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Are you happy or sad this post-election day? The country sure is divided, no?
Alas, we don't talk politics on this blog. For that, you need to go elsewhere.
On this date ninety-nine years ago, one of the 20th century's greatest writers was born: Albert Camus (1913-1960). He grew up in Algeria, but came to France in the late 1930s. He held deep interests in philosophy and revolutionary ideas. Camus joined the French Resistance during WWII and worked as a political journalist during the war. He became even more active in theater and fiction; he had already written essays and novels at that point, but he started gaining more and more recognition - thanks to his work in the theater - after the war.
What we most remember Camus for today is the existentialism. Hopelessness, dissatisfaction, loneliness, isolation. The Stranger (1942) is, of course, his most famous novel - about a man involved in a senseless murder on an Algerian beach. Camus claimed he wasn't so much an existentialist as he was an absurdist, which is similar to existentialism and nihilism, but slightly different in that existentialists believe that the existence of the individual is above and more important than anything else, whereas absurdists believe that personal meaning and existence isn't that important at all. Camus' essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" has been credited as one of the first works of art that is absurdist without necessarily being existentialist.
Other important novels from Camus are The Plague (1947), set in a small North African town, and 1956's The Fall, about an amoral Parisian lawyer. In 1957, he became the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature (only Rudyard Kipling was younger); two years later, he died in an automobile accident.
Information courtesy of: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1957/camus-bio.html
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Well, we're a week into the new month and I haven't added any selection to my list of the 200 Essential American Films:
Here are this month's selections:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004; Michel Gondry)
A terrific cast meets an ambitious director full of visual ideas meets a brilliant design team meets a one-of-kind screenwriter. Doesn't get much better and or more creative than this for a romantic drama.
Groundhog Day (1993; Harold Ramis)
One of the slyest comedies ever, with a brilliant Bill Murray. Repetition (i.e. modern existence) as hell. And yet, oddly, a movie you can watch over and over and over again.
In a Lonely Place (1950; Nicholas Ray)
A blistering, sad, noir-ish mystery (taken from the Dorothy B. Hughes novel) about an alcoholic screenwriter (Humphrey Bogart) who might have committed a murder and the neighbor across the way (Gloria Grahame) who might have seen him to do it - and might love him anyway. Drenched in the glorious fatalism of the great Nichols Ray.
King Kong (1933; Merian C. Cooper)
Peter Jackson's remake was good, but it's got nothing on the grandaddy of them all.
Mulholland Drive (2001; David Lynch)
The mind-rape of all time. I've seen it three or four times and am still utterly hypnotized and baffled by it. Naomi Watts is absolutely incredible as the bright-eyed actress new to L.A. - God help her!
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988; David Zucker)
One of the funniest movies I've ever seen. "I have to get up early tomorrow - it's Arbor Day."
Shadow of a Doubt (1943; Alfred Hitchcock)
Hitchcock's thoughts on suburbia - right here, folks. Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright are memorable as a woman-killer (literally) and the niece who suspects him.
The Sweet Smell of Success (1957; Alexander Mackendrick)
Tough, tough, tough. Burt Lancaster is an unprincipled, everything's-for-sale newspaper columnist who starts messing, tragically, with the life of press agent Tony Curtis. Relevant and brilliantly performed.
Touch of Evil (1958; Orson Welles)
Visual razzle-dazzle, Orson Welles' last major, fully-inhabited performance, great lines...
Vertigo (1958; Alfred Hitchcock)
Hitch's deepest, most profound film, Jimmy Stewart's greatest work, but it just might bore you. Patience, people!
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The Raven (2012) isn't as bad as critics say it is; I had a mildly good time with it. It's one of those serial-killer movies that doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you scrutinize it too closely, but it's got a decent plot and central performance by John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe, whose last days are left scrambling around Baltimore, trying to outwit a serial killer who is using the works of Poe as his inspiration; Cusack is strident and pushy here, but at least he's entertaining. (**1/2)
Which reminds me... It's about time John Cusack made an appearance on my list of the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time, right?
John Cusack
as Rob Gordon in High Fidelity (2000)
In this effervescent, spot-on, very appealing and smart adaptation of the London-set Nick Hornby novel, Cusack is at his charismatic, puppy-eyed, fast-talking best as a Chicago record store owner with an annoying staff of two (Jack Black and Todd Louiso), a list of reasons why his love life hasn't worked out, a stunning vinyl collection, and a new love who might just be the one for him. Cusack makes neuroses lovable and catching; he's a guy we all know and love. Great body language too.
Images courtesy of:
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/files/2012/01/Albert-Camus.jpg
http://www.impassionedcinema.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/600full-eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind-screenshot.jpg
http://www.jaxhistory.com/kingkong.jpg
http://bplusmovieblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/the-naked-gun-14.png
http://opionator.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/john-cusack-being-the-tortured-artist.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2bEoxg2pHtQ/UBLQtR2Z3lI/AAAAAAAAASo/EivD7GOygzc/s1600/HighFidelityJohnCusack.jpg
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