Reading Calvin & Hobbes strips is, in some ways, a look into my childhood.
I somehow have Calvin without even trying to be his parents. Of course, Hobbes is currently a wombat.
I was OK with black and white movies, but they ARE boring for a kid. They are not frenetic and stuff doesn't blow up a lot. What really helped me with watching them was really getting into theater; so many early movies are very theatrical, or consciously NOT.
What I hated as a kid and still do are those 1940s - 50s films where the actors all put their heads close together so they are all in focus, cheat towards the camera, and then talk really fast. My father loved them and swore that's how people acted then.
As your film professor probably pointed out, the sets were designed so there are no right angles. The whole movie is designed to keep you askew.
No shit. It's where my dislike of Art Nouveau as an architectural style was solidified. Rooms need real corners and right angles! Anything else makes me very nervous and gives me a headache.
Jilli, I suspect your appreciation of the movie would transcend mine. I can send you my copy if you don't think you'd be able to find it easily. I just stumbled across it flipping through the DVDs in a bin at the dollar store, and that was a year ago.
All the talks about silent movies reminds Frank he must get around to watching that DVD of THE LODGER.
Yes, you should.
I was OK with black and white movies, but they ARE boring for a kid.
I think it depends on the kid and the movie. A lot of what I would watch now is not going to interest a kid, but Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton, etc. probably might.
No shit. It's where my dislike of Art Nouveau as an architectural style was solidified.
I think you mean Art Deco.
Given that the TV I grew up with until I was in grade school was black and white, I never had a problem with b&w movies.
A lot of what I would watch now is not going to interest a kid, but Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton, etc. probably might.
I can attest for a fact that they would. Our local PBS station in Maine used to show silent movies all the time.
cue up jokes about Maine
Didn't Caligari predate Art Deco? 1919, right?
I didn't think Art Nouveau survived the war.
Interwar German movies to me are Art Deco, but I really dislike most German art movements, especially expressionism, so I must admit I haven't seen Caligari.
I don't know Art Nouveau, but I do know Club Nouveau. For some reason, I don't think that counts in this discussion.
I think you mean Art Deco.
No, Nouveau. That cathedral in Barcelona freaks me out (is Gaudi Nouveau or just weird?). And there are some buildings in Europe with wriggly facades that would drive me nuts if I lived there.
Edit: I love Deco architecture, the curves and angles are primarily decorative, I believe, but the rooms have a reassuringly pedestrian squareness to them.
Gaudi? Expressionist. AND weird.
