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April 29, 2003:

LAGGING BEHIND

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I do believe that we will start taking preorders for Kritzerland early next week. Mr. Mark Bakalor is out of town until Friday – he was attempting to get the order page done before he left but he didn’t, so he will do it upon his return, this weekend. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?

Last night I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD (trying to not lag behind in my DVD watching – one must never lag behind, to lag behind is for fools and simpletons). First I watched a motion picture entitled Rio Lobo, the final film of director Howard Hawks. He made three very similar films – Rio Bravo, El Dorado, and Rio Lobo. The latter is generally considered one of his weakest and therefore I have avoided it all these years. But, somehow time must have been kind to Rio Lobo, or I just like watching the Duke, John Wayne, but I enjoyed it very much. The photography is lovely (William Clothier, I think), the music is excellent (by Jerry Goldsmith) and the Duke is great. Unfortunately, like Big Jake, the film is marred by an incredibly weak supporting cast. I did like spunky Jennifer O’Neill and Jim Davis is always fun to watch, but the rest of the people are just not so great. Interestingly, the film features studio head Sherry Lansing in one of her handful of acting roles. It is instantly clear that acting was not going to be her “thing”, and it’s painful to watch her at times. The lead villain (the reliable Victor French) is so lightweight and underdeveloped that it’s almost perfunctory. But still, the script has some lively and sparkling moments and the whole thing somehow just moves along.

Then I watched one of my all-time favorite motion pictures, The White Sheik, the first solo directorial effort of Mr. Federico Fellini. I can’t say enough about this film and I never tire of watching it. It’s funny, it’s rueful, it’s a wonderful treatise on the difference between living in a dream world and the real world, and everything about the film just works. Briefly, it’s about a newly-married couple who come to Rome from a small town, to meet the groom’s family and to visit the Pope. The wife is a constant and loyal fan of the fumetti, which is a serialized comic strip, but done with photographs instead of drawings. She’s totally enamored of The White Sheik, and has written him fan letters and has received a reply that if she were ever in Rome to come visit him. She sneaks out while her husband is napping, since the address the Sheik has provided is only ten minutes from their hotel. She ends up meeting the lady who supervises the fumetti, then ends up being carted off to the location where they are shooting. She meets The White Sheik and I won’t spoil any more by revealing what happens. The leading performances of Alberto Sordi, Leopoldo Treiste and Brunella Bovo are perfect. Giulietta Masina makes a brief appearance as a prostitute named Cabiria, a character she’d go on to play again in Nights of Cabiria which, of course, became the Broadway musical Sweet Charity. The transfer, I’m afraid to say, is not up to Criterion’s usual standards. I’ve owned this film on 16mm, both dubbed and subtitled, I’ve owned every incarnation of it on tape and I’ve seen it in the theaters. A lot of it looks okay, a bit dark, and a bit contrasty, but acceptable. However, the shot that appears behind the main titles is so dark that you can’t even tell what it is, and for some reason they’ve removed two title cards which should appear at the 38 minute mark – at the very end of the sequence where they are photographing The White Sheik’s latest adventures a title card appears “End of Part One” and then it dissolves to the next scene and there is a title card which reads “Beginning of Part Two” (in Italian, of course). Here, there is an abrupt cut, no dissolve, and in deleting the title cards they delete most of one shot of Brunella Bovo’s priceless expression. Why is this I wonder? I took out a tape I have (off a pristine 35mm print) and checked – the two title cards are there along with the expression on Miss Bovo’s face. Also, the background plate for the titles is bright and clear as can be. I also had problems with the rather literal translation of the subtitles. Literal is not always best – an example: When the husband meets with his family he passes out what the subtitles describe as “sugared almonds”, which is the literal translation of what is said. What “sugared almonds” are in Italy is “wedding candy” which is what it says in the older subtitled version – a much better and clearer but not literal translation. Also, they frequently put two characters’ dialogue onscreen at the same time, which gets very confusing, timing-wise. But don’t let this dissuade you from buying the DVD – even with these flaws, the film is a must-have, a masterpiece, and one-of-a-kind.

What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Now we are lagging behind, and we mustn’t lag behind because to lag behind is for fools and simpletons. Let’s all click on the Unseemly Button below before we lag behind even further.

My goodness, we are certainly lagging behind which, by the way (BTW, in Internet lingo) is for fools and simpletons. Have you ever had a lagging behind? I know I have.

The gardeners are outside gardening loudly and the sun is shining and it’s going to be a beautiful day. I have several errands to do and then I must write and attend to some business matters. Then I shall watch even more films on DVD – including Little Big Man and Le Mans.

Hapgood was the first to guess correctly about the identity of new poster JB aka JK who is, of course, my very own lovely daughter, Jennifer.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must not lag because to lag is for fools and simpletons, I must, in short, get crackin’. Today’s topic of discussion: Since we did performers yesterday, today we shall do composers and lyricists – who are your favorite underrated theater and film composers, and, when talking about musicals, your favorite underrated lyricists? I’ll start – film composers, the great underappreciated and undervalued Hugo Friedhofer, George Duning, and currently Joe Hisaishi – theater, Moose Charlap, Tommy Wolf and Fran Landesman, Claibe Richardson, Carolyn Leigh and Gene DePaul. There are many others, but I leave them to you. Post away, my pretties, and I shall check back soon because I mustn’t lag.

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