tim merritt [dot] net

No time to add a comment right now, but I found this article, Cuts in movies, and their impact on memory, very interesting.

Spiritual Cinema Circle

For the Spirituality In Our Daily Lives class, we’re viewing and discussing short films from the Spiritual Cinema Circle, a subscription service that sends a DVD with four movies on it – shorts and features, comedies, dramas, documentaries. I haven’t yet watched more than a few of the shorts, looking for some that would work in the class.

The film for October 1 is Celamy (2005) by Julie Anne Meerschwam, a lovely 18-minute film about a five-year-old girl who, after her mother dies, finds her way with the help of her best friend. Some discussion at the Theology and Film blog, but caution, if you don’t want spoilers. Added Saturday, Sept 30.

So far, we’ve watched and discussed these films—

• Sweetheart, (2003) by Australian filmmaker Matthew Saville. Its tagline: “A mother. A son. A phone call.” Read Matthew Saville’s Wikipedia entry, and an interview with Saville) at Sleepybrain, a Melbourne-based blog about modern culture.
• In God We Trust (2000), by Jason Reitman, director of the justly praised 2005 satire Thank You for Smoking. A young actor, a quarter, a truck, and an all too brief chance to find out what matters in life.
• Spin (2005), by Jamin Winans: “Two Turntables and a Time Machine,” leads us to consider the consequences of our choices, and the unlikely places where we might find grace.

  The group has really responded well to these films – especially Sweetheart. I don’t know if it’s available anywhere else. It’s worth seeking out.

  [Update: added information about Spin on Sunday Sept 24.]

Westerns, Noirs, and Sci-Fi, Oh My! | MetaFilter

I hate the title of this thread on Metafilter, but it links to three lists from Chicago Reader’s Jonathan Rosenbaum at DVDBeaver.

‘American Movie Critics’ – The New York Times Book Review – New York Times

Clive James on American critics through the first century of movies. Seems he doesn’t like theorists….

After reading some help files, I made some guesses that worked out, and the familiar look here is back, but with the “Pages” navigation at top left that makes it easier to find the separate pages regarding Sunday School, individual films, and so on. I’ve made a brief page for Hoop Dreams, and will add to it as the weekend approaches. I’m writing this from a Holiday Inn in Orlando, where I’m attending an Educational Technology conference this week.

I’ll have links to readings about this Oscar winnah in another day or so. I’ll send an email to the group when they’re up. I also sent an email with links to the Probing Questions handout from the Ransom Fellowship site.

There’s a large fillet of wild-caught salmon smoking on the grill, a very light snow is falling (nothing will stick, but in Atlanta, that’s cool), we’re drinking good red wine, a Gershwin special is on the radio, and we’re going to watch Almodovar’s Talk to Her. I feel rich.

Syriana

Pro Blogger Jason Kottke compiled a list of his best links of 2005. Jason finds and links to things that constantly open my eyes and continue to show why the web is such a great place. I’ve been saving many of these as PDFs to read on the train to work.

It’s not a book, really, it’s a short story first published in the New Yorker. I haven’t read it yet, though I’ve saved it as a PDF. I had come across some buzz about the movie here and there, and Jason Kottke linked to the story at the New Yorker.

It’s directed by Ang Lee, whose films (at least the ones I’ve seen: Sense & Sensibility, Ride With the Devil, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) seem to be about troubled or forbidden relationships, forbidden by custom, class, race, vocation. I have not seen The Ice Storm, which as I understand it covers similar ground in a Connecticut family, nor have I seen The Hulk, in which Jennifer Connelly and a large green man with anger issues have troubles. But that’s a digression.

Brokeback Mountain explores the forbidden relationship between two men with care and respect. I found it moving and genuine, and I greatly admire Heath Ledger’s performance. Recommended whole-heartedly.

Vitamin Q – a temple of trivia and lists – posts Twenty Films whose ‘fans’ are more annoying than the film itself. (Can’t recall who pointed to this, or I’d give them credit.)

The 64 Second Film Contest – the link came via the DMN newsletters I subscribe to.

Saw the Johnny Cash biopic tonight (spoiler: he marries June and sings at Folsom Prison). E and W liked it more than I did, and I liked it, but it was too… patterned. A.O. Scott describes it well in his comparison with the Rac Charles biopic: Walk the Line”offers more tribute than insight.” I recommend it, but it won’t blow you away. You will want to buy some Johnny Cash music afterward.

This is precious.

OregonLive.com: Mad About Movies

“The Trailer Looks Good….”
That’s how people often justify their itch to see a movie that is obviously awful.

To give you an idea of how easy it is to manipulate a movie so that it comes off well in a trailer, check out this work of sheer genius.

Creative Loafing Atlanta | FLICKS | KISS KISS BANG BANG
“The foundation of American cinema is crime. One of film history’s most important early films, Edwin S. Porter’s 1903 silent The Great Train Robbery, was a crime story featuring the adrenaline rush of a robber pointing his gun directly at the audience. The taste for criminal mayhem hasn’t abated since. The High Museum celebrates the vicarious pleasures of grifters and stickup men in its series Thieves Like Us June 4-June 25. The very title references our alliance with the cinematic criminal class.”

Doubt I’ll get to see many, if any, of these films, but I would love to.

Polymath and editing demi-god Walter Murch holds forth at a digital video conference in a Flash video stream – here’s a direct link to the stream. Murch created the terms “sound designer” and “sound montage,” won an Oscar for Best Sound for Apocalypse Now, dual Oscars for The English Patient (Editing and Sound Editing), Oscar noms for The Conversation and other films, and did the restoration film and sound editing for the 1998 re-release of Touch of Evil. BTW “sound montage” in The Conversation’s credits is an accurate description. And remember: it was 1974, and this meant miles of tape and razor blades for crying out loud. There was a group of terrific conversations on various NPR programs a few years ago. On Fresh Air, I believe, he spoke with with Anthony Minghella about editing choices in The English Patient, specifically the interrogation scene with Willem Defoe. Fascinating and illuminating.

Isfahan The Movie: “an animated film inspired by the Persian architecture.” Stefan recommended it. I’ll reward myself with a viewing and a post when I’m done editing a video for the college.

At J.D.’s, our group watched Matewan, about the 1920’s effort to organize the coal mines. I can only paraphrase Sayles’ comments in the production notes from the DVD, but the combination of capitalist greed at its most rapacious and a violent leftist populism makes for a powerful and disturbing story.

Capitalism brings wealth and benefits to many, but like all human-made institutions, it’s a flawed system that can do great damage when moved to excess. It needs to be restrained before it can do too much harm, and that’s where unions can level the field. They too, are flawed institutions, which must have restraints as well… that’s part of the complex system we’ve set up for ourselves. We have to work it out or fight it out, over and over, as these tensions flex over time.

Fight the good fight, as the old hymn goes.

My friend Al asked me to join him at a preview of Danny Boyle’s Millions, a wonderful movie about saints, trains, a 7-year-old Manchester boy, the huge amount of money that literally lands on him, and all the complications that ensue.

I had heard nothing of the movie, but Al told me that the NY Time’s Manola Dargis was [lavish in her praise](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/11/movies/11mill.html?ex=1268283600&en=d2ae0e0c64627fdd&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland), and I agree with her. We found some nits to pick, and Al’s friend Bob (who got the passes we all used – thank you again) had a reservation about the ending, with which I respectfully and forcefully disagree. I recommend it heartily to any and all.

A nice pull quote from the Times review: One of the pleasures of the film is there’s never any doubt that this soulful child feels as deeply as any adult: Damian may be a squirt, but he is also an existential hero.

Aah, but best for last: Danny Boyle was at the screening for a Q&A session afterward. The boy who played the lead, Alex, was found after a search (in England, Boyle said, trying to cast a child is called “kissing the frogs). Boyle said that when Alex walked into the room, seeing him out of the corner of his eye, like tickertape, the words “I’ll bet that’s him” flashed before his eyes. Boyle was reluctant to look at him for fear he was wrong, but he wasn’t. In virtually every scene, he carries the film wonderfully.

Millions opens in Atlanta April 1st.

[Update: Found [this link](http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/interviews/dannyboyle.html) to Christianity Today’s interview, by Jeffrey Overstreet. Good reading.]

This Sunday at NDPC we’ll be discussing Pieces of April.