In the past two weeks I have reffered often to the total geek fest that is the BigSoccer Movie Draft . We are just three rounds away from completion now, and I will likely be making my 8th round pick at some point this afternoon. To confirm any well founded thoughts that I may be the coolest guy you know, I will say that yes, this draft has been exceptionally fun. It's been great to look at a bunch of others people's favorites. It's been great to be reminded of movies you wanted to see a while back but forgot about. And yes it's been great to rewatch old favorites to see if they are wothy to go into your time capsule. When Do The Right Thing was available for me to pick in round 7, I was giddy like a school girl. In the book High Fidelity
Rob Gordon's characters make top 5 lists for just about anything pertaining to music. This draft took it a bit of a step further and through all of us geeks and our top 5 lists something even bigger. Some are taking the competetion part of it more seriously than others, but it's all good fun.
Nico over as ESG has challenged himself with a "Stupid Boy Project." To watch all of the films on the list that he hasn't seen in 2006. As we are already entering March, he may have his work cut out for him. In fact if he hasn't seen my round three selection The Decalogue he may be suprised, discourged, or perhaps delighted to see that it runs 10 hours long. At any rate, I have found myself stockpiling my Netflix queue with movies from this draft I haven't seen or need to rewatch. The queue was at 30 movies just 10 days ago, and now is at about 70. And while I amy not officially be undertaing the task that Nico is, I may as well. It definately is something to consider. I started the other day with a copy of The 400 Blows and found myself in love with a director that I was unfamiliar with before and ready to watch the rest of the Antoine Doinel stories. A review on that to come later this week.
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And here is a random request. I am dying to find a poster of the scene from Band of Outsiders when the characters dance the madison. A still frame of it is here. I have found numerous "official" film promo posters, but none of that scene. If anyone knows where I can get a poster of this scene please let me know, as my birthday si coming up and it would be a great gift to myself.
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5 comments:
I know The Decalogue is quite lengthy. It's been one of those things on my "to watch list" forever. I like what Kieslowski I've seen so 10 hours shouldn't be a big deal.
Some of these movies I know in advance will be painful to watch (the musicals for instance), but I'm stupid, so I will watch them anyway. I was surprised how many of them I hadn't seen by the time I was counting them up. I've got my work cut out for me for sure.
I'm treating this like I'm treating myself in literature though, I need to get more well versed in "the classics." Both projects will probably leave me with the smug feeling that my tastes are better than the classics though. ;)
yeah, given your thoughts on metropolis, i know that you feel your taste is better than the classics. i am interested to watch the westerns, as i hadn't watched really any before the classic young guns and its classic sequel. :)
I'm not saying I think my tastes are better than the classics, I just think people (critics and fanboys) tend to overvalue oldness. I don't overvalue newness, I just look for something that still speaks to a modern audience without having to give me some historical BS to why it's so great.
For me, things like Yojimbo (almost all Kurosawa), Dr. Strangelove, Andrei Rublev are great because they're still great today.
I take the same approach to music. Haydn wrote 100+ symphonies, Mozart wrote over 40. Am I supposed to believe they're all works of genius just because they came from their pen?
I don't buy it with books, I don't buy it music, I don't buy it with art, and I don't buy it with movies.
I've read 1700 year old books that have blown me away, and then have read books hailed as genius that are two years old that have bored me to tears. The same is true if you the flip the amounts of time in that sentence.
I love a mixture of stuff from ancient through modern, but it should be able to (mostly) speak for itself and not need some guy with a film degree to say, "Oh well, in 1934, nothing like this had been done before so it's so great." To me, I appreciate the innovation, but if others can take the ball and run with it further and make something of lasting memory, that's better to me.
It reminds me (somewhat) of the Stravinsky quote:
"Good composers borrow, great composers steal."
didn't warhol paraphrase that stravinsky quote as well, or am i dreaming?
I don't know, but Warhol was a con artist.
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