one of my all-time fav directors, (though not fav humans), alfred hitchcock, was born on this day 125 years ago.
above is a comprehensive list of all of his 52, films, some obscure, ranked in order.
while i agree with most of rankings,
‘the shadow of a doubt,’
ranked #2 in this list, is my personal #1,
it utterly terrified me, and still does.
do you have a personal favorite?
‘
at the verrry cool
elk rapids cinema
old, but mighty good
something magical about an old movie house.
—
‘what’s a bigger mystery box than a movie theater?
you go to the theater, you’re just so excited to see anything –
the moment the lights go down is often the best part.’
j.j. abrams
“summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots,
or trying to sleep in the tree house; summer was everything good to eat;
it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill.”
– harper lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
one of my all-time favorite books and movies and here were are once again, in summer.
i even played ‘scout’ once in a scene of a play, and it was something.
—
credits: j.b. lippincott & co., universal pictures
this is not me, but it demonstrates both my love of movie popcorn
and a very mild version of my reaction when watching a scary movie.
Watching a scary movie can burn as many calories as exercise. We’re all familiar with the feelings that come with watching a fright flick — the sense of dread that engulfs us as a character enters a foreboding place, ominous music building, etc. According to a 2012 study commissioned by the video subscription service Lovefilm, these heart-pounding moments can do more than cause a good scare, however. Of the 10 movies tested, half caused participants to burn at least 133 calories, more than the amount used up by a 140-pound adult on a brisk 30-minute walk.
Granted, this limited study was hardly robust enough to earn a write-up in a peer-reviewed journal. Yet the science behind the results is essentially valid, thanks to human hard-wiring that traces to when our primitive ancestors had good reason to fear the monsters lurking in the night. When exposed to a harrowing situation, our sympathetic nervous system triggers the “flight or fight” response, which sends adrenaline into the bloodstream, diverts blood and oxygen to muscles, and kicks heart activity into a higher gear. Add in the outwardly physical reactions often prompted by the scariest scenes, such as jumping back in your seat or instinctively reaching for a companion, and it’s easy to see how sitting through The Shining (184 calories) or Jaws (161 calories) delivers results akin to sweating through a workout. (or my own natural startle response style, with me shrieking my lungs out, reflex-hitting the person next to me, throwing whatever i’m holding into the air, and hiding my entire face /body under anything i can find, which has to burn at least a good 900+ calories)
There are other benefits to putting ourselves through this sort of simulated danger, including the release of endorphins and dopamine, which allows us to feel relaxed and fulfilled after “surviving” the events witnessed on screen. Of course, not everyone is a fan of the frightening imagery in The Exorcist (158 calories) or Alien (152 calories), and researchers caution that stress can outweigh the gains for people who are genuinely repulsed by these movies. If health is your goal and the sight of blood makes you queasy, you’re better off rising from the couch and getting your legs moving instead of watching someone else flee the clutches of a zombie.
while i do love movies and i was hopeful that this
would finally be an exercise routine that i could really get behind,
i’m doubtful this one will work for me
as i can’t survive a regular regimen of terrifying movies,
or even one.
—
“based on how i react when toast pops out of the toaster,
i will never look cool walking away from an explosion.”
-word porn
—
source credit: interestingfacts
very cold scene from ‘the shining.’ (warner brothers)
does anyone else watch movies set in the snow and became freezing just watching them?
it all starts out well enough
suddenly dawning on me
the characters
have spent much of the movie in the freezing snow.
once i realize this, there is no going back,
it begins to feel so very cold.
consider this a warning or cautionary tale.
below are some i’ve sen over the years,
any to add to the list?
white fang
frozen
fargo
dr. zhivago
on her majesty’s secret service
white out
groundhog day
the revanent
jeremiah johnson
home alone
the snow walker
shackleton
snow day
the thing
vertical limit
society of the snow
—
“life is cold. people stay warm through the intimacy of a story.”
-james altucher
not us, but what we might look like if we were minions,
as we share a similar level of excitement about being at the movies
—
how fun to meet my friend
at 10am at the theater
like skipping school
on a sunday morning
attending the church of film
i bought a coffee
snuck in my breakfast bar
as we walked in
i saw an older couple
and reacted by saying,
“wow, there are other people here!”
their response was to just stare ahead
we continued on to our seats
5 or 6 more people arrived
while we waited for the movie to start
my friend and i caught up
we started bonding with the others near us
talking about how good we all hoped movie would be
how it was funny we were all at such an early movie
talking about the trailers
someone noticed
there was no audio during the movie trailers
thinking it would be taken care of
by the time the film started
we were all in our comfortable recliners
with our snacks, chatting, and feeling a bit decadent
when we realized the audio may never happen
the manager walked in
telling us there was an issue with the sound
something technical…
(try unplugging and plugging it in?))
no one to fix it at 10am on a sunday morning
how quickly the air was let out of our giddy balloon
we lined up still chatting as she refunded us
some walked out with a sunday breakfast of popcorn and drinks
plans suddenly turned
but it was fun while it lasted
and we’ll be back.
—
“just a single cord is enough to be tangled”
-munia kahn
—
image credit: universal pictures
it was ladies’ night at my friend’s house
we had a bit of wine and chat and lots of laughter
the hostess suggested that we should get a movie
and try as she might
she could not remember its name
but it was ‘really good’
couldn’t remember the main stars
‘but we would recognize them immediately’
she put in a call to blockbuster
where they had every current movie
the kind person/movie nerd at the store
answered the phone
the experts were standing by
to help her figure out the title
when we heard her explain
that it was really good
had 2 popular stars
and a 3-word title
beginning with the word ‘the’
we absolutely lost it
the poor person on the phone
worked for 20 minutes
trying to jog her memory for more details
finally giving up and apologizing
now, that’s customer service
i really miss blockbuster
something about the excitement
going to pick out a movie
families, couples, friends, singles
taking turns and negotiating
hoping the one you really wanted was still there
so much comedy and drama all in one place.
“vague questions deserve vague answers”
-ristretto
excited to see a new film
(one of my favorite things to do)
i arrived precisely
at the designated time and place
(with time to meet up, buy tickets, grab a ‘movie-buttered’ popcorn, chatter a bit, and find our seats)
only to discover
that i had organized it so that
we were precisely
24 hours late for the show.
—
p.s. i really do make every effort to be on time for things
but this has also happened
with a holiday party i was really excited to attend
a few years back
is this a pattern? see below –
“nothing, of course, begins at the time you think it did.”
lillian hellman
in honor of the 10th anniversary of this film, made here in ann arbor, i’m reposting this blog from my past.
ever had one of those days? the ones that take a funny turn?
i picked up a movie from the library recently, ‘the five year engagement,’ and when i saw the cover, i remembered that i had almost been in it. by accident. really.
it was the summer and i’d walked downtown to meet my date. when i got to one of my favorite local townie spots where we’d planned to meet, i noticed there was a barricade, some roadie types, a sound system and all sorts of equipment set up outside. having lived here for more than a decade, i knew there was always a festival, parade or protest popping up, so none of this surprised me. it could easily have been for a street dance, a car show, or god knows what else, so i simply stepped over and around everything, and walked on in.
once inside, i looked around, it was a bit dark and hazy and didn’t see him there yet, so i sat down at an open table. while waiting, i noticed that something about the place looked different than it normally did, but i couldn’t quite put my finger on it. i then got a phone call from my date, asking where i was, and when i told him i was already where we’d planned to meet, he said he’d arrived, but couldn’t get in because it was closed off to the public, as they were shooting a movie there. and he wondered how i had gotten in.
ah – that’s when it all made sense and it dawned on me. i had unwittingly walked right into the middle of a movie set. i thought it was awfully dark for being the daytime, and things were moved around, and i heard someone yelling out something, but figured it was a bartender, and thought maybe they’d redone the place, trying to go a bit more upscale. i loved it just the way it had been though, a cozy, casual, old-school, welcoming place. all this went through my mind quickly and then i remembered, they’d been shooting in various locations around town for some weeks now, but it never occurred to me that i had crashed their party. i was suddenly an accidental extra.
i’m sure the only reason they let me on set in the first place, was because i’d ambled on into it like i was supposed to be there, (and i thought i was), so no one stopped me. and i was dressed like a townie, (since i was a real one), so i fit right in.
we laughed out loud on each end of the phone as i shared my revelation, and i casually got up and walked off the set and into the daylight once more, as if i was walking to my personal production trailer, only to find my date waiting in another location. where they were NOT in the middle of shooting a scene for a movie.
when i picked up the dvd at the library, a part of me somehow hoped to see myself in that scene, but not surprisingly, i was nowhere to be found, other than somewhere on the cutting room floor, perhaps.
—
“acting in’Star Wars’ I felt like a raisin in a giant fruit salad,
and I didn’t even know who the cantaloupes were.”
– Mark Hamill
image credits: universal studios, old town bar
I didn't have my glasses on.... 