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Internal problems:
I take some courses at the local colleges. I went to class yesterday, and
when I got back, about three hours later, there were 6800 messages in my
inbox, and they were still coming in! (I guess the normal number per hour
is about 20 or so.) Then my computer got hung up in the middle of one. It
was a spam-o-rama - the usual crap, the header supposedly returning
messages that I never sent in the first place, while the body tries to sell
me pills. Basically, I ended up nuking everything, and in the process, I
probably lost a bunch of legit material. For example, Hank is 100%
reliable. He either makes a contribution or informs me that he will not.
But yesterday I have nothing from him, which probably means I screwed up in
trying to sort out my 7000 mails.
Did any of you also experience this crazy avalanche of crap? I didn't read
anything about it anywhere.
Anyway - bottom line - if you sent me something by e-mail yesterday and it
does not appear here, you'll need to re-send it.
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OTHER CRAP:
Catch the deluxe
version of Other Crap in real time, with all the bells and whistles,
here.
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Romance
1999
Scoop's notes:
To be honest, these are actually Tuna's notes,
but he wrote a very entertaining, literate, and incisive review. Of course
the fact that he did all those things does not guarantee that I would
agree with him, but in this instance I say "me too."
Romance tells the story of a young teacher, Caroline Ducey, who is
living with a man she is deeply in love with, but who will not have sex
with her. It is not that he is not capable; he simply isn't interested.
She decides to get the sex she needs elsewhere, and also wanders into
some bondage action as well. Eventually, her boyfriend sticks it in long
enough to knock her up.
This film was created by the French "porno chic" director Catherine
Breillat and its frank portrayals of sex generated much controversy at
the time of release. It also managed to gain some positive critical
reviews, and became something of a hit with the art house crowd.
Given the film's reputation, you must be thinking by now that there
must be more there than what I described in the first paragraph. Nah. As
Gertrude Stein once said "There's no 'there' there." If you can excuse
the boredom of nearly constant nudity and simulated sex, there is still
the burden of listening to endless French art-film dialogue, and a
substantial amount of pompous narration.
The film has exactly one positive: the dubbed English was done very
well, nearly matching lip movement.
You may be thinking, "Why, then, does this director have such a good
reputation?" I have seen several of her films, and am decidedly
unimpressed, but the original buzz was that Breillat knew, and was
revealing, some hidden truths about women. In this case, as was the case
in Anatomie de l'enfer, Breillat was kind enough to give the meaning of
the film directly in dialogue. As you might recall, the meaning of
Anatomie de l'enfer was that all men hate all women, mostly because they
have periods. The theme of Romance is that men can't use rubbers because
they can't stay hard enough, and that is because they don't really want
to have sex with women.
Thank God for these insights. I have now learned all I need to know
about women. It makes all the years of film-watching worthwhile.
Caroline Ducey film clips, collages below.
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Scoop's note: Hankster probably sent something in, but I had a mammoth
e-mail problem yesterday, as detailed in my section above. I assume he's
returning tomorrow,
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Notes and collages
Body of Evidence
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Julianne Moore
1993
Although Julianne was 33 when she made this film, nobody had ever really
noticed her. That same year, Robert Altman cast her in Short Cuts, she
showed the world some red bush, and - voila! - she was almost a star.
Four-five years later, Boogie Nights and The Big Lebowski sealed the deal.
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Deadly Strangers
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Hayley Mills
1974
Did you know she is still acting? If so, you have one up on me. She's in an
UK TV series called Wild at Heart.
If you ever have some time to kill and want to see an interesting film from
the early 1960s, rent Whistle Down the Wind, an offbeat film with Hayley (as a
child) and the late Alan Bates. Hayley finds Bates (playing a man wanted for
murder) hiding in her family's barn. She asks him who he is. Weak, he is about
to pass out and exclaims 'Jesus Christ' just before he goes unconscious. Hayley
assumes that to be the answer to her question, so she and her siblings try to
hide Jesus from those seeking to persecute him!
Sadly, that offbeat little treasure has never been available on Region 1 DVD.
Oh, well. Here's Haley all grown up, 13 years later:
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Lady Beware
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Diane Lane
1987
(She was 22 years old.)
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Incendiary
2008
This romantic drama/thriller from the UK features Michelle Williams as
a London wife and mother, complete with British accent, and her
performance is brilliant, and the story heart-wrenching.
A young mother (Michelle Williams) feels neglected and unloved when her
policeman husband, on the bomb squad, devotes his life to his work and
their 4 year-old son, with little time left for her and romance.
Stood up by her husband at a pub one night when a bomb threat causes him
to stay at work, she strikes up an acquaintance with a reporter, leading
to a one-night stand. Although she vows never again to cheat on her
husband, she invites the man to her apartment one day while the husband
and son are off to a soccer match, and passionate sex soon follows.
While the pair are making love on the couch with the game on television in
the background, the unthinkable happens --- several bombs explode at the
stadium, carried live on TV. Frantically, she races to the stadium, only
to get hurt herself by falling debris. Then she learns the news: her
beloved son and husband have been killed by the blasts, and life as she
knows it has ended.
This sad and powerful story is even more forceful because it is happening
almost daily around the globe. I highly recommend this picture.
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Pics
More alleged pics of Cassie. The first two are just bigger,
untagged, far better versions of what we have seen. The last one is
quite the discovery, if legit.
Cate Blanchett in a flick I like to call Benny Button. I guess she's naked,
and I guess it's her, but who can tell at that distance.
Film Clips
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