Two arrivals which harken back to The Late Show —
Andrzej Zulawski’s last film, COSMOS, from Kino.
Marlon Brando’s first and last film as director, ONE-EYED JACKS, from Criterion.
Assisted by the intrepid Stephen Horne, editor, I made video essays for both discs.
Coffee optional.
I don’t think it’s premature of me to reveal that my Big Brando Project is a video essay for Criterion’s forthcoming Blu-ray of the restored ONE-EYED JACKS. Here’s the announcement on their website. It doesn’t mention me by name, but it does say there will be video essays. Well, I’m doing one of them. Should be finished today, more or less! A fun job.
I’d tell you more but I’m saving it for the video essay. OK, here’s one fun fact that isn’t included: David Lynch’s Twin Peaks features a brothel called One-Eyed Jack’s. It also features the nonagenarian Hank Worden, who was in Brando’s film (briefly), and a character named Emory who works at the whorehouse, seemingly named after Ben Johnson’s sleazy desperado, also in the Brando. Seems either Mark Frost or David Lynch is a fan.
In James Whale’s THE KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR, Nancy Carroll is an unfaithful wife named Maria living in fear of her murderously jealous husband, Paul (Frank Morgan).
In Jean Epstein’s COEUR FIDELE. Gina Manes is an unfaithful wife named Maria living in fear of her murderously jealous husband, Paul (Edmond Van Daele).
In James Whale’s REMEMBER LAST NIGHT?, Gustaf Von Seyffertitz is a German psychoanalyst shot while attempting to reconstruct a crime.
In Lewis Milestone’s THE FRONT PAGE, Gustaf Von Seyffertitz is a German psychoanalyst shot while attempting to reconstruct a crime.
In THE MYSTERY OF THE LEAPING FISH, Douglas Fairbanks snorts coke.
In TOUCHEZ-PAS AU GRISBI, Jeanne Moreau snorts coke.
In ONE-EYED JACKS, Marlon Brando is tormented by a corrupt sheriff.
In THE HALF-BREED, Douglas Fairbanks is persecuted by a corrupt sheriff.
In KING OF JAZZ, a man plunges his hands into a tank of goldfish.
In Louis Lumiere’s LA PECHE AU POISSONS ROUGES, a baby plunges his hands into a bowl of goldfish.
All these films played the day before yesterday in Bologna. Cinema is imploding into a kind of primal atom.
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