February 16, 2019 at 8:41 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Movies, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: adaptations, English writers, favorites, novel, Saturday, Victorian
If self had known a Cora Seaborne in her life, she’d undoubtedly be her best friend. She and Cora would read books, argue about them, and get mud on their shoes and under their nails. They’d collect useless stuff on their walks.
Actresses self thinks could play her:
Rebecca Hall
Romola Garai
Emma Thompson
Olivia Colman
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
January 28, 2019 at 1:05 am (Explorers, Lists, Movies, Philippine History, Sundays)
Tags: history, memories, news, politics, San Francisco Chronicle, South-East Asia, The Philippines, Vietnam War
Loving the cover story:
In 1969:
Nixon became President, the Beatles released Abbey Road, Sly and the Family Stone released Want To Take You Higher, The Who released Tommy.
Midnight Cowboy, Easy Rider, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid premiered. TV’s Star Trek got cancelled.
Woodstock happened, Chappaquiddick happened, the moon landing happened, Berkeley’s People Park happened, Charles Manson happened, The Gap opened its 1st store, the Vietnam draft lottery was televised, William Calley was convicted of six counts of murder for My Lai.
Self was in summer camp in England. That’s where she heard about the moon landing.
Ferdinand Marcos won re-election as President of the Philippines.
Wonder what groundbreaking books were published that year? No mention in the Chronicle. There must have been some.
Where was Gloria Steinem?
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
January 16, 2019 at 6:43 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Movies)
Tags: adaptations, classic movies, novel, performances, reading lists, Russian literature
Self saw the Joe Wright movie and felt it was ludicrous, especially the scene with the dueling tongues. None of which is Keira Knightley’s fault.
Here’s a photo of actress Vivien Leigh, who more closely resembles the image of Anna that self has in her mind:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
December 27, 2018 at 7:13 am (Movies, Recommended, Surprises)
Tags: adaptations, causes, Palo Alto, performances, politics, praise, review
Self didn’t expect much from this movie, the line was a surprise:
Palo Alto Square, the day after Christmas 2018
The film is so, so good. The whole gender conflict thing is dynamic, not just “a cause.” It becomes real because of the relationship between Ginsburg and her husband. And the two leads definitely get it. They sell the male domination thing Ginsburg rails against, again and again. There is rage, but it’s never a polemic, it’s rooted in the experience of the marriage. We feel the injustice precisely because of the tenderness between Marty and Ruth.
Honestly, self doesn’t know if any other pair of actors could pull off what these two do here. It’s fine, fine work. And she did not expect it from Armie Hammer and Felicity Jones.
She thinks she finally understands the reason for Armie’s recent string of successful movies: it’s his irony. His awareness that yes, he’s good-looking, but there’s a wryness, a core affability, about him. Can you imagine someone else playing Mr. Mom? It could have been super-cheesy. She likes his willingness to not just pretend he’s an entitled white male, but to BE that entitled white male (which we all know he is, in real life, anyway: The Armand Hammer Museum in UCLA is named after his grandfather or great-grandfather), and here he is wearing an apron, feeding the baby, cooking and chopping. Droll.
Self thinks he’s going to be perfect playing that smug prick Maxim de Winter, in the re-make of Rebecca.
What a smart film On the Basis of Sex is. Self liked it better than the documentary she saw earlier this year, The Real RBG. A documentary gives us the facts. But this movie allows us to watch the relationship and see how it actually went down, in everyday life.
BTW, Sam Waterston gets only a few scenes, but each one of them is key.
Kudos, Director Mimi Leder. Self hopes this movie is nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. She hopes Felicity Jones gets nominated for her performance. Armie, too.
Directly in front of me, lots of people: Wednesday, 26 December 2018
Stay tuned.
December 5, 2018 at 6:22 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Food and Drink, Links, Movies, Places, Surprises, Traveling)
Tags: Cee Neuner, England, humor, indulgence, London, memories, museums, Oxford, restaurants
Self loves posting for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. It gives her a chance to post photographs from her archives that might otherwise be overlooked. Such as the close-up of her bedside lamp at The Penn Club, where she stays whenever she is in London:
Room # 1, The Penn Club: Bedford Place, London
Or this tea-set:
London Review Cakeshop: Bury St., London
Or this amusing pair of socks:
Gift Shop, Ashmolean: Oxford, England
Thank you, Cee Neuner, for the prompt!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
December 2, 2018 at 6:00 pm (Lists, Movies, Recommended, Sundays, Surprises, The Guardian, Traveling)
Self is madly reading all the issues of The Guardian she bought in the last week. She thinks she’s making great progress: she’s now on Friday’s Guardian (30 November).
Her attention was caught by a list of The 20 Most Influential Films.
Rather than simply copy out the entire list, self will tell you that the # 1 Most Influential Film of All Time is The Wizard of Oz (1939).
The Second Most Influential Film of All Time is Star Wars (1977).
Third is Psycho (1960).
Fourth is King Kong (1933).
Fifth is 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Citizen Kane (1941) is just # 7.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is # 10.
Casablanca (1942) is # 11.
The Godfather (1972) is # 13.
Jaws (1975) — what a surprise! — is #14.
Dr. Strangelove (1964) is # 18.
Gone With the Wind (1939) which self was never into, is # 19.
Stay tuned.
September 8, 2018 at 5:22 am (Artists and Writers, Movies)
Tags: Fridays, performances, praise, transitions
Never Forget: Burt Reynolds in John Boorman’s deeply disturbing, potent Deliverance
July 31, 2018 at 4:51 pm (Movies)
Tags: summer, The New Yorker
from The New Yorker, 22 May 2017:
Alas, self missed this film when it showed in theatres last year but she will always, to her dying day, like Colin Farrell.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
June 26, 2018 at 9:43 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Movies, Recommended)
Tags: art, exhibits, museums, Redwood City, San Francisco, summer, summer movies, thrillers
Summer: SO MANY THINGS, from the Magritte exhibit at SFMOMA, to the Rube Goldberg exhibit at the Jewish Contemporary Art Museum on Mission St., to the Redwood City Century 20, where we saw Jurassic Park last weekend (Bryce Dallas Howard forever!)
June 19, 2018 at 7:54 pm (Artists and Writers, Movies, Recommended)
Tags: comedies, Evan Peters, review, San Francisco Chronicle, summer movies
from the San Francisco Chronicle, 8 June 2018:
Seems to diss Evan Peters, lol. But interesting for describing the film’s “American thing” (i.e. yearnings)
Even though without the heist there would be no reason for the movie, it hardly seems possible that the heist will happen, not with these guys. Indeed, it’s not certain that the participants themselves even want it to happen. Yes, Warren is all for it, but the rest of them just seem willing to go along.
Part of the explanation for their sticking with the plan may be Warren’s personal charisma — not the charisma evidenced by the actor playing Warren, but that of the real-life Warren. He seems forceful and funny and looks like the leading man in a zany romantic comedy. Another explanation, suggested by the movie’s title, is that this is just an American thing: the desire for money, the desire to be somebody, to have status, to have an interesting story.
Yet one has to wonder . . . where are the young women in this story? Why don’t Spencer and Warren have girlfriends? One gets the feeling that if either of them had one, the plan might have been scuttled immediately. The reason for this is that it often seems as though the guys are in this plot out of boredom, or out of some restless desire to feel that they have hope.
Self’s personal opinion? There is not enough Evan Peters on the big screen. Perhaps it’s Peters’s insouciant affect. The Quicksilver slowing-down-bullets scene never gets old.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
 | anthropologist on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge… |
 | Cee Neuner on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge… |
| anthropologist on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge… |
| Cee Neuner on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge… |
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