English title: The Rules of the Game, though a literal translation would be The rule of the game
I love this movie so much I don't even know how to begin to talk about it. is it a comedy? yep. a drama? indeed. a 'dramedy'? thankfully not. a comedy of manners? absolutely. an allegory, an analysis, a critique? yes. yes. yes.
a perfect snapshot of a moment in time? very much so. set between the wars at a time when an aristocracy on its way down was meeting a bourgeoisie on it way up; when the servant class was morphing into the working class.
that we even have La règle du jeu to watch is little short of a miracle. its remarkable story, lifted straight from imdb:
"
Despite now being considered one of the best films made by many historians, the picture almost became a lost art. Claiming that it was bad for the morale of the country (due to impending war), the French government banned the film about a month after its original release. When Germany took over France the following year, it was banned by the Nazi party as well, who also burnt many of the prints. Allied planes then accidentally destroyed the original negatives. It was thought to be a lost picture. In 1956, some followers of director Jean Renoir found enough pieces of the film scattered throughout France to reconstitute it with Renoir's help. Renoir claimed only one minor scene was missing from the original cut.
trailer
...Everyone has their reasons
NOTE: many think, me amongst them, that the scene below is crucial, a moment where several themes of the movie come together. it is also EXTREMELY DISTURBING. excruciating to watch.
it is a "country hunt" of the kind the guests at a chateau or a country manor of the time would participate in. it features the slaughter of woodland animals, including <gulp> bunnies.
the 'hunt'
it thrills me that this movie, who could have so easily being lost forever, is available to us. it is a gift. Jean Renoir was a great director, a great filmmaker, and a great humanist. we are lucky to have his work.
at least that was my conclusion after reading the excellent series of articles on dental health by June Thomas of Slate
it is long, enlightening and I can't recommend it enough.
some key points:
- why ist dental care separated from health care? there is ample evidence that dental health (lack of) correlates to serious chronic conditions including heart disease, diabetes, digestive problems, etc,
- dentists are doctors but not "really doctor doctors". the significant differences between medical and dental practices
- dental insurance 'separate and unequal' from health insurance
- the prevention model has been very successful in dentistry yet not in medicine
- the appalling lack of dental care to large numbers of individuals
- dental care hasn't gotten barely any mention in the current health care reform debate
I'm a complete scaredity-cat when it comes to horror books and movies. I wasn't born that way; I was made to be that way. and I know who to blame: Stephen King. directly to blame in the case of horror literature (a story for another day) and indirectly in the case of horror movies.
In the case of movies, while not a bigbig fan of horror movies, I went to my fair share of them - The Amityville Horror, The Omen, others. and then I watched The Shining. and that was the end of all that. I can't even watch horror movie trailers. even right now, as I was searching for clips in YT I could barely watch each for a few seconds. they kinda look legit, but don't blame me if you get rickrolled in the middle of watching a clip. blame Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick, who I just noticed, have the same initials. conspiracy anyone?
there are still very contentious arguments as to whether Kubrick messed up/was faithful to/improved upon King's novel. I have no opinion as I havent' read the novel. or plan to, but here be teh movie wiki.
but why am I writing about a movie I can't bear to watch even a few minutes of? well, because of that same fact. I have to respect a movie that affected me so profoundly. and I wasn't the only one. The Shining has endured, and is shown in a form of hommage emblematic of this XXI century: parodies,mashups, recuts. there are a cubic assload of selfsame all over teh internets; won't take you long to find them.
begin the clippage:
trailer
and because it showed up on the first page of results when I googled The Shining
The Shining reenacted by bunnies
"like sands through the hourglass, so are the minutes of our friday."
blooming outside my garage. Can you say unseasonably warm?
This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime\xAE 6.5 or higher is required.
A nice little hiking trip in Purgatory Chasm...
We left my mom behind at the beginning, which was a shame because it was really neat, but she couldn't make it, especially with the shoes she was wearing.
~Nikki
one of my favorites: a movie written and directed by Orson Welles, who also played the main character...(no, is not this movie, smartypants. you didn't even read the title. be quiet)
but unlike that other movie, which all of y'all who taken Film 101 will remember 'was written/directed/acted produced by Orson Welles' it also was the only one in Welles's brilliant, contentious, and much-studied career where he was able to maintain control, i.e. deciding what was to be 'the final cut'. in no other movie he directed did Welles have that control.
yaddayaddayadda. why all this? because Touch of Evil, the movie I'm talking about, was originally released after being edited and cut by the studio. Welles's hated it. years after his death, with much fanfare, Touch of Evil was released in 1998 touted as being 'Welles's Original Vision".
this release was possible because all the footage Welles's had shot still existed, alongside his extensive notes. here be teh wiki for much more detail and linkage if interested
this 1998 release is the only one I've seen. on DVD. not on the theater, though I hold out hope to do so someday.
I cannot bloviate on 1958 vs 1998, studio vs. Welles etc. but I suspect the studio must have been embarrassed about overriding Welles's vision, because I can't find a clip from the 1958 release. not even the trailer.
ok, time for the clip show. trailer for the 1998 release:
the opening scene, famous for cinematic reasons. guess why if you like
my favorite exchange between Welles's character, Quinlan, and Marlena Dietrich's, Tanya. can't find a clip, so read on:
Tanya: We're closed.
Quinlan: You've been cookin' at this hour?
Tanya: Just cleanin' up.
Quinlan: Have you forgotten your old friend, hmm?
Tanya: I told you we were closed.
Quinlan: I'm Hank Quinlan.
Tanya: I didn't recognize you. You should lay off those candy bars.
Quinlan: It's either the candy or the hooch. I must say, I wish it was your chili I was gettin' fat on. Anyway, you're sure lookin' good.
Tanya: You're a mess, honey.
you the reader have to imagine the voice tones, looks, camera back-and-forths, etc. that make the above exchange bitter/eerie/wistful and able to give you Quinlan' and Tanya's story in those few lines. is one of those scenes used in classrooms to demonstrate why film is an art form, not just moving pictures.
a later scene with the same characters:
a film noir, that schooled any other movie calling itself a film noir before and after it.
being a film noir is impossible to discuss the plot without giving it away.
you didn't hear it from me, but rumor has that 'round teh YT someone has uploaded the whole damn movie in parts. can't think of a better way to spend a rainy fall afternoon
Getting stuck in the things that are fading, the friendships that have slipped through neglect and distance, place to go but no time to go. I need to make a disc of Neko Case and drive Columbia Parkway for a while to purge my system. Fall leaves, crisp air, something to clean out the dank regrets that are growing on the edges of my life.
today's woot shirt of the day made me laugh. out loud. may have even snorted a li'l
disclaimer: this is not a paid endorsement or otherwise compensated for post. w00t stuff makes me laugh and if I post about it it seems fair to provide a link. no one is making you click on the link.
what a groundbreaking movie Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was. the movie of a play that many thought impossible to bring to the screen. the first American movie where the word 'goddamn' was said. the movie where Elizabeth Taylor, disheveled, profane, lewd and loud finally proved herself the equal if not the superior actor to her husband-at-the-time, the superb Richard Burton.
the trailer coyly hinted at what was to come
WAoVW? begins with an Elizabeth Taylor who moves and acts as a trapped animal. is impossible to look away
Humiliate the Host is one
if you think that Mad Men exposes what really was going on in the 60s, rent this movie.
