot-wise in Frankie and like all of his films it was very restrained, but the Sintra setting and cinematography were beautiful and I liked its maxim “find it before you look for it”

the last two films seemed to be about the effects of gentrification on families in NY, this film also had undertones of generational wealth but its focus was more on relationships and it was more enigmatic. thought the ending was really nice

I like your review Alfred

― Dan S, Thursday, July 9, 2020

Thanks!

I liked the unexpected connection between two characters toward the end of Frankie, and the view of it once and then twice removed

can't believe he got Franz Rogowski and Ben Whishaw as a couple in the new one, feels like something I dreamed

Was thinking something similar

I can't wait to watch it. Have you two seen it?

Ira Sachs has quietly amassed one of the firmest of filmographies.

I remember when I was still working on the first one. Seems like only…a few decades ago

I’m actually thinking of the second one, sorry.

was looking forward to Ira Sachs' miniseries based on Christodora, the 2016 novel by Tim Murphy (who has since disappeared) about the inhabitants of an apartment building in the East Village during the AIDS epidemic. It is one of my favorite novels. The miniseries never materialized

I might have a chance to see Passages in a couple weeks, but otherwise don't know when it's playing outside of festivals

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/passages-nc-17-rating-director-slams-mpa-film-unrated-1235674235/

Sachs otm. Forgot to say I did catch this at the Milwaukee fest, might be my favorite thing he's done. Felt closest to Keep the Lights On, he's so good at filming intimacy. Quite a few times I was like wow, I can't believe I get to see this.