Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the soundtrack of the film Stavisky, by my close personal friend, Mr. Stephen Sondheim. I saw the film when it came out – I was in New York in January of 1975, rehearsing for the PBS filming of Forget-Me-Not Lane. Stavisky had opened exclusively the week before I got there. So, after rehearsal one day I went to see it because I already knew Sondheim had written the score. Well, I really liked the film a lot and I absolutely loved the score. And I needed to have it. Like now. So, I called every record store in Manhattan and found ONE store that carried French imports that had just gotten it in. I asked them to hold it for me and I bought it the next day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t play it until I got home a couple of weeks later, right after we wrapped filming. My life was once again undergoing a big change – Nudie Musical was a “go” and then-wife and I, who’d been separated for a year, decided to get back together – our separation simply was too hard on the Darling Daughter. So, the album stayed wrapped while the wife and I found a little house to rent in the Oaks of Sherman, just about two minutes from where I currently live. Rent was expensive – $325 a month, but it was a cute little house, and we took it and also had an option to buy at the end of the year lease – that price was set contractually, somewhere around $37,000. Anyway, we moved in and I set up the stereophonic equipment in the den area and the first thing I played was Stavisky. I must have played it about 100 times in a row. Tuneful, haunting, and just plain wonderful, and orchestrated by the one and only Jonathan Tunick. Flash forward and it came out on CD as an extra on the Follies in Concert 2-CD set. I was surprised at how poorly recorded it was, which really was evident on the CD – it also happened to be horribly mastered, too, so, a double whammy. It eventually was released again on CAM and that had a better mastering. Then a couple of years ago, Quartet released a remastered and slightly expanded version from the original tapes. That one, the one I’m listening to right now, sounded much better than the other CD releases, but you can’t get away from the recording itself, with its erratic balances and some extremely sloppy playing, especially in the very small string section. But the music is the music and it’s wonderful. He recycles some cut tunes from Follies and stuff, so that’s fun. And, as you may recall, I watched a DVD of the film not so long ago and still liked it quite a bit. Not sure if the new CD is out of print or not, but it’s worth getting if the price is right.
Prior to that, I did manage to watch a motion picture on Blu and Ray, another film by director Todd Haynes, this one entitled [safe]. This was his second feature (his very low-budget debut film was Poison) and he had a bigger budget (around a million dollars) and he had Julianne Moore, who was just starting to make a name for herself. I knew nothing about the film at all and I must say it completely got me – it’s slow, methodical, and filled with ambiguity, about a housewife in 1987 who begins having horrible health issues that doctors cannot figure out. She reads a flyer somewhere that has her exact symptoms, called environmental illness – illness from fumes, toxins in the air and food and chemicals in various things. She finally ends up in a cult-like place for people who suffer from the same maladies. The ambiguity is whether she’s actually getting worse there, which she most likely is. It’s not a plot heavy film – it’s a character piece and Julianne Moore’s performance should have garnered her an Oscar nomination. The visual style of the film is just wonderful, from the sets and costumes to the color and shot choices. Todd Haynes, for my money, is simply the best director working today, in terms of what I consider to be classic cinema style. The fact that he gets little love, at least for his last two films, is just nauseating. I’d watch anything he does because he does it Haynes His Way. The transfer on the Criterion Blu-ray, which came out in 2015, I think, is superb. I don’t think it’s a film for everyone, but I just loved it. It got very mixed reviews when it came out, but all those mixed critics suddenly put it on their ten-best of the 90s film lists, a couple of them placing it at number one. And for a film set in 1987 and released in 1995, its themes are shockingly more relevant now than they were then. Some of the stuff in the film is gasp worthy. Also, it’s mostly shot in the San Fernando Valley and includes a lengthy shot of the corner that houses the mail place, which was then called Mail Boxes, Etc. And the Starbuck’s on the corner was then Valley Drugs, which had moved there from its original location a half-mile up the street. And you can see the little jernt that would become the Subway. Todd Haynes is the director who could make a wonderfully magical motion picture out of GEE, so if anyone knows how to get it to him, let’s have it. I also have a Blu-ray of his version of Mildred Pierce on its way to me. Then I’ll get around to Poison and whatever else I missed.
Yesterday was an okay day in which I did get a lot done. I woke up at ten-thirty after seven hours of sleep, but was still pretty tired, so after about an hour I got back into bed, eventually falling back asleep around noon. I got up at one-thirty, so that was over eight hours of sleep and I’m glad I got that extra ninety minutes.
Once up, I answered e-mails, did a few things on the computer, then made hot dogs – total calories for the three I had was 600, so I knew I could have a couple of snacks later. Then I spent most of the day and evening after the movie inputting all the stuff for six more Kritzerland releases. So, I’m ahead of the game on those. I decided on which two would come next, and we’ll announce those early next week.
I watched the movie, of course, had some telephonic calls, had some Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt (Ben and Jerry’s), not too much, and some gefilte fish, which is very low in calories and fat grams. And that’s all she wrote.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I have a noon o’clock telephonic meeting, I think something else is happening at two-thirty – oh, yeah, haircut (finally) – I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then at some point I’ll eat and then write liner notes (didn’t get to them yesterday because it took so long to input everything for the six upcoming releases), and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same, then I’m supping with the Pearls, after which we’ll attend the opening night of London Suite at the Group Rep. They have a little afterparty, too, so I’ll spend a few minutes there. The weekend is pretty open at this point, and I’d like it to stay that way.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, have a noon o’clock telephonic meeting, have a haircut, atone, hopefully pick up packages, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films starring Julianne Moore? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have seen another really fine film of Haynes His Way.