Gone Fishin'

Spring break has sprung, or will soon enough. Starting Monday the kids are on Spring Break which means the house will be bustling with nervous energy, especially when the teens wake up around two in the afternoon. But seriously, I'll be offline, blogging-wise, most of next week. I'll still be around for comments on blogs, Facebook and Twitter but no update activity here, most likely, until late next week. Besides, I've got at least four CD reviews for Mondo Cult Magazine due in the next two weeks so I should definitely be working on those anyway. If you've got a Spring Break vacation you're taking I hope it's a nice one. Be back with updates late next week. Thanks.

P.S. Here's an old-school Cinema Styles banner for nostalgia's sake. Made it the other day but didn't use it, committed as I am to keeping the look around here clean, crisp and, outside of pics in postings, black and white. This one marks the 398th banner created for Cinema Styles, just two to go to 400. On the 200th I used 1776 (banner bicentenial), for the 300th, you guessed it, 300. But what film should be used for 400? Hmmmm, if only there were a prominent movie in film history with "400" in the title. Oh well, I guess I'll have to improvise. Maybe a good run to the beach will help me think.

Monday Morning Mumbles

First, the next Toerifc discussion will be a little earlier in the month than usual for the February selection because we want to get it in before the Film Preservation blogathon which begins on February 14th, hosted by Ferdy on Films and The Self-Styled Siren. After two months off Toerifc will return on Wednesday, February 10th at the usual time of 10 a.m E.S.T. with a discussion on Sam Fuller's White Dog (1982), hosted by Joseph Campanella at Cinema Fist. I'll have up promotional sidebar banners in a day or two. I look forward to seeing the movie and seeing you there for the discussion.

Second, some of you may have noticed the Cinema Styles Screening Room banner to the left in the sidebar. This is something I've been doing for a couple of months now and just started to advertise it. Basically, the software I have now makes it so easy to record and edit clips from movies that I find myself doing it whenever I watch them on my computer. If an ending is a favorite or a scene catches my eye I'll edit it and put it up, if only to return later to watch it again. And now you can too. As Cinema Styles pares down to reviews, essays and video posts (like The Land Before CGI and Opening Credits I Love), I'm putting up stills and video clips at Unexplained Cinema and Cinema Styles Screening Room (and the joke posts are now almost entirely reserved for Facebook). I hope you'll enjoy visiting them when you can.

Third, I watched The 400 Blows again the other day (and put up a post on it at Unexplained Cinema and a clip at The Screening Room) and was reminded how beautiful it is. It had been years since I'd seen it last and I think perhaps I'd forgotten too much about it. But mainly what struck me was the realization that I love, absolutely love, long takes. Not enough directors do it anymore. And I'm not necessarily talking about masterful long takes of complex scenes done without a single cut like the dynamite planting scene in Touch of Evil, although I love that too, but shots of someone going to a destination and the director having the patience, and guts, to simply show it in real time rather than cut it down to speed things up. There's something hypnotic about watching the banal unfold. Watch the clip to see what I mean. And now I must watch Stolen Kisses again immediately and you can be sure when I do you'll see a post or two, or three, up on it soon after. Cheers!