Elizabeth, if you are reading I should say right off that I wasn't able to make it Downtown today as I had planned. I woke up early this morning with some mid-level tooth pain - I have a sensitive molar, partially broken, that needs to eventually be crowned or more likely replaced with an implant - and I thought, boy if I get down to L.A.. and it blows up on me, that will not be good. So I stayed home and got the pain under control with Advil and it seems to be going away now. I must have bit down on it in my sleep or got food lodged in the tooth. This has happened, to lesser or worse degrees, a few times since the tooth broke. This time doesn't seem too bad, so hopefully it will be back to normal by tomorrow. It's something I've been living with for a few years, just because I don't have dental insurance and to pay for an implant would be cost prohibitive at the moment. Luckily, the pain doesn't happen often, and I hope to get the repair work done in the next year or so. I am sorry I wasn't able to get there today, to the Marriott Hotel.
Rest assured, though, that there is no way I am gonna miss "Elemental". If I get a day of minimal activity with Pearl, I might even be able to make it down there on a work day during my afternoon break. But I also have another off-work period coming up in just about three weeks, beginning September 13. So I will 100% guaranteed be there to see it, because it has been pure magic the way the screening has come about, combined first and foremost with your work and ingenuity and that of your colleagues.
I am fascinated with The Way Things Work in life, and so for me to be there, and to see your film on that giant screen, will be the payoff of sorts, the end result of this particular bit of Life Magic. :)
Today was my final day off for this period, and I didn't do much but read and draw, though I did go for a small walk down to the store. The Lynch book is unputdownable, and I am really struck by the life he has had, the people he has met and the things he has done. It's extraordinary, as if he was touched by God, and his life story is all the proof you need that there is enormous magic in the world. All you need to do is look for it for yourself and your own purposes, in everything around you. ////
I did watch a movie tonight (when don't I?), a very different kind of Film Noir called "His Kind Of Woman" (1951), starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. Mitchum plays a professional gambler who owes some chump change to a Mob figure over a betting loss. The Mobster (Raymond Burr, when he was young and played bad guy roles) has been deported for financial crimes and is living in Italy. He wants to come back to America to re-establish his real estate empire, and the only way he is gonna be able to pull this off is by changing his identity. Burr and his hoodlums recall that Mitchum the small time card player is about the same height and weight as Burr, and they choose him as a mark, the person Burr will "become" to re-enter the U.S.
The plot begins with a job offered to Robert Mitchum by associates of Burr. They confront him and say that his gambling debt will be forgiven if he takes a trip down to Mexico, to a hideaway resort, and on top of that he will be paid 50 G's if he completes the job.
"But what is the job"?, asks Mitchum, because the bad guys haven't told him much.
"You will understand it when you get there", they say, and so he goes because he hasn't much choice.
When he gets to Mexico, he checks in to the luxury resort and finds it peopled with a small group of unusual characters. This is where the movie starts getting weird. One guest is a writer who spends his days at poolside, playing chess against himself. Another is a famous ham actor (Vincent Price), an avid hunter who enjoys the opportunities provided by the wilderness surrounding the resort. Finally, there is also Jane Russell, the famed muse of Howard Hughes, who produced this movie. You can bet your bottom dollar that Hughes himself came up with the title, "His Kind Of Woman", because Jane Russell was that for Mr. Hughes. The title is not entirely peripheral to the story, and Russell plays a main part, but the plot is all about Mitchum and Burr and the identity theft, so you know Hughes - who had the money and the say-so - told the writers, "put my girl in the title".
It is an excellent movie, though, because it switched gears so drastically. It begins as a straight Noir, with Hard Guy Dialogue, and Mitchum looking as always like he's about to fall asleep, but then he gets to Mexico, and at the resort are all these weird characters that could - through six degrees of dramatic separation - almost be characters in a David Lynch film.
But it is in the final 40 minutes that the film changes entirely and almost becomes a parody of Noir, when the Vincent Price character takes charge, even using some Shakespearean dialogue (I was cracking up) as he goes after the hoodlums who have double-crossed Bob Mitchum.
The ending goes on too long, and the film could have been cut from 120 minutes to perhaps 110, but mostly it is classic stuff because where will you see a Film Noir with dark drama, oddball characters and an almost farcical third act with Price leading a group of comical Mexican policemen to overtake the yacht of Raymond Burr and his men?
"His Kind Of Woman" is a one-of-a-kind Noir, perfect for viewing in a Lynch frame of mind, and it has many other characters including Jim Backus ("Mr. Howell") in a supporting role.
Two Big Thumbs Up, then. This is one you won't wanna miss.
I will be back at work tomorrow morn, and we will settle back into the next cycle, and.....
oh yeah, just because I forgot to mention it, I took a night off from "The Hollow Crown" to watch "His Kind Of Woman" just because I needed a break from the intensity of Part Two, as described in last night's blog. However, we will watch and review Part Three tomorrow evening.
See you back at Pearl's. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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