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Remember when I promised to kill you last?*

Which is the cinetrix's way of saying she lied. But how could she not share this "the calls are coming from inside West 43rd" visit from an anonymous Times staffer?

Domain Name		(Unknown)
IP Address		199.181.172.# (The New York Times)
ISP		The New York Times
Location		Continent : North America Country : United States (Facts) State : New York City : New York Lat/Long : 40.7605, -73.9933 (Map)
Language		English (United States) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution : 1280 x 1024 Color Depth : 32 bits
Time of Visit		Jan 8 2007 11:45:59 am
Last Page View		Jan 8 2007 11:47:35 am
Visit Length		1 minute 36 seconds
Page Views		4
Referring URL
Visit Entry Page		http://pullquote.typ...manohla_dargis_.html
Visit Exit Page		http://pullquote.typ...manohla_dargis_.html
Out Click		here http://en.wikipedia..../wiki/Manohla_Dargis

Thanks for visiting. Now get back to work!

* The cinetrix has been inordinately pleased with herself ever since she got the "someday he's gonna snap and kill us all" bartender at her local to promise that he'd kill me last. During a conversation about the various firearms he owns, mind. Hell, I may even get t-shirts made up.

Two critics enter...

This is my last NYT post for a while, swear. But did anyone else notice this random listicle, dated Jan. 5, that just popped up in my reader?

Most Viewed Movie Reviews of 2006

1. Borat

2. The DaVinci Code

3. Marie Antoinette

4. Superman Returns

5. Casino Royale

6. Basic Instinct 2

7. Apocalypto

8. Flags of Our Fathers

9. The Departed

10. Talladega Nights

Is very nice, yes. But leaving aside for the moment the awkwardness of the headline and the nakedness of the ploy to be linked to and masticated over by bloggers [you're welcome], what does it all mean?

Well, let's see what happens when we add bylines to the list....

1. Borat [Dargis]      

2. The DaVinci Code [Scott]

3. Marie Antoinette [Scott]

4. Superman Returns [Dargis]

5. Casino Royale [Dargis]

6. Basic Instinct 2 [Dargis]

7. Apocalypto [Scott]

8. Flags of Our Fathers [Dargis]

9. The Departed [Dargis]

10. Talladega Nights [Scott]

The tribe has chattering classes have spoken: In your face, Flanders! [Yeah, yeah, Scott spent some of  '06 on book leave, but what's Stephen Holden's excuse?] The cinetrix can't wait to see Manohla accept her award from Queen Latifah tomorrow.

Manohla Dargis: 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle

Anecdotally speaking, the number one search term that leads folks to the cinetrix's little corner of the World Wide Interweb is "Manohla Dargis." Hands down. Seems that others out there suffer from the same unhealthy need to know more about the elusive Ms. ManohlaDargisoftheNewYorkTimes. Who knew?

So, to that end, a little story.

Back in December when the 'Fesser and the cinetrix dropped into Manhattan like a couple of errant Playboy bunnies, I ended up talking with an old pal of the Pickler's during open studios in his building. I can't find her card right now, but the woman is a film editor and, well, somehow the conversation got around to Ms. Manohla. It happens.

Turns out my informant, while not a member of the girl gang Dargis rolled with while a cinema studies grad student at NYU, had participated in the Flaherty Seminar with her. Now, she explained, this was the year of Yusef Hawkins and there were a lot of black-themed films on the docket, so their "week of intensive viewing and impassioned discussion in a  relaxed retreat environment" proved anything but. Things got tense, and our heroines bonded as their opinions were summarily dismissed. And scene.

Other fun facts not covered here or here: Our curly-haired critic grew up above the shop and was often seen biking around the Village or in the company of the soft-spoken guy who runs this joint.

That oughta hold the curiosity seekers.

As for the cinetrix, she celebrated the scuttlebutt by taking in Dargis's Must-See-Now selection at Film Forum the following day, Two or Three Things I Know About Her. [Whatever 'Nohla wants....] Hoo-boy, talk about jaune fever. The mise-en-scene is bananes [b-a-n-a-n-e-s] in this fable of the deconstruction. A landscape is comme une visage, indeed. Definitely see it if it comes to a theatre near you, kids. Then [because the cinetrix didn't take Michelson's class on Godard] maybe one of you can explain to me what's with all the pinball.

Benedicta tu in mulieribus

A.O. Scott, biting the cinetrix's '04 style in 2007.

Sigh.

Odds and sods

A quick look at flickering distractions elsewhere...

The man with a voice as lugubrious as Eeyore's, David Rakoff, has been running down all of Woody Allen's films over at Nextbook. Not surprisingly, it's his brief, fleeting, but dead-on assessment of The Purple Rose of Cairo that caught my eye:

"You kiss perfectly," says Mia Farrow to the fictional character Tom, and it's all you can do not to cry. I wonder why this movie's not thought of as being as seminal as it actually is. There wouldn't be any of that Charlie Kaufman/Michel Gondry stuff without this movie.... Mia Farrow's face in the final shot—watching Fred and Ginger dance to "Cheek to Cheek" on a set of such blinding white Deco cleanliness—goes from hopeless despond to luminous rapture and you don't see it happening. It is a wonder.

Eagle-eyed ...something slant sent along this link to Music for Films: Top 12 Appearances by Bands in Films at city of sound.

The completely arbitrary rules are these: it mustn't be a musical like 'An American In Paris', or music-orientated like 'Round Midnight' or 'Downtown 81', or about a band, like 'Magical Mystery Tour' (which sadly rules out this classic Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band clip. Take a look anyway). Many early films are counted out as they would often feature a number as part of the show, functioning more of as entertaining interlude than plot device. Obviously, we're not talking backing music á là Scorcese's 'Mean Streets', either.

No, the examples we're looking for are those where a band performance is used as a signifier or symbol. They're not a character as such, more an atmospheric effect into which characters are thrust. Not part of the plot, but part of the scenery, almost. So there's a golden era for these, from the late 1950s, when jazz and then psychedelic bands would be used to indicate when a character was about to dally in something a bit shady, up to the mid-1980s, when bands stopped being, well, bands. In a meaningful sense for the movies, like.

They don't have to be real bands, though bonus points if they are.

Last rule is that the sequence has to exist on YouTube. That's just for practicality's sake. I just hope the following stay up long enough.

There are some excellent choices, both in the post and in the voluble comments section, worth checking out. No idea whether a clip exists on YouTube, but the cinetrix would add Fishbone as Ranchbone in Tapeheads, a movie I remember watching with jmac [hated it] and aman [loved it] about a trillion years ago.

OK, back as soon as I can weave together the weekend's movies. [If you must know, Casino Royale and Talladega Nights. Yes, I do contain multitudes. Thanks for noticing.]

Stifler's mom has got it goin' on

And how was your New Year?

The cinetrix watched not a single movie save Sun Ra documentaries, but hers was plenty cinematic nonetheless. That's because she and the 'Fesser were in New Orleans. On the eve itself she observed drunken Tulane undergrads tracking vomit on the floor of Tipitina's under the watchful gaze of Professor Longhair while Galactic and Soul Rebels played. [This was after attending Indian practice but before gracing the airwaves of WWOZ or seeing Rebirth at the Maple Leaf , for those of you playing the home game.]

To ensure prosperity, the cinetrix dutifully ate her greens and black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. She also downed many Abitas, snacked on Zapps, and snuck sips of the 'Fesser's absinthe a la Hemingway. She even peered into the window of Sister Helen Prejean [neighbor to some Nola pals.] Laissez les bon temps....

Oh yeah, and she spotted Jennifer Coolidge dining at La Crepe Nanou. Bend and snap in 2007, y'all.