In the opening moments of Lawrence of Arabia, Peter O’Toole‘s T.E. Lawrence extinguishes a lit match with the tips of his fingers. When a friend, William Potter, does the same he cries out, “Awww, it damn well hurts!” “Certainly it hurts,” says Lawrence. “So what’s the trick then?” Lawrence: “The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.” The point is that Lawrence is eccentric but also an interesting man of unusual character. The same story is told to Robert Redford‘s Bob Woodward by Hal Holbrook‘s “Deep Throat” in All The President’s Men, except this time the extinguisher was Gordon Liddy. The CREEP operative performed the stunt at a party, says Holbrook, and then gave the same answer when people asked if it hurt. But this time the point was that Liddy was an unsavory wackjob. Everything is context.

For another example, consider the segment in Woody Allen‘s Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (’72) in which Gene Wilder, a doctor, falls in love with a sheep named Daisy. A good chuckle in that context, but consider another after the jump.

In an 11.14 interview with The Hollywood Reporter‘s Carolyn Giardina, Interstellar director Chris Nolan has essentially said “too bad but that’s the way it is” to those who’ve complained about not being able to hear Interstellar dialogue as clearly as they wanted to. Because it was very carefully and deliberately mixed that way, says Nolan, and viewers should, you know, try to get with the program.

Nolan quote #1: “I’ve always loved films that approach sound in an impressionistic way and that is an unusual approach for a mainstream blockbuster, but I feel it’s the right approach for this experiential film.” Nolan quote #2: “I don’t agree with the idea that you can only achieve clarity through dialogue. Clarity of story, clarity of emotions — I try to achieve that in a very layered way using all the different things at my disposal, picture and sound.” Nolan quote #3: “Broadly, speaking there is no question when you mix a film in an unconventional way as this, you’re bound to catch some people off guard, but hopefully people can appreciate the experience for what it’s intended to be.”

My view of Ava DuVernay‘s Selma (i.e., a respectable mid-range historical drama but too slow and a bit too self-regarding) is, I recognize, a minority opinion. TheWrap critic James Rocchi recently called it “perhaps the best” American film of the year. Sure enough, the recently posted Gurus of Gold Best Picture chart shows Selma is now in the Best Picture conversation, but not all that strongly with a sixth-place ranking. Who are the friends, fence-sitters and not-so-friendlies regarding this Paramount release? Well, so far Selma‘s Guru heat is really all about three people — Awards Daily‘s Sasha Stone, Variety‘s Tim Gray and Rogertebert.com and USA Today contributor Susan Wloszczyna, who’ve given Selma their #2, #3 and #4 rankings, respectively.

Remove these three from the equation and Selma is coping with six less-than-ardent handicappers. Fandango‘s Dave Karger, known for his safe, middle-of-the-road, conservative-default predictions, has Selma ranked at #11 — not a good sign. MCN’s David Poland and critic Thelma Adams have it ranked in twelfth place, and Indiewire‘s Anne Thompson, almost never an outlier, has it ranked as a #10. TheWrap‘s Steve Pond, a moderate fellow and almost an unofficial spokesperson for soft, slouchy, conservative-minded Academy members who are always on the proverbial hunt for “the one,” has it ranked in ninth place, and L.A. Times critic/reporter Mark Olsen has it in eighth place. Note: “The Gurus re-voted on Best Picture only after the screenings of Selma and American Sniper on Tuesday, 11/11/14. Five Gurus chose not to offer a re-vote: Hammond, Olsen, Pond, and Whipp.”

I’d been telling myself all along that the first reactions to Angelina Jolie‘s Unbroken would be posted after the 11.30 WGA screening and certainly after the 12.1 press screening at the Arclight. But no — the very first reviews will pop two days from now (around L.A.’s lunch hour on Monday, 11.17) following the Australian premiere of Angelina Jolie‘s Unbroken on Monday evening, 11.17, at Sydney’s legendary State Theatre. This special benefit showing is a gesture of thanks for the generous financial assistance (as much as $20 million, I’m told) given to the Unbroken production team by the Australian government. Which is well and good, but when’s the last time a major Best Picture contender (it’s the #1 Best Picture pic by Fandango’s Dave Karger on the latest Gurus of Gold chart) had its big world premiere overseas? The view on Universal’s end, I gather, is that nobody is “hiding” Unbroken (as MCN’s David Poland suggested this morning), and that maybe I should wait and see the film first.

Rand Paul is the only interesting, half-tolerable Republican out there because he’s (a) not crazy, (b) essentially a Libertarian and not so much in the corporate pocket and (b) clearly more open to independent thought than Mitt Romney was or ever will be, or any of the other likely Republican suspects. His views on individual liberties and the general interventionist trend in U.S. foreign policy have a certain integrity. He’s clearly not a knee-jerk corporate whore in the typical Republican sense of that term. I’m not saying I’d vote for Paul if he wins the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination, but Paul vs. Clinton (or better yet, Paul vs. Warren) would make an exciting, possibly more thoughtful race than usual.

MTV.com’s Josh Horowitz has always been a mensch in my book, but if I were a big celebrity I’d be terrified at the prospect of being interviewed by him. He always ushers in some level of embarrassment. Cumberbatch does moderately well with his Sean Connery and Owen Wilson impressions and he obviously nails Michael Caine, but the rest are iffy at best. He’s doing his best but I feel for the guy.

You’ll notice the fuck-all tone in Ben Affleck‘s acceptance speech on behalf of Gone Girl at last night’s Hollywood Film Awards ceremony. Anytime a honoree uses the word “urinal” in his acceptance speech, you know he’s not exactly seized by the loftiness of the moment. On this, the first broadcast of the HFA Awards (which incidentally scored low ratings), everyone, it seemed, was either fooling around, vaguely embarrassed to be there or just biting their tongue and going along with the charade. In short, the HFA is now the new lowman on the televised awards-show totem pole, and the equation that used to be owned by the Golden Globe awards (i.e, vague feelings of humiliation and abasement = funnier jokes, a lighter and boozier mood) is now owned by the HFA. I don’t know how or by what procedure David Fincher‘s brilliant zeitgeist-encompassing melodrama was given the equivalent of the HFA’s Best Picture award, but I’m glad it’s gotten this kind of attention, even from “the Hollywood Film-Flam Awards,” in the view of MCN’s David Poland. There’s no denying GG is at or near the top of the heap, like I’ve been saying all along.