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Every month, Cosmik Debris brings you many CD and record reviews, but the writers manage to find a little time for other pursuits, like reading, going to movies and watching videos. That's where Everything Else In Review comes in.
MOVIE: Metropolis Directed by Fritz Lang
Starring Bridgette Von Helm, Gustav Froelich, Alfred Abel,
Rudolph Klein-Rogge
Effects by Eugen Schufftan
Music by Gottfried Huppertz
Book Written By Thea Von Harbeau
Restoration by Enno Patalas and
the Munich Film Archive
Distributed By Kino International
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
The silent film Metropolis, the granddaddy of all modern science fiction movies, is also one of the most important films ever made. This new restoration by Enno Patalas and the Munich Film Archive is the best version in six or seven decades at least, coming as close to the original experience of the movie as anyone may ever see.
Most people will enjoy Fritz Lang's work for the stunning beauty of its cinematography and for my money it still has a message that our leaders would do well to heed. However I'm sure some modern viewers raised on Lucas and Spielberg will not be impressed by Metropolis's mildly socialistic story about a workers revolt in a city of the future. It is, after all, a bit melodramatic in spots, but that's silent movies for you. I'd like to see a modern director match the film's emotional punch without words and sound effects! Even after 75 years, Fritz Lang's vision still has power.
Metropolis originally cost around $7 million, the most expensive movie ever made up to that time. (That's 1926 dollars folks, multiply it by 20 or 30 times at least.) It broke so much ground in special effects using animation, models, multiple exposures and matte shots that it's still studied just on that level, but the images themselves have become deeply embedded at all levels of culture. The whole Art-Deco movement of the 30's was informed by Metropolis. When I was a kid I remember seeing the Moloch scenes on TV's the 20th Century to illustrate manufacturing history. Virtually every documentary ever made on robotics has included a picture of Lang's wonderful robot. Just this past spring Episode 2 of Star War's drew on Lang's imagery for the cityscape of Coruscant. It's hard to measure Metropolis's pervasive and continuing influence.
Unfortunately time has not been kind to the film itself. The original 154 minute version that premiered in Berlin early in 1927 was cut down almost immediately for general release. Then the original negatives were lost in the chaos of World War II. Copies survived in other countries but no two copies were cut exactly the same. For years most audiences saw something about 90 minutes long, whose 8th generation images were fuzzy and whose intertitles had been altered, if they are readable at all. Whole parts of the story are not even hinted at in these copies.
Georgio Moroder went a long way to correct this with his 1984 revival of Metropolis. He located missing footage, and brought back much of the story and the overall quality of the images was amazingly clear. However, his effort was flawed: some scenes were tinted, he dropped the intertitles in favor of subtitles, but worst of all, he commissioned a rock soundtrack (featuring Freddy Mercury, Bonnie Tyler, Pat Benatar and others) that was distracting at best.
Patalas's restoration corrects Moroder's mistakes. The most obvious of course is the new soundtrack using the original score by Gottfried Huppertz. It's a full orchestration rendition that's probably better than what was heard back at that 1927 premiere, and which precious few have heard since. Along with the score Patalas recreated the original intertitle cards (some of which were animated) to tell the whole story of Metropolis. There's a previously missing subplot concerning the worker whom Freder replaces at the machines, 11811, plus several scenes with the "Thin Man," a henchman that pursues Freder. The restoration also includes more of the story behind Hel, Freder's mother and the lover of both the inventor, Rotwang, and the master of Metropolis, Joh Frederson. Their rivalry for Hel is what really motivates the inventor, not the blind desire to destroy the workers that you get from most versions. Hel is referred to in Moroder's version but Patalas had access to all of the original intertitle cards (found in the archives of Huppertz), so he was able to give the whole film much more color and meaning.
I've seen Metropolis enough to point out each spot where a few new frames have been added. Suffice it to say there are minor additions to almost every scene, but there's quite a lot more to the sons-of-Metropolis-only garden scenes (it's downright risqué in a couple shots) and you get several more glimpses of the Yoshiwara red-light district. That's still where the film has lost most of its footage. About the only quibble I have is where the film stock contains reel change markers (the "X" marks that are sometimes seen in the frame). One would think that a little digital technology could have repaired those individual frames to the point where they weren't so obtrusive. Still, when the film ends, all you can say is, "Bravo!"
It is one of my fondest hopes that more missing footage from Metropolis can be found someday but until then there's no question, this is THE definitive surviving version of Metropolis.
The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw it? Yes
Would I go to see it again? Over and over, it's a favorite.
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
BOOK: Turn! Turn! Turn!
The '60s Folk-Rock Revolution
Written by Richie Unterberger
Reviewed by Shaun Dale
When Richie Unterberger set out to tell the story of the birth, growth and continuing influence of folk-rock music, he knew he had a big story to tackle. So big, in fact, that he ended up splitting the story into two books. Turn! Turn! Turn! is the first installment, covering the period from the folk revival of the late 50s, early 60s, up to mid-1966 and the towering presence of the Byrds, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Mamas and the Papas and other folk-rock pioneers. It's an engaging story, and Unterberger tells it very well.
While the folk revival is not the subject of the book, it's the genesis of folk-rock, and he covers it in a 40 page opening chapter that stands as as good a summary of "the great folk scare" as I've ever seen. It's a chapter worth anthologizing in pop music histories to come. The next 200 plus pages offer an in-depth look at a relatively brief period of time, but an extremely rich period of musical development. Unterberger went straight to the source, interviewing folk-rock luminaries like Donovan, Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian and Arlo Guthrie in order to get the story right. He succeeded.
The next volume, Eight Miles High, will cover the music's growth from mid-1966 to Woodstock, and based on the quality of writing and the depth of insight offered here, I can't wait.
(C) 2002 - Shaun Dale
MOVIE: The Man From Elysian Fields
Directed By George Hickenlooper
Starring: Andy Garcia, Mick Jagger, Julianna Marguiles,
James Coburn, Angelica Huston, Olivia Williams
Samuel Goldwyn Films/Fireworks
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
This film is a trip into the world of the gigolo. A trip that starts in Pasadena of all places. A writer, Byron Tiller (Garcia), can't get his publisher interested in a second novel and he's running out of money. His wife is always supportive, but he gets desperate. Enter The Man From Elysian Fields, Luther Fox (Jagger) who runs a male escort agency. Actually it's Luther who's been narrating the story all along, offering nuggets of wisdom on what drives people to do the things they do.
Fox plays Tiller like a violin and ropes him into becoming one of his escorts in spite of it forcing him to be unfaithful. His first client is Andrea Alcott ("Rushmore's" Olivia Williams), who just happens to be the wife of a writer that Tiller admires, Tobias Alcott (Coburn), who is terminally ill. Tiller eventually meets him and gets the chance to collaborate with him on his final book.
The plot is involved but a touch too pat. Tobias comes and goes too easily with the man screwing his wife, better that he didn't know Tiller was the gigolo? Byron's wife Dena (Marguiles) is a little too trusting and then she inexplicably shows up in the company of one of the other Elysian men. Jagger's Fox could have been more sinister, but it's not a murder mystery so his comfortably rich seen-it-all older character rings true. A scene where he tries in vain to persuade his main client (Huston) to leave her husband for him is sort of pasted on. It was fun to see someone turn down Mick Jagger, but mostly I felt let down by the plot's pivotal double-cross. I saw it coming a mile away. Maybe I've seen too many movies.
There are some great performances here, especially from Coburn who gets all the best lines. Maybe it should have been a little darker, but The Man from Elysian Fields does have its moments and more than a few good insights. Overall it's very adult and satisfying.
The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw it? Yes
Would I go to see it again? Probably not.
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
CONCERT: Skip Heller Quartet
at The Sunset, Ballard, Washington (10-6-02)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
Even with borrowed musicians and no publicity to draw in a crowd of true fans, Skip Heller put on a terrific show on October 6th at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard, Washington. Saxophonist Robert Drasnin, a member of the actual Skip Heller Quartet, made the trip north from Los Angeles, but organist Joe Doria and drummer John Wicks were Seattle boys who prepared for the gig by practicing with a tape Heller made for them. They had one full rehearsal as a quartet before the gig.
Plenty of opportunity for disaster, one would think, especially when you factor in the lack of publicity (something went terribly wrong and there was no word on the radio, in print or on the street that Skip Heller was in town), but no disasters occurred on this night. This was a night for top-notch musicianship and exciting performances of clever arrangements. This was a night when some fine musicians pushed one another to reach for a little more. Doria's killer Hammond organ chops on songs like Lonnie Mack's "Wham!" seemed to inspire Heller and drive him to beat the hell out of his Fender Duo-Sonic guitar (which definitely has a whole lot of notes that my guitar doesn't have). Drasnin stands quite still during much of a show, and don't try to read his face because, at least from the audience, he seems to be a study in stoicism... until he puts reed to lips and paints goosebumps all over his audience. Whether playing sax or clarinet, his is a rare talent.
Heller took them through a handful of tunes from his new album, Homegoing, as well as highlights from his career, most of them available on his recent retrospective CD, Career Suicide. The crowd - surprisingly large considering the publicity bungle - was treated to wonderful songs like the mysterious "Intensive Girl," the extremely clever jazz reinvention of "Funeral March From Mahler's Fifth Symphony," and the unforgettable melody of "Meydele." Jazz buffs in the audience clearly enjoyed the reference when Heller introduced "Something For Rahsaan That Rahsaan Said," and even the most clueless were obviously pleased with the funky reading of Bobbie Gentry's "Ode To Billie Jo." "Couch," one of Heller's best loved tunes, closed the set, but after a few minutes a very appreciative crowd coaxed an encore. Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Three Hours Past Midnight" made a perfect ending to an excellent show.
Backstage, Skip Heller was his usual self, taking no credit for anything, deflecting compliments about his guitar playing with remarks like "Man, that keyboard player was kicking my ass all night!" and "Yeah, but did you hear that drummer? He's moving to L.A., you know!" Someone else mentioned a particular solo of Skip's, and ol' Skip just mentioned the chills he got from one of Drasnin's solos. Talk about a great guy to work for! As drummer John Wicks packs his bags for the move to L.A., I'm sure he's thinking about the chemistry on that stage. We'll be hearing from him. As Skip told the crowd, "Don't worry, we'll keep him eating." Oh, and by the way, don't let Skip kid you. He's a monster guitarist. More chops than the Karate Kid, baby. Check him out when he comes through town.
Article & Photos (C) 2002 - DJ Johnson
MOVIE: Swept Away
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Written by Guy Ritchie
Starring Madonna, Adriano Giannini, Bruce Greenwood
SKA Films
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
This film is a remake of Lina Wertmueller's Swept Away from 1974. It concerns a drug company executive (Greenwood) who has chartered a Greek yacht for a holiday cruise in the Mediterranean with his wife, Amber, played by Madonna, and two other couples. Adriano Giannini is Guiseppe, the uncultured but chiseled crewman who is forced to wait on her for the voyage. The role was originally played by Giancarlo Giannini, his father.
Amber is a spoiled rich bitch; there's no other way to describe her. I could say Madonna does really well at playing the bitch but the movie wallows in her bitchiness so much that it becomes tiresome. Why would her powerful husband hang around someone so relentlessly unpleasant? She would have been traded in for a trophy wife a long time ago. But the husband isn't the important character, it's Guiseppe, the fisherman-cum-waiter. For no reason Amber takes delight in tormenting him, calling him Peepee and complaining that the fish he just caught isn't fresh enough. The movie's best moments come in Pepe's complaining to the other crewmen and a couple of short revenge fantasies. Of course the two antagonists are fated to be marooned on a desert island together where Pepe can turn the tables. The bitch is finally baked out of Amber and she falls in love with Pepe, delighting in the simple suntan-oil-free life (don't they ever get sunburnt or just dirty here?), where she can take out her frustrations beating octopus on the rocks for their dinner and having beefcake for dessert.
I was attracted to this movie because Madonna is a very good actress when she has something to work with. Ritchie's shot it well enough but this is a very character driven plot and his writing and direction bring out virtually nothing in them, in fact his characters are nearly cartoon level. He might have gotten away with it if he made the erotic interplay a little more believable, perhaps playing up more of a physical attraction before they are marooned, but even though it's R rated, Swept Away's nothing memorable on that level either. Is Madonna getting shy or is Guy getting protective of his wife? Ask me if I care. Sweep this one away, please.
The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the movie? No.
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
AUDIO BOOK: Murder in the Mews
3 Hercule Poirot Mysteries [Unabridged]
Written by Agatha Christie
Read by Nigel Hawthorne and Hugh Fraser
Audio Editions Mystery Masters
4 cassette tapes, 4 hrs., 26 min.
Reviewed by Louise Johnson
This audio book set includes three of Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot mysteries: Murder in the Mews, read by Nigel Hawthorne, and The Incredible Theft and Triangle at Rhodes, read by Hugh Fraser. Murder in the Mews is clearly the headliner, filling the first two cassettes in the 4-piece set. It's a perplexing story of faked suicide - or is it? Hawthorne's reading is compelling, his voice changing to clearly distinguish the characters, his pauses just right for setting the tension.
Hugh Fraser, who reads the next two stories, plays Poirot's sidekick Captain Hastings on A&E's Poirot and PBS's Mystery! series. In the Incredible Theft, papers critical to England's future disappear when noone could have taken them. Who did take them and where they end up is indeed... incredible. Triangle at Rhodes is about human behavior and love triangles - which are never quite as they seem. These are still great stories, but I found the reading a little less compelling, the characters a little less distinguishable. Nevertheless, it's Agatha Christie, so the stories are perplexing and thrilling. This set made about a week of commuting much more bearable than they otherwise would have been.
One small complaint: The guidance given throughout this set was minimal, leaving me at times unclear as to what was happening, or what I was to do next. "End of side 6." OK, so do I turn the tape over, or put in a new one? On the freeway in rush hour traffic, I don't really want to be popping the tape and looking at it in an attempt to figure it out. There was not much distinction between stories either, only a short pause, then the title read, and the next story started. Could have been part of the previous story, had I not known the titles. So I'm spoiled. I like to be pampered a little bit. It's not really that hard.
(C) 2002 - Louise Johnson
MOVIE: Bowling For Columbine
Written and Directed by Michael Moore
Starring Michael Moore
Interviewees: Charleton Heston,
Marilyn Manson, Dick Clark
Distributed By United Artists
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
Bowling For Columbine is Michael Moore's look at America's gun culture. It's a long, hard, yet entertaining look that will make you laugh and cry. Hopefully it will finally make people enough angry to stand up to the gun lobby too.
Do I still have to point out that Moore is the man behind the documentaries Roger & Me and The Big One, the TV shows TV Nation and The Awful Truth, and the books Downside This and Stupid White Men? Some will say he's made an industry of criticizing America's ways. Unfortunately America gives Moore plenty of material.
Moore is an expert at the guerilla documentary form. His original material is mostly handheld style as he interviews people and pulls publicity stunts, and he supports that with lots of cutaways to stock footage. All that's normal for Moore but this time he also has help from the animators of Comedy Central's South Park who contribute an animated sequence on the history of guns in America. It's hilariously oversimplified and yet the core of it is disturbingly close to how some white bread types must really think.
Moore's basic premise is that we have hyped ourselves into a state of fear, and lots of available guns combined with that constant fear make a deadly combination. As Bowling points out we seem to be willing to live with all the gun deaths because we keep telling ourselves it's all about self defense in a dangerous world. Instead the truth is that crime has been going down for years now. It's at record lows, but our irrational fears keep gun ownership rising to record highs.
Another fact that Moore keeps making about Columbine-type violence is that it's almost always done by White Americans, even though we have demonized others in the media. He doesn't try to psychoanalyze the shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, as much he tries to psychoanalyze the society that produced them. A politely paranoid society living in sanitized suburbs where many parents make nuclear missiles for the government. Moore doesn't answer why the shooters should be so angry in the middle of such affluence, but he does spend a lot of time on how the tools of destruction were in easy reach for them. One of the film's best moments comes when Michael takes two of the Columbine victims to K-Mart Headquarters. The survivors shame them about the sale of bullets so much that K-Mart promised to take them out of their stores.
The film also points out that Klebold and Harris had a connection to Michigan, home to Michael and more than a few gun-lovin' flywheels such as James Nichols, the brother of Terry Nichols, who helped Tim McVeigh blow up Oklahoma City. Moore interviews James in his house and it's enough to make you run screaming, especially when he shows Moore the loaded 44 under his pillow. Moore also interviews people in gun-lovin' Canada, several public officials and even Marilyn Manson, whose shock rock often gets blamed for youthful violence. Marilyn comes off as very intelligent even through his make-up. Best however is the interview with Charleton Heston, which takes place in the NRA President's home. Moore is an NRA member (he won a marksmanship contest when he was young) but he asks Heston some hard questions about a Michigan NRA Rally held the week after a school shooting by a six-year-old there. Heston's answer as to why we are so violent? It's because we are so "ethnically mixed" these days.
If you can't break that code then you need more than this film to wake you up.
Obviously this film is the NRA's worst nightmare. They are already trying to flood the internet with reviews saying that Moore is lying to us. Well, so far the film is only showing in New York and Los Angeles, how did all those guys in the heartland see it already? It's not Michael Moore who is lying.
This is an important film. I saw Bowling For Columbine a week ago and I'm still thinking about it every day, especially since we've got that Washington Sniper to deal with right now. By the end of this film you'll be ready to vote for gun control, or at least make bullets cost $5000 like Chris Rock says.
The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw it? Very much
Would I go see it again? Absolutely, even though it gives me nightmares.
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
DVD: Peter Gunn, Sets 1 & 2
A&E Home Video, 2 DVDs in each set
8 episodes on each DVD for a total of 32
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
A good fictional private eye has to have a very specific set of people and circumstances in place or it's just no good. At the risk of being sexist, let's assume our private dick is a man, because most of them are in the world of fiction (though thank God for the Miss Marples and the Julie Enfields out there). He needs a murky world to work in, a motley crew of informants willing to turn in their own grandmothers for a twenty, a buddy on the force, knockout power with either hand, a chin made of granite so other knockout artists need not apply, a gun, a run-down office, an air of coolness and a... er... dame to be with at the end of a hard night's work.
Then there's Peter Gunn. Craig Stevens, actually, but when the director said "ACTION!" he became Peter Gunn, Blake Edwards' private eye in a half-hour TV series that ran from 1958 to 1961. I've read the murky world in which he worked was LA, but it doesn't look like any part of LA I've ever so much as driven through. It feels more like small town America. Small, dark and foggy town, America. He has informants, but they're not street rats. No, brother, this is the beat era, and there are jazz clubs up and down the waterfront, one of which houses a cool cat with way out ways (read: total freak) named Wilbur. Wilbur gives Pete all kinds of info. The only problem is... who can understand what the guy just said? "Like daddio, I don't paint the picture, dig? I hip it to the way out so it can slip its bonds and just beeeee." Wilbur doesn't actually say that, but that's how he talks. Pete somehow gets useful information from this. Others slide up to Pete with information, too, knowing he'll slip 'em a dead president, only it ain't a twenty, daddio. See, Pete's the original cheap detective. He gives out fives for information.
It's a wonder he can get a phone number from the operator.
Instead of a run-down office, he has a so-so bar. It's called Mother's, and it has a swingin' band with a doll of a singer (who is, of course, Pete's girl). His visits with Edie (played by the very sexy Lola Albright) are short because Pete's always on a case, but they're usually filled with double-entendre dialogue that makes it pretty clear that this unmarried couple shall be doin' the nasty as soon as Pete solves the case. Really makes you wish the shows could be an hour long.
Pete's buddy on the force wasn't really what you'd call a "buddy." Lt. Jacoby (Herschel Bernardi) actually liked Pete, but he was just a little bit tired of chasing around the waterfront saving the guy's ass, which he did often, and usually at the very last second before Pete was gonna eat lead. Action was abundant in this show. It had to be. They didn't have time to develop a plot too deeply, so the murder usually happened in the first minute of the show. Some of them happen in the first 15 seconds! Then someone would show up at Mother's and drag Pete into the mess. He charged $1,000 at the low end (but still only gave out fivers for info... the cheap bastard!) and wore the same suit most of the time. What did Edie see in this guy? Maybe she just liked the way he looked at her as she sang at Mother's, fronting Henri Mancini's band, the same one that did the "Peter Gunn Theme" and ended up better remembered than this series. The series deserves to be remembered. For all its limitations, it is addicting, the characters are well drawn and fun to watch, and the action is exciting. The drag is that it's just not around the TV dial. There's a laserdisc out there, but not that many of us have players.
A&E has just released 2 volumes on DVD, each containing 2 discs with 8 episodes per for a total of 32 episodes. I had only seen Peter Gunn a few times before picking up these sets, and that was so long ago I didn't remember a thing. I became addicted in no time, as I had with A&E's box sets of The Saint, only with Peter Gunn it can be more serious. The Saint only had 3 episodes per disc. These have 8. You have to admit you're in trouble when you're still on the couch 5 or 6 episodes in. According to the backs of the boxes, these episodes are presented uncut and in original broadcast order. (Amazing how Jacoby is seriously wounded in a gun battle at the end of one episode and is just fine and dandy at the beginning of the next, but hey, that's Hollyweird, folks!) The sound quality changes from episode to episode, sometimes crystal clear, sometimes a bit hissy, and one or two times there was far too much treble. The picture transfer quality is something there has been much grumbling about on various chat boards and customer review sites, but I don't think they've looked at other black and white shows from the same era that are now on DVD, many of which are barely watchable. I suppose it's possible some problems might compound on a mega-buck video theater system with surround sound and the whole nine yards, but I don't have that. I'm just Joe Average Consumer with a decent TV and an average DVD player, and except for the hiss in one episode, I was never distracted from the shows by sound or picture issues. Even that distraction was soon gone. The brevity of the show keeps things popping so fast that there's always something happening to keep your mind on the show.
Fine by me. The whole thing - Pete's narrow escapes, Jacoby's deadpan comic relief, Mother's keen gift for observation, the cool vibraphone-led jazz and Edie's bedroom eyes - makes for one sweet distraction.
EXTRAS:
There's really only one extra. They give you a handful of short scenes to watch. At the end of a scene, you're quizzed on things a very observant person would have gleaned from the clip. You choose between four answers using the arrow keys on your remote. It's fun, but all too brief. The menu of episodes sits next to a full motion montage of clips and is accompanied by Mancini jazz music which is, of course, cool, baby, cool. That's about it. A history of the show would have been nice, even if only in text format, and hey, while we're placing our order for the next volumes, how about cast bios and trivia? Thank you.
(C) 2002 - DJ Johnson
MOVIE: Frida
Starring Selma Hayek, Alfred Molina,
Ashley Judd, Ed Norton, Geoffrey Rush
Directed By Julie Taymor
Music By Elliot Goldenthall
Screenplay By Rodrigo Garcia
Lions Gate Films
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
Frida Kahlo is not a well known artist in this country, but that is about to change. Maimed in early life in a bus accident, she had pain as a daily companion but she was able to rise above it and become one of the best painters of the last century. Her husband and the great love of her life, muralist Diego Rivera, is better known, and the film revolves around their tempestuous relationship but it also takes you back to a special time and place, Frida's Mexico. The film's real miracle though is the window it gives you into Frida's art itself.
Selma Hayek plays Frida. She is of course already known to film-goers for roles that mostly turn on her incredible good looks but she is about to change into a major star. She shows great range, playing Frida as a schoolgirl, in a body cast, singing, doing the tango, drinking, debating politics, having lesbian affairs, aging and outpainting her more famous husband. This isn't any pet-project fling, this is Oscar time, maybe all-time stuff.
Director Julie Taynor has been known in the art world for years for unusual and moving work. Her only feature movie up to this point, Titus, was a stunning update of Shakespeare. She is better known for her breath-taking stage production of the Lion King. Her film takes you to Mexico in the early 20th Century, a place not too many films have visited. The film is immersed in Mexican culture as strong as a stiff tequila, but more than that, there are beautifully surreal sequences throughout where live action melts into paintings, where she seems to have channeled Frida herself in making the visual imagery of the paintings come alive. Literally. Her status as a movie director is about to change also. Her name will be alongside Ridley Scott, Terry Gilliam, Baz Luhrman, Luc Beeson, the Coen brothers and other directors of unique artistic vision.
Also adding to the film are terrific performances by Alfred Molina as Rivera and Geoffrey Rush as Trotsky. Ashley Judd, Ed Norton and Antonio Banderas are not on the screen as long but they also contribute a weight and validity that make the story unforgettable. Underpinning the actors are the terrific sequences of traditional Mexican music. I expect the soundtrack CD to have an equivalent back-to-the-roots effect to O Brother Where Art Thou's.
This isn't just any artsy bio-pic, it's a tour-de-force. You could see a thousand Hollywood vehicles and not be moved as much as this film will move you. It's about love, art, pain, sex, life, death and what is needed to soar above it all. Frida is a triumph, start-to-finish; there is no other way to describe it. I can't imagine that it won't result in a Best Actress for Selma Hayek, Best Director for Julie Taynor and probably the Best Picture too, even without knowing what to expect for the rest of this year's films.
Incongruously, there were demonstrators in front of the theater the night I saw Frida, protesting that none of the lead roles in the movie were played by Mexicans. They behaved as if the fact that Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico was the only important thing about her life. To reply to their charges, the film reveals that her father was a German Jew, so why wasn't a half-Mexican Jewess used? (Should we limit Selma Hayek to half-Lebanese roles because of her heritage?) At least the film draws much of its power from the Mexican locations and is saturated in Mexican culture with Spanish spoken and sung liberally throughout. However, in a larger sense, all that doesn't really matter because this film was made by exactly the right people. It is a film about a great artist lovingly made by other great artists.
The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the film? Do I have to gush any more to show how glad I am? Would I go to see it again? Yes, I intend to see it several times on the big screen and when it comes out on video this one will hit the personal collection immediately.
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
AUDIO BOOK: The Mother Hunt
A Nero Wolfe Mystery [Unabridged]
Written by Rex Stout
Read by Michael Pritchard
Audio Editions Mystery Masters
4 cassettes tapes, 5 hrs., 50 min.
Reviewed by Louise Johnson
Michael Pritchard has recorded more than 350 audio books. He did an incredible job with this one. Genius detective Nero Wolfe's right-hand man, Archie Goodwin, has a distinct personality as narrator, and Pritchard nailed it. He clearly conveyed the characters and set the tone as four frustrated detectives and one genius struggled to find the answers to this puzzle: Who put this baby in this house? Who is the mother? And who is killing people every time they get close? I could feel the tension, hear the frustration. I listened to these in my car and I found myself driving extra so I could listen more. I sat in the driveway. Finally at the end I carried the tape in to the house to listen to the dénouement. What fun! I was pampered, too, always hearing chapters called out, and being told End of tape one side two. Please insert tape two side one. and End of tape two side one. Please turn this cassette over... Oh yeah. Tell me what to do, baby. I love it!
(C) 2002 - Louise Johnson
MOVIE: All The Queen's Men
Starring Matt LeBlanc, Eddie Izzard,
Edward Fox, Nicolette Krebbitz
Directed by Stephan Ruzowitzky
Screenplay by David Schneider
Atlantic Streamline Films
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
Imagine the old Richard Burton-Clint Eastwood vehicle, Where Eagles Dare, done as an action comedy. Now add in just a pinch of the Dirty Dozen. Now imagine the heroes all in drag like La Cage Aux Folles. What you end up with is All The Queen's Men.
Supposedly this is all based on a true story, but never has the word based been used so loosely. American Steven O'Rourke (LeBlanc) is a roguish OSS man who is sprung from military prison by the scheming Colonel Aitken (Fox), who orders him to take a team into Germany and steal an Enigma machine from a factory staffed only by women.
At least the Enigma was real enough. It was the main code system for the Germans in World War II, a small analog computer about the size of the typewriter; capturing one was also the subject of the movie U-571, where the truth was quickly sent to the bottom. Certainly the Allies' desire to capture one is perfectly historical too. Whether Enigmas were really made by women, perhaps only the History Channel knows for sure. In any case that's why our secret team is forced to don women's clothing deep inside Nazi Germany.
Three others are also forcibly recruited into O'Rourke's team. First there's Tony Parker (Izzard), an officer who is fluent in both German and flamboyant dresses. O'Rourke recoils but realizes that at least Aitken chose someone proficient to train the rest of the team in women's manners. The third and fourth members of the team are a bookish code breaker, Johnno (David Birkin) and an older desk sergeant, Archie (Bravehart's James Cosmo). Aitken's final ploy to muck things up is to put Archie in command instead of O'Rourke.
This British production is laugh-out-loud funny, yet to his credit, Director Stephan Ruzowitzky portrays the danger as very real. For example it shows Allied bombers mercilessly pounding areas of Berlin and you immediately feel sympathy for the civilians caught in harm's way. Likewise the team is only able to fool the Nazis for a little while. He also plays the story straight in other ways; that is to say, believably gay. Izzard's Tony is wonderful. Part of the story is about his trying to find his boyfriend who was trapped there in Berlin. When they finally meet and kiss, yeah, that's a serious kiss! But that's not the only love interest. The team's contact turns out to be a very matter-of-fact German woman, Romy (Nichole Krebbitz) who takes an interest in the hunky O'Rourke. In a tough kind of way, Krebbitz turns in a very appealing performance and I'm certain we haven't seen the last of her.
All The Queen's Men is not Monty Python slapstick, but when it's funny it's very funny indeed and whatever liberties the film takes with history are easily forgiven. And speaking of history, the last ten minutes is practically film history--an homage to the ending of Where Eagles Dare, right down to the Junkers Ju-52 Tri-Motor, but thankfully without any Eastwood sneers.
The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the film? Yes
Would I go to see it again? Sure, Izzard singing "Deutschland Uber Alles" in drag is timeless.
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
BOOK: The Music Lover's Guide To Record Collecting
Written by Dave Thompson
Backbeat Books; 324 pages, soft cover
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
It's interesting that in his introduction to this book, Dave Thompson is very clear in stating that this is not for beginning record collectors, because I'm not really a "record collector" in terms of knowing what I'm doing, what to look for and what to avoid, but I found The Music Lover's Guide To Record Collecting extremely enlightening and helpful. Yes, I have some collectible records. No, I didn't know they would become collectible when I bought them. I bought them because I liked them. What the hell kind of record collector does a thing like that?
According to Thompson, that's exactly what you should do. Buy what you like and then go from there. His book offers just the right amount of information on several subjects without burying you in collector-speak. There are almost no price quotes because the market has changed three times since I said "because the market has changed..." and Thompson has too much integrity to dazzle us with false numbers. The vast majority of the book contains blurbs on pop and rock labels and tells us what have become prime collectibles and why. There are also 200 top-10 lists revealing an artist's most collectible recordings. Without itching to spend a single penny on a record (well, okay, maybe I want to buy a few now), I was able to get a great deal of enjoyment and knowledge from the segments about the labels. Even labels I know a lot about have secrets when it comes to collectibles. Apple, for instance. I'm expecting a long list of Badfinger records, but they're not even in the Non-Beatle top 10! I'd never HEARD of some of the ones who were. Brute Force? John Tavener? Thompson goes deeper than top ten lists, though, giving capsule histories for each label and reminding us how good it was when pop music was diverse because there were more than five labels out there sending songs onto the top 40.
Also of great help to the beginner (yes, Mr. Thompson, the beginner needs this information too) is the series of overviews on various formats. Thompson covers everything from the 45 RPM record (the most commonly collected format) to the 78 RPR and all other speeds and sizes, to 8-track, 4-track and 2-track tapes, cassettes, CDs, Pocket Rockets, FlexiDiscs and more, including a non-preachy discussion of the value and possible future of MP3s. I have to tell you, if you're like me when it comes to wanting to learn as much as you can about music, this is a great read. Easy to digest, written in a familiar, easy-going style, and constructed in such a way that even the busiest exec can read it in short segments and still get a lot out of it. What more do you want, except prices, and if you really want that use the Internet. It's like the freakin' Dow Jones. You need a ticker on your task bar, man.
(C) 2002 - DJ Johnson
MOVIE: Ottawa International Animation Festival
October 2 - 6, 2002
Reviewed by John Sekerka
Remember that bug-eyed adrenaline state after coming off several action packed hours of zap, bang and zoom cartoons, fuelled by the wicked concoction of Sugar Puffs? Thought so. Grow up already! Or, maybe not.
For years everyone involved with North America's largest animation festival has been insisting that animation is not just for kids. What a smoke screen. Sure, so called adult animation deals with adult topics, may contain adult style violence, sometimes digs into adult style sex, and offers adult style humour, but face it, anyone who digs animation is really a kid at heart. And this year, the little tykes got their own Saturday morning competition. Hey kids love cartoons, everything from surreal YTV clips, to the outrageous SpongeBob SquarePants. And don't tell me the parents aren't looking in. Besides gathering en family masse Saturday morning, the new age group dynamic got a chance to share "The Powerpuff Girls Movie" and "Rolie Polie Olie: The Great Defender of Fun" in the feature film competition. Though Richard Linklater's much ballyhooed "Waking Life" took that prize, it was Bill Plympton who stole the show with a personal appearance for his mind-blowing "Mutant Aliens" opus - a sexy, gory, fairy tale of space exploration, greed and love.
Such trend setting work used to be a labour of penniless love, but now there are various markets (specialty TV, VHS/DVD, Europe) opening up, and animators can actually make a decent living at this stuff. Nothing like meeting the guy in charge, especially when he readily opens up to reveal his animation process (painstaking drawing, no computers), his daily routine, and offers funny but poignant advice to budding sketchers who eagerly ate it up. He also gave out cool prizes.
Four days of feverish screen gazing is enough to satiate most animation hounds, and this year's fest proved just how far the industry, long considered a fringe prospect at best, has come. From Saturday morning cartoons to prime time television to music videos to commercials to feature length films, animation, with the help of computer technology and a demanding audience, has morphed into a major industry. And all aspects are on display at the fest. It really is almost too much to take in, and too much to write about, so here's some hi-lights from the prize winners:
Taking the narrative film category, Christopher Hinton's "Flux" (Canada) showed a witty Ralph Steadman style sketch flow to life. The power of the pen and ink shines through in this brilliant story loop that brings a wonderful rhythm to the story line.
Rene Rivera Castillo took the honours for first film with his engrossing claymation piece. A meticulous film bathed in dark blues, blood reds and skeleton whites, "Hasta Los Huesos" (Mexico) is a gripping flamenco dance of death - perfect suited to precede a David Lynch feature. Proving that sometimes simplicity is the best weapon, Igor Lazin took home most of the applause and several prizes for his bezerk ditty "The Little Cow" (Hungary). The yellow cow swings on a tree branch and shrieks out a melody, gently at first, then faster, then faster, building to a frantic finish. No big message, no fancy animation, just plain fun.
The clever satire "Leunig: How Democracy Works" (Australia) by Andrew Horne took home the Television Series award. A short one minute piece that summarizes the voting process, from ballot, to truck, to furnace, to light bulb in the government building washroom. Brilliant.
It is inspired moments like these that are possible only in the crazy, wonderful world animation. Th... Th... Th... That's all folks.
(C) 2002 - John Sekerka
DVD: The Men Who Killed Kennedy
A & E Home Video; 2 discs, 300 min.
Reviewed by René Gade
Once upon a time in a land called Camelot there was a charismatic man who (in the prime of his life) became king. The world lay before him. In Camelot there was also another, younger, man, who at times wandered to lands afar like a jester seeking the favor of foreign courts. This young man lived for a brief time in a busy village of Camelot known for it's herdsmen and butchers, good wells and slick folks of a refined oil. One day the paths of these two men crossed when the king came to visit the busy village on business of the realm. It was a day of mystery and foreboding, for it was forecast that the king's life was at risk and before the day was done lo! The king lay dead in his carriage. As it was his habit to sulk about the edges of crowds and great events while acting suspiciously, the blame quickly fell on the young traveler. He was captured near another murder scene where a constable fell shortly after the king was killed and both deaths were laid at the young wanderer's well traveled feet. This busy Camelotean village of refined folk lay in a province known for it's law and order and a grand trial was anticipated. But before the law could run it's due process an outraged innkeeper somehow passed the prison guards and slipped himself concealed among the sad constables who, when charged with moving the young accused to a more secure dungeon, instead became witnesses to the young man's death when this simple innkeeper savagely slew him in free view of all. Ostensibly the innkeeper did this act to save the broken queen the burden of having to return to his fell village for a trial. The new regent had concerns that he, or those in his court, might somehow be linked to the horrific busy events in the humble village where the charismatic king fell. This was with cause, as the new regent hailed from this province where tragedy had struck and law had fell into such disorder. With the people of Camelot bewildered and reeling from the quick pace of events and clamoring to know just what exactly had befallen their great nation and dead king, the new regent appointed the Earl of Warren to ascertain the facts of the murders so as to dispel rumors that the innkeeper courted help or that the king's death was the act of a lone jealous jester...
The DVD set The Men Who Killed Kennedy is six hours of interesting material relating to the fall of Camelot and the main gambit of issues relating to Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby and the untimely death of American innocence. The six hours presented focus on some (but by no means all) aspects of the case that clearly point to conspiracy. As this is a British production there is at times a decidedly unusual twist to this classic American tale, and certain parts have a "Day of the Jackal" feel. Most of the material isn't directly supportive of only one hypothesis for what actually happened in Dallas on the weekend of November 21st 1963. But the production in the end makes a case involving US Government agencies and the Mafia hiring the "men who killed Kennedy" who turn out to be European foreign nationals working for (or with) Cubans, the mob and right wing sympathizers. In the final analysis the main hypothesis isn't all that compelling over other theories involving the assassination but it is at least plausible. What makes this production such a treat are the interviews of people giving first hand accounts of what they saw or heard in Dallas and elsewhere in regards to Oswald or the assassination.
[Pictured: Earl Warren]
The Warren Commission painted many of these folks as unreliable witnesses, and some even as outright crazy. To see and hear Oswald's mother relating her belief that her dead son was an American hero working on behalf of American intelligence gives one pause as to what the truth is. Likewise for Ruth Paine who allowed Marina Oswald and her young children to stay with her while Lee Harvey was off busy incriminating himself. Jack (Girls! Girls! Girls!) Ruby comes to life doing his despicable deed on national TV, and again to tell the world that there is more to this tale to tell, but (too bad Earl) he isn't free to tell it in a Dallas jail. I wish there had been more time given to the photographic and documents in evidence, which get very compelling for some version of conspiracy, but the show only had six hours to run and the producers needed time to set up their investigative hypothesis. The image and sound quality of the three part series was fine and one wishes (if it can be conceived) that it could have been longer. I would say that the DVD format was friendly to the material as direct access was possible when one wanted to refresh oneself on something in another section of the series. There were holes aplenty in this investigation, but they seem nowhere as malicious and placed with guile, as compared to the holes found in the Warren Report and John Connelly. For myself, some of the best testimony was from the doctors involved in Dallas and medical staff in Washington, but you be the judge.
[Pictured: James Hosty]
The spooks are probably getting wiser all the time and gaining more power, so one must take anything regarding the assassination with a grain of salt, including this set. But I think one will find the series well worth the time to view and most enlightening and entertaining. James Hosty can't burn this series, but I'm sure if he thought about it in retrospect he wouldn't have consented to his interview. Hosty claimed that "a cover up, if it existed at all, was benign." He would have people believe that his act in burning evidence upon Oswald's death (at the behest of his superior) wasn't illegal because there would be no trial, so that the evidence in question was technically no longer really evidence. How the heck during that awful time could a minion of the FBI know that others weren't complicit, and that there would be no trial(s)? After all Oswald the patsy didn't confess, and who to this day can divine Ruby's true motives other than his accomplices? A benign cover up doesn't last 40 years... The truth lasts even a little less, but even unintended in a brief interview it shines. There are many shining moments of truth in this well produced DVD set, but like all vehicles, it is subject to derailment with thoughtless operation in the rain.
Like all good documentaries this DVD set is thought provoking: How could Rightwing sympathizers, Cubans and the Mafia, all bent on the overthrow of Fidel Castro, kill the American President instead and then cover it up, and be too ineffectual to harm a whisker on Fidel's mug? Why was the Warren Report (using any bias you like) put out in such an internally self-contradictory fashion that it begs so many questions? Where has most of the media been these last decades! It is claimed in recent newsprint articles that our government has image enhancement technology which can read what I am writing on my computer from reflections off my wall though a nearby window, kind of like what Harrison Ford uses in the movie Blade Runner. One day soon the hypothesis of The Men Who Killed Kennedy, and other theories, may be tested on the reflections of a long black limousine with shiny hubcaps. The men who killed Kennedy may be women, who work for cronies of Jack Ruby, and are wearing funky headgear and pointing objects at JFK which later disappear, or the killers may be incredible snipers hiding in manholes, Secret Service imposters or a lonely and misunderstood young man who (maybe in some sick jest) went one step too far toward the window ledge of a tall building and fell into history. Surely the answer will be no more outlandish to the critical mind than that presented by the producers of this DVD set or (begging your pardon Mr. Ford) the Warren Commission.
EXTRAS: A&E has included a timeline of events, scans of documents and, for those with the stomach for it, autopsy photos, which are not very pretty but are of great interest to anyone who wants to stop being spoon-fed "knowledge" and do a little research for themselves. It's not enough to crack the case, but it's enough to reinforce your opinion of the Warren Report. Assuming your opinion is that it was BS, that is.
(C) 2002 - René Gade
MOVIE: Secretary
Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal,
James Spader and Leslie-Ann Warren
Directed by Steven Shainberg
Written by Erin Wilson
Lions Gate Films
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
Secretary is one of the most unusual romance stories you'll ever encounter and it's one you'll not forget. Maggie Gyllenhaal submerges herself completely into the role of Lee Holloway.
Lee is a mousy young woman who has just come back to live with her mother (Warren) after completing treatment for a mental disorder. Basically she's been hurting herself to forget the drab existence she's stuck in. She likes pain. Even though the doctors released her, she's teetering on the edge of a full relapse when she has an interview for a secretary job with the handsome but disconcerting Mr. Grey.
James Spader as Mr. Grey seems at home in his role. In a way he's almost back where he started in Sex, Lies And Videotape, except that here he's more in control, a lawyer with a set of obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Mr. Grey likes things just so. No, more than that, he wants things precisely his way. For example, he insists that his secretaries use an old IBM Selectric typewriter instead of a word processor and then circles all their typos with a red sharpie and demands each letter be re-typed error free. Grey's burned out more than a few secretaries but Lee, who fortunately is a heck of a typist, decides she's up to the challenge. So begins an oddly well-matched relationship. As time goes on she finds she likes taking his orders, no matter how strange. And they do get very strange.
Some may see this movie only in terms of glorifying sado-masochism, but the kinky sex aspect of the movie is handled very tastefully, if you can imagine such a thing. Actually there really isn't much sex per se; there is tension because of it, but Secretary's mostly about these two finding a certain kind of off-beat harmony together as boss and secretary and more. I wouldn't recommend this lifestyle for everyone, but they both realize it's right for them after they come to terms with each other.
Steven Shainberg's direction is very economical and he does a great job capturing delicate emotional nuances that many directors would botch. The best thing about the movie though is Maggie Gyllenhaal, who just shines. Her transformation in the character of Lee is truly memorable.
The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the film? Yes
Would I go to see it again? Definitely
(C) 2002 - Rusty Pipes
MOVIE: Grave Of The Fireflies
Director, Screenplay: Isao Takahata
Central Park Media; 88 min.
Reviewed by Erick Mertz
The most affecting war films touch their audiences beyond the arena of combat, where the more subtle emotional tugs are drawn from innocent victims. This takes nothing from the taut cinematic realism of Saving Private Ryan or the more encompassing The Longest Day, but most often the more identifiable victim is the one struggling to pick up the pieces than the one who has picked up the gun.
Grave of The Fireflies is just such a film that moves beyond combat. Taking place in a war torn Japan, the story follows two orphaned children from the initial fire bombing of their town as they scrape a bare existence from the rubble. Seta and his tiny, chronically ill sister Setsuko careen from a makeshift hospital to a callous family member before finally taking refuge in an abandoned shelter near a lake. They steal food, bargain with con men, but persevere. Once in the quiet country, brother and sister manage to cobble together a hand to mouth existence and, borrowing from each others' strength, unite as one. With the horrors of Allied firebombing all around them, Seta and Setsuko resist as an army of two. Grave of The Fireflies isn't concerned with pointing fingers or re-writing the rights and wrongs of history; it grasps a relatable humanism and explores it.
What sets Grave of The Fireflies apart from other truly affecting war films is its anime presence. Made popular by such classics as "Akira "and "Sailor Moon," anime has long remained in the closet, surviving as a ravenous cult phenomenon, rarely, if ever, crossing into the contemporary cinematic radar. Acolytes and devotees of the genre might be comfortable with the insular nature of it, but with the presence of such work as Grave of The Fireflies, a work truly worthy of becoming a crossover classic is in place. Present isn't just a great animated film - it is an uncommon piece of story telling.
EXTRAS:
The extras on Grave of The Fireflies are absolutely outstanding and are more than a series of toss-ins. Containing an extra disc, the package goes beyond interviews and trailers into innovative DVD technology. While watching the feature the viewer is given to option of alternate angle story boards. The unique feature is available throughout the entire film and runs through over 2700 original story boards. Although it is inconceivable to watch the entire film through these boards, they provide insight into the artist's original vision of form and movement. Switching back and forth between the rudimentary and finished products is a fun rare look at an almost unseen side of animation.
(C) 2002 - Erick Mertz