Stuff I Feel I Should Get

For a brief period of time, I was a lit major in college - it was a few majors back and I did write papers that were titled The Significance of... and actually had tons of justification and felt that I really believed it. That was when I was in the amateur leagues - films like The Color of Pomegranates (Sayat Nova) are for the pros only.

I used to get defensive as a college student when I was accused of bs-ing my way to a degree by writing papers on symbolism while they were slaving away at something like chemistry. Perhaps that was because there were times that I knew deep down that symbolism did come down to what I was getting out of the work - so I really wasn't going to be wrong unless I forgot how to read.

Yeah, so how could I forget to see? I don't believe I did, because I do remember The Color of Pomegranates being visually stunning. I read the back of the box where I was informed that this was a biography about the Armenian poet, Sayat Nova - as the title cards reminded me from time to time. There was religious symbolism...and I'm done. Honestly. I felt like I should somehow be getting more out of it, but I really just got, "this is all supposed to mean "something," so be impressed.

In the end, it upset enough people in the Soviet Union that it got the director sent to a gulag on trumped-up charges. Most claim the film was too subversive. I want to believe this, but I found it tedious. If it had not at least been visually stunning, I might have given up all together. Then again, it's on a million Top 100 lists (and this one as well) - anyone want to let me in on the joke?

Where I Stand (December 1st-ish Edition)

Where has the year gone? I know! Well, another month gone and 20 movies watched from the list this month. A few more actually watched, but we're starting to mix things up a bit on the movie front. Because picking from a list of 1001 movies just isn't enough.

So, the favorites - Husband's picks:

Year of the Pig - Documentary on our involvement in Vietnam. Watch it and learn that we have LEARNED ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Scary predictions about Salvador abound. Emile de Antonio surely just watches the news most days yelling, "you've already done this!"

Faustrecht der Freiheit (Fox and His Friends) - White-trash gay carnies that win lotteries and want to make better lives for themselves are easily taken advantage of in any language - even German. A sad movie, but not without a good deal of dark humor.

Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) - Epic Clint Eastwood western.

My picks?

A Star is Born - I'd seen it before, but this is one of my all time favorites. I don't know if it's because there's so much sadness in and out of the film or if it's because of the sheer amount of musical numbers jammed into the film, but it's always got me - but I still have to see it all the way to the end where Judy Garland triumphantly proclaims herself Mrs. Norman Maine.

Down by Law - A bit rough around the edges, but it still manages to make a buddy film out of three guys breaking out of a Louisiana jail. Did I mention the three guys are Tom Waits, Jack Luri and Roberto Benigni?

Gaslight - I have no idea how I missed this film all these years! Nor did I know that Angela Lansbury started her career as the trampy-bitch type. I also get the, "are we going to pull a 'Gaslight'" reference in about 80 gabillion grifting-type films now.