My husband, K and our friend S started a tradition a few years ago of doing movie marathons. Each of us take turns picking a theme and then we watch six or so films in that category and then at the end we have a little awards ceremony (well, we drink champagne and talk about our favorites in various categories). We have done a bunch of different marathons: Italian Neo Realism, Woody Allen, Road Movies, Conspiracy Movies, Astaire v. Kelly and most recently Godard v. Truffaut. S chose this time and he picked Dustin Hoffman movies (or alternatively to sound fancy: The Films of D. Hoffman). We are halfway through the marathon so I thought I'd do a little recap of the three we've watched so far.
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| This was the most ridiculous picture I could find. |
1.
Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969): Fun fact:
Midnight Cowboy was the only X rated movie to win Best Picture; that makes is sound much more racy than it is. Jon Voight is Joe Buck, a country bumpkin who idolizes the masculinity and rugged individualism of the cowboys of the American west. After leaving his podunk town he journeys to New York City to become a male prostitute for the high class ladies who are yearning for a real man to come into their lives and satisfy them (or so he thinks). In case you couldn't tell, he is perfectly naive and unprepared for the city and can't find any clients that fit the above description. He meets Dustin Hoffman's conman, Ratzo Rizzo, and an unlikely friendship forms. I generally enjoyed this film but I wasn't prepared for some flashbacks and psychedelic touches; I always thought it was a much more straightforward story. Hoffman's performance was a bit more over the top than I expected and Jon Voight's performance was much more nuanced.
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| I love a man in an untied bow tie. |
2.
Lenny (Bob Fosse, 1974):
Lenny is a biopic of comedian Lenny Bruce and his rise to fame and infamy told from the perspective of all of the people in his life: his mother, his wife and his manager. Dustin Hoffman gives his best performance of the marathon so far as the titular character. I loved the sensitivity and sweetness he infused into Lenny the man, while also showing us the great flaws that this man had. As Lenny the performer, he had the right infusion of vulgarity and glee. Bob Fosse is one of the great American directors; I think he has such flair with the camera and with editing (Stop reading this blog and see
All that Jazz, so great) and as with his other films I have seen,
Lenny has a vibrancy and kinetic energy that brings the film to life. So far, this has been my favorite of all the movies. Plus, I am a sucker for some pretty black and white cinematography.
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| Feathered hair! |
3.
All the President's Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976): Confession: I really have no idea what Watergate was. I hoped that by watching this movie, I would understand it. I didn't. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman are Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post journalists who brought the Watergate scandal to light. I think this is a solid movie, the performances are strong; Jason Robards as the editor in chief stands out, but I feel that both Redford and Hoffman don't have that much character development. I understand that this is the point and the film is a procedural, but both Redford and Hoffman bored me a bit in their performances. It was also too long and too dry. Also, I found the weird ending where one second their lives are in danger and the next everything is tidily wrapped up a bit contrived. And I still don't understand Watergate!
So far from this marathon, I realized that I don't like Hoffman as an actor as much as I thought I did; I have been underwhelmed by two of his three performances. Hopefully, the next three will change my mind.
Julie
4. Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present: Every Monday HBO shows a new documentary and I recently caught up with this one directed by Matthew Akers. I didn't know very much about Ms. Abramovic, I had read a few articles about her in Vogue and the New York Times and remember her performance art piece being mentioned in Sex and the City. I had heard about her show at MOMA in 2010 but mostly remember hearing about the naked people in a doorway one needed to squeeze through to see the exhibit. Hearing her speak about her sometimes controversial work was fascinating and I found some of her pieces incredibly interesting (especially her work with her partner / lover Ulay). I must admit, I am particularly susceptible to hero worship and I think this film fed into the idea of Abramovic as a sort of performance art goddess. That being said, once they get to the footage from the MOMA show where Abramovic sat in a new piece where any museum visitor could sit in a seat across from her and look into her eyes, I found myself unexpectedly moved. I loved watching the footage of museumgoers sitting across from the artist and looking into her eyes; I loved their varied reactions of laughter, tears and enigmatic faces (also the moment when Ulay comes and sits in the seat across from her, I totally cried). 
It is almost so simple that you don't really need a tutorial. You simply wrap the yarn around the foam wreath. Wrap it tight and as evenly as you can. I made marks for where I wanted the stripes. I just eyeballed it and didn't care if it was even.
Finally I added some felt flowers (there are tons of better tutorials online if you are interested in making these). This is the part I was scared of doing but it was actually really simple and I am pretty happy with how they turned out. I cut out a bunch of different sizes of circles, then you simply cut a spiral through the entire circle. I wrapped it into a flower shape as tightly as I could and then I simply hot glued the end. I free formed some leaf shapes in the green felt and strategically put them under. I then laid it out the way I wanted it and hot glued them on. 
