Movie Diary 9/18/2008

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (Peter Sollett, 2008). Making formula human isn’t easy, but it helps when you have actors such as Michael Cera and Kat Dennings. Also, better use of wiper blades than Flash of Genius. (full review 10/3)

And for everybody wanting to compare it to Juno, my skeptical take on that one: here.

Aspects of Ratio

I was getting gelato in Pioneer Square the other day when I noticed a widescreen TV set up in a corner of the place. Presumably to enhance the Italianate theme of the cafe, the TV was showing Bicycle Thieves. Nice touch, except that the movie, made in the era before screens got wide, filled up the entire screen, which meant that it was showing in the kind of crazed aspect ratio that cuts off heads and feet (in this case, everybody looked a little horizontally stretched, which I guess was necessary to avoid cutting off subtitles). Yet another example (and they are everywhere) of how widescreen-as-industry-standard is warping the world’s idea of what movies look like–and nobody seems to be noticing, because how many people are really experts on aspect ratios? There are theater projectionists who don’t know aspect ratios, but suddenly everybody who owns a TV is supposed to get it?

Movie Diary 9/17/2008

Time Without Pity (Joseph Losey, 1957). A strong British noir in which Losey gets to exercise his superb talent for dividing interior space; Michael Redgrave works against the clock to save his estranged son (Alec McCowen) from the hangman. A lot of strong work by actors, even in one-or-two-scene roles, notably the women: Ann Todd, Joan Plowright, Lois Maxwell.

Ten Nights of Dreams (Kon Ichikawa, Takashi Shimizu, et al., 2006). Ten separate dreams taken from a book by Three-Cornered World author Natsume Soseki; Seattle is getting one of the few U.S. runs of the thing. Much of it is the kind of crazed Japanese wackiness that makes my head hurt, but there’s a gentle vignette by the late Kon Ichikawa and a truly creepy one from Takashi Shimizu–but then I liked his Grudge sequels, too, even the American ones. (full review 9/19)

Another Losey title, this one a lark: Modesty Blaise, reviewed for Amazon.com.