I have a ghost story of my own. At least, I have a ghost-cat story.
My final year as an undergraduate was spent in relative splendor. My friends and I lucked into tenancy in the house of a professor on sabbatical. Twelve foot ceilings! Built in bookshelves! Three cats! Real, grown-up furniture! Wait… let’s get back to the cats. The professorial family had three cats and a dog, though the dog was sent to a friend with a farm (later, they told us later that we clinched the lease when they told us that cat care was part of the deal and our response was, “Aw, we don’t get the dog?”).
So. Three housemates, three cats. One morning around the (solid oak!) table, we were chatting about the cats’ sleeping habits. Two of the cats routinely slept in my room, the third with one of the others. Feeling a little left out, the third roommate said, “That’s okay, because Ghost Cat slept on my bed last night.” Continue reading…
November 4th, 2012 @ 1:36 am
I’m part of a film club “roundtable”. We spent a year watching nothing but film noir. As many as we could find. It was intense but incredibly fun. When it was over, the majority wanted to do the same thing with Westerns. While I had a few Westerns that were near and dear to my heart (Big Country, Good, Bad and the Ugly, Red River)I always considered the genre the least complex and kind of boring. But I hunkered down and took part. It was an amazing experience.
I was wholly unprepared for how much fun the genre was and equally surprised at how many westerns would end up on my all time favorites list by the time the roundtable ended. I was also surprised at how so many westerns from the 40s and 50s were actually noir with a western setting and how similar the two genres were in many ways(sometimes even using the same scripts and director as was the case with Raoul Walsh and High Sierra and Colorado Territory).
November 7th, 2012 @ 5:10 pm
i had a similar experience. i spent years kind of disdaining westerns. then secretly liking sergio leone’s westerns. now i just love so many of them and i’m always finding new ones and new directors. your point about westerns and noir is a really interesting one. thank you!