We watched Up today on Blu Ray DVD. It was enjoyable. We liked that they had a dog named Dug (slightly different spelling . . .). Good extra features too.

Watched Dodesukaden, a film by Kurosawa over the weekend (bits and pieces here and there). I have to actually pay attention since I have to read the sub-titles. It is a rather bleak film. I'd seen it over 20 years ago in SF. It finally came out on DVD recently. Also watched a series yesterday, Breaking Bad. Last night's episode was also bleaker than usual. Also watched Masterpiece Mystery last night, Wallander, a detective series. Also rather bleak, fairly enjoyable but not a happy episode. Have seen two, doubt any will be happy overall, just a few moments here and there.

Tonight I watched Simon of the Desert. This I also saw over 20 years and it also just came out on DVD this year. I love some of the quotes,
The Devil:
"Down with the sacred hypostatis!"
"Death with the anastasis!"
"Long live the apocatastasis!"
One of the priests
"What on earth is the apocatastasis?"
Simon:
"Besides being a spiritual exercise, blessings are good fun too."
"Blessed is the scourge if it wins us glory before the Lord."
And then there's a rockin' dance scene too, doin' the radioactive flesh dance.
Such a strange ending

With respect to apocatastasis, from Wikipedia
"Stoicism
In Stoic philosophy, the cosmos is a physical expression of Zeus' perfect thoughts and apocatastasis is the contraction when Zeus returns to self-contemplation.[3] This will occur when the stars and planets return to their original positions, believed to be an alignment with Cancer, and the universe will be consumed by fire (ekpyrosis). Antapocatastasis is a counter-example or a counter-occurrence when the stars and planets align with Capricorn and the universe will be destroyed by flood. When Zeus turns his thoughts outwards once more, the cosmos will be reborn or reconstituted under the guidance and sustenance of Logos, an emanation of Zeus."
...
Christianity
In Christianity, apocatastasis is the doctrine of the ultimate reconciliation of good and evil forces. Apocatastasis maintains that all moral creatures -- angels, humans and devils - will eventually come to a harmony in God's kingdom, the evil ones through repentance and rejection of evil."
Wikipedia on Apocatastasis

and then the comment on Hypostases brings me to
"Three Hypostases in one Ousia"
Wikipedia on Hypostasis
How many good Catholics out there are familiar with that one? I certainly wasn't but I'm not even close to being a Catholic.

The DVD has a very interesting, IMHO, addition called A Mexican Bunuel primarily dealing with his time in Mexico although it does cover his time in the United States and in France to a certain extent. There is also an interview with Silvia Pinal who played the devil in Simon of the Desert. Simon of the Desert is only about 40 minutes long.

I watched both of these last week. I enjoyed them. P thought Iron Man was okay and liked the last half of Wall-E but didn't like either film as much as I did. The last minute of Iron Man with the appearance of Nick Fury makes me wonder what is next. I will admit that neither of these are great works of cinema but I had a good time watching them. The rating on imdb for Iron Man is 8.1 out of 10 and for Wall-E is 8.7 out of 10. So it would seem others out there liked these two movies as much as I did.