by Sam Juliano
Say summer three times fast…..and then…..it’s gone! Just when you thought it was time for relaxation, September is a palpable reminder, and in just two weeks the schools will be opening again.
While in some corners of the blogosphere activity has tailed off, in others there has been some passion and excitement. Over at Icebox Movies Adam Zanzie is just completing his wildly popular John Huston Blogothon, and a number of friends and affiliates have made terrific submissions in examining this icon of American cinema.
Jason Marshall is engaged in an annual countdown (much in the style of Dave Hicks and Jeffrey Goodman) and there has been some wonderful writing over there at Movies Over Matter that I heartily recommend.
Here at WitD Maurizio Roca has penned a fantastic review of The Searchers (where he makes his “peace” with the film) that has ignited a monster thread with over 175 comments. This is a tribute to Maurizio’s engaging writing style and the usual suspects strutting their stuff. (Jamie, Joel, Bob, Donophon and others all in top form) Jamie Uhler’s masterful series on Rainer Maria Rilke has concluded, and one can only marvel at the talent and passion on display here. Allan’s continuing series on Yoshida, Joel’s excellent new review on Davies’ The House of Mirth, and a review of The Dead for Adam Zanzie’s John Huston Blogothon rounds out the action here at the site.
After taking most of the week off from running around Manhattan after over a month of such torrid activities, I returned to the familiar routine again over the weekend, where I attended a magnificent concert in the Mostly Mozart Festival at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center on Saturday night with Lucille, and watched the first three offerings in the Film Forum’s “3D Festival” (which included a Three Stooges short also in 3D on Friday night) as well as this weekend’s Ozu film at the IFC Film Center’s ongoing examination of the magisterial director. During the week when I “stayed home” I watched five of the Yoshida films that Allan had sent on to me and found two more masterpieces in the lot. So all things considered, I wound up with yet another blistering week, though what with the Wildwood vacation from Tuesday through Friday of this coming week, that long-awaited break is finally at hand. What’s that you say? Theatres in Wildwood? I’d rather drown in the ocean.
This was the first week in about 14 months that I failed to see a single “newly-released” movie in the theatres.
Man in the Dark *** 1/2 (Friday night) Film Forum’s 3 D Festival
Pardon My Backfire *** (Friday night) Film Forum’s 3 D Festival
Gorilla At Large ** (Saturday afternoon) Film Forum’s 3D Festival
Kiss Me Kate **** (Sunday afternoon) Film Forum’s 3 D Festival
Record of a Tenemant Gentleman **** 1/2 (Sunday morn.) IFC Ozu Fest.
I will save detailed commentary of both the 3 D Festival and the Ozu films for round-up posts when the festivals are over, as I have done with Chaplin today. Same plans are in place for the Yoshidas.
At home:
Wuthering Heights *** (Yoshida)
Coup d’Etat **** (Yoshida)
Affair in the Snow ***** (Yoshida)
Confessions Among Actresses **** 1/2 (Yoshida)
Farewell to the Summer Light ***** (Yoshida)
The “Mostly Mozart Festival” concert we attended on Saturday night (I make one or two appearances every summer since 2004) included Symphony #25, Symphony #40 (one of the greatest all all symphonic works) and Piano Concerto #20 in D minor, all conducted by the animated Louis Langree with Antii Siirala on the piano.
At Twenty Four Frames John Greco has been doing some fabulous work as of late on Anthony Mann, and his review on Devil’s Doorway is expertly managed: http://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/
Andrew Wyatt, our good friend and St. Louis-based film writer par excellence has moved up the ladder, and we at WitD are thrilled to hear of this fantastic news!: http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2010/08/03/amateur-film-writer-becomes-occassionally-professional-film-writer/
Just Another Film Buff continues to move around the world, and presently he has a superlative essay up on Peepli, a Hindi film at The Seventh Art. Even if you are unfamiliar with Hindi cinema, the review will convert you: http://theseventhart.info/2010/08/14/ellipsis-8/
Roderick Heath turns his discerning eye on Crazy Heart, the film that won Jeff Bridges an Oscar at This Island Rod: http://thisislandrod.blogspot.com/2010/08/crazy-heart-2009.html
Over at Marilyn Ferdinand’s Ferdy-on-Films, Mr. Heath leads again with a fascinating look at the eternally-popular action film, Die Hard: http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/?p=5795
Filmmaker Jeffrey Goodman has just posted his second in the series of “Five Best Films” he began a few weeks ago, and his newest group of favorites includes a few of the greatest works of American cinema. The continuation of the series is thrilling news. It’s over at The Last Lullaby: http://cahierspositif.blogspot.com/2010/08/favorite-five-part-2.html
Terrific news at Cinema Viewfinder as Tony Dayoub will be hosting a Cronenberg blogathon in early September: http://www.cinemaviewfinder.com/2010/08/cronenberg-blogathon.html
Michael Harford, the cheerful ‘Coffee Messiah’ has taken a brief summer break he richly deserves the past week and a half or so, but his place is still teaming with visitors and his special kind of creativity: http://coffeemessiah.blogspot.com/2010/07/when-you-dream-in-color.html
Our Canadian friend Jeopardy Girl is headed to the Toronto Film Festival, wouldn’t you know it! At WitD, we look forward to her ever-astute report. Her enthuasism here is palpable: http://jeopardygirl.wordpress.com/2010/08/07/tiff/
The John Huston blogothon, manned by the tireless Adam Zanzie was a smashing success. The latest post at Icebox Movies features a poignant picture of Huston’s cemetery plaque on Day #8 of the blogathon: http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2010/08/john-huston-blogathon-day-8.html
And to that end, Judy at Movie Classics has penned a second superlative review in the blogothon with a guarded appraisal of The Macintosh Man that exhaustively examines this oft-forgotten film in the Huston catalogue: http://movieclassics.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/the-mackintosh-man-1973/
Troy Olson, at Elusive as Robert Denby-The Life and Times of Troy, asks ‘Where’s the Content? when explaining the relative dearth of material at his blogsite the past few months, but he then talks about some fantastic ventures in the works: http://troyolson.blogspot.com/2010/08/where-content.html
Across the pond on the Emerald Isle, Longman Oz continues at his astonishingly prolific pace in brining Irish theatre, contemporary music and international film to the masses. His latest review is an ultra-perceptive on on the popular inde, City Island: http://noordinaryfool.com/2010/08/16/cityisland/
Craig Kennedy, at Living in Cinema, has revamped the lead-in to his famed Watercooler post, but as always he leaves it all up to the reader: http://livingincinema.com/2010/08/15/watercooler-the-world-vs-scott-pilgrim/
David Schleicher feels Get Low is harmless enough, but it’s no masterpiece: http://theschleicherspin.com/2010/08/13/get-low-and-out-of-tune/
In the wake of the John Huston Blogothon, Tony d’Ambra chimes in with his own declaration of poetry in noir, wedding John Huston and W.J. Burnett in a Hollywood classic at FilmsNoir.net: http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/noir-poets-john-huston-and-w-r-burnett.html
Dave Hicks is back, after his move to Columbus, and his new post features the “also rans” in his Director’s Countdown: http://goodfellamovies.blogspot.com/2010/08/directors-series-wrap-up.html
In her latest post, Terrill Welch, the tireless Creative Potager, gives a new definition to beautiful wedding photography and the fascinating story behind it. It’s an enthralling feature: http://creativepotager.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/red-umbrella-and-wedding-photography/
J.D. at Radiator Heaven has penned an amazing essay on Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen: http://rheaven.blogspot.com/2010/08/adventures-of-baron-munchausen.html
Dan Getahun has Fargo on his mind with a you-tube clip from the Coens’ gem at Getafilm: http://getafilm.blogspot.com/2010/08/short-cuts-ya-you-know-its-radisson-so.html
Kevin Olson was one of the John Huston blogothon’s real heroes with his multi-contibutions, the last a dual consideration of Prizzi’s Honor and Under the Volcano: http://kolson-kevinsblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/two-from-john-huston-prizzis-honor-and.html
The Film Doctor tackles the new Julia Roberts flick, Eat Pray Love, and his verdict isn’t all that bad. It’s a masterfully-written piece: http://filmdr.blogspot.com/2010/08/spiritual-consumption-hybrid-aesthetics.html
R.D. Finch has run into some lamentable technical issues at The Movie Projector that have caused him some grief, but he is hoping he will get things back in order soon enough. His latest essay on two S. Ray masterworks is a gem: http://themovieprojector.blogspot.com/2010/08/aparajito-country-india-director.html
Jason Marshall’s annual film project is just began a consideration of 1934, where he names The Thin Man as his #9 film, after Mevedkin’s Happiness checked in at #10: http://moviesovermatter.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/best-pictures-of-1934-9-the-thin-man/
Samuel Wilson’s latest essay is yet another superlative one at it’s on Eugenio Martin’s The Bounty Hunter at “Mondo 70.” http://mondo70.blogspot.com/2010/08/bounty-killer-el-precio-de-un-hombre.html
Stephen Russell-Gebbett has authored a tremendous essay on grief and the film version of Katherine Patterson’s Bridge to Tarabithia at Checking on My Sausages: http://checkingonmysausages.blogspot.com/2010/08/bridge-to-terabithia.html
Shubhajit has a terrific new look at Cinemascope and he continues to post new reviews, the latest an excellent treatment of Brick: http://cliched-monologues.blogspot.com/2010/08/brick-2005.html
Our dear friend Pat resumed her blogging several weeks back, and it’s business as usual at Doodad Kind of Town, where her latest post is a discussion on some recent at-home watching of Mel Brooks flicks. As always it’s engaging, quality stuff: http://doodadkindoftown.blogspot.com/2010/06/hey-torquemada-whaddya-say.html
Jason Bellamy continues to lead with his “images” display from the popular project initiated by Joel, but he has hinted at WitD that his ‘Conversations’ collaboration with Ed Howard will soon be posting, and Todd Haynes is the subject: http://coolercinema.blogspot.com/2010/07/images-that-thrill.html
The gifted Donophon is taking an extended break from his The Long Voyage Home blogsite due to unavoidable circumstances, but he promises to be back and to monitor all his favorite blogs: http://thelongvoyagehome.blogspot.com/2010/07/hiatus.html
Dave Van Poppel has written a superlative review of Winter’s Bone, a realist film he discusses in effusively-favorable terms: http://visionsofnonfiction.blogspot.com/2010/06/winters-bone.html
Alexander Coleman has resurfaced for one of his patented exhaustive film reviews, but his work remains as always of the very first rank. He’s considering Iron Man 2 here: http://colemancornerincinema.blogspot.com/2010/07/iron-man-2.html
Jon Lanthier’s review on the DVD of the Criterion Louie Bluie by Terry Zwigoff is a reminder for all why Lanthier rules as a movie critic: http://aspiringsellout.com/
The non-stop film review writing machine Jake Cole is a top-quality guy when it comes to style and length, and his latest opus is on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: http://armchairc.blogspot.com/2010/08/scott-pilgrim-vs-world.html
Kaleem Hasan has a fascinating post/picture up of Satyajit Ray at his premium Indian culture blogsite, Satyamshot: http://satyamshot.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/satyajit-ray-on-filmfare-feb-5-1965/
At Only the Cinema, Ed Howard’s latest essay is on Romero’s Dawn of the Dead: http://seul-le-cinema.blogspot.com/2010/08/dawn-of-dead.html
Matt Lucas has penned an excellent review of the new film Brotherhood, playing at the Cinema Village at From the Front Row: http://fromthefrontrow.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-brotherhood.html
At The Blue Vial, Drew McIntosh is playing the screen cap meme game started by Joel and Stephen, and he’s gathered together some truly great stuff: http://thebluevial.blogspot.com/2010/07/curiosity-killed-image-gallery-meme.html
Our longtime friend, Anu, has a post up on deceased comic book icon Harvey Pekar, complete with a famous monologue from American Splendor: http://theconfidentialreport.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/harvey-pekar-1939-2010
And there’s our beloved Dee Dee, who remains lurking to brighten up this place in her own incomparable way…..
Sam, again I want to thank you for doing so much to promote the Huston blogathon here at Wonders. It really helped us get noticed!
Unfortunately for myself, I’m having a bit of trouble letting go… I just can’t end the blogathon! Some friends of mine who missed the deadline are still writing their stuff and I’d feel bad if I left any man behind. But there’s more: this week I’m getting The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean in the mail, and because nobody wrote about it for the blogathon I feel compelled to quickly write something on it… not to mention an additional piece on my two favorite Huston films and, finally, a post to gather up all the blogathon contributions. I’m not sure how I’m going to get it all done in one week but I hope I can end the blogathon memorably and satisfyingly.
Adam, I can well understand you holding this over a few days, especially as it was a huge hit! In fact the one-week windown may have been insufficient to accomodate this grand and glorious project, and I know for one I’ll be watching for new posts.
You should take a bow for all the great planning and brilliant writing you’ve been responsible for.
Thanks a lot, Sam. Believe it or not, GORILLA AT LARGE was once banned in Ireland! Something that I coincidently only learned this past week! The reason given was that “the appearance of the huge gorilla should be much too terrifying for any normal audience”. Bizarre. Judging by your reaction, though, the censor may have done Irish audiences of the time a favour!
Here, I saw three new films this week:
(1) LONDON RIVER – Rachid Bouchareb’s much-awaited follow-up to DAYS OF GLORY and a serious but intimate attempt at depicting the immediate aftermath of the 2005 London Bombings. Not the same impact as its predecessor, but a very engaging work all the same.
(2) ECCENTRICITIES OF A BLONDE-HAIRED GIRL – Centenarian director Manoel de Oliveira returns with this modern adaptation of a 19th century cautionary tale. An oddly fascinating offering that recent admirers of Alain Resnais’ WILD GRASS may be interested in.
(3) BEAUTIFUL KATE – Australian rural-based tale that combines the past and present, as one of several tropes in the “prodigal son”-style drama. However, still quite a touching drama that is well handled by director Rachel Ward. Some fine performances (especially from Bryan Brown as the ailing father!) and the photography alone makes the film worth going to see.
Finally, have a great holiday at the beach! Much deserved and, yes, perhaps it is time to swap the bucket seat for the surf board for a time!
GORILLA AT LARGE being banned in Ireland is hysterical, but in those days nothing by way of suppression surprises me, Longman! Yeah, I’m afrid that the camp quotient (the only element that could save this film) was virtually non-existent, as this hokum took itself much too seriously. But the 3D was gorgeous, hence if you are very tolerant, you’ll survive till the end.
I am REALLY interested in LONDON RIVER, Longman, as I was a big fan of DAYS OF GLORY, and as I recall it nearly made by year-end ten-bets list. I understand you are saying this new film by Bouchareb isn’t quite as captivating, but still this is strong stuff. I hope to see a review up at NO ORDINARY FOOL. I just read a review a few days ago of the Oliveira film, by James hanson at OUT 1, (on our blogroll( and I’m definitely interested:
http://www.out1filmjournal.com/2010/08/love-is-blonde.html
BEAUTIFUL KATE sounds good! I know I’ll catch up to it at some point. You had a pretty fine week there!
Thanks so much for the well wishes for the trip. Sadly it’s a bit too short this year, and before you know it Friday will be here.
Terrific round-up as always my good friend!
Sam, thanks as always for the mention. THE MOVIE PROJECTOR is up and running again, but because of the technical problems I’ve had to relaunch the site with a slightly different URL:
http://themovieprojector.blogspot.com/
Here’s the revised link for the post on the two Satyajit Ray films:
http://themovieprojector.blogspot.com/2010/08/aparajito-country-india-director.html
R.D. I am sorry you had to go through so much grief, but I will make the proper changes right now on the WitD sidebar. Likewise I will chage the link for teh Ray films.
Sam, many thanks for your kind words about my project. I know there have been many “best of” lists out there but I just had to join the fray. I have an obsessive need to see everything so this is helping me systematize my viewing, year by year. I’m also going to start with a best supporting actor and actress category this time around, so that will add more craziness for me but hopefully some nice conversation. I love the craft of acting and discussing why great actors succeed where others fail.
You’re right — September fast approaches and I am luckily not teaching so I can split my time between dissertation and movie writing. Oh and of course movie viewing. This week I didn’t see any new releases either but I did see Von Stroheim’s “Queen Kelly” and a double feature of “Night Moves” and “Cutter’s Way” at the Silent Movie Theater (on different nights of course). I went to a Sam Fuller double feature at LACMA for the wonderfully campy “Forty Guns” and the less thrilling “China Gate.” The next night at LACMA was a screening of Mizoguchi’s “Life of Oharu,” a wonderfully rich movie, though maybe a bit long. Those are just what I saw in the theater; I won’t list the too many movies I watched at home while my dissertation remains neglected, like an eager, but plain wallflower waiting to be asked to dance.
Jason, you may think that you are a ‘Johnny Come Lately’ but in reality you are a godsend for cineastes who demand full scrutiny. Your love and full appreciation of foreign-language cinema has really made your annuals listings a feat of cinematic completism, and your endless thirst for the rarities make you a man on a mission. I want to be right along there, taking in all your insights, couched in some spirited and eloquent writing at MOVIES OVER MATTER. I agree that maybe the Mizoguchi was a bit longish, but that’s quite alot you managed. QUEEN KELLY is great of course, but that was an interesting double there of NIGHT MOVES and CUTTER’S WAY! You really stir the pot, and living in LA you have some fantastic opportunities many can’t avail themselves of.
It’s always a pleasure, my very good friend!
Sam’s work on the Yoshidas has, all things considered, been excellent. Even if his rating of Wuthering Heights is the sort of thing that should be punishable by a morning in the stocks and/or pillories.
And I expected I would like WUTHERING HEIGHTS the best, as it falls right in my wheel house of taste. Go figure.
Sam, thanks again so much for the plug. The Mostly Mozart Festival sounds fantastic. I am enjoying my own mini Anthony Mann festival which will be continuing over the next few weeks. I watched MAN OF THE WEST this past week and have a couple of others lined up. I guess the New York theaters will experience a dip in attendance this week without you (lol) but it is a vacation well deserved. Hope you and the family enjoy it. In my county school opens this week! Next week for the surrounding counties start.
This week’s viewings….
Eat, Pray, Love (Ryan Murphy)***I was one of about six men accompanying their wives or girlfriends to what is the ultimate female flick (not that there is anything wrong with that). Overall, it is a pleasant and easily forgettable film with the highlight being the exquisitely photographed sumptuous meals Ms. Roberts and the rest of the cast get to eat in the Italy portion of this film. The entire cast looks like they had a great time making this film, great food and exotic locations…who can blame them.
Invisible Stripes (Lloyd Bacon)***another typical Warner Brothers hard hitting expose. George Raft is released from Sing Sing and plans to go straight but no one will give an ex-con a break. He finally falls back in with his old crew which includes Humphrey Bogart still a couple of years away from stardom to keep his kid brother (a very young William Holden) out of a life of crime. Decent enough without ever achieving a real sense of excitement.
The Undying Monster (John Brahm)***1/2 The first of three moody atmospheric horror films Brahm did for 20th Century Fox. The legend of the Hammond family curse (male members turn into werewolves) turns out to have some bite and is investigated by Scotland Yard after an attack. To me Brahm was an underrated visual stylist who seems to have lost his way after making a series of films at Fox.
The Red Badge of Courage (John Huston) **** Underrated work by Huston that has deservedly gained in reputation over the years. Excellent battles scenes reminiscent of Mathew Brady’s Civil War photographs. Huston manages to convey the massive confusion that must have taken place in battle as well as the fear and other emotions soldiers faced in battle. Surprisingly well acted by two World War II Vets, Audie Murphy and Bill Maudlin.
Ensign Pulver (Joshsa Logan)**1/2 – Okay this is not a good film but there are some interesting reasons for giving it a viewing. Made in 1964, a sequel to the 1955 hit “Mister Roberts” Robert Walker Jr. picks up the role of Pulver and while he is no Jack Lemmon, Walker does not disgrace himself. Burl Ives and Walter Matthau co-star as the Captain and Doc respectively, but where you have to be vigilant is with the rest of the crew. Among the actors in supporting roles and small parts are Tommy Sand, Jack Nicholson, Larry Hagman, James Coco, James Farantino, Peter Marshall, Kay Medford and Diana Sands. Others include Al Freeman Jr., George Lindsay (Goober from the Andy Griffith Show), Gavin MacLeod and Dick Gautier.
Mr. Moto’s Last Warning (Norman Foster)***Entertaining enough spy mystery in the Mr. Moto series. Interesting enough while the Chinese/American community complained and condemned the use of non-Asian actors in the role of Charlie Chan, to my knowledge there has never been a peep out of the Japanese/American community on the use of Peter Lorre as Moto. 20th Century Fox gets a plug in for the Chan series in a scene at a theater where it is posted that this is the last day showing of “Charlie Chan in Honolulu” mistakenly stating that the film stars Warner Orland when in fact it was Sidney Toler in his first film as Chan.
Kind Lady (John Sturges)***1/2 1951 remake of a 1935 film about an elderly woman and art collector (Ethel Barrymore) who meets a starving artist (Maurice Evans) and sociopath who charms his way, with the help of friends, into her house. The film is a little loose in style rendering it less effective as a shocker than it could have been but it does have its moments.
Man of the West (Anthony Mann)***** Another brilliant western from Anthony Mann only this one stars Gary Cooper instead of James Stewart. Brilliant use of landscape and space. Hope to have a review up soon at 24frames.
Elvis on Tour (Malcolm Leo and Andrew Salt)*** By the time this film came out the fat Elvis was still in his incubation stage, here he is not fat but there is a puffiness in his face and a bit of a double chin that reveals to us a sign of what’s soon to come. Gone is any sign of the youthful rockin’ rebel replaced by Las Vegas style shows and Liberace sequined outfits. Any signs of youthful rebellion have been drained from his body as surely as Dracula sucked the blood out of his victims. Sad his career became a joke considering the force he once was. Martin Scorsese was the montage supervisor on the film.
LOL John on that comment about the New York theatres declining in attendance with our absense! Ha! Yes, even though it’s just four days it’s a break, and the kids are looking forward to it.
The Mostly Mozart is an annual Lincoln Center venue and it brightens the classical summer scene. I usually make a few appearances, but this year just once. Appropriately, the concert was actually all-Mozart with Symphony #24 and Symphony #40 and one of the beloved of Piano Concertos, #20 in D minor. I do know that the schools open in Florida this week, as per some relatives who were up last week. It’s a smart move, as the school year ends earlier.
Your resilience has brought Anthony Mann into your home, which is just as good as seeing it anywhere else. MAN OF THE WEST is one of the masterpieces, methinks, but I bet I’ll hear as much soon enough at 24 FRAMES. I know some (like Donophon) think it’s Mann’s greatest western of all.
I have avoided the Julia Roberts film, but I understand what you are saying there about the food and setting! And I know this is a big chick flick.
Elvis is quite popular in this house and I agree with that rating and assessment. Huston’s THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE does deserve the four-star rating, and it’s a film that seemingly is undergoing a glowing reassessment in many corners. Dead on with KIND LADY too, which does have Ethel Barrymore, and some effective moments! I am a fan of THE UNDYING MONSTER, as it was part of my earlier-year horror film tutalege.
Now the bad news:
I haven’t yet seen:
Mr. Moto’s Last Warning
Ensign Pulver
Invisible Stripes.
But as per your seeming insights, there is no urgency.
9 films and hefty capsule assessments!!! I have nothing on you my friend!!!
I’ll be checking my e mails and the sites including yours from an internet cafe down there! Thanks again my very good friend!
Nice to hear a vacation for you and the family has arrived!
We went on a Terry Gilliam kick:
Time Bandits: We didn’t last but maybe 10 minutes ; (
Tideland: Enjoyed this one and wondered really why all the
negativity about it. Seems like people accept worse in other films.
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus: Great fun.
Lost In La Mancha: An interesting and enjoyable film.
BTW, now I forget which “Mann” film it was but was surprised to see an intro similar to the Star Wars intro, with the words scrolling into the top of the screen. Was Mann the first to do this.
And here I thought Lucas came up with it.
Thanks for all the film lessons! Cheers!
Except for Bandits, would watch again at some point in the future.
Michael, just want to let you know that I’ll be sending on an e mail to you some time tomorrow (or today actually) Nothing wrong with a Gilliam kick! And we rather liked PARNASSUS ourselves here! Yeah, TIME BANDITS is weaker, but BARON MUNCHAUSEN and BRAZIL are worth checking out. I am thinking the Mann film you are referencing here might be CIMARRON?
Thanks for the very kind words, Michael, and I’ll be in touch!
I need to respond to Jason Marshall and Samule Wilson, two very good friends, but I have cocked out and will do so later today from an internet cafe.
Is it an unpopular opinion to praise 12 monkeys? I love that film.
Sam, thanks so much for the great mention. I wish more people (including myself) could say this is the first week in over 14 months that they haven’t seen a newly-released movie in the theater. That is awesome.
The Ozu that you mention very much interests me and will need to be tracked down at some point. As for my own week of movie-watching, it was a little busier this week. I took in GONE WITH THE WIND, THE GREAT MCGINTY, GUNGA DIN, YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, TETRO, and the first two discs of Ken Burns’ JAZZ. All carried some strong resonance for me, although for some reason I’m most eager right now to keep going with the Burns piece.
Sam, here’s to another great week, including your much-deserved trip to Wildwood. Thanks for all that you do.
Jeffrey, thanks for the appreciative words. I would have liked to see ANIMAL KINGDOM and CAIRO TIME particularly, but the 3D Festival stole that time. That is a great lot you managed there, though I can well understand the lure of continuance with the Burns. Of the films, you of course had two of the greatest of all American films with THE GRAPES OF WRATH and GONE WITH THE WIND -two personal favorites with me and others here at the site- and I love the Sturges. I also like MOHAWK a bit more than most. I admire your passion for the auspicious TETRO.
You have REALLY been on a roll as of late Jeffrey, and this group is different from the one you just reported on at THE LAST LULLABY, with the exception of the overlap on the Burns:
http://cahierspositif.blogspot.com/2010/08/favorite-five-part-2.html
Thanks as always for the infectious and effervescent wrap my friend!
No, no, no Sam it can’t be September that fast… can it? Yes it?:))) Fall is beautiful though AND my solo exhibition opens September 3rd. Life is good and it is busy in preparation. I did see a movie over the weekend though… it was “YES” which I have seen before and still love both for the poetic dialogue and the handling of tough subject matter such as class and race and cultural. Thank you as always for your shout out:) Best of the week to you! Terrill
I do remember YES Terrill, and I can say I pretty much felt the same, relishing the poetic language, particularly. That solo exhibition on September 3rd is just a few weeks away, and I wish I were there my friend! Have a great week in paradise, and thanks for the much-valued contribution here my good friend!
Sam, this weekend it was mostly film noir and other genres for me. On TCM Friday Night I finally saw THE SET-UP. I liked it but thought the last line, “We both won,” was inappropriately corny. From the library I picked up Olive Film’s new DVD of William Dieterle’s DARK CITY. It had an excellent set-up and the debuting Charlton Heston fit in well with such noir types as Ed Begley, the young Jack Webb (particularly sleazy here!) and Harry Morgan, but the decision to withhold the face of a killer whose identity would have been obvious to anyone who read the opening credits cheapened the film by turning into a half-hearted horror movie. Jumping forward a few decades, I saw Georges Lautner’s LE PROFESSIONEL, a Jean-Paul Belmondo star vehicle from 1981. I always like to see authentic pop trash from other countries, and this action film was just about as dumb as anything America would produce in the same decade. It’s very much a film of its time in its concern with government betrayal and one man’s determination to have revenge while completing his mission, but Belmondo’s performance makes it impossible to take the story seriously, though he also makes it entertaining in spite of itself.
Seeing your list of moviegoing coups, I couldn’t help imagining what Ozu would have done with 3D. I still haven’t seen a lot of his stuff, but I could actually envision this. Can you?…
Ha Samuel! That is quite a question. Ozu probably would have been game, if the technology would have been in place before he forged his path. I must say I do love THE SET-UP, but do see where you are coming from with that last line. I always name it as one of the greatest ‘sports’ movies, and Robert Wise’s greatest film aside from his WEST SIDE STORY (are you there Allan, I expect an assault! LOL!!!) I have never seen Dieterle’s DARK CITY, nor LE PROFESSIONAL, but am always amazed at how regularly you leave the box to check out so many films that have escaped the radar of even the most ardent cineastes. That library is really some place for acquisitions for you right along. I do like Belmondo in other films of course as we all do.
Thanks for always brightening the cinematic landscape here Samuel, and I can’t thank you enough for the extraordinary double comment you posted at the site yesterday! You are tireless.
I was hoping to hear that you saw “Animal Kingdom” Sam, but I well understand you were busy with all the classic material. I see “Cairo Time” is at the Claridge in Montclair, but you’ll be in Wildwood this week.
I wish you all a wonderful time, and look forward to some pictures.
I’ll have the pictures Peter! I hope to see ANIMAL KINGDOM next weekend, and if the Claridge holds over CAIRO TIME, I’ll manage it too.
Thanks so much for the well wishes.
Thanks for the plug, Sam. I really cannot recommend the film enough. I expected something fun, and I got that plus one of the few truly original mainstream films of the last five years. Only movies like Inglourious Basterds and Zodiac got away with so much.
You have me excited on this Jake! I’ll have to make it my business to see it as soon as possible. Your work has been tremendous, i just haven’t been able to keep up with it. But I’ll be over there to be in the presence of film criticism greatness!
Thanks for the much-appreciated submission my friend!
WQXR FM (105.9) has been playing recorded high-lites from thias years MOSTLY MOZART festival. Among the excepts presented for listening this weekend were a Mozart piano trio and the opening movement of Beethoven’s 7th symphony (:-( what? No second movement Adagio????). Along with those wonderful pieces, the station broadcast a live simulcast of the LA Opera’s first staging of Wagner’s final quarter of the magnificent Ring cycle: GOTTERDAMERUNG. This is the first time in the history of the LA Opera that the troupe has tackled Wagner’s massive composition and, from my ear, didn’t falter once. MOVIES: I looked at the magnificent two-disc special edition of Arthur Penn’s landscape changer BONNIE AND CLYDE as well as plugging along through the complete second season of Alan Ball’s highly praised (I love it) SIX FEET UNDER…
Dennis, the Met is offering a brand new Ring Cycle this upcoming season, and I anticipate attending. I’ve experienced the Levine-conducted Ring cycle twice over the years, and it’s spiritual.
The BONNIE AND CLYDE two-disc is quite a set and I know how much you’ve been enjoying the SIX FEET UNDERS.
Thanks so much as always.
Yes, SAM, I heard on WQXR that this year will see a new RING cycle after a long hiatus.
Question though….
The radio said that this is the first time the RING cycle has been performed and offered on the MET statge in over 20 years????? Is this correct????
Not do I only find that hard to believe, but didn’t YOU see the whole thing staged there. I’ve known you for almost 20 odd years now and I swear I can recall a few phone calls the days after each performance you attended, telling me what life-altering experiences they were…
Could this have been a mistake on behalf of WQXR-FM (105.9)???????
Your thoughts on this?????
Wow, from one film festival to another, eh, Sam? The 3D fest sounds like a lot of fun. We had a much smaller version of that last year that also included Gorilla at Large. I actually really wanted to see that one but your two star dismissal of it here makes me think I didn’t miss much. Meanwhile, “Dial M for Murder” in 3D was a bit of hokey fun.
I unfortunately saw nothing new or old this weekend but did have a nice quick trip to visit a friend in Chicago, or Gotham as it frequently reminds me of these days thanks to The Dark Knight.
Hope you enjoy your “real” vacation this week!
Daniel, thanks so much! Yes I do anticipate the “real” vacation will not at any point segue into a “reel” vacation, if you know what I mean! The only reminders are the daily trips to the internets cafes to check on e mails and comments at the site. (though others here will have everything in hand)
Wow, you had GORILLA AT LARGE there, eh? The print here was beautiful, but it was a rather silly film without much camp, and the soundtrack was damaged to the point where you couldn’t hear much of the dialogue (not that you were missing anything, mind you) DIAL M FOR MURDER is being screened on Friday and Saturday. As I will be home from this short respite late Friday night, I think it may be watched on Saturday.
Thanks as always for the very nice words, my friend!
So on Saturday I attended The Great Pennsylvania Wine Toast at Crossing Vineyards which attempted to set the world record for simultaneous toasting (the event spanned 50 wineries across the Keystone State). The wine, of course, was the highlight, but it was also interesting as they had “official counters” from the Guinness Book of World Records and Mario Andretti lead the toast (from a video feed). Not sure of the results yet or if the record was set (I’m thinking it wasn’t).
On the movie front,
I saw GET LOW in the theaters and was highly disappointed. I would give it *** stars begrudgingly (the acting was good).
On DVD I watched:
KICK ASS – ** – pointless and derivative drivel parading as something ironic and avant-garde. This was only watchable thanks to the winningly zany performance from the young up-and-coming Chloe Moretz (who I heard will be staring in Scorsese’s 3D venture, Hugo Cabret).
HOME – ** – Arduous, silly, pretentious but just curiously strange enough foreign entry about a French family coming apart after the highway that runs right through their yard finally re-opens.
KING OF KONG – ***1/2 — I can’t think of a more uninteresting topic than world record-setting video game scores (which is why I avoided this for a few years), but this was a surprisingly entertaining (and thankfully brief) character study of some world class (and in one case, tragically endearing) “losers”.
On TV:
MAD MEN scored their best episode yet this season and for the first time in awhile showed a genuine and welcome sense of humor.
TRUE BLOOD continues to astound and the most offensive, ridiculous, poorly written, atrociously acted, lowest-common-denominator piece of trash ever to grace the small screen — and I can’t stop watching it! Pure brilliance! And as I continue to rewatch the entire TWIN PEAKS series this summer, I can’t help but think, TRUE BLOOD is this generation’s TWIN PEAKS (in that it is a shocking, shockingly funny, envelope pushing water-cooler show people just love to talk about) – only this generation is much more apt to keep watching a show that almost instantly flew off the rails (which is why this has lasted into a fourth season already). Sadly, unlike TWIN PEAKS, there doesn’t appear to be much genuine artistic talent involved in this vampire soap opera – but in a away it services the same perverse needs of the masses the 1st seaon of TWIN PEAKS did before the masses turned on it and didn’t realize they were ready.
David: This is clearly one of your most spectacular round-ups on this thread ever, and it’s deeply appreciated!!!
The Great Pennsylvania Wine Toast is a fantastic event to attend, and I envy you for that! I’d definitely be interested in hearing from you if any records were broken. Mario Andretti led the toast? Wow!
The movie wrap seems to have included a lot of bad or overrated movies, though I think you were fair enough with GET LOW, and you wrote an excellent review of it at THE SCHLEICHER SPIN. I haven’t seen HOME yet, but I am assuming you will have a review up? I love the way you initially quality TRUE BLOOD, and then admit you are enraptured with you! And I hear you with the comparison to TWIN PEAKS!
I haven’t seen KING OF KONG.
Fantastic round-up my friend!
DAVID-TRUE BLOOD!!!!!! Yes, yes, and DOUBLE YES!!!!! But, I think it’s more ingenious on a genius level than the bumbling/stumbling genius you liken it to. Since AMERICAN BEAUTY, Alan Ball has sky-rocketed his way to the top ranks of TV developement and writing. TRUE BLOOD, while deliberately campy/trashy, is also laced with deep sociological metaphors pertaining to consumerism, political greed and atrocity and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in one foul swoop.
Currently and simultaneously, I am also enveloping myself in his highly praised series from earlier in the 2000’s SIX FEET UNDER. That show, going head to head with the likes of THE SOPRANOS, SEX AND THE CITY, E.R., THE WEST WING and EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, unveiled itself as the big diamond in the rough and proved that fine writing, interesting characters, ingenuity and a whole lot of audacious creativity can go a long, sucessful way. SIX FEET could be, and has my vote, for the best series on television so far this decade. It’s accolades and awards are numerous and, now with TRUE BLOOD a runaway hit, proved that lightning can strike many times in the back-yard for Mr. Ball.
He has truly proven himself one of the few major creative voices in the medium and has secured himself a place along the giants of the field. Thinking long and hard about this for days now, I’m not at all shy in stating that SIX F might not only be one of my five favorite shows but one of the ten or fifteen best that American television has ever produced. TRUE BLOOD proves that the well of Ball’s creativity is, indeed, very deep and very productive.
I love this guy and would follow him blindly on any project he decides to make public.
I’m sorry to read your disdain for KICK-ASS. Personally, I thought this was one of the more creative and orgiastically entertaining films of recent years. It takes the high-minded seriousness the comic book/super-hero films have willfully wrapped themselves in and turns it all on its ear. I can’t remember laughing as much in a film as I did with this and thought the adrenaline that was threaded through this film totally and anarchically infectious. The cast, particularly Chloe Morentz as the over-the-top 9 year old assassin HIT-GIRL, were all terrific and I loved the everything-including-the-kitchen-sink attitude towards the action sequences (I don’t know of any film that could make use of a punk rock version of theme from the 1970’s kids variety show THE BANANA SPITZ so memorable-I’m referring to the moment HIT GIRL violently wipes out a drug dealers apartment of about a dozen people in about 4 minutes). Frankly, I thought KICK-ASS was inspired fun, gleefully irreverent and a complete smiler from start to finish. Easily one of my favorite films of 2010.
Dennis – I think Ball has shown shades of brilliance, but he swings from brilliance to rock-bottom quite violently. The first and last seasons of SIX FEET UNDER were among the best things ever to grace the small screen…but in the middle seasons Ball allowed things to meander and what was darkly insightful became borderline depraved and exploitative. He’s clearly a troubled guy, and that can often bring out the best and worst in his writing (which I think has taken a huge dive since the early days of SIX FEET UNDER where he was probably at his pinnacle and among the best in his field).
TRUE BLOOD, I agree, I think he has built it as a monument to trash and camp but with those sociological underpinnings – which makes it all the more entertaining for those not just watching for the gore and nudity. It also feels like it might be the funniest show on television currently.
He’s definitely got his pulse on the public tastes though…American Beauty…Six Feet Under…and now True Blood…all perfectly timed with the ebbs and flow of mass sentiments regarding social mores and the like. He’s more envelope-pushing than zeitgeist tapping, but his timing for the pushing of said envelopes is second to none. There are other times, however, with regards to the tone of his work, that I feel he might be quite clueless (or just doesn’t care).
KICK ASS I will attest may be a matter of taste. I did think every scene with Chloe Moretz was leagues ahead of anything else in the film thanks to her spunky performance. She’s definitely a talent to watch.
DAVID-I hope you see this as I am writing it under the reply tab of my own printed reply (there is no option to click next to your reply to mine-LOL, I’m a dunce when it comes to computers!!!! Sam and I regularly have to scream for Melanie to start up the television or the Blu-Ray player whenever we wanna watch something-she’s 14 and I’m half a decade away from 50-see, DUNCE!!!!).
I’ll agree with you that the SIX FEET UNDER does meander a bit in the three middle seasons… However, there were enough amazing plot points and devices introduced in that space to keep me totally glued every Sunday night at 9 pm. Fact is, compared to the other shows broadcast in that 5 year time, SIX FEET and Ball and company were miles ahead of the competition by leaps and bounds. I have an affection for THE SOPRANOS (I’m Italian and was fascinated by the dead-on representation of the “home” life of Tony-that is the life he has in the house away from his Organized Crime persona) and I thought that SHOWTIME was really cutting into a raw nerve with there loving re-working of the British QUEER AS FOLK. Outside of Cable, the only show that caught me off-guard was THE WEST WING (with its intricate illustration of the nitty-gritty goings-on in the WHITE HOUSE) but even that lauded show had none of the originality and ingenuity of SIX FEET.
TRUE BLOOD may be campy and trashy, but I think that’s precisely the point as Ball himself has stated he wanted to adapt a “bubble-gum” novel to the screen. What he got with the Souki novels was a veritable treasure trove of camp that he was more than willing to sink his metaphorical button-pushing fingers into. The audaciousness of the series is a perfect juxtapose to the rather neat writing he has done in the past (i.e. his Oscar winning work for AMERICAN BEAUTY) and I definately think that he wanted to branch out to a different realm of society in the States (not his typical fascination for white bread disfunctionality of the West Coast suburbs).
Ball is a gay man and I’ve heard him say in interview that he wasnted to get raw and sexually nasty (that he’s gay and wanting to do this makes you wonder what his prefrences are… S+M anyone?) as a way of freeing himself from a literary point of view to talk about side of life that no other writer on TV has. This attitude, combined with his sly seque’s into metaphorical statements on politics and the current HIV/AIDS hot-button was just the ticket for him. It fascinates me that a guy like him can read a novel like the ones the show is based on and see the potential for statement. In my mind, this is the sign of a great artist as well as a supremely gifted society minded writer.
Personally, i think that whern the smoke clears in 20 to 30 years and the big brains that analyze this kind of stuff look back, they’ll see Ball, SIX FEET and TRUE BLOOD as real cornerstones in American television. I’m delighted to say that these two shows are rare example of work that I am willing to tune in for week-after-week as I’m ususally one who just hordes then up on the TIVO or waits for a season to present itself on DVD so I can bang em off in a few hours with no muss to my daily life. Actually, these shows, you can call this sad if you like, have become highlights of my week-to-week routine. I like to think of them as islands of paradise away from the realities of life.
As for KICK-ASS… No, I can definately see where you’re coming from and i too agree that it’s the kind of film that is left up to personal taste and preference.
For me, there was a gleeful anarchy that just threw all caution to the wind. If you look hard enuogh I’m sure audiences can find something telling and profound in it ultimately. However, I just took it as a fun entertainment and, in doing so, saw that film sweep me away into fantasyland.
Moretz is, NOW, and up-and-comer. If anyone had been looking at her career prior to KICK-ASS they wouldn’t be making statements like that. Her first real move into major features was as the youngest daughter to Ryan Reynolds in the remake of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR. Like the film or not, most wouldn’t feel too thrilled about putting that movie on a resume for future employers. LOL!!! (I happen to like it as a really nifty camp horror entertainment-I’m sure Jamie, Troy, Kevin and my esteemed late-night nemesis-Mr. BOB CLARK-the horror film guru’s-will have something to say about my tastes in this field-LOL!!!!).
In any case, it was a thrill to exchange with you on these topics and particularly thrilling to see I am not alone on SIX FEET UNDER…
This was fun….
Dennis – yes this has been fun! I do have to give Ball props as he wears his “heart” on his sleeve so to speak and that takes…well…balls. I loved THE SOPRANOS of course. Do you also watch DEXTER? That is similar to TRUE BLOOD in that it is an adaptation of a book series and aims to shock…but I think it has more consistent quality in terms of the writing and acting and takes itself very seriously though it does offer some dark humor.
And this question goes out to everyone — has anyone caught the premier of Showtime’s new comedy series THE BIG C yet? The pilot was a writing and acting tour-de-force. Laura Linney was brilliant and I haven’t laughed so hard at a TV show in a long time! I look forward to seeing where they take the series.
DAVID-I have tried and tried to get into Dexter, I’ve already trudged through the first season, started the second and, about mid-way through it, found myself in want of interest. I see the serial killer “thing” as a spring-board to ensnare the audience and, while I’m sure there is more to the show than that, I just cannot seem to get into it. I know I’m probably missing out and Michael C. Hall (from SIX FEET UNDER go figure) is a terrific actor who, I’m sure is doing fine work.
As for THE BIG C, well, i’m leary (I’m assuming the “C” in the title stands for CUNT and if it is the writers were probably going to my ex-wife for inspiration)…
When an actress like Laura Linney stops her film career to take on a TV series you gotta wonder how great the writing is or how desperate the star. Linney is a two-time Oscar nominee, still young and appeared in the some of the finest films of this past decade and the decade before (MYSTIC RIVER, THE TRUMAN SHOW, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME….). Her light on the silver screen has not burnt out, to my knowledge, and it makes me wonder if the producers are offering her alot to come in and rescue the show or if her career is, indeed tanking and she’s grasping at straws. From my estimation, I’d say the show is desperate for a hook (aka, a semi-big name) and my first summize is correct. Of course, the truth will really be known after the show premieres and audience feed back comes barreling in.
As for my television watching I have few shows on the roster that I look forward to. Aside from the afforementioned TRUE BLOOD, I still tune into 60 MINUTES on Sundays because its still the finest TV News Magazine, CHARLIEN ROSE on PBS is a staple for me as nobody gets down to the nitty-gritty in an interview better than he. With LOST gone I’m in a funk for something original and I’ll have to bone up on THE FRINGE a little before i start committing myself to a week-after-week commitment.
Then, of course there’s the old tried and true.
At 21 years on the air THE SIMPSONS is still the bet comedy and sitcom on the air. Regardless to whether or not they push the envelope with dangerous humor as the shlocky and over-praised FAMILY GUY does, the house of Homer and Bart usually features at least on gag or jooker per episode that is so balls-to-the-floor funny that I find myself laughing out loud. I don’t know but, with that being said, I don’t know of any show that can still lay claim to that even in its infancy and now they stand to make history as the longest running sitcom TV has ever seen. Matt Groening and the rest of his writing staff are still the sharpest knives in the drawer and I can see THE SIMPSONS rounding out a complete 30 years as they show no signs of slowing or loss of edge.
Other than that, really have a hard ti,e buying into ost of todays newer programming…. UNLESS….
We talk about my favortie guilty pleasure on the tube…
GLEE
Yes, I said and I’m sure there are many here tht will kick my ass across the county line for sounding like a whimp.
I see the show as a solid half hour of pure musical fun. The performers are all great and inspired and, sometimes, the show just takes you away. There was an episode, recently, where Kurt finds himself on a Broadway stage doing the most inspired, cannonball version of EVERYTHINGS COMING UP ROSES from GYPSY that would have put most professional stage productions to shame.
I often watch the show with Sam’s two daughters (Melanie and Gillian-both obsessed with it) and Lucille. What can I say? The show makes me smile from ear to ear….
Dennis – while I’m sure they meant it to be a double entendre…I think the primary meaning of THE BIG C is Cancer. I thought the pilot was a riot and Linney was gangbusters (she was given a plethora of great lines and scenes and she devoured everything in sight)…but I don’t know how it could be sustained as a potentially long running series. Seems to me given the obvious arc of Linney’s character, it would’ve been better conceived as a mini-series.
You make some interesting points about film actresses going to TV…Oscar winner Anna Paquin’s film career has come to a screeching halt thanks to TRUE BLOOD – and while she is more exposed than ever before, I fear she will never be able to step out of the shadow of the show. But she is young and talented (and acts so wonderfully deliberately horribly on the TV show) so we shall see how she bounces back from years lost on the boob-tube (pun intended).
Sam, I wanna thank you for your comment on my blog, it really made my week. In my last entry, in which I finished my top 100 movies of all time, I thank you specially, so get around to feel the glory of being thanked online.
Also, this posts, have led me to think in doing a retrospective of what’s been going on weekly right here on this comments zone. Good work as always, I’m curious about those 3D movies, I’d love to see some like Dial M for Murder or (very guilty pleasure) Friday the 13th 3D.
Now this week we have here our SANFIC, Santiago Film Festival, over 200 movies and I’m not interested in Any of them. The most interesting stuff that will play is White Material, Howl and (this is what excites me the most) Chelsea Girls complete on a 35mm print restored, along with some Warhol test screens and a Velvet Underground show on Boston, never released as a movie by Warhol.
That’ll be this saturday and I thought you people may be interested in it.
Geez, Jaime, I am floored by your appreciation for that modest comment, but I will absolutely be stopping by regularly. You have been a godsend to us all here at WitD the past months with your cinematic insights on quality European cinema and on Yoshida. My knowledge of Spanish, sadly, has restricted me from leaving substantial comments, even though I teach and live in a school district (in Northern New Jersey just minutes from Manhattan) that is about 75 to 80% Hispanic. As an Italian-American, I can’t really even speak any Italian, though what I do know is from the cinema. Ha! I’ll be sure to remember you in upcoming weeks for this Monday Morning Diary, my friend! The only one of us who lives in the Boston area is Joel, and I bet he loves Velvet Underground if you want to know the truth!
I saw HOWL at the NYGLT Film festival a few months ago and thought it was surprisingly solid with Franco most convincing. I gave it 4/5. Of course, WHITE MATERIAL, which was just reviewed by our good friend Longman Oz in Dublin, is one I’m hankering to see. Here’s Longman’s review:
http://noordinaryfool.com/2010/07/26/whitematerial/
I would also be interested in Chelsea Girls! Still, I am surprised the santiago Film Festival isn’t offering anything to interesting this year! Thanks again for your very kind words my friend!
I’m 100% positive Joel is a Velvet Underground fan. We have had some music discussions and his taste is impeccable. If I lived in the Boston area I would try to check that Saturday showing.
Oh guys, now I see, you had it all wrong, haha.
The Velvet Underground show in Boston is a Movie by Andy Warhol that was never released!
Hope I cleared that out.
:B
Thanks for that addition Joel! Truthfully I have to get over there myself, as this is great stuff!
Many thanks for the plug, Sam, and again you have packed an amazing amount into your week. Hope you have a wonderful time on holiday! I haven’t watched very much in the last few days, but finally caught up with the noir great D.O.A., and also kept up my Shakespeare viewing by seeing the DVD of Kevin Kline’s stage production of ‘Hamlet’, which I thought was great – a minimalist staging. The actress playing Ophelia goes somewhat over the top, I’d say, but Kline himself is brilliant in it.
I’ve also just finished watching the BBC mini-series of Edith Wharton’s ‘The Buccaneers’, which I enjoyed, especially the earlier episodes which are based more closely on Wharton – as it is an unfinished novel, the later episodes don’t have much to do with the book and feel more modern, but are still interesting. Dinsdale Landen is great as an ageing aristocrat!
Judy, as always thanks exceedingly for the support and lovely words. I am presently at an internet cafe in Wildwood Crest, N.J., during an extended sun shower. One thing leads to another, and I am attending to responses I had figured I wouldn’t be able to negotiate until Friday. But it’s always great to read of your own exploits. I love Edith Wharton, especially for THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, but I’m sorry to say I haven’t read nor watched THE BUCCANEERS. I am wondering what Allan thinks of this work and the appearance of Dinsdale Landen. I’m happy at what you say there about Kevin Kline dwarfing all contributions on that HAMLET, and I have been a lontime admirer of D.O.A. I could never understand why some noir afficianados have found it lacking.
I appreciate your always engaging and endearing wrap my friend!
Thanks a lot Sam for the mention, and for liking the new look that I’ve given to Cinemascope. After a long time you seem to have watched a few movies at home 🙂 As for me, a few movies are pending for review, will try and write them soon.
I personally love the new look Shub. I noticed you and Doniphon really enhanced your respective blogs.
I concur with Maurizio on the look, Shubhajit! Terrific makeover! I’ll be watching for the new postings!
Thanks a lot Maurizo.
Well Sam I took yesterday off from WITD. This is a rather late response but wanted to chime in. Your devotion to cinema is remarkable. I’m starting to sound like a broken record but you merit all the accolades. Impressive double post as well. I’m looking forward to the BAM screening of Vampyr on September 2nd. I can’t wait to catch that film on the big screen. This week I watched……
The Orphanage ****
Death At A Funeral *
The White Ribbon ****1/2
The Ballad Of Cable Hogue ***1/2
Ride The High Country *****
The Ghost Writer ****
Nightmare Alley *****
I also want to thank all the people who commented on my Searchers piece. It was a great back and forth that was really rewarding. I especially want to thank Joel, Bob and Jamie. Because of them I am looking forward to HUD, THX, and finding time to see some latter day Godard’s I have ignored.
Wow Maurizio! A BAM screening of VAMPYR on September?!? I may be able to pull that off myself! God do I love Dreyer! I will certainly note this. I have attended a number of operas at BAM Harvey, but haven’t yet availed myself of the film opportunities.
Talk about great work, one only needs to read the extraordinary review you penned in consideration of THE SEARCHERS, a post that -spectacularly -generated to this point a whopping 180 comments, one of the largest totals ever recorded in the two-year history of this site. I wonder what you will do for an encore after THAT! Extraordinary. And yes, Bob, Joel and Jamie have really transformed this site into one of the most stimulating and brilliant talk places on-line. If you dive in there, you better be your swim gear. The time and brain power expended with those guys is incredible.
Absolutely dead-on with those ***** ratings on the Peckinpah (one of my favorite of his) and NIGHTMARE ALLEY (unquestionably one of the great noirs!) And I know I have to eventually take on yet another viewing of THE WHITE RIBBON. Yeah FUNERAL is disposable, though you seen to like CABLE HOGUE and ORPHANAGE more than I do. But yeh, tiny quibble, not even quibble, just disparity in taste–this is a great round-up as always!
I can’t thank you enough my friend.
Yeah those three throw out 1000 word comments like it was a stroll in the park. I hung in there for the thread but needed a day off to recover lol. My brain while probably not small needs more time to process and administer responses of such meticulous detail. I rather write some nonsensical quips and get the hell out!!!!
Oh I think the same way. I can’t come close to doing what they do off the cuff. What bright futures they have.
Hi Sam, good news for you…only TWO agonising weeks before the release of ‘Thriller’. Mind you, as exciting as that is – the release of the immortal ‘Sgt Bilko’ season one loaded with extras and in digital is at least as joyus. One of the reasons I never brought the 50th anniversay 18 episode box set. Well, I did but as a present.
I’ve been away from the Monday morning round-ups, been abroad and had the most god-awful adware virus infect my pc. Oh, and I’ve been putting my energies into a secret project that I think you would love. How no one though of it before is a mystery. Will send you a sample, via e-mail soon.
As for viewings/readings….
I got inspired to start reading many of the volumes that clutter my place by a short story called;
‘The Rat in the Skull’ (1958) **** by Rog Phillips.
After his university refuses to endorse his experimental project, a collage professor and his wife take the go-it-alone route at home, by building a android to encase a newborn white rat. Housed in the transparent domed rear of the automan’s craniam, the rat has all three legs levered into the mechanism for the rudimentary robotic movements and the right front one for its fused communications link with the outside world and it’s sense of percieved reality.
A concise reworking of Frankenstein told as a fantastically woolly tall tale, with intimations of the tragedy to come by being told as a recounting of past events. It builds and builds to a terrific conclusion, has unforgettable imagery and ideas that percolate, is poignant and evokes a sense of the marvellous with its exploration of the nature of perception and reality. For a classic, its one reprinting is shameful.
It has all the power of Phil Dick at his finest or any author for that matter. Every time I think about it, it makes me feel the way Dick’s ‘The Golden Man’ made me feel, or the original ‘Twilight Zone’/’Outer Limits’
Speaking of which, can you believe the cretains at MGM are doing a movie version of ‘The Outer Limits’? By the writers of the ‘Saw’ movies. I sometimes feel that I’m in an alternate universe or have timeslipped back in time: I can walk past a theatre and find ‘Tron’, ‘The Karate Kid’, and now ‘The A Team’ and soon it’ll be ‘The Outer Limits’. Oh dear.
Anyway, I’ve been working through the the collected short fiction by one of the giants of speculative fiction, Theodore Sturgeon. I’ve just finished volume 2 and volume three is on the agenda. But I think it’s from volume five that he really takes off as one of the 20th century’s greats. Some stunning classics here including ‘It’, ‘Bianca’s Hands’ and ‘Yesterday was Monday’ (filmed in the New Twilight Zone in the ’80s as ‘A Matter of Minutes’ about a couple who wake up having jumped a day and finding that the world is still being constructed around them for them by workmen, including indentations and scratches).
Filmwise:
Serpico**** – Sidney Lumt’s classic with Al Pacino in stunninglt good form. It’s theme of corruption and whistle-blowing has been done numerous times but rarely as good as this; and the sense of period is extraorindarily well-captured.
Shutter’s Island*** – Not bad for a Scorcese and he does a good job here. But the tempo needs varying at times and the emotional push at the ending is lacking.
Inception*** – one of the very best major league blockbusters, here I did felt something for the central character, though it’s a shade too Bondified. Needs a second viewing. Intelligent hokum. Both it and ‘Shutter’s Island’ could come from the playbook of Phil Dick.
Freud** – John Huston. Having read your excellent article on ‘The Dead’ (in a week of three excellent ones, one by Allan and another on ‘The Searchers’) I thought I’d go searching for all the missing Huston’s from the back catalogue. Huston’s filmography has a wide spectrum of both sucesses and failures and even his midlist of is at least interesting. This one is deadly serious and it might have been wiser to have incorporated moments of humour, even in Freud’s life there must have moments of hilarity. And the style was different from his typically classical, invisible one redolent of golden age masters. Which I enjoyed. Though I’m sure the autuerists would use it to give him a good kicking.
‘Atonement’**** – A film that I think I remember you being a huge fan of. Finally got a chance to sit down and watch it. Had I seen it before the ’00s poll finished, I have bumped another out. This is the closest I’ve come to experience a David Lean film by another hand. Wright was in a BBC program about Lean and his influence is overwelming. It’s an intensely, pictorially beautiful film, edited to perfection. Complex, rich and deeply touching. Even when it veers off a mite, the Dunkirk beach scene is a mite too intent to impress and the bodies of the slaughtered girls in the forests doesn’t quite ring true, perhaps they are too clean, but Jove – this is a movie and a half. Few have been able to use cinematic tricks with quite such verve and imagination as Wright.
Paris, Texas** – Wim Wenders. A quite unusal film with a strange opening tempo that reminded me of the Coens, though that was soon forgotton. Some of the delivery is stilted yet it has a hypnotic effect and with that guiter twanging away, it evokes the dreariness of Texas life to excellent effect. The final confrontation in the cubicle is superbly orcestrated but afterwards, I felt let down a mite with it’s resolution.
To Kill a Mockingbird**** – An absolute classic with virtually every element in place. Performances, photography, script, editing, music, in every which way an American masterpiece. And one of the two or three greatest films about childhood (with ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ and ‘Cinema Paradiso’ are the ones that spring to mind, mind you others will start sprouting out even as I type this). But where ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ is resolutely realistic in it’s depictions of childhood angst, poverty, grief and family dynamics, ‘Mockingbird’ is on the opposite side of the spectrum; poetic, lyrical, dreamy, hallucinatory. Also, watched and listened to a host of extras on it and the book’s 50th anniversay.
‘The Dead’ has been ones those I’ve meant to watch for ages and is on the top of my list due to your essay. thanks
I just checked into the internet cafe and lo and behold, Bobby, you have made a thrilling return to the Monday Morning Diary with one of the thread’s greatest submissions, certainly on par with the reports of the illustrious John Greco. Yes, Bobby, I told Lucille yesterday that I hope I survive two more weeksso my decades-long dream will finally be realized with that THRILLER set! (She did look at me like I had six heads of course!) Just thinking of seeing THE CHEATERS, PIGEONS FROM HELL, THE INCREDIBLE DOKTOR MARKESON, THE WEIRD TAILOR and WELL OF DOOM is this pristine condition, with the expressionistic Gothic visuals makes me want to dance in the streets. Well, close to it, anyway.
I have yet to discover SGT. BILKO, my friend, but your excitement does really go a long way at convincing me to dive in. Does Allan also love this show; I’m curious?
You have seen so many films there, and as always you are honest and discerning.
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is one of the greats–I have defended the film to my last drop, and have used it in my English classes when I started teaching Jr. High School. I’ll never forget I actually staged it with my student teaching class back in the 80’s, with a largely pre-dominant Hispanic class who delivered the work is spectacular fashion. One girl, Dian Ramirez – I’ll never forget her name – made for a magnificent Scout. But getting back to what you say – I absolutely agree that with CINEMA PARADISO and A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN it’s prime coming-of-age material.
God, that’s brilliant what you say there – when you assert ‘Mockingbird’ is on the opposite side of the spectrum; poetic, lyrical, dreamy, hallucinatory.
Elmer Bernstein’s music of course, is one of the great motion picture scores of all-time, and I’m (in view of what you say here) you are on the same page.
You know Bobby, I must say I completely agree with you on PARIS TEXAS, but lest Dennis Polifroni or David Schleicher read this, I’ll keep it brief! Ha! I always found the narrative stagnant, and over-reliant on style.
Your capsule on ATONEMENT has me smiling and nodding my head. You have captured with just a few sentences the full essence of why I fell in love with this film, and the comparison with Lean is apt! As a Brit yourself, this material might even resonate more powerfully, more poignantly, but I am really thrilled to read what you say here!
I smiled too with what you say here about INCEPTION coming from the playbook of Pil Dick, but how true that it’s prime repeat material. I’ve said as much myself on a past MMD. Can’t argue with the dismissal of Huston’s FREUD, which I don’t think even made the John Huston Blogothon this past week at Adam’s place.
As far as SHUTTER ISLAND, I see where you are coming from, but I liked the film more, and liked SERPICO less. But gee, this is a film round up for me to savor and read over, where I am largely in full and passionate agreement!
The MGM people are out of their minds to go back to THE OUTER LIMITS and I agree they should leave well enough alone! You and I are huge lifelong fans of that orginal series and enough is enough, as they did enough damage with teh television series remake.
You secret project really intrigues me, and I look forward the the email on it!!!!
Sorry to hear of the computer issues, but understandable.
As far as both Theodore Sturgeon and especially THE RAT IN THES KULL your fecund report really has me enthralled, and I say this in complete sincerity!!! More to come I’m sure.
Well, this is a miracle of a post. I hope many readers take it in and marvel.
You must really take a bow here Bobby.
Allan, Joel, Jamie, Bob, Maurizio, Jim, John G., Dee Dee what do you say?