WEEK 66

CATCH UP*****update @ bottom of page.

everytime i get on track it seems i get off again fast! sometimes for reasons beyond my control:
i never got to finish the friends of eddie coyle because more than 3/4 through the dvd froze + wouldn't start again. it was an impromptu + excited library rental, and one that i was extremely into watching until the dvd gained a mind of its own.
so i am unfinished with that one, waiting for a hopefully scratch-free disk to come in the mail
<>AND<>
i still have to watch juliet's pick from last week, which looks great, but i had a hectic week and didn't make it that far down the to-do list...
sometimes things move too fast to grab hold of everything in the time frame you set to keep. but now my weekend is upon me (monday/tuesday) so i'm looking forward to finding out the end of eddie coyle + watching your pick, juliet:) x
*UPDATE: i watched born to win this morning and thought it was pretty unbelievable (read:amazing). i found it the absolute perfect thing to watch on the tail of herzog's bad lieutenant: port of call - new orleans (2009), which we saw in the theatre last night. so i guess i'm glad i didn't have time to see it during the week afterall! i had many vague ruminating reservations watching bad lieutenant but couldn't really put it to name until i saw born to win. i think so much of my ability to connect to a movie is stitched into the subtleties of tone of the film, and here is where bad lieutenant:port of call + born to win split paths. ostensibly covering some similar issues, born to win for me hit the mark as it traveled the lines of humor + grit + the realities of illness/addiction, i laughed and also felt pretty devastated by what was in front of me, where bad lieutenant contained some/too many over the top and messy moments that just left me feeling pretty empty for the most part. it was compounded i think by perpetual laughter in the audience, which is always hard to digest when it seems more out of a nervous-i-don't-know-what-to-feel place. usually i like the i-don't-know-what-to-feel vibe in a film and sometimes the constant seeming-out-of-place audience laughter aids in my process of clarification of how i feel about the film myself, but not really this time. i think i wanted bad lieutenant to be born to win before i knew what born to win was all about. it feels good to laugh when it is clear you aren't laughing because there is something you are not willing to digest. born to win felt to me a difficult movie in terms of the emotions it coaxed from you as the viewer (be here and laugh with us now, be here and feel the weight of what this really means a moment later). if i am asked to be emotionally present before a film i want it to be worth my time + with born to win i got back what i paid out emotionally in droves.

WEEK 65

65. BORN TO WIN, dir. IVAN PASSER, 1971

We had the great privilege of seeing INTIMATE LIGHTING the other night with Ivan Passer in person. One of the writers behind Milos Forman's early films (LOVES OF A BLONDE, THE FIREMEN'S BALL), Passer made his directorial debut with the beautiful INTIMATE LIGHTING before coming over to the states. Long live the Czech New Wave.

This week's film was Ivan Passer's American debut. Anxious to see it.

WEEK 64

64. THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, dir. PETER YATES, 1973

this caught my eye on the library shelf (criterion). ooooh the library is so awesome!
think i'll watch it tonight!
[i was behind on my netflix -- my source for nearly all film orgy views, great but requires a level of diligence which i am periodically lacking -- + didn't get things back in time for juliet's last pick, so i am a film behind, but just sent back cria cuervos so will get the new one in the mail + then catch up asap:)]

WEEK 63

63. THE WHOLE SHOOTIN' MATCH, dir. EAGLE PENNELL, 1979

CRIA CUERVOS was a beautiful movie, quiet, filled with sweet sadness. Ana Torrent! Geraldine Chaplin! It is impossible to take your eyes off either of them.

I remembered the feeling of being a child.

Also, I'll be humming "Porque te vas" for the rest of the day today.

This week: Rhan got me this DVD for Christmas. I know nothing about it. Let's learn together.