Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings: June 2024

A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Thursday, June 27, 2024

State and Main (David Mamet, 2000)

Cast: William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alec Baldwin, Rebecca Pidgeon, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Paymer, Clark Gregg, Julia Stiles, Charles Durning, Patti LuPone. Screenplay: David Mamet. Cinematography: Oliver Stapleton. Production design: Gemma Jackson. Film editing: Barbara Tulliver. Music: Theodore Shapiro.

Monday, June 24, 2024

Port of Call (Ingmar Bergman, 1948)

Cast: Nine-Christine Jonsson, Bengt Eklund, Mimi Nelson, Berta Hall, Brigitta Valberg, Sif Ruud, Britta Billstein, Harry Ahlin, Nils Hallberg, Sven-Eric Gamble, Yngve Nordwall, Nils Dahlgren. Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman, Olle Länsberg. Cinematography: Gunnar Fischer. Production design: Nils Svenwall. Film editing: Oscar Rosander. Music: Erland von Koch.

Sunday, June 23, 2024

Flaming Ears (Ursula Puerrer, A. Hans Scheirl, Dietmar Schipek, 1992)

Cast: Susana Helmayr, Ursula Puerrer, A. Hans Scheirl, Margarete Neumann, Gabriele Szekatsch, Anthony Escott, Luise Kubelka, Diemar Schipek. Screenplay: Ursula Puerrer, Dietmar Schipek. Cinematography: Margarete Neumann, Manfred Neuwirth. Film editing: A. Hans Scheirl. Music: Dietmar Schipek.

Saturday, June 22, 2024

Days (Tsai Ming-liang, 2020)

Cast: Kang-Sheng Lee, Anong Houngheuangsy. Screenplay: Tsai Ming-liang. Cinematography: Jhong Yuan Chang. Film editing: Jhong Yuan Chang.

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Can't Hardly Wait (Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan, 1998)

Cast: Ethan Embry, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Seth Green, Lauren Ambrose, Charlie Korsmo, Peter Facinelli, Michelle Brookhurst, Alexander Martin, Erik Palladino, Channon Roe, Sean Patrick Thomas, Freddy Rodríguez, Joel Michaely, Jay Paulson, Donald Faison, Jaime Pressly, Vicellous Shannon, Jason Segel, Clea DuVall, Leslie Grossman, Eric Balfour, Selma Blair, Amber Benson, Jenna Elfman, Melissa Joan Hart, Breckin Meyer, Jerry O'Connell. Screenplay: Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan. Cinematography: Lloyd Ahern II. Production design: Marcia Hinds, Adam Short. Film editing: Michael Jablow. Music: David Kitay.

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Hardcore (Paul Schrader, 1979)

Cast: George C. Scott, Peter Boyle, Season Hubley, Dick Sargent, Leonard Gaines, Dave Nichols, Gary Graham, Larry Block, Mark Alaimo, Leslie Ackerman, Charlotte McGinnis, Ilah Davis. Screenplay: Paul Schrader. Cinematography: Michael Chapman. Production design: Paul Sylbert. Film editing: Tom Rolf. Music: Jack Nitzsche.