Climbing Mount Criterion XVIII
Catching up with a few brief takes before we go on at length about Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy:
Though I suppose I grew up with enough geek genes to become a Monty Python fan -- WTTW certainly broadcast enough episodes at the time I was most prone to become one -- my interest in Python (and most britcoms, actually) has always been distant. I could appreciate it, but I couldn't get engaged with it. I remember that my brother and I gave it a heroic try when we were both preteens and couldn't get past the accents -- and gags about William Shakespeare's Gay Boys in Bondage pretty much flew right past us. I came to know Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python's Life of Brian (#61) quite well, but I still can't help but see them as somewhat junky movies -- a handful of tremendous gags that fought and scraped to be heard.
There is more to The Passion of Joan of Arc (#62) than Maria Falconetti's stricken face, but it's the first thing I recall -- I blurbed the film a while back.
Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls (#63) is a cult film that transcended its cult, though its art-film qualities are overstated. My piece on the film, written for filmcritic.com, is here.
What I've written about The Third Man (#64) will do, I suppose, though in truth I was a bit more disengaged from it than I usually am with noirs. It'd require another viewing to figure out why.
Because I saw Rushmore (#65) when it came out in 1998 and haven't seen it since then, it's hard for me to trust any recollection that I have of it now. But I do still recall it seven years down the line -- splashes of warmth and color emerge from everybody making an effort to push the story outside of its prep-school confines, Bill Murray heroically resurrecting himself.
Though I suppose I grew up with enough geek genes to become a Monty Python fan -- WTTW certainly broadcast enough episodes at the time I was most prone to become one -- my interest in Python (and most britcoms, actually) has always been distant. I could appreciate it, but I couldn't get engaged with it. I remember that my brother and I gave it a heroic try when we were both preteens and couldn't get past the accents -- and gags about William Shakespeare's Gay Boys in Bondage pretty much flew right past us. I came to know Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python's Life of Brian (#61) quite well, but I still can't help but see them as somewhat junky movies -- a handful of tremendous gags that fought and scraped to be heard.
There is more to The Passion of Joan of Arc (#62) than Maria Falconetti's stricken face, but it's the first thing I recall -- I blurbed the film a while back.
Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls (#63) is a cult film that transcended its cult, though its art-film qualities are overstated. My piece on the film, written for filmcritic.com, is here.
What I've written about The Third Man (#64) will do, I suppose, though in truth I was a bit more disengaged from it than I usually am with noirs. It'd require another viewing to figure out why.
Because I saw Rushmore (#65) when it came out in 1998 and haven't seen it since then, it's hard for me to trust any recollection that I have of it now. But I do still recall it seven years down the line -- splashes of warmth and color emerge from everybody making an effort to push the story outside of its prep-school confines, Bill Murray heroically resurrecting himself.
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