the groundhog day project

Asked by Tasha Robinson at The Verge , in regards to the end of Sing Street : It's clear the scene in the gym [i.e. the band's performance of "Drive It Like You Stole It"] is a fantasy, because it's got that bright candy color, and things happen that are so obviously unreal. But in the boat crossing [i.e. Conor and Raphina running away to England at the end of the film], you spend a lot of time establishing the physical danger of what they're doing. It seems like if it was just a romantic fantasy, you would have just had them sail off together. But there was a point where it looked like it was going to end with them both dying in the Irish Sea. director John Carney responds: I wish they had, in a way. I'm sorry! But there is a side of me that wishes they had. Given the difficulty of people who are making journeys, and end up dying... I don't think it's supposed to be a fully real sequence. I think they're supposed to be quite brave, setti...

OVERTURE Multiple directors and several parts, How the West Was Won is a big movie. So big it was filmed and projected in Cinerama, three projectors running simultaneously with one giant curved screen. I've read that eyelines and whatnot may be a little weird watching this on a flat screen... I'm sure I've seen this movie before, more than once, but that wasn't something I would have been paying much attention to, I'm guessing. Anyway, on to the movie. Oh, the music. Classic stuff, sampled or copied in many a film since. Not too long ago I watched Romancing the Stone (because I was considering it for this blog), and I swear the music over the opening novel sequence is just this music straight, no copy, no reference, just plugged in as is. (If it wasn't it might as well have been.) But, for good reason. This music is Western music. This and that theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly --as iconic, or moreso than, some John Williams stuff for Star Wars ...

( Yesterday 's entry was quite short, missing a whole middle and barely having an introduction or conclusion. The basic explanation is a) I had no idea how mentally exhausted I was as the spring quarter came to an end yesterday evening and b) add to that a night out with some fellow grad students, some drinks and a 2+ hour movie to watch at about half past midnight. I managed, but only barely. The copy of The Magnificent Seven that I've got turned out to be a rather bad copy, with a stretched image and messed up sound, so put all that together and while I've seen the film before, probably seen the sequels, and watched the tv series back in 1998, not to mention having seen The Seven Samurai --I know what the film is about but I was not following it too well last night. It was all I could do to stay awake. The good news: spring quarter ended--even turned in today the grades for the classes I was teaching, and that means I have completed all of my coursework for grad school...