Well, dear readers, we had a lively and sparkling chat last night. It was quite festive and there were many interesting things spoken about. After it was over, I had to leave and go to a DVD store to pick up a DVD to do a spot of research with. You see, a friend of mine is working on the transfer of What’s Up, Tiger Lily, which is the Japanese film that Woody Allen took and dubbed with his own soundtrack. This film has been shown quite a bit on cable TV in recent years and there has been some controversy about it. The controversy arises from the fact that what they’re showing does not reflect Mr. Allen’s original dub. There are quite a few instances of changed dialogue, and never for the better, never as funny. Luckily, as my friend was telling me about the transfer I remembered this, and I found the Usenet postings about it, one of which went into detail about each and every line change. She checked the transfer and by gum and by golly it’s this new dub they’ve been given. She has taken all this information and given it to the higher-ups so they can do what needs to be done, if possible. My feeling is this: That at some point, What’s Up, Tiger Lily fell into the public domain and in order to have a version that could be copyrighted, they made these changes. I don’t know that for a fact, of course, but it’s a scenario that at least makes sense. Hopefully, they will be able to include both dubs, the original and the new. I believe the old laserdisc had the original dub, and any videotape pre 1990 would also.
While I was at the store, I decided to take a chance (having some credit to use up) and purchase my very first Bollywood DVD. My only brush with Bollywood was when I saw the DVD of Ghost World, which opens with the lead character dancing in her room whilst watching a quite strange Bollywood musical number. That DVD included that number in its entirety as a supplement. So, I went to this store’s Bollywood section, but there were hundreds of DVDs to choose from and I had no clue which might be fun and which might not. So, clever lad that I am, I went and found the Ghost World DVD and there on the back was the name of the film that the musical number was from – something called Gumnaam. I went back to the Bollywood section and lo and behold and also behold and lo there was Gumnaam. So, I used my credit up and bought it.
Now, I must tell you dear readers, that I have never in all my years taken LSD. But, after watching Gumnaam I feel that I now know what it is to take a “trip”. I guess Gumnaam is standard issue fare for Bollywood – in other words, they take a genre, pad it out to unbelievably long length and insert musical numbers every twenty minutes. Gumnaam was made in 1965 and it is derivative of tons of American movies. First there’s the plot – which is basically stolen from Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (aka Ten Little Indians). The wacky musical number used in Ghost World is the first number in the film (it follows a murder). Then, a bunch of people get stranded on an island and one by one they die. There are musical numbers galore before and after each grisly death. The colors look like a surreal nightmare – vivid, garish, rather as if Douglas Sirk and Vincente Minnelli had taken an acid trip together. I assume they’ve learned how to do better sound since 1965, because the soundtrack mix is quite strange, although that only adds to the surreal quality. There’s a nice beach party number, one of the characters where’s something very similar to Ann-Margret’s Got a Lot of Livin’ to Do number, the “comic relief” thinks he’s playing in a 4,000 seat theater, and the main song which recurs throughout the film – a song described in one online review as “really beautiful” – really is beautiful, just as it was when Mr. Henry Mancini wrote it and called it Charade. It is literally, note for note (well, in the second line there’s a three-note difference, and there’s no bridge, but everything else is note for note the same) Charade, and it made me laugh out loud every time they played it (and they play it a lot). There’s another song that has the first refrain of Autumn Leaves. The film runs a whopping 146 minutes, with at least twenty of those minutes being shots of people walking around. But, the whole thing is totally mesmerizing and one simply can’t take one’s eyes off it. Gumnaam is available on DVD at several online stores (do a Google “Web” search on the title and you’ll find it) and it has made me want to see some others – I’m hoping there’s some kind of guide to help me choose.
My goodness, what a long paragraph. But that’s what happens when you’re going Bollywood. Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below before I start singing Charade with Indian lyrics.
In any case, the reason I’d gone to that store in the first place was to get the PAL DVD of What’s Up, Tiger Lily to see if it was the original dub. Alas, it was not, so I shall be returning it.
My new galley arrived yesterday, and aside from the stuff that I’d discovered in the previous galley that I hadn’t gotten to them in time (only about six things) this one looks just about perfect. It’s got one strange thing that occurs when there’s a long hyphen followed by a quote mark, the quote mark (the open quote) is always backwards (a close quote). It only happens ten times throughout the book so it should be quite easy to fix. I think that with these current fixes, that will be it, as opposed to the nine galleys I had to go through on the first book.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must go Bollywood, I must do errands and write and phone and eat and proof. Today’s topic of discussion: When you have the opportunity and the desire to eat a large breakfast, whether home-made or in a restaurant, what are your favorite favorite things to order. We shall need complete details so that our collective mouths can water. I’ll start – I love to go to Du-Par’s and order bacon and eggs (eggs over medium, bacon not too crisp), hashed browns, and a short stack of their incredible pancakes. My other favorite breakfast which I have when available is eggs over medium and biscuits and gravy. Your turn.