[candycane_girl]

No prob, GT. After all, I'm the one who has to write it. I just wish I knew what my prof meant when he talks about "lateral connection".

[girltrouble]

sorry, candy. i wish it was something i'd seen. you know how i go on and on.... i wish i could help.


just saw blindness and loved it. parts of it were really disturbing, but i felt honest. i loved all the production design, the editing, cinematography, sound and costuming were so perfect. i loved all the visual cues, the first part of the virus where there are spirals everywhere, then the sterile sea of white for the quarantine area that quickly becomes not just physically muddied, but morally, and the slow descent into darkness, and eventually hell. i think it was supposed to be referencing dante's inferno, and it did so perfectly. i loved the smart editing, and how it would selectively use white outs, then focus in. i think the best part was casting julianne moore. it was the exact opposite of the woman she played in safe, who was the only one to get a disease. in many ways where she starts at the start of blindness is the same place, as the wife in safe: a not too bright wife, with a condescending husband, but in this story she is much stronger, more resilient.

usually i hate films that end with the restoration of the family, (i'm looking at you spielberg, with your crappy, war of the worlds), but i loved how blindness ended up, because what it spoke to was the implosion of the insular nuclear family, in exchange for a bigger, broader, interracial, international family, and that makes it much more satisfying. what we watch is a society that, at it's base is so corrupt in it's capitolistic greed, that it needs to be razed, burnt to the ground in order to be rebuilt, literally re-envisioned. a great movie.

[candycane_girl]

((((dolor))))

Thanks ladies. This has been a pretty shitty weekend for me so it's hard for me to even concentrate. I feel like I have to get this done today (the proposal is due Tuesday) because tomorrow I'm working really late. One of the articles I have says something like...Wes Anderson is almost making fun of the "director's signature" but I haven't read far enough to see how he's doing that.

Anyway, I'm just going to keep on reading.

[girltrouble]

(((dolor)))) sorry about the divorce.

i'm with dolor. i like the imdb boards and reviews better than netflix, but they can be pretty flame-y and gross depending on the movie. my jaw was on the floor reading posts for irreversible with guys talking about how the rape was hot. it's disgusting.

[dolor]

Candy,

The best & zippiest resource I know for learning more about a movie (and having a conversation /confrontation with someone else's assessment) is to go to IMDB and go into "external reviews." You'll find this in the left column when you first get to a movie.

Some of the reviews at Netflix can be very acute, but there's also more guff to wade through. Also in Netflix the first 3 reviews become entrenched forever, so you usually have to past the reviews on the first page to find the goods.

PS Divorce: Telling our 2 sons that we were divorcing was the unhappiest day of my life...
the broken family... Doloroso!

[candycane_girl]

GT, get thee to a video store and rent The Royal Tenenbaums now! And Rushmore, if you haven't already seen it. I'm still going over the articles trying to figure out what the hell I can say about the way the film addresses its "social and cultural situation". He also said that we could talk about a film with less depth but "more lateral connection" and to be honest, I don't even know what that means.

[anna k]

I was reading Jezebel where commenters were talking about the lack of public support for the films Bright Star and An Education, saying they were intelligent films with strong female characters by great female directors. Even though I liked the directors, I'm not really interested in either film. It doesn't mean that I don't support good films made by women, but I didn't like that the examples used were of dramas that had a coming of age feel to them, genres I'm not really into, or that the film will fail if I don't go out and see it.

I'm also disappointed that Amelia looks like schmaltz. I really like Mira Nair, and it would have been great if Amelia Earhart was portrayed in a more realistic light, rather than a sanitized legend who seems more like a flawless creation than a real human being.

[pants]

I finally saw The Diving Bell and the Butterfly on Sunday and have not stopped thinking about it since. What a lush and amazing film. Just really astounding in every way. It makes me want to see more of Julian Schnabel's art of all kinds.

[kari]

((madame)) We saw it last night & I can definitely understand why it affected you so. It's got some heavy stuff.

I reallllly enjoyed the movie. Very well done.

[girltrouble]

you're welcome, candy.

you know me i adore geeking/talking about films. i only wish i had seen RT so i could be more specific, or offer my own theories. you can try to google wes anderson and themes or symbolism or i think you will start to see a framework. look for what you find compelling, then think of how it works in other films, but most particularlly in RT.

just go with what you love about the film, and you'll do just fine.

[candycane_girl]

Thanks, GT. I emailed my prof because I had found a good article but I wasn't sure if the source was considered scholarly or not. Now I'm just trying to figure out a thesis. He left the instructions extremely vague so we could write about whatever we want. I'm trying to figure out something to say about the style of the film. I mean, obviously Wes Anderson's films are so highly stylized that they give the movie a very distinct feel but I don't know what the feeling is. Is it nostalgia?

The Royal Tenenbaums is my favourite movie and it's one of those movies where I love to just curl up on the couch on a cold or rainy day and put it on. It's comforting and familiar but I know that's more personal and doesn't really have to do anything with Wes Anderson's intentions. Gah! I have to get this thing in by Tuesday!

[girltrouble]

(((((madame)))))
as a child of divorce i know how hard that can be.

[MadameHooch]

I think I am the only person in the world who left the theatre after seeing Where the Wild Things are in hyperventilating sobs - it just reminded me so much of how hard it was going through my parents divorce when I was younger and it really hit a nerve. I have a massive headache and puffy eyes, ugh. That was supposed to be fun!

[girltrouble]

that's what the thread is for, candy. when setting out to write something about a film, you can check imdb's boards for ideas from peoples comments or questions. i'm not sure if you are looking for serious articles, if so, check film comment, or film quarterly's websites. otherwise i'd suggest googling "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "theory" it will bring up lots of film blogs of people writing about the film you are looking for.

good luck.

[candycane_girl]

I'm sorry for hijacking the thread but does anyone know of any scholarly articles about the film The Royal Tenenbaums? I was hoping to write an essay on it but if I can't find any sources then I'll have to do another topic. The only other subject that has come to my mind is Buffy (the t.v. show, not the movie).

[olla86]

Yesterday I reviewed “Mr. and Ms. Smith”. I like Brad Pitt!

[girltrouble]

yeah. i hate it, but more, i love movies that use good framing.
i'm almost of the persuasion that a film without it can't be good without it. most pov movies never bother, which is a shame. it would add to the visual strength of the film. it's like writing paragraphs but never capitalizing.

[sassy]

i saw it, but was bored to tears. my friend dragged me to it because she was super scared. it did nothing for me. but i wonder if you watch those ghost hunter type shows. i hate them, and i think my friend watches them a lot. so that might be the difference.

personally i'm much more scared by trad horror than that kind of pov horror. blair witch bored me too.

I don't really watch ghost hunter shows, but I think it is the POV thing that makes it more real for me. Most people either love it or hate it.

[girltrouble]

i saw it, but was bored to tears. my friend dragged me to it because she was super scared. it did nothing for me. but i wonder if you watch those ghost hunter type shows. i hate them, and i think my friend watches them a lot. so that might be the difference.

personally i'm much more scared by trad horror than that kind of pov horror. blair witch bored me too.

[sassy]

Has anyone here seen "Paranormal Activity"? I saw it Saturday night and for the past two nights I have had to sleep with the lights and radio on. I grew up watching horror movies and I don't scare too easily but this movie scared the crap out of me! It was really well done, much better than "Blair Witch", in my opinion, and it was scary because it seems like it could really happen (if you believe in ghosts, etc.)