never underestimate the importance of good subtitles

there's something to be said about The Criterion Editions! I've seen so many hack jobs on subtitled foreign-language films......then...there are the re-edits that make the directors wish they'd signed better contracts for artistic control of their works.

IT IS THE NUMBERS THAT SANTIFY MAN'S HYPROCRISY.........MY CONFLICT IS WITH MANKIND

WHO KNOWS WHAT DESTINY THE JUDGMENTS OF MAN SERVE? WHEN CHAPLIN SPOKE, HE HAD SOMETHING TO SAY!

RESTORED FOOTAGE

IT WAS THE 1950's, AND SCENES LIKE THIS WERE JUST NOT ACCEPTABLE IN MAINSTREAM FILMS, EVEN CONSCIOUSNESS-EXPANDING FILMS LIKE REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. I WONDER IF 'CRITERION' WILL DO A 'DIRECTOR'S CUT' OF THIS GREAT MASTERPIECE. TEN PERCENT OF AMERICA IS NOT STILL PACKED INTO DARK AND LONELY CLOSETS........or are they? EVEN WITHOUT THIS SCENE, THE FILM SPOKE TO THAT PART OF ME THAT I THOUGHT, AT THE TIME, WAS A PART OF ONLY ME.

I WAS TOTALLY INFATUATED WITH ALL THREE OF THESE ACTORS, WHO ALL DIED TRAGICALLY....... DEAN, IN AN AUTO ACCIDENT, MINEO WAS MURDERED AND WOOD DROWNED MYSTERIOUSLY.....NICK ADAMS, WHO WAS ALSO IN "REBEL" ALSO DIED....OF A DRUG OVERDOSE.... THE LOST GENERATION WAS LEFT WITH ANNETTE FUNICELLO, TOMMY KIRK AND TAB HUNTER.......BUT........

MY FELLINI "FRIENDS" DANCE FOR ME

At 18, a world of Italian Cinema.....expressly FELLINI.....was made available at the Vanderbilt University Theatre, on campus........while my friends were making their way from the "bugaloo" and the "dog"....i was making my imaginary way to the streets of Rome to dance with the stars Federico's films, in a style that was immediately recognizable as "like my own".......so much for the "watusi" and even the "twist".....move away Chubby....make room for Nino!

Lex

In first grade, I had a fantasy of living with Tarzan and Jane in a beautifully decorated treehouse.....I could be "Boy" and swing from vines with Cheetah. Ironically enough, our neighbor Mr. Rodenhauser...across the street....had a large "monkey cage" at one side of his home, which housed a pair of chimps......although i could not romp about in the neighborhood with Mr. Rodenhauser's apes, I could swing from a rope dropped from a large branch of an immense oak tree in our yard.........I even styled my hair like Lex Barker.....my first homo-erotic fascination.......

SINGING IN THE RAIN

Still my very favorite musical........i studied tap dancing for a few years, and got a bit past "shuffle, ball, change", but was never a Billy Elliot, and definitely not a Gene! While my friends had "boy crushes" on Tim Considine and Annette, my eyes were on Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds......None of my friends were particularly interested in SINGING IN THE RAIN, but I saw it twice, alone in the first row of the balcony of the Lyric Theatre while my contemporaries were at the Grand Theater, viewing EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS or THEM. It represented, for me, a world far more colorful and optimistic than the rather drab b/w world around me........I dreamed in technicolor and Vistavision (or, in this example, Cinemascope)! Why couldn't Life imitate Art?



THE NEXT STOP.......INVITATION TO THE DANCE



THEN, ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER........

ECCLESIASTICAL FASHION SHOW FROM "ROMA"

this stands as my very favorite Ecclesiastical Fashion runway show.......as presented for the royals and the Pope! Ah, Fellini!