Just a heads up that tonight's episode of
Hit Me With Your Best Shot starring Federico Fellini's
La Dolce Vita (1960) must be delayed. It's a long film, I've been
totally ill for two days and I want to give it its proper due. Plus this will give as many of you peeps out there a chance to see it as possible. All you need to do to take part in this 'more the merrier' movie-loving series is choose your favorite screen shot, post it somewhere public, and tell us why you love it so!
'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' Schedule
- Wed 10/06 Requiem for a Dream (exact 10th ann.!)
- Wed 10/13 La Dolce Vita (1960)
- Wed 10/20 Mean Girls (2004)
- Wed 10/27 The Night of the Hunter (1955) Best Shot Season 1 finale! It's one of the best films of the 50s and if you haven't seen it, you simply must. Lillian Gish, Robert Mitchum, annoying kids, jawdropping noir lighting. A perfectly creepy classic to send us into Halloween week.
Other Programming Notes: Robert's Thursday
Modern Maestros column will be ending in October so enjoy the last few columns before Robert is a married man and off on his honeymoon (
Congratulations!). Meanwhile response to "
Familiar Faces: Woody Allen's Hierarchy" was so good that that's getting its own series. Not a Woody Allen series mind you but a director/actor series. More excitement of all sorts to come as we head into awards season.
Which Oscar races and/or contending films are you most eager to see more coverage on? Don't be shy. Obviously The Film Experience won't leave you hanging on the Actress categories or foreign film. But where else should we dig deep this year?
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19 comments:
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Love that movie. Want to hear other opinions.
Four words: NIGHT OF THE HUNTER! Yes. That. Also, glad that I'll now have a chance to participate in La Dolce Vita. Both wonderful, weird movies. (I mean, Laughton and Fellini, how could they not be?)
Hope you feel better!
And, I don't even think The Night of The Hunter technically "noir." Noir, for me, is about murky morality, dark lighting and a grounding in reality. It has the lighting, but the clearly black and white morality and the surreal tendencies make it, in my book, Non-German Expressionism, not "Noir." M would be classifiable as noir while Metropolis, Nosferatu and The Night of the Hunter wouldn't be.
volvag -- i didn't say it was "noir" i said "jawdropping noir lighting" which it most definitely has.
hope everyone participates in that one.
Yay for Mean Girls!
The Night of the Hunter? I love that film. I mean, it's no Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural, but what is?
Love that you have new ideas, but what about Best Pictures From the Outside In again?
cal -- beyond my control. 3 people involved and coordinating schedules is difficult.
LOVE the familiar faces idea! Excited for that (...and maybe Mean Girls too...).
I know it's a lot of work, but I would really love more podcasts (especially in a month or two once the season really starts to pick up). Those were a real highlight last year.
Also (and now I'm just being greedy) - would love to see a slow return to more of your Personal Canon...at some point? Maybe?
Oh how I wish I had a program that captured screenshots so I could partake in the series somehow.
Also looking forward to the familiar faces series.
As for Oscar this year, if it's The King's Speech vs. The Social Network as many are now saying, it should develop into quite a nice old school vs new school narrative. What fun!
robert -- such programs exist AND ARE FREE. get on it. the more the merrier.
agreed on the oscar race tho' old school vs. new school is a narrative that will tire quickly i think in terms of what to discuss. hopefully there will be drama found SOMEWHERE.
Matt -- the podcasts are returning but will probably be shorter so they don't kill us in ways both $ and workload wise. it sucks that we were first and now every awards blog has a podcast. argh. alas... if only i had a budget to run the site with.
You know, I love the Hit Me With Your Best Shot series. I've been meaning to actually take part in it considering I have a flickr that's been just...sitting there for ages. I'll always think to myself "Oh I'll do it next time!" but I always end up getting too busy and forget. I hopefully will for Requiem for a Dream. If there's a season two, can I suggest The Red Shoes? It might be something obvious but seriously, perhaps the best cinematography I've seen.
Would you ever do a series on silents? I hadn't seen Pandora's Box until after you did it for HMWYBS and wow, my jaw dropped. I'd love to see you write up on The Passion of Joan of Arc.
Great job Nathaniel, and hope you feel better too. I feel your pain, I've been sick for a couple of weeks and I am just DONE with it.
Robert, amateur screenshot enthusiast tip. If you're using a PC, print screen + GIMP (or your favorite Photoshop-like tool) = gold. As in, CTRL+PrtScn, then Paste into GIMP, crop out whatever you need to crop out, and save as your image file of choice. Easy peasy.
Unless you don't want to watch DVDs on your computer or use a Mac for home screening. Then it's much more complicated.
Except, is that really what it boils down to? Old School v. New School, in terms of style of filmmaking, would be The King's Speech v. Black Swan. This is "nostalgia" v. The Future, which is different. Both The King's Speech and The Social Network appear to be, in terms of visual and plot construction, very literal and old school pieces of filmmaking. Mostly though, I hope The Social Network gets a score nomination. It's been all classical for way too long in Original Score at the Oscars.
Feel better. I was sick a week ago and it was pretty bad.
I love La Dolce Vita...need to rewatch. But I have my shot anyway and it wouldn't change even if I rewatched all three hours of it.
Suggestions for Season 2: All About My Mother, Sunset Blvd, Audition
Night of the Hunter-Those kids are indeed annoying, I was rooting for the preacher. Charles Laughton hated them too.
Robert-Congratulations.
I think we need more coverage in the Picture category.
Oh, Nathaniel, that's so bad. Maybe if all the fans of Best Pictures From The Outside In showed our impatience for new episodes you could try harder? Hey, people, show yourselves. I'm sure I'm not the only one who loves these series.
About The Red Shoes: First asexual character in the history of cinema.
You mean to tell me you aren't going to do a write up of Peter Jackson for your Modern Maestros column?
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