Well, dear readers, I always have to laugh when children of the 1980s love even the worst films from that decade – they live for them, they can’t live without them. Why? Because they saw them as kids. The End. It doesn’t matter that they’re awful movies. It doesn’t matter that perhaps they should have some perspective all these years later. Believe me, there were films I LOVED as a child and teen – I see some of them now and I think “What did I even like about this awful movie?” Some, of course, hold up very well and remain timeless for me. But I’m smart enough to know a dog when I see one no matter what I thought back in the day. Which brings me to Modesty Blaise, a film I was so obsessed by that I went from theater to theater when it came out, dragging everyone I could to see it. It was one of those wacky op-art spy things. I’d never heard of the comic strip or knew anything about the character. I did, however, know the director, as I’d loved his film The Servant. Well, I thought Modesty Blaise was brilliant – for me it was droll, hilarious, brilliantly designed and photographed, wonderfully directed, and I really liked Monica Vitti and Dirk Bogarde and Harry Andrews drollness made me guffaw as did anything Clive Revill did in the film. I must have seen it twenty times in a two-week period. And then I didn’t see it again until the advent of home video. I bought the DVD and watched it and I could not believe it, really. Where was the droll, where was the hilarious, where was the brilliant. Oh, there were moments that still made me smile, mostly to do with Dirk Bogarde’s fey performance as the villain. But it was so labored and so not funny and so weird and it had just aged horribly. It didn’t help that the transfer sucked – brown, ugly and nothing like it looked like back in the day. When it was announced for Blu and Ray I thought I’d take a chance because I thought perhaps if the transfer is fantastic I’ll reassess and maybe get over my disappointment – sometimes great transfers help a lot, actually.
And so the Blu-ray arrived. I’d already read two online reviews so I kind of knew in advance I wasn’t going to be happy, even though I don’t trust any Internet reviewers because frequently I feel the opposite of what they do. Well, unfortunately they were right, but I have to go further than they did. This is obviously the exact same terrible OLD transfer used for the DVD. That would make the transfer sixteen years old – had it been done with love and care it might have at least been acceptable, but it was not done with love and care. They just transferred from a fading internegative and that was that. And when you transfer that bad transfer well, what do you get. You get a DVD on Blu-ray. In fact, this is one of the worst transfers you will ever see, should you actually make the purchase. What becomes instantly apparent here is that Kino Lorber, who licensed the film from Fox, will accept any piece of crap and put it out, probably not even looking at it, because if you looked at it you’d have to be out of your cotton-pickin’ mind to put it out. That is the difference between Twilight Time and others – they actually run every transfer and they don’t license the ones they feel are really sub-par. They could – they could just issue any old piece of crap, and for the complaints that their good transfers get, perhaps they should. But they have standards. What a disappointment, and highly NOT recommended by the likes of me. I had to shut it off after twenty minutes and nothing I saw in those twenty minutes was going to make me reassess the film either.
Yesterday I almost got eight hours of sleep. Once up, it was the usual array of things, with no miracles, so we’d perhaps better amp up the excellent vibes and xylophones for the miracles. Now would be a really good time for some to occur, because I’m kind of at the end of my rope and patience with certain things that are going on right now.
I had eggs and bacon and toast, oh my, along with some fruit for my meal o’ the day. Then I had some work to do on the computer and do it I did. I continued some of the organizing I’ve been doing, and then it was time for our show post mortem meeting. It actually went very quickly, with the MD, Juliana, and me all voicing our stuff about what went right and what went wrong and how we would fix it were we all to do this again. After we wrapped that, I did a two-and-a-half mile jog, then went to Subway and got a foot-long Subway Club, which was really kind of gross. Usually I like that sandwich but as silly as it may seem, it really depends on the person doing it. I ate it all up, but didn’t really enjoy it. That brought me back up to about 1000 calories.
Oh, and before I continue, I took note that one elementary school teacher either read these here notes about homework or was on my wavelength because she’s not assigning ANY homework this semester. Good for her and may others follow suit. Of course, her thing goes viral. These here notes go anti-viral. Go know.
Then I attempted the Modesty Blaise viewing, then I just relaxed, listened to music and did more work on the computer.
Today I have stuff to do but I shan’t eat anything prior to dinner. I’ll jog, I’ll hopefully pick up packages, I’ll organize, I’ll write, I’ll have a work session for the Kritzerland show, and then Juliana, Richard Allen, and I will attend the post mortem dinner with the ALS folks. That should be a most interesting post mortem during which no punches will be pulled.
Tomorrow I attend an opening night at the Group Rep Theater and I’m sure we may go out after. Saturday and Sunday are mysteries to me but I’m telling you here and now or, at the very least, now and here that on one of those days I will have a nice meal somewhere nice. Then next week we begin the Kritzerland rehearsal week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, hopefully pick up packages, pick up the broken computer and its removed hard drive, have a work session, and then have a post mortem dinner at some Eyetalian jernt I’ve never been to. Today’s topic of discussion: What movie that you saw and LOVED as a child or teen have you watched years later and asked yourself how you could have ever loved such a thing? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, wondering how this movie that I loved so I no longer love.