I prefer short things, not necessarily TikTok short, but "How to with John Wilson" short...
When I do watch a movie, sometimes it's something new that I've been reading about — I saw "Elvis" and "Blonde" — but sometimes it's something quite random. Last night, I watch the 1921 Swedish silent movie "The Phantom Carriage."
I like to keep blog posts short, though sometimes I go long. Right now, I can go short, because the Criterion Channel made this minute-a-half presentation of 3 reasons to watch the movie (with an especially interesting image at the very end):
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I couldn't even finish watching that "How To" trailer. The narrator's cadence was way too annoying. It is possible... to not pause randomly.... in the middle of a sentence.
Unrelated, there's a great book "How To" by Randall Munroe (who also just came out with "What if 2"). Maybe not (or maybe it is?) to the tastes of our blogress but others around here might appreciate it.
"I couldn't even finish watching that "How To" trailer. The narrator's cadence was way too annoying. It is possible... to not pause randomly.... in the middle of a sentence."
Ha ha. That's the whole charm of it. Either you like him or you don't. If you don't, move on. If you do, you're in for an immense treat. That is my favorite TV show.
It is possible to not split infinitives.
This is why I love this blog. Where else in the world could I sip my morning coffee and be shown these two unique and completely different intros to shows I might like.
It's what keeps me coming back every day.
It's hard if you have no idea or desire to know what and infinitive is. Splitting hairs, logs and babies is wear I draw the line.
John Wick: Chapter 4. March 24, 2023. Can hardly wait...
Kubrick, you ripped off The Phantom Carriage! That's Brian De Palma level thievery!
ha ha
Thanks Althouse, never heard of this film before. And I spent more years in film school than you're supposed to spend. (6 years in a 2-year program, dude).
"I don't watch movies very often anymore for some reason."
I think it's an age thing. I often leave even a 1 hour tv show and come back later to finish it.
I don't have the attention span I once had.
I'll give the "How To" a try. The narrator (in the few seconds I listened) seems to have gone to the Ira Glass School of Voice Work. Which I like.
We are currently watching "Alone", "Great British Baking Show", "House of Dragons", and waiting for the next seasons of "Barry" and "White Lotus".
Victor Sjostrom is the lead in Wild Strawberries (1957), one of Bergman's best movies.
There's a scene in that movie with the man berating the woman for getting pregnant. You want to see what a coerced abortion might look like, watch that movie. Great movie, powerful movie, ugly scene.
I google "Wild Strawberries" and "coerced abortion" and I get nothing. Google finds nothing.
It looks like there aren't many great matches for your search.
Yeah, just a man yelling at the woman who's pregnant and how he doesn't want a baby and she better get rid of it. I'm sure that's never happened in human history. Holy fuck.
"I don't have the attention span I once had."
Me neither. I thought it was the internet effect.
Check out the British series, Foyle’s War. It’s a rare jewel of superb television. It’s on the Acorn platform.
- Krumhorn
"How to" is good. When it gets tedious I go to something else.
I've always been a big fan of Criterion. They have all the good Japanese films.
My wife is a fan of MHZ. She's addicted to French crime dramas.
Here's Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants (1927).
Coercion?
Sweet-talking?
Both?
"It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig," the man said.
"It's not really an operation at all."
(It's 1927, there's no penicillin, no curette, and the procedure is illegal as fuck around the world).
"I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. It's really not anything. It's just to let the air in."
Lol, me too. I have been watching archeological shows, and I am getting qualified to make Iron Age pottery with stuff on hand. Maybe I will try napping flint. Movies are largely stupid exercises in preaching the morality that our elites think we should adopt, hence they are boring.
I suppose I contracted The Internet Effect about 40 years ago. I've had and have very little patience for movies or fictional TV shows, either feeling bored with a movie that doesn't draw me in or irritated at the blatant emotional manipulation.
Maybe it's genetic. My father used to say the last movie he saw was Going My Way, 1944. He simply had no interest in such diversions.
The Criterion Channel also has The Virgin Spring, directed by Ingmar Bergman. It's one of my all time favorites.
Honeysuckle Weeks
If you enjoyed "Elvis" you will appreciate Angelina Joran's paen to the film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTbKhkceR00
The real dystopian nightmare is upon us. Most of the scenes in that clip in NYC show us the democratic decay.
The boarded up windows, the graffiti, the burned out buildings... etc...
Meanwhile - NBC - the elites - are gearing up to mock all the non-democraticals.
Movies are now an inconvenient length. People are going for shorter things online or for longer series from television. It helps (or hurts, depending on how you look at it) that people aren't going to theaters, where their sole focus for 100 minutes is on the film. People are distracted and aren't as appreciative of a well put together picture.
You can also see a parallel between TikTok and other social media and the "reality hunger" that grips today's readers. People aren't as into made up things nowadays, perhaps because they realize how easy it is to make things up, perhaps because they realize how hard it is to do so convincingly.
A friend of mine's daughter was 18 and just about to start UCLA (which is terribly difficult to get into, especially if you're white) had, he said, never watched an entire movie--not in theaters, nor at home. The length and breadth of her attention span, he said, was YouTube. "Same with all her friends."
I asked about books. "As far as I know," he said, "she's never read a book that wasn't assigned."
I saw Sjostrom's He Who Gets Slapped decades ago and the imagery still sticks in my mind.
>MayBee said...
We are currently...waiting for the next seasons of "Barry"... <
There's a fourth season of "Barry"coming up! You just made my day! Though I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how they are going to pull that off, considering the final event of the last episode.
I also don't watch many movies any longer, not even movies that I greatly liked in the past. It has nothing to with my attention span, but is rather due to the fact that movies made today have gotten significantly worse in the last decade. I haven't been to a movie theater in 9 years now, and will probably never go again.
My wife doesn't have the patience for movies unless we go to the theater, so we stick to serialized dramas, murder mysteries, etc. Most of them non-U.S. as U.S. shows, especially network shows, have terrible writing and are only a vehicle for woke casts featuring perfect-looking people.
The Brits are super-woke too, but if you find older shows they keep it in check. And the people look normal...
Most movies now stink there are some I rewatch - last night Closed Circuit (2013) with Rebecca Hall. I disguised romcom in the form of a legal case and deep state.
Ann, I'd love to hear your thoughts on "Joe Pera Talks with You." I love it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktVIQZ7tiag
“ Ann, I'd love to hear your thoughts on "Joe Pera Talks with You." I love it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktVIQZ7tiag”
I almost talked about that here, but I’m saving it for a separate post that I’ll put up soon.
It’s my other favorite show. Meade and I watch it together and we love it.
Thank you for the "The Phantom Carriage" links, Althouse. I'm showing James Whale's "Frankenstein" locally at an old disused venue: I'm going to show that "Phantom" trailer and possibly screen it around New Year's. Yes, I'm starting a movie house. And later on, a dance hall. Ha Ha, because I can.
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