the groundhog day project

A week with Groundhog Day . Seven days in a row of this one film. Who would have thunk that I could survive it? I mean, the repetitive nature of the film itself should have made repeated viewing unbearable. But no. Remarkably, it was quite readily repeatable, this film about repetition. And, watching it these last seven days has been rather comforting, like coming home to an old friend. But, I am not done with that friend. I’m not even done with the final revision of the script for that friend. But, I will be soon. I said that there were nine tabs left, so let us just be systematic about this... Beware, six days ago, I said this: “Now, let us just do this systematically. I will try not to mention every little tab or highlight.” Today, I will mention every little tab... of the ones that are left. #10 ... because I skipped this one on the previous page of my printout - the girl who comes out of Mary’s house, i.e. the piano student Phil gets thrown out into the cold out of selfishn...

I put out a request in the Day 365 party invite page on Facebook today. I want people to share their thoughts on Groundhog Day or the Groundhog Day Project and email them to me before that last day, so I can share them in the final entry. Here, I would like to invite strangers (or those I have met through this blog but that for geographic or whatever reason were not invited to the party) to share as well. So, email them to robertegblack@hotmail.com , and I will compile them and share on Day 365. My daughter, Saer, 11 1/2, immediately wanted to write something, and then the thing she was typing got rather lengthy, so I told her I would share it as its own thing. Saer, just now, as she was typing: "I can't believe you do this on a daily basis." Anyway, here is what she wrote: Being the daughter of the person who started “The Groundhog Day Project” I have seen the movie way too many times. I will admit, though, this is one of my favorite movies. I just don’t think I’...

Rita’s a robot. Let’s just get that one out of the way. She’s also the kind of person who will use poetry to insult a man, which is a) annoying and b) awesome. She is also a liar. Case in point: she is not easily amazed… she claims. But: You know, just saying. Today’s reason to repeat a day forever: to be amazed by even the smallest thing.

My daughter--who just called her self "the queen of romance"--wants me to write today about how Phil and Rita have no chemistry. That one is difficult. The problem with Rita and Phil is not necessarily one of chemistry. Afterall, Justin Harlan comments at Cinapse that "Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell show great on-screen chemistry" and David Glushakow at Examiner , says they "have a nice onscreen chemistry that make[s] this comedy even more enjoyable" and James Berardinelli at Real Views says, "While the chemistry between them isn't smouldering, they work well together. Their characters' romance is credible because it's low key." The problem is not chemistry. Jennifer Wood at Complex provides some rules for onscreen chemistry. One of her DOs: "Cast actors with real chemistry." The Turner Classic Movies entry for Groundhog Day , written by Eleanor Quin, tells us that crew members on the film recall Murray's and MacD...

Despite the title of today’s entry, I will not be listing off the many faults of Rita Hanson, who says that line just before the end of the film. Instead, I use that line because it was the last correction I just made in a 3 hour plus process of fixing the transcript I have of the movie. See, I got the transcript online and use it occasionally to find lines to use as titles, but far too often there are mistakes. Prior to today, I’d reformatted the transcript that existed—if you click on that link above, you’ll see how it’s organized (I get the feeling the “transcript” was actually just pulled off the subtitle file, hence it being broken up as it is)—and corrected some lines. But, tonight I set out to fix the whole thing. (Now, I can print a copy and mark each line I’ve used for titles and mark off new ones as I go so I can be sure not to repeat myself.) At first, I thought it wouldn’t take too much longer than simply watching the movie. But, 20 minutes into the process I was only...

Not much to say tonight. Instead, a few images as I start sorting screencaps… Actually, first, a bit of an addendum to my discussion of Time Freak two entries ago : Here’s a few shots of Stillman’s timeline diagrams… Think back on my discussion of another short film, Tango and the complexity in planning that out. And, relate that to Phil’s final day in the time loop… Here’s what I listed for that day before: his report from Gobbler’s Knob (after presumably picking up pastries and coffee again for Rita and Larry) spending some time at the Tip Top Café (remember, it’s Doris who gets him up on stage for the bachelor auction) buying a whole bunch of insurance—“whole life, term, uniflex, fire, theft, auto, dental, health with the optional death and dismemberment plan, water damage”—from Ned a piano lesson with Mary fanning the flames of Debbie’s passion for Fred finding Wrestlemania tickets somewhere in town fixing Felix’s back saving the kid (Zacchaeus) falling out of the...