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.
December 2006 activity
Total Log Entries: 74
- Adam (10)
- Andrew (0)
- Chet (0)
- Chiranjit (6)
- David (0)
- Eva (0)
- Evan (0)
- Ian (15)
- Jenny (8)
- Katherine (0)
- Leo (15)
- Megan (0)
- Rumsey (7)
- Teddy (1)
- Thomas (0)
- Timothy (0)
- Victoria (0)
Total Comments: 65
- Pan’s Labyrinth (0)
- Firewall (0)
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1)
- Interiors (0)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (0)
- The Kingdom (0)
- The Innocents (0)
- Les anges du peche (0)
- Night at the Museum (0)
- Children of Men (0)
- Dreamgirls (2)
- Invincible (0)
- Babel (15)
- The Good Shepherd (0)
- Scarlet Street (0)
- Little Miss Sunshine (0)
- The Illusionist (1)
- The Good Shepherd (0)
- Mon oncle d’Amerique (0)
- Flying Down To Rio (0)
- Yearning (0)
- The Good Shepherd (1)
- Little Children (4)
- Shortbus (0)
- Clerks II (3)
- Fires On The Plain (0)
- Cape Fear (0)
- Testament d’Orphée (0)
- Miami Vice (0)
- Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid (0)
- Curse of the Golden Flower (0)
- Au revoir, les enfants (0)
- Freaks and Geeks (4)
- The Watermelon Woman (0)
- Wanda (0)
- The Wind That Shakes The Barley (0)
- Sayat Nova (0)
- Miami Vice (3)
- El Topo (6)
- Troilus & Cressida (0)
- Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (0)
- Deja Vu (0)
- Inland Empire (0)
- Shock Treatment (3)
- The Holiday (0)
- Inland Empire (0)
- Syndromes and a Century (0)
- The Chinese Boxer (0)
- Volver (0)
- Days of Glory (0)
- Paris, je t’aime (0)
- Frozen City (0)
- Network (0)
- Regular Lovers (0)
- The Double Life of Veronique (0)
- L’Amour fou (0)
- Lost Highway (0)
- McCabe & Mrs. Miller (0)
- Nosferatu the Vampyre (0)
- Le vent de la nuit (0)
- Fresh Air (0)
- In Smog and Thunder (0)
- Sissy Frenchfry (2)
- The Tenants (0)
- Little Children (1)
- Half Nelson (1)
- The History Boys (4)
- Inland Empire (1)
- American Movie (0)
- Hard Eight (2)
- V for Vendetta (5)
- Hearts of Darkness (1)
- Casino Royale (0)
- Borat (5)
Full Archive
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The Watermelon Woman / USA / 1996
I’ll admit to being duped by Cheryl Dunye’s film, which portrays itself as half-drama, half-documentary. No, there never was a Fae Richards, nor a Martha Page; they never transcended eras by being an interracial gay couple, never redefined the roles of women and African Americans in film. But for 93 minutes I was utterly convinced, believing this to be Dunye’s mingling of fact and recreation. (Think Kiarostami’s Close-Up.) I credit this to the film’s alternating style: Dunye talking into the camera becomes a seemingly old clip of Plantation Memories, starring the Butterfly McQueen-esque Fae Richards, known to audiences as the Watermelon Woman.
Stylistics aside, The Watermelon Woman just isn’t a very good film. The themes of race and sexual orientation, which collide head-on halfway through, become tiring. This, I thought, is what a Spike Lee film about lesbianism would look like. Additionally a sex scene that, in all honesty, was not at all tastefully done actually took away from the movie’s overall message, leaving me no choice but to hope for a respectable ending. (There wasn’t.) Had Dunye instead chose to create a mockumentary of sorts about Fae Richards, using the style and insight so greatly employed in the flashbacks and film clips, this film would’ve been much better.
by Adam Balz | Source: First Run Features DVD
17 Dec 2006 2:58 PM | Submit Comment