Multiple Cinegasms

[silentsigh89]

I just saw Gone With the Wind for the first time. I knew it was epic! I knew it would be sad!

But jesus! I think they made it that long just so they could squeeze every possible terrible life event ever into it! It just kept going! and getting worse! I totally approved.

...and I think I might want to be good friends with clark gable. Not dirty friends, just "beat up this jerkface for me?" kind of friends.

[auto-da-fey]

The Blue Dahlia was good, but it had some flaws. The ending was contrived--I'm pretty sure Raymond Chandler had it forced on him by the studio, because it doesn't flow naturally out of the narrative at all--and the casting is a little off. Veronica Lake is gorgeous, but has about zero screen presence here, and Alan Ladd doesn't fully inhabit his character--he's supposed to be violent and threatening in the early scenes (he beat his wife before the film begins), but then he gets softened as things develop. He ends up closer to a standard-issue hero than, say, the uncertain coiled violence of Bogart in In a Lonley Place.

I don't mean any of that too negatively, though, because this does wallow wonderfully in the seedy side of 1946 Hollywood. And Chandler's script is still tight. Best of all, Doris Dowling is a real firecracker as Ladd's boozy, floozy wife--she went on to work steadily, but I don't think she ever achieved any semblance of stardom, and I have no idea why. She's got this feral intensity that makes you want Lake to go pout somewhere by herself and let the camera return to Dowling where it belongs.

[auto-da-fey]

And "dirty friends," that is awesome. I may have qualms about her acting, but I could handle being dirty friends with Veronica Lake.

[auto-da-fey]

. . . and moving right along on a rollicking Friday night, Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion. For a 1970 Italian thriller, this is pretty tame. If you're going to make a movie about sexual blackmail and possible insanity, you should a)make it interesting, with well-rounded characters, b)pack it full of memorably tawdry shenanigans, or, ideally, c)both. This does none of the above, although it's never worse than mediocre. Morricone did the score again, and it's catchy as hell--I'll be humming this for days.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Well, I just learned tonight (there was an extra uncut performance on the DVD entirely in French, as it was performed in Paris) that Eddie Izzard is not actually gay. He is just a transvestite, which he also said the word for in French directly translates to "travesty." And while I was always aware that transvestites were not always gay, I always thought he was and I never connected the two when I watched him before. Fuck it; he is foxy as hell.

you know, i'm way more into girls than boys, and yet i've been interested in women's clothing since i was very young. prepubescent, for sure. from what i've read, there's a significant amount of crossdressers who are straight or at least bi. so to me, that doesn't seem at all surprising. that's just me, though.

[Andrew_TSKS]

The Blue Dahlia was good, but it had some flaws. The ending was contrived--I'm pretty sure Raymond Chandler had it forced on him by the studio, because it doesn't flow naturally out of the narrative at all

i'll try and look into this. there's some two-volume modern library collection of everything chandler wrote, which i have been meaning to buy for years, that has the original script in it. unfortunately, it's out of print as a separate book, but i have sources for out of print stuff too, so maybe i'll check into getting it that way. but yeah, either way, you've piqued my interest as to whether there was some other ending originally, and if i can find out, i'll let you know.

[auto-da-fey]

The Blue Dahlia was good, but it had some flaws. The ending was contrived--I'm pretty sure Raymond Chandler had it forced on him by the studio, because it doesn't flow naturally out of the narrative at all

i'll try and look into this. there's some two-volume modern library collection of everything chandler wrote, which i have been meaning to buy for years, that has the original script in it. unfortunately, it's out of print as a separate book, but i have sources for out of print stuff too, so maybe i'll check into getting it that way. but yeah, either way, you've piqued my interest as to whether there was some other ending originally, and if i can find out, i'll let you know.

Reviews on IMDB are about the worst source I can imagine, but one there does claim this, and I can't imagine it not being true. I don't want to give away details, but the ending simply seems grafted onto the film awkwardly, like that scene at the end of that Michael Douglas movie The Game, which I just typed out but can't find the spoiler-white-out for.

[nonotyet]

I guess I just never gave that much thought to the sexuality of crossdressers--I was all "hey, you have better lipstick than I do, neat." And when Izzard is dressed up he can be kinda swishy, so I just assumed. Which makes an ass out of us all, yes.

Incidentally I asked two of my friends who I hung out with last night if they knew that he was straight, and this was their exact reaction:

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

[Andrew_TSKS]

but wait, i'm confused. did they mean "hahaha you idiot, don't you already know?" or did they mean "hahahaha you're lying, you have to be lying"?

[nonotyet]

It was "AHAHAHAHAAHA, YOU IDIOT." Sorry.

[YojimboMonkey]

I can't say I ever really gave any thought to his sexuality, I just remember him being a comic and it seemed like his gimmick was dressing up like a lady, and so when my wife started watching that show that he's in and said to me "Jim, do you know who Eddie Izzard is?  I just think he's so attractive, he reminds me of you," all I could think of was his standup act and I was like "Wait, the dude in makeup and a dress reminds you of me?"

[girl]

Ok, so I watched If. . . again.  I still find the ending jarring, but on review, I can see more readily how the film builds toward it.  It's my own bias that stops me from being able to see "let's shoot everyone" as a viable answer to "we're having a rough time at school".  It really is an excellent film.  The entire cast is wonderful.  I can absolutely appreciate it for what it is, but it's not a favorite of mine.

[auto-da-fey]

I saw Crispin Glover tonight at the Egyptian Theater; I guess his new movie was premiering there, but I was headed for a the tiny basement screening room for a FilmForum event to celebrate the new book F is for Phony: Fake Documentary and Truth's Undoing, a trilogy of short fake docs. First was Bunuel's 1932 Land Without Bread, which eviscerates everything from Catholicism to liberal guilt in its fake half-hour depiction of a "lost race" of rural Spaniards. The thing is brutal, including everything from dead babies to dead goats (anyone distraught by Umberto Lenzi's cannibal movie tactics might be upset even more here--Bunuel apparently covered a goat in honey to make bees sting it to death on film), but it was also a revolutionary use of the documentary format, and it still packs a wallop today.

Next was Mitchell Block's 1972 No Lies, the archetypal cinema-as-act-of-violence, with a young man interrogating his female friend on camera, badgering her about her rape and essentially raping her all over again. Only sixteen minutes long, but jarring, unnerving stuff (Block was there for Q&A, and he was not what I expected--his speaking voice is incredibly gentle, and he seemed ready to cry when talking about violence).

Finally, Marlon Fuentes' Bontoc Eulogy, a 1995 film about a middle-aged, Americanized Filipino seeking to recover his heritage by investigating the fate of his grandfather, who came to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair as part of an exhibit about the Philipinnes. This is an incredible film--Fuentes researched like a motherfucker to come up with astonishing archival footage, and it has an attention to detail that matches Thom Andersen's Los Angeles Plays Itself. It's an intricate discourse on history, race, memory, identity, and orientalism, but it also works on a sheer narrative level. I'm still reeling from the work he put into it--Fuentes was there, too, explaining ethnomusicological in-jokes that probably four people in the world would actually get.

Not only did I have my mind blown by the films, I got to meet my friend's new boyfriend, who's in some local indie rock band. I had concerns--what can I say, indie rock band dudes can be a little skeezy--but he seemed really friendly and down to earth, so I'm happy for her. He's even reading Dhalgren on her recommendation. That charmed me.

[das kranke Tier]

Whit asked about O Lucky Man

Totes one of my favorite movies!

[girl]

I saw Crispin Glover tonight at the Egyptian Theater; I guess his new movie was premiering there,

The trilogy you saw sounds amazing, but I'm wondering if the Crispin Glover movie is the one that I've read about where he's decided not to release it, but rather accompany it to showings across the country so that he can speak about it at every showing.  Crispin Glover sort of fascinates me. 

[auto-da-fey]

I saw Crispin Glover tonight at the Egyptian Theater; I guess his new movie was premiering there,

The trilogy you saw sounds amazing, but I'm wondering if the Crispin Glover movie is the one that I've read about where he's decided not to release it, but rather accompany it to showings across the country so that he can speak about it at every showing.  Crispin Glover sort of fascinates me. 

You know, I didn't even bother to read about the Crispin Gover movie, but a quick look at the Egyptian's schedule suggests it might have been interesting:

WHAT IS IT?, 2005, Volcanic Eruptions Productions, 72 min. Veteran actor Crispin Hellion Glover, who has appeared in over 30 films as an actor, ... brings his debut feature film as a director, WHAT IS IT? to the Egyptian Theatre for an exclusive 3-day Los Angeles engagement. Known for creating many memorable, incredibly quirky characters onscreen as an actor, Glover's first effort as a director will not disappoint fans of his offbeat sensibilities and eccentric taste. Featuring a cast largely comprised of actors with Down Syndrome, the film is not about Down Syndrome. Glover describes it as "Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are snails, salt, a pipe and how to get home, as tormented by an hubristic racist inner psyche." He also explains that the film is his psychological reaction to corporate controls of expression limiting the exploration of taboo.

In addition to writing and directing WHAT IS IT?, Glover also appears in the film as an actor in the role of "Dueling Demi-God Auteur and The young man's inner psyche." Fairuza Balk voices one of the snails.

I mean, it would sound sort of weird-for-weird's sake, but with that dude, you don't get the sense he's calculatingly striving for cult status. He's just all sorts of odd.

[Andrew_TSKS]

that's the movie girl is talking about. he's been working on it for over a decade.

[girl]

that's the movie girl is talking about. he's been working on it for over a decade.

Yup.  That's it. 

[dieblucasdie]

I watched "After the Thin Man."  Myrna Loy drinking while pregnant = hilarity. 

[auto-da-fey]

that's the movie girl is talking about. he's been working on it for over a decade.

Yup.  That's it. 

Huh, guess I missed out on that one. But hey, CG looked better-fed in person than I would have expected--healthy, not all skinny.

[girl]

I watched "After the Thin Man."  Myrna Loy drinking while pregnant = hilarity. 

I totally don't remember this about it.  I'm not a huge fan of the Thin Man movies, but they have their charm.

I'm still watching If . . . The more I watch it, the more I like it, so there's that.  Also, sometimes in this one Malcolm McDowell looks a lot like Jonathan Rhys Myers.

[dieblucasdie]

Well, the "Thin Man" movies center around Loy and Powell getting sloshed and solving mysteries, as I'm sure you'll recall.  At the end of this one, turns out she's been preggers the whole time.  ahahaha

I'm a huge fan of the first one, but after that meh whatever.  Have you seen the "Libeled Lady"?  One of the few non-Thin Man Loy/Powell outings and it's fantastic.

[Andrew_TSKS]

well, the first one was based on the dashiell hammett book (which was, of course, based around his own life with lillian hellman), but the rest were original screenplays, so the dropoff in quality is eminently predictable.

[girl]

I'm a huge fan of the first one, but after that meh whatever.  Have you seen the "Libeled Lady"?  One of the few non-Thin Man Loy/Powell outings and it's fantastic.

Nope, but I can fix that.  (Jeepers, Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy plus Powell and Loy!)  Thanks!

[girl]

Also, somewhere Andrew mentioned Charles Willeford today.  There's a movie based on The Woman Chaser that stars Patrick Warburton and is all kinds of awesome.  Has anyone else seen it?