It’s time for another Blog-A-Thon from Marc over at Go, See, Talk.  The challenge this time is to make a top ten list of classic (1930′s through 50′s-ish) black and white films (he was pretty specific about the black and white, otherwise this list would almost definitely include Singin’ in the Rain or On The Town or both).  My list is not exactly a “top ten” list per se, it’s more of a sequence, in that these movies are not ranked by quality or my affection for them, they should, instead, be viewed in the order that they are laid out.  Essentially I’ve planned a ten-movie marathon for you.  Enjoy.

12 Angry Men – Well, you can’t just jump right into the cold water, can you?  Ok, you can, but for my purposes, you can’t.  You gotta wade in.  And you start by watching Henry Fonda and company navigate the perils of personal prejudices and a sweltering jury room on their quest for justice.  You’ll feel their relief as they reach a verdict and step out into the cool evening air.

The Big Heat – I swear I’m not messing with you.  I know a movie called The Big Heat does not sound conducive to “cooling off,” but the fact is, this movie is so tightly-plotted and fast-paced, that I’m surprised there’s not a breeze coming off of it as it as it goes by.  Also, let’s see you complain about being warm as Gloria Grahame gets a faceful of hot coffee.

The Lady Vanishes – After the brutal violence and bleak world view of The Big Heat, you’ll need a bit of a palate cleanser.  Enter Hitchcock’s masterful comedy-mystery.  As far as Hitch films go, The Lady Vanishes is a bit of a trifle, but it’s also hilarious and one of my favorites.  The perfect distraction from the heat.

It’s A Wonderful Life – This one’s a bit of a cheat, since it’s basically a Christmas movie, and I would refuse to watch it right now.  Don’t get me wrong, It’s A Wonderful Life is my favorite movie of all time, and I can totally see it working at any time of the year, I just can’t watch it without my family adding our extra soundtrack (don’t ask).  But if you feel so inclined, Capra’s masterpiece should easily keep your mind off the weather.  And if it doesn’t, that’s fine, just politely never speak to me again.

Diabolique – After It’s A Wonderful Life‘s beautifully optimistic ending (“Atta boy, Clarence”), I’m going to be kind of a jerk and yank you in the complete opposite direction.  But I’m doing it for a reason, that reason being that Clouzot’s Diabolique is one the most awesome movies EVARRR, you guys!  Seriously though, it’s an expert psychological horror film, with an ending that will send chills down your spine. (Get it? Like, with the “Cooling Down” thing? Right? Ok, you got it.)

His Girl Friday – After the spine-chills, you’re gonna need another cleansing of the palate, and this time I offer up Howard Hawks’ brilliant His Girl Friday.  Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell comprise roughly the greatest comedy duo of all time (don’t argue with me, I’ll win).  The dialogue snaps when it isn’t being piled on top of other dialogue in the beautifully orchestrated finale, making for one of the greatest moments in Screwball history.  What heat?

The Big Sleep – You know what?  Let’s stick with Howard Hawks for a little while longer.  Because this list essentially boils down to films that suck you in so you forget about everything else.  And few people were better at making those kinds of films than Howard Hawks.  Throw in Bogie and Bacall and a story courtesy of Raymond Chandler, and you wind up with one of the quintessential film noirs (I would say it’s the film noir, but Double Indemnity exists).

City Lights – Essentially the cinematic equivalent of a cool breeze.  I don’t know if you’ve delved into the works of the great Charlie Chaplin, but if you haven’t, you absolutely should.  And City Lights is a heck of a place to start.  Chaplin crafts a stunningly beautiful story of a tramp trying to help the blind girl he loves, and he does it without words.  A remarkable film.

The Shop Around The Corner – This one’s sort of a Christmas movie as well, but only in the sense that part of it takes place around Christmas.  Really though, I’m just a sucker for Ernst Lubitsch, and you should be, too.  The famed “Lubitsch Touch” is on display as James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan are pen pals and don’t realize it, primarily because they don’t get along in real life (yes, it’s You’ve Got Mail, but don’t hold that against it).  It’s a delightful film that will make you forget all about the temperature outside.

The Thing From Another World – Because it takes place in the Arctic.  Duh!  Oh, and also because it’s ludicrously entertaining.  In keeping with a trend for this post, there’s a reason nobody believes that Howard Hawks didn’t direct this; the dialogue comes at a breakneck pace, the characters avoid generic archetype status by being so gosh darn believable, and the monster is shown as little as possible to make the viewers’ imaginations do most of the work.  Hokey title aside, The Thing From Another World perfectly captures a sense of escapism and combines it with a downright chilly atmosphere that makes it perfect for escaping the heat.

Posted under Kyle's Adventures in Pop Culture

Few things in life are more universal than young love.  For most of us, that love often goes unrequited, given that, as children, we know next to nothing about how to properly communicate our feelings.  I remember my first big crush happened in fifth grade.  I won’t tell you her name, but I will tell you that rather than maturely communicate my budding affection, I instead chose to purposefully annoy the crap out of her every chance I got (she made it well-known that she hated whistling, an activity at which I had recently become proficient).

Now, had I heard Big Star’s “Thirteen” at the time, I probably would have altered my behavior not at all, but I would have been intensely jealous of the inherent smoothness of the character in the song.  Which is more than a little ironic, for “Thirteen” is absolutely perfect in the way it captures the romantic intentions of someone who has absolutely no idea of what they are doing.  It begins with the lyrics, which (and please don’t take this the wrong way) are completely unremarkable:

          “Won’t you let me walk you home from school,

          Won’t you let me meet you at the pool,

          Maybe Friday I can get tickets for the dance,

          And I’ll take you.”

If a sentiment like that was issued from one adult to another, I can tell you flat out that the amount of sex about to be had is zero.  But from the perspective of a thirteen-year-old and delivered with as much emotion as Alex Chilton provides here, the song transcends the banality of the words and becomes something devastatingly romantic.  I recently discovered that the song was used to score a rather famous scene from How I Met Your Mother: Ted’s 2-Minute Date with Stella.

The scene comes after Stella (Sarah Chalke) turns down an opportunity for a date with Ted (Josh Radnor), but doesn’t actually say no like she was supposed to, citing maternal obligations.  Ted being Ted daringly recruits some friends (Ranjit!) to stage a wildly compressed date that will fit Stella’s busy schedule.  It’s pure, unfiltered romanticism, that some people turned on for being ridiculous (ok, it kind of was, but lighten up), but the scene’s sheer, outsized emotions more than make up for any lapses in plausibility.

Which is what makes the use of “Thirteen” so perfect.  Because “Thirteen” is nothing if not a song of outsized emotions.  Every line delivered as if its profundity would ring across the land for years to come, even though barely anything really gets said.  And Chilton plays that duality beautifully.  It would be easy to repurpose the song in a tongue-in-cheek manner, slyly winking at the listener, but instead the song is played completely straight, giving full credence to every emotion at play.  It celebrates the joy of youth, rather than poke fun at the ignorance that comes with it.

Take the second verse, where the topic shifts from young love to youthful defiance.  The sincerity is still there in full force, but the message boils down to little more than, “Parents just don’t understand.  Rock and roll, dude.”  Even in the music itself, the guitar plays a beautiful melody throughout, but when you get to the bridge, the earnestness of the song breaks through, so that each string is plucked within an inch of its life, as if the protagonist of the song can’t even bring himself to sing anymore, he just needs you to feel what he’s feeling, and he’s going to do that through his music.  An adolescent thought, if ever there was one.

But Big Star never relents.  They keep a straight face throughout, and God bless ‘em for it.  Because in doing so, they crafted a song that has lived on long after the group disbanded, which never would have happened if the lyrical content had been allowed to dominate the emotions used to communicate them.

Oh, and did I mention that the song is just out of this world pretty?  Gorgeous strumming and a stunningly graceful vocal performance combine to make this love song to the follies of youth a thing of such abject beauty, it kind of blows my mind that Big Star never became more popular.  This could be looked at as the song that launched a thousand emo songs, which, negative connotations aside, should be a sign of the type of feelings that this song is capable of stirring.  It just hits you square in the chest, and not only do you not take it personally, you thank it for the opportunity.

Posted under Kyle's Adventures in Pop Culture

Allow me to jump on a meme while it’s reasonably fresh.  While scrolling through some various movie blogs, I stumbled on a challenge from Go, See, Talk called “Double Feature Theater.”  The idea: movie bloggers (in this case, me) are put in charge of an imaginary movie theater and tasked with coming up with double features to play all week starting Monday, with a bonus triple feature to play on Sunday.  Be as imaginative or simple as you want, and compare with others.  I’ve seen some great pairings (Downfall and Inglourious Basterds being arguably the best, courtesy of Andy Buckle’s Film Emporium).  This is what I’ve come up with:

MONDAY

Two fantastic films from two master filmmakers absolutely in love with the possibilities of cinema.  Tarantino’s gleeful tone doesn’t line up really well with Truffaut’s melancholy, but both films make great use of editing, music, and their creator’s extensive cultural knowledge.

TUESDAY

Thematically speaking, these two films don’t have a lot in common, aside from one gruesome plot detail.  However, both films are stylistic tours de force, and both achieve downright giddy moments of pitch-black comedy.

WEDNESDAY

Experience World War II from two of America’s most well-respected filmmakers.  Spielberg’s visceral depiction of battle will stand in contrast to Malick’s more cerebral take, but that could make experiencing these two different masterpieces all the more rewarding.

THURSDAY

These two different tales of playful criminals should play off one another surprisingly well, I should think.  Trouble In Paradise‘s pre-Hays Code dialogue will make a handy companion to The Coen Brothers’ colorful language in their depiction of Ed and H.I.

FRIDAY

Two inventive films that attempt to navigate the world of romance using little more than the language of pop culture.  Cusack’s brilliant performance in High Fidelity may be a tad too cynical for date night, but (500) Days of Summer‘s general sense of optimism should prove to be a fine palate cleanser.

SATURDAY

Hitchcock’s masterpiece, it could be argued, was the film that served as the impetus for what we know as “The Slasher Film,” so obviously it should be paired up with what is (in this writer’s humble opinion) the pinnacle of the genre.  Both Hitch and Carpenter make masterful use of their instrumental scores to achieve more terror than any amount of gore could ever hope to accomplish (*cough*Rob Zombie*cough*).

SUNDAY

Call it the “My Misunderstood Alien Friend” Triple Feature.  We start with Paul Verhoeven’s searingly brilliant sci-fi satire, move into Neill Blomkamp’s Alien Apartheid Allegory (ain’t alliteration awesome?), and finish it up with the tale of the ultimate alien who just wants to go home.  Yes, this means that Spielberg is represented twice as often as any other director, but if anybody should be, why not Spielberg?

p.s.  I was originally going to include a different double feature, but I’m not sick enough to even jokingly suggest that The Muppet Movie and Meet The Feebles wouldn’t be tremendously upsetting when viewed back-to-back.

Posted under Kyle's Adventures in Pop Culture