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Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 64 | May 2009

from the editor

Funny ha-ha or funny weird?

Something funny happened on the way to the May issue. We noticed that the "recent cinema roundabout" was almost empty, hosting just a single review: Robert Ecksel's thoughtful take on James Toback's documentary Tyson. We had to wonder: Is contemporary cinema so bereft that even BL's most stalwart zeitgeist-sniffers were retreating into the dreamy past of pre-Code and Gone with the Wind and F. W. Murnau? Was the very concept of subtext — so reliable in the past as a trigger for our authors' endless riffing — lost in a culture that's increasingly "knock-kneed" and "spavined" (to quote SF critic Damon Knight)? The presence of a virtual tidal wave of book reviews didn't settle my mind. Talk about old school! But a quick consult with Igor proved as soothing as one of his "happy ending" massages. Everyone's favorite slobbering hunchback says BL has not gone reactionary after all; we've just relocated our thoughts on contemporary film in festival reviews, yours truly's Little Stabs roundup, and our ever-changing blog, q.v. Whew!

Igor eased our mind on another issue, too. The veritable stampede of women from BL last issue has been reversed, he claims, and women (or should we say womyn?) can be found in force throughout this May number. Now that that's out of the way, let's settle back and enjoy one of our biggest and, dare we say, brightest issues to date!

Headlining this time are two articles that can only be described as coups: previously untranslated articles by one of the gods of filmcrit, Andre Bazin. Bert Cardullo has kindly made these documents — one on French Cinema, the other on Jacques Tati — intelligible to those of us who don't speak French. Kudos to Bert for taking the time and writing great intros, too. Also of major interest this time are Greg Ford's stunning exegesis of the work of Tex Avery (reprinted from two old print issues of BL), and Mark Adnum's tour de force on AIDS, nensha, and other unwelcome guests in cinema and culture.

Associate editor Alan Vanneman applies his fabled wit to Fred Astaire twice this time: first to the musical Let's Dance and then to Joseph Epstein's apparently overrated book on the legendary hoofer. Also "Vannemanized" is the strange and fascinating Busby Berkeley musical Hollywood Hotel. Another associate editor, Andrew Grossman, turns in a bravura performance courtesy of the infamous Nude on the Moon, but as usual, there's plenty more there to chew on. Meanwhile, Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, Darwin, and a host of other cultural tropes become grist for Dave Saunders' mill in a rather enchanting piece on altruism and empathy.

Horror gets the high-five thanks to Noah Berlatsky and his deep probe of the Friday the 13th series. Speaking of monsters leads us to the empty guest room, presently occupied by that "Mother Demon Night" herself, Ida Lupino, expertly explicated by Dan Callahan. Rubbing elbows with Ida this time are James Mason (wonderfully profiled by first-time contributor Christopher Sandford); the glorious silent Chinese star Ruan Lingyu (beautifully limned by Lesley Chow); and the fabulous Lee Tracy (nicely nailed by Imogen Sara Smith). Old Hollywood gets even more attention via Gerald Peary's heartfelt interview with Joel McCrea. We also hear from James Toback on Tyson and other subjects in a cozy chat with Damon Smith; and from Iranian auteur Khosrow Sinai, in an extremely rare interview with Michaël Abecassis.

We can talk about pre-Code at the drop of a 401K plan, not least because it's getting increasingly hard to distinguish the present social landscape from that of the early 1930s. Our pre-Code warrior, Erich Kuersten, convincingly begs for help from Mae West as a 1930s symbol of sexual liberation; and in another piece, tackles the "Wild Boys" (of the Road) and "Midnight Maries," who are tough enough to take it. In a more rarefied realm, C. Jerry Kutner reminds us of the significance of great experimental art via a sharp review of a recent box set of "avant-garde treasures."

In another backward glance, we started a new feature devoted to those humble handouts, program notes, from the glory days of America's cine-club/cinephiles movement of the '60s and '70s. First up is a two-fer by the late Roger McNiven explaining why we should be watching Allan Dwan's Slightly Scarlet and The Woman They Almost Lynched. Readers hoarding fascinating ephemera like this are asked to send them along for consideration.

Two international film festivals hosted BL writers this time. Cleo Cacoulidis navigates through the Middle Eastern Cinema program of one of our favorites, Thessaloniki. And new contributor Frank Bren succinctly surveys the Hong Kong International, one we've long wanted to feature. The kind of shorter and pithy reviews found in these festival articles, and beloved by time-crunched if not entirely addled readers, can also be found in Gordon Thomas' Bright Sights, a fine round-up of recent "arty" DVD releases; and in yours truly's Little Stabs column, which is all over the damn place.

That leaves the book reviews, which number a whopping 11 here, making this issue arguably a "Special Book Review Issue!" In addition to Vanneman's aforementioned write-up of the Fred Astaire book, we're featuring excellent, and in some cases exhaustive, reviews of books on Charlie Kaufman et al. (Colm O'Shea); Douglas Fairbanks (Gordon Thomas); Jean-Luc Godard (new contributor Mike Miley); Michel Gondry (Erich Kuersten); Gone with the Wind (Matthew Kennedy); Jack Hill (Noah Berlatsky); Joseph P. Kennedy (Matthew Kennedy); Quentin Tarantino (Lesley Chow); and a brief round-up of two titles, Hollywood's Ancient Worlds and Movie Photos (Ann McKim).

Let the clicking begin!

Gary Morris

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Visit the archives for hundreds of other articles, dear.

features foyer

Tex Avery: Arch-Radicalizer of the Hollywood Cartoon — "Avery's pics confirm an always-lingering suspicion that the many radical plays with movie syntax and the numerous distancing techniques employed in '60s live-action films, of 'New Wave Cinema' extraction, were, in fact, first invented, and used for purely comic effect, in animated cartoons."

Retro Virus: Did AIDS perform Nensha? — "Be aware: there are forces at work here of which we have no knowledge." — Queen Elizabeth 2

Fifteen Years of French Cinema: By André Bazin — "If French cinema was no longer down in the dumps, so the reasoning went, its palette should duly adorn itself with all the colors of the intellectual rainbow. And this is exactly what happened."

articles antechamber

"Monsieur Hulot and Time": By André Bazin — "In their blend of social satire, wry charm, imaginative physical gags, and ingenious aural as well as visual devices, Jacques Tati's movies have not been surpassed by those of any other postwar cinematic comic — French or otherwise."

Busby Berkeley's Hollywood Hotel: Bring on the dancing girls! Oh, wait! There aren't any! — Thank God for the Benny Goodman Quartet

Let's Dance? Must We? Fred Astaire Collides with Betty Hutton — Ouch!

The Complete A of Altruism: In Which the Selfish Gene Explains Everything  — Except whether to laugh or cry

Between Nudist Morality and Freudian Realism! Denuding Fleshly Hypocrisies, Cinematic and Otherwise — "Nude on the Moon's exploitation is as innocent as the Good Christo-Nudist's reclaiming of a pre-figleafed (albeit non-recreational) Eden."

recent cinema roundabout

"Just Another Man": On James Toback's Tyson — "Toback, to his credit, and despite the empathy he feels toward his subject, doesn't pull his punches."

avant-garde atelier

Opposition Compositions: Treasures IV: American Avant Garde Film 1947-1986 on DVD — "Avant garde filmmaking has been defined almost entirely in opposition to the Hollywood mainstream."

film festival flying buttress

Screening Hong Kong: The 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival — One of the world's largest cinema events is also one of the most ambitious

The View from Here: Middle Eastern Cinema at the 49th Thessaloniki International Film Festival — "What happens when the gaze is returned?"

bright sights

Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: Hobson's Choice, Murnau, Divorce Iranian Style/Runaway, Poil de Carotte, Celia — An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases

horror haven

The Child Is Father to the Child: On the Friday the 13th Series — "You can depend on Jason."

the empty guest room

Ida Lupino: Demon Mother Night — "[H]er favorite expression of strained intensity would be less quickly relieved by a merciful death than by Ex-Lax." — James Agee, 1943

James Mason: Odd Man Out — Mason was "equally at home playing small, brooding anti-heroes, camping it up in a toga, or doing a nice line in late career self-parody."

The Goddess in Her Element: Ruan Lingyu in Shanghai — "This is an actress who shows excitement down to the curl of her fingers, and whose face reveals every kind of mercurial change."

Lee Tracy: "A Manic, Scalding Passion for Success" — "With his impish grin, twinkling eyes, and boyish blond hair, he looks like Tom Sawyer crossed with a Tammany Hall fixer."

the palace of program notes

Women Larger Than Life: Program Notes 1: Allan Dwan's Woman They Almost Lynched (1953)/Slightly Scarlet (1956) — "Within the confines of the action genres, Dwan is, like Jean Renoir, a classical humanist."

interrogation alcove

"Strong, Righteous, and Rustic": An Interview with Joel McCrea — "I told Hitchcock, 'I do miss my horse.'"

Impressions of an Auteur, Tehran Today: Talking with Iranian Director Khosrow Sinai — "This situation requires the filmmakers to be more creative in handling their mostly simple stories, which sometimes are so simple as to seem very modern and minimalistic."

Return of the Obsessed: James Toback Steps into the Ring Again with Tyson — "And then he said, 'It's like a Greek tragedy. The only problem is, I'm the subject.'"

pre-code parapet

Desperation and Divinity: "Help us, Mae!" — Hazy thoughts on the transition from real sex to digital hallucinations

Wild Boys and Midnight Maries: Social Realism and Pre-Code in Forbidden Hollywood (Vol. 3) — "We can't help but roll our eyes at a woman who would rather wear holes in her shoes looking for a 'good honest job' than roll around in money and mink."

little stabs

Little Stabs of Happiness (and Horror): Random Short Reviews of the Worthy and the Worthless in Recent and Old-School Cinema — "As soon as my health is in jeopardy, everybody shows up to lick my ass!"

hiding in the stacks

Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood's Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists, and Dreamers: An Excursion into the American New Wave, by Derek Hill

Douglas Fairbanks, by Jeffrey Vance

Fred Astaire, by Joseph Epstein

Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard, by Richard Brody

You'll Like this Film Because You're in It: The Be Kind Rewind Protocol, by Michel Gondry.

Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited, by Molly Haskell

Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxpoitation Master, Film by Film, by Calum Waddell

Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years, by Cari Beauchamp

Quentin Tarantino and Philosophy, ed. Richard Greene and K. Silem Mohammad

Hollywood's Ancient Worlds, by Jeffrey Richards, and Movie Photos, by Alex Bailey