actor profiles

animation

book reviews

director profiles

documentaries

experimental &
avant garde

exploitation

film festivals

film noir

film reviews

gay & lesbian

hong kong films

horror

interviews

japanese cinema

music & musicals

silent film

tranny cinema
 
- - - - - -

mailing list
To be automatically notified when the next issue is posted, join our mailing list.

writers gone wild!
Keep up with Bright Lights between issues by visiting our companion blog, Bright Lights After Dark.

our space at MySpace
Visit us at MySpace.

support
Support Bright Lights and get something nice for yourself, too, by shopping at Amazon via this link.

Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 62 | November 2008

from the editor

Change you can believe in?

Novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett said it: "Change is never for the better." Normally we agree with Ivy on just about everything, but a recent occurrence at La Casa de Bright Lights has made us wonder. As usual, Igor (right) was at the center of it all. He came to us complaining that he was "underpaid, underfed, and underutilized." This last charge came as a complete shock; we'd assumed Igor's duties such as oiling the sling were keeping him busy. So we got to thinking. Igor wants "change" — a word we'd been hearing a lot lately. Why not give it to him? Why not let him take over Bright Lights for one issue, give us film analysis from the slobbering hunchback's point of view? Unfortunately, we found his proposed table of contents questionable at best: "That Bitch Esmerelda: Heartless Vixens and Trusting Hunchbacks in the Cinema": "The Sinful Dwarf: Immoral Monster or Victim of Taunting Women Who Aren't Ready for Love?"; "Unlucky Charms: Diegesis and Dialectics in Leprechaun in the Hood." Fortunately, we were able to distract Igor with a colorful pinwheel before he got to the computer, and now he's busy redecorating the dungeons — happily, we hope!

Now that we've taken care of that, let's get on to the new issue. Andrew Grossman leads off with a virtuoso study of polyphony and anti-authoritarianism (and much more) in Prokofiev's The Gambler, novel, opera, and film. Nearby, in the articles antechamber, beloved BL regulars Lesley Chow and Dave Saunders give the final word on, respectively, the soundscapes of Mike Nichols' Wolf and the theme of post-tragedy relationships in several films. Too-infrequent contributor Norm Ball resurfaces with a heady tour of the zeitgeist (it's not pretty), with special attention to the over- and underclass and Metropolis. Two new voices are here as well: John Calendo, legendary editor of Interview and other magazines, riffs delightfully on certain retooled Hitchcock movie stills; while Thomas Britt cannily investigates three examples of disruptive cinema.

Tatsuya Nakadai, favorite of Kurosawa and Naruse, was recently feted at New York's Film Forum, and Imogen Smith keeps the party going with a fine tribute. Three other cinema personalities have checked into this issue's empty guest room: Dana Andrews, thoughtfully profiled by Ms. Smith; Norma Shearer, wittily saluted by Dan Callahan; and Manny Farber, expertly eulogized by Jon Lanthier.

The esteemed Mr. Lanthier also introduces the recent cinema roundabout with a savvy read of Burn After Reading, followed by Matt Brennan's heartfelt probe of Dylan's image and I'm Not There. Erich Kuersten body-slams Argento's Mother of Tears. Tony Macklin handily highlights the Jules and Jim parallels in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Boris Trbic cleverly matches up Dan Geva's Description of a Memory with its inspiration, Chris Marker's Description of a Struggle. And Stephane Dunn hilariously disses the confused "sister crew" of The Women. Of course, at Bright Lights we can't get enough of the past, though, judging by the revival room, it's not exactly reassuring. There BL associate editor Alan Vanneman (who runs an excellent blog) gives mouth-to-mouth to Robert Zemeckis' Cast Away and also reminds us of the excitement of the early nouvelle vague with a review of Elevator to the Gallows. Robert Ecksel reanimates Frankenheimer's depressingly timely Seconds. Meanwhile, in the vale of video, Matt Kennedy gives a shout-out to the must-have DVD two-fer of An American in Paris and Gigi.

Controversial French auteur Catherine Breillat speaks her peace to Damon Smith in the interrogation alcove, emerging, unexpectedly, as a self-effacing charmer. (Igor, take note!) Speaking of things international, three festivals get the once-over here: Lesley Chow attended the Melbourne International Film Festival so you wouldn't have to; and yours truly lays the lorgnette on two queer fests based in Portland, Oregon: QDoc and the Portland International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Two other departments offer similar round-ups of a wide variety of films: Gordon Thomas' always enchanting "Bright Sights" DVD profiles and yours truly's unstoppable "Little Stabs of Happiness (and Horror)."

Finally, in our one-mag campaign to revive the increasingly lost art of book reviewing (and its attendant process, reading), we give you two meaty entries: archivist (and our old pal) Irina Leimbacher explores Scott MacDonald's Art in Cinema: Documents Toward a History of the Film Society; and the inimitable Mr. Kuersten analyzes Todd McGowan's The Impossible David Lynch As the great Athens, GA rock group Pylon sang (and this one's directed at Igor as well as you readers): "Read a book! Don't be afraid."

Gary Morris

- - - - - -
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

Finding Unlikely Ideology in Prokofiev: Polyphonic and Anti-Authoritarian Gestures in The Gambler — "Alexei must be condemned to the pointless, loveless, and finally false freedom of a spinning limbo, as unfinished and unfinishable as the best Bakhtinian polyphony."

articles antechamber

Alfred Hitchcock at the Drag Ball: When Being Blonde and Soulless Is Not Enough — "Mother . . . my mother . . . um, what's the phrase? She isn't quite herself today." — Anthony Perkins, making a colossal understatement in Psycho

Lost Watches and Lost Souls: From New Jersey to Old Istanbul — Fresh Starts Don’t Come Easy

Music, Morricone, and Jack Nicholson's Voice: The Soundscape of Wolf — "Suddenly my senses are all incredibly acute . . . I'm different, more alive, stronger . . ."

Metropolis, Ezra Pound, Mammon — And the Law of Too-Large Numbers — "The old world is dying away, and the new world struggles to come forth: now is the time of monsters" — Antonio Gramsci

Death, Excess, and Discontinuity: On Lost Highway, Irreversible, and Visitor Q — "All feature reactive heroes hurtling toward death as a means of reconciling the ruptures between them and their objects of desire."

actors atelier

Japanese Cinema's Uncommon Man: Tatsuya Nakadai's Dissidents, Outcasts, and Shadow Warriors — "Like Hollywood's new postwar men, he offered a multifaceted, ambivalent masculinity far from monolithic wartime ideals."

recent cinema roundabout

Linda, Harry, and the Pseudo-Screw: Burn After Reading: The Coen Brothers' DC Story — "Burn After Reading holds the notable distinction of being the only screwball comedy to leave all of its characters either moderately satisfied or dead."

It Ain't Me Babe: On Dylan and Todd Haynes' I'm Not There — See the incredible vanishing American

An Argento Family Reunion Special: Crying over the Spilled Mother of Tears — Bwaaah!

Vicky and Woody and François: On Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona — The return of Jules and Jim?

Out of Oblivion: Chris Marker and Cinematic Memories of Israel in Dan Geva's Description of a Memory — "It is an opportunity to film people and events that could be recalled at any time to affirm, lament, or challenge a moment in time in this troubled region."

Sinful Remake: The Women Problem — "Wife, get a real life for yourself. Career woman, the career isn't everything. Hussy, men still marry ladies. Lesbian, explore your 'male' issues . . ."

the empty guest room

Dana Andrews: The Forties Hero and His Shadow — "It's not difficult for me to hide emotion, since I've always hidden it in my personal life." — Dana Andrews

Film Criticism as a Man's Job: A Belated Look at the Legacy of Manny Farber — "Farber's writing is the pure antithesis of academic — ornately sophisticated with a vernacular punch, stuffed with contradictory statements and astounding paradoxes."

Norma Shearer: The Primrose Path to MGM Stock — "She hovered somewhere between the realest of realities and the most blatant of impersonations." — F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Crazy Sunday," 1932

interrogation alcove

The Last Mistress: An Interview with Catherine Breillat — "When I make movies, nothing is limited."

revival room

Early Jeanne, Early Louis, Early Miles: Louis Malle's Elevator to the Gallows — "Paris at night in black-and-white with Miles on the soundtrack? It's a perfect fit."

The Volleyball in the Void: Tom Hanks Is Cast Away — Pascal . . . Kierkegaard . . . Nietzsche . . . Zemeckis?

Faust Goes to Hollywood: Revisiting John Frankenheimer's Seconds — "Think, for Pete's sake. What have you got now?"

film festival flying buttress

Music in the Making: Highlights from the 2008 Melbourne International Film Festival — "The surprise musical number can represent a facile avoidance of complexity, a moment of true strangeness, or a way of harmonizing existing, underlying themes."

Queer Angles: The 2008 Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — Feisty orthodox Jewish dykes, globe-trotting ladyboys, fascistic Armani queens — you know, the gang

What's Up, QDoc? Portland's 2008 Queer Documentary Festival — Seeing queer lives from the U.S. and Canada to South Africa and Iran

vale of video

The First-Class Jewels: An American in Paris and Gigi — Two golden-age musicals get the deluxe treatment

bright sights

Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: The Italian, Traffic in Souls, Privilege, Wings, The Ascent, Tropical Malady, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, J'Accuse — An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases

little stabs

Little Stabs of Happiness (and Horror): Random Short Reviews of the Worthy and the Worthless in Recent and Old-School Cinema — "Don't these children deserve the respect of a beautiful film?"

hiding in the stacks

Art in Cinema: Documents Toward a History of the Film Society, by Scott MacDonald

The Impossible David Lynch, by Todd McGowan