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Nov 5, 2011

What My Favourite Bloggers Are Up To...

School's really getting the better of me these days and blogging is kinda on the bottom of the list of priorities. I do keep up with my usual reading though so I thought I'd highlight a few of the interesting things that came around on the web last week, in case you missed them:

Over at dark eye socket, Craig Bloomfield had an interesting list for Halloween. Instead of writing up another one of those generic best horror films of all time lists, he went for the Top Five Scary Masks in Non-Scary Films. His choices are top-notch. I'm so bad at remembering specifics from films (unless I obsessively rewatch them) that I can't even think of anything that would possibly extend his list to a top ten.
Anyway, I've been a fan of Craig's Take Three series, so it's shameful that I only recently visited his own blog, but he's become my new favourite blogger.


At PopMatters, Jose's looking back at the short but powerful filmography of Jean Vigo, calling it history's most perfect filmography. I commented on his own blog that Luis Bunuel is my go-to guy when somebody asks me for a perfect filmography, only to realize that I'm actually missing a couple of titles. Could they be so bad to change my perception of Bunuel? I hardly think so. Then there are more recent filmmakers whose filmographies we're readily familiar with. Tarantino, Farhadi and to an extent, Paul Thomas Anderson all have good records for me, though not close to perfection. Have a read and chime in with your thoughts. 


At Grantland, Bill Simmons has an interesting take on the career trajectory of this year's Oscar host and one of the greatest comedians of all time, Eddie Murphy. He thinks Murphy doesn't get quite enough praise for his genius and ends his piece with this:

"I don't know why we stopped caring about Eddie, why we never give him the benefit of the doubt, why we never consider him a pioneer, why we were in such a hurry to marginalize him. I just know that we don't, and we don't, and we don't. And we did."




At Antagony and Ecstasy, Tim Brayton gives another one of his monthly previews, this time for November's films. He's as funny and cynical as ever. Reading his previews are very often more enjoyable than watching the actual films. 

"Immortals is going to be awful, and it really causes me pain that Immortals is going to be awful, because it's the third film by Tarsem Singh, after The Cell and The Fall both of which I pretty much love all the way down to my toes. Setting aside the fact that it's a 300 knock-off, I pray that it will be easy on the eyes, at least. Something that will not be true of Jack and Jill, in which Adam Sandler plays both of the title characters. Yes, it's the Adam Sandler drag movie we've all been waiting for."


Finally, in non-film related news, The Cat with Binoculars, who's always great at highlighting amusing things (and art pieces) had this video to share from Conan O'Brien's interview with Louis C.K. No one can make me laugh as much as he does. Hilarious, his stand-up from last year, was the most aptly titled film of the year.

4 comments:

  1. Great read, as always.
    The Cat With Binoculars appreciates this post.

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  2. All great reads! Thanks for linking back. I never got into Louis C.K.'s kind of humor. I know it's funny and smart and all that but it stands in the "Seinfeld" league with me, in how they never even make me chuckle.

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  3. Not sure I agree with the idea of a perfect filmography but I would say a filmmaker should have made at least 5 full length films before they could be considered on my list. So that said, a few filmmakers whose every film was either very good or great come to mind. Andrei Tarkovsky, Robert Bresson, Preston Sturges, Olivier Assayas [so far], Clair Denis [so far]. I would agree Bunuel is right there too. Plenty of other filmmakers may not have a perfect filmography but the world wouldn't be the same without them; Hitchcock, Fellini, Godard, Hawks to name a few.

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  4. Forgot to say at the time, but thank you for the kind words and support. Much appreciated.

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