Field Trip City

I woke up dead tired today, but made it to class where I learned the act of folio folding and leafed through a 1797 second edition copy of Radcliffe's The Italian, a book on which I'd written an essay in fourth year.

After class I picked up Patton and The Trial from Media Commons. I put on Patton when I got home, but I had to pause it halfway through because I was too exhausted to stay awake. I took a nap on the couch and finished it off afterwards. I always enjoy seeing George C. Scott in a movie, and he completely commands the screen in every scene. The film is just gorgeous to look at. I'm starting to build a taste for war movies, and this one did pretty much everything right, portraying Patton as slightly mad yet strangely admirable. The famous opening segment in which he stands in front of a giant American flag telling his men what to expect in war is great to watch even by itself.

The Trial is based on the Kafka story and directed by Orson Welles. It was his personal favorite of all of his films, and it's the most aggressively stylized of the ones I've seen, even more so than Kane and Lady From Shanghai. The movie is nightmarishly constructed from beginning to end and never dull. Anthony Perkins stars in the lead just a couple of years after making Psycho and plays the part of a man accused of an unidentified crime note perfect as he runs through jaggedly lit corridors, up spiral staircases and across enormous rooms and landscapes with a determined panic. A lot of the rhetoric is a bit blinding, but my only real qualm with the movie is the notorious job done with the dialogue overdubbing. Actually, that seems to often be the main problem with Welles' films - it's just downright distracting trying to pay attention to actors when their words don't line up with the movements of their mouths. Still, thematically, The Trial is disturbing and energetic, and unlike any movie I've seen.

I got an email today from SSHRC telling me about some recruitment program the government is running for "policy leaders;" it's geared towards honour students. I worked on an application and polished my resume, but I don't know if I'll apply. I'm still not really sure what I'd be doing. The description of the "program" is vague but it seems to indicate that upon graduation I'd be put into the public service field at an above-entry level, "taking on significant responsibilities in shaping Canadian policies" that match my field of expertise. Okay.

Lots of work to do this weekend. I'd better get a good night's sleep.