Turn Back the Clock Night: The First TDYLF Article, Four Years Later

Baseball teams love to have ‘Turn Back the Clock Night.’ It’s a promotion where teams wear uniforms from the past, usually in the interest of invoking nostalgia. It’s fun, and often hideous thanks to polyester, outdated logos, and v-neck jerseys. That brings me to today’s article. As of today, I’ve been writing about movies and TV for exactly four years. That’s a really obnoxious, self-aggrandizing way of saying that it’s TDYLF’s 4th anniversary, birthday, or whatever you want to call it. For sheer entertainment value and to “turn back the clock” (so to speak), I thought it’d be fun to run the first thing I ever wrote, way back on March 18, 2010.

Ingmar Bergman vs. The World

Ingmar Bergman was a complex man. He spent a lifetime making emotionally and philosophically complex films. That Bergman was one of the harshest critics of his own films is simply part of his neuroses. You may not be aware, but you should not be surprised, that Bergman was equally harsh on other famous filmmakers in his lifetime. There are some quotes out there from Bergman, regarding other famous arthouse directors, that come across like two divas fighting on a runway. And yet, he also gave effusive praise to other filmmakers. It’s fascinating. Here’s some of what Bergman said about other directors. First, the negatives.

Japan and the Criterion Collection: A Winning Combination

Last weekend, thanks to the fantastic review from the always trustworthy Goregirl’s Dungeon, I caught up with the Criterion Collection release of Kuroneko (1968). It’s about a woman and her daughter-in-law, who are raped and killed in a fire by a band of samurai. They return as ghosts, exacting their revenge upon all samurai… until they encounter the woman’s son (and the daughter-in-law’s husband), who has become a samurai. I won’t continue lest I spoil the film. Needless to say, it’s a tremendous movie. And it made me look back on all of the Japanese films I’ve seen out of the Criterion Collection. I haven’t seen a bad one yet.

Infographic: The Criterion Collection By The Numbers

The Criterion Collection has been providing film aficionados with top-flight content since 1984. Their mission is a noble one–a “commitment to publishing the defining moments of cinema for a wider and wider audience”. Along the way, they’ve restored and made hundreds of films available; adopted Janus Films; and created the Essential Art House and Eclipse Series divisions. They currently list 820 selections on their website (70 are out of print). The list comprises many of the most important films ever made. Here’s an infographic that breaks down the Criterion Collection:

In defense of “Shutter Island”

I’ve seen an awful lot of critics and movie-goers hammering away at “Shutter Island”, and it bugs me. Some of what I’m about to say was covered in great detail by Peter Hall at Horror’s Not Dead:

http://horrorsnotdead.com/wpress/2010/shutter-island-review-warning-spoilery-talk-follows-the-first-paragraph/

(excellent site, by the way- a must-visit for horror fans). Here’s why “Shutter Island” is horribly underrated (here thar be spoilers):

Akira Kurosawa, how do I heart thee? Let me count the ways

At some point in the last year or so, I’ve come to view Kurosawa as the best director in the world. He’s not necessarily my favorite (hello, Ingmar Bergman) but in the pure terms of the artistic value of his films, combined with entertainment value, I don’t think you can top Kurosawa. Why do I say this?