Thank you. It was really super interesting as usual. I had only seen the first episodes of stranger things. So I had to go on youtube + the wiki fandom to have a global grasp of who's who and a quick global summary. It's always super cool to see how the tools work. It's interesting to see that , as usual, infections, sicknesses etc. are generally metaphorical etc. You already have a heavy schedule and almost no time left. But we wondered if you could perhaps have a quick look at the movie ( last one featuring Edvin Ryding) 28 years later by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland. It's some zombie movie with a global infection etc. It's packed with subtext and we are a little lost ( too many layers, too many readings etc.). I don't know if I will see Stranger things. 4 seasons are a lot. And it still isn't finished !! But I am happy to have an inner grasp of what all this hype is about.
I just watched a sweet little film (produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda) called Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Dante is gay; artistic, sensitive, compassionate-he sees that Aristotle can't swim (water!) and he teaches Ari to swim. Ha! But Ari is gay too, though he fights it and he's straight-appearing. Anyway, in films, the trope is that the gay character is 'light in his loafers'? I think of Peter Lore in Maltese Falcon and other characters that swan about in films, many Hitchcock movies and The Boys in the Band-Harold especially. While I haven't watched Stranger Things, your analysis is so interesting to me because the story is more subtle, the writing more clever than just giving a character a lisp and a limp wrist.. Not that that's a bad thing but TVM school has educated us to look for mirror characters, allegorical figures, the symbolism of water and stairs and hallways and specific kinds of shots. (and so much more). This here blog has changed the way I watch and interpret cinema. I lament your stepping away from your TVM professorship but I can always go back to the beginning and read everything again-would only take weeks!
BTW-somewhere in your post, you asked for weird sayings, can't remember exactly the reference. 'Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about' was an often heard threat from my mother. Nice, right? I often heard racist and classist slurs too. Won't repeat those. She did refer to Catholics as 'RCs' in a dismissive tone, effectively insulting our Irish and Italian neighbors. Anyway, I never told my children to stop crying or else.
I hope you are enjoying a summer break with your beloved. Here in the good old USA, we live in fear and trembling. The sun continues to shine on the just and the unjust. And there are artists making remarkable art, speaking truth to power.
Thank you always for your devotion to cinema and teaching. Forever grateful.
Thank you. It was really super interesting as usual. I had only seen the first episodes of stranger things. So I had to go on youtube + the wiki fandom to have a global grasp of who's who and a quick global summary. It's always super cool to see how the tools work. It's interesting to see that , as usual, infections, sicknesses etc. are generally metaphorical etc. You already have a heavy schedule and almost no time left. But we wondered if you could perhaps have a quick look at the movie ( last one featuring Edvin Ryding) 28 years later by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland. It's some zombie movie with a global infection etc. It's packed with subtext and we are a little lost ( too many layers, too many readings etc.). I don't know if I will see Stranger things. 4 seasons are a lot. And it still isn't finished !! But I am happy to have an inner grasp of what all this hype is about.
I just watched a sweet little film (produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda) called Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Dante is gay; artistic, sensitive, compassionate-he sees that Aristotle can't swim (water!) and he teaches Ari to swim. Ha! But Ari is gay too, though he fights it and he's straight-appearing. Anyway, in films, the trope is that the gay character is 'light in his loafers'? I think of Peter Lore in Maltese Falcon and other characters that swan about in films, many Hitchcock movies and The Boys in the Band-Harold especially. While I haven't watched Stranger Things, your analysis is so interesting to me because the story is more subtle, the writing more clever than just giving a character a lisp and a limp wrist.. Not that that's a bad thing but TVM school has educated us to look for mirror characters, allegorical figures, the symbolism of water and stairs and hallways and specific kinds of shots. (and so much more). This here blog has changed the way I watch and interpret cinema. I lament your stepping away from your TVM professorship but I can always go back to the beginning and read everything again-would only take weeks!
BTW-somewhere in your post, you asked for weird sayings, can't remember exactly the reference. 'Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about' was an often heard threat from my mother. Nice, right? I often heard racist and classist slurs too. Won't repeat those. She did refer to Catholics as 'RCs' in a dismissive tone, effectively insulting our Irish and Italian neighbors. Anyway, I never told my children to stop crying or else.
I hope you are enjoying a summer break with your beloved. Here in the good old USA, we live in fear and trembling. The sun continues to shine on the just and the unjust. And there are artists making remarkable art, speaking truth to power.
Thank you always for your devotion to cinema and teaching. Forever grateful.
-a fan