the groundhog day project

That Jonathan looks like his grandfather and (middle) namesake is not just a coincidence, or a cinematic convenience. That workers at the airport at the end of the film look like characters Jonathan has met on his rigid search is also not merely a coincidence, nor a cinematic joke. (I'm not even sure that it's a coincidence that both of Foer's novels involve an old Jewish man who was close to two young women when he was younger; when Lista says her mother thought Safran should marry Augustine because she was older, it reminded me very much of Anna and her sister in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close . Both of the primary plots are driven by objects, as well--the photograph in Everything Is Illuminated , the key in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close , but I don't think I'm dealing in objects today.) These people look alike because this story is universalizing. It seems a part of the human condition that we want to know where we come from, and that's vital ...

You give your hand to me And then you say, “Hello.” And I can hardly speak, My heart is beating so. And anyone can tell You think you know me well. Well, you don’t know me. (no you don’t know me) No you don’t know the one Who dreams of you at night; And longs to kiss your lips And longs to hold you tight Oh I’m just a friend. That’s all I’ve ever been. Cause you don’t know me. (no you don’t know me) These lyrics play on "date night" as Phil and Rita dance in the gazebo. My recent mnemonic device when I was driving and couldn't write down notes, remember, included dreams . That came from this song. "...you don't know the one / Who dreams of you at night..." A couple things occurred to me. The first: is it Phil who dreams of Rita or Rita who dreams of Phil? Consider: Phil does know Rita. She just doesn't realize it and so his familiarity comes off as creepy. Rita does not know Phil, on the other hand, yet she's dancing with him. I think the ch...

This is like part four: written in a lounge area on the University of Utah campus. Just judged some informative speeches, not judging this round. So, it's time to explain what the sticky wet dreams referred to. First up is sticky . Really, it's stick and it's not that exciting. In fact, having just checked the transcript of the movie, it's not exciting at all. I thought I had a line wrong in the transcript. When Phil describes "the same old schtick" of the Gobbler's Knob bit, he says "the guy comes out with a big stick and raps on the door." I thought I had it wrong--something like the guys comes out and raps on the door with a big stick. Nothing major. But, I want my transcript to be as accurate as possible. The version I shared here has already undergone some changes--well, the changes were made to my annotated copy, anyway. Interestingly, I didn't misplace the stick but I did leave out the and . So, there is something to fix. But, as...

Part two: written not in a hotel room but a university auditorium in Salt Lake City, waiting for awards after today's tournament. Had Groundhog Day on out in the snow... well, snow on the ground, not in the air. Anyway, movie was on during the lunchbreak. I even made a round of After Dinner Speaking wait an extra minute as the movie finished. (For the record, I had walked, with movie still playing in my hand, to the room and let them know of the delay and the reason why. One guy's response: "you got to have hobbies." A better response I got from another guy when I told him I've been watching the movie every day for 170 days was that I was awesome... I believe he called me "a gentleman and a star." So, I got that going for me.) But anyway, yesterday, I wrote of "watching" the movie in the van while still on the road. Had to do that again later yesterday--which means I have watched at least part of Groundhog Day in California, Nevada, Arizon...

Part one: written in a hotel room in Vegas, considering posting this as a very short entry... maybe ad part two later today after I "watch" the movie again. Yesterday, Groundhog Day was "viewed" on the road. I put watch and viewed in quotation marks because I was driving at the time (and may do the same today), so I really didn't look at the movie much. I recited the lines along with all the characters, though. And, surprisingly, there are still a few lines I don't always get right. Had I not been driving at the time, I could have catalogued what I got wrong. But, I was driving. The worse bit, though, was I also couldn't "catalog" a couple things I noticed because I was focusing on the audio. One, I remember, was about a specific line of dialogue that seemed to have new meaning. But, I cannot for the life of me remember what line it was. I hope it's noticeable again today. The second thing I should be able to come up with in my head...

Just noticed and my mind is blown by: opening scene, Phil says he's "gonna go out on a limb" then at the end of the time loop, he saves a kid who has literally gone out on a limb... Ok, my mind wasn't really blown. But, hey, if there are more examples like that, I could certainly make an argument about the mirrored structure. In other news, a mistake--or just evidence that Phil is a fantastic performer: the news footage showing in the newsvan at the beginning of the date night sequence-- --is the same footage shown on Day 1. But, that's not what I want to talk about today. Today's business: Phil Connors may be a Christ-Figure , but that doesn't mean he's nothing else. I've spent plenty of time talking about other things Phil represents of course. Today, I wanted to get started down the road to the Bodhisattva , even though I've got a binder of articles on cinematic Christ-Figures and a paper I could be drafting about that very topic. ...