Tag Archives: Movies

A Year in Books/Day 131: After the Fall

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  • Title: After the Fall A Play in Two Acts/Final Stage Version
  • Author: Arthur Miller
  • Year Published: 1964/This edition: 1987 (Penguin Books)
  • Year Purchased: 1990/1991
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: No matter how hard I want it to be otherwise, After the Fall has always left a bad taste in my mouth. Although he’s not my favourite American playwright, I love Arthur Miller. I do. My love even survived not only reading Death of a Salesman (which I adore) in my high school AP English class, but watching multiple film and television adaptations over the course of a few days. That’s asking too much, yet my love and respect remained intact. After the Fall, based on his relationship with second wife Marilyn Monroe, goes a step too far for my taste. The whole enterprise, although undoubtedly cathartic for Miller, is tainted by the too-fresh dirt of his ex-wife’s grave. All writers write, to one extent or another, about people they know and experiences they have. (I’m no different.) I’d like to think that most of us are sensible or compassionate enough to do it from behind at least a slightly opaque veil, without dozens of raw and neon-bright references to friends and family. Especially when they were-and remain-one of the most famous people in the world. If you were to reduce the play to just Maggie’s lines, it would almost read like an autobiographical monologue by Monroe. Unless you do that to yourself, it’s a bit icky. Now here’s where I must pause and tell a tale on myself: if After the Fall was top-notch Miller, I’d probably be more forgiving. I know I’m a hypocrite but great writing gets me every time. This isn’t great writing; it’s a curiosity piece, an exercise in egoism, condescension and hand-washing. It’s not a good look for one of America’s best playwrights.
  • Motivation: I’ve loved plays for nearly as far back as I can remember; not just in performance, but in text. I would read aloud all of the parts, like some sort of egocentric table reading. I guess I was theatrically inclined even then, loving the interplay between words and action that is missing from straight fiction. I wrote my first play in the 5th grade. Even though the short story is my (near exclusive) fiction medium, I write with play craft in mind.
  • Times Read: 3 or 4
  • Random Excerpt/Page 84: “That decency is murderous! Speak truth, not decency. I curse the whole high administration of fake innocence! I declare it, I am not innocent-nor good!”
  • Happiness Scale: 6 for subject matter and over all execution/10 for the few passages where Miller’s writing soars
    Arthur Miller, American playwright

    Arthur Miller, American playwright (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

Art is the Signature of Civilizations: Why this (Silent Movie Stars) Mural is so Important

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I’m a niche writer. I don’t see eye-to-eye with the mainstream media, and that’s okay: I’m happy to go my own quirky way, even in a professional capacity. I’m fortunate to write about subjects that I truly love: dead writers, literary culture, weird short fiction and, of course, classic movies. I’ve been writing about the latter for a decade but, over those years, my focus has narrowed: I now write mostly on silent cinema. Oh, my beloved!

My home city has many amazing, memorable murals (hello, half-upside-down American Gothic!). My favourite-which I discovered a year ago as my mom was scouting out new apartments in this downtown neighborhood-is in the parking lot of a law school. It was so unexpected that I sucked in my breath before letting out a loud squeal. I may have jumped up and down but this is where the memory becomes foggy. Behold: Continue reading →

A Year in Books/Day 128: Fast-Talking Dames

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  • Title: Fast-Talking Dames
  • Author: Maria DiBattista
  • Year Published: 2001 (Yale University Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2002/2003
  • Source: Edward R. Hamilton Bookseller Company
  • About: The best part of screwball comedies is, of course, the dialogue. The plots are usually superfluous and in soft-focus; the snappy writing and whirlwind performances are what make these staples of the 1930s and 1940s so entertaining and timeless. While the male performers were no slouches, the women killed it time and again, routinely giving some of the best comedy turns in film history. The actresses discussed include Claudette Colbert, Rosalind Russell, Ginger Rogers, Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn, Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy and Barbara Stanwyck. Whew, what a list! Are you interested yet?
  • Motivation: The title alone was allurement enough. Throw in the snazzy cover photo of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell from His Girl Friday (1940) and I was a goner. Oh, and then there is the subject itself.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 103: “Like Harlow, Carole Lombard is often impatient or unhappy with the way her life is going, but her comic response to her predicaments is more rambunctious than raffish. Her sexual morals are definitely higher, but she is also the more accomplished liar. Or should we say, in a more generous mood, that where Harlow makes candor her comic calling card, Lombard is the great pretender.”
  • Happiness Scale: 8 1/2
    Cropped screenshot of Carole Lombard from the ...

    Cropped screenshot of Carole Lombard from the trailer for the film Nothing Sacred (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

A Year in Books/Day 122: Swingin’ Chicks of the ’60s

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  • Title: Swingin’ Chicks of the ’60s A Tribute to 101 of the Decade’s defining women
  • Author: Chris Strodder/Foreword by Angie Dickinson
  • Year Published: 2000 (Cedco Publishing Company)
  • Year Purchased: 2001/2002
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: I owned the calender before the book. It was so cheery and bright-and full of fun facts-that I was sold on this volume as soon as I saw it at Barnes & Noble. It profiles 101 ‘It Girls’ of the ’60s: from Annette Funicello to Ursula Andress, Capucine to Hayley Mills, Nico to Diahann Carroll, every major show business medium is represented by a bevy of talented ladies. Each entry includes a short biography, relevant dates, trivia and, of course, deliciously swingin’ photos.
  • Motivation: The title says it all. How could you not want to read this eye candy, pop culture gem?
  • Times Read: 3
  • Random Excerpt/Page 12: “In the late ’60s, every American soldier knew Chris Noel. More accurately, they knew her voice. It’s still the first thing one notices about her, that marvelously husky, tomboyish voice that cracks then soothes with the warmth of a summer afternoon. To hear her is to remember a picnic on a sunny California hillside, or a swimmin’ hole on a Midwest river, or white sand on a hot Florida beach.”
  • Happiness Scale: A very cheesy, wholesome 9++
    Screenshot of Capucine from the trailer for th...

    Screenshot of Capucine from the trailer for the film The Pink Panther (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

A Year in Books/Day 120: Cannes

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  • Title: Cannes Fifty Years of Sun, Sex & Celluloid
  • By: The Editors of Variety
  • Year Published: 1997 (Variety, Inc./Miramax Books/Hyperion)
  • Year Purchased: 2000?
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: The Cannes Film Festival is as much about the shenanigans of the beautiful movie stars as it is about the actual films vying for the prizes. Or, at least it was. In recent years (decades?) the whole enterprise seems stale and tepid. You have to go back to the 1950s and 1960s  to find the truly interesting stories and dazzlingly cheesy stunts. This thin volume, covering the first five decades of the festival, gives readers a light-hearted, conspiratorial look behind the scenes. The photos are exceptional.
  • Motivation: Film buff and writer in the house.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 19: “Ironically, Cannes was not created for the film buff at all, but to lure attention away from Venice, the granddaddy of all film festivals, as well as to increase tourism, image and the sheer gloire of the host country, ever a fervent combatant for culture. (Not coincidentally, the Cannes festival jury was all-French until 1952, when some carefully screened outsiders were admitted.)
  • Happiness Scale: 7 1/2

A Year in Books/Day 115: James Williamson Studies and Documents of a Pioneer of the Film Narrative

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  • Title: James Williamson Studies and Documents of a Pioneer of the Film Narrative
  • Author: Martin Sopocy
  • Year Published: 1998 (Associated University Presses, Inc.)
  • Year Purchased: 2002
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: Be warned: This book is so dry and bland that you could crumble it up and toss it in a bowl of soup. It’s so slow-paced that I had to put it away and pick it up again a few months later. Twice. That was a new experience for me, as I relish slogging through even the most dry-toast academic volumes. To have that happen with a book on silent film was almost unbearably disappointing. Yet, it is significant in its way: it’s a book about English filmmaker James Williamson; it offers painstakingly detailed breakdowns of films long since lost; the photographs and images of slides are of critical importance to film history.
  • Motivation: I have a sizable library of books on silent cinema. Since I write extensively on the subject, I’m always eager and excited to add a new volume (this book is possibly the only time I have been disappointed) to my collection.
  • Times Read: 1 (barely)
  • Random Excerpt/Page 61: “An overall view of the history of the film narrative could tempt us to suppose that motion photography, that cinema itself, has an inherent affinity with realism. Yet in actual practice such an affinity exists only to the extent that the filmmaker rejects the camera’s capacity for illusion and uses it instead with the conscious purpose of recording the world around him as he sees it, and the incidents within that world that have actually happened or could plausibly happen.”
  • Happiness Scale: 5

A Year in Books/Day 108: On the Other Hand A Life Story

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  • Title: On the Other Hand A Life Story
  • Author: Fay Wray
  • Year Published: 1989 (St. Martin’s Press)
  • Year Purchased: ??
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: Fay Wray was much more than the beautiful blonde love interest of King Kong. She was multi-talented, whip-smart and determined; she made the tough transition from silent films to talkies while still in her early twenties; she fell in love with men of true intellect and ability (including the tragic Academy Award winning writer John Monk Saunders, her first husband). She was as ridiculously lovely at 90 as she was at 20, which I think speaks to certain rare inner qualities. She was working on a follow-up autobiography at the time of her death on August 8, 2004.
  • Motivation: If you’ve ever seen Fay Wray on film-or even a still photograph (see below)-you have the answer.
  • Times Read: 2
  • Random Excerpt/Page 56: “I rode a supposedly runaway horse and lay across the saddle, my head hanging down on one side of the horse, one foot tied to the stirrup on the far side. A crew member behind the camera shook his head, asking me silently not to do it.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9 1/2
    Publicity photo of Fay Wray for Argentinean Ma...

    Publicity photo of Fay Wray for Argentinean Magazine. (Printed in USA) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

A Year in Books/Day 102: LIFE Goes to the Movies

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  • Title: LIFE Goes to the Movies
  • Editor: David E. Scherman
  • Year Published: 1975/This Edition: 1986 (Time-Life Books, Inc./Pocket Books)
  • Year Purchased: 1990s
  • Source: On clearance at a forgotten store (likely Waldenbooks).
  • About: The binding of this book is falling apart; if you pick it up carelessly, random pages tumble to your feet. I’ve retrieved the disordered middle third of the book from the floor more than once. It’s that kind of volume-delightful, informative, unique and just damn good to ogle. It’s light on text but big on informatively captioned photographs. The staff of this quintessentially American periodical had a degree of privileged access to film studios and stars that today would be unthinkable. The best of forty years of their coverage is stuffed into 304 kaleidoscopic pages.
  • Motivation: LIFE magazine employed top-notch photographers; many of the images they published are instantly recognizable classics. I knew that I would never tire of looking through it, which I haven’t (apparently to the point of nearly destroying it from the inside out).
  • Times Read: Countless
  • Random Excerpt/Page 86: “In the Hollywood of the ’30s and ’40s, stars were not born; they were mass produced. The machinery that swallowed up legions of girls with pretty midwestern faces and that ground out sultry vamps and sexy hoydens gave each young hopeful a buildup that can only be described as relentless.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9

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A Year in Books/Day 96: Marilyn Mon Amour

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  • Title: Marilyn Mon Amour The Private Album of Andre de Dienes, her preferred photographer
  • Author: Andre de Dienes
  • Year Published: 1985 (St. Martin’s Press)
  • Year Purchased: 1991
  • Source: I bought this book in high school. I remember the mall (City Center) and who I was with (my mom and her best friend Debbie) but I cannot recall the name of the book store!
  • About: However slight the connection, men just love to claim that they had an affair with Marilyn. Usually in book form. Fancy that. It’s almost a sub-category of the cottage industry that is the Marilyn biography. And they were never simply lusty flings or misbegotten one-night-stands. They were all, pretty much to a man, life-altering, planet-shifting Love Affairs. According to the gents in question, that is. The reality must be very different. Out of all of these claimants, Transylvania-born photographer de Dienes stands out as one of the most believable. The hundreds of photographs he shot of Marilyn between the years 1945-1953 testify to the fact that they had a viable working relationship; there’s obviously a sense of trust and friendship between photographer and subject. Since I don’t want to turn this from a review into a treatise, we’ll leave the veracity of his story for another day and another form. Instead, we’ll hone in on the real focus of his book: the photographs. What photographs they are! The majority date from the earliest days of her modeling career; they are undoubtedly the best pre-stardom images ever taken of her. They’re lovely. That’s right. Lovely. No big, loftily descriptive words are necessary, not when one word is so wholly perfect and concise. Her wardrobe of all-American basics (she was broke and had to supply her own clothes for the road-trip shoot of 1945) remain fresh and alluring; they set off her glowing, innocent beauty without detraction. This is the definitive Marilyn Monroe book.
  • Motivation: I was a teenage girl, studying acting. This play world was extremely compelling to me at that time.
  • Times Read: Countless
  • Random Excerpt: “I was impatient to train the camera on her, to choose the right light to set off her skin and her hair, to capture her expression, to make her move, run, stand still, arch her back, stretch. I wanted to catch hold of whatever it was I sensed lay behind that candid smile, those blonde curls and the pink sweater. In one fell swoop I was intrigued, moved and attracted by her.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10+++

A Year in Books/Day 88: Veronica

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  • Title: Veronica The Autobiography of Veronica Lake
  • Authors: Veronica Lake with Donald Bain
  • Year Published: 1969/This Edition: 1972 (A Bantam Book)
  • Year Purchased: 1994?
  • Source: Antique Barn at the Ohio State Fair, Columbus, Ohio
  • About: Sultry movie star Veronica Lake’s autobiography attempts, as most memoirs do, to right a lifetime of perceived wrongs. The cover line tells us, in all-important CAPS, what we are in for: THE TRUE STORY OF THE STAR WHO WALKED OUT ON HOLLYWOOD. Whether or not you believe her version of events probably radically varies from person to person but one thing is for certain: by the time you close the back cover, you will have read your way through one hell of a wild and tragic story. Fun Fact: Her co-author (or ghostwriter, depending on your level of cynicism) Donald Bain  has ‘shared’ a by-line with Jessica Fletcher in the ‘Murder, She Wrote’ series of books since 1989.
  • Motivation: Oh, just some movies with titles you may have heard of: ‘Sullivan’s Travels’, ‘This Gun for Hire’, ‘I Married a Witch’, ‘The Blue Dahlia’. I really love Lake’s screw-you attitude to intrusive authority, which may or may not strike a strong cord with me. She’s also one of the few major stars in history as short as me, which made her a great example for this then-struggling young actress.
  • Times Read: 4 or 5
  • Random Excerpt/Page 214: “Merchant seamen look a certain way. Spencer Tracy? All the senior airline pilots in the world? All people cursed with premature wrinkling? Leathery skin? Romance through squinting eyes? I don’t know. But Andy was undoubtedly a seaman and so were his two friends. It wasn’t even debatable.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10 (whenever I am in the mood for a quick, vitriolic take-down of Hollywood’s superficiality by someone with a compellingly prickly persona)
    Studio portrait photo of Veronica Lake taken f...

    Studio portrait photo of Veronica Lake taken for promotional use. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)