The Patient Etherized

The Patient Etherized
Q: Et tu, Jonathan? A: Read. Read some more. Buy Red Bull.

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Back in black

Alright, here's a summary of what I did for the past month and a half.

New Year's: After consuming too much whiskey, I blacked out and proceeded to vomit into the toilet in my friend's apartment saying "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry." Only I thought I was speaking to someone else (that part I do remember). Then I lapsed back into amnesia and woke up the next morning sprawled on a lovely seat intended for two people sitting, not one person lying down. Stained and humiliated, I did what anyone else would do: I went and ate dim sum with friends. Two days later the strange chest pains ended.

Vacation time at home: I watched movies. Many movies. I kept a list, which, amazingly, is actually incomplete:

battle royale -- bloody cult japanese film with takeshi hitaro and hot chick from Kill Bill
donnie darko -- cultish american flick with strange evil bunny rabbit
videodrome -- cultural studies professor's wet dream: cronenberg's body morphing and hyperreality
naked lunch + commentary -- more cronenberg. great makeup
down by law -- jim jarmusch, tom waits, roberto benigni in a great "american vernacular" film set in nawlins.
mulholland drive -- no i swear i didn't see this for the lesbian scenes.
touch of evil -- one of welles' anti-fascist films, one of his best
branded to kill -- seijin suzuki's great pulp 60s flick, much imitated by tarantino (and jarmusch)
the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie -- luis bunuel's film that seems more like a theatre of the absurd play.
one hour photo -- bad robin williams psycho flick
dogtown -- stacey peralta documentary on origins of skateboarding. pretty cool
fireworks -- takeshi hitaro's potboiler meditation on life.
roger and me -- roger moore's connection with the old left
what happened to kerouac? -- an oral biography featuring interviews with allen, greg, william and the gang.
last samurai -- yet another bad performance by tom cruise; think the patriot set in japan
hero -- zhang yimou's reparte for crouching tiger. zhang ziyi is getting hotter it would seem. damn good
boondock saints -- cultish action film about irish people getting mad ... and catholic
zoolander (a second time) -- "i can derelicte my own balls, thank you very much"
ghost dog: way of the samurai -- jarmusch's great interracial/ethnic (black/japanese/italian) film
the harder they come + some of the commentary -- jimmy cliff and a lot of jamaicans speaking english i can't understand.
8 1/2 + commentary -- fellini (and a cast of thousands) show the plight of the artist.
spellbound -- hitchcock's film about psychoanalysis, featuring cheesy dali-inspired dreams
honey -- the weird part about honey was that there were about 500 sports jersies in it, almost all of players that no thuggish individual would wear in his right mind.
l'histoire d'adele h. -- truffaut's story of adele hugo's descent into insanity.
le bonheur -- threesome's don't work dammit. wait, the wife died. oh well, it's ok. (ps they're french)
arabian nights -- pier paolo pasolini's allegedly erotic rendition of a few of the 1001 nights.
solaris -- andrei tartovsky's answer to 2001. frankly i was bored.
suddenly, last summer -- tennessee williams and hollywood. hepburn and clift. elizabeth taylor. cleavage. all the stars.
ali: fear eats the soul -- german people are ugly. they're even uglier in a rainer werner fassbinder german realist sort of way. the interracial romance was interesting though (between an elderly woman and an arab).
lord of the rings: return of the king (twice) -- fat hobbit
charulata -- satyajit ray's story of a bored housewife in the late 19th c. write young woman write!
night of the hunter -- a brilliant film by charles laughton. capitalism is baaaad. preachers are baaaad.
the devil and daniel webster -- another brilliant film by emigre william dieterle. another leftist allegory against the dangers of capitalism. agrarian fantasies too.
the defiant ones -- hollywood late fifties production about black/white relations. sidney poitier and tony curtis learn to get along.
viva zapata -- elia kazan's film about the mexican revolution. brando plays zapata.
inside the marx brothers -- decent documentary, albeit short, about the various marx brothers.
double indemnity -- the famous film noir with the conservative and ugly barbara stanwyck
cradle will rock -- tim robbin's great rendition of the marc blitzstein musical and the popular front culture
bruce almighty (second time) -- B-E-A you-tiful. don't say that too much -- it gets annoying.
william s. burroughs: commissioner of sewers -- bad fucking documentary. stupid crazy germans.
thelonious monk: straight no chaser -- good jazz documentary that shows the genius of monk.
timothy leary's last trip -- watch one of the merry pranksters' kids exploit his parents' generation for money to support his (probable) drug addiction.
the front -- martin ritt's amazing film about the blacklist. one of woody allen's best roles
stand and deliver -- latinos in the barrio overcome all odds because of one great teacher and closet dictator.
bad santa -- the most profane movie i've ever seen... and it's about christmas. also one of the funniest.
heaven's burning -- a weird early russell crowe film with the chinese girl from snow falling on cedars. they drive around in rural australia and stuff happens.
private parts -- howard stern is a big dork who now makes a living out of seeing people naked. this is his self-made panegyric.

posted by Jon | 1:18:00 PM