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...

New thing: watch whatever movie I like, maybe just once maybe for days on end, and on the 2nd of every month (i.e. today), watch Groundhog Day again. (It's on now, even though I watched it last night. Phil forbid I'd watch it two days in a row.) I did watch another movie today-- Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation --but I have very little to say about that movie. Basically, if you want to see it, you should enjoy it. It's got the usual Mission: Impossible tropes: spy action, heist action, way-too-realistic face masks, nifty gadgets, Tom Cruise doing his own stunts, a scene or two of Tom Cruise running really fast, a good long sequence of Tom Cruise on a motorcycle and complicated post-Cold War intrigue (with no real link to the whole Russia-US thing; that's just a simple way to describe the nefarious NGO spy organizations like the decommissioned IMF and the Syndicate going at it like Antonio Prohias is behind it all). The Guardian calls it "rigorously formul...

Remember that time recently when I was talking about obsessing about things? You know, this entry . Well, I’m just getting to the big car chase in today’s viewing and I have yet to write anything because I was trying to finally solve a few location puzzles. Notably, I’m revisiting my attempts to find this location : Bob Hudgins said something about them filming the chase “between Country Club and 120” over in McHenry. Unfortunately, that area is a lot of residential blocks which even if I’ve found the location, would not look at all the same. So, I look for that “pillar” on the left side of the road in that photo. I have not found it… yet. An easier location was this one: The quarry was a specific location—Nimtx Quarry—in Love’s Park, so there were not a lot of streets to work with. Work backward and shrink the images… …and you’ll notice the hill next to the road. Since 1992 when this was, filmed, imagine they have reshaped and repaved the road, removed all the trees and now...

Woke well before six, local time. The prognostication was scheduled for 7:07 AM. Drove into town and made my way to Starbucks to a) caffeinate (Phil couldn't get an espresso in Punxsutawney but I could get a shot of espresso in my Chai) and b) use some wifi before the square started crowding with people. Learned that Punxsutawney Phil had seen his shadow already (different time zones and all). Out in the square, as the crowd gathered, I found a nice spot near the war memorial (the big square column seen fairly well in the snowball fight scene (more on that scene later)). A song sheet was passed around--it will be scanned and shared later this week. Notably, before it was time for Woodstock Willie to emerge (as Danny Rubin would say, while basically reciting the same spiel as from the movie, "particularly reluctantly"--the New York Times reporter, Mike, told me that when they tried to get the groundhog out the first time, it made a screeching sound, but I couldn't ...

There will be very few words in today’s entry. And yet, this entry took over 4 hours of work. I have, previously used Google Maps to identify a few locations in Groundhog Day . Today, I took that further, identifying a whole lot of exterior locations from the film, to a) be more thorough than before and b) prepare for my trip to Woodstock a week from today. They’ve got a walking tour of filming sites on both Saturday (the 1st) and Sunday (the 2nd) but I want to know more locations than they will probably show. (I will admit that I got a little help from Chas Demster’s Filming Locations of Chicago and Los Angeles blog . But, I did not get help from Julie Boggie , who might have photographed the right tree from which Zacchaeus fell but she got the photo from a bad angle to be sure. And, she did not show where the previous shot with Phil checking his watch then running was filmed. I think it was up the street (she puts the tree—and she went on the walking tour—on Madison between Mar...

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...

Our score so far: (If you're just joining us, today's entry is part two of Phil as Christ-figure, using the 25 "structural elements of the cinematic Christ-figure" from Anton Karl Kozlovic's "How to Create a Hollywood Christ-Figure: Sacred Storytelling as Applied Theology," Australian eJournal of Theology 13:1 (2009).) 1: "tangible, visible and colourful characters" - check 2: "central protagonists" - check 3: "typically outsiders" - check 4: "arrive [by] outside intervention" - check 5: "have alter egos" - not really 6: "very special, rare and unusual beings" - check 7: "have... twelve intimate friends-cum-associates" - check, though I may have to list these again to make the 12 clear: Ned Buster Buster's Wife Ralph Gus Doris Debbie Fred Chubby Man Old Lady #1 Old Lady #2 Old Lady #3 There are changes from yesterday; notably I removed Felix (and his wife) to include Ralph ...