https://www.amazon.com/Mad-Hell-Network-Fateful-Angriest/dp/B01L98LV7WTwas to write something about the Golden Globes for Condé Nast – sorry Rory Gilmore. (Did anyone apart from Emily Gilmore spot two Longfellows in the first draft?) You seem to be more per-occupied with my baby (oh no…spoiler alert!)) ? I wasn’t that guy – now I’ve seen the maintenance cheque from attorneys. That sperm definitely came from outer space! Paris Geller 2019 is now an expert on Zombie movies (did u know?) We was gettin’ wee bit bored during Train to Busan (Yeon Sang-ho director 15th cousin quince removed from set I think to Lane Kim;) and then a tweed adrenaline rush! Just goes to show, give a girl a chance and she’ll finally kill you. Wrong movie I know but Lorelai Gilmore would approve. Train to Busan doesn’t exactly break new Zombie grounds. (Ever tried mixing Kryptonite with Milorganite and watch what happens! …) I’m working on it…hmmmm
BUT: there’s a lot of clever stuff going on here (BUSAN not me- I just sit and write and watch and write and drink and then finally....
What’s more: you remember all the characters! How good does it get as an actor when YOU the one blamed for all hell and fury! Sounds good to me. NO! It was me. It MEE! It was MEEEEEEE! Never heard of so many people wanting to be granted unsociability. Sounds good to me…
My brain and I have finally started watching TV shows. Is there now, like, a euphemism for this. Classic digital arousals (CDA’s)- sounds good to Paris;) I tried a few eps of The Americans and still haven’t got aroused. Funny: tonight going to see BUSAN -movie not book;-(‘nother excuse for a link). MoMA seems to come and go according to Michelangelo (even though they have not one ball) about bag searches when one attends film screenings. They’ve also moved the ground floor lavatories (well closed and re-diverted) (hint to those wanting to make bad smells) to the film people down below. The Gilmores all would not approve! The film people just love the wide diversity upstairs. I did despair that I was in an army base bog (is that English slang..) (without Desmond Doss cleaning on KP duty) when I entered one cubicle this evening…(I have a pic but that would be bad gilding…). Some ‘people’ descending all those escalators into the movie bowls of MoMA might get lost and wander into a film! Yikes. What a scary thought. Ohhh..clever clever MoMA ‘moriarty’: Holmes sees through your devious lavatory labyrinth. The lengths taken to get people seeing movies on the big screen.
Not sure that my totally legitimate comment tonight to a ‘bag searcher’ (they are very decent people on the whole-you/they know!!!) about ‘would you like to smell my smelly ballet clothes’ went down well. But if they want smell censorship they can have it.
I guess there is a code book when terrorists might not want MoMA as a target. Cause it all seems rather.. well: I gild a non-existent lily.
I totally lost my TRAIN of thought. NAHHH…no I didn’t. Snowpiercer pummels on. This is one for Hollywood Press Association's Lorenzo Soria (President) as he settles down for his ‘water’;) (- according to Hugh Grant tonight Sunday, Streep can't see anything without specs. So maybe she might think you're Trump!) Anima persa (Lost Soul, 1977)- Catherine Deneuve, Vittorio Gassman. Joyeux Noël Catherine. Vittorio who;) Well: why would they unless you hang out in the dark. A lot! I've written this a few times before. But wouldn't it be AWESOME if there were footage of early Visconti stage direction! Gassman played Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' Un tram che si chiama desiderio (A Streetcar Named Desire). Un mec (some guy) Franco Zeffirelli did the sets. Rome, 1949. The cast also included un mec (some guy) named Marcello Mastroianni. We all eventually end all with the same worms or the same fishes. But some worms and some fishes- I have a short term memory thing going on here...;)
Yawn! The Golden Blobes. [sic- just call in when....you--- -- really don’t need that…;] Why bother. Yes indeed Ricky. Did you enjoy the money. No: of course you didn’t. (OK –I stop there….I know ..you’re disappointed…but I need to keep what meager material I have for the Academy Awards when President Trump announces he wants to host. I try to be rabbit and hair and accommodating.
Where was I..I haven’t seen most of these TV shows. The Night Manager was just great. And the Le Carré source material will never let one down in factual accuracy… thereby hangs many many lives. And former Prime Minister Blair goes mea culpa and be forgiven. Of course. I guess the dude never saw The Exorcist!
SO: how many celb people from the Golden Globes could I challenge for a ballet burn out! We could get Ricky G (to shoot troublemakers), Alastair Macaulay who knows more than most could know about ballet tech, Christopher Walken has a keen eye for for the ‘bs’ of step (anyone ever see dancer/choreog Sean Curran’s extraordinary one man show based on E.B White's writings?)…Zadie Smith on the advisory panel (you don’t have anything against kickline now do you?..we’re talkin’ fresh chervil not paddock clover, Zadie;) …ok…we’re way too early for The Barre Games..and Jennifer Lawrence hasn’t ….moving backwards.
Confession: watching Gilmore Girls back in 2001 at my parents in Australia whilst NY burned, strangely saved me in more ways than one. Somewhere the other day, I was, and a someone said that they’d been to Nashville for the Holidays. And Desmond Doss (on whom is based Hacksaw Ridge) came to mind- well really rattling around already. After it was all said and done, Doss retired to a little town Rising Fawn just south of Chattanooga.
It is such a bigger world outside New York. Though, the world needs New Yorks, blessings and curses. Indeed, a vast world outside America. Not sure that the world needs another America. One seems more than enough. The CIA had a different opinion over the decades. Maybe they still do. That being said, it's hard to think of a country that didn't have hegemony intrinsic to its DNA. Andorra? Trouble now is that over the last decade or so the genetic code of many countries has ever slowly been morphing. There should always be a separation between the state and religion. The problem might be soluble if the former could remain an individual entity. It's appearing not so and the result may well be an unutterable historic highway. Or: has the highway always been there oft shrouded by the mists of history?
A British critics show was discussing whether Gilmore Girls still ‘had its day’ or was over. Surely the world needs more Gilmores: voices of reason, waywardness, stubborn-ity, fleet of footedness: but above all beauty, without which nothing continues to turn. Does the world need more TV? I think me failed my Condé Nast commission because hungry to see all these TV shows I just ain’t. I’ll give them all a try. I will. And I’ll try harder with The Americans. AHHH! You thought the GG's were about MOVIES! (Just tryin' to get 'em better seats. Economy's not that much fun....But then again: First Class you're sittin' next to an arms dealer---[ANDREW! I know I know...mea culpa...]
The Crown. Has director Mr Daldry an eye for a knighthood! What a brilliant cast. What a brilliant script. And Stephen’s very good with actors. Always was. Most. I do have some award show stories: perhaps another day. Not sure he should be let loose on a Zombie movie, though;) My mother loved royalty. And was an amazing proofreader. Sometimes she said what seemed strange things, but when you have lived in the big bad world maybe they were not so. Theories…A shame I’d never done anything to deserve a knighthood when my Mum was alive. Guess you don’t get knighthoods for making Zombie flicks.
Yours truly: the greatest fan of Barry Jenkins' Medicine for Melancholy totally neglected work of genius and beauty (a-way before Obama;). Haven't seen Moonlight. [Sun Jan 22- I did see just: we love political incorrectness on Mars (that's not Earth/Mars it's like Paris,Texas in another solar system!) we wasn't crazy at all after about your team's talents. Like Moonlight is a NIGGER movie !!! U don't need color to understand THAT movie! Man. Man. Man. Man. Man. Man. Man.Man. [Bro sounds better but that ain't my language;)[ Did you just make another movie Barry Jenkins! Just another display of flickering images......(OK-sounds better that way-there is pixel burn out. Not to mention pixel brain delinquency (PBD)-a term culled in 2035- after...but that's another sad Sunday..;(- NO result of the: ummmm film 'community',,,,)
! Same ordinary/extra cinematography as Medicine by James Laxton. And there's Kenneth Lonergan: like he needs another award. Money would always be nice, I guess!
Fences. Playwright August Wilson: a man with the priceless gift of kindness. Is Fences a black Death of a Salesman? Rose Maxson: I wanted a house I could sing in. And that's what your Daddy gave me.
So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person. (Death of a Salesman)
Meryl: like you need another...drink?:) I had you already on this show. But- as Aristotle was thunk: suffice to think it all again. Being malade and missing GG movies and TV has its strange advantages. Gives something to write about next year;) I mean: what do I know about real life. Everything is relative.
And when I find me some kind of life I can live…
oh my G: it's a statue. Ossification/classification. Yin and yang eh Lane Kim...!
any...remember THIS..
as a P.S. to all this: Meryl Streep. I just watched the Awards tonight. I was in LA many years ago. I not only couldn't speak, I could barely function. Whatever it was that I caught, I had to cancel everything. I booked into a cheap motel close to LAX. I didn't eat. I could barely walk. So: hats off to YOU! You seem fine, I know. But what is 'fine'. I watched Sophie's Choice last year. The first time since the 80's. A totally different experience. I wept and wept and WEPT! If you had only done that one performance you would be ingrained in the memories of so so so many people. But you went on and on and on and on and on. And on! Brilliance after brilliance after brilliance: after BRILLIANCE.
There's a line in Gilmore Girls that REALLY hurts. It hurts everyone. It cuts like a laser and is very hard to forgive. When Lorelai's Mum says go back to your 'carneys' to her own daughter. You spoke healing tonight because the best of us are all part of the show. Emily 'Mum' Gilmore finally realized that she was too! And spake BS !!!!! Screw you all. I have a life to live. I have LIVED A GREAT LIFE.
Cecil B De Mille was treated like shit as well when he erred out of favour. (And I choreographed my website so so beautifully until you came along....;)
Thank You Meryl Streep.
May I quote Anthony Newley again.....
There’s a film out there that is being rather unjustly neglected. Not regarding the 'smell of the greasepaint' but rather 'the smell of the crowd' that television molded itself from. And a phenomenon remaining an uneasy presence in all our lives. Christine. NYT: "the movie noncommittally nibbles at the edge of larger meaning, nodding at current events." Well: yes, I hear that criticism. Tried not to do any research on Christine before seeing the film. All I knew was that the thoughtful, wonderful Rebecca Hall was the film’s star. (All it takes is the luck of one movie to impress one's talents upon the world.) It paid off. The ending (though totally factually a real event, 1974) in a sense wasn’t the captivating issue of the film. You watch a brilliant rather ordinary gal always struggling to be heard. Resisting the flow. Creating another river of thought. Her bosses knew she was the one. TV has a sensation of mind all its own, though. Did an Anderson Cooper exist back then? I guess not.
Whether Christine's mental health issues were always there or whether the world created or exacerbated them is what this film is really about. It is what America is now totally about. One must always remember that many people have never seen these films that one cites in reviews. Many will never have seen the devastating Network -1976 (which very arguably was based upon Christine's real TV event- Dave Itzkoff's book Mad as Hell convincingly argues it was more zeitgeist). On the one hand it is the same and yet very much on the other hand, Christine is about something else. What is rather refreshing is that it never states the ‘something’. It watches as a kind of voyeur. A war photographer. Knowing not to intervene because things may change. There may be hope. Observing her anguish and all too real frustration.
{as a P.S. -Jan 28: mi dispiace that Rebecca Hall didn't get an Oscar nomination...Great female roles don't come around that often. Guess they want La La Land ;( Or 'proper' zeit angst. Guess you chose 'improper' geist angst material. I'd make that latter choice every time!} Cooraj!
I did write somewhere, way long ago, how depressing it was all watching the Next to Normal Tony Awards telecast, constantly pummeled by advertisements for medications (with all the legal 'riders' that the medication may perhaps lead to a million other problems!) Thank G I was imbibing Iceland 'tea' all evening;) !
[9.55pm-Sun Jan 15-Btw: I am 40 min into La La Land and I’m not really La La’ing. 20 min in and I was …hmmm: Something just happened. OK. Then there is an Astaire/Charisse dance segment that is OK: but why do should care? I will persist but I am running out of the Foreign Press Association’s very kind gift of a Glenmorangie miniature;) and going crazy…!!!
So: I am 60min in after all the faux Michel Legrand/Jacques Demy stuff - a hint of Hitchcock, that may only be in my mind! (though I see what you’ve been trying’ here..) and you start on astronomy without even hinting at the First Lady astronomer? Man: is that so not a ‘stellar’ pull.
67min to go....I will of course wipe this if finally: amazed.....I know ya ‘all hate Disney but they successfully digitally animated boring bobbing hair and blobs of boring snow, creating magic. …don't think La La Land is a film for geeks. It's sumptuously executed and am probably all alone in my little cave not praising it to the hilt as has everyone else. Does the problem perhaps lie in that the film’s foundations are built of reality whilst the structure is of ‘movie musical’? And though no reality is ever boring these protagonists lives aren’t scripted to be that engrossing (no fault of the performers). The musical sequences become contrary rather than holistic. That is until Mia's engrossing Audition/The Fools Who Dream song in the last 30min. By that stage the audience hasn't quite been given the chance to connect. Yet they feel they ought. The audience needs to know more about Mia and Seb. We need to be able to see into their souls. They should never know that we are watching.
In Cover Girl (1944) the relationship between Rusty (Rita Hayworth) a chorus girl working at the nightclub run by her boyfriend Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly) twists and turns from happy, sad to uplifting. And as with many (or arguably most) movie musicals, the film’s musical numbers are all rooted in reality rather than dreamscape. When there is a dreamscape (American in Paris) it is the thing itself rather than hyper-reality. What made Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark such an extraordinary addition to the movie musical canon was precisely that fact: everything was rooted in reality and the dance sequences riffed upon that. In that, not beyond. It was Coltrane. Selma’s character believed she was escaping real life for the movie musical when in fact, in a very strange way, she and us escape to the movies to see our own realty up there. Or moreover, what our reality could and should be. We are the ones projecting those flickering images onto our cave not the other way round.
Like comedy: you can’t/don’t laugh unless you have a connection with the joke’s content.
Just riffin’ here on what I see. If you all kids make money out of this film then good for you. But remember the past. Remember the great dance musicals. Remember the great jazz films, yes: there were some- Bertrand Tavernier/Dexter Gordon. And: please remember JUST how exploited were jazz musicians over the decades: The Narcotics Farm. Creativity comes at a price. Never an easy watch when that price is exploited.
Let's Make Love -not on the 100 greatest musicals list but it should be! And not an easy movie to find...choreographed (and in some scenes directed by) the unjustly neglected Jack Cole)
pardon my French !!!!!!!!!!
(and in case you missed my link to this sublime song, here it is again, Mia)
The Light Between Oceans-
And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!
Tenterfield Saddler- Peter allen
I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love
