Well, dear readers, there are certain films that I can watch over and over again and that I never tire of. I don’t know why that is, since there are other equally good films that I can’t watch over and over again because I do tire of them. For example, I can watch North by Northwest over and over again and never tire of it. Same with The Court Jester and Li’l Abner, same with Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown, same with The Best Years of Our Lives, same with Sundays and Cybele, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort. Same with City Lights and High Noon. But there simply aren’t many movies from the past twenty years that I can watch over and over again, even if I really like them and that even includes the Pixar movies. In fact, at the moment I can think of only two movies in the last two decades that I’ve now watched multiple times and never tire of – one is the French movie from France called L’Apartement, and the other is the entire Swedish extended The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, but especially the first film in its extended version, which is what I watched again last night due to a friend wanting to watch it.
I don’t think it’s much of a secret that I didn’t care for the David Fincher completely unnecessary remake, even though I know some people prefer it because it has about six minutes of stuff that’s not in the Swedish version, none of which I found that interesting. Of course, if one is comparing the US version to the original theatrical release Swedish then you might have a point – but the extended Swedish version has about twenty minutes of extra material and that’s most of what’s in the Fincher version. I thought Rooney Mara was okay, didn’t like Daniel Craig at all, and just thought everything was pretty much by the numbers as a “now” film, most especially noticeable in the droning musical “landscape” that calls itself a score.
The Swedish extended version, on the other hand, plays more like a classic movie. The director just tells the story and tells it in a way that makes its dense plotting very easy to understand, which is very important. The actors are just perfection, most especially Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth – it’s really a brilliant performance, and the equally good Michael Nyqvist. But every part is beautifully cast, especially the villain of the piece. Fincher blows several moments in his film that work perfectly in the original – it’s almost like he willfully does that. There is, of course, no way to be completely faithful to the long novels – but the Swedish extended versions really capture their flavor and intention very well, but the proof is the films work beautifully even if you don’t know the books. And the subsequent two films really got knocked in their original versions – I didn’t mind either, frankly, but once the extended versions came out, then I loved those two just as much as the first film.
Watching the first film again last night, I was just mesmerized by every frame of it, and each time I see it I see things I didn’t catch before – this time it was that Lisbeth is there in the first few scenes, kind of hidden but there. The music is also wonderful, a real movie score rather than droning sound design. The three extended editions are available in one handy-dandy Blu-ray set and the transfers are very nice. I’ll be watching the other two films with the same friend at some point this week.
Prior to that, I’d had an okie doke day. I was up early and then she of the Evil Eye arrived and I did a three-mile jog, after which I went and had my new favorite light early food – scrambled eggs, tomatoes, and an English muffin – only 340 calories all in and I certainly jogged most of those off. After that, I picked up a couple of packages, then came home. One of the packages was one of the overdue ones, so that was good. I then did some work on the computer and then it was time to go have dinner with a friend. We went to The Studio Café, and we shared some wings and I had the chopped Eyetalian salad, which is pretty calorie friendly. Then it was movie time, and since then I’ve just been relaxing. And that was my okie doke day.
I have two songs for today’s notes. The first is from the two person musical about the two girl friends. This is the penultimate song in the show and occurs in the long scene where they have their reconciliation. They start looking through a scrapbook of photos of themselves and sing this song, called The Hit Parade.
The second song I wrote for no show. In fact, I wrote it for a person just because I got inspired by seeing said person doing her job. Said person is Heather Sullivan, sister of Stacy Sullivan and K.T. Sullivan. Heather, at the time (mid 1980s) was playing piano in the piano bar at the New Otani Hotel in Little Tokyo downtown. Several of us would go there quite often to see her and hang out. She was a wonderful pianist and quite beautiful and I was sitting there one night and this song just sort of came to me full blown and I went right home and wrote it. I eventually directed and put together a nightclub act for Heather at The Gardenia that was really fun. So, here’s Lady at the Piano.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep, which I really need. Then I’ll do a jog, but otherwise I really just have to relax until it’s time for the Joan Ryan show at The Federal.
Tomorrow, I’m up early to announce the new Kritzerland title, and then we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal, and then I’m supposed to comp vocals but I may have to delay that until Tuesday night as that’s a VERY long Monday if I do that and I have to be very alert when comping. Then the rest of the week is comping, mixing, rehearsing, meetings, meals, our stumble-through, sound check and then show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, relax and then see a cabaret show. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland after my okie doke day.