January 23

Leave it to the dependable John Kenneth Muir to come up with a much-needed appreciation of Open Water, one of the most under-rated (and bleakest) films of the past decade. I mean, a 5.9 rating at the IMDB? What's up with that? This film still gives me nightmares, quite literally:

http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2010/01/cult-movie-review-open-water-2004.html

The Rotterdam International Film Festival runs from January 27 to February 7. Full information in English is here:

http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/

The blog Limitless Cinema, which is indeed limitless and talks about films I have never heard of otherwise, offers an intriguing "Rotterdam Wish List":

http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2010/01/rotterdam-wish-list.html

The History Blog alerted me to a fascinating project, "A History of the World in 100 Objects" (sounds like Peter Greenaway should have thought of it), co-sponsored by BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum:

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/4455

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/4082

A Journey Round My Skull never runs out of great international children's book illustrations:

http://ajourneyroundmyskull.blogspot.com/2010/01/tresky-plesky-or-kvanki-vanki.html

The New York Times enterprisingly draws on two recent auctions to discuss "Photography's Early and Unsung Pioneers":

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/arts/23iht-melik23.html

Among notables born on this date are novelists Stendhal and J.G. Farrell, poets Derek Walcott and Louis Zukofsky, Italian political philosopher Antonio Gramsci, film director Sergei Eisenstein, painter Edouard Manet, jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton, Founding Father John Hancock, composer Muzio Clementi, television comedian Ernie Kovacs, and actors Dan Duryea, Jeanne Moreau, Rutger Hauer, and Randolph Scott. Perhaps the moment I am proudest of in my brief career as a professional movie reviewer in the early Eighties is writing a rave review for Blade Runner when it was generally not getting that kind of love. Rutger Hauer's "tears in the rain" speech was the highlight of highlights in a truly great film.