November Film Journal

Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen, 1992)
The Queen (Stephen Frears, 2006)
All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)
Hamlet (Grigori Kozintsev and Iosif Shapiro, 1963)
Onibaba (Kaneto Shindô, 1964)
Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)
Le Notti Bianche (Luchino Visconti, 1957)
San Francisco (W.S. Van Dyke, 1936)
Le Divorce (James Ivory, 2003)
Divorce, Italian-Style (Pietro Germi, 1961)
Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)
Track of the Cat (William A. Wellman, 1954)
The Black Room (Roy William Neill, 1935)
The Man They Could Not Hang (Nick Grinde, 1939)
Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955)
Walk the Line (James Mangold, 2005)
The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)
Open Water (Chris Kentis, 2003)

Italics denote a theater viewing.

Books!

So, I just found out that Elizabeth Enright, the author of some of my absolute favorite children's books, was the neice of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Never had any idea, but that's very cool.

Anyway, I'm thinking about Enright today because I decided I wanted bookshelves for my birthday this year, and I'm ridiculously excited about them. Yay! This means that books that have been boxed up for ages will finally see the light of day again. Plus, my second bedroom will start to look more like a bedroom and less like a storage unit.

I'm not sure why my thoughts have settled on the childhood books. But man, I have such a soft spot for Enright's works, especially the four titles involving the Melendy family: The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, and Spiderweb for Two. My sister was a fan of these, and she got me hooked. Both of us tore through a large volume from the library that contained the first three of the books. The titles were out of print for a while, so the library copy was a treasure. Thankfully, all of the books have been reissued. I'll be glad to see my copies again; even thumbing through Enright's illustrations (not what's on the current covers!) will be a pleasure. The protagonists, children and young teens who take an interest in art, music, dance, and acting, do things like spend allowance money on trips to the opera and art museums. Heh. (I should point out that these books were written in the 40s and early 50s.) In the course of the stories, the family moves from New York City to the country—many wonderful adventures are had in both locations. These characters and their experiences just felt magical to me when I was growing up. Now, as trite as this sounds, these books are like old friends.

As I peruse my book collection, I'll no doubt weed out some of the lesser-loved titles (or, let's face it, those books that I bought on the cheap at the library bookstore and now wonder why I even bothered). This will create room for the parts of my collection that I'd love to grow. One such part would be film commentary. My friend Doug has previously recommended the Time Out Film Guide and 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die as quick references. I still need to pick up those. Other film-book recommendations would be most welcome.

And then, someday, I need to get to the great Russian writers, who have somehow managed to elude me, on the whole. Dostoevsky. Tolstoy. Chekhov. Got a favorite here? I'm all ears.

October Film Journal

The Spirit of the Beehive (Víctor Erice, 1973)
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Lotte Reiniger, 1926)
Vera Drake (Mike Leigh, 2004)
Full Moon in Paris (Eric Rohmer, 1984)
The Little Foxes (William Wyler, 1941)
Bunny Lake Is Missing (Otto Preminger, 1965)
Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981)
The Lady with the Little Dog (Iosif Kheifits, 1960)
Being Juila (István Szabó, 2004)
La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961)
Les Bonnes Femmes (Claude Chabrol, 1960)
Elizabeth I (Tom Hooper, 2005)