Movies about books
This week it's all about the movies. Maybe it's the cooler weather, maybe it's the no more Daylight Savings time, either way I've watched more movies in the last week than I've seen in the last couple months combined.
I went to the Uptown theater with my younger brother on Tuesday night to see Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Apparently last night it was quite a different scene from me, my brother and the other 20 nerds clustered in the middle seats. Wednesday night was the DC premiere of the new political thriller Lions for Lambs and it seems the all-star cast and various DC politicos were in attendance: TomKat, Robert Redford, George Stepanopoulus, and Lynda Carter to name a few. Yes, Wonder Woman was there. Who knew such glamorous things took place in DC?
Back to my movie-going. The original release of Blade Runner was in 1982, there was a "Director's Cut" released in 1992 and now, 25 years later, we have the definitive Final Cut. Wow, that's a lot of vision. But that's only three of the seven versions out there. Well, It was fun to finally see it on a big screen. It's both a great sci-fi and noir movie, and the AFI put it on their 100 best movies list. And the unicorn bit really clears up any questions about Harrison Ford's character's humanity. But the truth is I've never did read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Maybe, I'll have a little science fiction reading session this winter. I need a little more dystopia in my daily life.
My other movie event of this week was Netflix based. I signed up for this months ago and have been pretty good about watching the movies that come magically into my mailbox. But every once in awhile a DVD sleeve will sit on my coffee table for a disturbing length of time, mocking me, taunting me, making me feel like I'm wasting my money with Netflix since I've been sitting on a movie for 3 months. Ok, 5 months. Well, Monday night was a triumph. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story has now been viewed by me and returned via the United States Postal Service to it's rightful place on a shelf in a sea of white Tyvek sleeves in a warehouse somewhere in Maryland waiting to be called out to another mailbox. How was Tristram Shandy the movie?
It's been some time since I read (the first 150 pages or so of) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Laurence Sterne's book is fantastically unsuited for filmic adaptation since it really never gets started. Unless, Adaptation-style, the movie is more about the making of the movie much as the novel is about the... wait a minute... that's clever. I can't say that I'll go back and read Tristram Shandy, but I think it bears a little more haphazard flipping through. As it was said in the movie, it was the first post-modern book, before there was any modern to be post about.
I went to the Uptown theater with my younger brother on Tuesday night to see Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Apparently last night it was quite a different scene from me, my brother and the other 20 nerds clustered in the middle seats. Wednesday night was the DC premiere of the new political thriller Lions for Lambs and it seems the all-star cast and various DC politicos were in attendance: TomKat, Robert Redford, George Stepanopoulus, and Lynda Carter to name a few. Yes, Wonder Woman was there. Who knew such glamorous things took place in DC?
Back to my movie-going. The original release of Blade Runner was in 1982, there was a "Director's Cut" released in 1992 and now, 25 years later, we have the definitive Final Cut. Wow, that's a lot of vision. But that's only three of the seven versions out there. Well, It was fun to finally see it on a big screen. It's both a great sci-fi and noir movie, and the AFI put it on their 100 best movies list. And the unicorn bit really clears up any questions about Harrison Ford's character's humanity. But the truth is I've never did read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Maybe, I'll have a little science fiction reading session this winter. I need a little more dystopia in my daily life.
My other movie event of this week was Netflix based. I signed up for this months ago and have been pretty good about watching the movies that come magically into my mailbox. But every once in awhile a DVD sleeve will sit on my coffee table for a disturbing length of time, mocking me, taunting me, making me feel like I'm wasting my money with Netflix since I've been sitting on a movie for 3 months. Ok, 5 months. Well, Monday night was a triumph. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story has now been viewed by me and returned via the United States Postal Service to it's rightful place on a shelf in a sea of white Tyvek sleeves in a warehouse somewhere in Maryland waiting to be called out to another mailbox. How was Tristram Shandy the movie?
It's been some time since I read (the first 150 pages or so of) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Laurence Sterne's book is fantastically unsuited for filmic adaptation since it really never gets started. Unless, Adaptation-style, the movie is more about the making of the movie much as the novel is about the... wait a minute... that's clever. I can't say that I'll go back and read Tristram Shandy, but I think it bears a little more haphazard flipping through. As it was said in the movie, it was the first post-modern book, before there was any modern to be post about.
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