Lacking significance through having been overused; unoriginal and trite.
Film
Film

Film

#52Films By Women

I made a pledge to watch at least one female-directed film per week that I hadn’t seen prior in 2019. I will log them as I go, and likely rank them in the same list when I am done. Did the same thing in 2016.

***

Speaking of movies. This is going to get discussed a lot this year, but 1999 was a watershed year for cinema. Probably tied to nostalgia, but seemingly one of my favorites.

Magnolia, The Virgin Suicides, The Cider House Rules, Ratcatcher, Eyes Wide Shut, Being John Malkovich, The Iron Giant, Office Space, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Election, The Green Mile, Three Kings, Man on the Moon, The Sixth Sense, The Blair Witch Project, American Beauty, Fight Club, The Straight Story, Sweet and Lowdown, The Matrix, All About My Mother, Girl, Interrupted, Boys Don’t Cry.

Hell, Cruel Intentions, She’s All That, 10 Things I Hate About You , South Park and American Pie.

We even got installments of Star Wars and Toy Story.

Welles

Been devouring Orson Welles the past week or so. Started with watching The Other Side of the Wind, which I would not recommend to another human being. Still, I found it fascinating.

Since, I’ve watched/rewatched eight films either by him, and/or starring him, or about him. Plan on keeping that up while I await next week’s Criterion release of The Magnificent Ambersons.

Even managed to crack Bogdanovich’s This Is Orson Welles, which has been collecting dust on my shelf for far too long. There’s an anecdote in the book about MGM looking for an actor to play opposite Hedy Lamarr that I’m finding far too relatable at the moment. It’s like a metaphor for my entire life:

“Welles – that’s who we want! Get him! Who’s his agent?”

“He doesn’t have an agent.”

“What?”

“No, he’s on the radio and he’s running a theatre in New York called The Mercury.”

“Get him.”

Because of the time difference, it is now two o’clock in the morning on the East Coast; ten secretaries are put on the job… [they] start wildly searching by long distance telephone. “We hear he’s at the Stork Club.” “No. El Morocco.” From Harlem to Chinatown, the telephone dragnet spreads out over Manhattan; and for four or five hours, the conference proceeds…

Finally, a secretary, breathless with victory, throws open the door: “I’ve got him for you!” she exclaims, “I’ve got Orson Welles!”

Then, somebody says, “What does he want?”

Milos Forman has passed.

He was 86.

In my formative years I often felt like an outsider and Forman’s best films – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Man on the Moon, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Hair and Amadeus– sang to my rebellious heart.

Darren Brown: The Push

Trying to figure out how to never have to agree to anything ever again. Afraid getting dinner with someone is only a few steps away from committing a crime.