A Night at the Movies?
Last night I returned from the Westlake Porter Public Library with three films I was looking forward to watching. I thought the first, Sylvia (starring Gwyneth Paltrow as the poet Sylvia Plath), was quite good - and despite remembering ten minutes into it that I'd already seen it in prison (as well as my general disdain for re-watching movies), I was sad to see it end as soon as it did, much like Sylvia's real life.
Second was The Brothers Karamazov (starring Yul Brynner and Claire Bloom). But unfortunately, the library only had it on VHS and this tape was warped and unwatchable. Too bad - because the Dostoevsky book it was based on is probably my favorite novel of all time.
Third was Performance (starring Mick Jagger), a film I've been eager to watch in its entirety since being intrigued by the song (and video for) "Memo from Turner," which came from it. I was digging the movie until Geri made clear that she could not endure another moment. So I turned it off and will probably watch the rest of it when she's not around. Here for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure, as the case may be) is the "Memo from Turner" video I mentioned:
Watching movies is a rare occurrence for me anymore - most of what I do watch is music related. On that theme, I highly recommend a DVD set Mom got me Christmas, Bob Dylan Don't Look Back: 65 Tour Deluxe Edition. Not only is Don't Look Back one of the best rockumentaries (for lack of a better word) ever - this set includes a bonus DVD with some priceless previously unseen footage from director D.A. Pennebaker's archives, along with a couple of books, some movie still postcards and the coolest packaging I've yet to see in a DVD set. Here's a photo of me at Mom's on Christmas:
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Second was The Brothers Karamazov (starring Yul Brynner and Claire Bloom). But unfortunately, the library only had it on VHS and this tape was warped and unwatchable. Too bad - because the Dostoevsky book it was based on is probably my favorite novel of all time.
Third was Performance (starring Mick Jagger), a film I've been eager to watch in its entirety since being intrigued by the song (and video for) "Memo from Turner," which came from it. I was digging the movie until Geri made clear that she could not endure another moment. So I turned it off and will probably watch the rest of it when she's not around. Here for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure, as the case may be) is the "Memo from Turner" video I mentioned:
Watching movies is a rare occurrence for me anymore - most of what I do watch is music related. On that theme, I highly recommend a DVD set Mom got me Christmas, Bob Dylan Don't Look Back: 65 Tour Deluxe Edition. Not only is Don't Look Back one of the best rockumentaries (for lack of a better word) ever - this set includes a bonus DVD with some priceless previously unseen footage from director D.A. Pennebaker's archives, along with a couple of books, some movie still postcards and the coolest packaging I've yet to see in a DVD set. Here's a photo of me at Mom's on Christmas:
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i quite enjoyed Performance, but i was the only one i know who did. difficult film.
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I liked it. I'd give it a solid B, and perhaps a B-plus.
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Of all of them The Dylan one is what would interests me.... When you say "rockumentary" what do you mean? A sort of a bio or is it one of the things where they follow him around on tour...? Sometimes those are good. Did you actually watch any of the Dylan one yet?
I looked at the library today for the Brothers Karamasov one, since I was there, and no one had it anywhere in the Detroit area except Downtown... so something I'm not likely to get my little hands on to watch anytime soon.
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I watched both the Dylan DVDs the very first night (Christmas). Yes, the filmmaker essentially follows him around on tour. This was as far as I know the first film of its kind, and better than most I've seen. It features some excellent performances by Bob the year before he went electric - and Joan Baez and Donovan also appear.
Apparently the Brothers Karamazov film has never been released on DVD - and Amazon only has it on a used, out-of-print VHS. Might not be worth the 30-some dollars they want for it, though.... The Robert Redford film of my other favorite novel, The Great Gatsby was awful (and I had such high expecations for it). To me Dostoevsky is at least as difficult to translate into film as F. Scott Fitzgerald's work has proven to be. Make time to read the book.
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As you love words, I urge you to see "Youth without Youth", the first film Frances Ford Coppola made in years. I believe you will be astounded at his achievement. And "The Truce," starring John Turturro, based on the book by Primo Levi about his trip home to Italy from Auschwitz after WWII. You won't easily forget it.
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Thank you for the recommendation, Tina. You've definitely piqued my interest, and I'm moving Youth without Youth to the top of my want-to-watch list.
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I hope you see it around Oscar time for comparison with the nominated films. It is astounding that this film is so obscure. Why I urge it upon you is that while it is visually stunning, the characters amazing, the plot original and compelling, it is about language and the origins of language, and how language developed through time! What a daring enterprise to make a film about an intellectual quest; but then perhaps that is why it is obscure -- too brainy.
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I think that'll be a great time to watch it. I'm very much looking forward to it.... Thanks again, Tina!
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I got the Charles Bukowski bio DVD 'born into this' & a Tom Waits DVD documentary 'under review 1983-2006'. The Bukowski bio was excellent, the Tom Waits not so much so but still interesting. I got boxer shorts, too...
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Oooh... I'd love to see the Bukowski and Waits DVDs. I'll pass on the boxers.
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I just put Tina's two suggested films on my queue at Netflix. They have thousands of films in stock so you can get almost any DVD in existence. At www.netflix.com. You order a DVD and it mails in a day then you send it back and another comes the next day. You can keep them and view them for as long as you want to and for one at a time it costs less than $10 a month. Should I send you a gift subscription to try it out?
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"I cannot endure this another moment." I love it and I'm going to have plenty of opportunities to use it with what goes on around here!
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Sometimes I think I can't endure another moment on Facebook. It takes an hour to read all the comments that are conversations like everyone is instant messaging. Aaaaahhhhh Geez, I just can't understand how much time is wasted.
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I could be watching one of my three netflix movies by the time I finish checking my e-mail and all the crap on facebook.
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I believe it was the great Samuel Johnson who wrote, "To a poet, nothing is useless." Then again, he didn't have Netflix.
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Did Shakespeare have a computer with Facebook?
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No.. but Shakespeare was a man of his times Elena... very much a man of the people.... I think at minimum.. he would have been on MySpace...
LOL...
But then again maybe friendster...
A high compliment to put JC up there with good old Mr. Macbeth..
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Are romance novels more useless than Facebook? Shakespeare read a lot of what we might consider his day's equivalent of romance novels and pulp fiction - in fact I can't think of a single play he wrote that wasn't based on someone else's "story," whether that story was fictional or historical. One of the reasons he was so great was he recognized (like Johnson) that there was nothing useless in those stories.
And Facebook has a lot more than stories to offer.
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Unlike shakespear would have done, I forgot my facebook login. But that's just as well as I only have one friend over there and he never talks to me...John!
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So that's why you never respond to me there.
Just teasing....
Won't they send your login info to the e-mail address you used to register?
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I finally got in. I wasn't going to try again. It's a Christmas miracle! Some of my grade school friends are looking for me. So I have to say, "LETS GO ST. JOE!"
As expected, no message from you. Maybe next year...
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I've been terrible about keeping up with my messages. I aim to do better in 2009.
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Don't mind me. I'm just having a bad day. Didn't mean to take it out on you. You should actually keep doing what you've been doing. Your work is brilliant.
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Life is too short to spend your precious time trying to convince a person who wants to live in gloom and doom otherwise. Give lifting that person your best shot, but don't hang around long enough for his or her bad attitude to pull you down. Instead, surround yourself with optimistic people.
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