Surely you weren't planning to post the words "Pippi Longstocking TV Series" and NOT comment on them?

Man, I wanted to make it to the Akerman but the Castro is so hard to get to. I hope you can make it to a screening of Lubitsch's TO BE OR NOT TO BE, that's a very hard print to find.

I've mentioned being a fan of the old Pippi movies in the past, but I haven't gone back to revisit them. I'm a little worried because, you know, those memories are precious. But my friend Heather quotes liberally from Pippi and even knows her full name... and it's been making me curious about those old movies.

I read somewhere that the first one was actually assembled from a TV show, and that TV show, or at least 6 episodes of it, are available on DVD, and I figured that might be a good way to stick my toe back into the land of Pippi.

It's a real hoot. I've seen 4 of the 6 so far. The DVD is pretty crummy, with a new English dubbing that detracts from the original sound effects, but it's probably pretty similar to what I saw as a kid. Pippi is just like I remembered. She doesn't take any guff from anybody, and she does have an aura of loneliness, despite her playfulness. Hanging from a chandelier can only get you so far.

I love how she tells her friends to look in the old tree stump because sometimes there's stuff in there, and when they do they find two perfect gifts. Did Pippi plant them there? She won't say. My favorite thing is that she can't always remember where she put her giant bag of gold coins. She's filthy rich, you know, but it's not a big deal to her.

What an oddly complex character.

I'll write about the Akerman movie. I think she's great.

I did miss the Lubitsch screening in SF, but it's showing again in Berkeley, so I hope to catch it there. We'll see.

I see from your screening log that you recently saw Nostalghia. I love that film. Did you see it at the PFA? I was thinking catching that screening, but it didn't work out.

I did indeed see Nostalghia (for the first time) at the PFA last week. We got warnings beforehand that the print was not up to their usual standard but that it was the only English subtitled print in the US, but after the first reel it wasn't so bad.

The film was quite amazing; I had recently seen Andrei Rublev again on film and was (illogically) expecting something akin to his earlier work which I adore but often find tedious to sit through, but was delighted to find it closer to Stalker which is my favorite of his. Nostalghia was quite breathtaking, and I'm glad such a large crowd was drawn out on a Thursday night to see a Tarkovsky. It is a shame you missed it, but then again the print wasn't all that spectacular.

So how was "Playtime"? Seeing it in 70mm was one of the high points of my theatrical screenings this year...

I thought so too. What had been a slightly tedious experience at home on dvd was a rapturous one in the theatre.

One of Chantal Akerman's preoccupations seems to be the idea that sense of place is both a physical and an existential one, and especially in films like Night and Day and even A Couch in New York, it becomes a metaphor for displaced identities. Anyway, when I read the two cent description of Tomorrow We Move, I got the impression that this was along the same lines. Definitely looking forward to this one.

Yeah, Playtime was great. I would like to have seen it with a larger audience, but I had to squeeze it in as a matinee. Still, I love how playful it is, giving you a choice of where to look in that big screen.

I happened to see the movie the same week as a movie that really got on my nerves, The Hunting of the President. I hoped it would be fascinating, but instead it was trying to be lively in the most childish, jarring ways. Quick, artless editing, distracting graphics, etc.

Anyway, it struck me how effortless Playtime seems in contrast. It's a real trick to fill the screen with simultaneous events, even cacophany, but end up with something as smooth as a symphony. Tati knows how his elements harmonize with each other and how they harmonize with our expectations of what's supposed to happen -- sometimes satisfying those expectations and sometimes confounding them. Really cool.

Acquarello, you're absolutely right. All of Akerman's usual preoccupations are in place, so to speak. I really enjoyed it. It's almost delirious in its reflections on place as it relates to identity. I also kept thinking of something you had alluded to in the past (if I recall), the theme of "who speaks for the woman." The relationships between men and women, between family members, and between a writer and her world are all there.

I'm still hoping to write a bit more about it. I hope you can see it soon -- I think you'll enjoy it.

Rob - I just scored the original pippi longstocking beta tapes I used to watch as a kid. they're almost 20 years old! the problem is - they're on BETA! not VHS. :( I have 4 movies - pippi longstocking, pippi on the run, pippi in the south seas and pippi goes on board. I didn't know there was a tv series. I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying them. If I can find a way to transfer my beta tapes to DVD or VHS, I'll send you a copy.

oh also, I totally love how pippi is always losing her bag of gold coins and also how she washes her floor (with scrub brushes as ice skates) and also how she has the spunk to put herself in a barrel and float down the river and how she plays don't touch the floor. If I could be anyone - I would be Pippi. It is lonely though.

Heather, I would love to see those. Good luck tracking down some Beta equipment. I've seen two of the movies, and I *think* they were the first one and Pippi on the South Seas. Lorraine saw one of them, and although she isn't sure which, many of the scenes she describes sound familiar to me (walking on the walls, dad returning). South Seas, I think.

Another part of the TV series that I like is when Pippi passes a cosmetics store with an ad outside that says, "Do you suffer from freckles." She makes a face, marches into the store, and says, "No." And the woman beind the counter says, "Can I help you," and Pippi says, "No, you can't, because I don't suffer from freckles. I quite like them." :-)