Watching Movies Alone with crumbsroom

Yes, at this point I've forgotten that it's a haunted house story because for me the main draw is the Harris/Bloom/Markway dynamics. When I was young this was one of our go-tos when we wanted a spooky movie, but revisiting it as an adult made it clear how much more there was to it.

And I had the film memorized before I ever got around to reading the book, and it's really remarkable how accurate the former is to the latter, in terms of tone/character/etc. Definitely one of the purest book-to-film jobs I've seen.

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It was actually one of the last books by Jackson I got around to reading. Decades after I first saw the movie. And it is clear Robert Wise knew how to pull the mundane sadness of her ghosts up onto the screen.



If there are any directors our there listening, get wise and get on adaptations of both The Sundial and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Two of the absolute greatest 'modern' gothic horror tales out there that (as far as I know) have never had proper representations on the screen (or maybe none at all...maybe I should google that)

An excavation of a troubled family history. Each new detail the director comes upon, whether on audio cassettes filled with interviews with family members, or video images taken by a father which are hauntingly empty of any people, while seeming to clarify our narrators hazy memories of childhood, at the same time pushes his recollections into a dreamier and dreamier place. Memory, fantasy and reality become indistinguisable from eachother. As it inevitably has to be since our lives are composed of random details which we squeeze into the story shapes we require to know who we actually are. In this case, a musician who channels these graspings at what he remembers from his earliest days into his compositions.

This mysterious documentary is both deeply personal and a total abstraction. Kind of a mini masterpiece for those into such hard to define things.

Wow, I gave that 4 stars. I must have liked it more than I remembered.
I haven't read this one so I can't discuss its relation to the book, but I liked the film, evidently.

This movie was made for me.


5/5

Wait, where did this come from? When did this come from?

(You know, my rules is if Tilda Swinton wanted to do it, I should probably see it.)

It's early in her career, probably around the time she was working with Derek Jarman. And this is in the vicinity of that kind of thing.


It's all mood and tone and hysteria. I don't think I have any idea what it was about beyond Udo Kier being on an island and being distressed that some guy is in love with Tilda Swinton. But I wouldnt be surprised if I even got that much wrong.


It's purely instinctive filmmaking. Doesn't budge an inch to be understood. And is stuffed with wild imagery and scenarios, and also bits where nothing seems to happen, but it doesn't matter because if you are in its thrall, it can do no wrong.


And if you are left unthralled you will have a very miserable two hours.


Next to Blood for Dracula, this may br my favorite Kier performance of all time. And frankly that would have been enough. But there is more. More more more

I actually didn't see the movie because I couldn't imagine how a movie could do the book justice, so, cheers.

Sounds like something I should read. I honestly remember very little about the film.

Couldn’t find anything about this on Wikipedia, so I won’t to IMDB, where this description of the storyline can be found:

There will be no other end to the world: fierce battles full of hatred and love for incest and wealth.

Color me intrigued.

Whatever the plot is, it's buried so deep beneath the images and sounds and hysterical acting that it's deep down with the dead. Exactly where I like it

Ya know, I don't have exactly the same taste as you, or the same reasoning behind my taste, but I do, as we have discussed, share some of that with you and we actually have to get pretty granular to get to where we diverge, and I gotta tell you, I've really come to appreciate your interesting perspective.
When I try to describe to people why I like a lot of the movies I like I find it very very difficult, especially given that so few people are as immersed in film as we here are so I don't even have the vocabulary to describe it. As Crash Davis said, "It's like a Martian talking to a Fungo."
And I find that I wish I could just say, "It's exactly like crumbsroom but dial it back 20%."

Dude, you are becoming a meme like Nietzsche or Bach or Picasso. You recognize their 'je ne sais quois' when you experience it.

Explaining our love of film or any art should be hard. And it's one of the many reasons I kick the support of narrative elements out from most of my criticisms and focus on much less tangible elements. Mostly, how a movie makes you feel, and what it has done to make you feel that way by staying true to itself. Falling back on how well a story comes together or how badly it falls apart just makes things too easy. Makes everything much too clear cut. And I think it is important for any piece of art to retain some level of mystery, even after analysis, to have any real value. At least to me.


And while I'd never expect someone to adopt the same extreme points of view I take on, I think it is only any fun to talk about the things you are most passionate about. And in order to express how important these things are to me, being extreme is always an important element of expressing that passion. After all, who wants reasonable discourse with art?Leave that for the schools. I'm here to yell and scream and shout until it's understood only art can save us.


And, I also just like being ridiculous and talking shit. Two of the sublime joys in life, outside of art appreciation and snobbery

Whereas I cannot rest till I have bent the world to my will. Made it cower, teary eyed before me as it whispers “David Gordon Green is still an auteur worth watching.”

And I smile… cracking open an I watched Blu Ray of “Your Highness” and say “It works because the production value is better than most straightforward fantasies.”

This film just observes its teenage characters and nothing else is needed. No stylistic flourishes. No narrative end game. Almost exclusively composed of close ups of kids talking to each other during their lunch break about love and life and fear and loneliness. And what else could possibly be needed? The filmmakers, by doing almost nothing except getting stuff on tape and laying it out there, have probably made the closest approximation of what being a teenager now must feel like. And, maybe not a great surprise, it feels as it always has. The most horrible best time of your life.


This is great.

I just wrote a 45 page stream of consciousness essay on the greatness of this movie, but unfortunately it's starting to look like I didn't actually write it.

RIP Keith Levene.


One of the greats.