Cold Mountain the movie
Oct 2nd, 2003, 07:33 AM
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Cold Mountain the movie
We were lucky enough to be given an invitation to see the screening of Cold Mountain with Nicole Kidman and Jude Law last night.
Although it was a rough cut, 3 hours long and still needed scoring, it was pretty much finished.
If you read the book, you will know the end. All in all, it was a brilliant film and excellent in the Anti-War catagory.
What does this have to do with TRAVEL you ask?
The film takes place in NC and the South/Virginia, during the Civil War.
So where do you think they filmed it ?
North Carolina, Canada and Romania!!
Why Romania? I haven't been there so someone might tell me if it looks just like the mountains of NC
Anyway-just thought I would tell you and advise you to see it in December
Although it was a rough cut, 3 hours long and still needed scoring, it was pretty much finished.
If you read the book, you will know the end. All in all, it was a brilliant film and excellent in the Anti-War catagory.
What does this have to do with TRAVEL you ask?
The film takes place in NC and the South/Virginia, during the Civil War.
So where do you think they filmed it ?
North Carolina, Canada and Romania!!
Why Romania? I haven't been there so someone might tell me if it looks just like the mountains of NC
Anyway-just thought I would tell you and advise you to see it in December
Oct 2nd, 2003, 07:41 AM
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yep...my son who plays the old time music and knows a musician who was over in Romania teaching the actors how to fiddle said that Romania looked like NC/VA once looked like during the civil war.
Sounds like that could be a good "next trip"!
Sounds like that could be a good "next trip"!
Oct 2nd, 2003, 07:45 AM
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By the way..after I read the book I wanted to see Cold MT....there is a great campground that you walk into...privately owned. You can park nearby off the road...there is a river that runs thru it and is very quiet and beautiful. If anyone is interested I can search for the name.
Oct 2nd, 2003, 07:52 AM
#5
I am really looking forward to seeing that film! Thanks for the advance notice about locales. I saw Message In A Bottle a few years ago which was set in the Outer Banks but filmed in Maine. Both places are gorgeous but Maine is so not the Outer Banks. It ruined the movie for me. Perhaps I can squeeze in a quick trip to Romania to see for myself....
Oct 2nd, 2003, 10:46 AM
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There was a huge outage by the state of North Carolina about filming the movie in Romania instead of NC. The NC movie industy is dying because of productions moving to Canada (and Romania). Glad to know the scenery looks right instead of it was done in "Message in a Bottle"
How close to the book was the movie?
How close to the book was the movie?
Oct 2nd, 2003, 11:53 AM
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There was input after the film. Also production sort of stuff ..
I had a problem with the book. Too long descriptive sentences, ( sort of the way I write!) and the ending
I mostly skimmed the book.
But as far as I could tell, they stuck to the book. Right down to that ending.
Which came up a lot afterwards in the discussions.
Another interesting bit-almost all of the actors are English/Irish/Australian. Some are my favorite actors too and they all did excellent Southern accents
I had a problem with the book. Too long descriptive sentences, ( sort of the way I write!) and the ending
I mostly skimmed the book.
But as far as I could tell, they stuck to the book. Right down to that ending.
Which came up a lot afterwards in the discussions.
Another interesting bit-almost all of the actors are English/Irish/Australian. Some are my favorite actors too and they all did excellent Southern accents
Oct 2nd, 2003, 12:58 PM
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I'm glad I'm not the only person who didn't like the ending. One of my literary friends was a cheering me to the end. My dad enjoyed it (and the ending) and when I told him of my objections to the ending he sort of looked at me with a "huh?" expression.
Scarlett, as a born southerner, do you hate horrible southern accents? I find the bad southern accent grates on my nerves.
Scarlett, as a born southerner, do you hate horrible southern accents? I find the bad southern accent grates on my nerves.
Oct 2nd, 2003, 01:13 PM
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I'm looking forward to seeing this movie, although it does steam me they didn't film the movie here in Western North Carolina.
I could understand moving the production elsewhere perhaps if Cold Mountain were blanketed from stem to stern in condominiums, as too many mountains around here are, but it's pristine! It's preserved -- so why not at least humor us a little and feature the mountain in the movie?
Grrr, I say. But, I suppose I can take comfort in the way North Carolina just keeps pumping out oustanding writers like Charles Frasier. Even if Hollywood never gets it through its thick skull that the actual setting of the book would be the best place to film the movie version of that book, at least there will never be a shortage of good books featuring North Carolina.
And speaking of good books set in North Carolina, now that we've gotten Cold Mountain out of the way, howzabout some movies inspired by Kathy Reichs's novels? What say, Hollywood?
I could understand moving the production elsewhere perhaps if Cold Mountain were blanketed from stem to stern in condominiums, as too many mountains around here are, but it's pristine! It's preserved -- so why not at least humor us a little and feature the mountain in the movie?
Grrr, I say. But, I suppose I can take comfort in the way North Carolina just keeps pumping out oustanding writers like Charles Frasier. Even if Hollywood never gets it through its thick skull that the actual setting of the book would be the best place to film the movie version of that book, at least there will never be a shortage of good books featuring North Carolina.
And speaking of good books set in North Carolina, now that we've gotten Cold Mountain out of the way, howzabout some movies inspired by Kathy Reichs's novels? What say, Hollywood?
Oct 2nd, 2003, 01:16 PM
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I was lucky enough to have spent some time in Romania and i can tell you that there are parts of trannsylvania [yes it exists] that look remarkably similar to VA NC. However, in all honesty they could have filmed really anywhere and gotten away with it. to those who suggest the sentences were "too long" i say go grab yourself a mary higgens clark or tom clancy or some other crappy "best seller". There is a reason Charles Frazier won the National Book Award for Cold Mountain, and it is the prose and the dialogue. I was fortunate enough to hear him read passages from the book at the Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver.
As for the ending... you want a Hollywood Ending go rent Shawshank Redemption again.
As for the ending... you want a Hollywood Ending go rent Shawshank Redemption again.
Oct 2nd, 2003, 01:17 PM
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ncgrrl, yes, a bad put-on Southern accent can be so unpleasant while a natural one can be soothing and nice on the ears ~
I hardly have an accent any more..too much Yankee influence
hauntedhead, they did use some of NC but I think not the mountains. They were in some mangrove sort of places and along a beach, so I am thinking the coast more than the mountains. I have fond memories of Chimney Rock and throwing rocks on some Yankee soldiers grave and going to Little Switzerland and staying there when my grandfather was chef there. Always in the fall, so my memories are of the crisp beauty of the place and that great autumn smell~
I hardly have an accent any more..too much Yankee influence
hauntedhead, they did use some of NC but I think not the mountains. They were in some mangrove sort of places and along a beach, so I am thinking the coast more than the mountains. I have fond memories of Chimney Rock and throwing rocks on some Yankee soldiers grave
and going to Little Switzerland and staying there when my grandfather was chef there. Always in the fall, so my memories are of the crisp beauty of the place and that great autumn smell~
Oct 2nd, 2003, 01:36 PM
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Scarlett -- Autumn is defnitely the mountains' season of glory. In most of the rest of the South, springtime is the season to see but here... Even when the leaves barely turn color at all, when the goldenrod and asters, and butterfly trees all bloom the fields still blaze with colors. And when it's a good year for leaf color... well, then! It's another way we're set apart from the rest of Dixie, I suppose.
Flopmeister -- If Transylvania resembles parts of the mountainous regions of WNC and western Virginia, I guess it should surprise no one that there is a Transylvania County in WNC! It's the only county in the United States with that name as far as I know.
Flopmeister -- If Transylvania resembles parts of the mountainous regions of WNC and western Virginia, I guess it should surprise no one that there is a Transylvania County in WNC! It's the only county in the United States with that name as far as I know.
Oct 2nd, 2003, 05:52 PM
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Pat Conroy...now there's a haunted head!! Our boat is named after one of his books, GoTravel. My husband insisted, and I wasn't coming up with anything better. Inauspiciously, in the end of that book the old family home succombs to beach erosion and is swallowed by the sea. Beats me why he'd want to give that name to a boat, but I'm hoping this is something akin to contrarian good luck :lol
Our boat is named after one of his books, GoTravel. My husband insisted, and I wasn't coming up with anything better. Inauspiciously, in the end of that book the old family home succombs to beach erosion and is swallowed by the sea. Beats me why he'd want to give that name to a boat, but I'm hoping this is something akin to contrarian good luck :lol
Oct 2nd, 2003, 06:25 PM
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OO, he is nuts that's for sure. Saw him snoozing on a park bench on the waterfront in Beaufort one Saturday morning. Friend of mine played baseball with him at the Citadel and said he was the funniest guy in the class. Read somewhere they are making a movie out of the book! I hope it as good as La Streisand's The Prince of Tides.
Oct 2nd, 2003, 08:24 PM
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It was during my reading of Cold Mountain that I once again fell in love with the art of writing. Some sentences I read over again simply because they were so great. I had the book with me on a long solo trip to Europe and finished it cover to cover and then read it again before I got back home.
I dread seeing the film (although I know I won't be able to stay away) because for me it wasn't really about the "action" but the language. How can anyone capture the feeling the words induce? Has there ever been a satisfactory screen adaptation of one's favorite books?
I dread seeing the film (although I know I won't be able to stay away) because for me it wasn't really about the "action" but the language. How can anyone capture the feeling the words induce? Has there ever been a satisfactory screen adaptation of one's favorite books?
Oct 3rd, 2003, 06:05 AM
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Even my spouse (a NCAA nut) says Pat Conroy is a whining loser, if you read his losing season book about Citadel basketball in SC youll see for yourself. This will be a movie - ha. He screwed up at every opportunity just to get back at his dad. His writing style is bogus and tiring. When he does manage to accomplish something, he ruins it. Every chance he gets he reminds readers he's a loser and coward. My friends tell us reading his stuff is painful.
