Screening Log
This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.
June 2006 activity
Total Log Entries: 38
- Adam (2)
- Andrew (0)
- Chet (0)
- Chiranjit (0)
- David (0)
- Eva (0)
- Evan (0)
- Ian (1)
- Jenny (0)
- Katherine (0)
- Leo (13)
- Megan (0)
- Rumsey (8)
- Teddy (0)
- Thomas (1)
- Timothy (0)
- Victoria (0)
Total Comments: 13
- The Passenger (0)
- Zabriskie Point (0)
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (0)
- Total Recall (0)
- The Thin Blue Line (0)
- Vernon, Florida (0)
- Gates of Heaven (0)
- The Hills Have Eyes (0)
- Munich (1)
- Overboard (0)
- A Short Film About Killing (0)
- A Reason to Live (0)
- … Forever and Always … (0)
- The Mongreloid (0)
- Hold Me While I’m Naked (0)
- Little Red Flowers (0)
- Big Trouble In Little China (0)
- United 93 (1)
- Equinox (0)
- The Long Kiss Goodnight (0)
- Audition (0)
- X Men: The Last Stand (2)
- Dazed and Confused (4)
- Brother’s Keeper (1)
- La Notte (0)
- The Forgotten (0)
- Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (0)
- A Prairie Home Companion (0)
- Aliens (0)
- Torn Curtain (1)
- Laputa: Castle in the Sky (0)
- Czech Dream (0)
- The Night of the Hunter (0)
- Virus (0)
- Videodrome (0)
- A.I. (0)
- The Osterman Weekend (0)
- Commando (3)
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Torn Curtain / USA / 1966
I probably saw this once about fifteen years ago and didn’t think much of it (besides the famously laborious murder sequence). But wow, what a fascinating and bizarre film this is.
Hitchcock’s fiftieth film retains the super-fake process shots and soundstage sets from Marnie, but renders them in near-abstract minimalism, creating a world of utter sterility. This, of course, has a conservative political function (communism sucks), but even Paul Newman’s math-nerd is pretty charmless, bedding and quickly shirking his prim fiancée, played by Mary Poppins. The point, no doubt, is that espionage is an ugly business on either side of the, how you say, Iron Curtain, especially if your future hubby’s alliances are nebulous.
But Cold War ethics, be damned. What’s fascinating about this film, even as the suspense lags, is the precision of the cutting, the economy of the dialogue, and mise-en-scene that might have been lifted from a contemporary Antonioni film (but with a more exciting application).
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Universal Pictures DVD
12 Jun 2006 2:17 PM | Comments (1)
leo / 12 June 2006 / 11:23 AM / URL
And whenever I think of the title of this movie, I can’t help but think of the song of the same name by Television. I don’t think there’s any connection, but I do like the line about “when beauty meets abuse.”