Last fall I finally bought the 2012 British DVD of Ken Russell‘s The Devils (’71), but I never watched it. One of my motives in getting it was that I wanted to see the fabled “rape of Christ” sequence that was cut from the theatrical version. And then last night there it was, a Youtube clip posted by “Berg”, in the comments section under the “Houston Movie Fan Killed Over 300 Dispute” story. It’s one thing to watch this sequence in the context of Russell’s film and another to view it as a stand-alone. In the latter regard it’s the first excerpt from a mainstream big-studio film that I would actually call demonic. I despise Christians but even I understand why they would be appalled by this. I actually agree with the 43 year-old decision to cut it out. I never thought I’d hear myself say such a thing.

In my realm of projected passion, Elizabeth Warren would next year announce her candidacy for President and compete for the nomination with the right-of-center Hillary Clinton. Someone who’s emphatically not in the corporate pocket and who (unlike Obama and almost certainly unlike what Hillary will do if she’s elected in 2016) wants to rally the country into doing something about income inequality has to run, if for no other reason than to move the conversation in that direction. Last December Warren said she’ll serve out her six-year term as Massachusetts Senator but that’s not binding in the least. Warren would be a far healthier choice for President than Hillary.

Deadline‘s Mike Fleming is reporting that the Noah guys — star Russell Crowe, director Darren Aronofsky and Paramount vice-chairman Rob Moore — managed some face-time with Pope Francis today in Rome “after the Vatican extended an olive branch and hosted the trio in the official VIP section of this morning’s Udienza.” The photo below is fine but…I’m presuming that a thumbs-up group shot with the Pope would have looked unseemly. I’m also presuming that the people around His Holiness urged him to maintain a certain distance, perhaps out of concern that Old Testament literalists who might (I say “might“) be displeased with the film will transfer their resentment to him.

(l. to r.) Russell Crowe, Darren Aronofsky, Rob Moore.

There’s a 3.18 N.Y. Times story by Jenna Wortham about a five-week-old app called Secret, basically an anonymous forum for any topic. “For me, it’s nothing more than what you would see etched on a bathroom wall,” venture capitalist Mark Suster tells Northam. There’s also that Paul Simon lyric about words “written on subway walls” being of some value. Anonymity brings out cruelty and contempt but also strains of truth. The 98% anonymous Hollywood Elsewhere comments testify to that. I’m presuming/expecting that more Hollywood-centric comments will eventually appear on this app.

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With Nymphomaniac, Vol. 2 about to open, I thought I’d revisit the Shia LaBoeuf press conference walkout moment at the Berlin Film Festival. (His departing statement: “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it’s because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you very much.”) LaBeouf’s pronunciation of “seagulls” is curious — he calls them “siegels” as if he’s describing a large family related to Ben Siegel. The second syllable of “seagull” rhymes with “dull.” The question that prompted his walkout came from Tatiana Spinu of Columbia’s W radio.

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The vaguely predatory vibe in this just-popped trailer for Phillip Noyce‘s The Giver (Weinstein Co., 8.15) speaks for itself. The unknown faces of the young leads (Brenton Thwaites, Odeya Rush) are a mild stopper but then along comes Meryl Streep in that Pocahantas hippie-momma wig and we’re off to the races. And then a guttural voice of foreboding from producer/costar Jeff Bridges. Somewhat darker and less baroque than The Hunger Games — a rigged, chilly feeling. Bridges: “The way things look and the way things are, are very different. I cannot prepare you for what’s going to happen.”

I’m trying to think of an incorrect interpretation of this tragic event that will upset Drew McWeeny and result in his condemning me for having the wrong opinion, etc., but nothing will come. A person should definitely be allowed to have a differing opinion about the ending of 300: Rise of an Empire without being run over by a pickup truck. After last January’s Tampa texting shooting I wrote that “movie theatres have become chaotic, emotionally dangerous environments to some extent. Handguns, cell phones, hair-trigger rage…it’s Dodge City out there.”

This is being called an international trailer for Gareth Edwards‘ Godzilla (Warner Bros., 5.16), but it seems awfully similar to the official trailer that broke in late February. Not a shot-for-shot copy but damn close

The first-anywhere trailer for Phillip Noyce‘s The Giver (i.e., the only 2014 film based on a Young Adult best-seller that I’m half-likely be comfortasble with…I hope) will debut tomorrow morning on the Today show with an intro from the pregnant Savannah Guthrie. General internet distribution will quickly follow. The Weinstein Co. release will open on 8.15.14.

Lars Von Trier‘s Nymphomaniac, Volume Two is about a downward spiral in the fate of Charlotte Gainsbourgh‘s Joe. Her sexual obsession loses its wings and begins folding in upon itself. Her narrative goes in a darker and colder direction with less and less oxygen. Where Volume One used dry satire to mitigate a somewhat arid and clinical tone, Volume Two is a cinematic equivalent of a “cold spot” in a haunted house.

I’m not saying it’s without interest. I can’t call it dull. I only looked at my watch twice. But where Volume One was joyless, bloodless sex with orgasms, Volume Two is the same without orgasms. It’s also blanker, creeper and kinkier. Pain, depravity, the lash, anal, urine sprinklings…you don’t want to know.

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Just what I need in my life — a Criterion Bluray of a 1955 Douglas Sirk soap opera in which 29 year-old Rock Hudson, whose performances cannot be watched these days without contemplating where he was really coming from appetite-wise, “falls in love” with 38 year-old Jane Wyman, playing a mousey, past-her-Johnny Belinda-prime spinster who seems all but smothered in 1950s propriety and was at the time probably the least attractive actress to play a romantic lead in motion picture history. Four years ago I noted that Sirk was mostly dismissed by critics of the ’50s and early ’60s for making films that were no more and no less than what they seemed to be — i.e., emotionally dreary, visually lush melodramas about repressed women suffering greatly through crises of the heart as they struggled to maintain tidy, ultra-proper appearances. This perfectly describes All That Heaven Allows, one of the most air-less and joyless films ever made by an admittedly skilled and accomplished director who flourished within the Hollywood system of the ’50s. Outside of the dweeb-critic realm it is comforting to know that Sirk has begun to be re-appreciated as a director of mopey, snail-paced dramas about dull, rule-following people who can’t let their feelings out.

A Criterion Bluray of Michelangelo Antonioni‘s L’eclisse (The Eclipse) will street on 6.10. I once “taught” a UCLA extension class about this 1962 landmark film. I’m using quotes because all I did was introduce it in a rambling, half-assed fashion (“It’s a movie about nothing, but you’ll remember it for the rest of your life”) and I screened the DVD. I then showed the class the following essay piece, “Elements of Landscape”, (’05) which is included on the Criterion DVD. It’s worth watching right now as it sums up the whole Antonioni asthetic — the entire ball of wax — in 22 minutes.

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