Saw Lost Highway on Thursday, and I have to say, David Lynch has not disappointed me yet. I loved Mulholland Drive and I loved this and the parts of Dune I saw, although apparently that's one of his most normal movies. I know some people hate how confusing and twisty-turvey his movies are but I was talking to my brother with this and I think that in some ways films like Lynch's that are so chaotic and have misunderstandings and stilted weird moments and such heavy atmosphere and mistiming and convolutions are in some ways much truer to life than neatly organized and paced stories. I enjoy that Lynch lets me, the audience, watch what could essentially be a series of scenes that share the same actors (sometimes not even that) and construe from them my own plot, backstory, explanations, etc. Watching his movies is liking letting him do all the visual and aural work and leaving all the story work for my warped little brain... which works for me. :)

Also watched Jules et Jim the other night. Sad, much? I absolutely loved the ending, that scene where Catherine is smiling and laughing and almost reassuring Jim that it's going to be okay right before they go over the bridge. It's like throughout the whole movie she was teetering on the edge of something truly horrible, just biding her time with these two men, and then she calmly both physically and metaphorically takes herself over the edge, and takes them both with her. I also love how Truffaut will take these tiny claustrophobic Parisian apartments and just let his characters bounce off of the walls and each other. Pretty. Also, the scene where they all come out of the shore house onto different balconies cracked me up for some reason. It was so innocent and whimsical, I suppose.

Over the weekend I watched MST3K doing Devil Doll and Riding With Death. Plus I rewatched one of my all time favorites, Space Mutiny. All were awesome. The only MST3K movie I ever saw that I didn't love was when they did this old German Hamlet with Maximillian Schill (sp?) that even with their awesome running commentary still dragged on... and on.... and oooooonnnnn.....

Saw Harry Potter 5. Eh. Not that impressed; granted I haven't read the book in a few years but I could still feel that the plot and story were being rushed so as to be able to hit all the requisite points and although there were a couple of moments I felt like a lot was simply mentioned in passing or expositioned or shown and briefly and almost, well, curtly, so that the film could get ON with it. It's almost like the director made it knowing just how little time he had to really show anything and so just made a list of every absolutely essential plot point in the book, scrapped everything else, and shot a succession of scenes checking off the points as he got to them. I don't know. Maybe it was just me.

La Jetee, the basis for 12 Monkeys. Weird to get used to at first because it's film roman (I think that's what it's called, anyway) so it's pretty much a slide show (albeit a very cool and visually arresting one) with a voiceover narration and appropriate sound effects. Still, it's pretty interesting and there is one picture of what is supposedly a nuclear detonation over Paris during World War III that is absolutely awesome looking, and I would love to know how they did it.


There may be more, but I can't think of it now. I've been reading a lot lately, especially for class. Just finished Caleb Williams, and am now reading Walden. Good stuff. Also for some reason I was on this weird Margaret Atwood kick a few weeks back where I read The Robber Bride, Cat'e Eye, and the The Handmaid's Tale. I now feel like I would recognize Atwood's writing anywhere; she has a very distinctive voice that she uses in all those books. Pretty good though, I liked them.

I don't really know what else to write in this dumb thing. My life is pretty much reading, watching movies, writing, going to the gym, class, and work, eating, sleeping, walking around New Brunswick, and hanging out with Dan and Liz right now. Not that I'm complaining, but... it's not really earth-shattering stuff.

Maybe I'll come back when I see a movie that changes everything.