Whatcha gonna see?

I just bought "A Mighty Wind" last weekend and have been saving it for a time I can watch it with a girl I've been seeing. Hopefully tomorrow night, though it might get put off until Monday. Probably not an Oscar contender huh? Oh well, Christopher will collect his dues one of these days.

I'll probably catch "Winged Migration" at last, although "Pieces of April" will probably be my next full-price film.

If I get to one this weekend, it will probably be Shattered Glass. I may also get to Elephant or In the Cut this week sometime.

I wish I could say Sylvia, but I don't believe it's playing here yet. My back-up plan is to rent Stevie, but, again, that might be hard to find in Knoxville...

I began my weekend a few hours ago by watching American Splendor. Very enjoyable, and it will probably be in my top ten of 2003. More thoughts later.

I was sent a DVD of Charlotte Sometimes which I'll see this weekend.

Hoping to catch MYSTIC RIVER this weekend with my buddy that recommended the novel, but he's got a packed weekend ahead, so I'll either find another date or see something else. Want to see PIECES OF APRIL, but it ain't on our screens just now.

On video, may re-watch AMERICAN BEAUTY with my wife (who bailed out when she tried to watch it on her own, some time in the past), or PARADISE (which I got to thinking about while marvelling over Thora Birch - how great to see that lost treasure again, now that I know where little Thora and Elijah's careers have taken them!). Or, if I end up watching something on my own, probably STEVIE (so I'll go back and add a second vote for that one on the ballot. Could I go to jail for that?)

Sunday I hope to watch DEKALOG V.


Ron

P.S. It won't let you vote twice. And I thought this was a DEMOCRACY, for goodness sake!!!

Just finished watching 'Harold and Maude.' My first viewing of it - a colleague loaned me the DVD.

Misalliance at the Seattle Rep.

Michael:

: I was sent a DVD of Charlotte Sometimes which I'll see this weekend.

Give us a review when you're done; I've heard good things about it from a couple sources, and I'm looking for more confirmation.

Me, I will be seeing a preview of Love, Actually because the wife is dying to watch it. And maybe Stevie.

Dale

Well, I'm taking my friend and her kid to see Elf in a couple hours. I don't know if I'll be seeing anything else on the big screen this weekend, but I really should -- I have spent so much time in the Cinematheque lately that I've been falling behind with regard to the newer, mainstream releases. I'm also thinking that I should rent The Matrix Reloaded and give it a second viewing before I see The Matrix Revolutions on Monday.

More like "rush hour" weekend here--spent Saturday morning shopping, Saturday afternoon selling church bazaar raffle tickets at local "Cotton Festival" street fair, and this afternoon, I'm supposed to be grading papers (what am I doing here?). So the only movie I've had time to see is Say Anything on DVD. I'm sure everyone knows it was director Cameron Crowe's first feature, and I'm a big fan of the Cusack siblings.

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Just finished watching 'Harold and Maude.'

An all time favourite. What did you think?

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...the only movie I've had time to see is Say Anything on DVD.

An all time favourite. What did you think?

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Misalliance at the Seattle Rep.

If plays count, let me add PRIVATE EYES at Pacific Theatre, and MAIL ORDER BRIDE at Trinity Western University.

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QUOTE ...the only movie I've had time to see is Say Anything on DVD. An all time favourite. What did you think?

I loved it. Again. Cameron Crowe was obviously destined for greatness. In many ways he got high school, or at least the end of high school, much more right than the much more vaunted John Hughes.

Of course, in high school, I was "Lloyd"'s friend played by Lili Taylor, but without the guitar, just the bad poetry & the stupid ex-boyfriend

Re: 'Harold and Maude' - I was very tired on Friday night, so my critical thinking mode wasn't at its peak. Nonetheless, I thought there were some tremendously funny sequences, particularly their escape from the motorcycle cop and their scheme to freak out Harold's gungho uncle. The rapid-fire trio of reactions to Harold's wedding plans from the uncle, shrink, and priest -- each with their esteemed leader's portrait behind them -- was brilliant.

Besides that, what struck me most was how much this film was a product of the late 60's: free expression as the ultimate value, love crossing all of societal barriers, the opposition to the Vietnam War, and so forth. I wondered what popular and critical reaction to this film was at the time -- were these values embraced by the media by that time, or were they viewed as radical?

What makes this an all-time favorite for you, Ron?

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Re:  'Harold and Maude' -   What makes this an all-time favorite for you, Ron?

A defining picture for me, at the time. It gave expression to so much that was important in my life. I didn't see it until 1979 or so, at a revival house, and in the next few years saw it quite a few more times (in an era before video rentals). I took kids from my church youth group (I was a youth pastor, of sorts, for a couple years), and we'd talk endlessly about freedom in Christ, about taking hold of life instead of giving in to a culture of death, and about all the funny stuff. It became kind of a litmus test for new girlfriends (two – I was no Cassanova): did they get it? If not, would they ever understand me? (Hey, I was young and melodramatic.) Maybe the splendid irony is the fact that I ended up marrying one of those young women - while she liked the movie fine, it certainly didn't speak to her the way it spoke to me. Its themes just aren't that important to her. So, as a test for romantic compatibility, HAROLD & MAUDE flunked. (Or maybe there was a deeper something embedded in the film: the whole thing was shot in the Redwood City area where my wife grew up. I was right that H&M was profoundly linked to my romantic destiny: I just didn't know in what way. Wow. There is more in heaven and earth....)

I was never nuts about the "free love" element of the film, but that seemed to me - and seems - like an obligatory trope more than something essential to the film, which thumbs its nose at lots of other "establishment" stuff, so why not sexual mores and ageism (though that's not a word anybody was using then)? I just edited that bit out, pushed it to the side of my plate – I wasn't about to let one bit of wilted lettuce in the salad spoil the whole meal.

One could certainly argue that the freedom this movie celebrates is in no way freedom in Christ: that its "do whatever makes you feel alive" libertinism is a road to bondage more often than it's a route to the true liberty found in God's kindom. I guess. But I've never expected movies to "toe the line" - it's enough for me when a given flick portrays something that's important to me, even if at the same time it's failing in another way. Since finding myself a citizen of the Kingdom of God, I've been acutely aware that, here on earth, here in time, I'm a stranger in a strange land. And, like ex-pats all over the world, I get excited when something, anything here reminds me of home.

When I met Jesus, freedom was at the heart of His word to me. Freedom from judgement for sin, freedom from being concerned about what people think of me, freedom from what I then called "The System" (that I now think of as principalities and powers), freedom to make music and create theatre, freedom to think fresh and make mistakes, all covered by God's infinite grace. I've never really understood Christians for whom the faith provides a set of rules that tell them how to behave in order to feel secure, or to please God, or to keep from losing their reservation at the marriage feast: I accept them as siblings in God's family (that's so varied it's bizarre), but I must confess I don't see the family resemblance. Or if I do, I might see it in the way we treat people or how we be, but certainly not in how we think, or see the world.

Back to HAROLD & MAUDE. If there's a single detail that gives the film more weight, more credibility, than its hippy-dippy "If it feels good do it" appearance might suggest, it's Maude's personal history, glimpsed only in a moment (which I won't spell out, for the sake of those who haven't seen the film). And, perhaps, the corollary fact that, while an unbalanced message of liberation is destructive for some, it may have been just the corrective poor, imprisoned Harold needed: for this death-obsessed young man, a gale-force breath of life didn't blow him off-course, but pushed him back in the right direction. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for a dying man. The right medicine for the right patient.

I guess there must have been a little of Harold in me, growing up. Apparently I needed the same medicine. Certainly this film offered the invigorating touch of Christ to me during some years when I was slowly becoming uncrippled, and to this day I can't see that film or hear Cat Stevens' sing "Don't wear fear or nobody will know you're there" without knowing God is speaking directly to me.

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Of course, in high school, I was \"Lloyd\"'s friend played by Lili Taylor, but without the guitar, just the bad poetry & the stupid ex-boyfriend  :D

I love this! Here's a conversation my wife and I have had...


ME: And, you know, that actress is in it.
HER: Which one?
ME: "Joe lies."
HER: Oh, her.

Thanks for your comments, Ron -- they give me a new way to look at this film.

Funny how certain films can resonate so strongly at certain stages in our lives. As a father of 3 little ones, the theme of parent/child relationships expounded so movingly in Magnolia has been bouncing around in my cranium quite a bit, since first seeing this film a few months back.

That's funny, I could vote as many times as I wanted. But only for Pat Buchanan, strangely.



Sincerely,
Floundering in FL

[quote]Funny how certain films can resonate so strongly at certain stages in our lives. As a father of 3 little ones, the theme of parent/child relationships expounded so movingly in Magnolia has been bouncing around in my cranium quite a bit, since first seeing this film a few months back.[/quote]
It's definitely true. I have no idea how HAROLD & MAUDE would strike me if I saw it now, fresh, at 46. In my twenties it was definitive, defining. And seeing it now, it's so connected to those years, and those feelings, it still has immense power for me.

I think part of what made TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL such an overwhelming emotional experience was the fact that my wife and I saw it on our first "date" after the birth of our first child. My mother - who has an uncanny resemblance to Geraldine Page's portrayal of Carrie Watts, not physically, but in her personal mannerisms and some personality traits - was baby-sitting my baby girl. Something about being a brand-new parent, and therefore suddenly seeing my mother very differently, and now watching a film that is partly about mothers and sons.... I shed tears through much of the movie. Very personal connection, probably all out of proportion to what would be a "normal" response.