Movies to Review

Bad Santa

Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie, The

Bob le Flambeur

Don't Shoot the Piano Player

La Femme Nikita

Jean de Florette

Manon de la Source

The Quiet American

Central Station

Political Correctness and Ice Cream
Last week I found out from a (feminist) acquaintance that a woman complained that a flavor at Jake's Ice Cream called Chocolate Slap Yo Mama encouraged violence against women. So a friend of hers suggested they offer a limited-edition flavor called Chocolate Bust a Cap in Yo Mama's Ass. (Chris rotfl)

So yesterday I walked into Jake's and discovered they actually caved in! I'm writing them a letter to protest that I am offended by their craven behavior. If you'd like to write them too, their corporate office at 655 Highland Avenue, Suite 5, Atlanta, GA 30312.

Have you been mugged today?
Not one, but two of the bloggers on my blogroll have been mugged in the last week. The rest of you, be careful.

Michael Kamen RIP
Michael Kamen, 55, died November 18 of a heart attack. Kamen composed and conducted some of the music for the '96 Olympics here in Atlanta. He wrote the music for the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon films, License to Kill, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, including (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, which you either loved or hated. He orchestrated Pink Floyd's The Wall and Metallica's S & M. Terry Gilliam, a friend of his, invited him to write the music for Brazil. Yes, he also perpetrated the finale of the American Symphony from Mr Holland's Opus, but the rest of the symphony, which you can't hear in the film is better. His last film was Open Range. No, he wasn't a classical composer, but his music is a veritable joyride. He will be missed.

Theories of the Mind by Stephen Priest


Since I'm not an expert on the mind-body problem, I can't say if Stephen Priest has written a fair survey of the attempts to solve the problem. His writing is lucid, though, and Priest does not neglect recent neuroscientific research. One annoying feature is that he repeatedly explains that certain hypotheses. Perhaps he intended to write a textbook, in which case only arbitrary excerpts might be read.) According to Library Journal, this book also offers "a valuable corrective to the materialism of Daniel Dennett's Consciousness Explained," a book that gets a lot of blogospheric attention. Priest's own theory, which he saves for the conclusion, is that mental events occur and material objects exist. Mind and matter, however, do not exist, and there really is no mind-body problem, just as there is no motion-car problem. (Incidentally, Priest considers Kant a materialist, but he understandably believes that to explain why would take another book. If anyone has written such a book, please let me know.)

Le Film Noir et Lefont

I had to wipe up my drool when I found out that George Lefont's annual French film fest is featuring film noir this time. The rundown courtesy of Accessatlanta:

Premiere party, with "Elevator to the Gallows," Louis Malle's 1958 thriller with Jeanne Moreau. (By reservation: 404-495-1684; $15; reception at 7:15 p.m.; screening 8 p.m. Thursday).

All films -- $5.50 before 6 p.m.; $5.50-$8 after; $27 series pass -- does not include premiere party. At Lefont Garden Hills Cinema, 2835 Peachtree Road N.E. 404-266-2022, 404-495-1684.

DEC. 5

• "Rififi" (1955; 2:40 and 7:20 p.m.) -- A jewel heist is at the heart of this crime drama with a memorable -- and silent -- robbery that lasts 30 minutes.

• "Bob le Flambeur" (1955; 5:10 and 9:50 p.m.) -- Director Jean-Pierre Melville's drama about an aging gangster and gambler with plans to knock off a casino. The film was remade recently as "The Good Thief" with Nick Nolte.

DEC. 6

• Bob Le Flambeur" (3 and 7:30 p.m.).

• "Tchao Pantin" (1983; 5:10 and 9:40 p.m. -- An alcoholic gas station attendant seeks revenge when his friend, a drug dealer, is killed.

DEC. 7

• "Tchao Pantin" (2:45 and 7:30 p.m.).

• "Any Number Can Win" (1963; 5 and 9:40 p.m.) -- A casino caper movie from director Henri Verneuil.

DEC. 8

• "Any Number Can Win" (2:20 and 7:20 p.m.) --

• "Purple Noon" (1960; 4:50 and 9:50 p.m.) -- Director Rene Clement's stunning version of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is far superior to Anthony Minghella's more recent film. (Here's a review of a new biography of Patricia Highsmith, author of The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train.)

DEC. 9

• "Purple Noon" (2:55 and 7:20 p.m.).

• "Shoot the Piano Player" (5:25 and 9:45 p.m.) -- François Truffaut's 1960 romantic thriller about a one-time virtuoso now playing piano in a bar.

DEC. 10

• "Shoot the Piano Player" (3:25 and 7:30 p.m.).

• "Elevator to the Gallows" (5:25 and 9:30 p.m.).

DEC. 11

• "Elevator to the Gallows" (2:55 and 7:30 p.m.).

• "Riffi" (5 and 9:35 p.m.).

The festival will be followed by a weeklong run of a new 35mm print of Jacques Becker's 1953 thriller "Hands off the Loot."

For those who are new to the genre, I'd strongly recommend Rififi, Bob le Flambeur and Shoot the Piano Player. And yes, these films really need to be seen on a big screen.

The Big Red One, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Andrei Rublev

Hiroshima mon amour was not screened at Emory last night so I caught the last 45 minutes of The Big Red One dir. Samuel Fuller. It's yet another serious war film, albeit one that focuses on WWII rather than Vietnam. It's unfair to review the film since I didn't see it from the start but I did enjoy how it touches the rich variety of experience instead of riding the "war is hell" bandwagon. I also enjoyed this bit:

A: [on bombing an asylum] Killing insane people is bad for public relations.
B: But killing sane people is OK.

I went to the Emory library afterwards to listen to Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's recording of the Ravel G minor concerto. I rarely love Ravel, but I did fall unabashedly in love with the way Michelangeli interpreted the slow movement. I felt as though I were listening not to a piano, but to the Platonic idea of music. I also strongly recommend his recording of Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785) sonata no. 5, a piece that surely deserves more attention by living performers. (For what it's worth it was much better than anything I've heard by Hummel, who has of late been resurrected.)

And now for Andrei Rublev. I tried to watch this three-and-a-half-hour monster and gave up after one hour. Last night I was chatting with the music librarian about it and found out that:
a. There are two brothers in the film who are played by the same actor
b. there is no clear demarkation between flashbacks and current plot events.
If this is not pretentiousness, then I am Donald Duck.

Added a few more Davidson blogs to the roll: American Robin, Blog on the Run, Sacrifice Zone and Tightly Wound Woman.

Upcoming.org
To all local readers of my blog -- yes, all one of you -- if you're interested in events that I plan to attend or at the very least recommend, I present to you my upcoming.org page.

Life in Darkness and Light: A Talk on Alfred Hitchcock and the Art of Writing Film History and Biography by Patrick McGilligan, journalist and biographer.

McGilligan's new biography of Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, is the first to appear in over 20 years, so McGilligan spent about 15 minutes reading from it. He chose a passage describing the clash between Raymond Chandler, the second writer on Strangers on a Train, and Hitchcock. Chandler did not appreciate Hitchcock's visual narration so he wanted to spell out everything in dialogue, which lead to his firing.

If you've read the Hitchcock is a perv book, aka The Dark Side of Genius by Donald Spoto, you'll find McGilligan's book like a splash of cold water. At least one of Spoto's perv stories is false, and Hitch's personal life was actually quite normal.

Regarding the split with Saul Bass, Hitch's art director, McGilligan said that the shower scene, as we see it, in Psycho was a collaboration between Hitch, his wife, and Bass. Bass may have designed the storyboards, but it was unfair for him to claim complete credit for that scene.

Per McGilligan, the split with Bernard Herrmann was a result of the production company's wishes. Hitch was also displeased with Herrmann's excessive reuse of musical material in successive films. (Since Herrmann was notorious for repeating measures within a score, too, we have a case of ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny.) McGilligan's book devotes a chapter to Hitchcock and music.

McGilligan's best anecdote was about researching Hitch's impotence. McGilligan went to Hitch's doctor to ask him about it, and the doctor replied, "It never came up."

Blogroll Update

In addition to Marstonalia, I now have five other blogs by Davidson students and alums. Alenda Lux Ubi Orta Libertas, (which is the Davidson motto and translates as "let learning be cherished where liberty has arisen") is by a mysterious alum but he is obviously friends with Roshan Paul aka Organized Nomad. I knew Roshan at Davidson; he is a compatriot and fellow computer science survivor. Surprisingly, he has Nidhi's blog on his blogroll. Thanks to Hanley, I know that dating at Davidson still sucks. Erica Robin informs us that Joyce Carol Oates may be a great public speaker, but is not up to snuff as a poet or public speaker. (Plus she's sadly as anorexic in real life as she appears in her dust jacket photos.) Sims Hill is a sophomore, which means she was born in 1984, which means I am really old. And finally, Dan Troy, whom I am loathe to add, is a Republican wingnut, courtesy of whom we get:

Reasons why the US is better than Europe:

3) You dont have to pay for ketchup in McDonalds

2) There isn´t a McDonalds AND a BK (literally) every city block.

1) Street signs...´nuff said. (And they´re on EVERY street, not just selective ¨special¨ streets)

Enough said, indeed. Perhaps he should read Marstonalia.

This week in Atlanta (Nov 17 - 20)

Nov. 17.
Life in Darkness and Light: A Talk on Alfred Hitchcock and the Art of Writing Film History and Biography by Patrick McGilligan, journalist and biographer. His new biography of Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, is the first to appear in over 20 years.

Nov. 18
Kunal Basu discusses and signs his novel "The Opium Clerk." 7 p.m. (with a reception at 6 p.m.) $8 Margaret Mitchell House, 990 Peachtree St. For Basu's full Atlanta/Athens schedule, click here.

Nov. 18
Colson Whitehead reading and book signing at Emory's Woodruff Library

Nov. 19
Hiroshima Mon Amour dir. Alain Resnais (86 min)
Screening at White Hall 110 in Emory Univ

Nov. 20
Urban Nutcracker
At the Ferst Center in Georgia Tech