Lina Wertmuller’s “All Screwed Up”

I have to be honest: When I read earlier today about Amber Heard’s alleged personality disorders, I immediately wondered if I suffer from any such maladies. Or if some of the HE regulars do. I don’t think I have any debilitating personality issues, but I had to look in the mirror and ask myself “well…do you?”

Guardian story: Shannon Curry, an expert in intimate partner violence, testified that her evaluation of Amber Heard revealed two psychiatric diagnoses –– (a) borderline personality disorder and (b) histrionic personality disorder.

“Curry said that Heard, 36, displayed a “reactive”, “overly dramatic presentation” and used words like “magical” and “wonderful” to describe events. Heard, she said, flitted between “princess and victim”.

“As sophisticated, “cute and girlish” as such people may present, Curry said, they “may in reality be very destructive”, “dramatic, erratic and unpredictable” and possessed of an “underlying drive to not be abandoned but also to be [the] center of attention”.

“Curry said borderline personality disorder represented an unstable personality, alert to rejection, with little access to self-regulation and marked by “a lot of anger, cruelty toward people less powerful, concerned with image, attention-seeking and prone to externalizing blame, a lot of suppressed anger that may explode outwards”.

“Northing To Be Done”

A 4K Ultra HD Bluray of a newly restored version of George StevensGiant (’56) pops on 6.21. I wasn’t able to attend the screening of this version during last weekend’s TCM Classic Film Festival, but it’ll probably look better (I’m hoping) than the dreaded 2013 Bluray version, which looked awful.

The 4K Bluray release has been sourced “from a new 4K restoration completed by Warner Bros. with the cooperation of The Film Foundation.

“It was completed sourcing both the original camera negatives and protection RGB separation master positives for the best possible image, and color corrected in high dynamic range for the latest picture display technology. The audio was sourced primarily from a 1995 protection copy of the Original Magnetic Mono soundtrack. The picture and audio restoration was completed by Warner Bros. Post Production Creative Services: Motion Picture Imaging and Post Production Sound.”

I’m naturally looking forward to the new disc, but keep in mind what blue-chip restoration guru Robert Harris said about the original Giant elements on 10.27.13 on Home Theatre Forum:

“Rust” Trauma Rewind

All I know is that if I was handed a “cold” gun for a scene that I’d be performing in, I would say to the armorer “are you 110% certain that this gun is cold?” After he/she confirms that it’s cold, I would then take the gun outside and fire it into the ground, just to make double sure. If the gun shoots a bullet, I’d know the armorer is an unreliable, unprofessional fool. If the gun shoots a blank, I’d know it’s safe and cool and there’d be no harm done.

Sit Your Asses Down

The View‘s Sunny Hostin on Elon Musk‘s Twitter takeover: “When Elon Musk says this is about free speech, [he seems to be saying] that this is about the free speech of straight white men.”

Are you listening to this? Hostin is more or less saying that free speech for straight white men shouldn’t be a concern because we’re in a revolution right now, and straight white men need to sit their asses down in the back of the bus and shut the eff up…because they need to listen and learn. The world was run by straight white men for centuries, Hostin is more or less saying, and they’ve had their chance. Now it’s time for women, LGBTQs and people of color to reshape the world into a fairer, more considerate social environment, and if straight white men don’t agree with the new woke program that’s too damn bad.

Imagine the reactions if a famous straight white guy were to complain about free speech for women, LGBTQs or people of color.

Odious, Icky Exploitation

Released just shy of 50 years ago, Michael Ritchie’s Prime Cut is primarily a diseased sexist fantasy (poor Sissy Spacek), and secondarily about conflicting gangster values — a violent standoff between a relatively urbane, moderate mannered Chicago enforcer (Lee Marvin) and a beastly, intemperate Kansas City gangster named Mary Ann (Gene Hackman).

We’re encouraged to side with Marvin, who is presented as more refined and civilized than the slovenly, low-born Hackman. But despite the pastoral Midwestern vistas, the package is too weird and perverse. I saw Prime Cut theatrically back in the day, and had an immediate urge to take a shower.