Thursday, 12th December 2002
Exhaustion and films
The end of the school term approaches at a snail's pace, even though we break up on Tuesday. It's just as well we don't have to do a whole week because I really think I might collapse if I had to do with 6 hours' sleep a night all of next week as well. My mental collapse happened yesterday (although I think it could have been triggered by all that travelling on Tuesday) - I couldn't move quickly, even to write, I could not think much at all (except for 'I want to go to sleep' hammering against my skull). I was just completely wiped out. Now, I know I'm tired all the time during the school term, but this was far beyond tiredness into absolute exhaustion, a state which I don't think I've ever experienced before. It's better today though - I managed a whole eight hours' sleep last night!Anyway... all this tiredness (and setting up this blog, of course!) means that I haven't been watching much television. Which is bad because, having very belatedly discovered Buffy The Vampire Slayer a couple of months ago in the middle of Season 2, I've been borrowing all the videos from my very Buffy-obsessed friend. I worked my way through the third series (amazing!) and I've now started at the beginning. The contrast in quality is incredible, I have to say! Not only do I have all of those to watch, I have a huge pile of films mounting up that I've been taping (or buying at Virgin Megastores for '3 for £15'...). At this moment, I have to watch:
- High Noon (1952)
- The Wrong Man (1956)
- The Blue Dahlia (1946)
- Marnie (1964)
- Apocalyspe Now Redux (1979)
- Magnolia (1999)
- Primal Fear (1996)
- Duel (1976)
- A.I. (2001)
- The Phantom Menace (1998)
- another two Buffy videos
I've only become a bit of a films fan in the last year, after Channel 4's 100 Greatest Films program that they did. Before that, I had thought I was reasonably well-versed in films (mixed metaphor, I know) but I was stunned at how many excellent films I hadn't seen, or even heard of. Out of the top 10 (which was actually twelve - The Godfather parts I and II were one entry, as were Star Wars: Episodes IV and VI) I had seen a total of none. Since then, I've been much more interested in films, and my favourite films are:
- Vertigo (1958)
- Dr Strangelove (1964)
- The Godfather (1972)
- The Godfather Part II(1974)
- The Sting (1973)
- Dead Poets Society (1981)
- Blade Runner (1982)
- The Shawshank Redemption (1993)
- Leon (1994)
- The Usual Suspects (1995)
- Twelve Monkeys (1995)
- Ransom (1996)
- American Beauty (1999)
- Memento (2000)
- Moulin Rouge (2001)
- Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)
Note that the above films aren't ranked in order of preference because I find it extremely difficult to rate any of them against each other, partially because I don't know whether to rate them for enjoyment value or the objective 'which is the best film?' I'd feel guilty if, eg, I ranked Moulin Rouge above The Shawshank Redemption. TSR is undoubtedly a better film, but I get more enjoyment out of watching MR. And as for The Usual Suspects...
A couple of weeks before my birthday in September, my brother was browsing on Amazon and I was, predictably, waiting for him to relinquish the computer. I saw they were selling the two-disc second edition DVD of The Usual Suspects for £7.99, so I asked him to buy me that as a present. At that point I knew next to nothing about the film - I knew that Kevin Spacey was in it and I knew that it had been compared to Memento in terms of a twist ending. So that's how much knowledge I approached it with when I sat down to watch it.
In the first 9 weeks of owning the DVD I watched it five times - technically at least; two of those were listening to the audio commentaries on the DVD, so I've seen it properly three times - actually, slightly more than that, because after the first time I saw it, I went through only watching the interrogation bits. And strangely I haven't got sick of it yet :)
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