{"id":30660,"date":"2012-03-16T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T19:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=30660"},"modified":"2012-03-16T12:00:33","modified_gmt":"2012-03-16T19:00:33","slug":"the-roundup-march-16-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/testing.the-frame.com\/?p=30660","title":{"rendered":"The Roundup: March 16, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

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T<\/span>his post was mostly ready last week, but life (and hackers) intervened and delayed me. I spruced it up with some links from this week, but I also had to do a lot of skim reading this week and utilize the dreaded “mark as read” function in GReader, so I’m sure I missed some great posts from people I was following. I’m sorry, I’m really trying to do better. The more I do this, the more I get invested in reading people’s blogs – which is great, but time-consuming. In any case, all these links are well worth your time, even if they are a week or two old at this point.<\/p>\n

Featured Links<\/h2>\n

Past\/Not Past: A Tale of Two Cinemas<\/a> by Adam Cook at The Auteur’s Notebook<\/h4>\n

\"\"It’s difficulty to avoid comparing the two 2011 films that owe a great debt to silent cinema (and cleaned up at the Oscars), but they actually take very different approaches. Hugo<\/em> is a film ABOUT silent cinema, but set after the silent era, as two kids become acquainted with one of the first motion picture giants, Georges Méliès, and his films. The Artist<\/em> imitates silent cinema, setting its story in Hollywood in the late 1920s and depicting the transition into sound. I liked both films, but probably enjoyed The Artist<\/em> a little more – that said, Adam Cook makes a REALLY strong case for why Hugo<\/em> is actually much more celebratory of silent cinema than The Artist<\/em>, which subtly undercuts its own nostalgia (probably unintentionally). Really good and thought-provoking piece that made me want to rewatch and re-evaluate both films soon. See also Glenn Kenny discussing Singin’ in the Rain<\/em>‘s attitude toward silent cinema<\/a>, in light of the frequent comparisons between it and The Artist<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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An Introduction to the Flickchart World of Ranking Films<\/a> by Emil at A Swede Talks Movies<\/h4>\n

\"\"The movie-ranking website Flickchart has been around for a while, and yet it still seems to fall under the radar a lot of the time. I know a lot of passionate users (disclaimer: I know the founder and a lot of the contributors and once in a while contribute to the Flickchart blog), but I know just as many people who either haven’t heard of it or just checked it out a couple of years ago when it launched and then forgot about it. But they’ve continued innovating, and as of now, I’d say it’s ones of the most useful movie websites I frequent. Fellow Flickcharter Emil has written up a wonderful introduction to it, and though I intend to do a write-up over at Row Three soon (there are a ton of new features since the last time I wrote about the site), I have to defer to Emil for one of the best posts I’ve seen explaining how the site works and what value it has.<\/p>\n

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John Ford and the Citizen Kane<\/em> Assumption<\/a> by Kristen Thompson at Observations on Film Art<\/h4>\n

\"\"Interestingly enough, I just got finished defending How Green Was My Valley<\/em>‘s Oscar win a week or so ago in my Oscars Rank ‘Em post<\/a>, and here’s Kristen Thompson doing the same thing, only far more eloquently and in greater detail. She suggests, and I think it’s true, that the film is usually denigrated SOLELY because it beat the apparently untouchable Citizen Kane<\/em> out for the Oscar. Not only does she point out how unfair that is, but she goes on to discuss exactly why How Green<\/em> deserved to win the Oscar, and delves a bit into why Citizen Kane<\/em> gets all the praise and study instead. It’s a really great article on a lot of fronts.<\/p>\n

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Gone Too Soon Blogathon<\/a> at Comet Over Hollywood<\/h4>\n

\"\"Comet Over Hollywood hosted a blogathon last weekend devoted to remembering the many classic Hollywood celebrities who passed away far too young. Obvious names like Carole Lombard, Jean Harlow, James Dean, and Marilyn Monroe came up of course, but there are literally dozens of people memoired here, from huge stars to starlets who barely got the chance to make an impression. I haven’t had time to read them all yet, but the ones I have are great. I’d especially point out True Classic’s post on the tragic short adulthood of child star Bobby Driscoll<\/a> and a two-part piece on Thelma Todd, whose death remains mysterious<\/a>, from My Love of Old Hollywood.<\/p>\n

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Travelling Through the Movies<\/a> by Jessica at The Velvet Cafe<\/h4>\n

\"\"All of Jessica’s posts are simply delightful; basically, if you love film and delightful people and you’re NOT following The Velvet Cafe, you’re doing it wrong. I actually had another one of her posts set for up here (the one on Swedish cinema which is now linked below under “more links”), but this one hit one of my favorite things of all time – traveling. And rather than just do a list of films where people take trips, which would still have come up with a good lot of excellent films, Jessica bases her list around films that explore different aspects of traveling. Everything from road trips to journeys of self to being stuck in airports to feeling lost in an unknown country. It’s a great set of films, and a unique way of looking at them.<\/p>\n

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Unforgettable Scenes: It’s Still Not Over<\/a> by Tyler at Southern Vision<\/h4>\n

\"\"I’ve only recently discovered this blog, but I can already tell it’s going to be one of my favorites. Here Tyler takes a scene from Bela Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies<\/em> (which is probably his most accessible film, from what I can gather – it’s the one everyone told me to try when I failed to make it through his 7.5-hour Satantango<\/em>) and describes his love for it with great eloquence. Like him, I’m not entirely sure I could say why I found Werckmeister Harmonies<\/em> magical, but I did, and this scene is definitely the part of it that I found the most memorable.<\/p>\n

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The Woman in the Window<\/a> by the Self-Styled Siren<\/h4>\n

\"\"Almost every time I’ve mentioned Fritz Lang’s The Woman in the Window<\/em> since I saw it last year, I’ve said some combination of “it’s a wonderful little film noir, but the ending is a total cop out.” I’m not alone in thinking that, but the Self-Styled Siren disagrees. She defends the ending as intentional, fitting, and more subversive than it seems on first viewing. I’m not sure I’m totally convinced, but she’s definitely given me second thoughts, and I’ll definitely have her thoughts in the back of my head next time I watch the film.<\/p>\n

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How John Carter<\/em> Succeeds Where the Star Wars<\/em> Prequels Failed<\/a> by Jack Giroux at Film School Rejects<\/h4>\n

\"\"See, see, I’m not only featuring articles about classic films! This one’s only been out, like, ONE WEEK. I haven’t seen it myself, to be honest, though I am curious based on the source novel, Andrew Stanton’s involvement, and the fact that I like big adventure films. But Film School Rejects is going one step farther and acclaiming the film quite highly (most critics are reservedly favorable at best, from what I’ve read). I found this particular article especially interesting, as Giroux runs down what John Carter<\/em> does right that George Lucas did wrong with the prequels – that’s not necessarily a high bar for praise, but it’s a really solid article. See also Neil Miller’s 7 Reasons to Go See John Carter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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More Links!<\/h2>\n