Watching Cheese Age

You've heard of watching grass grow? Well, try watching cheese age for a change of pace.

HT: NPR

Olivier's Othello

I had seen this Othello before, but The Younger Son had not. It stars Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi and Frank Finlay. This version is true to the Shakespeare play, which can be read online here. I just hate Iago!

trailer:

The Poet

The Poet by Michael Connelly is a crime/thriller/mystery novel and winner of the 1997 Anthony Award.

from the back of the book:

Death is reporter Jack McEvoy's beat: his calling, his obsession. But this time, death brings McEvoy the story he never wanted to write — and the mystery he desperately needs to solve. A serial killer of unprecedented savagery and cunning is at large. His targets: homicide cops, each haunted by a murder case he couldn't crack. The killer's calling card: a quotation from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. His latest victim is McEvoy's own brother. And his last....may be McEvoy himself.

This one features a child predator, which I hadn't realized until I was into the book. It's not terribly graphic, but I wouldn't have started the book if I'd known. That said, the book is interesting, there are plot twists that aren't obvious, and there's a surprise at the end. Everything does not get tied up in a neat little bundle, and everybody does not get to live happily ever after. The point of view changes occasionally. The characters and their relationships are nicely developed. It's a satisfying read. Except for that child endangerment issue, which I have real trouble with. Wish I'd known before I started.

Maya Deren

Meshes of the Afternoon is a 1943 experimental silent film short:



This article (there are spoilers in the article though not in this clip) about Maya Deren says

Meshes of the Afternoon was produced in an environment of wartime volatility and this is reflected symbolically throughout its mise-en-scène. The title card suggesting that the film was 'made in Hollywood' is ironic, Deren sets her film within an LA setting, but it is the nightmare element of the dream factory that interests her most. The film establishes an atmosphere saturated in paranoia and distrust with lovers turning into killers and with the presence of a mysterious but fascinating hooded figure. As European émigrés, Deren and Hammid invest their film with an acute sense of restlessness and alienation. Meshes of the Afternoon reflects this uncanny estrangement in the doubling, tripling and quadrupling of its central character (played by Deren) and in its cyclic narrative, a structure that seems condemned to repetition. The hooded figure with the reflective face adds yet another dimension, reflecting back the identity of those who look into her eyes.

MoMA describes the movie:

Meshes of the Afternoon is one of the most influential works in American experimental cinema. A non-narrative work, it has been identified as a key example of the "trance film," in which a protagonist appears in a dreamlike state, and where the camera conveys his or her subjective focus.
...

Made by Deren with her husband, cinematographer Alexander Hammid, Meshes of the Afternoon established the independent avant-garde movement in film in the United States, which is known as the New American Cinema. It directly inspired early works by Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, and other major experimental filmmakers.

Another Maya Deren film, At Land is a 1944 silent short:



Having watched 2 Maya Deren shorts, I decided to see what else I could find. Private Life of a Cat is a short silent film co-directed by Ms. Deren and her husband Alexander Hammid. The title is perfectly descriptive, the movie telling the story of a cat and the birth and raising of her beautiful kittens:



Witch's Cradle, from 1944, was unfinished:



A Study in Choreography for Camera is from 1945:



Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) is another Maya Deren short film (5/10/2008, Film of the Year has a post on this film):



The Very Eye of Night is a short film from 1958:



Meditation on Violence:



Divine Horsemen was filmed in Haiti over the course of several years and explores vodou, a subject that was of great interest to Ms. Deren. The film was edited and completed long after her death. It is longer than the others but still under an hour in length. This is a documentary, nothing like her other films:



update 12/4/2007: FerdyonFilms has posted on Meshes of the Afternoon and At Land as part of the Short Film Blogathon.

6/4/2008: A Film Canon comments on the film Meshes of the Afternoon.

9/17/2009: Only the Cinema has a post on Deren.

10/6/2011: Film Studies for Free has links and videos.

Lonely Planet Visits Lonely Island

Simon Sellars, self-described "co-author of Lonely Planet's recent guide to homemade nations," is in Sealand.

Welcome to the world's smallest and weirdest "country". I am in Sealand, a self-proclaimed independent state in the North Sea, 11km off England's Suffolk coast. Sealand consists of two towers 10m in diameter and protruding 20m above sea level with seven levels containing living quarters, a brig, a chapel, a gym and a so-called data haven filled with computer mainframes. A platform with a lounge, kitchen, post office and helipad links the towers. There are generators, oil drums, splintered wood, mechanical parts everywhere. It's ramshackle, rusting, a scrap heap.

He offers descriptions of life on Sealand that will enable you to hear the sounds of the sea yourself. Well, almost. It is an interesting report.

A Day in the Life

A Day in the Life by The Beatles (1967):



The list of 500 Songs that shaped Rock and Roll comes from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Sorry, Wrong Number

Sorry, Wrong Number, a 1948 film noir, stars Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster.

This is the first few minutes of the movie:



6/29/2008:
Noir of the Week has a review.

1/6/2009:
Only the Cinema has a review.

A Change is Gonna Come

Sam Cooke sings A Change is Gonna Come (1965):



The list of 500 Songs that shaped Rock and Roll comes from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Sunday Psalm

Psalm 17

1 Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.

2 Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.

3 Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

4 Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

5 Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.

6 I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.

7 Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.

8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

9 From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

10 They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

11 They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;

12 Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

13 Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

14 From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

KJV

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

I mentioned this last year.

Blue-footed Boobies

National Geographic has a fun video of Blue-footed Boobies. And an iguana...:

The Apostle

Today is the last day of Strange Culture's Film + Faith Blogathon, so we watched The Apostle, #16 on the Arts and Faith list of 100 spiritually significant films.

This is the story of a deeply flawed man, a man of God who serves the Lord but who yields to sexual temptation and fits of violent anger. In an interview with The Journal of Religion and Film Robert Duvall, who wrote, directed and played the title role of Sonny, said

Sonny’s a good guy; he believed he had a calling from the time he was twelve; and he errs like most characters do, you know? He’s a kind of percentage mixture at the beginning and at the end. There’s a certain percentage chance he will do good and a percentage chance he will again err. But he knows he has erred and that he needs confession and redemption.

Sonny is weak but accomplishes great things for God; Sonny sins but maintains his faith and ministry through his punishment. He is forgiven but must accept accountability.

trailer:


I was the only one of us who liked this movie. The Husband said, "At least it didn't have subtitles." When I asked them if they liked it The Daughter just looked at me and The Younger Son said, "What was there to like?" I found a lot to like and a lot to identify with. I was touched by the always-there hope of redemption for all of us no matter how sinful we are. Let me hear an Amen!

1/16/2008:

This Distracted Globe has a review.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

You can read the Lotus Sutra here, here, here and here. More about the Lotus Sutra can be found here and here. More about Nichiren Buddhism can be found here and here.

for some pop culture appearances watch this video:


For more on this chant in film check out this post in the Film + Faith Blogathon.

Andrei Rublev

We divided Andrei Rublev into 3 sections and watched them during lunch on 3 consecutive days. The film is well over 3 hours long, and we couldn't find time to watch it in a single sitting. Perhaps that was our problem, because we definitely did have a problem. We struggled with this film from the beginning balloonist through the final color pictures of actual icons. The title character is silent for most of the movie and is never seen painting. The other characters come and go and sometimes return, leaving us to wonder..., well leaving us to wonder what they have to do with anything. What does it all mean?

It has many different scenes depicting events of various kinds but has no real plot that we could discern. I mean, what was with the pagan rites, anyway? Rublev just watches. Is it intended to be a picture of temptation? I don't get the impression Rublev was tempted, just observing. Watching is what he does throughout the film. When he takes action the results are mixed. His first attempt to save the "Holy Fool" results in a death and long repentance, while his second attempt results in failure. Since the girl is no worse off after the second time than the first, and I might argue she's better off as a result of his failure to rescue her that second time, I wonder if she needed saving in the first place. Kirill, on the other hand, seems the opposite of the mute girl and seems in more need of saving with all his intelligence and insight, yet Rublev ignores him.

Rublev seems inspired at the end by the faith of the bell-maker and breaks his silence to suggest they go together to practice their crafts. Kirill's earlier rant about how he should break his silence and paint has no such effect. Reasoned argument does not reach him, but the faith of the simple peasant boy brings him to act.

I see it as a picture of faith, a picture of the soaring transcendence of faith and simplicity over reason and harsh reality, but I can't articulate why I see it this way. I'll be puzzling over this one for quite a while.

trailer:


The Criterion Contraption has a review.

Christ Figures in Film

In reading one of the Film + Faith Blogathon posts I remembered a project I researched for church several years ago. I wanted our church to host a film series. I looked into how to screen the films without violating copyright law, bought a license that would allow us to view a wide variety of films and looked at several options for what kind of film series to host. We decided on a monthly Life of Christ in Film program, but one of the possibilities I had considered was films with recognizable Christ figures. That's where the current blogathon post comes in, as the blogger address such figures in this post:

While many films and books have characters deemed Christ-figures, they are usually identified as Christ-like in the fact that they make an ultimate sacrifice of themselves as a redemption of others (think Aslan, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix).

This is my short-list of films with Christ figures:

Superman
Shane
Starman
Babette's Feast
The Matrix
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Iron Giant
On the Waterfront
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Tron
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Mission
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Cool Hand Luke
The Fifth Element

I've got some confusion about the rest of his post because of what I see as a conflation of "bad" and "evil" as if they are the same thing, but I was intrigued by the mention of Christ figures in movies.

Film + Faith Blogathon

Miscellaneous posts related to this blogathon:

Christ Figures in Film
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo


I am looking forward to reading the posts in the Film + Faith Blogathon and thought I would take this chance to look back over the ArtsAndFaith.com list of 100 most spiritually significant films and perhaps watch a few more. We are trying to discern some common element in these movies, some common reason they were chosen while others were not included.

Here's the entire list.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1893 of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The Russian composer's best-known works are the 1812 Overture, Marche Slave and The Nutcracker.

Cherubimic Hymn (HT: Father Stephen):(video no longer available)

1812 Overture:


Marche Slave:


The Nutcracker:

The Monk and the Fish

a film by Michael Dudok de Wit

HT: Cinemathematics

Guy Fawkes Day

Today is Guy Fawkes Day.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up king and parliament.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;

By God's mercy he was catched
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

It's in one of the Paddington Bear books, if you don't remember. Which one?

The Red Scream

The Red Scream, the first Molly Cates mystery by Mary Willis Walker, won the Edgar Award in 1995. It is a page-turner. It's a crime novel focusing on convicted serial killer Louie Bronk and the crime reporter who has written a book about the murder for which he received the death penalty.

from the back of the book:

Her subject is murder - now it could be the death of her....

Tough, stubborn, and relentless as the oil drills that hammer her native Texas landscape, Molly Cates writes about death for Lone Star Monthly. The subject of her first book was Louie Bronk, a.k.a. the Texas Scalper, a brutal serial killer scheduled for execution. In a macabre gesture, Bronk has invited Molly to his last day on earth along with several of his final victim's relatives. With the execution only days away, Cates figures to write the last chapter on her disturbing relationship with the most evil human being she has ever known. Little does she expect she will face pressure to back off the story from the most unlikely sources: her boss at Lone Star Monthly and the husband of the woman whose murder got Bronk the death penalty. Then comes the poem from an anonymous letter writer whose lines contain a chilling message:

Now that Louie's doomed to die
I may give his craft a try.

And when the first body turns up, Molly is forced to consider that Bronk might be executed for the wrong reason - and that a second killer is on the loose...

There was a good balance between the protagonist's professional and personal lives. I didn't know what had really happened until right at the end, but I didn't feel like Willis had tricked me during the book or led me astray. I thought the characters were realistically drawn and the events plausible. I probably won't seek out others by her because I don't tend to like this kind of crime story. I read it because it won the Edgar, and I'm trying to broaden my horizons.