Movies in 2026 109

 

Resurrection, (Bi Gan, 2025)

Guy Maddin's Only Dream Things oddly works very well as a precursor for the next film, although clearly that was not my plan. I just finished Bi Gan's 2025 film Resurrection. The Criterion Channel has started featuring films fresh out of the theaters (not Vermont theaters, sadly, but theaters in larger and more intellectually vibrant markets in New York and LA). They always start off with a specific date and time when you can begin to stream it, almost giving it a feeling of being in the theater with thousands of other film nerds across the world. However, after that you can watch it at any time. I've done both, although I have to admit that I really like syncing up that first viewing when I can. I discovered Bi Gan late last year, on the Criterion Channel, not surprisingly, and absolutely loved his first two films: Kaili Blues (2015) and Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018). He's known for including an extended - literally somewhere between forty-five minutes and an hour - single, uninterrupted take, which dominates the second half of his movies. It's extraordinary, and speaks to his incredible imagination and cinematic chops. Having said all that, I definitely did not like Resurrection as much as his earlier two full-length films. It's staggeringly brilliant filmmaking, and features another long sequence at the end which beggars the imagination. However, the central theme is so opaquely delivered - or Bi Gan didn't feel that it needed one (which is fine, obviously) - that the film ends up depending entirely upon the cinematography. You end up not caring about the characters at all because you simply don't know anything about the characters. It's extremist instrumentalist filmmaking, which tends to work well in short art installations like Maddin's piece, but which borders on tedium in a two and a half hour movie. I'll definitely watch anything from Bi Gan, and I need to track down his earlier work, but in the end, while I was impressed by the technical wizardry of Resurrection, it simply left me cold. I absolutely felt a connection to the characters in his first two films, but every actor in Resurrection simply felt like prop to anchor a camera shot.

Movies in 2026 108

 

Only Dream Things, (Guy Maddin, 2012)

After watching My Winnipeg, I'll doubtless, and predictably, going through all the Guy Maddin films on the Criterion Channel. I started off with a very short film, Only Dream Things, which Maddin filmed as a museum installation piece. It's all based on his own home movies from his childhood, which were heavily manipulated to give it a very eerie, Lynchian, feel. I can clearly see myself plopped down on a bench in a museum, watching it all the way through three times.

My Life

 The news is so routinely horrible - and my students are so overpoweringly disinterested - that even writing seems like fun by comparison. Actually, one of the things that is making the transition to retirement easier is how much I'm enjoying writing.

As my project is coming to an end, no matter what form, if any, that it takes, sometimes I sit back and think about all the work that I've done - and, more importantly, all that I've learned - and it's kind of staggering. And, really, that ziggurat of books is only a small part of the process, simply the primary texts that drove everything else. 

Movies in 2026 107

 

My Winnipeg, (Guy Maddin, 2007)

By way of preparation for July's CFL Trip of Excellence to Winnipeg/Saskatchewan, it's not surprising that I felt moved to watch Guy Maddin's beautiful/disturbing/funny/sad film, My Winnipeg. I'd heard about Guy Maddin for years, but for some reason I had never managed to watch any of his work. I'm definitely going to make up for that cultural/cinematic shortcoming. I saw My Winnipeg described as a "docu-fantasia," which, even though I've never seen the term before, seems to fit beautifully. It's a very personal reflection on growing up/getting away from/going back to Winnipeg. It's almost indescribable, but in a wonderful way. It also features Ann Savage (who we all remember from the definitive film noir Detour) as Maddin's mother. Essential viewing, and not simply for those attending a Blue Bombers game in July.

Movies in 2026 106

 

Hotel du Nord, (Marcel Carne, 1938)

Last year the Criterion Channel introduced a Poetic Realism collection, which introduced me to the work of Marcel Carne. Somehow I was completely unfamiliar with the work of Carne, which is pretty inexcusable since he's one of France's most famous and beloved directors. I ended up admitting to my friend Erik that Carne had become my favorite French director, which is a bit of an odd statement considering how many great directors were/are French (although I don't think it's just me being a contrarian). This morning I re-watched his 1938 film Hotel du Nord, which I think I liked even more than the first time. The film itself if often overlooked because it's falls in between two of his much more famous films, which I'll hold off discussing until the inevitable re-viewing of them. It focuses around a cast of characters who work at or frequent the fairly rundown Hotel du Nord. We're supposed to care about the star-crossed young lovers Renee (Annabella) and Pierre (Jean-Pierre Aumont) - they make a suicide pact which is based on Pierre shooting Renee in the heart and then killing himself - somehow he shoots her, it doesn't kill her, he runs away, and somehow they end up together at the end (it makes more sense in the movie). However, the film is completely stolen by Arletty, who plays the prostitute Raymonde, and her tortured relationship with her lover and procurer Edmond (Louis Jouvet). If you don't know the story of Arletty you should check it out. Beyond being a big star, she's also famous/infamous for having an affair with a German general during World War II in occupied Paris. After the war she was accused of treason, had her head shaved to be publicly humiliated, but then continued her acting career (it's the French, you know). As she brilliantly explained: "My heart may be French, but my ass is global." Recommended.

5

 Monday, day number six of the Great Countdown, started out fine but then ended in a discouraging fashion. Both of my COR 303 classes did a nice job on the morning's assignment. I gave them three anonymous accounts of the birth of Jesus, #1 (from Mathew), #2 (from Luke), and #3 (from Surah Mary in the Qur'an). It's one of my favorite mad Scudder assignments. It makes them address the notion of what constitutes a religious/sacred text, and what would be the challenges in treating it like a historical text. Later, my COR 204 section of Images of Fascism was depressing. We had a great section from Snyder's book, and then followed it up by watching Jafar Panahi's wonderful film The Circle. Half of the students were on their phones or laptops during the movies, not taking notes, but playing games. If a class dealing with Fascism tied to a class on Iran - at this specific moment in time - doesn't grab your attention, you really shouldn't be in college. It's hard to imagine that this generation is going to put up much of a fight as the US finally slides into a full blown authoritarian regime.

Thanks to Justin Rankin for loaning me his number 5 as part of the Great Countdown. He's quickly become one of my favorite CFL players, and not simply because I saw him play last year in Edmonton and that he became my go-to running back in my CFL fantasy team. Rankin was born in Oberlin, Ohio, and played college ball at Kent State and Northwest Missouri State. After going undrafted by an NFL team (the classic first stop on a CFL career), he played three years in the Indoor Football League (IFL), for the Bismarck Bucks, Frisco Fighters, and Bay Area Panthers (winning an IFL championship with the Panthers). After that he moved north and signed with the Edmonton Elks. After a slow start he hit his stride, rushing last year for 1013 yards and catching 56 passed for another 713 yards. I really need to get one of his jerseys.

Movies in 2026 105

 

The Circle, (Jafar Panahi, 2000)

As we enter the last three weeks of my Images of Fascism class we've passed out of the Czechoslovakian film unit (all late 1960's movies) and are entering the Iranian unit. I'm starting off with Jafar Panahi's brilliant 2000 film The Circle, which, happily, my officemate Erik loaned to me. I'm a huge Panahi fan, and I was positive that I had already seen The Circle. I did a preparatory watch last night, and obviously I hadn't seen it before - it's not a film that you would forget. I knew about it, which is why I decided to start our last section with it, but apparently I hadn't seen it. I cannot recommend it too highly. It's devastating, and even my students should be profoundly moved by it. The film focuses on a number of women trying, and failing, to survive the crushing patriarchal nature of the Iranian theocratic state.