(no subject)
Back from Russia. My Russian still sucks pretty badly. The night before last I was thinking I was going to get into a fight with some really drunk dude. Lots of visits to people and vodka and presents taken and brought back. The prospect of taking my parents to Russia frightens me.
Quite upset that the Italian soccer implosion was mitigated by the courts. When I told Jenia her response was: 'they're italians...of course they cheat.' Good point, really.
Movies -
Earth - Deepa Metha asks whether Indian home rule was really so great with a million dead and millions of refugees. I get the sense that her idea of pre-independence india was a little idyllic, what with sikhs and muslims and hindus all hanging out on the grass together, talking and laughing like they were on the front of a university brochure or something.
25th Hour - so, Edward Norton is apparently supposed to be like Jesus here, as far as I can tell. Lots of blood on people's hands, and he takes a whipping before going up to Cavalry, and even has a 'last temptation' dream sequence thing before he is sacrificed to oppressive drug laws. The only person who seems to comdemn him for dealing in dope is the sleazy stockbroker guy. Spike is almost begging us to draw the parallel between them. But there are no Rockefeller laws for businesspeople, see! Little heavy handed there, but good movie overall.
Rodrigo D -- don't be born in Medellin. Your life will probably suck. But at least it will be short.
City Lights -- there is nothing left to say about Chaplin, but anyway almost none of Chaplin's sight gags are funny any more, but this movie still holds up as fucking awesome. The boxing sequence, and the end...it hasn't been that dusty in my apartment since Au Hasard Balthazar.
Batman Begins -- competent.
Inside Deep Throat -- competent.
21 Grams -- competent. EXCEPT - the chick loses her family in a car related incident, and then he RIPS OFF the pool shot of the chick in the fetal position straight from Blue. What's that about?
Wheel of Time -- Herzog managed to keep his ego relatively in check.
Sex, Lies and Videotape -- poor Soderbergh is debasing himself with Ocean's 12, which was terrible.
Cache -- if Woody Allen makes real estate porn, so does Haneke, because their apartment made me hard. The wall of books...oh god. Only the library in Saraband, and maybe Woody's apartment in Deconstructing Harry were better.
A Woman is a Woman - shit. Why do I keep watching Godard?
Vidiriana -- Bunuel has a real madonna/whore thing, and in his world Madonna's are useless and whores are useful.
Intermission -- possibly the most Irish movie ever made.
Bad Education -- Typical Almodovar stuff.
Light Keeps me Company -- reminded us all that Sven Nykvist is in fact the greatest cinematographer of all time.
Platform -- Chinese 'dissident' cinema kind of stuff from the 'Sixth generation.'
Father and Son -- Sokurov hasn't made any other movie even close to as good as Russian Ark as far as I can tell. I think he makes vaguely incestuous films just so he can criticize westerners for lacking spirituality. Sneaky fucker, don't you think?
Dark Habits -- Early Almodovar. Not great.
On the plane I read Bertrand Russell's autobiography. It got pretty self-serving at the end. Not as self-serving as Trotsky's though. The man could write.
Also read Fathers and Children in my ongoing 19th century thing. Turgeniev could write some also.
Jay Mohr's Gasping for Airtime on the other hand, was pretty crappy.
Jenia got me Percival Everett's Wounded for my birthday. Percival is a badass. Not as good as God's Country or Erasure, but still fucking solid. The protagonist is the typical Percival avatar(hyper-educated black man who prefers the country life). this time it's not about the indians or academics, or politics, or deconstructing mythologies about the west to create comedic gold, but the gays.
Also finished Jimmy Buffett's A Salty Piece of Land, and I am almost ready to proclaim it the single worst book I have ever read. Holy shit is it bad. Quoting your own song lyrics 3 times a page is wrong. It read like a parody. Just completely terrible in every way.
Quite upset that the Italian soccer implosion was mitigated by the courts. When I told Jenia her response was: 'they're italians...of course they cheat.' Good point, really.
Movies -
Earth - Deepa Metha asks whether Indian home rule was really so great with a million dead and millions of refugees. I get the sense that her idea of pre-independence india was a little idyllic, what with sikhs and muslims and hindus all hanging out on the grass together, talking and laughing like they were on the front of a university brochure or something.
25th Hour - so, Edward Norton is apparently supposed to be like Jesus here, as far as I can tell. Lots of blood on people's hands, and he takes a whipping before going up to Cavalry, and even has a 'last temptation' dream sequence thing before he is sacrificed to oppressive drug laws. The only person who seems to comdemn him for dealing in dope is the sleazy stockbroker guy. Spike is almost begging us to draw the parallel between them. But there are no Rockefeller laws for businesspeople, see! Little heavy handed there, but good movie overall.
Rodrigo D -- don't be born in Medellin. Your life will probably suck. But at least it will be short.
City Lights -- there is nothing left to say about Chaplin, but anyway almost none of Chaplin's sight gags are funny any more, but this movie still holds up as fucking awesome. The boxing sequence, and the end...it hasn't been that dusty in my apartment since Au Hasard Balthazar.
Batman Begins -- competent.
Inside Deep Throat -- competent.
21 Grams -- competent. EXCEPT - the chick loses her family in a car related incident, and then he RIPS OFF the pool shot of the chick in the fetal position straight from Blue. What's that about?
Wheel of Time -- Herzog managed to keep his ego relatively in check.
Sex, Lies and Videotape -- poor Soderbergh is debasing himself with Ocean's 12, which was terrible.
Cache -- if Woody Allen makes real estate porn, so does Haneke, because their apartment made me hard. The wall of books...oh god. Only the library in Saraband, and maybe Woody's apartment in Deconstructing Harry were better.
A Woman is a Woman - shit. Why do I keep watching Godard?
Vidiriana -- Bunuel has a real madonna/whore thing, and in his world Madonna's are useless and whores are useful.
Intermission -- possibly the most Irish movie ever made.
Bad Education -- Typical Almodovar stuff.
Light Keeps me Company -- reminded us all that Sven Nykvist is in fact the greatest cinematographer of all time.
Platform -- Chinese 'dissident' cinema kind of stuff from the 'Sixth generation.'
Father and Son -- Sokurov hasn't made any other movie even close to as good as Russian Ark as far as I can tell. I think he makes vaguely incestuous films just so he can criticize westerners for lacking spirituality. Sneaky fucker, don't you think?
Dark Habits -- Early Almodovar. Not great.
On the plane I read Bertrand Russell's autobiography. It got pretty self-serving at the end. Not as self-serving as Trotsky's though. The man could write.
Also read Fathers and Children in my ongoing 19th century thing. Turgeniev could write some also.
Jay Mohr's Gasping for Airtime on the other hand, was pretty crappy.
Jenia got me Percival Everett's Wounded for my birthday. Percival is a badass. Not as good as God's Country or Erasure, but still fucking solid. The protagonist is the typical Percival avatar(hyper-educated black man who prefers the country life). this time it's not about the indians or academics, or politics, or deconstructing mythologies about the west to create comedic gold, but the gays.
Also finished Jimmy Buffett's A Salty Piece of Land, and I am almost ready to proclaim it the single worst book I have ever read. Holy shit is it bad. Quoting your own song lyrics 3 times a page is wrong. It read like a parody. Just completely terrible in every way.