March was awesome

Hey, so here's the deal. Last March I had this funny foot surgery which was good for me because a) I got my foot fixed, b) I had sick time off from work and got to watch a lot of movies all day, and c) well, point B covers this subset as well, because like I said, I got to watch a lot of movies!

Some days were slow. In the early, say, two or three days immediately following the operation the doc had me pretty hopped up on pain killers, meaning I spend an awful lot of time knocked out in bed. Still very delightful in its own right, no doubt. I have no shame admitting those little white pills worked magical wonders. Pain and anxiety-free for a full 4-6 hours! I know why only one refill was prescribed.

If there was any downside to the movie adventuring in the month of March it stems from the fact that I didn't get to leave the house often to see new films at the theater, being bound up on crutches and all. Once I was off those crutches the masses got too aggressive for me, elbowing their way through grocery store aisles and sidewalks, and the slick, black boot I wore in place of an old-fashioned cast often went unnoticed to the complacent eye; I began to blend in with the masses more every day, but could hardly keep up. So inside on the couch I sat, Vicodin and Trader Joe's Jell-O cup by my side, and for much of the time peering up at a giant projected version of a DVD on our blank living room wall. (Oh, how I love the access my boyfriend has to his university media library!)

Since April is coming to close and this is a March list (as I type this it is April 23rd which I strangely remember is the birthday of an old childhood friend--isn't that curious?), I will be moving fast through the films below. I'll try to keep the list alive with a sugary observations and a few worthwhile, albeit short, thoughts. But the long back log usually defeats me. We'll admit that now. And onward we go.
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Old Joy - (2006) - DVD
Seen: Sunday, March 1, 2009

Beautiful, but...? Worth seeing more than once, but something about it left me listless.






The Philadelphia Story - (1941) - DVD
Seen: Sunday, March 1, 2009

It's one of those movies I revisit once, sometimes twice, a year in order to keep up with it's peppery dialogue and happy-making performances. I could marry either Cary Grant or James Stewart in this picture. Yes, either one will do.







WarGames - (1983) - DVD
Seen: Sunday, March 1, 2009

Impossibly, impossibly crazy premise for a movie, and yet, there it is, this delicious relic of Reagan's intense influence on the American public. Really, Matthew Broderick? You really knew how to hack into the most top-secret government nuclear arms launcher? And really, they couldn't figure it out that you were doing it? Even had trouble tracking you down in your dull suburban home? Really? Ah, well. Broderick is still a doll, as is his lady Ally Sheedy, and as I see it, any movie with Dabney Coleman cast is worth seeing. It was also a little strange to see WarGames in the full-length version, uninterrupted by commercials--that's the only way I saw it before as a kid, when it ran as the Saturday afternoon movie on secondary stations. Scary stuff for a seven year old.



Bigger Than Life - (1955) - Film
Seen: Monday, March 2, 2009

On a bright, beautiful 35mm print dripping with saturated red color. Red coats on the kids skipping across the school grounds. Red lipstick on the ladies. Red books and other set accents that look as heavy as oil on canvas. I say, quite a cinema send-off before my surgery just days later. Thanks, Nicholas Ray, you're awesome!



Spirited Away - (2001) - DVD
Seen: Friday, March 6, 2009

Showed a clip of this to my students during our final class period of the quarter. It had been at least a couple or three years since I've seen it, and upon catching up with a few reviews that bemoan its abstract storytelling, it is plain to me this kids' picture is about as cut-and-dry a narrative as you can get. It's there in every sequence, and very easy to follow. And imagine this, none of the animation cells were drawn on a computer. Huh. I love you, Pixar and Dreamworks, but Miyazaki is my bread and butter.


Russian Ark - (2002) - DVD
Seen: Saturday, March 7, 2009

The general consensus at my class screening: no consensus. Half found it boring and an empty show of technical achievement, the other half were sympathetic to its feeling and engagement of Russian history. Naturally I fall into the latter camp. As always, I found it emotionally enthralling and heart wrenching as we watched the final moments of the crowd exiting the palace, knowing full well those characters are marching off to their deaths; the memories of whom to be graced only now as they're brought back to life in this one seamless moment. It strikes me as the utmost privilege to have had the chance to experience this movie, there in the depths of the Hermitage where few have shared face-to-face, uninterrupted intimacy with the museum's collection. And our nameless lead character, steeped in sublime mystery? Dear man, take my hand and keep guiding me forever...


Election - (2005) - DVD
Seen: Sunday, March 8, 2009

Scratch another Johnnie To off the list! I know this is his big film, but personally I much prefer the minor Sparrow (2008).











Half Nelson - (2006) -DVD
Seen: Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Ick. Ick. Ick. If I believed Ryan Gosling's character, with all of his education, strong family ties, functional relationships, and strong work ethic could ever possibly be as hard off in a drug haze as he is, well, we might have an okay movie. But as it is, we do not. I can't talk about this movie anymore because I reject it's premise. Also, it's not the movie to watch when you're trying to calm yourself the night before surgery.




Shoot The Piano Player - (1960) - DVD
Seen: Thursday, March 12, 2009

Caught up with this one again for the first time.










Aladdin - (1992) - VHS
Seen: Thursday, March 12, 2009

Remember when you saw Disney's Aladdin in 8th grade and thought it was fun and funny and full of neat special effects that seemed to heighten your odd attraction to the nonexistent lead character, the animated "street rat" Aladdin? Yeah, it's not like that anymore. Now it's an Americanized, homogenized version of some un-named place in the Middle East with white skinned characters. Who understand Robin Williams's spastic outbursts of American pop-culture references, too? Yes.



Ghostbusters - (1984) - DVD
Seen: Thursday, March 12, 2009

Yep. Watched it again. First quote that comes to mind as I type right now: "I'm right in the middle of something, Ray!"








Friends With Money - (2006) - DVD
Seen: Friday, March 13, 2009

This is a good movie! A pleasant surprise. See it for some easy watching, and nice performances too.








Silver Lode - (1954) - DVD
Seen: Friday, March 13, 2009

Alan Dwan western that is mostly boring. I don't even remember what it's about.
(UPDATE: Boyfriend says it's a High Noon ripoff, but it still doesn't ring a bell somehow. Oh, yes, he says I was falling asleep. This explains things now.)













Jules et Jim - (1962) - DVD
Seen: Sunday, March 15, 2009

Remember how I said I was going to watch more French New Wave films? Well, la te da, here you go: Truffaut's Jules et Jim is one to live by. It's too bad it took me as long as it did to see it, but now that I finally have I can say in all seriousness, it has changed my entire outlook on life. A movie about life and living! Curiosity and play! Whenever I am blue I'll know what to watch. The Criterion commentary track with Robert Stam and Dudley Andrew is also a wonderful chat to be privy to.







Closely Watched Trains - (1966) - DVD
Seen: Sunday, March 15, 2009

Here's one from the Czech New Wave that's been sitting on the queue for ages. It's beautiful.









The Others - (2001) - DVD
Seen: Monday, March 16, 2009

A really sweet coworker, also a movie buff, lent me his DVD copy of this horror flick, even offered to let me keep it he had watched it so many times. Nice gesture to be sure, so it was a melancholy exchange when I finally returned the DVD to him at his cubicle--I didn't think it was scary! Yes, there were moments of anticipation that gave me a few starts, but in sum total, meh.








The Mystery of Picasso - (1956) - DVD
Seen: Wednesday, March 18, 2009

This movie is incredible. You watch Pablo Picasso paint pictures magically before your eyes. There is one wonderful moment when he's in conversation with director Henri-Georges Clouzot, and he emphasizes his frustration with the condensation of real time into film time: "It bothers me that they see only ten minutes. That took me five hours."




The Roaring Twenties - (1939) - DVD
Seen: Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Bogart and Cagney at their finest. Love the dialogue in this movie--swift! The weight of these two actors sitting in a two-shot is almost too heavy and breathtaking for words.







Fury - (1936) - DVD
Seen: Friday, March 20, 2009

This movie is great. Melodramatic and expressionistic--mwah!











Pierrot Le Fou - (1965) - DVD
Seen: Friday, March 20, 2009

As part of the French New Wave New Year's resolution. Beautiful.













River of No Return - (1954) - DVD
Seen: Saturday, March 21, 2009

Oh, snap! This is the best western I've seen in ages. Otto Preminger is, how do you say it...? Otto Preminger is the shit!











Secrets of a Soul - (1926) - DVD
Seen: Saturday, March 21, 2009

The kick-off of my G.W. Pabst movie marathon! I put all available Pabst films on my Netflix queue, and as of this writing, am about through with them all (there aren't many, so it wasn't very hard). Secrets is another prime example of how clearly the film medium had matured by the time of sound's introduction and has basically not changed since.




I Love You, Man - (2009) - Film
Seen: Sunday, March 22, 2009

I loved you, too. A few awkward moments a la SNL skit gone on too long, but funny! I did wish for more Joe Lo Truglio. But I'm tempted to say this was Favreau's best role yet, he was fantastic.











Le Samorai - (1967) - DVD
Seen: Sunday, March 22, 2009

I don't know how to impart on you my overwhelming attraction to Alain Delon. Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, this film with almost no dialogue, showing the dreary side of Paris (unlike earlier Godard and Truffaut pics), is a new favorite.




La Jetee - (1962) - DVD
Seen: Monday, March 23, 2009

I have not watched this since the film school days! A screening was long overdue, and my, did my memory fudge so many of the movie's scenes. I had almost completely forgotten how little of it was presented in moving images; just a long series of stills instead. A short and sweet refresher to gear me up for the Chris Marker marathon I've been trying to start up.




Sans Soleil - (1983) - DVD
Seen: Tuesday, March 24, 2009

This might be my favorite movie ever made. Phrases like "amnesia of the future" stream everywhere. I love that!












The Puffy Chair - (2005)
Seen: Wednesday, March 25, 2009

It wasn't fair to this movie that I watched it right after Marker's masterpiece, Sans Soleil, but it is definitely one of the better "mumblecore" movies. Actress Kathryn Aselton is one of its greatest assets.










Diary of a Lost Girl - (1929) - DVD
Seen: Thursday, March 26, 2009

Louise Brooks! More about her here.












L'Enfant - (2005) - DVD
Seen: Saturday, March 28, 2009

From the Dardennes brothers. Man do I love Paris-set pictures, there's such energy--gritty energy, yes--but a kind of movement you just don't see in American movies. Also, the bonus materials included a nice interview with the brothers.









Cattle Queen of Montana - (1954) - DVD
Seen: Saturday, March 28, 2009

Speaking of Ronald Reagan (a la WarGames), here he is again in another dull Alan Dwan picture. Who's that strawberry blond dame next to him at right? Barbara Stanwyck--hurrah! Sadly, the fact that Ms. Stanwyck holds a part in this film is really the only redeeming quality it possesses. This was also at a time when Stanwyck's career was winding down and the woman had to take what she could get. She's still as strong and bright as ever, and is clearly putting above par here.


Gomorrah - (2008) - Film
Seen: Sunday, March 29, 2009

I asked my Italian friend if he could understand the dialect spoken in this movie, and he said no. That made me feel better, because even though I don't speak Italian I am trying to learn the basics, and I didn't either. This is besides the point. I'm ready to see more politically-charged pics like this from Italy. We need to see how this country has changed since the original era of Neorealism, but it seems there aren't a great many films out there in the ether that show this. Correct me if I am wrong, please!



La Chinoise - (1967) - DVD
Seen: Sunday, March 29, 2009

Again, more French New Wave grist for the 2009 resolution mill. Haven't read much about it yet--was it made as a sequel to Pierrot Le Fou? They're so similar.







Summer Hours - (2008) - Film
Seen: Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Playing for two nights only at the Gene Siskel Film Center, it was of the utmost urgency that I see this film from director Olivier Assayas. It ran as part of the Film Center's nicely curated European Union Film Festival, Assayas's film being the crown jewel of the event. I loved this movie from start to finish right up until now this second; I seem to carry it with me everywhere, in all of it's light, lovely meditations on life and the inevitability of death.



Hannah Takes the Stairs - (2007) - DVD
Seen: Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Sometimes I think I like this movie better on paper than I do in practice. I feel at odds with the characters' unrelenting inarticulateness, to the point of confusion at times. But it can't be denied that this movie from director Joe Swanberg--aka King of Mumblecore--is speaking to and thus helping define a generation. Now here's something I am over the moon about: its opening credit sequence! It's really good!






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Wow--that's 34 movies in one month! Hats off, PK, you make me proud of me.