― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 4 March 2007 22:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― james blount, Sunday, 4 March 2007 23:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― G00blar, Sunday, 4 March 2007 23:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 4 March 2007 23:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― scott seward, Sunday, 4 March 2007 23:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 4 March 2007 23:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― scott seward, Sunday, 4 March 2007 23:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 5 March 2007 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 5 March 2007 15:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― tokyo rosemary, Monday, 5 March 2007 15:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― gff, Monday, 5 March 2007 15:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:51 (sixteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:59 (sixteen years ago) link
― da croupier, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:05 (sixteen years ago) link
― da croupier, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:07 (sixteen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:15 (sixteen years ago) link
― da croupier, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:17 (sixteen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 16:39 (sixteen years ago) link
dang, i really liked willie and phil it's meandering and has some dialogue that is clunky but all the performances and scenes are great and it's an interesting take on the jules & jim story. plus the sequence where they drop acid is classic - "I don't want apple juice, i want my hands to come back!"
also today, i watched i love you alice b. toklas...it was also pretty good! does this get pigeonholed as a stoner movie? i feel like it does but peter sellers is great in it, esp some of the scenes in the beginning
― johnny crunch, Saturday, 19 December 2009 22:43 (fourteen years ago) link
also, what is the damn movie they go to see and get kicked out of? it has a cougar-ish woman wearing crazy 70s sandals putting the moves on a young dude...idk, i know ive seen it and cant place it...
― johnny crunch, Saturday, 19 December 2009 22:57 (fourteen years ago) link
didnt realize willie and phil was not on dvd and so little talked about! i had erased it from my dvr but it is on again tonight on fox movie channel if anybody cares~
id love to be able to see 'alex in wonderland' - has anyone seen it?
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 10 January 2010 17:26 (fourteen years ago) link
did anyone see his recent documentary about hasidic jews going to party in the ukraine? i saw it in the czech republic and interviewed him about it... then never heard of it again.
― meryl streep post-brazilian (s1ocki), Sunday, 10 January 2010 17:32 (fourteen years ago) link
I watched this again a couple of weeks ago after I found it on one of my old vhs tapes. The first half of the film is definitely the best, it does downhill in a big way after the halfway point. Although I've seen it before, I realised I don't really understand the ending where (SPOILER) he walks out of his wedding again. Is his dropping out as a hippie meant to have been a dream?
― Bob Six, Sunday, 10 January 2010 23:27 (fourteen years ago) link
have started reading his book show me the magic & it's fantastic!
Sellers wanted Fellini to direct Alice B. Toklas! also was a total crazyperson
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 7 February 2010 13:56 (fourteen years ago) link
then, unrelatedly, mazursky becomes friends w/ fellini!
"thank you, paolino, for bringing your child to the work of my life's blood so that she can snore at it."
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 7 February 2010 21:00 (fourteen years ago) link
blume in love was ok. kris kristofferson was really good in it.
couldnt find too much info abt it but apparently alex in wonderland is coming out on dvd NEXT WEEK. good thing i didnt break down and buy a $40 vhs copy
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 23 June 2010 12:23 (thirteen years ago) link
thinking it doesnt actually exist and i might be the lone person on the internet/planet who cares? i was sent this twice:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-4jS%2BXKKL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
supposedly it was being distributed by Eyecon (?) but i cant really find jack abt that company!
― johnny crunch, Monday, 12 July 2010 23:39 (thirteen years ago) link
http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/111840000/111845854.JPG
fun read so far
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 2 August 2011 01:25 (twelve years ago) link
http://a2.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/033/Video/f2/e9/0a/mzi.wryagdte.227x227-75.jpg
can now buy this from warners or watch on itunes
he did an audio commentary for it that's ok. there is one o_O moment where he talks abt not liking reality television and predicts that w/in a few yrs ppl will be getting killed on tv and viewers will pay to watch
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 15 September 2011 16:21 (twelve years ago) link
Harry and Tonto's nice. I don't think it really gets going till Carney and Melanie Mayron hook up, but lots of great bits after that: Chief Dan George (he's like an early draft of Kumar Pallana in Wes Anderson's films), Vegas (what happened in '74 to make gambling so topical? California Split, The Gambler, some of Godfather II), the old-age home, Burstyn and Hagman, the ending. Like any good road film, the story periodically steps aside for some painterly cinematography--inevitable, and I fall for it every time. (You could say that those scenes really are the story.)
As good as he is, I don't think Carney should have won the Academy Award. If voters had assigned rankings 1-5, I'm sure he would have finished behind both Nicholson and Pacino; obviously some vote-splitting (and Hackman in The Conversation wasn't even nominated). Still an amazing story. It was essentially his third film, after what looks to be very small parts in The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964) and A Guide for the Married Man (1967) (haven't seen either). Even though he'd been around since radio and was famous because of The Honeymooners.
― clemenza, Monday, 10 March 2014 14:20 (ten years ago) link
I wouldn't say Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is dated, because I'm sure its limitations--the satire is telegraphed throughout--were just as apparent in 1969. Sometimes funny anyway, and the performers are clearly having a good time. (I liked Culp the best, although Cannon got the most attention.)
What I absolutely love is the ending. Whether or not it has anything to say--again, telegraphed, but I think the basic point is valid--I'm adding it to my ever-expanding list of how pop music should be used in a movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frQ7Tna4LOU
― clemenza, Sunday, 8 June 2014 18:39 (nine years ago) link
(Larry Tucker pops up at the three-minute mark.)
― clemenza, Sunday, 8 June 2014 18:40 (nine years ago) link
I've had it on my DVR for months and keep putting off deciding whether to watch or delete it. (Ditto Carnal Knowledge.)
― WilliamC, Sunday, 8 June 2014 18:45 (nine years ago) link
Watch them both, WC. They're about as definitively of their moment--mostly for better, sometimes for worse--as anything you'll find. (Hope the ending doesn't lose anything because of my post. It's not the kind of ending where spoiler crosses your mind.)
― clemenza, Sunday, 8 June 2014 19:22 (nine years ago) link
"What's piling up on your DVR?" might be an interesting thread, if we haven't already done it.
― WilliamC, Sunday, 8 June 2014 19:25 (nine years ago) link
Timely revive. I finally saw Harry and Tonto last night (via Netflix disc service, and I say 'finally' because this was my second copy of it from them--the first was so cracked up the label was all that was holding it together). Really enjoyed it. Definitely one of those "Only in the 70s" studio films. Didn't we have a thread for "Christmas Movies that aren't 'Christmas' movies"? Because this would fit (the holiday is never mentioned, but decorations are littered throughout the set design, culminating in the sad little tree on Larry Hagman's kitchenette counter).
From IMDB:
In the original theatrical version, Norman (Josh Mostel) says to Shirley (Ellen Burstyn), "I like you too, Aunt Shirley, but you're a c**t." When the ratings board gave the film an R rating because of this line, Mazursky changed the line to "But you're a bitch." All subsequent prints after the initial theatrical release contain this line, and the original has since disappeared.
I don't quite get that because it's still listed as an 'R', probably due to Meyron's topless scene.
― Damnit Janet Weiss & The Riot Grrriel (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 8 June 2014 19:55 (nine years ago) link
xpost
I like this idea, if only because the process of occasionally listing everything I've been saving to watch "for later" might actually goad me into watching some of these things. Anyway, the thread is yours to start.
― Funk autocorrect (cryptosicko), Sunday, 8 June 2014 23:54 (nine years ago) link
man I can't imagine Tempest being approved at any other moment than in the post-Biskind arc of Hollywood.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 01:09 (nine years ago) link
RIP. Been watching his films lately, and had meant to post to this thread.
http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2014/07/01/in-memoriam-paul-mazursky/
― Incident At Spanish Harlem (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 1 July 2014 19:18 (nine years ago) link
aw, sad. rip
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 1 July 2014 19:28 (nine years ago) link
Quite surprised he never got a director nomination--four for writing, one as a producer, nothing for direction. Bypassed for An Unmarried Woman in favor of some very dubious picks in '78.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 1 July 2014 19:31 (nine years ago) link
Nu-critic types don't really have much use for him. He outlived his fashionable period by about 35 years.
Alfred's ranking in first post pretty close to mine, tho I'd sneak Unmarried Woman ahead of Down & Out at least. Moon Over Parador was a half-cute comedy too.
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 July 2014 19:47 (nine years ago) link
I'd put AUW high too.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 July 2014 19:55 (nine years ago) link
Coincidentally I watched this clip last weekend in a hotel room:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuqjFGJuErA
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 July 2014 19:57 (nine years ago) link
yeah, he's kind of stuck with bob rafelson in the half-forgotten '70s auteurs bin
― I dunno. (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 July 2014 23:56 (nine years ago) link
like arthur penn (who was even older), because of his late success, he was often lumped in with "new hollywood" but is of an entirely different generation
― I dunno. (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 July 2014 23:57 (nine years ago) link
i meant to say, like rafelson and arthur penn
My quick obit. Everything Pauline Kael claimed about him was true, which is rare.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 July 2014 00:00 (nine years ago) link
c'mon, Rafelson made about 3 good or better films, and I'm counting Head.
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 2 July 2014 00:12 (nine years ago) link
I'm one of nine living people who saw Willie and Phil first-run in a theatre.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 2 July 2014 00:56 (nine years ago) link
c'mon, Rafelson made about 3 good or better films, and I'm counting Head.― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, July 1, 2014 7:12 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, July 1, 2014 7:12 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
huh? i'm not criticizing rafelson, i'm just saying he seems to be ignored in much the way mazursky has/had been. i love "head."
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 July 2014 02:42 (nine years ago) link
oh, i see, you're denigrating rafelson. honestly, i don't have enough stock in either of them to argue about it. i like "head" and the nutty one w/ schwarzenegger and "black widow" i guess.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 July 2014 02:48 (nine years ago) link
yeah, Five Easy Pieces is just too mersh :/
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 2 July 2014 06:42 (nine years ago) link
rafelson gets a lot more play than mazursky (or penn) in biskind's easy riders etc, so i don't think he's been 'ignored' in quite the same way, if at all
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 2 July 2014 08:16 (nine years ago) link
and stuff like this set have kept some of rafelson's best movies well preserved and presented:
http://www.criterion.com/boxsets/769-america-lost-and-found-the-bbs-story
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 2 July 2014 08:22 (nine years ago) link
yeah, Five Easy Pieces is just too mersh :/― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, July 2, 2014 1:42 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, July 2, 2014 1:42 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i guess i just find too much of that film's ethos repulsive. the karen black character is such a cruel caricature. and the scene parodying "intellectual chat" is likewise cruel, strident, and unfunny.. the whole film's a mixed bag of fairly fresh, resonant stuff and dated awfulness.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 July 2014 15:38 (nine years ago) link
I need to finally watch W&P.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 2 July 2014 16:07 (nine years ago) link
When it opened I hadn't seen Jules & Jim, so I said well no dice. Now I cringe at the concept of Margot Kidder in place of Jeanne Moreau.
To me the criticism of An Unmarried Woman by Goldie Hawn's Private Benjamin still holds water: "I would've been Mrs Alan Bates so fast!"
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 2 July 2014 16:33 (nine years ago) link
roundup
http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-paul-mazursky-1930-2014
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 3 July 2014 04:55 (nine years ago) link
Scott Founas' obit: http://variety.com/2014/film/columns/varietys-scott-foundas-remembers-paul-mazursky-a-poetic-farceur-of-american-lives-1201256744/
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 3 July 2014 12:11 (nine years ago) link
The Film Experience crew is not happy with Enemies, A Love Story: they don't like Ron Silver in the role and think Mazursky doesn't handle the tonal shifts.
http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2014/8/31/smackdown-1989-anjelica-brenda-dianne-lena-and-julia-roberts.html#comments
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 2 September 2014 19:33 (nine years ago) link
Screened Alice B. Toklas tonight. Kind of good and also not good. Obviously a dry run for B&C&T&A. Sellers is very interesting, Walken-esque in the 'straight' scenes. A pre-Altman David Arkin! Loads of great shots of 1968 LA. Would like to go back in time and have lots of...brownies...w/Leigh Taylor-Young.
Although I've seen it before, I realised I don't really understand the ending where (SPOILER) he walks out of his wedding again. Is his dropping out as a hippie meant to have been a dream?
I think so, which would explain how he goes full-longhair in the space of like 30 days.
― I Don't Wanna Ice Bucket With You (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 3 September 2014 04:03 (nine years ago) link
Thanks. I've still got that vhs tape I think - so may give it another run.
http://www.grolschfilmworks.com/media/uploads/images/i%20love%20you%20alice%20b.jpg
― Comfrey Mugwort (Bob Six), Wednesday, 3 September 2014 07:33 (nine years ago) link
seems Tarantino is a fan
http://thedissolve.com/news/3413-tarantino-new-beverly-programming/
― piscesx, Monday, 29 September 2014 19:34 (nine years ago) link
As I was always led to believe. Alex in Wonderland is a not particularly good riff on 8-1/2, but Donald Sutherland is nice (it seems to have been shot before M*A*S*H was released), and he has a lovely fantasy sequence with Jeanne Moreau. Mazursky pretty funny as a hotshot producer with a Chagall on his wall and a caged monkey in his dining alcove.
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 4 April 2018 02:22 (five years ago) link
Fun Fact: Both AIW and Brewster McCloud were released by Jim Aubrey's MGM at roughly the same time. The studio had such faith in the films that they were frequently and mistakenly mixed up when it came press screenings and even some public engagements.
― Making Plans For Sturgill (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 4 April 2018 08:50 (five years ago) link
I had it in my mind that Kael wrote a long, rapturous review of Blume in Love, but in fact she didn't even review it on release--some scattered mentions in Reeling, and a later capsule review in 5001 Nights. Another litmus test for your tolerance of early-'70s New American Cinema, like Save the Tiger, Scarecrow, and others. I enjoyed Segal (the beard is ridiculous, though), winced a number of times, and found Susan Anspach as puzzling as ever.
― clemenza, Saturday, 5 December 2020 04:06 (three years ago) link
Hard to find much online about Blume in Love. Vincent Canby's review is available, noteworthy for what it doesn't even mention (if you've seen the film, you should know what I mean).
https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/18/archives/film-paul-mazurskys-blume-in-lovethe-cast.html
― clemenza, Saturday, 5 December 2020 16:00 (three years ago) link
IMDB has some links to vintage reviews; I read Ebert's (four stars!) and Molly Haskell's (a combo w/A Touch of Class), and neither of them mention it either... although the latter mentions what happens after that.
― "what are you DOING to fleetwood mac??" (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 5 December 2020 17:19 (three years ago) link
Ebert: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blume-in-love-1973
Haskell: https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XslHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8IsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6327%2C741447
^^That one is from a scan of the original issue.
― "what are you DOING to fleetwood mac??" (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 5 December 2020 17:21 (three years ago) link
I'm usually against holding stuff written 40 years ago to the prevailing climate of today (within reason, that is), but from the Ebert review, "The itinerant musician is played by Kris Kristofferson, who gives evidence once again that he has a real acting talent--particularly in the scene where he hits Segal and then bursts into tears," it's somewhat amazing he doesn't feel it worth mentioning why Kristofferson hits him. (Is it possible the publication wouldn't allow specific mention of why? Find that hard to believe.)
― clemenza, Saturday, 5 December 2020 23:27 (three years ago) link
Re-watching Eyes Wide Shut tonight; forgot that Blume in Love can be glimpsed on Nicole Kidman's kitchen TV. I'm sure someone has written a dissertation on the how the two films connect.
― clemenza, Monday, 28 June 2021 03:12 (two years ago) link