The St. Eliot & Co. Top 10 of 2011
by Adam Hirsch
Yeah, we know. We’re late with the list again. But 2011 had a remarkable run in cinema, and this year’s list truly runs through nearly the entire spectrum.
Something to keep in mind: none of the individual lists are the same. Films listed as number one by some people weren’t even seen by others. But, indeed, this is part of the film going experience and part of why the list is formulated as it has been. This is a snapshot, a look inside what different people are interested in, and what they thought of what they have viewed.
Below you’ll find the official Company list, followed by all the individual lists, and the scoring and explanation of how the list was created. (more…)
Passing the Wintertime
by Giampaolo Bianconi
We’re in the middle of a blizzard here in Boston, so I thought I’d share some tips for those who need a hand getting through it.
1) The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume I – Probably the best Christmas gift anyone could get this year, unless you needed a kidney or something. Twain stipulated that his autobiography only be published 100 years after his death. Lucky for us, we live to see the day. At over 700 pages, volume I is endless amusement to help you weather the storm.
2) Casino – Martin Scorsese is the only person who can make a casino look and feel like a cathedral. Strange (or maybe not so strange) that a film about the desert gets you through a snow storm. Special bonus: anyone who dresses as DeNiro or Pesci from this movie for Halloween 2011 will get something special from me.
3) Hollis Frampton on Ubuweb — Okay, I have to come clean. This is where I’ve been for the past however many months. I’m writing a senior thesis about Frampton, and before I was able to get my hands on the bulk of his films, I was leaning on Ubuweb like Walter Brennan on a wall. Do yourself a favor and watch Gloria!. If you don’t shed a tear you’d better get back on the yellow brick road.
4) A Winter Romance — Dean Martin’s 1959 Christmas album is good enough to listen to for a few days after Jesus’ Birthday has passed. In fact, I’ll probably have it spinning well into the new year. Put it on, listen to “Baby, it’s Cold Outside.” It doesn’t get any better.
5) Woodford Reserve – Whatever you’re doing, have some of this. You can replace the ice with a little clump of fresh snow from outside. And yeah, you can have another. Even a few others. The later you wake up tomorrow the later you have to shovel snow. Either that or you could wind up doing some serious playing in the snow.
Under The Boardwalk Empire
by Matt Paley
My good friend and frequent collaborator Adam Goldman called me last night seeking editing help. His Final Cut Pro wasn’t working and he couldn’t make head or tail of iMovie (a program which has become utterly unintelligible in the last few years). Rather than stumble around iMovie with him, I offered to edit his brainchild myself.
I’m glad I did. It took all of 30 seconds and provided a needed dose of creative therapy.
If you’re like Adam and myself, you’ve been patiently slogging though the first episodes of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, hoping that the show will suddenly hit its stride (and that the writing will miraculously improve) and live up to its obvious potential. But while I sat on my couch lamenting that Mad Men was nearing its Season 4 finale, Adam (ever proactive) developed a plan to improve HBO’s lackluster creation himself.
Without further ado, I offer you Adam’s alternate (obviously improved) title sequence for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire.
Check out Adam’s current blog, dear stupid blog, for more curiosities.
A Short History of 20th Century Paranoia
by Giampaolo Bianconi
Shutter Island, dir. Martin Scorsese (2010)
As Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo approach Shutter Island by ferry, what strikes us is the sky: it goes on forever in a way that anyone from Boston knows is impossible, and the artificiality of the colors and the actors makes it clear that this isn’t Changeling or Schindler’s List. This is the past of film, not a film of the past, and it’s clear that Scorsese is taking his cues from Samuel Fuller’s camp experiments as much as Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological obsessions, tossed with a dose of Hiroshima Mon Amour. (more…)