Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Gee LP (A) on July 19, 2005 at 00:17:20

In Reply to: Re: Whoops! My bad on the Pulitzer! posted by RGA on July 18, 2005 at 23:32:51:

Re: books by the critics, you should be able to find them in the musty shelves of your university or local library. Heck, even Bossier City has Kecrauer's "From Caligari to Hitler" and Haskell's "From Reverance to Rape"! Start with Bazin and Sarris (but you can never read too much Kael: "I Lost It at the Movies," "Reeling," and "When the Lights Go Down"). Good hunting!

While I enjoy analyzing films frame by frame and sequence by sequence, I also enjoy just sitting down and watching a movie. You might be surprised at how sheerly enjoyable "Kane" is when you are a little older. Odd how a 25-year-old man's first film is basically a memory piece (the Mankiewicz script, I suppose), but like Proust, the viewer's age adds a little resonance to the work.

BTW, you're all wrong on Dylan :^). No liner notes needed to understand what he is saying in "Ballad of a Thin Man." Now, what it MEANS may be another thing....! I don't think he has a serious problem with enunciation until after the Christian phase (what was the album with "Jokerman" on it?). Too much touring and too many cigarettes? For a more relaxed Dylan singing style, check out "Basement Tapes", "John Wesley Harding" and "Nashville Skyline"; although every word of "Blood on the Tracks" is burned in my heart...no lyric sheet needed here!

An English lit major, eh? You know I am a middle-aged Secondary Education/English and Social Studies student in Louisiana! Long term goal is to be an English or Social Studies professor, but teaching high school kids about "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Separate Peace" for four or so years should not be too bad.

And if you are looking for a Leonard Maltin recommendation, I gotcha one right here! "The Great Comedy Teams" was published in 1970 or 71 in paperback by Maltin when he was just 17 or 18...his first book. Great essays on the great film comedy teams of the 20s through 50s. Best writing is on Laurel and Hardy, and Martin and Lewis, but wait til you read about (was it Clark and Johnson's, or Johnson and Clark's:) "Hellzapoppin'"! Long out of print, but if you can score a copy, I highly recommend it!

Enjoy the search! And if the reading gets a little too academic or long-winded (it won't with Bazin or Truffaut, I promise!), my advice is: See another movie!