Trump vs. Biden, September 29 [2020)

What just happened here?

Like a Bach fugue at maximum polyphony.

Like the first movement of Górecki’s third symphony.

It was only three voices tonight, but it seemed like many more.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8788571/Full-transcript-Donald-Trump-Joe-Biden-debate.html

Let’s unpack.

First, Chris Wallace is not “America’s premier journalist” (as Fox News proffered in the week leading up to this debate).

Even so, this is the closest thing Donald Trump will get to a “fair shake” this entire debate season.

Wallace does not like Trump.

That is pretty obvious.

His disdain for Trump is not very well hidden.

“Fair and balanced”…

Not quite.

But, again, compared to what will follow in other debates, Chris Wallace is at least a photocopy of a fax of ¨journalism“.

The mediators to follow will not even rise to that level of “quality”.

But let’s get to Biden’s “strategy”:

-That’s simply not true.

-That is simply a lie.

-You’re not going to be able to shut him up.

-Donald would you just be quiet for a minute.

[crosstalk]

Wallace: You’re debating him not me.

Well, actually…he’s debating both of you corrupt pricks.

Trump: Well, I’ll ask Joe.

When the game is not fair (and it isn’t–it hasn’t been for the past four years), then you can’t play fair in return.

Cipher.

Wallace: Mr. President, I’m the moderator of this debate and I would like you to let me ask my question…

Trump: Well, first of all, I guess I’m debating you, not him, but that’s okay. I’m not surprised.

Wallace aims early at Trump…calling a major Trump move (to protect people with pre-existing conditions) “largely symbolic”.

Wallace is not just a moderator.  He is setting the agenda.  Literally, and in a deeper way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda-setting_theory

Back to Biden’s “strategy”:

-I’m not going to listen to him.

-The fact is that everything he’s saying so far is simply a lie. I’m not here to call out his lies. Everybody knows he’s a liar.

Interesting.  Impugn the character.

Liar.

Trump came with examples.

Trump:  Joe, you’re the liar. You graduated last in your class not first in your class.

[crosstalk]

Wallace (existential crisis): Gentlemen, you realize if you’re both speaking at the same time. 

Biden “strategy”:

-And the fact is this man doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Trump has to become the moderator.  Trump has to ask the hard questions.

Trump: Are you going to pack the court?

And again…

Trump: Are you going to pack the court?

Trump becomes the journalist and gets the answer.

DONALD TRUMP: He doesn’t want to answer the question.

JOE BIDEN: I’m not going to answer the question.

And here Biden loses his temper.  Trump has ALREADY gotten under his skin (and won).

Biden:  Will you shut up, man?

Very liberal.

“Free speech”.

Just remember, kids…if you want to be a true liberal, you will call everything your opponent says (no matter whether it is or isn’t borne out by the facts) a lie.  And, furthermore, you will (one way or another) try to shut your opponent up.  Sleepy Joe is weak, but his mic was hot enough to drown out Trump for much of this debate.  Like a little kid saying, “Nah nah nah…I’m not listening” while sticking his fingers in his ears.

Biden “strategy”:

-This is so un-Presidential.

But he’s the fucking President, Joe.  And you’re a fucking former VICE President.  But, of course, you know what is and isn’t Presidential…

Who’s looking down on whom???

Biden “strategy”:

-Keep yapping, man.

-You should get out of your bunker…

Whoa!

Yes, you right that right:  Biden told TRUMP that Trump should get out of a “bunker”.  Biden tried to spin it immediately into a golf allusion.  But it was (at least) the first of many huge missteps by Biden.

Trump then correctly points out the skewed reporting over the past FOUR years.

Trump: They give you good press, they give me bad press because that’s the way it is, unfortunately.

trump1

trump2

News Coverage of Donald Trump’s First 100 Days

But when Biden questioned Trump’s intellect, the POTUS dropped a MOAB on Biden.

DONALD TRUMP: Did you use the word smart?

[boom]

Trump: So you said you went to Delaware State, but you forgot the name of your college. You didn’t go to Delaware State. You graduated either the lowest or almost the lowest in your class. Don’t ever use the word smart with me. Don’t ever use that word.

Biden “strategy”:

-Will he just shush for a minute?

[crosstalk]

Turning the captured cannons on the battlefield.

DONALD TRUMP: Wait a minute, Joe. Let me shut you down for a second, Joe, just for one second. He wants to shut down the country. We just went through it. We had to, because we didn’t know anything about the disease. Now we’ve found that elderly people with heart problems and diabetes and different problems are very, very vulnerable. We learned a lot. Young children aren’t, even younger people aren’t. We’ve learned a lot, but he wants to shut it down. More people will be hurt by continuing. If you look at Pennsylvania, if you look at certain states that have been shut down, they have Democrat governors, all, one of the reasons they shut down is because they want to keep it shut down until after the election on November 3rd.

Biden “strategy”:

-re: masks  –> He’s a fool on this.

Again impugning Trump’s character (specifically intellect and/or judgement).  Thin ice.

Let’s take a look at the Biden “intellect” for a moment.

Biden: That’s why I’m going to eliminate the Trump tax cuts. And I’m going to eliminate those tax cuts.

DONALD TRUMP: Why didn’t you do it over the last 25 years?

JOE BIDEN: Because you weren’t president and screwing things up.

Wha?

JOE BIDEN: You’re the worst president America has ever had. Come on.

Wow…

A lot of anger.  A lot of emotion.  And not a lot of logic.

Biden “strategy” then starts to really tank:

-buying American

Really?  A little late to the game, Joe.

Where did you get that idea?

Continuing…

JOE BIDEN: By the way, I’m going to eliminate a significant number of the taxes. I’m going to make the corporate tax 28%. It shouldn’t be 21%.

Hmm.  Last time I checked, 28% was MORE than 21%.  So…he’s going to “eliminate” taxes by making them HIGHER?

Biden “strategy”:

-JOE BIDEN: Yeah, because what he did, even before COVID, manufacturing went in the hole. Manufacturing went in a hole-

Right…

So Biden isn’t a cozy-with-China globalist who would prefer America to be a service-based economy while offshoring nearly all manufacturing to the PRC?

I think not.

His record says otherwise.

Trump is the first U.S. President (over the course of DECADES) who has tried to claw back good-paying manufacturing jobs FROM China.  No Democrat (or Republican) before him has tried to do this since China’s cheap labor became the beneficiary to the deindustrialization of the USA.

JOE BIDEN: I’m the guy that brought back the automobile industry.

What the fuck is he talking about?!?

Biden “strategy” continues:

-That is not true.

DONALD TRUMP: China ate your lunch, Joe. And no wonder your son goes in and he takes out billions of dollars. He takes out billions of dollars to manage. He makes millions of dollars. And also, while we’re at it, why is it just out of curiosity, the mayor of Moscow’s wife gave you a son three and a half million dollars?

Biden “strategy”:

-That is not true.

-None of that is true.

[and again]

-None of that is true.

-That is not true.

[it gets a little old, doesn’t it]

That was a rhetorical question.

DONALD TRUMP: It’s a fact.

JOE BIDEN: It is not a fact.

Under Joe’s skin again.  Sensitive topic.  Hunter Biden.

JOE BIDEN: Well, it’s hard to get any word in with this clown. Excuse me, this person.

Biden “strategy” [hereafter BS…for brevity, etc.]:

-That is simply not true.

-That’s not true.

Chris Wallace’s true colors come out.  To the question, “Can I be honest?”, Wallace shuts down all dialogue…because Trump veers into asking about Joe’s quid pro quo to get a Ukrainian prosecutor fired (a prosecutor investigating corruption related to his son Hunter).  The quid pro quo involved a billion dollars in American taxpayer money.

DONALD TRUMP: Chris, can I be honest? It’s a very important question-

JOE BIDEN: Try to be honest.

CHRIS WALLACE: No.

DONALD TRUMP: He stood up-

CHRIS WALLACE: The answer to the question is no.

DONALD TRUMP: … and the threatened Ukraine-

CHRIS WALLACE: Sir-

DONALD TRUMP: … with a billion dollars-

JOE BIDEN: That is absolutely not true.

Wallace: Why should I be different than the two of you?

Chris Wallace doesn’t want to “report” the news.  He doesn’t want to give facts.  Instead, he wants to shape public opinion.  As good as he is (compared to literal CIA hacks like Anderson Cooper), he is still beholden to his own jealousy…nay, envy (if not also beholden to an untoward entity).

Two summers at Langley.

Operative line:

“For a couple months over the course of two summers, I worked at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.”

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2006/09/my-summer-job-nearly-20-years-ago.html

Joe having trouble remembering that equity and equality mean two different things:

JOE BIDEN: It’s about equity and equality. It’s about decency. It’s about the constitution. And we have never walked away from trying to require equity for everyone, equality for the whole of America.

More cognitive dissonance (bland propaganda):

JOE BIDEN: … second point I’d make to you, is that when Floyd was killed, when Mr. Floyd was killed, there was a peaceful protest in front of the White House. What did he do? He came out of his bunker, had the military use tear gas on them so he could walk across to a church and hold up a Bible.

[sidenote…the church in question was set on fire…by the “peaceful” protesters…and later visited by Trump (who indeed had a Bible)]

DONALD TRUMP: You did a crime bill, 1994, where you call them super predators. African-Americans are super predators and they’ve never forgotten it. They’ve never forgotten it.

There is quite a lot of truth in this.  Biden did indeed use this term.  He very much seemed to be referring to black people when using said term.

BS:

-I’ve never said-

You make the call.  Who is he talking about?

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/03/05/joe-biden-tough-on-crime-speech.cnn

DONALD TRUMP: I don’t think you have any law enforcement. You can’t even say the word law enforcement. Because if you say those words, you’re going to lose all of your radical left supporters.

It does certainly appear that Joe Biden has backtracked on his “tough on crime” stance from years ago.  It does certainly appear that he has caved to AOC and BLM.  Because he NEEDS those votes  Scary.

Trump re: racial sensitivity training (shaming white men solely because of the color of their skin and because of a heritage they had no choice but be born into):

“They were teaching people that our country is a horrible place. It’s a racist place. And they were teaching people to hate our country. And I’m not going to allow that to happen.”

BS:

JOE BIDEN: Nobody’s doing that. He’s the racist.

Very quick to impugn character.  Very quick.  And very hackneyed.  Never a new trope.

Chris Wallace setting the agenda again…because he’s really so worried about “hellholes” like Tulsa and Fort Worth…  Give me a fucking break:

CHRIS WALLACE: That’s exactly my question. There has been a dramatic increase in homicides in America this summer particularly, and you often blame that on Democratic mayors and Democratic governors. But in fact, there have been equivalent spikes in Republican led cities, like Tulsa and Fort Worth. So the question is, is this really a…

You can’t compare those two cities with Chicago.  Or Minneapolis.  Or Portland.  Or Seattle.  Or Oakland.  Or Baltimore.  Apples and motherfucking oranges.

JOE BIDEN: I was raised in the suburbs. This is not 1950. All these dog whistles and racism don’t work anymore. Suburbs are by and large integrated. There’s many people today driving their kids to soccer practice and/or black and white and Hispanic in the same car as there have been any time in the past, what really is a threat to the suburbs and their safety is his failure to deal with COVID. They’re dying in the suburbs. His failure to deal with the environment, they’re being flooded, they’re being burned out because his refusal to do anything. That’s why the suburbs are in trouble.

Translation:

Trump’s a racist and the main problem plaguing the suburbs is “climate change”.  Not in Chicago.  Not in Portland.  Not in Seattle.

In Portland, months of riots…every night.  And then (voila!) the fires.  Very convenient, these fires, for indebted states like California.

There are a plethora of examples of fires being intentionally set this season…particularly in Oregon:

https://qntmpkts.keybase.pub//

Enjoy.

Scroll down a bit.

Another Biden gaffe happens on the topic of cities which have literally been burned by arsonists, but again:  it’s Trump’s fault.

Biden: He just pours gasoline in the fire constantly and every single solitary time.

Trump is mocking the fact that Wallace and Biden (and the entire liberal [media] establishment) have him on trial.

#Kafka

DONALD TRUMP: What do you want to call them? Give me a name, give me a name, go ahead who do you want me to condemn.

Then Biden makes a startlingly-moronic statement:

Biden: Antifa is an idea not an organization-

Wow.

BS:

-You have no idea about anything.

Trump: And that’s despite the impeachment hoax and you so what happened today with Hillary Clinton, where it was a whole big con job. But despite going through all of these things where I had a fight, both flanks and behind me and above there has never been an administration that’s done what I’ve done. The greatest, before COVID came in the greatest economy in history, lowest unemployment numbers, everything was good. Everything was going.

dni

DONALD TRUMP: When you leave office, you don’t leave any judges. That’s like, you just don’t do that. They left 128 openings and if I were a member of his party, because they have a little different philosophy, I’d say, if you left us 128 openings you can’t be a good president. You can’t be a good vice president but I want to thank you because it gives us almost, it’ll probably be above that number. By the end of this term, 300 judges. It’s a record.

#TheyNeverThoughtSheWouldLose

DONALD TRUMP: Are you talking Hunter, are you talking about Hunter.

JOE BIDEN: I’m talking about my son, Beau Biden, you’re talking about Hunter?

DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know Beau. I know Hunter. Hunter got thrown out of the military. He was thrown out dishonorably discharged.

JOE BIDEN: That’s not true he was not dishonorably discharged.

DONALD TRUMP: For cocaine use. And he didn’t have a job until you became vice president.

JOE BIDEN: None of that is true.

DONALD TRUMP: Once you became vice president he made a fortune in Ukraine, in China, in Moscow and various other places.

JOE BIDEN: That is not true.

BS:

-That is not true. That report is totally discredited.

Two against one.

CHRIS WALLACE: I’d like to talk about climate change.

JOE BIDEN: So would I.

BS 2.0:

DONALD TRUMP: Not true. Not true-

JOE BIDEN: It’s all true.

Deft counterpunching ensues [BS]:

-JOE BIDEN: Not true-

-JOE BIDEN: Not true.

-JOE BIDEN: Not true.

Ending with a hyphen on the first iteration was really a subtle way of changing it up…

BS:

-That is simply not the case-

Truth bomb incoming:

DONALD TRUMP: So why didn’t you get the world… China sends up real dirt into the air. Russia does. India does. They all do. We’re supposed to be good.

Denial and deception only goes so far:

DONALD TRUMP: He called the military stupid bastards.

JOE BIDEN: I did not say that-

DONALD TRUMP: He said it on tape. [crosstalk]-

CHRIS WALLACE: Please, sir. [crosstalk] Stop.

DONALD TRUMP: I would never say that [crosstalk]-

JOE BIDEN: Play it. Play it-

CHRIS WALLACE: Stop. Go ahead-

DONALD TRUMP: You’re on tape-

“Clap for that, you stupid bastards!  Man, you all are a dull bunch.  Must be slow or something here, man.”

Main takeaway.

As fake as Kamala Harris is (and she is fake as fuck), Biden is a thoroughly corrupt career politician masquerading as a common man.

He can’t even remember what lie he told yesterday.

He is a pathological liar AND has senile dementia.

Bad combination.

He will do or say ANYTHING to become President.

JOE BIDEN: No, I don’t support the Green New Deal.

DONALD TRUMP: Oh, you don’t? Oh, well, that’s a big statement.

JOE BIDEN: I support [crosstalk]-

DONALD TRUMP: You just lost the radical left.

[MOAB incoming]

DONALD TRUMP: So when I listen to Joe talking about a transition, there has been no transition from when I won. I won that election. And if you look at crooked Hillary Clinton, if you look at all of the different people, there was no transition, because they came after me trying to do a coup. They came after me spying on my campaign. They started from the day I won, and even before I won. From the day I came down the escalator with our first lady, they were a disaster. They were a disgrace to our country, and we’ve caught them. We’ve caught them all. We’ve got it all on tape. We’ve caught them all. And by the way, you gave the idea for the Logan Act against General Flynn. You better take a look at that, because we caught you in a sense, and President Obama was sitting in the office.

42785323-47D8-4034-8444-B2C8A1F8B0A7

-PD

Hugo [2011)

It’s hard to imagine that perfection would be possible in 2011.

In this very uncinematic era ruined by technology.

But it takes a genius to produce art from tech.

And it takes an artist to produce art.

Martin Scorsese was well up to the challenge.

As the weirdo I am, The King of Comedy has always been my favorite of his films.

Rupert Pupkin spoke to me in a way that perhaps only the totality of Dr. Strangelove ever similarly did.

But Mr. Scorsese had the brass to undertake a project which should have been doomed if only by its trappings.

Films have tried and generally failed at relative tasks.

City of Ember, for example.

But Scorsese was not deterred.

Not least because he had the magical trump card:  Méliès.

Which is to say, he had the story to end all stories (as far as cinema is concerned).

The big daddy.  The big papa.

Papa Georges.

But first things first…

We must give credit to Asa Butterfield (who looks like a cross between Barron Trump and Win Butler in this film).

Butterfield is no Mechanical Turk.

Nay, far from it.

But automata (or at least one particular automaton) play a large role in Hugo.

And why “Hugo”?

Kid living “underground”?  Victor?  Les Misérables?

Yes, I think so.

And it’s a nice touch by the auteur (in the strictest sense) Brian Selznick.

[Yes, grandson of David O.]

We’re at the Gare Montparnasse.

Torn down in 1969.

Site of this famous 1895 derailment.

train_wreck_at_montparnasse_1895

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I’m up to 1,261.

But we press on…

Because Méliès was about dreams.

And Hugo is about dreams.

les rêves

And Scorsese has been “tapped in” to this magic at least since he portrayed Vincent van Gogh in Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (Kurosawa-san’s best film).

I must admit…I was a bit confused for awhile.

Something told me Scorsese had transformed himself into Méliès.

It was only later that it all made sense.

Ben Kingsley.

I mean, Scorsese is a great actor (Van Gogh, etc.), but he’s not THAT great!

But I’m jumping ahead…

Sacha Baron Cohen is very good in a somewhat-serious, villain role here.

I fully expected the immensely-talented Cohen to “ham it up” at some point, but he instead gives a very fine, restrained performance which fits like clockwork (sorry) into the viscera of this exquisite film.

But let’s revisit Sir Kingsley.

What a performance!

The loss of a career (Méliès).

The loss of a previous life.

The fragility of celluloid.

All to end up running a pathetic souvenir shop.

Toys.

Very clever, but still…

Such a fall from grace.

Into such obscurity.

I can only compare it to the trajectory of Emmett Miller (which was so artfully documented by my favorite author of all time [Nick Tosches] in my favorite BOOK of all time [Where Dead Voices Gather]).

The speed at which technology moves has the potential to reduce the most eminent personage to mere footnote at breakneck speed.

It was so even a hundred years ago.

And the process has now exponentially accelerated.

But we are coming to understand the trivialization of the recent past.

We are holding tighter to our precious films and recordings.

Because we know that some are lost forever.

Will this vigilance continue uninterrupted?

I doubt it.

But for now we know.

Some of us.

That today’s masterpieces might slip through the cracks into complete nonexistence.

Consider Kurt Schwitters.

The Merzbau.

Bombed by the Allies in 1943.

Es ist nicht mehr.

Into thin air.

But such also is the nature of magic.

Poof!

Skeletons later evoked by Jean Renoir in La Règle du jeu.

Scorsese is a film historian making movies.

And it is a wonderful thing to see.

And hear.

Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre more than once.

As on a player piano.

With ghost hands.

And the gears of the automaton.

Like the mystery of Conlon Nancarrow’s impossible fugues.

I’m betting Morten Tyldum lifted more than the spirit of gears meshing in Hugo to evoke the majesty of Alan Turing’s bombe in The Imitation Game.

But every film needs a secret weapon (much like Hitchcock relied on the MacGuffin).

And Scorsese’s ace in the hole for Hugo is the Satie-rik, placid visage of Chloë Grace Moretz.

Statuesque as water.

A grin.

A dollar word.

The beret.

And the ubiquitous waltzes as seen through keyholes and the Figure 5 in Gold.

Hugo is the outsider.

Scruffy ruffian.

Meek.  Stealing only enough to survive.  And invent.

But always on the outside looking in.

Below the window (like in Cinema Paradiso).

Ms. Moretz’ world is lit with gas lamps.

And you can almost smell the warm croissants.

[Funny that a film set in Paris should require subtitles FOR PARISIANS]

Assuming you don’t speak English.

Tables are turned.

But Paris draws the cineastes like bees to a hive.

THE hive.

Historically.

And that is just what this is.

History come alive.

But another word about Ms. Moretz.

As I am so wont to say in such situations, she’s not just a pretty face.

Though they are faint glimmers, I see an acting potential (mostly realized) which I haven’t seen in a very long time.

The key is in small gestures.

But really, the key is having Scorsese behind the camera.

It’s symbiotic.

Martin needed Chloë for this picture.

And vice versa.

We get a movie within a movie.

And (believe it or not) even a dream within a dream.

Poe is ringing his bell!

Or bells.

“Lost dream” says Wikipedia.

Yes.

It is as bitter a music as ever rained into Harry Partch’s boot heels.

To have one’s life work melted down for shoes.

Rendered.

To click the stone of Gare Montparnasse.

In an ever-more-sad procession.

Méliès becomes the vieux saltimbanque of which Baudelaire wrote.

Such is life.

We never expected to end up HERE.

Astounding!

-PD

Riso Amaro [1949)

Robert Bresson said, “I believe in cinema.”

In English?  Like that?  I don’t know.

But it is truly the thought which counts here.

Because I believe in cinema.

Cinema.

Maybe it’s my favorite word.

My religion.

The great omnist hymn of all lands.

Of all the hands which have pitched in to turn the wheels of the mind.

And so this film, Bitter Rice, is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.

Not because it is flowery and seductive. [It’s not flowery.]

Not because there are perfumed stars in diamonds. [There’s no perfume.]

But because it is real.

As real as cinema gets.

Not the hyperreal of Harmony Korine’s Gummo.

Not even the transparent real of documentary footage.

But a real which is uniquely Italian.

To say neorealism is to cheapen the whole creation.

This is a masterpiece by director Giuseppe De Santis.

You must live through the rain to understand it.

You must have had no hope to fathom the slop.

You must wade in de water.

Because you are seeing Italian opera.

There’s no speech in the field.

No talking.

Workers are in the prison of labor.

Same kinds of rules.

But if you sing, that’s tolerated.

And so it all must be sung.  In the fields.

Puccini famously bragged about his facility.

Give him a grocery list, he said.

And Willie Sutton had his hygiene and motivators covered.

Even if he never uttered the famous phrase.

He ENJOYED robbing banks.

And, yes, that was where the money was.

And so the field workers not only display humanism.

Not only embody feminism.

But engage in a little triage worthy of Sutton’s law.

Taking the poor girl to the embankment.

[They’re all poor.  This is 1949 Italy.]

It’s not psychotic fugue, but psychogenic fugue.

Fugue state.

Thuringia.

The Axis Powers played a very bad game of chess.

Stretto was the shit hitting the fan.

“Ride of the Valkyries” mixed with heavy artillery mixed with vocalizations of agony.

Ristretto is what you get at Starbucks.

But, dear friends, don’t stop after the first half.

Let it finish.

Let it bleed.

Shine a light.

For Silvana Mangano.

Sylvania.  Someone has etched the word “hope” into the light bulb’s socket.

In the Schwarzwald.

The deep eerie mystery of the woods.  And Hitler’s aerie.

[Godwin golden mean]

34 21 13 8

almost Fibonacci but ending

aND nothing more Italian that an actress named Doris Dowling.

But that’s the way it went.

Direct descendent of opera verismo.

Our old favorites Mascagni and Leoncavallo.

But Netflix hasn’t gotten at the heart of what this means.

“Strong female lead” or some such rubbish.

Nice try…

But Riso Amaro blows all those venal pigeonholing strategies out of the water.

Cinema is not my God.

Cinema is my religion.

 

-PD

SNL Season 1 Episode 23 [1976)

This is a very smart installment, but also a very strange one.

The host is Louise Lasser.

It is hard to know what this was all about 40 years after the fact.

The crux is the show Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman…a parody soap opera which ran for a mere two seasons (1976-1977), yet included an astounding 325 episodes in that timespan.

No wonder Louise was so tired.

The airing schedule for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was five nights a week.

Wow…

In addition, Lasser was the wife of Woody Allen from 1966-1970.

Her contribution to Allen films includes Take the Money and Run, Bananas, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *(*But Were Afraid to Ask), and voiceover work on What’s Up, Tiger Lily? 

So it’s no surprise that this episode of SNL has an artful (if disjointed) feeling to it.

Particularly funny is the Ingmar Bergman spoof (in Swedish) starring Lasser and Chevy Chase.

But yes:  most of this episode involves the psychodrama of Ms. Lasser.

Actually, I quite enjoyed her film (in place of Gary Weis, as it were) shot in a NY diner.

One thing is apparent:  Lasser has immense talent.

The opening monologue hints at the brilliant cruelty of Andy Kaufman.

It is fairly disorienting in general.

For those needing a reason to live (I’m right there with you), we will be revisiting Lasser as Alex’s ex-wife on Taxi (God willing).

Yes, Lasser has a nice skit with a dog (her dog?) named Maggie.  It is a cute piece making fun of those tense talks between couples at the kitchen table (though this one is rather surreal).

Lasser would later feature in Todd Solondz’ Happiness.

Likewise, Lasser would appear in two episodes of Lena Dunham’s Girls (3rd season).

So what else is shakin’ in this tense SNL installment?

Well, Garrett Morris is pretty fantastic as Idi “VD” Amin.

John Belushi has a pitiable-yet-funny piece in which he tries to hawk all of his belongings (particularly his clothes…the shirt off his back).

The ladies (Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin, and Gilda Radner) do a strange Phil Spector-esque tribute to the history of television (the apparatus, not the programming).  The doo-wop/girl-group song features lines about Cathode Ray (as if he’s a personage), electron guns, etc.

Laraine Newman also reprises her role as Squeaky Fromme (with excellent help from Jane Curtin).

Finally, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band is fantastic on their one number.

It is a bit wistful for me as I once had the pleasure to write horn charts for them.  I’m not sure that they actually used them, but I did (anyhow) get to perform with the band at a particularly star-studded New Orleans Jazz Fest some years ago.

Really, this performance from 1976 is not to be missed.  The crazy logic of Dixieland counterpoint is an excellent metaphor for the fugue of emotions running through this particular episode of comedy.  And the stretto might just be the Preservation Hall cats themselves.

 

-PD

Detective [1985)

How do you get that much emotion into a film review?  In order to start saying things again, we must stop saying things as we have been saying them.

Year zero.

As much as I might like to find fault with this film, I cannot.  Not really.

What for some directors would be their masterpiece is for Godard merely another step in the journey.

We get used to genius.

We expect perfection.

But let us descend from the cosmos to discuss the film at hand.

No…on second thought.

It is the prolongation of the opening titles.  Not like James Bond.  It is not a formulaic gun-barrel sequence.

It is merely (merely?) the opposite of diminution.  Augmentation.  A fugue.

There are too many words to remember.

And so Godard takes his sweet ass time telling us about the players.

Quite a cast.

If we come in blind (and cold), each addition piques our interest further.

Was it Alain Sarde who put together this troupe?

Perhaps he only wrote the checks?

No no…it is better to discuss how Godard used this extensive cast.

A cast of thousands.  Mahler Symphony #8.

Wikipedia.  Poor pathetic Wikipedia.

But maybe not.

If you are accustomed to mainstream fare, this picture may appear to have no plot.

It is the pacing.  The cuts.  Montage?

No.  No diatribe.

On to the cast.

Jean-Pierre Léaud.  How long had it been?

And Claude Brasseur!  Christ!!

But we really start moving with Johnny Hallyday.

Once upon a time…

(should start)

I (me)…I was in some city…I believe it was Quebec.  Quebec City.  Québec.

I had a room at the top of the world for the night.  I believe it was the 22nd floor.

Enough to make you shit yourself…

And in the morning, there we were…a band apart.  Bleary eyed, perhaps.

And out comes Monsieur Hallyday.

And the press clicked away.  The hands went up to shield the bright lights.

And all I was impressed with was that he’d been in a Godard movie.

This one.

But let us not forget Nathalie Baye.

She is extraordinary here.

Brasseur is very strong.

Hallyday is surprisingly perfect.

All of these pop stars in films by the former nouvelle vague

But let us really focus on the viscera.

Emmanuelle Seigner.

I have written about her before in relation to Berlin:  Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse.

Yes.  She is indispensable here.

And Julie Delpy.  With the licorice stick.

(that would be, clarinet)

Poorly documented.

Actresses age.  They become harder to distinguish from their former selves.

A stage of facial age.

But really the star (STAR)…(STAR) is Aurelle Doazan.

Sometimes it is her legs.  We study every shot in every Godard film.

The market for films.  The clearing prices.  For rare cinephilia.  Paraphernalia.  Saturnalia.

Alea iacta est.

Les jeux sont faits.

The sound.

All bets are in.  The die is cast.

The games are done.

Have been.

Godard here makes an art of either A.) saying nothing at all, or B.) saying everything that can possibly be said.

We happen to know he improved.

This experiment.  AGFA.  Audio Cassettes……….Video Cassettes.

Making an entire movie in a hotel.

Just deliver the equipment.

Arriflex.  Mitchell.  Panavision.

Schubert.  Liszt.  Honegger.

François Musy.

The engine is rattling.  Abandon ship.

-PD