the groundhog day project

Yesterday ’s entry brings me to two questions, actually. The first—where I ended yesterday—is this: Does Phil tell Rita about the time loop after the movie ends? The necessary follow-up: When Phil does tell Rita about the time loop, how does that affect their lives? As you can see from my phrasing in that second question, I’ve got a simple answer to the first question: yes , Phil will tell Rita about the time loop. I mean, how could he not? This is the single most important thing that has ever happened to him. It has fundamentally altered his behavior and his identity. It has turned Phil in a single day—check my edited down version of the movie that shows us what Rita experiences: —from an egocentric jerk to a mindful altruist… well, sort of. It’s a drastic change, however we label it. I think of the later bits in About Time , when Tim stops using his time travel ability but just treats each day as he would when he repeated every day a second time… in one sentence, that’s...

This evening I read a short play my daughter Hayley’s reading for class— Sure Thing by David Ives. It’s about “Bill and Betty, both in their late twenties” who meet in a cafe. As simple as that sounds, it immediately made me think of Groundhog Day because, well, when the conversation between these two turns sour, a bell rings and the conversation resets back a bit. It plays a bit like the “date night” sequence in Groundhog Day (even more like the original trailer ‘s version of the “date night” with the alarm buzzer). For example, the first time, after Bill asks Betty, “Is this chair taken?” she tells him it is. Bell rings and Bill’s back to asking if the seat is taken. Another time, Bill’s been explaining how much he loves Faulkner and Betty tells him she thinks The Sound and the Fury (which she’s reading) is boring. Bell rings and Bill’s asking her what book she’s reading again. Mel Gussow at The New York Times describes the play: In this delightful little one-act..., the man.....

There's an interesting thing I realized in relation to yesterday's entry --for those of you who didn't read it, whose eyes glazed over when you tried to read it, or who just don't feel like clicking on that link to remember what it was, the entry included a theory that Groundhog Day is actually an extended episode of Doctor Who . The "interesting thing" is that, if we take Rita as the TARDIS and not a companion, then Phil trying to get inside her all those nights is not at all sexual... ...or the Doctor entering the TARDIS all the time is . Of course, despite some people's idea of just what Phil and Rita did before going outside on February 3rd, the movie doesn't ever actually tell us they consummated their relationship. So, maybe they didn't. Then, the relationship becomes a little Freudian or Oedipal... one of those, or both--I'll admit I haven't studied psychology enough to be sure. In his Transparency blog, Ken Sanes describes his ...

Today is a day to celebrate. For today is All Hallow's Eve Eve and it is also Haunted Refrigerator Day. It's probably other things as well, but I picked those two because they seemed funnier. Today is also the 90th day of The Groundhog Day Project . And, I thought it was worth celebrating some milestone at some point... or did I celebrate one before? I can't even remember. I'm pretty sure I missed day 33 and day 40 and day 50 and day 67. (That last one was a test. I'm pretty sure 67 has no significance for anyone.) But, I don't actually want to talk about celebrations per se, so much as holidays more broadly. The hypothesis for today is that Groundhog Day could take place on no other holiday than Groundhog Day. And, I don't mean that we couldn't have a movie entitled Groundhog Day that actually takes place on Arbor Day, though that would be inappropriate, but rather that the plot of this film, if it were to be set on any holiday, had to be set on Gr...

I just noticed that kid at the bottom right last night. That was Day 76 and there was still something new to see in Groundhog Day . (And, sorry the screencap is so blurry. The copy I've got of the movie on my iPad is not nearly as clear as the DVD copy I'm watching right now. If I remember, I will replace that image later) Things to note: He's wearing blue , even has a blue sign. He's facing away from the camera, which at first I thought was awkward. But, then I figured it was a way of getting in the shot without being too obvious about it But, then I thought, what if he's not even a real boy? What if he's a ghost? Or a Ted Danson cutout? Another supernatural element wouldn't be too out of place, after all. I mean, aside from the obvious supernatural bit... the time loop, there's also the devil in the red hat at the Tip Top Cafe and God serving drinks at the local bar. And, if you don't get those references, that is so very very sad... fo...

No dancing today. Not, that anyone but me knew today I intended to talk about dancing. I’ve already mentioned Rita’s dorky dancing and Debbie’s crazy dancing and there is so much more awesome and horrendous dancing in Groundhog Day . But, it will have to wait as the software I use to cut clips is busy doing something else that I did not expect to take so long. (And, isn’t it nice to see someone other than Phil Connors trapped in a time loop like that… there’s a bit in Lupoff’s “12:01 P.M.” in which Myron Castleman thinks, …philosophically, it could be worse. Hung up at a period of five minutes, he’d never get anything done. And if it were really short—say, a second or less—it would be a living hell. I think Rita and Debbie have the right idea for a tiny time loop. You just gotta dance.) And, I could have just not mentioned it. But, that wouldn’t be fair (even if it might make for a more fluid blog entry) because this blog is about life, its ups and its downs, its Bill Mu...

I’ve dealt with obituaries before in this blog— Jane Catherine Lotter , an author who wrote her own; Martin Manley , a sportswriter who planned and blogged about his suicide; and even Lucina Paquet Gabbard , who played a small part in Groundhog Day —so I thought it worth bringing up this bit from an obituary I saw online today: Marianne Theresa Johnson-Reddick born Jan 4, 1935 and died alone on Aug. 30, 2013. She is survived by her 6 of 8 children whom she spent her lifetime torturing in every way possible. While she neglected and abused her small children, she refused to allow anyone else to care or show compassion towards them. When they became adults she stalked and tortured anyone they dared to love. Everyone she met, adult or child was tortured by her cruelty and exposure to violence, criminal activity, vulgarity, and hatred of the gentle or kind human spirit. It reminded me of Orson Scott Card’s Speaker for the Dead , in which a Speaker spends time with and interviews those wh...

We see the clock turn from 5:59 to 6:00 numerous times in Groundhog Day , but if you believe a complaint—I’m having trouble figuring out if they ever actually sued or just threatened to—from back in 1993, the film owes a great deal to the time 12:01. “12:01 P.M.” was a short story by Richard Lupoff, published in 1973. Then, in 1990 there was an Oscar-nominated short film made from it, and in 1993—the same year as Groundhog Day --there was a TV film made from it as well. At the time, I think, this was my first time noticing how TV films seemed so conveniently timed with similar theatrical releases, something that happens all the time now; for example, when Battle Los Angeles from Columbia Pictures was coming out a couple years back, we got Battle of Los Angeles from The Asylum premiering on television. Call them knockoffs or knockbusters or mockbusters or what have you, they capitalize on similarity in name recognition and at least a vague similarity (generally) in plot. The Los A...