Children of Paradise

There was actually sort of sun today, and blue skies! I wanted to go read outside, but I realized that my movie, Children of Paradise, directed by Marcel Carné in 1945, was over 3 hours long. I was pretty saddened by this news, at first. Who wants to sit in a cold basement when they could be outside in the sun? Not me, at least.

When I finally sat down to watch it, I became pretty involved in the film. It's really long, yes, but it has a great story. It's sort of an epic length romance, marketed to American audiences as "The French answer to Gone with the Wind". It sounds stupid, but it makes a certain amount of sense. There are strong female women at the center of both of these films, trying to get what they want out of life - but it doesn't always go their way. A lot of the story revolves around theater performances (Wikipedia says that "Paradis" is a French colloquial name for the balcony in theaters), which is added a really interesting dynamic. I really enjoyed this movie, despite all of my earlier reservations.

Written on the Wind

85 degrees today - sunny and windy, but perfect weather. It was so nice to sit with all the windows open and wear summer clothes again. I am so stuffed from eating the best meal - beer brats (fake ones) with natural sauerkraut, grilled veggie skewers (zucchini and summer squash, portobello mushrooms, various peppers, onions, mmmm), and grilled fingerling potatoes and onions. Eaten with a cold glass of great beer from Half Acre brewery, which Anthony and I toured yesterday. It was so hard to sit inside and watch a movie during all of this weather, though. I also have family in from Colorado, and after I finish writing this, I'm going to head over to everyone for a bit. So I hope you understand if I keep my post short.

Woman in the Dunes

Today I watched a rather strange and surreal movie, Woman in the Dunes, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. It's a really interesting film, and I sort of liked it. Sort of, as in it seemed really weird, but I couldn't help but enjoy it. It is a really long movie, though, and moves slowly.

The film is about an insect-collecting man who is trying to find relaxation in the sand dunes far away from Tokyo. He misses his last bus back, but some villagers tell him that he can stay in a house that is down in a pit basically. He agrees, and climbs down the rope ladder into the pit. A widow lives there by herself, but she is young. During the night, the man notices that she is shoveling the sand. When he tries to leave in the morning, the rope ladder is gone. He is trapped. The woman tells him that they have to shovel the sand (it is pulled up by ropes to the villagers at night, who sell it, under the table, to be used in construction, since it's too salty, technically, for construction). If they don't, their house will become buried in sand. And the house next to theirs will then be in danger. He tries refusing to work, and tries to escape, but he is always returned to the pit. He becomes the widow's lover, but he still wants to leave, badly.

The Wizard of Oz

I can't remember the last time I watched today's movie - The Wizard of Oz, directed in 1939 by Victor Fleming. I think I liked it when I was a kid. I know I saw it, since I have always remembered the plot of the whole thing. I don't really remember my actual feelings about it, though, and neither do my parents. Thanks, guys. :/ My only Wizard of Oz related memory was when I was three and went to a haunted house that was at our public library. When I came out of it, there were people in costumes talking to the kids. Someone was dressed up as the Wicked Witch of the West, and she screeched at me "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog, too!" Having not seen the movie, I took her threat seriously and began to cry. I had a little dog at home - how did she know? I imagine I was comforted when saw the movie and learned she could be defeated with water.

Wings of Desire

I was in a pretty awful mood today, and I lazed around the house reading Ann Rule (uh, yes I am currently paying back my loans for my English literature major, why do you ask?) instead of watching my film. I finally got myself to sit down and watch it, and I'm so glad I did. I watched Wings Of Desire (the German title is The Sky over Berlin), directed in 1987 by Wim Wenders. I didn't really do anything other than mash buttons on my remote before watching it, so I had no idea what it was about going into it. I'm sort of glad that I didn't, personally - the plot, what little there was, was borrowed from heavily for the Hollywood film City of Angels. Yunno, with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan or something. I didn't see it, and  it makes me feel tired to even think about it. Since Wings of Desire is slow and moody, there isn't much plot, so all plot summaries sound like City of Angels. Please do not confuses these movies and see what I presume is a bad Nic Cage film instead.
Wings of Desire made my mood...better. It was pensive and rambling enough to fit my state of mind, but somehow optimistic and uplifting enough to make me feel better. It really worked for me, and I felt...touched by it, I guess. I loved everything, from the vague plot to the striking cinematography - but most of all I loved the dialogue, which was, in essence, simply poetry spoken by the characters. It also had Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. This movie was made for me to love, apparently.

The Wild Bunch

Another post that I keep putting off writing. Not because I hated the movie - I love The Wild Bunch. I just watched it earlier, had to leave for an appointment, and didn't write before I left. Now that I'm home I want to be lazy and screw around watching stuff on my DVR. In case I wasn't lazy enough today, blah.

Today I watched The Wild Bunch, directed by Sam Peckinpah in 1969. It's a fantastic western - gritty and violent,  with a great plot. I feel like I always say I hate westerns and then I wind up watching the ones I like for this project. I mean, I'm glad I don't have to watch a whole haul of American westerns, but it seems hypocritical if 90% of the westerns I watch for this project are ones that I already love and are prefaced with my normal cry of "but I hate them!" This film has so much of what I like about westerns - it uses the time period as a backdrop for a great story, and it deals with that era without any romanticism or fantasy. It is, as Peckinpah himself has said, "...not fun and games and cowboys and Indians. It's a terrible, ugly thing" (From here). I feel a deep love for him for saying this, since I'm always whining about realism in westerns, or something like that.

Vertigo

For some reason, I feel overwhelmingly tired, so I'll keep this post a bit short. Although I had a really great, relaxing day, nothing seemed to go right this evening, even the movie watching - the DVD kept skipping since it was really scratched. It was one of those nights, which maybe has left me a little drained. Passing out in bed sounds really good right about now, hopefully no one will mind a bit shorter of a post. :)

Today's movie was Vertigo, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1958. It's one of his most highly praised and discussed films. It is also, as Ebert mentions and I have noticed, one of least trying for the female character out of all of his films. Hitchcock was a bit infamous for how he treated women in cinema - his movies with his blond women, always humiliated or abused in some way. This movie is slightly more sympathetic, showing much more of the pain and emotions that she experiences.

Un Chien Andalou

Today's movie fit my mood perfectly. My body, apparently sick of running on little to no sleep, decided to just...sleep. I would get up and walk around and become so tired that when I'd sit back down on the couch to read I'd fall asleep again. I didn't really mind - I had really strange and vivid dreams, and I love that, as stupid as that sounds. It was far more entertaining to me than anything else I could have been doing. I apparently share this obsession with one of the directors of today's movie, Luis Bunuel. Ebert quotes him in the beginning of his essay, writing, "Luis Bunuel said that if he were told he had 20 years to live and was asked how he wanted to live them, his reply would be: "Give me two hours a day of activity, and I'll take the other 22 in dreams -- provided I can remember them"' (The Great Movies, 466). I couldn't agree more.

Trouble in Paradise

So tired all day today! I finally was able to go into my doctor and get some medication so hopefully this horrible insomnia will get better. But getting up early and getting blood drawn made me tired and meh all day. I'm really...not good with needles, but only at the doctor. I can sit for piercings all day, but draw blood, and I'm faint just getting the stretchy thing tied around my arm. Ugggh. Of course I'm one of those people who has bad veins that can never be found, so I always come home with huge bruises from the needle being repeatedly poked and jabbed and twisted once it's in my arm. Whine whine whine. Back to what I should be doing, which is blogging, and not pouting about how I want to watch Pit Boss instead.

Tonight I watched Trouble in Paradise, directed by Ernst Lubitsch in 1932. The movie is about Lily, a beautiful pickpocket, who falls in love with Gaston, a suave jewel thief. Over dinner, the tease each other by stealing different things from each other until Lily leaps into his lap and calls him Darling. They decided to rip off a woman who runs a perfume empire, Madame Mariette Colet, but Gaston finds himself torn between his feelings for the two women.

The Third Man

What an interesting little movie! Tonight I watched The Third Man, directed by Carol Reed in 1949. Orson Welles is in it for a few minutes, but I so enjoyed him, it felt like it was much longer. The movie is about Holly Martins, an American author who writes pulp novels. He is invited to Vienna to see his friend Harry Lime, but when he arrives, Lime has just been killed. Holly becomes suspicious after talking with Lime's friends, and he feels like something might be afoot. He tries to find answers, with the vague help of Lime's lover, Anna.

Taxi Driver

I really don't have much time to write about this. I'm so exhausted and I keep putting it off, because after reading Ebert's essay, which has a very interesting analysis of the film, I feel like there isn't anything interesting I can say! I really loved his essay, he compares Martin Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi Driver (which I watched tonight) with The Searchers, which stars John Wayne. Both films, he argues, are about the same sort of man - scarred by war, looking to rescue a woman from a situation where she might not want to be rescued from. I love this thought, and I feel pretty jealous that I didn't come up with it. If that sounds interesting to you at all, I highly suggest you read his essay, it's pretty amazing, and seems like a departure from some of the other ones that I've read so far. Plot spoilers follow, just as a warning.

Swing Time

I've actually never seen a Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers movie until now, despite how crazy that might sound. I was sort of excited to watch tonight's movie, Swing Time, directed by George Stevens in 1936. In his essay on the film. Ebert asserts that this is the best of their movies, so I'm glad I was able to start with this one. I really liked the movie. It felt a lot less stupid than some Broadway style musicals, and the talent of Astaire and Rogers was incredible. I couldn't believe what great dancers that they were, and how engrossing it was to watch it.

The plot of the movie is about as hokey as you would imagine for a musical, romantic comedy. John "Lucky" misses his own wedding, and promises his bride, Margaret, and her father, that he'll come with a token of $25,000 for them. He leaves for New York to gamble, where he meets Penny Carol, a beautiful dancer who he is taken with at first sight. He pretends to be a horrible dancer so she will teach him, and his antics get her fired. He quickly launches into an astounding dance number to win her job back. They become dance partners and perform, and of course, a romance blossoms. But what of the weird orchestra leader who lusts after Penny? And what about Lucky's fiance? Drama! Comedy!

Sweet Smell of Success

So tired - lots of bad insomnia lately. I'm a little out of it, so this post will probably be pretty short, since I need to get to bed and try to relax. It's so hard for me think straight after a few nights with only an hour or two of sleep. :/

Tonight I watched the movie Sweet Smell of Success, directed by Alexander Mackendrick in 1957. The movie is about J.J., a Broadway columnist for a newspaper, and Sidney Falco, a struggling press agent. J.J. convinces him to break up an affair that he disapproves of, one between J.J.'s sister and a musician. The strange relationships that build this film are really fascinating to watch, be it the odd one between J.J. and Falco, or J.J. and his sister.

Sunset Boulevard

I never had any idea that Sunset Boulevard would be such a creepy, wonderful film. I imagined it had something to do with Hollywood, but that was all I really knew. The film was amazing, directed by the always-talented Billy Wilder in 1950. It's eerie and haunting, but still relatable and almost comedic. I personally really bought into the script - I was pretty spooked by the character of Norma, and the relationship that she had with Joe. The other characters seemed to believe in it, and I found that I did as well. The idea of someone being mentally destroyed in Hollywood is pretty believable as well. I mean, we see lesser examples of this happen every day, so it was easy to accept how insane Norma becomes.

Star Wars (IV-VI)

It's been a long time since I sat down and watched all of the Star Wars movies. I loved them so much when I was younger, and it was really fun to watch them again. When I was a kid, I watched old VHS tapes of them, without the vaguely edited effects, but my mind was blown. Since the effects were so well done, they never look too dated. I mean, they do, but not in a way that bothers me at all. I am not a big fan of sci-fi anymore, but I still find myself excited by Star Wars. They have the perfect combination of effects, action, humor and story. There isn't a complicated or deep plot, but the characters are very well written and memorable, which makes the films so engrossing. The pacing is great, and everything about them just feel so fun and interesting. I always remember the characters fondly, and watching them again felt really comfortable and it was a really fun way to spend the weekend.

Some Like It Hot

I never saw this film before, although the title is so familiar. Billy Wilder directed Some Like It Hot in 1959. I actually bought the film at Target over Christmas when I noticed that Netflix no longer rented the film for no apparent reason. It sounded like something I would like, since it involved both the mob and cross-dressing. Could I go wrong? No, I learned today. It's such a funny movie. It's sort of long for a comedy, but it works really well in this film. I liked that it, as Ebert said perfectly, is not really about crime and greed but it pretends to be. It's really just about sex, of course. It was pretty blatant in so many parts, but it was perfect. Everything that is fun about raunchy comedy without ever veering into gross-out territory. It had scenes that were pretty risque and scenes that were actually heartwarming and cute. It was so much fun, and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon were pretty hilarious to watch. They were so awkward but I totally bought into their story and relationship. Ebert spends most of his essay writing about Marilyn Monroe. She's pure sex, for sure, but please excuse me if I don't spend my blog post describing the slope of her breasts in great detail. He's right that it's hard to focus on anything but her when she is on screen, but uh, I don't need to really re-create in text how sexy her dresses are on her. Watch it yourself. :)

Singin' in the Rain

I am an avid loather of musical theater. There are one or two strange ones that I like, but they tend to be unpopular, depressing, or basically are just English opera. I really don't feel Broadway-style musicals or American musical movies. They just strike the wrong note with me (hurr hurr). I've taken voice lessons since I was in middle school. I started out with a teacher who let me pick whatever I wanted to sing, which I liked. In high school, I had a teacher who forced us to sing musical theater. She generally just picked all our music for us, which I hated, but having musical theater picked for you when you are 16 and dress in all black is pretty terrible. I wanted to sing Fiddler on the Roof, she wanted me to sing South Pacific. Maybe my history with musical theater music has left me surled. I grew up watching today's movie - Singin' in the Rain, directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen in 1952.  I spent a lot of time with my grandparents as a kid, and my grandpa loved musicals. He loved this one, and I remember him often singing at the top of his lungs along with, or just breaking out randomly into "Singin' in the Rain". I recently had to watch a few parts of it in a film history class, and I was surprised at the plot. It was set in the 1920's? It was about filmmaking? What? I only remember all the songs, which I'm not so wild about now. I really was shocked by how funny and clever the movie was when I watched it again, and watching it all the way through tonight, I really rediscovered this movie. I never thought I would say I enjoyed a musical like this, but I really did. It's so much fun! For me, the plot and non-music scenes are the best and the most enjoyable, but I already explained myself. I'm such a sucker for movies about movies, and this one is no exception. I just loved how lighthearted it was. I came home in an awful mood and I was convinced that nothing could make me smile - but this proved me wrong.

The Silence of the Lambs

Is it possible that anyone has not seen this movie? I know it's not uncommon for people to not watch popular drama films, since those can be so dull. But everyone loves thrillers. The Silence of the Lambs is one of the greatest, directed in 1991 by Jonathan Demme. No matter how many times I see this movie, it still makes me tense and edgy. It also doesn't feel dated. I mean, the clothing does, but for a thriller, this film has had an incredibly long life.  Horror and thriller movies can be a hard genre, because it's so easy to make them vaguely effective and at the same time, disposable. The movie is unforgettable, and it feels like one of those films that you want to share with someone, because you know they will love it and it will be just as scary today as it was in 1991.  It's strength lies in it's strong and fascinating characters. Characters are supposed to be the most important elements of plot, but often, and more recently, they are overlooked. Instead of characters, there is only plot. When you think back to your favorite movie, you don't think about a plot point - you remember the characters. Horror movies and thrillers can be made with no good, well-thought out characters - they just need gore and sight gags and scary music. To see a thriller that has such strong characters is so exciting, and I'm sure that this has a lot to do with the legacy of this film.

The Shawshank Redemption

Every time I think of this movie, I think about how hard I worked to avoid seeing it. I heard about this movie for what seemed like years. Everyone always named it as their "most favortist" movie, which always makes me doubtful. Directed in 1994 by Frank Darabont, who seems on only directed Stephen King adaptions (and most recently and strangely he produced The Walking Dead TV Show). I always feel like I'll just be disappointed when I see movie that people talk about in such glowing terms. I don't doubt their taste, I just tend to become more critical and surly. I'm not alone in this feeling. I worked on a short film for DePaul my senior year, working on production design and creating a set for a drug addict to live in. During shooting in the apartment, I became tired of the sheer cattiness of production design and resigned myself to just PA. I sulked in the cockroach-infested hallway with my friend Rick. Between our bouts of whining and confirming into the walkie-talkie that we had "this shit locked down", we complained about movies. Specifically, ones we had never seen. We both immediately named The Shawshank Redemption. It was so talked about that we both felt it couldn't possibly be that good when we watched it. I'm not going to say I wasn't right, because this is by no means my favorite movie. But it was for sure a great movie, and an exceptional movie. The story was sort of contrite, but it felt really good to watch it. It did a lot of cool things with pacing and tone and cinematography. There were some parts that felt meh to be, but overall, I was really impressed with the movie, and I understand (to some extent) why everyone loves it so much. I can see why people name it as a favorite. My favorite movies that I tend to actually declare "my favoritst" are the ones that sort of opened my mind to something new. A movie that I saw something different in, or I have a really strong, good, memory about. I often name my favorite movie as being the first movie I saw where I "got" film analysis, and I was like, "Oh, movies can mean things!" Anyway, on to the actual film at hand.

The Seventh Seal

It's hard to form coherent, well-thought out sentences when you just want to go to bed early for once. Ingmar Bergman is a little confusing, and it takes me a while to process movies like the one I watched earlier tonight, his 1957 film The Seventh Seal. I feel like I need a few days to think about it, to try to learn about and understand some of the references and allusions I didn't get. Because I need longer to think about this movie, coupled with my need for sleep, this blog will probably stay short. Not because I didn't like the movie, but I don't know what to say about it yet!