On Laughing Cats and Weeping Bats

I'm currently reading a classic called The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov from Russia.
Apparently it's a critique about Stalinism. Well, la-dee-da because with that knowledge I feel like I'm in way over my head and I every time I pick up the book I feel like I need a copy of SparksNotes to my right and never has leisure reading been so nerve-wracking for me. I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of symbolism and allegory and whatnot.
Most of the time, though, I try to relax and take it as another entertaining read, taking everything for what it is - the whole magical realism and people turning into witches and the devil coming to town as a fantasy story. And it works, except for the little voice inside my head saying that I should've had so much more background before diving into all this...

B&W

I love well-cinematographed black and white films. They harken to theatre style of lighting.

The depth of field that you can see, the play with shadows and light.

Colour doesn't show that as well. For colour films that are filmed with film and not video, even if you see the focus and the blur in the background and you say to yourself, "Ah, so it's film and not video," there seems to be a more paltry sheen of flatness to it.


I especially love looking at still shots of black and white films because of the lighting.

Why I Refuse to Follow 1001 Movies You Must See

I love lists, I love movies, I love ticking off the movies that I have seen on movie lists. As testament to that, I have this account which I update every few weeks or so.

So why on earth would I pass on adding the "1001 movies you must see before you die" to my list? I respect Steven Jay Schneider as a film scholar. But looking through the list, I do not want to waste my time on westerns, on action and sci-fi flicks. I see a lot of Kurosawa films and I always feel nauseous after watching Kurosawas. I'm sure there are some great hidden gems in that list but I am not going to push myself to watch films that may waste my time.

Am I being closed-minded for declaring this? Maybe. Probably. Oh well. But saying that an average film is 1 hr 45 min long, watching all 1001 films means about 73 (non-stop) days of my life. Although film-watching is basically my life, watching films that make me bored or nauseous or want to look out the window and play with the real world is not part of my life.

In the past few months I've seen some bad, boring movies and for that reason and others, I have slowed down my summer movie viewing craziness from past years (from my film log, I'd have to say the start of the new year is when I view the most movies and then summer is the lagging time of movie viewing).

Here is a sample of the really movies I disliked that I've seen in the past few months:
Russian Ark - disappointing!
The Last Days of Disco - I wanted to slap all the characters and shove them into a bodybag
Sex, lies and videotape
Ordinary People - boring!
A Serious Man - the main character was annoying, not unserious, just annoying
Machuca - disappointing

To counter that, here are some movies I really liked:
Paris, Texas - I thought Wings of Desire was pretty boring (don't hate me!), so I hesitated to see this from Wim Wenders. It turned out to be a true masterpiece.
Together (Tillsammans) - I saw this last night and it was hilarious.
Knocked Up, 40-Year-Old Virgin, Funny People - Judd Apatow is my newest addition to my favourite directors list
Thelma and Louise
Inglorious Basterds
Croupier
Mysterious Skin - JGL is so good

Music that Makes Me Wish I Knew How to Dance

You know I love lists. And I love hit summer songs until they get overplayed on the radio. Unless, well, they are more under-the-radar. Here is a list of songs that I have recently discovered that anyone, even the most soulless enemy, would feel the groove to (in no particular order)

Mark Ronson & Business Intl - Bang Bang Bang (Russ Chimes Remix) ... the original's really boring!
Swedish House Mafia - One and One (Your Name) feat. Pharrell
Edward Maya feat. Vika Jigulina - Stereo Love
Megan C - I Got It
Sunloverz - Summer Love

Film Lists

About 6 years ago in English class I was handed a list of AFI's (American Film Institute) top 100 movies, told to choose one, screen it and write about it.
I chose Citizen Kane because I knew there'd be lots of material about it. I then took the list and made a conscious decision that I would view every one of the films. Thus started my foray into film craziness and more of a film education than I feel like the education I would've gotten in 4 years of film studies (if I had gone into film studies for university, for example).

Fast forward (or skip, but even DVD-speak is going out) 6 years and I have two more films to go! Two more! They are 1931's Frankenstein and 1939's Gone With the Wind. After I'm done these it would feel to me like what watchers of Lost felt when the show ended, probably: something is missing.

But no matter, because there's always the BFI's (British Film Institute) top 100 list and IMDB's top 250 lists I'm working on and this and that list. Along the way, I've watched a lot of (mostly European) foreign films and read a lot on films and film analysis while I was actually supposed to be reading stuff for geography or linguistics.

I'm not done yet, but if you asked me which movie was my favourite of the AFI 100, I wouldn't be able to tell you. Indeed, the list is pretty sad now that I look over it again because it reminds me that cinematic history is reflective of history in general: written (or directed by) white males. I could add in all sorts of identity markers too, like straight and rich and on and on but race and gender are the two annoyances I have with AFI's list. Even in other countries and on international lists, females really do not have a place in cinematic history as of current. I look at lists like Jonathan Rosenbaum's 1,001 films to see before you die lists and the Criterion Collection I think I really don't want to spend my time watching yet more Japanese movies about samurai or westerns about avenging someone or other. Michael Kaminski wrote a good article about why more women need to be producing and receiving film.

Another upcoming landmark is my 1,000th film logged in my film log (as of today I have watched 948 films since June 23, 2003). Okay I think that you'd think me more crazy than wanting to celebrate with me since I told you this.

Update: Music

Here is what I am listening to right now:

The XX. I love the duo singers. Their voices complement each other really well.

Lone Wolf. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aogO8ODj4PE

Janelle Monae.