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Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 27 | January 2000

from the editor

One of our New Year’s resolutions is to, as one reader cruelly suggested, "shut the hell up" — at least to the extent that we can. So this issue’s editorial will aim for brevity, which may have the additional benefit of stemming the recent tide of vicious e-mail from armies of 14-year-olds unhinged by our coverage of such apparently controversial topics as Michael Jackson’s videos and the overrating of American Beauty.

In this, our 27^th issue, we’ve dusted off our red carpet for Roger Corman and his ‘70s exploitation company New World Pictures. There’s an interview with the divine Mr. C. from New World’s heyday (1974) and sketches of some of the company’s notable players and motifs. Eric Schlosser sticks it but good to Steven Spielberg for the sins of Saving Private Ryan. (Perhaps for the next issue we'll provide a balancing review of the movie’s evil twin, the wonderfully named porn flick Shaving Ryan’s Privates.) More fun arrives in a survey of ‘60s indie narrative cinema, a far cry from what passes for independent these days. (Disney subsidiaries do not make independent movies.) Jans Wager’s scintillating look at Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat is nearly as hard-boiled as the movie.

Queer readers can cancel that Club Med tour. The ever-popular "Homo Corner" lets you visit your sisters of all sexes throughout the world without leaving your throne: Head On (Australia), Boys Don’t Cry (U.S.), Show Me Love (Sweden), and The Trio (Germany).

James Broughton died in May of 1999, and we honor the brilliant old queen with a survey of some of his charming experimental films. Jerry Garcia’s favorite movie, The Saragossa Manuscript, has resurfaced in revival and now in Bright Lights.

DVD is coming into its own as the cineaste’s medium of choice. This issue looks at recent reissues of two bona fide classics: The Passion of Joan of Arc and The Third Man. For the more audio minded, there’s C. Jerry Kutner’s wildly clever review of the Bernard Herrmann Twilight Zone CD. And for those readers who can still read more than a page or so, there are reviews of The Werewolf Book, about all manner of "shape-shifters," and of Mark A. Vieira’s charming Sin in Soft Focus, about pre-Code movies. Augmenting the latter is a sexy gallery of pre-Code women, a group of sirens, sluts, and sweethearts who’ll have you lusting after their bodies or their glittering gowns, depending.

Gary Morris
editor/publisher

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Watch for new issues of Bright Lights every three months: August, November, February, and May. To be automatically notified when the next issue is posted, join our mailing list.

Visit the archives for hundreds of other articles, dear.

features

American Independent Narrative Cinema of the ‘60s: A Brief Survey — A fast look at the decade where narrative got its walking papers

Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat — Jans B. Wager looks at the famous film noir’s treatment of the family

Worthy of the Slaughter? On Saving Private Ryan — Critic Eric Schlosser asks if it isn’t Spielberg who needs saving

Notes Toward a New World Pictures Lexicon — A mini-tour of Roger Corman’s legendary 1970s exploitation company

interview

Roger Corman on New World Pictures: An Interview from 1974 — The godfather of "New Hollywood" speaks

revival

Wojciech Has’s The Saragossa Manuscript — You don’t have to take drugs to watch this movie, but you may need some afterward

experimental

Laughing Pan: James Broughton — The late joyboy of queer avant-garde cinema praised to excess

homo corner

Hell in the Heartland: Kimberly Peirce’s Boys Don’t Cry — Sure they do — and they should, judging from this anti-valentine to Middle America

The Kids Are All Right: Lukas Moodysson’s Show Me Love — Sweden gets the once-over from these scintillating babydykes

Still Breathing: Ana Kokkinos’s Head On — Now you can see it: the Australian-Greek homosexual demimonde!

Life Is … Pretty Good: Hermine Huntgeburth’s The Trio — Scream as daddy fights daughter over the local boytoy!

dvd reviews

Denounced, Cut, and Burned — but Triumphant: Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc on DVD — The history of the film is almost as dramatic as Joan’s

The Third Man on DVD — High and low jinks in Carol Reed’s postwar Vienna now in a fine new transfer

cd review

Bernard Herrmann’s The Twilight Zone on CD — The great composer did some of his best work on Serling’s famous series

pictorial

A Gallery of Pre-Code Women — Marlene Dietrich, Clara Bow, Tallulah Bankhead, Virginia Bruce, Billie Dove, Marion Davies, and Norma Shearer

book reviews

Sin in Soft Focus, by Mark A. Vieira (Abrams)

The Werewolf Book, by Brad Steiger (Visible Ink)