State Theater: July 2012

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

State Theater

I used the "modern" spelling of Theater, rather than "Theatre" only because State Theatre was taken, as a blog address. How in the world was State Theater not taken? Sometimes just the availability of an address pushes me into action. Anyway, it's not a "French thing," if that's what you're thinking. The State Theatre in Sandusky, Ohio was possibly the most important place to me growing up. So this is a fitting address for me to write about movies. Or it might be just another sad hangout for the Ghost Town.

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Welcome to the State Theater

State Theater is a journal of writing about various movies that I have remembered, seen recently, watched again, reconsidered. In some cases, movies that I am obsessed with. In some cases, movies that have let me down. In some cases, movies that I have rediscovered. In some cases, movies that cannot be currently located.

I am also working on various lists, such as my 2012 list of my 100 Favorite Movies of All Time.

The old State Theatre, in Sandusky, Ohio, was one of the most important places to me while growing up.

Air France

100 Favorite Movies of All Time: Introduction

In 2012 I made this "100 favorite movies" list just for myself just to see what I'd come up with, but it kind of became obsessive and more work than I'd imagined, so I thought I'd share it here, just for fun, but also so a reader might see where I'm coming from. So here's a few disclaimers and rules I made for myself.

I decided not to include movies I worked on or made by anyone I remotely know. Also, these are generally "feature" length films, both dramatic and documentary. I made the decision to exclude the silent film era, just because, to me, the difference between sound and silent films is so profound, it seems like an entirely different discussion. I love a lot of the silent films I've seen, but have also seen too few. Anyway, excluding them altogether just seemed to simplify things.

The 1930s is often considered the greatest decade for of the cinema, and I know I've often felt in agreement with that, but making this list I realized I had excluded that decade completely, and I'm not sure why. Maybe because my list is more about "favorites," it seems to be weighted toward the contemporary. Also, I have tended to try to not go too heavily with one director and spread the wealth around a little, even though I do have my favorites!

Most of all, this is a very personal, "favorite" movies list, and not what feel should be considered the "greatest" or "most important" films—there are plenty of those lists out there, and sometimes they just make me tired. This list could almost be considered "guilty pleasures," though there is nothing guilty about it. The order, too, of course is something that could easily change from day to day, as would the list itself, but for now (as of 2012) I have picked this one, these films, put them in order, and I am living with it for awhile. Hopefully it's interesting, maddening, laughable, and fun.

#63 - THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES

The first film I ever saw by Abbas Kiarostami, Through the Olive Trees (1994) affected me in a subtle and unexpected way and still has a mythical place in my mind. Its use of low-key, mundane action and dialogue, and vast landscapes, ultimately has a hypnotic quality. Part of the unofficial “Koker Trilogy” - if you watch it in conjunction with Where Is the Friend’s House (1987) and Life, and Nothing More… (1992) - it has an even greater impact because of the ways the three films fit together with shifting, alternate points of view.

#68 - SALAAM CINEMA

#71 - SHAMPOO

#73 - LA CIENAGA

#75 - DO THE RIGHT THING

On paper it sounds like a drag, but Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989)—about the tragic death of a young man, at the hands of the police, which leads to a riot, told over the hottest day of summer in Brooklyn—is equal parts sadness and joy when you actually watch it. That's because love ultimately overcomes hate, and the love is that of Spike Lee, for his characters, the art of filmmaking, and people in general. If all difficult questions were approached this way, we (people) might get somewhere.