Some time back, I read something similar about ‘Casablanca’. Not a lot of action per se (Ugarte and Strasser aside), few sets, but great dialogue.

Rufus T. Firefly:

Big thumbs up on “My Dinner with Andre”! Just shows to go you that well-written dialog can compel on its own.

As I recall the story (not mentioned in wiki) Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn collaborated on the script for months, passing it back and forth, each adding more dialog and making revisions until reaching its final form.

I found an indie film on Andre titled “Before and After Dinner” directed by Gregory’s new youngish wife. It’s a bit cloying but does offer the astonishing tidbit that Gregory has been investigating whether his secretive, very wealthy, Jewish businessman father collaborated with the Nazis in the 1930s to undermine the French currency as a prelude to the Nazi invasion of France!

AesopFan:

Agreed. The original “Ocean’s Eleven” had Rat Pack appeal, but I didn’t think it was all that good a movie. Even at the time its reviews were mixed.

However, Soderberg’s “Ocean’s Eleven” is IMO a masterpiece. Leaving aside the pacing and modern gadgetry, it’s a well-written taut script with interesting details and great characters, who interact beautifully together.

It’s a good exercise to compare it with “Ocean’s 8,” the all-female version, which doesn’t suffer because its characters are women, but because they are poorly written so the viewer, or at least this viewer, never gets a solid sense of them as individuals beyond the two leads played by Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett.

“Ocean’s Eleven” juggled eleven heistmates effectively. “Ocean’s 8” only eight members and seemed to be going through the motions.

See Prof. Philip Daeleader. The best evidence suggests that the origin of medieval feudalism was in the 7th century in the area later known as Ile de France. It replaced chattel slavery. The serf had a hereditary right of occupancy, could form a family, and had rights to his produce. It was a sustainable system and coincident with its introduction, Europe’s centuries long demographic implosion came to an end. You’re talking about a society where subsistence was an achievement and physical danger a reality away from your village.

Depends. Many older films have tremendous dialogue and wordplay. I think those hold up very well.

I enjoyed “My Dinner with Andre,” a movie that famously had no action (and, I think, only two camera angles).
I also enjoy foreign films with subtitles.
CGI, however, almost always takes me out of a movie. The instant it appears on screen my brain says, “Oh, yeah. None of this is real. It’s all pretend.”
The movie, “Elf” used sets and camera angles creatively to trick one’s mind into seeing different perspectives.

Thanks for the breakdown on the mortality data!

Agree regarding Jackie Chan. Good point!

…but also the sanctity of borders….
“Biden Adviser Says Americans Should Care About Ukraine Because ‘Borders Should Be Inviolate’”—
https://conservativebrief.com/total-irony-58627/

Who woulda’ guessed? (Too late for the Afghanis, though…)