Amelia

A few things I've seen lately:

1. Haywire
I'm not sure why this movie failed at the box office (rotten tomatoes: 80% of critics liked it but only 43% of the public). It was the best action movie I've seen and a pretty damn good just as a movie.

Things I liked:
-Brilliant use of sound, most notably the absence of sound. There were fights during which all you could hear was the noises and it made the scenes much more intense and interestingly intimate. In one part she's telling a story and the flashback has no dialogue. None from the characters in the scene and I don't think much, if any, voice-over. It's all pictures. I heart it.
-Realistic fight scenes. Not balletic, not beautiful, but convincing in a "this is how I would survive in as efficient a way as possible using whatever methods were at my disposal". They were messy and direct. She also fought "like a girl" meaning using her strengths to her advantages (my thighs are stronger than my arms too).
-Character development. I liked that the main character didn't talk much. She's a freaking assassin/special ops kinda person, why would she be chatty? Yet while being incredibly independent and (necessarily) ruthless she also maintained some normal (restrained, but normal) emotional and/or romantic relationships. Without it being cliched and ridiculous and sappy and sentimental. I don't think I've seen many female characters granted this level of respect. Also props to the actress who I believe was a fighter who crossed over into acting.
-She screwed up. While being incredibly competent (god so hot) and confident (also hot) sometimes things didn't go to plan and she couldn't outrun all 85 guys chasing her. And she would do smart, savvy things that made sense for the character. The writing was really smart.
-A subtle plot. Not everything was revealed at once! It didn't treat the audience like we're stupid! (Maybe this is why people didn't like it?) You had to pay attention and maybe think a little! There was some exposition at the end, but also blanks you had to fill in yourself *gasp*

I went in expecting a fairly entertaining, fun action movie and was very impressed. I doubt it's still in theaters, but would *highly* recommend. (If you saw it and didn't like it, I'm really curious to know why.)

2. A few nights later I watched a documentary on war photographer James Nachtwey. (Google him!) We have some of his photographs at work and they are often used for teaching. My boss lent me the movie, it was made about 10 years ago. It was fascinating to learn about this man who has devoted his life (at the cost of a fixed personal life) to his work and to bringing attention to devastating events worldwide. But 90 minutes of war in Bosnia, Rwanda, Palestine, Guatemala, etc., and images of incredibly poverty from Africa and southeast Asia, people living in trash heaps and next to railroad tracks, and starving children. It was rough going. One of his photographs can be incredibly moving so seeing film of so many of these situations was intense. It was a lot of human suffering to witness, even at such a remove. You may know some of his work--it was his images of 911 that were published in TIME.

3. This week I went to a talk by the Guerrilla Girls. (Well, one Girl). Feminist, activist artists who dubbed themselves "the conscience of the art world," they've been creating public works of art (mostly posters, stickers, and banners) that challenge sexism and racism in the art world since 1985. They wear gorilla masks and adopt the names of dead women artists to hide their identities. By the time I was in school they were already canonized (I've taught them in intro classes), so it was fun to see one of them present in person. My exhibition includes some of their posters and I tagged along the tour we gave Frida Kahlo this morning.

Saturday I went to see the new extended edition of Metropolis. The score was played live by the Alloy orchestra. It was awesome! I took my parents and they seemed to like it a fair amount, more than I expected.

the complete restoration to date of German director Fritz Lang’s 1927 science-fiction classic, METROPOLIS. Lang’s visionary work of science fiction redefined the term “super-production,” with its thousands of extras, monstrous sets, and eye-popping special effects, including a cataclysmic, multitude-engulfing flood. Lang’s original conception was only seen by the very earliest Berlin audiences (“positively overwhelming,” raved Variety after the 1927 premiere) — and then the cutting began, followed by decades of attempts at reconstruction. A 1984 version ran only 87 minutes, while the then-“definitive” 2002 reconstruction edged up the running time to 124 minutes. Finally, in 2008, the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires came across a print that had been in an Argentinean private collection since 1928. At a private screening in Berlin, “the room got very quiet,” as the select audience witnessed over a thousand shots that were thought lost — bringing the running time to 153 minutes and virtually matching the original shooting script and musical cues. This astounding new version — after considerable restoration work on the well-worn archival print — has been combined with the visually superb 2002 restoration. Presented in HD, audiences can, at long last, experience Lang’s original METROPOLIS as the director intended it to be seen.

Today I'm going on a tour Frank Stella is giving of his new exhibition!

Ug, I am angry and disappointed at the MA election. Small bright spot: It finally motivated me to fill out my MD voter registration. Will mail it tomorrow.

D. and I finally saw Up for the first time. I was crying enough after the first 10 minutes that D. paused the movie. (Sometimes I get emotional at movies, but I rarely *sob*. Just one more way that I'm becoming my mother.) After that we really loved it. Behind the curve I know, but the joke about the dead squirrel struck me as the funniest thing ever (in that moment).

Oh White Collar! How I adore you! So much silly (and pretty, and charming and man-emotion)!
Maybe in the next episode there can be a really cold room where you die by freezing to death and they will have to snuggle naked together for warmth. You know they'd go there.

Two thumbs up, highly entertaining, and (according to people more knowledgeable than me) highly faithful. If you even have a passing knowledge of the show you'll most likely enjoy it.

This is much, much more amusing than you might think. (from gblvr)

10 Chick Flick Cliches that are Not in "He's Just Not Into You"

and it's reasonably effective marketing as my opinion of the movie went from "eh, looks cheesy, but I'll probably watch it when it comes out on digital cable" to "possibly good and I'd go if a bunch of people wanted to see it I'd go to the theater, but I'll probably end up watching it when it comes out on digital cable"

We're having the class on Weimar film tomorrow. I'm excited, should be good.

I'm glad that the library could put the films on electronic reserve so the students can watch them streaming from home. Yay technology. (Boo that I cannot make the technology work on my computer but hopefully that's just because I'm off campus.)

Did you know scifi has free movies?

I recommend The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Metropolis. (Not the best version of Metropolis, some minor plot points are changed, but still pretty good.)

Or for the condensed version of Metropolis (or if you have any idea what Metropolis is about) see Madonna's Express Yourself video.

Had a great weekend with J. and I.. I met J. last summer on that language program in Croatia. We hit it off from the first afternoon we met and it would have been a radically different summer without her. (I <3 J.)

( More details about J., I., and our weekend. )

This afternoon, after they left, D. and I went to see Dark Knight. Awesome as everyone else has said. There was a lot of movie there, but so good I mostly ignored the fact that I had to pee through the second half.

Tonight I watched Nancy Drew. Really adorable, I loved those books when I was a little kid. I don't know that I want to go back and read them and mar the memory.

I just finished cleaning out my closet and some drawers. Three trash bags full of clothes and one of shoes! Woot! I'm okay getting rid of things that hit two out of three of the following categories*:

1. worn out
2. out of style
3. don't fit

I even did a few things that only hit one category.

But there are those things that are just misfires. I bought them and never really wore them very much because there was something that just wasn't quite flattering enough, or some detail that annoyed me. These are hard to get rid of because they're barely worn, still kind of in style, and still fit. But I tried really hard to make "annoying so I don't wear it even if spent money on it" a valid category for dismissal.


*This is on the assumption that they have little to no sentimental value. I do keep some things for sentimental reasons, but I have to remember specifically when I wore it and why that's important to keep. Then they go in one drawer I don't have easy access to and a couple of suitcases. I even cleaned out my drawer and repacked it with an edited group of sentimental things.

Check out this movie that D. found. It looks good (I mean the cast--Alan Rickman, Eliza Dushku, Bill Pullman, Freddy Rodriguez (aka dude from Six Feet Under), etc.)