Alphaville Singlehandedly Ruined by Future Grad Student; Stalker keeps on stalking.

Alphaville

Just got the Alphaville script in the mail from Amazon.

I need it in order to transmute the visceral experience of the pictures above into Marxist literary theory–thereby allowing me the pleasure of going to graduate school. Getting a graduate degree with give me the added benefit of alienating the three other people in the world who enjoy this fine French film.

“See how Godard perfectly illustrates the hegemony of the interpellating call of the dominant literary mode of production.” Mmm, Mmm, Good.

In a just world, I would not be allowed to destroy this work of art by putting it in a little box of theory, but there you go.

Stalker

Got a little further into Stalker this weekend. Still haven’t finished it, but I’m getting there. I was watching in a little camper trailer on my laptop in the middle of the night, and got too tired to finish it. HOWEVER, it seems to me that it is okay to watch Stalker in bite-sized segments. The second act repeats the title overlay and feels very much like a second episode in an ongoing story. I’m just chopping it up into smaller pieces.

It has gotten quite apocalyptic with the main character quoting the Bible along with a narrator. My excitement level is still high for the rest of it.

Some words from the director:

http://pensum.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/51/

-Doctor F

Trees and Grass in Sci-Fi: Or why Stalker is awesome even though I’ve only seen the first third.

Haven’t been watching too many movies lately. Actually, I’ve been bingeing Battlestar Galactica season 3. Holy shit, how in the world are those people going to put their fragile relationships back together, let alone find the elusive 13th colony?I I guess I’ve been watching an interstellar soap opera and loving it.

Well, now it is done, and I am ready to get back to watching too many movies. At the top of the list: Stalker.

The back of the DVD grabbed my attention a few months back as I browsed in a Borders bookstore. It depicted a man in the woods and the blurb on the back said that Stalker was sci-fi by the great Andrei Tarkovsky.

I don’t know about you, but when I see a picture like this one-

                                                                             -in a sci-fi film, I’m immediately interested.

It still took me a while to get a hold of the DVD from Netflix, but it finally arrived a few weeks ago, and I’ve yet to finish it. Things just keep coming up, but I’m determined to finish it this weekend.

In the meantime, here’s a clip to give you some context.

P.S. – I actually saw this clip at the beginning of the year, but I didn’t realize it was from Stalker. The images from it stuck in my head, though. It feels a bit like a Bruce Sterling story.

Doctor F