If you’re a film fan in New York City–particularly a fan of Alfred Hitchcock–you’ll want to be at Tribeca 92/Y, 2012 92nd Street, tonight for the next installment of the “Bastards of Hitch” program. It’s the last in their series exploring films were by works of the great Master of Suspense.
During August, Tribeca 92/Y has screened Jonathan Demme’s Hitchockian-themed THE LAST EMBRACE, Nicholas Roeg’s mysterious DON’T LOOK NOW and title designer Saul Bass’ PHASE IV. Tonight it’s Brian DePalma’s DRESSED TO KILL(1980).
I think many people might choose DON’T LOOK NOW as the best among the MUBI-sponsored series. But this DePalma film, along with DePalma’s Vertigo-esque OBSESSION, are my two favorite, Hitch-like efforts. DRESSED TO KILL, while it couldn’t quite be mistaken as being directed by Hitch himself, comes very close. Cast as the cool blonde, Angie Dickinson has the same, icy-yet-smoldering sensuality of Kim Novak, while Michael Caine, like Joseph Cotten in SHADOW OF A DOUBT or Robert Walker in STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, has just enough edge to his character to make you wonder if he could be a tiny bit off-center.
DePalma’s superb, tour-de-force museum sequence is a highlight of this very disturbing and scary film–a film that is to elevators what PSYCHO is to showers.
The most recent film I saw Phyllis Diller in just happened to be her very first movie appearance. In the splendid SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS,(1961; Elia Kazan; Warren Beatty, Natalie Wood) she portrays a character named Texas Guinan, an acerbic nightclub hostess. She’s basically playing herself though–a loud, brash and brassy comic within whom could also be seen a warm, laughing heart, a need for acceptance, and a vulnerability. Rest in peace.
Actor Frank Langella (GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, many more) says he’s had “a life like a Chekhov play”. He has many stories to tell about his co-stars in a well-reviewed new biography, Dropped Names. (“Rita Hayworth dancing by candlelight in a small Mexican village; Elizabeth Taylor devouring homemade pasta and tenderly wrapping him in her pashmina scarf; streaking for Sir Laurence Olivier in a drafty English castle; terrifying a dozing Jackie Onassis; carrying an unconscious Montgomery Clift to safety on a dark New York City street.”) He also appears in a new film with, of all things, a robot.
Frank was just interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air program. My favorite Langella film, without a doubt, is Mel Brooks’ THE TWELVE CHAIRS. Highly recommended.
ON THIS DAY in 1942, the Battle of the Tenaru, between U.S. Marines and the Japanese army, took place on Guadalcanal Island. The confrontation was featured in episode 1 of the 2010 Steven Spielberg mini-series, THE PACIFIC.
ON THIS DAY in 1940, Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded after being struck with an axe by a Soviet government assassin. The 1972 Joseph Losey film, THE ASSASSINATION OF TROTSKY, with Richard Burton, depicted this event.
ON THIS DAY in 1612, three women from Lancashire, England–“the Samlesbury witches”–were accused of practicing witchcraft in one of the most famous witch trials in English history. In 1957, this trial was depicted in the French-German film THE CRUCIBLE, with Simone Signoret and Yves Montand.
ON THIS DAY in 1958, Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel Lolita was published in the United States. Stanley Kubrick’s film LOLITA premiered in 1962, with James Mason, Shelley Winters, Peter Sellers and Sue Lyon as Lolita.
Good evening. Have you ever told a lie? Be truthful now. Remember what really became of the last cookie in that cookie jar? Yes you do. Of course, some lies-white lies-aren’t as big as others, as you’ll find out in this creative and amusing quiz we’ve created. By the way, in case you shouldn’t find the quiz creative and amusing, then we had absolutely nothing to do with. Honest.
(*The quiz title was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest:“Something wrong with your eyes?” “Yes”, says the sunglass-clad Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant), “They’re sensitive to questions”. When Roger steals a cab out from under a poor man by claiming his secretary, Maggie, is very ill, Maggie scolds him: “He knew you were lying.”)
ON THIS DAY in 1786, American frontiersman and soldier Davy Crockett was born. His exploits were dramatized in the 1955 Disney film, DAVY CROCKETT, KING OF THE WILD FRONTIER, starring Fess Parker.
ON THIS DAY in 1888, British Army officer T. E. Lawrence was born. David Lean’s 1962 epic, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, starring Peter O’Toole, was based on Lawrence’s experiences in Arabia during the first World War.
ON THIS DAY in 1965, the Beatles played before approximately 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City. The concert–which marked the birth of stadium rock–was documented in the 1966 film, THE BEATLES AT SHEA STADIUM.
So there’s this show. It’s apparently about drugs. Dwelling on the drug culture, watching shiftless, troubled kids get high. Violence, death. Sounds depressing. My impressions led me to say, this isn’t quite like the way I’d want to spend an hour at 9 p.m. on a Sunday night. MAD MEN, yes, absolutely. But not this. And so I never tuned-in to BREAKING BAD.
Meanwhile, friends would recommend various shows to me. DEXTER, THE WIRE, ROME, HOMELAND, BOARDWALK EMPIRE. I tried but couldn’t get into BOARDWALK EMPIRE. The others, particularly HOMELAND, I definitely will be checking out.
As BREAKING BAD was available via Netflix Instant, I broke down and gave Season 1, episode 1 a try. And so there was this desperate-looking, middle-aged guy in his underwear, standing in a desert next to a beige RV. Well, I don’t know. But by the end of the show, I was a little bit intrigued. At the conclusion of episode 2, I was hooked forever.
That was about seven weeks and 40 episodes ago. Last night I watched episode 6 of season 4 (seasons 1-4 are available on Netflix and elsewhere; season 5 is currently running on AMC, and will be the show’s last ).
I can’t imagine having one-week interludes between new installments, let alone waiting nearly a year for a new season. Well, actually I don’t have to imagine that, because it is actually what I’m currently doing with the aforementioned MAD MEN.
Actor Bryan Cranston, who plays Walter White (aka “Heisenberg”, the lead character in BREAKING BAD) is truly terrific. Basically just a regular guy, his deadpan, slightly annoyed-and-perturbed, slow-boil style is a hilarious and tense contrast to his angry young partner Jesse (Aaron Paul). It gets even better with Walt’s son (RJ Mitte, who, like his character, Walt, Jr., has mild cerebral palsy), Walt’s wife (Anna Gunn) and a great supporting cast.
Like with Norman Bates or Tony Soprano, it’s amazing how the human mind can often feel sympathy for a person who is doing bad things, if we know their life story and their motives. The disturbed Norman, of course, loved his mother to the point where he’d kill on her behalf. Tony was a real family guy, but he was raised to see murder and mayhem as the cost of doing business in Jersey. In Walter White’s case, his overriding desire is to provide for his wife and son.
At a dead-end, part-time job at a car wash, and in a thankless role teaching bored high school students chemistry, Walt finds an opening to use his skills to finally make something people really want. At the same time, Walt, like some spreading disease, has caused a chain reaction that affects many people–not always in good ways–and he has learned how to lie, to everyone. And to lie on top of lies. He is finally getting respect, and he’s making something of himself at last. But what is that “something”? I’m on my way to finding out.
Without spoiling anything, a clip from the show; a glimpse into the premise and tongue-in-cheek style of BREAKING BAD:
ON THIS DAY in 1980, Polish electrician and human rights activist Lech Wałęsa scaled a fence at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk where a food price-hike strike was taking place. Wałęsa became the strike’s leader, his actions leading to Poland’s Solidarity movement. In 1981, the film MAN OF IRON, directed by Andrzej Wajda, told the story of how the movement persuaded the Polish government to recognize workers’ rights.
ON THIS DAY in 1860, Annie Oakley–sharpshooting star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show–was born. In 1935, her life was portrayed by Barbara Stanwyck in the film, ANNIE OAKLEY.
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