RandomCha

Every now and then I watch a movie and then immediately want to watch it all over again. It’s hard to predict when it’ll happen. Last year it definitely happened with Laura. I think I watched it about four times. On Friday night I rented In A Lonely Place and then tonight I just had to see it again. I’d only seen it once before; while I was living in L.A. it was shown on a double bill with Knock on Any Door at this cool little theater in West Hollywood called The Beverly. It’s been very hard to see for a long time and only recently came out on DVD.

Anyhow, this movie is absolutely haunting. There’s something about Bogart and Gloria Grahame that’s deeply mysterious. It reminds me a lot of On Dangerous Ground. The way Nicholas Ray uses shadowing, foregrounding and perspective creates very subtle effects that colors the story but never allows your focus to wander from the people onscreen. What’s between the lines stuns you because you can’t get your fingers around it.

In A Lonely Place [1950]
1. Bogart makes a Bloody Mary. Into the glass goes a few shakes of salt and a few shakes of pepper. No celery.
2. He picks up the rock, ready to smash in the man’s head. A layer of dirt falls off the rock as he picks it up.
3. “Yesterday this would have meant so much to us. Now it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all.”

Ladies and gentlemen, for your consideration, my thoughts on this year’s Oscars.

AND IT ALL COMES FULL CIRCLE.

(only quibble: he misspells it; but that’s a common mistake)

“The meaning of life is that it ends.”

–Franz Kafka 

It’s hard to add anything to this. Anyone who says he doesn’t have any substance is just tone-deaf.

The Lady Vanishes [1938] 

1. Gilbert: “My father always taught me, never desert a lady in trouble. He even carried that as far as marrying Mother.”
2. Iris and Gilbert lifting Miss Froy, helping her through the train window and onto the ground.
3. Mapping cricket moves using sugar cubes.

Yes, I’m at work today.

Lately the Big Boss has been coming in early (about half an hour before anyone else) and making an entire pot of coffee. Not just any coffee. HAZLENUT-FLAVORED COFFEE. It is the vilest thing I’ve ever had to deal with. No one drinks it but him, so each morning at around 8:30 I dump the whole thing out and rinse it thoroughly before making a NORMAL pot of coffee.

Flavored coffee is like mixing shiraz with Kool-Aid. Sickening. So typical of this lousy job.

Diary of the Dead [2007]

1. Defibrillator. Eyeballs falling out.
2. The deaf Amish farmer holding up the chalkboard upon which is written: “HURRY.”
3. Cutting back and forth between all the black and white surveillance cameras, the hordes everywhere.