8X
Firstly, here’s a LAURA limerick. While you’re over there, check out limericking king Hilary Barta’s rhymes, many of which sport titles by myself. And here’s my latest, on that naughty scene in THE BIG COMBO.
Secondly, as some of you have already discovered, I’m contributing an essay (a MASSIVE essay) to the forthcoming Criterion box-set of Pierre Etaix movies (for pronunciation clue, see title of this blog post). The set also features cover art by the man himself, an accomplished graphic artist (he designed Tati’s silhouette as used in Hulot publicity material from MON ONCLE on) — as my editor at Criterion points out, it’s a very sweet image: the clown is presenting his films to the world.
Rather than seeing Etaix as a sort of satellite of Tati, I see him as the missing link between Jerry Lewis (a friend and collaborator) and Woody Allen (and admirer). The set is available for pre-order and is HIGHLY recommended. Unseen in decades, the films reach out to greet you like old friends.
On Blu-ray: Pierre Etaix (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
January 21, 2013 at 2:07 pm
Criterion Collection continues to do God’s work in putting out rare titles like this. And great that you are part of it. Congratulations.
January 21, 2013 at 3:26 pm
“Yoyo” is his masterpiece IMO.
January 21, 2013 at 3:26 pm
Whatever the French word for “salivating” is, that’s what I’m doing. April 23 can’t come soon enough.
I loved the excerpt from YOYO you posted some months back (a propos THE ARTIST). Is that the film for initiates to start with?
January 21, 2013 at 3:29 pm
Mingo and Fante (pronounced “Fanny” by a distraught Earl Holliman) are also worth a limerick or two.
January 21, 2013 at 4:11 pm
On a very different note…RIP Michael Winner!
January 21, 2013 at 4:35 pm
Le Soupirant is the most accessible entry point… unless it’s Le Grand Amour. Yoyo might be more challenging — but every bit as worthwhile. I’d say, if you buy the set, watch them in order, starting with the shorts. Then you get the whole arc.
Oh, Michael Winner… who will the BBC get to speak about him now that he isn’t around to do it? Their website leads with “Death Wish Director Dies,” which is rather grotesque.