This week’s Rhapsody is Rhapsody for Orchestra by Yasushi Akutagawa. I wasn’t familiar with Akutagawa but I’m enjoying his work… This piece almost comes off like a cross between Gershwin and one of the Stravinsky to me.
My Theme for this week was seventies kitsch, the kind of slice of life comedies that did not intend to be period pieces going in but in the end turn into documentaries for the period. (In hindsight I could also pretend that the theme was movies where their theme songs are better know than the films today)
The first on my list Car Wash claimed to star Richard Pryor and George Carlin but in reality their appearance turned out to be just a cameo and a running gag.
The real stars of the show are the crew of the local carwash, a wonderfully diverse group of misfits and we watch them going through what we presume is a typical day warts and all.
Lots of things go on throughout the day, including George Carlin as a cabdriver trying to track down a prostitute who’d stiffed him on a fare, two pranksters trying to one up each other, the boss’s son wanting to be one of the people and failing terribly at it and an ex con trying to improve his life and retain his dignity. It’s very funny bittersweet kind of way.
Thank God its Friday tries to do the same thing only with the opening night of a hip new disco club run by a young Jeff Goldblum. Like the car wash the place attracts all types to a frustrated couple, two high school students trying to sneak in to enter the club’s dance contest, and my personal favorite Jackie a dental hygienist by day a pill popping manic pixie dream girl by night.
This is all framed around the aforementioned dance contest which is comically delayed throughout the night and then delayed more as their roadie who has all of the instruments is lost and keeps getting pulled over… so in the mean time we just have to sit back and listen to Donna Summers sing “Last Dance”.
I was on a role today on my monthly trip to the Seattle Art Museum. Came out with about three new sketches… for once I spent more time looking than drawing. The best one I did today was of the bronze of an Indian Warrior on Horseback by Alexander Proctor . I’d drawn this several times but they’ve never come out very well either from choosing a bad angle or from horses not being my strong point, but this time I think it came out pretty well.
(To my embarrassment I rushed doing a snapshot of the original to show what I was drawing I have a rare example of the sketch being better than the photo.)
This week I decided to go with biopics of famous directors. (or in this case one famous and one notorious)
The first, Gods and Monsters, tells us the story of the last days of the life of horror director James Whale played by Ian McKellen. In the process it also tells about being openly homosexual in 1950s Hollywood.
The film opens with Whale living in relative seclusion recovering from a stroke. Out of boredom he strikes up a relationship with his gardener played by Brendan Fraser. Most of the film follows this as Whale slowly drifts more and more into his memories.
McKellen is at the top of his game here. My favorite part is about in the middle of the film where The Bride of Frankenstein is showing on television. We jump back and fourth between a bar where the Gardener is watching it and Whale’s living room where Whale (who is not particularly happy about having his horror films being the work he’s best remembered for) is picking it apart telling his housekeeper all the little techniques he used. Finally at the end we switch over to a flashback of the filming of the Bride of Frankenstein. I especially liked the bit where Doctor Frankenstein, Pretorius and the Bride are acting completely out of character before the movie’s climax is shot.
The next on my list was Tim Burton’s story of one of the worst directors in history, Ed Wood. Johnny Depp plays cult filmmaker Ed Wood as a manic optimistic borderline con artist oblivious to his complete lack of talent.
This is a fun movie filmed in the style of a forties horror film (I’d say in the style of Ed Wood but it’s better than that) Along with Depp’s performance Martin Landau channels Bela Lugosi perfectly as a bitter drug addicted has been. Together they form a symbiotic relationship as Bela, at least in the context of the movie serves as a kind of muse to Woods who tries to create great vehicles for his hero.
In the mean time despite creating one failure after another Wood’s enthusiasm is nearly hypnotic (probably the only explanation for why he keeps getting people to support his creative monstrosities.) nd in the process brings together a growing ensemble cast to help him in his ventures. This all leads to lots of unintentional fun and is well worth one’s time.
Well once again we reach our annual Alice in Wonderland Day, the day that Alice went down the Rabbit Hole. (The way we know this because in the chapter Pigs and Pepper Alice mentions she doesn’t think the March Hare will be that mad since it is May and in the next chapter the Mad Hatter asks her what the day of the month is and she says may.)
Anyway to celebrate enjoy Disney’s take on the Mad Tea Party.
Once again I fell back on doing another selection of Oscar nominees. For this week I went with films from 1961.
The first on my list the Guns of Navarone was one I knew the name of for years but didn’t really know anything else about it. (in fact for until this week I thought it was a western). It tells the story of a commando raid against two giant guns on the Greek island of Navarone the only thing presenting an Allied attack on the island of Keros.
This was a very well done film. For it’s time I found it wonderfully cynical making it very much about how war forces people to make terrible choices. No one is particularly good and despite this being a World War !! film, most of the Germans are just soldiers in truth there is pretty much only one Nazi in the group.
The moral ambiguity makes this film fascinating with the arguments between leads Gregory Peck and David Niven have over doing what is right vs what is necessary absolutely fascinating.
My other film is the all time classic, The Hustler, which tells the story of small time pool shark Fast Eddie Felson, played by Paul Newman, as he struggles to prove himself the greatest pool player in the country.
While this film has just about everything what draws me the most is the acting. Paul Newman who’s best known as an American everyman with boy next door good looks does a brilliant job of twisting this into an arrogant portrait of greed and a desperate need to prove to everyone that you are the best *which when you are hustling pool is not a good idea..
George C Scott excels as the manipulative bastard who plays him.
However I have to say my favorite part of this film is Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Gleason in a serious role before (or perhaps a more accurate way to say it is “non comic” as many of Gleason’s comic roles are very serious) but this is a magnificent minimalist performance with Gleason dominates every shot he is in with precise movement.
