Late yesterday Paul Schrader (The Card Counter, First Reformed) ranted against an imagined (or real?) Elia Kazan cancel culture campaign. But even in his defense of the legendary helmer of East of Eden, On The Waterfront, Wild River, Via Zapata and A Streetcar Named Desire, Schrader passed along a misunderstanding that needs clarifying.

I’ve always understood (partly based on a 2005 Kazan bio by Richard Schickel) that Kazan didn’t “name” names but confirmed them. Specifically, according to Janet Maslin‘s 11.14.05 review of Schickel’s book, Kazan “gave names that were already known to the committee, [and] two individuals [who] were dead anyway.”

Some may argue that “confirming” and “naming” belong in the same ignoble bin, but the difference is worth noting

Amy Ferris‘s reply to Schrader is wonderful. It not only captured the Kazan contradictions but the contradictions that apply to just about every creative person on the planet — past, present and future.

Consider an excerpt from an August 2018 HE post (“Kazan Trip“):

“Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones‘ A Letter To Elia (’10) is a delicate and beautiful little poem. It’s a personal tribute to a director who made four films — On The Waterfront, East of Eden, Wild River and America America — that went right into Scorsese’s young bloodstream and swirled around inside for decades after. Scorcese came to regard Kazan as a father figure, he says in the doc. And after watching you understand why.

“Letter is a deeply touching film because it’s so close to the emotional bone. The sections that take you through the extra-affecting portions of Waterfront and Eden got me and held me like a great sermon. It’s like a church service, this film. It’s pure religion.

Julia Marchese has a “friend” who’s “never seen a classic black and white film before”? And she wants suggestions about what b&w classics she could show this person, who’s almost certainly a Millennial or a Zoomer? First, make sure that the film is an HD or Bluray-quality presentation. And second, show him/her Out of the Past, The Train, Cold War, Dr. Strangelove, High Noon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, On The Waterfront, Schindler’s List, Manhattan, Stardust Memories or The Hustler.

On second thought forget the whole idea. Anyone who’s reached the ripe old age of 22, 26 or 30 without having watched a single black-and-white film has probably avoided a lot of other things that might expand their vistas (books, plays, museums, travel, peyote buttons). I would guess, in fact, that they’re almost certainly lacking in basic curiosity about God knows how many other aspects of life on planet earth.

In short, their future is mapped out. They can’t be helped. They’ll never attain enlightenment. They’re a lost cause.

I suffered through George Miller‘s The Witches of Eastwick (’87) once, and that was enough. Talk about an empty, vulgar, over-budgeted, effects-driven hodgepodge…wow. Sloppy, coarse, deeply unfunny. Candy-colored Vilmos Zsigmond cinematography, pink balloons, huge yellow tennis balls, etc. Jack Nicholson was on the ample, over-fed side during filming. I remember a woman agent complaining that he looked like “a moose,” and that it wasn’t good that he had bigger boobs than costars Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon. John Updike‘s “The Witches of Eastwick” (’84) was a different, darker kettle of fish. I’ve never even considered re-watching it on Amazon.

Beware of the “safeties,” or anyone who uses the term “I need to feel safe.” They are truly people to be feared. Because recent history has shown us that anyone who says “I need to feel safe” is often ready and willing to slit your digital throat if they’ve decided that something you’ve said or written has made them feel unsafe.

Make no mistake — these people are ready to bring death to attain the right kind of fulfillment.

Life in the big, bad world is generally an uncertain environment in terms of absolute feelings of security. There are all kinds of monsters and bugaboos ready to hurt you or steal your money or poison your food or get you fired from your job. Feelings of safety come and go, for the most part. I feel safe at midnight when I lock the door and turn out the lights, but when I go on twitter I feel like a deer in a forest filled with lions, tigers and bears.

The plug has officially been pulled on Telluride ‘20. I had suspected as much but now it’s fact.

It’s basically the fault of Trump and all those red-state governors who insisted on premature re-openings starting in late April, as well as the millions of young, reckless and entitled who need to party. Infection rates are flat or dropping across the globe but not here. Because rugged individualist Americans need their freedom. This country is a pathetic joke.

The Mountainside Inn, the poor man’s lodging choice for the Telluride Film Festival, wanted to hold onto my money (almost $1700) and roll my reservation forward to 2021. I told them “no thanks” although I would like to reserve for next year. The guy didn’t like hearing this and hung up rather abruptly (“Okay, thanks very much, bye!”) without assuring me that he’d send a cancellation confirmation to my email address.

Last week he told me that in the event of a cancellation they’ll be keeping a handling fee of 8%, or roughly $136.00. Dick move.

Telluride statement that HE 100% agrees with: “We understand that film festivals and their long-term health are not top of mind today. A safe vaccine, vital medical interventions for those sick and properly enforced health regulations are. However, we do ask that you take this moment to consider a world where gathering around a shared love of culture is no longer possible and what that means for the psychological condition of the world. If the prospect prompts a sense of despair, please advocate and champion the return of our gatherings that provide vital nourishment and oxygen to humanity’s soul, at the appropriate time, of course!”

Bari Weiss, the left-centrist, anti-left-extremist staff writer for the New York Times’ opinion section, has resigned over the general atmosphere of wokester bullying by the radical Marxist BLM absolutists (i.e., the 1619 crowd). Please read her resignation letter, but the gist is that she’s found the climate of leftist doctrinaire intolerance at the Times to be intolerable.

Over and over Weiss had been accused of wrongthink by the African American vanguard and their ardent white-guilt allies of being too centrist and measured and occasionally contrarian in a revolutionary era dedicated to overhauling conventional liberalism and quashing half-measure doctrines once and for all.

Excerpt from Weiss’ resignation letter:

In an era in which “offense-taking has been weaponized and a route to political power,” as Weiss noted a couple of years ago, her ultra-left enemies at the Times beat her over and over with their condemnation sticks (“We don’t feel safe with people like you around”), and Weiss finally couldn’t take it any more. The “safeties” made her feel unsafe.

Just as ardent #MeToo wokesters have accepted the idea that a few relatively innocent men might have to be destroyed in order to overthrow the patriarchy, revolution-minded BLM wokesters feel that severe measures (including intolerance directed at people like Weiss) are justified during a unique historical moment in which institutional and everyday racism is being shouted down and beaten into some kind of submission.

“Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times, but Twitter has become its ultimate editor,” Weiss said in a resignation letter addressed to publisher A.G. Sulzberger earlier today. “Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative.”

Ahhh, the narcissism of small differences! What kind of a rancid, punitive atmosphere has manifested inside the paper of record? Weiss’s resignation offers a clear snapshot.

Yes, another period drama that explores the dispute between proponents of alternating vs. direct current.

The coming of Michael Almereyda‘s Tesla (IFC Films, 8.21) reminds me that I never saw the director’s cut version of Alfonso Gomez-Rejon‘s The Current War. I admired and half-liked the original War when I caught it at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival.

Especially the Cinerama-like cinematography by Chung-hoon Chung.

With Ethan Hawke playing the titular role, Tesla costars Eve Hewson, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Jim Gaffigan and Kyle MacLachlan.

Tesla‘s Rotten Tomatoes rating is 92% while The Current War is rocking a 60% score.

I visited the Nikola Tesla museum in Budapest four years ago.

Earlier today in a segment about surging COVID infections, CNN’s Brianna Keilar disputed Donald Trump‘s claim that the pandemic infections only seems to be getting worse because of increased testing. But not in the usual way. Keilar called Trump’s rationale “total crap.” I adore the fact that CNN management is comfortable with a news anchor addressing the usual lies and distortions in such a manner. Blunt, salty language…no beating around the bush. Here’s the mp3.

The Keiler quip starts around the 38 second mark:

Telluride News associate editor Suzanne Cheavens has reported about a July 9th meeting of the San Miguel Board of County Commissioners, which was mostly concerned with COVID-19 issues. It’s a fairly humdrum story, but then paragraph #13 comes along and suddenly you can feel the energy.

Cheavens writes that the “word” among Telluride officials is that the school district has declined to allow the 2020 Telluride Film Festival (if it actually happens) to use school facilities for screenings. That means that the Palm and Galaxy theatres will be off-limits during the Labor Day gathering.

Cheavans excerpt: “I have more questions and concerns that I have broached with [festival organizers],” said county public health director Grace Franklin. “The schools determined it’s not safe to be operating in any of those venues. It’s off the table.”

I’ve also been told (but have not heard directly) that the Werner Herzog theatre, the largest and grandest of all Telluride venues, may also be off-limits due to health concerns.

I had understood that Telluride’s Town Council would meet and make some important decisions about TFF on Wednesday, July 15th. But Telluride blogger Michael Patterson (“Michael’s Telluride Film Blog“) says this “doesn’t appear” to be correct. The Parks Committee “does have a meeting scheduled in Telluride on 7.15,” he says, “but the Town Council will not meet until Tuesday, 7.21.”

Take it with a grain.

This morning Farren Nehme (@selfstyledsiren) posted a portion of this Lee Remick interview. It was to promote Mistral’s Daughter, a 1984 TV miniseries. The Nebraska-based interviewer (KOLN/KGIN-TV) asks horrific questions while exuding a revoltingly unctuous manner. Why did they cast you and Jack Lemmon for Days of Wine and Roses instead of Piper Laurie and Cliff Robertson, who did an excellent job in the TV version? Elia Kazan‘s Wild River was a flop. With Richard Burton dead, do you think his excessive drinking was a factor?

Spike Lee‘s Da 5 Bloods (Netflix) is the top vote-getter in a Best of 2020 critics poll from World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy. Lee’s memory-filled Vietnam drama edged out Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always and Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man in second and third place.

Was the nation’s recent cultural and political uprising (George Floyd protests, Black Lives Matter, a repressive response on Donald Trump‘s part) a factor in critics supporting Lee’s film, especially given Lee’s artful, montage-like editing that blends past and present turmoils? That’s my suspicion but you tell me.

Da 5 Bloods has a 92% Rotten Tomatoes rating compared to a 53% audience score. The film has a 6.6 rating on the IMDB.

Over 100 “film critics, journalists, bloggers and entertainment reporters” participated in the World of Reel poll. Lee’s war film tallied 48 votes, Never Rarely Sometimes Always got 42 votes, and The Invisible Man earned 37.

The other favorites are Bad Education (#4, 30 votes), The Assistant (#5, 30 votes), First Cow (#6, 30 votes), Bacurau (#7, 29 votes), The Vast of Night (#8, 26), Shirley (#9, 25 votes), Emma (#10, 16 votes), Vitalina Varela (#11, 11 votes), Beanpole (#12, 11 votes) and The King of Staten Island (#13, 11 votes)

Here’s a poll-focused discussion between Jordan and myself, recorded yesterday morning.

“HE’s Best of 2020 So Fqr” (posted on 7.9.20): Roman Polanski‘s J’Accuse (aka An Officer and a Spy), Judd Apatow and Pete Davidson‘s The King of Staten Island, Ladj Ly‘s Les Miserables, Rod Lurie‘s The Outpost, Diao Yinan‘s The Wild Goose Lake, Cory Finley and Mike Makowski‘s Bad Education, Gavin O’Connor and Ben Affleck‘s The Way Back, Spike Lee‘s Da 5 Bloods, Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Ken Loach‘s Sorry We Missed You, Leigh Whannell‘s The Invisible Man, Kelly Reichardt‘s First Cow.

Last March I wrote that J’Accuse, which may never be released here due to #MeToo and #TimesUp but which I finally saw that month, “has been crafted with absolute surgical genius…a lucid and exacting and spot-on retelling of an infamous episode of racial prejudice…a sublime atmospheric and textural recapturing of 1890s ‘belle epoque’ Paris, and such a meticulous, hugely engrossing reconstruction of the Dreyfus affair…a tale told lucidly…clue by clue, layer by layer. Pretty much a perfect film.”

Again, the mp3.