FILM IN FILM
Remember Bubble Boy? I delight in movie references within a movie and in Bubble Boy I enjoyed finding The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and The Graduate. If any browser out there found other allusions, I would appreciate hearing from you. I watched this film for the first time as a result of an Entertainment Weekly retrospective list of Jake Gyllenhaal milestones. On the basis of Bubble Boy I would not have predicted his career as a leading man with an Academy Award nomination, but he is effective here in a difficult role. I am surprised by Leonard Maltin’s low rating for this comedy which is filled with film fun.
If Cleveland is reachable for you, I hope you are going every Wednesday through June 20 at 6:45 P.M. to the Cleveland Museum of Art where John Ewing is presenting Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film: an Odyssey, based on Cousins’ own book on the history of our art Personal highlights and pleasures for me thus far from this generously-clipped series:
– the best look I’ve ever had at portions of Edwin S. Porter’s Life of an Amerian Fireman (1903)
– clip from a beautifully restored Falling Leaves (Alice Guy, 1912)
– recognition of Buster Keaton as THE greatest of the film clowns
– emphasis on Carl Th. Dreyer’s Passion of Joan of Arc (1927)
– good coverage of King Vidor’s The Crowd (1927). If you are not familiar with this film, get familiar.
– intelligent coverage of The Third Man
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
I apologize for being a day late with this post. NEXT POST May 21.
Coming soon to the screen nearest you, discussion of Abel Gance’s four and a half hour La Roue (1922-1924)/.
Bubble Boy The Story of Film: an Odyssey
Blair Hayes Mark Cousins
2001 2011
See you at the movies,
Rick
