Barton Fink

It's been a long time since I've reacted so much to a movie (verbally and physically). If anyone was sitting with me during this movie, they know. From "What the hell?" to "Oh my god, he's gonna hit her. Oh my god, he's gonna hit her!" to "What's in the box!?!?!" I'm still digesting it. I know what's in the box, now, I'm not that dense. And tomorrow, No Country for Old Men....the Coen brothers do it again.

The Ebb and Flow of Movies

Check this out, box office returns from '86 to '07 in the coolest looking graph this side of nylon rope.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html?unomas

Boogie Nights

So almost full, which isn't bad for having no midnight last week, the stormy weather, and a power outage the last time we had a midnight.

Gus says "We had 863 people attend tonight, several of which stayed after Enchanted to see Boogie Nights. My porn name is Midnight Sycamore. Good night and good luck."

Also, need votes for our last midnight movie of the semester!
The four choices are:
Almost Famous
Being John Malkovich
Snatch
Spaceballs

Right now the choices are really close. Exit polls show Almost Famous and Spaceballs in the lead, so if make sure to tell people to ask about voting.

Sleebies on Sunday! Now we find out who is considered the best in each category, such as "Best Theater Staffer," "Most Absent Film Committee Member," and "Slowest Employee," among others.


Side note: Mary Beth has survived her two days with me, on Saturday she moves on to work with someone else.

Make Monsters, Not War!

Godzilla in recent history has been the symbol for many things, usually bad dubbing and actors in poorly constructed monster suits, but when Ishiro Honda's 1954 classic was originally released, it was meant to represent much more and serve as a powerful antiwar statement.
The original Godzilla, i.e. the Japanese version was heavily edited when it came to the states so as not to piss off veterans of WWII (and Raymond Burr was added to the US version as well). The Japanese version wasn't released in the states until Sept. 5th 2006. Because the origional and the Raymond Burr version are so different, they left the film with it's Japanese name, Gojira (but because I'm used to Godzilla, we'll stick to that to describe the monster in this post). It should be noted that as much of an antiwar statement as the origional film was, it only touches on weapons of mass destruction (i.e. nothing Japan did during the war).
Godzilla the monster is a metaphor for many things including nuclear weapons and the weapons race between America and The Soviet Union. One reason the reaction was so delayed was because American occupation of Japan after the war didn't end till April 28, 1952. Even after the occupation ended, Japan remained pretty quiet on the horrors of nuclear warfare until The Lucky Dragon Incident, wherein a Japanese fishing boat got too close to a then secret hydrogen bomb test (by the U.S.) on an atoll in the pacific. Everyone on board got radiation poisoning (one crew member died). This created a mass panic in Japan and people were afraid to eat fish. In the commentary on the dvd, one of the experts points out a quote on the train that directly alludes to this:
"It's terrible, huh? Contaminated tuna and radioactive fallout, and now this Godzilla to top it all off."

~SPOILERS AHEAD IN REST OF POST, READ AT OWN RISK~

There's another scene that one of the commentators on the dvd points out that's related to this, and that's the very first scene where a freighter is attacked and sunk. The crew all eventually die, as do the crews of two other boats that try to rescue them.
Another way Honda shows the horrors of war is by showing the human aspect. One of the survivors of the rescue boat from Odo island washes on shore only to die in his brothers arms. There are frequently shots of people oblivious to their fates right before the audience sees their inevitable doom. These are usually just small shots, such as people on a train acting normally just before Godzilla stomps on it, smashing a car and derailing the train. But there are a few other shots that are longer. One such shot is of a young man named Shinkichi who is asleep in a house he shares with his brother and a woman I assume is his brother's wife. There's a storm and an earthquake accompanied by Godzilla's trademark stomping sounds. Shinkichi runs out to see what's going on, sees the monster, and screams to his brother to get out of the house (I guess he doesn't like his sister in law?), but by the time his brother reaches the door it's too late. He runs to take cover with his wife and we see the house collapse on top of them. There are also victims who are very keen of their fate, such as a mother cradling her children in the burning streets of Tokyo during one of Godzilla's rampages telling them everything will be ok and they'll be with their father soon.
The after effects are also illustrated in a way that would lead one to believe they're based at least in part on the events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We run into the mother and her children from the streets in a hospital overrun with victims. The mother is now dead and her body is being taken away as one of her children screams and cries for her. There are also scenes of fallout shelters. One of the passengers on the train even remarks before Godzilla strikes Tokyo that he doesn't want to go into the shelters again (obviously referring to events in WWII).
These are only the examples directly related to the monster. These are by no means the only allusions (another being The Oxygen Destroyer), but I can't possibly fit them all into a post, so I'm sticking to mostly the physical monster. I'd also like to say that very few, if any, of the thoughts in this article are my own origional thoughts and speculations. I've pieced together what little I know from the DVD (which has wonderful special features in addition to the commentaries) and various articles on the internet. I didn't cite because this is long and nerdy enough. However, if you'd like to read up on anything, here are some helpful links:
CNN article on The Lucky Dragon Incident:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/08/spotlight/
The official site of the DVD in question:
http://www.godzillaondvd.com/
and a very nice reveiw on that DVD:

Enchanted

Um, big props to us for playing this movie! It's fantastic! I wish I could see it all three nights!!! Also, very excited about the Oscar party.
Ugh! Enchanted!! SO GOOD!

80th Annual Academy Awards!

Come Sunday, February 24th, every cinema-loving, movie-quoting, film-craving lad and lass in the greater United States (and beyond!) should tune in to see the best of the best get the highest of recognitions in the form of Academy Awards! Okay, enough frivolous verbiage, let's get down to the nominations (and this list isn't the complete set of nominations, just some of the major categories. For the full list go to the official website at Oscar Nominations.)

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
--George Clooney ("Michael Clayton")
--Daniel Day-Lewis ("There Will Be Blood")
--Johnny Depp ("Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street")
--Tommy Lee Jones ("In The Valley of Elah")
--Viggo Mortenson ("Eastern Promises")

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
--Casey Affleck ("The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford")
--Javier Bardem ("No Country For Old Men")
--Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Charlie Wilson's War")
--Hal Halbrook ("Into the Wild")
--Tom Wilkinson ("Michael Clayton")

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
--Cate Blanchett ("Elizabeth: The Golden Age")
--Julie Christie ("Away From Her")
--Marion Cotillard ("La Vie En Rose")
--Laura Linney ("The Savages")
--Ellen Page ("Juno")

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
--Cate Blanchett ("I'm Not There")
--Ruby Dee ("American Gangster")
--Saoirse Ronan ("Atonement")
--Amy Ryan ("Gone Baby Gone")
--Tilda Swanton ("Michael Clayton")

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
--"Persepolis"
--"Ratatouille"
--"Surf's Up"

DIRECTING
--"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
--"Juno"
--"Michael Clayton"
--"No Country For Old Men"
--"There Will Be Blood"

FILM EDITING
--"The Bourne Ultimatum"
--"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
--"Into the Wild"
--"No Country For Old Men"
--"There Will Be Blood"

BEST PICTURE
--"Atonement"
--"Juno"
--"Michael Clayton"
--"No Country For Old Men"
--"There Will Be Blood"


Bear in mind this is a partial list of the categories. Follow the link at the top of the page to find the full official list of categories and nominations.

The Oscars begin on Sunday (Feb. 24th) at 8pm with pre-shows beginning at 6pm.

Late Spring Schedule Descriptions

Help us out! We worked on this a bit in the meeting, but we've got to have it done by Thursday morning. We'll probably lock ourselves in the program office again, work through the night fueling up on pizza and caffeine, only to be trumped by the editorial process and weeks late anyway... So write stuff now! You've all read the schedule descriptions of the past, now you can write the descriptions of the future.
Here's the list:

    Cafes:
       -I'm Not There
       -Atonement
       -The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
       -There Will Be Blood
       -Paprika
   Midnights:
       -The Royal Tenenbaums
       -Mystery Science Theater 3000
       -Scarface
       -Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
   Blockbusters:
       -Sweeney Todd
       -Juno
       -I am Legend
       -Charlie Wilson's War
       -Cloverfield
       -Walk Hard (Cloverfield Backup)
   Audience Pick Ballot:
       -Almost Famous
       -Snatch
       -Spaceballs
       -Being John Malkovich