The Frame

Month: August 2007

DVD of the Week – Heroes Season One

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On August 27, 2007

In Film, Television

Heroes - Season OneWith less than a month before the fall TV season starts, most of the studios are releasing the DVD sets of last year’s seasons–just in time for people to catch up. Of all the releases this week, I’d recommend Heroes Season 1. It was one of the best new shows last year, following a disparate group of individuals who discover they have superhuman powers. Heroes may have had a plot hole or two, but it more than made up for it with its intricate storytelling and impressive ensemble cast.

This is the first week I’ve done a DVD Pick of the Week, so I’ll also point out that Ugly Betty Season 1 came out last week; Ugly Betty was my favorite new show last year, hands down. Heroes was a close second, but Ugly Betty is pure and delicious fun every second.

Other new releases this week, none of which I’ve seen, so I’m ordering them based on how much I’d like to see them:

So You Think You Can Dance Top 6 and Top 4

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On August 24, 2007

In Television

Since these episodes aired last week and the week before, I’m going to run all the videos together and not do a lot of commentary. Just so the videos are up here in case anyone missed the show or something.

This means there are a TON of videos after the jump. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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June 2007 Reading/Watching Recap

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On August 21, 2007

In Books and Reading, Film, Reviews

I did not watch or read a lot of great stuff in June. I think I gravitated toward somewhat mindless fare on the movie side due to the effort of reading (skimming?) two novels a week for class, and the reading was dictated completely by the class–which was on Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf. I’m glad I read the Conrad and the Lawrence for the experience of it, but I didn’t really enjoy either of them. Woolf, of course, I’m in love with. Her writing. That is. After the jump, reactions to Babel, Pretty in Pink, Dogville, Anchorman, Zoolander, Ocean’s Thirteen, Borat, A Woman is a Woman, Paris, je t’aime, Ratatouille, Nostromo, Sons and Lovers, Women in Love, To the Lighthouse and others.

(There are a lot of links in the post…let me know if you try one and it’s broken, okay?)

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So You Think You Can Dance Top 8

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On August 2, 2007

In Television

I didn’t watch live last night because I was watching The Shining (for the first time!) with a friend. And I think I made the right decision. ;) Nice that Nigel at least offhandedly mentioned how important it is which choroegrapher each couple gets. I mean, we’re supposed to vote for our favorite dancer, but if everyone else is like me, then a lot of that comes down to what was my favorite routine. Which depends as much on the style and choreographer as on the dancers.

Video and commentary after the jump.

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R.I.P. Michelangelo Antonioni

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On August 1, 2007

In Film

And the groundbreaking Italian director Antonioni dies on the same day as the groundbreaking Swedish director Bergman. Wow. If deaths really come in threes, as the old wives’ tale dictates, who’s next?

I have really only seen one Antonioni film, 1966’s Blow-Up (also, I believe, his first English-language film), but it was pretty incredible. It’s been many years since I saw it, though–it was one of the first really arty films I ever saw. I’ve also seen most of L’Avventura, but still need to finish it. I can’t explain why I stopped watching it–it wasn’t that I didn’t like it, or I was bored or anything. It was more like, it was too late at night to finish it, and I intended to finish it the next day, but I own it and since I own it I put it off to watch the films from Netflix that came in the mail the next day. Something like that. Anyway. He’s pretty cerebral. As if I weren’t already totally entrenched in French art films, these two deaths have renewed my interest in Swedish and Italian films, too. (Actually, they were all making films around the same time, so there are connections between them–certainly Godard got a lot out of Antonioni. Now I want to rewatch Contempt, which I’ve heard owes a good bit to the Italian director, but it would probably be more helpful to wait until I’ve seen more Antonioni first.)

Karina Longworth has a set of four clips and commentary from Antonioni’s work (they’re all closing scenes from films I haven’t seen, so I didn’t watch them, but I bookmarked the post to come back to later); Coffee Coffee and More Coffee has some thoughts on him, and GreenCine has a roundup of posts and articles.

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