Peter Bogdanovich, threshing machine

Somehow Targets had been completely off my radar until this year, and I was pretty amazed by it. Reading about the circumstances around it, it really makes a great case for setting arbitrary limits in the creative process - having to incorporate another movie's footage, with only a few days to film the star, works out wonderfully. It's probably the hackiest possible thing to call it prescient, but more than anything else, the shooter's last words as he's led away really stuck with me. And Karloff is so great, the movie's worth seeing just for his delivery of the "Appointment in Samarra" story.

re: that wild narrative we were just discussing, MOMA has big news:

The series concludes with the world premiere of Squirrels to the Nuts, Bogdanovich’s long unseen original edit (he called it “the Lubitsch cut”) of the 2014 romantic comedy that was taken out of his hands, recut, substantially reshot, and retitled She’s Funny That Way for a brief release.

(also stoked to maybe catch At Long Last Love and Saint Jack, which I couldn't get myself to when they played at MOMI soon after his passing)

_The series concludes with the world premiere of Squirrels to the Nuts, Bogdanovich’s long unseen original edit (he called it “the Lubitsch cut”) of the 2014 romantic comedy that was taken out of his hands, recut, substantially reshot, and retitled She’s Funny That Way for a brief release._

Now on the calendar with a seven-screening run from March 28 to April 5!

Brody: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/squirrels-to-the-nuts-reviewed-the-directors-cut-of-peter-bogdanovichs-last-feature

Link to discussion of his passing on the appropriate thread: Rolling Obituary Thread 2022

And oh yeah, friend who has had to watch the director's cut a few times told me it really wasn't that great as well.

Now friend is telling me I should watch Dorothy Stratten’s other film, Galaxina.

But Josefa hated it, so I’m torn.

Reading Ron Brownstein's Rock Me on the Water (long subtitle...), about L.A. in 1974. Brownstein probably epitomizes everything people hate about CNN, and he's not a film guy, so I'm surprised to say the film part of the book is good.

"Bogdanovich calculated that from 1952 to 1971, he saw 'something like 6,000' movies."

20 years, 300 films a year, 6 a week...pretty impressive without even home video. There are people who post in the "last X movies" thread who see even more, I think. Not me.

Watched The Last Picture Show and Klute, both from 1971, in the last couple of days. They are so different

I find Klute harder going these days. Pakula often reaches a point where he's half in love with the easeful shadows of his cinematographer.

They were the second feature films by both directors. The Last Picture Show had a better story and better cinematography and Klute was more atmospheric, less straightforward

(The best film from 1971 though is still McCabe & Mrs. Miller)

Watched Daisy Miller in conjunction with the Tarantino book and--expecting nothing--thought it was pretty good, especially the last 20 minutes or so. (As Tarantino points out, it starts out like Bogdanovich wants to show he can transform official literature into screwball comedy, and the rapid-fire dialogue feels pushy.) I don't remember Barry Brown at all from that era, and it indeed looks like he was more of a TV guy.

Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms, Charles Grodin, Brown, Robert De Niro, Bogdanovich--Cybill Shepherd sure drove men around the bend in the first half of the '70s. (Add me to the list.)

Hadn't finished the Tarantino chapter when I posted that last night...Got my answer: he committed suicide in 1978. Tarantino draws a nice analogy between Brown and the character of Daisy.

I recently watched They All Laughed - another Tarantino recommendation - and could not fucking believe how bad it was. And I'm generally a fan of Bogdanovich. But that film does not work in any way. Colleen Camp's character in it has to be one of the most irritating creations in cinema history.

Sometimes I really just don't understand Tarantino's taste.

(New Years Resolution: try to be more positive about things)

The Tarantino book has a lot of interesting insights in it (as well as lots to disagree with).

I saw it ages ago and didn't get much out of it.

I still have three or four chapters to go--and have to watch Escape from Alcatraz, Hardcore, and The Funhouse (I've seen the first two)--but I'm glad I took the time to read it. Introduced me to at least two good films, the two John Flynns, and got me to watch Daisy Miller, which I never would have otherwise. The writing's okay when he's not going out of his way to be crude.

Think I mentioned upthread that I watched IThey All Laughed over and over on HBO whilst at home during a college break so I grew to like it for some reason even though yeah, it seems like a trifle. Maybe I should watch again and get back to you. Maybe I already tried that too/zingproblems

It doesn't improve on its opening sequence

Can't find it. Where did I start watching it last time, I wonder? Maybe I will try to watch Saint Jack instead.

It used to be on YouTube, I linked it up thread (link now dead).

RIght. That's what I figured, thanks.

Still thinking about Saint Jack. Ben Gazarra is such a weirdo, I think. Maybe I am biased now based on seeing him once at a Cassavettes screening.

This is on YouTube, Colleen Camp promoting the film on the radio in Cincinnati, and everything goes horribly wrong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgNjnSzM3Eg

^ Haha, well done

I found Saint Jack quite good. Just the backdrop of it alone is interesting, and then Gazzara and Denholm Elliott made an entertainingly odd couple.

One of these days I'm gonna get around to At Long Last Love

I watched a Netflix-red-envelope DVD copy about a decade ago.

The past is a foreign country iirc

haven't seen Daisy Miller, At Long Last Love, Saint Jack, or They All Laughed

but his 3 films in consecutive years from 1971 to 1973 - The Last Picture Show, What's Up Doc?, and Paper Moon - are all-time great

Eileen Brennan and Cloris Leachman from Picture Show are both good in Daisy Miller.

I was going to add that the kid's kind of annoying, but first I looked him up, and you know who it is?--James McMurtry, who I've never heard but recognized the name right away.

^^Larry's son, and future Alt-Country kingpin. Wrote one of the best W-era protest songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szclr2caFG8

Always felt part of why guy directors (Tarantino, Wes Anderson etc.) love They All Laughed is that conceptually it's kind of a platonic ideal of a film a dude would love to make: a passion project with all your buddies on board, the most of the leading ladies have been involved with you romantically, and everybody's on great terms treating NYC as a playground for grown-ups.

Makes sense.

https://www.criterion.com/films/29965-targets

I've seen it twice and found it a little overrated, although in meeting Corman's (?) conditions--get Karloff in there--pretty resourceful. Thought that weird animated thing from a few years ago Tower, was a better treatment of Charles Whitman.

Unfortunately obscure YT of the day: not streaming, not available in the U.S. since the excellent DVD (still not hard to get), here is Peter Bogdanovich's personal favorite of all his films, THEY ALL LAUGHED, w/ John Ritter, Audrey Hepburn & Ben Gazzara. https://t.co/r29M4upwY9 pic.twitter.com/HHMLWwVib1

— James Kenney (@jfkenney) June 12, 2023

love that movie, think of it a lot

https://www.criterion.com/films/27533-the-last-picture-show

Bundled with two cuts of Texasville

Kino Lorber is putting out a Blu of Daisy Miller in May.