In Which Your Faithful Narrator Discusses His "Vice"

i have a vice. its not really a vice, per se, i guess. a vice, in general definition usually means something really bad like, i don't know-- drug abuse, alcoholism, etc, etc. no, my "vice" (note the quotes) is Criterion DVDs. to discover what criterion dvds are feel free to check out their website. these dvds tend to be expensive, okay, they are expensive. not prohibitively expensive, but they certainly do put a wallop on my wallet. please note, i don't pay full price for them, it is because of my addction to criterion dvds that i bought my very own bn membership card. (this is not an ad, so please don't get mad at me-- full disclosure: i work for BN). i did the math one day and decided that it was a good idea to get said card and use coupons they send me to get said dvds, it has been, for the most part a good idea. that is except for one small thing: i buy the dvds. i know in the back of my mind that i should just netflix them (i have a netflix account, the greatest thing ever, by the way), but like a good addict i must have them. and i do. i have a whole shelf full, double stacked. its a thing of beauty and im very proud of my small (but growing) criterion collection.

i don't just buy them impulsively, okay, maybe once in a while. though, a good many are "blind bought," that is i buy them without seeing them or knowing much about them first. oh, i do research them. i read reviews and try and find out something about them (that's where the internet movie database-- imdb.com-- comes in handy). and i do, sometimes, rent them from netflix. if the reviews sound okay, but i'm still not sure about them, that's when i rent them. when i was workig on my masters i had a friend who shared my love of crits and we trade them back and forth, i generally don't do that mainly because they are too expensive and i'm afraid they'll get lost, stolen, or ruined. but i figured if i had one of his hostage he'd take care of mine, he did and took care of his.

i do have a couple favorites that i like to watch over and over (Spirit of the Beehive being one of them, Kicking and Screaming -- not the will farrell one-- being another). they are all excellent and all well done.

i have approximately 60 criterions. and i'd be lying if i'd said i'd watched them all. i haven't, i have watched some of all them, but not all of them all the way through. each movie tends to have a bunch of extras (that's the main reason i got hooked on them, the extras rock). and i'd be lying again if i said i'd seen all the extras for all the movies, i haven't, not even close. some of the movies i bought because they sounded good. some i'd seen before.

i've been trying to get through the movie 8 1/2 by fredrico fellini. its not a bad movie, actually its quite good. i started watching it the other night, but i feel asleep, you've read that entry and the hilarity that ensued from that whole escaped. i watched some more of it during the day, but i kept getting distracted or called away. i'm almost done with it. its a tad weird, but not overly over the top. at times it is dream like which is alright.

i've discovered that i don't mind reading movies. this is a good thing, particularly since at least half of my crits are foriegn films: french, italian, japanese (mainly). i've learned alot about movies/films since i started watching criterion dvds. i've started watching movies in general differently than i used to. for example i pay attention to camera work, or cuts, or how soundtrack pushes scene along. in short, criterion has mad me more critical and able to watch movies with a keener eye. granted, this can take some of the enjoyment out of a movie because i'm too busy analyzing what i'm watching, but that's okay.


so, i guess i have to ask myself this: why am i typing here when i have a criterion to watch.

*republished from opendiary.com