― naked as sin (naked as sin), Friday, 7 November 2003 16:50 (twenty years ago) link
― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, 7 November 2003 16:55 (twenty years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:41 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:57 (twenty years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Friday, 7 November 2003 20:00 (twenty years ago) link
― naked as sin (naked as sin), Friday, 7 November 2003 22:30 (twenty years ago) link
― s1utsky (slutsky), Friday, 7 November 2003 23:17 (twenty years ago) link
― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, 7 November 2003 23:47 (twenty years ago) link
― cozen¡ (Cozen), Tuesday, 30 December 2003 00:13 (twenty years ago) link
DT, Grauniad, last weekend
Well, bugger that. I got my hbk free, but I dunno if I can blag new pbks in two editions. His new entries are 'minimal' anyway (ie one Kiarostami film) so I'd just leave it.
I'd like to see his entry on Wasserman, having said that, but you just know he cares more about that than about the challenge of WKW. Maybe he could give Moodysson the kicking he deserves.
― Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 13:21 (twenty years ago) link
DT decides to give the Coens a scrub-down. Typical bein-pensant Indy stuff. I guess DT was a major writer for me when I was just getting into films -- but now I can't bear to read him. It isn't at all that his stuff's too personal, it's that he is actually a typical English middlebrow in disguise, scared of new experiences, and with this absurd idea of in-the-moment inspiration: Kubrick is dud because he 'preconceives', Renoir is classic because he captures living moments.
Well, TS Kubrick vs Renoir belongs elsewhere, but the sterility of acting in SK is obviously deliberate -- as is the 'warmth' in JR. And JR very closely scripted and planned his stuff, as all commercial operators must.
Anyway, someone remind me what was so great about Thomson.
― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 14 June 2004 09:35 (nineteen years ago) link
i'm thinking especially of his entry on charlie chaplin, where halfway through he says, out of nowhere, something like "really, was chaplin so different from hitler?"
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 14 June 2004 09:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 14 June 2004 09:50 (nineteen years ago) link
anyway i read the coen bros takedown piece, which was sadly not the coen bros critique i wanted from david thomson.
(and honestly speaking of middlebrow aren't the coens pretty much as mb as they come these days? i mean talki about being scared of new experiences!)
(or maybe they're just totally boring)
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 14 June 2004 11:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 14 June 2004 11:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― the pinefox, Monday, 14 June 2004 14:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 14 June 2004 14:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Andrew L (Andrew L), Monday, 14 June 2004 15:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 11:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 11:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 11:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― , Tuesday, 15 June 2004 17:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alan Smithee (Enrique), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 18:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― , Tuesday, 15 June 2004 19:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 20:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― , Tuesday, 15 June 2004 20:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 15 June 2004 20:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― , Wednesday, 16 June 2004 11:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― adam. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/features/story.jsp?story=578012
― the bellefox, Thursday, 4 November 2004 14:10 (nineteen years ago) link
http://endlessbanquet.blogspot.com/2004/11/david-and-bens-pt-1.html
― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 14 November 2004 22:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 15 November 2004 08:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 15 November 2004 15:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Monday, 15 November 2004 17:45 (nineteen years ago) link
The fact that Mr. Thomson lives in the Bay Area and has access to the Pacific Film Archive, the Castro, et al. probably makes it a bit easier to weather the storm.
How come I NEVER see DT at any of these places???
This mysterious "m." character should have a blog of his own, I think.
― adam... (nordicskilla), Monday, 15 November 2004 17:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― cºzen (Cozen), Monday, 15 November 2004 17:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 15 November 2004 18:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― adam... (nordicskilla), Monday, 15 November 2004 18:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 15 November 2004 18:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:35 (nineteen years ago) link
Anyway, I like taking drinks.
It's a shame about Rivette's split infinitive.
― the bellefox, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 13:26 (nineteen years ago) link
-adam: i saw dt-adam: i wished i'd put the moves on him-me: that rivette thing ponged-marcello: why-me: here's why: [link]
― henry miller, Tuesday, 21 December 2004 09:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― adam... (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 21 December 2004 16:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 6 January 2005 00:35 (nineteen years ago) link
I do think it's great. without spoiling it, he does have a tendency to keep comparing film to other art forms and then apologizing for it, more and more so as he goes in. I love the general chapter about California (but I would) and he is sometimes so good in individual figures like Nicole Kidman and Erich Von Stroheim. Sometimes I can forgive him for stating the obvious because his writing is just so exuberant and beautiful and...well, mad. Also unlike other people on this thread (and no disrespect meant to them at all), I don't tend to get caught up with small details and inconsistencies. Perhaps I would get even more from him if I did, I just have a very selective memory!
― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 02:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 02:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 02:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 6 January 2005 08:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 6 January 2005 08:58 (nineteen years ago) link
I apologize for the linkage but this event is taking place during the next month only 15 mins walk from my house!http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa_programs/hollywood/index.html
― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 15:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― henry miller, Thursday, 6 January 2005 16:03 (nineteen years ago) link
I wouldn't really call this book "lore", either. It's far more than anecdotal. I hope you don't think I am just being an apologist but I don't get some of your criticisms above (as in, I literally cannot parse them!).
― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 16:07 (nineteen years ago) link
better writers of his generation? vf perkins, robin wood, charles barr, peter wollen.
― henry miller, Thursday, 6 January 2005 16:14 (nineteen years ago) link
fair enough.
- millennarian viewpoint (it all went shit after 1974!!)
This is simultaneously the most common and most baffling criticism of DT. I'll agree that he is not on the cutting edge, but he talks about and trumps up a whole load of current stuff!
- self-regarding prose style
This is what I LIKE about him! :)
- doesn't actually like films, thinks they are silly
Haha. Well, this is what I was hinting at when I mentioned the ceaseless comparisons with other art forms.
I guess it all comes down to whether you like (and actively seek out) "self-regarding" writing about Hollywood!
― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 16:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 16:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― henry miller, Thursday, 6 January 2005 16:23 (nineteen years ago) link
Does VF Perkins (still?) teach at Warwick? I came very close to going there.
― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 16:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― henry miller, Thursday, 6 January 2005 16:35 (nineteen years ago) link
this shows some good, some bad. he thinks mainstream hollywood is a bust on the basis of 'troy', 'alexander', ect. and yet he not only keeps writing almost exclusively about hollywood, he also decides to ignore hollywood's better films: last year's mainstream comedies 'school of rock', 'anchorman', 'dodgeball', 'bad santa' were all first-rate. 'spiderman 2' and 'the bourne identity' were brilliant mainstream action films. 'eternal sunshine' and 'i heart huckabees' and 'before sunset' were superb mainstream comedies (for want of a better term). 2004 was not the fall of rome: it's up there with the mid-seventies.dt is however entirely right about 'the power of nightmares'. none of the films in the doc boom (some of which -- supersize me and outfoxed especially -- were terrible) match this series.
― henry miller, Monday, 10 January 2005 10:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 10 January 2005 10:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― henry miller, Monday, 10 January 2005 10:48 (nineteen years ago) link
He writes so much about the Oscars because he is a freelance writer with a family to support and no academic tenure, and that is what editors commission him to write! When I spoke to him last year, he readily admitted that he would much rather never write another word about the movies. He's caught in a trap, and he would be the first to admit that, in one of his more noirish moods.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 10 January 2005 10:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― henry miller, Monday, 10 January 2005 11:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 10 January 2005 11:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― oldlib, Monday, 10 January 2005 11:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― henry miller, Monday, 10 January 2005 11:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 10 January 2005 15:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 10 January 2005 16:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― henry miller, Monday, 10 January 2005 16:09 (nineteen years ago) link
Class.
― the bellefox, Monday, 10 January 2005 16:14 (nineteen years ago) link
Admit it - it's superb.
I am glad, I think, merely to hear that Perkins lives still.
― the dreamfox, Monday, 10 January 2005 16:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 10 January 2005 16:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― henry miller, Monday, 10 January 2005 16:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 10 January 2005 16:25 (nineteen years ago) link
(Adam: I am surprised.)
― the bellefox, Monday, 10 January 2005 16:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 10 January 2005 16:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― henry miller, Monday, 10 January 2005 16:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 10 January 2005 16:36 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.filmint.nu/eng.html is a qt good site/zine -- has occasional long wood pieces, and, recently, a long interview with vf perkins.
― henry miller, Monday, 10 January 2005 16:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― , Thursday, 13 January 2005 20:28 (nineteen years ago) link
At the risk of "getting as bad as Marcello with his Petrides fixation" (this is a thread abt DT, so...), this is the rankest piece of film-rockism I've read in years.
― Henry Miller, Monday, 24 January 2005 12:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Monday, 24 January 2005 12:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 24 January 2005 22:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― NRQ, Tuesday, 8 March 2005 16:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 16:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― NRQ, Tuesday, 8 March 2005 16:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 16:22 (nineteen years ago) link
I have been meaning to post and ask, perhaps pointlessly, why he likes Joan Didion so much. I mean, even if you like Didion, as in a way I do, there seems a disproportion in his ardour.
― the bellefox, Thursday, 10 March 2005 15:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 10 March 2005 15:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― NRQ`, Thursday, 10 March 2005 15:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Senior Executive/CEO (nordicskilla), Thursday, 10 March 2005 16:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 10 March 2005 16:35 (nineteen years ago) link
On;y two chapters in, I started it on my commute this AM.
― Senior Executive/CEO (nordicskilla), Thursday, 10 March 2005 16:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 10 March 2005 16:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 10 March 2005 16:43 (nineteen years ago) link
I still want to hear what people made of it.
I wanted to start a complex thread on ILM about how DT's views on film might transfer to pop, and how we might then view them, etc; but - well, perhaps it was too complex for me.
― the pinefox, Thursday, 30 June 2005 13:50 (eighteen years ago) link
"I do think that a lot of people my age--I'm 64--have given up on the movies. The truth is that television, if you pick and choose, is a lot more grown-up and satisfying these days..."
http://citypages.com/databank/26/1282/article13454.asp
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 30 June 2005 14:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 30 June 2005 15:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 30 June 2005 15:27 (eighteen years ago) link
Well, I think it's a great moment for critics to talk about the medium as a whole rather than individual films. I think there's a lot going on in the world of screens--which is a much larger world than just movies per se and it's very interesting. I mean, at the moment I would almost rather review some video games than movies--not only because more people are looking at them and because my children are looking at them, which are good reasons, but because I think they're almost more interesting.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 30 June 2005 15:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 30 June 2005 20:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 30 June 2005 20:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― c/n (Cozen), Thursday, 30 June 2005 20:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 30 June 2005 23:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes, Friday, 1 July 2005 11:39 (eighteen years ago) link
So, my glitch must then be in thinking that he's even making any sort of statement whatsoever. Everything is more satisfying if you pick and choose, in my opinion.
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 1 July 2005 12:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 1 July 2005 12:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 1 July 2005 12:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 1 July 2005 12:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 1 July 2005 12:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 1 July 2005 12:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 1 July 2005 13:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:28 (eighteen years ago) link
this is kind of fallacious too, movies weren't ALWAYS 90 minutes and serials obv predate TV
― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:29 (eighteen years ago) link
I guess I at least admire that Thomson has the balls to say, not in so many words, "I'm falling out of love with movies and in love with TV."
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 2 July 2005 01:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 2 July 2005 01:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 2 July 2005 02:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 2 July 2005 02:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 2 July 2005 02:29 (eighteen years ago) link
Not particularly if the point of comparing them is to say one sucks in comparison to the other.
In any case, my stance seems to have at least one foot firmly, stubbornly planted in the idea of a*t**rism, with movies having a fixed director/screenwriter for the duration, whereas TV has a series of writers and directors (and, sure, a cohesive monolithic "creator")...
I won't deny that TV probably is a more suitable medium for works that have a more writerly emphasis, or at least gives them a lot more space to finesse out ideas and character arcs.
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 2 July 2005 03:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 2 July 2005 03:23 (eighteen years ago) link
film is a collaborative medium too you know!!
― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 2 July 2005 19:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 2 July 2005 20:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 2 July 2005 21:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Saturday, 2 July 2005 21:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 2 July 2005 21:24 (eighteen years ago) link
OTFM!
TV != dumb
― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 2 July 2005 21:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 2 July 2005 22:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― n_RQ, Sunday, 3 July 2005 11:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 3 July 2005 16:54 (eighteen years ago) link
"there are few cheerful congregations now in the cinema, but uneasy individuals with a dozen seats to themselves."
"so many public cinemas are now seedy and apologetic, as if fit for that nondescript who sits in baleful awe of the fantastic screen and may sometimes, in despair or vengeance, carry its melodramatic spasms over into life."
"the cinema is no longer of the people."
on taxi driver, one flew over the cuckoo's nest, network: "we gather in woe and dread for our wretched times, and the 'enjoyment' can be lacerating."
"when did you last see a film in which you believed people were in love, and cared"
of 'the godfather', 'jaws' and 'king kong': "i think i prefer them to anything else i have seen in that time."
― n_rq, Sunday, 3 July 2005 17:30 (eighteen years ago) link
I knew there was something fishy when the collection plate was passed down the aisle at my screening of Batman Begins.
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 3 July 2005 17:59 (eighteen years ago) link
It seems to me there was a long while when cinema was viewed by its many champions as an art form that managed to be at the same time both elitist and populist, and had improved upon and in many ways superceded its parents- the theater and the novel. Being disabused of this notion was a Great Disillusionment- A Loss Of Ideology or Death of God. Belief in cinema had been like belief in the French Revolution or the Enlightenment. Just because Thompson seems to have stuck his head in the sand a little too early doesn't mean that he's wrong.
― k/l (Ken L), Sunday, 3 July 2005 18:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Sunday, 3 July 2005 18:49 (eighteen years ago) link
I think it is quite good for someone to stick up for TV, because I recently read Jonathan Franzen's book where he is proud of having given his TV away, and he seems to think it's a choice between dumb TV and intelligent reading - whereas I keep turning on the TV and finding great fascination and movement: Wimbledon, Live8, even the repeat performance of Des on HIGNFY? last night. I don't find a lack of richness in these programmes. I could watch them all day. Which is a good thing as some of them go on all day.
I do think that the end of THE WHOLE EQUATION is a cop-out, though, in that he says world cinema and independent cinema are good, yes, but he can't be bothered to talk about them. His rationale - that it's what's Pop that matters to him - is a good one. But that doesn't mean he couldn't write a great book about, say, the last 30 years of independent US film - much of which is surely his kind of thing.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 09:02 (eighteen years ago) link
it's frustrating because when he does venture out and write about, say, alan clarke, he's good at it (sometimes he's terrible, though, when he can't really be bothered, as with most of the new entries in the BDOF).
but as in the quotes i posted, he has been lamenting the decline of film as a mass medium for more than half of his writing life. and the article they came from had a kind of power and authority (it's partly about his experiences teaching film in the states, partly about the death of his mother) that i think is lacking in his recent stuff. and given that 'everybody knows' (including dt) that the 70s were a golden age now, the article casts an interesting light on his equally pessimistic stance now.
― N_RQ, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 09:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 09:22 (eighteen years ago) link
I think DT is getting stick (a bit like Reynolds from Watson) for a book he didn't write. 'The Whole Equation' is a history of mainstream Hollywood - it doesn't pretend or aspire to be a history of World or Indie Cinema.
An interesting subtext to the Biographical Dictionary, btw, is how many of the best entries are about tv - Johnny Carson, James Garner, Lucille Ball, Madonna ... and Ronald Reagan.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 09:28 (eighteen years ago) link
some hollywood greats: lang, hitchcock, POLANSKI!!, woo.
― N_RQ, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 09:32 (eighteen years ago) link
and in recent hollywood: soderbergh, tarantino, PTA.
― N_RQ, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 09:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 09:37 (eighteen years ago) link
I don't mean to give DT that stick, JtN. You know that I like DT on Hollywood. But you yourself have often pointed out that he is tired of it, and could usefully spread his wings more, assuming he is allowed to. (Hm - 'David is like a seagull... he wraps his wings around Hollywood...')
I do feel that, given the ennui of the last book, the implicit question arises why he *didn't* write those other books. He raises it himself near the end, but doesn't answer it save by saying that Pop matters. Which is, as I say, not a bad case.
I haven't seen BW on SR yet, but someone told me it was nutty.
Perhaps the book that he should write is one (lyrical, fabulistic, musing, whateverr) about the Great American Songbook - veering back into Movie whenever he wants, as imaginative illustration, but not compelled to if he doesn't want to take it that way.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:55 (eighteen years ago) link
I heard that, along with doing the Kidman biog, DT has another novel on the go, and a book about American weather...
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 14:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 20:21 (eighteen years ago) link
The weather idea sounds familiar - it must be because he touches on it in TWE.
I suppose IN NEVADA might stand as an example of what he could do.
The England idea is good, but 4-2 is partly that book? Remarkable how good that one is at times.
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes, Thursday, 7 July 2005 04:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Thursday, 7 July 2005 07:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 7 July 2005 09:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Thursday, 7 July 2005 09:24 (eighteen years ago) link
It's St Leonards, but I'm in London at least two days a week.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 7 July 2005 09:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Thursday, 7 July 2005 09:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 15:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 14 December 2005 18:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Friday, 16 December 2005 10:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― the pinefox, Friday, 16 December 2005 19:04 (eighteen years ago) link
i don't think the films he's talking about are 'independent' in any meaningful sense -- but any case wasn't indiewood's moment like five or six years ago!?
i also think he's been mourning the decline of the communal moviegoing experience for far too long -- nearly three decades. do you not adjust, after a while, to the post-tv reality? maybe not, but being a person who grew up on films on tv/video, i'm not all that sympathetic.
and at the same time i think it's an article for lazy people who want to be assured they're not missing anything and that their twice-annual trip to the everyman.
and always with the oscars obsession!
however it is interesting that he's taking this line, that we're not all doomed, per most of dt's writings over the last few years.
― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 10:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:52 (eighteen years ago) link
A: He’d want to read The Whole Equation quickly. He’d be sad, very sad–but he was when he was alive. I hope he’d salute my book and we could share a drink, or seven. I would love to try to finish The Last Tycoon the way he laid it out.
― the snowfox, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 23:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 00:11 (eighteen years ago) link
is this really a pressing issue for anyone?
― Theorry Henry (Enrique), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 02:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 06:13 (eighteen years ago) link
We were sitting in a large, packed movie theatre in San Francisco, the day after New Year's day. I had waited to see Million Dollar Baby in those circumstances because from the moment I first heard about it, only a few weeks ago, it was clear that this movie might be a sensation, and it promised a twist or a departure in its own narrative best experienced with the real thing - a large, raw audience, anxious to know what happened next.
This opening touches on many important general points that have little to do with Clint Eastwood's film, but which are worth addressing. Critics' screenings are the forum in which most "informed" opinions about your movies are arrived at. Such screenings are usually held in small rooms for between 20 and 40 people - a true but suspicious club, people who see all their movies together, in a spirit of edgy rivalry not inclined to give too much away. You can say that these are jaded victims of the system if only because they have to see just about every film made today. Can you imagine anyone under that duty staying sociable, let alone sane? And because their job is criticism, in a small knot of critics they are bound to keep their feelings secret. That restraint is not good for being an audience.
There's something else wrong with the critics' experience: they know too much about films in advance. There is too much talk on the internet. Too many stolen scripts are passed around. And then there is the modern way with trailers which reckon to deliver the big scenes and sometimes tell you what happens in the story. Again, that is not good for being an audience. After the dark and the size of the screen, nothing is more important to an audience than not knowing anything about the story they are about to see. And all too often these days, the critics and the public have a bored way of knowing in advance.
Clint Eastwood has always been one of the great producers in American film, and that was evident with Million Dollar Baby in his canny sleight of hand. The movie was made very quickly and quietly. No scripts got away. There were no early trailers, and no early screenings. Even now, in the first week of January, the film is playing on only seven screens in North America. Those screens are doing at least four times the business of any other screens and the word is spreading - what's this about Million Dollar Baby that I'm hearing? This is old-fashioned word-of-mouth, and the most modern thing about Clint Eastwood the producer is his faith in the old ways.
So there we were, my wife and I, at one of those seven screens, as Million Dollar Baby ended. We sat there as the credits unwound. We usually do, for a film writer needs to know the facts. But my wife looked around the theatre and murmured that about two thirds of the audience was also staying. "Really?" I said. "Why's that?" She looked again and she said, "They need time to recover". "Really?" I said. "Some of them are crying," she said. "Really?" I said. "Yes. You are," she said, looking at me. One of the best things about being in an audience is the kindness with which we look at each other.
Now, I am not going to tell you anything about Million Dollar Baby that isn't there in the first 10 minutes, except to say that Million Dollar Baby is a Clintishly clever title, one that makes you think of comedy and fun and high jinks. (It could be Steve Martin and Sandra Bullock having their life transformed when their kid becomes a star in commercials!) Clint plays a boxing trainer in a shabby gym where Morgan Freeman is his sidekick. Hilary Swank arrives and asks them to train her and make her a champion.
That's all I'm going to tell you beyond the fact that Million Dollar Baby is going to win Best Picture, and my tears were not just for its story but for the movies. Because at long last someone has said, "Look, this is how you do it", and made a film that hits you like one of Hilary Swank's punches.
Please don't assume that this is just an old Eastwood fan talking. Anyone who has read me over the years knows that I have had my reservations where Eastwood is concerned. A great producer - yes, and do not underestimate the rarity or the importance of that by falling into the orthodoxy that producers are hacks and scoundrels who get in the way of artists. Producers are often the showmen. I also felt and said that Eastwood was an actor of limited range and a rather modest, impersonal director. There were plenty of times when he settled for being Dirty Harry, when he was more intent on finishing his pictures than taking great care with them. I thought Unforgiven and Mystic River were both over-rated. But I think Million Dollar Baby is a great film.
And since I'm not going to do anything to spoil its story and its drama for you, I'm bound to concentrate on what has happened to Clinton Eastwood who will be 75 this May, and surely looks it, granted that he seems healthy still in the way of a man old and wise enough to walk, not run. What it amounts to, I think, is that at the age of 60 or so, he began to improve, no matter that he was rich and successful enough to do whatever he wanted. This is a very rare phenomenon in today's world of film where people of Eastwood's age either turn impossibly childish or senile, or stop. Instead, Eastwood has begun to search for better and better material and in the process he has enlarged himself as an actor and an artist.
The key to that is his performance in Million Dollar Baby: it is the first time, I feel, that Eastwood has decided not to be "Clint", but to find another character. And the magical bonus of that effort is that, in the process, I think we are getting our first glimpse of the real Eastwood. It has always been his code and perhaps his psychic need to seem tough, expert and in charge. Thus even in Unforgiven, he could not stop his fumbling gunslinger from reverting to the angel of death in the end. He settled for image and authority.
But in this picture he lets truth show - that of a rather harsh, emotionally shy man who may not always have been a sweetheart in life. The nearest I will come to talking about Million Dollar Baby is to say that it's close to a confession from a man who doubts that he has been an ideal father. That is art, and it is new in Eastwood. Yet the impact of his movie is enough to restore your faith in a medium that once knew to bring the lights up slowly as a film ended - to help the audience find its way back to reality.
― the bellefox, Monday, 20 February 2006 14:23 (eighteen years ago) link
ach god, it's just PATRONIZING!!!!
like, noooooooo, of COURSE no-one's heard of jim mcbride! it's only a landmark of US indie cinema after all.
― the Enrique who acts like some kind of good taste gestapo (Enrique), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 07:58 (eighteen years ago) link
I hear there's a vacancy on the next series of Grumpy Old Men. He and Morley should form a double act to trade wisecracks about how all our lives are rubbish unlike their own of course.
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 08:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 08:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― the Enrique who acts like some kind of good taste gestapo (Enrique), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 08:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 08:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― the Enrique who acts like some kind of good taste gestapo (Enrique), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 08:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 09:04 (eighteen years ago) link
When DT says the sex scene shouldn't have been allowed, I think he means he likes it and enjoys the naughty world of movie.
― the pinefox (the pinefox), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 14:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― the Enrique who acts like some kind of good taste gestapo (Enrique), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 14:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 14:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 9 May 2006 17:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― the Enrique who acts like some kind of good taste gestapo (Enrique), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 08:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 08:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― the Enrique who acts like some kind of good taste gestapo (Enrique), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 09:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 12:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― the confusing situation Enrique currently endures (Enrique), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 09:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 10:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Enrique IX: The Mediator (Enrique), Monday, 22 May 2006 10:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 22 May 2006 10:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 22 May 2006 22:13 (eighteen years ago) link
A full-length study of his "decline" years would I think be especially welcome as DT, by his own admission, skips over it a bit in Rosebud.
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 06:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 16:12 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0747577102/202-1095403-7919002?v=glance&n=266239&s=gateway&v=glance
― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 05:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 06:13 (seventeen years ago) link
i really hope the book is as good as the kidman part of "the whole equation". i fear that it won't be, though.
― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 06:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 06:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― Roughage Crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 19:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 12 July 2006 07:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 12 July 2006 07:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― toby (tsg20), Sunday, 17 September 2006 07:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― xyzzzz__ (jdesouza), Sunday, 17 September 2006 07:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 17 September 2006 08:00 (seventeen years ago) link
tbh it read like a cut-n-paster.
― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Monday, 18 September 2006 08:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 18 September 2006 09:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Monday, 18 September 2006 09:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Monday, 25 September 2006 09:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 25 September 2006 10:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Monday, 25 September 2006 10:17 (seventeen years ago) link
www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7891
― Pete W (peterw), Monday, 23 October 2006 09:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 23 October 2006 10:00 (seventeen years ago) link
― benrique (Enrique), Monday, 23 October 2006 10:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 23 October 2006 10:24 (seventeen years ago) link
they'll probably replace him with someone even worse though.
― benrique (Enrique), Monday, 30 October 2006 13:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 30 October 2006 13:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― benrique (Enrique), Monday, 30 October 2006 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 30 October 2006 13:31 (seventeen years ago) link
does that '#1' imply he's done a transfer. ffs!
― benrique (Enrique), Friday, 3 November 2006 10:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 3 November 2006 10:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― benrique (Enrique), Friday, 3 November 2006 10:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 3 November 2006 11:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― toby (tsg20), Friday, 3 November 2006 13:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 3 November 2006 13:51 (seventeen years ago) link
Toby is right - it's been extremely poorly reviewed. Especially by that clown Raphael. I don't think it's a great book, but it's not nearly as salacious as the reviews led you to believe. It could have done with being a bit more salicious, if you ask me, more Bunuellian in its pursuit of that obscure object of desire.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 3 November 2006 13:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 3 November 2006 14:00 (seventeen years ago) link
― benrique (Enrique), Friday, 3 November 2006 14:03 (seventeen years ago) link
I don't know about "Bunuellian" but the term "Jonathan Kingian" springs more readily to mind with the Kidman book.
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 3 November 2006 14:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 3 November 2006 14:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 3 November 2006 14:18 (seventeen years ago) link
there can be no defence of this!!!
it must be at LEAST the twentieth thing DT has written wehre he includes a fucking list of films he liked from 1974.
awful, awful, awful.
― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 09:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 09:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 10:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 11:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 12:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 10:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 10:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― That one guy that quit, Friday, 27 April 2007 09:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 27 April 2007 10:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 16:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 27 April 2007 17:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― That one guy that quit, Friday, 27 April 2007 17:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― That one guy that quit, Friday, 27 April 2007 17:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 18:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― Eric H., Friday, 27 April 2007 18:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 18:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― Eric H., Friday, 27 April 2007 19:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― admrl, Friday, 27 April 2007 19:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― Eric H., Friday, 27 April 2007 19:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 27 April 2007 19:38 (seventeen years ago) link
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2223079,00.html
hey look everybody, it's the worst article ever.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Friday, 7 December 2007 12:05 (sixteen years ago) link
soundbite of him this morning on NPR praising the "courage" of Heath Ledger, "a young MANLY actor," in playing gay. What a colostomy bag.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 23 January 2008 20:43 (sixteen years ago) link
oh c'mon – they probably woke him early, whilst dreaming of Gene Tierney.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 23 January 2008 20:51 (sixteen years ago) link
Was flicking through his new book in Waterstones a few days ago, "Have You Seen..." or whatever it's called. There's more unsettlingly abrasive dirty old manning, referring to Mary Astor's "fuckability" in The Maltese Falcon, for instance.
― Freedom, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 14:10 (fifteen years ago) link
unsettlingly abrasive dirty old manning
http://www.comedycv.co.uk/bernardmanning/2002-november-bernard-manning.jpg
― A. FIND MISSING LINK B. PUT IT TOGETHER C. BANG! (Marcello Carlin), Wednesday, 8 October 2008 14:22 (fifteen years ago) link
is it DOMing when the subject is so old she's dead? I testify to Errol Flynn's and Joel McCrea's fuckability.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 14:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Well, it's all imagery isn't it (see also "Pictures Of Lily" and "she's been dead since 1929") so it's probably a tribute to Astor that in her prime she can still be thought of as "fuckable." I'd like to see a lot more of that sort of frankness in film studies writing.
― A. FIND MISSING LINK B. PUT IT TOGETHER C. BANG! (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 9 October 2008 11:02 (fifteen years ago) link
And the term "three long times" springs to mind whenever I remind myself that I have been remiss wrt "keeping up" with your writ(h)ing, Marcello!― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 3 November 2006
I read this a few times yesterday but still don't understand it.
I recently finished a slow lingering savouring perusal of the Kidman book. It is terrific.
― the pinefox, Thursday, 9 October 2008 11:57 (fifteen years ago) link
Did you wipe up afterwards?
― A. FIND MISSING LINK B. PUT IT TOGETHER C. BANG! (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 9 October 2008 12:07 (fifteen years ago) link
Cannot, for the life of me, fathom the appeal of Nicole Kidman
― Ich Ber ein Binliner (Tom D.), Thursday, 9 October 2008 12:15 (fifteen years ago) link
There's more DOMing in the piece on Dead Calm, complaining about Nicole Kidman not swimming naked or something. But what's jarring is not so much the DOMing per se as how it sits amidst the general - as j.d. put it upthread - regal tone.
― Freedom, Thursday, 9 October 2008 13:26 (fifteen years ago) link
The piece on Dead Calm in Have You Seen?, that is.
― Freedom, Thursday, 9 October 2008 13:27 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, I think I'll wait until it's £2.99 in World's End Oxfam before I pick that new tome up.
― A. FIND MISSING LINK B. PUT IT TOGETHER C. BANG! (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 9 October 2008 13:57 (fifteen years ago) link
It isn't his DOMing that's the problem, it's his PASSANTINOing.
― Freedom, Thursday, 9 October 2008 14:17 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/20/film-depression-steinbeck-1920s-1930s-creditcrunch
― the pinefox, Monday, 20 October 2008 09:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Someone post the list of the 1000 movies in his new book pls thx.
― Eric H., Monday, 20 October 2008 13:19 (fifteen years ago) link
I thumbed through the book this weekend: some of the entries are slapdash, but it's definitely something I want on my table this Christmas.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 20 October 2008 13:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Gosh, yes. So do I! That's a good idea.
― the pinefox, Monday, 20 October 2008 13:39 (fifteen years ago) link
This about six months after DT and others were raving on about the New Golden Age Of American Cinema. Make up your minds, chaps.
― A. FIND MISSING LINK B. PUT IT TOGETHER C. BANG! (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 20 October 2008 14:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Thumbing through his new directory of films is impossible since all the copies I've seen in the bookshops are sealed.
I saw his Kidman book for two quid in the charity shop in Saturday, thumbed through it and decided there were much better things to spend two quid on.
― A. FIND MISSING LINK B. PUT IT TOGETHER C. BANG! (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 20 October 2008 14:19 (fifteen years ago) link
I enjoy Enrique's mounting exasperation throughout this thread - the bit quoted from Thomson about Before Sunset is pricelss.
― Freedom, Monday, 20 October 2008 16:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Really liking "Have You Seen?", although it's infuriating that there aren't more indexes; how much effort would it have been to have chucked in an index by director, for example?
― toby, Sunday, 15 February 2009 12:45 (fifteen years ago) link
enjoy Enrique's mounting exasperation throughout this thread
more where that came from, fella.
― ^^ one of enriques sincere posts (special guest stars mark bronson), Sunday, 15 February 2009 12:47 (fifteen years ago) link
new book also out now, in USA only je crois!!
― the pinefox, Sunday, 15 February 2009 13:10 (fifteen years ago) link
it's available here pretty easily
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Try-Tell-Story-David-Thomson/dp/0375412131/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234703528&sr=8-1
i hope it's only the first volume. childhood memoirs not usually my bag; but if he does one on being 18-35ish (ie up to when he wrote the biographical dictionary), i'd be stoked. i remember him writing a thing about choosing to go to the ldn school of film technique over oxford once.
― ^^ one of enriques sincere posts (special guest stars mark bronson), Sunday, 15 February 2009 13:15 (fifteen years ago) link
I'd usually wouldn't go for it either, but maybe going to the cinema at wartime, etc. might be really readable, who knows?
Just looking at a review a rev of 'Have you seen?' and the head-scratching snap judgements thing comes up again (as above in this thread when discussing the "biographical dictionary"). Haven't read either book, but snap judgements alongside considered opinion sounds attractive to me.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 15 February 2009 13:34 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/27/michelle-williams-heath-ledger
this is dt running through an imdb listing, afaict.
― Judd Nelson (special guest stars mark bronson), Monday, 2 March 2009 09:53 (fifteen years ago) link
He's published a few Guardian pieces lately; I just read this one:http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/apr/10/movies-economic-recession
Really not very convincing. Sure, movie might not now match what it did then - but I don't see much point in saying so. Quite odd the relish he takes in simply lambasting the present. And the assertion that movies now don't aim to move people sounds not only false but like something he knows is untrue. What about all the bad schlocky romances and whatnot that are made all the time? Might as well say not that movies should be more moving, but that they should be tougher (as screwball can indeed be).
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 13:20 (fifteen years ago) link
stevie t, i challenge u to get to the end of this!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jun/19/christian-bale-david-thomson
"Christian Bale is a real movie actor.
Don't be surprised."
― FREE DOM AND ETHAN (special guest stars mark bronson), Friday, 19 June 2009 08:22 (fourteen years ago) link
now I can't bear to read him.
Oh but it seems as though you can.
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 19 June 2009 11:07 (fourteen years ago) link
Seems a reasonable enough piece to me.
― Dingbod Kesterson, Friday, 19 June 2009 12:26 (fourteen years ago) link
State of the Union:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRavO6E2Ihk
― Freedom, Monday, 22 February 2010 15:51 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2010/10/12/david-thomson/heath-ledger/
durrr
Actors don’t lodge in the culture as once they did. They are a type of celebrity now.
durrrrrrrrrrrr
― rmde @ the romo dumplings (history mayne), Thursday, 14 October 2010 10:05 (thirteen years ago) link
DT does his death-of-cinema thing, parses S&S and "Fuck Scarface":
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/107218/not-dead-just-dying?page=0,0
― kizz my hairy irish azz (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 22 September 2012 13:49 (eleven years ago) link
Any thoughts on his new book or is it more of the same?
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 18 October 2012 09:32 (eleven years ago) link
hey someone got me this for Xmas. so far it is not bad, altho not particularly mind-blowing either.
― If I was a carpenter, and you were a douchebag (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 27 December 2012 19:54 (eleven years ago) link
When [David O.] Selznick was just fourteen, his father, the pioneer Lewis J. Selznick (born in Lithuania), had sent a cheeky cable to the beleaguered tsar (and, at the same time, to the American press):
"When I was a boy in Russia your police treated my people very bad. However no hard feelings. Hear you are now out of work. If you will come to New York can give you fine position acting in pictures. Salary no object. Reply my expense. Regards you and family."
― If I was a carpenter, and you were a douchebag (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 28 December 2012 16:53 (eleven years ago) link
6th ed of 'Dictionary' reviewed by Dana Stevens
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2014/05/david_thomson_s_new_biographical_dictionary_of_film_sixth_edition_is_the.html
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 27 May 2014 19:04 (ten years ago) link
How is the Nicole Kidman entry? Hot or not?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 19:09 (ten years ago) link
on Cranston:Long-form television is the narrative form that has transcended movies in the way, once, the novel surpassed cave paintings
yow! get this guy on ilx
― slam dunk, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 18:48 (ten years ago) link
I am part of a weekly Best Show on WFMU get-together on Skype and AP Mike was reading the other day from Thomson on the Marx Brothers...it is totally batshit crazy, one of the weirdest things I've ever read by him. But highly entertaining. Check it out.
― Iago Galdston, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 20:29 (ten years ago) link
James Franco:… If anyone can get films made of As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury in this world and time, you have to hand it to that guy—it doesn’t matter if the films are any good, he is an operator. … He is immensely sympathetic and entirely implausible; he has over ninety credits already—and I promised only a few hundred words. He is Gatsby—and better him than Leonardo DiCaprio!
v otm
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 20:39 (ten years ago) link
fwiw that television quote is perhaps the first truly hateful thing I've noticed Thomson write
― xelab V¸¸ (imago), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 21:54 (ten years ago) link
breaking bad is a good show but it turns people crazy
― Kwotch Pawasites - Wrong Or Right (wins), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 21:55 (ten years ago) link
it's entertaining & manages its tone skilfully
― xelab V¬¬ (imago), Wednesday, 28 May 2014 21:56 (ten years ago) link
It did occur to me that the extended narratives of these big production value TV shows essentially transforms them into 12 hour movies.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 23:32 (ten years ago) link
with repeating hour-long episodic cycles of tension and release, like any great movie
― xelab V¸¸ (imago), Thursday, 29 May 2014 07:47 (ten years ago) link
all based on The Godfather
zzzzzzzzzzz
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 29 May 2014 10:35 (ten years ago) link
In Have You Seen…? he does devote individual entries to some television series (Python, The Singing Detective, Sopranos). With the latter he comes to the conclusion that because the show went on too long (?), that James Gandolfini/Tony Soprano was essentially a bore (??) and that because there was no closure, as such, it is inferior to…The Godfather. Yawn yawn yawn, Howard Hawks, zz zz zzz Cary Grant, maybe it’s time to give someone else a chance to write this.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 29 May 2014 10:50 (ten years ago) link
Not new, but an interesting review of the Biog Dic by Clive James: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/hollywood-a-love-story/308501/
― Freedom, Monday, 1 June 2015 09:47 (nine years ago) link
Often spot-on, sometimes creepy
This is coming from a Diana 'fan'.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 1 June 2015 09:50 (nine years ago) link
tot OTM on this Marseillaise/Casablanca stuff (listen)
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/schedule-for-monday-november-16-1.3320550/should-we-watch-movies-to-escape-harsh-realities-1.3320558
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 November 2015 22:33 (eight years ago) link
Got a thrift-shop copy of this today, cheap and in good shape. 1967, his first book--didn't realize he went that far back.
https://i.postimg.cc/NMKk0sZ5/dt.jpg
― clemenza, Sunday, 3 March 2024 00:51 (three months ago) link