The Double opens today in New York, and L.A.,

And was playing in London when we there! (We should have seen it then.)

It is the second film directed by Richard Ayoade, (Moss from the IT Crowd) and is his follow up to Submarine, which was a ruddy good Welsh coming of age film with an obvious debt to Harold and Maude.  The Double looks to owe debts to Brazil by Terry Gilliam, which is a-ok with me because since Bob Hoskins' death I think it is time I snuggle up with Brazil again.

The Wife and I are v excited about The Double, and will see it as soon as we can.

Everyone have a fab Friday! 'Nother fauxluxe post this afternoon!
Ciao!

I completely forgot this was shot in the Bay Area.

And, we were just at the Sutro Baths a few weeks ago.  Criterion have done an absolutely amazing job with their bluray, and this comes about as highly recommended a purchase as I could make for all of you folks out there.

My stock for Harold and Maude has been up and down for decades now.  This is about as fond of it as I have ever been, and I totally want to run through all of Hal Ashby's films right now.  Gosh, I wish Criterion could do The Last Detail and Shampoo, too.

"Vice, virtue.  It's best not to be too moral.  You cheat yourself out of too much life.  Aim above morality.  If you apply that to life, then you're bound to live life fully."

And, of course, 

"Don't get officious.  You're not yourself when you're officious -- that is the curse of a government job."

2012, The Summer of Young Love continues.

Went and saw Turn Me On, Dammit one more time before it leaves the Bay Area.  Today is the last day here for it.  The film (print I watched?) goes to Los Angeles now.  Farewell.

The film was even more moving, lovely, wry, and wonderful than it was the first time.  And, this time I noticed the original score a good deal more, and how witty and perfect it is for the story and the little Norwegian town it comments on.

I felt so elated and fresh and special walking past City Hall on the way to BART.  I did not even listen to my iPod on the way home, read my excellent Ava Gardner book on the train, as I watched children play and talk.  One of the children was named Ava.  Was she named after Ms Gardner? They all got off at my same stop.

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Watched The Newsroom finally upon getting home.  It was a let-down.  I will keep watching it, but it is not likely to become a huge cult, obsessive thing with me.  Too treacly.  Too sweet.  Not cynical or mean enough, Charlie Pierce nailed it in his review of it.  The best thing about it is seeing Sam Waterston's character permanently swacked on Scotch in every scene.  The walk and talks are all over the place, and still pretty frickin annoying.

I love FDR just about as much as anybody else does, but the sermonizing on the Old Great America, plus overlaid with a fruity annoying string score, is going to get old really quick.  Actually already has.

Still, nice to see Allison Pill.

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But then it was back to a magical dreamy Summer of Young Love clutch of time.  Sweetie asleep on my lap, running my hands through her hair as I watched Submarine.

Submarine was written and directed by "Moss" from The IT Crowd (and his co-star there, Chris O'Dowd, gets a special thanks in the credits), Richard Ayoade.  The film is based on a Welsh coming of age novel that I will be purchasing soon.

Richard Ayoade.  Looking forward to his new career as writer/director.

The film for all its bittersweet perfectness is insanely derivative.  Notably Harold and Maude (just released on bluray by Criterion!) and Wes Anderson's films.  And, of course, Anderson practically owes a good portion of his career to Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude.

(Hey, Wes! I love love love love Moonrise Kingdom, but maybe you should try to make a film like Ashby's Shampoo? That could be dynamite.)

Anyhoo, Submarine is a cult film supreme, full of amazing dialogue, and young love run riot; beautiful scenes of our heroes setting fires, blasting off fireworks, and kissing while taking polaroids.  There is a great deal of pain, as well, though; bullying, death, cheating, lying, spying, desperate adult melancholy that paralyzes, and the arresting youthful fear of surrendering to love.

Alex Turner contributed six of the most gorgeous songs to Submarine.  And I have been absolutely consumed, colonized, and conquered by one of them, Piledriver Waltz.

Plus, Sally Hawkins plays Oliver's Mum.

Crazily highly recommended.  Submarine is streaming on Netflix.










Inventory Thursday.

Was going to write something about SCOTUS here but I am thinking better of it, I would rather think on Jordana and Oliver and those nervous scary moments of seduction and surrender, those polaroids, the flash, the fireworks, the fire.

Pride Kills, brothers and sisters.  It is scary, I know, but my advice to you is, get in touch with it, get out on that limb, and fear not love.  There are worlds and worlds out there, a million doors, open them all.

Yasmin Paige, born in London, England, UK.

Michael

I have seen Harold and Maude

A gabillion times but I watched it tonight just to see what it looks like now and, more importantly, to see all the ways Rushmore stole from it.

What really makes this sequence golden is Cort's sheepish glance at his Mum after this direct look at the camera.

And, boie, does Rushmore owe a serious debt to it.  The cemetery scenes, the leather chair psychiatrist shots, the massive tree shots (in Rushmore Bill Murray pulls a branch off and the tree falls down), the Cat Stevens music, the "different" young man in love with an older woman, and of course, Wes Anderson stole Bud Cort's furtive glance in to the camera in The Life Aquatic straight from Harold, as well, etc, ...

But Harold and Maude has been an inverted bell curve with me.  I was knocked out with the film years ago but started to hate it after that.  (Perhaps that was just an idiosyncratic thing, a woman I loved was besotted with the film which made me hate it all the more, espec after we broke up.)

I watched Rushmore with a friend, really expecting him to love the film as I do.  I thought it was right up his alley.  He shrugged it off, did not get it, and that is okay.  Meanwhile, it was then I started to notice all the Harold and Maude allusions.  I watched Harold and Maude soon after that (this was around 2001) and enjoyed it but not nearly as much as I enjoyed it tonight.

I think Harold and Maude is aging v well, silently, alone in the cellar whilst everyone has written it off.  Harold and Maude's anachronistic ways, it's most certainly set in the US and there are clues to spell that out, yet, that is no United States that I know (and what is up w/ Mum having an English accent?) This anachronistic style of writing, designing, and shooting is a tool in Wes Anderson's box, i.e. Rushmore's ambiguous time-setting.

There are serious flaws in Harold and Maude, though.  The "falling in love" montage of scenes is poorly edited (Hal Ashby's strong point!) and v stilted to say the least.

Still, I loved it tonight.  It is still not up there with my all-time cult films.  Those would be This is Spinal Tap, Withnail and I, and In the Loop.  But it is still v good and deserves a second look if you have not seen it in a while.

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Saw Of Gods and Men yesterday.  I loved it, loved it, but it is hard to recommend a movie that is two hours long and feels twice that.  Of course it is glacially paced, it is a film about monks.  Still, it was v moving and absolutely pitch perfect to its' real-life subject matter.  It looks like old religious paintings, the compositions are meticulous and spot-on.  The birthday scene with the Muslims is ebullient, the "Swan Lake" scene is earthquakingly moving and the way each monk has their own character perfectly spelled out and shown is quite beautiful.

I guess I am recommending it, after all.

Love you all, Mwah!, ...