Another groovy holiday season! Christmas with the family, which is the best thing about Christmas for me, out of many fine things about Christmas; most of the gifts I gave seem to have gone down well, and I got a slew of Eric Rohmer movies. Rohmer makes films that resonate with me, right down to bone marrow. They are as true as anything in film.
Our play, the Reindeer Monologues, went well overall despite a couple of frustrating nights. I believe it was Noel Coward who once said of a performance that it was a success, but the audience was a complete disaster. I'm less troubled by quiet audiences than most actors I know, since I was raised in a church of the frozen chosen, so I'm accustomed to quiet audiences/congregations, but glowering, unlaughing audiences are a bit demoralizing. I'm sorry, but if you didn't find anything to enjoy in our show, you should seriuosly consider the possibility that your life is a charred pit of misery and failure, and could use some reconstruction.
One of the actresses in our show was visited by her two sisters, who were delightful. Too bad they live far away... I keep meeting delightful women who are only visiting Alabama. Perhaps this is an indication that I need to leave the freakin' state, already.
We had a meeting to discuss the Politically Incorrect Cabaret, in which I'll be playing a part this time. I've enjoyed watching it in the past, and am pleased to be doing it! We're discussing the possibility of my playing Howard Dean and abusing the Democrats almost as cruelly as we do the Republicans. The cabaret members are divided between the "Democrats are perfect" camp and the "Tough love for democrats" camp of which I am a member, so it could be contentious. Still, at the moment there are many Republicans who are need of tough contempt, like the deceptively named Virgil Goode of Virginia, whose recent anti-Islam comments reveal that it isn't necessary to have the mental capacity of an adult human in order to be elected. In fact, I think it's time to initiate a new feature here at the blog, to be titled "The Platinum Douchebag," an award to be given on a semi-occasional basis to people whose mere existence proves that the human race ain't much. (Hey, anything to drive up the ratings.) Congratulations to Virgil Goode, recipient of the first Platinum Douchebag. Wear it with pride.
But hey, he'll get his at some point. Here's hoping we all get what we've got coming this year!
About Me
- Aaron White
- Go out with you? Why not... Do I like to dance? Of course! Take a walk along the beach tonight? I'd love to. But don't try to touch me. Don't try to touch me. Because that will never happen again. "Past, Present and Future"-The Shangri-Las
12 comments:
I'm guessing the Sidewalk forum might be totally dead at this point (yes, it's Diane from the forum). That's a shame because I was looking forward to hearing your thoughts on those Rohmer films. I hope you enjoy them.
Hi Diane! I suspect (and hope) the Sidewalk forum is only down as they try to fix it to block the freekin' bots, not just for our benefit, but so they won't be embarrassed the next time a Scramble or Festival rolls around and people start checking the messboard, only to find it's choked with all that spam. I haven't watched those Rohmers yet... I'm saving them for when I'm in the mood.
I hope you're right about the forum. The bots situation was beyond ridiculous. But when I came back to work and found it was down, I kind of felt like yelling, "But I didn't even get to say goodbye!"
I know what you mean about saving the Rohmers. I was recently given An Autumn Tale, but I'm waiting for just the right time to watch it.
I'm reading A Taste For Beauty, a collection of Rohmer's essays, and I'm surprised by how technically minded he is. His films seem so casual, but it seems he puts a lot of thought into the formal aspects of filmmaking.
Hey, that sounds interesting. I didn't know such a book even existed. I'll have to keep an eye out for that.
Aaron, have you ever seen either of Andrew Bujalski's two films? He's often compared to Rohmer. I'm a pretty big fan of his film Funny Ha Ha. It's such a shame that I missed both of his trips to the Sidewalk fest.
Nope, never heard of Andrew Bujalski, but I'll keep an eye out for him. The best film I've seen recently was The Five Obstructions, in which Lars von Triers challenges a filmmaker I've never heard of to remake a cool short film 5 ways with different rules. The original film, The Perfect Human, is on the same DVD and is well worth seeing on its own. The end of the Five Obstructions is actually quite touching; it's a real act of love.
I've seen some of The Five Obstructions--up to the part that was filmed in India. Your description of the ending is very intriguing.
I had asked about Polanski's Repulsion before the forum went down. I watched it a few nights ago. Scary, intense, and sad. Also very disturbing, of course. But it was all done brilliantly. I'm going to watch The Tenant before long and see how it compares.
I need to check out Repulsion. I saw High Tension recently, a slickly produced French slasher flick. It was well done, but I didn't care for it. It was instructive, because it does a good job with lots of things the original Texas Chainsaw did well. I've been thinking about TCM a lot recently, trying to figure out why I like it, and comparing it to High Tension is helping me home in on the key reasons why I'm so enthralled by Leatherface and company when I'm not keen on slasher flicks in general. I'll probably post on the blog about this sometime.
I've not seen TCM--not sure I could handle that. (Am I a coward? I guess so.) The picture of Leatherface in my copy of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is enough to scare me. I'd be interested in your take on this, though.
I'm not much of a horror fan, especially when it comes to slasher films. But psychological horror and/or suspense is another matter. In Repulsion, the protagonist clearly suffers from a mental disorder, and we get the view from inside her mind. I've thought about writing up something about it at my own blog, but I'm not sure that will happen.
I'd like to expand on this inthe main body of my blog, but I should be working... anyway, in the first two TCMs, the good ones, Leatherface isn't a boogyman, really; just a mentally deficient hillbilly boy who hasn't been raised right. I think I like these movies because the cannibal family in them is an exaggerated but otherwise believable version of a sort of cretinousness we've all encountered, but that we don't often see in movies with this degree of insight. Chainsaw 2 seems like it isn't even interested in being scary; it just wants to tell a story about how high-functioning normal people should deal with dangerous cretins. The heroine is sympathetic towards Leatherface because she can see he's just a mistreated boy, but at the same time she knows not to turn her back on him.
Hey, looks like the Sidewalk board is back and unchanged. Still all botted up, and they haven't replaced their word verification with anything better. Sidewalk post-Jambor is off to a roaring start.
Huh. Makes you wonder why the board was even down for so long.
Thanks for your comments on TCM. Interesting. I'm looking forward to reading more when you get the chance to write up a blog post about it.
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