Today, I watched Cleopatra (1963), the film that made a spectacle out of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Fox studios. For those who missed Scoopy's excellent review, it is still available in the archives. I could have reviewed this film with two words, me to, but after using up 5 hours of my Sunday, I had to say something. First, Liz, to me, was not Cleopatra. Cleopatra was Egyptian, regal, beautiful, seductive and passionate. Liz was well above her fighting weight (see the thunder thighs in image 3), and never came across as a coherent character for me, much less one of the greatest seductresses of all time. Richard Burton as the heroic conquering general Mark Anthony played a pussy whipped, whining little boy. As Scoop mentioned, the scenery is sometimes amazing, as is the costuming and photography. Indeed, Cleopatra won Oscars in all three categories, in addition to visual special effects. Note that it received no nominations for writing or direction.

Speaking of the Oscars, Tom Jones was the big winner, and is not nearly as well known today. One of my favorite Hitchcocks, The Birds, was skunked, and Portier got a well-deserved Best Actor for the wonderful Lillies of the Field. Hud also did well that year.

The DVD release is 4 hours, and is the best cure I have found for insomnia since Hegel's Philosophy of History. Still, some of the visuals are not to be missed. Liz never got naked in this one, but shows about 7 square miles of butt in a massage scene (image 1), possibly a nipple shadow in the bath (image 4) and a good pokie (image 5). The others are cleavage shots. The tops are different on every image this time. I give it a solid C. It is a very good spectacle, but not a very good film.

I looked at two Almodóvar films, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Live Flesh. Women is a silly 1930ish farce updated 60 years and moved from New York to Madrid by a younger Almodóvar in 1988. Pure Almodóvar magic - stylized music and images, vivid colors, crazy characters. Live Flesh is a recent film, and a departure for Almodóvar from his classic Spanish material and his highly personal style into the more traditional and international world of a noir mystery. It's written by a Brit, features the French and American film noir staples. It's a good movie, but will probably disappoint you. If you like Almodovar, you'll probably find it too straight, too plot-heavy, not very Spanish, and too murky. If you like noir, you'll probably find it too full of operatic flourishes, and insufficiently attentive to the essential details of the characters' motivations. But I liked it anyway. This guy has a real flair.

In fact, I liked both films a lot, but they couldn't be more different.

• Carmen Maura in "Women ..."
• Francesca Neri in "Live Flesh" (1, 2, 3)

Continuing the great director discussion, I looked at The Adjuster, a very eccentric film from a pre-fame Atom Egoyan. Brilliantly structured and literary, as Egoyan's movies always are, but cold and creepy, and unlikable, and strange just for the sake of being strange. Atom could stand to borrow a bit of Almodóvar's warmth. How different the two geniuses are. Almodovar features people that we would normally think of as creepy, and shows us their essential humanity and normality. Egoyan looks at normality and makes it seem creepy, then finds creepy stuff and makes it seem even creepier. Egoyan, like Terry Gilliam, can be sheer inspiration when he has a focus and and grounding in human feelings. Also like Gilliam, sometimes you think he's just showing off how odd he can be.

• Jennifer Dale (1, 2)
• Patricia Collins (non nude)

I guess these must be what we read about yesterday from Center of the World. These aren't my clips, just segments that I made from bootlegs that are floating around the net. I haven't seen this movie. We have two sound clips this time, both around 6 meg.. Sorry, I'm just not sure if either of these are Molly Parker.  But the lollipop clip seems to be Molly's character and is a must see. NOTE that the closing credits list "body doubles", and if anything would be body-doubled, it would be a woman sticking a lollipop in her juicer. (The other clip one is a take it or leave it. I'd leave it at 6 meg, unless you have a super fast connection. Check the still previews to see if you're interested. In this case, the still is the only worthwhile frame, anyway)

• Number 1 is the one we read about in the review, I have to guess. The character is a stripper, she puts a lollipop in her crotch, then sticks it in her customer's mouth. (Still preview)

•  Number 2, just your basic stripping while guys practice amateur gynecology, not sure who it is. Only breasts visible in this one. (Still preview)

Encyclopedia Volume C, part 4,  is not complete, but it has the two new .mpgs under "Center of the World"

For those keeping score at home...
Lesbo scenes...2 (Stella and Nenna)
Straight scenes...1 (Michelle)

Here we see Anna showing off her ample bosom in #1, and only wearing undies in #2. Thanks to DeVo.