i know that's what i said

-

An aside before I get into what may amount to, well, not much. See, I'm going to listen to Harold Ramis' commentary track again, see if something new jumps out after watching the movie so many more times since I did it before. The aside: upon turning off the film last night, I turned on a rerun of Seinfeld on KDOC and it's "The Heart Attack," originally aired 25 April 1991. And, guess who was on the screen: none other than a pre-Ned Ryerson Stephen Tobolowsky. Didn't get to see much of the episode as it was nearly over, but I might watch it when I'm ready to write a whole entry about Tobolowsky.

Today, it's Harold Ramis...

I mentioned before that they picked Woodstock and not the actual Punxsutawney because it had the nice town center they wanted--the real Gobbler's Knob is in a wooded area outside of Punsxsutawney--but amusingly Ramis also goes as far as to say that this is what Punxsutawney was "supposed to look like."

"Cheap--the shovel hit, but necessary."

(Not in the commentary but I just noticed--another benefit of watching the clearer DVD copy this week--that they actually put a Cherry St. sign across from the bed and breakfast. The exterior was actually on Fremont.)

(Still not in the commentary--apparently, I covered the commentary pretty well last time--I've noticed that the production must have been given fairly unlimited access to Cass St. in Woodstock. It's the street Phil meets Ned on every morning, it's the street where part of the car ride with Gus and Ralph gets going, it's the street where he robs the armored truck, it's where the PBH van is parked (when we see Phil talking to Rita inside it, and when Phil pulls out the distributor cap), it's where Phil steals the truck with the groundhog in it, and it's the street where he changes the old ladies' tire. I guess when a film uses your town for its town center, you let them have it.)

Phil mentions the sunlight hitting the buildings in Rome and Ramis calls him "delightfully insincere." Good phrase.

...

And, there wasn't much to say today. Not much new stuff to discover listening to the commentary again. Instead, I was locating a few more spots on google maps--but no images this time; instead I may just do a whole series of map images sometime when I'm back on my computer at home. With the help of some people who obsessed about this stuff before I did, I've marked the rock quarry, the gas station, and Mary's house in addition to the locations I mentioned before.

Today's reason to repeat a day forever: to perfect the art of writing blog entries this short, but that also say really complicated things (unlike this one).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

la fille que j'aimera sera comme bon vin

-
Image
Phil Connors doesn’t speak French. While it might be reasonable to assume Phil does learn to play piano beyond the two songs we hear him play since this is at the point he is actually trying to better himself and affect the world around him in a positive way, the French bit is much earlier. It also comes from a bit in Rubin’s original screenplay, not with Rita but with “Tess Harper—Jefferson County Poetry Society.” Basically, it’s a clear example of Phil doing the same thing he does with Nancy in the movie; he makes stuff up to get what he wants. This is only Day 10 . He hasn’t gotten to the depression that arguably makes him realize he’s an actual human being like everyone else around him… I just realized, this also means he’s probably lying when he says, “Small town people are more real, more down-to-earth.” Later, he might actually believe it. But, at this point, each line is just a move to win over Rita. Anyway, in the original screenplay, Phil meets Tess like he meets Mary in
Read more

i've seen it over a hundred times

-
Image
As I write this, it’s Day 2 for Phil Connors on the DVD and my daughters are in the kitchen making a cake to celebrate Day 100 for me... photo should be below. The movie Phil had seen over 100 times (or so he tells Laraine) was Heidi II . It’s a “family classic” according to the Alpine Theater’s marquee. But, as I’ve mentioned before, it doesn’t exist. Originally, the movie that Phil could see every day if he wanted to do so was It’s a Wonderful Life . Danny Rubin’s ego—and this is his suggestion, not mine—made him believe Groundhog Day “a timeless quality and had the potential to become a film that could work for audiences for a very long time.” So, he put another such film on the marquee. But, “even believing that Groundhog Day was a potential classic, [Rubin] never was thinking of comparing it to It’s a Wonderful Life “— (I’d say putting that title on the marquee was Rubin deliberately comparing the two, but maybe that’s just me.) . Rubin continues: “But the similarities bet
Read more

the wretch, concentred all in self

-
So, Rita thinks Phil’s defining characteristic is his egocentrism. At the point in the story that she quotes Sir Walter Scott, it’s Day 4 for Phil (See the previous entry for a list of Phil’s days) and I wouldn’t argue that he isn’t egocentric. He’s still a jerk, taking advantage of his situation for fun. He’s manipulated Nancy for sex, has gone out on his costumed date to see Heidi II with the woman in the French maid costume. He’s just figured out the whole lack-of-consequences side of things with the help of Ralph and Gus. And, he’s sitting around loading up on, well, probably every dessert the Tip Top Café offers. His focus at this point is very much himself. But, a closer look at the lines Rita quotes got me to thinking, is Phil the man unsung by minstrels because he’s too self-centered? What Rita quotes is some lines from Canto VI of Sir Walter Scott’s “The Lay of the Last Minstrel.” The larger poem involves some clans at war with one another, but this particular section invol
Read more