Mickey Rooney is terrific in Boys Town!!!

This is a well-known classic, and deservedly so. The subject is one of the highest social importance, and it's needless to say that is as relevant today as it was then; but my point is, the directing work is great: there's no "sentimental garbage" about the treatment of the homeless kids issue, unlike one of the characters points at regarding Father Flanagan's (Spencer Tracy) enterprise. The film remarks the honesty with which the seemingly utopian idea of such a community -- a true town of little men -- comes to life, and identifies with it all the way.

Tracy plays Flanagan, the moral center, as a deeply charismatic man. His acting is actually reacting; the great actor's best features as a human being are on display when the camera just focuses in his eyes. On the other hand, there is Mickey Rooney's antics as Whitey Marsh: bold gestures and speeches, all in the most histrionic fashion. However, what on the paper might look bad (or dated, for a better word), it turns out to be the key performance of the movie. Whitey is a comic and almost tragic figure at the same time. He looks up to his elder brother, who is a hoodlum, and so smokes cigars and dresses as a 12-year-old grown-up. And he is protecting himself from others, in this tough-kid disguise, for he really is a damaged, vulnerable, sensitive boy. At first, he is cocky and thoroughly arrogant, like a shorter version of James Cagney. Rooney seems to have had also the same kind of energy and electricity. As a matter of fact, he infuses these elements into Boys Town, yet improving upon its smoothly delivered pace and finely orchestrated melodramatic moments. Rooney's not only is a scene-stealer role, but a dramatic work that is real, timeless and epiphanic.

RIP Mickey Rooney (1920-2014)

Rough Draft: The Dirk Diggler Story (1988)

This amateurish production was the first work of Boogie Nights and Magnolia's director P.T. Anderson. Boogie Nights discovered his undeniable skill for cross-over, interweaving dramatic narrative, while Anderson's attachment to each of his ever lonely and singularly moving characters was perfected and even dared to take a more in-depth look into their existentially-challenged lives within the equally epic frame of the lyrical Magnolia.

Kind of a homage to the all too brief "golden age" of '70s porn cinema, the large scaled and somewhat overblown melodrama that Boogie Nights effortlessly made the audiences care for was first rehearsed in the half hour-long Dirk Diggler Story. Exclusive focus on the main character, his rise and fall, is a major difference between the two versions; we are supposed to catch a glimpse of the real human being behind the big star mostly through interviews with the recently deceased Dirk's close friends and collaborators, who are basically the same people in the 1997 film, and flashback images. Anderson's inventively makes it up for the lack of any actual production values, taking advantage on the obvious limitations in the making of the short feature to give it the appearance of a false documentary or rather a home-made movie, both of which types are some of the most recognisable traits in the video-based adult industry style. 

Also, Anderson's sense of humour, his wit and his powers of persuasion as a storyteller are already here in a way; still not enough in order to relating this title to the misfits odyssey of Boogie Nights without embarrassing afterthoughts. Its significance lies in the context that has its writer and director as one of the most promising figures of American cinema since 1996.

Lee Strasberg

He and protégé Al Pacino appeared together in two films: The Godfather: Part II (1974) and ...And Justice for All (1979)

Famed acting teacher Lee Strassberg was born in Budzanov, Austria-Hungary (now Budanov, Ukraine). Brought to America as a child, he had a brief acting career, before becoming one of the founders of the Group Theatre in 1931, directing a number of plays there. His greatest influence, however, was through the Actors Studio, where he became director in 1950. A proponent of Method acting, which he adapted from the System brought to America by Konstantin Stanislavski's disciple --and Marlon Brando's mentor-- Stella Adler, he influenced several generations of actors, from Jimmy Dean to Dustin Hoffman. Film audiences would know him best as gangster Hyman Roth in The Godfather: Part II.

Some musings regarding Atonement (2007)

Atonement reminds me of that masterpiece of a movie called Blow Up, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. As in Blow Up, in Atonement we have this dynamic between reality and fiction, which is the most haunting thing about them. In Blow Up (based on one of the best short stories you would read, Julio Cortazar's "Las babas del Diablo"), a fashion photographer happens to discover a crime while taking pictures in a park --or that's what he thinks up until the amazingly ironic, metafiction-related end.

Fiction exists to complete reality, to make justice and give us --the readers, the viewers-- freedom (and not only for the duration of the movie). Appearances have a reality of their own whenever you think of how different they can get from every different person that approaches the same object/subject. It's like all those female teens who read Twilight, and then, out of the many smart ones who didn't dig the screen adaptation at all, they are still so different from each other because at the end it's not about the outside reality --not even of a novel or a flick--, but about who they are as individuals. And that affects everything we touch with our minds. The subjectivity in regards to fiction and the "real" world is the central theme to Atonement, and it is just fascinating to reckon.

requiem

Is it any worthy approaching women I don’t like just because there are no approachable beautiful women at all in this city (or that’s what it seems to be happening for ages here)? Is it any worthy just to approach for the very sake of approaching, when it actually truthfully feels like an awfully hopeless warm-up to the nothingness of it all? Am I a Buñuel born a whole century before cinema was invented, the double of Casanova that proves Raskolnikov’s theory of two Napoleons: one the superman and the other just his mere useless excuse for a shadow?

Beauty is life, not a lie, and I’m so tired of breathing. I never even did that right.

P.S. Chelsea: you were my only muse, my only wish. Remember me. It was worthy.

P.P.S. I leave all my money to my mother, Rosa, and all my books to my sister Jackeline.

~Christian D.

Editor’s Note: These are the last words still known to have been said by the man who hanged himself at the corner of *** and *** Street, in this city with a very forgettable name. In our newspaper’s case, we endorse the opinion that a soul seemingly as sensitive as his couldn’t survive the dreadful atmosphere created by the competition and their utterly unfair advantage over our much better sense of journalism any longer. We salute this man of our time, this lost samurai, this Quixote who betrayed himself and fell, his own Judas and savior. Rest in peace, at last away from the paranoia of all the security guards and the angry boyfriends of the very few and very gorgeous ladies you were able to know in your wasted existence, away from the so cruelly ugly women you couldn’t touch with a mile-stick and yet did with your idealistic imagination and compassion --a holy fool’s tragic soberness. Kudos, (high-fives), hats off to your doing of the things we guys everywhere usually can only dream of doing when we have the fine taste of even thinking about it --and no, I’m not talking of your approaches done out of existential defiance, let alone the ones that occurred out of your metaphysical, almost divine desperation. It’s game over, but you were a real artist, and your legacy will live on wherever and whenever beauty and women go together. (H.H.)

June 2, 2012

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD CHALLENGE

01- Five films you’d pick as the TCM Guest Programmer
Viva Zapata! (Elia Kazan, 1952)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
The Philadelphia Story (George Cuckor, 1940)
The Public Enemy (William A. Wellman, 1931)
Baby Face (Alfred E. Green, 1933)
  
 02- Film that got you interested in Old Hollywood
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) and From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953)
  
 03- Favorite Actor
Marlon Brando 

04- Favorite Actress
Greta Garbo
  
05- Actor or Actress you think is underrated
Debbie Reynolds

06- Favorite movie from your favorite Actor
A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951)
  
07- Favorite movie from your favorite Actress
Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, 1939) 

08- Favorite Old Hollywood couple
Cary Grant & Randolph Scott 

09- Old Hollywood stars you wish had worked together
Peter Lorre & Lillian Gish
  
10- Favorite movie
Out of the Past (Jacques Torneur, 1947)
  
11- Team Bette or Team Joan
Team Joan 

12- Favorite Barrymore
Ethel 

13- Classic movie you just couldn’t get into
Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954)
  
14- A legend everyone appreciates, but you can’t personally stand
Currently, Dolores del Río
  
15- An Actor or Actress you’ve been meaning to give a chance, but haven’t gotten around to it yet
George Raft --Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932) and Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959) aside
  
16- Favorite director
Elia Kazan 

17- Favorite line from a film
"This is Eddie Bartlett. He used to be a big shot."
  
18- Actor or Actress who should have won an Oscar
Anthony Perkins 

19- Who’d you like to party it up with in the afterlife
Jean Harlow 

20- Favorite Silent film star
Lon Chaney 

21- Old Hollywood couple you’d watch a sex tape of
Next! xD
  
22- If you could go back in time and trade places with an Old Hollywood star, who would it be
Fred Astaire

23- A film you think is underrated
Vengeance Valley (Richard Thorpe, 1951) 

24- Favorite film from Hollywood’s greatest year, 1939
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra) 

25- Which character from a film do you fantasize about being
Van Heflin as David Sutton from Possessed (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947)
  
26- Which unsolved scandal would you most like the answer to
Robert Wagner's freedom 

27- Who’s death hit you the hardest and why
Brando's. I must be his biggest fan. 

28- A movie you never expected yourself to enjoy
Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953)
  
29- Who’s private lifestyle shocked you the most
Rin Tin Tin 

30- Which 5 Old Hollywood stars would you invite to dinner
Charlie Chaplin
Maureen O'Sullivan
Joan Blondell
James Cagney
Natalie Wood

Year of the Dragon Movie Poster

This poster conveys so much of the Cimino/Rourke classic it represents with so little, with so precise and bold simplicity. Much, much, much more than the tagline (rather cliche), it is the image (from the climactic scene, and the Chinese letters) which made this poster a memorable one.

The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

A nonfiction novel by Neil Strauss --Style, one of the most conspicuous members of the seduction community--, The Game documents his own transformation and the evolution of an ineffable subculture with undeniable gusto and style (no pun intended).

Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human

Now, this is one to read, and read, and read, ...and read again. However, not only does Harold Bloom provide a central piece for analysing the Bard; he also makes so compelling a case for criticism --of any sort, ultimately-- to be regarded as a true art form in itself, that you feel like appreciating Pauline Kael, Norman Mailer's A Transit to Narcissus and anything Guillermo Cabrera Infante again, even if those are but literary works about cinema.

Love Story

As a matter of fact, Erich Segal's Love Story was better than I thought. Simple, lively and blue, just like the story it tells. Recommended.

The Da Vinci Code

A symbolism-ridden plot and a rather unimaginative but serviceable enough structure make for a suspenseful thriller --and a worldwide best-seller phenomenon.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

Albert Camus wrote his masterpiece The Stranger because he read this novel: one of the most influential, criminally underrated works of literature.

Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties

My favorite book on music yet. Arguably the most concise and, nevertheless, scholarly essay about the Fab Four, this critical account is a guaranteed pleasure for any serious (pop) music lover.

Los jefes - Los cachorros

Los jefes (1959) is a selection of short stories of varying quality that is worth reading, mainly to find the origins of Vargas Llosa as one of the great novelists of the second half of the last century.

Los cachorros (1967) is a short novel or novella written at the peak of his powers, when the author was already a proven master of the genre. It works almost as a capsule containing many of the stylistic techniques he became famous for, but taking them to a level all of its own. It is another fine example of his craft.

The Birds and Other Stories

I remember reading the original short story by Daphne du Maurier before ever watching Hitchcock's The Birds, and thinking how well written it was: concise, tight, packing a punch all in all. There was/is "Monte Verità" in the same tome, and this particular story fascinated me; unlike "The Birds", it's more like a novella, filled with mysterious details and displaying a haunting personality from the get-go.

Marlon Brando: The Only Contender

This critical biography of the great(est) actor is very well written and satisfactory. Unlike other books on Brando --including his own memoirs--, Gary Carey succeeds in realizing a pretty unique assessment of his genial work in the simplest of lines. A must-read!

Lo que Varguitas no dijo

This is a book of undeniable interest, written by the first wife of Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the great novelists of the past century and the 2010 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. It is an account of the profoundly sad, tragic love of a woman who still is the unsung heroine behind Vargas Llosa's early success and claim to glory. That woman, Julia Urquidi, was immortalized in Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter; but after finishing her memoir the reader will get away with a far better knowledge of her as a human being --a victim of the romantic dynamics that happen in the unfair real reality, as opposed to the ideal nature of the bleakest of fictions.

El túnel

 I believe in the saying that goes along the lines of "books actively look for their readers". The first time I came across this novella I didn't quite know what to do with it. However, the true time for me to read it was obviously now: I needed the experience, the intense albeit brief journey into the mind of a painter who killed the love of his life, now. It's both illuminating and terrifying. No wonder Camus championed Sabato (himself a painter) after this --published in 1948--, the Argentinian's first of just three novels.

From Thomas Mann to Luchino Visconti: from Tadzio to Björn

Swedish actor Björn Andresen (right) and Italian director and screenwriter Luchino Visconti (left) on the set of Visconti's movie Morte a Venezia

My present comment regarding Alla ricerca di Tadzio (TV 1970) is not an opinion on Morte a Venezia, the 1970 film version of Mann's novella Der Tod in Venedig, yet it is an inevitable reflection of my thoughts about the circumstances of its translation to the screen.

Directed by Visconti himself, this short feature offers an insightful look at the arduous process he had to go through to cast the child actor for the pivotal, most significant part in the movie: that of Tadzio, the tangible ideal of beauty in the eyes of egregious literary artist Gustav von Aschenbach. As the filmmaker admits it in the documentary, he was to leave untouched the character of Tadzio even though he had changed Aschenbach into a music composer, what made for a better use of cinematic language and was ironically closer to Mann's original conception, nurtured from the figure of renowned classical musician Gustav Mahler. However, Visconti did transform, cinematic wise too, the original Tadzio. He had to: he met Björn Andresen.

Andresen was 14, 15 years old at the time, and much tall; but he was also androgynous, and his incredible Renacentist beauty was what get him the role. Mann's Tadzio is a 12-year-old boy of quite naive and plain nature in comparison. Visconti got it right, ultimately; I don't know how he wanted to do his film with a perfect replica of the character when he had already an Aschenbach composer, not writer, in mind. And these weren't to be the last licenses he was to take concerning the scenario and the themes from the original source (but that could be the stuff of a review for the actual full-length film).

Alla ricerca di Tadzio lets us be with Visconti in Poland, Finland, Italy, searching for Tadzio even after the unmatched Björn had already made his impressive appearance; the footage focusing strictly on his casting is priceless. There is also a limited yet somehow more straight, raw view of Mann's Venice than that in Visconti's feature film, something that may be regrettable to a certain point, given the director's roots in the documentary genre and the Neorealist movement are somehow missing in there but definitely, albeit briefly, in evidence here. Images of the aging Visconti being interviewed, on the locations, practically almost making his picture mentally before us, all throughout punctuated by passages from the novella underlying the choices he would eventually make, for better and for worst. Nonetheless, as Morte a Venezia remains a moving film on its own -- even if it is only a partially successful take on Mann's work --, this thirty-minute documentary proved to be a fascinating watching experience.

Sex and death

Sleeper (1973), an early masterpiece by the author of Manhattan, shows he is a physical comedian, though his verbal wit is already here. It co-stars Diane Keaton, fresh from The Godfather. Actually, her Brando impersonation is priceless.

Maybe less philosophic than in his more talkative films, Woody Allen is at his clownish best in the story of a New Yorker who is awoken two hundred years in the future. Zelig, for instance, is not that cleverly comic.

Look forward to Allen's and Keaton's characters passing and being mistaken for doctors before a HAL 9000 look-alike. Just hilarious.