My post about the previous Michelangelo Antonioni film we’ve watched, L’Avventurawas not very kind to it. That was probably because I didn’t really understand it. La Notte is considered the next film of a trilogy and for a while it seemed like it would be heading the same way. Then everything clicked together during the final scene and now that I have some time to process, the more I think about this film, the more I like it. This is usually a sure sign that the film is a true masterpiece.
A long time ago when I had a PSP, my two favorite games on it were Burnout Legends and some version of Monster Hunter. Unfortunately I was never able to get very far with the latter no matter how much I loved the concept as I found the controls very difficult on a handheld platform, particularly as there was no lock-on feature and you needed to manually control the camera while controlling your character at the same time. Anyway that’s why through the years I kept an eye on the series and of course I eventually bought it when an English version finally made its way to the PC.
This was added to my list because I thought it appropriate to properly sit down and watch at least one Charlie Chaplin film. I’m sure most of us have childhood memories of watching snippets on the television but I don’t think I’ve ever watched one in its entirety. This one is considered one of his best and is the first full-length film he directed himself. He is also surprisingly credited for the musical score and yet it is child actor Jackie Coogan who steals the show. Unfortunately Coogan’s personal story would later turn out to be one of the earliest examples of child actors being taken advantage of by their parents.
Here is another film by Yasujirō Ozu, though of course a much less well known one than Tokyo Story. I originally thought that this was part of the director’s so-called Noriko Trilogy but it turns out that this doesn’t count because although actress Setsuko Hara appears in it, her character here is named Akiko. It’s extra confusing how all the same cast members appear but playing different roles. The themes here are less sharply defined as well but it still makes for an excellent family drama.
Given the title and the poster, you might expect this to be another nature documentary. In fact this is more about the people who live in the Antarctic stations, particularly those who endure a full year there through the dark winter season, isolated from the rest of the world. Given that I’ve previously worked in remote locations as part of the logging industry, this had added resonance and I really enjoyed the details of what they daily routines looked liked.
It’s a short month and slow in terms of interesting science news, so I don’t have much.
First we have a long feature about the earliest known domesticated dogs. Based on studies of both human and dog DNA as well as the observation that the genetic lines of dogs and humans tend to merge or spit together in the same places because humans bring their dogs along with them as they move, the current hypothesis is that dogs were first domesticated somewhere in northern Siberia roughly 23,000 years ago. Unfortunately just as more successful human settlers killed off natives as they invade, so do the dogs they bring displace the dog lineages of the natives, all of which can be noted in the mitochondrial DNA evidence.
Here is an amusing story about how pigs can seemingly be trained to play simple video games. They used a ruggedized version of a familiar joystick and had a dispenser for food rewards when the pigs won. Yet some of the pigs still played even after the dispenser mechanism broke down. This isn’t too surprising a result as we already know that pigs are quite intelligent and yes, I would agree that there is a moral imperative to move towards synthetic meat.
Finally this is potentially a huge thing once it can be proven to work on humans. Despite decades of effort, there is currently no contraceptive pill that can be taken by men. This paper talks about triptonide, a natural compound extracted and purified from a herb used in traditional Chinese medicine. Studies involving mice and monkeys show that it induces deformed sperm, greatly reducing its movement ability and hence causes infertility. Moreover it is fully reversible several weeks after cessation of the drug and seems to have no toxic side effects. Needless to say once it becomes available for humans, it will help shift the burden of preventing unwanted pregnancies from being borne entirely by women.
I still consider The Tree of Life to be one of my favorite ever films but I haven’t anything Terrence Malick has made since then due to how awful the reviews are. This most recent one has been better received but still isn’t considered as good as his earlier work. Its subject is surely a worthy one, being one that fits well with Malick’s personal spirituality and it shows flashes of brilliance. But it also goes on for too long and feels too repetitive and you get the feeling that the people around him are just too reluctant to call out the grandmaster of cinema for merely passable work.
