Well, dear readers, things are hectic, things are crazy, with books to finish editing, preproduction almost upon us, and the benefit coming up in mere weeks. Casting the benefit has been most difficult, because there is another event happening the same evening, one of the endless series of Broadway events that seems to happen every three or four days. So, many of the people I’ve asked are already involved in the other show. However, we mush ahead and by the end of the week we should have a complete cast to announce to you, along with the information on how to get your tickets. Remember, we are putting aside a block of seats for Hainsies/Kimlets.
Last night I watched two count them two actual motion pictures. First I watched Auto Focus, the story of actor Bob Crane. I had a lot of interest to see the film but as usual with films like this, it was a big disappointment. I have never been a fan of Mr. Paul Schrader as a director and this film does nothing to change my opinion. Greg Kinnear is fine as Bob Crane, but it’s just a bunch of scenes strung together – we never really learn anything other than surface details, therefore we can never really feel anything or know anything. It just goes along (mercifully, it isn’t overlong), and then the ending arrives (which, of course, we already know), and then it’s over. One device the screenwriter uses is having Mr. Kinnear narrate the film (the same device as Sunset Blvd. if you get my meaning) – but unlike Sunset Blvd. here it serves no purpose at all. It’s just a device and nothing more.
Then I watched Unfaithful, starring Mr. Richard Gere and Diane Lane. My goodness, Miss Diane Lane has grown up since A Little Romance, hasn’t she? In any case, Unfaithful is a real Adrian Lyne film – it reeks of Adrian Lyne, and I will admit it had a certain charm for me because of it. I mean, one can always count on Mr. Lyne to deliver a film in which people go at sex as if they were pit bulls, in every position and location, sweat pouring from them as they steamily go about their randy business. Unfaithful is a remake of Mr. Claude Chabrol’s La Femme Infidele (or is it just “inspired by”) – it does hold your interest and Miss Lane is very good in her randy performance. It’s unintentionally amusing when at one point Mr. Gere says, “I have to go to Chicago” and he gives Miss Lane a snow globe that plays My Kind of Town (Chicago is).
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Quick, Watson, the Unseemly Button.
How can it already be Wednesday? It was just Sunday and now it’s Wednesday. These days are just going to fast. I haven’t even had time to pick up the new DVD releases, which include one of my favorite 60s films (which I, of course, forgot to put on my list), A Patch of Blue, along with Mr. Chaplin’s last film, A Countess from Hong Kong, and several Doris Day films.
Tonight, Mr. David Wechter is coming over and we’re going to adjust our benefit concert script for our new cast – we’ve cut some things to tighten the show a bit because despite our best intentions in LA, the show still ran two-hours and twenty-five minutes. We hope we’ve got it down to two-ten now.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, quick, Watson, the day, I must drive about like a golfer gone amok, I must make lots and lots of phone calls and whatnot. Quick Watson, today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask your excellent questions. So, ask anything you like, hold nothing back, and I will answer to the best of my abilities. Quick Watson, the posts – lots and lots of posts.