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“Devils” Nostalgia

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It’s taken me nine and 1/2 years to finally get around to buying Richard Crouse‘s “Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils,” which was published on 1.1.12. It’s now in my Kindle archive. I’ve seen this 1971 film six or seven times. I own a British DVD of the restored 117-minute version, but where’s the Bluray version? Why hasn’t Criterion released one?

From Josh Stillman’s 10.1.12 EW review: “The story of 1971’s The Devils‘ is an unpleasant one. Based on Aldous Huxley’s book The Devils of Loudun’ and a play by John Whiting, the film details an episode of alleged demonic possessions and exorcisms — and the innocent priest who was executed for heresy — in 17th-century France. And that’s just the plot line.

“The real story of The Devils took place behind the camera, in the movie’s production process and its reception among censors, critics, and audiences. The intensity of the shoot cost director Ken Russell his marriage and tested the nerves of its stars, British screen legends Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave.

“Later, after facing numerous cuts from the British Board of Film Censors for material deemed inappropriate (or, according to the Catholic Church, blasphemous), The Devils received an abysmal response from critics, was banned in several countries, and basically vanished for three decades.

“In recent years, though, the movie’s seen a bit of a resurgence. Fan sites are popping up and bootleg copies with fewer cuts have surfaced (Russell lamented that a fully uncensored version simply doesn’t exist); critics, for their part, have begun to see the film in a different light, hailing it as a provocative masterpiece in league with A Clockwork Orange.”

Modest Puzzlement

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On 5.16 I noted with some alarm that Austin Butler is doing his own singing in Baz Luhrmann‘s Elvis. I based this reaction on the posting of a musical preview of Butler singing “If I Can Dream”, which had been posted that same day.

“Butler doesn’t sound like the Real McCoy,” I wrote. “Lacking that unique vocal signature (smooth tones, purry phrasing, Memphis inflections), Butler is just another Elvis imitator.”

A journalist friendo has written to explain that “Butler’s singing is only for the younger Elvis. Baz explained all that at the CinemaCon presentation with Butler on stage and it is evident in the film.”

HE reply: “If you say so, okay. But of course, the younger Elvis (mid ‘50s) sounded like Elvis of the ‘60s and ‘70s, being the same person with the same larynx and vocal chords and whatnot. So it’s mystifying.”

Turn Down Day

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Except for a Romy Schneider doc early this evening, HE is seeing almost nothing today. Entirely due to the horrors of the system, which is responding better now but was partly impossible on Monday and Tuesday and completely uncooperative early this morning.

But Thursday will be a serious day — Kyrill Serebrennikov‘s Zhena Chaikovskogo at 8:30 am, James Gray‘s Armageddon Time at 6:30 pm, and Jerzy Skolimowski‘s EO at 10:15 pm.

As I’m not a member of the infamous “”James Gray cabal” and because I’ve spoken to a friend who caught a research screening of Armageddon Time, I’m considering a re-think by attending Alexandre Moix‘s Patrick Dewaere, Mon Heros at 7:15 pm.

Fantastic!

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12:15 pm update: The system has suddenly begun functioning. Over the last hour or so I’ve able to fill my Saturday and Sunday calendars for the most part. The trick seems to be to avoid trying to access the system in the early morning.

Trouble In Mind, Ethan Coen‘s doc about Jerry Lee Lewis, is unavailable. Under the old system this wouldn’t have happened.

Earlier: This is why journalists travel thousands of miles to Cannes…so we can get shut down by moronic or overwhelmed software coding when we try to log in for updates at 7:10 am…a sense of humor is necessary in such situations. [Posted on Wednesday, 5.18 at 7:35 am.]

Zombie Farce Is A Tough Sit

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Michael Hazanavicius’ Final Cut (aka Coupez! aka Z) is a kind of Noises Off -like farce blended with zombie hellzapoppin’ blended with Tom DeCillo’s Living in Oblivion (‘95). Allegedly a nearly line-by-line remake of Shin’ichirō Ueda’s zom-com One Cut of the Dead (‘17), I found it thin, exhausting, odious and unfunny. And a tiny bit sad. I didn’t hate it, but my basic attitude was a combination of “who cares?” and “lemme outta here.”

And that’s all I have to say for now as it’s midnight and I’m bushed.

https://vimeo.com/710957097

Shattering, Shuddering, Sex-Positive Orgasms

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Yesterday an official trailer surfaced for Sophie Hyde‘s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, a Searchlight/Hulu release costarring Emma Thompson, Daryl McCormack and Isabella Laughland. The three-hander begins streaming on Hulu on 6.17.

“Nine Thoughts About Leo Grande and Naked Emma,” posted on 1.26.22:

Thought #1: Last night Hollywood Elsewhere sat through Sophie Hyde‘s Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, and I was more or less okay with it, minor issues aside. It’s a reasonably engaging two-hander about a 55-year-old woman (Emma Thompson‘s “Nancy Stokes”, who doesn’t look 50ish as much as her actual age, which is 62) and a handsome young sex worker (Daryl McCormack‘s Leo Grande”). The widowed Nancy has led a rather sex-less and certainly orgasm-free life, and she’s hired Leo in order to sample the real thing.

The film (97 minutes) is basically three sexual and very personal encounters in a hotel room, and one in a hotel bar. (Or something like that.)

It’s an intimate, occasionally amusing, open-hearted exploration of an older woman’s sexuality and what a transformational thing good sex can be (nothing wrong with that!), along with the gradually building rapport between Nancy and Leo. It’s smoothly and nimbly performed, especially by Thompson.

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Back In The High Life Again

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The Old Man, an FX thriller series debuting on 6.16.22, “was two-thirds of the way into shooting when production shut down in mid-March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Production resumed in the fall with three episodes remaining to film, but was halted in October 2020 when star and executive producer Jeff Bridges was diagnosed with lymphoma and left to undergo cancer treatment.

“The show stayed in production for a short period after Bridges’ diagnosis in order to shoot scenes from the remaining episodes that do not feature Bridges’ character. In September 2021, Bridges announced his cancer was in remission. Production ultimately resumed in February 2022.”

Progressives Have Chugged Non-Binary Kool-Aid

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In the realm of gender identity and not Presidential politics, Matt Walsh is my idea of a sensible conservative. He’s been very heavily and logically focused on the refusal of many progressives to acknowledge basic gender biology. We all understand there are gender variations among the trans community (which represents roughly one half of one percent of humans) but c’mon, man…we all understand what men and women are.

During confirmation hearings Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she couldn’t define what a woman is because she’s “not a biologist.” As much as I admire Jackson I recoiled the instant she said that — millions did, I imagine. Jackson said this, I gather, because she knew it would be dangerous to answer honestly. She knew that progressive loons would get their backs up.

Simply put: “Typically, women have two X chromosomes (as opposed to men’s XY chromosones). Between puberty and menopause they’re naturally capable of pregnancy and giving birth. Female anatomy is primarily distinguished from male anatomy by the female reproductive system, which includes ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, vagina and vulva.

“Plus the adult female pelvis is wider, the hips broader, and the breasts larger than that of adult males. Women have significantly less facial and other body hair, have a higher body fat composition, and are on average shorter and less muscular than men.”

Rubenesque Tips The Scales

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Female friendo: This Sports Illustrated thing was news on Twitter yesterday

HE: I don’t agree with Jordan Petersen. I think that big-curve Rubenesque bodies are (or at least can be) mildly hot.

Female friendo: I don’t think she looks that bad.

HE: She has the body that Marilyn Monroe had in Some Like It Hot. Okay, Monroe was slightly thinner but close.

Female friendo: Yeah, it’s proportional. There’s no denying it’s a sexy photo. Not grotesque. In general I agree that the fat acceptance movement is insanity but this particular photo doesn’t exactly prove that point.

HE: Petersen can say she’s “not beautiful” — that’s just an opinion. He’s not evil for saying this. But I like zaftig and, to some extent, Rubenesque women. But there’s a line in which Rubenesque tips over into overweight, and then fat, and then obese, and then morbidly obese.

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Cannes Online Ticket Booking System Is A Disaster — Cancel It

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Tuesday (5.17) 1 pm update: Between 7 and 9 am this morning I was blocked from reserving tickets for almost all screenings on Saturday, 5.21. (The Cannes system purportedly allows journos to reserve screenings four days hence.) But I tried again a few minutes ago and was able to reserve tickets for Riley Keough‘s War Pony, Ruben Ostlund‘s Triangle of Sadness and Cristian Mingiu‘s R.M.N. — progress!

Note of concern: Yesterday I received emailed confirmation of reserved tickets (including a PDF’ed bar-code ticket) within an hour or two. No emailed confirmations of today’s tickets have arrived as of 2:45 pm.

I’m still blocked from booking tickets for George Miller‘s Three Thousand Years of Longing and two or three others films of interest. It’s still a fucked system, and for decades to come people will speak of the Great Cannes Online Ticketing Fiasco of 2022.

Earlier: The Cannes Film Festival press office has told attending journalists to log on to the online ticket request site at 7 am to order tickets for films screening four days hence. This is what I did this morning, but despite repeated efforts I couldn’t access the site, presumably because the traffic had overwhelmed the press office server.

It’s now 8:10 am and I still can’t get onto the ticket ordering site. It’s frozen, inert, defeated. How am I supposed to see Ruben Ostlund‘s Triangle of Silence? Or Cristian Mungiu‘s R.M.N.?

This is completely ridiculous — a calamity. This is a non-functioning festival in terms of one of the most essential services — allowing credentialed journos to see films.

Journalist friendo in Cannes: “It’s insane. A disaster. Totally agreed with your post yesterday — worst situation I’ve ever seen at a festival. The tech ‘revolution’ is going to be the death of all of us.”

During the first day of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Arts Fair the ticket system collapsed. The organizers had originally expected 50,000 people to attend. Around 186,000 advance tickets had been sold just before the festival began. But an avalanche of non-ticketed music fans (roughly 200,000) quickly flattened the fences and the festival was declared free and wide open. Because the producers — Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, Joel Rosenman and John P. Roberts — thought fast and adapted to the situation.

The Cannes Film Festival needs to terminate the online system right now. Reserved tickets will be honored, of course, but otherwise the festival needs to quickly revert to the traditional line-up system. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be semi-manageable. There’s no question that the online reservation system is a bust, and that journos who’ve travelled many thousands of miles to attend are now faced with the distinct possibility of not being able to see the most in-demand films, or at least not in a timely fashion.

Wrong Approach

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Wait…Austin Butler is doing his own singing in Baz Luhrmann‘s Elvis? He doesn’t sound like the Real McCoy. Lacking that unique vocal signature (smooth tones, purry phrasing, Memphis inflections), Butler is just another Elvis imitator.

I had presumed all along that Lurhmann would make a concerted effort for Butler to actually sound like Presley. Nope!

A biopic of a famous singer can’t work unless the singing voice sounds just so. Bohemian Rhapsody was a bull’s eye in this respect with Rami Malek sounding almost exactly like Freddie Mercury. (Malek did some of his own singing but was mostly dubbed by a Freddy imitator + Freddy himself.)

Butler’s Presley crooning is roughly on the same level as Taron Egerton‘s not-good-enough imitation of Elton John‘s singing in Rocketman (’19).

Jordan Ruimy: “Egerton imitating John was a big mistake, and so is this. Elvis’ voice was unique and unforgettable — a range and passion that can’t be replicated. It’s a fool’s belief to think that Butler’s voice could believably stand in for something this iconic. Didn’t they blend Malek and Mercury’s voice (as well as a Freddy imitator) in sound mixing for Bohemian Rhapsody?”