A long line of cars waits to enter a drive-through COVID-19 coronavirus testing center in Paramus, N.J., Friday, March 20, 2020. The facility opened Friday in Bergen County which has been the state’s hardest-hit area.
by Sam Juliano
We are all in this together. And we have the ball in our court to stringently follow all directives that will diminish the odds that we will be infected and adversely impacted by COVID-19. Most of us will readily affirm this is the most frightening time we have ever lived through and here at the epicenter of this pandemic in and around New York City drastic measures are being enacted and testing centers have been established. Some of us, Yours Truly included have been following the coverage almost 24-7 and there is a downside to that unique strain of masochism even while we all need the most recent developments. I implore all our friends to stay safe and militantly employ social distancing. It has been confirmed that age is no longer a given as young people are contracting the illness, with some even dying. We are hearing reports of some celebrities and political figures who have contracted the virus and on social media others have come forth to announce they too have joined the ranks of those afflicted. The “hope” quotient of my MMD title is palpable if we all employ the harshest measures on ourselves and never take anything for granted. Our vigilance will dictate the duration of this fearful pestilence and to that end I extend to all our prayers and best wishes. The sun will shine again God willing, but we do have the power to seal the deal. Needless to say, our economy has been decimated and unemployment figures are staggering. We are at war against an invisible enemy and must never lose our focus.
Note: I have been so spent that I haven’t yet attended to last weeks MMD comments. I beg your indulgence but I will do so soon.
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
Wonders in the Dark 
I’ve got cabin fever, she’s got cabin fever
We’ve got cabin fever
I know it’s tasteless to joke about self-isolation in our time of plague, but fuck, I keep blabbing to my cat and he doesn’t talk back to me.
So I watch the news and wonder why Don-Don is always late for his own press conferences. And then I remember: tardiness is a sign of contempt, in T***p’s case for the media, for the American people, and even for his own clownish self. I’ve no doubt the man roils with self-loathing.
Movies:
Day of the Dolphin (Mike Nichols, 1973). Well, it’s a precipitous slide from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate to this silly ass thing. Marky Mark weeps for Nichols’s lost film career post-Carnal Knowledge. How will Mark Harris broach this caesura in his upcoming biography of the supremely gifted Mr. Nichols?
Bleak Street (Arturo Ripstein, 2016). The nub of this noirish film involves the interaction between two aging streetwalkers (one is married to a cross-dresser) and a pair of midget wrestlers. Sedulously grim and in the Bunuelian surreal manner keenly aware of the mordant comedy inherent in the story; watching is akin to choking with laughter on your own vomit. I plan to watch it again on Kanopy.
Hey Mark. Yes it is the most trying times we are going through at present. Difficult beyond comprehension. All you say about that deranged man in the WH is right on the money. At least we have Andrew Cuomo to inspire us daily with his own morning briefings. Now there is a man who would make a fantastic Chief Executive! But yeah your sorry subject does indeed evince self-loathing. Damn, I haven’t yet seen BLEAK STREET but in intrigued based on your framing. I too am not the world’s biggest fan of DAY OF THE DOLPHIN, though I find it passable. But a downward spiral of those other gems you note. Always greatly appreciate hearing from you my friend, and stay safe! I’m sure you have plenty of other screen classics lined up which will help to take your mind off what is currently stressing us out every waking minute of every day.
Happy birthday to Simone Signoret, rightful owner of the Oscar for Room at the Top, and may I say she was every inch a great actress.
Oops…
Happy birthday, David Lean.
From the suburban tragedy of Brief Encounter to the historic grandeur of Lawrence of Arabia, every inch a king.
*just to be clear, this Lear reference isn’t meant as sarcasm as in the play.
but you already knew that.
He’s a king indeed Mark! (David Lean) and I heartily concur that the titanic M. Signoret did indeed deserve that Oscar and is a very great thespian!
Just a bit more on the historic grandeur of Lawrence, if I may.
I’m talking about the justly famous scene that introduces Sharif emerging from the desert mirage, which was shot with a special telephoto lens and spherical optic later nicknamed the David Lean Lens.
As DP Freddie Young recounts in Kevin Brownlow’s Lean biography, “We had Omar Sharif go practically out of sight until he was a little pinpoint in the distance and David told him to ride straight towards the camera, and we shot a thousand feet. Nobody had done it before and nobody had done it in colour in 70mm.”
After multiple viewings the scene still makes me hold my breath.
EVERYONE STAY SAFE, OK.
Stay safe, everyone!
Thank you so much Joel Wishing you the same as we work our way through this unspeakably difficult situation.
Hi everyone,
I’ve been home since March 12 (two sick days, NOT covid-19) and then my workplace shut down. I’ve been working from home, only went out once, and noticing that I’m getting a bit stir crazy, too.
I am worried about all of you in NYC and wondering why so many people are taking this so lightly. It’s a horrible disease with no known cure. Why are they risking so much? Oh well.
Perversely, perhaps, we watched DEATH IN VENICE last night. But it is one of my very favorite films, so there was some comfort in the familiar. The night before we watched TOPSY TURVY, a great distractor, especially for opera lovers like me and you, Sam. (I’m heartbroken that the Lyric Opera canceled the Ring cycle; I bought my tickets nearly a year ago and had just gotten them in the mail.)
Although Ferdy on Films is gone, I and my colleagues at Cine-File are putting out a weekly list of recommended films that are streaming. You can see what we liked here: https://www.cinefile.info.
I hope everyone is staying safe and keeping in touch with their friends and family. We need each other more than ever now.
Hello Marilyn. I am so moved and grateful you have reached out to us all and am so saddened that you have been displaced and experiencing cabin fever. Yes we do need communication with our friends and secondary family members as we battle this awful pestilence. It seems that people in my town and county are now practicing social distancing militantly and photos have revealed Manhattan as a ghost town aside from those fearful testing lines outside hospitals and centers. New York’s Governor Cuomo has been electrifying with his daily reports, though of course the specifics are shaking us to our core. Lucille and I live right across the Hudson from NYC but little consolation as our county Bergen is now the most infected in the state and NJ itself is second to NY in cases. We are caught between a rock and a hard place here. It seems all of us will be hunkered down for quite some time, and speaking for myself I do need to distance myself from CNN in large measure as the reports are giving me nausea and stomach cramps.
I am so sorry you lost the Ring Cycle performances as inevitable as it would be. That’s my favorite of all opera productions. When all of this horror concludes I’m sure there will be a future time for you on that front. Yes I am a big fan of G & S and TOPSY TURVY as well as DEATH IN VENICE. Ha your excellent taste has not lost a sliver. I will check out the cinefile link pronto, thank you so much. Wishing the very best and safety to you and Sean!
Yes, social distancing is paramount. Stay safe all my good friends.