DC Shorts Film Festival

DRAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIINAGE!!!!

By Taylor on February 11, 2008 9:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Okay, fine. I'm a flake. I'm sorry! You spent allllllll day just waiting for my next entry, and I don't even post it until tonight. I'm sorry. I'll tell you what I was doing though - taking a nap. Oh, the wonders of being a college student. Like in kindergarten, naps are in vogue during the college years. I was taking a glorious 2-hour nap this afternoon. It was so refreshing and calming. I totally blew off the blog to catch a few Zzzzs. Totally worth it.

So Friday night was the Best of the Fest, and it was Awesome. I - er, the fest - was so amazingly popular that we sold out completely. But don't you worry! We're tentatively planning another one for this spring. Aren't you excited. Buy your tickets now, while you can! Well, they're not on sale or anything, but you get the picture. We're hot stuff. Right off the presses. Actually, we got a bunch of press, which was really cool. A bunch of local blogs, like DCist and Penn Quarter Living, newspapers like the Washington Post, and even WAMU. I'm so popular, I can barely stand it!

Okay, so there's not much news on the film festival circuit today, so instead I'll bring up a top five list of mine. This is my Top Five Transcendental Moments - the moments in movies that make me love movies. It's an extremely nostalgic list.

For me, not in any particular order:

1. Vertigo: Scene D'Amour. The perfect scene in a movie ever, in my opinion. Between Hermann's magnificent score, the acting, the mystery....what isn't perfect about this scene? The look on Jimmy Stewart's face when he finally sees his love "returned" to him brings tears to my eyes - and knowing how perverted it is brings chills to my spine.

2. The Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack's Lament. An unconventional choice, but seeing Jack against the moon, with Danny Elfman singing. It's strangely romantic, hauntingly beautiful, and the image of Jack against that huge moon strikes me every time I see this movie. An iconic image.

3. The Godfather: The Baptism/4 Families hit. A perfect movie moment, a perfect film moment. Super dramatic, tense, and perfectly executed. It can be enjoyed as a pure movie moment, and there's plenty to study there as well. By the way, this was the film in the previous post.

4. Reservoir Dogs: The Ear Scene. A purely nostalgic pick for me. It's funny and brutal, and damn memorable. It's also extremely clever because you never actually see the ear being cut off - although you do see the aftermath, of course. It was at this very moment, watching this movie for the first time in 12th grade, that I decided, OHMYGODMOVIESAREAMAZING. Because of Reservoir Dogs, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life watching, making, and living for movies.

5. The Great Dictator: The Barber's Speech. It is an absolutely chilling moment for me, having grown up and knowing Chaplin as the Little Tramp and seeing him speak to the crowd - to us, to the WORLD, really - about the importance of love over violence. Knowing when this movie was made, knowing what was going on in the world. My God, it's absolutely breathtaking.

And for a limited time only, a bonus number six! Complete with SPOILERS! BEWARE!

6. There Will Be Blood: The Final Scene. It's controversial and radically different from the rest of the film, but you know what? I think it fits. I could write an entire paper about this film, and maybe one day, when I have nothing else to do, I will, but in the meantime I'll leave you with this one bit. I love this because not only is it amazingly quotable and ridonkulous, knowing what PT Anderson was going for (and succeeded at) makes this even more amazing. At an interview, Anderson remarked that with this scene, he was trying to manipulate the audience's reaction, going from laughter to stark silence with one fell swoop. At least in my theater, he succeeded. As one of my academic interests is audience theory, this is AWESOME.

Okay, so those are mine. What are yours? I'm dying to know. Anything from Casablanca is good, so is Wilder and Capra.

SWEET MUSTACHE!

I forgot another important one. It's really, really close to my heart, so I HAVE to cheat on this. I'm so naught!

7. It's a Wonderful Life: George Baily's prayer. Jimmy Stewart is a favorite actor of mine, having already made an appearance on this list, but this is another moment where the room gets kind of dusty. Especially knowing the context - this scene, in which George desperately prays for help in Martini's bar, was supposed to be done straight, with a medium shot. However, Jimmy Stewart, who had just finished serving in World War Two, was so overcome by emotion he sobbed. The performance was so moving that the shot was re-framed. It makes me tear up, that's for sure. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a clip, so I can't share the love.

Okay, now tell me yours.

And here's your screencap: