October 2022 Viewing Diary

Posted on November 1, 2022 by sheila

Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation (2020; d. Lisa Immordino Vreeland)
Fascinating dual portraits. No “talking heads”. The entire thing is made up of their own voices, told in talk shows, or interviews. Amazing footage I’ve never seen before.

Christine (2016; d. Antonio Campos)
Such a powerful movie with such a great central performance by Rebecca Hall, as the TV reporter in Florida who killed herself on air. Tracy Letts, excellent. David Michael Hall, excellent. It is a fantastic portrait of undiagnosed depression. The sense of persecution, the delusional hopes (hon, you’re never gonna be picked up by a New York network), the childlike attitude – still living at home with her mother, the loneliness, the burst of desire she can’t handle, the self-knowledge that she is “too much” for everybody … and then the prospect of losing an ovary and what that might mean … all of it is too much without being properly taken care of through medicine, and therapy. It’s painful. Very good.

Elvis (or: The 1968 comeback special) (1968; d. Steve Binder)
This will never not be riveting. The stakes are as high as they can be for him. Like Gillian Welch sings: he goes out onstage “with his soul at stake”. That’s how much this meant to him.

Missing (1982; d. Costa-Gavras)
This is horrifying in an almost quiet way. The violence is casual, and Costa-Gavras captures it in a way where it’s almost on the periphery – a panning shot, an empty street, and suddenly – a corpse lying sprawled on the curb – the camera moves on. It’s also a great portrait of American incomprehension that their own government could be up to no good (represented in Jack Lemmon’s character), and the naive American caught up in events who has a more realistic knowledge of what is actually going on (represented by Sissy Spacek’s character). The soccer stadium filled with waiting prisoners (no CGI crowds: Costa-Gavras actually put them all there). Very good. I’ve seen it before, but it’s been years.

Stay the Night (2022; d. Renuka Jeyapalan)
I went into this not knowing much about it – not familiar with the two leads – and unexpectedly fell in love with it. I’ve seen it three times already, one time showing it to Allison. It’s special. I wanted to highlight it so I reviewed it very positively for Ebert. It’s a romance. We don’t have much of that anymore.

Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes (2022; d. Joe Berlinger)
Well, you know I had to watch this one. I know someone who knew someone who went on a couple of dates with Jeffrey Dahmer. She said he was a nothing really, a blank, she attributed it to shyness, but he basically made zero impression. Rather chilling when you think about it. Joe Berlinger knows what he is doing. These tapes are extraordinary. He’s so articulate about his motivations. Psychopath.

The Loneliest Boy in the World (2022; d. Martin Owen)
This zombie movie is a little bit confused! I reviewed for Ebert.

Three Minutes – A Lengthening (2022; d. Bianca Stigter)
What an amazing – and unique – documentary. I’m not sure I can describe it. A man found three minutes of movie footage his grandfather shot while visiting a town in Poland in 1938. Look at the date. The town had a huge Jewish population, and, of course, almost none of them survived. But there’s three minutes of footage and that’s a pretty rare thing in 1938. And so then began the journey of investigation into these three minutes. Who are all these people? What is that store in the background? People start getting involved. People saw the footage and reached out: “I think that’s my grandfather in the group of kids.” Or “That was me in the footage.” And so the interviews begin about this particular day. Taking three minutes to rebuild a whole world. I highly recommend this. It’s quietly devastating.

The Inspection (2022; d. Elegance Bratton)
This first film closed out the New York Film Festival, a very rare thing for a first film. I was blown away by it, and by Elegance Bratton’s confidence as a filmmaker. Gabrielle Union has a small but important role, and her presence was crucial in getting the film made at all. Jeremy Pope is the lead. Raul Castillo – whom I’ve long admired – is incredible. Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for this one. It’s based on Elegance Bratton’s real story, of being a homeless teen – thrown out of the house by his mother for being gay – until he finally – in dire circumstances – decides to become a Marine. The entire movie is his boot camp experience. Elegance Bratton served from 2005-2010. Incredible. Highly HIGHLY recommend.

Aftersun (2022; d. Charlotte Wells)
Another amazing first feature. It’s so exciting. We now have new films from Elegance Bratton and Charlotte Wells to look forward to. This is a rare look at the relationship between a father and a young daughter. We get a lot of father-son movies, and mother-daughter movies, but father-daughter … not so much. This is just one of the reasons why Aftersun is so exciting. Please see this film!

The Watcher (2022; d. Ryan Murphy, Paris Barclay, Jennifer Lynch, Max Winkler)
I was looking forward to this. I read the VERY WEIRD New York magazine article about this situation. Allison and I watched it – all freakin’ SEVEN EPISODES and thought it was terrible. We kept hoping it would get better. It’s like everybody involved forgot that tension and suspense cannot be stretched out into 7 loooooong episodes. It wore out its welcome super early. The thing feels endless. It is an example of the dangers of stretching EVERYTHING out into a mini-series as opposed to a 2-hour movie. Have you learned nothing from Hitchcock, the master of suspense? His movies aren’t endless. You can’t sustain suspense that long. I felt sorry for the very talented actors who were forced to play things at a high-pitch for 7 long episodes. The only good thing was Jennifer Coolidge, who elevates every single thing she’s in. Ugh. The whole thing was depressing. AND the liberties they took to this very real story, which traumatized very real people … just to PROLONG the suspense and confusion … felt unethical, and I don’t normally say things like that.

The Vow, Part 2; Season 2, episode 1 (2022; d. Jehane Noujaim)
I had no idea a second season was coming, and I’m kind of blown away that it’s focused on Nancy Salzman, who – up until now – has been a figure cloaked in mystery, looming behind the gross volley-ball playing cult-leader Keith Raneire or whatever his name is. Allison and I just watched the first episode and had a lot to discuss.

Tuesday (2015; d. Charlotte Wells)
An early short film by Charlotte Wells, a precursor to Aftersun. It feels like a rough draft for Aftersun, another father-daughter story, clearly an important subject for Wells. Very effective. I couldn’t find a screengrab of it. If you want to watch, here it is.

Laps (2017; d. Charlotte Wells)
Another of Wells’ short films. This one nearly wordless. Again, very effective.

Laps from Charlotte Wells on Vimeo.

A Civil Action (1998; d. Steven Zaillian)
Zaillian is primarily a screenwriter but the couple of films he’s directed shows his chops (Searching for Bobby Fischer the main one. I read A Civil Action back in the day, and it’s excellent. The movie is a bit broad-strokes, but the story is the same: a corrupt ambulance-chaser (John Travolta) is almost pushed into activism by a case involving a small town with poisoned water. I have a soft spot about movies involving corrupt corporations doing bad things and lonely figures who go up against it. Erin Brockovich, Dark Waters – which should have gotten much more chatter.

Dark Waters (2019; d. Todd Haynes)
Inspired by A Civil Action, I went right to Dark Waters, which I think I’ve seen three times by now. It’s basically the same story. A corporate lawyer is inspired into activism when he learns that the water is poisoned in a small town (where his grandmother happens to live). Todd Haynes films it in an aura of deep gloom, dark colors. It’s very intense.

Caught (1949; d. Max Ophüls)
I had never seen this! I am so saddened by this, but now at least I’m “in” on the secret of how GOOD this film is. The ACTING. Robert Ryan, Barbara Bel Geddes, James Mason: all superb. It’s as upsetting as Gaslight, it’s one of those stories of a woman caught in the web of a manipulative sociopath. The film works on a visceral level: you FEEL the woman as so CAUGHT, so TRAPPED. It’s psychological in nature. Amazing film. I wrote about it here.

Cure (1997; d. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
TERRIFYING. But hypnotic, a slow burn, with a phenomenal central performance by Takabe (Koji Yakusho) as the detective with a mentally ill wife, and a growing obsession with a series of unsolved brutal murders. Nobody can figure out who is doing it and why. In the meantime, an amnesiac (Masato Hagiwara) strolls out of nowhere, an amnesiac who appears to have hypnotic – literally – powers. Takabe starts to go off the deep end, wondering if the amnesiac – a disturbing subversive character, a blank slate – is somehow behind all of this. Takabe’s life deteriorates. Yakusho is unbelievable: the whole film and its implications is on his extremely open face.

The More the Merrier (1943; d. George Stevens)
One of my all-time favorites. Sexy as hell. Funny. Charming. Smart. Great performances. And did I mention sexy? I’ve written about it twice for Film Comment, first in a column about that elusive thing known as “chemistry”, and second in a column devoted to Jean Arthur.

Crash (1996; d. David Cronenberg)
It’s been a while. May be my favorite Cronenberg.

For All Mankind (1989; d. Al Reinert)
The incredible documentary about the space program. It’s barely over an hour long. But it draws you into its voices and images. Interviews with everyone, but no “talking heads”, everything supported by the actual footage, taken in Mission Control, or taken by the astronauts themselves.

Call Jane (2022; d. Phyllis Nagy)
An important and timely film, by a talented first-timer (who also wrote the extraordinary adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, which became Carol). Wonderful central performances by Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, and Chris Messina. I reviewed for Ebert.

Touch of Evil (1958; d. Orson Welles)
Boy is this movie bleak, with a hopeless outlook on things like justice and mercy. With one of the most famous first shots in cinema (and rightly so), and the final shot isn’t chopped liver either. Orson Welles having so much fun throughout, with emotional and thematic camera angles, shadows, light, the darkness of those streets, the eeriness of empty landscapes. Amazing performance by Janet Leigh and Charlton Heston (at the height of his pure gorgeousness), with a wonderful cameo by Marlene Dietrich – playing a character filled with painful knowledge – and a final monologue expressing some uncomfortable and yet necessary truths. And huge lumbering Orson, chewing it all playing a drunken grotesque purely evil (not just a “touch of evil”) character. Always enjoyable, but a dark watch.

Love & Mercy (2014; d. Bill Pohlad)
Inspired by Call Jane, I went back to this. I’ve seen it 5 or 6 times. I do need to write about Banks in this (although I touched on it in my Call Jane review). What she is doing looks so easy, but it is not easy, and so many contemporary actresses cannot do it.

I’m Totally Fine (2022; d. Brandon Dermer)
I’ll be reviewing this one. It opens this week.

Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

“Great balls of fire! My friend, Roderigo!” Jerry Lee Lewis as Iago

Posted on November 1, 2022 by sheila

A re-post in honor of the Killer. R.I.P.

In 1968, there was a short-lived production of Othello in Los Angeles, a dream project of producer Jack Good, who wrote a loose adaptation filled with rock ‘n roll songs. He called the production Catch My Soul. Catch My Soul beat Jesus Christ Superstar by 2 years, and was a harbinger of the rise of the rock opera. (It was turned into a film in 1974.)

The title came from Act III, scene 3, when Othello declares his love for Desdemona, showing the dangerously destabilizing nature of … everything:

Perdition catch my soul
But I do love thee! And when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again.

You can say that again.

Bob Dylan is obsessed with Catch My Soul (the theatre production, not the film). During his tenure hosting the Theme Time Radio Hour (2006-2008), he plugged it repeatedly. The original 1968 production is the Holy Grail, because 1. it was theatre, and therefore there’s no record of it and 2. the main reason: Jerry Lee Lewis played Iago. At that point he was well on the road to rebuilding his career after it was torched a decade before (correction: after HE torched it). He began to rise again, and dominate the country charts, a development no one saw coming.

Jerry Lee was Jack Good’s only choice for the role.

By all accounts, Lewis immersed himself in the project and in the character. Iago is one of the most challenging roles in the canon. There’s a mystery at its heart. Why on earth does he do what he do? Beware the person who fires back an easy answer. They are unwilling to live in Keats’ “negative capability” and such people are not to be trusted. In his series of famous lectures on Shakespeare’s plays, Samuel Taylor Coleridge talked a lot about Iago. He left a note, or more like a footnote, on the sheets of one of these lectures. Worth it to quote in full since it is now so famous:

The triumph! again, put money after the effect has been fully produced.—The last Speech, the motive-hunting of motiveless Malignity—how awful! In itself fiendish—while yet he was allowed to bear the divine image, too fiendish for his own steady View.—A being next to Devil—only not quite Devil—& this Shakespeare has attempted—executed—without disgust, without Scandal!—

The most famous phrase there is “The motive-hunting of motiveless malignity”. Motiveless malignity! Coleridge felt that the motive had to do with Iago’s sense of “intellectual superiority” to everyone around him, which is as good a guess as any. (You could describe Lewis as “A being next to Devil—only not quite Devil”! He would have agreed with that.)

Lewis, by his very nature, had an intuitive understanding of what drove Iago, of knowing in his gut the answers to the questions that have dogged actors who tried to play this part.

Lewis said, “This Shakespeare was really somethin’. I wonder what he woulda thought about my records.”

Because, yes, it’s all about you, Jerry Lee! God, I love that egotism. Made him hell to live with, but … if you know me, you know I don’t care about those things. I mean, I’m glad I wasn’t married to him, but that’s as far as I’ll go. Don’t even bother to argue, because I’m already bored. I care about the art. And that’s it. Jerry Lee tossed his own name into almost every song he sang! This is not a criticism. It was what made him him.

Jerry Lee, not surprisingly, stole Catch My Soul. Easily.

He understood rage and envy. He knew these things were bad, but he found them irresistible. He was a sinner, like all of us are sinners. In Catch My Soul, he exuded these unflattering aspects of humanity with no fear. He prowled the stage, cackling, throwing his head back … He WAS Iago. He was not intimidated by Shakespeare at all. There was a grand piano up there, and he did his Jerry Lee Lewis thing, and it was apparently brilliant and perfect and I have goosebumps just thinking about it. He would punctuate the phrases of the lyrics with swoopy chords, almost like iambic pentameter as filtered through rock ‘n roll. The man understood meter.

Lewis always had a “meta” quality to his performance style. He was his only frame of reference. (This makes me think of James Joyce’s answer to the question, “Who is the best writer living today?” “Aside from myself, I don’t know.”) Lewis was “the best”, just ask him. Everything started and ended with him. (See above: he tossed his own name into almost every song, even well-known hymns, and it just cracks me up every time I hear it. They talk about “personalization” in acting classes. Make it personal. For Jerry Lee, there was no other way.)

For example, one night, during Act V, when Iago runs into the degenerate lusting-after-Desdemona Roderigo – Lewis exclaimed, “Great balls of fire! My friend, Roderigo!”

Jerry Lee was self-consumed and expressed it: he blasted his egotism into the audience. This was why he was so electric at his height. You don’t give a performance like he did at the Star Club in Hamburg – one of the greatest live shows ever caught on record – without having a huge ego. (If you see any list of great concert albums and Jerry Lee Lewis at the Star Club isn’t on there, throw it out. It’s not a serious list.)

Catch My Soul was supposed to move to New York, but Lewis, after a 5 or 6 week run, got bored doing the same thing every night and backed out. 19th c. actor Edwin Booth (brother to John Wilkes) said: “An actor is a sculptor who carves in snow.” That’s the magic of live theatre. And so there is no record of Lewis’ performance as Iago, except …

Two tracks from rehearsal.

Bob Dylan, as I said, is obsessed with these two tracks. So am I. Jerry Lee leers and sneers, utilizing everything he is and has and does in this fictional Shakespearean context, in a language not his own. It’s riveting. He means every word.

First up:

When Roderigo declares his love for Desdemona, Iago replies scornfully,

It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will.

… which is really rude and unsupportive.

Here’s Jerry Lee, at rehearsal, singing the song called “Lust of the Blood.” It’s amazing.

Bob Dylan said on his radio show: “You know, if anybody ever asks me why I do this radio show, I could just play them that – Jerry Lee Lewis singing Shakespeare. That’s what this show is all about.”

The only other track we have from Catch My Soul is “Let a Soldier Drink.” This is the scene where Iago gets Cassio drunk, for the most byzantine sinister reasons. And Iago pretends he’s drunk to spur Cassio on. This is Iago playing a long long con. (Dude, get laid. Do something. Just stop.)

Shakespeare’s plays, of course, are filled with songs, and in Othello, Shakespeare has created a fake drinking song for Iago to sing. Iago sings it to get everyone in the mood to get wasted. It’s so disturbing in its mocking limerick-ish rhythm.

“And let me the cannikin clink, clink,
And let me the cannikin clink.
A soldier’s a man,
A life’s but a span,
Why then let a soldier drink.
Some wine, boys!”

So here’s Lewis singing “Let a Soldier Drink.” “Lust of the Blood” is classic rhythm and blues, slow and deliberate. “Let a Soldier Drink” is fast-paced boogie-woogie, Jerry Lee Lewis-style, hyped-up and hopped-up. He’s unleashed. You can hear the rest of the cast carousing behind him, and there’s even some dialogue following the song, so you can get a sense of the acting going on between the songs! There’s a rowdy vibe, the rowdiness of rehearsal. Lewis gives a maestro swoop on the piano before launching into the song. He’s so IN IT. The context is so there for him.

Peter Guralnick interviewed Lewis many times, and in one interview they talked about Catch My Soul. Lewis said, “I never worked so hard in my life. I mean two hours and forty-five minutes running up and down stairs. It was a mess.”

A beautiful mess. At least we have SOME record of what he was like as Iago.

Posted in Music, RIP, Theatre | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Jerry Lee Lewis’ 1957 television debut shatters the foundation of civilization

Posted on October 30, 2022 by sheila

I know so much ink has been spilled on this three minutes of television but that doesn’t mean I can’t (at least try) to write about it too.

Jerry Lee Lewis made his TV debut in July 1957 on the Steve Allen Show. The performance is terrifying.

There’s a lot to say about this completely unhinged demonic performance. And for me, the first thing, is the TIMING of it and what it reveals.

It just goes to show you how much the world had changed in just one year, how much the mainstream world capitulated to what was rising from the South.

In July 1956, the young phenom Elvis appeared on the Steve Allen Show. He had already caused a lot of trouble for himself with his performance on The Milton Berle Show. Headlines declared him dangerous. Advertisers threatened to pull out of any program that broadcast him. He was denounced from pulpits and school boards across the land. He was under siege. Steve Allen wanted in on all this notoreity but he wanted to undercut it too, to save his skin. So he put Elvis in a tuxedo – introduced him as “the NEW Elvis Presley” – and had him sing “Hound Dog” to an actual hound dog which … first of all forced Elvis to stand still … and also completely removed Elvis’ sexual explosiveness – in connection with those lyrics, which are not, of course, about an actual dog.

(Side note: the song already didn’t make much sense in Elvis’ hands, because of the swapped-in line “You ain’t never caught a rabbit” … which … to be redundant … makes no sense. Listen to Big Mama Thornton’s original version to really get what the song is saying. It’s also CLEARLY a song written for a woman to sing about her low-down no-good man who keeps comin’ around, comin’ around – To complicate matters, the song was written by two Jewish men – but boy they understood that woman’s plight! Elvis kind of ironed out all of that – or at least obliterated any meaning possible – because the song was no longer a song, the song was just HIM).

Steve Allen didn’t care about any of this. He says it straight out in his introduction: “wW want to do a show the whole family can enjoy” (subtext: unlike MILTON BERLE. Also subtext: But we want in on Uncle Milty’s RATINGS) and so … here is Elvis, dressed up and neutered. We all good now?

Now listen I realize there’s been a lot of chatter about this and there have been some excellent articles providing in-depth context to everything that was going on and to Steve Allen in general and the important contributions he made to American culture – which can’t be denied. I GRANT that but I’m with Dave Marsh, sue me. Allen humiliated Elvis by putting him in a tuxedo so the audience could haw-haw at the sight of a hillbilly playing dress up. Allen’s show was for grown-ups pooh-poohing rock ‘n roll, it was a square man’s reaction to something he didn’t understand. (The reaction to this reaction was something no one could have predicted. Yet ANOTHER uproar ensued, this time from fans across the land criticizing Steve Allen for what he did. “Bring back the old Elvis!”) As I mentioned there are counter-arguments to all I have just said, and Steve Allen actually liked Elvis and spent the next 40 years defending himself for those 2 minutes of television, but this is outside the scope of what I’m really trying to say. (Elvis has a way of drawing me away from …. basically every other subject on the face of the planet.)

MY POINT IS. Steve Allen was tentative in 1956 about letting Elvis just go off and do his thing. In 1957 …. he’s thrown up his hands in surrender. Like: You DIDN’T accept Elvis and you accept … THIS?

Literally everything has changed.

It’s one measly year later, and Jerry Lee Lewis gives a performance far more threatening than anything Elvis ever did live on television. (Granted, they were different types of performers. I am just talking about the mainstream world of square variety show hosts accepting or not accepting these figures.) Jerry Lee Lewis makes Elvis look like a good boy. And … Elvis WAS a good boy. With a libido, yes, and one of his most subversive contributions to culture was to allow “good” boys and girls to admit how much they wanted to get naked with each other. Okay, fine. But Jerry Lee Lewis was not – never was – a good boy.

Imagine tuning in in 1957 and seeing THIS come out of your screen. What on earth … Jerry Lee Lewis is an Old Testament preacher, speaking in tongues. He’s a leering sex maniac. He’s a juke-joint boogie-woogie maestro. He’s also a cult leader, telling his audience what to do. He controls that crowd, bringing them up, bringing them back down. He’s a snake charmer. He’s testifying in a muddy field under a tent. He’s hollering from a pulpit. His hair has a mind of its own and appears to be a sentient being. He orders everyone around. And they LOVE it.

All of this is alarming enough.

But then he stands up all of a sudden, and kicks the stool off the stage behind him – and he is now standing and screaming – bellowing SHAKE – NOW SHAKE – and the shock waves still reverberate.

Miley Cyrus twerking during her performance of “Wrecking Ball” pales in comparison to what Jerry Lee Lewis did here (although her “scandalous” behavior is definitely in the same continuum, which I’m sure she knew – she is smart – and she too has had to deal with city snobs haw-hawing at her “white trash”-ness – and what they don’t get is she is aware of all of this and plays around with those stereotypes consciously – and the response to that one performance of Miley’s was – predictably – the same – same thing Elvis faced, same thing Jerry Lee faced. She is corrupting our children, etc. rinse, repeat, same as it ever was, don’t you people get sick of yourselves?).

It feels like the stool – or Jerry Lee Lewis himself – is going to crash through the screen. He is pulling down the very foundations of Western civilization, just by the way he kicks that stool. Goodbye Apollo. Hello Dionysus. My Paglia is showing.

I don’t care that we have more “license” to show more explicit stuff on television now. None of it holds a candle to the shock of this.

The Sex Pistols terrified people. But they came almost 20 years later.

Jerry Lee Lewis got there first.

Posted in Music, RIP, Television | Tagged , | Leave a comment

How sweet the sound? Yeah, right. Jerry Lee Lewis howls at God.

Posted on October 29, 2022 by sheila

Jerry Lee Lewis’ ferocious wailing version of “Amazing Grace” is hard to find – off an obscure album recorded in a Memphis church in 1970, following his religious conversion. I tripped over his “Amazing Grace” one day on YouTube – I had never heard it before. It stunned me. I couldn’t MOVE listening to it. I couldn’t find reference to it anywhere else, it wasn’t available for purchase on iTunes, and so – a desperate woman – I downloaded it from YouTube, and then uploaded to my iTunes because I needed to HAVE this thing, whatever IT was, I had never heard ANYTHING like it.

Then it vanished from YouTube and I was very glad I stole it. I so wanted to link to it today and in a discussion with Cal (see post below) he tracked it down for me, after much Google searching. He knew instantly what I was talking about.) He found it, on Daily Motion. And so I post it for you now after the jump (the video loads automatically so I didn’t want it to be blasting over my main page indiscriminately).

His performance is hair-raising in many ways. I may be alone in feeling that way. He is filled with faith but above all you can hear – no, you can FEEL – that this man has been THROUGH. IT. He has been to the depths. He is now emerging, and he feels the light. He is not graceful or gentle or even humble about his journey, where he has gone to and where he is now. He cannot hide anything. He is in the light now but he is still dangerous. There’s something tentative about all of it, like … he can’t even believe in grace, maybe because it can’t last? Or he’s not worthy? Or he knows that … he will descend again? (I know Nick Tosches’ version of JLL has definitely influenced me.)

At any rate: below the jump: more thoughts on this absolutely extraordinary once-in-a-lifetime performance:

Continue reading →

Posted in Music, RIP | Tagged | 2 Comments

Peace in the valley for Jerry Lee at last?

Posted on October 29, 2022 by sheila

I don’t know what it was, it’s been a stressful week and I’ve had to hold it together, but I heard the news about Jerry Lee, and I was sitting at my desk, during the work day, and I dissolved into tears. Sobs, really. I don’t really cry anymore. I don’t know if it’s because of the drugs I’m on, but I rarely cry. Sometimes a movie makes me cry, but … not really. So it was alarming, and then I was like, “Fuck it, I really need to cry.” So I cried and cried about Jerry Lee, AS I was listening to “Who’s Gonna Play This Old Piano”? which I linked to in the piece before this one. But here it is again:

I’ve been talking to Cal Morgan, the biggest Jerry Lee Lewis fan I am personally aware of, and he’s been posting all kinds of clips, the majority of which I have never seen. Jerry Lee Lewis recorded so much, there are entire sessions – gospel and otherwise – which are to this day hard to find, and much of it has never reached a streaming platform.

Cal sent me this clip – the one at the very top. It’s basically an outtake. Or … not even a formal recording, Jerry Lee Lewis just sitting at the piano in between doing other things. Early 70s, maybe? And this is what happened.

Cal said it’s one of his favorite Jerry Lee performances ever – and so – because Cal knows everything – I immediately listened. And I immediately understood why Cal said what he said.

Jerry Lee went through a major conversion experience – which you can clearly hear in his fervent voice – but … wait until the end, when he segues into “I Long to See Jesus”. Something else starts happening. Mourning is there, a beautiful open sadness, which is semi-unique in his massive discography. This is off a very rare album which you can’t find anywhere – not an “official” recording – but tracks of it are on YouTube.

I was so BUSY at work yesterday so I’m doing my official job, blasting Jerry Lee Lewis gospel tracks, and sobbing openly.

I have such a sense of loss. A link with the past is gone. The Killer took his last breath.

You are at peace now, Jerry Lee.

Posted in Music, RIP | Tagged | Leave a comment

R.I.P. Jerry Lee Lewis

Posted on October 29, 2022 by sheila

“Who’s gonna play this old piano after I’m not here?”

I can answer that question, Jerry Lee.

Nobody.

Posted in Music, RIP | Tagged | Leave a comment

Review: Call Jane (2022)

Posted on October 28, 2022 by sheila

Eerie timing for this one, a movie about Chicago’s The Jane Collective (a documentary about this same group came out this year as well). My review gave me the chance to sing the praises of Elizabeth Banks, in general. As my brother said to me last night, “She is a national treasure.” And talk about “national treasure”, Sigourney Weaver is in this, and it’s basically a two-hander, although Banks is the lead. It’s a joy to watch Weaver in this. She’s really easy, no discernible “acting”. Directed by Phyllis Nagy, whose screenplay for Carol was nominated for an Academy Award. This is her first feature. I reviewed for Ebert.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Max Ophüls’ Caught (1949)

Posted on October 21, 2022 by sheila

Shot by Lee Garmes, Max Ophüls’ Caught is deeply gorgeous, every shot a work of art, with all of these de-stabilizing points of view, and in-camera “tricks” where human beings seem either miniaturized or giganticized – depending on the power hierarchies at play in any given scene. Again, this stuff is done in camera, but there are times when the effect is so striking you could swear the image had been doctored. A nervewracking tale of a young woman (Barbara Bel Geddes, heartbreakingly young and soooo open and accessible), kind of adrift in Los Angeles, going to “charm” school, where she learns how to be pleasing to men, doing a little modeling … all of this is basically one step away from prostitution, which the film makes explicit. The whole idea is to marry rich. She’s bought into it, she thinks that’s the only way she will survive, even though somehow she has maintained her ideals. The thought of going after a man for his money abhors her. She wants love.

Instead, she is the one snagged up by a rich man, the richest man, played by Robert Ryan at his most uncompromising iciness. Before she knows what’s happened, she’s locked up – literally – in his massive mansion – and is kept up all hours of the day and night, for the off chance that he might come home and need a hostess. It’s a nightmare.

She flees, and gets a job as a receptionist in a doctor’s office (the doctor played, with beautiful sympathy by James Mason). He has no idea she was the wife of a bazillionaire, even though there’s something about her hair style and her dress that makes him think something’s not quite on the level. She lives in a horrid little room, and immerses herself in her new job, finding capabilities she never knew she had. Of course, though, the past has a way of re-asserting itself. She is still married, after all. Robert Ryan is still out there. And he knows how to manipulate this poor young woman, and he does. The movie seesaws wildly between Long Island and Manhattan – between the doctor’s office and Robert Ryan’s mauseoleum of a mansion, where she is kept sleep-deprived – even when pregnant – to be ready for him should he need her. It’s a Gaslight-type situation. James Mason finds himself falling in love with her, but he is also really turned off when he hears her advising a little girl patient that it’s important to do such-and-such if she wants to marry a rich man. He tells her that it’s fine if SHE believes that, but he won’t have her pushing her silly beliefs onto his clients, many of whom are poor. Money isn’t everything. There are all kinds of interesting ideas at play here, and the acting is top-notch.

But LOOK at these shots. Max Ophüls’ camera floated through rooms, intricate but elegant, smooth and beautiful – almost like it was a living thing (witness his masterpiece, The Earrings of Madame de …. There are some real stunning camera moves throughout (one in particular where James Mason and the other doctor in his practice talk about life, all while her empty desk looms between them: lots of unsaid things swirling around). I was mostly taken though with the placement of figures in the frame.

Every single shot features massive differences in status, placement, so that … Robert Ryan, who was massive, sometimes looks tiny, with Barbara Bel Geddes looming over him, or, the other way around. So inventive. So disturbing.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Review: Aftersun (2022)

Posted on October 21, 2022 by sheila

I’ve been really looking forward to this one. Charlotte Wells’ feature film directorial debut. It did not disappoint. I really loved it. I reviewed for Ebert.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Review: The Loneliest Boy in the World (2022)

Posted on October 14, 2022 by sheila

If you’re getting confused about the logic in a zombie movie, then there’s probably something wrong. Granted, maybe there’s something wrong with me. But maybe it’s the movie, you feel me? I reviewed The Loneliest Boy in the World for Ebert.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | 2 Comments