Not Quite Out of Those Film Classes Yet

For my seminar, I’m taking this great class about Avant-Garde Cinema. That’s actually where I saw The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Oh, how I love that movie). Part of the class is blogging about the movies we see, so if you guys are interested, here is the link:

http://projectorroom.blogspot.com/

Everyone in this class is pretty much hyper-smart, and they have a lot of really cool things to say, so check it out.

Now as more of a me-centric thing, I wrote another Caligari entry on that website that 1)defends the framing technique, since everyone seems to hate it in my class and 2) argues how and why Caligari started horror as a film genre and also helped to create a modern Gothic aesthetic.

If your interested, here’s that link:
http://projectorroom.blogspot.com/2009/09/caligari-as-early-horror.html

I’ll also be putting the class blog in my blog links thingummer (I do know the word for it, I do, I do!). Yay for easy finding solutions.

Books That Make Good Movies: King Dork

Personal Copy picture!

This is kind of a hesitant post actually. The thing is, I love King Dork. A lot. It is that kind of book, where you know that you are willing to devote however many days and weeks it takes to read it fully. And it has the kind of plot that would make for a good movie: High School Underdog constantly thinking about girls and bands while trying to puzzle out his father’s death (murder?)

What I’m desperately afraid of is that they would completely screw it up if they made it into a movie. Some of the best parts of King Dork come from Frank Portman’s utterly hilarious writing style, with little details stuck in that just can’t be filled in with a voice-over clumsily overlaid on the screen. Reading Mr. Portman’s new book (Andromeda Klein, due out later this month) made me remember how much King Dork, if done correctly, would make a truly unique movie about high school.

If you read it or have already read it, well then you will or already have the ability to understand where I’m coming from. I’m not sure how one would get a character like Tom Henderson and his bizarre sense of humor across the screen. I would love to see it accomplished though.

DVD Addiction Continues

1) Le Dernier Metro

Damn, the Criterion Collection really knows how to package!

(Proceed with caution while Allison product-whores for the camera.)

So basically what I spent my money on was a kick-ass French WWII film (review to come) in a really, really nice format.  There’s a new English translation, audio commentaries, television excerpts and video interviews, a short film, and the theatrical trailer as disc extras.  The inside pamphlet has an essay on this film and Truffaut, which I haven’t read yet, but I never get essays with my DVDs most days, so this is still a plus in Le Dernier Metro’s general direction.

In short, this was worth the expensive price tag.

2) It was a sale…

I got Funny Games, Youth Without Youth, and Sex and the City for $10 at a sidewalk sale.  I do not even care how someone in the future may judge me for having Youth Without Youth in my collection.

3)Another example as to why you should buy your DVDs at grocery stores.

Eastern Promises for $4.

4) Borders is… well, Borders

The Piano for $6, which I only know in terms of what the big important books on film say.  And for six bucks and some change, I’m willing to see what makes it so awesome.

You Know What’s Not Worth it?

Sitting through Youth Without Youth.

I believe my reaction at the end was “What the hell did I just watch?”

I’m also wondering if Coppola has gone mildly insane.

Honestly, I need someone to help me figure out what the damn plot was.

New Purchases

Once more, with feeling, I will discuss my DVD habit (Movies are my Antidrug… because without them, I’d actually have drug money).

On Amazon I got myself The Lives of Others for a decent price and I couldn’t resist buying Vincent and Theo because the manufacturer’s discontinued the DVD.  Had to snatch it up quick after my snafu with an old version of The Last Metro.   The lesson is: Grab cheap DVDs while you can, otherwise you’ll return to Amazon and find yourself facing a $44 pricetag on a movie that was about $15 two weeks ago. 

So.  Vincent and Theo for about $5.   Good price, must admit.

And today at my local Suncoast, I grabbed a used copy of Benny and Joon for $7 and the original Batman to boot, which made me feel pleased.

(Although, on the ride home, I realized I could have gotten Howl’s Moving Castle or Four Rooms or etc etc etc).

This is what I mean.  I have a problem.  Yeah, I like movies, but it’s getting to be too much.  When the addict realizes it for herself, it must mean that it’s all the more apparent in the real world.

But man, someone out there has got to help me with this problem!  I keep buying DVDs, and then nothing else!  No clothes or food or anything… which isn’t a problem yet, but might continue to  be so in my futre!

And then, there’s my list: List o’ Films to Buy

Because I’ll be damned if I miss out on a DVD of Dr. Horrible.  And, you know… just because the addict realizes she’s got a problem, doesn’t mean that she has the ability to fix it any time soon.

Prom will Always be Related with John Hughes in my mind

I had by big ol’ “Senior Prom” this past weekend, and besides the unnecessary freak outs, the expensive tickets, the need to get THE DRESS, I really just wanted to sit around and watch Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles (I know there’s a dance in Sixteen Candles, but I can’t remember if it’s Prom or not).

Because of Mr. John Hughes, we have a proper genre of teen movies.  Although some aspects of his films are dated, and I don’t find High School social life to be as stratified as it was in The Breakfast Club, I can’t help but think “It’s because of him that all teen movies end at prom.”

Thank you, Greek, for inserting that idea in my mind.

Next installment of the 1001 Movies coming soon!  Also, a review of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (hopefully, if I don’t chicken out).

April Thoughts…

Damn, y’all.  It’s April already?

This post is less about my movie watching thoughts and more about my life, I suppose.

I bought a Laptop bag last night from ebags.  Please note: I do not yet own a laptop.  This is for collge, mes amis. Next year, instead of being a naive high school blogger, I will proceed to be a naive Chapel Hill freshman. (cripes)  The laptop bag, and subsequent laptop buying that is sure to happen within the next few days, is just making the fact that I’m going to college next year hit harder.

For instance, I’m Roomate Shopping at the mo, and my big qualifier for a good roomate is someone who likes movies.  A few people are popping up, but this is a manufactured idea of what I have to read through:

“Hi!  I’m laid back, and want a roomate who’ll go to Baptist church and jog with me.  Drama should stay in Gossip Girls and I can’t wait to party/study my ass off once I get to UNC!!!  Cute taste is mandatory for our room’s style quotient!”

I can see our matching bedspreads already… urgh.  There’s some sunlight on the horizon, I guess, but going through the roomate finder is making it very clear how hard it is to be a ME in this world.  Which is true for everybody who has a unique quiver of a thought in their system.  To quote the wonderful Tim Burton, “You never felt people liked music.”  That’s kind of what this search has been for.  No one really likes music or film, or what have you.  They all seem like paper people, who reside in their paper towns (nyargh, now comes references from Paper Towns).

Anyway.  That’s just what my thoughts have been like, now that it’s April and my school year is winding down.

I watched The Duellists last night and will try very hard to come up with a decent post on it, but for right now, I’m ruminating.

Something New

I’m still getting used to the whole blogging thing right now, more or less.  That comes from trying to find my own voice while imitating others, but also deciding just what I want this blog to be about.  More or less, I want it to be about movies all of the time, I’ve decided.

The thing is, I don’t know how to write about movies.  I feel like, every once in a while, I’ve almost got it.  Stream of consciousness comes in, but then I wonder: more summary?  Less summary?  Is this important?  Does this metaphor, choice of words, name-drop really express what I’m trying to say?

So it’s really a combination blog, of movies and how I will write about them.  For now, I’m going to try something new.

Movies, like all stories, still with you, depending on how powerful the story was.  I’ve decided, as a little experiment, to see how blogging about movies effect me, beyond just the simple review.

Reviews, I’ve found, intimidate me.  There’s so much to say, and then sometimes I say too much.  What will matter now are my impressions.  I really hope this works, otherwise I don’t know what else to go on.

The Maestro for the Religious: Copying Beethoven

The best I can say about this film is that it had some excellent shots. But, well…

How can I word this?  There are a certain number of things wrong with this film.  1) Jilted camera angles and movements.  2) Overacting on the part of 2/3 of the cast. 3) A Been-There, Done-That Storyline.

If I tried really hard, I’m sure I could make the list grow, but the film really isn’t worth my time.

The story is Anna Holtz, a charming 23-year-old musician-to-be who has been sent from her conservatory to do some work under Beethoven.  Of course, Beethoven in a rude brute who no one understands, except for OMG Anna!  How tremendously convenient that the only person who can understand Beethoven came in time to be his copyist before the Ninth Symphony is performed on Sunday.

In between being snarled at and having zen conversations about music and God, Karl, B’s nephew, drops by and is a rude, spoiled brat looking for some money to waste gambling.  Of course, even though he looks like some heroin addict, Karl is actually a very sympathetic character, because he doesn’t want to play the piano!  O, woe is he for having an uncle who adores him like a son.  Then he runs away, to return to further his weasely ways.

Anna is staying at her great aunt’s convent while she’s in Vienna and is encouraged to drop her silly dreams of becoming a composer, because girls can’t become composers, silly.  Her aunt, the Mother Superior, tells her that dreams are dangerous, but beautiful, and that she once had the dream to study under Salieri.  Let me tell you, that explains a lot about Anna’s aunt and her taste in music.

So, Vienna is agog at Beethoven and his 2-hour long symphony and the fact that he wants to conduct (But he’s deaf! Vienna shouts).  And Martin Bauer, the beau of Anna, is the most annoying person in this entire movie.  He is an engineer of the future and has really, really awful lines about building bridges to the future.  As far as I can throw him, he’s all that’s bad about the industrial era in a nut shell for this movie.

But Anna, o she loves him.  She thinks.  Well, the chemistry ain’t that great, but it’s a helluva lot better than that shit from the Star Wars prequels, is all I can say.  While Martin works on his bridge, he has a tangent about how no one listens to Beethoven anymore, blah di blah.

Then, the symphony!  Only Karl’s not there, so Beethoven can’t compose.  Not unless Anna’s onstage with him, composing from the orchestra.  So they do and it takes up a lot of time.  Probably the best use of time in this entire film, but only for the music.  There’s a montage in here that will make an epiliptic seizure and a lot of close ups of Beethoven cutting to Anna cutting to Beethoven cutting to Chorus cutting to Beethoven cutting to audience cutting to orchestra cutting to Anna cutting to Beethoven cutting to WTF Karl?  Who looks even more like a heroin addict now than every before!  Then he disappears and everything is apparently resolved in that area of the world.  Meanwhile, the standing ovation scene is a complete rip off from Immortal Beloved.

After the Ninth Symphony scene, everything is about God from here on out.  Beethoven whines to Anna about God, Anna says nothing.  Beethoven is the Zen Master of Music: The Language of God.  Anna tries her hand at composing.  Beethoven works on his new Quartets.  Anna questions God because Beethoven makes fun of her composition.  Mother Superior tells her that she would be safe in the convent, away from all of that dirty, dirty Viennese trash and deaf composers.  Then Beethoven begs for forgiveness and we’re back on the religious track!  Yippee.

Martin presents his bridge design for a contest and Beethoven just comes by and smashes it with his cane.  The design was the basic iron bridge design, nothing really special anyway.  Anna and Martin break up, because they can’t really stand eachother.  Anna turns to Beethoven for yelling matches and… more talk about God.  Then he asks her to bathe him. (You think I’m joking, but I’m not).

No one understands Beethoven’s new quartets, which is a pity because they’re rather nice.  Then he collapses and Anna nurses him back to health.  He goes to sleep and when he wakes up, he has a new idea for a song.  Anna dictates while he sits in bed, and this scene totally isn’t a rip off of Amadeus, why do you ask?

One final conversation about God and Music and END MOVIE!

Copying Beethoven has a maturity level somewhere under Beethoven Lives Upstairs.  I can’t even sit lose myself to the pretty landscape or to the costumes because Vienna is portrayed as bland and dismal while the costumes are drab in greys and browns, except for an occassional blue.  The direction isn’t my taste when it comes to a historical film.  Lots of cuts and jags and Seizure-inducing montages.  The film isn’t about Beethoven really, or about his music.  It’s about Anna, which wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t such a Mary Sue.  She’s entirely too boring, even in her costumes.

The easiest portrayal I can say is that this is Beethoven for the Religious, or for those who want to create an idea of Beethoven as being religious.  Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t.  In the books I’ve read, he’s neither one way nor the other, but spiritually searching, always.  To some, I’m sure this speaks volumes, but I look more towards other aspects of a historical figure’s character.  With Beethoven, I want to see the Romanticism through him or the tortured individual, but Copying Beethoven delivered neither.

Distopic America: Soylent Green and Fight Club

I’m saying this right now: Watching these movies is not a good way for ending a year. But watch them I did. Soylent Green was on Turner Classic Movies December 28th, and I fell asleep afterwards. I woke up just in time to catch Fight Club on G4.

And then I was in A Mood.

To Start, Soylent Green frightens me, because I can easily see it occuring. “Make Room, Make Room” on an already overpopulated planet. Or we’re getting to overpopulation or we are already sweltering underneath the strain. In my film class last year, we talked about this film, but never watched it. The majority of my class decided that it wasn’t immoral to eat dead bodies in such a situation, and I stand by that. When life is a battle to survive, we end up doing anything that is within our power to go on.

It would have been better to know, though. The ignorance of the future scared me, such as with the Furniture when they are dehumanized or this grabbing for Soylent Green, a product with no past, but a strong future in the arms of many. How we died, too, is a frightening experience, with its strong regimentation, although I get the feeling that if I ever approach death I would much rather die in a room like that than in some cold hospital bed.

Ah me… it frightened me, because the ghosts of the present haunted the shadows of this film.

FIGHT CLUB

Hello Edward Norton. What can I do for you today?

I think his character needs a hug, and a really well made dinner. Then sent to a great psychiatrist. I’m glad that the ending wasn’t predictable, with a fantastic shot of these two silhouettes against the destruction of office buildings.

There’s also, and I love it, the house where most of the action takes place. It’s such an old and grimy house, but inside it’s still a mansion. A dirty, disgusting mansion, but there are charms.  It reflects the entire movie well, anyway.  What creeped me out was this break away from the average that turned into a complete, faceless organiztion.  There’s that cyclic event that we face in life, especially with the new Outliers of society, when they finally become the norm.  It’s scary, to wake up and have no face.

(Ho hum, ignore that if it doesn’t make sense.  I think I’ve just rambled my way, trying to explain what the theme is of Fight Club, when I can’t.  Not right now, anyway). 

Basically, I love and hate this movie on an even keel. It moves me to the emotions and thoughts that the film draws out, but then I have to live with them. These views on the waste of modern life and hateful office jobs.

Two really fabulous, well done movies, that tell and keep secrets and have the wonderful ability of motion.