A LOOKBACK TO THE PULLMAN 'CAR'.......WITH REMEMBERED BUT UNMENTIONED REFERENCIALS FROM 'THE POLAR EXPRESS'......

 Over a quarter of a century after Philip Pullman's grown up reply to the adolescence of J.K. Rowling's infantile gibberish, the DARK MATERIALS TRILOGY.....sorta Milton for intellectual youths....I heard, a few years ago, that he will have a new 'trilogy' on the presses....beginning with a prequel, “La Belle Sauvage” ........Will it be bought up and made into a movie? I remember, well, all the controversy over his last series of books and the Christian Right's boycott of the movie adaptation of "The Golden Compass', which led to the other two sequels being dropped from production, in obeisance to the Right Wing, that condemned it as atheistic and unsuitable for American YOUTH.....a baker's dozen years ago, after theaters pulled GOLDEN COMPASS as Atlanta's "Christian" 'Moms" marched on the Capital downtown.......I cranked out, in my 'Bitching' blog of the day: "After waiting impatiently for the film adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s classic trilogy....it seems that i must be pacified by "The Golden Compass", alone......for the general public apparently has little interest in atheistic fantasy film adaptations! Chris Weitz's artistic work still lies, bleeding.... butchered in the editing room, reflecting New Line's fear of fundamentalist backlash to one of the first atheistic children's fantasy films......too bad.....maybe Criterion will... at least.... issue a director's cut of the film as it was originally conceived before the post-production debacle.......After all, the Religious Right has the trashy Chronicles of Narnia and the Prince Whatever to balm it's offended sensibilities, doesn't it? I am doubtful that The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass will be filmed, in the near future, although The Golden Compass brought in a couple of hundred million bucks on the European market.......Calvinistic American Parents were less than enthusiastic about the release and New Line Cinema stupidly released the film during "Jesus" season in the States! Incidentally New Line went belly up, losing big bucks......Do 12 year-olds actually know who Nicole and Daniel are? In America, its all about catering to populist tastes....and we know that is "C-minus"!"

DANIEL CRAIG'S 'FULL CIRCLE'?

A 'queer'  Daniel Craig film...that I remember having seen...was John Mayberry's "LOVE IS THE DEVIL:  STUDY FOR A PORTRAIT OF FRANCIS BACON", in which Craig 'plays' George Dyer, a gay hustler...opposite Derek Jacobi, as the painter, Francis Bacon.   And...oh, yes....there was 2008's "FLASHBACKS OF A FOOL"........and his run as macho James Bond, for which he is largely identified...Now, hot off the editing room......"QUEER"......  Luca Guadignino's current Film adaptation of the  1985 William S. Burroughs work.....To challenge the mall theater-goers loosening, fading preconceptions about what a Man .....Is...... 

 

"The time between midnight and dawn when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are most palatable. It is the hour when the sleepless are pursued by their sharpest anxieties, when ghosts and demons hold sway." Ingmar Bergman

I watched the early directorial work of Kenneth Branagh, DEAD AGAIN......and thought of all the 'supernatural' films of its kind that play on primitive Belief Systems......and there have been hundreds of these...even since Bridey Murphy Days.....all this 'seriousness' just reifies my thoughts about how slowly Civilization seems to evolve out of religious conceptualizations,,,.like 'Souls' that can exist outside mortal bodies, 'Life After Death", Reincarnation and Transmigration...a 'theme' of this Fantasy Movie that took itself so seriously.....Some great actors, nevertheless, earlier in their careers and a darker Robin Williams, in a predictive performance.....a small role by under rated Campbell Scott and some foolishness with Derek Jacobi as the 'funny man' antique dealer/therapist/psychic fortune teller/hoarder.......This film was 'on trend', of course....on the coattails of a dozen films....like it....that were being cranked out by "The Business" of Film-making at 'the hour of the wolf'.....OR: the Whacko Mass Delusional Sytems that "Most" believe as 'Real'.......

SOMETHING DANCING ABOUT HER

I've been looking for a copy of the film adaptation, which was made a few years ago. Principally a biography of Pegi Nicol, it concerns the inter-woven lives of three Canadian artists, Pegi Nicol, Marion Scott and Marjorie Oberne.....played by Dana Green, Fiona Reid and Sheila McCarthy, respectively. Marjorie Oberne and I were friends for many years before her death, and we played bridge together every Wednesday night for years. I knew much about her, but she never mentioned her previous life as a Painter and was largely dismissive of her own accomplishments. Since I discovered that this film had been made and that one of my favorite actors, Sheila McCarthy, had played Marjorie, I have sought out a DVD or a showtime on IFC.....to no avail, however.......I did, however, find one of Marjorie's paintings.....[Marjorie Borden Oberne (Canadian/Georgia, 1911-1992) oil on canvas painting titled "Georgia Clay," comprised of geometric forms in shades of red, orange, yellow, blue green, white, black, and brown. Signed and dated "'57 M. Borden Oberne" lower right. Signed and titled en verso on top stretcher. Housed in a carved wooden frame with off white rabbet edge. Sight - 28 1/8" H x 36 1/8" W. Framed - 33 1/2" H x 41 1/2" W. Mid 20th century. Provenance: Deaccessioned from the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. ]  now, a victim of Fashion and Forgotteness.....which was sold at an auction in Knoxville, Tenn....where she lived before her move to Florida, then Atlanta, where we met.......

Today is the 'official' JAMES BOND DAY......

Today is the 'official' JAMES BOND DAY.......Daniel Craig is my favorite Bond, since Sean Connery........I wonder who the 'next' James will be.....Tom Hiddleston? Michael Fassbender? Henry Cavill? Or.....breaking the over half century tradition.....will 'it' be a black man? how about a woman? Idris Elba or Cate Blanchett, perhaps? Should I sell my Omegas yet? Will the newest Bond be sporting a machine-turned platinum dialed gold Breguet with guilloche.....oh...that would mean Ben Whishaw had been promoted from "Q", cut his teeth on London Spy, and beefed up for the role, wouldn't it? THAT ain't gonna happen!... My vote is for Aaron Taylor-Johnson...or....Tom Hardy....

A MENTION OF THE JOHN WATER'S FILM, "PECKER" THAT MY MENTION OF IT WAS CENSORED BY FACEBOOK POLICE FOR BEING 'INAPPROPRIATE'......

a film resurrection for NewFest 36, in NYC.... with a remarkable casting of Edward Furlong, Mink Stole, Christina Ricci, Mary Kay Place, Patty Hearst, & Martha Plimpton,,,,,under the magic directorial wand of John Waters....I'm thinking that this would be a great double-bill with 'Absolute Beginners'...or a triple-bill with 'Blow-up'.....

"MAD LOVE" (1935) AKA "THE HANDS OF ORLAC"

 

The 1935 MGM Karl Freund  film adaptation of Maurice Renard's novel, "Les Mains D'Orlac"....featuring Colin Clive, Ted Healy, Frances Drake and Peter Lorre; produced by John Considine Jr. ...adapted by Guy Endore...with costumes by Dolly Tree,  Musical Score by Dimitri Tiomkin, and Art Direction by Cedric Gibbons....clicked all my buttons this morning at 3:45, when it was shown on TCM.....We get Keye Luke in his 'Mister/Dr. Wong' persona and seemingly ever-present Ian Wolfe in yet another of his dark roles.....remember "Bedlam",  or his many character actor performances?   ......The  Film opens with a fist breaking a frosty glass window on a snowy, frigid evening, to reveal a man, hung by his neck in a painted set room of Le Theatre Des Horreurs.....the viewer is diverted to 'the real world' as a courting couple exits what was a Wax Museum-ish exhibit of Terror and Torture......the young woman, squabbling with her boyfriend over not having gone 'someplace' to 'have some fun'.......They pass by a Theater Sign advertising "Yvonne"....at Le Theatre....then the camera, abandoning the couple that disappear with other fashionable couples...all wearing the then obligatory hats and couture essentials,  as we are now engaged by Yvonne, primping her 'look' for a performance, as "Torturee",  reading her fan mail and wondering if Dr. Gogol is rich enough for her attention..........All of these observations are from the first couple of minutes of the Film, incidentally....