Moviegoing (Pandemic) - March

Earlier this year, and particularly this month, a horror the likes of which we haven't seen in some time, a deadly viral pandemic, SARS-Covid-19, descended upon the USA and globe, shaking the country to its core and necessitating a shift to very different modes of living. Covid-19 has led to scenes unimaginable perhaps since the Spanish influenza epidemic 100 years ago across the country, but particularly in New York, New Jersey and other densely packed urban areas. In our case, it has meant making sure loved ones are safe and healthy, having classes and meetings moved online (to Zoom, Webex and online platforms, more email, etc.), engaging in multiple forms of social distancing and far fewer trips to the store, post office, etc., masking, greater vigilance around handwashing, etc., and trying to make sense of the conflicting array of misinformation, disinformation and so forth coming out of this administration (is anyone surprised). Earlier this month the president appeared to suggest ingesting bleach was the right response (!), and his government has repeatedly downplayed the pandemic and its devastating effects, creating confusion instead of badly needed clarity about how to proceed. I fear the final toll once we get through all of this--we will--in terms of the dead, those with lingering illness, the social, economic and political fallout, and more. It is a catastrophe in every way and looks to only become more so by the day.

One thing I decided to do this month, since I have found it hard to concentrate on non-work-related reading, is to watch films, and so I'm listing the films and TV shows I watched this month, and plan to do so, if I can, for the foreseeable future. These films and TV shows have been a balm, an education, a conversation, points of departure, entryways into critique and deeper thought, and so forth. My film-watching was not systematic and, as you'll see, heavier on features and shorts than on documentaries (though I did watch some). There may be duplicates and the list is likely incomplete, as my level of distraction is at an all-time high. I won't include descriptions for all of them but I may star films I felt stood out, and provide some other indicator for films that were particular duds. I also am listing them in the order I watched them and not alphabetically (unless otherwise indicated). I watched most on the Criterion Channel, Netflix, Kanopy, HereTV, Hulu, HBOMax, Youtube, and various cable channels, of course.

Here goes: March 2020:

The Defiant Ones* (I've seen this before & especially appreciate Poitier's performance)

Nadja in Paris* (Rohmer short)

Liberian Boy*

Atlantiques (short)*

Paper Moon* (an old favorite)

Look at Me

The Taste of Others*

A Thousand Suns* (the Mati Diop film, focusing on the star of Mambéty's Touki Bouki)

Edge of the City*

The Hunger* (an old fave)

Gilda*

Art School Confidential (seen several times & enjoyable even with its flaws)

You'll Never Get Rich (I loved the dancing, esp. Rita Hayworth)

Ghost World* (an old fave)

The Cruz Brothers & Miss Molloy (one of Kathleen Collins' 2 films she completed before her untimely death)

Through a Glass Darkly* (dramatic Bergman)

The Girl from Chicago* (an early Black film, from 1932)

Close-Up* (Kiarostami's 1990 gem)

The Day of the Locust (West's novel is a work of genius but the film falls a little short)

They Call Me Mr. Tibbs!*

Brother John* (strange but beautiful film)

The Milky Way*

The Swimmer* (as haunting as Cheever's short story but in a different way)

A Girl Walks Home at Night*

Black Panthers* (A Varda gem)

The Entertainer* (I cannot get Olivier's performance out of my head)

Sea Devil

Sacrilège

The Skin I Live In* (Almodóvar!)

All These Creatures

Mahler

Desperately Seeking Susan* (an old fave)

Ornette: Made in America* (kind of obsessed with this one)

3 by Shirley Clarke*: Parks of Paris, Dancer, Bullfighter