No More Radio Posts
Which, of course, is a result of my having no more radio shows, at least not until I can insinuate myself somewhere next year, which may or may not be a possibility. You can see the final tracklist, which was mostly a summation of why I wanted to do the kind of show I did this term, except that it was mostly older stuff that I tried not to play since I was attempting to play as much new music as possible. The edits I did to shorten the time worked pretty well and the transitions went okay. It wasn't quite perfect, but then it would be pretty tough to be completely flawless for an hour and 45 minutes. I've had more thrilling moments on air, but felt pretty good going out this way.
I finished Andrew Sarris's The American Cinema a while back. I really liked reading about the directors he liked, and wasn't really convinced about the directors he doesn't like, but I enjoyed getting an over of, well, the pre-1968 American cinema. It was kind of funny to see how little space and care he devoted to Frank Capra, even though he put Capra in the second-highest rank of American directors. I couldn't figure out whether that was a case of him being trapped by his own auteur theory or what. Sarris really doesn't like cynics, which was part of the reason I didn't care for what he had to say about Billy Wilder, for example, but he is objective at least some of the time, or at least focused more on the plastic side of the art than on the personalities of the directors.
I notice that my summer reading list (from which this was prematurely plucked) doesn't contain any other film books, except for the Anthony Lane collection which contains a lot of non-movie writing, so I'll probably look for some more in that department. Maybe Graham Greene or James Agee, or something encyclopedic like David Thomson's New Biographical Dictionary of Film or Ephraim Katz's Film Encyclopedia.
I've been keeping track of the movies I watch (mostly feature-length, which excludes a lot of stuff in the avant-garde film class, and more than one of Stan Brakhage's films would get four stars) and I've seen 24 over that time. I sorted them by rating below. For a lot of them I could have predicted my reaction, but sometimes I like it much less (Decasia) or more (Sherman's March) than I'd thought I would.
The only ones I didn't like are the *'s. I think I mostly disliked Decasia because the soundtrack was shrill and REALLY LOUD, but I did feel bored as well. The **'s are good, but I would be hesitant about recommending them to some or most people. The ***'s are very good, and I have no complaints about them, but they're not in the same league as the ****'s, which means it's the sort of film where even after the credits are over, I still haven't been able to get up because I can't get over how good it was, in whatever sense of "good" applies. I might try to do regular long-form reviews this summer (beware!), just to keep myself busy, but who knows how I feel about it once I get home; I usually get lazier as vacation progresses.
I finished Andrew Sarris's The American Cinema a while back. I really liked reading about the directors he liked, and wasn't really convinced about the directors he doesn't like, but I enjoyed getting an over of, well, the pre-1968 American cinema. It was kind of funny to see how little space and care he devoted to Frank Capra, even though he put Capra in the second-highest rank of American directors. I couldn't figure out whether that was a case of him being trapped by his own auteur theory or what. Sarris really doesn't like cynics, which was part of the reason I didn't care for what he had to say about Billy Wilder, for example, but he is objective at least some of the time, or at least focused more on the plastic side of the art than on the personalities of the directors.
I notice that my summer reading list (from which this was prematurely plucked) doesn't contain any other film books, except for the Anthony Lane collection which contains a lot of non-movie writing, so I'll probably look for some more in that department. Maybe Graham Greene or James Agee, or something encyclopedic like David Thomson's New Biographical Dictionary of Film or Ephraim Katz's Film Encyclopedia.
I've been keeping track of the movies I watch (mostly feature-length, which excludes a lot of stuff in the avant-garde film class, and more than one of Stan Brakhage's films would get four stars) and I've seen 24 over that time. I sorted them by rating below. For a lot of them I could have predicted my reaction, but sometimes I like it much less (Decasia) or more (Sherman's March) than I'd thought I would.
The only ones I didn't like are the *'s. I think I mostly disliked Decasia because the soundtrack was shrill and REALLY LOUD, but I did feel bored as well. The **'s are good, but I would be hesitant about recommending them to some or most people. The ***'s are very good, and I have no complaints about them, but they're not in the same league as the ****'s, which means it's the sort of film where even after the credits are over, I still haven't been able to get up because I can't get over how good it was, in whatever sense of "good" applies. I might try to do regular long-form reviews this summer (beware!), just to keep myself busy, but who knows how I feel about it once I get home; I usually get lazier as vacation progresses.
The Killing [Stanley Kubrick, 1956, DVD] ****
Sherman's March [Ross McElwee, 1986, DVD] ****
La Mala Educación [Pedro Almodóvar, 2004, Film Society] ****
Get Carter [Mike Hodges, 1971, DVD] ****
Dancer in the Dark [Lars von Trier, 2000, SUMO] ***½
Maborosi [Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1995, DVD] ***½
Closer [Mike Nichols, 2004, SUMO] ***
Cinemania [Angela Christlieb, 2002, DVD] ***
Days of Heaven [Terence Malick, 1978, Film Society] ***
Holes [Andrew Davis, 2003, DVD] ***
Primer [Shane Carruth, 2004, Film Society] ***
Dinner at Eight [George Cukor, 1933, DVD] ***
The Station Agent [Tom McCarthy, 2003, DVD] ***
Twentieth Century [Howard Hawks, 1934, DVD] ***
Maria Full of Grace [Joshua Marston, 2004, Film Society] ***
Northfork [Polish Bros., 2003, DVD] **
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [Garth Jennings, 2005, Theater] **
Coffee & Cigarettes [Jim Jarmusch, 2003, DVD] **
Waiting for Guffman [Christopher Guest, 1996, DVD] **
Mallrats [Kevin Smith, 1995, Midnight Screening at Uptown Theater] **
The Palm Beach Story [Preston Sturges, 1942, DVD] **
Two Harbors [James Vculek, 2004, Film Society] **
Spectres of the Spectrum [Craig Baldwin, 1999, Class] **
Decasia [Bill Morrison, 2002, Class] *
Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005
3 Comment(s):
I don't know if you've read The Whole Equation yet but you probably should; it's probably one of the best film books I've read, and my opinion of it hasn't dimmed with distance from reading it.
Very nice: "focused more on the plastic side of the art than with the personalities of the directors."
Oh, and then 'plucked' in the very next paragraph!
--Charles
I think I read something in Sight and Sound that scared me off of The Whole Equation, but I do recall your positive remarks about it (which seem to have disappeared), so I think I will probably try to get my hands on a copy this summer.
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