[ENTER TEXT HERE, don't forget to type some form of salutation: e.g., "Good evening. For the first time on record, a twenty-nine part adaptation of King Solomon's Mines - Wines, sorry. Wines. King Solomon's Wines... ~ "Australian Table Wines," sketch from Monty Python's Previous Record, 1973, Michael Palin & Eric Idle"]
 |
| The Bruces + The Philosophers Song |
[insert jump break below]
[after the jump, Continue TEXT HERE, body: e.g., "I most certainly am.
"While viewing Pearl, the prequel to X, I let my mind wander. Partly because the movie's a prequel, but also due to it being a slasher. Therefore a foregone thing in at least two ways. I kind of enjoyed it - I find most horror relaxing, so I allowed myself to free associate while watching. There are some intentionally obvious references to Technicolor musicals of old Hollywood in it, and this led me to a few conclusions; first, it's extremely difficult and expensive to actually film the candy-colored fever dreams of old.* Second, that filmmakers love Bible stories, esp. Jesus stories, and referencing them lends their films a gravitas, ironic or not, earned or not. Third, as much as I wished it, I can't easily equate the scarecrow in Oz with Jesus. And fourth, I would like some pizza. Follow the Yellow Brick Road arrows to trace one line of thought (among many) while watching Pearl. This particular shot:"]
 |
| Pearl, 2022, Ti West, Mia Goth and Deathray Bolger |
⬇️
 |
| The Wizard of Oz, 1939, Victor Fleming, Frances Gumm and Ray Bolger |
⬇️
 |
| Giant, 1956, George Stevens, J. D. and E. T. |
⬇️
 |
| Badlands, 1973, Terence Malick, Martin Sheen |
↘️
 |
| Land Speeder Summer, 1977, George Lucas, Mark Hamill (ep 5 is New Hand Luke) |
[tangent]
[text: e.g., "Ep.4: Sandy Planet Blues"]
↙️
⬇️
[back on task]
 |
| Cool Hand Luke, 1967, Stuart Rosenberg, St Paul |
↙️
[tangent]
 |
| New Man Luke |
[text: "blah blah"]
⬇️
 |
Angel Heart, 1987, Alan Parker, DeNiro! as Louis Cypher |
[snarkier text: "blah BLAH blah"]
↘️
⬇️
[back on task]
 |
| M*A*S*H, 1970, Robert Altman |
⬇️
 |
| Inherent Vice, 2014, Paul Thomas Anderson, Owen Wilson in the middle (aye, The Surf Sax Heroin Nazarene) |
🎬
[TEXT, maybe bold: e.g., "and... Cut!"]
[CLOSING TEXT, don't forget to feign friendly, and always remember that some people here hate dumb puns, while other people really hate dumb puns: "So how did Monday go? Anyone else want pizza? What did you have for your last supper?"]
* Natalie Kalmus was the head of the Technicolor art department from 1934 to 1949 and her exacting standards frustrated many a filmmaker. LSD flashback inducing, primary colored cartoon fantasies of old. She was a big deal. Contrast the shot from Pearl with some of the shots from The Wizard of Oz or even Philip Ridley's 1990 movie The Reflecting Skin, a movie I've discussed before and can't really recommend, even if you simply can't get enough of Viggo Mortensen. Ridley couldn't get the corn to look the shade of yellow he envisioned and hand painted the individual stalks of corn. Ti West works cheap and fast, and that shows in some of the dialogue, its delivery, and often the pacing. And yes, the corn isn't yellow enough.
*****
ETA 4/2/22 - A farewell to Ryuichi Sakamoto 1952 - 2023. I discovered his music at a time I hated electronic music and never gave his work a fair shake. His influence is still all over the music scene though. I learned in his obituary his early work was influenced by Debussy, and you can hear it in this acoustic version of his piece from Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence. That's Sakamoto on the piano accompanying the guitarist Kaori Muraji:
He's in the movie too, along with Bowie and Takeshi Kitano.
No comments:
Post a Comment