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One off

Nicholas Campbell in Knights of the City (1986, dir. Dominic Orlando)

Adventures in cinema: last-minute lollipops

Lovers and Lollipops (1956, dir. Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin)

Every frame of this film is gorgeous. Even in my cruddy oblique, cropped screenshots you can see that. The placement of the camera and the performance of the juvenile lead Cathy Dunn as Peggy are frequently astonishing. Her single mother's fits-and-starts romance feels equally real. And the damn thing is a documentary of a specific moment in New York history, too. I finally watched Lovers and Lollipops on its last day on the Criterion channel and couldn't stop kicking myself. See, I still remember when we got all three of Engel and Orkin's feature films--Lollipops, The Little Fugitive, and Weddings and Babies--at the video store. On VHS. Why did I waste so many years of my life in a Lollipop-less state?

A hunch

So, we've been watching The Muppet Show in order, an episode a night or so. It was during season one, the only season in which she appeared, that I had this flash of realization: Hilda the wardrobe lady must be a Holocaust survivor. There's a story there, I just know it.

Adventures in cinema: à chacun son goût

How can pictures so good/

Yield film so bad?

I kid! Strong proto Josie and the Pussycats energy

Solarbabies (dir. Alan Johnson, 1986)

Adventures in cinema: eastern, promises

Center Stage (dir. Stanley Kwan, 1991)

BUYER WALKER ROVER (YIWU) AKA. THERE THEN (dir. Amalia Ulman, 2019) 

A Short History (dir. Erica Sheu, 2017)

Nothing runs like a... virus

In 2018, I was fortunate to be a mere sub-three-hour drive from Memorial Hall, which is where that year's six Norton Lectures in Poetry convened. I made it to five. Since 2009-2010, they've apparently unfolded under the umbrella of the Mahindra Center, the Harvard humanities confab that'd sold its naming rights to the "WORLD'S #1 SELLING FARM TRACTOR*." And why not?

Until recently, the center was under the auspices of a scholar/glad-hander/fundraiser who terrorized women in their employ and published scholarly work written by same under their name. ALLEGEDLY. But during their tenure, this person also leaned on the "poetry in the broadest sense" charge to encompass filmmakers and thus invite Fred Wiseman, Agnès Varda, and Wim Wenders. So, yay? (You're smart people. You can look at the array of prestigious and short-lived Ivy and public/Ivy-adjacent appointments on the CV as proof of merit or, you know, signs of passing on a problem, archdiocese style. ALLEGEDLY.)

Which makes the way clear for 2021's lectures given by Laurie Anderson, a perfect choice in this, our second year of Zoom/COVID. Sad to have missed the first two, but I was fortunate enough to see her third lecture, "The Rocks," which gave a glorious glimpse of what our whole online year-plus could be in some midrashic/Platonic ideal world. I can't wait for her fall presentations.

(Unfortunately, there's another regrettable person of a certain age in the mix, some of whose work I've loved and about whom their accomplished ex's memoir was revelatory.) I encourage you to turn your hearts and your ducats toward India, where the coronavirus runs rampant. Here is one way to help. I welcome learning of/promoting others--please share.

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What a way to make a living

Seduction: The Cruel Woman (1985, dir. Monika Treut)

9 to 5 (1980, dir. Colin Higgins)
Everyone's got their kink. Ja, genau.

Adventures in cinema: the freaks come out

Thanks to my friend Maura, I recently experienced 1980's The Apple.* Or as I like to think of it, what happens when you watch All That Jazz, Xanadu, and Freak Orlando at the same time. Like, layered over one another with all three audio tracks at top volume. But with the least sexy sexiness and kink ever, somehow. Even the pelvic pops fail to pop.

(Speaking of the divine Ulrike Ottinger, she has a new film out, Paris Calligrammes, available here with French, English, or German narration.)

But seriously, WTF was going on in 1979 to yield so many hallucinogenic music films maudit in 1980? Popeye, Flash Gordon, Times Square, Can't Stop the Music, The Great American Rock 'n' Roll Swindle... (spoiler: cocaine, speeeeeeed, benzedrine, poppers) Out of the Blue, Christiane F.... (spoiler: heroin)

*The reviews on Amaz*n are a fun read. BIM!

Adventures in cinema: black and white France

Under the Cherry Moon (1986, dir. Prince)

Last weekend, I "went" to Pop Convergence 2021, and this panel was revelatory:

Prince: Disrupting Notions of Blackness

Prince’s legacy as a Pop music icon is undisputed. His influence on popular culture is endless. In addition to being one of the greatest entertainers of all time, he was a groundbreaking songwriter, musician, arranger, composer, producer, and entrepreneur. Prince was also the ultimate disruptor. In a career that spanned five decades, Prince challenged systems, spaces, and sounds. In the process, he disrupted widely held notions about what it meant to be a black artist, activist, and, ultimately, a black person in a society that remains at odds with its own concepts of blackness, freedom, and equality. Through analysis of his music, lyrics, and individual acts of protest, this panel seeks to expand the discussion of Prince’s legacy by examining his role as a disruptor.

Adventures in cinema: black and white Finland

Finland looks fun.

Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (1994, dir. Aki Kaurismaki)