If ever there were a question that political posturing is show biz, Nikki Haley settled it at a rally in South Carolina. She was doing an anemic imitation of a mesmerizing George C. Scott in the opening scene of “Patton.” Missing were the medals and martial music, thank god, which contributed mightily to Scott’s classic performance. Of course Trump has been doing his stale imitation for years.
Can Books Provide an Agenda for Mass Murder?’
That is a key question posed by Jascha Hannover’s “The Books He Didn’t Burn,” a documentary to be featured in its U.S premiere at the Jewish Film Festival on Jan. 15 at Lincoln Center in New York. Its relevance to the beliefs of today’s white supremacists and rightwing Christian nationalists is stunning.
Tugboat Tillie
Straight Up has moved house and is taking a vacation break.
At the Château Palettes in Bordeaux
An exhibition of paintings and drawings by Gerard Bellaart and a screening of three films by Fred Worden.
Nancy Peters Saved City Lights Books, Yes!
“While Lawrence Ferlinghetti certainly deserves all of the accolades he’s received, the fact of the matter is there would literally be no City Lights without Nancy Peters. Beyond shepherding City Lights through various fiscal crises and providing the steady anchor that allowed Ferlinghetti to travel the world as a poet and activist, Nancy’s vision as an editor and acumen as a publisher were a vital key to the success and longevity of City Lights Publishers.”
Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade’s Journey
John Sayles Talks About His New Novel and a Lot More
Earlier this month he was at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. Next stop Wednesday, March 15, in Salisbury, Connecticut.
Malanga to Make a Rare Combo Poetry-Film Appearance
Anyone who has seen the 1954 movie “Friendly Persuasion” might wonder if Gerard Malanga was the precocious child actor cast for comic relief with a pet goose that keeps chasing him around the family farm.
Of course he wasn’t. That was Richard Eyer. Malanga is the noted poet and photographer who once was part of Andy Warhol’s inner circle.
Erich Maria Remarque
All Quiet on East 57th Street
Now that the German-language adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s famous 1928 antiwar novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” has won best picture at the British equivalent of the Oscars, the staff here thought it worth noting that Remarque lived for the last 20 years of his life neither in Germany nor the UK but on Manhattan’s East Side.
Independent Filmmaker, Principled Artist
Kenneth Anger held to his vision over a lifetime and, just as important, to his convictions.
Celebrating William Wyler
His Hometown in Alsace Puts on a Hollywood Show
Wyler was Laurence Olivier’s mentor, the love of Bette Davis’s life, John Huston’s best friend, Audrey Hepburn’s inspiring taskmaster, and Barbra Streisand’s father figure. His major motion pictures were touchstones for an entire generation. He guided more actors to Academy Awards than any other director. He also won three Oscars himself. “Olivier once told me he learned more about film acting from Wyler than from any other director; I can say the same,” Terence Stamp recalled in my Wyler biography “A Talent for Trouble.” Despite his reputation as a demanding director who sometimes drove actors to tears, he was a beguiling personality in private.
These Many Years Later, Algren for Real
For the first time, yesterday, I saw the DVD cover art of “The End Is Nothing the Road Is All,” a 2015 documentary. I was poking around on my laptop when I came across it by accident. Except for the fact that it showed up on Facebutt, which I try to avoid, it was a nice surprise.
‘Escuela de Corte’ — ‘Last Time We Play Hooky’
A still shot from Rich Allen’s latest movie. If you look at the shoes .. well, the sneakers … you can see these kids were not actors.
Permit Me a Moment to Bask in This Review
“This biography is truly exceptional in its prose and subject matter. If you are an avid movie fan, you’ll enjoy the wealth of information about a truly brilliant director. If you simply enjoy non-fiction material, this will be a great read as the writer presents a beautifully written story on so many levels. It’s the type of book you never want to finish.” — Hope Goldsmith
‘Water Stone Words’
This short movie evokes the rich heritage of humankind’s creative responses to the natural environment over millennia. The creators of “water stone words” — filmmaker Ed O’Donnelly, sculptor Kenny Munro, and writer/poet Malcolm Ritchie — made the movie over a period of six days.
Into the Mainstream
MoMA to Feature Clayton Patterson Documentaries
“Canadian-born multimedia artist and writer Clayton Patterson has lived through, and broadly documented, more of outsider culture and the evolving history of New York’s Lower East Side than anyone else of his generation. The virtually unseen archive of VHS and 8mm videos he shot there between 1986 and 2001 numbers over 2,000 tapes of astonishing diversity. … Always resolutely on the fringe, as a videographer he is best known for recording the battle between New York City police and protesters in the streets around Tompkins Square Park on the night of August 6, 1988, an event that led to multiple court appearances and appearances with Oprah and others on the talk show circuit.” — Ron Magliozzi, MoMA Curator Department of Film
Brion Gysin Uncut
Have you ever seen a more revealing photo of Brion Gysin than the one on the cover of “His Name Was Master: Texts; Interviews”? It shows a profound sense of dislocation, something Gysin often talked about but rarely showed in his demeanor—which was characteristically grand and worldly and often laced with humor. This sprawling book by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge with Peter Christoferson and Jon Savage offers Gysin in talking mode. It is Gysin uncut. Having already been comprehensively reviewed in The Brooklyn Rail, it needs no review from me. More interesting than anything I might have to say is Gysin’s account of his brief, teenage involvement with the Surrealists. The disappointment, not to say trauma, of that experience was a harbinger of later ones.
Taking a Break
Back soon.