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Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 33 | July 2001

Editorial: Ola, swells!

Here we begin our quarterly tour of the House of Bright Lights. In the Features Rotunda you’ll find a new installment of BL associate editor Alan Vanneman’s fabulous sojourn into Fred ‘n Ginger country with Swing Time. (Requests for his take on some of their separate works, say Ginger’s 1930 Sap from Syracuse and Fred’s 1976 The Amazing Dobermans, will be forwarded to the author.) Julian Upton weighs in with a mighty history of British trash, a subject he seems to know shockingly well. Andrew Grossman exhaustively explores the multiple travesties of Gohatto, its director, and its foolish critic-sympathizers. And for those who can’t get enough of Uchida Tomu (and who can, really?), BL newcomer Craig Watts' glittering history of Tomu’s mid-50s masterpiece tells all.

Next we enter the Sex Parlor, where jaded moderns can get cozy and revel in the debatable pleasures of Wadd (aka the Hung One) and Baise-Moi. We pride ourselves here at Bright Lights on always being "with it," and to that end have erected a temple to recent film. Included there are Vanneman’s roughing-up of The Mexican, BL first-timer Matthew Levie’s refreshing take on Crouching Tiger, and your editor’s brave attempt to find something of interest Under the Sand.

Film festivals occupy so much of our lives that we’ve dedicated an alcove to them. There you can check out three such events, all from San Francisco: Silent, Asian-American, and Lesbian ’n Gay. To that noble roster is added the annual "penisspotting" guide to the latter fest, published strictly as a public service. In the Homo Puppet Lanai, master of puppet animation Barry Purves endures BL’s pitiless — though not necessarily male — gaze.

DVDs and VHS tapes continue to arrive at a crushing rate. All are dutifully stacked in the expando attached to our lovely mobile home (actually a 1945 "teardrop trailer") before being ruthlessly watched and analyzed by our team of critic-scientists. Alan Vanneman confronts Company, Don’t Look Back, Genghis Blues, and From Mao to Mozart. BL virgin Robert Keser gives it good to Abel Gance’s Lucrezia Borgia. And your editor rattles a mixed bag of goodies: Black Narcissus, Scarlet Empress, Louis Prima: The Wildest!, and four fabulous films by Dusan Makavejev.

No one is more surprised than we that people still read; it’s for those hardy souls that the Book Review Boudoir is dedicated. Relaxing under the covers you’ll find Matt Kennedy’s witty stroll through a book of actor profiles and BL newbie Richard Armstrong’s smart summary of a new anthology on French film. Who could ask for anything more?

Gary Morris

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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 rotunda

Fred and Ginger Savor La Belle Romance in Swing Time — "Shall we take it straight through?"

Poverty Row, Wardour Street: The Last Years of British Exploitation Cinema — This golden age is more like fool’s gold, but it has its thrills

Gohatto — or the End of Oshima Nagisa? — Truly subversive or mere cinematic "seasoning," in the director’s own phrase?

Blood Spear, Mt. Fuji: Uchida Tomu’s Conflicted Comeback from Manchuria — Resurrection and renewal in postwar Japanese cinema, as seen through Tomu’s 1955 masterpiece

sex parlor

The Girls Can’t Help It! Baise-Moi — Feminist screed or fetish-fuckathon? Best to flip a coin

Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes — Livin’ large with the Hung One

temple of recent film

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Art Film Hidden Inside the Chop-Socky Flick — Ang Lee: third-stage feminist?

Brad and Julia go south in The Mexican — Julia Roberts has pits!

Buried Alive: Francois Ozon’s Under the Sand — A French angst-fest mostly redeemed by Charlotte Rampling’s nuanced portrait of a woman unhinged

homo puppet lanai

Hand Me That 14-Inch Willy! The Puppet Artistry of Barry Purves — This brilliant Brit’s artistry breathes life into wood and wire

book reviews boudoir

Actors Talk: Profiles and Stories from the Acting Trade, by Dennis Brown

France on Film: Reflections on Popular French Cinema, edited by Lucy Mazdon

film festivals alcove

Something to Come Out To: Queer Docs Triumph at the 2001 SFILGFF — A bumper crop of docs scale the heights and trawl the depths of queer culture

There’s One! Penisspotting in the 2001 SFILGFF — The world is your tearoom

The 2001 San Francisco Asian-American International Film Festival — Gangbangers, sex robots, and babydykes, oh my!

Shaddup! The 2001 San Francisco Silent Film Festival — All’s quiet on the cinematic front in this seductive survey of the artful ‘20s

video reviews expando*

Feedback from the Global Village — From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China offers three documentaries on DVD for the price of one; Genghis Blues is too shaggy for words

Powell and Pressburger’s Black Narcissus on DVD — The bad boys of classic Brit cinema pull out all the stops, maybe a couple too many

Bob Dylan’s Don’t Look Back on DVD — The dude with the ’tude

Abel Gance’s Lucrezia Borgia on DVD — The Borgias are having an orgy

Sweet Movies: Dusan Makavejev on VHS — Free-associating with a master of free cinema

Mother Russia! Von Sternberg’s Scarlet Empress on DVD — Cinema's great pictorialist's "relentless excursion into style" in an allegedly restored transfer

Stephen Sondheim’s Company on DVD — Life is shit: Let's put on a show!

Louis Prima: The Wildest! on DVD — The illustrious history of the king of the hepcats (and the queen of deadpan)

*Expando = that extra roomette thing they add to mobile homes to give the illusion of space