Recovering from my traditional holiday week cold, while deleting overnight unsolicited spicy ham product, when I stumbled [via Cinecultist] across a top ten movie list for the previous year in which I’ve actually seen seven out of ten movies and agree that they were good. Watched Angels in America last night and thought it was a rather good adaptation of a play. I had heard Tony Kushner earlier this year talking about writing the play, the screenplay, etc., and had been looking forward to it. I enjoyed it and my personal ill health just added to the experience. At some point during the past couple of days V. got me a documentary film by Jim Shedden on Stan Brakhage to add to the DVDs of his œuvre she gave me earlier this season. She couldn’d find it in stock online so she emailed the director and he pointed her to a store that had it. Ah, the web, the net, the rhizome.
Posted by jim at December 30, 2004 08:06 AM | TrackBackSo let me ask: did you feel, as my wife and I did, that Part I of Angels was magnificent, Part II ("Perestroika") merely very good, marred by a number of silly or overlong scenes?
Posted by: language hat on December 30, 2004 12:37 PMWe had a pause between parts 1 and 2, and I'm a bit more forgiving of lengthiness when watching on DVD and intermissions are within our control, but yes, I guess I'd agree with you: it seemed to start petering out towards the end.
Posted by: jim on December 30, 2004 01:02 PMDitto.
I loved Meryl Streep as the rabbi.
Yes, Margaret, my favorite multiple role, too. I remember making a note to myself to see who the actor was who played the part. The other two rabbis at the cemetery were Kushner and Maurice Sendak.
Posted by: jim on December 31, 2004 08:11 AMThe other two rabbis at the cemetery were Kushner and Maurice Sendak.
Good lord, I totally missed that! My mind is now even more boggled. (My wife and I were completely blown away when we discovered the rabbi was Streep. I occasionally get annoyed with her fondness for displaying her perfect ear for dialects, but that was irresistible.)
Posted by: language hat on December 31, 2004 03:26 PM