Catching Up with Film

CATCHING UP WITH FILM - THE QUEST FOR A PERSONAL CANON

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Canon Entry - The Swimmer (1968)

Canon Entry - The Swimmer (1968)

Inspired by the 1001 Movies to Watch Before You Die, Edgar Wright’s 1000 favorite films and other lists, I am striving to come up with my own personal canon of films. Since I personally despise any work that glorifies America’s prosperity set in the immediate postwar period of the 50’s and 60’s, I was destined to love The Swimmer. If you didn’t know John Cheever’s story, however, and If you just saw the poster for this movie with Burt Lancaster’s beautiful bod and nothing els

Canon Entry - Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)

Canon Entry - Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)

Inspired by the 1001 Movies to Watch Before You Die, Edgar Wright’s 1000 favorite films and other lists, I am striving to come up with my own personal canon of films. Funeral Parade of Roses was so ahead of its time that it made so much of international cinema of the 60’s look tame in comparison. This is quite a statement when you consider that during the 60’s the French New Wave was in full swing, Britain was witnessing the works of the “Angry Young Men,” and even films behi

Canon Entry - Wanda (1970)

Canon Entry - Wanda (1970)

Inspired by the 1001 Movies to Watch Before You Die, Edgar Wright’s 1000 favorite films and other lists, I am striving to come up with my own personal canon of films. Perhaps the most visually striking and poetic scene in Wanda occurs early in the movie, when Wanda is walking in the black coal fields that surround her house. She is a wearing a white dress and the camera lingers on her, as if fascinated by how such a rare creature had found herself in such an environment. Wand

Trivia Thursday

Trivia Thursday

I’ve always been a sucker for pub trivia, and I almost like creating trivia quizzes more than competing in them. The answers to the first nine questions are all connected by a theme, and the tenth is the theme. Feel free to share this quiz, and no Googling when you’re trying it! (What’s the fun in that?) Answers will be posted next week with the newest quiz. The dominant male in an animal species that other males follow is called this. This expression of approval for a perfor

Canon Entry - A New Leaf (1971)

Canon Entry - A New Leaf (1971)

Inspired by the 1001 Movies to Watch Before You Die, Edgar Wright’s 1000 favorite films and other lists, I am striving to come up with my own personal canon of films. In learning more about director Elaine May, the more I am convinced about how much her gender was a major factor in the brevity of her career as a director. She had the reputation for being difficult and not listening to advice, especially from the higher-ups. What these reports fail to mention is that the other

Canon Entry - The Pollen of Flowers (1972)

Canon Entry - The Pollen of Flowers (1972)

Inspired by the 1001 Movies to Watch Before You Die, Edgar Wright’s 1000 favorite films and other lists, I am striving to come up with my own personal canon of films. Class struggle is present in almost every society, but it seems that Korean culture is especially obsessed with this theme. It is ubiquitous in Korean popular culture, from the lightest and fluffiest of K-dramas to the most serious films. In fact, The Pollen of Flowers, is quite similar to, the most famous Korea

Trivia Thursday

Trivia Thursday

I’ve always been a sucker for pub trivia, and I almost like creating trivia quizzes more than competing in them. The answers to the first nine questions are all connected by a theme, and the tenth is the theme. Feel free to share this quiz, and no Googling when you’re trying it! (What’s the fun in that?) Answers will be posted next week with the newest quiz. A toy meant to entangle your fingers permanently (maybe?). Potentially fatal form of gambling. This entrepreneur is the

Theme Tuesday - Twin Peaks - Fire Walk with Me

Theme Tuesday - Twin Peaks - Fire Walk with Me

David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks is such a tremendous cultural touchstone (and huge blindspot for me) that I decided to rectify matters and take the deep dive for the month of May. At the time of its release, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me had a profoundly negative reception, from being booed at Cannes (a strange mark of honor historically) to being torn apart by critics. Now, however, I see this film come up quite often when cinephiles are asked about their favorite Ly

Canon Entry - F for Fake (1973)

Canon Entry - F for Fake (1973)

Inspired by the 1001 Movies to Watch Before You Die, Edgar Wright’s 1000 favorite films and other lists, I am striving to come up with my own personal canon of films. Perhaps one of the mistakes that any person who watches film, critic or otherwise, is to ascribe meaning to every little thing the film does. For a layperson, this usually takes the form of “what was the plot” or “what was the point.” The only difference between a layperson and a critic or scholar of film may be

Canon Entry - We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974)

Canon Entry - We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974)

Inspired by the 1001 Movies to Watch Before You Die, Edgar Wright’s 1000 favorite films and other lists, I am striving to come up with my own personal canon of films. On the surface, We All Loved Each Other So Much is not a movie that really travels well across culture and language. It is very dialogue-heavy and very specific to a time and place that not many people have familiarity with. There is some visual flair and effective use of voiceover, but even the characters’ conc

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