One of the many pleasures of rewatching movies are that you discover somethng new every time. And I don’t mean just what’s on screen. Repeated exposure to what you thought was a familiar narrative will reveal things you hadn’t noticed before, or, when you’ve seen it enough times, make you concentrate on aspects, whether technical, narrative or otherwise, that you were initially too engaged in the story arc to ponder deeply. (For an example of this, see my examination of how my almost compulsive rewatching of David Fincher’s The Social Network changed and expanded my experience of the movie.)
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Tag Archives: Life
My Mood Piece on ‘Titanic’
28 Apr“We were supposed to be heroes”
15 MarA special thanks to Bryan, who has helped shape and sharpen my views on this movie.
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Initially, the plan was to write something on Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me on the occasion of its 25th anniversary last year. It’s nothing new that posts on this blog take a long time to materialize, but in the case of Stand By Me, it became increasingly hard to find the right words for it as the year progressed. I used the months between March and June to watch it something like six or seven times, and in the process I fell so unconditionally in love with it that I felt like I needed some time and distance from it in order to write about it. During that cooling off period, things happened that made me try to avoid any movie that might make me feel sad or nostalgic. As I shall explain later, Stand By Me does both. So, here we are, way into the movie’s 26th year, and maybe it is finally time to give the movie its due. (This essay contains major spoilers.) (more…)
July 22, Six Months On
22 JanI’ve been trying to write this for months now, and wanting to do so for even longer. But today – the sixth-month-anniversary of the horrific acts of July 22 – seemed like the right time. We all have our individual stories of what we did that dark day – and since I was not there but lost a great friend that day – my experiences pale in comparison to do those of survivors and relative of the people who were so brutally torn away from us. And still, the grief is always there, for ever and no matter our experiences. So what do say on a day like today? (more…)
Never Forget
25 DecI approach the end of 2011 with mixed feelings: On the one hand, I can’t wait for it to be over. It’s been a terrible year. I lost one of my best friends in the terror attacks in Oslo this July, and several of my friends are what the media now calls “survivors”. Even for someone like me, who didn’t experience the terror, only the loss and grief that came with it, these last five months have been tough to get through. Late in the year, I also had some health problems that tore my already shaky psychol0gical defenses down further. On the other hand, I’m almost afraid to let go of 2011. (more…)
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