Terri (dir. Azazel Jacobs)

I recently did a count of all the writers who have contributed to Keyframe at Fandor, and was pleased to discover that over 50 different contributors have lent their insights in just the past six months. I’m hoping to expand that number considerably over the rest of the year, with more content of different kinds, from articles to videos to round-table surveys and so on.

As editor, I try to help each piece to become its best and try not to play favorites. But I can’t deny that there are certain entries that are especially satisfying to have on Keyframe. So I thought I’d share a few from the past several weeks that I consider to be standouts:

- “Four Times Truer Than Life: Four Thoughts on Lillian Gish”, by Farran Smith Nehme.  Quoth the Self-Styled Siren:

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that Gish isn’t sexy, considering that she spent her entire silent career playing women (and, in Broken Blossoms, a child) who are desired by men, and often wind up seduced and abandoned. It’s no harder to get past Gish’s thin lips and flowing hair to her beauty, than it is to overlook Garbo’s eyebrows or Clara Bow’soddly drawn mouth.  Do those who find Gish a “silly, sexless antique” (Louise Brooks’ sarcastic phrasing of such criticisms) wonder what the male characters are after? Nowadays, are innocence and purity so despised, or so transient, that no trace of their appeal remains? Surely not. Perhaps in our day, those qualities are so firmly relegated to childhood that modern audiences aren’t comfortable with an erotic attraction to innocence–or, in The Wind, with how a young virgin’s terror of sex can coexist with an equally primal yearning for it.

- Terri is a recent film that I really like, sort of like Wes Anderson without trying to be too twee. We were lucky to have this interview with director Azazel Jacobs, in which tells Nick Dawson what it was like to be schooled in movies as a kid (esp. when your dad is a famous avant garde filmmaker and film school professor). And you can also watch his previous film, Momma’s Man, on Fandor.

- Filmmaker (though I like to think of him as a “cinematic instigator”) Alejandro Adams has started issuing a monthly column on Keyframe, appropriately named “Noisemaker.” In “How You Can Be A Better Filmmaker than Terrence Malick” Alejandro talks about the ways that co-opting movies by audience members can lead to acts of creation more inspired than the original works.

- A month has passed but I’m still thinking fondly of the surge of activity around Fandor’s digital premiere of David Holzman’s Diary. There was a noticeable uptick in the undervalued status of this classic, highly influential but still underseen film, thanks, I dare wager, to the extensive coverage Keyframe lent to the film.

There were many highlights, but the communal centerpiece was a poll of 25 film critics on the best films about filmmaking, with results that had the right blend of “right” and “surprising” (Sunset Blvd. and 8 1/2 are obvious, but Beware of a Holy Whore and Close-Up? Wow!) Perhaps just as good were the personal passion picks expressed across the full listing of the ballots, where everything from Inland Empire to The Last Action Hero got a vote of confidence (and really, aren’t those two films essentially one and the same?)

But there were also a few stand-alone thought pieces on David Holzman, and my favorite was Tom McCormack’s essay that tied the film’s vision of narcissism posting as art into today’s all-encompassing social network echo chamber.

—–

I also enjoyed Brian Darr’s tribute to Douglas Fairbanks, Michael Joshua Rowin’s discovery of the first baseball movies, and Dan Callahan’s appreciation of the “very horny cinema” of Claude Chabrol’s A Double Tour.

More delights are in the works for August. In the meantime, Happy reading, and happy viewing!

Fell down hard with these updates, due to a combination of intensive editorial work for David Holzman’s Diary’s digital premiere on Fandor, followed by two weeks’ vacation in China. I’m going by memory so there may be some films I saw that I forgot:

* denotes highlight

Mr. Popper’s Penguins (2011, Mark Waters) reviewed for Time Out
Horse Thief (1987, Tian Zhaungzhuang)
Seven Years in Tibet (1997, Jean-Jacques Annaud)
Kundun (1997, Martin Scorsese)
* Pathway (2011, Xu Xin)
China Gate (2010, Wang Yang)
One Day in May (2011, Ma Zhandong)
798 Station (2011, Zheng Kuo)
Beautiful Darling (2010, James Rasin) reviewed for Time Out
* Let the Bullets Fly (2010, Jiang Wen)
Sleep Furiously (2008, Gideon Koppel)

Autumnal (dir. Scott Nyerges)

* denotes highlight

Films by Paul Sharits (at Doc Films Chicago):
* N.O.T.H.I.N.G. (1968)
Piece Mandala/End War (1966)
* Ray Gun Virus (1966)
T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G (1968)

Films by Owen Land (at Doc Films Chicago):
Film in Which There Appear Edge Lettering, Sprocket Holes, Dirt Particles, Etc. (1965-66)
Remedial Reading Comprehension (1970)
Diploteratology: Bardo Follies (1978)

Second Half of Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference Finals
Steven Tyler’s Cutest/Funniest Moments on “American Idol” – on YouTube – related article on Fandor
Footage of Chinese “Super Girl” Champion Li Yuchun – on YouTube – related article on Fandor
* The Tree of Life (2011, Terrence Malick)
Last Quarter and Overtime of Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals – on TV at Seven Ten Lanes, Chicago IL
* Tung (1966, Bruce Baillie) on Fandor
* Quick Billy (1967-1970, Bruce Baillie) on Fandor
* Second Half of Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference Finals – on myp2p
Final Quarter of Game 5 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals – on myp2p
Tribute video to NBA Star Jason Williams on YouTube
Josephine Baker dancing – on YouTube – related article on Fandor
Videos by Scott Nyerges (avant-garde filmmaker who contributed to The Tree of Life)
* Autumnal (2008)
Floating in the Ether (2002)
Flow (2005)
Polar (2007)

The Show with zefrank
* UEFA Champions League Finals – on myp2p
New Castle (2011, Guo Hengqi)
* David Holzman’s Diary (1967, Jim McBride) on Fandor
* The Grand Rapids LipDub – on YouTube
* Final minutes of 2011 Indy 500 – on YouTube

YouTube Vloggomania (I had to do some research for an upcoming video essay):

Videos by Daxflame
Videos by ShaneDawson
Videos by juicystar7
Videos by Fred
Videos by Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker
Videos by Lonelygirl15
Videos by Bowiechick
Videos by ijustine
Videos by magibon
Videos by nigahiga
* Videos by Zya

Other highlights:

Drinks with Ignatiy after Tree of Life screening
Talking with filmmaker Scott Nyerges about his involvement with The Tree of Life
Late night drinks with directors Zhang Lu and Yang Yonghi
Sending the final version of a video segment to be aired on one of my favorite shows on TV

Disorder (dir. Huang Weikai)

* denotes highlight

Various videos of NBA highlights on YouTube - favorite is Reggie Miller scoring 35 points to shut up Spike Lee and the New York Knicks in the 1994 Playoffs
Agrarian Utopia (2009, Uruphong Raksasad) at Doc Films, Chicago
* Second half of Game 1 of NBA Western Conference Finals, on p2p
Sonic Outlaws (1995, Craig Baldwin) – watched on Fandor
“New Rules” segment of Real Time with Bill Maher originally aired May 13 2011
Second half of Game 2 of NBA Eastern Conference Finals, on p2p
Second half of Game 3 of NBA Western Conference Finals, on p2p
Mock Up on Mu (2008, Craig Baldwin) on Fandor
Spectres of the Spectrum (1999, Craig Baldwin) on Fandor
* Disorder (2009, Huang Weikai), at Nightingale Theater, Chicago
Second half of Game 3 of NBA Western Conference Finals, on p2p
Highlights of Lionel Messi’s two goals for FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid in 4/27/2011 match, on YouTube
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Apichatpong Weerasethakul), at DocFilms, Chicago
Game 3 of NBA Eastern Conference Finals, on TV at Seven Ten Lanes, Chicago

* denotes highlight

Woman Is the Future of Man (2004, Hong Sang-soo)
The First Grader (2010, dir. Justin Chadwick) on DVD, reviewed for Time Out Chicago
The first hour of OldBoy (2004, dir. Park Chan-wook) on Tartan DVD
Trailers for various 2011 Cannes Film Festival films on Fandor
Various videos of NBA highlights on YouTube
excerpts from The Host (2006, dir. Bong Joon-ho) on DVD
Two in the Wave (2009, dir. Emmanuel Laurent) on Fandor
Second half of Game 6 of NBA Western Conference playoffs, Oklahoma City vs. Memphis
* The Red and the White (1968, dir. Miklos Jancso) on Fandor
Videos of Pina Bausch performances on YouTube
* Poetry (2010, dir. Lee Chang-dong) on Korean import DVD
Second half of Game 7 of NBA Western Conference playoffs, Oklahoma City vs. Memphis
Second half of Game 1 of NBA Eastern Conference Finals

"Slave Ship" (dir. T. Marie)

* denotes highlight

At the Jeonju International Film Festival:

An Heir (2011, Jean-Marie Straub)
To the Devil (2011, Claire Denis)
* Memories of a Morning (2011, Jose-Luis Guerin)
An Escalator in World Order (2011, Kim Kyung-Man)
Excerpts from Kino-Glaz (1924, Dziga Vertov)
* Hotel des Invalides (1951, Georges Franju)
Rotterdam Europoort (1966, Joris Ivens)
Excerpt from Mix-Up aka Meli-Melo (1985, Francoise Romand)
Jean Gentil (2010, Israel Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán)
Caracremada (2010, Lluis Galter)

BBC World News coverage of death of Osama Bin Laden

The Forgotten Space (2010, Allan Sekula and Noel Burch)
Familiar Grounds (2010, Stephane Lafleur)
* Slow Drive (2010, Ben Rivers)
* El Sicario, Room 164 (2010, Gianfranco Rosi)
Self-Referential Traverse: Zeitgeist and Engagement (2010, Kim Sun)
* Guest (2010, Jose-Luis Guerin)
The Turin Horse (2011, Bela Tarr)
Anyang, Paradise City (2011, Park Chan-kyung)
Curling (2010, Denis Cote)
Animating Earth (2010, Ju Manamong)
* Slave Ship (2010, T. Marie)
* Water Lilies (2010, T. Marie)
21G (2010, Sun Xun)
Beyond-ism (2010, Sun Xun)
* Coming Attractions (2010, Peter Tscherkassky)
Oki’s Movie (2010, Hong Sang-soo)
* Nader and Simin: A Separation (2011, Asghar Faradhi)

On flight from Incheon to Chicago:

The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaucescu (2010, Andrei Ujica)
* Hahaha (2010, Hong Sang-soo)
* World on a Wire (1975, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

Home:

YouTube videos of Glenn Gould (in preparation for Dan Callahan’s piece on Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould for Fandor Keyframe)
Last five minutes of Chicago Bulls vs. Atlanta Hawks, TNT.com

Other film-related highlights:

Two hours with Claire Denis, including watching Jean-Marie Straub’s new film together
Lunch with Jeonju Film Festival director Min Byung-lock, programmers Yoo Um-seong, Jo Ji-hoon, and Chinese directors Li Luo, Li Ning, Sun Xun, and Zhang Miaoyan
Li Ning’s Tape finally playing to a full house with lively Q&A
Late-night drinks with director Lee Myung-se and British film critics James Bell and Davey Jenkins
Later night drinks with Chris Fujiwara, Gabe Klinger, Robert Koehler, J.P. Sniadecki and others
Panel discussion on architecture and film at the Chicago Architecture and Design Film Festival, featuring Jonathan Rosenbaum, Red Mike and Lee Bey

Richard Linklater backstage at Ebertfest

* denotes highlight

She Monkeys (2011, Lisa Aschan) SFIFF video room
* Better This World (2011, Kelly Duane de la Vega, Katie Galloway) SFIFF video room
The Place in Between (2010, Sarah Bouyain) SFIFF video room
The Sun-Beaten Path (2011, Sonthar Gyal) DVD, University of Chicago
* Mildred Pierce (2011, Todd Haynes) episodes 3 and 4, download
* My Joy (2010, Sergei Loznitsa) DVD
* The Battle of Kruger (2007, David Budzinski and Jason Schlosberg) YouTube [watched it after learning the coach of the New Orleans Hornets showed it to his team prior to defeating the Los Angeles Lakers)
* Detroit Wild City (2010, Francois Villon) DVD
* Tilva Ros (2010, Nikola Lezaic) DVD
* The Position of the Stars (2010, Leonard Retel Helmrich) DVD
* Tiny Furniture (2009, Lena Dunham) at Ebertfest, Virginia Theatre
* Me & Orson Welles (2008, Richard Linklater) at Ebertfest, Virginia Theatre
Various segments from Ebert Presents – most highly recommend segments with Matt Singer and Kartina Richardson
* President Obama roasting Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, on YouTube
20 minutes of Blazing Saddles (1975, Mel Brooks) on Asiana flight from Chicago to Jeonju

No sooner did I announce that I would be listing my weekly viewings that I fell off the horse. But let’s try this again. Unfortunately I largely forgot what I watched the week of 4/11-17, other than Huang Jianzhong’s A Good Woman (1985) and episodes 1 and 2 of Mildred Pierce (2011, Todd Haynes). Moving on…

* – highlight of the week

Beginners (2011, Mike Mills) pre-San Francisco Film Festival press screening, Loews Metreon
Picture This (1991, George Hickenlooper) on Fandor
Clips from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report online
The Arbor (2010, Clio Barnard) SFIFF media room
The Children of the Princess of Cleves (2010, Régis Sauder) SFIFF media room
* Meek’s Cutoff (2010, Kelly Reichardt) SFIFF screening, Landmark Kabuki
* Let the Wind Carry Me (2010, Hsiu-Chiung Chiang, Pung-Leung Kwan) DVD
The Mill and the Cross (2011, Lech Majewski) SFIFF media room and SF MOMA
The Future (2011, Miranda July)  SFIFF screening, Landmark Kabuki
* Ulysses (2011, Oscar Godoy) SFIFF media room

This old abandoned site’s got life in it yet. This past week I received an email inquiring about advertising on this site, and also noticed that a spammy botsite sucked up the entirety of my last entry. Also Chris Chang, in his Film Comment review of Disorder, a film distributed by my company dGenerate Films, referred to me as a blogger, even though I’ve been working professionally as a print film critic for two years and now write and edit film articles for Fandor’s Keyframe. Once a blogger, always a blogger.

So I’m thinking of coming back to Shooting Down Pictures (a name which, by the way, I’m not fond of – what was I thinking when I came up with that?) and reviving it by going back to how the site started before it was even called Shooting – a weekly digest of what I’ve been watching. One caveat is that I’m including not just movies but pretty much any media experience involving a screen, including web videos, TV broadcasts, etc. I’m taking a cue from Karina Longworth’s tumblr and embracing the post-cinematic world we are now living in.

Dedicated to all my old friends from the good old days at IMDb Classic Film Boards.

Week of April 4-10, 2011

- Michael Jackson’s 1983 performance of “Billie Jean” at the Motown 25 special, on YouTube

- “Sensualizing the Visual” – five film series of 1960s films by Bruce Baillie and Gunnar Nelson. Standouts: “To Parsifal” and “Quixote. ” At DocFilms, Chicago.

- 5 minutes of second half of NCAA Men’s Basketball finals, on NCAA.com

- Old Joy (dir. Kelly Reichardt) on Fandor

- In a Better World (dir. Susanne Bier) – reviewed for this week’s Time Out Chicago

- 20 clips of The Tree of Life (dir. Terrence Malick) at twowaysthroughlife.com

- “Multi-Media Victorian: The Magic Lantern, The Metropolis and the Extraordinary Ballads of George R. Sims” – turn of the 20th century pre-cinema magic lantern show of vintage English slides, presented by David Francis and Joss Marsh. At University of Chicago Film Studies Center.

- Last five holes of Saturday coverage of The Masters on TheMasters.com

- First 20 minutes of Life and Nothing But (dir. Bertrand Tavernier) on Fandor

- Last five holes of Sunday coverage of The Masters on TheMasters.com

- Opening credits sequences of six Chinese films in preparation for video essay for the Moving Image Source: City of Life and Death; Disorder; Oxhide 2; Single Man; Thomas Mao and Winter Vacation, on DVD and Quicktime

and if I want too many things
don’t you know that
I’m a human being

- New York Dolls

So, it’s been a while. I was meaning to post a follow-up to the free screening that closed out the Shooting Down Pictures project. But one thing happened after another to forestall my bringing due closure to this grand, 3-year venture in film blogging and canonic completism. First, it took me a couple of days to get over the hangover of that evening caused by an after-party involving several hours of drinking and karaoke singing of album rock standards. Then, I quit my job and spent the summer in a mythical land where Wordpress is blocked (I could only wish that all the spammers who post junk messages on this blog could be sequestered in that country…).  Then I returned Stateside and entered a completely new routine of blogging for a new site, working as an ambassador for Chinese indie cinema and taking what little time remained to edit my own film. And so here we are, two days into the new year. All this time this blog has been lingering in the back of my mind like an old friend I’ve been meaning to check in with but never get around to, which further compounds the feelings of procrastinatory guilt accumulating over what is surely a simple exercise. So at last… let’s do this.

As for that screening, it went well – good turnout of mostly familiar faces, friends and cinephiles who either wanted to celebrate a significant passage in my personal life as a movie lover, or just wanted to see what the delectable images of Terence Davies’ The Long Day Closes looked like projected on a big screen off a mediocre DVD. Fearing collective disappointment from the crowd, I started off with a choice passage from Freddy Got Fingered to put things in perspective: at least we weren’t watching that (though a couple wiseacres seemed disappointed).

I still haven’t done a proper post mortem on what it is that I got from Shooting Down Pictures. One of my biggest supporters in this project, Michael Baute, asked me this question several months ago, and I still feel that I owe him a response (as well as a completed version of the video essay on the exquisite film Under the Bridges that I started with him and Ekkehard Knoerer 20 months ago[!!!]). Michael specifically asked me what it taught me about film canons, to which I don’t have a very positive response. As I became more familiar with the breadth and depth of cinema through time, place and genre, the 1000 films on the They Shoot Pictures list seemed increasingly incomplete, insufficient and misrepresentative as a canon. At this point I’m not even sure how good of a starting point it would be for someone wanting to educate themselves about cinema. On the one hand it’s good to have a basic, common vocabulary of films that represent cinematic concepts and values everyone should understand. But when one considers all that’s missing…

I’ve expressed my misgivings a few times on this space, pretty much with every update to the TSPDT list, most recently here. At one point I thought it might be worth trying to organize a coordinated effort to reform the TSPDT list, but then I realized that, to see my point through about championing alternative cinemas, it’s better to just abandon the canonical framework altogether. And that’s pretty much what I’ve done since film #1000. I was expecting to start delving more intensively into favorite auteurs, as some of my colleagues have done, but I haven’t. I’ve only watched about 100+ films this year, half of which are Chinese independent films unfamiliar to most people (something I’m working to rectify on another site, one of two that have effectively replaced this blog as the location of my online editorial activity). Perhaps it’s fitting that my work at dGenerate seeking and promoting great unsung Chinese indies has more or less replaced the time I’d spend hunting down the remaining titles of the TSPDT canon.

It goes without saying that I grew immensely from all the time and energy I put into this blog. Despite my gripes with the canon’s limitations, I got to indulge in a fair amount of eclecticism, confronting films I’d never heard of or otherwise would never pursue. (On the other hand, I wonder if it made my tastes too broad so as to be indistinct; I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the necessity of fixation as a distinguishing factor in developing a personality and a voice.) I developed my critical senses (or are they sensibilities?): concise observation, avoiding summarizing and just getting to the most interesting pockets of activity in a film, and offering context (social/historical/cultural) when illuminating. It got me a brief but rewarding stint with Time Out New York, a gig that intensified the punchiness in my writing at 225 words a pop. But for all my growth as a critic, I’m just another voice in a crowded field of online wordslingers.  So I guess my point of differentiation is in making videos. At least that’s what I’m told helped me get my current film critic gig (more on that in a bit), and so I’ve come around to realize that this may be the métier I need to stick with. At least it’s something that redeems all those years toiling as a self-taught filmmaker.

The dream hasn’t died, though. I spent the summer in China working on my own documentary project, retracing my steps as a teacher from 12 years ago and reconnecting with several of my old students to see what they’ve done with their lives since. You can read all about it here, though it helps if you can read Chinese (or just copy and paste into Google Translate and marvel at the amusing garble that emerges). It was an amazing four months, almost a time out of time. I saw China at its extremes of wealth and poverty, booming cities and desolated farmlands, and my students at various stations in between, all pursuing their dreams just as it was my dream to immortalize their endeavors. I had a terrific host: Jian Yi, whose film Super Girls! is distributed by dGenerate, and who has set up his own center for cultural and social projects in the small, inland city of Ji’an, where I used to teach. This sort of cultural literacy and preservation work is quite rare in China outside of the major cities, and is desperately needed when present generations are consumed with a disposable culture driven by commercialism. His work touches many lives and is inspiring to behold.

My return to the US in September came with the expected culture shock (not least of which was getting re-acquainted to the non-stop barrage of social data on Facebook and Twitter, both blocked in China. I’m still not sure how I feel about what degree these sites should be in my life outside of my professional obligations to engage in them; I’ll just say that I’m highly sympathetic to the last 2-3 paragraphs of this kiss-off).  Though it was more of a lifestyle shock that kept me off balance through the rest of the year. You see, prior to leaving for China, I had quit my steady, nondescript, nine-to-five day job of nine years (it still sends a chill through me to read that), and not having that routine to return to opened up considerable pockets of chaos (both temporally and emotionally) that I’ve had to tame.  dGenerate Films is busier than ever; a big chunk of my October was committed to steering the tour of filmmaker Du Haibin through his first visit to the U.S.; the dGenerate blog, which I manage, has evolved into the leading information resource on Chinese independent cinema; and we acquired more titles than we had projected, which meant more work getting them ready for distribution. For more on all this here’s an interview I did for The Beijinger (hattip to Dan Edwards, who’s fast becoming an important correspondent on the current film scene in China)

On top of this, I now have an editor position at Fandor, a startup online streaming service that hopefully you may have heard of by now (if not have subscribed to). In many ways I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity from which to leave my day job and apply what I learned from Shooting Down Pictures. I get to hand pick a stable of regular contributors for the site’s Keyframe blog, the caliber of which I am quite proud (Jonathan Rosenbaum; Michael Atkinson; The Self Styled Siren – need I say more?). I get to produce video essays for the site. I get to establish the presence of what I hope will be an essential source for online content on great films.

Despite all this worthwhile activity, I’ve found myself chronically depressed throughout the last several weeks of this year. Much of it is due to a lack of progress on editing my footage from the summer, due to being occupied with Fandor and dGenerate. Still, on the balance of where I started the year, I should have every reason to be happy, even grateful, for what I have on my plate. But something happened, starting from when I left that old job I’d been stuck in for so long only to retrace my steps from 12 years ago in another country… well you can imagine the tidal wave of nostalgia over the pleasant naivete of the past, and regrets of opportunities missed, time misspent, dreams deferred. I haven’t quite been able to shake these thoughts until just now, writing down all I’ve done this year, which makes me feel that it was worth the time it took, self-forestallments and all.

At the same time, the career upgrade brought new responsibilities and expectations upon myself, at least in my own mind. It’s as if I’m making up for the 9 years of muted expectations in which I entombed myself in that day job; suddenly there’s no more room to settle, everything needs to be better, and there’s a constant voice in my head assessing what I’m doing right or wrong (mostly wrong), what more could I be doing. You would think that waking up to your own life would be a liberating experience, but it can also be a kind of hell.

Little wonder this movie made my top ten.

At my old job, whenever someone asked my ex-boss how he was doing, he’d reply, “Living the Dream” with a sarcastic wistfulness that I can still hear with piercing clarity.  Not sure how many colleagues picked up on it or read much into it, but for me it spoke for my own sense of subjugation to a less than ideal life, the kind of compromise that we’re all expected to make sooner or later, and that I had made way too soon in my life, I now realize. And I also realize that, quite unexpectedly, I have escaped that fate. I am now cognizant of how much direction I can give to my own life. I have no one to blame but myself… and blame isn’t much use anyway.

It’s still left to see how things will play out with all that I have going on. It doesn’t help that I have an anxious disposition and get easily distracted. It’s at these times that my old friends the movies, especially the truly great ones, can occasionally offer clarity and wisdom. Not so much in what they say, but how. Two most recent examples below, both dwelling (if not luxuriating) in the messy uncertainty of the world, one with resolute playfulness, the other with endless patience, both infinitely attentive to what they’re capturing. There’s no question they deserve to be watched; we can only hope we are as deserving to learn from them.

Needless to say, neither film is on the TSPDT 1000.  Greatness strikes where it pleases, and whom. I’m relieved that I don’t have to track a canon anymore (though for old time’s sake I might post entries on whatever new titles appear in updates to the TSPDT list). But it raises the question of what to do with this blog. God knows I haven’t had time to maintain it like I used to, its comments section are now weed patches of spambots. But I do miss the regimen and the discipline of maintaining an ongoing personal blog. I don’t if managing the Fandor and dGenerate blogs will leave me time to do much here.  I do know that the alsolikelife website as a whole is due for an overhaul. We’ll see how long that will take. In the meantime, you know where to find me: Fandor and dGenerate, respectively.

Thank you for seeing me through to the end of this. I’ll see you at the next thing.