Extra Criticum

Diva Is a Myth

Diva (1981) existed in my psyche as one of the most beautiful films ever and a paragon of cool. I remembered the unlikely romantic couple strolling through a blue-hued Paris at dawn accompanied by a Satie-esque piano piece. I remembered that there was a song from some obscure opera. Ahhhh... the music. I remembered it was a stylish film, pleasing to look at, full of great sets and interesting objects, like that beautiful, vintage, white Citroen. Mostly I remembered the punk, “Priest,” the fantastic Dominique Pinon who would later dazzle me in Delicatessen and make me think he was some kind of French re-incarnation of Charlie Chaplin. His was the face on the poster and on the soundtrack LP. Like any punk worth his safety pins, he was full of disdain. In fact, most of his lines begin with, “I don’t like…” Discovering the music he had pumping into his earpiece was to me one of the great cinematic jokes.

Top 10 Examples of Visual Spectacle in NYC Theatre's Recent-ish History

OK. So, readers of this blog may be surprised (or alarmed?) to see this headline and my byline together in the same post. Those familiar with Rolando Teco's biases know that visual spectacle does not thrill me in the way that, say, authentic human conflict does.

So it dawned on me as I sat transfixed at my window, watching the drama and chaos and sheer beauty of another snowstorm, that I do appreciate some fireworks of the visual sort every now and then. So, here, in totally random order, are my top 10 picks for most stunning, memorable and breathtaking.

Gay Man Comes Out: Why I Love THE BOYS IN THE BAND

I'll admit it. When I first saw the film adaptation of The Boys in the Band, I loved it. I knew I wasn't supposed to, of course. I was in college at the time. My first boyfriend had instructed me that the politics of Mart Crowley's play (and subsequent screenplay) were all wrong. "Self-loathing" and "Internalized Homophobia" were the buzzwords at get-togethers of the Lesbian, Gay and Transgendered Student Association on campus.

So I did what any self-respecting newly-liberated young homo would do. I kept my feelings to myself.

2nd Look: The Comeback. Valerie Cherish is Gorgeous

  

Full disclosure: a friend of mine was in this series and another friend of a friend wrote it. So, naturally, I was curious to take a 2nd look at a show that I'd seen only a few episodes of when it first aired on HBO. When my b.f. gave me the DVD as a gift, we seized the opportunity to watch the entire series -- the lone single season -- start to finish.

Frequent readers of this blog may recall my waxing hyperbolic about the unparalleled level of subtlety in the writing for Matthew Weiner's Mad Men on AMC. So, it came as a wonderful surprise to encounter equally subtle directing and acting on the short-lived Lisa Kudrow vehicle, The Comeback.

Any doubt that she (Lady Gaga) is a serious songwriter ends here

Speechless, by Lady Gaga. Listen here, kids!

04 Speechless

Julia Child vs. Don Draper

The hot TV series of the moment, Mad Men, is set in 1963, the same year that Julia Child debuted on public television with The French Chef. Coincidentally, Child is a hot pop culture icon again (not that she ever really went cold), thanks to the book and film Julie & Julia. Would she have any affinity for Mad Men’s impeccably dressed but emotionally hollow protagonist Don Draper?

While waiting for another Mad Men episode, I started in on a “best of” DVD collection of The French Chef, which opens with perhaps her most famous episode, “The Potato Show.” This is the one in which she tries to flip a large potato pancake, which breaks apart on the way down and ends up half outside the pan. “You can pick it up when you’re alone in the kitchen,” she says to the camera as she grabs the errant pieces and puts them back in the pan. “Who is going to see?”

A "Second Look" at DIVA?

Rolando Teco and I will be re-viewing the French film Diva for the "Second Look" feature. Any one else interested in joining us? Plan to watch the film between now and Labor Day. Any takers?

25 Years Later: "After Hours"

I haven’t seen Martin Scorcese’s After Hours since it came out in 1985 and I was a 21-year-old who had never been to New York. Since then I’ve spent a lot of time in Manhattan and have met plenty of strange characters after midnight, so I get the movie in ways I didn’t before.

For example, I now get the joke about New Yorkers seeing neighborhoods outside of their homes and workplaces as mystifying, and often terrifying, places. I loved the shots of street signs near the end of the film, showing Griffin Dunne’s progress from SoHo to Midtown. When I lived on 180st Street, I often had the experience of watching the numbered streets go up, from the window of a cab or subway train, and feeling that I was inching ever closer to the comfort of my bed. Another favorite After Hours image was the Mr. Softee ice cream truck, turned sinister when lit by street lamps instead of the noontime sun.

Giving my After Hours some Lovin'

A few weeks ago Rolando, Robert and David and I all met for lunch and as we're a movie-savvy bunch the conversation naturally turned to our favorites. And one by one we each agreed that Martin Scorsese's After Hours was one we really liked. But after seeing it a couple times in late 1986, would it still hold up 23 years later?

Initially I was drawn to the movie because Teri Garr was in it. I enjoyed Garr as the Disbelieving Wife in Close Encounters and then as the Disbelieving Girlfriend in Tootsie. I always felt Garr's pain in these movies, she's always kind of outside the extraordinary events going on around her and her characters are like us, doing the best we can in trying times. 

After Hours: A Male Paranoid Fantasy of Female Volatility?

It had been at least 20 years since I’d last seen Scorcese’s fever dream on film and my take on it has changed substantially, no doubt, in large part to how I have changed.

When I first saw the film, I remember being fascinated by the connections that took the main character Paul Hackett (played beautifully by Griffin Dunne)on his topsy-turvey journey through the hidden layers of lower Manhattan after dark. It seemed to me then—and it still does today—that the string of coincidences and recurring themes that carry him on his meandering path could only be the product of a dreaming mind.

Watching it today, I was struck by the volatility of most of the female characters he meets along the way. 

After Hours Re-Viewed

Not too long ago a bunch of E.C. writers had brunch. Over mimosas and blueberry pancakes, a question was posed: does After Hours hold up? 

I don't remember the first time I saw After Hours, or whether I first saw it in a theater or on VHS or on cable. I do remember enjoying it immensely and watching it more than once in the 80s and early 90s. And though I hadn't seen it in probably 15 years, it always occupied a special place in my heart because of where it was set and where I was in my life when I watched it. So, how would I respond to it in 2009, now that the setting has become unrecognizable and I'm in a very different place? This is, after all, what we mean when we ask does a film hold up. So does it?

Coming Soon: 4 E.C. Authors Revisit AFTER HOURS

Robert David Sullivan, Andrew Altenburg, Rolando Teco and Daviid Licata somehow got to talkin' and one thing led to another and somebody came up with the kooky idea of each of us watching Scorcese's quirky film, After Hours to see if after 25 years, it still holds up.

In a few days, once all four have watched and blogged, we'll post all four 2nd Looks on the same day. Should be fun, so stay tuned! (Rent it now and prepare to add your two cents to the discussion.)

A Shout Out to Carl Theodor Dreyer

I will make this brief, as it is a shameless plug for someone who has been dead for 40 years.

BAM, in their infinite wisdom, is having a festival devoted to the works of the great Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer. Foremost among these works is The Passion of Joan of Arc. It is a silent film from 1928 about the trial and execution of (you guessed it!) Joan of Arc.

A 2nd Look at... New York, New York

This is Martin Scorsese's much-maligned 1977 masterpiece starring Robert DeNiro and Liza Minnelli, with Mary Kay Place, Barry Primus, Lionel Stander, Georgie Auld, Diahnne Abbott and Clarence Clemons. During the heyday of location shooting and gritty documentary-style filmmaking, nobody wanted to see a "Method musical" shot on soundstages. (Milos Forman's adaptation of Hair, shot mostly on location in New York City and released two years later, was much more appealing to critics and audiences.) But there is so much to adore in Scorsese's film, an hommage to Liza's parents with elements of Doris Day's life story. Outstanding art direction, cinematography, score, costumes, film editing, make-up.