This was the very first video sent to me by Tatiana during her Mexico-and-Cuba trip. It’s still my favorite. I’d really like to go there. Buena Vista Social Club, etc.
Day: January 5, 2023
You Little Weeny Bitch
Having scored an early copy of Prince Harry’s “Spare” (Random House, 1.10), The Guardian‘s Martin Pengelly has posted a tale about Harry’s elder brother, Prince William, knocking him to the floor during verbal fisticuffs over Harry’s marriage to Meghan Markle.
Brothers are allowed to slap each other around if they want to, and nobody should have anything to say about it. It’s between them.
I should add, however, that while I’ve never had any feelings or opinions about William up until now, reading that he bashed chickenshit Harry fills me with (I’m perfectly serious) newfound respect.
Harry has written that following the slapdown, his first telephone call was to his therapist. What a pathetic candy-ass! His therapist!
Average Joes Don’t Much Care
Friendo: “On Tuesday, 1.3, five ostensible Oscar contenders — Babylon, Empire of Light, The Banshees of Inisherin, Women Talking and Tar — made about $730,000 on 1,575 screens. Averaging three showings per day (or should I say four?), that’s about 10 people per showing, which just about matches my personal experience.
“Based on total box office, these films have collectively drawn about four million ticket buyers since their release. One presumes that very few righties are paying to see these films. Using the Biden vote total of 80 million as a yardstick, it’s obvious that lefties are not patronizing them either. Not really.
“Traditional liberal adults simply aren’t going to see these things. Not to any appreciable degree. Even wokesters aren’t. The filmmakers may be liberal and their films may also qualify, but even if every ticket buyer to these films was a leftie, the under-attendance factor (to put it mildly) would still be there.
“Everything Everywhere All At Once ($70 million domestic, $100,814,600 worldwide) has only been seen by about five million U.S. adult residents, of which there are over two hundred million (209,128.094) in the US. That’s roughly four per cent of the adult population. Okay, 4.5%.
“Even if they are all libs, that is a tiny percentage of them. If Hollywood made movies that actually appealed to the Average Joes and Janes, they could make piles of cash. But their prestige films are barely attracting anyone.”
Love From Older Dude Perspective
Purely from memory, but my memory’s pretty good when it comes to Paddy Chayefsky….a post-coital scene between the late Diana Rigg and the late George C. Scott, from Chayefsky and Arthur Hiller‘s The Hospital (’71):
Rigg: “I love you, Herb, and want to marry you and have children. And of course, you love me. I mean, you ravaged me three times.”
Scott: “Three times?”
Rigg: “You were as puffed up as a toad about it. Punched a slight hole in your crusade for universal impotence, didn’t it?”
Scott: “Diana, I raped you last night in a suicidal rage. Where did we get love and children out of that?”
Rigg: “For heaven’s sake, Herb. I ought to know whether a man loves me or not. Last night you screamed it, bellowed it, shouted it from an open window.”
Scott: “Well, I think those were more feelings of gratitude than anything else.”
Rigg: “Gratitude for what?”
Scott: “Well, my God, for resurrecting feelings of life inside me that I thought dead!”
Rigg: “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Herb…what do you think love is?”
Scott: “All right, I love you! I’m not about to argue with so relentless a romantic.”
Instant Fanged Classic
You can never trust trailers but my God, the new Renfield trailer looks magnificent! Could the film itself be as good? Could this be the definitive vampire comedy that will unseat Love at First Bite and present one of Nicolas Cage‘s greatest-all-time performances?
If the film turns out as good as the trailer I’m seriously in favor of Cage being Oscar-nominated for Best Actor…trhe campaign would become a career tribute thing, and he could win. Look at him, for God’s sake! Listen to that enunciation! The crescendo of his career!
Directed by Chris McKay and written by Ryan Ridley (based on an story by Robert Kirkman), Renfield is about a toxic, dysfunctional relationship between Renfield, the apprentice vampire played by Dwight Frye in Tod Browning‘s original 1931 Dracula and played in Renfield by Nicholas Hoult. Awkwafina plays Renfield’s traffic-cop girlfriend.
Universal will open Renfield on 4.14.23. Possibly the first excellent film of 2023!
Original “Duel” For Easy Viewing
Duel, the made-for-TV thriller that launched Steven Spielberg’s career, originally aired on 11.13.71. The original length was 74 minutes.
To the best of my knowledge the original TV version hasn’t been in circulation, if ever. The Duel Bluray contains only the extended 90-minute version that was assembled for theatrical release in Europe and Australia. Here are two links for the original version, in two sizes — 74 minute version #1 (3.7 GB) and 74 minute version #2 (700.9 MB).
Filming happened in a desert region northeast of Los Angeles (Sierra Highway, Agua Dulce Canyon Road, Soledad Canyon Road, Angeles Forest Highway). Principal photography took 13 days (three longer than the scheduled), leaving 10 days for editing prior to broadcast as the ABC Movie of the Week.
The positiveresponse was such that Universal decided to release Duel theatrically in Europe and Australia. Wiki excerpt: “The TV movie, however, wasn’t long enough for theatrical release, so Universal had Spielberg spend two days filming several new scenes, turning Duel into a 90-minute film.
The 90-minute Duel Bluray was released on 10.14.14, as part of the eight-film box set Steven Spielberg Director’s Collection. It was also released as a separate Bluray on 5.5.15.
