The Sheila Variations

I love that you have stuff like Rambo II and Jackass: The Movie sandwhiched in between foreign films and Robert Altman movies.

hahahaha I know - I tried to mix it up a bit - but with the Rambos, I knew I just had to see them all together. Of course I've seen them before, but you know. I need to see them AGAIN.

You know what? I haven't joined Netflix as of now either, because I know myself well enough to recgonize things that can become dangerous in my hands. If I get Netflix, you will never see me again. I will emerge from my apartment, which will resemble a cave more than a human dwelling space, with black circles under my glassy eyes forty years from now just babbling nonsense to myself like "Truffaut...mashed potatoes!!"

Some more netflix dorkiness for ya..

You know they have a feature that allows you to 'friend' other members right, so you can see their queue?

I am, of course, delighted that you have the Wild Bunch on your list. And I hope that The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is the restored version...

Have fun!!!!

Dan - how will I know if I have the right Good, Bad, ugly?? My copy doesn't say anything about it being the restored version! I see another "making of" disc where apparently they discuss the restoration of this film ... should I just assume that the one I have is the right one?

Emily - I was afraid about the Netflix thing - so I started out with a simple plan, where I can only have 2 discs at a time. So hopefully that will keep me on track, and not TOO buried in movies. There are other options - more expensive - you know, you can have unlimited movies out, or you can have 5 or 6 at a time - but that starts to feel overwhelming to me, just thinking about it.

This way - I have 2 out at a time. Hopefully it will be a good flow.

Great - Obsession Central just got a meth lab hooked up in the basement. We'll never see you again!

But I can only have 2 at a time, Nightfly. Like I sent my first two back on Friday, I think - and I should get my next 2 tomorrow. That's fine timing. It'll come out to about 4 or 5 movies a week and that's already what I watch ... so it shouldn't be too different. The only difference is the quality of movies I can now get my hands on. I can see every Ingmar Bergman if I want to - in order - because the stupid local video stores rarely have any of his stuff. Or I can track down the final episode of MASH - which I remember vividly to this day - and the last time I saw it was when it aired, whenever that was. Amazing - I can't wait to see it again!!

If you don't fall in love with Marie-Antoinette after seeing Sophia Copola's film, I will have to send you to a re-education camp.

: )

RTG - ha!! You know, I read that Antonia Fraser book about her over my Christmas vacation and literally could not put it down. Have you read it?? If it wouldn't have been totally rude to read at the table, I probably would have read at the table. Marvelous - really tragic, too.

I'm excited to see the movie. It looks gorgeous - just in terms of the art direction - like a big frothy overblown piece of cake - exquisitely made, and decorated. I'm psyched.

Sheila,
Plus, it sounds a lot easier than roaming around Best Buy before finally asking one of the blue shirts "um, excuse me, you all wouldn't happen to have a copy of La Chambre Verte floating in between those 180000000 copies of the latest releases, would you?"

RTG, how was that movie? The descriptions of it - using modern music, etc. - made it sound dreadful. Sheila, let me know what you thought when you see it if you remember. I'm kind of curious.

Emily - exactly!! It's nice to be able to order a selection of movies that I haven't seen in years, that are considered classics - harrowing classics some of them (like Persona - I can't wait to see that one) - and to be able to find what I want.

Some stuff hasn't been released on DVD yet - but you can even put your name down to be notified when it IS released.

Like Panic in Needle Park - I have this strange desire to see that movie again - and it won't be released until April 2007 on DVD - but at least it's in my queue - so once it DOES come out, it'll be sent to me.

It's moron-proof, the whole system. And I'm a huge moron when it comes to returning movies on time, etc. etc. Hopefully this will be good for me!!

Emily - yeah, I will post about it. I have a soft spot for Kirsten Dunst (and Sofia Coppola, actually) so I'm kind of rooting for it, to be honest.

Sheila,
Me too! I didn't even like Lost in Translation that much (I'm sure you and some of your readers want to shoot me for this), but I'm totally impressed by Sofia Coppola dusting herself off and finding success as a director. Good for her.

Yeah, one of the reasons I just buy surplus copies of movies instead of renting them from the video store is because I'm a COMPLETE retard about returning movies - and the Hollywood Video's right across the street. I mean, come on. How stupid can one person be? But when I rent movies, I swear, by the time I get the bloody thing back I'll have bought it anyway with all the late fees. Twice.

Looks like Netflix has the restored version, but I couldn't tell for sure.

I may have asked you this once, but does Professor McGonagle know you're using an unauthorized Time-Turner?

Kidding aside, we're using Netflix these days. Pretty handy. I don't have as much time to watch movies as I would like, but I'm waiting for Equilibrium to show up.

I have the 3-at-a-time option, and right now, waiting on a free minute, are Bloody Sunday, Open Season, and the 2nd half of the first series of Extras.

Rock on, eclect me!

hahaha I know ... I keep making New Year's resolutions: I will return movies on time ...

and I just can't keep that promise. It's ridiculous!!

Oh, and I know a lot of people who weren't wacky about lost in Translation for various reasons - or really preferred the Virgin Suicides, in terms of direction. Like if they had to choose between her two movies, they'd pick Virgin Suicides. But I loved Lost in Translation - in one of those subjective 'this movie speaks directly to me' ways that rarely happens. I'm not even sure what it is that was touched there - or why it just GOT to me. Stranger Than Fiction had the same effect on me. I watched it - feeling like it was made directly for me. So I'm completely not distanced at all from Lost in Translation - I can't separate myself from it - if that makes any sense.

Lisa - Last night, before heading out to our Oscar party - Allison and I watched the last 2 episodes of the most recent season of Extras. The one with Ian McKellan was HILARIOUS. You've seen it right??

"You are aware, Peter, that I am not actually ... a wizard."

God, I love that show.

I blogged that clip!

"I simply pretend to be the person I am portraying. The words? They're written down for me! How do I know where to stand? Someone tells me!"

Brilliant.

haha... you know what? I started Netflix recently to watch battlestar galactica and farscape, but it turned out that one cool side benefit was that I could WATCH many of the plays you blogged about in your book-a-day that turned out to be made into movies, things that I probably won't ever get to see live productions of... like Picnic and Same Time Next Year.

great list. we own several of those.

don't forget to add The Goonies.

Goonies!!!! ha - Man, I love that movie.

I'm pretty sure Netflix offers the restored version, just going by the wiki entry and the running times. The restored version has 18 minutes of extra footage.

Emily,

I loved it. The 80's soundtrack totally worked. It made me ache for weeks after I saw it. I've sense become obsessed with Marie Antoinette (it's not as severe as my Plath obsession, but nothing is.) I've gorged myself on Marie-Antoinette books, and the movie was the spark. Please see it - please. You won't regret it.

I never thought I would write this next line but: Kirsten Dunst was magnificent. She has a few moments where she 'slips' and becomes a modern girl, but it wasn't obnoxious - it sort of fit with the modern music and stuff. It was great. Seriously.

I'm so old I saw Good, Bad, and Ugly when it opened. Eye close-ups of Lee Van Cleef, Clint, and Eli Wallach while the Ennio Morricone blows you away. Fabulous.

RTG,
I will definitely check it out.

The Lady Eve! I love that movie! I get all swoony over Henry Fonda just thinking about it. I first saw it on Turner Classic Movies my freshman year in college, late Saturday night as I was frantically trying to get my Easter dress hemmed for church the next day. Hmm, I should put that on my Amazon wishlist, so I remember that I want to own it. But you know what's no longer on my wishlist, because I got it for Christmas? The complete Thin Man boxed set. I am so excited about those!

Harriet - I'm so glad to hear that you loved Lady Eve!! I'm psyched to see Henry Fonda in the bumbling shy geek role (like Cary Grant) ... I usually don't think of him in a romantic context, so this should be very interesting. And Barbara Stanwyck is just yummy.

I started out on Netflix and switched over to Blockbuster's online service a while back. There wasn't anything wrong with Netflix at all - it's actually better than Blockbuster in most respects. It's just that Blockbuster throws in some extra free in-store rentals and that made it a better deal for me.

My queue has been neglected lately. Garbo and Lang are good ideas, think I'll add Grand Hotel and Metropolis...

Harriet, I am intensely jealous of your Thin Man set.

I never expected to actually get it, so I was pretty shocked when I unwrapped that present. I spent the rest of Christmas break watching them with my parents. And they have extras on the dvds, too--short films and cartoons from the same time period, so lots of exciting bonuses.

Ken - about your time-turner comment ... help? I know not what you refer to?? I have eaten the insane ruht that keeps my reason prisoner. Anyway, no idea what you're talking about. Is it a time-stamp issue???

I'm not going to be able to resist much longer. I don't think I've seen any of them on DVD - only VHS and broadcast...

I'm so old I saw Good, Bad, and Ugly when it opened. Eye close-ups of Lee Van Cleef, Clint, and Eli Wallach while the Ennio Morricone blows you away. Fabulous.

I own the soundtrack. The "liner notes" for the disc, in their entirety, are those three closeups.

whhhi-I-i-I-ooooooo..... mwa mwa mwaaahhhh....

A Time-Turner is how Hermione Granger was able to take about two years' worth of classes in one year (Prisoner of Azkaban). I don't know how else you manage everything you do, unless it involves enough caffeine that you can also vibrate at a frequency that enables you to pass through solid matter.

I have a quirky mini-OCD thing where I approach things backwards. I'm not sure from whence it came, and I've confirmed, via consulation with a specialist in OCD, that it's not "officially" something that I should attempt to control, since it's not debilitating. But I notice that it does manifest itself in my Netflix viewing.

Essentially, I focus my attention on what's at the end of the queue, and ignore what's at the beginning. So, whenever I get an impulse to browse/search, I'll go to Netflix and make selections. Yeah, that's one thing that makes Netflix so much FUN!. You're watching TV/reading a book, whatever, and you get the idea to make a search on something or someone. And it's as close as your computer, and as soon as you see the options, you can click on "add" (or "save"), and it's in the queue.

And then you have to make the decision about how to order the queue, especially as it increases in length (I'm usually hovering around 200). If you realize you want to see something asap, you reorder the queue accordingly.

Well, my quirk makes it so that I go to the end of the queue, and periodically reorder things. I'll take the last 10, and make them #s 1, 4, 6, 10, and so on. Reorder, and then maybe do it again. But I NEVER look at the beginning of the queue!!! Well, very, very rarely. Because, for me, the fun is in opening the red envelope, and being totally surprised. "Gee, I must have put that in the queue three months ago, because I sure as heck can't remember it."

Granted, it does make for some things that I realize, upon receipt, that I wasn't all that enthusiastic about. But it's a lot of fun this way, not knowing exactly what's arriving next.

I also read magazines backwards.

Ironically, my father-in-law bought me 4 of the movies on your list for Christmas...

*meekly comes forward*

i am still not on netflix.

...AND i have a friend who has sworn by it since before it was popular. who has peer-pressured me about it many times.

beth - wow. Awesome. I seriously thought I was the only one left!

Tempe - I totally relate to your OCD-ness. I like how your system means that you are constantly surprised - it's like you're giving mini-gifts to yourself. That's pretty cool.

I'm still holding off on Netflix, too. Then again I was one of the last people to get a DVD player, and that was only b/c my then-boyfriend gave me one 3 Christmases ago.
I have too much work for grad school to watch DVD's right now, anyway. But I do have a written list somewhere, along with the Vatican top 100 list I got when I was in film class at SJU in the late '90s. Sheila, your list is fantastic.

I'm holding off on this one too, because I'm still smarting from that whole 8-track debacle.

I took a risk on CD's, and even ended up with a DVD player because it came inside the CD player, but Netflix? Maybe somebody else will let me watch with them...

CW!! Hi! How you?

hahaha with the "8 track debacle" - there's an entire generation of us who got burned with that one.

Heh. My dad actually had an eight-track recorder, used to make mix tapes for us and for friends. We had some awesome stuff, driving to Florida and back in 'seventy and two.

So this list will last you until what? April? :)