SUMMIT MEETING

SAM PECKINPAH, GUISEPPE ROTUNNO, SERGIO LEONE and MONTE HELLMAN commiserating on the set of Hellman’s AMORE, PIOMBO E FURORE (CHINA 9, LIBERTY 37) (1978).

(Thanks to Alex Cox.)

AARON ARADILLAS INTERVIEWS LISA SCHWARZBAUM

Oh, all right, just one more link, and then I really will go away for a couple of days. Journalist Aaron Aradillas has been doing a series of interviews with film critics at Rock Critics.com and has scored some excellent time talking with the likes of David Edelstein, Janet Maslin, Mike Clark, Jami Bernard (who blogger Andy Horbal reports is on her way out at the New York Daily News, her contract not being renewed), Owen Gleiberman and Glenn Kenny.

Aradillas' style is very casual and informal and he gets these people, who often don't spend a lot of time talking about what they do, to open up in funny and informative fashion.

Now Aradillas is back with his latest piece, a terrifically entertaining interview with Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum. She and colleague Owen Gleiberman have been opening up a bit in their "Ask the Critic" corner segment of their magazine, and Schwarzbaum runs with the opportunity for a long-form conversation about her history, the state of film criticism and, of course, the movies. Thanks, Aaron, for the great work. Maybe eventually a book...?

JIM EMERSON MAKES MY WEEKEND (and most of next week too, I'll bet!)

Holy Schnike! I would have left a comment on the actual post, Jim, but you don’t accept comments, so you leave me no choice but to use this forum to say thank you for such an incredible shout-out. You have indeed made my weekend. And everyone, please note Jim Emerson’s Scanners on the sidebar to your right and click on it often. Anyone who doesn’t like Mississippi Burning is okay in my book!

THREE TIMES AND A BLOGROLL CALL

Shu Qi in Hou Hsiao-hsien's Three Times

It’s been a remarkably substance-free week here at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, one of those periods of time when it feels like I’ve been doing something, but when I turn around and look back, I realize I’ve only been spinning my wheels and shining the light elsewhere. This week has definitely been one for trading in the creative impulse in exchange for the desire to direct readers to other places where they might find some interesting, challenging reading, the kind of satisfaction they’re not going to get here, not this week anyway. I wrung my hands a bit over all of this the last couple of days, but then I realized that seeking out good writing to pass along on any given subject can be illuminating and satisfying too. Maybe not so much as challenging myself and coming up with (hopefully) good stuff from my own heart and mind, but worthwhile nonetheless, not least because most of what I direct you to is almost always going to be better than what you’ll read here on any given day.

And one of the most exciting things about having existed in this blogosphere for going on two years now is those connections made between other like-minded cinephiles and fellow citizens for whom expressing themselves, about film, pop culture, sports, politics and life is an addiction, a lifestyle, a necessity. A click on any of the following links is guaranteed to take you down lots of wonderful philosophical, humorous, thought-provoking, maddening, delightful roads:

Pullquote (the Cinetrix)
Looker (Lawrence Levi)
Twitch
Joe Baltake, The Passionate Moviegoer
The Ongoing Cinematic Eductaion of Steven Carlson
I Find Your Lack Of Faith Disturbing (Josh Friedman)
Dave Kehr
Film Freak Central (Walter Chaw and Bill Chambers)
Nilblogette
IFC: The Captain’s Blog
The IFC Blog
Greenbriar Picture Shows (John McElwee)
Tim Lucas’ Video Watchblog
The Exploding Kinetoscope (Chris Stangl)
The Nick Schager Film Project
Culturespace (Michael S. Smith)
The Evening Class (Michael Guillen)
When Canses Were Classeled (Eric)
Self-Styled Siren (Campaspe)
If Charlie Parker Were a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats (Tom Sutpen)
(mim-uh-zeen) & other loss leaders (Robert Hubbard)
Edward Copeland on Film
Coffee, Coffee and More Coffee (Peter Nellhaus)
Elusive Lucidity (Zach Campbell)
More Than Meets The Mogwai (Aaron W. Graham)
Quiet Bubble (Walter)
Cinephiliac (Aaron Hillis)
Like Anna Karina’s Sweater (Filmbrain)
Flickhead (Ray Young)
Jim Emerson's Scanners
Girish (Girish Shambu)
Cinematical
Notes from Underdog (Craig Phillips)
Cinebeats: Confessions of a Cinephile… (K. Lindbergs)
A Drinking Song (Mr. Middlebrow)
That Little Round-Headed Boy
Hell on Frisco Bay (Brian Darr)
Risky Biz (Anne Thompson)
and The House Next Door (Matt Zoller Seitz)

Who wouldn’t feel lucky to have made such acquaintances and, in some instances, friends? Is it any wonder why I’d feel like sharing with you what these people have to say?

And in that spirit, one last round of links, these connected to some current reviews for the new film by Hou Hsiao-hsien, revered director of Café Lumiere, The Puppetmaster, Flowers of Shanghai and Millennium Mambo, among many others, none of which have gotten much in the way of U.S. distribution. His new film, Three Times, starring Shu Qi (Millennium Mambo, The Transporter, So Close) and Chang Chen (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Happy Together and 2046), looks to be the exception which, hopefully, will pave the way for even more extensive distribution for Hou’s next film, and generate interest in a whole new group of uninitiated cinephiles and cinemagoers for whom Hou is still only a familiar name, a critic’s darling whose films, especially in theaters, are nearly impossible to see.

I have not yet seen Three Times myself, but plenty of good writers have. (It opens here in Los Angeles today, Friday, May 12, exclusively at the Laemmle Music Hall on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills-- a small venue, so plan ahead.) Here are some insightful reviews to check out that will hopefully convince you to go out of your way, avoid the Poseidon/Mission: Impossible 3 crowds, and find a seat in the Music Hall before Three Times disappears:

Scott Tobias (The Onion AV Club)
Scott Foundas (LA Weekly)
Nick Schager (Slant)
Acquarello
Stephanie Zacharek (Salon)
J. Hoberman (The Village Voice)
Manohla Dargis (The New York Times)
Dag Sodtholt (Senses of Cinema)

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Kiss the ones you love, see a wonderful movie, and say Happy Mother’s Day to everyone you know who deserves it!

CASUALTIES OF WAR REVISITED

One more link for the week: Film critic Charles Taylor, late of Salon, writes this week in the New York Observer about the release of the extended cut of Casualties of War, which he calls “Brian De Palma’s masterpiece and one of the greatest of all American movies.” This is an opinion with which I happen to concur, although I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch this film again in a very long time, despite its stylistic-thematic brilliance, because the pain it presents is so raw, inglorious and horrific. However, the arrival of this new cut is definitely an excellent occasion to submit again to the film’s agonies, its insights and, of course, its resonance and pertinence to us as we find ourselves mired, as a nation, in a new age of war.

Taylor: “It’s a blessing that it took Mr. De Palma 20 years to get the movie made (if only for the fact that he got Michael J. Fox’s phenomenal performance as Eriksson). I mean no slight to the director’s powers of discernment to say that no matter how good it might have been, a Vietnam movie on this subject released while America was still in Vietnam would have been taken as a confirmation of the self-loathing that crept into American movies during the Vietnam/Watergate era…. The plural of the title is a clue. Casualties of War remains the only American film about the Vietnam War that addresses what the Vietnamese suffered.”

If you haven’t seen Casualties of War (and the movie’s slight box-office when it was released in 1989 suggests that many haven’t), steel up your nerve and rent it. It is easily one of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen on any subject, a serious engagement with issues and ideas, rendered most vividly cinematic and reaching for an intended emotional and intellectual effect that most American movies would cross a crowded freeway to avoid. Taylor’s fine piece tells part of the story. The movie says it all.

(Again, thanks to David Hudson at Green Cine Daily for highlighting Taylor's article on his invaluable site.)

UPDATE 5/10 5:37 p.m.: In the Comments section below, Michael S. Smith and I both expressed a desire to know more about the differences between the original theatrical cut of Casualties of War and this new "extended cut." Thanks to the magic of the Internet, here's a link to a review of the Extended Cut DVD from DVD Times which serves as a thoughtful review of the film and a detailed account of the material that has been added. According to this article, this extended cut was approved by Brian De Palma and represents his intended version of the film.

CELEBRATING NATIONAL IRWIN ALLEN WEEK 2006

A full-on revival of interest in disaster movies is in swing as we approach the release of Wolfgang Petersen’s ultra-expensive remake of Irwin Allen’s (and Ronald Neame’s) trend-setting The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Both Poseidon (1972) and The Towering Inferno were unleashed in splashy two-disc DVD packages this week-- Inferno even features an unlikely commentary track hosted by Los Angeles film critic F.X. Feeney, surely the most literate and serious-minded consideration this movie has ever had.

And Universal Home Video has jumped on Allen’s coattails this week with the DVD release of Earthquake, in remastered 5.1 Dolby Digital stereo but, alas, no Sensurround (just boost your subwoofer to 11—that’s about all Sensurround was anyway). Though I haven’t seen the slipcase packaging, I’m assuming this new edition of Earthquake will also be sans one of my favorite film critic blurbs ever to appear on a DVD, an endorsement from no less than Pauline Kael--—“The picture is swell!” But anyone familiar with her review of Earthquake (from the Reeling collection) will remember that the piece was anything but enthusiastic—it was, in fact, a scorching pan. And a close look at that review reveals that whoever edited the copy for that original Earthquake DVD probably just, um, made an honest typographical error—yeah, that’s it. Kael’s original review reads, “The picture is swill, but it isn’t a cheat, like Airport 1975, which was cut-rate swill.” (And in case that’s not clear enough for you, she goes on in the next paragraph to say that “Earthquake is Universal’s death wish for film art.”)

So, in the proper spirit of celebration of a week dedicated to cinematic disasters, there’s a lot of good online reading available to carry you up to the first showing of Petersen’s take on that 90-Foot Wall of Water Coming Straight Toward Us at 12:01 Friday morning. David Hudson of Green Cine Daily has rounded up a collection of early reviews of Poseidon, including Ed Gonzalez’s pan at Slant. How about this for an opening salvo?:


“Poseidon recognizes and encourages belief in the popular popcorn-movie theory of The Survival of the Whitest. Twenty whole minutes shorter than Ronald Neame's trash classic The Poseidon Adventure, the film's short-attention span is apt to this era. (The only surprise here is that the hole left behind by Shelley Winters wasn't filled by at least one anorexic Nicole Richie type.) This may be a deliberate ploy on the part of the filmmakers: Move the story so fast and stupidly that it will convey the sense that it has nothing on its mind, making critics appear snobbish for wanting to grapple with it. For sure, the film doesn't think very much, but that's only because Wolfgang Peterson's latest travesty insults us on an unconscious level, and there's no shame in calling out his dumb-as-shit Aryan fantasy for rewriting ‘Back of the Bus’ as ‘Bottom of the Ship.’”

But then there’s Michael Guillen over at The Evening Class, no pushover he, who dug it just fine:

“I found it satisfyingly if not thoroughly entertaining for what it was: an homage to the disaster flick of 1972 that was part and parcel of the Irwin Allen consciousness that permeated my boyhood. I love disaster flicks!! It's something demiurgic in me… the Rogue Wave that capsizes the oceanliner Poseidon will undoubtedly survive as one of Hollywood's great cinematic characters. Peterson gave the Rogue Wave a chance in The Perfect Storm to see what she could do and—finding her more than adequate—cast her in Poseidon, where she makes your breath catch in your throat.”

And while Michael Atkinson at the Village Voice seems to think Petersen’s updated take on the capsized luxury liner is "an utterly empty-skulled genre mechanism and nothing more," Sean Burns of the Philadelphia Weekly begs to differ, and he reserves special praise for one of the film’s stars:

“It's a compact, satisfying genre piece that honors tried and true Hollywood formulas, delivering the goods with a minimum of foolishness. And the always-dependable Kurt Russell is the film's ace in the hole. America's most underrated actor once again proves himself incapable of being anything less than absolutely forthright and sincere. ‘You know it's not fair who lives or dies,’ Russell admits during the movie's single pause for speechifying. ‘It never is.’”

But easily the most satisfying and hilarious take on Unofficial Disaster Movie Week 2006 comes from our friend That Little Round-Headed Boy, who offers up a real gut-buster: the comprehensively titled ”WHEN TIME RAN OUT on THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE to THE TOWERING INFERNO because an EARTHQUAKE unleashed THE SWARM on a ROLLERCOASTER near the AIRPORT”, a very special round-up of the top 10 actors to ever appear in a ‘70s disaster movie. Strap yourself in, Ms. Swanson— we're in for a bumpy ride!

COMING SOON TO A DVD PLAYER NEAR ME...... ROBERT ALDRICH'S EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE

A few days ago I posted my own answers to Professor Van Helsing’s Spring Quiz, and in addition to Mean Streets, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II and the emergence of Robert Altman, the other film I listed as a highlight of the “golden era” of American filmmaking, roughly 1970-1975, was perhaps a bit of a surprise: Robert Aldrich’s Emperor of the North Pole (1973). It’s not a film that’s talked about much some 33 years after its theatrical release. But for those who saw it in theaters years ago, or consequently on TNT or some other cable network highlighting “Movies for Guys Who Like Movies,” it remains a powerful experience. And I admit I chose it out of a mixture of admiration for its brutal lyricism and also precisely because it seemed like such a relatively forgotten work, both as a product of American cinema in the ‘70s and even within Aldrich’s filmography—when the subject of Aldrich comes up, you’ll hear about The Big Knife or Kiss Me Deadly or The Dirty Dozen or Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? or The Longest Yard every time, but you’re unlikely to hear much about this one.

Now comes word that Emperor of the North Pole (aka Emperor of the North, its title upon American reissue) will find its way to DVD on June 6 from 20th Century Fox Home Video, and it may be the DVD release I’m most looking forward to this year. I’ll have a full review of the film up to coincide with that release date, just under a month from now. But for the time being, those who are as interested in Emperor as I am, as well as those who might be unfamiliar with the movie, might be very surprised to discover that there are a couple of fascinating comments on the Amazon.com page for the movie written by a couple of the film’s fans, Theodore Hazen, a.k.a Jew Boy (folks, I don’t write ‘em, I just report ‘em) and J. Terry. I'd like to recommend these comments without hesitation. These guys are unabashed Emperor enthusiasts, to be sure, but they are also very well versed in the folklore of railroads and locomotion, the Depression-era setting of the film, and even information on Leon Ray Livingston, the real-life rail-running hobo who was the inspiration for Lee Marvin’s character A-No. 1.

These comments won’t substitute for a good piece of writing on the film itself (hopefully I won’t be the only one on June 6 trying to fill that void), but the mere fact that Hazen and Terry are head and shoulders above the usual incoherent, illiterate blathering all too common on Internet sites like Amazon and IMDb (to name just two) is itself good news. These men’s words will certainly whet the appetite for the digital version of Emperor of the North Pole, and for railroad no-nothings like me they’ve laid some crucial, excellent groundwork for appreciating anew the context of Aldrich’s masterful movie.