go with the flow, see what happens

-

Linking Groundhog Day to impromptu quotations--as I did here, here and here & here and here & here--yesterday and the day before and it is not going as... I guess you could say smoothly. It's not going as smoothly as other days. I'm getting bogged down in details and the picking of nits--which obviously is not like me at all. As a regular reader of this blog, you would understand that I never obsess about anything to the point of picking it apart until it dies.

Seriously though, how does something get labeled as a Danish Proverb when it is neither Danish nor a Proverb? But, then there's a bigger problem; spend too much time on "random" quotations and I miss the boat on larger things I could be doing. Like spending four days revisiting eternal recurrence or deja vu, or a whole week on some other topic... perhaps deja vu. I mean, just because Carl Sagan supposedly once said, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known," doesn't mean I need to spend time exploring it or that it links to Phil Connors' experience in the time loop--clearly it does, because the implication within this quotation is that knowledge is out there waiting for us to get to it... there's no value judgment here about good knowledge or bad knowledge, of course, and Phil Connors finds a bit of both for himself...

And, speaking of knowledge out there waiting, Goober--my name for one of the Punxsutawney Inner Circle guys, mind you... the one who asks Phil, "Something I can do you for?" right before Phil steals the truck and the groundhog--is only holding one scroll when he goes on stage. Did no one in the production consider that fact that the Inner Circle might attempt to pretend they haven't predetermined what the groundhog is going to say about his shadow. Or maybe that's a problem straight from the real Inner Circle. I don't know. It's still a problem and something I should add to the IMDb goofs page when I finally get around to fixing it... Actually, I should fix it now. I should add Phil Connoring and time loop date rape to Urban Dictionary while I'm at it.

But, I should also mention that one extra I didn't label on labeling day was an old guy who acts like someone suggested he get up on stage for the auction and that's the silliest idea he's ever heard, a sentiment he expresses in a very quiet and dialogue-less manner. He and another extra--Sweater Guy--need to work on their extra acting skills, but that's not why I'm bringing him up now. See, I just noticed that Not Auctionable walks by the gazebo behind Nancy and Phil. New things all the time. Sagan was right.

I considered clicking over to IMDb right now to fix the goofs page but I would have to go back and study my entry about the goofs to make sure I fix it all properly. I also would like to get a reference to this blog on the IMDb page for the film, and maybe on the Wikipedia entry as well. Speaking of which, this blog should have its own Wikipedia entry, but I learned from The Newsroom that Wikipedia doesn't let people edit their own entries... and that entry would technically be about me so they probably wouldn't let me create it. Not that I believe everything that Aaron Sorkin television series tell me--that would be crazy.

I actually just tried to insert a link to this blog in the "Further reading" section of Wikipedia's entry for Groundhog Day, but their citation tags, simple enough probably for adding another book--they've got Gilbey's and Rubin's listed--don't work for a web address.

And, I just got sidetracked by the Message Board on IMDb. So, this entry will be cut shorter than it might have been.

Today's reason to repeat a day forever: to figure out just how to maximize attention on reddit, IMDb, Wikipedia, and wherever else would come up.

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