Hard to believe this down-and-outer is today a big auteur, and director of a currently hot movie.

What? You need a couple more clues?

That should do it, I hope. So send me an email with the title by late Sunday. If you're right, expect a round of semi-applause when you see your name in next week's painfully obvious winner's circle.

Last week's quiz movie was Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock (1999), starring Emily Watson, Hank Azzaria, Bill Murray, among others. Some quiz winners liked it a lot: "I think it's the perfect blend of the Orson Welles/Marc Blitzstein storyline mixed with the Diego Rivera side story, and topped off with some of the best performances I've seen from some of the cast." And some other didn't: "Never has a movie that has gotten so much buzz disappointed me so much." "Wow, what a cast! Wow, what a ... meh movie."

So congratulations to the following quiz winners: Vince Tuss, Mojo Marshall, Wayne Palmer, Nancy Louise Rutherford, ron frigstad, BoneDog, Michael Mattson, Thomas Miller, Shannon M. Quinlan, Christina O'Sullivan, Letra Minuscula, Bill Hearne, Bob Redwing, E. Yarber, Dave Mallow, Song-Un Lee, Tupac Sotut, Fred Lorence, Joe Rosenberg, Paul Rignell, and Kevin Musolino.

Another Depression-era movie-- I wonder why that period is on my mind lately? Anyway, if you know the title, send me an email by late Sunday (Oct. 26th). If you're right, expect to hear your praises sung in next week's baby-friendly winner's circle.

Last week's quiz movie was Akira Kurosawa's 1950 classic, Rashomon, the film that has justifiably been called "the Japanese Citizen Kane." And like Kane, the many groundbreaking aspects of the film-- especially its narrative structure-- have become so much a part of contemporary cinematic grammar and style that even many sophisticated viewers today don't understand how innovative it was.

(As one quiz winner wrote, "As a spit in the eye to the lame wannabes who cling to the rigid three-act structure shoved forward by various screenwriting gurus, note that Kurosawa's greatest films employ a five-act structure.")

Although the title is actually geographical-- the framing story in the rain is set at the Rashomon Gate of Kyoto-- today, "rashomon" is used in our own language to refer to a situation where there is no agreement as to the "truth" of what actually happened. A rape and murder are recounted by four different people who were involved, and their vastly different takes on the event make it impossible to know reality from fiction. During the filming, both the cast and crew asked Kurosawa what actually happened, and he told them all that, like life, it's impossible to really know.

Although K. had been directing for a decade before it, Rashomon was one of the first with the well-known group of regular actors he would use throughout the decade in all of his greatest films. (The above is a charming publicity still taken outside the studio.) Besides Toshiro Mifune, it also starred Kurosawa perennials Minoru Chiaki and the wonderful Takashi Shimura.

While it was the only film he made with the great Japanese actress Machiko Kyo, it's a testament to K. and the film that, as many classics as she was to later star in (such as Gate of Hell and Ugestu), Rashomon may still be the best movie she ever made. (I'm happy to report that she is still with us, at the age of 84.)

Unfortunately, Hollywood has once again reared its ugly, stupid head and is planning a remake, called Rashomon 2010. (The year is both when it's expected to arrive as well as to "honor" the 100th birthday of its creator.) As one rightfully pissed-off quiz winner put it, "You know Keanu Reeves will somehow have a starring role. First it was the announcement that the Weinsteins are doing a modern Seven Samurai remake that sets the story in Thailand with hired Blackwater type paramilitary contractors, and now this! Thank god I haven't heard anything lately about the Tom Hanks remake of Ikiru."

Yes, let us all pray. But keep in mind: Speed Racer wasn't named after Tom Hanks!

It was a quiz that separated the fans from the cineastes, so congratulations and a rewritten life story to the following winners: Wayne Palmer, Song-Un Lee, Thomas Miller, Mojo Marshall, Vince Tuss, E. Yarber, TMiss, Mick Arran, Michael Mattson, Fred Lorence, Bill Hearne, Nancy Louise Rutherford, ron frigstad, Bob Redwing, Donald Greene, Dave Mallow, Kevin Musolino, and Paul Rignell.

(Send Steve an email at couchpundit@yahoo.com.)

As if this election weren't already wretched enough . . .

IDW, publisher of highbrow stuff like G.I. Joe and Bloodsucker Tales, has just put out a pair of election-season comic books called Presidential Material. Urging the reader to "Educate yourself," they serve up the life stories of the two candidates in a style that's best described as snooze-inducing.

That is, when it's not flat-out ridiculous looking.

Here's a panel that looks like it came directly from Drudge:

As bad as the Obama book is, it's obvious that the writer and artist are at least trying to make him look good. Not so the McCain book, in more ways than one.

While the primary scenes in the Obama book don't do his fellow Democrats any favors (most are unrecognizable, the drawings are so lousy) at least they're shown together on a stage, not in matching clown-cars.

IDW is offering both books as cellphone downloads, so perhaps not too many trees will be wasted for the print editions. No matter how they're read, the only people who could possible be "educated" by these silly comics won't be old enough to vote anyway. Look for them next month on a remainder table near you.

Here's the opening shot.

Here's our lovely heroine.

And if you don't know who this guy is, your cinematic education is incomplete.

Seriously, if you don't know this film, hie thee to a video store. But I know you do. So send me an email with the title by late Sunday (Oct. 19th)-- if you're right, you'll see your name in next week's winners' circle. At least, that's my version of the story.

It's a Movie Quiz first-- a correct answer in the form of a song parody!

(To the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas")
It's The Purple Rose of Cairo
That I once went to see.
It was somewhat amusing,
But not filled up with glee.

The big cast tried quite gamely
To keep us entertained.
Buster Keaton did it better;
Sherlock, Jr. was its name.

It is, indeed, Woody Allen's 1985 romantic fantasy, The Purple Rose of Cairo, about a movie character who walks off the screen and into real life. Jeff Daniels plays the movie hero and Mia Farrow co-stars as the flesh-and-blood married woman who falls in love with him. Set in the Depression (the first one), the film gave Allen the chance to not only do another of the '30s period pieces he enjoyed (Radio Days) but also to make the kind of old potboiler he grew up on. It's one of Woody's better films from his most creative period, the "Orion years" of the 1980s. (Am I the only one who gets nostalgic when that now-defunct studio logo shows up?)

Our quiz lyricist wasn't the only winner who commented on the film's heavy debt to the 1924 Buster Keaton classic, Sherlock, Jr.. Another reader wrote: "While it remains one of Allen's best films, I have to note that his use of the Sherlock Jr. business of walking to and from the screen is part of a largely ignored habit he has of grabbing material from other filmmakers.

"Brian De Palma used to get roundly criticized for replicating other directors' shots, particularly Hitchcock, while Tarantino built his entire career around unreflective imitation, yet Allen's films have almost as high a percentage of borrowings. There are the obvious Bergman pastiches and Fellini rips (though I think Allen sprinkles more Fellini in his films than he does Bergman). Small Time Crooks was Big Deal on Madonna Street, right down to identical jokes. Hell, Match Point was Crimes and Misdemeanors, so he finally came around to swiping from himself."

And for those who know Woody's version but not Buster's, here's a short clip from Sherlock Jr that makes the case that Keaton did it first-- and better.

Lots of winners this week-- always nice to see-- so congratulations and a trip to the 1930s (when Depressions were fun!) to the following winners: Josefina Avila, Vince Tuss, Wayne Palmer, ron frigstad, Song-Un Lee, Christina O'Sullivan, Bob Redwing, TMiss, Dave Mallow, Kenneth Gramer, Michael Mattson, Denny Lynch (get his album, "Sing Along with Lynch!"), Jim Moomey, Mick Arran, Bill Hearne, Thomas Miller, Don Lehnhoff, Letra Minuscula, Tupac Sotut, Fred Lorence, Shannon M. Quinlan, Nancy Louise Rutherford, Kevin Musolino, E. Yarber, and Paul Rignell.

(Send Steve an email at couchpundit@yahoo.com.)

I love European comics, but like most mono-lingual American fans, only for the pictures. And while the art and visual storytelling on display in most of them is enough to make the "read" worthwhile, it's still akin to watching a well-written Euro-film with no subs.

Fortunately, the graphic novel boom in the U.S. and elsewhere is encouraging some English-language publishers to translate some of the best comics series from Europe. Like the following two new releases:

The Scorpion by Marini & Desberg (Cinebook, 96 pages, $19.95). This is a lovely and intelligent swashbuckler, set in 18th century Rome, about a graverobbing brigand who was born with the mark of the Devil-- a birthmark in the shape of a scorpion. The script by Stephen Desberg is fast-paced yet detailed, and is a notch or two above the typical cinematic historical dramas it resembles. But it's the artwork by comics vet Enrico Marini that makes The Scorpion such a memorable experience: besides his action-packed panels and expressive characters, Marini's lovely landscapes and masterful use of color and shadow create a long-ago world the equal of any movie epic.

And as you might expect from a European comics great, his women are truly fine!

This first volume from Cinebook contains the first two chapters of the original five-part series. While it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, the story has enough of an ending so that I can wait for the next installment. I just hope the wait isn't too long.

Gus & His Gang by Chris Blain (First Second, 164 pages, $16.95. A sweet, funny comic Western from France, with the accent more on horniness than law-breaking. Rubber-nosed Gus is supposedly the ladies man of the gang, but his other two companions, Clem and Gratt, always seem to do better. The picaresque plot follows the trio as they travel to El Dorado, a town with nothing but single females.

There's lots of cartoon antics and violence, mostly of the smile-inducing kind, as opposed to the laugh-out-loud variety. But Blain's script contains some sophisticated surprises not usually found in this kind of comic story (not the least of which is the abrupt disappearance of Gus halfway through!), and his art is a delight throughout.

(Send Steve an email at couchpundit@yahoo.com.)

I've been deeply in love with the art of Jim Woodring ever since I first saw it, and I'm proud to say I've been a fan since his first self-published comics back in the '80s. Those were the days, when a dollar could get you an original J.W. sketch and $25 or so would get you a painting. (Try that today-- small drawings sell out immediately at $125 and the paintings go for over ten times that.) Hell, for a price somewhere in the middle, you could even get an honest-to-goodness Jim mask, made to order right off his face, complete with the stray whisker!

And of all his work, the Frank stories remain my favorites. They belong to a time and world all by themselves, dialogue-free and populated by strange and magical things. I say "things" because other than Frank himself-- he's at least some kind of animal-- all the other characters are bizarre creations with no connection to our so-called normality.

There's Manhog (above), a skulking pig-person, who's usually crying rivers, at least when he's not getting newborn birds drunk. His master is a crescent-moon-headed devil creature named Whim. Best of all is Frank's sour, unpredictable little pet, Pupshaw, who is just as likely to attack his master as love him.

Woodring's longtime publisher Fantagraphics has just come out with The Portable Frank ($16.99), a small and indispensible volume collecting 14 of the best Frank adventures. For a taste of the weird magic contained in these stories, here's a short clip from another must-have Jim product, Visions of Frank, a DVD with five Woodring tales interpreted by Japanese animators-- here's what happened when Pupshaw first met his other half, Pushpaw.

On the back cover of The Portable Frank is a quote from Daniel Clowes that I think says it all: "Frank, and I say this without a shred of hyperbole, is a work of true genius by one of the all-time greats." Amen and then some.