Well, dear readers, once again I haven’t a clew as to how to begin the notes today. Sometimes I have a clew and it comes to me very easily. Sometimes I don’t have a clew and I just stare at the white page and the white page just stares at me, taunting me as if I were Anita in West Side Story. So, I just sang A Boy Like That and then it came to me that I should begin the notes by saying that I had no clew as to how to begin the notes. And, voila, the notes have begun. I don’t really know why, but the past few days have been so lovely that it’s a pleasure to get up in the morning and do things. Yesterday, for example, I got up in the morning and did things because the days have been so fershluganah lovely. I finished one of the things I was working on, and that made me very happy indeed. I spoke to several friends telephonically, and we had lovely, warm conversations about this and that and also that and this. I picked up a package, I ate some reasonable food, and I made a very important book decision, i.e. to not call the new book “a mystery”. Why, you might ask, and I might tell you. Because this book is not quite a mystery in the sense that Writer’s Block is a mystery. In that book, I wanted people to know exactly what sort of book they were buying. The new book isn’t structured like that at all, and I’d rather have people just read it and have it carry them along. I have been very pleased with the reaction thus far, so we’ll see what happens from here. If I go the same route as the other books, it will probably be out in September or October. If I go a different route, then I have no clew when it will be out. I might as well tell you what I’ve been alluding to as “a spot of work” or “a project”. Because I finished the new book earlier than I’d anticipated, and because I was in such a writing mode, I decided to do something I’ve always wanted to do – to write some short stories. I finished my first one today (somewhat of a cheat, in that I adapted something I’d written for an omnibus film that never happened). It’s really interesting to write in this form – everything must be concise and to the point, and yet I felt complete freedom to let the little story tell itself. I can also say I like it much better as a short story – I got to embellish, and write fun descriptive prose. I have no clew if it’s any good or not, but when I’ve done another one I’ll give them to my muse to see if she likes them. I have several ideas rolling around in my cranium, plus I may just try and do what was supposed to be my last novel (the idea I didn’t feel would hold for an entire book) as a short story. I think it might just work like that. Anyway, I’m having fun.
My goodness, that was a long paragraph, wasn’t it? I had no clew that paragraph would be that long, did you? Did you have a clew? Who had a clew? Did a clew have you? If so, how was it? I no longer have a clew as to what the HELL I’m going on about. Perhaps we’d all better click on the Unseemly Button below so we can see if there are any clews in the next section.
Nope. Haven’t seen a clew, have you? Last night I watched several DVDs. First, I watched a motion picture entitled A Study in Terror, a Sherlock Holmes pastiche wherein Mr. Holmes must uncover and bring to justice the dastardly Jack the Ripper. It’s not a great movie, but it is enjoyable in its own cheap way. It’s not directed very well – Jack Hill, the director, would direct his only big hit the following year – Born Free. It does have a really fun score, the first film score written by my pal John Scott. John Neville is a fine Holmes, and Donald Houston is fun as Dr. Watson. Also featured are Anthony Quale, John Fraser, a young Judi Dench, and, in her film debut (it may be her only film), Georgia Brown, basically playing Nancy, only not in Oliver. She sings a couple of barroom ditties, and you keep looking around for Oliver Reed to pop up. This is a region 2 DVD, letterboxed but not enhanced, with pale colors and taken from a somewhat worn print. I then watched a new region 2 DVD of Chris Marker’s stunningly stunning and brilliant short film, La Jetee. I must say I am astonished by this film every time I see it. It is profound, moving, and chilling. It is told entirely in still photographs (save for one shot), but the editing and the music make you think you’re watching a movie-movie. Briefly, it tells the story of a man who has a childhood memory of seeing a man die at Orly Airport – a vivid memory forever etched in his brain. In a post-apocalyptic Paris, he is used to travel through time, both past and future. That’s all I will say, other than there has never been a film like it, before or since. If the plot sounds at all vaguely familiar, it’s because Terry Gilliam appropriated it (credited) for Twelve Monkeys, an appallingly bad film, which doesn’t do anything right. If you’ve never seen La Jetee you must seek it out – it’s available on some short film collection on DVD in the US. The only versions available on DVD are all dubbed in English (there is no dialogue, just narration), but the voice is quite like the French version, so it’s not problematic. A brilliant, brilliant film. I then watched The Crook (Le Voyou), un film de Claude Lelouch. I guess I’m just a sucker for Lelouch films, because I loved this film quite a bit. It was made in 1970, and it’s just so much fun to watch Lelouch play with chronology, as he does in so many of his films. You never quite know what you’re watching, but then all the pieces fall into place. The acting is great, and the Francis Lai score works really well. There is a very sly and amusing reference to Mr. Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman (they share the same male lead). The DVD is from MGM/UA and is their usual shoddy treatment of a really worthwhile film. It’s letterboxed at 1:66 but not enhanced, which is just stupidly stupid, if you ask me.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? I have no clew about what else to write in these here notes. Don’t you hate when that happens?
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get a clew, I must perhaps do a spot of work, I must eat a spot of food, I must drive about in my motor car, and I must do other various and sundried things. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers, shall we? And if you have no clew as to what to post, post anyway – something will come to you and then you will have a clew.