PONDERING THE INTERVIEW WITH ANTHONY CARRIGAN........CONTRASTING 'JEREMY' AND "VICTOR"

Remembering "Jeremy" aka "Powder" from the 1995 film, while listening to PBS' interview with Anthony Carrigan.....I'm thinking of Victor Zsasz's hyper-violent criminal character and, 180 degrees away....of Jeremy Reed, a character with 'higher purpose'...and of the current, more cynical, violence-obsessed public of 2019 as the obverse of the spiritual optimism of the earlier Film,....just pondering.....A 'sign o' the times' or the perpetual, kinetic mobile of Humanity....a target for our own demolishment......

'THE TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL'..... 1935

early 1930's predictory Film about the building of The Transatlantic Tunnel, and subsequently, probably, driving one's 2.97-liter 75 horsepower V-8 alloy engine Czechoslovakian TATRA T87 , at it's maximum speed of 160 kmph, from England to America .....in a 'tech time line' with METROPOLIS and some other 'high tech' Futuristic Films of a Century ago.....Lots of insights into the Political Scenario, Market manipulation and transitional gender role-play.....'same as it ever was/is'....and some wry anticipatory cynicism, dressed in sentimental drivel with some artsy sound-editing and transitional fading, quicksanded by a conventionally dull, ubiquitous sound track and the intermittant drone of early airplane engines......

WHO CAN RESIST... "Noli Me Contendere".....I had to watch 'it'......'It' is, now, a tradition.......

 

The 'JIMMY KIMMEL OSCARS SHOW' was great-looking....especially the first half of the 'Show'...Fine Couture and well-chosen, and largely complementary, borrowed/advertised jewels ..The ill-conceived 'Memorial' Photoshow lost my interest during its few moments; and some of the acceptance speeches reminded me of High School Dramatics Club Award Stuttering Stumbles......(especially the clumsy, 'read the cue cards', utterances by zoned-out Jennifer Lawrence).. As the cheers faded for Oppenheimer’s lavish 'get-on-board' Oscars victory lap, to the 'get even more attention, narcissists, After Oscars Parties', muster some compassion for Bradley Cooper’s & his Film, Maestro, the recipients of exactly Zero awards...Is Bradley the new 'whipping boy'? Greta Gerwig wasn't even nominated.....go figure that one out! As always, THE OSCARS is, as always, a staged and scripted card magic trick...wherein, we are shown the Royal Flush cards, then the 'other' cards get shuffled in for relatability for the Hoi, on their couches, recliners and beds, eating from bags while 'hitched to the posts' of Entertainment, while the Cowboys are fighting it out for the golden breath mints.... on the other side of the swinging doors of the Rancho Notorious Hollywood Saloon......Cudos to Wes Anderson, who may have been watching from his pillow, while working on a corduroy Phoenician Scheme set design or Jimmy Kimmel's next Academy Awards Show Mock Up... and to Rita Moreno, for best-dressed actor over 90....make that 'under a hundred'......T. Chalamet must have stayed home, practicing his "Bob Dylan" look, in hopes of a 'big win', a year or two from now.....Are you paying attention, Austin Butler? I'll bet 'you are'! Do I hear Cate Blanchette, chuckling under her gloved hand?   Production Design for the 2025 OSCARS SHOW is already in production.....Here, 'past winners' appear, to flatter next year's Nominees for the 'Top 6 Awards'.....Hang in 'there', this year's 'LOSERS'.....next year's big show may be 'In The Cloud'.....and disappointments will seem much more dimuitive, on your mobile devices than on your 146" IAB Series, Class 4K, UHD HDR Commercial Monitors....."MAESTRO" AND "BARBIE"......Soon, redistributed as  a double-bubble-feature, at your local cut-rate drive in theaters.......half-priced Lite beer with 'proof of purchase' ticket receipt....available at the concession stand, where Bradley Cooper will be, to autograph old Columbia LPs of Mahler's 9th Symphony.......

A TRIO OF 1968-9 STILL PUBLICITY PHOTOS FROM FILM DISTRIBUTOR "SHERPIX".....PROMOTING "LONESOME COWBOYS", WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY PAUL MORRISSEY & DIRECTED BY ANDY WARHOL

 

HERE:  VIVA HOFFMAN, AT RIGHT AND LEFT......& AT CENTER, VIVA, TAYLOR MEADE AND, NAKED, TOM HOMPERTZ.......OR, MAYBE, ERIC EMERSON.......

SLAUGHTER ON TENTH AVENUE.......

MOON MANOR ......A RELATIVELY OBSCURE FILM BY ELIZABETH BRISSENDEN, AKA 'MACHETE BANG BANG'..... THAT TAKES ON THE DISCOMFORTING THEME OF HUMAN FRAILTY AND ULTIMATE DEATH FOR ALL HUMANS..........ANOTHER SUBTLE PERFORMANCE BY LOU TAYLOR PUCCI, STAR OF ANOTHER OBSCURE, MONEY-LOSING FILM, "THUMBSUCKER'

CHAIN-SMOKING IN THE FILMS OF VINCENTE MINNELLI ....well, in most Movies........

WATCHING, THIS MORNING, "HOME FROM THE HILL', AND NOTICING THAT EVERYONE, ALL THE TIME, SEEMS TO BE 'LIGHTING UP'.......I THOUGHT OF SOME OTHER 'MINNELLI' FILMS THAT HAD THE SUBTEXT OF 'CHAIN-SMOKING' CIGARETTES:   FOR EXAMPLES....LAUREN BACALL'S NEUROTIC PSYCHO-ANALYST'S NICOTINE ADDICTION IN "COBWEB';  THE CHARACTER, DAISY GAMBEL, IN 'ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER'.....WHEREIN BARBRA STREISAND'S CHARACTER SEEKS PSYCHIATRIC HELP FOR HER NICOTINE ADDICTION....AND, NEED I MENTION HIS ONCE-WIFE, JUDY GARLAND, WHO SMOKED FOUR PACKS A DAY.........MINNELLI DIED, FROM COMPLICATIONS OF EMPHYSEMA, AS DID MANY CELEBRITIES WHO 'CHAIN-SMOKED' THEIR CAREERS THROUGH THE 40'S-70'S.....WHEN 'SMOKING' WAS CONSIDERED A 'DE RIGEUR' COMPONENT OF SOCIAL CONFORMITY......(Studios and stars changed cigarette brands as different tobacco campaigns rolled through Hollywood. In these years, American Tobacco (Lucky Strike), Lorillard (Old Gold), RJ Reynolds (Camel), Liggett & Myers (Chesterfield), and Brown & Williamson (Raleigh) collaborated with Paramount, Warner Bros., Fox, MGM, Columbia, RKO, United Artists and Universal. Most of these movie studios are still in business today.}

http://tobacco.cleartheair.org.hk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Tobacco-kills-2-out-of-every-three-users.pdf

AN ODD ANALOGY PRESENTED MY 'CRITICAL CINEMA' MINDSET THIS MORNING.....

 AS I WATCHED ABOUT TEN MINUTES OF THE 1967 ANDREW McLAGLEN 'WESTERN',  STARRING THE MACHO ACTORS, RICHARD WIDMARK, KIRK DOUGLAS,  AND ROBERT MITCHUM.....THE WAY WEST,  I REALIZED THAT THE CAMPY TV SERIES,  MIRACLE WORKERS, HAD LIFTED MUCH OF ITS INTENTIONAL HUMOR AND PLOT AS WELL AS ITS 'ACTING STYLE',,,  FROM THE 1967 FILM.......

https://youtu.be/l7QtmMsDFAc?si=7GKU_Dw1EHBNH2hb