September 30, 2007 - October 6, 2007

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My movie year (not yet)

I still haven't seen much, or at least nothing to even mention. Meanwhile, new stuff continues to pile up, some of it looking at first glance to be supremely bizarre. I wonder how easy people would find the movie quiz if I used films like these:

Cuentos de hadas para dormir cocodrilos AKA Bedtime Fairy Tales for Crocodiles (Mexico - 2002), directed by Ignacio Ortiz. I knew nothing about this odd blend of fantasy and history, and after reading this synopsis at imdb, I may know even less: "Arcangel gets a message from his brother telling that their father is very sick. Arcangel and his son travel to hometown, the familiy house looks abandoned, only Isabel, a misterious [sic] old woman, is there. His father and brother are dead for so many years. Tranquilino, the grand grand father looked at the eyes of the coyote, since then the horror of a crime and the hell of being unable to sleep will chase them. Teresa is pregnant. Arcangel knows that a curse is coming. 'It's said that only love can save them from disgrace, but that's crap. Love doesn't exist.'"

Still, with moments in the film like the following, maybe the above does make sense after all:

And if that isn't weird enough for you . . .

Oily Maniac (1976 - Hong Kong), produced by The Shaw Brothers. If you're in the mood for action-packed lunacy, you can hardly go wrong with anything by The Shaw Brothers. I don't have to see anything but the title to know that this one will be a laff riot. The reviewer for Hong Kong Digital described the title character as "a charred and melted version of the Michelin Tire man" who can't change into his alter ego without a barrel of oil to drench himself in. His powers then are pretty much limited to oozing down drains and making a mess. But like all good movie monsters, he loves the pretty ladies.

Posted by Steve Monaco at October 5, 2007 2:47 PM

 

Oh, no! Not him again!

Posted by Steve Monaco at October 3, 2007 5:47 PM

 

Monaco's No-Life Bottom Three

1) "$3500 sound for only $99!" Forgive me-- I'm going to tell you about my new sound card. It's an M Audio (brand name) Audiophile 2496 (model), and it sells online for as little as $100. Now, for a sound card, that might sound outrageously high, especially considering your computer already has one. But if you don't really like the way your CDs sound-- and who does?-- and wonder if you need a better player, this card is all you need.

If you're able to have your PC and stereo co-exist at least nearby, all you do is plug the output of the card into your preamp, play a music file on your computer, and the sound comes out of your good speakers like it was being played on an audiophile CD player. (Those things sell for thousands, and-- IMO-- they're the biggest stereo ripoff around.) Okay, since I've already lost 99 percent of you, I'm not going to post a pic of it, but here's a link to the info.

I haven't watched a movie since I set it up two weeks ago-- I've been on a non-stop music jag, because it all sounds so much deeper and more natural, I can't get enough of it. Just how good is it? Even mp3s sound decent! (Playing now: Cortot playing Chopin from remastered 78s, preceded by "Long Gone Geek" by Procol Harum.)

2) Go away, Larry David! Much as I enjoyed the first couple seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm, the later ones left me living out the title suggestion, and by the end of the last one, I was hoping the death scenario was meant to be taken symbolically and he was killing off the show. Maybe it was, but if so, David has now resurrected the damned thing, and it's already shaping up to be even worse. He doesn't understand that it's just not that hilarious to watch a near-billionaire steal flowers off a dead old woman's memorial and then shout self-righteously about why he did it. (Of course, the woman in the pic above, the soon-to-be-ex Mrs. David, will undoubtedly be reducing Larry's wealth considerably, and many reviews have noted a negative shift in the way Cheryl Hines' TV-wife is being portrayed this season.) The rest of the regulars aren't cutting it any more, either, from Susie Essman's tiresome Tourette's schtick to Jeff Garlin's continuing lack of improv skills. Last week's toilet-oriented episode was just awful. Larry knew when to call it quits on Seinfeld-- what's the problem this time?

3) Happy birthday, Gore Vidal. Thanks to Mark Gisleson at Norwegianity, I didn't forget. My hero is 82 today, and I am so glad that, if the country had to go the way it did, that we still have him with us, keenly pointing out what's really going wrong the way he has with almost total accuracy all along. To prove it, Mark has posted a remarkable radio interview from 1962, where Studs Terkel talks with Vidal, who's not yet 40, about his two favorite subjects: literature and American history. As you listen, keep in mind that it wasn't that long ago when conversation like this was available on American airwaves on a regular basis-- today you can't find anything this substantial even on our corporate-owned National Public Radio. Anyway, happy birthday, Mr. Vidal!

Posted by Steve Monaco at October 3, 2007 3:39 PM

 

The Monday Movie Quiz #143

That's it. Know the movie? Then send me an email by late Sunday night with the title. If you're correct, expect to wallow in the glory of seeing your name in next week's symphonic winner's circle.

Posted by Steve Monaco at October 1, 2007 12:33 AM

 

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

(By the way, the admonishment at the bottom of the poster isn't as obvious and stupid as it might appear-- odd as it may seem today, even in the '60s, people routinely walked into the theater whenever they showed up. A friend of mine actually grew up believing that you started watching movies in the middle, then stayed after it was over to see how it started!)

Last week's quiz movie in question was, of course, The Birds (1963), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. There were lots of personal recollections from winners and, for a change, this is one Hitch flick that people don't remember all that fondly. "This is definitely one of those films that scared the hell out of me as a kid but now has lost most all of its punch." "This film has not aged well. I was in [a] Hitchcock Film class this past Spring and the class would erupt in laughter at parts that were never meant to be funny. The scene with the crows on the jungle gym has been done so many times since this film came out it's become a worn out cliche." "I never really cared for this film. I’m not too afraid of seagulls."

This was also the film that introduced Melanie Griffith's mother, aka Tippi Hedren, to the world. Say what you will about her acting, she was a real trooper, putting up with filming situations worse than . . . well, a horror movie. The climactic scene where she's attacked in the attic took a week to shoot. According to Hedren: "I was on the floor, on the ground by the door, and they had tied bands around my body before I put the dress on, with little thin elastics, and through the holes of the dress, they pulled the strings through, and then they loosely tied the leg of the bird to my body. And one of them was sitting here and it jumped up at my face and scratched my eye and I just said, 'That's enough'."

But even the worst of her feathered costars were still easier for her to work with than her director and mentor. According to Hitch biographer Donald Spoto (The Dark Side of Genius), it wasn't until their next film together (and their last), Marnie that the director let his leading lady know exactly how he felt about her. Her reaction (and I'm paraphrasing): "Yuck!" Again, Ms. Hedren: "It was very, very difficult for me. [...] He wanted me to be beholden to him for making me a star. Yes, he was sexually obsessed with me. It was awful but what could I do? There's no doubt about it, Hitch did have a very weird attitude towards women, perhaps because of his very strange childhood." (They didn't speak for the rest of Marnie, and forever after, Hitchcock only referred to her as "that woman.")

It was a good turnout of winners this week, so congratulations and an economy-size helping of gull guano to the following: Vince Tuss, Wayne Palmer, Shannon.Blatherwick, Michael Kelly, Bob Redwing, Mark Gisleson, Donald Greene, Lisa Young, Song-Un Lee, Thomas Miller, Dennis Lynch, Joe Rosenberg, Corey Anderson, E. Yarber, Kevin Musolini, Michael Arnold, Bill Hearne, mick, Dean E. Carlson, John Reinan, Michael Mattson, and Nick Rupar.

Posted by Steve Monaco at September 30, 2007 11:02 PM

 

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