Notorious

No not the movie.  Although, I am a pretty big Cary Grant fan :)

Something I should probably share about myself is that I have a pretty bad habit (notorious if you will...) of starting a movie and then turning it off in the middle and waiting to watch the rest of it.  So please bear with me when I start a film and then don't finish it.

Last night I had started The Quiet American with Michael Caine and Brenden Fraser (where the heck did that guy go?)  While I don't know what Saigon looks like today, I think I would have liked to see the city before the Vietnam War.  From the recreation, I thought it looked like a fun and exciting city.  Unfortunately, I don't think it was very safe.  Off topic for a minute, have you ever stopped to think about why we, as Americans going through a "typical" American education, don't really learn about the Vietnam War in social studies class?  While such topics as D-Day, Nazis and concentration camps receive so much attention.  For that matter, we learn very little of the conflicts between Japan and the US leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the atom bombs.  Interesting, isn't it?

So anyway, I got maybe 25 minutes into the film before I got picked up from work.  At which point, Fraser's character, Pyle, had bought a Vietnamese boat and followed Caine's character, Fowler, into Northern Vietnam where there were guerrilla flare ups and the place where the American's (notice the psychological identity formation right there :p) were planning to land.

Then today I had forgotten that I recorded How To Train Your Dragon while we still receive our free 3 month trial for installing Direct TV... I'm trying to convince Treasure that we should just get the extended package because he watched True Blood (not my cup of tea), and I like to record movies.

So, I'm pretty much in love with whatever DreamWorks Animation puts out now a days.  I love Kung Fu Panda and can't wait for the second one to come out.  Anyway, I didn't read much into the movie other than I enjoyed it and I'm a cry baby and cried at the end when Stoick (voiced by Gerard Butler) told Hiccup that he was proud that Hiccup was his son.  :'(

Next, after cleaning up my kleenex, I was flipping through the movie channels and noticed that Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky had started 20 minutes beforehand.  Was not expecting to read subtitles, but I really don't mind.

Now, something else you should know about me.  The first time I went through college I received an unofficial minor in music.  I could tell you what that means, but we'll skip over that.  So anyway, all I'm saying is that I'm pretty well versed in the realm of classical and instrumental music.  I could give you a whole spiel about Igor Stravinsky, but you can just watching FABULOUS youtube clip and get the picture.  I'm sure you've seen this at least once in your childhood:

If you have since looked up the Rite of Spring on Wikipedia, you would have seen that it was a ballet... and a very controversial one.  In fact, it had started a riot in Paris the night it premiered.  A RIOT!  From a piece of music and ballet!  Although, to give it credit, it's a pretty crazy looking ballet.

So anyway, I'm watching this movie and I'm thinking "Oh, it's sort of simple like The King's Speech."  Aside from softcore sex, yup, that pretty much sums it up.  No, no, I liked it more than that.  From my EXTENSIVE (sarcasm) training in film theory and composition, I appreciated the contrast of color and the rhythm of the movie.  I especially enjoyed that all (or at least 90% as far as I could tell) non-diagetic music was music of Stravinsky.  Even after his most well known and revered piece of work, he still composed beautiful "melodic and traditional" music such as Apollo and Symphony of Psalms.  ... I've really put up enough youtube videos.

What I can't get over is that THIS GUY

is THIS GUY

is LE CHIFFRE!!!

AND STRAVINSKY!!!

who actually really does look like Stravinsky

Alright, I swear this is my LAST movie thing.  I know this is getting kind of long.

Treasure and I started District 9 tonight.  Wow is that movie freakin' depressing.  This is what I got as far as commentary.  I'm sure that it could be a representation for really any place in the world, but I got the idea that it was a commentary on the conditions in places such as Africa and South American... really any place you have a slum (Slumdog Millionaire if you will).  I never thought I would feel so bad for aliens... and aliens that look like prawns (they really do look like prawns...)  But you have the powerful insurgents within the slum that kind of run the gangs from within... you have the government or upper class trying to run things from the outside which leaves these poor aliens miserable and in poverty.

I have this thing about going to bed depressed, so I asked to turn it off when they made Wikus shoot one of the aliens.  :(  And that's where I am now.

The final thing you should really know about me before I end this post (finally!) is that I'm pretty notorious for starting projects and then letting them go.  Yeah I can admit it.  I'm one of those people.  However, I'm trying to work on that.  So in the spirit of that goal, I have decided to start training for a half marathon.  I started this week with 1 mile runs everyday.  But I'm going to start using the Hal Higdon training program.  So wish me luck, and everyone be safe!!!

Lots of movie (things) tonight!!

That's right folks, you heard it!

First I just want to start off that I'm sitting here at work, sweating like a pig (do pigs really sweat so much that we made a little proverb about it?)  I'll have to be careful though because a friend of mine won't ever want to have babies if I talk about it too much.

But, before I talk about anything else... Way to go The Informant and representing corn!  Iowa Represent!  I'm also noushing on some Corn Nuts... and if you haven't ever had any, go to the gas station and pick yourself up some... it's like really hard Fritos... Ok... getting off the tractor now...
But not before I tell you how obsessed I am with this video:

Field of Dreams 2: NFL Lockout with Taylor Lautner from Taylor Lautner

But I am absolutely in LOVE with Matt Damon.  I think he is one of those actors that doesn't get enough Award attention.  I mean he's only won 5 major awards (1 from the Academy and 1 from the Globes).  C'mon guys... he is AWESOME!!  Side note: he was in The Field of Dreams (Iowa Pride!)  Other side note: one of Treasure's brothers was in the car line at the end

I have spent my time finishing The Fighter and getting all through Doubt... very Amy Adams night for me.  I really liked The Fighter... I kind of have a Batman/Newsies crush on Christian Bale.  But he just kind of creeps me out in a slimy boxing character sort of way.  However, after Micky's final match it's just a super abrupt end to the movie.  It's just like I'm getting a nice rush from the win and then... drop it cold.  :/  That's not my favorite feeling when I'm watching a movie.  It's kind of like watching your favorite TV show and the main characters finally hook up and they're making out and you see them walking toward the bedroom and they close the door... even though there's no one else home.  it's like C'MON!!!

So anyway, Doubt.  Sometimes it's hard for me to realize why Meryl Streep is a well respected actress.  But Doubt really helped me see through it.  I mean, I had watched Sophie's Choice a long time ago... now I couldn't bare to watch it... but wow... Meryl Streep!!  Also as a devoted Catholic it's sometimes hard to watch movies that don't help the church get a good name.  Although, since I got my first bachelors in history, I realize the church didn't really set a good example back in the day.  Moving on...

I'm in the middle of The Informant.  I'll let you know how it goes!!

I am the Pino from Nantucket

WHEW!

Wow, it's been a little while for me.  As my title says, we just got back from Nantucket for a long weekend on the island with my parents.  But I'm not really here to discuss my vacays and life in general... let's talk movies!

So before I left for the east coast, I finally go the opportunity to watch Battleship Potemkin.  The next day I was supposed to watch Man With A Movie Camera.   Both of which I think are those necessary movies to watch and appreciate early cinema.  Before watching Potemkin my TA had us watch another Eisenstein movie clip called Strike!... upon which part of the montage incorporated animal slaughter... geehhhh. 

I really enjoyed Potemkin.  It's sometimes hard to watch early cinema with the state of mind of an early cinema goer.  Part of the innovative techniques Eisenstein uses is the use of montage... or as something I think people today would understand is metaphor.  I think this old Chaplin movie, Modern Times, would kind of get the point across... you need to start the video at 1:11 with the sheep:

Where the cross fade or even if it were a straight cut from the sheep to people we get the impression that the people are herded or treated like sheep.  Ta freakin' da. 

When I got back to Iowa City, I checked out Man With A Movie Camera... wow I got that big overwhelming, surreal feeling just watching it.  Just because it has no story line really, and there's no one character to focus on for a period of time (except for maybe the man with the movie camera).  Interesting to me though was the version I got was accompanied by a score that was written about 10 years ago.  However, the images pretty much switched in que with the music.   So it must have been Vertov's purpose to have a rhythm.  Ok, let me back that up... I know that he purposefully had a rhythm, but I didn't think it would be that purposeful. 

Other than that, I didn't get a lot of movie watching done.  I am however reobsessing over Castle.  Wow I love Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic.  As well as getting into Modern Family and absolutely FALLING IN LOVE WITH Arrested Development.  mmmmmm Portia DeRossi. 

Seriously... please have babies...

The Hurt Locker (end), Evil Dead, and The Fighter

Whew! Sorry it's been a while. And this one will be short since I have to be out the door in 30 minutes and I haven't taken a shower yet. (TMI!)

I finally finished The Hurt Locker last week. I don't want to spoil the end, but wow is that movie intense! I don't care what some theorists say, the absence of a soundtrack is really haunting. So way to go Kathryn Bigelow! and you too Jeremy Renner! Looking forward to watching more movies from these two in the future!

Evil Dead. I had seen this campy, yet awesome, Sam Raimi horror (?) flick a few years ago. However at the time I didn't realize that Raimi had done the Spider Man series so now going back and watching Evil Dead again made the experience even more fun. That and if you're a Bruce Campbell fan you should really listen to him on Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me. Hilarious.



However, I was eating some cannelloni while Cheryl was stabbing Linda's Achilles tendon with a pencil.  Goo.  So I turned it off for the time being.  But, someday I want to make a super low budget, campy horror movie in the essence of Evil Dead.  It will be EPIC!

So after Evil Dead, I decided to turn on The Fighter.  Sometimes I forget how much I love Mark "Don't Call Me Marky-Mark" Wahlberg.  Especially after watching such videos as these:

POW!

Ok, but anyway, I only got about 2/3 through the movie before I got off work.  I think Christian Bale is just crazy good at his craft.  Let's think about the guy's range:  Empire of the Sun to Newsies to Batman Begins to The Figher.  That's just awesome.  Same with Amy Adams. 

I read up a little bit after watching the fighter to find out that she wanted to take a job that she wasn't totally comfortable with.  I think with a lot of jobs it's hard to put ourselves in the same position.  When we think of uncomfortable jobs we think we're going to be leading a sales pitch or being promoted to over seeing more employees... but that's not the case.  I think for actors when they truly challenges themselves they becomes physically, emotionally and psychologically uncomfortable.  I've heard stories that Jack Nicholson was a little disturbed after playing The Joker in the original Batman.  We will never know about Heath Ledger... I still can't believe he's gone.

So anyway, the next movie I want to tackle is Doubt... mostly because I want to watch Amy Adams.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!  (and please listen to that NPR segment... it's so funny!)

The Hurt Locker and Akira

Well, I picked up an extra shift today at work... which means more movie watching.  Today I chose Akira and The Hurt Locker.  

A little bit about Akira.  This was Katsuhiro Otomo's first big work and Akira is often sited at the first "grown up" animated feature.  It broke many animation barriers namely the extensive use of animation cels giving the film fluid motion throughout.

Overall, I thought it was enjoyable, creative and entertaingly graphic.  I mean, when people died in this movie they DIED in only the way anime characters can.  I had actually taken a class earlier this summer called "Literature and Society: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima" in which we dealt with past relationships between the US and Japan, the bombings of Pearl Harbor, the atom bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and just WWII on the Pacific front in general.  The class was heavily geared toward the Japanese view (which makes sense since we mostly learn about the American view in school) which helped me gain insight to what the overall political message of Akira was.  Especially since the movie begins with Tokyo 1988 and watching another seemingly atom bomb (ends up being Akira) go off in the city.  In which Neo-Tokyo is built on a man-made island in Tokyo Bay.

I think the part that was most sad to me was taking these children (the Espers) to be used as experiments.  For me it was like reading about the hibakusha (or the survivors of the atom bombs in Japan).  In the most critical stages of recovery (mostly the time right after the bombs), the hibakusha were left with little care were more monitored to see what kinds of effects were being progressed on their bodies leaving many scarred or dieing.  Like the children in Akira who lost their physical youth but are given a child's sanctuary within a laboratory. 

Moving on...

So after getting bombarded with allergies in the parking booth I turned on The Hurt Locker.  Wow is that movie intense.  I didn't end up finishing it last night.  I just got to the part where they find the little boy with the bomb in his body.

This is the conclusion I've come up with:  If you're part of a bomb unit in the armed forces, you have to be a little bit crazy in your head.  Or at least that's what I get from Jeremy Renner's character.  But wow... what a terrifying and intense job.

I'm usually not one to sit down and watch war films, but this one made the exception purely because it's the movie that got Kathryn Bigelow her first Academy Award for Best Director - the first by a woman.

Truly an inspiration.  Usually when I watch movies by myself I don't really think about the technical, theological motives of the movie.  However, I really tried in this one.  I felt that Bigelow's use of in/out focus, quick cuts, and variety of long/medium/close shots really added to the intensity of the moments.  All the above also portrayed the mentality of each soldier well.  Sanborn's demeanor is calm and when he is looking through the sniper telescope thingy it really showed.  I especially liked the angle looking straight at him through the telescope.  Eldridge is kind of jittery and his angles are a lot of up and downs and shots at him so you can't tell if he's ready to take a bullet or not.  Lastly, James is the crazy like one and while he is defusing bombs that's when we get a lot of quick cuts of his working hands, his sweating head, or whatever he is looking at.

Overall, I'm enjoying the movie (oh jeeze, the door behind me slammed shut because of the wind going through the house and I jumped about 3 feet).  I can't wait to finish it tonight.

If you have seen one or both of the movies please let me know what you think!!

Benjamin and Allergies

Well 3rd day of film theory class...

I don't know if it's because I'm older and I learned from the 1st time I went through college... but I feel like I'm the only one or the few who do the readings in this class.  Or else people will NOT speak up.  C'mon, people this is a 2 hour class and our TA can't/shouldn't lecture for that long.  GROWL!!!

Anyway...

Today's reading was about Walter Benjamin and his work called "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction".  If you're in film, you're probably read this one.  Through the 4 articles we've read in class, I particularly enjoyed this one.  To me it's basically arguing and finding the points to: what is art?  how is film an art compared to other mediums (paintings, music, stage plays, etc.)?  how can film be used for or against us?  It's fun to read these early works, especially when you can get your mindset back to early cinema and sound films.

What I like about this class is the reading responses we're supposed to do everyday and turn in.  I really sound like the Hermione Granger know-it-all but I hope it helps emphasize that I have been putting a lot of effort into these complex articles.

Here is mine:

Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” tries to categorize film within the world of art by way of radiating auras and arguing the presence within time and space.  What I found particularly interesting was his argument about the lack of an aura that film movies or photography present.  In the world we live today, it is hard to imagine a world without mass production, which Benjamin states in his first section.  Aside from pottery and money, few things were made for the masses.  In his second section he explains that the reverence is lost in any kind of reproduced piece of art (photographs, music, etc.) that is experienced outside its original context.  To me this is a valid point because as humans we tend to show respect to those we are admiring.  If we are watching a play or a concert we idolize for that time the people we are giving our attention.  Thus I think that Benjamin’s aura is a two-way track – a give and receive system.  In one acting class I took the instructor said “You energy is having a conversation with the energy of the audience.”  While this is true for plays and concerts, what does this mean for paintings?  Again a painting is something that we admire.  Pending on the viewer, one decides how much aura to receive from the painting.  Someone may give more energy to seeing the Mona Lisa verses The Persistence of Memory verses The Winged Victory of Samothrace.  However, I believe a sense of aura, or at least a certain level of respect, can be achieved by film and photography, especially now. 

Tell me what you think.  Agree?  Disagree?  Don't really care?  

In other news... WHO THE HELL STEALS A MCFLURRY, TAKES 7 BITES AND GIVES IT BACK?!  

And future work - short youtube show (?) about Parking and Transportation.  It will be epically awesome.

PS - my allergies are killing me.  Will be posting in about 5 minutes about the new movies I watched today.

Sherlock Jr.

and here it goes... the 1st day of The Theory of Film...

and in my opinion... BAH! <<< but still necessary.  As the good student that I am (even I rolled my eyes typing that), yesterday I started doing the readings for tomorrow.  This is mainly because there's a lot for tomorrow and the last thing I want to do is fall behind and not participate in class (otherwise it will be a very long and silent 2 hours).  The book we're using is Film Theory and Criticism by Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen.  If you're a film person you've probably seen some sort of edition of this book sometime in your life.  While reading my first assignment - a great (but somewhat convoluted) piece by Erwin Panofsky - I realized that early film would have been just CRAZY to people in the early century.

I just want to take for instance Georges Méliès Le Voyage dans la lune (or A Trip to the Moon).  Seeing as this is considered the first feature like film ever I would think that a special effect like the umbrella making creatures blow up very disorienting for that audience watching it. It's hard for us today to think of something like that.  However creatures meeting their doom from the smack of an umbrella - terrifying (circa 1902).  But today, the way the Méliès achieved this is actually quite innovating for the time.  Oh, I'll just tell you how he did it... this was during the time that the film had to be cranked through the camera.  Méliès figured out that if you were filming an object then stopped the camera and removed the object and then resumed filming it would seem the object just disappeared out of nowhere.  Hence being able to disappear by means of umbrella.

So in our first class today we watched Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr.  In my vast experience with silent movies (and by vast I mean super incredibly minuscule) I watched another Keaton movie called The General.  I found Sherlock Jr. more enjoyable actually.  I felt that The General went on a little long in the slap stick area for my liking... on the other hand, slap stick movies were made purely for the enjoyment of movement and not for the narrative quality.  Panofsky talks about this in his "Style and Medium in the Motion Pictures".

From a modern stand point (by modern I mean right now... 2011) the special effects that were achieved in the film were actually quite spectacular.  I still can't figure out how Keaton jumped through a man... even with cuts.  Overall I found the movie enjoyable... it was even probably a little more because my TA though it would be a good idea to watch a silent movie in total silence (she informed us that she didn't like the musical score accompanying the movie).  So when cellphones were heard vibrating around the room it made us all chuckle from time to time.

Anyway, from my own opinion I think Sherlock Jr. even had a political tone behind it.  Throughout the movie Keaton (who was 2nd to Charlie Chaplin in the slap stick/comedy genre of the day) had problems with technology (even when he was dreaming, he couldn't dream that he could properly use technology).  His aspirations throughout the movie was to become a detective, however he never solves a crime... except for in his dream.  Also aside from wanting to be come a detective his real job is being a projectionist at a movie theater.

ANYWAY what I'm trying to get to is that Keaton's aspirations to becoming a detective is presumably from watching Sherlock Holmes movies (since the name of the film is Sherlock Jr.).  Also at the end of the film when Keaton is trying to woo the girl in the projection room as a film is rolling he has to take his cues from the film itself how to hug her, kiss her, and propose to her.  Interesting though, as the movie that he is cuing from rolls on to the next scene the model couple is seen holding two babies... and the movie ends with Keaton scratching his head in confusion obviously thinking "Well, how do we get those?!"

So even during the silent era people knew that movies made a big impact on audience's everyday lives.

Ok, I think I've rambled on long enough.  Thanks for listening and let me know what some of your favorite silent films are!!!