You can bet that the 91-year-old Stevens, with whom I briefly conversed a decade ago and who spoke to me derisively and snobbishly, will sidestep any mention of The Great Shane Aspect Ratio Bluray Skirmish of 2013 — a conflict that happened between March and April of that year.
Many of us were appalled by the 1.66 thing — a cleavering that would have unmistakably compromised Loyal Griggs‘ original compositions. As we all recall, Warner Home Video ultimately folded and decided to issue the Shane Bluray in the original 1.37:1 aspect ratio. All’s well that ends well.
Last night I watched Nick Broomfield‘s The Stones and Brian Jones, which is basically about how Jones started the Rolling Stones 61 years ago (at age 20 he advertised for bandmates in the 5.2.62 edition of Jazz Weekly) and was the band’s “uncontested leader” until they began to move away from blues covers in ’65 due to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards beginning to write more and more of their own material.
Jones resented the dilution of the Stones’ blues cover band identity and particularly Jagger-Richards becoming more dominant figures and Jones becoming less of one.
Alas, when the druggy-mystical period of the mid to late ’60s kicked in Jones became more and more of a hostile, sullen, indifferent or undermotivated fellow and certainly a major druggie, contributing less and less to the band’s album output.
The Stones fired his scowling, resentful ass in June of ’69, and Jones drowned in his swimming pool on 7.3.69.
The Stones and Brian Jones is therefore a cautionary tale that says “adapt or die.”
Jones was fine as long as the Stones were playing Muddy Waters, Slim Harpo and Howlin’ Wolf covers, but he couldn’t or wouldn’t submit to the Jagger-Richards era. He basically sulked himself to death.
Broomfield doesn’t touch the fact that Jones was short but he was — only 5’6″, or roughly the same height as Alan Ladd and at least an inch shorter than Frank Sinatra. I once read a Jagger quote in which he called Jones “just a little guy.” Do you think he used this description because he admired his stature?
Jagger to Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner in ’95, answering whether or not he felt guilty about driving Jones to despair and apparent suicide:
“No, I don’t really. I do feel that I behaved in a very childish way, but we were very young, and in some ways we picked on him. But unfortunately, Brian made himself a target for it. He was very, very jealous, very difficult, very manipulative, and if you do that in this kind of a group of people you get back as good as you give, to be honest.
“Plus I wasn’t understanding enough about his drug addiction. No one seemed to know much about drug addiction. Things like LSD were all new. No one knew the harm. People thought cocaine was good for you.”
Broomfield’s doc (co-written by Broomfield and MarcHoeferlin) is very good and a lot of fun in its spirited recollections of the ’62 to ’65 era. Recommended viewing.
A second poll is claiming that Mumbling Joe is polling significantly behind The Beast.
Right now, Biden is polling above where Jimmy Carter was in ’79 but two points below where Trump was in ’20. Even Zoomers and Millennials are siding more with Trump….what the fuck? It’s the age thing, for God’s sake — nobody wants a doddering, slurry-voiced, neck-waddled great grandfather running the show.
If Joe hangs tough and loses to Trump, his name will be mud for generations because he will have set the stage for a tyrannical, sociopathic, anti-Democratic bully boss to reclaim power when all the indications are/were that Joe would lose. Good God, how blind can everyone be?
Given that a generic Democrat is polling ahead of Trump right now, the responsible thing would be for Joe to bail on his re-election bid and let Gavin Newsom step in.
David Poland very rarely blurts it outbut when he does, he’s great.
I reviewed THE MARVELS, which was NOT GOOD, though Iman Vellani still came out a winner. I'd never seen an episode of MS. MARVEL before so she really impressed me. As for the rest? Time for Mr. Feige to clear house, as the Parliament ain't getting it done. https://t.co/zbIWf3Qeg9
DATE: 11.8.23
FROM: Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere
TO: Caroline Ross, general manager, AMC Royale 6 in Westport, CT.
RE: Screen illumination levels
Caroline,
I’m Jeffrey Wells of www.hollywood-elsewhere.com, and I’m writing to convey concern about the screen light levels (or foot lambert levels) at the AMC Westport Royale plex, which, I’ve been told, you’re the general manager of.
I’ve been attending the Cannes Film Festival for 23 years, and when I saw Killers of the Flower Moon at the Sally Debussy last May the images were fully rendered and totally satisfactory.
When I saw Killers at the Westport Royale 6 a couple of weeks ago the images were noticably subdued, a bit muddy, murky…clearly being presented at lower-than-intended light levels. Like the sun was behind the clouds.
I had the exact same impression when I watched Priscilla there a few days ago. It was as if the story was happening inside a barely illiuminated closet or a shadowy shoebox of some kind. The images made me feel trapped. Depressed even. No one’s life has ever been this dark, not even Priscilla Presley‘s during her perverse marriage to Elvis.
In order to check this you need to own a light meter, and with this device you have to check the light levels without a movie playing — you have to check with just pure light being thrown on to a blank screen.
Do you own a proper light meter? Have you checked the light levels on all your screens? If so, what are the foot lambert readings? Do they meet SMPTE’s recommendations? I’d be greatly surprised if they’re between 14 and 16. As noted, the Westport Royale images are definitely subdued.
I say this knowing that AMC hasn’t employed projectionists for many years — it’s all done through some kind of soul-less computerized system.
I was loaded down with stuff to see at Telluride ’23, and I’m sorry but Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal‘s They Shot The Piano Player wasn’t on my priority list. That said…
I wasn’t looking forward to NYAD, having heard mostly mezzo-mezzo responses since Telluride. But you know what? It isn’t half bad. And I really admired Annette Bening’s titular performance as well as Jodie Foster’s best friend-slash-trainer performance, which everyone feels should be a Best Supporting Actress nominee. I’ll elaborate later but this a completely decent sports saga about dogged, never-say-die persistence. Bening’s willingness to jump into the rage pool and expose herself outside the vanity realm is quite brave and in keeping with Nyad’s personality…seriously impressive.
I’ve re-watched Steven Soderbergh‘s utterly brilliant, reality-grounded Traffic three or four times since it opened on 12.27.00. I’ve rewatched Ridley Scott‘s efficiently made but overly emphatic Gladiator exactly zero times since it opened on 5.1.00. What does that tell you or at least suggest?
[Paywall-posted on 5.5.23] A reasonably decent HE parody piece, posted earlier today by Seasonal Aflac Disorder:
“I’m lying in the L.A. County morgue, literally and figuratively chilling, and I hate to admit I’ve left a much nicer corpse than some of my fellows filed in the other cabinets. What the hell with all the gas and sounds? Have some dignity, Jesus. They took out the vitals and weighed them yesterday on the scale with good numbers all around, much better than anyone else in here.
“The amount of obesity, male pattern baldness and poor dentistry — all avoidable with visits to Prague or Tijuana, respectively — that could have been avoided is irritating beyond belief. One young woman left a nice corpse, and honestly, I can tell she appreciated the work I put into myself. The morlock who catalogued my clothing could hardly appreciate my fine Italian loafers and carelessly threw them in the cardboard box, and in so doing wrinkled my linen slacks.
“So far the afterlife is fairly mezzo mezzo, if you know what I mean. I expected some big flash of white light or something, not a flowing-robed Jesus or bullshit like that, but c’mon! Death, honestly, feels a lot like Parasite when they let the maid back in…”
OPPENHEIMER is still the best film of the year. I'm not sure if any film of 2023 can surpass it. This film is firing on all cylinders, with extraordinary performances, astounding visuals, and a sweeping, epic story. Watching this in IMAX 70MM is just an unmatched experience. pic.twitter.com/Ur7zY1r4kJ
“When will the Democratic Party stop sitting on its hands and do something about the dire reality of the coming presidential election?
“The most recent New York Times/Siena College poll has President Biden behind Donald Trump in five of six swing states while his approval ratings among youth and minorities — two essential demographics for the party — continue to plummet.
“There comes a time when we have to say, ‘Dad, you’ve been a wonderful father and we love you dearly, but we are taking away the car keys.’
“We can all see it: the shuffle, the drifting focus, the mental confusion during a news conference in Vietnam. Mr. Biden’s handlers keep him under close wraps now, but the gasps among the electorate are going to be frequent when he gets out on the campaign trail debate circuit.
“This is no time to nominate an octogenarian who refuses to acknowledge his visibly dwindling abilities.
“The fact that Mr. Trump is only three years younger is irrelevant. Facts, logic and even multiple criminal proceedings are nonfactors when your opponent is a cult figure whose worshipers are willing to follow him blindly into authoritarianism.
“What the Democrats need to win is vigor, freshness and the hope of positive change. This is no time to cling to gentlemanly traditions of incumbency.
“Mr. Biden should go down in history as the president who led us out of our darkest hours, but if he refuses to pass the torch to a younger generation, he will be remembered as just another aging politician who refused to let go.
“If the Democratic Party sits back idly, pleading helplessness in our moment of need, it will prove that this country has not one but two dysfunctional parties.”
—- Written by Bill Ibelle, freelance writer, Providence, R.I.
