My Main Watchlist

In homage to Ozu, the opening credits play wistful music while showing a tatami mat. I'll resist the urge to try to compare the mis-en-scene to Ozu, and try to immerse myself in this film.

I feel like a cretin to admit I stopped watching after the first half of hour of Minnie and Moskowitz because I felt it never offered me anything I didn't already know about life. I hope I enjoy Cassavetes more with tempered expectations.

Maybe I became sleepy during two attempts to view this film because I'm a bit uncultured, shallow, and I feel unable to place myself in that world.

Notes before watching the film:
I loved the directors' tribute to Bresson and this is one of Ebert's great films, so I'm excited for this one.

Charlie Chaplin once said (I'm probably paraphrasing) to work is to live. Rosetta thinks she gain happiness in her life through her work but I suspect her job isn't personally fulfilling and she'll find happiness is harder work than she thought.

Thoughts before viewing the film:
It seems the plot concerns a man who has to choose between living in virtual reality or the real world. Maybe instead of being focused on solipsism (the brain in the vat scenario), immortality (Vanilla Sky), or determinism (The Matrix), this film will deal with the more crucial issue why for some people, like myself, often the highlight of their day is a vicarious experience; of course, like much dystopian fiction and sci-fi, we're not at the same point technologically but we're at the same point socially.

Hopefully this film helps me rethink how I seek cheap thrills and reverie, but maybe this would be best saved as an afterthought.

Too shallow to be truly lonely they are people trying to escape their boredom by reaching out to one another and finding only boredom once again. - Pauline Kael

I disagree with the opinion films about the rich can bare more about the soul; to paraphrase Andrew Sarris, who coined the term Antonioniennui, a neo-realist film like Bicycle Thieves cannot be as revealing as Madame de..., a film about people who have in a sense problems of their own making and inescapable problems about existence (Ebert expressed a similar sentiment in his review). I'm not saying action should be valued more than thought or vice-versa'; I'm merely saying the similiarties of human experience are greater than class differences, and feelings of ennui can be consuming even for people from lower classes.

UK Jun 24, 2013 (Mouchete has the same release details)

Canada Nov 05, 2013

I watch films mostly for entertainment and stimulation, but I want to learn film criticism and eventually have a career in film criticism. I should read, watch films, and read literature to become a better writer and thinker.

I'll finish this plan later.

Class: The Film Experince - unfortunately only a handful of lectures were recorded
My Books: A History of Narrative Film (HNF)
Becoming Film Literate (BFL)
Closely Watched Films (CWF)

My Plan
Early Film and Griffith
Class: "An Aesthetic of Astonishment: Early Film and the (In)Credulous Spectator."
✓ HNF Ch 1 Origins
HNF Ch 2 International Expansion
HNF Ch 3 Griffith and Narrative
✓ D.W. Griffith: Father of Film
CWF Ch 1 The Beginnings of Film Narrative: D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation
BFL Ch Parallel Storytelling: Intolerance
True Heart Susie - I'll see it just for fun.

Soviet Montage Theory
Class: Lecture 5
HNF Ch 5 - Soviet Montage Theory
Note: This would be a good time to study editing.
Try to have at least a small grasp of Eisenstein, Kuleshov, and Pudovkin's ideas on editing.
BFL Ch 28 - Self-Referential Cinema: Man With a Movie Camera
BFL Ch 5 - Editing—Russian Montage: Battleship Potemkin

Hollywood in the 20's
HNF Ch 6 - stop at 185 to cover Chaplin and Keaton
Class: Lecture 2 Readings
✓ Class: Keaton Lecture
Cops
Maybe read The Silent Clowns
BFL Ch 10: Period Comedy - The General
The General
✓ Class: James Agee: Comedy's Greatest Era (I should definitely read the entire book when I can afford it.)
Class: Chaplin Lecture
I saw Modern Times recently so I'll skip seeing it again.
The Immigrant
Easy Street
CWF: Chapter 3 - Expressionism and Realism in Film Form: F.W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh and Charles Chaplin’s The Adventurer (read Realism section)
The Adventurer
If I feel like it: The Rink and possibly Shoulder Arms and The Champion I might see A King in New York and Jarmusch's interview.
Class: Write an essay comparing Chaplin to Keaton.

HNF Ch 6 - finish the chapter. I probably won't see Lubitsch's early work, but I'll see more von Stroheim.
Foolish Wives

Early German Films
Class: Lecture 6 notes
HNF Ch 5: Expressionism in Weimar Era Germany
CWF: Chapter 3 - Expressionism and Realism in Film Form: F.W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh and Charles Chaplin’s The Adventurer (read Expressionist section)
The Last Laugh
BFL Ch 10 - Expressionism in Cinema: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
BFL Ch 29 - Architecture in Production Design:
Metropolis I saw Metropolis recently so I'll probably just read the chapter and maybe rewatch a few scenes.
If I feel like it: Rewatch Nosferatu and read The Haunted Screen.
See Faust for entertainment.




== I planned enough for now. This should take one or two weeks.


Optional Reading
HNF ch


Some future plans:
- Read Bresson's Notes on Cinematography and view most of his filmography while reading the book.
- Read Hitchock by Truffaut and view many Hitchcock films

D.W. Griffith: Father of Film

This film is based on Gean Jenet's short stories so I expect I'll like it.