There is a certain modest genius to a well-crafted disaster film. Unfussy and unpretentious, the best of these keep the proceedings simple, but their apparent simplicity can cloak the care with which plot details are placed and timed, the way individual moments correspond to each other.
When Gaspar Noé released his excruciatingly boring porno cum arthouse provocation Love in 2015, a lot of ink was spilled about its central conceit: that the whole ponderous thing was shot in 3D, allowing Noé to figuratively spew bodily fluids in the audience’s face.
As Broadway’s longest running musical, “The Phantom of the Opera” tells a story of unrequited, impossible love and longing, set to soaring music and adored by legions of Andrew Lloyd Webber fans. What a surprise it is to discover, then, that its 1925 film incarnation, like the Gaston Leroux novel on which it is based, is a lot more like Saw.
So, today we wrap up The Week of The Dissolve. It’s been a fun, occasionally melancholy stroll down meta-memory lane. I hope you’ve enjoyed it.
As should be abundantly clear by now, The Dissolve meant a lot to me, and still does.
The Week of The Dissolve soldiers on.
At this point, you may well wonder how much more I could possibly have to say. It’s not an unreasonable thing to wonder, but you may be surprised — I’ve actually been pretty moderate in my gushing praise so far.
We kicked off The Week of The Dissolve with some personal reflections on what the site meant to me, and then followed that up yesterday with a few of the many highlights from its editors, staff writers, and contributors during its too-brief run.
Yesterday, we kicked off The Week of The Dissolve with what the site itself, in one of its “Movie of the Week” features, might’ve called a Keynote. Today, continuing this meta-One Year Later appreciation thread, we move on to some Essentials.
Quick! Free association game. I’ll go first: Maximilian Schell, Peter Ustinov, Melina Mercouri! Did you answer: Topkapi?
Probably not. (Though congrats if you did.)
These are huge names, but Topkapi is not. Between the three leads, they amassed 86 prestigious awards and nominations, including Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, Cannes triumphs, and whatever a CableACE award is.
It’s been a year since The Dissolve shuttered its virtual windows, packed up its stuff, and moved on.
Welcome to a week commemorating its passing.
Recently, I was talking to a friend, and started wistfully recalling it, in the hushed terms we usually reserve for good friends.
The title of this post is a lie in at least two ways: Girl Walk // All Day is neither new nor on Netflix.
But I only just came across Girl Walk (so it’s new to me). It’s readily available for your viewing pleasure (free on Vimeo and YouTube, so that’s even better than a paid streaming service for our purposes here).