Sunday, May 27 - "Planet Earth: the ocean deep" - Brought by Linda. Part of the recently released BBC series narrated by David Attenborough.
RJ: "I had never seen those swarms of fish. It was very relaxing, seeing all those fish get eaten."

Sunday, June 3 - "Pan's Labyrinth" - chosen by Tanya (instead of Scanners Darkly and Volver). A film taking place in world war 2 Spain where the fascists are hunting down small groups of resistance fighters. The film blends in fantastical elements in an unusual way through a young girl.
JD - "This is a film about bugs!" (regarding the fairies)
TP - "This film got lots of good reviews..."
MT - "Well, I've discovered that that's not necessarily good thing!" "I liked it though"
TP - "A lot of it was a defense mechanism for the girl" " It was a little bit graphic in some places"
JD - "Good, we got Tanya's movie out of the way!"
(next day) - TE - (who woke up at 5 am on the island of St John and spent the day traveling) "I was asleep for much of the movie, so when I woke up the ending didn't make any sense!"

Sunday, June 17 - "Little Miss Sunshine" (Mark) - dysfunctional family bands together to help 7 year old Olive compete in the "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant.

Sunday, August 19 - "Perfume" (Rindy) - Movie based on the novel by Patrick Suskind, which three people had read (RJ, TR, TP). A fellow is born with an extremely enhanced sense of smell in the horrid conditions of 18th century Paris slums and strives to make the ultimate perfume, which leads to odd and horrid activities!
TP - (who had recently read the book) "I think they did a good job getting the book into the movie"
TP & JD - "We liked it..."
RJ - "I liked the book a bit better, but that doesn't summarize it really..."
MT - "Well, I didn't really like it. Too much of a hollywood production, melodramatic music, and things didn't make sense. Though it really was interesting to think about smell"
TP - "I wonder how much the extras got paid in the execution scene?!"
TR (that night) - "The depiction of 18th cent. Paris was, perversely, too literal to feel very real..colors too saturated, technicolor feel...aesthetically explores no new ground. Acting was good-particularly liked that the Italian perfumer looked and acted Italian. Music was unobstrusive and contributed to atmosphere.

I like the idea of 'Perfume' because, living with dogs. I am well aware of the world of scent. I can walk a particular path through the ball field during a softball game and then the next morning, 12 hrs later, put
Wick on a tracking lead and he can follow my exact path among dozens of others. 'Perfume', if anything, underplays the power of fully developed mammalian scent systems. The film offers two ways a human might reach this enhanced level, rather pushing the idea this human achieved this by being exposed to putrid fish. It was also made clear the infant was rather traumatized, which offers another explanation.

The main character did a good job of being obsessed in a creepy way, and I am sure was able to pull off a really creepy denouement to explain his nasty execution outlined in the opening scene. Overall four stars...better than most as expected from Dreamworks...enjoyed it"

(next day) "Woke up realizing the saturated colors were because it was because they didn't have any lights! In our minds eye the 18th cent is lit, but it surely wasn't lit by our standards. Does the movie maker go with the mind's eye or historical authenticity...hmmm?

I though the most authentic scene was when JB was walking along following that girl. Remember a dog detects and discriminates every fox, squirrel, rabbit or human that has passed a spot in the last twelve hours, and he can follow air scent or ground scent, or combine them. JB was depicted as doing both (smelling doorways) which to my eye was very believable and authentic.

Less plausible was the stuff in the perfumer shop. I would guess that most great composers have perfect pitch, but there are a lot of people with perfect pitch who can't compose. Fine detection and discrimination is one thing, judging the aesthetic effects of mixtures is another...indred dogs appear to have zero aesthetic appreciation of smells while we have a lot.

But then it's a story.

Given the beginning, and JB's murdering the woman it was pretty clear where the story was going...maybe a bit clearer than it should have been....enjoyed it..."

Saturday August 25 - Various Jean Painleve short films from "Science is Fiction" - Love life of the octopus, Shrimp stories, The Seahorse, Vampire. Also "Tampopo".
MS (about Tampopo): "That was cute"

Sunday, August 26 - All of Painleve short films on disk 1. Also a few scenes from "A Night at the Opera" for TP, who had never heard of the Marx brothers.
JD - "My favorite was the Octopus"
TP - "Mine was The Sea horse"
MT - "And mine was the Blue Beard animation!"
MT - "What in the world was 'Methuselah' about??"