Trying not to be too maudlin (or to rip off Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays too much), but I do wish I had started watching movies with my son a bit earlier. I am working on getting through a lot of classics, giving him a good grounding, but I probably could have started a couple of years ago with some of the Chaplin and Keaton silents and some of the more G-rated movies (Casablanca, The African Queen and Some Like It Hot, for example). Now I did take my son and often my daughter to Pixar movies, starting with Wall-E and I guess ending with The Incredibles 2. I also took him to Black Panther, which he adored, and the final Star Wars trilogy and 2001 (when a 70 mm print was being screened). And we did venture out during the pandemic to see Inception and Tenet. As it happens, I did make more of an effort to take him to live theatre, pre-pandemic, but it's just going to be going through my stockpile of DVDs for the foreseeable future...
Part of the problem is there are just so many great movies to try to get too (balancing French films vs. Japanese films vs. the "classic" 80s films from my youth), and during the school year, I can pretty much only squeeze in a full-length feature or two on the weekend -- and only an episode of a Britcom on a typical school night...
In terms of British television comedies, we did get through the whole run of Monty Python and are 4/6ths through Blackadder III. So we'll finish all of Blackadder, even the specials, then most likely Fawlty Towers, followed by Father Ted. I'm thinking probably The IT Crowd next, then Black Books, then perhaps Red Dwarf, though that will take quite a while if I go through all the episodes that originally aired on Dave! I have no idea what would follow, either Futurama and maybe even back to Get Smart, which we stooped somewhere in the middle of Season 3 I think (several years back now). Maybe I'd consider The Young Ones, assuming he's mature enough for that, at that point. Or indeed if he hasn't moved away for university!
On to the movies we've seen starting this year. I won't go into too much detail on Bond or the Pink Panther movies, which I discuss here. They're sort of in the mix, but not really that high on my priority list anymore.
This year, we've seen:
- Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Monty Python's Life of Brian
- Monty Python and the Meaning of Life
- Gilliam's Brazil
- Juzo Itami's The Funeral
- Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight
- Fellini's 8 1/2
- Satyajit Ray's The Hero
- Satyajit Ray's Mahapurush (The Holy Man)
- Tati's Jour de Fete
- Tati's Monsieur Hulot's Holiday
- Etaix's The Suitor
- Etaix's Yoyo
- Huston's The Night of the Iguana
- Huston's The Maltese Falcon
I'm sure I'm missing a few, but this is what I can recall. I did watch Truffaut's Day for Night by myself when he was quite tied up.
The Pierre Etaix set from Criterion is a major discovery for me. It really is like watching Keaton filtered through Tati's sensibility. I also really liked The Hero a lot; while clearly inspired by 8 1/2, it felt more focused.
In terms of immediate next steps, I think it will be to finish off Tati (Mon Oncle, Playtime and Traffic) and Etaix (As Long As You've Got Your Health and Le Grand Amour). And then Casablanca and a few of the truly classic film noirs: The Big Sleep, The Third Man, Out of the Past, The Lady From Shanghai, Laura and Gilda.
Based on his reactions and general preference for comedies, I think I'll probably watch most of the French New Wave classics by myself, maybe making an exception for Shoot the Piano Player (not a comedy) and Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. I know that much of Eric Rohmer's work is comic, but I'm still not sure it would be something that would grab him.
I don't think there are too many Satyajit Ray comedies left, so I'll likely watch these on my own as well. (It is somewhat shameful to admit I've never gotten around to The Apu Trilogy, but think I'll correct that this summer.)
While I am not entirely sure he would really be up for La Dolce Vita (not least because it conveys such a jaded world view and is so long), I think he might be more interested in Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits and Amarcord.
I think most Ozu films are a bit too "interior" for him. I'm not as sure about Naruse, many of which I've not seen all the way through myself. However, I probably will screen him Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs and Ozu's Good Morning and just possibly Mizoguchi's Street of Shame.
Which brings me in an indirect way to Kurosawa. I actually own a massive box set of his work but stalled out after getting through his very early work. I don't think my son is too interested in samurai movies in general, though Ran and Rashomon are kind of unskippable. And of course, he should watch Ikiru, and I have been meaning to rewatch that as well for a while.
This program should easily last through the end of the year, especially if I sprinkle in some 80s films, and after that I can think about circling back to pick up some early silent films or Hitchcock, especially Rear Window, Vertigo and North by Northwest. Maybe he will be ready for Bergman by that point.
No comments:
Post a Comment