Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

21 May 2004

This Week in SF

I'll be out of town all this week, but here are a few movie ideas for anyone who will be in the Bay Area (and a few DVD ideas for everyone else):

Monty Python's Life of Brian — The Bridge will be showing a revival of Life of Brian in a new 35mm print starting Friday. Who knew that Mel Gibson would time the release of his movie so close to the 25th anniversary of the Python flick? Savvy. (By the way, John Cleese has a new website.)

The Trilogy — Lucas Belvaux has made three movies in three different genres with the same characters, and he's releasing them at the same time under the rather vague name The Trilogy. The first, On the Run, shows at the Castro Friday through Wednesday, then the second, An Amazing Couple runs for three days. Doug Cummings at filmjourney.org enjoyed On the Run and I'm disappointed to miss it.

The Weather Underground — The Red Vic will be showing this Academy Award-nominated documentary about the Weathermen, a group of activist-bombers in the 60s and 70s. I've managed to miss this doc approximately 100 times over the last couple of years. Check it out and report back. (It's on DVD, too.)

Rear Window — For folks on the peninsula, the Stanford Theatre will be showing Hitchcock's Rear Window on Saturday and Sunday. I know it makes pretty frequent appearances at the Bay Area rep houses, but this all-time-favorite is always hard for me to pass up.

DVD Release: The Son — My favorite movie of last year, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's The Son, comes out on DVD on Tuesday. I'd like to find time to update my review — it doesn't do the movie justice. The Dardenne's camera is a fly on the wall, and by looking over the shoulder of a guy who teaches woodworking to troubled boys, it watches a story unfold at a very gradual pace then ends abruptly just when you realize what kind of difficult decisions its characters have made. I loved watching it, loved observing, and my admiration grew as I thought about it more. I've been looking forward to seeing it again.

Posted by davis | Link

Reader Comments

May 22, 2004, 06:19 AM

Darren

Most people who were born in 1972 would say that they are film buffs because of Star Wars. I'm a film buff because my parents were the first folks on the block to have a VCR, which they constantly fed with Hitchcock films. I saw Rear Window when I was, like, eight, and I'm a better man for it. There's nothing better than sitting in a theater and watching Grace Kelley's face fall into that first close-up.

May 25, 2004, 07:49 AM

davis

Hey Darren. Sorry for the delayed response.

That's really cool. I'd have to say that Star Wars was one of the things that kicked off my buffery (I was born in 1970), and maybe Superman, but somewhere along the line those got intermingled with Chaplin and a film series I attended each summer that had a lot of oddball movies for kids, some of which were foreign although we didn't know it.

Rear Window is one of those movies that has so much going on that it continues to unfold for me, year after year. It not only works great as a thriller, but the editing techniques (Stewart's face juxtaposed with various images seems to define his thought processes) and the themes of voyeurism -- using his flash bulb as a weapon to fend off the killer, the unmotivated curtains raising and lowering at the beginning and end, being able to send a proxy into the scene you've been watching and being powerless to protect her -- just astound me every time I see them.

May 27, 2004, 09:53 AM

heathervescent

Be sure to check out Coffee and Cigarettes by Jim Jarmusch. It's really really really really good! I'm about to go see it a second time and really trying to stop myself from smoking...

May 27, 2004, 01:49 PM

davis

Thanks for the tip, Heather. I've seen it several times, myself! I like it. Jim Jarmusch is one of my favorites, and even though C&C isn't as ambitious as his last couple of movies (because of how it was made), I love all the little rhythms and patterns and his willingness to let the quiet moments linger.

I had the chance to interview Jarmusch at the end of April and it was a real thrill for me (I never get to do that sort of thing). It's written up as a feature for the current issue of Paste magazine. At least I think it's in there; I haven't seen it. I had to leave a lot of stuff out because of nature of the piece and the space requirements, but I'm hoping to post some of those leftover bits here. More on that later.

June 24, 2004, 09:27 PM

larry

Nice piece on Jarmusch in Paste magazine. Short but nice, better than most. I mean, how many interviewers would bring up Don DeLillo?

I really hope you can post the entire interview soon.

June 25, 2004, 09:40 AM

davis

Hey, thanks. That's nice feedback.

With Paste I sort of feel like I'm speaking to a music audience who also happens to have an interest in film (or literature), so the articles and reviews tend to have a lot of background -- like, in this case, who Jarmusch is, what he's done, why he's important. But he's also really knowledgable about world cinema and always has something interesting to say, so writing an article about him is an opportunity to introduce people to new things. He's a gateway drug. ;-)

I'll post the outtakes soon. It's been a busy summer, hence the quietness around here.

July 5, 2004, 11:46 AM

davis

Here are some outtakes.

Other Recent Posts

Other Recent Episodes

Favorite Films