dead genres don't wear plaid

Friday, December 13th, 2013 -- Was considering maybe writing about the movie, Body Heat.

Then thought, You cannot effectively
describe,
discuss,
analyze,
wallow in
that film in only one blog post.


Then leapt to an idea on the other end of the Spectrum:  go "extreme," and blog about Body Heat

every day for a year,

as Lawrence Dai did, with the movie Julie & Julia.

His "thing" was -- Watch the movie and blog about it, every day for a year.

I could either --
A)  watch Body Heat every day for a year and blog about it,
or
B)  just blog about it every day for a year -- wouldn't have to re-watch the whole film every day, could just talk about it.

Lawrence Dai's blog was funny.

And his idea came from the movie Julie & Julia because Julie Powell's premise, or project, was to cook her way through Julia Child's Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, in a year.

Anyway -- I think -- on the Body Heat DVD there are extra features -- one is an interview with the film's writer and director, Lawrence Kasdan, who says he loves the film noir genre because of "the baroque freedom of the camera" -- and -- I think -- if I made it my project to blog about the movie Body Heat every day for a year, I would miss -- "the baroque freedom" to write about the topics and ideas of my choice, each day....

(Am not sure what "baroque freedom of the camera" means, but I really enjoy hearing Lawrence Kasdan say it. ...)
dictionary:  baroque
1.  of or pertaining to a style of architecture and art originating in Italy in the early 17th century
2.  of or pertaining to the musical period following the Renaissance
3.  extravagantly ornate

baroque freedom of the camera
baroque freedom of the camera
"the baroque.  freedom.  of-the-camera. ..."

-----------------------------In 2007 "Windmills of My Mind" wrote --
 

When Ned first lays eyes on Matty in her all-white dress (in true film noir fashion) he is immediately taken by her... and so are we.  He approaches her and engages in the kind of dialogue that we just don't hear in movies anymore.

 

NED:  I need tending.  I need someone to take care of me, someone to rub my tired muscles, smooth out my sheets.

 

MATTY:  Get married.

 

NED:  I just need it for tonight.

 

...This is a story about desire, not satisfaction....The sex scenes are certainly steamy, but they feel more explicit than they actually are....By the late 70's / early 80's, film noir had become virtually nonexistent.  Several directors had attempted to recreate this much beloved and time-honored type of film but, aside from a few notable exceptions, with little success unfortunately.  This prompted many film scholars and historians to declare, as many still do today, that film noir was essentially a dead genre.

 

Film noir, they said, was the kind of movie that resulted from a very specific economic, cultural and socio-political climate:  namely post-WWII.  Thus, outside of that particular period of history film noir didn't (and couldn't) exist.  Like the screwball comedy, noir was only a temporal manifestation in motion pictures; a fond memory of a bygone era.  It was great while it lasted, but it wasn't coming back.  Flying in the face of this conventional wisdom, Lawrence Kasdan attempted to prove that film noir was not only alive, it could actually be more relevant than ever. ...

----------------------
"My God, it's hot.  I stepped out of the shower and started sweating again. -- It's still burning?...What is it?"
"The Seawater Inn.  My family used to eat dinner there twenty-five years ago, now somebody's torched it to clear the lot."
"That's a shame."

"Probably one of my clients."

-30-