Conversations 2010 #6

Conversations 2010 #6

Adrienne, hi.

Jason,
You need to check out Brandon's horror posts from last year...

http://poopnoises.blogspot.com/2009/10/we-accept-you-john-owen-we-accept-you.html

http://poopnoises.blogspot.com/2009/10/come-play-with-us-johnny-forsaken.html

You should also definitely watch TimeCrimes.  There's not much cheese to be found in it, but I don't think you'll mind.  It reminds me more than anything of a Hitchcock thriller.  And I do mean that as high praise.  The first half especially is quite suspenseful.  It is also impressively structured both visually and narratively.  There's even a strange "wrong man" idea running through the film.   

As far as Herzog goes, check out Aguirre: the Wrath of God.  I've seen a decent amount of his films and this one is still my favorite.

Wolfman.

Brandon, I don't feel like we've won.  I'm actually really disappointed that you were disappointed with The Wolfman.  I was skeptical, but I was hoping that I was wrong and that you'd come back from your viewing ready to tear my doubts apart like a sweet child's throat.  

We all lost this time.  You just bore the brunt of it for the rest of us.

I've only seen 5/12 of your '59 list.  Of those five, I'd rank them pretty much the same as you do.

1) Shadows
2) North by Northwest
3) Breathless
4) Some Like it Hot
5) Sleeping Beauty

We won't talk about FBI Story.  :)

I own copies of Rio Bravo and Ride Lonesome, but I haven't seen either one.  I regret not seeing Pickpocket most of all, but every film on the list is one I'd like to see eventually.  Do you have a copy of the Ford film?  

I need to get your DVDs back to you so we can do another swap.  I still need to watch Ikiru and Vertigo.  I've been waiting for nights when Abby and I are both awake enough and not doing something else so we can watch those together since she expressed interest in both films.

Johnny Guitar is great.  I think it was Rivette who wrote that you need to love Hawks and Ray.  If you prefer one and dislike the other, that's maybe forgivable.  If you dislike them both, you dislike cinema itself.

I envy you having seen Leave Her to Heaven.  I've seen that Scorcese program three times now (the last time being with you during the snowstorm) and that clip does stand out in my mind most vividly among the rest.

We should get together and watch it again.  Set up some sort of annual Personal Journey Through American Movies With Martin Scorcese party.  I wonder if we could get permission for a free public screening of the entire thing at that place Andy runs.

I do like Scorcese.  Gangs of New York is pretty great.  The Departed is good enough.  And I know that it's a crime that I haven't seen The Aviator.  

Not having Internet access at home and not using work computers too often anymore, I find that I haven't read many current reviews at all lately.  I keep up with a handful of film blogs, but I'm usually behind on reading those, too.  I used to follow lots of links from Hudson, but that's just too hard to do now on my iPod.  I miss tabbed browsing.

I had no idea how Shutter Island is being received until I heard it from you.

I don't know what to think of it all.  Based on Lehane's source material, I've thought that the film would do well and all of the trailers have looked promising.  It was pretty obvious, though, that the delays meant that the studio didn't believe in the final product.  Lehane adaptations aren't exactly a sure money-maker.  Mystic River was a critical and popular success.  Gone Baby Gone is just as good, if not better in some ways, yet it was mostly ignored by the masses and received a so-so critical response.  Moreso than those two works, Shutter Island just doesn't fit neatly anywhere so it's hard to market and hard to grasp.  I'm assuming that it was really difficult to film as well.  

I'm still really excited about seeing it and might go tonight.  

As for your aughts list...

I need to see A History of Violence.  

I'm glad that you liked A Christmas Tale so much.
For fun, here's Desplechin's Top 10 of the Decade, from the Film Comment poll:
The Wire (TV)
Last Days
The Bourne Ultimatum
Private Fears in Public Places
The Royal Tannenbaums
Still Life
The Secret of the Grain
Kill Bill Vol. II
Million Dollar Baby
Collateral

Linklater's Sunrise/Sunset films have been high on my to-see list for a while now.  Have you seen Fast Food Nation?  That's another Linklater that I missed that I wish I hadn't.

I like Catch Me if You Can, but I might prefer The Terminal as my favorite Spielberg of the decade.  I know I'm in a small minority with this opinion.  I do need to check out both A.I. and Minority Report again.  A.I. especially seems to have a lot of champions and renewed interest based in large part on Rosenbaum's steadfast admiration of it.

I fell asleep during Old Joy.  I'm a dope.

The only film I know nothing at all about is Crimson Gold.  I know I've seen that title, but I know nothing.

Finally, I have seen a few things.
 
Wednesday night, I ended up unexpectedly sitting with a good guy in the hospital.  Fortunately, he was doing well and thought that watching movies on TCM was a great idea.  Unfortunately, TCM was playing crap.  My Favorite Year is remarkably unfunny.  Bang the Drum Slowly doesn't really work as a baseball movie or a buddy movie or man dying while everyone else but him talks a lot movie or whatever else it is trying to be. 

At home, Abby and I are up-to-date with Lost's final season.  The "flash-parallels" are interesting after so many flashbacks and flashforwards.  Where it's all headed is as much a mystery as ever, but I really hope that it all involves Hurley getting more and more stuff to do.  Other characters have their moments.  Hurley is the only character who has remained consistently engaging after all this time.  I'm in this series to the end thanks to him.

My friend Spike's last post says more about Lost this season better than I could while saying less about Lost than I just did.  Find it here: http://spikedunn.blogspot.com/2010/02/hit-with-rock-repeatedly.html

While I'm writing about Spike, I need to let him know that I've adopted him as my guru through the Lenten season.

"Every day for the rest of your life. That is a large statement. Well, I hope it is. No more smokes. Every day. Exercise. Every day. Sleep enough. Every day. Write. Every day. Sit. Every day. There are a lot of Every Days left. I hope. There is falsehood in the dictum to live every day as your last. Truth as well, but falsehood dominates. There are a lot more Every Days than there are Last Days."

There are two more items that I'll add to my personal list.

Pray the Psalms.  Every day.  Live the Story.  Every day.

Live the story is personal shorthand for a lot of things, but at its core it means "walk in the spirit."

Love.  Joy.  Peace.  Longsuffering.  Gentleness.  Goodness.  Faith.  Meekness.  Temperance.

Against such there is no law.