Well, dear readers, I don’t know why but it seems like Tuesday even though it is Wednesday. I know, my mind is playing tricks on me. For example, my mind just did the Disappearing Rabbit trick – that gets me every time. In any case, it feels like Tuesday and yet it is Wednesday so I’ll just have to keep reminding myself that it is Wednesday and not Tuesday. I’ll just say to myself, “Myself, if it’s Tuesday it must be Wednesday.” That way myself will know what day it is and all will be right with the world and environs. What the hell am I talking about?
Last night I saw an advance copy (way advance – it won’t be released until August) of a brand spanking new DVD of Mr. Claude Lelouch’s marvelous French motion picture entitled La Bonne Annee (Happy New Year). It is my favorite Lelouch film and it holds up wonderfully well. It’s got a caper, it’s got friendship, it’s got romance and it’s got sparse but wonderful music by Mr. Francis Lai. The performance by Mr. Lino Ventura is nothing short of brilliant and the rest of the cast does well, too. This film was remade in the late eighties with Peter Falk but it just didn’t have the charm of the original. This film is a total winner and I recommend it to one and all and also all and one. The transfer is decent – it’s full frame, but I have to do a bit of research because the film may have been shot in 16mm. If it wasn’t, then the aspect ratio is wrong, as it would have been 1:66 in France.
I then watched the first thirty minutes of the DVD of Mr. Stephen Sondheim’s Passion. I saw the show in an early preview and then after it opened. It is the only show that I have almost dozed off during (at the preview) and while the show had improved slightly by opening night, I just didn’t cotton to it at all – in fact, I didn’t even nylon to it. Some of the music is lovely but I think that lyrically it’s Mr. Sondheim’s weakest show. I know there are people who love this musical but I’m afraid I’m still not one of them. And I really dislike the way Mr. Lapine shot this video – it’s one of those hybrids – not a film and not a play, just somewhere in between and in between rarely works. I’m not even certain they actually taped an entire performance in front of an audience, which is usually the way these things are done. They may have taped an entire performance, sans audience, but the bulk of this is pick-up shots – for example, at the end of Happiness, Miss Marin Mazzie begins a kiss before she’s finished singing her final note which means that shot was done to playback. I suppose I’ll try to finish the thing but thus far, for me, it is just lifeless and dullsville.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below before my mind plays more tricks on me, like the connecting rings. That one always baffles me.
In two short days (or is it three) it will be the 4th of July weekend and we will be having quite a weekend-long celebration right here at haineshisway.com. You wont’ want to miss any of the festivities and fireworks and merriment and mirth and laughter and legs. Stay tuned for details.
I know I promised you photos by the end of this week but our very own Mr. Craig Brockman is very busy and dealing with stuff, so it may not come to pass. I know we have been promising these photos for a long long long (that is three longs which is too too too long) time, and we will get them up and running (the session photos, the Ray Courts photos, etc.) just as soon as possible. If I knew how to do it I’d do it. Mr. Mark Bakalor is too busy to do it and we just have to wait patiently and trust it will get done.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must try to remember – oh, a Schmidt and Jones reference – that it is Wednesday and not Tuesday, I must try to find the new Chaplin DVDs, I must write and I must do other things such as eat. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me all your excellent questions. So, ask away, my pretties, and also talk about anything else your collective hearts may desire, and I will be checking in quite often.