Month: April 2019

Biden Is Mr. Softee

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A Washington Post-ABC News poll says that 54% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents have no particular preference for any candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Joe Biden included.

Think about that for five or ten seconds. For months and months it’s been “Biden and Bernie in front, Biden and Bernie in front, Biden and Bernie in front” and yet — and yet! — 54% of likely Democratic voters are saying “no one in particular” when asked to name a candidate they currently support.

This means that support for Biden is soft. It means the majority is still sniffing around and kicking the tires with no strong passion for anyone.

On the other hand there’s a new Emerson poll stating that Biden is doing best against Trump in Texas, with Beto O’Rourke polling nearly as well.

Until yesterday I hadn’t realized that Kamala Harris is only 5′ 2″. I’m sorry but that changes things slightly. Hillary Clinton (5’4″ or 5’5″) appeared to be fairly short in her debates with the 6’2″ Trump, but Kamala is two inches shorter. That’s visually worrisome.

Beto O’Rourke is obviously going through a rough patch, but he’s the only front-polling Democratic candidate who is clearly taller than Orange Cheeto. He’s got him by two if not three inches. Don’t kid yourself: One of the reasons that Michael Dukakis lost to George H.W. Bush (Willie Horton and tank video aside) is that fact that next to Bush he looked like Rocky the Squirrel.

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John Singleton Sadness

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1:15 pm update: Variety‘s Cynthia Littleton is reporting that director John Singleton has died after being taken off life support.

Earlier: 12 days after suffering a stroke and then slipping into a coma, Boyz in the Hood director and TV producer John Singleton, 51, has apparently come to the end of the road. It was announced this morning that he’ll be taken off life support. Which probably means what it seems to mean.

The 23 year-old Singleton hit the mother lode in mid-1991 with the release of Boyz In The Hood, a first-rate South Central drama costarring Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut, Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long, Regina King and Angela Bassett. For the 64th Academy Awards Singleton was nominated for Best Director (making him the youngest to ever be so nominated) and Best Original Screenplay.

Lamentably, Boyz in the Hood remained Singleton’s only gold-standard achievement. Over the last 28 years he never matched it, much less made something better.

It was after seeing his Boyz followup, Poetic Justice (’93) with Janet Jackson in the lead, that I realized Singleton would at best be looking at an uncertain, up-and-down career. Poetic Justice was one of the worst titles ever used by anyone n the history of motion pictures, as Jackson’s character, a hairdresser with a gift for poetry, was named Justice. A friend remarked at the time that this was like Clint Eastwood‘s character in Unforgiven being named “Forgiven.”

Singleton also directed Higher Learning (’95), Baby Boy (’01), Rosewood (’97) Shaft (’00), 2 Fast 2 Furious (’03) and Four Brothers (’05).

Singleton family statement: “We are grateful to his fans, friends and colleagues for the outpouring of love and prayers during this incredibly difficult time. We want to thank all the doctors at Cedars Sinai for the impeccable care he received.”

Littleton reports that the statement also cited Singleton’s history of dealing with hypertension, or high blood pressure that places great strain on heart functions.

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Cannes Classics Intrigue Levels

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These days all Cannes Classics selections are recently restored in 4K — that’s pretty much a given. So which 2019 selections seem especially enticing?

A 4K restored version of Dennis Hopper‘s Easy Rider will be shown on the 50th anniversary of the film’s Cannes debut. HE factor: Great news about the 4K upgrade but I for one never had the slightest problem with the previous Bluray versions so I’m having trouble feeling worked up. Peter Fonda, 79, will attend the screening.

A 4K remaster of Stanley Kubrick‘s The Shining will be shown (a midnight screening) with a special introduction from Alfonso Cuaron. The 4K remastering used a new 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative. The mastering was done at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging. The color grading was done by Janet Wilson with supervision from Kubrick’s former personal assistant Leon Vitali. HE factor: Can’t get worked up over this either. The Bluray has always looked fine.

You know what would turn me on? A boxy (1.37:1) Bluray version. Remember how Kubrick was into boxy aspect ratios, and that a boxy Shining was in fact released on DVD 15 or 16 years ago (or something in that realm)?

Three restored Luis Bunuel films will be shown this year: Los Olvidados (restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at L’Immagine Ritrovata in collaboration with Fundación Televisa, Cineteca Nacional Mexico, and Filmoteca de la UNAM), Nazarín (3K Scan and 3K Digital Restoration from the original 35mm image negative, mastered in 2K for Digital Projection) and L’Âge d’or (4K restoration by la Cinemathèque française and le Centre Pompidou, using the original nitrate negative, original sound and safety elements). HE factor: I would love to watch a mint-condition L’Age d’Or.

A restored version of Lina Wertmüller‘s Seven Beauties (’75). Wertmuller, 90, will introduce with star Giancarlo Giannini in attendance. HE factor: If it all possible, I’ll be attending.

Vittorio De Sica‘s Miracle in Milan (’51) will be screened. 4K Scan and Digital Restoration from the original 35mm camera negative and a vintage dupe positive. Color grading supervised by dp Luca Bigazzi. HE factor: Later.

A 4K digital restoration of Milos Forman‘s Loves of a Blonde (’65) will be shown. Restored in partnership with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Czech Film Fund. A doc about Forman’s career, Forman vs. Forman, will also be shown. HE factor: I’ve always worshipped Loves of a Blonde. Very interested.

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Witness to “Apocalypse Now: Final Cut”

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HE correspondent Mark Smith has forwarded impressions of the Tribeca Film Festival’s screening of Francis Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now: Final Cut, which was shown this evening at Manhattan’s 3000-seat Beacon Theatre:

“From what I could tell, there is NO NEW FOOTAGE of anything.

“The French Plantation scene is IN — since I’ve only seen Redux once, I’m not sure if it was trimmed down, but it felt like 23 minutes (23 months, if you ask me) so I’m assuming it’s the same now as it was in Redux.

“Let’s Stop and Fuck Some Playmates is OUT…gone. Kurtz Reads Time Magazine is OUT. The extra bits with Duvall’s Kilgore are all IN, including the scene where he’s flying over Willard and the crew, them asking for his surfboard back. So as far as I can tell, Apocalypse Now: Final Cut = Redux minus Let’s Stop and Fuck Some Playmates minus Kurtz Reads Time Magazine.

“Picture quality-wise it looks terrific. The screen was huge, and the colors and contrast levels looked great. Whatever was done to the visuals to prepare it for this premiere (4K hyper-digital blah blah) didn’t strike me as a monumental change, but it looked FANTASTIC — make no mistake.


“Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s visionary Vietnam War epic when the newly restored Apocalypse Now: Final Cut arrives on 4K Ultra H Combo Pack (4K disc, plus three Blu-ray discs and Digital copy) and on Digital 4K Ultra HD for the first time ever on August 27 from Lionsgate. A special NAGRA myCinema theatrical release of Apocalypse Now: Final Cut can be experienced on the giant screen in select theaters nationwide on August 15.”

“What REALLY leaps off the screen is how otherworldly and exquisite Vittorio Storaro’s photography is. For me this is one of the ten best-photographed movies ever, and seeing a pristine version on a massive screen was an absolute joy.

“As for the sound, I was hoping that the Wagner helicopter attack would blow my kidneys out my ass, and I was not disappointed. Whatever system they set up there was fucking galactic. It was the loudest viewing experience I’ve ever had that wasn’t a rock concert. The bass SHOOK the joint. The sound was the big star of the night for me. Triple A-Plus.

“Coppola brought Duvall out before the screening began, and before they exited the spotlight Duvall bellowed “Charlie don’t surf!” into the mike and grinned like a loon.

“Soderbergh gave props to Walter Murch, who was in the crowd. (Also saw Michael Moore walking around in his Michael Moore costume.)

“The Coppola-Soderbergh q&a will most likely be on the Tribeca Film Festival site, so I won’t try to recap it, but Coppola was lucid and gregarious. When he said he was 80, my eyebrows shot up. What I did notice was that Soderbergh, obviously in awe of the herculean effort it took to make the movie, kept bringing the conversation back to The Set. His overall fascination seemed to be, ‘How the fuck did you manage to make a work of genius under all that pressure?’

“All in all it was a grand moviegoing experience, but I still feel the French Plantation scene should go.

Sent earlier this afternoon: According to Wikipedia Redux runs 3 hours, 22 minutes. Other sources have listed Redux as 193 minutes and 197 minutes. Final Cut (as you know) is listed at 3 hours, 3 minutes.

“I pray that a good portion of French Plantation scene is cut down, but since the difference in running time between Redux and Final Cut is only 19 minutes, and French Plantation runs over 23 minutes (!), I think it’s safe to say French Plantation will be there in some form, but hopefully shorter.

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Sanders Wasn’t Name-Dropping, But Reciting Facts

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At a She The People Presidential Forum in Houston on Wednesday, 4.24, Bernie Sanders was briefly (and not all that loudly) booed for allegedly “name-dropping” the late Martin Luther King, Jr. The booing was bullshit as Sanders was simply speaking the truth.

What he said, in fact, was that he “marched” with King in the 1963 March on Washington (which is vaguely true) and that he supported Jessie Jackson‘s presidential bid in 1988 (also true). He didn’t mention that he was arrested during a civil-rights demonstration in Chicago in ’63, but that also happened.

I was a Sanders supporter in ’16 but not this time — my money’s on Mayor Pete, Beto O’Rourke or Kamala Harris. But there’s no question that the Houston audience was being callous and unfair (or simply ignorant) by booing Sanders. CNN’s Brooke Baldwin was also unfair by making a thing out of it in a recap piece.

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“Endgame” Triumph: Mixed Aftermath

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Where are the sturdy backboners and persons of perception and principle willing to speak truth to power in the wake of the financial tsunami that is Avengers: Endgame?

Who has the balls to stand up and state for the public record that while Endgame is an exceptionally satisfying package (I actually enjoyed it start to finish and even felt spiritually boosted) and that a superhero flick making $350 million domestic and $1.2 billon worldwide is quite the historic achievement, there’s also something about this surge of worldwide fervor that’s a tiny bit…sad?

I’m not going to rehash everything I’ve been saying over the years about your basic post-9/11 superhero fan psychology and whatnot, but those who are just cheering and “whoo-whoo”-ing this box-office triumph are definitely missing or ignoring the whole equation.

Sasha Stone tweet: “Looks like my $900 million-plus for Avengers prediction was [spot-on], though Sunday mornings for blockbusters now feel like a blood-on-the-sheets moment for our kingdom, no?”

She Came To North Bergen

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On Friday evening (4.26) Sigourney Weaver attended a performance of the world-famous North Bergen High School presentation of Alien. A 4K HD capturing of the show (including Weaver’s introduction) was posted on YouTube on Saturday, 4.27. The embed code is after the jump.

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Throwing My Life Away

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I’ve been living in the same West Hollywood pad since ’91. The influence of Tatyana has led to all kinds of cleaning and re-painting and throwing stuff out. A month ago we tossed a large glasstop desk and an adjustable up-and-down chair that I’d been using as my default workspace furniture for a good quarter-century. You wouldn’t recognize the place now. Everything, it seems, is fresh, scrubbed and clutter-free.


Ex-wife Maggie and I outside the Picasso Museum in October ’87, either just before or just after getting married at St.-Julien-le-Pauvre.

Near Omaha Beach, Normandy, France — a day or two later.

[Click through to full story on HE-plus]

Hollywood Baldspots Circa 1994

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I can’t recall if my pitch was emailed or typed-out and sent via snail-mail, but Esquire bit right away…assignment! Those were the days when it could take as long as two or three months between suggesting an article and seeing it in print. The other freelance piece [after the jump] was about private Hollywood poker games. It was either for GQ or Outside magazine; I honestly don’t remember.

Best idea I pitched that nobody wanted to run: A Playboy parody article called “The Girls of Bumblefuck.” The premise was that (a) the myth of the devastatingly attractive farmer’s daughter bailing hay in Podunk, Arkansas, was bullshit and (b) that beauty always follows wealth and power, hence the dishiest women are almost always found in big cities while women from one-horse, out-of the way trailer-park towns tend to be…well, not in the Ava Gardner or Angelina Jolie realm.

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Little Brass Cornet

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Here’s an L.A. Times Lewis Beale article about the making of Bolden (Abamorama, (5.3), a biopic about the cornetist and seminal jazz musician Buddy Bolden. Commonly regarded as the father of New Orleans jazz, Bolten’s band and more particularly his sound (“a fusion of ragtime, black sacred music, marching-band music, rural blues”) was heard in New Orleans clubs between 1900 and 1907. Bolden’s inspired run ended tragically — at age 30 he suffered an episode of acute alcoholic psychosis (i.e., drunkenness + schizophrenia) and wound up spending the rest of his life in the Louisiana State Insane Asylum in Jackson, a mental institution, where he spent the rest of his life. He died at age 54, in 1931.