it's heaven

Back on blog duty...couldn't tell for how long though.
I thought I'd do some re-capping of film venturing and discovering.

Some news from real life before entering the reels: I'm currently volunteering at acmi, which hosts film exhibitions (currently a Tim Burton-themed one) and screenings, every Friday. It's more fun than work, I'll admit, and time flies while there. Volunteers mostly greet visitors and inform them of what acmi has to offer, and it's been unexpectedly enjoyable for me. It definitely takes me away from my comfortable, solitary zone.

Otherwise things have been fairly ordinary for me this winter break. Next week I return to university in the haven of film, television, literature and human rights. Hodge-podge of subjects - what can it be but an arts degree.

But for the moment I'll take a detour to distraction. I'll talk movies. Here's a summary of some that have chanced my way in the last two or so months:

Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell in a Borzage World ~ actually the title - or titles - of the films are Seventh Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1928) and Lucky Star (1929). Before coming across Gaynor and Farrell, I thought I'd already seen the final word in screen couple chemistry with Fred and Ginger and Bill and Myrna. But no, before either of those couples, there was the romance, idealism and youth of Janet and Charles. Two beautiful looking late silent era stars who seemed ardently in love when paired opposite each other. With a drought in good modern day romances (well I think so), it's wise to take oneself back to the late 1920s and see Borzage give love its fervent due.

Belle de jour ~ an example of blending the real and surreal in a lavish, bourgeois world. Or something akin to that. Catherine Deneuve equals her neurotic ice blonde from Repulsion, only this time her character puts her demons to a test rather than recoils from them. The result is a strange, somewhat disturbing film wrapped in exquisite colour and set designs.

On the Road with Hope and Crosby ~ I've seen my first four 'Road' movies with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. The first two - Singapore and Zanzibar - are really just warm-ups as the trio find their footing (still, the second one has that added bonus of Una Merkel), but with Morocco and Utopia, the laughs really start coming. Crosby and Hope have a great rapport and it's fun witnessing them trade good-natured insults to one another. Theirs might just be the ultimate 'buddy' films.