pipes all the way down

Robert Sullivan has written an interesting article (“This Is Not a Bob Dylan Movie”) for the New York Times Magazine about Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan biopic (I’m Not There). Two things come immediately to mind: Velvet Goldmine (1998) and Christine Vachon. Haynes and Vachon are a major part of the New Queer Cinema, which, for a while, gave the tired, old cinema a run for its money.

Todd Haynes’s Dylan project is a biopic starring six people as Bob Dylan, or different incarnations of Bob Dylan, including a 13-year-old African-American boy, Marcus Carl Franklin, and an Australian woman, Cate Blanchett. It’s a biopic with a title that takes it name from one of the most obscure titles in the Dylan canon, a song available only as a bootleg, called I’m Not There.

Included amongst the avatars of Dylan, besides Franklin and Blanchett, are: Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw. The article makes it out to be a 20 million dollar experimental film, which I suppose is possible in a de-con, pomo sort of way. I might not even wait for the DVD of this one, but drag myself out to a matinée. I’m sure that niche in the multiplex will be close to empty. Now, if only, they could manage to keep the picture in focus.

what hath kuleshov wrought?

I hadn’t known—and probably never would’ve dreamt of—it, but (thanks to the Shamus) I discover there’s a whole YouTube genre of videos of 45 RPM records spinning and music issuing thence (e.g., this Hollies tune He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother). I was immediately reminded of this scene in Eustache’s masterful La Maman et la putain (1973) of Bernadette Lafont lying and listening and weeping to Edith Piaf sing Les amants de Paris on an old stereo system.

Et pourtant, je sais bien
Que les amants de Paris
m’ont volé mes chansons.
A Paris, les amants ont de drôles de façons
[...]
J’en ai collé partout
Dans leurs calendriers
Les amants de Paris ont usé mes chansons.
A Paris, les amants s’aiment à leur façon.

corey dry

The last installment. Professor Corey’s Honor Society (Part 3).

21. Favorite Nicholas Ray Movie.

    Rebel Without a Cause (1955). For Dennis, Sal, and Jim.

22. Inaugural entry into the Academy of the Underrated.

    The first Casino Royale (1966) if only for its inappropriate and confused gender in Fleming’s bad French. It is the first movie I can remember going to that I knew something about prior to seeing it. It’s also a huge, cheesy, self-indulgent mess.

23. Your favorite movie dealing with the subject of television.

    Hands and guns down, Videodrome (1983). Brian O’Blivion: The battle for the mind of North America will be fought in the video arena: the Videodrome. The television screen is the retina of the mind’s eye. Therefore, the television screen is part of the physical structure of the brain. Therefore, whatever appears on the television screen emerges as raw experience for those who watch it. Therefore, television is reality, and reality is less than television.

24. Bruno Ganz or Patrick Bauchau?

    Another tough choice. Ganz is great in Wenders, especially in der Amerikanische Freund (1977), but my favorite role of his is as Jakob Nüssli in Der Erfinder (1981, The Inventor), where he is haunted by a monstrous vision that turns out to be a tank. On the other hand, Patrick Bauchau is fantastic in der Stand der Dinge (1982, The State of Things).

25. Your favorite documentary, or non-fiction, film.

    Ross McElwee’s Sherman’s March: A Mediation to the Possibility of Romantic Love in the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation (1986). It even has a linguist named Winnie in it.

26. According to Orson Welles, the director’s job is to “preside over accidents.” Name a favorite moment from a movie that seems like an accident, or a unintended, privileged moment. How did it enhance or distract from the total experience of the movie?

    The helicopter that crashes in Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978). It actually was an accident. Then, of course, there is the final, un-Wellesian scene in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) where Orson comes unstuck in time and shuttles back and forth between Paul Mason wine commercials and the upside-down, dying Cardinal Wolsey scene in A Man For All Seasons (1966).

27. Favorite Wim Wenders Movie.

    I would have to say der Amerikanische Freund (1977), but I’ve already played that card. Second up is a tie between Im Lauf der Zeit (1976, Kings of the Road) and Paris, Texas (1984). They’re both road movies. Somehow the zone along the former border between East and West Germany and the US Southwest work well as third characters in both films.

28. Elizabeth Pena or Penelope Cruz?

    Both equally.

29. Your favorite movie tag line (Thanks, Jim!)

    The movies: now more than ever.

30. As a reader, filmgoer, or film critic, what do you want from a film critic, or from film criticism? And where do you see film criticism in general headed?

    Consistency and audacity and passion.

and then antonioni

My favorite after all these years is still Professione: reporter [aka The Passenger] (1975) with Jack and Maria, screenplay by Mark. After his stroke, he did a few movies with co-directors: e.g., Al di là delle nuvole [aka Beyond the Clouds] (1995) with Wim. I have not seen it, but read the book about its making, and now I will have to put it in the queue.

for ingmar

MrBaliHai beat me to the punch: I immediately thought of the 1968 Bergman parody De Düve: The Dove when I heard of Bergman’s passing away yesterday. I googled around and looked on YouTube, but obviously didn't try hard enough. Others have unearthed the movie for me. Special bonus material includes SCTV’s Whispers of the Wolf (varry scary, kids).

movie musings

More movie musings thanks to Professor Corey’s Honor Society (Part 2).

9. Monica Bellucci or Maria Grazia Cucinotta?

   Maria Grazia Cucinotta, but just for her small part in The Sopranos as the foreign nursing student.

10. What movie can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?

    I just saw one: The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966). Today was pretty nothing, and this movie raised my spirits. It was shot in Mendocino just north, and Bodega Bay just west, of where I grew up. The Russian sailors simply speak Russian without subtitles. Alan Arkin is great. It also has Eva Sarie Saint, Brian Keith, Carl Reiner, and Jonathon Winters.

11. Conversely, what movie can destroy a day’s worth of good humor just by catching a glimpse of it while channel surfing?

    In short Stop! Or My Mother Will Shoot (1992). I saw this because I had to; I reviewed it. I still remember another TV critic laughing out loud at it in a theatre full of film critics. I still feel the bile rising just thinking about it. It also had some scenes shot in Sonoma County.

12. Favorite John Boorman movie.

    Zardoz (1974). It doesn't matter that it’s flawed. It has Sean Connery in a red dhoti and Charlotte Rampling in little. The special effects are cheesy, the story forced, but, yet, it has something that many films today lack: it holds your attention.

13. Warren Oates or Bruce Dern?

    Bruce Dern, but just because of the strangeness of Castle Keep (1969), Silent Running (1972), and for his daughter Laura Dern (1967).

14. Your favorite aspect ratio.

    The right one for the picture. But, seriously, I’ve always had a soft spot for TechnoScope.

15. Before he died in 1984, Francois Truffaut once said: The film of tomorrow will resemble the person who made it. Is there any evidence that Truffaut was right? Is it Truffaut’s tomorrow yet?

    But, only for fifteen minutes.

16. Favorite Werner Herzog movie.

    Aguirre der Zorn Gottes (1972). Still my favorite after all these years. Kinski and the jungle. But, Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen (1970) comes a close second.

17. Favorite movie featuring a rampaging, oversized or otherwise mutated beast, or beasts.

    20 Million Miles to Earth (1957): Ray Harryhausen and William Hopper.

18. Sandra Bernhard or Sarah Silverman?

    Sandra Bernhard. No doubt about it. Nope. Sarah doesn’t even come close, yet?

19. Your favorite, or most despised, movie cliché.

    The red LED time display on any bomb in any action movie.

20. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom—yes or no?

    No, no, no. This may very well be the worst bit of stink that Spielberg has foisting on his adoring public. Just rancid and wretched. And, they loved it.

gravity begins at the end of a rainbow

I have been devouring Dennis Cozzalio’s film blog, Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule since discovering it a few days back. He has a three-part questionnaire that other film bloggers were asked to fill out, and I stopped reading it soon after starting, because I wanted to take part in Professor Corey’s Honor Society (Part 1), too.

1. What movie did you have to see multiple times before deciding whether you liked or disliked it?

   N/A.

2. Inaugural entry into the Academy of the Overrated?

   Quentin Tarrantino and his whole œuvre. I think that what’s good about some of his earlier films is due to the collaboration between him and Roger Avary. That or what he borrowed from other filmmakers.

3. Favorite sly or not-so-sly reference to another film or bit of pop culture within another film.

   Homer as Leland from Citizen Kane (1941) fanning his shredded program from Salammbô in A Streetcar Named Marge (1992, episode 8F18).

4. Favorite Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger movie.

   I’ve always enjoyed The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943).

5. Your favorite Oscar moment.

   Sacheen Littlefeather declining Marlon Brando’s oscar for The Godfather on 27 March 1973. I later found out I had seen her a while before on Bob Wilkins’ Creature Features on KTVU channel 2 in the San Francisco Bay Area. She wasn’t playing a Native American activist that night, but a Vampyra clone.

6. Hugo Weaving or Guy Pearce?

   Tough call. They’re were both great in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert (1994). One might as well ask Memento (2000) or The Matrix (1999)? Elrond or Ed Exley? Let’s call it a tie.

7. Movie that you feel gave you the greatest insight into a world/culture/person/place/event that you had no understanding of before seeing it.

   Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964). Up until seeing this last Xmas, I thought that Martians were grumpy and pushy.

8. Favorite Samuel Fuller movie.

   Of the few I’ve seen, I liked The Big Red One (1980) best. Der Krieg ist Vorbei. I was disappointed with Shock Corridor (1963).

time and being and nothingness

I just ran across Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule’s film quiz (aka Mr. Shoop’s Surfin’ Summer School Midterm) via an entry (no longer there sic gloria Interretis transit) over on Bad for the Glass.

1. Favorite quote from a filmmaker.

   To be or not to be. That’s not really a question. Jean-Luc Godard.

2. A good movie from a bad director.

   A Star Is Burns (1995) by Señor Spielbergo. Although his non-union Mexican counterpart is actually not as bad as Mr Spielberg or his movies. (And, yes, I know that Señor Spielbergo is a fictional character in an animated sitcom.)

3. Favorite Laurence Olivier performance.

   Dr Christian Szell in The Marathon Man (1976). He was also good in Last Action Hero as Hamlet.

4. Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited. (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example.) Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?

   I spent a pleasant afternoon under a bridge in the Los Angeles River culvert discussing Repo Man (1984) with Dean Lent. We also dropped by the Bradbury Building from Blade Runner (1982), but it was closed. Both of these locations were a lot like they were in their respective movies.

5. Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?

   Ponti. If only because he produced Le Mépris, and Godard is said to have punched him in the face over the dubbing.

6. Best movie about baseball.

   That’s a tough one, because I don’t much care for baseball. I’d have to say Damn Yankees (1958). Those outfielders sure could dance.

7. Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance.

   Sugarpuss O’Shea in Ball of Fire (1941).

8. Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?

   Dazed and Confused (1993). It seemed closer to my experience in high school in the ’70s.

9. What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so ...)

   Diva (1981). Because it appeared in the mail; I got the DVD from Netflix. It was nice to see it again in widescreen and transfered from a decent print.

10. Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?

    Lumière’s L’Arroseur arrosé (1895) or Vigo’s Zéro de conduite: jeunes diables au collège (1933). I was going to say Man Getting Hit By Football (1995) by Hans Moleman or its subsequent remake with George C. Scott in the titular rôle, but I decided one pretend movie per film quiz.

11. Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance.

    Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter (1968).

12. A bad movie from a good director.

    Star 80 (1983) from Bob Fosse.

13. Salò: The 120 Days of Sodom—yes or no?

    Yes. What is there not to like? Pasolini (his last film) and de Sade (wrote it while in the Bastille) together at last.

14. Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?

    Wilder, if only just slightly because he was also a director.

15. Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended.

    I’d like to attend La Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica di Venezia.

16. Head or 200 Motels?

    The Blackadder episode Head. No, but seriously. The Monkees or Frank Zappa. I’ve seen both and liked them both.

17. Favorite cameo appearance. (This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble.)

    Jean Eustache as a kind man with a bandage in a Parisian bar in Der Amerikanische Freund. Runners-up in the same film, Nick Ray (as a dead painter making a living) and Sam Fuller (as a mafia porn producer).

18. Favorite Rosalind Russell performance.

    As Mame in Auntie Mame (1958).

19. What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?

    The Great Gabbo (1929, with screenplay by Ben Hecht, (can I change my answer above?). There is a DVD out there, but the famous multicolor sequences are in balck and white. It would have to include commentary by Stroheim and Hecht being channeled from beyond the grave. Also, a making of featurette would be nice. Anybody but Spielberg could direct it. If all that is not possible, the Simpsons episode Krusty Gets Kancelled could be bundled with it.

20. Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason.

    George Hamilton or Sophia Coppola in The Godfather, Part III (1990). Take your pick.

21. Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?

    Barney Balaban at Paramount. For what he did to Max Flesicher. And for being Bob’s uncle.

22. Favorite John Wayne performance.

    The Centurion at the foot of the cross (or Longinus) in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

23. Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?

    Is this the Head or 200 Motels question with different movies? Both are flawed great movies. I’d suggest two substitutions: have John Mahoney play Bill Lee and Ian Holm play Mayhew.

24. Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice.

    Valley of Gwangi (1969). It’s Jurassic Park without the CGI or the Spielberg.

25. Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?

    E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) or Hook (1991).

26. Favorite Dub Taylor performance.

    As Rev. Wainscoat in The Wild Bunch (1969).

27. If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?

    Cammell and Roeg’s Performance (1970), Fosse’s All That Jazz (1979), and Guest’s The Big Picture (1989).

28. And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?

    The Alhambra in San Francisco, California.

29. Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival.

    Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ (2004). If atheists had not existed before that movie, they would have to after it.

30. What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?

    Make ’em laugh!

rewriting pierre menard

Miladus Edensis over at Ad Usum Delphinorum posted a link to an exhibit at the Bibliothèque nationale de France on French photographer Eugène Atget [1857–1927]. I was unacquainted with him, and I immediately fell in love with his photographs. At the bottom of the Wikipedia article, linked to above, was another link to an article by a contemporary photographer, Christopher Rauschenberg, who had rephotographed some of Atget’s Parisian locations.

I was immediately reminded of both Chris Marker’s film, Sans Soleil, and the Vertigo, Then and Now website, both of which mulled over the current state of some of Vertigo’s locations. The former had been on my mind since being reminded of it recently having read a lovely blog entry on Marker by Michael Blowhard over on The Two Blowhards site. The latter since having picked up a copy of the dead tree version at a local used bookstore which in turn lead to the website. Wikipedia has a nice list of the Bay Area locations used in Vertigo.

This sort of thing doesn’t always work. I’m thinking of Gus Van Sant’s limp remake of Psycho in 1998. Jim MacBride’s Breathless (1983) was only slightly better, but, to be honest, I don’t remember it as well as the Psycho remake. I’m not sure if Rauschenberg was familiar with the Atget Rephotographic Project at the University of South Florida started in 1987, but a moment or two on Flickr shows me that others have redone Atget.