BruceH

All I can say for sure is I think they had something to do with invisible people. Guess I don't know movies.

Manny Farber---Negative Space (read it before, years ago)

A classmate of mine in third grade was obsessed with him for some reason.

27 Will this test count?

You've got to make your peace with the squeak. Learn to love it, eventually. You'll be a better man for it.

Good to see some more Economist fans here! I had a subscription for quite a few years, then just went to mooching library and in-laws' copies. Harper's and The New Yorker still up there. The occasional Atlantic, though it's hit-or-miss. And during the primary season I found myself perusing The New Republic again after giving it a nice long dozen-year rest. Was looking at Newsweek and Time at the dentist's office the other day and was amazed at how low they've sunk. They seem to be produced for people who don't read.

Good point Jim.

Actually, Bruce, I'd read your post here before I made that post on Kehr's site and borrowed/took off from your thought about the revolving camera gimmick, though I did notice and was bothered by it in theater. Thanks for that, Larry. All the same, I found your lengthy comment on Kehr's site to be insightful on several points, not just that.

True, I was speaking about the action sequence specifically. It used to be possible to film a 5 minute chase sequence without using an edit every micro-second. Yeah, you can actually tell who's chasing whom, and what street they're on.

You could certainly make a good case that overuse of CGI (as a sort of crutch or cinematic steroid) has been doing film no good in the past 10 or 15 years or so. But as for the revolving-camera gimmick...well, I sure as hell noticed it (took me right out of the movie every time) and the fact that it's been around for years and been abused by many directors before Nolan hardly lets him off the hook, especially since he abused it so badly in TDK. (After all, I didn't say he invented the damn technique, just that he used it---like a crutch.) Finally, while I can very much relate to your looking back with longing to the days of The French Connection and Bullitt, let's not forget that Bullitt has a notoriously weak script----so much so that, arguably, if it weren't for the justly famous chase sequence the film would probably be semi-forgotten today.

Reeves is an interesting case (or a sad one.) He came close to attaining real stardom several times (before the Superman TV role typed him) and in each case a bad stroke of luck snatched it from him. Then along came From Here To Eternity but his role was edited down to almost nothing because preview audiences laughed with recognition whenever they saw "Superman" on the screen. Eternity could have been his big break, but it came post-Superman so it couldn't help him.

Well well; I see that Larry Kart contributed an insightful comment about TDK on the Dave Kehr site. He also singled out the revolving camera gimmick (he referred to it as "circle the principals" camera work) for negative criticism. I knew I must not be the ONLY one on the planet who both consciously noticed that technique and found it disappointing and annoying in the extreme. Thanks for that, Larry.

One of the best overrated films of all time.

The War Game by Peter Watkins.

My favorite Cannonball album with Feldman on it is The Cannonball Adderley Quintet Plus. But I've never heard Feldman be anything less than excellent.

Never heard of the film, Chris, but it sounds very interesting.

Electronic Project for Musicians---The Apples In Stereo (it's got "Stephen, Stephen" on it.)

And, of course, there's that old crowd-pleaser, Eraserhead (1977).

Conjuration: Fat Tuesday's Session (live, Aug. 19 & 20th, 1983) Urban Dreams (1981) The Master The latter is a Camdan/BMG 2-CD set of three albums: Reflectory (1978), Generations (1985), and The Master (1980.) All of the above albums I would personally rate in the very good to excellent categories.

Very sad to read about this terrible news. I hope things work out for everyone.

I read somewhere that the director of In Cold Blood really fought to have it filmed in B&W, which the studio was very much against. Got to hand it to him. Still, admirable as it is in many ways, I somehow find it a hard film to like, and impossible to love. The Elephant Man (1980) is another B&W island in the color ocean.

Good point.

Serves them right, the dumb fucks.

Ha! I THOUGHT I'd heard that somewhere before!

"Since color became available"? Color has been "available" since the 1930's...so what are we talking about here? "The color era"? What is this? Color movies became common in Hollywood in the 1950's. But then there was a brief period of producing prestige pictures in B&W in the first half of the 1960's because they figured the films would look better on TV (which was then overwhelmingly B&W) because Hollywood had finally admitted that the TV aftermarket was where it's bread was buttered. When TV programs started being shot and broadcast in color, in the mid-60's, Hollywood dropped B&W like a hot potato and never looked back. Nevertheless.... The Third Man, The Seven Samurai, Children of Paradise, Trouble In Paradise, Ikiru, My Man Godfrey, His Girl Friday, The Maltese Falcon, Mr. Hulot's Holiday, Grand Illusion, Notorious, The Lady Vanishes, It Happened One Night, Out of the Past, Force of Evil, Laura, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, The Sweet Smell of Success, The Ox-Bow Incident, Crime Wave, etc. etc. etc..........................................(many more)............