Well, dear readers, I was fascinated to watch a motion picture last night that I’ve only seen twice – once when it came out and once on DVD a while ago. I thought it was a perfectly okay film when it came out – wonderful sequences but overall it wasn’t something I was jumping up and down about. And I felt the same when I watched it on DVD. The film in question was and is called Radio Days, a Woody Allen movie. Has there ever been any other filmmaker in history who has made a film a year for as long as he has? But as the 80s wound down I was simply not as enamored of his films as I was in the 70s. I liked some of them, like Broadway Danny Rose and The Purple Rose of Cairo, although as sweet as that was it couldn’t sustain itself. I know everyone thought Hannah and Her Sisters was a masterpiece, but I wasn’t one of them. I liked it fine and that was it. And after it, Radio Days just didn’t seem like anything special, especially as I was a fan of Fellini’s Amarcord and that was clearly what Allen was doing with Radio Days. And after Radio Days we got his critically acclaimed Crimes and Misdemeanors, another film I probably should watch again. So, Radio Days falls between two beloved films and I think it tends not to be on people’s radars.
Watching it again, I was completely taken with it, especially its episodic nature, just jumping from thing to thing without a story, basically, and yet managing being captivating, funny and even touching. I feel that directorially, it may well now be my second favorite film of his, the first being Manhattan. I’m not that big a fan of Carlo di Palma, his cameraman during that period, but Radio Days is stunningly photographed – several of the online “reviews” have mentioned the burnished golds of the photography, which of course there are in all the interiors of the family, but they act as if that’s all there is, which is quite wrong. Right away the narration talks about the gray, rainy days and we see that – no burnished golds at all. Same with most of the radio sequences. The production design is also wonderful. But it’s Allen’s script that gets the job done – it’s a lovely look back at his childhood and a different era and in certain ways it reminded me of my own Benjamin Kritzer novel, which is also completely episodic until its second half and also is a love-letter to a different era.
It’s one of his best cast films, with everyone doing a terrific job, and it’s loaded with Allen regulars doing little cameos, which is really fun. Diane Keaton’s song is especially lovely. There’s no dramatic through line and it doesn’t need one. But today, they wouldn’t make it without one and today Allen makes movies that just don’t interest me anymore. There’s too much plot, too much drama, too much stilted Allenesque dialogue. There is not a false or stilted line in the entirety of Radio Days. There are many laugh-out-loud moments as well as a few touching moments. It’s just this little cameo, this gem, and it has, thanks to last night’s viewing, moved high in my Allen pantheon. It doesn’t hurt that the transfer on the Twilight Time Blu-ray, while not that recent, is quite lovely in replicating the look of the film. One thing I read on the Internet was that the medium to long shots looked soft. Really? One can only wonder what kind of equipment this stuff is being watched on because there isn’t a soft-looking shot in the entire transfer. Go know. Anyway, if you haven’t gotten this one yet, it is highly recommended by the likes of me.
Yesterday was a wacky little day. I had the same sleep issues last night as the previous two nights. I woke up one hour after falling asleep, then couldn’t get back to sleep for over an hour. In the end, I do think I got about seven-and-a-half hours of sleep – not enough. Then I had a lunch meeting with our very own Rob Stevens – it ended up lasting three hours, but it was fun and we talked about many things, of cabbages and kings but especially cabbages, whilst I dined on eggs benedict (the eggs were rock hard and not to my liking), hash browns (overdone and not nearly as good as usual), hollandaise (Not Enough Hollandaise – that’s the title of my next novel) and a short stack (yummilicious).
I then came home and did some work on the computer, answered e-mails and had some telephonic calls. I then buckled down, Winsocki and did the event pages for the two New York Kritzerland shows. I had to do them separately because Facebook only does one event per listing. And trying to wade through over 3,000 “friends” to find the New Yorkers, was insane. I’ve learned how to go fast for the LA people, but it took forever, about four hours for the two events. But, I got it all done and hopefully it will result in some reservations. Then I got all our singers their music. I then watched Radio Days.
After that, I thought I should have a little something more to eat, so I went and had a cup of creamy tomato soup and a teeny-tiny scoop of chicken salad at Jerry’s Deli. It was fairly empty when I got there, but as I was leaving there were about twenty people waiting to get in. After that, I came home, had some more telephonic conversations and that was that.
Today, I have a lunch meeting with our very own Kay Cole, hopefully I’ll pick up some packages, and then I am relaxing and no one is going to say boo about it. Saturday I’m not sure what’s happening and Sunday I may go to the DGA to see Gone Girl, if I’m feeling up to it.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a lunch, hopefully pick up packages and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, who knows? Blu and Ray, I think I’ll watch Crimes and Misdemeanors to see if I like it any better these days. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall lament the problem of not enough hollandaise.