Here's what I watched and read last week...
MOVIES
Pather Panchali (1955), directed by Satyajit Ray, is one of the great films in world cinema. Ray was inspired by Bicycle Thieves, a quintessential film of Italian neorealism. Pather Panchali’s on-location shooting, non-professional actors, and depiction of poverty are all characteristic of neorealism. My favorite scene is when Apu sees a train for the first time - what a wonderful and poetic moment. Great film.
Rififi (1955), directed by Jules Dassin, is a classic French noir film. The heist sequence is one of the best I have ever seen. It is definitely up there with Michael Mann’s Heat and Thief.
The Life of Chuck (2024), directed by Mike Flanagan, is a very good adaptation of King’s story. Mark Hamill gives a great performance as Chuck’s grandfather, especially in the scene where he discusses the importance of math.
9 to 5 (1980), directed by Colin Higgins, is a movie I watched all the time on cable in the early 1980s when I was young. We watched it this weekend in honor of Dolly Parton’s passing. The film’s humor still holds up.
TV
Spoiler alert! I loved the first season of Mr. In Between. The last two episodes were funny and suspenseful. I enjoyed the unpredictability of Ray’s character. My allegiance toward him would sometimes shift, such as when he figures out that Nick is working undercover for the police. I found myself rooting for Nick to live. But most of the time, I am rooting for Ray not to get caught or killed. This is why suspense does not primarily operate on morality. I am looking forward to checking out the next two seasons.
BOOKS and STORIES
Spoiler alert! Black House is a great follow-up to The Talisman. As mentioned in my last post, the story starts off slow and then gradually moves faster. There are some very cool connections to the Dark Tower series. It was only a few years later that King released the last three books in the series. I loved the book’s prose, especially the scene where the Fisherman attacks Henry in his home. Henry is blind, which made it even more devastating to read. Lastly, some of the kills were very graphic, especially Henry’s and Charles’s deaths. Great read.
“There Will Come a Soft Rain” by Ray Bradbury is a post-apocalyptic story about a house equipped with automatic systems that does routines such as cooking and cleaning. Bradbury paints a dystopian picture of the aftermath of nuclear war. The story is positioned at the end of The Martian Chronicles. Having read all the stories that take place on Mars, it is the post-apocalyptic Earth that is strange and foreign.
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” by Richard Matheson. I have seen the Twilight Zone episode many times, but I have never read the story. Matheson’s prose never lets up, creating a classic tale of suspense and terror.
Spoiler Alert! “The Life of Chuck” by Stephen King, is one of the novellas in the collection of stories in If It Bleeds. King tells a three-chapters story, starting from the end and moving to the beginning. It is not made explicitly clear, but the apocalyptic ending is everything from inside Chuck’s head as he is dying. I very much enjoyed the story’s exploration of life, memory, and death.
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