Cine! Cine! And the Greatest Blood Show on Earth!

Vampire Circus is one of my favorite Hammer Studio films from the 70's. This was often broadcast on the local spook program Creature Feature. It was a great day and great weekend (even though I had church the next day) whenever this film was on. I'd call my brothers and my cousin into the room and we'd sit around my tiny black and white TV and get spooked. Ah, a great mixture of carnival, vampires, Hammer sexiness, the tiger woman (!) and revenge.

I have walked away from this forgetting that it was all about movies and music. From the looks of my calendar I take in 10-12 movies a week but I never get around to writing about them. In the past week I've watched several different kinds of films. Between my Tarot studies, work and writing a new book (and rereading Dune) I forget to maintain this thing.

  Last week I watched the orig

inal The Transformers and I'm one of the few of the era that doesn't get teary-eyed nostalgic over this overhyped, extended, noisy toy commercial. It was crappy then (in the 80's) and it's crappy now. In fact, in the wake of so many great animated fil

ms and TV shows, this Transformers resurgence is just blatant catering to unknowing 80's-babies. For some reason the song "You Got the Touch" is used frequently in The Transformers (animated), a song later used to comical effect in PT Anderson's Boogie Nights.

  But not all that I've seen has been like this. And even though I put down The Transformers, I did get a few chuckles out it. It was after all, Orson Welles' last film.

  In the past week I have taken in  Tales from Earthsea (Ghibli studios), Derailed, The Matrix (for the first time in 10 years), Quatermass and the Pit, Dust Devil, Titus and various episodes from season two of Carnivale.

  Overall it's been an entertaining absorption. I'm currently undecided which DVD's to purchase from xploitedcinema: the French import of Ms. 45, Vampire Circus or Accion Mutante or Santa Sangre. These are just diversions from the real heat, the mind rotting work that I have cornered myself into. I'd be just a little bit crazy if I wasn't able to escape into film.

Praise Yahweh!

Television is unnecessary. What's more entertaining than Youtube?

NIN: Ghosts

It was 1990, our last week of school and we decided to have a picnic as a send-off. It was Olga, Rachel, Shanee, Mike P., Ralph, Sean, Andy, Biscuit and myself. Olga, Rachel and myself being Hispanic, the picnic was named "The Spic Picnic" which I remember really offended me. I still have the flier in my yearbook.

  I think someone else came too. It wasn't Stephanie because by then she'd blown everybody off and left without a goodbye or a forwarding address. We were driving home after much sun, fun, food and one bottle of beer. Rachel was driving the big beige Lincoln her dad gave her. The one she was embarrassed to be seen in. But it made for a great taxi. Mike and Olga were still dating at the time and sat in the back seat with Ralph. I was in the front passenger side with Shanee and Rachel. They'd set it up that way because they knew how much I liked Shanee. Eighteen years later, here we are about to celebrate 16 years together.

  Mike had brought several tapes with him including Peter Murphy, David Bowie and this new band called Nine Inch Nails. This last one was so noisy and industrial (little did I know, not having yet heard Einsturzen Neubauten nor Faust) that I didn't pay much attention to it. Of course, NIN's core member Trent Reznor went on to bring underground credibility and mainstream success to the band. They gave us members of Filter, Trent made Marilyn Manson a star and has had too many imitators to possibly list. NIN went on to record The Downward Spiral and The Fragile (still my favorite album of NIN). And now, 18 years later here I am trying to access the NIN website with little luck, trying to give them my money to download the new album of all instrumentals called Ghosts I-IV. I venture that the website may crash soon from too many hits.

  Reasons why this is an interesting investment to me:

  a) in an alternate reality, this is what a new King Crimson album would sound like.

  b) Adrian Belew of King Crimson, plays on several of the songs.

  c) in an alternate reality, this is was David Bowie's Low would sound like if recorded in 2008.

  d) pretty great instrumentals; better than anything else that's out there at the moment in this genre of music.

  You can even try the first nine tracks for free.

R.I.P., sci-fi dude...

The man who wrote "The Sentinel" and 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Childhood's End has finally begun his ascension to that outer other. He'd spent most of his life writing about extraterrestrial visitors and journey's into the mysteries of space and has now exited this plane of existence to meet with the great monolithic slab in the sky.
Arthur C. Clarke, though never a favorite of mine as a sci-fi writer, did turn me on to a lot of great concepts and ideas:
a) apes worshiping a humming black slab of unknown that always seems to appear in one of my books or stories
b) that Jupiter could possibly become a new star in our solar system.
c) the ridiculous concept of RAMA.

Ideas. Things that I will never be able to get out of my head. Like Ray Bradbury he was the last of the great sci-fi theorists of the 20th-21st century.
Ground Control to Mr. Clarke: have a swell trip.

" I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do. "--HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey

Crimson Fever

It has been confirmed that King Crimson will regroup in August and play several dates in Chicago, Texas and New York. And thus the journey appears in the horizon. Tickets must be bought soon. As they become available travel plans will have to begin. And New York tickets sell fast.

  This is the newest version of Crimson. It will have Tony Levin back in the fold and will be augmented with the addition of new drummer Gavin Harrison, originally from British prog outfit Porcupine Tree. This is some excitement. This is also terrifying. Any year that Crimson unites is a year where strong forces are at work. It means there will be travel but it will all be worth it. I can already feel the nervousness I get right before they are about to go on. Like minutes before I was ready to hear them go on and play "Dangerous Curves" for the first time in 2001.

  Trey Gunn left the band in 2003 and with Bill Brufford gone since 1997 they have worked as a quartet through their tours, 2000-2003. Five years and a few projects (not ProjeKcts) later, here we have the latest incarnation of the Crimson King. This will be the first time since '97 that they will feature a second drummer and not since 1972 have they acted as a quintet with a second drummer (Jamie Muir). 

The many faces of Crimson throughout the years:

And welcome Gavin Harrison.

That sounds really strange, welcoming a new member after all of these years. But the band has always been in a constant flux of change and progression. As Bill Brufford once put it: "Crimson is something you take off the shelf, use it and then put it back for a later time."

  Sometimes you add something to it to make it a little better.

Thundarr Thighs

Last weekend we attended Megacon in Orlando. This was our 11th year going. Some years have been great, others so-so. Sometimes weather has been an obstacle. Others, traffic. This year, there was a bit of a traffic problem. They switched venues without really mentioning it but it was at least closer to the old venue. It was a better location, the hall was easier to get to and from. It wasn't too far a walk from the parking lot. But the overall experience was friendly, funny, nostalgic. They have a soft-sword group duel where kids will challenge adults to a free-for-all showdown. Lots of costumes, lots of funny inside jokes. The kids enjoy hugging each other now, offering free hugs at every turn. Better than when I was their age and everyone wanted to pulverize everyone else.

  The first thing we did was buy art and comics from small indie artists. This is my favorite part of Megacon because I get to meet hardworking artists trying to get exposure. Some are just above mediocre others are really great and have some great ideas. Sometimes this art is worth something, most times it is only worth what value I give it. I bought a sketch of Catwoman for $2. I thought of my brother who should one day get a table and sell sketches.

  My other favorite part is the people in costumes, lots of cute girls dressed like our favorite comic book and TV character.

  Like Tank Girl:

My other favorite part was buying limited edition figures of Thundarr the Barbarian. Thundarr was a favorite action adventure cartoon of mine when I was younger. It was the highlight of my Saturday morning cartoon viewing. A strange mythical adventure that took place in a post-apocalyptic future, revolving around the three main characters of Thundarr (the said Barbarian), Princess Ariel, a sorcerer; lastly Ookla the Mok, a sort of hybrid of Chewbaca and sasquatch (from the TV show).

It was also a favorite of my companion when she was growing up. It's one of many commonality that bonded us from the start. We also acquired an illegitimate collection of the show on DVD, since it has yet to be released like other Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Though the second generation episodes look a tad blurred on our 42" TV, the show manages to still impress and entertain the way it did back in the day. Still an exciting show.

  Buck Rogers and Wilma were there too. 

So were the X-Men, The Joker and Batman with his family....

Check out the miniature Wonder Woman in between Nightcrawler and Beast. Jugganaut was there too...I thought I used to work with him?

Good Enough For Now

I have been tuning in to the WFMU annual fund raiser for over a week now. This isn't like the fund raisers I'm used to in my little radio station. These guys make it exciting and funny, not a stressful begathon. Yesterday Yo La Tengo was in their studios in Jersey City, taking requests for pledges for about four hours. Once a hundred dollar pledge was made you were able to request any song for them to play. They ran through a strange songbook which included "Jessie's Girl", "I Can't Explain", The Velvet Underground's "Run Run Run", "Paint It, Black", "White Rabbit" and they ended with a hilarious medley of "Chantilly Lace/MacArthur Park/Afternoon Delight". If any band could successfully and hilariously combine those songs, it was these three from Hoboken, NJ:

In other music news, surprisingly, I turned on Saturday Night Live this past weekend and Wilco was the musical guest. I do believe this was the first time they've been on the show and the band was terrific playing "Hated It Here" and "Walken". During the latter, Jeff Tweedy was sporting a pretty nifty Nudie Suit.
Apparently this ruffled the feathers of a few fans who were denied one of three concerts they were playing as the band had to reschedule for a later date to accommodate their TV appearance. But rest assured you can now remove Wilco from the list of bands and performers that have never played SNL. Iggy Pop anyone?

What I Bought, What I Watched

I am getting so lazy as a writer and it clearly shows on this blah-ug. I struggled with severe writer's block for two days trying to create an eight-page intro to the new novel I am working on. Finally the words arrived today and when I finished I realized I was going to have to write it all over again, this time in a different setting. Same story, different stage. When writing fiction I have to dig around for the actors in my head and "get into character". Then I get to change locations. It's cheaper than making movies.

  Last night after work I used my 50% off coupon at Movie Stop and for about $13 I bought The Big Lebowski and (to my surprise found) Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. 

This would be my first time viewing this movie on TV. I have twice seen this film but only at a revival house. And I thought for years I could maintain a record of seeing it only in theaters before seeing it at home. Well, it's great to have it, in case I need to watch it for inspiration or if I want to study the amazing opening crane shot. Having reviewed the opening this morning it still doesn't compare to the big screen, even watching it on my 42" flatscreen.

  In its entirety I watched David Cronenberg's eXistenZ. This I haven't watched since it originally played in the theater a decade ago. Seeing it again I realized how much the story and concept owed to Philip K. Dick, so much so that the name of the fast food place they get their lunch from is called Perky Pat's (named after a hallucinogenic cynosure in the book The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch). Also, it is certainly a distant relative of Cronenberg's Videodrome and works much better than Naked Lunch because of its lower budget and original story, also written by Cronenberg. I also consider this a superior film to The Matrix. Less is more, in this case. Similar ideas appear in both films but the setpieces in eXistenZ are kept to a minimum. The factory where they build game pods out of animal parts is truly gruesome, possibly one of the most disgusting scenes in any movie (I would dare say it's on par to almost anything in Sweet Movie). It reminds me of my paranoid fevered dreams.

  

Also on the screen today was Orson Welles' The Trial. I had to watch an old public-domain tape I've had for about ten years. Eventually I will track down the remastered DVD and rejoice, since Welles stuck very close to the original source material for this low-budget, minimalist film. This movie demands another revisit. It deserves a new cult. I can't believe how much of it reminds me of Brazil. A few more viewings by me will determine whether this was Welles' best film.

  He seemed to think so.

In Your Face, Juno

Maybe it was a sympathetic nomination. Maybe it was popularity that got it nominated. It was inevitable that this "little" movie was destined to make a "cross-over". But I don't believe for a moment that it was ever destined to be just an obscure film. There was all sorts of hype behind it and all the kids loved it for its collection of Kimya Dawson songs on the soundtrack. They somehow related to this 16-year old who believes she speaks like an adult but is forced to make a very grown-up decision about an unwanted pregnancy.
It had identical, pretentiously blunt dialog and icky sentimentality that caused me to truly dislike Jason Reitman's previous effort Thank You for Smoking.

It would have been a hell of an upset if this movie had won the Best Picture Oscar over the four other stronger efforts. And that's also how I feel about the Oscar having been given to its screenwriter over the other movies nominated. How does Juno even compare? It barely surpasses the line of being an afterschool special. The pickings were slim, but doesn't mean there wasn't a superior product to choose over it.

Not that Juno was an awful movie. I really wanted to enjoy it. I thought some of the characters had authenticity and were slightly likable. Certainly the actors gave it a go, unfortunately working with a very flimsy script (a flimsy, Oscar winning script). This movie feels almost as if it was aimed at kids. Jason Bateman is completely unconvincing as a former frontman for a rock band from the early 90's. The conversations with his character and Juno weigh the film down with unnecessary references that the writer seemed to sprinkle all over the film to maintain some sort of hipster cred. The dialogue immediately dated the film with some references that even seem out of time. Not an awful movie, but a highly overrated one.

I'm glad to say that it was No Country for Old Men that went home a champion, having taken awards for Best Supporting Actor, Best Director(s), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. Based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy, it will definitely get millions to start reading his books. Now, many can be exposed to the greatest living writer in America.

R.I.P. Roy Scheider

In all the commotion of the last week (editing, rewriting manuscripts, etc.) I overlooked the sad news that Roy Scheider had passed away. Aside from Steve McQueen he was one of the first screen actors I ever recognized and was a favorite for many years (having seen Jaws three times during its theatrical run at the age of 4 when I lived in Puerto Rico). I got to thinking that there wasn't a sour movie in his filmography; never any film of his that I didn't enjoy or any character he played who I didn't like (he even portrayed Dr. Benway in David Cronenberg's version of Naked Lunch!!).

  What's your favorite Roy Scheider film? Not only is Jaws one of my all time favorite films, but I very much enjoyed him in The French Connection and its quasi sequel (with a better car chase) The Seven Ups; Marathon Man, Jaws 2 (hell, why not? I loved Jaws 2!), Sorcerer, The Jazz Singer, Blue Thunder, episodes of Laws & Order and so forth...

  I guess he was sort of the John Wayne for my age bracket.  Tough guy but with a heart. Martin Brody is one of the most lovable fathers ever portrayed in a movie. The scene in Jaws when Sean Brody mirrors all of his father's motion still gets a laugh from me, and I've seen the movie at least 30-50 times.

  Although Jaws is a favorite and very high on my list, my favorite Roy Scheider movie is... The Seven Ups.

Who's That Knocking at My Door?

We recently took in Martin Scorsese's first full-length film, Who's That Knocking at My Door? Originally conceived in 1965 under several different names, it was released in 1969, won a few awards (Chicago Film Fest) and opened the door for this iconic director to have greater opportunities. A truncated version of the film is known as I Call First. Scorsese had to gather funds over the years to complete this shorter version of the film and when it was completed it received distribution. Following his documentary Street Scenes in 1970, Roger Corman hired him to direct his first studio feature Boxcar Bertha, starring David Carridine.
The rest, of course, is history. What I gathered from Who's That Knocking, supports the belief I've always had that Marti's best pictures are the smaller, personal, gritty films based around the same stock of characters he's always had. The guys in Who's That Knocking? can easily be transplanted to films like Mean Street who in turn are like the characters in Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed.

Scorsese is an incredibly ambitious director, going beyond the small and gritty limitations of those who inspired him. Sam Fuller and John Cassavetes are the directors he reminds me of most. They were certainly influential to him. The difference is, of course, Scorsese's epic vision surpassed these directors. Not always, but he sometimes lost himself when making huge films as Kundun, The Age of Innocence, The Aviator, etc. I could never imagine Cassavetes directing something like The Age of Innocence.
Looking at Who's That Knocking? is looking at the roots of his best characters; his personality. All that he absorbed growing up in New York, all the thugs he knew and the violence he'd seen. Who's That Knocking? starts out with a brawling fight scene that would not be out of place in Goodfellas or Casino. As stated above, it points the way to all the great violence and humor that would show up in his later films. The character of J.R. is often discussing films with the girl he is in love with (Zina Bathune) which leaves the movie open for Scorsese to make other (more subtle) film references. I am reminded of Bergman in the sex scene (I am also reminded of Swedish sex films and Performance, which Scorsese wouldn't have seen at this point). The scenes at the Staten Island Ferry terminal and in the car remind me of Godard. Some of the overlapping editing and camera work remind me of French New Wave, etc.

The scene when Harvey Keitel is in bed was later was echoed (albeit with a higher budget) in Mean Streets.

Unlike Brian DePalma (a contemporary of Scorsese's who went on to independently pave his own career while systematically destroying it) Who's That Knocking at My Door? was the beginning Scorsese needed to break into the mainstream and helped to shape a career that has given us 40 years of great films.

The Naked Kiss

A former prostitute goes to a small town to redeem herself from her past and encounters a town of people who seem innocent on the outside but harbor some serious dysfunctional traits. Such is this great and sometimes campy film by Sam Fuller, The Naked Kiss from 1964. This was Fuller's follow up to Shock Corridor. There's a scene where the lead character Kelly (played by Constance Towers) gets off the bus and the local movie theatre marquee is showing Shock Corridor. The second she is off the bus, offering her wares (in this case bottles of Angel Foam champagne) she runs into the head of the local police, played by Anthony Eisley (he of television and Al Adamson's Frankenstein Vs. Dracula). There are episodes showing Kelly becoming a nurse because she can't children of her own. She's done turning tricks but when she refuses to go to the local brothel when Eisley's character orders her there, she sets off an avalanche of events that culminates with her being arrested and charged for murder.

  This was an unconventional film for the period. It begins with Kelly beating the shit out of her pimp and removing her wig, exposing her bald pate. 

There are flashbacks, unsettling imagery of children in peril, and more bitch slapping than was available that year in all the films made. It is a brutal, campy, beautiful and sometimes corny but all the while brilliant film. Kelly is a strong character that refuses to return to her previous life and doesn't put up with anyone's shit. 

Double crossed, jailed but eventually redeemed, she leaves town at the end, looking for hope in her new destiny.

Hell is Chrome

Lately, I can only stomach the music of Fred Frith and have had patience for little else. Except maybe Thelonious Monk. And Wilco. And The Mars Volta. I've gone several days without really listening to much music and that's not always good for the soul.

I'm intrigued by the new Mars Volta album. Though I have enjoyed their records since De-loused in the Comatorium, once you've heard one album, you've heard them all. Not such a bad thing because the same can be said about a lot of bands that they borrow from: Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson, Santana (that's a bit of an exaggeration: King Crimson's In the Wake of Poseidon sounds nothing like Red). But in January The Mars Volta released The Bedlam in Goliath, their newest "concept" album with all sorts of multi-media ephemera attached to it, B-sides and a drive you plug into your computer with lots of extras. Great concept. I missed out on it on account of me looking for a new job. This band is coming to town soon but my new schedule may conflict with that date.

It's not a real goodbye from your previous job until you've cashed out your 401k. I imagine there's some sort of virtual "fuck you" available somewhere, I just can't access it.
I'm enjoying Wilco right now. Last night we listened to Sky Blue Sky which was the best album of 2007. There is still something subtle and haunted about A Ghost is Born that I always return to. Listening to "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" makes everything okay. What a release.

"he sun will rise, we'll climb into cars
The future has a valley and a shortcut around
Who will wear the crown of drowning award
Hold a private light on a Michigan shore
You fool me with a kiss of kidsmoke
From a microscopic home It's good to be alone I'll be in my bed
You can be the stone
That raises from the dead
And carries us all home
There's no blood on my hands
I just do as I am told"

Wilco, "Spiders (Kidsmoke)"

Cop and 1/2

On TV this afternoon they showed Cop and 1/2. This is the one where Burt Reynolds teams up with an under privileged black kid and together they bust up the bad guys, motorboat chase and all thrown in. Not only was it filmed in Tampa, Florida but the end title song was sung by Joey (Gimme a Break, Blossom, etc.) Lawrence. Filmed in Tampa and end title song by Joey Lawrence. What's your recipe for a blockbuster movie?

 Also watched the original Get Carter, still among the best British crime films ever made. Right up there with The Long Good Friday, Performance, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, etc. The soundtrack by Roy Budd still amazes me as to how ahead of its time it was (title track was covered years later by Stereolab). There is a bonus extra on the DVD showing him performing the title theme. Sounds like all the backing was previously recorded and was filmed overdubbing piano and harpsichord, played in tandem. To that he also overdubbed Rhodes piano. That made up for the fact that chapters 11-13 showed excessive pixeling, damaged done by the sun (this was a used DVD).

  Also, there's this curiosity I found on YouTube:

  It's an alien invasion movie (Gremloids) starring Paula Poundstone and Chris Elliot.

  

   

Again, what's your recipe for a blockbuster movie?

Persistence of Dali- Spellbound!

There are only two museums in the entire world that maintain most of the artwork of Salvador Dali. One is in Spain, the other is just about forty miles away from where I live. Last night was the opening of a new exhibit at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. My close and personal friend is the curator of education and his wife is in charge of PR and marketing. They were kind enough to put us on the guest list so we dolled ourselves up to mingle with the discreet and bourgeoisie.

This new exhibit reminded me of Dali and Commercialism, a show they had a few years back. The museum was converted into a multimedia haven, showing films, commercials; displays of Dali's books and perfumes and other ephemera were shown as well. Dali and Film is similar but it focuses solely on his involvement with film as well as the legacy of his influence. Each room had a different theme and showed a different film. In the reception hall they showed a Dali documentary. The bourgeois crowd was a bit noisy, and anyway they were there to be seen (scene?) so we left to the main gallery after speaking with some great people. One guy remembered me from the radio show (happens every five years).

We caught some of the newer paintings, including The Persistence of Memory (this painting normally lives in MoMA in NYC; I've never seen it!). In one of the smaller galleries they showed Destino which I'd seen in their previous show. My companion had never seen her so it was a joy to watch it with her.

This little seven minute film was to have been the first collaboration between Disney and Dali. I believe the backing was pulled so only the storyboard sketches survived. It wasn't until 2004 that the film was produced and completed, available only at museum showings.

Destino would have fit perfectly within Fantasia, but would have probably usurped all other animation.
We caught Un Chien Andelou, which seems to play everywhere all the time. Best of all they showed a loop of the dream sequence from Spellbound and had the actual backdrop of the film pulled up on the wall! This was a canvas mural which has to be seen to be experienced! They had two other pieces of art from that movie and you can actually read the camera instructions on the surface of the eyeball painting.

My companion had never watched L'age d'or so we sat in the gallery and watched the entire film while people came and went. This film was the second collaboration between Dali and Spanish director Louis Bunuel (the first being, of course, Un Chien Andelou).

I love the ending and it packs one of the greatest punchlines in cinema history. Watching L'age d'or in its entirety I thought of two later Bunuel films which were prefigured here: The Exterminating Angel and The Milky Way.
Although I didn't qualify for the free champagne, seeing the existing backdrop to a Hitchcock movie was sublime and intoxicating enough.
Other upcoming events at the museum include film lectures by John Waters.
For more information, check out the Salvador Dali Museum website.

I Just Watched the World's Most Expensive Sword and Sandal Epic

So sometimes I fall behind in watching new movies. I run from hype like its a rabid dog. I've skipped through most of the films of the 80's & 90's and I'm sure I haven't missed much. Yesterday we decided to watch Ridley Scott's Gladiator ,
eight years after its release. My closest friends told me at the time of its epic scope and incredible fight sequences and they certainly built it up for me but I guess I had no interest then (what the hell was I watching then?). To me Ridley Scott's films have to be big and disastrous; actors should walk off the set, sets should catch on fire (as in Legend), the studio should take it away from him and recut it. As far as I know the filming of Gladiator went smoothly. Maybe that's why I didn't see it the first time.
I was excited to finally get around to watching it and was surprised halfway through it when I realized, this was just an adventure film all dolled up like a Cecil B. DeMille epic! But that was okay. That meant there would be nothing too deep or distracting from the swordplay. This was a big blockbuster film, after all, aimed at the masses that ate up shit like Braveheart and The Patriot. Although I have not sat all the way through Braveheart I was going to sit through this one if just for the fact that Ridley Scott directed. I wear my director biases like a T-shirt. But alas there was some drama and tragedy but overall it was a long but adventurous sword and sandal film. Possibly the best one ever made since, oh, I don't know...Ben Hur?
Best of all, I got to watch Olive Reed in his last role, hamming it up one last time, but hamming it up with great dignity. According to legend, once the film shooting wrapped up he went drinking with the crew, outdrank everyone and died after having won an arm wrestling match. What a way to go! Brilliant.
Also in the film, for a brief moment, was David Hemmings. For one moment these two film greats share the screen and it made me wonder why they'd never been in a film together before (though they may have been in a film together before this, but I am not aware of it).
So eight years after the fact, here I am giving my brief impression. This was the 155min. version of Gladiator that I saw, not the "extended" 177min. one. Gulp. That seems a bit long. I thought 155min. was sufficient. Not too much, but just enough.
I would say that the first sword and sandal film I ever saw was The Ten Commandments. This played in a theater in 1976 in Puerto Rico where I was living and watched it with my parents and grandmother. I was all of four years old, but very impressed. Alas, I fell asleep after Moses turned his staff into a snake.
Observations:

• Not swords or spears through the anus. After all, this was NOT Caligula. Pity.
• Impressive violence: the catapult scene at the beginning was tops. The action could have been a little tighter. But it was better than the average floppy-sword fight scene of past movies. More blood was needed. Fuck it, go for NC-17 rating.
  
• The score was at times reminiscent of Holst's "Mars". Still being plundered since 1916!
• The fire in the forest and ashes which fell like snow was impressive. Dramatic for its own sake, but impressive.
• Could Monty Python have bettered this? Yes.
• Accents? Everybody was white. I was hard pressed to believe there were real Romans in this picture with the exception of Joaquin Phoenix, who can pretty much cast type for about five or six ethnicities. That's hard to do.
• Ridley Scott's films should be controversial as stated above. But then again perhaps that's best left to Terry Gilliam.

So, there it is. My review of Gladiator. Maybe when I'm all caught up on films I have not seen I will get around writing more impressions.

Coup de Torchon

Transposing the action from the American South to Senegal West Africa, Coup de Torchon, a film by Bertrand Tavenier gives a new interpretation to the Jim Thompson book Pop.1280. This violent film is at times hilarious and though I have not read this Thompson book, it contained significant themes which had carried over from his novels. The film lets you feel the heat, sweat and dust of this African country. The colors are muted pastels and according to director Tavenier, at the beginning of the day the colors were vibrant during the shoot and by the end of the day the haze of the dust and heat would dull and fade them out. In the case of Coup de Torchon, the "formula" for noir was followed precisely, even though the story took place in West Africa. You had the heat, the antihero, the cheating wife, the scrappy mistress, the villains and the betrayed locals. The conflict and intensity of racial tension was perfectly placed within the colonial context.
This film was released in 1981 to some minor criticism and controversy. Dealing with colonialism and the racism it wrought, Coup de Torchon was not apologetic, nor was redemption attempted with any sort of liberal speech making. It presented the facts of history as they were, which made for a solid and often sordid plot. It was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar and was nominated for several Cesar awards (the French equivalent) and won for best film by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics and Best Foreign Film in Italy.

It starred Philipe Noiret (La Grande Buffet, The Old Gun) and Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teacher). Of all Jim Thompson adaptations, this one brings dignity to this gothic tale of greed, violence and prejudice.

Robert Rodriguez: Comic Book Auteur?

Having to wait two weeks to start my new job has given me the opportunity to view a lot of DVD's at home. This morning I revisited Once Upon a Time in Mexico, the action packed quasi-western directed by Robert Rodriguez. I wasn't impressed the first time I viewed it because I felt it had too many characters and too many plot elements (for this sort of action film). I felt the Mariachi character (previously seen in El Mariachi and its sequel Desperado) took a backseat in all of this to make way for characters played by Ruben Blades, Johnny Depp, Willem Defoe and Mickey Rourke. It's ambitious story arch was certainly more than your standard mariachi-for-hire plot. So when I first saw it in a theater I considered it was just a throwaway time-waster to showcase all these actors. Since Desperado, Robert Rodriguez has picked up the baton that John Woo dropped when he moved to mainstream Hollywood movies. I dare say these Mariachi movies are capable of delivering the same sort of action as in John Woo movies like A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Hard-Boiled.

The plot to Once Upon a Time in Mexico cushions out the mindblowing action scenes in what is otherwise a shoot 'em up cartoon. With its bright red, green and gold colors, its sweaty close ups and Sergio Leone hommages, this film leaves the viewer with little room to catch their breath. It is a dazzling film in a long line of great action films directed by self-made independent director Rodriguez (independent with a big studio backing him, natch, he's not Jim Jarmausch after all). It is part of a collection of action films taking place within a hyperkinetic universe all its own; films like From Dusk 'Til Dawn, Desperado, Sin City and most recently, Planet Terror.
I remember reading the comic book Body Count by Kevin Eastman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and Simon Bisley (Lobo, Judge Dredd, etc.) about eleven years ago and for the first time in a long time I was reminded of this incredible book while watching Once Upon a Time in Mexico. And then it hit me that Robert Rodriguez is progressively becoming more and more of a comic book-styled film director. Having given us cartoon family fare such as Spy Kids and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, adding to that his brilliant adaptation of Sin City, he's already created a universe of pulp comic cinema. Not like Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) or Bryan Singer (X-men), who obscured their superheroes in shadows while they boil with emotion and inner-turmoil. Rodriguez highlights action and adventure. Slowly his films are becoming comic book panels, exploding with a cornucopia of bright colors and cartoon action. So I write this because I was reminded so much of Body Count that I had to revisit the comic and post some pictures of contrast and comparisons.

Simon Bisley
Salma Hayek in From Dusk Til Dawn



Cover of Body Count
Did I mention that Body Count was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book done in the style of John Woo's Hard Boiled?