quotable -betty blue

Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade): WOOOOOOOoooooooooohhhhh



I wrote about this 2 years ago but still holds true. No, not "blaze camo hats rule"...
1) Since first seeing this movie, chili con carne has never been the same, instantly transported.
2) there is some fantastic architecture in Gruissan (near Narbonne) France, the setting for Betty Blue. The beach houses on stilts made a big impression and I found a photog who has been trying to save them from demolition/condofication, Paul Grand.




Sidenote; you like Rapidos? That is tequila and tonic. Schweppes. Goes straight to the brain... Again, blame Zorg.

south to drop off moron

John Hughes wrote the script for Mr. Mom, one of our perennial favourites. Solid gold. Pure 80's suburbia. Jack Butler may not be a sartorial inspiration (though has hot and cold running ocbd's) but the movie, about a Detroit car company exec' wrangling the kids while wife goes back to work, is eerily relevant for our bailout/bust times. So many good lines... Sidenote, Keaton is on fire here. Hell, we even quote from Multiplicity... TTF.

"Dad, you're doing it wrong. "

"South to drop off MorON!"

"Can you run the hams by me on more time?"

"Just get baloney mister!"

"Anytime..."

"Want a beer? ... Scotch?"

" How about a nice trim on that mustache RON!"

Jack Butler method part II. Let's skip a few steps.

Batman in a salt & pepper sportcoat. Partycrasher at back left...
Kids looking sharp. Tweed woobie?
"South to drop off... Get it right next time."
Getting dark. His shoe vs TV. TV loses. Phone already smashed.

All babies should eat chili... Family!!

from stump to ship

I had heard about, and seen VHS copies of this historical document From Stump To Ship for a few years and not sure why never watched it. It is online though, 28 minutes, as below. The added narration explains (Maine humourist Tim Sample keeping it restrained) that Alfred Ames, the then president of Maine's Machias Lumber Company brought his camera out to the logging camps and the river drive to document the goings on. Priceless stuff.

This is 1930 and already the trees felled are not as big as in years gone by (we learn)... but the fortitude and agility of these guys is pretty inspiring. Lots of historical terminolgy and info; caulked boots from Bass in Wilton, ME? Yup. Anyone slightly interested has probably seen this already -some pieces of it are used in Woodsmen and River Drivers, another documentary on old loggers from the Machias Lumber Co. but more recent. Great stuff too.

quiz -jt lancer or nick

Greaser or Soc' is a classic quizzer, but a bit extreme. How about JT Lancer or Nick?
There are so many great bits in The Big Chill. Goldblum is on freekin fire...

john deere day -circa 1965

Having a few truck/tractor mad young boys, you become a connoisseur of the kids movies. You know, the "I love trains" variety. Recently the kid was given How a Combine is Made, a fairly indepth look at the John Deere manufacturing plant (thx grandma). A little slow for him, but the bonus features had some classic short reels advertising the new (1965) Deere models. Self propelled. Air conditioned. Bigger, faster, stronger etc. Anyway, some great images from the promos as various farmers interviewed (using that pretty loosely here) about the NEW! 95! COMBINE!...













Had recently watched King Corn so was well up on bushels per acre, combine delivery speeds, the machinations (no pun intended) of corn planting/spraying/growing. King Corn is a look at corn growing in the USA, but mellow... following and learning along w/ 2 guys as they grow an acre of commercial corn. Worth watching if you are from the coasts and have not seen a large grain/corn operation.

big river man

Big River Man is an envirodoc about the larger-than-life Slovenian extreme swimmer Martin Strel. In February 2007 Strel began an attempt to be the first person to swim the entire length of the Amazon.

"The Fish Man, as he was called by the local tribes, almost died in the process several times. Towards the end of his marathon ordeal his blood pressure was at heart attack level, his entire body full of subcutaneous larvae and besieged by dehydration and exhaustion.

Martin is an endurance swimmer who swims rivers – the Mississippi, the Danube, Paraná and the Yangtze prior to the Amazon – to highlight their pollution to the world. During this epic journey he suffered from blisters, sunburn, exotic stomach illnesses, all the while trying to avoid piranhas, anacondas, crocodiles, alligators, river sharks, and a small parasitic fish known as the candiru. Martin is also a rather overweight horse-burger loving Slovenian in his fifties, who drinks bottles of red wine to get extra power...even when swimming." -via AmazonSwim


Found via Caught by the River.

cage was so good in this one...

Why the Thrush/Woody Muffler tattoo though?? Gosh these 80's trailers are crap.

hal hartley -the trouble and desire years

Maria (Adrienne Shelly): Glasses make me look stupid, you know, brainy, like a librarian.
Matthew (Martin Donovan): I like librarians. -from Trust.


Not a definitive guide, but if you have not seen the films of Long Island's own Hal Hartley then you are missing out. Myself, I prefer the early ones; Simple Men (1992), Trust (1990), The Unbelievable Truth (1989). Parker Posey did raise pulses in Fay Grim though... The early films feature crisp, slightly absurd, deadpan delivery dialogue and a good dose of Martin Donovan. There was a rotating stable of actors; Robert Burke, Bill Sage, Elina Löwensohn and Adrienne Shelly. Great music in these flicks too. Lots of original music (read director plinking/noodling), and it was the first time I heard of Yo La Tengo.

Donovan can't stand the quiet in Simple Men. Nickonflickr has a whole set.

betty blue

If you did not see this the first time around (1986) then get ready for a ride... Newly released is the Betty Blue Director's Cut.

As well as Zorg, Betty, chili, insanity, euthanasia and tequila slammers, is some fantastic architecture in Gruissan (near Narbonne) France. The beach houses on stilts made a big impression and I recently found a photog who has been trying to save them from demolition/condofication, Paul Grand.

the september issue

Oma went to the European premiere of The September Issue at the Edinburgh Film Festival last week and highly recommends. Does look enlightening/entertaining. See everyone scamper at the approach of Nuclear Wintour, brilliant... Set for general US release next month. I expect others will start to put up copies of the 2007 September Vogue in question, but 1 unread copy on ebay now/$20sold...

chitty chitty bang bang

Posted about this Ian Fleming/Roald Dahl creation before, but the boy is well into this recently (it is almost 3 hours... hello electronic babysitter haha). Dick Van Dyke thankfully stays away from the cor blimey accent of his Mary Poppins appearance, and the Grandpa character (Lionel Jeffries) is quality (non-PC remarks aside). Anyway, I picked through for some yard sale scenes.

Desmond Llewelyn (Bond's Q) on left as a junkyard owner.
Scrapman on right about to give the boy a clip round the ear... too right.





Baddies disguised as typical Englishmen.

Gert Fröbe (more famous as Goldfinger) as the Baron of Vulgaria.
Unexpected combo, white and polka dot bowtie with white shirt.