15 and 1/4 years ago I caught Tommy Lee Jones‘ The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada in Cannes. I was an instant admirer. Directed by and starring Jones and based on a script by Guillermo Arriaga, it’s a tautly absorbing, well-crafted morality (i.e., anti-racism) tale. I decided this morning that re-watching it might be a good idea. It’s now on my Amazon watchlist.

Here are some impressions about the film and a press session that the producers staged in the hills above Cannes. Filed on 5.19.05, the piece was called “Respecting a Dead Guy.”

“I’ve pledged not to wade into The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada until later this evening, but it’s fair to repeat what other journos are saying, which is that it’s highly respectable. Some (like the Toronto Sun‘s Bruce Kirkland) expressed surprise at how smartly composed and compassionate and thematically rich it is. Surprised because you never know what to expect from a first-time-out director. It could have been indulgent or precious or half-baked.

“It’s also fair to report that I attended an American Pavilion interview late Wednesday afternoon between Jones and Roger Ebert. Ebert made it clear he’d had a positive reaction to the film. He also asked if anyone in the audience had seen it, and when I raised my hand he asked me what I thought and I offered a thumbs-up gesture.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada producer Michael Fitzgerald (left), director-producer-star Tommy Lee Jones (center) and Toronto Sun critic-reporter Bruce Kirkland at Thursday’s press gathering at a wonderfully picturesque and soul-soothing villa in the hills above Cannes — 5.19.05, 12:35 pm.

View of Cannes and the Med from EuropaCorp-rented villa.

“The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is a modern-day tale set in western Texas and northern Chihuahua, Mexico. It deals with a ranch foreman (Jones), a border patrolman (Barry Pepper) and an illegal immigrant named Melquiades Estrada who works for Jones. The second half is a horseback-journey film about redemption and seeing through prejudices and embedded attitudes.

“It’s a film with a great deal of compassion and soul and a generally humanistic view of things. If you want your literary influences, check out Flannery O’Connor’s work and William Faulkner’s ‘As I Lay Dying.’

“In the press kit, Arriaga says he wanted “to make a study in social contrast between the land that’s south of the Rio Grande river and the land that’s north of it. About what ironies, injustices, glory, beauty and redemption you can find in this area that has its own character…something that cannot be imposed, something that has grown and evolved…something that cannot be controlled.”

“Just before 11 am today myself and a few other journos (Kirkland, Stephen Schaefer, Desson Thomson, Harlan Jacobson, Shari Roman, etc.) were driven in a minivan from the Gray d’Albion hotel near the Croisette into the hills above Cannes, and eventually (the driver got lost) to a beautiful hilltop villa.

“The purpose was to allow for a brief schmooze with Jones, Arriaga, Pepper, young co-star January Jones and producer Michael Fitzgerald (whose other ventures include Colour Me Kubrick and Sean Penn’s The Pledge).

Pepper said that Jones “has a very deep passion for strong visual composition and the poetry of words.” He read some passages from his on-set journal, and on one page he described Jones as “a Southern badass with a ruthless work ethic and a heart the size of the Copper Canyon.”

“He mentioned two things that Jones told him before shooting a couple of scenes — ‘Keep it stupid simple’ and ‘don’t do somethin’, just stand there.’

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Paul Thomas Anderson‘s untitled ’70s-era drama is rolling as we speak. Set primarily in PTA’s beloved San Fernando Valley, it’s apparently an ensemble piece that partly focuses on a teenaged actor. Or something like that. Bradley Cooper looks a bit frightening with a period-appropriate beard, Prince Valiant hair and a necklace that certainly demands your attention.

Deadline‘s Peter Bart reported today that Roman Polanski, 87, is “resolutely pursuing [an] appeal” about the Motion Picture Academy’s 2018 decision to expel him from Academy membership.

Polanski feels he was denied due process, but of course “due process” had nothing to do with it — he was ousted because wokesters and #MeToo-ers have blacklisted him, plain and simple. Not just over the 43 year-old Samantha Geimer case but other reports about sexual misconduct, also dating back to the ’70s and ’80s.

The Academy appeal is headed for Los Angeles Superior Court tomorrow (Tuesday, 8.25).

HE response: I have seen Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy (aka J’Accuse) twice online. It’s an immaculate period piece and an indisputably brilliant film in pretty much every respect, not to mention a highly persuasive argument against mob-driven injustice and ant-Semitism — easily the finest film I’ve seen so far this year. A mature way of processing this dichotomy would be to say there are two entities to consider — Polanski the flawed human being (and who isn’t?) vs. Polanski the artist. A mature conclusion would be that it is rash and unwise to throw the artist baby out with the flawed-human bathwater.

On 4.2.20 I posted an essay called “Open Letter to Polanski Haters.”

Consider also a 6.21.12 N.Y. Times article called “Good Art, Bad People“, written by Charles McGrath.

Rep. Steven Lynch (D-Massachusetts): “Will you put the [sorting] machines back?”
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy: “No, I will not.”

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Too many thousands of Los Angelenos hitting the beaches on the same Sunday afternoon. Even the bluffy, cliffy areas beyond Trancas — El Matador and La Piedra state beaches — were besieged. Not to our liking, but what to do but grumble and accept it? What makes us so special?

…and turned up loud, Keith Richards and Ron Wood‘s guitar work in this 1980 Rolling Stones song is pure raunchy pleasure.

“A simple power-chord rocker telling a clueless lover to get lost. But what ‘Let Me Go’ lacks in depth, it makes up for in punk-rock attitude. Richards slashes away and Wood provides Creedence-y licks, while Jagger contemplates hanging out at gay bars and tells his soon-to-be ex-lover, ‘Can’t you get it through your thick head this affair is dead as a doornail?'” — from Rolling Stone‘s “100 Greatest Rolling Stones Songs.”

Nothing makes my blood boil more than some irksome junket journalist asking a director or actor “how much pressure did you feel?” before attempting this or shooting that. Is there any real difference between accepting that a certain activity is necessary or at the very least a good idea (like brushing your teeth, taking out the garbage, finishing your homework or showering daily) and feeling “pressure” to do same? There’s almost always an element of pressure attached to almost any vital or worthwhile activity. Junket journalist to HE: “How much pressure did you feel about brushing your teeth this morning?” HE to junket journalist: “Probably the same amount of pressure that babies feel just before taking their first breath after being born.”

Eternal HE law: Any journalist who uses the word “pressure” in the presence of an interview subject is a very bad person.

If there’s a Bluray or an HD-streaming version of Mikhail Kalatozov and Sergey Urusevsky‘s Soy Cuba (’64), I can’t find it. A Russian-funded documentary intended to be pro-Cuban propaganda, Soy Cuba emerged as a sensual celebration of cinema (the long shots are brilliant) in the vein of Sergei Eisenstein‘s Que Viva Mexico!. An ambivalent exploration of Cuban culture, Soy Cuba half-revelled in hotel luxury, swimming pools and bikini-clad hotties — not what the Soviets were looking for.

An HD restoration happened in 2019, but it’s not currently streamable via Criterion or Amazon or any of the others. (Or so it appears.) It used to be accessible via Prime Video but has been withdrawn. Oscilloscope used to have a DVD version (who wants 480p?) but this has also been withdrawn.

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Friendo: “Isn’t it weird looking at Maya Hawke and Levon Hawke? It’s like you see shades of Uma and Ethan but neither really look like one or the other completely.”

HE: “Isn’t that par for the course? I was standing around at the Hotel du Cap in ‘02 or ‘03, and I saw Ethan Hawke taking Maya for a walk. She would’ve been four or five. Maya is now 22 and Levon is 18. Having famous parents mean they both have it easy, and at the same time kinda hard.”

Mid ‘70s baseball superstar Willie Hammer vs. Manhattan mad men Foley and Lane. Lunch at The Palm. Fast talk, undercurrents of agitation, lotsa racket. From a perfectly written Tom Wolfe short story, “The Commercial”: