Our November and December Movie Selections are...

November Buddy Films:

Billy Wilder's Some Like it Hot (1959)

The Coen Brother's Oh Brother, Where Art Thou(2000)

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)

December Musicals:

Funny Face (1957)

White Christmas (1954)

We've got some great selections for the next couple of months! There are some intriguing crafting inspirations in these movies as well. I'm interested in seeing some of the nominated films that I've missed as well.

If you haven't had a chance to drop by the forum, please do so! We've had some interesting conversations about film noir over there!

Voting for November and December!

*Voting is closed*

It's time to vote! Please vote for up to two for both the November Buddy Movies, and the December Musicals in the comments section. Voting will remain open until next Sunday, October 29th at midnight.
ETA: Vote Tallies as of Friday morning are in yellow
November Buddy Film Nominees:

Some Like it Hot(1959) directed by Billy Wilder 8
Shanghai Noon(2000) with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, a western 2
The Big Lebowski (1998) directed by the Coen Brothers 3
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou(2000) directed by the Coen Brothers 8
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) with Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Kathy Bates 8
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) with Paul Newman and Robert Redford 5
Thelma and Louise (1991) directed by Ridley Scott 7
The Odd Couple (1968) with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau 4
Rushmore (1998) directed by Wes Anderson 4
About a Boy (2002) with Hugh Grant and Toni Collette 5
The Color Purple (1985) directed by Steven Speilberg 7

December Musical Nominees:

Funny Face (1957) with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn 13
West Side Story (1961) It's the Sharks vs. the Jets and forbidden love! 6
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon 3
White Christmas (1954) with Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby 13
Moulin Rouge (2001) directed by Baz Luhrmann 5
Newsies (1992) with Christian Bale 1
Singing in the Rain (1952) with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds 5
My Fair Lady (1964) with Audrey Hepburn 2
South Pacific (1958) Love in a time of war. 6
Little Shop of Horrors (1987) with Rick Moranis and directed by Frank Oz 0
Kiss me Kate (1953) Taming of the Shrew set to Cole Porter 7

Watched Strangers on a Train

The other night, I finally sat down to watch Strangers on a Train, and enjoyed a lot. While I knew the basics of the story, I hadn’t seen it before.

I love how Hitchcock creates so much tension with the use of human behavior without gore. Robert Walker’s performance as the spoiled psycho Bruno was positively creepy, and the carousel scene near the end was pretty scary.

Hitchcock always manages to throw in some humor too.

What I really found interesting is how divorce and marital infidelity was seen 50 years ago. Some things change and some things stay the same.

The DVD has the Hollywood version on one side and the longer British version, which has a little bit more about Bruno on the other. The Hollywood version ends with a humorous scene that's not in the British version. I watched both.

Today, before football, I’ll watch my favorite film noir movie, Sunset Boulevard. It’s a fabulous movie and Gloria Swanson’s performance is astonishing.

Nominations for November and December films

I know that many of us have just begun to see the film noir selections for this month, but we do need to start thinking about our film selections for November and December. I've decided to run nominations and voting for two months at a time, so we aren't constantly voting on movies, but can plan our film viewing and renting. So here are our themes for the next two months.

November's theme is Buddy films. Now the buddy film is more a movie category than a genre. Buddy films often cross genres. They are many times comedies, but not always. The hallmark of a buddy film is the focus on more than one (often two, but occasionally more) protagonist or main character, and a focus on the nature of friendship between the main characters. Some examples of Buddy films include Thelma and Louise, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Lethal Weapon, Stand By Me, The Blues Brothers, Beverly Hills Cop, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, any of the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movies, etc.

December's theme is Musicals. For our purposes, a musical is a film that incorporates songs sung by the characters that are incorporated into the narrative and advance the plot and/or character development. Many film historians consider the 1930s through the 50s to be the golden age of the musical, but there have been many successful musicals made recently such as Chicago, Moulin Rouge, The Producers and Rent.

So, we're going to be taking nominations in both categories for the next week. Please nominate no more than two films for each category in a comment to this post. Nominations will be collected through next Saturday, ending at Midnight PST. Then we'll vote during the last week in October.

ETA: Here are the Nominations so far (Wednesday morning). Feel free to second any of the nominations as part of your nomination if you wish. Seconded films will make it into our final vote, just like last time. So if you see a great film and you can't think of two new nominations, second it and make sure it makes it to our vote!

Buddy films:
Seconded films which will make the vote:
Some Like it Hot
Shanghai Noon
The Big Lebowski
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou
Fried Green Tomatoes
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Thelma and Louise
The Odd Couple
Nominated films waiting to be seconded:
Rushmore
Rush Hour
About a Boy
Wedding Crashers
Muriel's Wedding
The Frisco Kid
The Colour Purple
All the President's Men
Midnight Run
His Girl Friday
Withnail and I
Twins
Dumb and Dumber
Steel Magnolias
How to Make and American Quilt
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Spy Game
New Nominations?

Musicals:
Seconded films that make the vote:
Funny Face
Westside Story
Rocky Horror Picture Show
White Christmas
Moulin Rouge
Newsies
Singing in the Rain
My Fair Lady
South Pacific
Nominated Films Waiting for a second:
Cabaret
Pajama Game
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Purple Rain
Gypsy
A Star is Born
Meet me in St. Louis
Music Man
Kiss me Kate
Showboat
Little Shop of Horrors
Camelot
Reefer Madness: the Musical
The Young Girls of Rochfort
Damn Yankees
Wizard of Oz
Grease
Oklahoma
New Nominations?

Gaslight & Fiber

I am sad to report that I fell asleep during the last 30 minutes of Gaslight. I get up really early and this was ending way past my bedtime. I will try to rent it or watch another of the movies this month. I just saw the Maltese Falcon for the first time about 2 months ago so I am hoping for Strangers on A Train.

As for fiber projects I am thinking that I might make a drawstring bag like Ingrid Bergman carried in the first part of the movie. I saw it and thought of crochet and what a beautiful freeform project that would make. Don't know if I can get it done in October, but I'll try.

I just registered for the forum and haven't responded to the email so I decided to post a quickie. I love this whole idea - I hope it lasts a long time!

Fiber & Flix...yeah

Hey there fellow knitters,Sherrill here...just joined in and have the three October movies in my queue over on Netflix. What a great way to get lots of knitting done and watch some classics.

Happy knitting to all.

Gaslight on the Double

Hi,

My name is Vera, and my blog is Vera's Crafty Blog. I watched both the 1944 and the 1940 versions of Gaslight last night on TCM. I had never seen either version, and watching both back to back was interesting.

Although the main story was the same, the details were very different, and it was fun to see how some of the same scenes played in the two versions.

I liked the Bergman/Boyer/Cotton version better overall. To me, it was more glamorous than the British version.

I got some knitting done too, I worked on the second of my Aran Braided Socks.

I'll try to rent Strangers on a Train this weekend.

Netflix is telling me

that the Maltese Falcon is a "long wait!" Could this possibly be because we all want it? :-)

Double Indemnity on Turner Classic Movies

Eventhough it did not win a spot in the list of movies for this month, Double Indemnity will be on the cable network Turner Classic Movies this Sunday Oct.8 @ 10AM EST. This is just an FYI for those that might want to see it.

So, any film noir fibercrafting pursuits out there?

I'm hoping that everyone is getting a chance to see one or all of the films that we have chosen for this month! I know I'm eagerly awaiting a couple from Netflix. Has anyone thought of any fibercrafting projects inspired by film noir or one of the films? I'm planning on knitting Bonne Marie's Ariann this month. Now, to be honest, I planned on knitting this sweater not thinking about the connection to film noir. However, I think the sweater has is a bit of a vintage sweater with a modern sensibility. Woh, I'm not sure that made any sense! Anyway, I'm hoping as I knit on Ariann while watching Strangers on a Train that the connection will prove more evident!

Also, if you haven't already signed up over at our forum (check the sidebar for the link), please do so! There's already been activity over there. I'm glad we're getting to know each other.

Our October Films

All of the ballots have been counted and we have a winner. We had such an incredible field of movies to chose from. It was very hard to choose! I decided to put of three movies to watch this month. Watch whichever you want to, or watch all. There will be discussions on all three at our forum. So without further ado, our selections are:

Gaslight

Maltese Falcon

Strangers on a Train

Speaking about the forum, please follow the link and register to be able to post over at the forum. We will be discussing our thoughts about the films over at the forum. If you decide to watch another film noir that didn't win, I set up a place in the forum to discuss alternate films. Please post your projects here at the blog. Also, if you'd like to introduce yourself to the group, please do so here at the blog. We will also be nominating and voting on films here on the blog.

I am currently working on putting up some links on our films and film noir in our sidebar. If I've neglected to put your name and blog link in our sidebar, let me know and I'll fix it.

I did hear from a member that Gaslight will be on Turner Classic Movies on October 10th at 10:30PM EST. Yay!