Film and Cinema: Wish list, etc.
[Under development: 21 May 2005 ]
I derive much pleasure from rewatching movies. My
rating of a movie owes much to how often I have watched it, how frequently I rewatch it, and how frequently I aspire to rewatching it (regardless of my stamina in fact to do so).
A movie that bears my repeated viewings, in my view, is speaking to me at a
depth greater than a movie I consider not worth viewing beyond the first time.
Whilst my approach is idiosyncratic and far from objective, matters of taste
and style are subjective. Sartre and de Beauvoir
would watch
I have watched neither The Sound of Music nor Gone with the Wind, both movies seriously associated with repeated rewatchings.
There are three movies that I should be most enthusiastic to catch up with, preferably by owning a DVD copy, and a fourth that I should like to re-encounter but not own.
1. Kaos. This is a disturbing film, that I
should categorise as "representational expressionism", that is, its
emotional impact lies beyond cognitive analysis. The movie, which is episodic,
is based primarily on three stories (that I have not yet read) by the Italian
writer Luigi Pirandello. I saw it only once, in about 1983, at the Tyneside
Cinema in
2. Steppenwolf. Starring Max von Sydow, I saw this movie only once, around 1980. It is based on a novel (Der Steppenwolf) that I have read several times, written by Herman Hesse whose literature I admire greatly. Like Kaos, the movie was not received favourably, possibly for several reasons: the novel is set in early twentieth century Europe, and its mood is slow, thoughtful, disturbing, dark and unattractive – making it a difficult subject for cinema, and problematic at the North American box office; considerable (North American) cult interest in the novel during the 1960s (which I would guess was what motivated the producers of the movie) was based around a misunderstanding of the novel (Timothy Leary’s introduction to the Penguin edition in the UK is of historical interest, but objectionable to what Hesse was attempting to address), and although the movie shows the use of psychotropic drugs, by the time of its release there were already in circulation many other movies that explored and celebrated the use of such substances; as I recall, the movie was not all that well edited – about this I could be wrong.
3. Le Grand Meulnes, based on the novella by Alain Fournier. I have watched the movie only once, around 1980, and I remember feeling somewhat underwhelmed, not least because the movie did not appear to be well edited. Again, this movie was not reviewed favourably. However, I should like to watch it again, this time through more knowledgeable eyes.
4. Futtock's End is a humorous movie without dialogue. As in The Plank (another largely silent, humorous movie) there are characters, it's just that they don't speak much. It is the only movie of which I know that is not listed in the Internet Movie Database. I wonder if it is the movie the IMDB calls The Picnic?
For many years, the movie that I most wanted to watch (but had not) was Koyaanisqatsi. I had read much about it, and was
fascinated by the concept of a movie with no spoken dialogue, without
characterisation and without a traditional storyline, instead allowing the
images to tell their story. I had read that the camera-work was both thoughtful
and of very high quality, and that Philip Glass (an international composer
known for his minimalist compositions) had written the musical score for the
movie – both aspects of which attracted me. During my quest to locate a copy of
Koyaanisqatsi, I came across a movie called Baraka,
and despite not knowing a thing about it, bought a copy on VHS (unusual
behaviour for me). Baraka is also a movie
without dialogue or storyline, is beautifully shot and has a powerful and
attractive musical score. I followed some of the internet forum discussions
about the contractual difficulties in getting Koyaanisqatsi
released and distributed on DVD. In 2001, Koyaanisqatsi
was screened on
