I had a dream that a bunch of bluebirds had made a nest in my room and were entering and leaving via a hole in the screen that covers my window. They had a lot of little baby bluebirds that were trying to fly but couldn't. I started talking to someone about the birds and about the movie Winged Migration. The biggest bluebird sat in its nest and started making fun of me...

Later I had a dream that I was a wrestler and there were hundreds of other wrestlers running around in the jungle all trying to kill eachother. Audrey Hepburn was in my dream and she gave me a hug.

Getting to sleep in rocks...

Posted by Ben at 12:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With half an hour left, the Gangs of New York DVD I got from NetFlix freaked out on me. Turns out it has a little crack right around the edge. Weaksauce.

The film is nowhere near as bad as I had been told, although it's not up to par with Scorsese's best, it's still a decent film. Leonardo DiCaprio's accent doesn't really disappear towards the end of the film like many people like to say, unless there's a dramatic change in the last half an hour. The one thing that I had constantly heard about the film that turns out to be true (and it's no big surprise) is that Daniel Day Lewis is amazing. His character is so much fun to watch and his performance is brilliant. Although it clocks in at just under three hours the film hasn't felt long at all... I just have to wait for the replacement DVD to arrive so I can finish the damn thing.

I finished Winged Migration which was good.

The copy of Scarface that I got on eBay turned out to be the full screen version...

...

...

GRRRRRR

I'll probably just sell it or give it to someone...

Posted by Ben at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today is my 20th straight day of work since I got back for break. My real break starts tomorrow after I pick up my dad at the airport.

Yesterday, I watched most of Winged Migration which is just footage of birds migrating for an hour and a half. The footage is absolutely amazing though. They get extremely smooth closeups of the birds while they're in mid flight. It's unlike any nature show or documentary I've ever seen and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I also rewatched Oldboy and it's still amazing. This time I noticed LOTS of Brian DePalma visual references which is cool. Lots of split screen effects, deep focus extreme closeups with another character way in the background, a shot that spins in a full 360 from the middle of the room, etc. The film is really amazing and just as emotionally involving the second time around. I will probably watch it again sometime soon too...

I'm looking into getting a digital SLR and I think I will most likely get the Nikon D70. I was planning on getting an iPod over the summer but that can wait, I'll get the camera then the rest of my money is going to be saved to use on my experimental film project this fall.

My jaw is sore for some reason.

Goodbye.

Posted by Ben at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In this post I'm not going to talk about movies...

...

the end.

Posted by Ben at 2:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Oh hell yeah, I'm so cool.

Anyway, I FINALLY got Old Boy in the mail today and it was well worth the wait. The film is incredible and certainly worthy of any awards that have been awarded to it. I don't know what to say about it except that I'll probably end up watching it tomorrow as well. I'm still not sure whether it's better than Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance but with a few more viewings I'll be able to decide. The film is brilliant. Period.

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The Five Obstructions was very good.

Werner Herzog is supposed to be at the screening of Incident at Loch Ness. Sweeeeeeeeet.

Old Boy won the Grand Prix at Cannes.

Roger Ebert hated 2046 but as I established earlier, he's a douchebag.

My shoulder is messed up and I think I need to see a doctor. The last time I went my doctor said it was tendinitis and that it would heal in a couple months. That was years ago...

Posted by Ben at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Azumi was SO BADASS. Way better than Versus and a hundred times cooler than Kill Bill. I went into the midnight screening worried I wasn't going to be able to stay awake but I had no problem at all. Whew. That is all.

Posted by Ben at 2:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"In my pocket is a jar and in that jar, preserved in my tears, is my son's heart."

"HAHAHAHA!"

That was my actual reaction upon hearing that line in Guy Maddin's The Saddest Song in the World. The film was hilarious and he really has a style that can only be described as a collaboration between Fritz Lang and Sergei Eisenstein when they're both on acid. Maddin's style is one of the few truly unique styles of filmmaking that I've seen and although his storytelling has fallen flat in some past films I've seen it's right on the money this time around.

The story is basically about a contest being held to find the saddest song in the world. The drama occurs when two brothers enter only to find that one brother is married to the other's ex-wife. Because they hadn't seen each other due to a falling out this comes as a big surprise and stuff happens. Yeah... anyway, the film is completely off the wall and weird which is awesome. I laughed out loud countless times and was grinning when I wasn't laughing.

Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary was prettier to look at and just a more beautiful film overall while Heart of the World is simply a masterpiece. The Saddest Song In the World was great entertainment and judging from the crowd reaction I think most other people agreed. That is except a little ten year old kid who got dragged to the film by his dad. He gave the film a one out of five and called it "dumb."

Before the film, I arrived about an hour and forty five minutes early to wait in line. I was the sixth person in line. Unfortunately, the pass holders get to go in before ticket holders so all the pass holders, most of whom arrived about fifteen minutes before show time, got to go in first. I counted at least eighty of them. So weak.

Anyway, I still got a good seat but was annoyed nonetheless.

Tomorrow I'm going to a midnight screening of Azumi and on Sunday I'm seeing The Five Obstructions.

My DVD of Old Boy should be arriving soon. I can't wait to see it. Roger Ebert wrote about it after seeing it at the Cannes film festival and criticized how violent it was. Roger Ebert is a douchebag. Apparently it's getting mixed reviews while Hong Sang Soo's Women is the Future of Man is just getting bad ones. What's up with that?

Ah yes, I also read somewhere that Korean cinema has been dubbed the "cinema of cruelty." Cool, I guess...

Sidenote: The opening film for the Seattle International Film Festival was an adaptation of a Nicolas Sparks book... It's called The Notebook and it's actually getting good reviews... at least what I've seen so far. That's so weird and so disgusting. The only way it could get worse is if Thomas Kinkade was somehow involved... Regardless, I am a bit intrigued.

That's all for now, bye.

Posted by Ben at 12:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

All right, I'm slowly getting back into movie watching mode and that will only be further intensified once the A/V receiver and surround sound system arrive on Thursday.

Today I watched Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali which is the first of three films that make up the "Apu Trilogy." The trilogy is basically three films that chronicle the life of a boy named Apu. Simple? Yes. Does that mean it's bad? No.

The film reminded me a lot of Il Posto because of how human it was. None of the emotions were contrived, it wasn't cynical, it just felt very natural and was incredibly moving. The film really sucks you into its world and although there isn't much of a story or conflict it's a satisfying and emotionally involving watch.

From what I've heard this is supposed to be one of the greatest trilogies ever, I'm going to rent the next two films tomorrow at Scarecrow so I'll probably write about whether I agree on Wednesday. From the way it's starting out it seems like it might be right up there with The Godfather if not even surpassing it (that all depends on whether Ray drops the ball in the third film (from what I've heard he does quite the opposite)).

Oh yeah... there's no singing or dancing...

I've been trying to watch Lars Von Trier's The Element of Crime and although it was interesting at first I just can't get into it. I think I'm just going to return it without watching it. Blah.

In other news, work today was all right. Not much happened. I went, did the paperwork, went to the bank, helped out while the employees did the stocking, then I went home.

The end.

Posted by Ben at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An A- in Dramatic and Visual Writing II... not bad...

Posted by Ben at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Okay, here we go a real entry for the first time in awhile.

I've worked everyday since I've gotten home from school and I have to work for the next 14 days until my dad gets home. Wooha. My typical work day is from about 10am to 5pmish... So much fun...

I've only watched one movie since I've gotten home, that was American Splendor which I enjoyed. I've also rented some so I hope to get some movie watching done when I'm not at work.

Right before I left for home Lee made me watch The Wizard of Oz since I had never seen it before. That movie is pretty weird...

The Seattle Film Festival starts this Wednesday and I'll be seeing Guy Maddin's The Saddest Music In The World this Thursday. I'm also seeing a bunch of other stuff but I'll write about those as they happen.

My dad gave me money to get a home theater system for our house. The speakers and receiver should be arriving this week. Hell yes. I will definitely get more movie watching done once those arrive.

I finished The Picture of Dorian Gray awhile back and I loved it. I also read Waiting For Godot which was a lot of fun.

I've gotten all but one of my grades. I have three As and an A-. The one grade I actually care about (writing) I haven't received yet...

My finger nails are ridiculously shiny right now. My friend has this little device used to buff nails and I had him go to work on mine, now I can almost see my own reflection in mine. I'm kind of curious as to whether anybody will notice tomorrow at work and bring it up...

Funny work story: A normal looking college aged guy walked in and grabbed a bag of candy and walked up to the counter. He then proceeded to ask, "Hey, can I open this?" Obviously, we told him he could if he paid for it. Apparently that's not what he had in mind, instead he replied with, "but I don't want to buy it if it tastes bad. Come on man, just let me open it and if it tastes good I'll pay for it." I was stunned at this guys utter lack of common sense, the other employee just told him no. Instead of just saying okay and putting the candy back the guy goes insane and freaks out because we wouldn't let him open the candy. At first I thought this guy was joking but then I realized he wasn't and all I could do was laugh. People are weird...

I have nothing left to say.

Posted by Ben at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just got a ticket to the Masterclass that CHRISTOPHER DOYLE is holding at The Seattle Film Festival. If you don't know who he is, he's the guy who did the cinematography for a lot of Wong Kar Wai's stuff. Most notably In The Mood for Love.

HELL YES.

More SIFF ticket buying news coming soon!

Posted by Ben at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I came home on an airplane yesterday.

At the airport I saw Spike Lee. I stared at him and I think he noticed. Oh well.

Posted by Ben at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm done with everything except my script for Dramatic and Visual writing...

It's coming along all right, I had a conference with my professor about it yesterday and I think I know where I want to go with it now. Hopefully it will turn out decent.

I'm almost done packing all my stuff for my departure on Saturday. I think I have a lot less stuff this year then I did last year. Hopefully, I'll have even less next year.

The Seattle Film Festival reveals its lineup tomorrow and I'm very excited. This will be the first time in a long time that I spend money on something I don't need.

I'm almost done with Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. I have two chapters left and will probably go back to reading it as soon as I post this entry. It's really really good and I highly recommend it.

Uh...

The end.

Posted by Ben at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)