filmprojections: Moses: I got scruples too, you know. You know what that is? Scruples? Addie: No, I don’t know what it is, but if you got ‘em, it’s a sure bet they belong to somebody else! The Bogdanovich trilogy is in the top echelon of movies that have stunned me with their spirit and greatness. I watched them all over the course of one week in 2007, having never seen them. Of all the modernist writer/directors working the 70’s, it was Bogdanovich that stepped BACKWARD into the rich era of Americana he’d been immersed in as a child, and used that iconography (the poignant winsomeness of the Depression era, 1950s rural Texas, and screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby… although I think he claims What’s Up, Doc? has nothing to do with that film… but c’mon, Pete!) to wonderfully illustrate a powerful contemporary, ultimately modernist statement.  The key to those films is their characters’ unsuspecting innocence, set against an innocent backdrop that is rapidly crumbling into a self-aware period of lonesome sadness. The Good Times Have Gone. The sun briefly warms Sam the Lion’s face, and then fades away again. This time for good.  Anyway, I don’t really know what I just said. But I love these movies. If you haven’t seen them, rent them for your iPod Nanos and listen to them set to Pitbull. Just kidding, please don’t do that.

filmprojections:

Moses: I got scruples too, you know. You know what that is? Scruples? 
Addie: No, I don’t know what it is, but if you got ‘em, it’s a sure bet they belong to somebody else!

The Bogdanovich trilogy is in the top echelon of movies that have stunned me with their spirit and greatness. I watched them all over the course of one week in 2007, having never seen them. Of all the modernist writer/directors working the 70’s, it was Bogdanovich that stepped BACKWARD into the rich era of Americana he’d been immersed in as a child, and used that iconography (the poignant winsomeness of the Depression era, 1950s rural Texas, and screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby… although I think he claims What’s Up, Doc? has nothing to do with that film… but c’mon, Pete!) to wonderfully illustrate a powerful contemporary, ultimately modernist statement. 

The key to those films is their characters’ unsuspecting innocence, set against an innocent backdrop that is rapidly crumbling into a self-aware period of lonesome sadness. The Good Times Have Gone. The sun briefly warms Sam the Lion’s face, and then fades away again. This time for good. 

Anyway, I don’t really know what I just said. But I love these movies. If you haven’t seen them, rent them for your iPod Nanos and listen to them set to Pitbull. Just kidding, please don’t do that.

Source: filmprojections