Woody & Jerry – Criterion Style

There it is, folks: the official Criterion cover for the original 2 1/2 first cut of Woody Allen’s ANHEDONIA, before he and master editor Ralph Rosenblum shaped the film down to 90 minutes and a new title: ANNIE HALL (1977). Both have denied the cut exists at all as it was never intended to be the final version. Apparently, Rosenblum did indeed make an excellent tape copy that was recently unearthed among some of his personal reels. Criterion, Allen and co-writer Marshall Brickman have been working on this project completely under the radar as per Woody’s understandable caution given his reluctance to revisit any of his films for their video release. The Blu-Ray will feature a good as print as possible given its tape origins, but allegedly looks terrific in Gordon Willis’s 1:85 color palette. The image from the Blu-Ray cover above takes place after Alvy Singer is arrested in Los Angeles and placed in, yes, Precint 13; the restored ANHEDONIA includes this important moment where Alvy escapes a beating and briefly bonds with his fellow prisoners by making them laugh. We’ll also get those famed scenes such as Woody meeting God; going to Hell; playing basketball against the Knicks, etc. The Criterion disc retails for $29.95, a steal to actually view the legendary first cut of what would become ANNIE HALL. After all, we need the eggs.

This is undoubtedly THE video release of the year, and let me say, quite possibly, of the 21st century. Yes folks, a re-mastered version of Jerry Lewis’s famous unseen 1970 cinematic statement, THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED. Although he actually shot most of the film using his own funds when the producers skipped town, the rights were tied up others, including the outraged original screenwriters, Joan O’Brien and Charles Denton, and for other various reasons, the final 35mm result remained in legal limbo, acquiring barnacles of myth since only a few have seen Lewis’s personal opus. Defying all reality as befits his oeuvre, Jerry Lewis and Criterion with other interested parties finally made the unimaginable happen with the announcement of the Blu-Ray premiere of THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED, featuring a new 2:35.1 anamorphic print struck from Lewis’s own perfectly preserved reels. Unlike Woody Allen, Lewis is a serious archivist so this amazing disc will include not only the remastered film, but a two hour documentary directed by Peter Bogdanovich, featuring numerous out-takes and behind-the-scenes material — including an hour’s worth of actual video assist footage from the production. At only 19.95, this is a beautiful treat for cinephilic fans of  The Total Film-Maker.

Pre-order both today on Amazon and get 20 percent off!

Mecha Fail

While I wish the planet’s energies were going to find a solution to the ongoing nuclear nightmare in Japan whose reactor meltdown seems inevitable — TEPCO has a huge amount of ‘splaining to do, their stonewalling so obvious (yet keeping with corporate character) it defies reason. I’ve been shouting WHERE ARE THE FUCKING ROBOTS? since this horrorshow began, and in a land where mech-fetish and imagination is at its height, one would think a Gundam-style robot could perform the most dangerous tasks. The US is finally sending robots to the reactors, but this should have happened immediately. And the federal technology we perfect for war is so lacking when it comes to industrial accidents. Or to put it more plain, the companies would rather risk lives and trillions instead of a billion on safety. We have the technology. When Tokyo tap water is radiated, you’re in a new frightening age. So Bring On The Robots. Other nations are now rethinking their nuclear plans (DUH) and hopefully America will follow suit. Hopefully.

Favorite Trailer Theatre: Shogun Assassin (1980)

This is UNARGUABLY one of the best exploitation trailers of all time, expertly condensing images with maximum hyperbole. As a few of you already know, SHOGUN ASSASSIN is the heavily edited combo of the first two 1974 Toho LONE WOLF AND CUB films, an archetypal Roger Corman import Anglicized for domestic release via his New World Pictures. In a rare case of imagination surpassing exploitation, the English dubbed version of Itto Ogami and his son’s journey on the path to Hell is a classic in its own right, with witty minimal dialogue and a glorious electronic score by Mark Lindsay and W. Michael Lewis. The anachronistic music should not work given the story’s 16th century setting, but its supercool melodic nature is a perfect soundtrack to the dazzling samurai battles and even for the touching montage where young Daigaro nurses his wounded father back to health. In fact, I actually own one of the uber-rare promotional LP soundtracks (I emailed Mark Lindsay long ago to praise/question him about the score, which he was gracious about and admitted to not even having a copy).

I recall the first time I saw SHOGUN ASSASSIN, on ye olde laser-disc, and was duly blown away by the kinetic, composed swordplay that features bloodletting so over the top and fantastic, you can’t be offended — I’d vouchsafe these are some of the best action scenes in film history. Director Kenji Misumi also knows the Japanese value of a long pause before the slicing starts. Daigaro’s voiceover is a nifty idea here, given that in Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s manga and successive films, he remains silent; Sandra Bernhard can also be heard as the conflicted female ninja warrior. SHOGUN ASSASSIN was clearly a huge influence on Tarantino’s KILL BILL, and there’s no shame in admiring both versions of the films. So enjoy this thrilling trailer which sells SHOGUN ASSASSIN as a “sword and sorcery” epic that ended up an influential drive-in/grindhouse hit for New World. Animego has released a beautiful Blu-ray version, so we can further savor the compressed adventures of “the greatest team in the history of mass slaughter.”

Legend

From the 1963 TV special, ELIZABETH TAYLOR IN LONDON with lovely music by John Barry. The sound of velvet curtains closing…

Saturday Nite Super Moon Teaser

Friday Song: Dave Brubeck

My favorite Dave Brubeck LP, 1964′s “Jazz Impressions of Japan” is a formerly more obscure release now rediscovered and better appreciated by a new generation. Written during a tour of the nation, highlighting the iconic Brucbeckian twinkling piano and Eugene Wright’s subtle bass with Paul Desmond’s wistful sax rhythmed by Joe Morello’s soft drums, the whole eight song musical diary aptly reflects the gaijin observer’s POV of zencool Japan, a wet city twined with neon and bonsai, bustling with exotic energy. Although my personal favorite piece, “The City Is Crying,” is not well represented on youtube, here is a beautifully shot live version of the band from 1964 performing the lovely, “Koto’s Song” — the one tune from this fantastic record that became a standard in Brubeck’s everlasting reservoir.

The Day The Clown Was Born

In a mad world, only the idiots are kings. And this is my favorite moment from Jerry Lewis’s 1960 directorial debut, THE BELLBOY, an almost silent film featuring Lewis as the titular screw-up. Here he makes a cameo as himself, a movie star persona with an entourage. At 3:32 in the clip, the scene becomes Art, and reveals something piercing and genuine about Jerry’s show business world. Bon anniversaire Monsieur Lewis!

Hell

Like you, I’ve been literally fixated on the Fukishima catastrophe since it began. Stay away from all American broadcasts – NHK, BBC and yes, Al Jazerra are the best news sources. Just when you pray it will get better, it gets worse. Three reactor explosions already and now a fourth reactor on fire, which has been thankfully extinguished. But there is a definite dangerous radiation leak with rising levels. The TEPCO press conference was astonishing – the officials bowed and apologized for the problems; in Japan, you know you’re fucked. The reporters were hard and relentless, demanding answers to their absolutely empty announcements. It’s very clear they have no control over the plant anymore. Hopefully the seawater will work but it seems to not have at this point. And the insistence TEPCO had it initially under control, refusing offers from America for help (until now) will be seen as an example of hubris and possibly fear. I know I’m scared shitless. Yet I sit in a warm cafe, surrounded by chatting drinkers, Sinatra singing about that Summer Wind and feel guilty about the good things I’m waiting for. We’re so lucky. For now. I know that whatever happens from this, I’ll be devoting more time to stop the construction of these nuclear energy time bombs. Greenpeace is a good start.

A Long Strange Trip

Owsley Stanley with Jerry Garcia

Owsley Stanley, the Bay Area avatar of LSD who funded the The Grateful Dead and whose chemical compounds could arguably be responsible for much of the psychedelic revolution of the 1960′s, has died at the age of 76 in a car accident in Australia. Onward.

Overture

Here’s the beautiful theme, “Overture,” featured in Leiji Matsumoto’s hugely popular 1974 anime, SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO, taken from the show’s final 1984 symphonic concert, vocalized with melancholic wonder by Kazuko Kawashima.

Silk Road Fantasy

One of my favorite electronic musicians has always been Kitaro, a legend in Japan and beyond. His music is not everybody’s cup of meditative synthesizer tea, but it’s filled with the soul and spirit of Nippon. Here’s a 1986 version of his most famous piece, “Silk Road,” taken from the entire suite, set to a travelogue video that often accompany his releases in Japan. Peace.

The Japan Syndrome

It’s scary to watch the walls of a nuclear reactor explode. I’ve always been opposed to nuclear energy since I was a tyke — like I said, Godzilla films taught me to be scared shitless of atomic experimentation — and I also recall the valid fear and threat of Three-Mile Island along with the successful shutdown of the Rancho Seco plant near Sacramento in 1989. Given the vast destructive possibilities of radioactive power gone awry in an age of global terrorism, building giant bombs on fault lines around the world seems like sheer madness. I pray the radiation is decreasing as TEPCO now claims, but given their history of falsifying records, along with the Japanese government ignoring warnings, we’ll wait and see. Hopefully this event will launch a needed dialogue abut the wisdom of these dangerous energy sources. “Nobody expected a quake of that magnitude” is what the nuclear powers that be are saying in Japan. We’ve heard this sad song too many times. Given the choice between candlelight and melting — I’ll take candlelight.

Friday Song: Duran Duran

“The apocalyptic images on Japanese TV of powerful, debris-filled waves, uncontrolled fires and a ship caught in a massive whirlpool resembled scenes from a Hollywood disaster movie.” – Associated Press

Actually, as many have thought with morbid irony, the images are akin to Japanese monster films, whose primal, primary purpose I believe has been to remind generations of children that nationwide devastation is never far away, not even in a kaiju landscape, the residue of Nagasaki and Hiroshima always on the horizon. I’ve been to Japan, walked near the docks of Kobe and the hills of Nara, strode mountain paths where samurai once tread, stood over Tokyo in its famous tower that fell to Mothra and Godzilla and walked around Osaka Temple. It’s a vibrant, magical, mysterious nation, and if I had any previous lives, I’m certain I spent one in the Land Of The Rising Sun. I’ve been in deadly earthquakes such as the 1994 Northridge one that measured 6.6 — and I did briefly believe it was the end of the world — but Americans are relatively lucky compared to other nations whose deaths can measure in the 100,000′s. The Sendai quake is the largest in recorded Japanese history and it’s too early to count the death toll, already in the hundreds; as oil refineries burn, the threat of a nuclear reactor disaster is still present and President Obama wisely stressed in his press conference that it was finally time to get off the oil addiction, going to wind, solar, etc. energy sources. You can’t stop Mother Nature from her movements, but there’s no doubt we’re pushing her to the limit. A catastrophe like this makes my triumphs and tragedies seem beyond trivial, so I thought it apropos to choose a live 2003 version of Duran Duran performing their huge 1993 “comeback” hit, “Ordinary World,” for a more somber weekend segue. I heard this beautiful song when it premiered on KROC and I said out loud, “They did it. This is a hit song.” For all that’s worth now. As Simon Le Bon sings, “Here besides the news, Of holy war and holy need, Ours is just a little sorrowed talk.”

Star Child: Stanley Kubrick RIP

Hard to believe that way back on March 7, 1999, a few weeks before the release of his final film, EYES WIDE SHUT, Mr. Stanley Kubrick went on his own infinite journey at the cusp of 2001…I’m of the opine that 2001: A SPACE ODYESSY is one of the esthetic gifts from the Monolith to help speed Mankind into another evolutionary stage. Next to DR. STRANGELOVE, it’s the Kubrick I never tire of, and have seen at least six times on the big screen in genuine 70mm and numerous times on the home screen. Anybody who thinks 2001 is “boring” — I immediately assume are boring. I hope that we’ll be able to see the 17 minutes of footage shorn after the initial preview and I especially hope to see some of the many unused spfx shots of aliens that Douglas Trumbull has often referenced. In fact, I always find something new whenever I revisit the film, and I particularly enjoy the scene with Dr. Heywood Floyd and his casual sit-down with a group of Russian space counterparts; their surface banalities undercut by Floyd’s clear stonewalling of the Monolith’s discovery. And the transition between the skull-crushing bone and the floating weapons satellite is still the greatest cut in film history. Though Kubrick was a cynical sort, there’s nothing more optimistic nor benevolent in his entire oeuvre than the final moments of 2001: A SPACE ODYESSY.

Sunday Night Drive-In