the groundhog day project

Today begins with a nitpick of Benesh (2011) but it won't be all about her work. In her section about "Lines and Spheres," Benesh refers to "the striped clothing most often worn by Phil Connors." And, I don't think he wears his striped shirt more often than any other. In fact, I think he wears the blue shirt more often. But, hey, I watch the movie every day. I can check. So, here goes: Day 0 - obviously, the outfits for the first day would be different than the rest of the film, though Rita's and Larry's aren't that different... no, let's be more systematic about this. Day 0: Phil - black 3-piece suit, striped shirt, diagonal grid tie, puts on scarf and coat. Rita - black pants, blue coat, white blouse, light blue vest? sweater?, scarf. Larry - blue jeans, green station jacket over blue grey hoodie, red polo shirt over what looks to be a white t-shirt. Day 1: Phil - grey suit, blue shirt, olive and blue leaf tie, plus scarf and coat an...

I found it amusing, reading Benesh (2011), that she only watched the (entire) film 8 times over the course of 2 months (p. 65). In describing how she collected images and symbols within the film, she also suggests that "even after multiple viewings, it is impossible to list every image and object and less so to analyze such" (ibid). If nothing else, the purpose of The Groundhog Day Project is to prove that statement false. For example, Benesh does list the snowman, though she deals with it in terms of the color white and spheres--I've already suggested that "snowmen and snowballs" are "perfectly reasonable objects to have in a story set in midwinter." Same for the color white. The color blue, in which Benesh also sees significance-- obviously I think there's something going on there. But, with white? I don't think so. As for the snowman (or snowmen, really, since we see two of them... sort of), I think there's a better line of symbolism...

In my recent paper "From Charioteer Myth to Shoulder Angel: A Look at our Divided Soul" (2013) I detailed the connection between Plato's charioteer myth from Phaedrus and the modern phenomenon of the shoulder angel and shoulder devil--you know the thing: While I mentioned the early 90s television series Herman's Head , the ensemble cast of which included Ken Hudson Campbell, a.k.a. Man in Hallway, a.k.a. Chubby Man, in the paper, it was the one of my three papers I wrote in the fall that didn't include Groundhog Day . Today, while reading the rest of Benesh's (2011) dissertation, one of the notions I scribbled down--this one not related to anything in Benesh's piece--was about Phil's shoulder devil and shoulder angel... or rather his lack of the same. This is what I wrote down--along the right edge of my copy of the tournament schedule if you must know: Phil has no shoulder devil, only a shoulder angel. Why? Because the film is about dealing with...

You might think that after this many days of watching Groundhog Day every day--today is Day 162--I would dream about the movie every night and live and breathe it every day. But, I don't. In fact, before last night (or, technically, this morning) I hadn't had a dream that involved the movie. I do think about the movie outside of blog time. I think I've mentioned that before. I read articles and essays and screenplays, and recently a play, a couple books--those things weren't all read during the movie or as I wrote blog entries. Well, some may have been. There have been times that I've written a blog and done the research for it at the same time. Like a 1 hour 41 minute long research project. But, I already detailed a bit of what goes on behind the scenes. The point is I've got plenty of other stuff on my mind beside Groundhog Day . And, until this morning, Groundhog Day had not invaded my sleep. I can't say the dream was particularly exciting, unfortu...

The description for the book Think Thin, Be Thin: 101 Psychological Ways to Lose Weight on Amazon has this to say about its advice: Old standards like keeping a food diary and finding simple ways to burn calories (like gardening or taking the stairs at work) are mixed with creative ideas like becoming your own advice columnist for a day and watching specific comedy movies that also offer encouragement for change (think Groundhog's Day ). Aside from getting the title of the film wrong, it's a nice positive reference to Groundhog Day . But, Groundhog Day is not just a nice encouraging film for folks trying to lose weight. It's also occasionally a metaphor for the way people struggle with weight loss. For example, Certified Personal Trainer John Kent mentions the film in an interview with PanacheVue' . He says: The combination of the habit-based nutrition coaching and our science based exercise program, is our recipe for your long-term success. This way your weight...

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.....

To begin today, I nitpick: Benesh (2011) summarizes Groundhog Day in chapter one of her dissertation. And, in making a link between the film--or rather, all film--and our active imaginations, she mentions the phrase "no consequences." She calls it "a phrase that Phil Connors... uses at one point to describe his unique situation" (p. 8). She's wrong. That's Gus' line, not Phil's. But, I don't really intend to nitpick Benesh today (it just fits my character to do so). In fact, I rather like her first chapter. I like the approach she takes to connecting film and dreaming. I particularly appreciate a line she quotes from Beebe (2008): ...in addition to wanting to be entertained, the mass audience is in constant pursuit, as if on a religious quest, of the transformative film. (p.20) Thus a film can be a metaphor that teaches us something about how to live, not in a prescriptive way, but in an evocative one, by allowing us to vicariously expe...