(And I love you, David Thomson. You introduced me to Belle de Jour, Simone Signoret, L'atalante, Sunrise, Jean-Pierre Melville and much more but you are totally off-base when you state that The Band Wagon is the best Freed Unit musical. So wrong. Singin' in the Rain is the best and An American in Paris next. Meet Me in St Louis is better than The Band Wagon, too. Anyhoo,)
There will be no baseball talk tonight. I am hunkering down and going scattershot o'er a number of topics, mostly films.
And it begins thusly,
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| This is a sandwich named after my Sweetie. |
- So, I am reading the current Hollywood edition of Vanity Fair on a break today. Naturally there is a gorgeous photograph and brief discussion of Ms Portman, who may beat out Ms Bening (an injustice in my eyes) for Best Actress two and a half weeks from now. This discussion mentions that there is a "all you can eat" sex scene between Ms Portman and Ms Kunis in Black Swan. I have a few things to say about this revelation: First, let me quote "Fosse's" daughter in All That Jazz, "To me, lesbian scenes are a real turn-off,"; and, second, I will always prefer Sarandon and Deneuve in The Hunger; lastly, I will stick to the Archers' The Red Shoes, thank you v much.
- Speaking of Vanity Fair, (Graydon Carter was the co-founder and Editor of Spy magazine but is now Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair, which has lots of little Spy tricks and sidebars, gimmicks, etc, ... [incl in this current issue a "Create Your Own Oscar Film" page/chart,] as I was perusing my latest Spy back-issue, July 1989, I noticed a couple of mentions and realized that The cast never changes. Both of them were in the William F Buckley article, as in who would be his heir. In the Ayn Rand sidebar they mention Miss America 1988, Gretchen Carlson, as being a big fan of Ms Rand and The Fountainhead. Of course, Ms Carlson is now co-host of perhaps Fox News' most heinous program, Fox & Friends. The other mention was this quote re Ben Hart: " 'The neoliberals used to say that the scandal isn't what's illegal,' ventures Malcolm Gladwell, a Washington Post reporter and former American Spectator writer."
- And speaking of the July '89 issue of Spy, I checked out cover star, Emily Lloyd's debut and break out picture, Wish You Were Here. It is damn good but not like the preview which I watched, as well. The preview makes Wish You Were Here out to be more like Monella by Tinto Brass than what the film is really like. It is actually a v serious little film about what it is like to be a sexually liberated woman in late '40s England. Ms Lloyd is fantastic and it is a shame that her mental health problems derailed what could have been a v fine career. Ms Lloyd was supposed to play the Mandy Rice-Davies role in Scandal, too. It stinks that that did not work out. She would have been much better than Bridget Fonda (and her awful English accent.) Tom Bell, from Prime Suspect, stars also. Wish You Were Here is v good.
- Interlude: my pasta came out v well, farfalle and red sauce, one of my best sauces.
- It hurt to see Fabio go out last night. They shoulda sent Tiffany packing. Great to see Carla win, though.
- I really liked Winter's Bone despite Jennifer Lawrence's ho hum performance. You can tell v early on she does not have the stuff to carry a movie on her own. My example would be the first scene she shares with Thump's "ladyfriend". Ms Lawrence is not nearly tough enough to stand up to her when the script is telling all of us she is. It is a stilted, eye-rolling sequence that hopefully Ms Lawrence will nail going forward. What makes Winter's Bone good (but not great) is the script. I love the early Odyssey sequence of Ms Lawrence having to hit each holler, speaking to folks that would rather kill her than speak to her, each holler revealing a more sinister, more formidable foe. But the thing that really cinches Winter's Bone to me is the language. As the script is based on a novel, I am assuming that much of the language/dialogue is lifted straight from the book. The dialogue reminds me of the novel, Warlock. It is formal, polite and v elevated. I love it. I imagine I will be talking like those hill people meth-addicts for a while now. I asked my Mum, who lived in a holler in Arkansas for a few years if folks talked like that. She said, No. But where she lived, Eureka Springs, is a tourist town, full of hippie artist types and rich folks. I really want to read the novel. I thought John Hawkes' performance was especially rich and chewy. He was the big stand-out to me, along with Lauren Sweetser and Dale Dickey.
- I have always loved the film, The Sweet Hereafter. (Thanks, Mo.) One day, a friend and I were riding BART together. He had a lot of time on his hands, I suppose, I cannot remember exactly, but he went to the Albany theater to watch Felicia's Journey and I went home. Later I asked him what he thought of Felicia's Journey, director Atom Egoyan's follow up to The Sweet Hereafter. He hated it. I forgot about it andthereyouhaveit, except, ... For whatever reason (maybe because they both have contemporary English stars?) I have always confused Felicia's Journey with another film that came out around the same time. And in my confusion I have always avoided a film that I should have watched years ago, simply because my friend said Felicia's Journey stunk. That film is Sexy Beast. Sexy Beast is just like its' title. It is a sexy, violent, surreal, nightmarish fucking masterful film that I am kicking myself now for not having seen until two nights ago. Uh, when you see Ben Kingsley (nominated for best-supporting actor) on the screen you are riveted. The airplane scene is one for all-time, up there with the Five Easy Pieces diner scene. And the airport security interrogation scene with Kingsley might be even better. Kingsley is just un-worldly, alien-like, and like a car wreck in the sense that despite your guilt or misgivings or dread of rubbernecking, you cannot turn away. You have to watch him. But there is so much more to like about aboot this mesmerizing picture. The brill score, the boulder scene early on, the performances by Ray Winstone; Ian McShane (my gawd, he is good); Amanda Redman; and Julianne White, my goodness, this is a film I will own. A v different, mind you, British gangster film that deserves a spot next to John Mackenzie's also brill The Long Good Friday on my shelf. Fucking fantastic, other-worldly picture.
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| Daddy and Mavis, 2/9/11. |
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