Movies in 2026 102

 

Footprints, (Jaromil Jires, 1960)

Well, my break from Czech New Wave didn't take long. This afternoon I took a break after lunch and watched Jaromil Jires's 1960 short film, Footprints. This film definitely had a different feel than The Hall of Lost Footsteps, the other Jires's short from 1960 that I watched the other day. The Hall of Lost Footprints was more of a warning for the future, in the shadow of nuclear proliferation and the recent memory of the Holocaust, whereas Footprints possessed a more tangible central narrative that followed an event in a Czech village during World War II (although, to be fair, every lesson from the past is really a lesson about the future. I really need to take greater advantage of all the shorts that the Criterion Channel provides.

Movies in 2026 101

 

Alien, (Ridley Scott, 1979)

I took a break from Czech New Wave last night and we watched Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien, the one that began a never-ending franchise (one in which even Scott revisited decades later). The inspiration was an odd one. After a gym trip yesterday I popped into Shaw's and saw the ABC book A is for Alien in the grocery store's tiny magazine/book section. Of course, I had to purchase it (I think this has belated birthday gift for my son written all over it). Anyway, Janet and I read it and it inspired her to go back and watch the original, which led to me digging out my massive Alien boxed set (I think I also have a copy of Alien vs Predator somewhere). I suspect we'll be watching all of them. I think the original Alien holds up really well, certainly better than Star Wars. A couple of the special effects now look a little clumsy, but I also had to remind myself that the film is almost fifty years old (which made me feel even older than I already feel).

This is really the sort of writing that I should devote myself to during my retirement. The fact that this exists is both pretty funny but also subversive and more than a little perverse, but at least it's not that woman reading "children's books" that are thinly veiled and cringe-worthy wink-wink porn that YouTube thinks I should watch.

7

 I've now officially entered the last four weeks of my four-plus decade teaching career. I keep waiting for the nostalgia and bittersweet feelings to emerge. Mainly, I just want it over. Part of it is my own personality. As anyone who knows me will testify, I brood over things, but once I make a decision then the decision is made. I brooded over retiring for a couple years, and then, for several reasons, decided to retire, and after that there was no true regret, just a desire to get on to retirement and a different lifestyle. I'm still grinding away, including throwing my early morning Monday class out for not doing any work - and considering doing the same thing that night in my Fascism class. Maybe I'm just grouchy, but I guess I'm also just refusing to quit trying to teach these lunkheads something.

Thanks for Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback and Grey Cup champion Trevor Harris for loaning me his number 7 this week. It was hard to not feel happy for him winning the Grey Cup last year as a starting quarterback (he had been on two Grey Cup winning teams in the past as a backup QB) because his career is a classic CFL story. Harris was born in Waldo, Ohio, and played his college ball at Division II Edinboro. And then his odyssey began, which began with not being drafted by an NFL team. He signed with the NFL Jackson Jaguars, but was then cut after the preseason. He then signed with the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League and then the Hartford Colonials of the United Football League the next year. In 2011 he signed with the NFL Buffalo Bills, but for labor reasons (not the only time in his career) his contract was rescinded after, literally, a day and a half. After that he signed with the Sacramento Mountain Lions, although the league folded before he could get into a game. Later in 2011 he signed with the AFL's Orlando Predators, but the entire roster was let go (another labor problem) and replaced with, well, replacement players. Finally, in 2012, he turned his attention northward to the far superior (as all right-thinking individuals know) Canadian Football League (and this was usually interrupted with Harris getting into the dynamics of the team having an older and established veteran QB who was on his last legs), and played for the Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa Redblacks, Edmonton Eskimos/Elks (and, of course, this would be the time when Edmonton would change team names), Montreal Alouettes, and finally the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Hopefully, we'll see him play this summer as part of July's Trip of Excellence. 

Movies in 2026 100

 

The Fireman's Ball, (Milos Forman, 1967)

And yet another jewel from the Czech New Wave, Milos Forman's 1967 classic, The Fireman's Ball. Told through the lens of the most poorly-organized party of all time, Forman is clearly commenting on how things were actually running under communist control in Czechoslovakia. It's funny and disturbing at the same time. Recommended.

Movies in 2026 99

 

The Hall of Lost Footsteps, (Jaromil Jires, 1960)

Eventually I'll run through the Criterion Channel's Czech New Wave collection, at least until I give them yet another watch. One of the many things I love about the Criterion Channel is their supply of short films, often early efforts from aspiring filmmakers, which most of us would never have the opportunity to see otherwise. I particularly loved this early effort from Jires (and for some reason, maybe not o strange, I'm always drawn to works that came out the year I was born), The Hall of Lost Footsteps. It deals with the Holocaust and the threat of nuclear holocaust, and is very powerful. 

I just snapped this picture, one of the last shots in the film, because I thought it was so beautiful and also so evocative.

The Hidden Manuscript

 Which is not to be confused with The Secret History. Here's a not particularly exciting picture of a pile of books (all Shahnameh-related) that keep me company in my little loft office. Now, if you look closer, you can make out a poorly stacked pile of papers. That's half of my Epics manuscript. Long ago I stopped referring to it as my book (someday, inshallah, I will be able to refer to it as my book) and started simply calling it my manuscript. While I would prefer that it's published someday, obviously, in other ways the key is that I set out to write it - and I wrote it. My goal is to have to have it completely finished (as much as a book, uh, manuscript, is ever finished) by my last day of this last semester. Being able to turn my head and see the stack, growing larger week by week, gives me resolution to keep pushing grinding away.

I'm putting the final gloss on the entire manuscript. That's half of it, so you can get a sense of how big it will end up. 

Movies in 2026 98

 

Loves of a Blonde, (Milos Forman, 1965)

I mentioned that it was strange that I had never watched Jasny's All My Good Countrymen before. Last night I watched a film that I would have sworn that I had watched - and which the Criterion Channel assured me that I had - but of which I had absolutely no memory at all. I don't know how one would reach sixty-six years of age without ever having seen Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde, but, again, I'm from Indiana, and thus poorly educated. It tells the story of Andula (played by Jana Brejchova, in her first role), a young Czech woman working in a pretty desultory Soviet-era factory. The entire story takes place within one week, from the dream of an exciting love that might get her out of her little village to the inevitable heartbreak. I'm not a huge Milos Forman fan, but I liked this a lot, and it's definitely recommended.