Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,
I'm off tonight, so I am writing from home, hence the later start time. I hope you had a nice St. Patrick's Day. Did you wear any green, or all black? :) I wore black and grey myself. I don't think I have any green clothes, lol, but anyhow, that is a great photo that you posted of The Giant's Causeway. Those rock columns look like huge posts that have been pounded into the ocean floor. I hope you get to go back soon. I would love to go someday myself. :):)
No hikes today or yesterday, though I did take Pearl & Kobi to Lake Balboa yesterday and we had fun feeding the birds (and the Kobester) once again.
Last night at CSUN we saw a film called "Husbands" (1970) by John Cassavetes. Okay, SB......I have described the Cassavetes style to you. His films are chaotic and emotional, shot often in close up. Everyone talks, and talks, and talks some more, and always very loudly. When they are not doing that, they are laughing hysterically. I described "Faces" as being "In Your Face".
Well, "Husbands" is "Faces" on steroids. Without going on a tirade about it, even though I should, I will present you with what I thought about it today, the day after. Thinking back to last night, I thought it was fairly excruciating to sit through. There is a single scene, of the protagonists (three men who are lifelong buddies) getting drunk in a bar. They begin to act very boorishly, over the top obnoxious, and this one scene goes on for over 30 minutes. I mean, I can't even describe the viewing experience to you. Watching this movie is like getting decked, like Cassavetes is trying to knock you out cold.
It is overlong, almost 2 1/2 hours. But I thought, "you know....as hard as that movie was to sit through, it really stays with you the next day. It affects you. It's not a bad movie, in fact, it's probably a very good movie that could have been great if he had trimmed it down to, say, an hour and forty five minutes. Even then it would have been excruciating because of the characters, but it could have been a masterpiece like "Faces".
And that's what is weird about my reaction to "Husbands", and to Cassavetes style of filmmaking in general : "Husbands" is maybe the first film I have ever seen that I did not particularly "enjoy" watching, but that nevertheless left a lasting and positive impression on me. It's a film I will never forget, in a good way.
So how weird is that? Most people wouldn't last through 30 minutes of "Husbands", because it is so loud and obnoxious, and because people simply aren't used to seeing a film that looks like a drunken abomination. But there is this weird effect with the John Cassavetes' movies, where, if you do watch them all the way through, even though they can be extremely difficult, they are ultimately rewarding - they hit you like a ton of bricks later on, and the next day you go : "Man......that was one hell of a movie".
Tonight I saw a wholly different kind of film, with a standard structure and storyline : "Hell Or High Water", which I thought was excellent all the way through. It's not an art film, but a modern day Western about two brothers who are bank robbers. They have an ulterior motive, however, and a fairly righteous one at that, which causes you to root for them. Jeff Bridges is the Texas Ranger who, along with his American Indian partner, is hunting them down. There are a lot of social issues explored in the script, and it just shows once again what you can do in a little over 90 minutes with top-notch writing. These are characters you care about, and you are hooked into the story. The flat plains of Texas look both dreary and intimidating. I have always loved movies about Texas and Texas culture because it fascinates me, though I would not want to live there. It's like it's own country with it's own rules, and it's own kind of people. This movie exemplifies those things, and it is directed, acted, shot and edited at the highest level of skill. A big thumbs up from me.
Anyhow, that was really all the news since yesterday. I will be off till Sunday morning, so I'll see you in the morning, right back here at the pad. :)
I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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