HEFFALUMPS AND PORNOGRAPHERS

If anybody out there manages to make it to a screening of Inside Deep Throat over the next few days, I'd really appreciate you dropping me a line on the comments page of this post, or in an e-mail, and letting me know what you think, especially if you are, like me, of a certain age (approaching 45) and therefore more likely to have specific memories regarding Deep Throat when it was in release, and shortly thereafter, and its effect on society.

I remember reading a novelization (!!!) of it in high school-- talk about the mainstreaming of pornography-- and though it was not the first hard-core film I ever saw (In the Realm of the Senses takes that honor, and yet I remain relatively well-adjusted), it was certainly the first hard-core porno film I ever saw. I saw Deep Throat at a screening in a lecture hall on the University of Oregon campus in 1977-- another indication of how times have changed--sponsored by some local group, perhaps a fraternity, or maybe the local Maranatha Society chapter, and for $1.25 I saw things I'd never seen before (and some, like the behavior of an overstimulated young gentleman in the row behind me and off my right shoulder, I hope never to witness again).

So I'm very intrigued by this new documentary dealing with the movie's popularity, the specious circumstances regarding its funding, its effect on politicians and religious groups (the ripples of which are still felt today) and, of course, the testimony of those surviving members of the production (sadly, Linda Lovelace died as the result of a car accident a few years ago). There's absolutely no way I'll be able to make it to West Hollywood or Santa Monica to see it in the next two or three weeks, and I'm not sure I'd wanna fight traffic and crowds for the privilege of paying top dollar and sitting in a house packed with Hollywood hipsterati laughing knowingly on all the right cues anyway. I think I'll wait until it makes it over to the sticks of Pasadena before I seriously consider giving it a go.

I'm also champing at the bit to see this new Thai boxing martial arts film called Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior. The movie's advertising claims, in a manner reminiscent of the way in which Jackie Chan was once introduced, to sport no digital effects, no wires, no trickery, just the amazing martial arts of one Tony Jaa, who's been drawing some pretty heady comparisons with Bruce Lee in uniformly enthusiastic reviews like the one from Kenneth Turan in yesterday's Los Angeles Times. Oh, boy!

And I still hold out some hope to see Bad Education which, despite making no waves with the Academy, is still hanging on at the Laemmle Pasadena Playhouse; Vera Drake, also somewhere in Pasadena; and Being Julia, a fabulous chance to face up to some of my most potent prejudices against one Annette Bening, who is reportedly superb in this role.

All these heady intentions, and my weekend cinema has consisted thus far of the last 20 minutes of Mulan II, which looks at least as good as the first movie, amazingly enough-- could the direct-to-video branch at Disney have finally learned a lesson or two about going cheap? And my weekend cinema chances don't look to get a whole lot shinier. Godard's Masculine-Feminine is back in town, I still need to catch Hotel Rwanda, but if it rains tomorrow (today), and it sure looks like it will, I have a feeling Emma, Nonie and I are gonna be headed to the nearest screening of Pooh's Heffalump Movie. Well, my prospects are nothing if not eclectic.