February 2002

His Girl Friday

by James McNally on February 26, 2002

in DVD

Tonight we watched His Girl Friday (1940), another “Cary Grant tries to win back his ex-wife” story. Except in this one, he’s a news­paper editor, his ex-wife (Rosalind Russell) is his star reporter, and it takes place at about one thou­sand miles per hour.

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Packed Weekend

by James McNally on February 25, 2002

in DVD

The weekend was packed, as usual. Highlights include:

  • seeing the National Ballet of Canada on Saturday after­noon. It was a mixed pro­gramme, but I was there to see Monotones I & II, cho­reo­graphed by Frederick Ashton. The music was Erik Satie’s Prélude d’Eginhard and Trois Gnossiennes for the first part, and Trois Gymnopédies(which you will hear in the film The Royal Tenenbaums, though it’s not on the soundtrack) for the second. Satie was at least fifty years ahead of his time, writing spare, beau­tiful music that would be right at home in films. Combined with the min­im­al­istic cos­tumes and set dec­or­a­tion, the piece would have been right at home in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Mesmerizingly beautiful.
  • watching, on Saturday night with our little film group, The Philadelphia Story (1940), with Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and James Stewart. Razor-sharp and filled with intel­li­gent laughs. Why can’t they make films like this anymore?

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Ghost World

by James McNally on February 22, 2002

in Awards,DVD,Oscars

This evening, I finally got around to watching Ghost World, the DVD of which my wife bought me more than a week ago. We hadn’t seen it in the theatre, but I knew I wouldn’t be dis­ap­pointed. As a fan of the comic book, I thought it was trans­lated to the screen quite faith­fully, and I thought Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi’s per­form­ances were won­derful. I’m crossing my fin­gers that it wins the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

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Waking Life Snubbed

by James McNally on February 13, 2002

in Awards,Oscars

I agree with Roger Ebert, who says Richard Linklater’s Waking Life was unfairly over­looked in the Best Animated Feature cat­egory in this year’s Oscar nom­in­a­tions. His theory is that Hollywood and its huge CGI industry didn’t like an indie film director’s use of off-the-shelf Macintosh com­puters and home-brewed anim­a­tion soft­ware to chal­lenge their supremacy.

What do you think of this year’s nom­in­a­tions overall?

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Golden Globe Winner

by James McNally on February 12, 2002

in Awards,Golden Globes

In honour of Gene Hackman, I’m off to see The Royal Tenenbaums again tonight!

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