Silly Thinking
*with Jim Farris*
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For out of the ordinary home viewing fun, you've come to the right place: STHT
Some interesting recent finds.
1. “The Secret Lives Of Dentists”. Director Alan Rudolph, who worked closely with Robert Altman in the 70’s, never achieved the greatness he showed in those early works. His off kilter romantic comedies (like “Call Me”) bored me. This off kilter romantic comedy finally delivers. A knowing eye on a deteriorating family with a possibly imagined outside affair, achieves just the right level of paranoia to seem true. That, coupled with achingly funny family situation scenes and an imagined critic (played with great wit by Dennis Leary) who complicates things by making Dad Bill Campbell seem to talk to himself, makes “The Secret Lives Of Dentists” a rare film for adults.
2. “Taking Sides”. Fascinating true story of conductor of The Berlin Symphony during World War II who never joined the Nazi party but co-operated for special favors. Harvey Kietel plays an American inquisitor who peppers the maestro (Stefan Skallsgard) with questions of perception and conscience. Engrossing, challenging drama.
3. “Fellini: I’m A Big Liar” . Great documentary on the Italian genius film maker is an eye opening look at the Picasso of the Cinema. Interviews with several actors and collaborators (Donald Sutherland, Roberto Benigni, and Terrence Stamp are great fun) plus a lengthy talk with Fellini himself.
4. “I Know Where I’m Going”. The brilliant 1945 comedy from The Archers (Michael Powell and
Emrich Pressburger) in England, tells slight story of woman who goes to the Scottish coast to marry her fiancé, an industrialist, on a remote island. She ends up stranded on the mainland and when she can leave finds she no longer wants to, having fallen in love with another man and the Scottish denizens of a small town. Star Wendy Hiller is simply wonderful here, as is the striking location cinematography, and the surrealistic dreams and wanderings including a very funny marriage fantasy where the bride weds the chemical company as opposed to the man who owns it. This film is a landmark of post war British cinema and is now brought back in a stunning Criterion Collection DVD. Do not miss it.
5. “The Spook Who Sat By The Door”. Based on an underground best seller, by Sam Greenleef, in the early 70’s, this little seen classic is now restored and on DVD and should not be missed. The fictional story of the first African American CIA agent who leaves the agency and trains an urban army to fight white oppression was produced by United Artists (they probably thought they were getting a cheap “black exploitation” pot boiler) directed by the token black on the old “Hogan’s Heroes” TV show, Ivan Dixon, and starring unknowns. What they got was considered subversive as street wise punks were turned into urban guerillas and open war fare results.
The film was released in 1972 and riots and violence surrounded the openings, then the film was pulled (after a week and a half in release) and all prints went mysteriously missing. For years “The Spook Who Sat By The Door” gained legendry status as bootleg, blurry, prints, occasionally showed up and stories of how the CIA itself destroyed the prints surfaced.
Now, in 2004, the film is still controversial as the Black violent activism endorsed by the story is now considered terrorism and the virtual “how to kill cops and blow up buildings” scenario is certainly a perceived danger to Homeland Security.
Time has only made this film better and more controversial.
6. “Three Women”. Robert Altman’s one of a kind masterpiece, also from 1972, is on Criterion Collection DVD. Altman dreamed (literally) this story up and the dreamlike quality of the images is so evocative of another world reality it’s intoxicating. It takes place in the Southern California desert and tells the story of Millie, a misfit who works at a health spa, and her friendship with Pinky, who starts working with her and eventually takes over Millie’s life, and “becomes” Millie. The third woman is played with great pain and suffering by Janice Rule, a moody artist who lives near by and paints murals on deserted pool interiors. Shelly Duvall plays Millie, a desperate outsider who fantasizes a sophisticated Vogue Magazine kind of life, and plays her with as a survivalist whose single minded intent is sad, funny, and amazing to watch. Sissy Spacek, in one of her best screen performances, plays Pinky as a sort of an unshaped alien who learns how to be human by watching Millie design demented dinner parties (Cheez Wiz and shrimp cocktail will never seem quite the same again.) This film is a psychological journey that you won’t forget.
That's it for this week. SEE THESE FILMS AND HAVE AN ENRICHED LIFE.
ST IS!
For out of the ordinary home viewing fun, you've come to the right place: STHT
Some interesting recent finds.
1. “The Secret Lives Of Dentists”. Director Alan Rudolph, who worked closely with Robert Altman in the 70’s, never achieved the greatness he showed in those early works. His off kilter romantic comedies (like “Call Me”) bored me. This off kilter romantic comedy finally delivers. A knowing eye on a deteriorating family with a possibly imagined outside affair, achieves just the right level of paranoia to seem true. That, coupled with achingly funny family situation scenes and an imagined critic (played with great wit by Dennis Leary) who complicates things by making Dad Bill Campbell seem to talk to himself, makes “The Secret Lives Of Dentists” a rare film for adults.
2. “Taking Sides”. Fascinating true story of conductor of The Berlin Symphony during World War II who never joined the Nazi party but co-operated for special favors. Harvey Kietel plays an American inquisitor who peppers the maestro (Stefan Skallsgard) with questions of perception and conscience. Engrossing, challenging drama.
3. “Fellini: I’m A Big Liar” . Great documentary on the Italian genius film maker is an eye opening look at the Picasso of the Cinema. Interviews with several actors and collaborators (Donald Sutherland, Roberto Benigni, and Terrence Stamp are great fun) plus a lengthy talk with Fellini himself.
4. “I Know Where I’m Going”. The brilliant 1945 comedy from The Archers (Michael Powell and
Emrich Pressburger) in England, tells slight story of woman who goes to the Scottish coast to marry her fiancé, an industrialist, on a remote island. She ends up stranded on the mainland and when she can leave finds she no longer wants to, having fallen in love with another man and the Scottish denizens of a small town. Star Wendy Hiller is simply wonderful here, as is the striking location cinematography, and the surrealistic dreams and wanderings including a very funny marriage fantasy where the bride weds the chemical company as opposed to the man who owns it. This film is a landmark of post war British cinema and is now brought back in a stunning Criterion Collection DVD. Do not miss it.
5. “The Spook Who Sat By The Door”. Based on an underground best seller, by Sam Greenleef, in the early 70’s, this little seen classic is now restored and on DVD and should not be missed. The fictional story of the first African American CIA agent who leaves the agency and trains an urban army to fight white oppression was produced by United Artists (they probably thought they were getting a cheap “black exploitation” pot boiler) directed by the token black on the old “Hogan’s Heroes” TV show, Ivan Dixon, and starring unknowns. What they got was considered subversive as street wise punks were turned into urban guerillas and open war fare results.
The film was released in 1972 and riots and violence surrounded the openings, then the film was pulled (after a week and a half in release) and all prints went mysteriously missing. For years “The Spook Who Sat By The Door” gained legendry status as bootleg, blurry, prints, occasionally showed up and stories of how the CIA itself destroyed the prints surfaced.
Now, in 2004, the film is still controversial as the Black violent activism endorsed by the story is now considered terrorism and the virtual “how to kill cops and blow up buildings” scenario is certainly a perceived danger to Homeland Security.
Time has only made this film better and more controversial.
6. “Three Women”. Robert Altman’s one of a kind masterpiece, also from 1972, is on Criterion Collection DVD. Altman dreamed (literally) this story up and the dreamlike quality of the images is so evocative of another world reality it’s intoxicating. It takes place in the Southern California desert and tells the story of Millie, a misfit who works at a health spa, and her friendship with Pinky, who starts working with her and eventually takes over Millie’s life, and “becomes” Millie. The third woman is played with great pain and suffering by Janice Rule, a moody artist who lives near by and paints murals on deserted pool interiors. Shelly Duvall plays Millie, a desperate outsider who fantasizes a sophisticated Vogue Magazine kind of life, and plays her with as a survivalist whose single minded intent is sad, funny, and amazing to watch. Sissy Spacek, in one of her best screen performances, plays Pinky as a sort of an unshaped alien who learns how to be human by watching Millie design demented dinner parties (Cheez Wiz and shrimp cocktail will never seem quite the same again.) This film is a psychological journey that you won’t forget.
That's it for this week. SEE THESE FILMS AND HAVE AN ENRICHED LIFE.
ST IS!
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