Well, dear readers, here we are, another week beginning. It’s impossible for me to contemplate that it has already been a week since we began doing the vocals for the Guy Haines album. That is just insane, if you ask me. In any case, this is going to be quite a busy week, so I may as well just get these here notes done, because I must shortly be on my way to Mr. Vinnie Cirilli’s home studio, where we shall be merrily mixing away for the next few days. Yesterday, for example, I slept quite late, then got up and puttered about the home environment in my lounging pyjamas, my smoking jacket, my leopard-spotted dickie, and my bunny slippers. I then dressed myself and went shopping for foodstuffs and liquid refreshment. Upon my return, I did quite a bit of writing (am just about through making additions to act one, and I’m hoping to move on to act two mid-week). I will also begin entering corrections from one of my three proofers. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Last night I watched two count them two motion picture entertainments on DVD. The first motion picture entertainment on DVD was entitled The Man Who Never Was, a splendidly splendid 1955 film from director Ronald Neame. Clifton Webb stars, along with a whole host of instantly recognizable Brit actors such as Laurence Naismith, Miles Malleson, and Michael Hordern. Stephen Boyd also plays a key role in the latter part of the film, and Gloria Grahame has a leading role as well. It’s a completely engrossing and suspenseful war movie tale (no war action – just suspense regarding whether a key plan will go awry). It’s just the right length, and the pace is excellent. Mr. Webb acquits himself well, as always. The musical score is by Alan Rawsthorne, and the lovely camerawork by Oswald Morris. The transfer is not perfection itself, but it’s really pretty excellent, and it’s great to see it in its proper Cinemascope (2:55) ratio after only having seen it in awful pan-and-scan. I then watched the second motion picture entertainment on DVD, a Korean horror film entitled A Tale of Two Sisters. I bought this DVD because of a rave review and article in Video Watchdog. I should have known better. They talk as if this thing had the most original plot ever filmed, and as if its shocks were so brilliant and unforeseen that no one could possibly ever guess them in advance of the reveals. I just sit and wonder what film they’re watching, or how people who write for a magazine that purports to know about such films and derivations could be taken in by everything. It’s not a bad film – it’s quite well directed, although I get weary of the panning camera discovering something WEIRD, which is always accompanied by loud, startling MUSIC blasting at you. It’s cheap and who needs it. And that gimmick is repeated every fifteen minutes, so it ceases to work. If you want to see this film, stop reading right now and go directly to the Unseemly Button below, because in talking about the rest of the film I’m going to have to give away it’s brilliant shocks that no one could ever possibly guess.
The film begins in a psychiatric ward, where a doctor is trying to get a young girl to tell him what happened. She looks out the window, and we’re off on a flashback to what happened. Two sisters arrive home after having spent some time in an institution. The father seems distant and strange, and their stepmother is a terror, constantly berating the girls. And on and on it goes with lots of strange goings on, until we get the first big reveal, the one that’s so shocking that no one could possibly ever guess it. Only, I guessed it in the first ten seconds of the flashback. How? How could anyone NOT guess it, that’s more the question. As the girls get out of the car, the father calls one of their names. Why? Hmmmm. Later, the father, calling the girls for dinner, calls only one of their names. Why? Hmmmm. The father has several conversations with the girls, but never really acknowledges one of them, always looking at the other. Why? Hmmmm. Have you figured it out yet, or would you have to wait another seventy minutes until the shocker is revealed? Apparently, none of the twelve year olds who write all the reviews for the imdb have ever heard of, read, or seen Thomas Tryon’s The Other. The second twist is more original, but, you know, who cares. Nothing is ever really explained completely, so there are several enigmas left hanging. I’m told that the director reveals all in the documentaries and commentary tracks, so perhaps I’ll watch those. Anyway, the direction is certainly competent, but why these Asian horror films (this film isn’t horror anyway – there’s little blood and not much of a body count) are getting the kind of adulation they are (Dreamworks is already in production with its American version of this film) is beyond me.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m already ten minutes late in getting these here notes up.
I am very much looking forward to mixing our little Guy Haines album. I’ve actually already heard eight of the first pass mixes because Vinnie uploads them to his iDisc folder (a Mac thing), which I can then access and download to iTunes – I mean, what can’t you do with these new-fangled machines. But, I only heard them on the lousy Powerbook speakers – they sounded fine, but I can’t hear the detail I need to. I think the work will go fairly quickly, though.
I may try to book my Marina the Masseuse this week – I am in desperate need of her ministrations. Have you ever been in need of ministrations or were you so bad that you needed maxistrations?
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, mix an album, I must try to get some writing done, I must work all the livelong day, and then I must return to the home environment to take care of some other business. If I get through in time, I shall also stop by Armani Wells and pick up the pants and sportcoat that were altered for me, and also pick up my new tuxedo. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite scary books and short stories, the ones that really creep you out? I’ll start – I love Mr. Stephen King’s novel of The Shining and The Dead Zone. I love many of Robert Bloch’s short stories in that genre. And I’ve even enjoyed a couple of Dean Koontz’s scary books. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we? And think of me whilst I’m merrily mixing away. For I am the Mixmaster, koo koo koo joob.