I’ve already expressed my dissatisfaction with aspects of ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD. Daniel Riccuito of The Chiseler had a very nearly opposite response, however, and when he asked me to provide a few words for a piece he was putting together along with Tom Sutpen, connecting the reincarnated Sharon Tate played by Margot Robbie with the reincarnated Laura Palmer played by Amanda Seyfried in Twin Peaks, I cheerily agreed.
The result, as Freddie Jones is always saying, is plain to see…
For the first time I’m in the esteemed Bright Lights Film Journal, with a piece co-authored by genius Daniel Riccuito. Subject: giallii!
Daniel is, believe it or not, the easiest and most agreeable of collaborators — typically he just gets in touch and says “I need a paragraph to get me from here to here.” I don’t usually read the bits I’m supposed to join up. This time, I seem to have wound up doing at least half the piece, but Daniel had to do a lot of hammering to get it coherent. The result — a lucid critical analysis of the form animated by the same fervid enthusiasm as the films themselves, and cutting deeper, I believe, than most accounts of the psychological impulses at play.
It’s Brando’s birthday! In celebration, Criterion are boosting an extract from my ONE-EYED JACKS video essay here.
Meanwhile, Daniel Riccuito, over at The Notebook, sings the praises of a MUCH more significant thespian — Dead End Kid Frankie Darro. I have contributed a few words, and as usual, readers are invited to see if they can separate my wheat from Danny’s other wheat.
Shadowplay