course description included Archives: criterion
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14 March 2010
Fishing with John: Dennis Hopper (1991)
The final two episodes of Fishing with John feature Dennis Hopper, and they go together to Thailand in search of a Giant Squid. It must be said the music in Fishing with John is quite excellent, and to be expected given John Lurie’s position with lounging lizards. It becomes apparent that the Giant Squid is [...]
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13 March 2010
Fishing with John: Willem Dafoe (1991)
Willem and John go fishing in Maine. Ice fishing is hard work, and they are very cold in their little ice house out there on the ice. During the day, they eat peanut butter crackers and wait for the fish. They have not planned appropriately, and are very hungry because the fish are not biting. [...]
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11 March 2010
Fishing with John: Matt Dillon (1991)
Matt Dillon’s episode is the worst of the bunch. He doesn’t really fit into the quirky mold of the other adventuring fisherman, and the subsequent conversation between John and Matt is a little awkward. Maybe this awkwardness was intentional, but it works against the flavor of the show and when the narrator bursts out excitedly [...]
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10 March 2010
Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Punishment Begins [Die Strafe beginnt] (1980)
The story of Franz Biberkof, Berlin Alexanderplatz is a fifteen hour film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder based on the novel by Alfred Döblin. I haven’t seen all of it yet, but I hope writing about each section will not only give me the momentum to finish it, but it’ll give some perspective to what I [...]
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9 March 2010
Fishing with John: Tom Waits (1991)
John and Tom go fishing in Jamaica for snapper. There are long periods of waiting before either of the men gets a bite. Tom finally catches a fish. Upon catching the fish, the men discuss catch and release, and Tom decides to put the fish into his pants. It is unclear whether this is what [...]
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8 March 2010
Fishing with John: Jim Jarmusch (1991)
The first episode of Fishing with John is by far the best. You are simply not prepared for the interplay between the fishers and the narrative (Oh. My. God.), particularly given the whole tone of the fishing sequences is correct, minus the fisherman. They have quiet, introspect conversation while fishing. Jim and John are fishing [...]
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27 July 2009
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Okay – so more or else an epic failure on the bear story. I’m still writing it, but the regular posting of it made me stop writing until I stopped posting. This is obviously reflective of a host of neuroses that are more or less less interesting than Mad-Libs. And so, in the words of [...]
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5 January 2009
Chungking Express (1994)
In my mind, I always get Chungking Express confused with Wong Kar-Wai’s other movie Fallen Angels. I guess it’s a cops and guns kind of conflation, but it doesn’t really matter. Having watched Chungking Express, I am now sure I’d only seen the expired pineapple sequence, having somehow missed entirely Tony Leung’s segment or just [...]