Anybody Need A Watch?

I got a gift from a homeless man. He approached me while I waited for the subway. He asked if I had spare change and I didn’t. He then asked me if I could help him with the zipper in his jacket (a leather jacket), which he said was stuck. I could see that the tab had been broken off the zipper, and I have a similarly broken zipper so I said I didn’t think it could be moved, it’s broken. He said no it’s not broken and gave it a tug. It didn’t move. I started explain why it was broken but then said screw it, and grabbed the zipper. I tugged a few times and it didn’t move. He was leaning into me as I tried to move the zipper. Then he heard the squeal of the train approaching, and he said “Oh well, here’s a token of my appreciation.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out the head of a digital watch, without the band. He handed it to me and said “It keeps good time,” and walked off. I started to say that I really didn’t need a watch, but then thought that might be rude. I looked at the watch head and the time on it was wrong by a few hours.

I always wonder in these exchanges whether they’re just fucking with me.

Listen While I Tell Myself a Story

I watched Dogville last night
and it may be the most ridiculous film I’ve ever seen. I still am not
sure what to think of it, but it’s seeming more and more like Lars von
Trier’s films are nothing but a conversation with himself. A
conversation on the nature of sadomasochism. I suppose the starkness of
the set design in this film made it especially clear. But I am really
tiring of the subject and I wonder if he’s even capable of making a
film that isn’t yet another exploration of the same theme.

And now that I write this, I recall the ending of The Five Obstructions,
the letter von Trier writes to himself, which I suppose makes it even
more explicit that all he’s ever really doing is addressing himself in
his films.

Boston Anti-Oscars

You may or may not know that there is a local Boston film-geek society that hands out its own awards each year at Oscar time. March 20 at the Brattle, the anti-Oscars will take place. Last year Philip Seymour Hoffman was their special guest and “First Hall of Fame Inductee.” Check out the nominations–I have a feeling Filmbrain will approve:

11th ANNUAL CHLOTRUDIS AWARD NOMINATIONS FOR 2004

BEST MOVIE

Bad Education

Goodbye Dragon Inn

Last Life in the Universe

Lucas Belvaux The Trilogy

Moolaade

The Return

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring

BURIED TREASURE

Infernal Affairs

Nosey Parker

The Rage in Placid Lake

Reconstruction

Stander

BEST DIRECTOR

Lucas Belvaux – The Trilogy

Jonathan Caouette – Tarnation

David Gordon Green – Undertow

Tsai Ming-Liang – Goodbye Dragon Inn

Guy Maddin – The Saddest Music in the World

Pen-Ek Ratanaruang – Last Life in the Universe

Andrei Zvyagintsev – The Return

BEST ACTOR

Tadanobu Asano – Last Life in the Universe

Gael Garcia Bernal – Bad Education

Kevin Bacon – The Woodsman

Paul Giamatti – Sideways

Tony Leung – Infernal Affairs

Jamie Sives – Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself

BEST ACTRESS

Sinitta Boonyasak – Last Life in the Universe

Toni Collette – Japanese Story

Fatoumata Coulibaly – Moolaade

Anne Reid – The Mother

Isabella Rossellini – The Saddest Music in the World

Catalina Sandino Moreno – Maria Full of Grace

Imelda Staunton – Vera Drake

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Phil Davis – Vera Drake

Alfred Molina – Coffee & Cigarettes

Peter Sarsgaard – Kinsey

Mark Wahlberg – I [Heart] Huckabees

Anthony Wong – Infernal Affairs

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett – Coffee & Cigarettes

Shirley Henderson – Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself

Virginia Madsen – Sideways

Rie Miyazawa – Twilight Samurai

Fenella Woolgar – Bright Young Things

BEST CAST

Coffee & Cigarettes

Dogville

Lucas Belvaux^Ã’ The Trilogy

Saved!

Sideways

Vera Drake

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Goodbye Dragon Inn

House of Flying Daggers

Last Life in the Universe

The Return

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter^Ã… and Spring

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Big Animal

A Home at the End of the World

The Motorcycle Diaries

The Saddest Music in the World

Sideways

Twilight Samurai

Untold Scandal

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Dogville

Lucas Belvaux^Ã’s The Trilogy

Maria Full of Grace

Shaun of the Dead

Undertow

Vera Drake

Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself

BEST DOCUMENTARY

The Argonomist

Bright Leaves

The Control Room

DiG!

The Fog of War

Screaming Men

Tarnation

Today’s Motivational Spam from Denise Austin

“Remember, your buttocks leave the room last. Make a great lasting impression and look great from behind.”

Herzog Funnies

“It’s appalling. No wonder American women are frustrated.”

–Lena Herzog, the “beautiful, formidable Siberian wife” of Werner Herzog, explaining that American mores have become so conservative under Bush that nature documentaries now only allow “one thrust” for animal mating scenes.