What is Best in Life

Another one bites the dust. One day after Bergman’s death, elite European director, Michelangelo Antonioni, has died as well. I’m not a superstitious man, but it seems beyond a coincidence that after my European Film Fun Facts blog post this weekend, two of the directors mercilessly mocked therein have now died (though again, my Italian broadside was not just directed at Antonioni). Bottom line, Rohmer, Herzog, if you are reading this, it was all in jest! There is no need to end it all! But on to my Antonioni memorial/apology blog post (because if I don’t post this on the same day as his death, the terrorists will have won…I’ll get back to my once a week blog posting schedule as soon as all my favorite living directors quit dying)

Finally, I’d like to add that while L’Avventura really is a great movie, it doesn’t quite make my favorite movies ever list like most of these “awesome movies” do. Blowup is actually my personal favorite, but since Ebert wrote a review that I think was pretty much right on, I went ahead and wrote about my second favorite Antonioni film. So check out the Ebert review HERE…sure he seems to like every movie, but he can be insightful about the classics too!
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Bergman is a director that seems to be rather out of favor these days. Pretentious, old fashioned, one note, everyone from Conan O’Brian to Woody Allen (though a huge Bergman fan himself) has taken the occasional potshot at Bergman’s “stylized” performances and fixation on crises of faith. Though none of this is entirely untrue, it does nothing to diminish the fact that Bergman is one of my favorite film directors. So, I thought I’d take a little time to discuss my second favorite movie of all time as penance for making fun of the great man 2 days before his death earlier today. (How was I supposed to know?! Though to be fair my Scandinavian broadside was directed at Dreyer and Sjöström as well).
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I don’t like to stereotype, but…French movies are a little fruity. German films? Not the greatest komedies. Polish cinema? Heartwarming is not exactly the word I’m looking for. Each country’s film output has certain indefinable characteristics, and it is the goal of this post to pass on some of these fun facts to the layman. So for those of you who would like to pre-judge all future movies from European countries with a quick generalization before you watch them, this list is for you! I should point out that many of my best friends are of European descent–just wanted to clear that up before I get on with my most stereotypical post yet!
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There is a scene in Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Mirror where a young child looks through a book of art. The camera is close, showing only the pages of the book and the child’s hand as he flips from picture to picture. Occasionally he will stop and linger on a favorite drawing. It is obvious that the book is a treasured possession, whose pictures have yet to lose their magic for the young boy. At one point a leaf, pressed between the pages, comes into view only to be swallowed up again.

This seemingly innocuous scene, halfway through the movie, is just one small example of why The Mirror is unquestionably my favorite movie ever. The film is the pure essence of nostalgia and each viewing is a revelation of memories I had long thought lost. I too had certain favorite books that I would turn to over and over again, flipping through their pages and taking comfort in the familiar pictures. I too would often press flowers and leaves between the pages of books with my parents.
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So it has been over a month since I last “rapped at ya”, but my summer is finally settling down and I think I’m back to blogging more regularly. The following is just a small sampling of the delights that await me each day at my job at the library reference desk. While the details of the questions have been changed (I can’t remember the exact latin phrases used during the attempted exorcism, etc), the dialogue is otherwise completely unembellished (though there is perhaps a bit of hyperbole in my commentary). So for those who don’t know, here’s a little peek into what my workplace is really like. Again, these are all real questions, answered by myself, a trained professional. (more…)