Well, dear readers, Molly went home last night, and I must say she was happy as a clam to see her owner. We did have a blast, however, and I will be baby-sitting for her quite often. Today I shall be lunching with my casting director and we will seriously begin the process of trying to figure out exactly who will be in our little film and what they will be doing. Mostly, I know who I want to use, but for certain things we will have to have casting sessions, but those will be in Los Angeles. I may then drive out to see Mr. Mark Bakalor, he of the bitch-slap, and we shall discuss various and sundried things about which I will hopefully be able to talk soon. Is that English? Is what I just wrote English? I don’t know, but it’s so poetic I think I’ll let it stand, which is preferable to letting ‘it’ sit. I hate when ‘it’ sits, ‘it’ should only stand and that’s all there is to ‘it’. What the hell am I talking about?
Last night, I watched the motion picture entitled The Pianist, a film of Mr. Roman Polanski, who, in my opinion (IMO, in Internet lingo), has made some of the finest motion pictures ever. They include, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown and Repulsion. After Mr. Polanski’s ‘troubles’ and exile, he has continued to make motion pictures but I haven’t really loved any of them. I liked Frantic all right, and I thought The Ninth Gate had problems but at least directorially was a return to form. Well, The Pianist is no mere return to form – like Dolly, Mr. Polanski is back where he belongs. It’s a wonderfully directed movie – whether one responds or not is another story, but Mr. Polanski’s direction is the best of the year (out of the few movies I’ve seen). These films about Nazi horror are never easy to watch, and frankly I was told this was so brutal that it was almost unwatchable. So, I was prepared to turn it off if it got to be too much. But I must say, that while some of it isn’t easy to watch, Mr. Polanski does not go over the top. I found Schindler’s List almost impossible to watch, for example. That does not mean there aren’t harrowing images in the film, there are, make no mistake about it. There are also images in the film as fine as any Mr. Polanski has given us (one of them will go down as one of the greats, I think – where the hero of the film climbs over a wall, the camera rising as he does so to reveal a long street of total bombed destruction). Unfortunately for The Pianist, the distributor is Focus Films rather than Miramax. So, I don’t know what kind of chance the film has. The Oscars, sadly, have become about which distributor can spend the most money getting the most goodies into the hands of Academy members. It’s totally shameless and should be stopped, but unfortunately, it won’t be. Therefore, it is difficult to sometimes combat the relentless machine known as Miramax – however, if there is any justice, Mr. Polanski will be nominated for an Academy Award (he has received a DGA nomination) – he should win it, too, although I doubt he will. The other certain nomination should go to the film’s leading man, Adrien Brody, an actor I’ve never seen before. It’s a great performance, which I’m sure will somehow be overlooked – certainly he should be nominated – and he, like Mr. Polanski, should win as well. Not everyone will like this film, but I give it my strongest recommendation.
I then began watching an older film called Once Upon a Time – I’m sorry, it’s actually billed as Alexander Hall’s Once Upon a Time. Now, I don’t mind Alfred Hitchcock or John Ford or Howard Hawks having that sort of credit, but Alexander Hall? Never heard of him. The film stars Cary Grant and Janet Blair and is about a down-on-his-luck theatrical producer who discovers a dancing caterpillar. Yes, Virginia, a dancing caterpillar. This film would fall under the heading ‘whimsical’ and I found its first thirty minutes totally insufferable. I’ve never seen Cary Grant be anything less than wonderful, but he’s really bad in this. It’s not his fault really, and maybe it gets better, but I had to shut it off for the time being because I was about to hurl a plate at my television.
I then began to watch a motion picture entitled About Schmidt. I do hope it gets better, because I found its opening twenty minutes annoying. I love Jack Nicholson as much as the next fellow, and I’ve heard about how restrained he is in this film, so maybe I’ll start responding to something at some point. Certainly I haven’t thus far, especially the non-pace of director Alexander Payne.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below before I talk about another movie.
My goodness, I almost wrote the whole of the notes already and now this section here will seem puny by comparison. By the way (BTW, in Internet lingo), Mr. Mark Bakalor has put up a handy-dandy link to the brand spanking new cover to Kritzerland. It’s located in the handy-dandy links to new sections section of our home page – just click there, find the Kritzerland icon and click again – then click on the book for a full-sized image. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
I forgot to mention that I slept very very very (that is three verys – perhaps I need to vary the very) well last night. I had quite a big sleep last night. Molly had been sleeping in my room and shall we say she does a lot of licking during the night. I was constantly being awakened by the sound of licking and Molly is not a quiet licker, she licks with élan. Additionally, as I’ve already pointed out, Molly likes to relieve herself of her gas problems whilst sleeping and the aroma was quite heady at times and that would wake me too.
We only had two High Winners in our Unseemly Trivia Contest. The question was:
A hit comedy. Later turned into an Academy Award-winning film. The play was directed by someone who was about to become a movie star. The play featured one actor who would go on to appear in a classic 70s film – that same actor would have a very short-lived television series on which yours truly guest-starred – said series was created by someone who is today a major motion picture director.
Name the hit comedy. Name the one (or more) category it won its Oscar for. Name the director who was about to become a movie star. Name the actor and his classic 70s film, and (don’t hate me) name his short-lived television series. Bonus point if you can name the series’ creator who is now a major motion picture director.
And the answers:
Lovers and Other Strangers (there seems to be some controversy as to whether it was a hit, with its short run, but I believe it’s perceived as a hit).
Best Song (For All We Know)
Charles Grodin
Richard Castellano – The Godfather
The Super
Bonus – Rob Reiner
Bonus Bonus – I guest-starred on an episode of the show.
Our High Winners were JMK and SteveG. Our electronic hat has chosen JMK as our Highest Winner, so if he’ll send his handy-dandy address we’ll get him off a sparkling prize posthaste.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must drive great distances to have meetings and whatnot, but I shall be back and I shall be checking in on your excellent posts. Today’s topic of discussion: Favorite films of the 80s. In retrospect, the eighties, while not the greatest decade for film (by a long shot), did produce some marvelous films, just not the spectacular number of marvelous films that other decades did. I’ll start – ET, Poltergeist, Back to the Future, Once Upon a Time in America, My Life as a Dog, Ran, The King of Comedy, Body Heat, Tootsie, Broadway Danny Rose, Stardust Memories – I’ll look forward to your choices because my mind is drawing a blank. But might I add a couple of more to yesterday’s 70s list – Marathon Man and the delightful Heaven Can Wait with Mr. Warren Beatty. Your turn.