Eraserhead vs. Per. 2 Economics

So in Economics today, we were required to go complete the FAFSA application in the computer lab. A few of us had already completed this so we were excused back to class. Our teacher, not having an plans, thinking that we'd be in the lab, plugged in a film that I helped pick out.

Eraserhead.

So for those who have seen this film, this is definitely a film for the open minded crowd.

Instead of watching this film, I watched my fellow classmates reactions. It was the expected:
"This film is stupid!"
Can you explain why you find it stupid?

"What the hell is going on?"
Why do you find yourself needing to know everything at once?

"Why did you choose this film?"
Because I enjoy torturing your minds by making you watch this art.

I was pretty convinced that the class would murder me as soon as the bell rang for lunch. They were bored by the first five minutes, and phones were beginning to pop out.
But when Henry goes to Mary's house, they began to get caught up in the film, even though they were still demanding concrete answers of what is happening, and why. More than once I felt like telling them to shut up and let their thoughts fill the film, but then I realized that this approach was useless.

I had a bit of a revelation during that Econ. class, people cannot accept what they don't understand, most of my classmates couldn't accept what they were seeing because they depend on factual, concrete reasonings for what happens.

Whenever I see this film, I see it as a canvas with pre-painted outlines, we have to allow our thoughts, experiences with life, and emotions fill in the color, and then see our finished product at the end. I believe this is not how David Lynch (director) intended it to be, but this is my interpretation of Eraserhead. And I have become a better thinker because of this work.

In an English class, my wonderful teacher taught us that a good thinker allows ambiguity. I pondered this statement for a few seconds before realizing that he is absolutely correct. I saw this change of allowing ambiguity occur during my Econ. class.

And at the end of my class, some students left with their opinions of Eraserhead still the same: It's a stupid film. I can't see in their brains, but maybe they have reasons for stating why they find this film stupid. And there were others who left the class wanting to know how Eraserhead ends. (We did not finish it.)

I had a chat with the teacher at the end of the period, his starter to the conversation was:

Teacher: "Well, that was an interesting pick!"

Me: "I wanted to see their reactions."

I did see their reactions. I was given crap about my choice of film during the first five minutes. I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from calling them narrowminded. I saw their attitudes change and mine change as well as the film progressed.

Best of all? I was not murdered by a group of classmates.

Moral of the story: Watch this film, please watch it all the way through, give it a chance.

Tristan + Isolde

Tristan + Isolde

2006

dir. Kevin Reynolds star. James Franco Sophie Myles Rufus Sewell

I wasn't intending on doing a review of this film, but we just finished it in my French IV class, and seeing how I am behind in my films, I decided that I might as well write a review for this.

First off, if you are unfamiliar with the story of Tristan and Isolde, you might wish to visit this website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_and_Iseult

At first I presumed that Tristan + Isolde would be like the films that you had to watch in middle school, as it pertained to the subject that you were learning about. (in my case, French history) Most of those times, I found the films to be dull and uninteresting, as they were not what we wanted to watch. But with Tristan + Isolde, I was quite surprised at how quickly the story grabbed me up and held me captivated throughout the entire film with only a few minor laughing moments. (These are Spoiler Alert! moments, so I will not elaborate on them.)

I should clarify this pdq, this film is not just a love story like The Notebook, or Letters to Juliet and other chick flicks like those, there's actually some substance to this film and some really nice cinematography. When I saw the gentle transitions between nature to human civilization, I automatically assumed that the cinematographer was European. So I looked him up: Artur Reinhart. Polish. Win!

The acting...was made up for by the cinematography. It wasn't really bad acting, but it did appear flattish in some scenes. And Sophie Myle's accents were easy to understand, a huge bonus. And Franco's performance as Tristan was not of the "macho-Imma-stud-'n'-I'm-invincible!" variety. It was quiet, and very thoughtful, there was no over the top acting with him.

My only disappointment: Way to mess up one of the most famous love stories ever.

I would recommend this to... those couples who need a love story for the girl, and an action film for the guy, there's enough of each to keep you satisfied.

Still waiting...

Three tomatoes are walking down the street -- a poppa tomato, a momma tomato, and a little baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind. Poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and squishes him... and says, 'Ketchup.'

I am behind by five films. Please Dad, please let me start up my own Netflix account or I might just become the Baby Tomato.

Interference

Please excuse the interruption, we have approached the problem known as "Parents changed the Netflix password without notification."

This may take us a while to fix, but in the meantime, sit back, and enjoy your popcorn and watch some films.

Moon

Moon

2009 dir: Duncan Jones star: Sam Rockwell Kevin Spacey Dominique McElligott

Once ten minutes in the film, it is evident that Duncan Jones pays homage to sci-fi classics such as Apollo 13, Alien, and THX-1138, all three very successful science fiction films. Despite this, Moon is very refreshing to watch. The viewer is compelled to watch Sam Rockwell's character (or should I say characters?) face his personal crisis as he deals with both of his selves when so close to the end of his three (3) year stint on the moon by himself with the company of GERTY, his robot assistant. After three (3) years, of talking to your plants and building miniatures, anyone is likely to begin to hallucinate.

The compelled viewer quickly becomes engrossed half and hour in, once the two Rockwell characters realize that something is not quite what it's cracked up to be on the moon base. The 70's sensation grows stronger as the film continues, as in the earlier sci-fi films, the white walls of the bases become claustrophobic, and moody for the viewer as well as the character. Outside the base, the landscape of the moon is instantly recognizably desolate, and increases the anticipation of the plot and what's to come.

"Moon is a superior example of that threatened genre, hard science-fiction, which is often about the interface between humans and alien intelligence of one kind of or other, including digital." - Ebert.

After I finished Moon, I had to think about our technology, and how it may seem far fetched to believe that this scenario could ever happen. (The reason I'm so vague is on account of me not having to type SPOILER ALERT! all over this review, this may happen with future reviews.) But as this may happen in the future, and plays with the emotions of humans, Moon has found a place in the pantheon of "Science Fiction."

What I loved about Moon is that every scene has a reason of being there, there's nothing worse than watching a film and going, "Well, that scene was pointless!" But with Moon, each scene has some vital information that develops character and pushes the plot. In my opinion, the length was perfect, there was no climax and then a dragged out conclusion just for directors to be able to brag: "My film was pushing three hours!" (cough, cough, *James Cameron!* cough, cough) Moon ended where it was supposed to end. Thank you, Duncan Jones.

All in all, this film is very refreshing, and a definite classic. I find it a shame that not too many people have seen it. This was a good film to start this 500 series off with.

For those who have read this and have some ideas of how to make it better, please comment! But please keep your language acceptable.

The 500

So I've started a list of films that involve fifty (50) from each decade and one hundred (100) foreign films, these foreign films get their own category, they do not apply to the decade that they were filmed.

I would appreciate many suggestions for an decade other than the 2000s. Thank you!

(The titles in red have been reviewed.)

2000s

1.Repo! The Genetic Opera

2.The Room

3.Moon

4.Timecrimes

5. A Scanner Darkly

6. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

7. OSS-117: Lost In Rio

8. The Fountain

9. Assassination Of A High School President

10. Brick

11. This is England

12. The Man Who Wasn't There

13. Oldboy

14. Eastern Promises

15. Goya's Ghost

16. Primer

17. Red

18. Gangs of New York

19. Hot Fuzz

20. In Bruges

21. Before Sunset

22. Death Proof

23. Jarhead

24. Love Actually

25. The Royal Tenenbaums

26. Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

27. 28 Days Later

28. Wristcutters

29. Alice

30. Ink

31. The Man Who Wasn't There

32. Oldboy

33. Interstalla 5555

34. The Hills Have Eyes

35. Mulholland Dr.

36. The Men Who Stare at Goats

37. Zodiac

38. Roger Dodger

39. Grizzly Man

40. Elephant

41. Where the Heart Is

42. The New World

43. God's Country

44. In the Bedroom

45. Mysterious Skin

46. Little Children

47. Dodgeball

48. The Messenger

49. Brothers

50. The Brothers Bloom

51. An Education

52. Babies

1990s

1. Reservoir Dogs

2. Jackie Brown

3. Kindergarten Cop

4. Benny and Joon

5. The Truman Show

6. UHF

7. Six String String Samurai

8. Trainspotting

9. Before Sunrise

10. Dead Man

11. SLC Punk

12. Following

13. Fag Hag

14. Life

15. Out of Sight

16. Wild Things

17. Buffalo 66

18. Dark City

19. The Apostle

20. Bad Boys

21. Rushmore

22. Boogie Nights

23. Ulee's Gold

24. Happy, Texas

25. Drop Dead Gorgeous

26. Leon, the Professional

27. Dead Man

28. Mountains of the Moon

29. In the Company of Men

30. Happiness

31. The Sweet Hereafter

32. Natural Born Killer

33. Romper Stomper

34.

1980s

1. Alice

2. Full Metal Jacket

3. They Live

4. Do the Right Thing

5. Mad Max 2

6. Repo Man

7. Raising Arizona

8. Deathtrap

9. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

10. Sherman's March

11. Hoosiers

12. The Color of Money

13. The Purple Rose of Cairo

14. Reds

15. The Color Purple

16. Legend

17. Dead Ringers

18. The French Lieutenant's Woman

1970s

1. The Wicker Man

2. Barry Lyndon

3. The French Connection

4. Harlan County, U.S.A.

5. The Crazies

6. Vanishing Point

7. Zardoz

1960s

1. Long Day's Journey into Night

2. Billy Liar

3. Once Upon a Time In the West

4. Rosemary's Baby

4. Repulsion

1950s

1940s

1. Red River

2. Brief Encounter

3. The Saint in Palm Springs

1930s

1920s

1910s

Foreign Flicks

1.Jeux d'enfants

2. Le huitieme jour

3. Les Visiteurs

4. Les Visiteurs 2

5. Les visiteurs en Amerique

6. Vipere au Poing

7. Le Cercle Rouge

8. The Lemon Tree

9. Yojimbo

10. Amores Perros

11. Flickan som lekte med elden

12. Man som hatar kvinnor

13. Divorce Italian style

14. Le gout des autres

15. Le papillon

16. Un crime au paradis

17. La Grande Vadrouille

18. The Lives of Others

19. City of God

20. Un indien dans la ville

21. Les Bronzes

22. Les Bronzes font du ski

23. Les Bronzes 3

24. Le pere Noel est une ordure

25. Aguirre: The Wrath of God

26. Woyzeck

27. The 400 Blows

28. The Battle of Algiers

29. Blowup

30. Breathless

31. Yi Yi

32. Duck, You Sucker

33. Talk To Her

34. The White Ribbon

35. A Town Called Panic

36. El Bola

37. Treeless Mountain

38. Dead Snow

39. Ran

40. Ikiru

41. Dancer in the Dark

42. WeekEnd

It's not yet Day 1, but I feel behind.

Ladies and Gents, I had the greatest idea in the year of 2010. I will watch 500 films, (yes, 500) in the year 2011. I will need to watch about two (2) films a day and write review for each film. Then I got smart:

500 films would be the ultimate goal.

365 films would be my minimum.

I have to have at least one hundred (100) foreign films on the list, and at least fifty (50) from each decade.

Here's the catch: I cannot re-watch films. I must find new films.

And all of this starts on New Years Day. New Years Day, 2011.