1. Eric Rohmer's A Summer's Tale: I rented this because Neil LaBute referenced Rohmer in his interview with Soderbergh on the sex, lies, and videotape commentary track, and I was intrigued. Sometimes the right movies catch you at the right time, and this movie, I might have fidgeted through on another day, but I loved it on the slow day I watched it, loved the main actor, Melvil Poupaud. I want to watch more Rohmer films, especially the earlier ones, but they only have one other one, also a recent one, on DVD at Reel Life and that one is a period piece. Me and period films do not get along.
2. Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore: I finally finished it last night. It was good, and if I had read it at a different time, I would have loved it and been unable to put it down. Our paths didn't cross at the right moment.
3. Gore Vidal's The City and the Pillar: This is another product that was consumed at the right time. After the bland, translated sentences of Murakami about cats and coincidences, it was just what I needed, precise, biting sentences of someone with labored prose. Gay men and Brits have that sharp, mannered tongue that is so fun to read. The ending was a bit much and so, I am curious to find a copy of the original 1948 version of the book that has an even more melodramatic ending (gay man strangling his straight crush).
4. David Lynch's Eraserhead: Our paths didn't cross at the right time. If you are not in the mood for a Lynch movie, you shouldn't even try, because your rhythms won't sync and it will be an effort to slow your pace to the film's. I rented it because it was a major gap in my knowledge of cinema that needed to be filled, and it was interesting to see Lynch exploring the same themes in his first feature that he would pursue throughout the rest of his career.
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