Fine lookin’ woman..

Opening scene of Bonnie and Clyde, of course. Did anyone ever look better than this?..

So long, cool hand..

And they called it..

… Currently watching Being John Malkovich, which I stubbornly refused to go and see when it came out, despite, or rather because of, so many of my friends telling me how good it was. I did eventually get it on DVD and one would have to say it’s very accomplished and clever, but I can’t help but find it somehow a little gauche – what Don Simpson used to call ‘High Concept’. Of course that’s an empty phrase, just a way of polishing a turd – if Top Gun is high concept then I think we know where we stand. One big idea – in this case one big head – yeah, quirky I know.. 7and a halfth floor and all that. But the main thing that pisses me off about this movie is that they threw away what I thought was going to be a fabulous story – the puppeteer thing at the beginning, and the connected story of his puppets. I was transfixed for a few moments, and convinced that all my friends had been right – this was staggeringly, heartbreakingly brilliant.. but then.. no, they go and throw it away with the bloody big head thing. The numbskulls…

Anyway – here’s one of the bits I loved. Could only find it in Italian, but I think somehow it works even better that way..

(By the way – I believe the actual puppeteer is a guy called Phillip Huber)

Vladimir Nabokov talking about ‘Lolita’..

..’a mirror of human frailties’, indeed..

So many things to love about this clip..

Nabokov’s opening gambit – “…First, of all, I don’t wish to touch hearts, and i don’t even want to affect minds very much. What i want to produce is, really, that little ’sob’ in the spine of the reader. I leave the field of ideas to Dr Schweitzer, and to Doctor Zhivago…”

The way they all three suddenly rise unannounced from the desk and faux-casually wander over to the sofa. “.. I’d like to ask mr Trilling.. as we move over here..” Brilliant.

They’re drinking tea from tiny china cups, and Lionel Trilling smokes stylishly throughout – oh, and comes out with this little gem – “..We can’t trust a creative writer to say what he has done. He can say what he meant to do, and, even then, we don’t have to believe him..”

But most of all I love Nabokov’s story about the ape who was given charcoal and proceeded to draw the bars of his own cage, and how Humbert is Nabokov’s own baboon, ‘a genius baboon perhaps’, but still a baboon “… drawing and shading and erasing and re-drawing the bars of his cage – the bars between him and what he terms the human herd… It is his passion, the pattern of his passion…”

..You’d probably quote me a sonnet..

A little uncanny after I just did exactly that, but I’m watching Good Will Hunting again and this scene just went by which I always liked – a little Hollywood, I know, but moving nonetheless. No way Damon and Affleck wrote that screenplay, by the way..

Look at us – the last stronghold of gracious living in a world gone mad.. mad!

Been musing, this unfine morning, about trains and rivers, and destinies and obligations and life-stories and desires and tennis and, of course, Terry Thomas.. A quick trawl through Youtube reveals that both my favourite Terry moments are now on there..

Can’t for the life of me imagine how, in all my yaddering on here about music and composers generally, and film soundtrack composers specifically, I’ve signally failed to mention the great Neal Hefti, the unchallenged master of that hyper-elegant Manhattan sound. The Odd Couple is, I suppose, his signature work but this one is my favourite. That moment when Terry bends to pick up the mail at the front door, and those velvet horns come sweeping in.. that’s the sound of a New York I was desperate to experience. Of course it had already disappeared long before I finally managed to get myself there, if it had ever actually existed in the first place..

…and, inevitably, the greatest tennis match in the history of the game. From School for Scoundrels, Terry dispatches Ian Carmichael in fine style. How can so much laughter be generated in me just by one man repeatedly uttering the phrase “Hard Cheese!”? Sublime..

Procrastination..

.. a word close to my heart. Glad I finally got around to posting this nice little film by Johnny Kelly – just something to pass the time, really..

]

Two more for the road..

Still haunted by this movie.. and just found a fabulous orchestral version of Mancini’s great theme that I hadn’t come across before. Too good, too damn good..

Recently viewed items..

Just arrived back in the capital and messing around with my new 50mm lens… here he is now, hiding behind the macbook pro..

Anyway, here’s a shot of the alcove next to the TV, taken with the little 50mm fella. Hmm.. doesn’t look like The Seventh Seal has been getting many screenings recently..

Sydney Pollack, 1934-2008

A clip from Out of Africa, which I guess would be generally considered to be his masterpiece, although my favourite of his movies was The Yakuza, with Robert Mitchum and Takakura Ken, which I saw as a teenager and which planted the seed of a desperate desire to travel to Japan, a whole decade before I would eventually get the chance to do so..

( I’m listening to John Barry’s gorgeous Out of Africa main theme, and remembering that I always subconsciously referred to it as ‘Free Born’ , for reasons that I assume are obvious..)

Psych session..

Jane Fonda in ‘Klute’..

Sing where you are, even as it vanishes..

“…To celebrate both his literary accomplishments and his contributions to the University of Illinois, the Provost’s Office commissioned production of five short video works, each of which interprets a passage from one of Richard Powers‘ novels – The Goldbug Variations, Galatea 2.2, Plowing the Dark, The Time of our Singing, and The Echo Maker. The videos are a collaborative endeavor between Powers and a group of artists and designers from the School of Art + Design.

Over the next several months ninthletter.com will publish all five video works. This interpretation based on The Time of Our Singing is the first installment…”

done

Editing & Composing

Travis Austin
Becky Nasadowski

Art Direction

Daniel Goscha

Sound Design

Travis Austin

Voice Over

Richard Powers

Text From

The Time of Our Singing, by Richard Powers

Screen test..

Nice find from Ms. Cheech – some young girl auditioning for a part in Roman Holiday..

You Freud, me Jane?..

Hope you had a good Valentine’s evening. Mine was spent in the company of the inimitable Jody Linscott. She brought round ‘Marnie‘, which I hadn’t seen in years. Great movie – Bernard Herrmann really goes to town on the score – I’d quite forgotten how powerful it was – not much of which is featured in this clip.. it’s somebody’s home-made edit, which captures the prevailing mood quite nicely, I think.. and anyway, it contains my favourite little vignette where Sean is telling her about the flower..

(…this clip is posted on Youtube and in the comments section somebody has written the following..

“I think all the beauty of Hitchcock movies comes from the fact that sex is considered as an awkward act. Love, sex and desire are everywhere but in the act itself.”

Not bad, huh?..)

Kiss montage..

Happy Valentine’s Day. I hope you all have a little of this kind of thing coming your way today…

 

(.. yeah, it’s the end of Cinema Paradiso.. yeah, it’s Ennio.. and yeah, I did already post this clip on here a little while ago.. )

Two more for the road..

.. then I’ll be gone .. 

It’s talking to me at the moment, this movie.. not sure quite what it’s saying..

What would you do if I didn’t exist?..

Two For The Road (1967). First got to see this..ooh, must be ten years ago now, on a night off in Tokyo. We rented it from some exotic avant garde movie place in Ebisu. Hard to imagine, even just ten years ago, the lengths one had to go to to find stuff like this. Nowadays… well, I just checked, and Amazon can guarantee delivery of the DVD to my door by noon tomorrow for the princely sum of £4.97. Not quite the same somehow..

Anyway, here’s a little taste of that wonderful Stanley Donen movie, featuring my current favourite Mancini score, and starring the inspired but, at the time, unlikely pairing of Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. Funny, every time I watch it I’m reminded of another unlikely pair..

Best TV theme/opening credits?..

..OK, it’s probably still Banacek, but this certainly gave it a run for its money back in the day. Jerry Fielding’s fabulous score for McMillan and Wife, staring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James. I had a huge crush on her at the time, but now I’m wondering whether I actually had a crush on Jerry Fielding’s arrangement. She was cute, though..

done

molti ritorni felici, Ennio

Jennifer Connelly, my God but that girl could stare..

“He is altogether lovable – but he’ll always be a two-bit punk, so he’ll never be my beloved… What a shame.. “

Some came running

Just finished watching this again for the umpteenth time, and I’m once again reminded of what a damn fine actor Sinatra actually was. Off the top of my head, Man With the Golden Arm, From Here to Eternity, Manchurian Candidate and this – by any measure that’s some pretty impressive body of work..

As for Shirley – well, ain’t she, though?…