Jerry Lewis

Just a heads up: Jerry’s solo films are now available on DVD. I recommend the following film be added to your Netflix cue ASAP (I insist you update your cue as well, because “The Incredibles” and “Sex and the City, Season 6, Vol. 2” will just have to wait for this one):

“The Ladies Man” (1961). This film is ahead of its time. Much of the film is shot on a set so large that it took up two Paramount sound stages. Built by Lewis at a cost of $500,000 (ridiculous at the time), the cutaway set of a four-story mansion allowed the camera to roam in and out, up and down, without cutting. Jean-Luc Godard had this film in mind when he shot “Tout Va Bien.” Wes Anderson must have had “The Ladies Man” in mind as well, because some of the scenes on the Belafonte are shot in the same way.

Overall, Lewis’s films are pretty dated–they seem to please only the most hardcore of fans. But this film is really stunning. The story is this: a college grad, swearing off women for the rest of his life, unwittingly takes a job as a houseboy in an all-girl boarding home. It has no plot, really. Basically, it’s a masterful stringing-together of choreography, cinematography, and gags. Not his funniest, but it’s probably the most visually impressive film he ever made.

Truth is stranger than fiction

Or: truth is no stranger to fiction. Hey, could we talk about documentaries? The College has a Film Club, and I’m the acting advisor. One of the things the Club’s president has asked me to do is recommend films for the Club to screen. I noticed that none of the films the Club has screened in the recent past are non-narrative or experimental. So I suggested they put together a documentary film series. I don’t know if they’ll run with this idea, but I am hoping they’ll have an official screening of at least one documentary in the near future. I told them a nice start would be the Maysles’s “Salesman”–which I think is a classic. It’s as painful, funny, and intriguing as “Glengarry Glen Ross” or “Death of a Salesman.” Any other suggestions? Doesn’t matter if it’s obscure or marginal, just as long as it’s available. By the way, does anyone know if Errol Morris’s “Gates of Heaven” is available in any format? And why hasn’t there been more talk about experiemtnal or non-narrative films on this blog? J’accuse!

Iranian Cinema

I’m pretty ignorant about Iranian cinema, but I watched Abbos Kiarostami’s Ten last night and thought it was damn good. J. Hoberman tells me it “questions the notion of film as narrative,” describing Ten as “conceptually rigorous, splendidly economical, and radically Bazinian.” That may very well be the critical kiss of death, but I was very much engaged by this complex glimpse of contemporary Iran. Are there other Iranian films out there I should see?

Black Comedies of the 1990s

Unlike Mike and his hi-brow students writing about Fassbinder, Herzog, and Wenders, I have a student who wants to write about the reproduction of black subjectivity in comedies from the 1990s. She has chosen the following titles: House Party, BAPS, Friday, Bulworth, Hollywood Shuffle, School Daze, Soul Food, and The Best Man. I’m of a mind that she has to have an understanding of comedy (if such a thing is even possible) before she can begin to treat these films as texts that tell us (her) something about the nature of black identity in 90s culture. Any advice?

Paul Giammati poops

This is a frivolous post, so forgive me. It is prompted by a casual exchange between Frisoli and Arnab regarding the somewhat regular cinematic appearance of Harvey Keitel’s peeeeenis. I watched “American Splendor” for a second time the other night, and I noticed that, as in “Sideways” there’s a (brief) shot of Giammati sitting on the crapper. Does anyone know of other films that feature Giammati pooping? And has anyone seen “Kings of the Road”–it features perhaps the most touching scene of a man pooping I’ve ever found in film (not that I look for it…often). Anywho, I take it that a man pooping is always a figure of pathos. I’ll be interested in seeing who responds to this first.

wes anderson

i started writing this as a response to mike in the “i heart huckabees” conversation but decided it merited its own thread:

anderson’s best movie is “bottle rocket”–the ne plus ultra of uncloaked, goofy sincerity. i love all his movies but none of them (or any of the later characters) move me the way anthony and dignan did. he needs to get out of his rut and write a new movie–everything since has been a new take on “bottle rocket” with the pleasures of a repertory company and a higher art direction budget taking the place of growth as a writer. though i must admit that he’s gotten better at writing women: inez in “bottle rocket” barely spoke, and olivia williams’ character in “rushmore” pretty much just raised her eyebrows–then again maybe its just angelica huston.

Bloodsucking Freaks, or… films you walked out of

Jeff left “Pet Sematary,” ignoring the fine fine work of Ed Gwynn as the Pepperidge Farm guy.

What films have caused you to get up and leave the theater? I admit that “Bloodsucking Freaks” was actually too sadistic even for me to bear, but I also admit that I simply turned off the video. And that’s not good enough: it’s easy to eject the tape, drop the dvd back in its netflixy pouch. Screw that: what did you pay hard-earned cash for, only to feel so aggrieved or aggravated that you up and walked out?

Me: Rustler’s Rhapsody. I can’t recall why the hell I thought I should see this in the first place.

Fassbinder, Herzog, & Wenders … oh my!

Okay all you high priests of cinema:

I’m working with a student on an independent project on New German Cinema. I, foolishly, thought at first that would mean stuff like Tykwer and … well, new German cinema. But no, she tells me, it’s WF, WH, and WW (see subject heading).

Couple questions for you: Continue reading Fassbinder, Herzog, & Wenders … oh my!