Sixties sex farces should be just my cup of tea, but I don't find many that I really like. Take A New Kind of Love (1963). It was directed by Melville Shavelson, who was responsible for a lot this kind of thing (Houseboat, Yours, Mine and Ours). It stars Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, so how bad could it be.
Woodward is a fashion designer specializing in ripping off couture designs for a mid-market department store run by George Tobias (with the help of Thelma Ritter). These three are going to Paris to buy or steal some schmatta. Newman is a Norman-Mailer-esque newspaper columnist, who spends his time drinking, going to sporting matches, and womanizing, usually all at once. When he beds the wrong woman, he gets sent by his editor to Paris in exile.
They meet for the first time on the plane over. Woodward is a "semi-maiden" - tried love once and didn't like it. She dresses androgynously and wears her hair shaggy and studded with pencils. Frankly she looks awesome - very modern, a little Velvet Underground. But Newman calls her "mister" before he gets a good look at her, and they don't hit it off.
The movie spends a bit of time on their separate Paris adventures: Her at fashion runways, him at strip club runways. They are contrasted in split screen scenes is pretty cute. Also, the mid-century fashions are quite sweet, if you like Dior, Lanvin, etc, you'll enjoy those parts.
How Woodward and Newman meet is a bit complicated. Tobias starts running around with sexy Eva Gabor, and Thelma Ritter confides in Woodward that she always loved Tobias and was now in despair about her love life. (But she can't hate Gabor because she is so nice.) Woodward has a religious epiphany during the Feast of St. Catherine, patron saint of unmarried woman. So she decides to get a makeover - hairdo, dresses, all that. This is silly, but not an insult to the character.
She is out in a cafe all dolled when Newman mistakes her for a "fille de joie", who he decides to interview to get his column back on track. She recognizes him and plays along, at first for revenge, then because she kind of likes being an infamous woman of pleasure. I'm sure you will guess that this all leads to a put up/shut up sex panic, just like a Doris Day movie.
Some of you are probably thinking, Funny Face: unconventional, unfeminine woman needs a man to make her fashionable and pretty. Yes, but. Astaire was playing a David-Avedon-like photographer who saw the beauty in Hepburn right away (not so difficult). Newman is parodying a self-important, hyper-masculine writer (at least I hope it's a parody), who ignores or scorns a woman who isn't frilly - not really likable. I feel like it's closer to Paris When it Sizzles: supposed romance spoiled by a sour misogyny.
Woodward's character holds up fairly well, even if she is a bit retro. Newman's doesn't - especially in the fantasy sequences when Woodward imagines him as a growling, animalistic football player. He doesn't seem to be getting it. Maybe he's just not that retro.
Still, some fun fashions, and Thelma Ritter gets a much deeper role than usual. Also, I liked Marvin Kaplan as Newman's thick-glassed, shlubby Jewish buddy. I'm not ready to give up on Sixties sex farces.
Monday, January 30, 2017
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Keep On Pushing
Just to keep the noir going, Pushover (1954). Directed by Richard Quine, it starts Fred MacMurray and Kim Novak, and it does have a touch of Double Indemnity in it.
It starts with a bank robbery and murder. Then we cut to Kim Novak coming out of the movies. She is wrapped in furs, but all alone. When her car won't start, Fred MacMurray comes over to help. They both noticed each other in the theater and wondered why they were alone. Well, I'm wondering too. They have some sexy dialog, go to a bar, then his place, and the whole time, we don't know what's going on. Who are these people and what are they up to?
Spoiler - he's a cop and she's the moll of one of the bank robbers. MacMurray was assigned to get close to her, and I guess he is pretty good at it. Of course, she does catch on, in a great little scene where she spits, "You're a cop!" and slaps him. As she kicks him out, she says, "Well, it's been weird knowing you." But he isn't just sleeping with her because it's his job. He's starting to fall in love with her. So they start cooking up a scheme to take the money from the heist and run off together.
Meanwhile, MacMurray has to keep playing cop, doing surveillance along with partner Phil Carey. Carey spends most of his time watching the redhead next door to Novak, a wholesome nurse who puts up drapes in jeans and a man's shirt and hosts cocktail parties after a long day at work. She's played by Dorothy Malone, usually a bad girl. Her part starts out as something like comic relief, but turns into a little more.
This is no Double Indemnity - Novak is more a sex kitten than femme fatale, and MacMurray's cop doesn't have the depth of Walter Neff. But Novak is sexy and real and fun to watch. The cold open is odd and can throw you off balance. All in all, exemplary noir.
Ms. Spenser, on the other hand, was disappoint that nobody was actually push over anything, like off the roof.
It starts with a bank robbery and murder. Then we cut to Kim Novak coming out of the movies. She is wrapped in furs, but all alone. When her car won't start, Fred MacMurray comes over to help. They both noticed each other in the theater and wondered why they were alone. Well, I'm wondering too. They have some sexy dialog, go to a bar, then his place, and the whole time, we don't know what's going on. Who are these people and what are they up to?
Spoiler - he's a cop and she's the moll of one of the bank robbers. MacMurray was assigned to get close to her, and I guess he is pretty good at it. Of course, she does catch on, in a great little scene where she spits, "You're a cop!" and slaps him. As she kicks him out, she says, "Well, it's been weird knowing you." But he isn't just sleeping with her because it's his job. He's starting to fall in love with her. So they start cooking up a scheme to take the money from the heist and run off together.
Meanwhile, MacMurray has to keep playing cop, doing surveillance along with partner Phil Carey. Carey spends most of his time watching the redhead next door to Novak, a wholesome nurse who puts up drapes in jeans and a man's shirt and hosts cocktail parties after a long day at work. She's played by Dorothy Malone, usually a bad girl. Her part starts out as something like comic relief, but turns into a little more.
This is no Double Indemnity - Novak is more a sex kitten than femme fatale, and MacMurray's cop doesn't have the depth of Walter Neff. But Novak is sexy and real and fun to watch. The cold open is odd and can throw you off balance. All in all, exemplary noir.
Ms. Spenser, on the other hand, was disappoint that nobody was actually push over anything, like off the roof.
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Brush Up on Your Shakespeare
Well, we seem to be working our way through Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare. This week's entry, Love's Labour's Lost (2000), is quite the oddball. If you haven't heard of it, it mixes one of Shakespeare's lesser known comedies with well-known musical numbers from Gershwin, Porter, Berlin, and Kern.
It is set in the early 20th century, before The War (one or the other), in the kingdom of Navarre. The king and three friends pledge to live in seclusion from woman and dedicate themselves to philosophy and fasting. As we learned in Siddhartha, it's what all the kids are into. This is all explained in a newsreel, something Branagh uses several times to condense and replace Shakespeare's exposition.
They all sign the pledge, but Berowne (Kenneth Branagh) doesn't think they will be able to keep it. In fact, right away, they have to make an exception, because the Princess of France (Alicia Silverstone) is coming to discuss a treaty. Although they make her and her three ladies in waiting camp outside the castle, they do meet with her. I'm sure you can guess what happens to these four men and four women.
That's right! Pillow fights and musical numbers! I Won't Dance, I Get a Kick Out of You, The Way You Look Tonight, and many others. Also, clowns, including Nathan Lane as an entertainer and Timothy Spall as Armado, a "fantastical Spaniard", who breaks the rules by falling for a peasant girl, saucy Stefania Rocca. A mix-up of letters leads to a musical number from Geraldine McEwan, a Shakespearean actress playing an elderly scholar (The Way You Look Tonight, quite lovely), and the boys infatuation is revealed. There are a few more mix-ups, an S&M-themed masked ball (Face the Music and Dance) and a surprisingly serious ending.
I'm not 100% sure this all works. About 3/4 of the original text is cut out, replaced with songs and newsreel. In places, you get the concept: Some of the dialog is in rhymes, and that leads smoothly into the tricky rhymes and rhythms of 30's musical standards. This play is known as one of Shakespeare's trickiest and frothiest, so that works.
The actors are half Shakespearean, half show-biz. You may not take to Silverstone reciting Shakespeare right away, but she does a neat trick where she acts like a smart girl acting like an airhead, acting all pompous and Shakespearean. It kind of works.
So we lose a lot of the original play, including the play within the play that the clowns put on. But in it's place, you get Anthony Lane singing There's No Business Like Show Business. I think it's a good trade-off.
Also, this is one of my favorite plays, because I once performed a 1-man, 1-woman version in a tree.
It is set in the early 20th century, before The War (one or the other), in the kingdom of Navarre. The king and three friends pledge to live in seclusion from woman and dedicate themselves to philosophy and fasting. As we learned in Siddhartha, it's what all the kids are into. This is all explained in a newsreel, something Branagh uses several times to condense and replace Shakespeare's exposition.
They all sign the pledge, but Berowne (Kenneth Branagh) doesn't think they will be able to keep it. In fact, right away, they have to make an exception, because the Princess of France (Alicia Silverstone) is coming to discuss a treaty. Although they make her and her three ladies in waiting camp outside the castle, they do meet with her. I'm sure you can guess what happens to these four men and four women.
That's right! Pillow fights and musical numbers! I Won't Dance, I Get a Kick Out of You, The Way You Look Tonight, and many others. Also, clowns, including Nathan Lane as an entertainer and Timothy Spall as Armado, a "fantastical Spaniard", who breaks the rules by falling for a peasant girl, saucy Stefania Rocca. A mix-up of letters leads to a musical number from Geraldine McEwan, a Shakespearean actress playing an elderly scholar (The Way You Look Tonight, quite lovely), and the boys infatuation is revealed. There are a few more mix-ups, an S&M-themed masked ball (Face the Music and Dance) and a surprisingly serious ending.
I'm not 100% sure this all works. About 3/4 of the original text is cut out, replaced with songs and newsreel. In places, you get the concept: Some of the dialog is in rhymes, and that leads smoothly into the tricky rhymes and rhythms of 30's musical standards. This play is known as one of Shakespeare's trickiest and frothiest, so that works.
The actors are half Shakespearean, half show-biz. You may not take to Silverstone reciting Shakespeare right away, but she does a neat trick where she acts like a smart girl acting like an airhead, acting all pompous and Shakespearean. It kind of works.
So we lose a lot of the original play, including the play within the play that the clowns put on. But in it's place, you get Anthony Lane singing There's No Business Like Show Business. I think it's a good trade-off.
Also, this is one of my favorite plays, because I once performed a 1-man, 1-woman version in a tree.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Noir in the Night
Due to the way the dice fell, we wound up with a noir double-bill and a musical noir chaser.
Crime Wave/Decoy (1946) are the one-disc double-bill. Crime Wave, directed by Andre De Toth, is pretty standard cops and robbers stuff. Reformed ex-con Gene Nelson just wants to live quietly with his wife Phyllis Kirk (House of Wax). But a wounded prison escapee (Nedrick Young) wants to hole up with them. Meanwhile, head cop Sterling Hayden is closing in. There are a few scenes that are so classic, you might wonder if De Toth is parodying them. Like when the cops are trying to figure out who the escapee might stay with. Sterling Hayden knows the score on all of them: "What about...?" "Naw, he's up in Sing Sing." "Well, then, ..." "Retired, moved to Florida." "Well, maybe ..." "Don't you keep up on the news? He died last week."
But other than the general awesomeness of Hayden, this isn't anything special. De Toth knocked it out in 13 days, so I guess it was no big deal.
Decoy is a bit different. It wasn't available for a long time and got a kind of cult status. It was written by Nedrick Young (see above) and directed by first-timer Jack Bernhard, but the big draw is Jean Gillie.
The movie starts with Gillie being shot, and flashes back from there. A bank robber on death row won't tell anyone where the money is, not even his moll, Gillie. So she comes up with a plan to revive him after his trip to the gas chamber, and she just needs to convince the prison doctor (Herbert Rudley) to go along. Although he has a gorgeous platinum blonde nurse, Gillie just bowls him over.
The detective on their trail is Jo Jo Portugal - a great name for Sheldon Leonard ("Out you pixies go, t'rough the door or t'rough the winder"). In the final scenes, a dying Gillie asks him to come closer, "Come down to my level for once" and you (and he) expect a confession, or even a kiss. But she laughs in his face, a beautiful, wild, evil laugh, and then expires on the spot! So good. She was a great femme fatale who only made a few movies, then died young.
If you get this disc, feel free to skip Crime Wave.
Blues in the Night (1941) isn't really a noir, even though there's a murder. It's about a little quintet that wants to play the blues, you know, the real stuff. On piano, their leader, is Richard Whorf, looking kind of like Tyrone Power. Elia Kazan is on drums (not directing), with Billy Halop on clarinet. Big Jack Carson is on trumpet and his wife, a character names "Character" (Priscilla Lane) sings. They ride the rails from gig to gig, barely making enough to eat. But when gangster Lloyd Nolan hops in their car and steals their last $5, they don't turn him in, but offer him a sandwich.
That leads him to offer them a job at his New Jersey roadhouse, the Jungle, just across the river from New York. This leads to hard times, woman trouble, and the aforementioned murder. It's a lurid tale of musician's life on the road. The band members aren't very likable (except Character, she's a honey), there isn't as much music as you'd expect, and the kind of boogie-woogie they call the blues is not as hot as it's cracked up to be.
But there's something fresh about the trials of a working band, trying to make the best music they can and a little money if they can. The tone is dark, although there are good times, but overall, there's at least a touch of the noir aesthetic (or was it just made cheaply?).
However, they appear to take the title song seriously - they learn it from some old Negroes in jail. I always thought it was tongue in cheek. Maybe because I first heard it sung by Daffy Duck.
Update: I forgot about the "montages" - Blues in the Night had one or two hallucinatory dream sequences, with the credit "Montages: Don Siegel" - who later directed everything from The Big Steal and Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Dirty Harry.
Crime Wave/Decoy (1946) are the one-disc double-bill. Crime Wave, directed by Andre De Toth, is pretty standard cops and robbers stuff. Reformed ex-con Gene Nelson just wants to live quietly with his wife Phyllis Kirk (House of Wax). But a wounded prison escapee (Nedrick Young) wants to hole up with them. Meanwhile, head cop Sterling Hayden is closing in. There are a few scenes that are so classic, you might wonder if De Toth is parodying them. Like when the cops are trying to figure out who the escapee might stay with. Sterling Hayden knows the score on all of them: "What about...?" "Naw, he's up in Sing Sing." "Well, then, ..." "Retired, moved to Florida." "Well, maybe ..." "Don't you keep up on the news? He died last week."
But other than the general awesomeness of Hayden, this isn't anything special. De Toth knocked it out in 13 days, so I guess it was no big deal.
Decoy is a bit different. It wasn't available for a long time and got a kind of cult status. It was written by Nedrick Young (see above) and directed by first-timer Jack Bernhard, but the big draw is Jean Gillie.
The movie starts with Gillie being shot, and flashes back from there. A bank robber on death row won't tell anyone where the money is, not even his moll, Gillie. So she comes up with a plan to revive him after his trip to the gas chamber, and she just needs to convince the prison doctor (Herbert Rudley) to go along. Although he has a gorgeous platinum blonde nurse, Gillie just bowls him over.
The detective on their trail is Jo Jo Portugal - a great name for Sheldon Leonard ("Out you pixies go, t'rough the door or t'rough the winder"). In the final scenes, a dying Gillie asks him to come closer, "Come down to my level for once" and you (and he) expect a confession, or even a kiss. But she laughs in his face, a beautiful, wild, evil laugh, and then expires on the spot! So good. She was a great femme fatale who only made a few movies, then died young.
If you get this disc, feel free to skip Crime Wave.
Blues in the Night (1941) isn't really a noir, even though there's a murder. It's about a little quintet that wants to play the blues, you know, the real stuff. On piano, their leader, is Richard Whorf, looking kind of like Tyrone Power. Elia Kazan is on drums (not directing), with Billy Halop on clarinet. Big Jack Carson is on trumpet and his wife, a character names "Character" (Priscilla Lane) sings. They ride the rails from gig to gig, barely making enough to eat. But when gangster Lloyd Nolan hops in their car and steals their last $5, they don't turn him in, but offer him a sandwich.
That leads him to offer them a job at his New Jersey roadhouse, the Jungle, just across the river from New York. This leads to hard times, woman trouble, and the aforementioned murder. It's a lurid tale of musician's life on the road. The band members aren't very likable (except Character, she's a honey), there isn't as much music as you'd expect, and the kind of boogie-woogie they call the blues is not as hot as it's cracked up to be.
But there's something fresh about the trials of a working band, trying to make the best music they can and a little money if they can. The tone is dark, although there are good times, but overall, there's at least a touch of the noir aesthetic (or was it just made cheaply?).
However, they appear to take the title song seriously - they learn it from some old Negroes in jail. I always thought it was tongue in cheek. Maybe because I first heard it sung by Daffy Duck.
Update: I forgot about the "montages" - Blues in the Night had one or two hallucinatory dream sequences, with the credit "Montages: Don Siegel" - who later directed everything from The Big Steal and Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Dirty Harry.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Tushy Rittingham
The Knack...and How to Get It (1965) is a bit of the Swinging Sixties, from Richard Lester, between Hard Day's Night and Help! It has been called Hard Day's Night without the Beatles. But it does have Rita Tushingham.
Michael Crawford is a young school teacher who rents out a room in his house to champion Lothario Ray Brooks. Brooks is suave with sideburns, a quiff, and Italian sunglasses. Crawford looks a bit like Roger Daltrey with a bad haircut. He is driven to distraction by Brooks' kanck with the birds. He tries renting a spare room to give the house some "tone", but winds up with a wacky Irishman (Donal Donnelly) who piles all the furniture in the hall and paints his room white.
Meanwhile, we see Rita Tushingham arriving in London and trying to find the YWCA. Hey, Rita, Michael Crawford is renting a room - wait, it's already taken.
Finally, they meet up in a junkyard where Crawford is buying a bed. This leads to what I believe the Monkees called a "frolic": Our friends rolling a bed through London, riding on it, jumping on it, directing traffic, you know, frolicking. This is one of Lester's signature moves (his first short, The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film, is reportedly nothing but). If you don't like it, you might want to skip this.
Of course, Rita is put to the test by Brooks - he attempts to seduce her. Her reactions are the realest thing in the movie: flattered, intrigued, disgusted, among others. When he goes too far, she shouts "RAPE!", which is a lot less funny now than it might have been then. Kind of takes you out of it.
Also of note, John Barry (James Bond theme) supplies a light, poppy, jazzy score. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much for me - I might have preferred a something Merseybeat or even trad jazz. (One of Lester's first films was It's Trad, Dad, about Britain's pre-Beatles love of traditional Dixieland-style jazz.)
I was worried about watching this, because I was afraid that a theoretically light-hearted comedy would be horribly dated, heartbreaking, or just horrible. It was not, it was fun. It is not my favorite Lester, but not the worst (Royal Flash). The best part is Rita Tushingham in a comic role - she is funny-looking and lovely in equal parts and a great comic actor. Now I want to see The Bed Sitting Room.
Michael Crawford is a young school teacher who rents out a room in his house to champion Lothario Ray Brooks. Brooks is suave with sideburns, a quiff, and Italian sunglasses. Crawford looks a bit like Roger Daltrey with a bad haircut. He is driven to distraction by Brooks' kanck with the birds. He tries renting a spare room to give the house some "tone", but winds up with a wacky Irishman (Donal Donnelly) who piles all the furniture in the hall and paints his room white.
Meanwhile, we see Rita Tushingham arriving in London and trying to find the YWCA. Hey, Rita, Michael Crawford is renting a room - wait, it's already taken.
Finally, they meet up in a junkyard where Crawford is buying a bed. This leads to what I believe the Monkees called a "frolic": Our friends rolling a bed through London, riding on it, jumping on it, directing traffic, you know, frolicking. This is one of Lester's signature moves (his first short, The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film, is reportedly nothing but). If you don't like it, you might want to skip this.
Of course, Rita is put to the test by Brooks - he attempts to seduce her. Her reactions are the realest thing in the movie: flattered, intrigued, disgusted, among others. When he goes too far, she shouts "RAPE!", which is a lot less funny now than it might have been then. Kind of takes you out of it.
Also of note, John Barry (James Bond theme) supplies a light, poppy, jazzy score. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much for me - I might have preferred a something Merseybeat or even trad jazz. (One of Lester's first films was It's Trad, Dad, about Britain's pre-Beatles love of traditional Dixieland-style jazz.)
I was worried about watching this, because I was afraid that a theoretically light-hearted comedy would be horribly dated, heartbreaking, or just horrible. It was not, it was fun. It is not my favorite Lester, but not the worst (Royal Flash). The best part is Rita Tushingham in a comic role - she is funny-looking and lovely in equal parts and a great comic actor. Now I want to see The Bed Sitting Room.
Monday, January 16, 2017
The River of No Return
This first time I saw Siddhartha (1972), I was in high school. I saw it with my high-school sweetie, a serious yet artistic young woman who shared with me an interest in Eastern mysticism (and hippie intellectual pretension - can't forget that). I remember it as being beautiful, sensuous, and rather silly. Although the sexy scenes did get our young blood pumping, and we found the cinematography and music lovely, we didn't feel like it was really deep, man. I kind of remember feeling sheepish for having enjoyed it.
I've had it on my Netflix queue for quite awhile, with Very Long Wait status. This week Netflix decided to serve it up, and I found myself actually eager to watch. In the end, I have to agree with my teen-aged self: It is beautiful and silly, and I sheepishly enjoyed it.
Siddhartha stars Shashi Kapoor as in the title role. He is a young Brahman man, living with his father at the time of the Buddha. He is bored with the quiet life, seeing his father go down to bathe in thr River Ganges everyday. He wants excitement, adventure - he wants to renounce all worldly possessions and go live with the wandering sadhus. Now, as a teenager, I guess I had no problem with this, but now it seems like renunciation isn't the obvious dream of most teen boys.
But then we see the sadhus hitting on the old ganja pipe and it all makes sense. (Remember, "ganja" is etymologically related to "Ganges". It's all connected.)
Siddhartha and his friend Govinda meet the Buddha, and Govinda takes the robe to follow him. But Siddhartha wants to follow his own path with no teacher, no master but himself. He decides to move to the town and tarry with a lovely courtesan, Simi Garewal. This big-eyed lovely introduces him to a merchant and gets him started on a life of business success and luxury, with some sweet loving inbetween.
Older and wiser, Siddhartha leaves his wealth behind to become an apprentice ferryman. The river carries everything to him, including the beautiful Simi and the son he never knew about. She has begun to follow the Buddha, and gets to see Siddhartha one last time, dying in his arms from a snakebite. It is a touching and, well, silly scene.
And so, life and the river flow on. A major theme is that the river returns everything to you, which is crazy - rivers are noted for going only one way, except maybe tidal estuaries. But I suppose that comes from the source novel by Hermann Hesse. There's a lot of the novel in this I think - at least I assume that's the reason that such a visual movie is so talky. At one point near the end, ferryman Siddhartha says, "I can love without speaking," and Ms. Spenser and I broke out laughing. You can't do anything without speaking, dude! You are the talkiest monk we've ever heard.
So, the mystic content of this movie is not flawless. The visual content, lensed by the great Sven Nyquist, is. The music, by Hemant Kumar, is also lovely, and I speak as one who does not particularly like the flute. So I am going to recommend this movie, if you don't take it too seriously.
I've had it on my Netflix queue for quite awhile, with Very Long Wait status. This week Netflix decided to serve it up, and I found myself actually eager to watch. In the end, I have to agree with my teen-aged self: It is beautiful and silly, and I sheepishly enjoyed it.
Siddhartha stars Shashi Kapoor as in the title role. He is a young Brahman man, living with his father at the time of the Buddha. He is bored with the quiet life, seeing his father go down to bathe in thr River Ganges everyday. He wants excitement, adventure - he wants to renounce all worldly possessions and go live with the wandering sadhus. Now, as a teenager, I guess I had no problem with this, but now it seems like renunciation isn't the obvious dream of most teen boys.
But then we see the sadhus hitting on the old ganja pipe and it all makes sense. (Remember, "ganja" is etymologically related to "Ganges". It's all connected.)
Siddhartha and his friend Govinda meet the Buddha, and Govinda takes the robe to follow him. But Siddhartha wants to follow his own path with no teacher, no master but himself. He decides to move to the town and tarry with a lovely courtesan, Simi Garewal. This big-eyed lovely introduces him to a merchant and gets him started on a life of business success and luxury, with some sweet loving inbetween.
Older and wiser, Siddhartha leaves his wealth behind to become an apprentice ferryman. The river carries everything to him, including the beautiful Simi and the son he never knew about. She has begun to follow the Buddha, and gets to see Siddhartha one last time, dying in his arms from a snakebite. It is a touching and, well, silly scene.
And so, life and the river flow on. A major theme is that the river returns everything to you, which is crazy - rivers are noted for going only one way, except maybe tidal estuaries. But I suppose that comes from the source novel by Hermann Hesse. There's a lot of the novel in this I think - at least I assume that's the reason that such a visual movie is so talky. At one point near the end, ferryman Siddhartha says, "I can love without speaking," and Ms. Spenser and I broke out laughing. You can't do anything without speaking, dude! You are the talkiest monk we've ever heard.
So, the mystic content of this movie is not flawless. The visual content, lensed by the great Sven Nyquist, is. The music, by Hemant Kumar, is also lovely, and I speak as one who does not particularly like the flute. So I am going to recommend this movie, if you don't take it too seriously.
Sunday, January 15, 2017
To Be or What?
Remember how I was kind of complaining that Shakespeare movies abridged the text too much, leaving out everything but the "quotes"? Kenneth Branagh's 4-hour Hamlet (1996) does not have that problem. It doesn't have another problem, common to the more complete filmed Shakespearean plays: It is not stagey, it is cinematically rich. This is pretty much the best movie Shakespeare.
It stars Branagh as the Big Ham, of course. Blenheim (pronounced "bleh") Palace plays Elsinore, and the Duke of Marlborough has a small role as Fortinbras' captain, I suppose as the bribe to get him to let them use the castle. Derek Jacobi is King "I" Claudius, and Julie Christie is Queen Gertrude. Throw in Brian Blessed as the Ghost, and some amazing small parts for Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Judi Dench. Gerard Depardieu, Richard Attenborough, and Jack Lemmon of all people, and you've got quite a cast.
I don't really know what else to talk about - Kate Winslet, perhaps, stands out as Ophelia, pre- and post-madness. Branagh intercuts some of Hamlet and Polonius' discussions with flashbacks to Hamlet and Ophelia naked in bed, so that subtext is made solid text. That might have been the only time he showed something no explicitly in the text.
I feel like this was an almost perfect Shakespearean movie - All that Shakespeare dialog, clear and understandable, filmed like a movie, not a play, looking as good as it sounds. Works for me.
It stars Branagh as the Big Ham, of course. Blenheim (pronounced "bleh") Palace plays Elsinore, and the Duke of Marlborough has a small role as Fortinbras' captain, I suppose as the bribe to get him to let them use the castle. Derek Jacobi is King "I" Claudius, and Julie Christie is Queen Gertrude. Throw in Brian Blessed as the Ghost, and some amazing small parts for Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Judi Dench. Gerard Depardieu, Richard Attenborough, and Jack Lemmon of all people, and you've got quite a cast.
I don't really know what else to talk about - Kate Winslet, perhaps, stands out as Ophelia, pre- and post-madness. Branagh intercuts some of Hamlet and Polonius' discussions with flashbacks to Hamlet and Ophelia naked in bed, so that subtext is made solid text. That might have been the only time he showed something no explicitly in the text.
I feel like this was an almost perfect Shakespearean movie - All that Shakespeare dialog, clear and understandable, filmed like a movie, not a play, looking as good as it sounds. Works for me.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Blue Lunch
As part of my never-ending quest to find the elusive "Cosmo for boys", I present the Ice Blue Pink. Sadly, it appears to be more pink than blue, so men will never accept it.
It is based on a nip of blueberry (or "blaberi") liqueur that Ms. Spenser's friend brought back from Iceland. I took a few sips and found it quite sweet, too sweet to drink alone. But not too sweet for a new cocktail.
With gin as my base liquor, I followed the "1 sweet, 1 sour, 2 strong" rule:
Ice Blue Pink
1 jigger Gin
1 oz. lime juice
1 oz. Reykjavik Distillery Blueberry Liqueur
Shake over ice and strain.
Too bad that the color isn't right, but the taste is delicious.
In researching Iceland and the color blue, I did discover the Blue Lagoon, a hot springs near Reykjavik. It's local name is Bláa lónið, which translates as "blue sustenance" or "blue lunch". Not an auspicious name for a drink.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Better Shop Around
As our final bit of holiday cheer, we watched The Shop Around the Corner (1940). Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, it's full of great actors and "that Lubitsch touch".
It's set in backlot Budapest around Christmas, in a little luggage and knick-knack shop, where Jimmy Stewart is a clerk. One day, Margaret Sullavan comes in, looking for a job, and manages to get off on the wrong foot with Stewart. All the while they are quarelling, we know something that they don't - they are anonymous correspondents with each other, pen-pals. And they are falling in love on paper, while fighting when face to face.
If it sounds familiar to you, and you are not a classic movie fan, maybe it is because you saw the remake with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, You've Got Mail (1998). Or maybe the Judy Garland musical version In the Good Old Summertime (1948). But that's preposterous, we've already established that you don't watch old movies. Never mind - let's just say this movie was remade a few times. But this is the real thing.
It's partly Stewart and Sullavan, it's partly the supporting cast. The boss in played by Frank Morgan, the smooth-talking yes-man clerk by Joseph Schildkraut. William Tracy as the hot-shot delivery boy has several great scenes. But best of all is Felix Bressart, a drab little man with a big mustache and pince-nez glasses. He is a friend of Stewart's and a great philosopher, with a lot of the best lines.
In fact, one of our all-time favorite movie scenes is when Stewart is meeting his pen-pal for the first time, and asks to Bressart to look for her through the cafe window. He reports, "She's drinking coffee. She's taking a bit of cake." Then, shocked, "She's dunking!" Partly Bressart, partly the Lubitsch Touch.
That touch involves a sophisticated script that can be gentle and psychologically deep, but always exact and precise. The performances are all spot-on - it's great watching Stewart's face as Sullavan prattles on. I've read that her temper is as bad as her characters, maybe that's what makes her part so much fun.
And it all winds up on Christmas Eve.
It's set in backlot Budapest around Christmas, in a little luggage and knick-knack shop, where Jimmy Stewart is a clerk. One day, Margaret Sullavan comes in, looking for a job, and manages to get off on the wrong foot with Stewart. All the while they are quarelling, we know something that they don't - they are anonymous correspondents with each other, pen-pals. And they are falling in love on paper, while fighting when face to face.
If it sounds familiar to you, and you are not a classic movie fan, maybe it is because you saw the remake with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, You've Got Mail (1998). Or maybe the Judy Garland musical version In the Good Old Summertime (1948). But that's preposterous, we've already established that you don't watch old movies. Never mind - let's just say this movie was remade a few times. But this is the real thing.
It's partly Stewart and Sullavan, it's partly the supporting cast. The boss in played by Frank Morgan, the smooth-talking yes-man clerk by Joseph Schildkraut. William Tracy as the hot-shot delivery boy has several great scenes. But best of all is Felix Bressart, a drab little man with a big mustache and pince-nez glasses. He is a friend of Stewart's and a great philosopher, with a lot of the best lines.
In fact, one of our all-time favorite movie scenes is when Stewart is meeting his pen-pal for the first time, and asks to Bressart to look for her through the cafe window. He reports, "She's drinking coffee. She's taking a bit of cake." Then, shocked, "She's dunking!" Partly Bressart, partly the Lubitsch Touch.
That touch involves a sophisticated script that can be gentle and psychologically deep, but always exact and precise. The performances are all spot-on - it's great watching Stewart's face as Sullavan prattles on. I've read that her temper is as bad as her characters, maybe that's what makes her part so much fun.
And it all winds up on Christmas Eve.
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Movie Quiz!
Movie quiz time over at Dennis Cozzalio's place. It is administered by Professor Moriarty, so you know that it's diabolical. This is one of the harder quizzes, so prepare for some soul-searching.
1) Best movie of 2016
Bringing Up Baby, same as every year.
Just kidding. I'm going to interpret these as "___ movie made in 2016, that I saw in 2016, in my opinion". So my answer is Deadpool, or maybe The Nice Guys.
2) Worst movie of 2016
London has Fallen was loud, stupid, and humorless, but not in a good way. Gods of Egypt was also very stupid, but we liked that.
3) Best actress of 2016
Gal Gadot for 5 minutes of Batman v Superman. No, I guess Mary Elizabeth Winstead, from 10 Cloverfield Lane. Say, how come we didn't see more Scarlett Johansson this year?
4) Best actor of 2016
Might as well go all in: John Goodman, 10 Cloverfield Lane.
5) What movie from 2016 would you prefer not hearing another word about? Why?
Rogue One or Dr. Strange, because I haven't seen them yet and I'm avoiding spoilers.
6) Second-favorite Olivier Assayas movie
Have only ever seen Irma Vep, so Clouds of Sils Maria.
7) Miriam Hopkins or Kay Francis?
Kay Francis has an amazing, aristocratic look, but Hopkins could really play comedy.
8) What’s the story of your first R-rated movie?
I'll tell Ms. Spenser's instead: She went to see French Connection with older friends when she was only 15. When the ticket taker asked her what year she was born, she hadn't done the math, and was stuck saying "1955, uh, 54." The ticket taker looked at a mobbed-up looking guy chewing on a toothpick who was behind her (the manager?) who nodded, and she was let in.
And she laughed because she thought she had fooled them.
9) What movie from any era that you haven’t yet seen would you be willing to resolve to see before this day next year?
I was going to say, any movie on my Netflix queue, but there are some movies that have been on the list forever, and I've never felt like watching them. Mostly "difficult" movies. So, Rogue One or Dr. Strange.
10) Second-favorite Pedro Almodovar movie
Labyrinth of Passion. Number 1 is Women on the Verge.
11) What movie do you think comes closest to summing up or otherwise addressing the qualities of 2016?
Wow, I'm getting bummed out just thinking about this one. Pass.
12) Chris Pine or Chris Pratt?
I say Pratt, Ms. Spenser says Pine. Why argue when you can have both?
13) Your favorite movie theater, presently or from the past
Let me tell you about the movie theaters of old downtown Palo Alto (mid-1980s). First and funkiest, the Festival, which was really just a room in an office building. They played all the classics on a tiny screen, and the front section was floor pillows and beanbag chairs. I think it went back to being an office in 1985.
The Bijou was a small theater next to a great ice cream joint (Uncle Bunny's?). We saw Hammett there. The guy ahead of us asked for a ticket to Hamlet, and was disappointed when he found out what was really playing. It became the first Gordon-Biersch brew pub.
The New Varsity, on the other hand, was a great old picture palace, all Mission Revival, with a spacious courtyard at the entrance. It was a Border's Books for a while, until they folded. We saw a Gumby festival there, with Art Cloakey himself!
Finally, the Stanford. Smaller than the Varsity, it is still a fabulous Art Deco Egyptian temple of film, complete with a mighty Wurlitzer, on which an organist plays "Isn't It Romantic," the Stanford's theme song. It was restored by the David Packard Foundation. It is still operating, and we really should go more often.
14) Favorite movie involving a family celebration
The Addam's Family. Not that the party scene is my favorite part, but that wasn't the question.
15) Second-favorite Paul Schrader movie
Turns out I haven't watched one movie that he directed or wrote. Pass.
16) Ruth Negga or Hayley Atwell?
Since I haven't watched Agent Carter, I will say Ruth Negga, a striking young actor.
17) Last three movies you saw, in any format
Easy: Ms. Spenser wanted our brother-in-law to see Mad Max: Fury Road and Predators, so we watched those early on New Year's Eve.
New Year's Day, we found out that our mail was still on hold from our vacation, so we watched Dune from the DVD we own (sadly "widescreen" = letterboxed on all four sides). It was better than I remembered, especially as an adjunct to the book, not a standalone movie.
18) Your first X-rated, or porn movie?
Let me see - it was July 3, 1976. I was hitch-hiking to Ellsworth ME to celebrate the bicentennial Fourth of July with a friend, and I'd made it to Portland. Since it was getting too dark to hitch, I got ticket for the midnight bus, and had a few hours to kill. So I stopped in a porno theater to watch Sexual Practices in Sweden and some foreign murder mystery (Italian giallo?) with intercut teenage orgy scenes edited clumsily in. Maybe you know the one I mean - someone was murdering swingers, and the detective thinks his wife is the next victim, but he can't get to her because she is with her lover.
The midnight bus to Ellsworth took about six hours to go the 120 miles, hitting every little town, so I arrived after dawn.
However, I also saw a double-bill of Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door in Boston's Combat Zone, and that must have been before 1976, so maybe those were my first.
19) Richard Boone or Charles McGraw?
What the Hec Ramsey? Richard Boone!
20) Second-favorite Chan-wook Park movie
Can I say The Good, the Bad, and the Weird is my favorite Jee-woon Kim movie?
21) Movie that best encompasses or expresses loneliness
2001: A Space Odyssey is the first thing that jumps to mind. The cold, isolated astronauts are never explicitly called lonely, but what else would you call it?
22) What’s your favorite movie to watch with your best friend?
My best friend is, of course, Ms. Spenser, and we watch an old Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode about once a week. Favorites include Pod People or maybe Night of the Blood Beasts.
23) Who’s the current actor you most look forward to seeing in 2017?
We usually wait for movies, or sometimes directors, not actors. But, what the heck, Scarlett Johansson.
24) Your New Year’s wish for the movies
That I'll get to see some of the "Very long wait" movies in my Netflix queue, and maybe even some of the 120 from the "Saved" list.
1) Best movie of 2016
Bringing Up Baby, same as every year.
Just kidding. I'm going to interpret these as "___ movie made in 2016, that I saw in 2016, in my opinion". So my answer is Deadpool, or maybe The Nice Guys.
2) Worst movie of 2016
London has Fallen was loud, stupid, and humorless, but not in a good way. Gods of Egypt was also very stupid, but we liked that.
3) Best actress of 2016
Gal Gadot for 5 minutes of Batman v Superman. No, I guess Mary Elizabeth Winstead, from 10 Cloverfield Lane. Say, how come we didn't see more Scarlett Johansson this year?
4) Best actor of 2016
Might as well go all in: John Goodman, 10 Cloverfield Lane.
5) What movie from 2016 would you prefer not hearing another word about? Why?
Rogue One or Dr. Strange, because I haven't seen them yet and I'm avoiding spoilers.
6) Second-favorite Olivier Assayas movie
Have only ever seen Irma Vep, so Clouds of Sils Maria.
7) Miriam Hopkins or Kay Francis?
Kay Francis has an amazing, aristocratic look, but Hopkins could really play comedy.
8) What’s the story of your first R-rated movie?
I'll tell Ms. Spenser's instead: She went to see French Connection with older friends when she was only 15. When the ticket taker asked her what year she was born, she hadn't done the math, and was stuck saying "1955, uh, 54." The ticket taker looked at a mobbed-up looking guy chewing on a toothpick who was behind her (the manager?) who nodded, and she was let in.
And she laughed because she thought she had fooled them.
9) What movie from any era that you haven’t yet seen would you be willing to resolve to see before this day next year?
I was going to say, any movie on my Netflix queue, but there are some movies that have been on the list forever, and I've never felt like watching them. Mostly "difficult" movies. So, Rogue One or Dr. Strange.
10) Second-favorite Pedro Almodovar movie
Labyrinth of Passion. Number 1 is Women on the Verge.
11) What movie do you think comes closest to summing up or otherwise addressing the qualities of 2016?
Wow, I'm getting bummed out just thinking about this one. Pass.
12) Chris Pine or Chris Pratt?
I say Pratt, Ms. Spenser says Pine. Why argue when you can have both?
13) Your favorite movie theater, presently or from the past
Let me tell you about the movie theaters of old downtown Palo Alto (mid-1980s). First and funkiest, the Festival, which was really just a room in an office building. They played all the classics on a tiny screen, and the front section was floor pillows and beanbag chairs. I think it went back to being an office in 1985.
The Bijou was a small theater next to a great ice cream joint (Uncle Bunny's?). We saw Hammett there. The guy ahead of us asked for a ticket to Hamlet, and was disappointed when he found out what was really playing. It became the first Gordon-Biersch brew pub.
The New Varsity, on the other hand, was a great old picture palace, all Mission Revival, with a spacious courtyard at the entrance. It was a Border's Books for a while, until they folded. We saw a Gumby festival there, with Art Cloakey himself!
Finally, the Stanford. Smaller than the Varsity, it is still a fabulous Art Deco Egyptian temple of film, complete with a mighty Wurlitzer, on which an organist plays "Isn't It Romantic," the Stanford's theme song. It was restored by the David Packard Foundation. It is still operating, and we really should go more often.
14) Favorite movie involving a family celebration
The Addam's Family. Not that the party scene is my favorite part, but that wasn't the question.
15) Second-favorite Paul Schrader movie
Turns out I haven't watched one movie that he directed or wrote. Pass.
16) Ruth Negga or Hayley Atwell?
Since I haven't watched Agent Carter, I will say Ruth Negga, a striking young actor.
17) Last three movies you saw, in any format
Easy: Ms. Spenser wanted our brother-in-law to see Mad Max: Fury Road and Predators, so we watched those early on New Year's Eve.
New Year's Day, we found out that our mail was still on hold from our vacation, so we watched Dune from the DVD we own (sadly "widescreen" = letterboxed on all four sides). It was better than I remembered, especially as an adjunct to the book, not a standalone movie.
18) Your first X-rated, or porn movie?
Let me see - it was July 3, 1976. I was hitch-hiking to Ellsworth ME to celebrate the bicentennial Fourth of July with a friend, and I'd made it to Portland. Since it was getting too dark to hitch, I got ticket for the midnight bus, and had a few hours to kill. So I stopped in a porno theater to watch Sexual Practices in Sweden and some foreign murder mystery (Italian giallo?) with intercut teenage orgy scenes edited clumsily in. Maybe you know the one I mean - someone was murdering swingers, and the detective thinks his wife is the next victim, but he can't get to her because she is with her lover.
The midnight bus to Ellsworth took about six hours to go the 120 miles, hitting every little town, so I arrived after dawn.
However, I also saw a double-bill of Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door in Boston's Combat Zone, and that must have been before 1976, so maybe those were my first.
19) Richard Boone or Charles McGraw?
What the Hec Ramsey? Richard Boone!
20) Second-favorite Chan-wook Park movie
Can I say The Good, the Bad, and the Weird is my favorite Jee-woon Kim movie?
21) Movie that best encompasses or expresses loneliness
2001: A Space Odyssey is the first thing that jumps to mind. The cold, isolated astronauts are never explicitly called lonely, but what else would you call it?
22) What’s your favorite movie to watch with your best friend?
My best friend is, of course, Ms. Spenser, and we watch an old Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode about once a week. Favorites include Pod People or maybe Night of the Blood Beasts.
23) Who’s the current actor you most look forward to seeing in 2017?
We usually wait for movies, or sometimes directors, not actors. But, what the heck, Scarlett Johansson.
24) Your New Year’s wish for the movies
That I'll get to see some of the "Very long wait" movies in my Netflix queue, and maybe even some of the 120 from the "Saved" list.
Monday, January 2, 2017
Happy New Year!
We're back from vacation (and boy are our arms tired!), it's Jan 2, and time for my much-anticipated New Year's blog post.
I was at a New Year's party yesterday where the host introduced me to people as a cocktail blogger, which caused me to blush, and do a little soul-searching: How come I don't blog cocktails any more? Simple - I never go out and always drink margaritas at home. But I will throw in a 2016 liquor recommendation: Dorda double chocolate liqueur. It is very chocolatey and goes great in coffee!
But I'm also a film blogger, although a fairly poor one. I know I have readers, but I suspect they are in the single digits. And I use this fact to excuse the poor writing and shallow analysis that I get away with - who's reading anyway? But, heck, is blogging even still a thing? Several of the film blogs I read have withered away, like the monkey of myth. All the kids have gone to podcasts or vlogs or Snap-o-grams or what have you. But so what? This blog is on its tenth year, and I'm not going to stop now.
Or improve either, I guess.
Even though we've lost the Mythic Monkey, and the Self-Styled Siren hasn't posted since this summer, a few bloggers I read have written books that I bought and read last year. Farran Nehme, the Siren herself, wrote Missing Reels, a story about a lost silent film, but really about being a naive, broke, film-drunk Southern girl living in New York. It is charming and funny - not at all my usual think (SF or mysteries) but I enjoyed it a lot.
Josh Fruhlinger, the Comics Curmudgeon, wrote The Enthusiast, about train enthusiasts, comics enthusiasts, movie stars, and viral marketing. It's a little like a lighter, funnier William Gibson zeitgeist story. I recommend buying both - and get them in hard-cover. The author takes more if the money home.
Speaking of blogs, Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule is doing another film quiz, so better get right one that! I might let the answers stand in for my New Year's lists.
OK, I'll mention a few films:
I was at a New Year's party yesterday where the host introduced me to people as a cocktail blogger, which caused me to blush, and do a little soul-searching: How come I don't blog cocktails any more? Simple - I never go out and always drink margaritas at home. But I will throw in a 2016 liquor recommendation: Dorda double chocolate liqueur. It is very chocolatey and goes great in coffee!
But I'm also a film blogger, although a fairly poor one. I know I have readers, but I suspect they are in the single digits. And I use this fact to excuse the poor writing and shallow analysis that I get away with - who's reading anyway? But, heck, is blogging even still a thing? Several of the film blogs I read have withered away, like the monkey of myth. All the kids have gone to podcasts or vlogs or Snap-o-grams or what have you. But so what? This blog is on its tenth year, and I'm not going to stop now.
Or improve either, I guess.
Even though we've lost the Mythic Monkey, and the Self-Styled Siren hasn't posted since this summer, a few bloggers I read have written books that I bought and read last year. Farran Nehme, the Siren herself, wrote Missing Reels, a story about a lost silent film, but really about being a naive, broke, film-drunk Southern girl living in New York. It is charming and funny - not at all my usual think (SF or mysteries) but I enjoyed it a lot.
Josh Fruhlinger, the Comics Curmudgeon, wrote The Enthusiast, about train enthusiasts, comics enthusiasts, movie stars, and viral marketing. It's a little like a lighter, funnier William Gibson zeitgeist story. I recommend buying both - and get them in hard-cover. The author takes more if the money home.
Speaking of blogs, Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule is doing another film quiz, so better get right one that! I might let the answers stand in for my New Year's lists.
OK, I'll mention a few films:
- Best film of 2016: Bringing Up Baby, like every year.
- Best Xmas film: The Thin Man. We'll be watching Shop on the Corner whenever the mail that we had stopped is delivered.
- Fave 2016 films we watching in 2016: Either The Nice Guys or Deadpool. Probably Deadpool.
- Worst 2016 film that we liked anyway: Gods of Egypt.
- First movie of 2017: Dune. I was surprised by how much I liked it this time. I hadn't seen it for a long while, and I'd forgotten how well Lynch handled the interior monologues and Herbert's dialog. Still not a good movie, in itself, but worthy as an adjunct to the books.
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