Hi folks, and Happy Monday. I'm hard at work on my "2009" book, but since I can't reveal any details, it's gonna be movies and music again. At night, while reading, I've been listening to selections from the Mercury Living Presence series, considered by stereo enthusiasts to be the greatest orchestral recordings ever made, some of which were recorded on the "sound strip" of 35mm film. During my time at the Metrocolor lab (way back in the Stone Age), we called this the "track", and it had a special solution (apart from the film chemicals) to develop it. Anyhow, if you like symphonic music presented in incredible stereo sound, give a listen to Mercury Living Presence. I'm only listening on Youtube through cheap headphones; imagine how it sounds on vinyl though a proper stereo system! Try it and see. A good one to start with is "The Firebird Suite" by Igor Stravinsky, conducted by Anatol Dorati. Or try "Bluebeard's Castle" by Bartok. Note: there was a competitor to Mecury Living Presence called Living Stereo by RCA. It's probably just as good, sound-wise.
Last Wednesday, I made another visit to the Armer Theater at CSUN for Luis Bunuel's "Los Olvidados"(1950), the story of a group of street kids in Mexico City, one of whom falls under the criminal spell of a teenage delinquent and becomes implicated in a murder. This film shows the abject poverty in the Mexican ghettos circa 1950, and is regarded as one of Bunuel's greatest works, though extremely bleak in the tradition of post-war Italian Neo-realism.
I also saw "Conclave", which I thought was excellent. I don't wanna give any spoilers. It's somewhat in the same vein as "Angels and Demons" but that's a broad comparison, made only because there's a Papal Conclave in each film. This one is plotted as a process of elimination in which the moral fallibilities of each candidate are exposed. You find yourself rooting for Ralph Fiennes to accept the mantle, but he has his own crisis to deal with. There's a twist - I won't tell you when, and I absolutely did not see it coming, but it's something of a mindblower. Some might say it's a Woke statement, but I thought it was the opposite of that because the reasoning behind the message (in the twist) is entirely non-political, though there are political themes along the way. The Church is supposed to be above politics, but of course, its leadership is only human and people in positions of power often strive for more, in righteous or unrighteous ways. At any rate, I loved the simplicity of "Conclave", which plays out like a courtroom drama with tremendous acting by all parties (including a quietly intense Isabella Rosselini). Filmed on location in Rome, with beautiful photography. 10/10, don't miss it.
In music news, it's been confirmed that Sir Ritchie Blackmore had a heart attack 18 months ago. RB has a Youtube channel (run by assistants because he doesn't do that sort of thing) and occasionally, his wife Candice will cajole him into telling late night "Tales From the Tavern" from their in-house bar, and because Ritchie is such a dry wit and great storyteller, with over 60 years of rock stories to relate, these "Tales" are highly entertaining. One clip, however, may have caused concern or confusion among his fans. I know it did for me, when Ritchie, talking about touring as he nears 80, mentioned that it was getting more difficult to travel due to a series of "maladies" he's afflicted with, including gout and arthritis. Then he said, "I've also got six stents in my heart. I collect them, you know". That comment no doubt took fans aback. Ritchie goes in for black humor, but his wife was with him when he said this, and I thought "If it was a joke, she'd have stopped him" because it would not be funny. The clip was posted about six months ago, and I occasionally Googled "Ritchie Blackmore" + "Stents", or "Ritchie Blackmore Health", but nothing came back. I imagine other fans made similar inquiries, and now we know what he meant because the news has been revealed by Candice. But long live Ritchie Blackmore, I say. Candice says he's been forbidden to fly by his doctors, probably due to cabin pressure, so Blackmore's Night can't play in Europe, and they haven't played the West Coast in twenty years, but as long as Ritchie is in the world, all is good. And speaking of guitar players named Ritchie, or in this case Richie (minus the t): Richie Faulkner of Judas Priest, a mere 45 years old, has said a few days ago that he recently suffered a stroke as a complication from his near-fatal aortic dissection in 2021. It's been a rough time for English guitarists named Richard, but we pray they will be with us for many years to come, Thank You Dear Lord.
Here's an obscure film for you: "The Visitors"(1972), which I discovered by accident after watching "Casualties of War" on Tubi. A 1989 screening of "Casualties", of course, plays a huge role in the story of that year, and this was my first time seeing the movie since then. It's one of the great Vietnam War films, and Sean Penn is very good doing his Robert Duvall imitation. While researching the movie afterwards, I read about the incident it is based on, which was first written up as an article in The New Yorker. The legendary director Elia Kazan read it, and got the idea to make a movie about the speculative aftermath of this war crime, musing on what might happen after the soldiers got out of Leavenworth Prison on greatly reduced sentences. Kazan's films read like a greatest hits of cinema: "A Streetcar Named Desire", "On the Waterfront", "East of Eden", so if there were no credits on this one, you'd never guess that such a Mount Rushmore director would make a low budget flick that has the gritty feel of "Straw Dogs" mixed with the slow-building dread of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre". A 25-year-old James Woods plays the Michael J. Fox role, and Steve Railsback of "Helter Skelter" fame plays Sean Penn. The acting is realistic. What is threatened in "Casualties of War" (that the bad guys might seek revenge against Fox when they get out of prison) actually happens here, but not in the cut-and-dried way you might think. What happens takes the whole movie to unfold, and is greatly enabled by the (possibly fictionalised) character of Woods' girlfriend's macho father, a hard drinking WW2 vet who is glad to have some fellow soldiers to talk to. The portrayal by actor Patrick McVey is what brings this film to Texas Chainsaw level. When the viewer feels he or she is in the presence of truly dangerous people, it goes beyond acting, and the scene where they watch the 1969 Super Bowl between the Jets and Colts is some seriously demented male bonding, spooky stuff indeed. Railsback shows himself to be a genius actor, maybe too genius because he became typecast as a psycho. Having said all of this, the film may belong to the only female character, Woods' girlfriend/McVey's daughter, played by Patricia Joyce, whose actions seem inexplicable at one point late in the film and lead to the brutal climax.
"The Visitors" was entered at Cannes, and while it didn't win any awards, it is a study in tension from start to finish. I wonder if Tarantino knows about it? If not, I have one up on him! Watch it on Tubi, my new favorite movie channel.
And that's about all for tonight. Thanks for reading and tons of love.
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