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Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 66 | November 2009

from the editor

Keep watching the lights . . .

We're this close (place thumb and index finger about half an inch apart) to springing the much-vaunted (okay, vaunted a couple of times by the staff) redesigned Bright Lights on an unsuspecting public. However, because we somehow feel you readers have nothing better to do than sit waiting (perhaps drumming your fingers and checking your watch) for a new issue, and you're expecting one on November 1, we decided to go ahead and whip one up as scheduled (#66), while continuing to revamp the site in the background. If the alleged Mayan Calendar chaos of 2012 doesn't arrive early, and Goldman Sachs also decides not to destroy civilization as we know it, you can expect to see the new design on or before February 2010. We've even put a hint of the new look in the editorial heading above; Peter Cushing is our muse in a knockout rendering by our wildly talented artist buddy Jim McDermott. Check out the book reviews for another example of Jim's artistry: Jack Kerouac.

Like most issues of Bright Lights, this one doesn't have a particular theme, though we wish you readers would start referring to our approach as "serendipity" (perhaps "charming serendipity"?) rather than the usual cries of "chaos!" "bite me!" and "WTF?!?" Let's hope you'll be so distracted by this issue's variety of offerings (and by your exciting new life in gutter, refrigerator box, or insane asylum) that you'll forget to complain.

Alan Vanneman continues his comprehensive history of Chaplin with a typically bouncy look at Modern Times. Two other BL regulars lay their lorgnettes on film noir: Imogen Smith thoughtfully surveys the genre's less heralded appearances outside the urban maelstrom, and Robert Castle handily excavates Kubrick's The Killing. No issue of BL is complete without rampaging horror, and Jesse Stommel provides it with a striking analysis of the body-snatching motif in cinema. On a sexier note we have Jack Stevenson's colorful tour of Danish porn and how it helped liberate America's dainty sensibilities — at least till the vapors returned.

Newbies Rob Faunce, Joan McGettigan, Suzanne del Fizzo, Barry Wurst, and Devan Goldstein contributed solid readings of, respectively, "contagious queerness" and gay gazes in Friendkin's Cruising and Proust's Sodom and Gomorrah; the co-optations and limitations of Public Enemies; the relevance of The Great Gatsby (and Baz Luhrmann's coming version) to the present nightmare; Wilder's Sunset as a vitriolic valentine to Hollywood; and what Knowing "knows" about 9/11. Another new BL-er, Jay Rothermel, expertly mixes politics and history with pieces on Larry Cohen's The Private Life of J. Edgar Hoover, Race to Witch Mountain, and Anthony Mann's Strategic Air Command. Wilkommen, y'all!

Inglourious Basterds tickled the fancy of two writers: Lee Weston Sabo finds the id running amok in "Tarantino's finest film to date," while newcomer Vlad Dima shows why there's reason to agree with the character Aldo's statement that "this just might be my masterpiece."

When our staff aren't watching movies at home or in the theatre, they're off to the festivals. You'll think you're there (or wonder why you weren't) when you read bracing overviews by Lesley Chow (on the Melbourne International); Megan Ratner (the New York Film Festival); Ben Cho (Vancouver International), and yours truly (Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival). (Your editor also contributes a short take on Deborah Chasnoff's important doc about gender pressures on teens, Straightlaced.) Gordon Thomas' authoritative "Bright Sights" column covers art-house DVD releases of everything from the "Bill Douglas Trilogy" to silent Gaumont Treasures to Maximillian Schell's long-awaited doc Marlene, about you-know-who. From the vaults we pulled an amusing sketch of New York's movie rep scene by our buddy (and indefatigable photo supplier) Howard Mandelbaum. (Go to Howard's massive archive Photofest for all your pressing celebrity image needs.)

Speaking of stars, we can't resist a good celebrity drubbing, or mythologizing. So this issue showcases Karin Luisa Badt's exhaustive hearing on "poor" Roman Polanski and his self-imposed travails; Christopher Sandford's witty profile of the enduring Sean Connery; and Dan Callahan's suitably awestruck analysis of the goddess known to us earthlings as Delphine Seyrig. Different kinds of cultural luminaries appear in interview: experimental-film guru Jonas Mekas, waxing poetic with Jon Lanthier about Walden and other topics; and infamous culture-jammers The Yes Men, jamming sweetly with Damon Smith. As is so often the case, BL regular Dave Saunders stands alone with a dazzling piece riffing on James Lever's spoof autobiography of Tarzan's little helper Cheeta.

Books: remember them? We're doing our part to keep them in the clogged cultural consciousness. Noted critic Joseph McBride sheds new light on Orson Welles in his review of Welles' daughter's new book In My Father's Shadow. BL veterans Jon Lanthier and Matt Kennedy take on, respectively, America's Film Vault and the massive new Manny Farber collection, with happy results. And BL first-timer Deborah Allison took time from her film programming duties to review Performing Illusions.

That's all for now. Keep watching the lights (the bright ones).

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.

Articles

Roman Polanski: What's on Trial?
By Karin Luisa Badt

Looking at Charlie: Modern Times
An Occasional Series on the Life and Work of Charlie Chaplin
"Buck up! Never say die! We’ll get along!"
By Alan Vanneman

Past Sunset: Noir in the West
"I don't need other people. I don't need help. I can take care of me."
By Imogen Sara Smith

On the Escarpment, Off the Escarpment: It Helps When the Love Is Strong
Especially when the lovers aren't
By D. J. M. Saunders

Porno to the People: The Danish Revolution That Liberated America
"Tease was out, honesty was in."
By Jack Stevenson

The Dead Things We Already Are: Pod People, Body Snatching, and the Horrors of Business as Usual
"We keep returning to this story about pod people because we're terrified of the continuing erosion of our physicality in the postmodern era."
By Jesse Stommel

The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover: Larry Cohen's The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover
How a movie exposé of "abuse of power" defends those in power and their institutions
By Jay Rothermel

Contagious Homosexuality: Cruising and Sodom and Gomorrah
"In both Sodom and Gomorrah and Cruising, homosexuality — and its alternate currents — is caught with a glance."
By Rob Faunce

Can't Repeat the Past? Of Course You Can't — and Shouldn't
Filming The Great Gatsby in the 21st Century
By Suzanne del Gizzo

Blake Edwards vs. Hollywood: Sunset and the Myth of Hollywood's Golden Age
A tour of Edwards' curious 1988 film, with side trips to variations by James Ivory, John Schlesinger, and others
By Barry Wurst II

Actors

Delphine Seyrig: The Eternal Return
"Seyrig is capable of stopping an entire film with one decisive physical gesture, one smile, one glare, one sound from her smoky, murmuring voice."
By Dan Callahan

Sean Connery: A "Natural Thrust"
"Connery, never a martyr to false modesty, remains as voluble and combative as ever."
By Christopher Sandford

Directors

Just Say Oui: An Interview with the Yes Men
"I'm shitting bricks, thinking he's onto me."
By Damon Smith

Film and Film and Film: An Interview with Jonas Mekas
"One who knows how to, as they say, 'read' the images, can tell everything about me."
By Jon Lanthier

Columns

Bright Sights: Play Time, Gaumont Treasures, Diary for My Children, Winstanley, Marlene, Bill Douglas Trilogy
An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases
By Gordon Thomas

Letter from New York (c. 1980)
"The problem is other people — crazy people."
By Howard Mandelbaum

Movies

Film Kills: Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds 1
"Tarantino thus concedes some of his omnipotence to the medium he so deftly manipulates."
By Vlad Dima

"Do You Find Me Sadistic?" Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds 2
"This is the World War II film confronting its Jungian shadow, acknowledging its darkest impulses and finally purging them."
By Lee Weston Sabo

Of Perfect Plans and Acts of Creation: Stanley Kubrick's The Killing
"His plan mirrors Johnny's, that is, pieces of the plan are known to one person: Johnny and Stanley; and not until the end do we see most of their pieces come into place.""
By Robert Castle

Critical Distance: What Knowing Knows About 9/11
"Where Cloverfield provocatively blurs the line between being 'about' 9/11 and being (mere) entertainment, Knowing lands squarely in the latter camp."
By Devan Goldstein

Playing It Safe with John Dillinger: Michael Mann's Public Enemies
"Dillinger had recently undergone plastic surgery to alter his face and to try to remove his fingerprints. But Public Enemies does not dare to depict that kind of desperation and that determination to survive under any circumstances."
By Joan McGettigan

"They Come in Peace": Andy Fickman's Race to Witch Mountain
"Only saviors can save polluted planets, yellow cab drivers are losers . . ."
By Jay Rothermel

Far from Elementary: Debra Chasnoff's Straightlaced: How Gender's Got Us All Tied Up
"I told him, 'I'm not gay. My neck was cold.'"
By Gary Morris

Festivals

After the Surge: The 2009 Melbourne International Film Festival
"An alternative agenda for the festival might be: what can we make of modernism?"
By Lesley Chow

Bucking the Tide: The 2009 New York Film Festival
This year's strong, idiosyncratic line-up reminds us that moviegoing can still be more than "a museum experience"
By Megan Ratner

Lucky 13: The 2009 Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
Getting out of the ghetto
By Gary Morris

From Air Dolls to the Anchorage: The 2009 Vancouver International Film Festival
"VIFF remains the unspoiled oasis for cinephiles looking to get away from it all."
By Ben Cho

Books

In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles, by Chris Welles Feder.
By Joseph McBride

Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber, edited by Robert Politot
By Jon Lanthier

America’s Film Vault: A Reference Guide to the Motion Pictures Held by the U.S. National Archives, by Phillip W. Stewart
By Matthew Kennedy

Performing Illusions: Cinema, Special Effects and the Virtual Actor, by Dan North
By Deborah Allison