Comments for Dr. Film’s Blog

Comment on “The History Not Found in Books” by drfilm

drfilm — Sat, 04 May 2013 17:51:35 +0000

You’re most welcome, Suzanne.

Comment on “The History Not Found in Books” by Suzanne Stanis

Suzanne Stanis — Sat, 04 May 2013 16:11:53 +0000

Thanks for mentioning the Henry Glassie lecture in your blog and for supporting Indiana Landmarks! Althought I’m not sure if it will tie as nicely to film, I think Nancy Hiller’s talk this Thursday will be equally inspiring.

Comment on Happy Birthday, Lon Chaney! London After Midnight Found at Last! by L. F. Chaney

L. F. Chaney — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 07:41:08 +0000

Everyone knows that Big Foot has the last remaining copy of “London After Midnight.” Good luck prying those reels from a yeti’s hands!

Comment on A First Time For Everything by Vanessa Morgan

Vanessa Morgan — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:37:57 +0000

Congratulations on being a guest. Loved Night Of The Hunter.

Comment on A First Time For Everything by Glory-June Greiff

Glory-June Greiff — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:27:48 +0000

I’ve seen “Night of the Hunter” only once, and it gave me nightmares! The nightmares have faded, but not the memory of the shimmering, dreamlike photography. Gorgeous.

Comment on To Free or Not to Free? That is the Question by Glory-June Greiff

Glory-June Greiff — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:40:04 +0000

Much,much food for thought here, indeed. Wish the path to an answer was not so devious!

Comment on 2001: A Sideways Odyssey by Bruce Lawton

Bruce Lawton — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:58:23 +0000

Two other recent, remarkable films came to mind as I read this excellent assessment.

The first is MOON (2009) starring Sam Rockwell and directed by Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie). This film clearly owes much to Kubrick’s classic and some obvious references and inspirations. However, MOON is quite a unique piece of sci-fi as I’ve ever seen, with adroit storytelling, a superb performance by Rockwell and almost entirely organic, non-CGI effects that truly make you feel as if you’re watching documentary footage in space, which evokes profound feelings of isolation and loneliness.

And love or hate Terrence Malick’s THE TREE OF LIFE (2011) one certainly cannot fault maestro Douglas Trumbull’s mesmerizing work on the film. Malick brought him on board because of his dislike of the look of CGI, upon which Trumbull responded, “Why not do it the way we did it on 2001?” Why not indeed! What a visual feast!

Comment on 2001: A Sideways Odyssey by drfilm

drfilm — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:25:09 +0000

This is a path well-trodden in books.

Comment on 2001: A Sideways Odyssey by Glory-June Greiff

Glory-June Greiff — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:01:44 +0000

Michael, that’s an interesting perspective. Certainly Hal is whining, despite the monotone.
I like this blog for its historic perspective. Could be the core for a much larger article or even a book.

Comment on 2001: A Sideways Odyssey by Mike Gebert

Mike Gebert — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:52:44 +0000

Although 2001 is such a non-verbal experience, if you’re able to look at it analytically it’s remarkably efficient in making its points (at least till the trip). Every shot in the dawn of man sequence establishes a fact about what we’re seeing– the apes are no better than tapirs at feeding themselves, the apes are vulnerable to predators, they spar but cannot fight with their fellows, then the monolith appears… it’s so neatly laid out, yet people still insist it’s just self-indulgent visual wow. Kubrick was an efficient B movie maker at heart… then. (But even later, The Shining is pretty much as precise at setting the terms of its tale and putting the chess pieces in place.)

I’d love to see a clip of Hal with Martin Balsam’s voice. I’m convinced that the dialogues with Hal are basically inspired by Nichols and May’s routines, but using someone so New York Jewish made the passive-aggressive neurotic humor too obvious. Douglas Rain took the deadpan comedy down to absolute zero, which works brilliantly.