You can find beauty in the most mundane things, if you look closely enough. —-Paolo Sorrentino
The other day I watched “The Great Beauty” on the Criterion Channel and really enjoyed it.
So today, desperate for some entertainment I decided to return to the Criterion Channel and watch another of director Paolo Sorrentino’s creations, this time his first movie, “One Man Up“.
It’s the story of the rise and fall (mostly fall) of two men with the same name, Antonio Pisapia. One is a popular singer and the other an up and coming football (soccer) player. They live separate, yet nearby, lives and their stories overlap and echo each other in strange and interesting ways.
Their downfall is caused by the usual sins, sex, drugs and stubbornness. You can’t really say they don’t deserve what happens to them, but you are rooting for… at least their redemption if not their return to their early success (which doesn’t seem possible).
One does, in the end, find some sort of peace with himself while the other one… doesn’t.
I won’t tell you which is which.
The movie is gorgeous, sexy, and has some wonderful seafood. It’s Italian, in other words.
The most important thing I discovered a few days after turning 65 is that I can’t waste any more time doing things I don’t want to do. —-Jep Gambardella, The Great Beauty
The Great Beauty
I went to sleep intending to get up at the crack of dawn and go somewhere on my bike – but it was 34 degrees in Fahrenheit, which in Centigrade is just too damn cold for me. So I checked what was on the Criterion Channel’s 24/7 feed and was presented with a scene of a wild, colorful, lusty party, obviously Italian. I checked and it was a movie called The Great Beauty, directed by Paolo Sorrentino.
So I watched the whole thing. And really enjoyed it. Under a very thin veneer of carefree hedonism, decadence, and debauchery is a world of empty people, desperate to find a reason to get out of bed in the morning.
But, oh, such fine debauchery, such exquisite decadence, such amazingly carefree hedonism. I don’t get to go to parties like this, I don’t get invited to parties like this, I don’t even know how to find parties like this… not to mention I can’t afford to go to parties like this (the tailored suits alone would bankrupt me).
“If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?” ― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men
Orpheus lamenting the loss (for the second time) of Euridice.
Today was one of the most difficult days of my life, but I can’t (won’t) write about that here – it’s not really my story. So I’ll write about a movie.
First, my favorite book is a yellowing big hardback, chockablock with wonderful hand-drawn illustrations by Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire’s called, simply, Book of Greek Myths. I’ve had it since 3rd grade. The inscription on the title page reads:
Book Week Contest 1964 First Prize (Boys) 3A William Chance West Point Elementary School West Point, New York Mrs. Mark Carrigan, Librarian Nov. 6, 1964 (Book donated by 1963-64 P.T.A.)
I remember they had a contest, they showed us drawings and asked us which classic book they came from. I was by far the best read 3rd grader (though I had skipped the previous year and was by far the youngest) and won fairly easily. I loved that book then and still do.
One of the most well-known and often-redone myths is that of Orpheus and Euridice. In short, Orpheus goes to the underworld to retrieve his deceased and beloved wife and his singing is so beautiful they say he can take her back as long as he doesn’t look at her until they reach the surface. Unfortunately, after most of a long journey his faith falters and he turns to check if she is there… and he loses her forever.
OK, another thing I am overly fascinated with is the Criterion Channel’s 24/7 feature. In case you don’t know what to watch, tune in, they run movies continuously, 24/7. Given the channels esoteric and diverse selection – you really never know what you are going to get.
In a fit of tossing and turning insomnia late late the other night, I turned on the channel and caught a striking bit of gorgeous black and white film (with even more gorgeous people on it) – French – very odd… surreal. I wanted to watch the whole thing, so I checked and it was Orpheus (Orphée) a 1950 film by Jean Cocteau. This evening, I sat down and watched it.
Very good, very weird. The scenes in The Zone were filmed in a bombed out chapel and were especially arresting. The movie moves smoothly back and forth from the real world to Hades, using mirrors as gateways. They used a pool of mercury as a practical effect – I had seen that before – but the rest of the movie was new to me and I enjoyed it very much. I especially like the surreal elements and effects.
Not surprisingly, the plot varies a lot from the myth. My only criticism is the ending – I won’t spoil it – but it was updated for ’50’s audience tastes.
Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.
—-Michael Corleone, The Godfather Part III
A terrible Blackberry photo of my folding Xootr Swift parked next to a Yuba cargo bike (set up to carry a whole family) outside the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Two different philosophies on urban bicycling.
On the last two Saturdays Candy and I went to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema to watch special showings of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. So today, the third Saturday in a row, we went to see The Godfather Part III. I was very interested because they were screening the re-cut version The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. I’m not sure if I was ever able to sit through the original Godfather III – it wasn’t up to the standards of the first two – and I found it ponderous and boring, especially on television. I have read that the new version, although it leaves most of the center of the film the same, changes the beginning and end – leading to a version that is much improved. So we’ll see.
I enjoyed it – I think the key is to realize that it is a very different movie, both in style and in message, than the previous two. If you can take it on its own, it’s a good, enjoyable film – though not as epic as the other chapters in the saga. Seeing it in a theater helped – the film mostly made sense, though I still don’t completely understand all the financial issues with the Vatican.
Oh, and I’m afraid its still true – Sophia Coppola may be a great director – but she is terrible in this movie.
And its fun to spot actors that you’ve seen somewhere else that you never thought would be in a Godfather epic (for example Harry Dean Stanton in Godfather Pert II). In this one it would have to be Don Novello (he has a big part) – better known as Father Guido Sarducci.
On the dry and dusty road The nights we spend apart alone I need to get back home to cool, cool rain I can’t sleep, and I lay, and I think The night is hot and black as ink Woo, oh God, I need a drink of cool, cool rain
Love, reign o’er me Reign o’er me, o’er me, o’er me, woah Love, reign o’er me, o’er me
—-Pete Townshend, Love, Reign o’er Me, from Quadrophenia
Motorcycle Gang
on scooters
(where else but) New Orleans, Louisiana
This evening, after riding my spin bike for an hour or so – using my BitGym app to ride up the mountains and glaciers of Argentina – I rested a bit and watched the 1979 movie Quadrophenia. I wasn’t overly familiar with the movie – or most of the music behind it. I was just out of school in 1979, isolated out in the Kansas plains and not very hooked into pop culture of the time. I had seen bits of the movie – but not the whole thing until today.
I was interested because I had watched a YouTube video on modern musical films that considered Quadrophenia to be superior to the much more well-known Tommy. And having watched the movie I can see where the reviewer is coming from. Tommy is more entertaining, more fun – but Quadrophenia is deeper, both as a window into a certain time and place (and the Mods and Rockers subcultures) as well as a window into the life of a damaged mind.
So it was good – I actually may go back and watch most of it again. One really cool thing I didn’t know is that Sting is in the film – using his extreme charisma as the character Ace Face – the king of the Mods.
“Hey, what’s with the food around here? A kid comes up to me in a white jacket, gives me a Ritz cracker, and uh, chopped liver, he says, ‘Canapes.’ I said, uh, ‘can of peas, my ass, that’s a Ritz cracker and chopped liver!’”
—- The Godfather Part 2
A week ago, Candy and I went to see the Godfather at The Alamo Drafthouse. This week is The Godfather Part II. Some people consider this to be a better movie than the first – it is one of those rare cases where the sequel is equal, if not superior to the original. Both won best picture Oscars – and every other accolade possible.
I was really looking forward to seeing it. Unlike Part 1 – which I saw in a theater in high school, I never saw the sequel on the big screen – I was in college by then and not able to get out to theaters because of time and money restraints. It would be years until I was able to see it on television – and it’s so long – it was impossible to carve out enough of a block to sit there uninterrupted. So I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen the whole thing in one sitting – though I’ve watched it in bits more than once, all told.
It is hard to compare to the first movie. Even though it has the same people, more or less, it is structured quite differently. It covers a huge amount of time and space – much told through flashbacks – two separate stories, really. The whole Cuba deal is complicated – and has the aspect of international politics, big news stories, and revolution. In that section, and in the congressional hearings, it feels like the outside world has finally started to intrude on the Corleone empire… which I guess is the point.
So I do think the second is the more subtle, complex, and possibly better film, but it doesn’t have the epic personalities of the first.
John Cazale (who plays Fredo) passed away in 1978 and I saw a short doc about his short acting career. He was only in five feature films – but what a collection – Godfathers 1 and 2, The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter. Five classic films. I think his performance of the tragic, flawed Fredo is a high point of the film.
Oh, and I didn’t realize that Harry Dean Stanton is in the film (a fairly small part). He is truly in every movie.
So, next week is the third. I’m excited because the Alamo is screening the re-edit of Godfather Part III – The Godfather Coda: The Death of Micheal Corleone. It is supposed to be a big improvement. We have our tickets… and the Alamo is such a great place to see a film.
“The lawyer with the briefcase can steal more money than the man with the gun.” ― Mario Puzo, The Godfather
My bike in front of the Alamo Drafthouse, Richardson. Cool bike racks.
Last Saturday Candy and I went to a special showing of The Godfather at the Alamo Drafthouse cinema in Lake Highlands (it was sold out in Richardson – the closest to our house). We very seldom see movies anywhere other than the Alamo – it is just too cool.
This is the fiftieth anniversary of the film – which makes the math easy – I was fifteen when I first saw it. I was living in Managua – the arrival of the film in country was a big deal. I remember seeing it in a theater in town – pre-earthquake – so I did see it in 1972 (sometimes it took films a while to get to Central America).
The theater where I saw it was packed. Sometimes it was tough to get into R rated films in Managua (I couldn’t get in to see Cabaret, for example) but this one was considered highbrow and I was let in with my friends.
There was this kid at school that had mastered a loud, booming, evil-sounding laugh and would let loose with it at any inappropriate moment if he could shock everyone. In the movie, after the wedding, when Michael and Apollonia were in the bedroom and she dropped her nightgown… the crowd was silent and tense… and the guy, from somewhere in the theater (I didn’t know he was there) let out his loudest laugh. It was awful and hilarious.
Decades later, when we all got together in North Carolina, I asked him if he remembered that and he said, “Of course I do!”
At any rate, it was good to see it again, and nobody laughed at that scene. I have seen it many times over the years and was able to concentrate on details – like looking for oranges. I have to admit, over the years, I wasn’t sure what was going on all the time (like who exactly were getting shot there at the end) and I think I’ve got most of it figured out now – the internet helps.
At any rate, we’ve already got our tickets for Godfather part two, showing one week later – and the Alamo is also going to screen The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone – the re-edited version of The Godfather Part III – that is supposed to be much, much better. I haven’t seen it – have to buy my tickets.
“You’re going to have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood.”
—-Merian C. Cooper to Fay Wray on being cast in King Kong
Table of tiny monsters, Clarence Street Art Collective, The Cedars, Dallas, Texas
OK, to prove I am serious about my streaming Movie Recommendations – tonight when I came home from a bike ride (having narrowly missed today’s thunderstorm) I sat down, dialed up HBOMax, and watched the first item from my list – the Science Fiction film, Colossal.
I’ll keep this spoiler free – it stars Anne Hathaway as an alcoholic mess of a New York party girl hitting rock bottom and a giant monster stomping on Seoul, Korea. And yes, the two plot strands are very related.
That’s all I’m going to say (these plot points are revealed in the first minutes of the film) except… someone who is very famous recently for playing the best of all good guys turns out to be… something else.
A very good movie – different, but not weird, serious, but not maudlin, and not too long. Worth your while.
I’m not even going to link to the trailer… it gives away too much.
“Me? I’m dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It’s the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly… stupid.” ― Captain Jack Sparrow
Classic colorful street bombers at the movie.
I watch too many movies… or maybe I don’t watch enough movies. I watch too many shit movies… I guess I watch too many short, silly Youtube things and not enough full-length movies.
There are too many films streaming on the various film streaming things… what to choose. I am working on it.
I have started a DAILY NOTES notebook – attached a pen holder to it and placed a couple of useful fountain pens (a Kaweco Sport and my Pilot Capless) on the notebook.
Also, I found a Youtube channel, Flick Connections, the guy has current recommendations from the various genres and streaming channels. So I’m working my way through some of his offerings, sitting there with a pen and my DAILY NOTES notebook and writing down what he recommends that I haven’t seen (or saw so long ago I don’t remember) and may be interested in.
The first two are: 20 Stunning SCI-FI Movies to Watch on HBO Max This Weekend and 18 Fantastic ‘FUCKED UP’ Films to Watch FREE on Tubi Tonight!.
I typed up the list from my notebook, added brief comments from my scribbled notes (can’t vouch for the accuracy of these), and emailed it to Candy. I was surprised how many she had already seen.
Here’s the text of my email – for your education. Some (one at least) are already gone – but will Shirley pop up somewhere else (or maybe not, and please stop calling me Shirley). Yeah, I know, there are some on here that I should have seen already – so sue me. Or, better yet, send me your ideas and recommendations – put them in a comment.
The one film that I really want to see is the first one – the Ann Hathaway monster movie – Colossal.
So many movies (and even more books) and so little time.
* – movies I want to watch soon
—-HBO+ (Science fiction)
* Colossal – Ann Hathaway clever monster movie. Supposed to be really good.
FAQ About Time Travel – Silly British comedy – satire of science fiction
Birth – Reincarnation – not much SF – Art Film, slow Weird
Limitless – Bradley Cooper – PG13 crowd pleaser
—-Popular films you may have seen and I should have seen:
* Vanilla Sky I have seen the Spanish version, Abre los ojos, but I don’t think I’ve seen Vanilla Sky all the way through in one sitting.
* Moon
* Ex Machina
—-Tubi (Fucked up films)
The Invitation – Thriller
* Goldstone – remote locations, Mystery
Wind River – neo noir mystery, by the director of Yellowstone * Cold in July – Slick, set in Texas * All the Money in the World – Ridley Scott
* Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead – Philip Seymour Hoffman Arizona – Danny McBride
Radius – low budget – Twilight Zone Like
Kill the Irishman – Mob Movie
Bone Tomahawk – Australian Western
Red Hill – Modern day Australian Western
* 68 Kill- Dark Comedy – lot of blood
The Chaser – South Korea – pimp thriller
Hunger – Michael Fassbender’s breakout role – Irish Prison – very disturbing
“Fate gives all of us three teachers, three friends, three enemies, and three great loves in our lives. But these twelve are always disguised, and we can never know which one is which until we’ve loved them, left them, or fought them.” ― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram
It was amazing, cheesy, and so much ridiculous fun. It took a little searching until I found out the scene was from part one of a two part movie series called Baahabuli. I watched bits of it and it was as glorious as it could be. I never had time to sit down for the whole six hours it would take to grind through both installments – plus, viewing little bits here and there with no idea of the overall plot or who these people were was kind of exciting.
Now, however, I have more opportunities for allocating big chunks of time (though not as many as you would think – it is possible to be very busy doing nothing) and over a couple of days I have been able to sit down and watch part one of Baahubali. Now it (sort of) makes sense. I had watched some of the over-the-top action scenes… but being Bollywood it had some equally fantastic musical numbers – and romantic dancing. I really enjoyed these – probably more that the blood slaughter.
In particular, there is a scene in a bar where three sexy dancing girls emerge from a giant coil of rope to dance with the hero and distract the dastardly bad guys for a few minutes – very imaginative and unexpected.
Some friends of mine once came up with the idea of Bollywood watching parties – I would love to try and pull this off – find a place with a big television (ours isn’t giant enough). Baahubali would be perfect – both parts one and two. Crazy action, melodrama, politically incorrect dancing and romance (there is actually a scene where the hero, while holding his breath underwater, tattoos his love’s arm while she sleeps trailing her arm into a lake – that’s a me-too moment).
Now onto part 2 – there’s a lot of unanswered questions.
Ok, there is a YouTube movie reviewer named The Critical Drinker. He is apologetically nasty towards modern shit movies and the useless crap mendacity that has invaded what passes as entertainment – but every now and then he finds something that swims against the stream to recommend.
Today he reviewed and liked a recent Bollywood extravaganza called RRR. He does a very good job of explaining how odd these movies look to Western eyes and why you should put your preconceptions aside and enjoy what dances across your eyeballs. A very interesting review (not too many spoilers).
RRR is streaming on Netflix. So its Baahubali Part 2 – and then it’s time for RRR. Sounds like a party.
Bill Chance 