Today I Watched...

[IanKennedy]

Indeed, it was rather upchuck inducing. That's said you do look rather a prat while you're flying, and clearly you can't fly all the way from California to Boston.

[IanKennedy]

Twister: A great romp of a movie. A little silly in parts but that just adds to it's charm. Another cow. Actually, I think that's the same one

[McAvoy]

All of Futurama. Well not just today. Over the last few weeks... 127 episodes (including the 3 movies).

I did that during the quarantine last year. I really did forget how good that series was. I never was able to watch the series when it was brought back to Comedy Central.

[IanKennedy]

Yesterday I watched: The Firth Element. Love pretty much everything about this film. The visuals are unique, the world is a grot bag (ok we've seen that before) but the clothing is out there (thanks to Jean Paul Gaultier mad costumes). Silly and tongue in cheek but still manages a good action vibe. Milla and Bruce play off well against each other. Ian Holm is good. Gary Oldman is perfect as a pure evil proxy for the big bad guy, even he manages some dark humour.

The Diva song is fantastic. The idea was to have an alien with a vocal range that would put any human to shame. The Diva is meant to be doing pretty much everything you hear. I'm not sure that comes across as well as it could. I always wonder what a professional would make of it.

[Tinadrin Chelnor]

Yesterday I watched: The Firth Element. Love pretty much everything about this film. The visuals are unique, the world is a grot bag (ok we've seen that before) but the clothing is out there (thanks to Jean Paul Gaultier mad costumes). Silly and tongue in cheek but still manages a good action vibe. Milla and Bruce play off well against each other. Ian Holm is good. Gary Oldman is perfect as a pure evil proxy for the big bad guy, even he manages some dark humour.

The Diva song is fantastic. The idea was to have an alien with a vocal range that would put any human to shame. The Diva is meant to be doing pretty much everything you hear. I'm not sure that comes across as well as it could. I always wonder what a professional would make of it.

I had rewatched it a few weeks ago. Excellent film!

[T'Pau]

The Diva song is fantastic. The idea was to have an alien with a vocal range that would put any human to shame. The Diva is meant to be doing pretty much everything you hear. I'm not sure that comes across as well as it could. I always wonder what a professional would make of it.

This is completely in my wheelhouse! I also love the film and it is a pure guilty pleasure re-watch whenever I can catch it. Some background before 'a professional' take on it:

Diva Plavalaguna was portrayed by the then-wife of the director Luc Beeson, Maiwen La Besco. The music was sung by Albanian opera singer Inva Mula-Tchako. As a lyric soprano, her voice has more weight than the lighter and more agile coloratura soprano. Mula does have a lovely upper extension which makes playing roles, such as Lucia de Lammermoor (from which the beginning of the song from the film originates) easier for her. So the first part of the singing is taken from Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor", and the second part was created by Eric Serra. He wanted something that would be 'un-singable' by a human voice. Mula was able to tackle 85% of what he believed was un-singable, and the rest was edited and voice-sampled mechanically. That is why it sounded the way it did.

Luc Beeson adored Maria Callas, but the sound qualities of the recordings from 1956 of her 'Lucia' were not clear enough to use in the film. Callas' former agent Michael Glotz who produced the original recording of Callas, introduced Beeson to the young Albanian singer Mula.

The first part of the song, is the aria "Il dolce suono" form Act III, scene 2 of the opera. Lucia is descending into madness, and on her wedding night, during the festivities, she stabs her new husband. She sings the aria covered in blood, and it is called the "Mad Scene". A couple of interesting parallels between the aria and the film are as follows:
"fuggita io son da' tuoi nemici", which translates to "I have escaped from your enemies"...The Diva got the stones for safe keeping after Leloo escaped the battle.
"Ogni piacer piu grato, mi fia conte divisa", which translates to "Let me share the greatest pleasure with you"...The Diva dies passing the stones to Corbin Dallas.

As a fan of the film, I understand why the decision was made to add the "Diva Dance' portion of the music, to show that she was not human and nor was her voice. And also to appear to a wider audience. I get it.
As a professional, I do wish they would have used more of the original operatic score, as when she was singing it early on, she was transfixing the audience without the need of electronic sampling and editing.

So long post for the short answer: love the film to this day, tolerate the second section of the Diva Song.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

The Diva song is fantastic. The idea was to have an alien with a vocal range that would put any human to shame. The Diva is meant to be doing pretty much everything you hear. I'm not sure that comes across as well as it could. I always wonder what a professional would make of it.

This is completely in my wheelhouse! I also love the film and it is a pure guilty pleasure re-watch whenever I can catch it. Some background before 'a professional' take on it:

Diva Plavalaguna was portrayed by the then-wife of the director Luc Beeson, Maiwen La Besco. The music was sung by Albanian opera singer Inva Mula-Tchako. As a lyric soprano, her voice has more weight than the lighter and more agile coloratura soprano. Mula does have a lovely upper extension which makes playing roles, such as Lucia de Lammermoor (from which the beginning of the song from the film originates) easier for her. So the first part of the singing is taken from Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor", and the second part was created by Eric Serra. He wanted something that would be 'un-singable' by a human voice. Mula was able to tackle 85% of what he believed was un-singable, and the rest was edited and voice-sampled mechanically. That is why it sounded the way it did.

Luc Beeson adored Maria Callas, but the sound qualities of the recordings from 1956 of her 'Lucia' were not clear enough to use in the film. Callas' former agent Michael Glotz who produced the original recording of Callas, introduced Beeson to the young Albanian singer Mula.

The first part of the song, is the aria "Il dolce suono" form Act III, scene 2 of the opera. Lucia is descending into madness, and on her wedding night, during the festivities, she stabs her new husband. She sings the aria covered in blood, and it is called the "Mad Scene". A couple of interesting parallels between the aria and the film are as follows:
"fuggita io son da' tuoi nemici", which translates to "I have escaped from your enemies"...The Diva got the stones for safe keeping after Leloo escaped the battle.
"Ogni piacer piu grato, mi fia conte divisa", which translates to "Let me share the greatest pleasure with you"...The Diva dies passing the stones to Corbin Dallas.

As a fan of the film, I understand why the decision was made to add the "Diva Dance' portion of the music, to show that she was not human and nor was her voice. And also to appear to a wider audience. I get it.
As a professional, I do wish they would have used more of the original operatic score, as when she was singing it early on, she was transfixing the audience without the need of electronic sampling and editing.

So long post for the short answer: love the film to this day, tolerate the second section of the Diva Song.

Wow! Some of that I knew, some of that I didn't. thanks very much for the info!

Also, I love the Fifth Element too.

[T'Pau]

You're welcome!

[McAvoy]

The Diva song is fantastic. The idea was to have an alien with a vocal range that would put any human to shame. The Diva is meant to be doing pretty much everything you hear. I'm not sure that comes across as well as it could. I always wonder what a professional would make of it.

This is completely in my wheelhouse! I also love the film and it is a pure guilty pleasure re-watch whenever I can catch it. Some background before 'a professional' take on it:

Diva Plavalaguna was portrayed by the then-wife of the director Luc Beeson, Maiwen La Besco. The music was sung by Albanian opera singer Inva Mula-Tchako. As a lyric soprano, her voice has more weight than the lighter and more agile coloratura soprano. Mula does have a lovely upper extension which makes playing roles, such as Lucia de Lammermoor (from which the beginning of the song from the film originates) easier for her. So the first part of the singing is taken from Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor", and the second part was created by Eric Serra. He wanted something that would be 'un-singable' by a human voice. Mula was able to tackle 85% of what he believed was un-singable, and the rest was edited and voice-sampled mechanically. That is why it sounded the way it did.

Luc Beeson adored Maria Callas, but the sound qualities of the recordings from 1956 of her 'Lucia' were not clear enough to use in the film. Callas' former agent Michael Glotz who produced the original recording of Callas, introduced Beeson to the young Albanian singer Mula.

The first part of the song, is the aria "Il dolce suono" form Act III, scene 2 of the opera. Lucia is descending into madness, and on her wedding night, during the festivities, she stabs her new husband. She sings the aria covered in blood, and it is called the "Mad Scene". A couple of interesting parallels between the aria and the film are as follows:
"fuggita io son da' tuoi nemici", which translates to "I have escaped from your enemies"...The Diva got the stones for safe keeping after Leloo escaped the battle.
"Ogni piacer piu grato, mi fia conte divisa", which translates to "Let me share the greatest pleasure with you"...The Diva dies passing the stones to Corbin Dallas.

As a fan of the film, I understand why the decision was made to add the "Diva Dance' portion of the music, to show that she was not human and nor was her voice. And also to appear to a wider audience. I get it.
As a professional, I do wish they would have used more of the original operatic score, as when she was singing it early on, she was transfixing the audience without the need of electronic sampling and editing.

So long post for the short answer: love the film to this day, tolerate the second section of the Diva Song.

Wow! Some of that I knew, some of that I didn't. thanks very much for the info!

Also, I love the Fifth Element too.

I think the director married her when she was 15 or 16 when he was 30. I think this is the same director that had an affair with Milla Jovovich at the time of filming. She was also pretty young but definitely not a minor.

Someone once told me the singer Amy Lee of Evanscence fame learned under Besco. I am not sure though.

[T'Pau]

If you want to hear the Diva Dance sung by an actual human without any electronic sampling/editing, check out Chinese opera singer Jane Zhang!

[Nutso]

Ford vs Ferrari, pretty good movie though it really isn't about what Ford Racing had to do to beat Ferrari but, about Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles at this moment in time.

[T'Pau]

THE Suicide Squad (2021): Gotta love Stallone as King Shark...and that was about all there was to fully enjoy. Die-hard DC fans might get all the references to lesser known characters, but by the time you learn their name...*boom*...gone. Sort of a middle-finger to viewers. Multiple plots across different times felt disjointed and didn't keep the suspense amped up. Overall a 'meh' experience.

[McAvoy]

THE Suicide Squad (2021): Gotta love Stallone as King Shark...and that was about all there was to fully enjoy. Die-hard DC fans might get all the references to lesser known characters, but by the time you learn their name...*boom*...gone. Sort of a middle-finger to viewers. Multiple plots across different times felt disjointed and didn't keep the suspense amped up. Overall a 'meh' experience.

Any better than the first one? That was a mess too.

[IanKennedy]

I saw it too. I thought it was better than the first. It did rather poke fun at some of the characters, mainly in the dialogue. Gunn brought his usual humour to the film but still made a really watchable movie.

[IanKennedy]

I also saw “Pirates of the Amazon”, sorry “River Cruise”. A typical Disney post pirates movie attempting to cash in on the Pirates success. Also reminded me of The Mummy (Brendan Foster, not Tom Cruise). Not as good as either but still pretty decent.