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Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 55 | February 2007

from the editor

"Down, Igor!"

We admit we're confused. Naively, perhaps, we welcomed last November's political developments. You know, liberté, fraternité, and that third té we can never remember. But we had no idea "democracy fever" would affect us personally. Igor now refuses to dust or dress us, claiming he's too busy reading Das Kapital. Renfield walks upright now and demands "paté and petit-fours!" instead of his former protein-rich diet. Even the winged monkeys have betrayed us, staging impromptu orgies in the gardens — even flying off to pluck strapping villagers from their plows and dropping them dazed and naked into their vile fêtes. Where once the rafters rang daily with reassuring phrases like "yes sir" and "okay but my knees hurt," we now hear gibberish like "division of labor" and "bourgeois scum" and "it's the re-education camp for the fop!" I can't even get a decent amouse bouche anymore because "cooking is counter-revolutionary!"

Yet we soldier on. Fortified by several stiff belts of elderberry cordial and a recent re-reading of Ronald Firbank's The Artificial Princess, we hunkered down and pulled together (with no help from Igor, Renfield, or the monkeys, thank you) a new issue of Bright Lights.

Entering the features foyer, thankfully calm just now, we glimpse Andrew Grossman returning after a too-long absence to comprehensively examine movie titles. Now you'll know why you've always hated the term "Jesus is Lord." Nearby, newbie Mervyn Nicholson investigates the pesky problem of "male envy" in Hitchcock but particularly in Strangers on a Train.

Moving on to the mercifully quiet articles antechamber, Jerry Kutner posits a dream double-bill, previously unsuspected but incontestably right: Antonioni and Jack Arnold. Lesley Chow leads a tour of the unique comedy stylings of Andrew Bujalski, and elsewhere introduces readers to a fascinating lineup of recent Hong Kong actresses. Dave Saunders lays his finely polished lorgnette on Buñuel and a myriad of other subjects. Tanfer Emin-Tunc revisits Casablanca and finds it especially timely. BL stalwart Alan Vanneman continues his deep-sea dive into all things Chaplin with a look at four of the master's "lesser" works. Tom Sutpen joins Alan in the Land of Silents with the first of a six-part exegesis of Erich von Stroheim. Wrapping it up is Gordon Thomas' rediscovery of the pleasures and pitfalls of Henry King's The Sun Also Rises.

Gordon, who probably can still get a decent amuse bouche if he wants, also inaugurates an exciting ongoing feature this time: Bright Sights. This DVD roundup reviews some of the most intriguing "under the radar" releases from the best companies: Second Run, Facets, All Day, New Yorker, etc. Meanwhile, Matt Kennedy, whose book on Joan Blondell we eagerly await, profiles another DVD in the homo corner: the multiply queer A Very Special Favor.

Recent developments at the Castle have not, surprisingly, dimmed our appetite for recent cinema. As always, this time Vanneman takes the lion's share, walloping on Blood Diamond, Children of Men, Happy Feet, Casino Royale, and The Good Shepherd. Meanwhile, Deirdre Gilfredder returns this issue with a witty look at The Queen; and two newbies — Stephane Dunn and Jenna Ng — give pointed readings of, respectively, Hustle & Flow and Dopo Mezzanotte. Associate editor Megan Ratner pays tribute to the late Fabián Bielinsky with a fine analysis of his two features. Moving backward in time, Dan Callahan reminds us why we've always loved Ted Tetzlaff's noir creepfest The Window.

Our interviewers, perhaps because they still have a thoughtful staff to dress and feed them, were especially chatty this time. These expert interrogators took on a variety of notables. Damien Love spoke with Peter Bogdanovich and Joseph McBride at length about Welles' fascinating The Other Side of the Wind. Bert Cardullo engaged the ever-articulate Abbas Kiarostami. Damon Smith did double-duty, waylaying Barbara Kopple and the inimitable Quay Brothers. And new contributor Peter Rinaldi shot the breeze (unsettling metaphor!) with the irrepressible Caveh Zahedi.

Concluding BL #55 are newcomer Ben Cho's lively take on the Dragons & Tigers component of the 2006 Vancouver International Film Festival; and the return of yours truly's Little Stabs (disturbing phrase!), which this time consists exclusively of queer and queer-inflected material.

Please proceed to the new issue, while I take a look at that piece of paper someone — or perhaps something — just slipped under my door . . .

Gary Morris

P.S. To help quell the rebellion (and keep our servers humming), we've installed a "DONATE" button for any flush, sympathetic souls out there who might wish to contribute some cash to Bright Lights to keep it functioning and ad-free. This month we had to abandon our previous (terrible) webhost in favor of a new one that can handle our high traffic (more than 300,000 visitors per month now) but costs almost four times the previous rate! If you enjoy Bright Lights and can spare the green, please consider clicking the button below. Do it for Igor. (We haven't given up hope.)

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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 foyer

How to Hate Titles Correctly: A Pillow Book of Misguided Assertions — What's in a name

Stranger and Stranger: Hitchcock and Male Envy — Beyond the queer readings of Strangers on a Train

articles antechamber

Welcome to the Modern World: Program Notes for a Michelangelo Antonioni-Jack Arnold Film Festival — "As much as the landscape is a character in It Came From Outer Space, it dominates Antonioni's L'Avventura . . ."

The Peculiar Kind: The Humor of Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation — "People are constantly falling back on their beds — but always in languor, never in passion . . ."

Casablanca: The Romance of Propaganda — "Casablanca provides twenty-first-century Americans with an oasis of hope in a desert of arbitrary cruelty and senseless violence."

Looking at Charlie: The Idle Class, Payday, The Pilgrim, and A Woman of Paris: An Occasional Series on the Art and Life of Charlie Chaplin — "Now, Goliath was a big man."

Twin Piques: Church and Bourgeoisie in Buñuel — That Obscure Agent of Misanthropy?

Beauties and Furies: Hong Kong's New Wave of Women Stars — "The women of To's world are not just endearingly kooky, but often unacceptably bizarre and amoral in their excited reactions to events."

The Reckless Art of Erich von Stroheim: Part One: The Pinnacle — "Like every other skilled fabulist on earth there would forever be a part of Stroheim that truly believed his own fantasies."

An Immovable Feast? Another Look at Henry King's The Sun Also Rises — "It's sort of what we have instead of God"

bright sights

Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: Night Train, Edi, The Red and the White, Edgar G. Ulmer Archive, Hunger, Beyond the Rocks — An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases

homo corner

A Very Special Favor: More Strange Drag from the Hudson Closet — "Never mind that Hudson was a gay man playing a straight man playing a gay man in love with a man who was really a woman."

recent cinema roundabout

Still the Same Old Story? Definitely. Ed Zwick's Blood Diamond — When Leo met Bogy

Uneasy Lies the Head: Stephen Frears' The Queen — "Hovering between treason and tribute . . ."

You Only Live Twice? Martin Campbell's Casino Royale: Bond Rebottled — Forget the book, just see the movie

Dude, Where's My Suicide Pill? Alfonso Cuarón's The Children of Men — One virgin birth too many

Cinephilia in Turin: Davide Ferrario's Dopo Mezzanotte (Italy, 2004) — Passion in a handful of dust

Robert DeNiro at Yale again! The Good Shepherd: Poor little lamb! — Hey! How did we win the Cold War, anyway?

One Small Step for a Penguin: George Miller's Happy Feet — Getting down way down under

Note for a "Round the Way Girl": Craig Brewer's Hustle & Flow — "In Hustle, we can appreciate Nola's yearning to be more than a pimp's pussy cash box . . ."

the empty guest room

A Legacy Slight but Substantial: Fabián Bielinsky's Nine Queens and The Aura — "Who are you? Where do you come from?"

revival room

Through the Looking Glass: Thoughts on The Window — Ted Tetzlaff brings Bobby Driscoll to the voyeur's front window

interrogation alcove

Inherit the Wind: Talking with Peter Bogdanovich and Joseph McBride About The Other Side of the Wind — Life with the restless ghost of Orson Welles' last movie

The Accidental Auteur: A Dialogue with Abbas Kiarostami — "The fruitful tree bends."

Spirit in the Dark: Barbara Kopple on Filming the Group That Wouldn't Shut Up & Sing — "Just put your sneakers on and go. Go on the journey."

Reflecting the Theoretical Beyond: The Quay Brothers Talk About Art, Life, and The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes — "It's hard to be intuitive when you've got 42 crew behind you and they're like, ‘Look, they don't know what to do here. They're panicking, look at them!'"

Caveh Zahedi's PSA: Talking with the Auteur of I Am a Sex Addict — "Not only is it personal — it's downright embarrassing."

film festival flying buttress

Dragons, Tigers, and Citizen Rayns: The 25th Vancouver International Film Festival — Asian cinema triumphs in this year's D&T, Tony Rayns's last

cornucopia corner

Little Stabs of Happiness and Horror: Random Short Reviews of the Worthy and the Worthless in Recent and Old-School Cinema — "I just want to hear ‘I love you' instead of ‘Take it you tight little snatch!'"