B E B E R E

Films this weekend?

The Lady from Shanghai
Smiles of a Summer Night
A Midsummernight's Sex Comedy

All the making of tidbits from the second DVD of the Master and Commander
box set.

Got very little knitting done, as the films were so engrossing.

I found the visuals in Lady from Shanghai particularly breathtaking, and Frank O'Hara's monologue on the shark frenzy to be both funny as all get out and horrifying. Maybe it was the claustrophobia, the sense of strangulation despite the airiness and sun-drenched scenes, perhaps the theme of a voyage that made me recall and really get the urge to see Night of the Hunter again.

What can I say of Bergman's comedy born of misery Smiles of a Summer Night except that it was a gem? There was just a wonderful balance in this - between comedy and darkness, young love and more mature, realist relationships. Spare, but important soundtrack, a wonderful theatricality (verymuch a comedy of manners in the style of Molière), and a sort of drunkenness brought about by the midnight sun. Goodness, I want to be Eva Dahlbeck when I grow up. If I grow up.

Midsummernight's Sex Comedy was great Woody Allen in an uncommon bucolic setting. Its inspiration came from the Bergman film, but, though lovely - I thought it a fair bit too disorganized, contemporary despite its late victorian era costuming.

Master and Commander? Well, seeing the making of materials further confirmed to me what an amazing piece of work this film is. I can't wait to get into it again. I wish it were possible to see it on the big screen again, gosh darnit.