Get me to the Church On Time

Well, I dont know if it's because of Grindhouse or just coincidence, but lots of people posting about chase scenes lately. I think Piper at Lazy Eye Theater started it, posting a fine list, from the Blues Brothers, Raising Arizona, Road Warrior and more, with video. Then I saw Moviezzz' response, posting the chase from Bullitt. It's very exciting. And it happens that Grindhouse put me in the mood to watch some car chase movies - I watched Gone in 60 Seconds this weekend, there are more in the queue... The Gone in 60 Seconds Chase is a monster, after all - 40 minutes of it - one thing after another, and a stream of wreckage in the wake... But better than that, it's put together like a silent comedy, almost. A series of obstacles, situations, settings, each set up and paid off for the cars, with pieces circling back around to each other, and the added fun of the radio reporter's interviews on the street ("he hit a boat?"). I was going to comment at Piper's or ZZZ's place, but I was poking around YouTube, and found this - the chase scene from Harold Lloyd's For Heaven's Sake. Plot? Harold meets the daughter of a preacher, falls in love, turns into a better person, and then has to cross town for his wedding, along with a pack of bums from the mission, who have been into the hooch. So - a trolley, bus and dog wagon later, and a great many shenanigans on the way, they make it....

Lloyd, really, was the master of the chase scene - the race against time. This one is superb. And there are probably better - Girl Shy and Speedy, in particular, are absolute aces. But this will do:

Weekend Again With Music

Another week come and gone with no real content here. But at least there's music and YouTube!

1. Neko Case - Lion's Jaws
2. Neil Young - Alabama
3. Eric B & Rakim - Follow the Leader *** (might be better than that - not positive; that's the generation of rap I liked the most - though more Public Enemy, BDP, Run-DMC, up to NWA and De La Soul, which is more or less when I stopped listening. Not that anyone cares. Just reflecting...)
4. My Bloody Valentine - I Only Said **** - I'm not quite an actual fan of MBV, but here and there, their songs sound utterly wonderful, that swirling distortion, sighed vocals, and real melodies under it all.... some of those songs are perfectly addictive.
5. Distillers - Coral Fang - harmless neo pseudo punk. I had more hopes for this record, but it isn't bad I guess.
6. Elastica - Annie - ... given the degree to which the Distillers come off like a duller version of Elastica - who have tunes for those songs...
7. Big Star - I'm in Love with a Girl *** - the stars, I remind you, have to do largely with how often I want to hear the song - and a lot of my iPod listening gets done on trains and city streets - so... that tends to repress acoustic type songs. Which is why such a superb piece of work gets only 3 stars. Great song, great record, great band - but everyone knows that by now, I would hope.
8. Jay Farrar - Vitamins **** - I know I've shared my love of Jay Farrar before. This one particularly soars. "Really not mad at anyone you're just mad at the world."
9. Spirit - Nature's Way - another record I've commented on before (12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus) - I should rank more of the songs on it, but it's all good...
10. Built to Spill - I Would Hurt a Fly (Live) - **** - for the studio version anyway, which I think might be better, surprisingly. That Built to Spill live record is pretty damned good - but Perfect From Now on is a masterpiece, one of the best of the 90s.

There's quite a lot of options in this week's bunch - lots of good stuff in there. Let's celebrate the fashions of the 70s and one of the most underrated records of all time - Randy California and the boys, live in 1978....



Update! that's the wrong video! I thought I posted this one - that was from the 80s; this is 1978. both have their merits, though.

Good Reading

While I continue to procrastinate and loaf, I can point to a couple useful things going on in the blogosphere.... Shakespeare Blogathon is underway... enjoy it now! three weeks til the next one, Culture Snob's Misunderstood Blogathon....

... the same day the Cannes Film Festival begins - IndieWire has the films....

Or - if you need a name for your blog - Adam Ross has 700 of them ready for action!

Meanwhile - at the House Next Door (always chock full of material, like a link to this astonishingly stupid response to the Virginia Tech shooting), a review of Claire Denis' Jacques Rivette documentary. I stupidly skipped this back in January, in the midst of my Rivetteathon... stupidly or exhaustedly, hard to say now. Still....

And finally, if you need a fix of theory every couple weeks - go to the source: David Bordwell writes about film as art. What kind of art? Ah, there's the question...

Oh gods. I'm going to be updating this post all night. I just have to note: Monkey Fluids is back in action - been back for a couple weeks, but you can count the posts around here... anyway, I should be ashamed of promoting such things, but anyone who recognizes the source of my nom de blog can probably guess my opinion on antique juvenalia and line drawings... Even when put to unnatural uses!

Weekend

I have to get in here at least once a week. Strange week. Right now, it is sunny and warm. A week ago? That was not the case. The weather and its results - power outages, traveling issues - kept me out of here,a nd kept me from caring for a while... Not to mention the Bad News, which was far too easy to opine about, but really - what do I have to say about something like that? Sometims it's better to keep quiet.

But that was last week. This is now. And, just to get things going, the most basic and simple of posts: the Friday Random Ten. On Sunday, you say, reproachfully, but I say - yep...

1. Patti Smith - Redondo Beach
2. Frank Zappa - Peaches en Regalia
3. Pere Ubu - Goodbye
4. Fire Theft - Summertime
5. Robert Wyatt - Cuckoo Madame
6. Faust - It's a bit of a Pain
7. Love - Doggone
8. Dangerdoom - ATHF (scourge of Boston!)
9. Velvet Underground - Some kinda Love *****
10. Jacques Brel - Les Bigotes

Video? How about some cruddily shot and recorded Krautrock? Still pretty cool stuff.

A Friday Musical Interlude

Without much ado, let's dive into our weekly ritual, while Jonathon Papelbon does his thing...

1. Fleetwod Mac - Teenage Darling (Live at the Boston Teaparty)
2. Flaming Lips - Stand in Line
3. Beatles - In My Life **** - no, I don't have a good reason for this to be 4 instead of 5 stars.
4. Bill Frisell - Live to Tell ***** - from one of the best records of the 90s...
5. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dead Man in My Bed - I don't quite know why there's no stars on this. Who knows. Nice week or so for Nick Cave music - picked up the Grinderman record today, the new live CD/DVD a couple days ago... good to have
6. Modest Mouse - March into the Sea - so is there some kind of prejudice toward newer material in the iTunes/iPod randomizer? had that conversation today - is there anything to it, or just our imagination? I suppose I've got some data here, if I want to speculate....
7. Johnny Cash - Guess Things Happen that Way
8. Sheryl Crow - Solitaire - kind of dull, really - I think I'd prefer the Carpenters proper...
9. Wipers - My Vengeance - one of the great semi-lost bands of the 80s, this one. Very cool.
10. Sly & the Family Stone - Everybody is a Star - true enough, huh?

And to honor all that new Nick Cave: here's a live clip of the Grinderman group doing The Weeping Song....

A Month o' Movies

Going back through movies, as I said I was going to do yesterday:

Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima - seen as a double bill. I think they work better as a double feature. I've commented on Letters before - I liked it more than I let on, even then (hard to compete with Rivette), and seeing it again solidifies what I liked about it: the lack of heroism; the truth of Paul's comments on my later mention of the film - "people waiting to die". Oddly, despite the lame reception it got, and the fact that it disappeared in about 2 weeks - I think Flags might have been the better film. It isn't perfect - I'm not too impressed by the jumping around in time, the flashbacks, and flashbacks in flashbacks, and portentious framing devices - all of this serves a bit too much to sentimentalize the story. I will say - the way it jumps in and out of the battle, shows it in snatches, back and forth in time - breaks up the romanticization of the fighting. It breaks up the sense of adventure you usually get from war films, though not as effectively as Letters does telling its story straight, and just setting most of the film in a bunch of tunnels with a bunch of men waiting to die. (Both seem to me to be strategies for getting around Truffaut's rule about the impossibility of making an anti-war war film.) Still - there are cliches and melodrama aplenty in Flags of OUr Fathers, though no more so than in Letters From Iwo Jima. And it does avoid romanticizing the war; it does manage to convey the sense of betrayal the soldiers feel; it does it without quite betraying the folks back home. It's almost there. Together with Letters From Iwo Jima, the two form something very close to a truly great film. And yeah - Clint got robbed at the Oscars. There's no way The Departed can hold up as well as either of these films will.

Into Great Silence **** - shot over 6 months or so in the Chartreuse monastary, the Carthusan order, one of the most ascetic in the world - vows of silence, monks spend most of their time alone. This film shows them, patiently and beautifully, repetitively, patiently. This is rather more like Honor de Cavalerria or Colossal Youth than it seems - partly because of some of the abstract, beautiful imagery, partly because of the use of duration, partly because of the refusal of anything like plot. It is more motivated than they are, since it is about monks, who live like this - in a kind of ecstatic present that turns time into a kind of indefinite present. It is very long - 3 hours - but very effective. The aesthetics of religion, religions as aesthetics - when the monks do talk (they have one day a week where they walk outside the monastary, and are allowed to talk to one another), thet mostly discuss symbolism, the significance of things like hand washing and other rituals - this film, the way it looks, the monks' actions, reduces it all to signs, symbols, images, the pure aesthetics of contemplation. I am inclined to think this is true - that religion is aesthetics: it's philosophy and ethics and morality and everything else made into aesthetics - made significant, that is, wrapped up in fictions, signs and so on.

Bamako **** - the world bank on trial in a courtyard in a town in Mali. There are speeches and testimony, the occasional song (including a striking performance toward the end by an old griot), posed against the everyday comings and goings of the townspeople. There is a woman who goes out at night to sing - a ocuple corrupt policemen, a missing gun, a sick man, hungry children, all circulating through the film, creating more a sense of the life of the town than of a story. There is also, in the middle of this, a very funny African western parody, ostensibly on TV - starring Danny Glover and Elia Suleiman: Death in Timbuktu.

Mafioso **** - 1962 Italian film, given a re-release, starring Alberto Sordi as a Sicilian who's made it big in Milan, who goes home with his wife and kids for the first vacation in years. The first half is mostly a comedy about the clash of cultures, north and south - amusing enough, but nothing new.... Into this, though, comes a hint of menace - for our hero used to be a picciotto in the mafia. He pays his respects, and we get the idea that he got his start in life from the mafia - and now they are going to collect. I have read that the distributors are urging critics not to give away the ending - this is rather pointless, as by now most of us will have seen this basic plot a few hundred times, and will not miss it as it pops up here. Still.... an amusing, smart film, with a real sting in the tail, and a great lead performance by Sordi.

Colour Me Kubrick ** - Remember - 2 stars is still a good film! This is about Alan Conway, a con man who played Kubrick to hustle drinks, sometimes sex, and small sums of cash. The film is mostly a chance for Malkowich to camp it up, in shabby clothes, but just - at full speed. He is magnificent - it's that kind of film - there's no other reason for it to exist, but Malcovich's performance is more than enough.

July Rhapsody ***1/2 - Ann Hui film, a fine melodrama about a schoolteacher (played by Jacky Cheung, who I have not seen on screen in a while - it was a treat to see him again, he's very underrated) who confronts his wife's affair with his teacher 20 years ago, while dealing with a pretty girl chasing him. The wife is played by Anita Mui, in her last film - this gives it a particular poignancy, as it is largely about a dying man that Mui attends to. Knowing it is her last film twists the knife a bit. She and Cheung are outstanding.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley ***1/2 - The Irish rebellion of the 1920s, starting with a Black and Tans atrocity that radicalizes a pair of brothers, continuing through the campaigns against the English, to the establishment of the Free State. Then dramatizing the subsequent debates over the treaty, and showing the aftermath, as Irish turned on each other.... nicely done, handsome and respectful, though perhaps, at times, a bit too neat in its allegorizing. But a strong fine film nonetheless.

Brothers Quay Retrospective - 2 collections of short films: stop motion animation and puppetry, in strange, surreal worlds... several amazing pieces: Street of Crocodiles, their masterpiece; Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies; The Comb; a couple videos for His Name is Alive; and another masterpiece - In Abstentia, mostly shots of a woman writing - or trying to write, pencils breaking, sharpening, breaking, all of it set to a Stockhausen score featuring a horrifying mix of voices and synthezisers and electric drones and howls. Very disturbing and beautiful...

Tears of the Black Tiger **** - wonderful, campy strange melodramatic cops and robbers Thai western love story - film.... Starts brilliantly, with strange cutting patterns, very stylized sets - painted backdrops, animated clouds - the camp and glowing clors are on full display - gangsters dressed as cowboys, riding around to Morricone music, etc. It eventually settles down some, though it remains moving and strange and funny and entertaining to the end.

Indigenes *** - French war film about Algerian soldiers serving in Europe with the Free French. They fight well, but are treated badly - the film is about the racism against them as much as the war. As a war film, it's fairly conservative, with conventionally shot battles, and climatic last stands - but it's rather interesting in its treatment of the men. Especially in the characterization of the sergeant - a man of mixed Arab/French blood, who passes for European - he is complicated and strange. He is quickly established as a bastard, and remains a bastard in many ways - but reveals another side. He never indulges his men - he bullies and demeans them - but behind their backs, he pushes for their rights, their promotions (that don't come), he defends them and pleads for them, but never when they can hear.

Emperor Jones *** - Paul Robeson stars in the Eugene O'Neill play, directed by Dudley Murphy, a fascinating figure in early cinema. Not very good, but made watchable by Robeson, who is a towering presence. Murphy is competent enough. The main problems are due to the play - which is an odd mix of dignity and racism - and censorship: things like, forcing the lead actress to black up (so she wouldn't look like a white woman); the removal of all depiction of black on white violence; and in the original release, removal of the many instances of the word "nigger" - though this print reinstated most of them. The results are very strange - you can see why Robeson would want to perform in the part - it's a juicy one, he rises and falls in high style... but it's also unmistakeably racist and strangely condescending.

Lives of Others ***1/2 - suspenseful melodrama about secret policemen and compromised artists in East Germany in the 80s, maybe a bit forced in its conversions, maybe the symbolism - the way the main part ends with Gorbachev's ascent to power - is a bit too neat, but affecting nonetheless. A solid film, though I would not say it is better than Pan's Labyrinth, by any standards.

An Actual Movie Review!

I am aware that I have not actually written anything about an actual film here since - February? pretty much. It is time, I suppose to address this - eventually with a roundup post, but right now, let's start with the most recent film I've seen, Grindhouse. With stars - 1-5, weighted down, so that **= a perfectly decent film, *** being unreservedly good...

Grindhouse: **** - or, if you prefer: Planet Terror ***/Death Proof **** - it's odd that the reviews of this I've read almost all end up pitting the two films against each other. Maybe it's just the accident of what I've read - but: TalkingMoviezzz loves the Rodriguez and hates the QT - Walter Chaw dismisses the RR and loves the Tarantino - and Ryland Walker Knight loathes Planet Terror and adores Death Proof. Only Stephanie Zacharek at Salon praises both. Me? Annoying as he is (and his fans can be worse), I can't help loving Tarantino's film - Rodriguez on the other hand has always struck me as a bit of a hack, and definitely less than meets the eye. So I went in with those expectations - and found myself, instead, completely enjoying Planet Terror. It strikes me as a big budget version of films like Killer Klowns from Outer Space (which I was, of course, inspired to rewatch, after seeing Grindhouse) - an affectionate parody, that stays pretty close to the style and structure of the films it is parodying. That is - the story, the situation, is really pastiche - the characters, dialogue, details (like the tiny motorcycle the hero rides in Planet Terror) provide the parody. It's a hoot - goes down easy, fun and funny... but that's it.

But Death Proof... not when I was watching it, so much: it starts slow, it wanders and drags, and has way too much of Tarantino's signature pop culture blather, and most of that feels like filler... when Kurt Russell turns up, the thing starts to come alive, building to a rather shocking halfway point... Then starts over. 4 more women, sitting around talking - talk talk talk talk talk. Eventually, they head off to test drive a '70 dodge challenger with a white paint job - more talk first! but once they're in the car... The film goes off like a shot. And keeps going off, through the last third (or whatever it is) of the film - a long and really fucking great car chase, with stunts to make Jacky Chan or Buster Keaton proud. And the thing is, it keeps going off after it's done - it sticks in your head. The visceral thrill of it, the imagery of it - but also the artistry of it, the structure, its relationship to the films it refers to. It's got the mix of abrupt nihilism and moralism of an old fashioned exploitation picture, with charismatic villains and annoying, rather unpleasant "good guys" - it's got sudden swerves of tone and style, it's got freeze frames... It's also got a decidedly dualistic structure: split into a first half and second half, that reflect one another; then the second half is split into halves - the talking half/the driving half; then the car chase is split in two (black chaes white, white chases black) - right down to the 2 freeze frame endings.... (All of that, of course, as the second half of a double film.) Tarantino has always loved the patterns he can make out of stories, sometimes more than the stories themselves - this one maybe indulges in the patterns to the point where the stories dissolve - along with a lot of the humanity his films usually smuggle in through the back door.... The talking scenes don't do much - they occupy space in the film - they count off the number of reels you have to cover to get to the car chases.... But that, really, is true to the point of the exercise - the strange, slightly absurd scenes that pace the action in these kinds of films.... It is a strange film, and a pretty wonderful one, when you think about it.

A Good Friday for Music

Why, it's Friday again! and miraculously, here comes a Friday random music post on, miracle of miracles, a Friday! Hooray! Without any further ado (though this blog needs a bit more ado - needs posts now and again - I've been cleverly disguising my lack of content with big flashy lists and baseball pontification), here it is:

1. Swell Maps - Gunboats
2. Mars Volta - B. Part II - from Scab Dates - wait - can this count? That's just 1 part of a long song - that's not a real....
2. Pere Ubu - Lisbon - we seem to be working our way backwards through their ouvre. Next week, maybe we'll get sad.txt or something....
3. Sonic Youth - Pink Steam - certainly seem to be working a certain vein of music today.
4. Lampshade - Good Day Sunshine - off one of those Mojo compilations. Which don't seem to add much ot the originals - this being a passable cover, but blanded out. Just listen tot he Beatles!
5. Scott Walker - On Your Own Again - nothing bland about Scott Walker.
6. Swell Maps - International Rescue - never try to understand it - so why are 2 songs from the swell maps coming up? have they ever come up before? anyway, no complaints, after all.
7. Byrds - Drug Store Truck Driving Man - any Clarence White appearance is a treat...
8. Neil Young - Welfare Mothers (live - Weld)
9. The Fall - Rowche Rumble - hey! how did I forget to give this any stars? Anyway - back to the jagged guitar music, and welcome to it!
10. Sleater Kinney - The Size of Our Love

So video? I can't say I expected to find anything, but I'm glad I did - here are the Swell Maps, with Midget Submarines:

Lists By Decades

And finally - from the beginning of time! something like that. I will only have to cheat the pre 1920s, I think. I hope to update this every now and again - if I ever get really enthusiastic, I might start breaking down decades into years. (Steve Carlson has done so, back to 1953 - an inspiring project... it's certainly one of the things driving me to this process...) Anyway - into the breach! Just top 10 per decade for now, though that's a pretty narrow selection for some of these.)

2000s:
1. Inland Empire - USA - David Lynch
2. Yi Yi - Taiwan - Edward Yang
3. Kings and Queen - France - Arnaud Desplechins
4. 2046 - China - Wong Kar-wei
5. Death of Mr. Lazarescu - Romania - Christi Puiu
6. Mulholland Drive - USA - David Lynch
7. Colossal Youth - Portugal - Pedro Costa
8. L'Intrus - France - Claire Denis
9. Goodbye Dragon Inn - Taiwan - Tsai Ming-liang
10. Los Angeles Plays Itself - USA - Thom Anderson

1990s:
1. Rushmore - USA - Wes Anderson
2. Breaking the Waves - Denmark/UK - Lars Van Trier
3. Goodbye, South, Goodbye - Taiwan - Hou Hsiao Hsien
4. Satantango - Hungary - Bela Tarr
5. Fallen Angels - Hong Kong - Wong Kar-wei
6. Flowers of Shanghai - Taiwan - Hou Hsiao Hsien
7. Beijing Bastards - PRC - Zhang Yuan
8. Through the Olive Trees - Iran - Abbas Kiarostami
9. Happy Together - Hong Kong - Wong Kar-wei
10. White - France/Poland - Krysztof Kieslowski

1980s:
1. City of Sadness - Taiwan - Hou Hsiao Hsien
2. Blue Velvet - USA - David Lynch
3. Fitzcarraldo - Germany - Werner Herzog
4. The Elephant Man - USA - David Lynch
5. Do the Right Thing - USA - Spike Lee
6. Peking Opera Blues - Hong Kong - Tsui Hark
7. Brazil - UK/USA - Terry Gilliam
8. Blind Chance - Poland - Krysztof Kieslowski
9. Full Metal Jacket - USA - Stanley Kubrick
10. Raiders of the Lost Ark - USA - Steven Spielberg
[The Big Red One should be on here - except I think the restored version is probably more deserving than the original release. I certainly was more impressed - I don't know how much was the improvement in the film and how much was just seeing it in a theater vs. on video.]

1970s:
1.McCabe and Mrs Miller - USA - Robert Altman
2. Aguirre Wrath of God - Germany - Werner Herzog
3. A Woman Under the Influence - USA - John Cassavetes
4. Nashville - USA - Altman
5. Celine and Julie Go Boating - France - Jacques Rivette
6. Mystery of Kasper Hauser (Every Man for Himself and God Against All) - Germany - Werner Herzog
7. Killer of Sheep - USA - Charles Burnett [which is supposed to be getting a release sometime in 2007! it could make that list too.]
8. Killing of a Chinese Bookie - USA - John Cassavetes
9. The Long Goodbye - USA - Altman
10. Camera Buff - Poland - Krysztof Kieslowski

1960s: [An almost impossibly deep decade for this kind of list. I am, of course, a huge fan of French and Japanese new wave films - Godard and Imamura, particularly are among my very favorite filmmakers, and they were banging 'em out back in the day, at a sustained level of brilliance...]
1. Vivre Sa Vie - France - Jean Luc Godard
2. The Pornographers - Japan - Shohei Imamura
3. Gospel According to Matthew - Italy - Pier Paolo Pasolini
4. High and Low - Japan - Akira Kurosawa
5. Playtime - France - Jacques Tati
6. Pierrot Le Fou - France - JLG
7. The Sun's Burial - Japan - Nagisa Oshima
8. Insect Woman - Japan - Imamura
9. Alphaville - France - Godard again
10. Pigs and Battleships - Japan - Imamura again

1950s: [Same story here: a world wide renaissance in filmmaking after WWII, it seems.]
1. Early Summer - Japan - Yasujiro Ozu
2. Vertigo - USA - Alfred Hitchcock
3. Seven Samurai - Japan - Akira Kurosawa
4. Ugetsu Monogatari - JApan - Kenji Mizoguchi
5. Touch of Evil - USA - Orson Welles
6. Pather Panchali - India - Satyajit Ray
7. Tokyo Story - Japan - Ozu
8. Rear Window - USA - Hitchcock
9. The Searchers - USA - John Ford
10. Late Chrysanthemums - Japan Mikio Naruse

1940s:
1. It's a Wonderful Life - USA - Frank Capra
2. The Maltese Falcon - USA - John Huston
3. Late Spring - Japan - Yasujiro Ozu
4. His Girl Friday - USA - Howard Hawks
5. Ivan the Terrible - USSR - Sergei Eisenstein
6. The Big Sleep - USA - Howard Hawks
7. Fort Apache - USA - John Ford
8. Citizen Kane - USA - Orson Welles
9. Germany Year Zero - Italy - Roberto Rosselini
10. Stray Dog - Japan - Akira Kurosawa

1930s: [Another fairly miraculous decade for films - probably the best of the bunch, to be honest]
1. M - Germany - Fritz Lang
2. Rules of the Game - France - Jean Renoir
3. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - USA - Frank Capra
4. Duck Soup - USA - Leo McCarey
5. I Was Born But... - Japan - Yasujiro Ozu
6. Bride of Frankenstein - USA - James Whale
7. Frankenstein - USA - James Whale
8. Osaka Elegy - Japan - Kenji Mizoguchi
9. Love Me Tonight - USA - Reuben Mamoulian
10. A Night at the Opera - USA - Sam Wood

1920s:
1. The General - USA - Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman
2. Nosferatu - Germany - FW Murnau
3.The Gold Rush - USA - Charles Chaplin
4. Our Hospitality - USA - Buster Keaton and John G Blystone
5. Man With the Movie Camera - USSR - Dziga Vertov
6. Earth - USSR - Aleksander Dovzhenko
7. Battleship Potemkin - USSR - Sergei Eisenstein
8. Sherlock Jr. - USA - Buster Keaton
9. October - USSR - Eisenstein
10. Greed - USA - Erich Von Stroheim

Pre-1920s: [this is definitely a mixed bag - shorts, features, what have you... probably biased toward features more than it should be.]
1. Birth of a Nation - USA - DW Griffith
2. Les Vampires - Louis Feuillade
3. Broken Blossoms - USA - Griffith
4. The Tramp - USA - Charlie Chaplin
5. Intolerance - USA - Griffith
6. Regeneration - USA - Raoul Walsh
7. True Heart Susie - USA - Griffith
8. South - UK - Frank Jurley [this is the footage shot on the Shackleton expedition]
9. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Germany - Robert Weine
10. The Champion - USA - Chaplin

And that is that.

2000s by Year

This I did last year - this year's version I did without looking back at that. Might be some interesting changes. Anyway - these are retrospective top 10s for each year of this decade:

2006: [I do want to make sure this matches the post I just put up.]
1. Inland Empire - US - David Lynch
2. Colossal Youth - Portugal - Pedro Costa
3. The Woman on the Beach - South Korea - Hong Sang-soo
4. The Science of Sleep - France - Michel Gondry
5. United 93 - US - Paul Greengrass
6. Children of Men - UK - Alfonso Cauron
7. Honor de Cavelaria - Spain - Albert Serra
8. The Wind that Shakes the Barley - UK - Ken Loach
9. A Scanner Darkly - US - Richard Linklater
10. Belle Toujours - Portugal/France - Manoel de Oliveira

2005:
1. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu - Romania - Christi Puiu
2. The Squid and the Whale - USA - Noah Baumbach
3. Regular Lovers - France - Philippe Garrel
4. Three Times - Taiwan - Hou Hsiao Hsien
5. Grizzly Man - US - Werner Herzog
6. L'Enfant - Belgium - Luc & Jean Pierre Dardennes
7. Cache - France/Austria - Michael Haneke
8. The President's Last Bang - South Korea - Im Sang-soo
9. Mutual Appreciation - US - Andrew Bujalski
10. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance - South Korea - Park Chan-ho
[And as we go to press, I am a day away from seeing Into Great Silence, Philip Groning's documentary about the Chartreuse monastary - I have not completely thought it through - but it is an extraordinary film: one that might turn up on this list if I waited a few days to post it.]

2004:
1. Kings and Queen - France - Arnaud Desplechins
2. 2046 - China - Wong Kar-wei
3. L'Intrus - France - Claire Denis
4. The House of Flying Daggers - China - Zhang Yimou
5. The World - China - Jia Jiang-ke
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - US - Michel Gondry
7. Nobody Knows - Japan - Kore-eda Hirokazu
8. Innocence - France - Lucille Hadzihalilovic
9. The Holy Girl - Argentina - Lucrecia Martel
10. Clean - France - Olivier Assayas

2003:
1. Goodbye Dragon Inn Taiwan - Tsai Ming-liang
2. Los Angeles Plays Itself - USA - Thom Anderson
3. Memories of Murder - South Korea - Bong Joon-ho
4. Dracula, Pages from a Virgin's Diary - Canada - Guy Maddin
5. Elephant - USA - Gus Van Sant
6. Doppelganger - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa
7. Cafe Lumiere - Taiwan - Hou Hsiao Hsien
8. Gerry - USA - Gus Van Sant
9. Blind Shaft - China - Li Yang
10. Crimson Gold - Iran - Jafar Panahi

2002:
1. The Son - Belgium - Luc & Jean Pierre Dardennes
2. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - South Korea - Park Chan wook
3. Man Without a Past - Finland - Aki Kaurismaki
4. The Pianist - USA - Roman Polanski
5. Unknown Pleasures - China - Jia Jiang Ke
6. Springtime in a Small Town - China - Tian Zhuang Zhuang
7. Millenium Mambo - Taiwan - Hou Hsiao Hsien
8. Devils on the Doorstep - China - Jiang Wen
9. Talk to Her - Spain - Almodovar
10. Dolls - Japan - Takeshi Kitano

2001:
1. Mulholland Drive - USA - David Lynch
2. Ichi the Killer - Japan - Takashi Miike
3. Donnie Darko - USA - Richard Kelly
4. Va Savoir - France - Jacques Rivette
5. The Royal Tenenbaums - USA - Wes Anderson
6. Distance - Japan - Hirokazu Kore-eda
7. Pistol Opera - Japan - Seijun Suzuki
8. Waking Life - USA - Richard Linklater
9. Khandahar - Iran - Mohsen Makhmalbaf
10. Pulse - Japan - Kiyoshi Kurosawa

2000:
1. Yi Yi - Taiwan - Edward Yang
2. Platform - China - Jia Jiang Ke
3. Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors - South Korea - Hong Sang-soo
4. O Brother Where Art Thou - USA - Joel and Ethan Coen
5. Songs from the Second Floor - Sweden - Roy Andersson
6. The Circle - Iran - Jafar Panahi
7. Eureka - Japan - Shinji Aoyama
8. The Gleaners and I - France - Agnes Varda
9. In the Mood for Love - China - Wong Kar-wei
10. George Washington - USA - David Gordon Green

That's that, until next year.

Past the Quarterpost, We Turn back the clock...

It takes a while for the best films of a year to shake out - for everything you need to see to turn up, at least a strong sample. Even now, this is probably sketchy - it will be the middle or end of this year before I get a reliable read on last year. (There are a few films out there - Jia Jiang-ke's, say - that I fully expect to crack this list when I actually get to see them.) That is one of the reasons this is just the first of three posts: it's a good time to look back at 2005 and before, as well. I have been wanting to post some lists - starting, as here, with the best of the year - adding to this, top tens for each year of the 00s (for now) (I did that last year), and then by decade. I used to be more of a list keeper, obsessing over the order, things like that. These days, it's more relaxed. Kind of a snapshot of what kinds of films I'm valuing right now. I think it would be neat to post these things about once a year. Watch what changes, etc.

This list, then, is for 2006: films made or internationally debuted in 2006 - it does not matter where I saw them or when. Only that they are listed as 2006 in the record books... I'll go 25 deep, because - it's the last time I'll make that big a list for the year... it's in order, but probably only reliable (even as a record of what I liked) through the first 10-15.

1. Inland Empire - US - David Lynch
2. Colossal Youth - Portugal - Pedro Costa
3. The Woman on the Beach - South Korea - Hong Sang-soo
4. The Science of Sleep - France - Michel Gondry
5. United 93 - US - Paul Greengrass
6. Children of Men - UK - Alfonso Cauron
7. Honor de Cavelaria - Spain - Albert Serra
8. The Wind that Shakes the Barley - UK - Ken Loach
9. A Scanner Darkly - US - Richard Linklater
10. Belle Toujours - Portugal/France - Manoel de Oliveira
11. Lights in the Dusk - Finland - Aki Kaurismaki
12. The Host - South Korea - Bong Joon-ho
13. Old Joy - US - Kelly Reichardt
14. Climates - Turkey - Nuri Blige Ceylan
15. Volver - Spain - Pedro Almodovar
16. The Scream of the Ants - Iran - Mohsen Makhmalbaf
17. Pan's Labyrinth - Mexico - Guillermo Del Toro
18. Lives of Others - Florian Donnersmarck
19. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Khazakhstan - US/UK - Larry Charles
20. Half Nelson - US - Ryan Fleck
21. Prairie Home Companion - US - Robert Altman
22.Little Miss Sunshine - US - Jonathon Dayton and Valerie Feris
23. Fast Food Nation - US - Richard Linklater
24. Bubble - US - Steven Soderburgh
25. Talledega Nights - US - Adam McKay

Baseball Post

The baseball season starts tomorrow. It's been an odd winter - maybe it's the Celtics' misfortunes, maybe something else, but I've been very indifferent to sports lately. Even to the NCAA tourney, usually one of the high points of the year. Strange. Even baseball. Though indifference to baseball is a relative term. Reading just one baseball book (the indispensible Baseball Prospectus), only spending one or two lunch hours a week working out predictions and projections, that sort of thing. I forgot that I did do this last year - AL and NL: didn't take any risks, didn't say anything stupid. Sadly, for those of you expecting me to pick the Royals to win it all, I imagine this year's predictions will be equally bland, with plenty of hedging and caveats.

AL East:
1) Boston - I'm sorry, but I'm obligated. The Yankees can't win it forever. The Sox last year would have won the division except half the team went on the DL - especially when Wakefield, Tek and Nixon all went down at the same time - they were done. That could hapen again - or they could stay healthy - in which case they have a very strong rotation, a great closer and a bunch of serviceable relievers (all of whom could collapse of course, but that's relief pitching for you!), piles of offense, decent depth, solid defense (not great not terrible) - sounds good to me.
2) Yankees - they probably helped themselves in the long term by shedding some of the old timers, but in the short term, they aren't as deep - Carl Pavano is the opening day starter! the bullpen is getting old, a lot of the players are getting old - they should hammer the ball, win in the 90s, weather injuries better than the red sox, and go nowhere in the post-season if they get there - which is iffier than it has been in a decade.
3) Toronto - nice line up, strong at the top of the pitching staff, weaker as you go down - but like last year, should be solid, and have the potential to take the division if the other teams falter. If everything clicks, they'll be in the post-season hunt.
4) Tampa Bay - I think I'll keep picking them to finish 4th until they do. Still don't have any pitching - look at their bullpen sometime... but should score runs, might even catch the ball - sooner or later it's going to get better.
5) Baltimore - like King Kaufman at Salon said - it's too bad the O's and Rays couldn't combine forces. Baltimore's pitching is young and old, with Bedard, Cabrera and Loewen teamed with Jaret Wright and Steve Trachsel, but could be pretty good - some talent in the pen as well, behind Chris Ray... the offense is a different matter, though Tejada and Roberts, Markakis, Petterson, Mora are - nice. There's room for some success, though I'm afraid success means, winning 76 games. Their infield and Tampa's outfield, their pitchers plus Kazmir would make a very nice team.

AL Central:
1) Detroit - They have a strong rotation, they have depth on the staff, they could even get better, since Verlander and Bonderman and company are young and improving. They have hitters at every position, a few guys in reserve - if most of the gang stays healthy, they could repeat and build on last year's success.
2) Cleveland - because I want them to finish second. But I do think Cliff Lee will come back a bit, ditto Jhonny Peralta, while Sabathia, Hafner, Sizemore, Martinez remain strong - they need to find someone to pitch out of the pen, but that's a crap shoot for almost everyone.
3) Minnesota - plenty of offense. No pitching. But they catch the ball and playt he game right so they will hang around. Wait - didn't I say that last year? Actually - they have a lot of pitching - it's just that, after Santana, it's mostly in the pen. If their kids develop in the rotation, they could be back on top.
4) Chicago - in fact, they are perfectly capable of winning the division, and more. They are getting old though - the pitching is getting old - there's a lot that can go wrong, and they have less in reserve than Boston and New York - but healthy, they are still very dangerous.
5) You know, Kansas City might not suck forever. Alex Gordon? Brett Butler? Mark Teahan? young pitchers? Another year or so, they could be interesting.

AL West:
1) Oakland - really? yeah, why not? probably sink or swim on Rich Harden's health. As usual, a rather thin offense, but it has its merits. No reason Piazza can't muster one last fling, no reason Chavez can't bounce back a bit.
2) Angels - though if they get their pitchers on the field, they're going to be hard to beat. They need to keep their players on the field too - though they have plenty of options, and some nice youngsters who could emerge...
3) Rangers - if I were picking a dark horse for all this, I might go with the Rangers. The pitching, as usual, is not inspiring - but I think Brendan McCarthy could turn into something - if they get some kind of bounceback from Blalock and Wilkerson and even Slammin' Sammy, well - there's hope, I think.
4) Seattle - probably not exactly hideous. But not very good.

NL East:
1) Atlanta - do I have any justification for this? well - yeah - they have a better, deeper, bullpen than they've had in a while; the rotation falls off fast, but could be solid if Tim Hudson comes back; they have some fine hitters - Jonesx2, McCann, Francoeur, nothing wrong with the rest of the lineup, really. Plenty of room for failure, but a nice chance to come back.
2) Mets - they'll hit the hell out of the ball - they should be able to win close ones, with a decent bullpen - but that rotation - El Duque, member of the 1904 Cuban Olympic Champion squad, is their #2 starter. If Pedro were around, they'd be the favorites, easy. Without him - they'll hang around, might even win, but it's gonna take some breaks.
3) Philadelphia - plenty of pop, some nice young pitchers, but Adam Eaton?
4) Florida - if their nice young pitchers are healthy, and their young players build on last year and a couple more turn up - Jeffrey Loria will have to trade Willis and Cabrera by June to keep them out of contention. Which is a possibility.
5) Washington - kind of hurts to look at this team. 5 years, Ryan. Probably three, since arbitration will get them nervous...

NL Central:
1) St. Louis - there's some crap on this team, but there's a lot of crap in this division. I suspect they were probably closer to their post-season level than their regular season level last year - lots of guys missed time, but were around in the post-season... they lost a few guys since then, but of the Jeff Suppan variety, which is not going to hurt matters.
2) Houston - they should hit, they probably will end up with a pretty good bullpen, and they have as good a chance as anyone to bring in a ringer in June. Just stay close, and give Rog a chance to save the day...
3) Milwaukee - Ben Sheets healthy, and they could contend. Otherwise probably not. A fashionable pick, for good reasons. Sheets healthy, in front of Capuano, with Bush and Suppan to fill innings effectively - not bad.
4) Cincinati - Harang and Arroyo and Oh My God, No! The offense, on the other hand, isn't bad at all, and could be pretty good.
5) Chicago - they spent money at a tremendous rate over the winter, but - you know.... Ted Lilly? Jason Marquis? things could click though, and they could end up pretty good. The truth is, any of these teams could win the division - any of them could finish last. That is true of a good deal of the National League - probably not the Mets, Braves and Phillies, who should all get into the 80s in wins, and Washington, who won't, and maybe
6) Pittsburgh, who won't get past 75 - unless they do. And if Snell and Duke and Gorzelany are the real thing, well - still...

NL West:
1) San Diego - they have about the same gang they had last year, with some odds of incremental improvement, and some chance - maybe slim, but not 0 - of a couple guys taking major steps forward (Khalil Greene? Kouzmanoff?) - I don't see much chance of collapse here - they are the NL's version of the Twins, right down to having the best pitcher in the league - well - at least the best strikeout pitcher in the league. Though I imagine most years, Peavy is going to be around the top. Less dominant and consistent than Santana, less consistent than Carpenter and Oswalt in the NL, but still up there.
2) Los Angeles - they're a high risk reward type team - the pitchers stay heallthy, they could shine - they don't - they won't. Lots of guys who could disappear in a hurry.
3) Arizona - another fashionable pick, with a host of emerging prospects, and some useful veterans. Especially if Randy Johnson bounces back - not that he was all that bad last year: by his standards, yes - and the ERA was hideous - but his other numbers were still in the upper side of the league...
4) San Francisco - though again - what if Cain improves? what if Lowry delivers on his promise? What if Barry gets into a "teammates'" "vitamin" supply? Or - not.
5) Colorado - they're starting to produce some nice young players again, but I don't see them winning a whole lot.

Results:
AL: Boston - Detroit - Oakland + NY (alas) - dark horse? Texas
NL: Atlanta - St. Louis - San Diego + NY - dark horse? Florida

MVP
AL: if Boston wins the division, David Ortiz will get his due. Though at this point - last year's result utterly discredits the writers - Justin Morneau? he's a first baseman who hit 20 fewer home runs than Ortiz! I can see a case for Jeter or Mauer, or Santana - but not Morneau. Unlike Jeter and Mauer, he was not playing a skill position - he's a first baseman! he's a hitter! and Ortiz out hit him by - 20 home runs! Anyway, I imagine the same general candidates are in the running again - Ortiz, Manny, Jeter and A Rod, Vernon Wells, Hafner, Mauer, Vlad, Texeira, and a few pitchers - Santana, K Rod, Nathan, Ryan, Papelbon, Rivera - to complicate things.
NL: It's Albert Pujols' to lose for the next 6-8 years, I imagine. There are a few guys around ready to take it if Albert misses a month, like last year, but that's not likely to happen.
Rookies: Alex Gordon is supposed to be the man. NL? probably a Diamondback or another Marlin.

Friday Random Music

It's an exciting weekend of course, a day or two away from the happiest day of the year, that sign that all is well with the world. Before that fateful moment, only 2 days away! I shall try to put up some kind of preview, prediction or the like - which, after last year's playoff predictions (a perfect 0-8!) ought to be greeted with, um - something... I must also admit that I am working up to a pile of list posts: I don't obsess over ranking movies like I have in the past, but I sort of want to put something up, go on record, as it were. Kind of a reference thing... In honor of the end of the first quarter of 2007, I suppose you'd day.... But tonight - you'll have to settle for music. The usual - iTunes up, random, 10 songs, stars, comments, whatever comes to mind...

1. Yo La Tengo - Blue Line Swinger *** - I do like Yo La Tengo....
2. Beck - Nicotine and Gravy **** - she looks so Israeli...
3. Gomez - How We Operate *** - nice song, but I didn't like this record as much as the previous one, Split the Difference I guess that one was - that was a great record... this one is just okay...
4. Sunny Day Real Estate - Song About an Angel - I suspect I should feel guilty about liking them, and other Jeremy Enegk records - and when they get mewling away, well - it's easy to wonder what the appeal is.... this one is a bit more mewl than not.
5. Jay Farrar - Cahokian (live) - I've hinted at this before, but I really do like Jay Farrar - he slides around, just under my attention a lot of the time, but every time I hear him, I remember how good he is, how consistent, how enjoyable. I sometimes need to be reminded, which is one of the reasons I like the iPod so much - most of the acts I have on there come up sooner or later - every time I hear one of his, I push a couple songs onto the narrower playlists. This one is likely to get a few stars before I'm done listening to it today.
6. Flipper - Sex Bomb - another great record, though this is a very silly song....
7. Pere Ubu - My Boyfriend's Back - an odd little number from that newest record.
8. Gomez - Nothing is Wrong (live) **** - hey! ask and you shall receive! The studio version, actually, gets 5 stars - but this is very nice. One of a bunch of songs on that record I really like.
9. Replacements - Dose of Thunder - at their crappiest sub-Kiss scroungy worst; which is to say, hell of a song. In it's shitty (shitfaced) way.
10. DNA - Blonde Red Head **** - probably the best of the Pere Ubu offshoots. What you say? yeah - Tim Wright - yeah... anyway, very cool...

As for video - YouTube has been acting up, in Camino at least - I don't know if it's just me, or YouTube or Camino... anyway, hope this works: who or what shall we post? Gomez makes sense - there are a dozen versions of this song on YouTube, but this one stands out - neat arrangement, noice sound, even if it does eliminate their most interesting aspect, the percussion...

Every Blogathon I Know Of

Have other people done this? Probably. I myself have started this from reading Edward Copeland's post on upcoming blogathons, and indeed stealing his links. (And Andy Horbal's as well.) (Plus any other blogathon indexers I can find: FilmSquish offers a particularly complete compilation - going back to the beginning, getting a few I missed; Piper at Lazy Eye Theater keeps a calendar in his sidebar as well.) But I am going back and putting in as many as I can find. I need a way to keep track of these things a bit better. (This is obviously a work in progress: one for the sidebar. Also, to be updated with new blogathons as I discover them, and fleshed out with any comments or additional links I decide to add over time. For example, adding the actual blogathon pages to the announcements, as they come in. And, I think, adding links to my contributions: not because they're anything special, but as a way for me to find them in a hurry.)

January 14, 2008: Val Lewton blogathon, hosted by Michael Guillen.

January 1-5, 2008: And start the new year with an Opening Credits Blogathon, at continuity.

December 27-30: End the year with an Endings Blogathon, at Joe's Movie Corner. Here it is.

December 16: in honor of its 24-7 presence on the airwaves, a day for It's A Wonderful Life, at Cinemathetics. The day has arrived - here it is.

December 2-8: Short Film Day at Ed Howard's blog. Make that week, in conjunction with Culture Snob.

November 19: Here's one I almost missed: A Queer Film Blogathon, at Queering the Apparatus.

November 15-22: work up a Thanksgiving appetite with a week of Kurosawa movies at Film Squish! Main page here.

November 10: A Bob Fosse fest at Forward to Yesterday. Showtime.

November 7-9, 2007: Film and Faith blogathon at Strange Culture. Posts here.

November 6-11: Comedy blogathon at New Critics - for any format: films, TV, books, stand up, you name it...

October 22-26: The Broken Projector's Double Bill-a-thon - write about 2 films for the price of one! Twice the fun!

October 17: Honor Montgomery Clift, at Film Experience. Happy Birthday, Monty.

October 12-21: Close-Up Blogathon, at The House Next Door. Going strong.

September 24-30, 2007: A whole week of Bunuel at Flickhead. And here it is.

September 21-23: William Wyler honored at GoatDog. Articles here.

September 7-10, 2007: Slapstick Blogathon at Film of the Year. Read it Here.

August 29: Lee Marvin blogathon, picked up in progress.

August 27-29: Bizarro Blogathon, hosted by Piper at Lazy Eye Theater. Which sucked royally. I am far too serious for this sort of thing, though careless readers may think this WC Fields post is a joke.

August 5: John Huston blogathon, from Sophomore Critic. Announcement here. I have a post about Beat the Devil (and Huston's adventure films generally) up.

August: In a twist on the format, but worth mentioning - Damien at Windmills of My Mind promises 31 days of Spielberg: "I will view each and every available Spielberg film, write a corresponding piece about it and then post them here on my blog, one a day throughout the entire month of August (31 days, 31 posts)" sez he.

July 24, 2007: Monster Squad-a-Thon, at DVD Panache. Contents of said blogathon, here.

July 13, 2007: Not sure how this happened (vacation! yeah, that's it!), but I somehow missed the Friday 13th Blogathon at Final Girl.

7 July, 2007: The Performance that Changed Your Life - at All About My Movies. Read it here.

June 29-July 9: John Ford - in French, but c'est la vie. And here is the link.

June 21-25, 2007: Film Music - at Windmills of my Mind. Beginning a day early!

June 20-24: Ambitious Failure blogathon, at Savage Art - already underway.

June 12: Action Heroines at Film Experience. (I'm stealing most of these new links from Edward Copeland - that's where I stole most of the old ones, too.) Here it is. And as promised, my Brigitte Lin appreciation.

June 11: Sneaking in late - it's a Grease 2 Blogathon Chezzzz Moviezzzz. Underway.

June 8-10: Ghiblog-a-thon hosted by Joe's Movie Corner, dedicated to all things from Studio Ghibli. (Expanding on Quiet Bubble's Miyazaki blogathon from last year.) Opportunities here for synergy - repurpose those Princess Mononoke posts for the Action heroines blogathon a couple days later! Here's the Ghibili-a-thon HQ.

June 4-8, 2007: Simpsons - at Esoteric Rabbit - and here it is.

May 25, 2007: Star Wars - celebrating the 30th anniversary, at Edward Copeland's place. The host of contributions are indexed here.

May 16-20: Misunderstood Blogathon, at Culture Snob.com. Underway. I contributed another essay on Inland Empire. (Probably not the last thing I'll write about Mr. Lynch.)

April 23, 2007: Shakespeare on Film with Peter Nellhaus - underway here.

April 9-11, 2007: John Carpenter blogathon at Lazy Eye Theater (in honor of the release of Grindhouse). Up and running!

April 8, 2007: Mobathon announcement at the Boob Tubers. And the Mobathon itself.

April 5, 2007 (and forward): Trashy Movies - at Bleeding Tree. Underway, here.

April 1, 2007: White Elephant Blogathon at Lucid Screening - Home Page here

March 30-April 2, 2007: Favorite Screenplays at Mystery Man on Film - Table of Contents

March 23-25, 2007: 1927 Blogathon at Goatdog

March 21, 2007: Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors at Hell on Frisco Bay - the blogathon itself is here.

March 5, 2007: Kieslowski blogathon at Quiet Bubble

March 1-4, 2007: Billy Wilder at Filmscreed. My link to it has some discussion of The Apartment.

February 16-19, 2007: Jim Emerson's Contrarian blogathon, which I contrarily left out when I first posted this.

Feb 14: Lovesick Blogathon at Lucas McNelly's site - and, the thing itself.

January, 2007: Unspoken Cinema - contemplative cinema: still active! (Also - as Andy Horbal mentions in the comments - the sidebar at this site contains links to a great many previous blogathons - up to Andy's criticism blogathon, conveniently enough.) I contributed a couple posts - here's the tag.

December 3, 2006: Film Criticism at Andy Horbal's No More Marriages. I have two related posts: favorite critics, and five more.

April 5, 2006: Roger Corman.

March 3, 2006: Robert Altman, at the House Next Door. I wrote two posts for this - one about Altman's influence on me as a movie fan; the other a long geeky thing about McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

Temper Temper!

I don't know why I've been so lazy about posting lately, but there's nothing like a blogosphere pissing contest to churn up some easy content.... Pissing contest isn't quite the term - inexplicable meltdown is more like it. I refer, of course (well, of course if you read the kind of political blogs who care about this sort of thing), to Ann Althouse going all Klaus Kinski on an episode of bloggingheads with Garance Franke-Ruta. It's pretty ridiculous, but fortunately, I can relate it to movies, my preferred blogging topic - I can compare it to David O. Russell and Lily Tomlin, having it out on the set of I Heart Huckabees!

I didn't have a lot to say about those clips when they came out - it's a fascinating train wreck, but I couldn't come up with a coherent opinion about it all. But reading Tomlin's comments on the clips, and watching Althouse's performance, brings it into a bit more clarity. A lot of the commentary seemed to center on the idea that Russell is an asshole - but I think that's a bit simplistic. Tomlin basically says, yeah, it's over the top, buit it was a tense shoot, and it cleared the air - shit happens. And that Althouse rant - I noticed a couple things.

1) The Huckabees fights are, indeed, fights - the bad behavior is reciprocal. It's interesting that two clips were making the rounds - the one of Tomlin raving in a car, the one of Russell trashing a set. Even in that clip, Tomlin needles him before it goes off - and keeps giving it back all through the tirade. But Althouse vs. Franke-Ruta is nothing like that: Franke-Ruta's remarks that set Althouse off are completely innocuous, a neutral reference to an old controversy. (And probably the simple truth - as Ezra Klein says, Althouse's comments about Jessica Valenti were the root of his disdain for her. He's probably not alone.) Althouse starts raving, and Franke-Ruta is completely taken aback, tries to talk her down, and when that doesn't work, sits and waits for it to end. (You can almost read her mind, though - she had to be thinking something like, "my god, she's an idiot; will she ever shut her yap?") It's all Althouse, the raving, and completely unprovoked.

2) Maybe it's because I've been watching a lot of Columbo lately, but there are a couple little moments in these clips that set off alarms. You know how in every episode, there's something, some little detail - where Columbo notices the killer? May not have anything to do with the crime itself - but there's something, a tell.... There's something of that in these clips. In the Huckabees clip, it's when Russell comes back into the room after trashing the set, and almost doubles over, screaming at Tomlin to act like an adult. It's a brilliant moment - the unintended comedy is beautiful - a grown man, screaming like a 3 year old at a grown woman to act like an adult... it's so brilliant, and so funny, it undermined the "un" in unintentional. That's the place where, in the backstage movie, someone tells him to stop acting - or makes a crack about being sure the camera is still running. You expect someone to yell "cut" at the end. It's worth noting - Huckabees feels like that little scene - it's full of blow ups and tantrums and confrontations, with that same tone - tense and jittery, full of fast mood shifts, and contrasting reactions - one person raving, someone else sitting with their feet up waiting for the nonsense to end. So really - how much of the backstage shenanigans are intended almost as rehearsals for the shooting itself? Maybe not consciously, but at some level - it's certainly notable that Russell really never breaks character as a filmmaker - that's a very cinematic fit he throws - his entrances and exits work. And Tomlin, sitting or standing there, sarcastic and defiant through the lot of it, balances him. The clip works as a scene.

Ditto Ann Althouse. What struck me there probably wasn't relevant - the fact that she lost her temper, throwing a fit, and (unlike those Hollywood types) never slipped and used any bad words. I don't know if she is in the habit of using bad words - maybe not; maybe there's a perfectly good explanation for it. But it occurred to me - she is a professional talker (like Russell and Tomlin), a lawyer and professor - and she never breaks character. The second time I looked at it, it occurred to me - she does a lot of whining about the "progressive blogosphere" but she doesn't name any names. Some allusions to Tapped - no details. The rant, then, is strange and unprovoked and extreme - but almost completely contentless - and mostly clean, both in the language and in her general ability to keep to the topic (or away from any real topic.) It is, I mean, a performance - quite deliberate, and probably planned ahead of time. Now in her case - there's more evidence. Take this post on her blog - bragging about her previous pissing contests; saying she like the theater of it. (She doesn't use words like theater, but hey...) Which all brings the episode into some focus - the reason she jumps on Franke-Ruta's tame comments, the reason, once she does get going, that she doesn't mention any of her distracters by name - is that it's all about her. The word "narcissistic" has been thrown around a lot here - but it's about right. That's one of the most narcissistic things I've seen - and her reactions on her blog, all proud and preening and trivial, just confirms it.

So - this brings us back to Russell and Tomlin - because by god it makes them look a hell of a lot better. They act like idiots - but they both act like idiots. They are very probably egging each other on. They are making a film that is trying to achieve something like the tone those fights have. And when you get down to it - they are a whole lot better at it than Althouse is. They are funnier, especially Tomlin, they have a far better sense of stagecraft, those entrances and exits, the timing of their rants. And they have none of the sense of preening self-regard Althouse has - they commit to their raving.... I was unfair up at the top, comparing Althouse to Klaus Kinski - Kinski - there was a man who knew how to throw a temper tantrum!

Musical Lotteryish Post

I have to do some writing - I have been in a funk since the end of that Rivette series... oh well. For now, we'll have to make do with another music post... randomness! ratings when I've entered them! comments if I think of any! etc.! Huzzah!

1. Bad Brains - Sailin' On [not particularly sure why this isn't rated]
2. Of Montreal - The Party's Crashing Us
3. Prince - Uptown or this]
4. The Byrds - CTA-102
5. REM - Everybody Hurts **** - the last REM record I cared about; the first one I'd cared about in a couple when it came out. Then for a long while, I've sort of ignored it - though the songs are quite good, when you hear them after a gap, like this
6. John Cale - Bamboo Floor
7. Mercury Rev - Hudson Lines ***
8. Monk - Nice work if you can get it (trio version) - **** - a somewhat arbitrary rating. Everything on that Genius of Modern Music compilation is basically something I would want to hear any time it came on - which is sort of my definition of 4-5 stars. And this is one of my favorite cuts...
9. Big Country - Look Away - they seem to turn up on random a lot. I onl;y have one record, a greatest hits... I'm not complaining - they were a very nice, rather underrated band.
10. Journey - Wheel in the Sky (live) - sweet Jesus. How did this get on here? actually, it's not half bad - this song at least they play live like they mean it - by this stage in their career, their records were getting squishy - but this version has some kick. I don't know why they can't always sound like this - this is what power pop should sound like. The records - are slop.

Video: let's see - maybe something that came up after the random 10 ended? In fact, yeah - this came up a bit later: so let's put it up: Massive Attack, Karmacoma - a cool video, but not quite up to Wong Kar-wei and Leon Lai...

Where to Browse

..or, where I've been browsing...

Girish, as always - this week, a post on early Kiarostami. With video!

David Bordwell, meanwhile, is blogging from Hong Kong - daily reports. There are times I don't know how we lived without the internet.

Dennis Cozzalio, meanwhile, has posted the footage of David O. Russell and Lily Tomlin going at it while shooting I Heart Huckabees - actually, next to everybody has posted it, but he's got the best discussion of it going on there...

Calvert DeForest is dead - Larry "Bud" Melman, Letterman sidekick. The House Next Door has a nice tribute, and some great clips of Larry Bud in action...

Lance Mannion, meanwhile, takes a look at films in classrooms - interesting conversation follows.

And, finally - peril on the internets! America's most Dangerous Professor (one of them anyway) has returned - Michael Berube joins Crooked Timber. Lock up your sons and daughters, or at least, any crazy ex-Stalinist uncles turned, um, right wing neo-Stalinist D-Hos!

Finally, looking at Crooked Timber reminds me that John Inman has also died. Mr. Humphreys from Are You Being Served? A show I confess to almost loathing - though somehow it's complete shamelessness saves it. Names like Slocumb and Peacock and Humphreys certainly help - if you're going to go for cheap puns, no point in going halfway: and frankly, the unabashed, over the top campiness of the acting, with Inman leading the way, is the main thing that kept it watchable. So - he's worth saluting.

Music on Friday Even

Oh the weather outside if frightful, but iTunes is so delightful; no particular place to go - let it snow let it snow let it snow. Of course the biggest snowstorm of the year comes in March, what do you expect when it's 70 degrees and sunny in January?

Onwards then, with comments and whatever I can think of to turn this post into something more than a dry recitation of 10 song titles and a pirated tv clip....

1. Allman Brothers - Stand Back - this is, I'm afraid, almost complete wallpaper music...
2. Jay Farrar - Feel Free (live version) - I like Jay Farrar. I may have noted this on this blog before, though I'm not sure - but I've always liked Son Volt/Farrar more than Wilco - I like Wilco, but... that's actually a little less true these days - Nils Cline gives them a definite leg up... either way, Uncle Tupelo was a hell of a band, yes they were, and both alumni have put out some very fine music...
3. George Harrison - Hear Me Lord - uncle tupelo is not the first band to spawn a variety of fine acts of course....
4. Tommy Keene - Tattoo - from a Mojo collection, this one "Who Covered"
5. Richard Thompson - Night Comes in - ***** - the live version from Guitar, Vocal. As they say in those blindfold tests in Downbeat - a million stars. Or Carl Saganishly: billions and billions of stars... I spent about a year listening to this song every night before I went to bed back in the 90s.... it's not, by the way, my favorite Thompson performance, either....
6. Nine Inch Nails - Heresy - more wallpaper.
7. New Order - Temptation - **** - let the rating speak for itself...
8. Captain Beefheart - Nowadays a Woman's Got to Hit a Man - "dawned on me man, than a man been doing a woman unfair"
9. Kinks - Supersonic Rocket Ship
10. Bob Dylan - Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts - no rating? well - see, ratings are there to pull songs out on playlists. 5 stars means, really - I will listen to this song to the end every time it comes on. 4 means it is a song I want to hear a lot, and love, though perhaps not in every temper. 3? means I want to hear it more often than purely random. Leaving whole swarms of stuff - especially by the old standbys (Dylan and the Kinks definitely falling into the category) - unrated, just because I have so much of it, or have heard it so much. Anyyay - all of Blood on the Tracks should be 3 stars at least, but, you know...

Video! Searching for Richard Thompson is a good way to sink a couple hours in a hurry... there's much to choose from (though mpost of it later than the song above), but this - an 80s performance of Fairport Convention with Thompson - has to settle the issue:

Links and Habits

All right: here is a new scheme, unlikely to get very far, but worth trying - tossing up posts of links every day or so. Another attempt to trick myself into posting more often, and more interactively.

Here's one - Edward Copeland on "nails on chalkboard" actors and actresses. I name Renee Zellweger. (The post linked from The House Next Door's invaluable links for the day, which this post is in no way* imitating.)

From a couple days ago, The Little Round-headed Boy offers up a list of choices for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That's always a fun topic, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - trying to figure out what criteria they have for admission, and why anyone, including me, should pretend to care. I may have to come back to this. My short answer - that unless they put Kiss and Pere Ubu in, it is worthless, or at best completely arbitrary - may or may not suffice.

Dennis Cozzalio, meanwhile, runs through the responses to his last mid-term film quiz, in anticipation of a new one. And adds a word or two to the latest round of Death of Film hand-wringing - and links to Kristin Thompson's rather exhaustive debunking.

And the Bordwell blog, as usual, is full of stuff: Bordwell's post (from almost a week ago now) on the working of suspense and why spoilers don't spoil anything is particularly fascinating. Another subject I hope to come back to....

Finally - there are five million posts about politics I could link too: most related to the US Attorney Purge and the adventures of Alberto Gonzalez. Talking Points Memo has been on this the most, so I'll point there. And maybe to this comment by Ezra Klein about "Bush's Razor" - "Given a possible universe of explanations for a particular administration action, the most morally pessimistic and politically cynical will inevitably be proven correct." The happy days of Reagan's dilemma (is he an idiot or a villain?) seem to be gone: Bush's administration, consistently, manages to be both - hatching nefarious schemes that they botch....

* This sentence will make more sense if you replace the words "in no way" with the word "shamelessly".

The Music Post

Maybe I should stop pretending this is a "Friday Random Ten" post and admit, it's a Weekend Music Post." Anyway - today's entertainment comes by way of Salon's Audiofile pointer to The Definitive 200 Albums of all time. As chosen by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Association of Recording Merchandisers. "Complete your collection!" Well, at least they're honest about it. If it's not literally the 200 best selling albums since 1955, it's damned close. Arranged in what appears to be a random order, after the top 10 - which consists of: Sgt Pepper; Dark Side of the Moon; Thriller; Led Zeppelin IV; The Joshua Tree; Exile on Main Street; Tapestry; Highway 61 Revisited; Pet Sounds and Nevermind - a completely inoffensive, uncontroversial and useless sort of list.... the comedy comes later, when Kenny G records clock in ahead of Beggar's Banquet and Creed and Linkin Park beat out London Calling. I may be obliged to offer a follow up on Andy Horbal's recent canon post....

Anyway, let's get on with the business of the day:

1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - From Her to Eternity [***] - what! no Nick Cave on the definitive 200 list!? What?
2. The Ramones - Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World [***] - what? No Ramones on the definitive 200 list?! This, of course, renders the exercise meaningless.
3. Cheap Trick - Clock Strikes Ten (live at Budokon) - wait a second - no Live at Budokon on the definitive 200?
4. George Harrison - Ballap of Sir Francis Crisp - this made it, I have to admit. #69, right behind Kid Rock's Devil without a Cause. I can see this is going to be a superb source of comedy...
5. Fleetwood Mac - I Don't Wanna Know - shoot, two in a row. #24, which, given a mainstream and commercial point of view, is quite justifiable.
6. Lou Reed/John Cale/Nico - Waiting for the Man (from Le Bataclan 72) - What? No Velvets? You know, by now, most lists like this, however dimwitted they may be, manage to work in something a little left-field - Velvets, Ramones, Stooges - you know... oh well...
7. Black Flag - Rise Above [****] - what!? etc.... But if you're oging to use a word like "definitive" - you are, in cold fact, claiming to be canon-making: and if you are going to make canons, you have to account for something, well - definitive: you have to try to map the terrain, as it were. That's what canons ought to be about - showing what has been done, and how. Leaving out records like this might as well leave out half the history of rock music, if nothing else. Oh well.
8. Dinosaur Jr. - Green Mind
9. The Warlocks - Baby Blue - from the phoenix Album - which is why it's not rated, by the way - the live version they released gets 4 stars: Warlocks sound a bit better live, where things get stretched and flogged a bit.
10. Tom Waits - Black Box Theme - What?! - you know where this is going?

Where else could it go? Here is a suggestion of what to do about this particular list....



Twice! a great live version - shot off someone's TV set, so kind of crappy looking - but a first rate performance....