Scrabulous film

Some friends of mine made a great little documentary called "Absolutely Scrabulous". You can help them win cash by voting for it online!

They interviewed me last Tuesday and had the film done by yesterday.. the concept of the contest is that you had to make a short film in a weeks' time. I haven't watched all the other entries yet, but so far this one is by FAR the best. (I don't think I'm biased.)

Mamma Mia

One word: GO. SEE. IT.

Ok, well maybe more than one word. But honestly we had so much fun watching that movie! and everyone else in the theater seemed to, too. Laughing out loud, singing along loudly to bad Abba songs, drooling over the beautiful Greek scenery, laughing some more, tearing up a little. Meryl Streep, sexy boys and girls, people bursting into song, more singalong, Meryl Streep again and again. Middle-aged women are powerful and can dance in platform shoes! Everyone ends up with someone! Very happy.

Afterwards we celebrated with greek pizza.

Where no man has gone before

CBS is now serving up all the original shows from the original Star Trek series. I have always been much more into Star Trek than Star Wars, despite the fact that I ended up working for Lucas instead of Roddenberry. This year, there is going to be another Trek movie, and friends of mine here at work are created special effects for it, so perhaps I've come full circle.

Star Trek: the next generation was superior in almost every way to the original series, but the originality of the first shows can not be contested. As much as I cringe when watching Capt Kirk get the girl every time, and those uncomfortable mini-skirts, it was trend setting to have Uhuru there at all. I always enjoyed Mr. Spock, and the strange chemistry of the three main characters. I heard that the next movie has re-instated the mini-skirts, because it takes place earlier in the time-line than the original series.

Stories of some men's lives

We saw three movies in the past week. I don't like to read any reviews before seeing a film, and I prefer it if I haven't even seen the preview. That way I can go in ready to experience the film without any preconceptions or media hype. This is hard to do at the turn of the year, because everyone is printing "best of" lists and making oscar predictions. We saw "No Country for Old Men", "There Will Be Blood" and "Into the Wild". All were well done and riveting in their own way. I think, of the three, my favorite was "There Will Be Blood", mainly because Daniel Day-Lewis is so immensely watchable. You can't take your eyes off him - no matter what kind of character he plays, he is so charismatic on film. His eyes communicate so much.

All three of these films were primarily about men, and their lives. "No Country" was the story of a man dealing with no longer being able to face how evil some people can be. "Blood" was the tale of what happens when a man and his son can not communicate. "Wild" was the tale of a young man's journey to find and test himself.

Can you think of any movies that take these basic themes and explore them from a woman's point of view?

Yearend

The year is coming to an end - what a busy one it's been for us. The trip to Sicily and Rome, the kitchen/house remodel - rarely have we ever had a year where we made so many decisions and spent so much money! And this weekend we celebrate 25 years of coupledom. We joke that despite the remodel, we are still together. I think we collaborated pretty well, although it's the little things that get tiresome, like today at Home Despot, when we couldn't seem to agree on a single pull for a closet door. But in the end, we did find one that worked.

Last night we saw the film "Atonement", that seems to already be on many short lists for best movie of the year. It was exceptional. I really would like to read the book now, and see how they managed to capture the story. I'm reading a book called "A History of Love", and often find myself thinking about whether or not one could make it into a movie. The characters are so compelling, but the story happens in memory, not in action. I think it must be hard to make a movie where at first glance, you'd think it'd have to be all voice-over. That's why they do "flashbacks". There is one particular scene in "Atonement" that was so visually astonishing and terrible and wonderful all at once: the scene on the beach. I can't get it out of my head.

The word "Atonement" makes me think of e.e. cummings and his poem about loneliness. It goes something like this:

a
leaf

f
a
l
l
s

l
one
l
iness

I love how the number 1 is all over the place in that poem, and how loneliness is all about I-ness, One-ness. At-one-ment is a similar word.

Rainy day

Another rainstorm came through today, a much stronger one with real downpours and splashy puddles. The house is snug but the patio is drafty, and we had our coffee in the living room this morning. I tried to pull the cat into the house, and he was there til Barb went out to get the paper, and then he bolted. Rudy is not fond of being inside, especially when sharing the space with Lola, our pooch. I think Rudy has been in hiding under the house since then.

We saw the movie "49 up" last night, which is a documentary that follows the lives of some people, re-visiting them every seven years. The focus of this part of the series (there is a 7up, 14up, 21up, 28up and so forth) was how the subjects' lives had been affected by the film maker coming back at the 7 year intervals. I thought about how much people can do when they are held accountable. I wonder what will happen to us in the next seven years, and how would I answer the filmmaker's question - do you have a goal?

Film delight

We've been immersed in film-going lately, perhaps to escape the dust and detritus of our home remodel. What wonderful films we've seen in the last few days! It started out with a bang when we finally got to the theater to see "Across the Universe". This film immediately rose right to the top level of my "most loved movies" list (I simply can't put those titles into preferential order - they are all equally beloved. Some of them are Close Encounters, Field of Dreams, West Side Story, Amelie, Moulin Rouge...)

Across the Universe tells a story of the 60s. The bones of the film make up a love story, but there is so much more woven into the plot. Julie Taymor's brilliant visual talent makes this film shine. The costumes, the sets, the colors .. everything takes you on a time trip and puts you into the era. The Beatles music, sung by the cast, is placed so intelligently into the story. Each song's lyrics are used to amplify the story, in a way that you may not have thought of before. The songs are sometimes sung in a different key, or with some chords changed to minor from major, or in a different rhythm - just enough change to keep it interesting, just enough the same to flood you with the feelings you had when you first heard the song.

We also have tickets to some films at the Mill Valley Film Festival. The first one we saw was a documentary about Anita O'Day - the Life of a Jazz Singer. Great stuff! She was a pistol until she died last year at 86.

Last night, we saw Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There", which is a very different kind of film - kind of a mash-up of stories based on the life of Bob Dylan. This film is going to get a lot of press, because there were some amazing performances by the actors involved. I got a bit overwhelmed by it, because of the intercut visuals, the music, and the stories - by the end of two hours, I was just over-stimulated! But it's another take on the 60s.