My friend Shawn P

Loaned me the Criterion bluray of The Night of the Hunter.  I was v excited to see a film that many consider a masterpiece, and a film that I should have seen by now, but still had not.

I wish I could report better news.

Sure, the Shelley Winters underwater scene is absolutely breathtaking, the absolute finest moment of the entire picture.  And there are many lovely moments in the photography by Stanley Cortez, notably, also, the silhouette of Mitchum on his horse on the hill, singing, in pursuit of the children.

But, as far as this critic is concerned, anyone who proclaims that Robert Mitchum's performance is stunning, amazing, moving, whathaveyou, has got to be out of their mind.  Mitchum's performance has got to be one of the campiest, faux-fey, appalling things I have ever seen.  I am not buying this tortured, damaged Preacher Man for one second.

I am almost tempted to suggest that Mitchum was playing this as a closeted gay man.  What the heck, maybe that is what Charles Laughton, in the only film he ever directed -- the film was a flop upon release in 1955, and Laughton never directed again -- asked him to do.  And, Mitchum wanted Laughton, and put money in to the picture.

I also had serious problems with the Lillian Gish (Mama Sunshine -- h/t Todd Solondz' masterpiece, Palindromes) character.  Here we are showing the evils of organized religion, and sure enough,  then we witness a true Christian wielding a shotgun and saving the children for Jesus, and what is right.

No thanks, Sir.

My favorite part of the story was Ruby and her Suitor.  But, that took up about five minutes of the entire picture.  My next favorite part was when Gish shot Mitchum, and he squealed like an infant and went and ran in to the barn, where he stayed, a crying child, until the troopers rounded him up.

There is some great art direction and photography but the story and performances were major letdowns for me.

(The Wife was savvy enough -- she is so smart -- to pick up on the debt films like Cape Fear owe to this picture.  But, I would much rather see the original Cape Fear again than The Night of the Hunter.)











All my love,
Ardent

(h/t to Shawn P for bringing this to my attention,

A new Todd Solondz film, Dark Horse.)

And then, Nick C just watched Tabloid for the first time and we could not stop talking about it yesterday.  I watched it again last night.

Joyce McKinney is still one of my personal heroes.

"That's like putting a marshmallow in a parking meter."







Mwah, ... 

Thanks to everyone who came to my birthday party last night

And I hope you all had as wonderful a time as I did.

(This is kind of like that great scene in Welcome to the Dollhouse.  Unfortunately, there is no video of that on YouTube, so, I'll give you something else instead from that sick, suburban masterpiece.  Solondz' Jersey is very different from the Jersey plastered all over our teevees these days.)

And thanks to my wonderful Wife, Renee, who made the party possible, and made such fabulous food and Martinis.

And thanks to Meghan for helping Renee with the food and drinks and being such fantastic company.

And thanks to Nick C and the Ladies for the candy and presents.

Hoo-ray! It is my birthdaie, and I am so blessed to have so many wonderful friends!

Now, here are a bunch of videos and songs:

Thanks again, I love you all,
Mwah, ... 

This might be like kicking a hornet's nest.

Came home last night, eager to watch The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  But Renee was watching something else, and was so absorbed/taken with it (and, besides, Girl is 150 minutes long) that we watched her selection, Mona Lisa Smile, instead.  Hoo-boy.

(By the way, Ms Diskowski pulled off yet another stunning dinner last night:  Grilled pork chops, pan-fried kale, and cannellini beans with crispy prosciutto on top.  For whatever reason, Ms Diskowski did not take a photo.  But it was real.  No joke.  We drank 2006 -- the winery sent me an older vintage by mistake -- Hendry Chardonnay, which was absolutely sublime.  It is showing magnificently right now.)

Anyroad, back to Mona Lisa Smile.  Despite a fantastic cast:  Julia Roberts (one of the Wife and I's faves); McNutty from The Wire; Kirsten Dunst (does not make a good brunette, should always be blonde); Ginnifer Goodwin (Renee and I like her, too); Maggie Gyllenhaal (already way too old for her part in the film); Julia Stiles (criminally under-rated); Marcia Gay Harden; John Slattery; Juliet Stevenson (one of my all-time faves); Topher Grace; and even Aleksa Palladino for, like, two seconds of screen time! And despite the film's obvious good intentions and feminist message, Mona Lisa Smile is an awful motion picture.

Where do I begin? The musical score for one thing is so heavy handed and annoying.  In fact, heavy-handed should be the essential expression, describing Mona Lisa Smile.  Director, Mike Newell, goes for every big emotional moment as if playing whack-a-mole.  The "villain" of the picture, Ms Dunst's student character's transformation at the end is wholly unbelievable and unsupportable.  Julia Stiles' "I choose to be a housewife" speech seems like a PC cop-out, which probably is the result of Newell's poor direction and Ms Roberts' sleepwalking performance in this extremely crucial scene.  Sadly, despite this being a possible big Hollywood show-offy role for Ms Roberts, she is not up to it.  I suspect Ms Roberts had doubts about the material.  The absolute worst is the song chosen for the end credits, which is grossly inappropriate, Sir Elton John's, The Heart of Every Girl.  So terrible.

Yeah, I will take Lone Scherfig's An Education over Newell's Mona Lisa Smile every day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

Aleksa Palladino in Todd Solondz' creepy, difficult masterpiece, Storytelling.

After Mona Lisa Smile we watched My Man Godfrey and fell asleep.  It had been a long week, after all.

Ciao!

I must admit I am a bit distracted,

Watching Roeg's brilliant, Bad Timing, and wanting to speak about Python's Meaning of Life.

Hullo, Doctor.

The Pythons, themselves, would have you believe that The Meaning of Life was the worst thing they did.  Do not believe them.  It was by far their best film, due to the fact that it was a sketch set-up, like their brill teevee show, which was much better than any film they ever produced.

Meanwhile, Bad Timing, is an absolute master work; difficult, wrong, sexy, fantastic title, bad casting, fabulous soundtrack (The Who & Tom Waits!), amazing cinematography, editing, etc, ...  a Master Class for young independent directors and writers.

And I learned what the word "ravishing" (or "ravishment") really meant.

As fucked-up and uneven as directors like Nic Roeg and Ken Russell were, my gosh, I am missing so desperately their spirit in films today.

Only Todd Solondz or sometimes Todd Haynes achieves those two men's amazing, difficult, controversial heights.

Where are the new trailblazers, damnitt?

Where?

(It's funny.  Renee and I hate Klimt.  Anytime we see his work, we yell, Kliiiiiiimut.)

We still both love Bad Timing, though.

xxxoooxxx

Before I watched

The Red Zone yesterday I watched Minnie and Moskowitz.  Why is it I keep drawing these really depressing films when I first turn on the television these days?

Gena Rowlands

The film is definitely an emotional workout and it really reminded me of Todd Solondz' films.  I am not v familiar with Cassavetes' work but it looks like he is one of Solondz' biggest influences.  There were a lot of scenes in Minnie that provoked such uncomfortable and painful laughter from me.

Still, it was great to see Max Fischer's dad (Seymour Cassel) and Gena Rowlands certainly was v pretty.  (But her character is named Minnie Moore and they really did kind of make her look like Minnie Mouse.)

Saw Life During

Wartime the other night, Todd Solondz new film; a sequel of sorts to Happiness.  It was very moving and has lived w/ me for hours after viewing & I will see it again soon.  


The original title for this film was Forgiveness.  


Mamet's great line from House of Games:  "When you have done something unforgiveable, you must forgive yourself."


More on this film later (I know I know), but a couple of quick side-notes re Life During Wartime:  a college student dorm room set is dressed with the usual studenty rock, ganga, che-type posters but also has a I'm Not There poster, too.  I thought this was a jibe at Todd Haynes for him 'stealing' the many actors to represent one character idea that Solondz used in Palindromes.  But I read in an interview that Solondz was having so much trouble getting permission from any studio to use any poster, period, that they used that one because the Life During Wartime DP was the same as I'm Not There (& Far From Heaven, as well), Edward Lachman.  Lachman & Dick Pope, I think, are my favorite DPs going right now.  


I can't remember the other thing right now.  

Todd Solondz'

New film looks to be fantastic, sick (as usual), daring, brave, etc, ...

Omar from The Wire is in it.  Leaky Vessel from Tristram Shandy, too.  & many more of my faves.  I am very excited.  Here is the trailer.