CaveGirl

Hmmm, I kinda liked him in "High Fidelity" but that's because I like record stores, Zea and he was sorta cute in the "School of Rock" but I detect from your subtle inferences that I am not going to convince you of anything. Now you gotta admit, Jack Black would be super fine if cast as that Dennis Rader, the BTK* Killer, doncha think? They bear quite a resemblance and Black could expand his repetoire as he seriously murders people and his lines in the movie. Check out their photos and see if you don't agree with me. *BindTortureKill

Fabulous planning, Laffite! I do think the movie atmosphere should conform to one's viewing atmosphere. For example if one is going to watch their dvd of the Corman extravaganza, "The Trip" with Fonda and Nicholson, beforehand one should gather up any old peace symbol artifacts, autographed pictures of Abbie Hoffman or members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, dress in tie-dyed garments and bell bottoms and perhaps hang a beaded curtain on the kitchen doorway or at least put up a poster of the Trippy White Rabbit, along with some black light source and maybe even a strobe. Then...start the movie and you will be in the correct and proper mood. If you plan to watch a noir with multiple men killed by tawdry females later, leave up the black lights, since they work well in police procedurals to find any instances of bodily fluids, particularly ones which start with the letter "s", end with the letter "n" and have an "m" in the middle, with two "e's" in between, since there is always illicit sex in those silly noirish films. P.S. A lava lamp would add a nice touch also, if you are short on the above supplies and can't find any incense.

Well, though I'm usually a late night person did not know if I could make it to around 6am with no sleep, so took a nap at around 8pm to 11pm. Then I got out some aids to curing sleepiness like a 2-liter of Coke, and some peanut M&M's. I did start to dose off after Part One of "World on a Wire" ended, but forced myself to sit up straight as Part Two started. Oh, yeah...I forgot, I got my kitchen timer out and set it to go off every 15 minutes just in case I would nod off. It all worked out swell and I made it to the end, Laffite and thanks for asking!

I see you will also be a leg up on anyone thinking of preserving classics of this magnitude, Dargo. I can see that you stopped being interested in films, the year pantihose became prevalent probably, right?

Tell me about it; I got up way after midnight, the other evening to watch the over three-hour long Fassbinder movie!

I love Lancelot and all chimps! Well, except when they go rogue and try to rip off my face...

Have you ever put your fangs in accidentally upside down like Jonathan Frid and bit yourself, Tom? That's great about the dual purpose black cape, which could also be used to watch movies with leads like Zorro or masked crusader themes. Hopefully in honor of Sophia you are wearing an underwire brassiere.

An honorable compromise, Dargo. Did you retain any of the approved by the Godey's Lady's Book feminine under articles, for other purposes that might come up down the line, in your most adventurous life though?

Hmmm...bathroom breaks need to be planned out beforehand obviously, so I would need to know the dvd chapter headings. Can I get back to you on this, Calvin?

I think you are thinking of Tom Brady, who as a child actor portrayed Oliver's friend, Mikey in the show. It was only mentioned once that he was the illegitimate son of Mike Brady, and had been adopted out from the nearby Redondo Beach Orphan Asylum, Miss Wonderly.

I love Ronald, but being right-handed he should have positioned this all differently, and put the model [is it Ida Lupino?] behind him with the light coming over her right shoulder not her left and then when he paints also his hand won't make a shadow on the canvas. Technically he also would not be able to paint her face in that turned almost three-quarter position from where he is standing. Of course Ida may have had a disfiguring scar on her other cheek like the one Carole Lombard had, that he was trying to hide. Don't you hate people who take movies way too seriously, like I am doing in this post!

Guy Noir, eh? The only character I know of that is truly noir, is No-ah Cross*, as played by John Huston in "Chinatown". * That should be pronounced as No-Wah Cross, to be accurately intoned.

Join the club, Miss Wonderly, I have many boxes of old videotapes of movies from TCM in my hall closet, and they are all numbered to conform to a list of movies taped I have listed in a binder! I also have a still functioning VCR. I know...I need to go on the show, "Hoarders".

Brilliant connection to noir, Miss Wonderly and the fact they had Lawrence Tierney playing Elaine's dad would seem to prove the veracity of your implication of their noirish tendencies.

Good one, Miss W! I always have liked Brodie since he just seems to play an Everyman so well in films. As a teen film fan, I used to always get Scott Brady and Steve Brodie mixed up, till my grandma said "Scott is Lawrence Tierney's brother. Don't you know who Lawrence Tierney is?" Then she started telling me stories about the brawling Tierney and how she was amazed he was still alive after so many fights, and that he was always in the gossip columns back in the day. Since then I don't get Steve and Scott mixed up anymore.

The artist who liked most to show his use of light coming from a window into the room, was of course Johannes Vermeer. Almost all of his extant paintings show the actual windows with light coming from them, but surprisingly it has also been found that though he appeared to paint totally realistically, he actually often altered objects he had already used in a painting and of course his use of camera obscura techniques were also in play.

Midge did have that example of a cantilever bra on display though, to be copied, and my mother being a fashion artist in her younger years, appreciated that touch, since the stores would always give her clothing articles to be used for drawing purposes for her full page newspaper ads.

I'm an artist and no matter how great an easel you have or a drawing board with fancy lighting, most artists enjoy working with natural light coming from a window, particularly if one is painting with oils or using pastels on a portrait. It should come from behind and on the opposite side to the arm you are using, and having those big slanted windows as you mention in films, would be a boon sometimes. Things look totally different if done with natural light than artificial light though now with all these Kelvin scales on bulbs and such, there might not be as big a need. I also think most artists I've known who do fine art, really enjoy having a studio set up which is inspiring and fits all their needs but is also appealing, at least to them and a big, slanted window could play that part. There are those who would define an artist as someone who creates not for funds but for an inner reason and calling. Most films about artists though don't appear to be very true to life, and the actors don't even seem to know how to hold a pen correctly for an ink drawing or how to hold and use a brush to apply oil paint, plus I've never even seen a maul stick in a movie. They usually go back to the Van Gogh theme of the tortured artist, and show them more drinking in a cafe or brawling though I think the film with Alec Guinness as an artist in "The Horse's Mouth" is the most true to life I've ever seen. It's more common for films to show what I'd call a craftsman in a film, than a true artist, which is a whole different thing, yet I agree wholeheartedly with Slayton's usage of the word in a overall sense, saying all are artists.

Well said, Miss Wonderly!

If C meant a Condemned film by the Vatican in their Index, I would deem it a film definitely worth watching, Miss Wonderly! I watched "Desperate" too, and can see why Hibi found it below B-grade. A lot of these films are being touted since some people probably are making money on them being recapitulated in boxed sets and sold again in the dvd market. It's a lot like when "Antique Roadshow" had the guy expert on who evaluated guns and rifles and was overestimating the worth of many of them, since he was friends with some people who were selling the items in a new market, and they were making money based on his overinflated values. I like Steve Brodie a lot, but "Desperate" was pretty typical B-fare for the time.

Do you have a set regime for watching a film? If so, what is it and does it suffice for all films no matter what the content? I see films like people who are guests in my home and treat them all differently. Some people like a casual atmosphere, and you can serve them anything edible and they will enjoy it. You don't have to dress up to greet them and they are laid back and you need little preparation to make for an enjoyable evening. Then there are visitors for which you might go out a bit, and buy their favorite libation, and make sure the couch has some down pillows on it for them to lounge on, which will make them more voluble which can be highly entertaining. I plan my film viewing on these same principles. For something like "Some Like It Hot" there is no preparation needed, except to be in the mood to laugh though one could stock one's bar with some old time hooch and turn up the sound so as not to miss any of Joe E. Brown's lines. On the other hand, for a film like "The Saragossa Manuscript" by Wojciech Has I had to make sure all was right with the world and my home before even attempting to watch it again. Remembering that the storyline was extremely convoluted, I waited till it was after 6pm to view, so it would be over before 10pm and Morpheus might enter the dwelling. I also made sure to have subdued lighting, decided that I should fast for the day before watching as the film does seem to have more of a hallucinogenic effect if one is in starvation mode. I only allowed a glass of the most rare elixir that would complement the film images, and I turned my phone off. Nothing is worse than having a robot calling you during this dreamlike story within a story within a story. I eased myself down on the chaise lounge and proceeded to start the film. Thankfully whoever worked on its reintroduction into the world with Scorsese did a magnificent job of making the subtitles highly visible and in bright yellow, which was laudatory. Now I might have a whole different atmosphere needed to watch something like "Carnival of Souls" as I would for an Alec Guinness film fest or something with Ernest Torrence menacing folks. Each film deserves its own milieu of surrounding artifices that make the film more able to be appreciated. What standards do you apply when you watch a film or do you treat all films the same, whether it be "Greed" or "Dude, Where's My Car?"?

Emily, did you watch "Fragments"? That was worth watching just to see Clara Bow in color!

Benchley...tonight! NIGHT AT THE MOVIES, A ( 1937) In this comedic short, a man and wife suffer through a night together at the movies. Dir: Roy Rowland Cast: Robert Benchley , King Baggot , Flora Finch . BW- 10 mins,

What a superior television show! Always well written, tackling serious subjects but when a spoof was needed they would do one which was highly amusing and tongue in cheek. Probably will go down in years to come as a classic that was not totally appreciated on it initial release. I watched six straight episodes on BBC America one day recently.

You said a mouthful, Sepia! I've already hagangued this documentary in another post, so I should go silent but whoever picked that typeface and point size was really not doing the audience any justice. I have good vision which I've been told is 20/20 and obviously don't wear glasses and was watching it on a fairly large screen and was having trouble reading all the constant captions.