Day 281
6 April 2018 02.22am
‘Writing and thinking. Thinking and writing’ 2018
Today I’m thinking about Pather panchali and The Apu Trilogy (and the essay I’m writing), Bunuel’s second last film, The Phantom of Liberty (and the essay I’m writing), the great Resnais film, Hiroshima mon amour (and the essay I’m writing) and The Bedford Incident (the essay I’ve yet to start).
I’ve come to an understanding of my own mind that before I can release 445 words about my opinion about something, I need to spend several days cogitating. Thinking about it and writing, and deleting words and sentences and then writing and thinking. To watch a film, go to your office, or your home, and write a non-knee-jerk essay, is an unreasonable expectation if you’re going to give it, or anything, its due.
Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991 – which I haven’t seen) and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016 – which I have seen) are warnings of films that could become Film School Classics of Warning: Identity Thief 101. Bad films without need for a lot of second-guessing oneself. Or maybe not!
What about Ferris Beueller (good)? Or The Breakfast Club (reasonable)? Or Dude, Where’s My Car (less than reasonable)? Are they all bad just because of the ground they till or the land they mine?
Or Alien, Lethal Weapon, The Terminator and First Blood? Most things are as they seem, granted. But not all things are. They require analysis.
So, I write and I think and I analyse and I delete and I rewrite. Every now and again I hate, like Identity Thief.
