CHOOSING A COUPLE OF RECENT FILMS FOR A "STAY HOME", LOUNGING ABED ON NEW YEAR'S EVE ......

 

OF THE MANY, MANY ADAPTATIONS OF AGATHA CHRISTIE'S MANY, MANY 'WHODUNIT' NOVELS

 This 1974  film adaptation of "Murder On The Orient Express".....pulled out all the 'Casting Stops', it seemed, at that time...and inspired me to get a Eurail Pass for a Economy-Grand Tour of Europe when I was 30...... 

 

SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES Jim Blashfield's largely-forgotten, low-budget, cut-n-paste Film-making

ENTER THE FOUR HORSEMEN.......OBLIVION, DENIAL, ACCEPTANCE AND FUTILITY

I watched Steve "Brew Dog" Stockman's 'mall movie' {i.e. film with commercial intentions...interspersing tragic realism with comic relief, accompanied by a sometimes annoying soundtrack of trendy pop music}, a mishmash of Ben Chaplin, Sally FIeld, Tom Cavanagh, Glenn Howerton and Julianne Nicholson's ample talents, obeisant to some 'almost good' but puerile direction........Annoyed by the interstitially comic relief, I was still moved to tears as I remembered my own mother's similar '2 week' death....and all the other dozens of tragic endings that I'd witnessed......The death of Anita Chess, decades ago, as Anita...with her last breath....begged, desperately, her daughter and Katrina Motiska, her daughter's best friend, to 'unplug' her from Life Support and 'turn up' the morphine drip......I remembered, with tears, Tom Hanks' death scene in PHILADELPHIA..... Garbo's death scene in CAMILLE, even!.....and my own prognosticated death scene....still in 'Coming Attractions'......... Oblivion, Denial, Acceptance, Futility....all lined up on the journey from birth to Life's ending.......like the Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse, rearing up against Perpetually, Mythically Dramatic Cinematic Sunsets.....

The Strange and Mysterious Circumstances of Thelma Todd

Noting that Todd died, while still in her 20's.....I was watching the Buster Keaton film, SPEAK EASILY, one of over ten dozen ("!") 'Hollywood' Films that were cranked out...featuring/starring Thelma Todd....during her short-lived career......After some research about her Life, I wondered 'why a biographical film about Todd's Life' has not, to my knowledge, been made...........

I did not watch or have even been aware of  the schlocky 1991  'Lonnie Anderson Vehicle', The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd......

DIGGING INTO HIS PRE-DUMBLEDORE PERFORMANCE IN PETER GREENAWAY'S 1989 ARTFILM, 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover', AFTER READING THE DEATH NOTICE FOR MICHAEL GAMBON, THIS MORNING......

IN RETROSPECT....IT WAS BETTER....ALTHOUGH I'VE NOT KEPT UP WITH IT'S MANY SEQUELS SINCE ITS ORIGINAL COUPLE OF SEASONS.........

 Although I had abandoned any interest in American Horror Story after a couple of episodes of it's 1st season, I was induced....rather traduced.....seeing this year's cast of eccentric talents.....to watch the "Hotel" series premiere....What a gore fest trainwreck!.....Ryan Murphy has ripped off at least a couple of hundred scenes and dialogue from countless old movies......Kubrick's THE SHINING and Tony Scott's THE HUNGER were the most blatant references...(even the Bauhaus music from Hunger).....I felt I was watching gay Halloween porno....Dr. Decker's ghost face mummy butt-raping the hip druggie with a Madonna-inspired collapsible/erectile conical screw strap-on dildo....to an almost literal rip-off of Miriam and John Blalock's slaughter of the wannabe cool kids they picked up at the disco in The Hunger......Was I really watching Hostel IV, The Bloodfeast of Dr. Mabuse? Should we expect a subsequent series of Scream repercussive headlines about campus co-ed slaughters? Glamour is a World Problem.......Same as it ever was........

ATHENA....HOCUS-POCUSING THE MEAT

....

[In 1954, in perhaps her kookiest (but nevertheless charming) role, Powell played a member of a family of weightlifting vegetarians who becomes involved in a somewhat star-crossed romance with a straitlaced politician (Edmund Purdom) in “Athena.”]

In bed, this morning, I turned to TCM, to find ATHENA, perhaps the silliest of Hollywood Musicals, playing.....It's about an Astrology-believing family of Vegetarian singing sisters bearing the names of Mythical Greek Goddesses, who live with their star-gazing New-Age Grandmother and hang with 'gayish' hyper-masculized body-builders....{one, is Steve Reeves (Hercules).} Jane Powell becomes involved with a man from a family of 'Normal' meat eating Businessmen in a Parody of the disparity of Lifestyles between money-obsessed carnivores who conflict with New Age devotees of vegetable-eating, flower-loving siblings who intrude into the 'Normal' habits of 1950's 'men-in-suits', who espouse smoking cigarettes, drinking, and flesh-eating as the 'normal'/sensible way of Life.......Today, this crew of ginger-leaf eaters would be 'on trend', as mung bean noodles, baked tofu cakes and rice bowls become the Forward Fashion.........

DID MEN EVER REMOVE THEIR HATS DURING THE LATE HYPER-COMFORMING 1940'S??

watching some old post WWII films, I began to look for men...and women...who were not wearing hats indoors or in vehicles........In this particular film, from which this 'still' was taken,  no adult man removes his hat....anywhere....even in restaurants, while dining or during fistfights.....and every man is seen wearing practically identical  two piece suits... in every scene........and, of course, everyone is chain-smoking....... 

I'm saddened by the discovery of Julian Sand's Corpse in the wilderness of Mount Baldy....sigh!

 AS I SHALL REMEMBER HIM......AS THE SENSITIVE, BEAUTIFUL 'GEORGE EMERSON' IN THE FILM 'ROOM WITH A VIEW'......ALMOST 40 YEARS AGO........

MARGIT CARSTENSEN == 29 February 1940 – 1 June 2023

 

SUMMER AND SMOKE

Watching Summer and Smoke @ 3 am.......The exemplary acting of Lawrence Harvey made Tennessee William's stagey old-school dramaturgy and the proscenium-bowing righteous acting of all its other actors seem like high school drama department stuff........I recalled another Harvey film, done around the same time......the remake of Of Human Bondage....where Harvey is better 'matched' by Kim Novak...their 'real life' dislike of one another adding some dynamics, maybe..... in some of the film's similar scenes.......Two films in which Harvey plays a young doctor who eventually rejects his female suitor after she 'comes on to him' after he had, earlier, made some 'moves' on them......It's time for remakes of both films, retaining the innuendos that were only inferential during the repressive 1950's and early 1960's, before the floodgates of 'un-expurgation' and "R" & "M" separated adults from 'children'..... That transitional phase between curtain and footlight acting and post-1950 'Methodism' which, thankfully, led to modern Naturalism.......I've already imagined a remake of Summer and Smoke...with Cate Blanchett and Lawrence Harvey.....just digitally remove Geraldine Page..which would not even be a consideration, had Margaret Leighton landed the role.... although Page's performance....at the time....was considered 'Golden Globe Worthy'!!.., John McIntire, whose talents were better served in formula Westerns; Pamela Tiffin, playing her 'kitten with a whip' schtick.....leave Rita Moreno who, even then, is always...and still is.....'on point', although she had to suffer through the racist posturing, still prevalent at that time....(and, later, "bitched" about this)....Ahem!.... And, incidentally, suffering through having to watch Edith Head's horrid costume designs in Summer and Smoke led me to ponder "how on earth did she get the Breakfast At Tiffanys gig!!"? Oh, that was really Hubert de Givenchy, wasn't it? Harvey's attire, was, as always....impeccable.......

Salon Kitty opening number.......thinking of all the 'gender' issues in the Media, recently........What's a "Man"....What's a 'Woman'?

 Discussing 'acting families' with a friend, earlier today.......my friend made no mention of 'The Foxes'.....my favorite family of actors:

Edward Fox, James Fox and Robert Fox are the sons of actress, Angela Fox (Scandal in Black), and agent, Robin Fox. Robert became a producer. He was married to casting director, Celestia Fox (the Remains of the Day) from 1975 to 1990. He married Natasha Richardson in 1990. They divorced two years later.

James Fox (Performance, King Rat, The Golden Bowl) and Edward Fox (Gandhi, Stage Beauty) each became actors. In 1973, James married Mary Elizabeth Piper. Their children, Laurence Fox (Elizabeth the Golden Age), Jack Fox (Inspector Lewis), and Lydia Fox (Submarine) each became actors. In 2007, Laurence married actress, Billie Piper (Doctor Who). That same year, Lydia married actor, Richard Ayoade (the IT Crowd).

Edward married actress, Tracy Reed (Dr. Strangelove) in 1958. They divorced three years later. He married Joanna David (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger) in 2004. Their children, Emilia Fox (Ballet Shoes) and Freddie Fox (St. Trinian’s II, Cucumber, Banana) each became actors. Emilia was married to actor, Jared Harris (the Curious Case of Benjamin Button) from 2005 to 2010. Jared is the son of actor, Richard Harris (Gladiator, A Man Called Horse) and the stepson of actor, Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady).

MY FASHION OBSERVATION OF THE ACADEMY AWARDS SHOW, FIVE YEARS AGO....IN ANTICIPATION OF WHATEVER WILL BE THIS YEAR.......

 Lupita Nyong’o in custom Atelier Versace (Ugh!); Emily Blunt in Schiaparelli Haute Couture with 'loaned' Chopard jewelry! (Zzzz!"); Haley Bennett in Christian Dior (did someone clean out my lawnmower chute?); Sally Hawkins in Armani Privé with 'loaned' Chopard Jewelry (made her look like an Auschwitz survivor with shoulder pads); Molly Sims in Naeem Khan (standard bleached blonde, Dynasty Hooker costume); Nicole Kidman in Armani Privé, Harry Winston jewelry and Christian Louboutin shoes (she can carry this off, if anyone can....She's that 'in charge'); (a few 'perfectly tastefully Hollywoodish predictable Zac Posen (with great reservation about Andra Day's super hideous Zac Posen getup) and Christian Siriano {but I'll have eternal nightmares over 'Whoopi Goldberg in Christian Siriano'}); some boring 'Label' getups from Louis Vuitton; a 'hot' Jennifer Lawrence in Metropolis Metallic Dior and equally 'hot' bookend,

Gal Gadot in Givenchy and Tiffany & Co. jewelry; Saoirse Ronan in 'what's to criticize about it....the ubiquitous bow?" Calvin Klein.....more 'borrowed' jewelry...... ; how about a 'male'....well....how about Timothée Chalamet in Berluti's Prom Night 'too short stovepipe pants with too-long black, side-zippered boots'; Camila Alves in Vivienne Westwood (so, that's where the old table cloths and napkins that I tossed went!.....over a 1950's tulle party dress...); Viola Davis, actually 'rockin' a Pepto Bismol Pink Michael Kors 'Collection'; was 'Gucci punishing' Salma Hayek, or is her taste that bad?; Helen Mirren looked better on the Jet Ski float, than in that old blue-gray flannel sheet; Tony Ward issued some 'last year's style' gowns, cut to the withered umbilical cord attachment point, and beyond....Betty Gabriel, still marketing 'tit tape';

Leslie Bibb in J. Mendel, doing her 'sure thing', mimic-walking the ghosts of J. Mendel's posthumous Dior....hmm....borrowed from Charlize Theron's Couture collection?; Allison Janney in Reem Acra looked like a model of 'good taste and refinement' after being assaulted by Vera Wang's assault, with Taraji. P Henson's willing 'slit to the clit' collaboration....;Adam Rippon, without socks....a pet peeve of mine......gets my 'most tacky and tasteless' B&D award...stick to those 'butt statement' ice skating costumes, Adam!...even though you're gunning for Johnny Weir's job[s]; Then, there were a few 'wins', but that's no fun, is it? I still don't understand why these actresses. that get paid millions of bucks/picture.....still have to 'borrow' jewelry to wear! and everything else! Shout out to Frances McDormand...for 'no mention' of 'Who She's Wearing'!

All reactions:

7Sherry Baker, John Herrmann and 5 others

3 comments

1 share

Share

THE PSYCHEDELIC 'NEW WAVE', LONG PAST FRANCE, GERMANY, HOLLAND, ITALY, SPAIN AND _____........WASHES OVER POPULAR CANNES BEACHES FROM KOREA TO HONG KONG.......BOOK YOUR NEXT 'STAY' IN DUBAI BEFORE THE CREDITS ROLL BACK TO THE ETHERIC CONVOLUVUS AND PRAGUE BECOMES THE FILM CAPITAL OF THE WORLD.... following the trail of current fashion's expectations ?....Marvel extravaganzas? ....all singing/dancing? or Korean Psychedelica?

 

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_k63vvm3mU&t=115s  

 

The Hollywood Hubbub is at full gallop......akin to Washingtonian Political Shit-Slinging........    Fodder for Season 88, Episode 100,  of the apparently never-endingly formulaic LAW AND ORDER, (.......'Slighted Director murders Film Comment Editor for dismissive Review of his Film', "DAGMAR DRAGS THE SLUMS OF BOTSWANA FOR THE EVIDENCE OF SERIAL SLAUGHTER OF ABANDONED FILM CLIPS".....filmed in 2019, edited in 2020, re-dubbed in 2021....thereby disqualifying it from   Substance in     following the trail of current fashion's  expectations ?....Marvel extravaganzas?

WAAY TOO MUCH TO DREAM, NIGHT BEFORE LAST.......I HAD TO 'DREAM-MARK' THE EPIC HALLUCINOGENIC EPISODIC NIGHT PUNK REVERIE WITH AN OLD, YELLOWING LACE COLLAR STRIP....AND RETURN TO 'SEE' WHAT WENT DOWN AFTER THE 'TRIP' FROM CLASHY, NIHILIST BRITAIN TO GREENWICH CITY'S PLUSH CINEMATIC VELVET UNDERGROUND

 

[Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Sarah Huckabee Sanders were sharing a cold water flat jail cell with Donald Trump, George Santos and the stinking corpse of Tammy Fay Baker ...in a surreal dream that I had last night.......As they howled and complained about their Fate, Divine was performing her trampoline act, firing guns into their 'cage' while the audience of Politicians threw both gold coins and rotting garbage into their pathetic Arena......I had visited Slumberland during Joe Biden's long address, last night.....but awakened, by mice, chewing into a bag of fried pork skins....in a dream within that dream....that were transforming into livery men and women, to carry out the entire Congress in enormous, carved out pumpkins....as they bitched that they weren't being paid enough for this sideshow.....I knew that Derek Jarman must have been resurrected by my creative dreaming module to direct this Production......I had, only hours before, watched JUBILEE..... 

I had some 'more'....last night....as though the in-mind projectionist, played by my now deceased friend, Tom Harper, a fundamentalist minister's son who had been a teenaged projectionist/poet at the Lyric Theater, in Huntsville, when we were kids, had discovered an "alternate take" reel in a dusty old film canister......The cast of JUBILEE was transported, somehow, like Tilda Swinton...in ORLANDO....or Jennie Runacre...in JUBILEE....or Dr. Who....on a 'not-so-excellent' Vacation with Bob and Ted, to Greenwich Village to watch a Warhol/Morrisey Film, featuring David Bowie, Lou Reed and The Lindsay Kemp Conceptual Dance Theater Cast......Perhaps, I'm still 'high' on something I ate, decades later, at The Nude Restaurant......a 20 year-old yellowing blotter of d-LYSERGIC ACID DIETHYL AMIDE that had become dislodged from between my back molars.....Fortunately, following this episodic psychedelic Dream was a 'relief showing' of "having lunch with my mother and Mississippi Poet...a terrible one....Riley Munday" while cruising Andy, David and Jean-Michel.....having much more fun at a table across the dining room......I may have read too much Borges, in my 20's, I think.....or used the wrong mushrooms in that stroganoff, late last night...........Or, perhaps....'this' is what spills out during a break with continuity before return0ing to Chapter 33 of a current Writing Project, "Life, With What I Used To Think Were Great Restraints"