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?

13 June 2004

Movie Log

This week's movie log actually covers more than a week because of some recent traveling.

5-16 This So-Called Disaster (Almereyda)
5-17 What Time is it There? (Tsai) [DVD]
5-18 The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Passolini) [DVD]
5-16/20 The Office, Series One [DVD]
5-28 Distant (Ceylan)
6-04 Word Wars (Chaikin/Petrillo)
6-07 Twentieth Century (Hawks)
6-08 Melting (Andersen short)
6-08 Olivia's Place (Andersen short)
6-08 — —— (Andersen short)
6-08 Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (Andersen)
6-09 Persona (Bergman) [DVD]
6-10 The Element of Crime (von Trier) [DVD] [half]
6-11 Saved! (Dannelly)
6-13 Los Angeles Plays Itself (Andersen)

Here are the rules, since it's been a while: all viewings are theatrical screenings unless otherwise indicated, and I don't report DVD viewings of movies I've seen before (e.g. a third of Rushmore while eating lunch).

Posted by davis | Link

Reader Comments

June 14, 2004, 04:35 PM

Doug

Wow, where did you find "Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer"?

June 15, 2004, 02:34 AM

davis

Thom Andersen was in Berkeley for a week showing his stuff at the PFA, not only the Muybridge doc but also Los Angeles Plays Itself, Red Hollywood (which I regret missing), and a bunch of shorts. Really cool.

I think I remember you mentioning that you wanted to catch Los Angeles Plays Itself, but have you had a chance to see it, yet? I thought it was outstanding, somewhere on a continuum between Scorsese's My Voyage to Italy and Sans Soleil, a personal and opinionated look at Los Angeles via movies, and vice-versa. I'd be interested in hearing the thoughts of a certain Southern California cinephile.

June 15, 2004, 02:03 PM

Ray

How was saved?

June 15, 2004, 02:51 PM

Doug

Somewhere on a continuum between Scorsese's "My Voyage to Italy" and "Sans Soleil"??? Say no more! :)

Yes, it has only gotten some fly-by-night screenings here and I haven't caught up with it yet. The Eadweard Muybridge film made Rosenbaum's alternate 100 American films list.

June 16, 2004, 09:57 PM

davis

Sorry for the delayed response, Ray.

I thought Saved was a missed opportunity. It seems like a pretty inaccurate satire (the worst kind?) and as a result its bite is pretty soft. It's kind of like those Christopher Guest comedies that are just making fun of goofy people who don't really exist, except less fun because in this case the topic is ripe for the picking. This movie thinks (preaches) that we should replace stupid Christianity with stupid movie cliches. Way to rock the system, guys!

It has its moments, and I chuckled through most of it, but it follows a pretty basic formula. The snobby girl who everyone hates gets it in the end. Oops, I forgot to say "spoiler." Luckily there's an outsider who looks on with amusement and occasionally wrecks havoc.

Actually, there are two outsiders plus one undecided, a trio that includes Macaulay Culkin, version 2.0. He was really enjoyable. I'm sure if someone had predicted that one day Mac would be a chain-smoking paraplegic atheist attending a Christian high school or a cross-dressing drug addict, we'd all have said, "Yeah, but no one will be filming it." How wrong we'd have been.

June 16, 2004, 10:01 PM

davis

Doug, I just noticed that the Muybridge doc was on Rosenbaum's list on the day of the screening. I guess it hadn't fully registered any of the other times I've looked over the list... I wasn't familiar with it.

It's a really interesting story that's presented in a very thought provoking way. I'm not going to write anything about the film on this site.

(This is a new tactic that I'm trying out. Usually when I say I am going to write something, well, dot dot dot.)

June 16, 2004, 10:11 PM

davis

Mushroom mushroom.

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