This picture of the moon was taken by Michael while we were at the top of Mauna Kea, near the observatory, in Hawaii in April.
Oh dear, Oh Dear, I lost my momentum with the blog. I have been tweeting whenever I watch a movie, and I lost my lists of what I watched. I plan to go back to my once a month posting. I will keep track of things. I really like to sum up my month. I enjoyed that so much.
I really can’t remember every movie I watched in the last three months. But I did to a big Stanley Kubrick watch. This was how it started: I was scoffed at, by a friend, for watching Wings 1927 by William Wellman - when I hadn’t seen Kubrick’s 2001 yet. Well, I defend watching Wings - I am in a thrall regarding Clara Bow and was making my way through the films I could get my hands on. In any case, it was an arbitrary comparison - Wings and 2001. I’ll admit I’d avoided 2001 - uh. It just promised to be a boring masterpiece to me. What I found was that I did like it very much. It was hypnotic in ways I didn’t expect. It’s sort of a shame I didn’t see it nearer to the time it came out. I can see how innovative and forward thinking and most of all, how influential that film was. But I had a hard time watching the movie with the appreciation of its historic significance. I could only seem to watch the movie as a movie - right here and now. And I dunno. It’s one of those films that I can understand and appreciate, intellectually. I never lost the truth that I was watching it as: homework. I guess the same thing could be said for Wings. And 2001 is an infinitely better movie than Wings. But… Huh….
So, there was much I hadn’t seen of Kubrick. I hadn’t seen Fear and Desire, Killer’s Kiss, The Killing, Paths of Glory, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, and as I mentioned, 2001 before the last few months. Barry Lyndon has always been amongst my favorite films. I saw Eyes Wide Shut when it came out and liked it at first, but then over time, it didn’t sit well with me. Same with Full Metal Jacket. Of course I’ve seen the The Shining multiple times, but not in the last twenty years or more.
Okay I know you are wondering where I stand on Kubrick’s films. The world wants to know my - Julia Sweeney’s - opinion on the matter. Well, now you will have it.
Here’s my own personal hierarchy of Kubrick according to me, Julia Sweeney.
1. Barry Lyndon
2. 4-way tie: The Killing, Lolita, Paths of Glory, The Shining
3. Dr. Strangelove
4. Spartacus
5. Killer’s Kiss
6. 2-way tie: 2001, Full Metal Jacket
7. Eyes Wide Shut
8. A Clockwork Orange
9. Fear and Desire
Barry Lyndon was better than I remembered it. For me, the Kubrick sensibility - cool calculated observation of a cold, comic, unfeeling world on a full-of-feeling character - well it is fully realized in Barry Lyndon. I read a wonderful piece by an NYU professor I greatly admire: Mark Crispin Miller on Barry Lyndon that was quite helpful in seeing even deeper into Barry Lyndon. Barry is so tragic and yet so relatable and yet so reprehensible and yet just like every one of us. Even the narrator gets him wrong (this is what Crispin is arguing…) I think Barry Lyndon is in my top ten favorite movies of all time.
But wait, there’s another Kubrick that could be in that top ten - one I hadn’t seen until recently. That is Paths of Glory. Kirk Douglas stars. It’s a World War 1 anti-war film. Everyone is perfectly cast - every shot is perfect - every performance a delight. The last scene of the captured German girl singing “Der Treue Husar” at the end to all the french men - many old and haggard - just as they are about to head to the front is one of the most poignant, chilling, beautiful scenes ever filmed. In my humble opinion. Of all of Kubrick’s ironic-tragic-cynical-songs-at-the-end-of-a-film - that’s the one that works best, in my mind.
I had so much fun watching Lolita - I was howling with agony and delight every single moment. The Killing - made before Kubrick was KUBRICK, is also a masterpiece. And The Shining. It was so much better than I remembered it. I can see how people watch that film a hundred times.
I know Kubrick didn’t take credit for Spartacus, but I love that movie. In fact, I think I’ll watch it again this month.
Eyes Wide Shut could have worked, I think, if it had had a voice over like Barry Lyndon has. Maybe Kubrick would have added that had he lived.
Okay, I must move on people!
I read so many books in the last three months, but the one that stands out the most is George Eliot’s “Adam Bede.” I read it slowly and thoughtfully. I would love to write a screenplay for that book.
Okay, I promise to keep track. Starting July 1st, I will be back to my once a month reporting. Until then, have a good summer.
xoxox
June 16, 2015 at 7:29 pm, Deb said:
Julia, So glad to see you are back! I always followed your blog but have missed out for the last few months. So glad to see I caught you on your first day back! The other night I couldn’t sleep and I got up and read all of your past entries that I’d missed. I made notes about books I wanted to read and movies I wanted to see. I’m reading Irvine’s book, “A Guide to the Good Life” right now and am loving it. Thank you!
Ironically, we have gone through the exact same moving dilemma as you have. We moved to the DC area from California about 5 years ago for business. We have tried to enjoy and explore the area but are always thinking about returning to what we feel is home: either California or the Pacific Northwest. Anyway, after much deliberation, we decided that we have to stay for at least another year or so and have decided to embrace what we have and explore areas we haven’t seen while we are living here.
Just wanted to tell you I really enjoy your monthly updates so Welcome Back!!
One of your ardent admirers,
Deb
P.S. We’re also atheists and I have to echo exactly what you said about the Libertarians in the atheist community. They pretty much ruined it for us years ago!
June 17, 2015 at 7:40 am, Julia Sweeney said:
Wow, those are the two places we feel most at home too - Pacific NW and California! But now it’s been almost seven years here and I’m begining to think of it as home. I wish we could live so many places simultaneously.
June 16, 2015 at 9:28 pm, snowdenlit said:
That’s a good shot of the moon. What did he use?
For the full 2001 experience I recommend the largest possible screen. I’ve seen it on DVD and Blu-Ray (and the Blu-Ray edition is quite nice), but it wasn’t until I saw 2001 at the Cinerama in Seattle that I felt as if I’d really seen it. It was the first time I felt immersed in it. I’m not sure there is still one in Chicago. (McVickers is long closed, as I understand it.) But the next time you’re in Seattle or L.A., see if they’re screening it.
June 17, 2015 at 7:39 am, Julia Sweeney said:
I’m not sure what lens he used! I’ll find out.
I know. I feel I need to give 2001 another shot. I might have to alter my state beforehand (for me this means wine.) But then I risk falling asleep. Ha. But really, I do want to see it again. I have a home theater in my basement, so the screen is big - not Cinerama big, but fairly big. For you JIM! I will watch it again!
June 17, 2015 at 3:30 pm, snowdenlit said:
My connection to 2001 is more personal than my connection to any other Kubrick film. My Dad was a chemical engineer and worked on rockets in the 1950s and 60s. He took me to mission control when I was little and we both enthused at the mock-up of the Voyager spacecraft they had there. He had a coffee table book called “Across the Space Frontier” (http://socks-studio.com/2012/07/22/across-the-space-frontier-1952/) which I spent hours poring over. For my Dad, I think 2001 expressed where he hoped his work would lead.
2001 was also the movie I was watching (at the Cinerama) when news reached me that my Dad had suffered the stroke that would eventually kill him.
I couldn’t bring myself to watch it again for a couple of years, but I finally did. I’ll spare the details, but it was an emotional experience.
Anyway, do give it another shot, with the state-altering substance of your choice. (If you catch the movie in Seattle, we have a wider legal selection to choose from. Just sayin’.) I’ve found that with Kubrick films, the more I see them, the more I see in them.
July 11, 2015 at 10:34 pm, Lisa W. said:
Julia, I am happy to see your return to blogging! I have missed your monthly entries very much.
September 01, 2015 at 12:45 am, psstwife said:
Julia, to find a list of the movie names you’ve tweeted, go to this page:
https://twitter.com/search-advanced?lang=en
Under Words, in the “All of these words” field, enter:
movie
Under People, in the “From these accounts” field, enter:
juliasweeney
September 03, 2015 at 3:14 pm, Gary Canup said:
As coincidence would have it, I watched BARRY LYNDON for the very first time only last week. I may be wrong about this but I seem to remember that when the film first came out in 1975 the reviews were rather mixed; but now, after visiting the website Rotten Tomatoes, I see that the reviews are almost overwhelmingly favorable and that the film is an acknowledged masterpiece.
I myself watched the movie in three sittings. It is stunningly beautiful to look at, especially the panoramic shots of the European countryside, and the story, though slowly paced (like the 19th century novel on which it is based), is engrossing and tragic. When Barry finally drops his facade of civility and flails the tar out of his adoptive son in front of his upper-class friends, you know that it is all over for him. Even though Barry is a shallow social climber, I felt bad for the guy, especially at the end when after enjoying a life of splendor and privilege he hobbles off on crutches to go back to living with his mom. From the composition of the scenes to the development of the characters, it is a great film all the way around.
Remember that scene in DR. STRANGELOVE when George C. Scott stumbles and falls and immediately springs back to his feet? That was totally unscripted, but Kubrick left it in because Scott somehow managed to stay in character and because the pratfall was exceedingly funny. Equally hilarious is the scene in which Strangelove, outlining his plan for government and military officials to survive the nuclear holocaust in a mine shaft while the rest of us are dead, is attacked by his own hand, as if his hand is the only part of the ex-Nazi that has a conscience. If you look closely at the characters in the background, while this scene is going on, the actor who portrays the Soviet ambassador is struggling desperately to keep a straight face.
By the way, Ms. Sweeney, I loved your two appearances as Ann Hodges on my all-time favorite sitcom FRASIER. Ann is crude and brash but very very funny. The Hallmark Channel replayed the “placeholder episode” earlier this morning, and I love the scene in the restaurant in which Ann is “starvin’ like Marvin” and Frasier is “squirmin’ like Herman.” Hilarious stuff!
October 31, 2015 at 5:33 pm, pat said:
I’m just reading this at this late date. I just saw Barry Lyndon and really liked it having put off seeing if for about 25 years. Paths of Glory is one of my favorites especially the end when the young lady sings to the, at first, hostile crowd. All I could think when I first saw that was “Wow! Great song choice!”