May 2011
83 posts
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“Men will live like billy goats if they are let alone.”
– Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit” by Charles Portis.
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Mother's Day Midnight Curse
Remember guys, if you forgot to get your mom a gift then you have to crawl back into her womb before midnight or your dick will fall off.
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The Social Network (2010) Review
Directed by David Fincher.
This movie’s success was far from a sure thing. The world at large gave a collective groan when it was announced that a movie would be made based on Facebook’s origins. When it was announced that Aaron Sorkin would be writing and David Fincher directing, the world gave a collective “wtf,” and then became cautiously optimistic. And then...
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Blue Valentine (2010) Review
Derek Cianfrance spent over ten years making this film - writing and revising the script (it had about sixty drafts, by his count), getting funding together, and merely keeping the cast together over such a long period of time was an arduous feat. After all his efforts, he only managed to scrape together $1,000,000, which is quite low even for an independent production. Obviously, the...
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The Night of the Hunter (1955) Review
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
The AV Club called this movie “the greatest directorial one-off in cinema history,” and that’s probably true - those guys have seen more movies than me, so I’m not one to disagree. As the story goes, the famous British actor, Charles Laughton, directed “The Night of the Hunter” as his first feature. The movie received middling...
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The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman, Swede supreme
Narrator: And when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour... And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
[Cut to Crusader Antonius Block, resting near crashing waves on the beach. Silence abruptly descends, and a black-robed man with an unnaturally white face appears.]
Block: Who are you?
Death: I am Death.
Block: You have come for me?
Death: I have been at your side for a long time.
Block: I know.
Death: Are you prepared?
Block: My flesh is afraid, but I am not.
[Death approaches Block.]
Block: Wait a moment.
Death: You all say that. But I give no respite.
Block: You play chess, do you not?
Death: How do you know that?
Block: I have seen it in paintings.
Death: Yes, I am quite a skillful player.
Block: But not more so than I.
Death: Why do you wish to play chess with me?
Block: That's my concern.
Death: You're quite right.
Block: As long as I resist you, I live. If I win, you set me free.
[To decide who begins, Block hides a piece in one hand, but Death chooses the empty hand.]
Block: Black for you!
Death: It becomes me well.
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From "The Seventh Seal" by Ingmar Bergman. One of the most beautifully-filmed, best-written, and meaningful films ever. Not a word or image is wasted - all is full of meaning.
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When I was younger I had a dream of an image that was stuck in my mind and I couldn't forget it. One day I was chilling in Mr. Muir's office and asked him for a good movie to watch. He picked an unlabeled DVD off his desk, handed it to me, and said "Here. The Seventh Seal. Ingmar Bergman. Good stuff." I watched the movie that weekend and, to my astonishment, the same image in the dream I had years ago was in the film! Shit happens sometimes.
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“Then almost as quickly as it had begun, the whole cataclysm ceased, though a...”
– “Lair of the White Worm” by Bram Stoker (1911)
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