Well, dear readers, sometimes you just have to watch a movie based on an Ira Levin novel. It just happens. There’s no fighting it, I’m afraid. My usual default is, of course, Rosemary’s Baby, but last night I went to my second default, The Boys from Brazil, a wildly inconsistent film version of a wonderful book. I am a big fan of the director, Franklin Schaffner, but his work here is hit and miss, mostly due to some very weird casting choices that just don’t work, at least for me. Olivier is at times very good and at times so mannered you just want to throw your shoe at the TV. Gregory Peck is very good, I think, in a very atypical role for him. I saw the film when it came out and enjoyed it pretty well – even the fight scene at the end, which is generally considered one of the worst in film history. I’m not quite sure why it gets that reaction since it lasts for less than a minute. Watching it again after a couple of years, was basically the same – I enjoyed it as I always do and just wish it were a bit better. The Blu and Ray transfer is terrific.
Nothing tops Rosemary’s Baby as a book to film adaptation. A Kiss Before Dying (the original – the remake is total crap) works as well as it can, given the central conceit of the book, which is a literary device that can’t really work on film. The Stepford Wives is kind of ponderous but has its moments and I enjoy revisiting it every now and then. The remake is also crap. Sliver is a terrible adaptation of an okay book. I think a film version of This Perfect Day would have been interesting, but no one has attempted it, to my knowledge. Deathtrap, for me, works better as a play than as a film – although again, I’m not in love with either casting choice in that film, and Dyan Cannon practically ruins it even if you buy Caine and Reeve.
One of the highest moments of my record producing heyday was meeting Mr. Levin to discuss recording Drat! The Cat! I’ve told that story in Album Produced By so shan’t bother to repeat it here, but getting to know him was a real treat, and the fact that he was kind enough to blurb my first novel gave it a real cache. I promised him that we’d do a first class staged concert version of Drat, but alas, I have yet to be able to convince anyone to do it, which is really irritating I have to tell you. But I keep trying and hopefully will get it done and I know that wherever Mr. Levin is having his eternal rest, he will be smiling down on that stage and those performers, whoever they may be.
He was a very clever writer – Mr. Sondheim is very fond of Levin’s lyrics for Drat. But it’s his ideas that sparkle – Rosemary’s Baby, the animatronic Stepford Wives, the cloning in Boys from Brazil – he was very forward thinking. If you haven’t read any Ira Levin novels, start with A Kiss Before Dying and go directly to Rosemary’s Baby – they are two of my favorite books.
Yesterday was a strange little day. I slept until eleven-thirty, getting about nine hours of blessed sleep. Once up, I answered e-mails and then had to mosey on over to the Daily Grill for a little meeting with Lanny, Sandy, and our orchestra contractor. I hadn’t intended to eat, but I decided to have their cedar plank salmon and vegetables. I didn’t love it, but it was low in calories so that was good. After that, I picked up no packages, then came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
I finished watching Sneakers – enjoyable on a certain level, but really undone buy its tone – it just wants to be endlessly smart-ass and that completely undercuts the movie. Plus, as I mentioned yesterday, as soon as Ben Kingsley enters the film, it becomes a whole other movie and one that’s not as good as the first half. I will say that the McGuffin for the movie is very prescient – it has to do with branches of the government spying on the American public and I think we all know how that has come true. Then I went to Gelson’s and got a tiny bit of mac-and-cheese for my snack.
After that, I watched the aforementioned The Boys from Brazil and then I watched about half of the first episode of something called Bates Motel, because I’d heard such raves about it. I thought it was dreadful and I shut it off. It’s a prequel to Psycho, but takes place now. Therefore, it’s not really a prequel to Psycho and I just don’t even understand the point of it. Maybe it gets better or even interesting, but I really couldn’t get with it at all.
Then I just played on the computer, did a little writing, took a shower and that was that.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after another good night’s beauty sleep, then I’ll relax until it’s time to mosey on over to The Federal at three for our sound check with the band and Sandy. Then I’ll eat dinner there, and then it’s our show. We have a very good crowd of about seventy-five, so that’s good. I will, of course, have a full report.
This week is all meetings and meals, and a Kritzerland work session, and maybe seeing a show or two.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, relax, do a sound check and watch a 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 having had my Levin Fix.