imagine

Barack Obama, 1972.

John Lennon, 1972.

nobody's perfect

Watching Billy Wilder's comic masterpiece Some Like It Hot last night at Film Forum with my friend Katie (she writes about the experience here), got me thinking about how little Hollywood has progressed. Mainstream cross-dressing comedy hits like 1982's Tootsie and 1995's Too Wong Foo... seem mild in comparison to the ribald nature of Wilder's film. Wilder took a risk by not re-editing after a bad test screening. According to Jack Lemmon, Wilder said, "I don't panic over one bad preview. It's a hell of a movie." Indeed it became a sensation. The film was banned in Kansas and condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency. The production code died soon after its release. In relation to other films of its time period, it seems risque. Besides all the gender-bending and playfully violent mafia subplot, curvy (she was reportedly pregnant at the time) sex kitten Marylin Monroe is shot in the most revealing dresses (Oscar winning designs by Orry-Kelly). There is plenty of overt sexual innuendo as well.

Besides Wilder's snappy direction (it looks gorgeous in black and white, especially on the big screen), the film really belongs to its performers. Jack Lemmon zips through it with his zany energy and incredible physical comedy skills. Tony Curtis, as his droll sidekick, is at times touching and at his comic best with an imitation of Cary Grant (an imitation within an imitation). And Marylin Monroe is perfectly funny and vivacious, cooing through her now legendary musical numbers. It's a classic one-of-a-kind trio.

Fifty years later and the issue of gay marriage is finally on the table. The National Equality March is this weekend in D.C. I just got an email from moveon.org about protecting marriage rights in Maine. In one of the best endings in cinematic history, Some Like It Hot's last line--"Well, nobody's perfect"--seems as apt as ever. Sometimes it takes a good comedy to remind us how silly our hangups can be.

-Jeffery Berg

martha, my dear

"Martha My Dear" is a tribute to McCartney's Old English Sheepdog, not about a romantic interest as some would believe. When I listen, I like to think of Elizabeth Taylor's Martha from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? McCartney's dog sentiments are reflected in the lines "silly girl," "you'll always be my inspiration," "see what you've done."

I forget about certain Beatles songs. This is one I re-discovered recently on The White Album. Its very McCartney: the chord progressions are clean and strong with a piano intro (played by McCartney himself), brass band, and a dash of slightly dissonant strings. As with many Beatles songs, once the song climaxes, it's quickly over.

McCartney said of the song in an 1968 interview "You see, I just start singing some words with a tune ... I don't ever write a song thinking, "Now I'll write a song about...' I do sometimes, but mainly I don't. Mainly I'm just doing a tune and then some words come into my head ... and these happened to be "Martha My Dear, though I spend my days in conversation.' It doesn't mean anything ... but those just happened to come to my head. So that's what this song is about... it is about my dog."

I love the lyric "when you find yourself in the thick of it / Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you"

Here's more information about the song from The Beatles Bible.

waterfront look

Last night Film Forum showed the trailer for Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront. The film is one of my favorites: moving and dark with a powerful performance from Marlon Brando.

I couldn't help but notice Brando's checked jacket with its Rob Roy Tartan pattern that's been popular as of late. There's something about it that suits his character so well, it's plain but the pattern helps him stand out from the rest.

The costumes were designed by Anna Hill Johnstone (East of Eden and The Godfather). Johnstone's projects often showed realism and grit. She also designed for an array of period pieces such as Ragtime and Play it Again, Sam. Her dynamic work in The Stepford Wives showed her flair for the then-contemporary 1970s.

Film Forum is showing On the Waterfront October 9th & 10th as part of their Kazan festival. Tickets here.

house of the devil

Is this the first horror movie in some time where instead of one thing to the next thing, one thing leads to another (as the song in the film suggests)?

Horror fans who are weary of the loud, suspense-less Michael Bay remakes, will likely enjoy Ti West's House of the Devil. It's relatively quiet and burns slow, similar in plot to Rosemary's Baby.

On the eve of a lunar eclipse, a college student, Samantha Hughes (a perfectly dour and ordinary Jocelin Donahue), desperate for money, takes on a babysitting job. Snooping alone in her client's (a spooky Tom Noonan) mysterious old house, she slowly begins to realize why she's there.

Set somewhere in the early 80s, there are a lot of great details: a Walkman with orange foam headphones, rotary telephones, paper Coke cups, denim backpacks, acid wash. The story itself is like something out of an "Unsolved Mysteries" rerun.

With his use of 16mm, West is knowing with the look of the film and his freeze frame, 70s styled title and end credits. Dee Wallace appears as "The Landlady". But the movie never really veers into camp, it seems instead, quite earnest and serious. I found the moodiness to be refreshingly low-key, reminding me of Nixon-era thrillers like Let's Scare Jessica to Death and Robert Altman's Images. I hope West gives us a follow up. I'm eager to see what he'll do next.

-Jeffery Berg

Be sure to read this interesting interview with Ti West & article by Karina Longworth.

And Nick Shager's Slant review is pretty spot-on.

me & orson welles

In 1937 at the then newly-founded Mercury Theater (now gone), Orson Welles staged a production of Julius Caesar. The making-of-the play is dramatized in Richard Linklater's lovely new film. Even though the story is primarily a coming-of-age tale, it's rooted in interesting theatrical history.

Through sheer luck and charisma, young Richard (the charming Zac Efron who holds his own) lands the role of Lucius. Throughout rehearsals, he watches the work of future stars such as Joseph Cotten and begins to fall in love with Welles's assistant (Claire Danes), a seemingly warm but savvy Vassar grad, who has bigger dreams of her own.

The film primarily belongs to newcomer Christian McKay who portrayed Welles once before on stage in "Rosebud: The Lives of Orson Welles." He does indeed have the mannerisms and speech down pat, but what McKay does in this film is enigmatic, alluring, and often electric, giving the story the shot of gravitas it sometimes lacks. His Welles is temperamental and selfish, but never the villain, a complicated genius of his time.

Like the folded up papers Welles leaves for his cast on opening night, Linklater offers up this little love note. Some Welles aficionados may be disappointed that this film is more Shakespeare in Love, less Magnificent Ambersons, but it seems a wise decision that Linklater does not pay tribute through imitation. In fact, the straightforward approach makes the risk and the mastery of Welles's Caesar seem greater; the re-imagined scenes of the stark production is one of the film's highlights. Richard Linklater, whose resume is all over the map, often deals with the restless and the lovably aimless (from Dazed & Confused to Before Sunrise and Sunset), because of this, his films tend to sag a little, as this one does. I was quite happy, however, to be lost in this little gem.

-Jeffery Berg

our new era

Chantal Biya, First Lady of Cameroon and Michelle Obama with their husbands.

Zandile Blay writes about how Biya overshadows Michelle's style.




















Woody at Just an Evening at the Show posted this amazing video on Obama's consistent smile.

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.