108 minute running time. Dumb story, must have been a stage play (it was). I love Audrey Hepburn, even old blind Audrey, but this was a dud. John Farr did me dirty by recommending it.
Would you hold my doll, please?
Sweet Songs and Empty Tummies
“In the end, it all goes back to Aesop, who in 600 B.C. said that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and when we buy Amazon we try to figure out whether there’s three or four or five in the bush, and how long it will take to get to the bush, how certain are we going to get to the bush, and who else is going to come and take the bush away.”
The original:
Luscinia, ab accipitre famelico comprehensa, cum se ab eo devorandam intellegeret, blande eum rogabat ut se dimitteret, pollicita pro tanto beneficio ingentem mercedem sese relaturam. Cum autem accipiter eam interrogaret quid gratiae sibi referre posset, “Aures,” inquit, “tuas mellifluis cantibus demulcebo.” “At ego,” inquit accipiter, “malo mihi ventrem demulceas. Sine tuis enim cantibus vivere; sine cibo non possum.”
Movies Watched -- Charley Varrick (1973)
110 minute running time so about ten minutes too long … clearly inspired the Coen Brothers’ when making No Country For Old Men and mad genius Tarantino’s “getting medieval on his ass” … Walter Matthau the least sexy man in the world, but I guess they had fun with that … Joe Don Baker plays a good psychopath, slapping the ladies and telling them “he don’t sleep with whores, at least not knowingly.” It wasn’t a terrible movie, in many ways it was good, but I’m not going to put it on my Top 500 list or give it a green-go rating. There’s a rare anti-Semitic jibe where Norman Fell is called a “bright little bagel snapper.” John Farr liked it and I must have gotten the reco from him.
He says his name is Sally.
AIDS Alarmism
From Michael Fumento’s interview on Booknotes:
“… your average white, heterosexual, middle-class person … their chance of getting AIDS is actually lower than their chance of either being struck by lightning or drowning in a bathtub … your typical heterosexual AIDS victim … is a black or Hispanic female who's living in the New York-New Jersey area whose steady sexual partner--we're not talking promiscuity here--steady sexual partner is an intravenous drug abuser. And for these women, they probably have a better chance of dying of AIDS than anything else … I think we're being horribly cruel when we pretend that we're all at equal risk. You're lying to people or deceiving them at any rate, and I think at the margin, people will die because we're giving them this false, `everybody's going to get it,' or `everybody's at risk' message.”
I remember I had to take an HIV test in 1988 to get a visa to study abroad in China, and the dumb woman doctor who got the test result back said, “take a look at the result here on this paper,” which sort of alarmed me (of course I was negative), but I realize now that she was caught up in the whole AIDS hysteria at the time.
Movies Watched -- Tully (2018)
95 minute running time … I loved this one … Charlize Theron is a special woman (born in 1975 so she’s a tail-end Xer). She’s beautiful and smart and chooses to participate in really good, interesting movies. I don’t know why this movie was in my queue (obviously not a John Farr reco since it deals with a heterosexual woman and motherhood and mental health), but I’m glad it was! Green-go, highly recommended, I haven’t seen many movies from 2018, but this would obviously make my top 10 list for that year.
I see now that the director (born in 1977) directed “Up in the Air,” which I hated, and the writer (born in 1978) wrote “Juno,” which I also hated. But they made a winner here, probably due to Charlize’s input. (Ah, they also made “Young Adult,” which I loved.)
Rex didn’t like it, but of course he’s gay. (I still love Rex: “I kept wishing Marlo would dump her deplorable life and marry Tully.“)
… he’s ruining it for all the other kids in the class who are reading like, The Iliad or whatever?
Movies Watched -- All That Jazz (1979)
123 minute running time so 20 to 30 minutes too long, but this was an unusual movie, very interesting in parts … if it were edited, which would be easy because it’s just a series of set pieces, and ran 90 to 100 minutes, I would give it a green rating, Top 500 movie for sure … a fan edit of it is called for … anyone in show business will love it despite the length. Been awhile since I’ve seen a movie as unusual as this one, but not unusual in a bad way. I think it inspired the creators of The Singing Detective TV series, which I loved. Anyway, I’d do a fan edit of it if I had the technical skills.
There’s no people like show people
Autumn Leaves of Red and Gold
Skip to 0:29 … I like this cover of ‘Autumn Leaves’ sung at Anthony Benedetto’s 90th birthday party … Leslie used the Johnny Mercer lyrics:
Stock Du Jour Master List -- May 2020
Movies Watched -- The Razor's Edge (1946)
146 minute running time so at least 46 minutes too long, which is way way way too long to bear … also my disc didn’t have subtitles so I couldn’t fast forward effectively. Starred Tyrone Power and his hair gel and Gene Tierney and her overbite. Soul searching on $3,000 a year ($45K equivalent today), plenty to bum around Nepal for a few years. John Farr called this a gem, but it’s way too long and too contrived to get my nod.
I've got a foolish notion I want to do more with my life than just sell bonds.
Movies Watched -- Repulsion (1965)
105 minute running time but felt much longer … Catherine Deneuve is a pretty blonde girl with mental health problems … she’s crackers, or cracking up, like her apartment, having visions of being raped and is almost actually raped (this is creepy Roman Polanski’s work after all), carrying around rabbit heads in her purse, etc. … she eventually becomes homicidal … these madness movies aren’t terrible, but it’s tough to sit through nearly two hours of this stuff. John Farr recommended this, but I sure as heck wouldn’t.
Flamin’ nut house!