Roger Ebert begins his review as follows:
So Alfred Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut about "Psycho," adding that it "belongs to filmmakers, to you and me." Hitchcock deliberately wanted "Psycho" to look like a cheap exploitation film. He shot it not with his usual expensive feature crew (which had just finished "North by Northwest") but with the crew he used for his television show. He filmed in black and white. Long passages contained no dialogue. His budget, $800,000, was cheap even by 1960 standards; the Bates Motel and mansion were built on the back lot at Universal. In its visceral feel, "Psycho" has more in common with noir quickies like "Detour" than with elegant Hitchcock thrillers like "Rear Window" or "Vertigo."
meine damen and herren, immerse yourselves in the wildly entertaining not quite hollywood: the wild, untold story of ozploitation!, wallow in exploitation, ozploitation and b movies in order to try and figure out how quentin tarantino recycles inspiration drawn from b class movies to shoot his widely acclaimed motion pictures...
Mathilda: Leon, I think I'm kinda falling in love with you...
[Leon chokes on his milk]
Mathilda: It's the first time for me, you know?
Léon: [wiping himself off] How do you know it's love if you've never been in love before?
Mathilda: 'Cause I feel it.
Léon: Where?
Mathilda: [stoking her stomach] In my stomach. It's all warm. I always had a knot there and now... it's gone.
Léon: Mathilda, I'm glad you don't have a stomachache anymore...
Léon: [referring to his plant] It's my best friend. Always happy. No questions...
somebody said that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.. and here we go again not giving a damn whether the above-mentioned statement is true or not.. Cottage's Cinema Club starts the sixth year of its existence September 11 with screening Leon: The Professional.. according to the available data and my memory, Leon's going to be 99th full movie shown in almost 5 years since CCC gathered for the first time to watch Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.. anyway, to cut a long story short, i hope to see you all next week to enjoy the film that became an instant classic at the time of its release, and whose characters, scenes and dialogues instantly achieved iconic status.. here's a sample:
Stansfield: [after the building explodes] Hey, what the fuck is going on up there? I said take the guy out, not the whole fucking building!
Zadie Smith's latest novel NW has just received its Polish translation.. not only does the book describe North-West London, but it also brings into focus the British class system...
All I can say is that my life is pretty plain
I like watching the puddles gather rain
And all I can do is just pour some tea for two
And speak my point of view
But it's not sane.. it's not sane..
I just want someone to say to me:
"I'll always be there when you wake
You know I'd like to keep my cheeks dry today
So stay with me and I'll have it made"
And I don't understand why I sleep all day
And I start to complain that there's no rain
And all I can do is read a book to stay awake
And it rips my life away.. but it's a great escape..
All I can say is that my life is pretty plain
You don't like my point of view
You think that I'm insane
It's not sane.. it's not sane...
Terry Sullivan immortalised Mary Anning with the help of one of the best known tongue twisters that the English speaking world knows:
She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore.
The shells she sells are sea-shells, I'm sure.
For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore
Then I'm sure she sells sea-shore shells
Go for it, daredevils...
the Buddhists have a term called "samsara", which is this sort of hell-cycle that you can never escape from until you meditate your way out of it...
as with most generation labels, "Generation X" is a loaded term, first coined and later disowned by Douglas Coupland, author of the 1991 book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture.. for Coupland, the letter "X" was meant to signify the generation's random, ambiguous, contradictory ways...
