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Bad
Blood (Mauvais Sang) Dateline: Friday, October 27, 2000 Wednesday I went to the Castro and saw House of Wax. The original with Vincent Price, Charles Bronson (as Buchinsky), pretty Carolyn Jones. Tim's friend Erica was working at the box office, as she often is, and she let me in for free! I got popcorn, but it was a bit of a let down. The movie was entertaining 50's camp horror. And in 3-D. Glasses provided by the Castro. Carolyn played the Joan of Arc wax figure. Hear any good stories lately? And then I went to the Lumiere the next day and saw Urbania. Dan Futterman plays Charlie who is trying to track down some guy, presumably because he finds him attractive. If I say much more, I'd be giving away to much plot. The film is told in flashback/flashforward fashion. It's something to do with urban legends too. Vignettes appear within the story. Good supporting cast includes Alan Cumming, Matt Keeslar, Lothaire Bluteau, Barbara Sukowa, Samuel Ball and Josh Hamilton. Dateline:
Oct 9 - 16, 2000 And now, I am going to see Blair Witch 2: The Scary Titters Behind the Shed. Will let you know how it goes later! Blair Witch 2: Scary Stuff and Boos! was seen today by me and my buddy Pete at the Embarcadero. Pete is a "journalist" at Diablo Magazine. I've known him since 7th grade. He is a remarkable human being. Anyway, he got free journalist tix and since this little Swedish girl couldn't make it, he asked me to go. Well, he was up for it big time and he went thumbs down on it. I was up for it, but wasn't getting myself all excited. I thought it wasn't very good, but not that bad. You'll probably see it and say "that sucked!" And you wouldn't be too far off the mark. I just saw Meet the Parents which was relatively funny. Walking around SF a lot today. JavaScript class. Looking for love; finding... ketchup. What's up with you? I just bought a travel guide thing to Mexico. I have no plans as of yet though. But I may have plans by Saturday. But I may not. Pizza the last couple days. I might try to rent Pitch Black tonight. There's a girl sitting next to me in the computer lab and a guy sitting next to her. They seem to be hitting it off. As it turned out I did rent Pitch Black with Radha Mitchell. Highly underrated. Then I rented High Art with Radha Mitchell. It was pretty good. Patricia Clarkson was really good as a German actress strung out on H. At some point I saw Best in Show. It was funny. Not brilliant or special. Funny. I just saw a French movie, then dropped my motorcycle off to be checked for 6000 miles. I don't know what I'm gonna do this weekend. Probably nothing fun. What are you going to do? More? The French movie was neat. It was with Catherine Deneuve and was called Place Vendome. It costarred Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner and Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jacques Dutronc, Bernard Fresson, François Berléand, Dragan Nikolic, Laszló Szábó. It was kind of almost a heist film. But it was all about the characters and their relationships. No bullshit Hollywood explosions, car chases, etc. I need to point out that I am not one of those people who despise all Hollywood action films. I don't; I like some. Place Vendome reminded me a little, and briefly, of something from Melville. Jean-Pierre Melville, not Herman (did you know that electronic music hero Moby is Herman Melville's like great-grandson?). He directed the all-time masterpiece Le Samourai. Anyway, this film, Place Vendome, was quiet, well-acted, maybe a tad slow. But I liked it. Good cast. And then, actually a couple days before, I saw Deneuve in Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark. The film co-stars Björk, David Morse, Peter Stormare, Udo Kier, Joel Grey, Cara Seymour, Jean-Marc Barr, Zeljko Ivanek, Siobhan Fallon and Stellan Skarsgård. The film is not my favorite, but it is different, and quite good and interesting. It's hard to buy all the melodrama. And Ebert says the melodrama is purposefully melodramatic, but it seems it's trying to make grand statements about the death penalty and stuff, and you can't have it both ways. The last third or so starts to drag. It takes place in the mid 60's in the state of Washington, in a city where a lot of Europeans seemed to have moved to. But it really looks like the mid 60s. The cast is so wonderful. I've never understood what the deal with David Morse was. As a child I knew that he was on St. Elsewhere. He stayed with that through the 80s and did nothing else that I noticed. Then a few years later, I noticed him turning up in Sean Penn's films. In big roles. So, I figured maybe I was missing something. He did The Indian Runner and The Crossing Guard. Then Twelve Monkeys, Extreme Measures, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Rock, Contact (Jodie Foster's dad), The Negotiator and a big part in The big Green Mile. And now this. He's fine. Then Bjork. Screen debut. Pretty big stuff. She's a nut. She's from Iceland, but she might as well be from Mars. I've been a fan of her since her days in the Sugarcubes ("Regina", "Hit"). But she's a nut. Sometimes, occasionally, she's wildly sexy. Not in this though. The great Peter Stormare came from Sweden originally, and is most known for the being the woodchipper in Fargo. He also did Awakenings (1990), Damage (1992), Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Playing God (1997), The Big Lebowski (1998), Mercury Rising (1998), Armageddon (1998), 8MM (1999), The Million Dollar Hotel (2000) and the upcoming Juliette Binoche film, Chocolat (2000). But, other than Fargo, you'd most know him from playing Slippery Pete in The Frogger episode of Seinfeld. Udo Kier is the cult actor. Udo's first hit film was 1970s Mark of the Devil. The film was promoted as being Rated V for Violence and it offered ticket buyers vomit bags on their way in to see the feature. Mark of the Devil was banned in 31 Countries and spawned 2 sequels (both without Udo). The film is notorious for it's exploitation of sex and violence. The uncut version was remastered and rereleased on video in 1997. Udo Kier met director Paul Morrissey on an airplane trip. Morrissey offered Kier the lead role in the Andy Warhol's 3-D Flesh for Frankenstein. It was this Frankenstein, along with it's sister film Blood for Dracula, that made Udo a cult figure. Both films were Rated X when released. One of Mr. Kier's most vivid memories from Flesh for Frankenstein was the internal organ scene. Real animal organs were used that were left unrefridgerated on the set for several hours. Udo had pull the organs out of a prop dummy with his bare hands and hold them up to his face. He has said he will never forget the smell when Frankenstein was finished the cast and crew began immediately filming Blood for Dracula. In 1996 both films were released by Criterion on DVD totally uncut. Kier's acting career ranges from Art House Films (Zentropa) to Gore Fests (The German Chainsaw Massacre) to television commercials (Mercury Cougar) to music videos (Madonna, Korn). He says he loves horror films and wants to do more of them. Udo enjoys playing villains as he feels it is more interesting because evil has no limits. Currently Udo lives in California and spends much of his time working in Europe where he receives largers roles and more recognition. Udo's first film was Road to St. Tropez (1966); others include: The Salzburg Connection (1972), The Story of O (1975), Suspiria (1977), The Blood of Doctor Jekyll (1981), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), Breaking the Waves (1996), The End of Violence (1997), Blade (1998), Armageddon (1998) and End of Days (1999). Much of Kier's work has been dubbed with someone else's voice. Udo was cast as Pamela Lee's sidekick in Barbed Wire (1996) and played the millionaire in Ace Ventura (1994) opposite Jim Carrey. Udo has worked with several acclaimed directors: Paul Morrisey, Wim Wenders, Charles Matton, Dario Argento, Lars Von Trier, Gus Van Sant, and Walerian Boroczyk. Udo continues to work often with Von Trier and is the Godfather of his child as well as a good friend (as Peter Stormare is the Godfather of Stellan Skarsgard's child). Von Trier is currently working on the film entitled Dimension which is a project that spans 30 years. Every year the cast and crew (including Udo) meet to shoot footage. The film will show the actors age 30 years without make up or special effects. Approximately 7 years of footage has already been shot. The premiere of Dimension will take place in 2024! Joel Grey is Jennifer Grey's father. He won an Oscar for Cabaret (1972). He's a stage actor; singing, dancing. He's light, thin, small. He was the voice of Father Mouse in 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, the 1974 TV animated Christmas special. You've seen it. He also did Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976) and The Player (1992), both for Robert Altman. Kafka (1991), Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins... (1985) and The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976). Cara Seymour was David Morse's pretty, young, American, Golden Days of Television wife. She's been in only 3 other films (American Psycho, A Good Baby, You've Got Mail) and she's spectacular. You'll know who she is soon enough. Jean-Marc Barr has been in Breaking the Waves (1996), The Plague (1992), Europa/Zentropa (1991), The Big Blue (1988), Hope and Glory (1987), and King David (1985). The great Zeljko Ivanek was a lawyer on "Homicide: Life on the Streets," A Civil Action and this film. He's also been in Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), Julian Po (1997), Donnie Brasco (1997), Courage Under Fire (1996), School Ties (1992), Mass Appeal (1984), Tex (1982). He'll be in the upcoming Hannibal (2001) and he plays Governor James Devlin on HBO's "Oz". But it was Catherine Deneuve who really made an impact. She's in her late 50s and has been making French film classics for decades. She's great, of course, but never my favorite. Always too cold or icy for me. She was in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), Repulsion (1965), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), Belle de jour (1967), The April Fools (1969), Mississippi Mermaid (1969), Hustle (1975), Le Sauvage (1975), The Last Metro (1980), Hunger (1983), Indochine (1992), My Favorite Season (1993), Les Voleurs (1996), Genealogies of a Crime (1997), Place Vendôme (1998), Pola X (1999), Time Regained (1999) and East-West (1999). This is her best performance yet. If you ask me. She's so real, and so alive. She's this aging, poor, factory worker, just a regular lonely woman working to pay the bills. And she's a good friend to this nut Bjork. Apparently, she liked Breaking the Waves (1996) by Lars von Trier so much that she wrote a personal letter to him, asking him for a role in a film of his. The result of this is her part in Dancer in the Dark (2000). She was married to David Bailey from 1965 until their divorce in 1972. She has two children: Christian Vadim (b.6/18/1963), Chiara Mastroianni (b.5/28/1972), by fathers Roger Vadim and Marcello Mastroianni. Deneuve
was the sister of Françoise Dorléac, who died in a car wreck in 1967,
at the age of 25. She had been in The Young Girls of Rochefort
(1967), Cul-de-sac (1966), Where the Spies Are (1965), and
The Soft Skin (1964).
And then on Saturday, October 14 I saw Dr. T and the Women. Yeah, here's how it happened. I had just got up. It was about 2 in the afternoon. Hey, it was Saturday. My Dad thinks I should get up by 6 every day, but on the weekends I could maybe sleep as late as 9. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad. He's just impossible. Anyway, Jenny called to see what I was doing today. Actually, she had called earlier and left a message. I called her back. So, after some debating, we decided we'd see the new Altman/Gere film Dr. T and the Women. I walked the 4 blocks, down to her apartment at Sacramento and Polk. Then we walked to the AMC Van Ness. We bought tix. Then we went back up a block to Mel's Drive-In. I got a cheeseburger, fries, a Calistoga water and a vanilla milkshake. Jenny got a grilled cheese sandwich, but she ordered it without swiss cheese. So, she was only getting cheddar and I think jack. For my part, I like swiss cheese. Jenny ordered some kind of a salad I think, but they brought her curly fries instead. Then the guy came back and attempted to switch plates with her (but the other plate didn't have salad either, it had regular fries), but then changed his mind and reswitched plates, and took the plate he had come with over to a cute girl. Jenny was slightly flabbergasted at the whole thing. But by that time, I was eating. When I'm eating I usually tune other people out. If for some reason I have to pay attention to who I'm with (a date of some sort), I usually can't concentrate on eating. Then we saw the movie. It was good. If Garry Marshall had directed it I'm sure he'd have given us a big pile of crap. But Altman is able to inject it with something that makes it a little more original, offbeat, fresh. Good supporting cast includes: Tara Reid, Liv Tyler, Farrah Fawcett, Laura Dern, Helen Hunt, Andy Richter, Janine Turner, Robert Hayes, Kate Hudson. Then we walked back. We stopped at Grammophone Video on Polk. I rented the unrated version of American Psycho, and High Art (which I just watched and liked pretty much). Jenny rented Final Destination (upon my recommendation) and some episodes of Sex in the City (which I sure as hell did not recommend). Jenny was going to come up to my apartment to watch the DVD of American Psycho, but then she backed out. Jenny has a boyfriend. I think she might have gotten scared of the implications. That left me to enjoy the extended unrated sex scene of American Psycho, all by myself. Not worth it. It was like 12 added seconds or something. Lame. Dateline:
Oct 9, 2000, Monday Dateline:
Oct 2, 2000, Monday Dateline:
Oct 1, 2000, Sunday The film was very moving, and the cast was very good, and luckily it was more about race than football. I would love to see Denzel Washington appear in something a little more edgy. Like Willis in Pulp Fiction or Cruise in Magnolia. Dateline:
Sept 30, 2000, Saturday Twice were many, many years ago in college. The third girl, this is the girl that I used to know. I still know her. Anyway, this girl is the sexiest woman I've ever known. I realized this recently, when I was trying to think about what it was about her that drew me to her. She's very, very sexy. Something about the way she moves, the way her hips move when she walks. The way she talks. Her mouth. Anyway, I went to see Point Blank tonight at a special midnight showing at the Clay. Angie Dickinson was sexy like this girl I used to know, and I made the connection. Angie was probably very, very sexy longer than anyone else. Angie was 36 when she made Point Blank, she looks like she's 22. Sharon Stone looked like hell at 36, just a couple years ago. In Point Blank Angie is slinky. Slinky, slinkier, slinkiest. 1. Stealthy, furtive, and sneaking. 2. Informal. Graceful, sinuous, and sleek: wore a slinky outfit to the party. Angie is the slinky outfit. Anyway, Point Blank is not to be confused with Point Break or Grosse Point Blank. It is John Boorman's cult classic neo noir thriller from Richard Stark's crime novel The Hunter. It was reshot a couple years ago with Mel Gibson and called Payback. Point Blank stars the great man Lee Marvin in one of his finest roles, as a man left for dead with two bullets in him. He survives and goes after the man who shot him, and wants his money back. Marvin sets off quite a few deaths in his search. Keenan Wynn, Carroll O'Connor, Lloyd Bochner, Michael Strong, Sharon Acker, James Sikking and John Vernon co-star. I saw Point Blank with two other guys who hadn't seen it before. They were excited to see it, but they fell asleep. Dateline:
Sept 29, 2000, Friday It's not bad. I think I prefer it to the other two Carax films I've seen. I'm not really into him. Good cast. Quirky. Dateline:
Sept 28, 2000, Thursday Thursday night I went over to see Jacques Tourneur's Nightfall at a noir Thursday night special at the Parkway Theatre in Oakland. I am a big fan of Tourneur and was excited to see Nightfall as it is not available on video and I have never seen it. I still haven't seen it. I've never been to the Parkway (the one other time I went I got lost too). I was driving around the streets of Oakland for about 20 minutes. When the movie started I decided to go back to San Francisco. I met my good friend Tim and his girlfriend at a bar in North Beach where Tim's cousin plays in a jazz band on Thursday nights. That went well. I hadn't met Tim's girlfriend yet, and she seems very cool. And she gave me several Dutch cigarettes. Tim was smoking some strange short, light Canadian cigarets. They looked like children's sizes. But then, you know, children aren't supposed to smoke. Dateline:
Sept 26, 2000, Tuesday I saw it at the corner and I got no concessions. I mean at the concessions counter. There were several commercials. For Acura and others; the Coca-Cola film student film which sucks beyond all belief, and other garbage. Then the movie started. You've either seen it, or you haven't and you will so I don't want to give away any of the fun. Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Jason Miller, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, and Linda Blair star; voice of demon by Mercedes McCambridge. Dateline:
Sept 24, 2000, Sunday This is his first film since that one, which came out in 1991. I got a popcorn and a coke and I just couldn't wait for the film to end. Catherine Deneuve will be 57 in October, and so I find it necessary to point out that she bares her breasts in this film, while taking a bath. I was thinking that when older women do that in a film it's a pretty strong statement they are making. There is also an outstanding, highly erotic and very explicit sex scene. After that I suggest walking out. Several people did. It's just rambling, boring and pretentious. This guy (Guillaume Depardieu) is having a weird sexual relationship with his older sister -- or mother, I'm unsure -- (Deneuve), and his male cousin. He is also engaged to be married to a sweet young thing. Then a step sister (Yekaterina Golubyova), apparently raised by wolves in a forest (?), shows up and he ditches his high life and lives with her in squallor. Now his cousin hates him, because he also loved the girl that our star was engaged to. Now, the guy is living in a weird, freezing commune in a gigantic abandoned wherehouse with a group of murdering terrorists who also have formed a gigantic heavy metal garage band. I know, I know. That's all fine, but then there's another hour to go. Maybe I missed something so I looked around online and found a review by Robert Horton of Film Comment. I will now quote selections from it: "A Stimulating Failure... Herman Melville's novel "Pierre, or the Ambiguities," was widely reviled when it was published, just as Leos Carax's film of Pierre has been generally maligned... Carax's Pola X is also interesting-weird.... The title is an obscure joke; Pola is shorthand for "Pierre, ou les Ambiguities," the French title of the novel, and the X is for Carax's tenth draft of the script... the critics who hate Pola X seem to take it straight, in which case the film would indeed be pretentious, but to my eyes Carax views Pierre's dissolution with an acidic sense of humor... Carax explores just how real a movie can get. ("Explicit" is used here in its proper sense, not the casual way people refer to soft-core scenes as explicit sex.)... Sometimes you like or dislike a movie not because it makes sense, or succeeds in fulfilling the conventional expectations of a film, but simply because, moment for moment, the movie holds you. I'm not sure how elaborately I could defend Pola X, but I loved watching it. Carax is able to sculpt his shots into passionately rendered artworks, and he can create crazy, unexpected worlds within the film, such as the warehouse-y building in which the starving artists create musical noise with a collection of metallic instruments. If Pola X is a failure, it is a more stimulating failure than most successful films." I dig what he's saying, but moment for moment, the movie did not hold me. Except for that explicit sex scene. Which he's dead-on right about. And, it's absolutely awesome! Dateline:
Sept 18, 2000, Monday Dateline:
Sept 20, 2000, Wednesday Dateline:
Sept 22, 2000, Friday First I went to Allison's birthday at 26 Mix on Mission at 26th. Great fun. Allison was 25. The last good year. CeCe told me that 30's not so old. Her sister just turned 31 and said how the 30s are the best! Long story. But I'm still going to be 30 in November. I talked with Kym and Adam and Liz and Jennifer Gurka (Allison's sister) and then I ducked out around 9:15. I was supposed to meet up with some other people, but was starting to feel really depressed and knew I would be no good to them, so I went to see what turned out to be one of the freshest, most fun and best films of 2000. Psycho Beach Party stars Lauren Ambrose (Can't Hardly Wait), Nicholas Brendon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), Thomas Gibson ("Dharma and Greg"), Matt Keeslar (Scream 3), Nathan Bexton (Go), Kathleen Robertson ("90210"), Kimberley Davies, Charles Busch, and Beth Broderick. It is like a campy 50s surf movie, with some gay kitsch and slasher take-offs. It's very good, very funny, very outrageous, without going too far or being esoteric gay culture comedy. Lauren Ambrose is very good. I don't want to give any of the fun of the movie away, which I would, if I explained her character or performance too much. See it! Dateline:
Sept 23, 2000, Saturday Anyway, here Duryea plays an aging burglar (although for some reason the movie claims he's 35 -- he's really past 50 and looks it), a big heist, a girl, a bad girl, a crooked cop, a whining accomplice, a fat dirty leering one. Super fun. Filmed on location on the NY/NJ East coast. I think. Screenplay by David Goodis (Shoot the Piano Player), based on his novel. 1957. Next up: Screaming Mimi. Anita Ekberg (who must be seen to be believed) comes out of the SoCal ocean and she and her doggie trudge up the hill. While Anita is taking an outside beach shower, an escaped madman from the sanatarium shows up, stabs her dog, attacks her, and is then shot to death by a neighbor with a rifle. Next stop Anita's at the sanatarium because she's lost it after the attack. The psychiatrist falls in love with her, gets her under his spell, fakes her death, and they go on the lam. Now she's called Lola Langtree, or something, dances at a nightclub with Gypsy Rose Lee, has blackouts, and there's a serial killer on the loose. Cuckoo. The great jazz vibraphonist Red Norvo plays himself. I'd like, also, to point out a similarity between Beth Broderick in Psycho Beach Party and Martha Vickers in The Burglar. They both play sexy older women longing for sex/love and just sort of surviving. I think I am drawn to this "type."
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