couch potato vs. writing urge

After reading a very good post today on Nausicaa, I feel tempted to write about some Studio Ghibli films in the near future, including that Ponyo review I meant to write ages ago. The only reason I don’t own the Blu-ray yet is due to the Studio Canal/Lionsgate fiasco that has me running around trying to find some of Criterion’s out of print titles that I really want to own. I recently picked up Grand Illusion, Tales of Hoffmann, The Milky Way, Touchez Pas au Grisbi, and Kind Hearts and Coronets, but I have several more titles to go and that has a stranglehold on my wallet at the moment.

This week I rented a bunch of dvds, mostly Criterion titles, including Orson Welles’ very unusual, but highly entertaining essay/documentary F for Fake, Antonioni’s La Notte and L’Eclisse (I’d already seen and liked L’Avventura)  and and the 5 Films by John Cassavetes boxset. That should keep me busy for a few days. Watching 15-20 films per week (plus the extras on the Criterion discs) has left me less time for writing, despite the backlog of reviews/essays I have half-finished, waiting to be edited into something more concise and comprehensible.