(no subject)
The Dying Gaul -- So, a gay writer writes a screenplay about his lover dying of AIDS. Campbell Scott is a studio exec who wants to buy it on condition that he changes it to be about a hetero couple, because 'America hates gays, and nobody will go to see it if it's two men. You could get Tom Cruise, who wouldn't go near it for 100 million dollars, Spielberg to direct, and open it on 4000 screens...and nobody will see it.'
When the writer asks what about Philadelphia, he says 'that's a movie about a guy who hates gays.' Which, actually, it is. Brokeback too -- if you're gay you die of a hate crime. Boys Don't Cry -- we know what happens there. Is there any mainstream movie with a gay protagonist where hatred is not an essential feature of the movie? And more importantly, is this reality, or pandering to a non-gay audience by putting in some anti-gay characters so vile that we all pat ourselves on the back for not tying people to trucks or smashing their faces in with tire irons? Interesting questions all around. The rest of the movie sucks though, because after that it turns out Scott is bisexual and he starts doing the writer, wife finds out, bad things happen, and they totally drop the moral struggle of the writer selling out his script.
The Outskirts -- some weird Russian movie that's either an neo-stalinist or send up of the old stalinist style movies. i can't really tell. it's about how russian guys are hard motherfuckers when you fuck with their land. or something.
Fanny and Alexander -- too long, too bright, too much about kids. Ebert has a theory about Fellini that Juliet of the Spirits was essentially about telling his wife 'why can't you be freaky like this?' I get the same idea here -- 'yeah, i'm a philanderer and a chauvinist but come on, at least I'm not a harsh lutheran crazy man like my old man was' or something like that. not my favorite bergman by a stretch. the only bergman's i have left to watch that netflix has are the serpent's egg and the magic flute, and they both look hella sketchy. i'm skeptical. keith carradine? what?
Late Spring - Ozu is Ozu.
A Bete Humaine - Jean Gabin is the motherfucking man. The story is they made this because he wanted to drive a train. Loosely based on a Zola novel I've never read.
Never on Sunday - Jules Dassin's movie about an american intellectual who tries to show a happy hooker how to enjoy the intellectual rather than the sensual pleasures, as was espoused by her greek philosopher progenitors. she is content, and goes to the tragedies, which she loves, even though she changes them all so they all end with everyone going to the seashore, so they won't be too sad. awesome.
'Medea, does she not say herself, 'I killed my children'?'
'And you believe her?!'
naturally he learns a few things himself! pat ending, good execution though.
Going to San Diego this weekend until wednesday.
When the writer asks what about Philadelphia, he says 'that's a movie about a guy who hates gays.' Which, actually, it is. Brokeback too -- if you're gay you die of a hate crime. Boys Don't Cry -- we know what happens there. Is there any mainstream movie with a gay protagonist where hatred is not an essential feature of the movie? And more importantly, is this reality, or pandering to a non-gay audience by putting in some anti-gay characters so vile that we all pat ourselves on the back for not tying people to trucks or smashing their faces in with tire irons? Interesting questions all around. The rest of the movie sucks though, because after that it turns out Scott is bisexual and he starts doing the writer, wife finds out, bad things happen, and they totally drop the moral struggle of the writer selling out his script.
The Outskirts -- some weird Russian movie that's either an neo-stalinist or send up of the old stalinist style movies. i can't really tell. it's about how russian guys are hard motherfuckers when you fuck with their land. or something.
Fanny and Alexander -- too long, too bright, too much about kids. Ebert has a theory about Fellini that Juliet of the Spirits was essentially about telling his wife 'why can't you be freaky like this?' I get the same idea here -- 'yeah, i'm a philanderer and a chauvinist but come on, at least I'm not a harsh lutheran crazy man like my old man was' or something like that. not my favorite bergman by a stretch. the only bergman's i have left to watch that netflix has are the serpent's egg and the magic flute, and they both look hella sketchy. i'm skeptical. keith carradine? what?
Late Spring - Ozu is Ozu.
A Bete Humaine - Jean Gabin is the motherfucking man. The story is they made this because he wanted to drive a train. Loosely based on a Zola novel I've never read.
Never on Sunday - Jules Dassin's movie about an american intellectual who tries to show a happy hooker how to enjoy the intellectual rather than the sensual pleasures, as was espoused by her greek philosopher progenitors. she is content, and goes to the tragedies, which she loves, even though she changes them all so they all end with everyone going to the seashore, so they won't be too sad. awesome.
'Medea, does she not say herself, 'I killed my children'?'
'And you believe her?!'
naturally he learns a few things himself! pat ending, good execution though.
Going to San Diego this weekend until wednesday.