Early in the movie "A Mighty Wind", there is a montage of archival folk musician footage combined with fake archival footage of the fake folk bands in the film. One of the real snippets of footage, just after 1 minute into the film, shows a couple of young guys playing banjos. It appears to be the late 1950s or early 1960s:
Is it me, or does the guy in the middle look like Steve Martin? It's so hard to tell from a screencap, it looks even more like him in the actual footage. It's the right time frame for it to be Martin, too. I can't upload the film online, but if you have "A Mighty Wind" on DVD you might want to check it out.
I don't know what to make of it. It's as weird as Albert Finney in drag for a brief moment in "Miller's Crossing", something that as far as I know was never explained.
Okay, it's not that weird. But I would swear that's a young Steve Martin.
Just moments ago I finished watching "JCVD". I'm still stunned. It was so amazing, and of course I haven't the words to describe it, because I never do. You know I love films, you know I watch and enjoy a ton of movies, but only rarely do I watch a film that affects me as much as "JCVD" did. It's one of those films where, after watching it, I can't imagine living my life without the memory of this movie affecting my entire worldview. "JCVD" is part of my memory, my consciousness, and everything is the better for it. How do I explain this feeling to those who don't react to films in the same way I do? I can't explain it fully. But I don't need to.
A "New Scooby Doo Movie" is on Boomerang right now (started 7:00 PM Central). It's "Haunted Carnival", the one with Dick Van Dyke as a guest star. About 35 minutes into it, Dick is in front of a carnival attraction which is labelled "Blog, The Magnificent Ferret". This ferret is 6 foot tall and 10 stone! That is magnificent! See Blog for just 10 cents!
I would like to share with you something that happened today at about 6:00 PM at the Kansas State University Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, and which is a very good example of why the K-State vet med can suck it. I was buying some cat food when a vet (student vet, I'm sure) and 2 customers with their cats in carriers came walking in behind me. They talked a bit about how one of the cats is a real problem behavior-wise. The vet starts a line of conversation that absolutely floored me:
VET STUDENT: Yes, all tricolor cats are behavioral problems. That's because nearly 80% of tricolor cats are female. MALE CUSTOMER: Ah, it's a woman thing.
VET STUDENT: Yeah, exactly, the female of every species is difficult to get along with and control.
MALE CUSTOMER: *laughs knowingly*
VET STUDENT: Today I was being assigned my patients and I was given a tricolor female, and I put the file back in the pile and grabbed another one. No way will I work with a tricolor female.
This tricolor bitch hag female cat has ruined the lives of many innocent men.
Now, keep in mind a few things: Nearly 100% of tricolor cats are female. It's no "nearly 80%", and a vet student should know that. I knew that and I've never even seen a true tricolor cat. Secondly, I can't find anything online that supports the idea that all tricolor cats, especially female, are behavior problems. (I used keywords like behavior, behavioral problems, unfriendly, and aggressive. Nothing came up.)
And I'm sure customers love hearing that you, their vet, deliberately refuse to help cats just like their own because you have a crazy bias that almost seems sexist. Sexist... against cats. Who thinks like this?
That damnable film genre -- 1920s stage plays made into early 1930s movies -- is stalking me again, this time in the form of a film THAT NEVER WAS A PLAY. Well, not until Grahame Greene's 1970s version. But I still recognize the genre when I see it, even if it's in disguise. You bet I do.
"Raffles", the 1930 movie starring Ronald Colman and Kay Francis, isn't all that bad. It's pretty predictable though and some of the supporting cast -- including David Torrence, older brother of Ernest Torrence -- is really awful. I can't believe David Torrence's Scots accent was genuine, it was so completely awful. And both of the Torrence brothers freak me the fuck out. I hate seeing them, they scare me. It's not rational, but there you have it. The best part of "Raffles" are the few really good sets, designed by my boyfriend William Cameron Menzies and filmed by my other boyfriend, Greg Toland. Just look at this set. Look at that font in the sign at top. Look at those curtains. That floor! It was hard to see in this screencap (my caps aren't very sharp nowadays, since I don't have Beloved Lappy right now) but that door is a lovely art deco iron-and-glass design.
Colman and Francis were, of course, ridiculously glamorous and lovely and fun to watch. Alison Skipworth, as the large and elderly Lady Kitty, was in the tightest gown I've ever seen. If she'd just had a bra it would have been better, but as Pauline Weston Thomas notes:
Big busted girls turned to bandaging their breasts flat, but many adopted the Symington Side Lacer, a bra that could be laced at both sides and pulled and pulled in to flatten the chest.
None of the bras gave much shape, but few ladies were seeking anything more than stopping the bust from wobbling...
Which is clearly what was going on here. Very disconcerting. I don't know why I think about these things when I watch movies, but I do.
A clever description should be here, but instead you get this. You can click on the About The Blog link on She Blogged By Night for more information. Very exciting!
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