The Decade List: Mysterious Skin (2004)

Mysterious Skin - dir. Gregg Araki

Few people, myself included, expected Mysterious Skin to be as good as it was. After the abysmal Splendor, Gregg Araki appeared to have lost it, so imagine the surprise when people actually responded to his, and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt's, "take my serious" cry. Adapting Scott Heim's novel of the same name, Araki never abandoned the incongruity that made his early films so memorable, even when addressing the issue of pedophilia. The most surprising aspect, however, wasn't simply Araki's formalist return, but that he took such a treacherous subject to a level of complexity it's not usually given.

Yes, there are problems. Araki never develops the women in the film to the extent they should have been. The narration, which is otherwise used effectively, shapes the relationship between Neil (Gordon-Levitt) and his "soul mate" Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg) instead of the director. Elisabeth Shue, whom I prematurely described as "doing her best Jennifer Jason Leigh," is actually quite spectacular as Neil's mother, but she's gravely underused. Araki still hasn't quite figured out how to direct actors when they're existing outside of his Los Angeles wasteland. I'm grateful then that his actors here are as skilled as they are. The children occasionally come off awkward in a misdirection sort of way (as opposed to in a "children are naturally awkward" way), and Araki keeps a line or two of dialogue ("I am so sick of this stinkin' little buttcrack of a town!") that should have hit the cutting room floor.

Otherwise, I quite admire the film. Enlisting minimalist composer Harold Budd and Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie to create the score, Mysterious Skin flows like an overcast dream, synchronously beautiful and haunting. Of the film's many strengths, it's hard to match the power of the closing sequence. I've always contested that ending a film well is one of the biggest challenges for any filmmaker, but Araki has always been adept in this matter. He provides for the two characters, Neil and Brian (Brady Corbet), an inexorable hope that only art can yield. Through the narrative framing, we leave the two boys, forever marred by their inescapable childhood devastations, when the illusion is at its clearest. Araki doesn't lead us to the assumption that all has been wiped away by this moment, but that in this flash of time, restoration could be attained.

With: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, Michelle Trachtenberg, Elisabeth Shue, Jeffrey Licon, Chase Ellison, George Webster, Bill Sage, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Richard Riehle, Chris Mulkey, Billy Drago
Screenplay: Gregg Araki, based on the novel by Scott Heim
Cinematography: Steve Gainer
Music: Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie
Country of Origin: USA/Netherlands
US Distributor: Tartan Films/Strand Releasing

Premiere: 3 September 2004 (Venice Film Festival)
US Premiere: January 2005 (Sundance Film Festival)

The Decade List: The Raspberry Reich (2004)

The Raspberry Reich - dir. Bruce LaBruce

In the years following the pinnacle of New Queer Cinema, the description "aggressively queer" doesn't come up very often. While both Todd Haynes and Gregg Araki graduated to "serious" fare (Far from Heaven and Mysterious Skin, respectively), Canadian artist/photographer/filmmaker Bruce LaBruce (Hustler White, Super 8½ and No Skin Off My Ass, which was reportedly Kurt Cobain's favorite film before he died) held onto the tradition, best exemplified in The Raspberry Reich, a hilarious indictment of sexual politics, the far left and "terrorist chic." Certainly in the same vain as Godard's La chinoise or Fassbinder's The Third Generation, LaBruce presents a hapless group of urban guerrillas, headed by the insolent Gudrun (Susanne Sachsse), attempting to carry on the torch of the Red Army Faction.

Gudrun, named after one of the founders of the Baader-Meinhof Gang, concocts a scheme to kidnap Patrick (A. Stich), the son of one of Germany's key industrialists. At the same time, she instills something of a martial law on her gang of insurgents, forcing them to "liberate" themselves from their own "heterosexual repression," insisting "No revolution without sexual revolution. No sexual revolution without homosexual revolution." She, being the only female in the group, does not ask the same of herself but contends that all of the men, including her boyfriend Holger (Daniel Bätscher), join her homosexual intifada.

The Raspberry Reich is, for those familiar, totally LaBruce: hysterical, brash, fetishistic, porn-y, reflexive and even unexpectedly poignant. In recognizing LaBruce's signature brand of criticism and sympathy, one senses his empathy toward Gudrun's cause which intends to combat capitalism and the heteronormative modes of thought that prevail within it. And yet she's still portrayed as a dictator, an unshakeable creature who speaks in propagandistic slogans ("The revolution is my boyfriend!"), cites direct passages from Raoul Vaneigem's The Revolution of Everyday Life as if they were her own and condemns everything from masturbation, corn flakes and Madonna as being counter-revolutionary. And still, she's not completely oblivious to her own contradictions. At one point, she tells Holger, after instructing him to have sex with fellow comrade Che (Daniel Fettig), that if he doesn't follow her orders she won't have sex with him later that night.

LaBruce's main concern relates to the conflict between political, sexual and personal idealism and the governing truths regarding them. Styled like a propaganda film, with various slogans and texts flashing across the screen, The Raspberry Reich brilliantly satirizes one of commanding fears of the Christian right: that "sexual deviants" can recruit others to their lifestyle. Gudrun's experiment, which is what it ultimately amounts to, fails with each of her recruits. When one of the members (Anton Z. Risan) runs off with Patrick, who becomes the gang's Patty Hearst, to take up robbing banks à la Bonnie and Clyde, they violate Gudrun's firm stance against bourgeois monogamy ("Marriage is licensed prostitution," she tells Holger. "I don't want you to be my pimp!").

To call The Raspberry Reich mere pornography would be a rather facile deduction (to be fair though, German production company Cazzo did release a version of the film called The Revolution Is My Boyfriend with longer, less restricted sex scenes). Certainly, most of the sex in the film is unsimulated and most of the actors, other than the amazing Susanne Sachsse, are porn stars, but The Raspberry Reich is more than just the thinking person's blue movie. In keeping with the tone of the rest of the film, the sex exists in contradiction to itself. Sometimes it's a parody (guns often go beyond being just phallic symbols), while, other times, LaBruce obstructs the fucking with text and strobe light editing. It's sexual exploitation against the exploitation of innocent people, and despite the film's numerous incongruities, it does adhere to Gudrun's notion of making revolutionary love, not imperialistic war.

The use of actual sex may ghettoize The Raspberry Reich from a larger audience more than your average gay film (I don't use the term "queer film" because that really doesn't apply much these days; Vicky Cristina Barcelona is queerer than Brokeback Mountain). In my eyes, that's a shame, but really, a film as radical as The Raspberry Reich, like Dušan Makavejev's WR: Mysteries of the Organism from which LaBruce drew considerable inspiration, would never have mass appeal. LaBruce followed The Raspberry Reich in 2008 with the fantastic existential zombie film Otto; or Up with Dead People in 2008, continuing his streak as one of the most exciting voices in aggressively queer cinema.

With: Susanne Sachsse, Daniel Bätscher, A. Stich, Anton Z. Risan, Dean Stathis, Daniel Fettig, Gerrit, Joeffrey, Ulrike S., Stephan Dilschneider
Screenplay: Bruce LaBruce
Cinematography: James Carman, Kristian Petersen
Country of Origin: Germany/Canada
US Distributor: Strand Releasing

Premiere: 17 January 2004 (Sundance Film Festival)

Listlessness

I've been using last.fm, a program which logs all the music you listen to on your computer and iPod, for nearly two-and-a-half years. I suppose it's a way to catalogue your listening habits or maybe just to show off or maybe to meet other people... I'm not terribly sure. Though it was only a coincidence, I started using their "loved" tagging feature intermittently around a sort-of significant occurrence in my life a few months ago. I came to the round number of 200 yesterday (correction, today, after realizing I had tagged a Françoise Hardy song twice, once with the wrong spelling). Naturally, I love more than just 200 songs, and more than just THESE 200 songs, but for my own sake, I figured I'd post them on here, though it's more for my own self-curiosity than anything else, as they put into place my mind during the past few months. They're listed in order of when I "loved" (er, tagged) them.

Moonbabies - Ghost of Love
The Knife - We Share Our Mothers' Health
Big Star - Holocaust
Grizzly Bear - Don't Ask
PJ Harvey - Dear Darkness
Fleet Foxes - Blue Ridge Mountains
José González - Hand on Your Heart
CocoRosie - South 2nd
This Mortal Coil - The Jeweller
The Radio Dept. - The Worst Taste in Music
The Verve - Beautiful Mind
The Radio Dept. - Gibraltar
Misty Roses - Mario and Dario
Dolly Parton - Jolene
Eighth Wonder - I'm Not Scared
The Smiths - There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
Breathless - Stay Beside You
Atlas Sound - Recent Bedroom
Pinback - Versailles
PJ Harvey - Missed

The Verve - On Your Own
Tindersticks - A Night In
PJ Harvey - Liverpool Tide
Roy Orbison - In Dreams
Marianne Faithfull - The Ballad of Lucy Jordan
Tindersticks - Another Night In
The Sugarcubes - Birthday
Benjamin Biolay - Bien avant
The B-52's - Private Idaho
Devo - Mongoloid
The B-52's - Dance This Mess Around
Cyndi Lauper - All Through the Night
Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot - Bonnie and Clyde
Françoise Hardy - J'aurai voulu
Françoise Hardy - Träume
Röyksopp - What Else Is There?
PJ Harvey - Sweeter Than Anything
PJ Harvey - Legs
PJ Harvey - Snake
Röyksopp - This Must Be It

Atlas Sound - Ativan
Fever Ray - Dry and Dusty
PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman a Man Walked By / The Crow Knows Where All the Little Children Go
Liz Phair - Fuck and Run
Beirut - Venice
PJ Harvey & John Parish - Pig Will Not
Jacques Dutronc - Les cactus
Jacques Dutronc - Et moi, et moi, et moi
Yo La Tengo - Everyday
The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
The Smiths - Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
Peter Bjorn and John - I'm Losing My Mind
Macy Gray - I Try
PJ Harvey & John Parish - April
PJ Harvey & John Parish - Cracks in the Canvas
Bedhead - Beside Table
Le Tigre - Fake French
Pinback - Loro
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
The Knife - Heartbeats

Mark Lanegan - Resurrection Song
Animal Collective - My Girls
Animal Collective - Leaf House
Tindersticks - Cherry Blossoms
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Strange Form of Life
The Cardigans - Lovefool
Broadcast - Black Cat
Fugees - Fu-Gee-La
Doveman - Let's Hear It for the Boy
Anna Karina - Sous le soleil exactement
Hole - Retard Girl
Sonic Youth - Washing Machine
Fever Ray - Concrete Walls
ABBA - The Day Before You Came
Primal Scream - Higher Than the Sun
Slint - Good Morning, Captain
DJ Shadow - Midnight in a Perfect World
Daniel Johnson - Some Things Last a Long Time
Talking Heads - This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
Sebadoh - Spoiled

ABBA - Summer Night City (Extended Version)
Vitesse - 2nd Thought
J.J. Fad - Supersonic
Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express
Sonic Youth - (I Got a) Catholic Block
Brigitte Fontaine - Kekeland
Kristin Hersh - Your Ghost
Desert Sessions - A Girl Like Me
Piano Magic - Saint Marie
Patti Smith - Pissing in a River
Palace Music - New Partner
The Radio Dept. - The City Limit
Slint - Breadcrumb Trail
The Replacements - I Will Dare
Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater
Architecture in Helsinki - Heart It Races
Mrs. Miller - Downtown
Olivia Newton-John - Magic
The The - The Beat(en) Generation
The The - Love Is Stronger Than Death

The The - Slow Emotion Replay
Kelis - Trick Me
The Knife - You Take My Breath Away
Sally Shapiro - I Know
Tom Waits - The Ocean Doesn't Want Me
The Sea and Cake - Parasol
Slowdive - Slowdive
Erykah Badu - Bag Lady
Portishead - It's a Fire
Broadcast - You Can Fall
The Magnetic Fields - Strange Powers
R.E.M. - Losing My Religion
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - In This Home on Ice
Feist - Let It Die
Shellac - Prayer to God
Boris - Farewell
CocoRosie - Beautiful Boyz (White Session)
PJ Harvey - Reeling
M83 - You, Appearing
Blondie - Hanging on the Telephone

Auburn Lull - Old Mission
PJ Harvey - Kick It to the Ground
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Stop
LCD Soundsystem - Get Innocuous!
Broken Social Scene - Shampoo Suicide
Tom Waits - Big in Japan
Tom Waits - Make It Rain
Bat for Lashes - Sleep Alone
Breathless - Is It Good News Today?
John Parish & Polly Jean Harvey - Taut
The Verve - Grey Skies
Gang of Four - Love Like Anthrax
Divine - T-shirts and Tight Blue Jeans
Kylie Minogue - Love at First Sight
Japandroids - I Quit Girls
Kelis featuring Nas - In Public
Elvis Perkins - Moon Woman II
Bat for Lashes - Good Love
PJ Harvey - Catherine
Lauryn Hill - Ex-Factor

The Knife - Silent Shout
Grizzly Bear - Particular to What?
Boris - Just Abandoned My-Self
Kylie Minogue - Secret (Take You Home)
The B-52's - Rock Lobster
Émilie Simon featuring Perry Blake - Graines d'étoiles
The Magnetic Fields - All My Little Words
Madonna - Everybody
Madonna - Lucky Star
Kelis - Good Stuff
The B-52's - 52 Girls
Michael Jackson - Rock with You
The Magnetic Fields - The Desperate Things You Made Me Do
The Magnetic Fields - When You're Old and Lonely
Yo La Tengo - Saturday
This Mortal Coil - Song to the Siren
Justin Timberlake - Last Night
Serge Gainsbourg - L'hôtel particulier
April March - Chick Habit
Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot - Comic Strip

Yo La Tengo - Our Way to Fall
Sonic Youth - 'Cross the Breeze
Hot Chip - And I Was a Boy from School
Grizzly Bear - Ready
Phoenix - Fences
Neil Young - Harvest Moon
Duran Duran - Save a Prayer
Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait
The Hidden Cameras - Shame
LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
Bat for Lashes - What's a Girl to Do?
Serge Gainsbourg - Requiem pour un con
Lil Mama - Lip Gloss
Róisín Murphy - Overpowered
Pet Shop Boys - Domino Dancing
Busta Rhymes featuring Kelis & will.i.am - I Love My Bitch
Madonna - Causing a Commotion
Blonde Redhead - 23
Montag - Dormir sur les villes
Beirut - Nantes

Breathless - Pride
Neutral Milk Hotel - April 8th
Goldfrapp - White Soft Rope
Cocteau Twins - Pink Orange Red
The Knife - Neverland
Mark Lanegan featuring PJ Harvey - Hit the City
The Radio Dept. - We Climb the Wire Fences
Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
Antony and the Johnsons - Another World
Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone with You
The Smiths - Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Stereolab - Super Falling Star
INXS - Don't Change
The Microphones - The Mansion
Kylie Minogue - I Believe in You
Electreland - To the East
of Montreal - The Past Is a Grotesque Animal
Dizzee Rascal - Pussyole (Oldskool)
Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg - Je t'aime moi non plus
Crystal Castles - Crimewave

Walerian Borowczyk, Laura Gemser, Jude Law in drag, punk rock in concert, Orson Welles, Ally McBeal and a lotta Ida Lupino! (Not all together, sadly)

I should point out a few things about the releases below. Firstly, IFC announced another few titles for DVD release, all of them genre flicks (of what quality, I'm not sure, as I haven't seen any of them), and I wonder when they're going to get around to their theatrical releases, instead of their VOD titles. Secondly, I've only mentioned Anchor Bay's re-release of the film Where the Day Takes You because it gives me the opportunity to mention that it's easily one of the worst films I've ever seen. It's this dishonest, cheeseball Gen-X exposé of street kids in Los Angeles with a silly cast of once-famous-but-still-recognizable actors. Laughable doesn't begin to describe Hollywood's fallible attempt here, but my friend Chris and I wanted to program a So-Bad-They're-Still-Not-Good film festival and make a double-feature of Where the Day Takes You and John Singleton's dreadful Higher Learning. It would be one miserable night!

Also, Liberation Entertainment announced November release dates for Sally Potter's Rage, which got scathing reviews at Berlin in February, and Caroline Bottaro's Queen to Play [Joyeuse] with Sandrine Bonnaire and Kevin Kline. I don't recall either film receiving a theatrical run. So if seeing Jude Law in drag suits your fancy... And finally, you can put down your pencil from all the letter-writing you've been doing to try to get Fox to finally release the complete Ally McBeal series onto DVD, 'cos your wishes have been granted; on the 6th of October, you can relive all the zaniness, all the dancing babies, all the unisex bathroom interactions and all the Vonda Shepard you want! I heard there were a lot of music rights issues which held up the US release; just please tell me it wasn't Vonda's fault. The DVDs are in descending order of release.

- Objectified, 2009, d. Gary Hustwit, Plexifilm, 29 September
- Ally McBeal, The Complete Series, 1997-2002, 20th Century Fox, 6 October, w. Calista Flockhart, Jane Krakowski, Peter MacNicol, Portia de Rossi, Lucy Liu, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Gil Bellows, Robert Downey Jr., Regina Hall, Dyan Cannon
- Drag Me to Hell, 2009, d. Sam Raimi, Universal, 6 October
- Fighter, 2007, d. Natasha Arthy, IFC Films, 13 October
- Left Bank [Linkeroever], 2008, d. Pieter Van Hees, IFC Films, 13 October
- The Objective, 2008, d. Daniel Myrick, IFC Films, 13 October
- Where the Day Takes You, 1992, d. Marc Rocco, Anchor Bay, 13 October, w. Dermot Mulroney, Lara Flynn Boyle, Balthazar Getty, Sean Astin, Will Smith, Rikki Lake, James LeGros, Kyle MacLachlan, Alyssa Milano, Rachel Ticotin, David Arquette, Laura San Giacomo
- Pageant, 2008, d. Ron Davis, Stewart Halpern-Fingerhut, Wolfe Releasing, 20 October
- God's Left Hand, Devil's Right Hand, 2006, d. Shusuke Kaneko, Tokyo Shock, 27 October
- The Art of Love [Ars armandi], 1983, d. Walerian Borowczyk, Severin, 24 November, w. Laura Betti
- The Cricket [La cicala], 1980, d. Alberto Lattuada, MYA Communication, 24 November, w. Virna Lisi
- The House on Sorority Row, 1983, d. Mark Rosman, Liberation Entertainment, 24 November
- Hunchback of the Morgue [El jorobado de la Morgue], 1973, d. Javier Aguirre, MYA Communication, 24 November
- The Lady Medic [La dottoressa del distretto militare], 1976, d. Nando Cicero, MYA Communication, 24 November, w. Edwige Fenech
- The Last Decameron [Sollazzevoli storie di mogli gaudenti e mariti penitenti - Decameron nº 69], 1972, d. Joe D'Amato, MYA Communication, 24 November
- Mad Dog Morgan, 1976, d. Philippe Mora, Troma, 2-Disc Limited Edition, 24 November, w. Dennis Hopper, Jack Thompson
- Queen to Play [Joueuse], 2009, d. Caroline Bottaro, Liberation Entertainment, 24 November, w. Sandrine Bonnaire, Kevin Kline, Jennifer Beals
- Rage, 2009, d. Sally Potter, Liberation Entertainment, 24 November, w. Judi Dench, Jude Law, Eddie Izzard, John Leguizamo, Dianne Wiest, Steve Buscemi, Adriana Barraza, Bob Balaban, Simon Abkarian
- The Real Emanuelle [Amore libero - Free Love], 1974, d. Pier Ludovico Pavoni, MYA Communication, 24 November, w. Laura Gemser
- Schoolgirl Hitchhikers [Jeunes filles impudiques], 1973, d. Jean Rollin, Redemption, 24 November


Below is a list of some of the titles Warner has made newly available since June as part of their Warner Archive collection. You'll find a lot of recurring stars (Elizabeth Taylor, Gary Cooper, Ida Lupino, John Barrymore, Al Jolson), as well as Brian De Palma's Get to Know Your Rabbit with Orson Welles; Jodie Foster in Carny; the cult concert film Urgh! A Music War; Otto Preminger's The Moon Is Blue; and Mel Ferrer's adaptation of Green Mansions with Audrey Hepburn and Anthony Perkins.

- ...All the Marbles, 1981, d. Robert Aldrich, w. Peter Falk
- Beau Brummel, 1924, d. Harry Beaymont, w. John Barrymore
- The Better 'Ole, 1926, d. Charles Reisner
- Big Boy, 1930, d. Alan Crosland, w. Al Jolson
- Boulevard Nights, 1979, d. Michael Pressman
- Bright Leaf, 1950, d. Michael Curtiz, w. Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall, Patricia Neal
- Carny, 1980, d. Robert Kaylor, w. Gary Busey, Jodie Foster
- Colleen, 1936, d. Alfred E. Green
- Conspirator, 1949, d. Victor Saville, w. Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Taylor
- Cynthia, 1947, d. Robert Z. Leonard, w. Elizabeth Taylor, Mary Astor
- Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues, 1972, d. Paul Williams, w. John Lithgow, Barbara Hershey

- Deep Valley, 1947, d. Jean Negulesco, w. Ida Lupino
- The Divine Lady, 1929, d. Frank Lloyd
- Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, 1973, d. John Newland
- The First Auto, 1927, d. Roy Del Ruth
- Fliration Walk, 1934, d. Frank Borzage
- Get to Know Your Rabbit, 1972, d. Brian De Palma, w. Orson Welles, Katharine Ross
- The Girl Who Had Everything, 1953, d. Richard Thorpe, w. Elizabeth Taylor
- Go Into Your Dance, 1935, d. Archie Mayo, Michael Curtiz, Robert Florey, w. Al Jolson
- Green Mansions, 1959, d. Mel Ferrer, w. Anthony Perkins, Audrey Hepburn
- Happiness Ahead, 1934, d. Mervyn LeRoy
- The Hard Way, 1943, d. Vincent Sherman, w. Ida Lupino

- It's a Big Country, 1951, d. Clarence Brown, Don Hartman, John Sturges, Richard Thorpe, Charles Vidor, Don Weis, William A. Wellman, w. Gary Cooper, Janet Leigh, Gene Kelly, Ethel Barrymore
- Juke Girl, 1942, d. Curtis Bernhardt, w. Ronald fucking Reagan
- Let Us Be Gay, 1930, d. Robert Z. Leonard
- Love Is Better Than Ever, 1952, d. Stanley Donen, w. Elizabeth Taylor
- The Man I Love, 1947, d. Raoul Walsh, w. Ida Lupino
- Mike's Murder, 1984, d. James Bridges, w. Debra Winger
- Min and Bill, 1930, d. George W. Hill
- The Moon Is Blue, 1953, d. Otto Preminger, w. William Holden
- Nora Prentiss, 1947, d. Vincent Sherman
- Old San Francisco, 1927, d. Alan Crosland
- One Sunday Afternoon, 1933, d. Stephen Roberts, w. Gary Cooper, Fay Wray

- Operator 13, 1934, d. Richard Boleslawski, w. Gary Cooper, Marion Davies
- Politics, 1931, d. Charles Reisner
- Ready, Willing and Able, 1937, d. Ray Enright
- Reducing, 1931, d. Charles Reisner
- Rhapsody, 1954, d. Charles Vidor, w. Elizabeth Taylor
- Saratoga Trunk, 1945, d. Sam Wood, w. Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman
- Say It with Songs, 1929, d. Lloyd Bacon, w. Al Jolson
- The Sea Hawk, 1924, d. Frank Lloyd
- Shipmates Forever, 1935, d. Frank Borzage
- The Singing Fool, 1928, d. Lloyd Bacon, w. Al Jolson
- The Singing Kid, 1936, d. William Keighley, w. Al Jolson

- The Story of Mankind, 1957, d. Irwin Allen, w. The Marx Brothers, Hedy Lamarr, Agnes Moorehead, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Cesar Romero, John Carradine, Dennis Hopper
- The Story of Three Loves, 1953, d. Vincente Minnelli, Gottfried Reinhardt, w. Kirk Douglas, Leslie Caron, Ethel Barrymore, James Mason, Agnes Moorehead, Zsa Zsa Gabor
- Task Force, 1949, d. Delmer Daves, w. Gary Cooper
- The Terminal Man, 1974, d. Mike Hodges, w. George Segal
- Today We Live, 1933, d. Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson, w. Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper
- The Unfaithful, 1947, d. Vincent Sherman
- Urgh! A Music War, 1981, d. Derek Burbidge, w. The Police, Toyah Willcox, Wall of Voodoo, Oingo Boingo, Echo & the Bunnymen, XTC, Jools Holland, Klaus Nomi, The Go-Go's, Dead Kennedys, Gary Numan, Joan Jett, Magazine, The Cramps, Devo, Gang of Four, X, UB40
- Week-End at the Waldorf, 1945, d. Robert Z. Leonard, w. Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner
- When a Man Loves, 1927, d. Alan Crosland, w. John Barrymore
- Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?, 1978, d. Ted Kotcheff, w. George Segal, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Cassel
- Wonder Bar, 1934, d. Lloyd Bacon, w. Al Jolson, Dolores del Rio

Noé, Solondz, Almodóvar, Audiard, Others at Toronto '09

Another round of titles were announced for the Toronto International Film Festival, including Todd Solondz's sequel to Happiness, Life During Wartime, and a bunch of Cannes leftovers like Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void, Ye Lou's Spring Fever, Almodóvar's Broken Embraces, Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, as well as Samantha Morton's directorial debut The Unloved. Previously announced titles can be found here and here.

Vanguard

- Accident - d. Cheang Pou-Soi (Dog Bite Dog) - Hong Kong/China
- The Ape [Apan] - d. Jesper Ganslandt (Farväl Falkenberg) - Sweden
- Bunny and the Bull - d. Paul King - UK
- The Dirty Saints [Los santos sucios] - d. Luis Ortega - Argentina
- Enter the Void [Soudain le vide] - d. Gaspar Noé - France/Germany/Italy
- Hipsters - d. Valery Todorovsky - Russia
- The Misfortunates [De helaasheid der dingen] - d. Felix Van Groeningen (Steve + Sky) - Belgium
- My Queen Karo - d. Dorothée Van Den Berghe - w. Deborah Franoçois - Belgium/Netherlands
- Spring Fever - d. Ye Lou - China/Hong Kong/France


Discovery

- The Angel [Enkeli] - d. Margreth Olin - w. Maria Bonnevie, Lena Endre, Börje Ahlstedt - Norway/Sweden/Finland
- Applause - d. Pieter Zandvliet - w. Paprika Steen - Denmark
- Bare Essence of Life - d. Satoko Yokohama - Japan
- Beautiful Kate - d. Rachel Ward - w. Rachel Griffiths, Bryan Brown, Ben Mendelsohn - Australia
- A Brand New Life - d. Ounie Lecomte - South Korea/France
- The Disappearance of Alice Creed - d. J Blakeson - w. Eddie Marsan, Martin Compston - UK
- Eamon - d. Margaret Corkery - Ireland
- Every Day Is a Holiday [Chaque jour est une fête] - d. Dima El-Horr - w. Hiam Abbass - Lebanon/France/Germany
- Five Hours from Paris - d. Leon Prudovsky - Israel
- Heliopolis - d. Ahmad Abdalla - w. Khaled Abol Naga - Egypt
- The Day Will Come [Es kommt der Tag] - d. Susanne Schneider - Germany/France
- Le jour où Dieu est parti en voyage - d. Philippe van Leeuw - Belgium
- Last Ride - d. Glendyn Ivin - Australia
- My Dog Tulip - d. Paul Fierlinger, Sandra Fierlinger - w. Christopher Plummer, Isabella Rossellini, Lynn Redgrave (voices) - USA
- My Tehran for Sale - d. Granaz Moussavi - Australia/Iran
- Northless [Norteado] - d. Rigoberto Pérezcano - Mexico/Spain
- Shirley Adams - d. Oliver Hermanus - South Africa/USA/UK
- La soga - d. Josh Crook - Dominican Republic/USA
- Toad's Oil - d. Kôji Yakusho - w. Yakusho - Japan
- Together [Sammen] - d. Matias Armand Jordal - Norway
- The Unloved - d. Samantha Morton - w. Robert Carlyle, Susan Lynch - UK

Special Presentations

- Broken Embraces [Los abrazos rotos] - d. Pedro Almodóvar - Spain
- An Education - d. Lone Scherfig - UK
- The Front Line [La prima linea] - d. Renato De Maria - w. Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Riccardo Scamarcio - Italy
- Glorious 39 - d. Stephen Poliakoff (Close My Eyes, The Tribe) - w. Romola Garai, Bill Nighy, Julie Christie, Christopher Lee, Hugh Bonneville, David Tennant, Eddie Redmayne, Charlie Cox, Jenny Agutter, Jeremy Northam - UK
- Kamui - d. Yoichi Sai (Blood and Bones, Soo) - Japan
- Life During Wartime - d. Todd Solondz - d. Allison Janney, Ally Sheedy, Shirley Henderson, Ciarán Hinds, Michael K. Williams, Charlotte Rampling, Paul Reubens, Renée Taylor - USA
- A Prophet [Un prophète] - d. Jacques Audiard - France
- The Secret of Their Eyes [El secreto de sus ojos] - d. Juan José Campanella - Argentina/Spain

Docs and Midnight Madness at Toronto '09

More titles have been added to the Toronto International Film Festival's line-up. I have them listed below, sorry if I'm repeating any of these. Some of the notable titles below include Diablo Cody's screenwriting follow-up to Juno, Jennifer's Body; the sequel to [REC]; the sequel to Ong Bak; another sure-to-be-terrible addition to George A. Romero's Dead Saga; a documentary about The White Stripes, from one of the directors of, um, Out Cold; and a documentary compiled of found footage from a Henri-Georges Clouzot film with Romy Schneider entitled L'enfer de Henri-Georges Clouzot. Read more about all the films that have already been announced at their official website.

Real to Reel

- The Art of the Steal - d. Don Argott - USA
- Bassidji - d. Mehran Tamadon - Iran/France/Switzerland
- Colony - d. Carter Gunn, Ross McDonnell - Ireland
- L'enfer de Henri-Georges Clouzot - d. Serge Bromberg, Ruxandra Medrea - w. Romt Schneider, Jacques Gamblin, Henri-Georges Clouzot - France
- Google Baby - d. Zippi Brand Frank - Israel
- How to Fold a Flag - d. Michael Tucker, Petra Epperlein (Gunner Palace, The Prisoner; or How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair) - USA
- The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers - d. Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith - USA
- Presumed Guilty [Presunto culpable] - d. Roberto Hernández, Geoffrey Smith - Mexico
- Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags - d. Marc Levin (Slam, Mr. Untouchable) - USA
- Snowblind - Vikran Jayanti (Britney Spears Saved My Life) - USA
- The Topp Twins - d. Leanne Pooley - New Zealand
- Videocracy - d. Erik Gandini (Gitmo) - Sweden

Midnight Madness

- [REC] 2 - d. Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza - Spain
- Bitch Slap - d. Rick Jacobson - w. Lucy Lawless - USA
- Daybreakers - d. Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig (Undead) - w. Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill - USA/Australia
- Jennifer's Body - d. Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Aeon Flux) - w. Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, Amy Sedaris, J.K. Simmons - USA
- The Loved Ones - d. Sean Byrne - Australia
- Ong Bak 2: The Beginning - d. Tony Jaa, Panna Rittikrai - w. Jaa - Thailand
- Survival of the Dead - d. George A. Romero - w. Kenneth Welsh, Devon Bostick - Canada
- Symbol - d. Hitoshi Matsumoto (Big Man Japan) - w. Matsumoto - Japan
- A Town Called Panic [Panique au village] - d. Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar - Belgium/Luxembourg/France

R.I.P. Yasmine Belmadi

Tragic news from France, young actor Yasmine Belmadi was killed in a car accident over the weekend. Belmadi made his debut in Sébastien Lifshitz's Les corps ouverts, later co-starring in Lifshitz's made-for-television Les terres froides in 1999 and the exquisite Wild Side in 2004. His other credits include François Ozon's Criminal Lovers [Les amants criminels], Gilles Marchand's Who Killed Bambi? [Qui a tué Bambi?], Robert Salis' Grande école and, most recently, Nassim Amaouche's Adieu Gary, which won the Grand Prix at the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes this past May.

The Decade List: The Brown Bunny (2003)

The Brown Bunny - dir. Vincent Gallo

[Note: So, this is really just a re-post of a defense I made for Vincent Gallo's notorious follow-up to Buffalo '66 (with a few edits). I know many of you have read this already, but I needed to get the Decade List rolling in some form. Original pieces to commence starting later this week]

This blog is dedicated to Eric. [I don't think I'd suggest reading this unless you've actually seen the film]. The Brown Bunny, as I'm sure you know, has a bad reputation. When it premiered at Cannes twenty-six minutes longer than the version any of us have seen, Roger Ebert called it the worst film to have ever played at the prestigious festival. Gallo claims the twenty-six minute longer version was a rough cut, as he hadn't finished it in time for the screening. A vile word war ensued between Ebert and Gallo, eventually ending in a truce, as Ebert gave the ninety-three minute long version three stars. This is hardly where the controversy ended. While critics sort of came to a consensus that The Brown Bunny was hardly the disaster they were lead to believe, the fact still remained that Chloë Sevigny gives Vincent Gallo a very real blow job at the end of the film. This, after the Cannes fury had died down, then spread just as quickly (if not more) to the United States movie-going public. A bunch of people who had probably never heard of the prior controversy went to see some fellatio and likely found themselves terribly bored until that point. When I saw the film for a second time (I had seen it previously abroad), a couple of people clapped when Sevigny put Gallo's member in her mouth. I heard one of the guys behind me sigh, "finally." If ever there's a need to defend the theatre experience, this is it. You cannot truly understand The Brown Bunny as an entity through home viewing. A girl walking out of the theatre told her boyfriend, "God, if only the rest of the film were that exciting." If only...

So what is The Brown Bunny, the Film? In some ways, it's not much different than The Brown Bunny, the Entity. It's an hour-and-a-half long masturbation for Vincent Gallo. Seldom do we encounter a creature like Gallo himself, a shameless megalomaniac whose actions and words are often beyond description, or belief. So to say that The Brown Bunny is simply Vincent Gallo's cinematic masturbation is not a criticism. Gallo's masturbatory fantasies are far more fascinating and complex than any old guy who wants to get a girl to blow him in front of a camera. When you actually see the film, no matter how you feel about Gallo or seeing him receive a bj, you must realize that there's more going on than a simple mouth to a dick. Melancholy, despair, sexual and romantic anxiety trace throughout the film, and while these emotions may be key to a number of repressed men's attempt at fantasy, it's far more fascinating to watch than a frat boy who dreams of seeing his girlfriend go down on another girl.

As most masturbatory fantasies are, The Brown Bunny, the Film, is completely interior. The only real show-stopping fault of the film is when Gallo's camera ventures beyond what he can actually see or imagine to show Daisy (Sevigny) smoking crack in a motel bathroom. Most people will find the long, single-take shots of the road through Gallo's windshield to be completely boring, but these scenes are essential to an understanding of this interior prose. The road itself is, surprise, a metaphor. As Bud (Gallo's fictionalized self) returns to California after a motorcycle race across the country, we're literally taken into a track through his memory and fantasy. It's never really understood whether the women he encounters on this trip are women from his past or simply fantasies; it is, however, understood that the encounters with these women, whether the ladies be real or not, are all created inside of his mind. Each woman is adoringly named after a flower (there's Lilly, Rose, and Violet) and have their names literally written on them in some manner, whether it be a name-tag or written on a purse. Each encounter begins promisingly, but due to a not-so-underlying anxiety on Bud's part, he leaves them and continues on the road. The anxiety is never made bluntly clear, though we know it has something to do with this Daisy. In fact we never really understand what it is about Daisy until the final "twist," which is peculiarly given away during one of the teaser trailers for the film.

It's probably necessary to also defend that scene. To some people, the scene is pretty unnecessary. It's Gallo's masturbation fully realized without the pretense of artistic expression (which I think is untrue). It doesn't matter whether we see Lilly, Rose, and Violet as memories of women post- or even pre-Daisy or fantasies of women; it matters that Bud cannot follow through with these women. Whether these women existed before or after Daisy or not at all is beside the point. Though he did not give himself to these women, for whatever reason, he wanted to and could not. If they're post-Daisy, we can see that because he gave himself so fully and vulgarly to Daisy and that things did not work out, he can't bring himself to open himself that way again. If they're pre-Daisy, we see that there's something quite special about Daisy that Bud would allow for such an intimate exposure of himself. Either way, he's broken, and he's broken because of this exposure. One could say the gruesome nature of Daisy's death could be equated with the obscenity of the fellatio scene. Or perhaps it's just intensity. It certainly isn't romantic. The sentence I'm about to type sounds terribly ridiculous, but I could think of no other way to put it. When Bud ejaculates, Daisy swallows, and it's here that we see the transfer of himself into her. She receives him and, not literally (to most viewer's relief, I'm sure) rejects this offering. As it's difficult to say whether what we see is a fantasy or a memory, it's not easy to say how Daisy rejects this offering. If it's a memory, she rejects him by going out, getting drugged up, raped, and murdered. If it's a fantasy, her rejection comes with her revelation that she's no longer alive. It's rejection either way, and this is where the melancholy, the despair, and the anxiety stems.

I find my ability to dissect The Brown Bunny, the Film, in such a way to be a bit distracting to my adoration. The films that truly resonate within me do so because of my inability trulyyly comprehend them. When a film leaves me at a loss of words, that's note-worthy, because, whether I'm completely wrong or not, I usually have something to say. The Brown Bunny left me with many words, as you can see. I struggle with calling Blow-Up Michelangelo Antonioni's masterpiece because I can read it far easier than I can L'avventura or L'eclisse (La notte is often regarded as the least of the trilogy for similar reasons; it's too easy to swallow). Yet, my ability to decipher Blow-Up does not hinder my love for it, as it still leaves me a bit unsettled and haunted. The Brown Bunny works like this as well, which is why it has stayed in my mind for so long, despite this proper dissection.

With: Vincent Gallo, Chloë Sevigny, Cheryl Tiegs, Elizabeth Blake, Anna Vareschi, Mary Morasky
Screenplay: Vincent Gallo
Cinematography: Vincent Gallo
Country of Origin: USA/Japan/France
US Distributor: Wellspring

Premiere: 21 May 2003, as a work in progress (Cannes Film Festival)
US Premiere: 27 August 2004 (New York City, Los Angeles)

Awards: FIPRESCI Prize [for its bold exploration of yearning and grief and for its radical departure from dominant tendencies in current American filmmaking] (Venice Film Festival)

DVD Release Update - 21 July

Of the releases below, it's worth noting that TLA has started announcing DVDs again after this news came out a few months ago. It's also nice to know that Criterion won't be wasting their time on a Chasing Amy Blu-ray, as Miramax has just set a date for it.

DVD

- Classic Educational Shorts, Vols. 1 and 2: How to Be a Man / How to Be a Woman, 1948-1982, d. Various, Kino, 6 October
- The Gate, 1987, d. Tibor Takács, Lionsgate, "Monstrous Special Edition," 6 October, w. Stephen Dorff
- Mirageman, 2007, d. Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, Magnet Releasing/Magnolia, 6 October
- My Fair Lady, 1964, d. George Cukor, Paramount, 6 October
- Happy Birthday to Me, 1981, d. J. Lee Thompson, Anchor Bay, 13 October
- The Killing Room, 2009, d. Jonathan Liebesman, The Weinstein Company, 13 October, w. Chloë Sevigny, Nick Cannon, Timothy Hutton, Peter Stormare, Clea DuVall
- Love of Siam, 2007, d. Chukiat Sakveerakul, Strand Releasing, 13 October
- Shank, 2009, d. Simon Pearce, TLA Releasing, 20 October
- The Shaolin Temple, 1982, d. Zhang Xinyan, Dragon Dynasty/The Weinstein Company, 20 October, w. Jet Li
- Moonlight Serenade, 2006, d. Giancarlo Tallarico, Magnolia, 27 October, w. Amy Adams
- Perestroika [The Reconstructing], 2009, d. Slava Tsukerman (Liquid Sky), Strand Releasing, 27 October, w. F. Murray Abraham, Ally Sheedy
- Janky Promoters, 2009, d. Marcus Raboy, The Weinstein Company, 3 November, w. Ice Cube, Mike Epps, Young Jeezy
- North by Northwest, 1959, d. Alfred Hitchcock, Warner, 50th Anniversary, also on Blu-ray, 3 November
- Make the Yuletide Gay, 2009, d. Rob Williams, TLA Releasing, 10 November
- Wrecked, 2009, d. Bernard Schumanski, Harry Schumanski, TLA Releasing, 10 November
- Star Trek, 2009, d. J.J. Abrams, Paramount, also on Blu-ray, 17 November
- Three Monkeys [Üç maymun], 2008, d. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Zeitgeist, 24 November
- The Redwoods, 2009, d. David Lewis, TLA Releasing, 8 December

Blu-ray

- Kurt Cobain: About a Son, 2006, d. AJ Schnack, Shout! Factory, 6 October
- Chasing Amy, 1997, d. Kevin Smith, Miramax, 3 November
- Clerks, 1994, d. Kevin Smith, Miramax, 3 November
- The Sopranos, Season 1, 1999, HBO, 23 November

There's Nothing Worse Than a Staunch Woman, Nothing

Slowly, I'm crawling out of my grim movie-watching blackout, and it's been with surprisingly pleasant results. I bucked up and watched the HBO Grey Gardens with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange as the imitable Beales thanks to a Facebook recommendation from Bruce LaBruce. And quickly, all of my reservations about the project evaporated quickly.

In addition to Grey Gardens, I found myself wildly amused by Armando Iannucci's In the Loop, a viciously hysterical political satire, and the omnibus Tôkyô!, in particular Leos Carax's middle segment with Denis Lavant. I think the horizon is becoming clearer... let's hope it remains that way.