#Julian Murch

[loisfreakinglane]

Harold Perrineau and Regina Hall in THE BEST MAN: THE FINAL CHAPTERS || 1.05 “The Party” Bonus:

[byneddiedingo]

Gene Hackman in The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)

Cast: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams, Michael Higgins, Elizabeth MacRae, Teri Garr, Harrison Ford. Screenplay: Francis Ford Coppola. Cinematography: Bill Butler. Production design: Dean Tavoularis. Film editing: Richard Chew. Music: David Shire.

The technology used in it may have dated, but The Conversation seems more relevant than ever. When it was made, the film was very much of the moment: the Watergate moment, which was long before email and cell phones. Julian Assange was only 3 years old. What has kept Coppola's film alive is that he had the good sense to make it a thriller about the consequences of knowledge. The real victim of Harry Caul's snooping is Harry Caul himself, the professional whose delight in what he can do with his microphones and tape recorders begins to fade when he realizes that technology is not an end in itself. It is one of the great Gene Hackman performances from a career crowded with great and varied performances. Ironically, the film that The Conversation most reminds me of today is The Lives of Others, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's 2006 film about eavesdropping by the Stasi in East Germany, which was praised by conservatives like John Podhoretz and William F. Buckley and called one of "the best conservative movies of the last 25 years" by the National Review for its account of surveillance by a communist regime. But Harry Caul is a devout Roman Catholic and an entrepreneur, making his living with the same technology and the same techniques as the Stasi spy of Donnersmarck's film -- capitalism alive and well. The film is something of a technological marvel itself: The great sound designer and editor Walter Murch was responsible for completing it after Coppola was called away to work on The Godfather, Part II, and the texture of the film depends heavily on the way Murch was able to manipulate the complexities of sound that form the key scenes, especially the opening sequence in which Caul is conducting his surveillance of a couple in San Francisco's crowded and busy Union Square. It's true that Murch cheats a little at the ending, when the line, "He'd kill us if he got the chance," is repeated. Caul had extracted it from a distorted recording, and took it to mean that the couple (Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest) were in danger from the man who commissioned the surveillance. But at the end, the line is heard again as "He'd kill us if he got the chance," an emphasis that reveals to Caul, too late, that they are the killers, not the victims. It's unfortunate that so much depends on the discrepancy between the way we originally hear the line and the later delivery of it. Still, I don't think it's a fatal flaw in a vital and gripping movie.

[tfsroleplay]

Julian steps off the train, looking around as he takes in Inkopolis Plaza. It’s a lot more… shiny, than Splatsville. Tinier too. He's used to the bit of trash on the ground (that he and Lil Buddy have definitely NOT occasionally tried to eat... look, Lil Buddy likes digging through the trash to find leftover food, Julian just likes munching on things that aren't food to feel the textures...) and not the cleanliness of this city...

But hey, there was a reason Splatsville was called the city of chaos and Inkopolis wasn't. Lil Buddy sat in his designated spot in Julian's backpack, since there was a Grizzco building here as well...

"...Very clean and shiny... Different from Splatsville..."

Lil Buddy says something to him, Julian immediately making a face.

"No, no going to talk to people... Don't know anyone besides 1 and 2..."

He looks around, trying to familiarize himself with the city. He debates on heading to the back alley to talk to the urchin back there, he's talked with Murch a couple times but never for anything serious. Though, before he can, head over, he glances up at the Great Zapfish hanging out around Inkopolis Tower, eyes widening slightly.

He remembers seeing the Tower lit up by fireworks in the sky, the Great Zapfish smiling down at everyone in the hub. There's a few Inkfish surrounding him, he's holding a taller girl's hand and she's saying something to him and smiling, are they celebrating something? The New Year, maybe? Or a possible Splatfest? He's not sure...

Before he can remember more, he hears Lil Buddy calling out to him, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Ah—"

Lil Buddy is sitting on his shoulder now, just staring at him. He may have been staring a bit too long and just being silent... He gently moves the Small Fry back to his spot in the backpack, shaking his head.

"...mmm..."

[hatingwithfears]

List of books read in 2019

Another year is almost over, and here’s the list of all the books I read. 119 books. 31,512 pages.

David Adam- The Man Who Couldn’t Stop: OCD and The True Story of a Life Lost in Thought

Kurt Anderson- Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire

Julian Barnes- The Only Story

Rob Bell- What Is The Bible?

Roberto Bolano- The Spirit of Science Fiction

Charles Brandt- I Heard You Paint Houses

William S Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg- Don’t Hide The Madness

Ernest Callenbach- Ecotopia

Stephen Chbosky- Imaginary Friend

Leonard Cohen- The Favorite Game

Phil Collins- Not Dead Yet

Francis Ford Coppola- Live Cinema and It’s Techniques

JM Coetzee- The Schooldays of Jesus

His Holiness The Dalai Lama- An Appeal To The World

Stephanie Danler- Sweetbitter

Michelle Dean- Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion

Anthony DeCurtis- Lou Reed: A Life

Lean Dieterich- Vanishing Twins: A Marriage

Nick Drnaso- Sabrina

Bret Easton Ellis- White

Dave Eggers- The Parade

Bart D Ehrman- The Triumph of Christianity

Nathan Englander- Kaddish.com

Mark Epstein- Psychotherapy Without The Self: A Buddhist Perspective

Mark Fainaru-Wada, Steve Fainaru- League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions, and the Battle for the Truth

Laurence Ferlinghetti- Little Boy

Pope Francis- The Name of God is Mercy

Pope Francis- Our Father

Mary Gordon- On Thomas Merton

Andrew Grant Jackson- 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music

Allen Ginsberg- Journals: Early Fifties Early Sixties

Laurence Grobel- Al Pacino in Conversation with Laurence Grobel

John Green- Turtles All The Way Down

Edward L. Greenstein- Job: A New Translation

Rita M Gross- Buddhism Beyond Gender

Thich Nhat Hanh- Living Buddha, Living Christ

Joy Harjo- An American Sunrise

Jason Heller- Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded

Don Hertzfeldt- The End of The World

Nathan Hill- The Nix

John Hodgman- Medallion Status

Jessica Hopper- Night Moves

Elton John- Me

Han Kang- Human Acts

Han Kang- The White Book

Chuck Klosterman- Raised in Captivity

Karl Ove Knausgaard- So Much Longing in so Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch

Herman Koch- The Ditch

David Koepp- Cold Storage

Robert Kolker- A Cinema of Loneliness

Ann Lamott- Stitches

Ann Lamott- Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy

Ursula K. Le Guin- So Far So Good: Final Poems 2014-2018

Mark Leibovich- Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times

Jill Lepore- The Secret History Of Wonder Woman

Jill Lepore- These Truths: A History of The United States

Jill Lepore- This America: The Case For The Nation

Greil Marcus- The Manchurian Candidate

Anthony McCarten- The Pope

Gretchen McCulloch- Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules Of Language

Thomas Merton- The Seven Storey Mountain

Thomas Merton- Life and Holiness

Thomas Merton- Dialogues with Silence: Prayers and Drawings

Stephen Mitchell- Joseph and The Way Of Forgiveness

Sarah Moss- Ghost Wall

Flannery O’Connor- A Prayer Journal

Mary Oliver- Devotions

Robert Olmstead- Far Bright Star

Michael Ondaatje- The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

Elaine Pagels- The Gnostic Gospels

Elaine Pagels, Karen L King- Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and The Shaping of Christianity

Elaine Pagels- Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelation

Elaine Pagels- Why Religion?: A Personal Story

Maria Popova- Figuring

J.R. Porter- The Lost Bible: Forgotten Scriptures Revealed

Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman- Good Omens

Casey Rae- William S. Burroughs and The Cult Of Rock N Roll

Brian Raftery- Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew up The Big Screen

Robert Reich- The Common Good

Jerry Roberts- The Complete History Of Film Criticism

Richard Rohr- The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation

Bill Romanowski- Romo: My Life on The Edge

George Saunders- Fox 8

Peter Schjeldahl- Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light,: 100 Art Writings 1988-2018

Shea Serrano- Movies (and Other Things)

William H. Shannon- Thomas Merton: An Introduction

David Shields- The Thing about Life is that One Day You’ll be Dead

David Shields- Nobody Hates Trump more than Trump: An Intervention

David Shields- The Trouble With Men: Reflections on Sex, Love, Marriage, Porn, and Power

David Small- Home After Dark

Charles Simic- The Lunatic

Charles Simic- Scribbled in the Dark

Danez Smith- Don’t Call Us Dead

Patti Smith- Auguries of Innocence

Patti Smith- Year of The Monkey

Rebecca Solnit- Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities

Rebecca Solnit- The Mother of All Questions

Rebecca Solnit- Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays)

Jill Soloway- She Wants It: Desire, Power, and Toppling The Patriarchy

Nic Stone- Dear Martin

Donna Tart- The Goldfinch

Tegan and Sara- High School

David Thomson- Sleeping With Strangers

Chogyam Trungpa- The Path of Individual Liberation

Jeff Tweedy- Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back)

Loudon Wainwright III- Liner Notes

Ossian Ward- Look Again: How to Experience the Old Masters

John Williams- Stoner

Damon Young- What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker

Ed. Marcus Borg- Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Saying

Ed. Peter Catapano, Simon Critchley- Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments

Ed. Jonathan Weinberg- Art After Stonewall

[rickyjdiaz]

#TheBestManHoliday review

The film brings old friends back together for the Christmas period, once there they realise that they have to drop all their emotional baggage with each other, when they realise that one of them is dying.

The film starts with a brief recap from the last film, and showing what they characters have been up to in the time between the two films. It’s a nice thing, especially for those who haven’t seen the previous film.

The film is essentially four successful men, and their women, and them all running into trouble at the same time – as well as the events of the previous films not being resolved.

The problems are quite broad, from having to write a book, to the past job of one of their wives, to cancer, to being a commitment phobe.

The woman who is dying is able to bring all of them back together, and heal the rift that is there between everyone.

Its an ok movie, but nothing great. 

[byneddiedingo]

Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient (Anthony Minghella, 1996)

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, Colin Firth, Julian Wadham, Jürgen Prochnow, Kevin Whately, Clive Merrison, NIno Castelnuovo. Screenplay: Anthony Minghella, based on a novel by Michael Ondaatje. Cinematography: John Seale. Production design: Stuart Craig. Film editing: Walter Murch. Music: Gabriel Yared. 

The "prestige motion picture" is a familiar genre: It's typically a movie derived from a distinguished literary source or a biopic about a distinguished historic figure, with a cast full of major actors, but designed not so much to advance the art of film as to attract critical raves and awards -- particularly Oscars. There are plenty of examples among the best-picture Oscar winners: A Man for All Seasons (Fred Zinnemann, 1966), Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, 1981), Gandhi (Richard Attenborough, 1982), Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984), Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, 1985), and The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987). (The 1980s seemed to be particularly dominated by prestige-seekers.) The trouble is that once the initial attraction of these films has faded, few people seem to remember them fondly or want to watch them again. I'd rather watch The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) today than sit through A Man for All Seasons, and I would say the same for Atlantic City (Louis Malle, 1981), Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982), Starman (John Carpenter, 1984), Prizzi's Honor (John Huston, 1985), and Moonstruck (Norman Jewison, 1987) when put in competition with the prestige best-picture winners of their respective years. So I watched The English Patient last night to test my theory that prestige movies don't hold up over time. It fits the category precisely: It's based on a Booker Prize-winning novel by Michael Ondaatje; it has a distinguished cast, three of whom were nominated for acting Oscars, including Juliette Binoche, who won; it earned raves from The New Yorker, the New York Times, and Roger Ebert; it raked in 12 Oscar nominations and won nine of them -- picture, supporting actress, director Anthony Minghella, cinematographer John Seale, art direction, costumes, sound, film editor Walter Murch (who also shared in the Oscar for sound), and composer Gabriel Yared. And sure enough, there are films from 1996 that I'd rather watch again than The English Patient, including  Fargo (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen), Lone Star (John Sayles), and Trainspotting (Danny Boyle). But I also have to say that of all the "prestige" best picture winners, The English Patient makes the best case for the genre. It's a good movie, with a mostly well-crafted screenplay by Minghella from a book many thought unfilmable, though it still tries to carry over too much from the novel, such as the character of David Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), whose function in the film, to provoke Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) into uncovering his story, could have been served equally well by Hana (Binoche). But the performances still seem fresh and committed. Binoche, though designated a supporting actress, carries the film by turning Hana into a kind of central consciousness. I was surprised at how much heat is generated by Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas as Katharine, considering that they are both usually rather icy performers. There are some beautifully staged scenes, like the one in which Kip (Naveen Andrews) "flies" Hana so she can view the frescoes high in a church. And Murch's sound editing gives the film a marvelous sonic texture, starting with the mysterious clinking sounds at the film's beginning, which are then revealed to be the bottles carried by an Arab vendor of potions. Murch's ear and Seale's eye make the film an enduring audiovisual treat.