Saw PAPA yesterday. Not bad, certainly not as bad as most of the reviews made out, but also not what it could have been, I think. Looks like they shot in Hemingway's house in Cuba. Nice to see the old stuff in it. The most interesting thing for me, though, was to discover the screenwriter also wrote the screenplay for Schaffner's ISLANDS IN A STREAM.
I saw PAPA on Saturday and while the film had some mawkish moments there were also some dramatically effective ones. I wish more had been made of Myers/Petticlerc's relationship with Hemingway but all in all I enjoyed the film very much.
Was it just me or the screen I watched it on, but did the scene at the start where Myers is tellng Hem and Mary how much Hem's work meant to him have a fake CSO look to it? I found it hugely distracting in what should have been a key scene.
Fans of Joely Richardson and skinny dipping in general will find much to enjoy in this film. I think the movie was pretty kind to Mary but also fair in regards to her own difficult personality.
I always felt Giovanni Ribisi should have been a hugely popular character actor. It's good to see him in this film.
I'd give it three stars out of four. It was good, but not very good, certainly not excellent. It should have had more dramatic power, since it's basically about the unravelling of a man due to chronic alcoholism. He was much worse than the movie depicted, and his wife was one too. They also should have gone into the period after the revolution and why he left Cuba (like how they shot his dog).
"Color Separation Overlay"; learned it from endless hours of classic Dr Who bonus features viewing. I suppose CSO is like "blue screen" or "green screen."
Aha, per one or two other threads (on a roll!) just watched Islands In The Stream for the first time and got into it pretty good. Interesting that the middle kid is the main focus since Patrick Hemingway has outlasted John the Older and Gregory the Less in terms of total years. I am of course assuming there are the usual EH biographical elements in the unfinished novel and film adaptation. Appropriate, as such, that "Papa" doesn't make it back to his boys state-side in the film. Tragic on the screen and more so off it.
Returned from my Hemingway "pilgrimage" down in Key West. "Papa" is a looming presence--and industry--there. The Key West History museum had a nice exhibit on Hem and his time in the Keys as well as a fine history of the Keys in general.
Loved the heat, the humidity,mand even the spot of rain we got. There was a tropical storm that was supposed to brush the island our last day there but it went wide and instead blasted northern Florida and the Carolinas. I appreciated the "can do" attitude of the Conchs that is sadly rarely if ever found in South Florida...had a great time.
Of late I have taken an oblique respite from Hemingway and am four hundred pages into a Mark Twain bio, inspired by comments on Twain by Hemingway and Pender in Midnight In Paris.
Of late I have taken an oblique respite from Hemingway and am four hundred pages into a Mark Twain bio, inspired by comments on Twain by Hemingway and Pender in Midnight In Paris.
I like that Gil shamelessly tries to win points with Hem by throwing Papa's own assertion regarding "Huckleberry Finn" right back at him. Good writing by Woody--and Twain, of course; though I suppose the Politically Correct Red Guards among us would order us to burn or ban the "offensive" tome.
Yes it is amazing that I read Finn as a h.s. junior and wasn't scarred for life. Even managed to write the longest paper of my academic career built around "lying" without becoming an inveterate liar m'self. And oh, Holden Caulfield was next!
Seemed to take forever but I finally finished the Twain biography. Guess I need a literary respite. That is, after I rewatch the early Hemingway scene in MIP for the zillionth time.
Well I guess I'm kinda back to Hemingway per "Papa's own assertion." Am now rereading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Searched a little but found the real thing i.e. totally NOT a politically correct edition.
Merci for the heads-up. Sun was on my mind as a probable follow-up after finishing Bell Tolls. Gotta do all this while I have the time (semi-retirement giving way to rat race reentry ugh).
Well, I am a fan of some of his novels and his short stories. I'm just not a fan of his personal relationships with women We are actually a bit more human that an adventure, a gun or wild game.
I suggest people read THE HEMINGWAY WOMEN by Bernice Kert. It isn't "feminist claptrap," and provides interesting insights into the effects women had on his writing and on his personal life.
Well, I am a fan of some of his novels and his short stories. I'm just not a fan of his personal relationships with women We are actually a bit more human that an adventure, a gun or wild game.
I suggest people read THE HEMINGWAY WOMEN by Bernice Kert. It isn't "feminist claptrap," and provides interesting insights into the effects women had on his writing and on his personal life.
You didn't need to put the term feminist claptrap in quotes, as it does in fact exist.
I tend to take the essence and attitude of the subject at hand, especially if it's an author, so just roll with it, even if it hurts to do so.
I've heard of the Bernice Kert book and your recommendation is appreciated.
I think the movie was pretty kind to Mary but also fair in regards to her own difficult personality. 
I suppose CSO is like "blue screen" or "green screen." 
