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My computer is, as is its wont, deciding to be weird and inefficient, which is keeping me from downloading/uploading pictures this morning. I guess this is what happens when you turn your laptop off and on to give it a break, and in the process it forgets how to do anything. All of this is by way of saying that I won't be able to post any movie posters (maybe I'll sort it out and come back and amend these posts). I will sometimes show clips from Benjamin Christensen's 1922 Swedish film Haxen, and I did so the other day in my COR 303 class. Not surprisingly, this led to me watching the entire film yet again, and thus it has made its way onto the blog. Haxen, which means "Witch," is one part documentary and one part horror film, and it adds up to a very rich cinematic experience. It's also amazing how clean the print is, both the one which seems to live eternally at the Criterion Channel and the one you can find on YouTube. Recommended.

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Safety Last!, (Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 1923)

After Bleeder and Re-Wind maybe it made sense that I needed a Harold Lloyd recalibration, although I had already been working through a series of his films on the Criterion Channel already. Last night I watched Lloyd's classic Safety Last!, which also starred Mildred Davis (as The Girl), Bill Strother (as The Pal, Limpy Bill), and Noah Young (as The Law). Mildred Davis often co-starred with Lloyd, and eventually the two of them married. Safety Last! features some classic Harold Lloyd bits, including that classic scene of him hanging from a clock that is the natural result of any image search. Recommended.

July CFL Excellence

 The second CFL Trip of Excellence is becoming a reality. My cousin Nick and I are meeting in Hamilton in June for a Tiger-Cats game (he's already reserved the rooms, and now we're just waiting for the single game tickets to go on sale for I purchase a couple of nice seats on the 55 yard line). This will be followed up by the long-discussed Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders doubleheader in July. The plane tickets have been purchased - flying into Winnipeg and flying out of Regina (in between we're renting a car for the long drive in between) - and the rooms have been reserved. Again, we're just waiting for the individual game tickets to go on sale. Kevin and I will be attending both games, and Cyndi is joining us for the first part of the trip. In doing so, CB will join the inner circle of true CFL fans who have attended games with me at more than one CFL stadium (joining Kevin, Andy, and Sandy). After that trip, the only outlier in my quest to have visited every CFL stadium will be Victoria and to a BC Lions home game. I guess that will have to wait until the summer of 2027 when/if I'm back for a visit.

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Re-Wind, (Hiyasasu Sato, 1988)

As part of the same VHS Forever collection featured on the Criterion Channel this month I also watched Hisayasu Sato's 1998 film Re-Wind. Over the years I've heard of Sato films, but I never got around to watching one. OK, now I have, so I guess I don't have to watch another one. He's one of those guerilla film makers that I'm glad, on one level, who exist and are out pushing the boundaries of cinema and not making films for the Marvel Universe or the Hallmark Channel. At the same time, an hour of watching Re-Wind's sex and violence left me bored and disinterested. As I was watching it, I kept thinking that the emotionally stunted Lenny from Bleeder would have loved this movie. 

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Bleeder, (Nicolas Winding Refn, 1999)

One of the advantages of recording films watched (as with last year's recording of books read) is that you get a sense of not only the number, but always the diversity of films watched (books read). I always tend to think that I fall into the trap of only reading certain books, but when you record them you realize that you read a broader variety than you think (although, as I discussed last year, part of the process was also forcing myself out of my comfort zone). I was less worried about this when it came to films, as I knew that I've traditionally gone pretty far afield in watching movies. Being a long-time fan of the Criterion Collection and the Criterion Channel has definitely broadened my knowledge of and appreciation for international and independent cinema. With that in mind, the other night I watched a Danish film, Nicolas Winding Refn's Bleeder. It's a pretty bleak film, as compared, I suppose, to all of those slapstick Danish romantic comedies (which may actually be a thing - I'm waiting for the rotating Criterion Channel collection). The film focuses on Leo (Kim Brodnia) and Lenny (a pre-star Mads Mikkelsen) and the unhappy women in their lives, Louise (Rikke Louise Andersson), who is carrying Leo's baby, and Lea (Liv Corfixen), no doubt soon to be unhappy as film-obsessed Lenny's potential girlfriend. Zlarko Buric, as Kitjo, the owner of the video store where Lenny works, is also very good. It's definitely recommended, but it's pretty grim. 

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Steamboat Bill, Jr., (Charles Reisner, 1928)

And I'm taking advantage of the Criterion Channel to watch another silent movie, in this case Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr. The second half of the film, during a huge storm, features some of the most iconic Keaton moments. 

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Still Life, (Jia Zhangke, 2006)

This week in my Images of Fascism class I had the opportunity to show Jia Zhangke's masterful 2006 film Still Life. I was honest in telling my students, in fact I include it on the handout, that Jia Zhangke is my favorite contemporary filmmaker. I suspect I've talked enough about this film over the years that it's not necessary to give a lot of background, but, of course, I will anyway. It focuses on Han Sanming (played by Han Sanming) and Shen Hong (played by Zhao Tao, Jia Zhangke's longtime muse) who arrive at the village of Fengjie, both looking for lost spouses. The actual town of Fengjie was being actually largely flooded by the Three Gorges Dam project, and the destruction is being captured in real time. Jia Zhangke is telling a beautiful and heart-wrenching story, but he's also subtly critiqueing the state of life in China (which is what I asked the students to focus on). It is an extraordinary film, maybe my favorite film of the 21st century, and definitely required viewing.