Screenings, Autumn 1998

Knowledge Is Wealth.
Share It.

Kolya

Fantastic. A superb performance by a child half as old as Tatum O'Neal was in "Paper Moon."

JFK

Again, but the first time since I read Libra.

Full Metal Jacket

Charming.

City Lights

Okay, I'm sitting here typing "City Lights" and thinking of what to say, when Tracy Chapman lodges herself in my head. Why? "We go driving, driving in your car, /Speed so fast I felt like I was drunk /City lights lay out before us/ And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder…" I listen to that album so rarely and I am pleased to know she hasn't left me.
So. A sweet little story. Frustrating in that "Fawlty Towers" way. I would like to know more about the conventions of silent film. In "City Lights" I saw a lot of pratfall, which is easier to show in pantomine than subtle narrative. The first I knew of Charlie Chaplin was reading, when I was nine or so, in Half-Magic that the children didn't like him, only because his were the only movies they were permitted to see. "City Lights" didn't stir me, but then I'm a much more sophisticated, and jaded, movie-viewer than were his audiences. I still want to see "Gold Rush" and "Modern Times" and several of the others.

The Opposite of Sex

Christina Ricci is very, very good. I hope she continues past her teen years. One of the most brilliant bits of acting I have ever seen was in "Addams Family Values," which I watched solely for its casting, when Wednesday smiles. Scenes don't get much scarier than that.

The Wizard of Oz, on the big screen

Big! Scarier! Funnier! The best movie ever!

The X-Files

Why did I start watching this? Why? Is peer pressure an excuse anymore when you're in your late 20s? Anyway. It followed up some of the gaps in the series. But overall: "Hi, I just walked out of central Antarctica in bare feet." How the heroine got up Mount Rushmore at the end of "North by Northwest" can be explained by sheer Cary Grant charisma. But Antarctica?

Wings of the Dove

Whatever James meant, this movie doesn't express. Am I totally ignorant, or does the idea of the London Tube existing in 1906 jar one's sense of time?
981004

Go to previous or next season, Movie Index, Faves Index, Words, or Lisa Index

Copyright © 1998, 1999 LJH