On July Fourth, I watched a lot of movies and called it research. (But don't hate me; one was <i>Flashdance</i>)

For the new project (comments to follow):

Everyone Says I Love You(Woody Allen) - An utterly joyless, excruciating experience. I just wanted his characters to shut up for even one second. Everyone seemed to be doing a frantic, bad Woody Allen impression; the most "successful," Poor Ed Norton was possessed. Just wrong in every way. This is one of the films he sued his longtime producer over; he's lucky I wasn't on the jury.

Disney's Classics of the 50's (Various) - Some animated shorts (what we called "cartoons" when we watched them on Saturday mornings.), including "Pigs is Pigs" and a too-long stop-action "Noah's Ark." What I really need is "Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land."

Bedknobs & Broomsticks (Robert Stevenson) - Waiting to watch it on the train

Flashdance (Adrian Lyne) - The invention of the music video. heh. Watching this was prompted by Buffy's dread of "a workout montage" (see previous post). Pretty unwatchable, but interesting. (How is that possible?)

Erin Brockovich(Steven Soderbergh) - Saving grace. I thought I'd better get a crowdpleaser, in case all my other choices fell through (which they have, so far. Only Angela Lansbury can save me now.) Soderbergh's style is there for the groupie (me) but invisible to anyone who just wants "a good movie." People smiled politely at my excitement over the long early shot, the one where Julia Roberts gets in a car, drives off, and then gets slammed by a car going 50 mph. How'd they DO that? (Agent- and insurance-wise, it's impossible. Turns out to be a composited shot, although I still can't believe it.)