Saturday, January 10, 2009

I know, I know

So, yes I haven't updated in, shall we say, awhile. For some reason I feel like updating today.

Today I watched The Burmese Harp. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, cause to be honest I haven't really been enjoying the Chinese or Japanese films that were on the list. I found them to be kind of slow and uninteresting (i.e. nothing happens) and full of characters that I couldn't relate to . The Burmese Harp was quite different, at least to me. There was an interesting story, and characters to engage with, I cared about what happened to them and what they were up to. I rented the movie from Netflix. This was after I took a LONG break from working through the list chronologically.

Here's a little sidebar: I moved to NYC recently. After living in Los Angeles for about 8 years, I decided it was time to move back to the east coast. It was quite an ordeal setting up an apartment, finding work, and getting just all together settled. Apparently when I'm not settled I don't like working on the 1001 list. For the last few months I've been biding my time watching mostly non-1001 list movies, at least when it came to movie rentals from Netflix. If a 1001 list movie was on TCM or IFC, I'd record it and watch it, or if it was a watch now title, but other than that I was pretty lazy about the 1001 list. But, I think I'm now back in the swing of things.

Anyway, watching the Burmese Harp got me thinking about the 1001 list again and made me want to get back to the task at hand: I don't think anyone has the time or patience for me to go through all the movies I've watched since my last update, at least not in one entry, so I'll try to space 'em out. Here we go:

  1. Up next was my first experience with James Cagney and Jean Harlow. The movie was The Public Enemy. Let me start off with a weird observation, and something I'm not proud of, firstly you have to know of Eddie Izzard before I make this observation. Well he's a stand-up comedian who liked to dress up like a woman. In college me and my friends watched his HBO special titled Dress to Kill. The picture to the right is what Mr. Izzard looked like in that special. So now you have that image, well when I watched Pubic Enemy I could not get over how much Jean Harlow looked like Eddie Izzard in drag. I know she was around first, so maybe Eddie is paying tribute to her?! Who knows, but it weirded me out....a lot. Here's a picture of Jean Harlow in Pubic Enemy for comparison. Anyway, I enjoyed the movie, I like both James Cagney and Jean Harlow, since watching The Public Enemy I've seen MANY films with both of them. I got the movie from Netflix approx. 2 years ago.
  2. The next movie on the list is M, which was a very dark, very interesting movie. It stars Peter Lorre and was directed by Fritz Lang (from Metropolis fame). I rented the movie from Netflix and was very impressed by the film.
  3. Moving right along...next up is La Chienne, this was not one of those fun, whimsical French films I was talking about in my earlier post. The film was not available on DVD, I was able to find it on VHS at RocketVideo. I watched this movie in 2007, and just remember not liking it that much.
  4. The next three movies on the list,Vampyr, Love Me Tonight, and Boudo Saved From Drowning didn't do much for me. I rented them all from Netflix in 2007 and don't remember anything remarkable about these movies. Although I remember being INFURIATED by Boudo Saved From Drowning, I tried to figure out why the character of Boudo bothered me SO much, but I didn't come up with much. I read that he was considered the french Charlie Chaplin, but that just made me madder, cause I LOVE Charlie Chaplin and found no similarities between the two men. This shall remain a mystery, and to be honest I wish Boudo had NOT been saved from drowning.
  5. I thoroughly enjoyed the next film on the list, I Am A Fugitive from a Chain Gang. I was impressed by Paul Muni and the story, though it was a wee bit long it was still enjoyable to watch. It looks like this movie is now available on DVD, when I was looking for it in 2007 it was not, so I rented it at RocketVideo.
  6. Trouble in Paradise is a great film. It's a very unconventional love story, complete with love triangles, robbery and hidden identities. It's stars are also wonderful, Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall and is directed by Ernst Lubitch, who can do no wrong. Great film! I rented it from Netflix in 2007, and thinking about it now makes me want to watch it again. :)
I think that's enough for now, I'll try to update again soon...but you know me, I probably won't