John Cassavetes and The Bangs (Bangles - double your pleasure, double your fun.

In 1983, Tamar Simon Hoffs, a fine filmmaker and mother of Susanna, directed The Haircut starring John Cassavetes. It was her debut as a movie director and The Haircut was shown at various prestigious film festivals the year it was made. In addition to Cassavetes, it also features The Bangs, an early incarnation of The Bangles with Susanna Hoffs, Debbi Peterson and Victoria Peterson.

From Ben Pleasants’ Swimming To Cassavetes:

Tamar Simon Hoffs had twenty four hours with John Cassavetes as a young director when she was studying directing at AFI. Twenty-four hours and in that time she did one of the greatest films Cassavetes ever starred in. The awkward silences and the hard pauses. She watched and let the camera roll. The film was The Haircut. Twenty-two minutes long. It’s from her script, not the Ring Lardner short story. It’s won a number of awards. It’s how she got Malcolm McDowell interested in her film, Red Roses and Petrol in the first place. She charmed him with her writing. It’s how she got to cut John Cassavete’s hair as a beginning director in her first film, The Haircut. Cassavetes read the script and loved the idea of doing a little film. A two-reeler. A short.

“He gave me twenty-four hours with total dedication and all his majesty as an actor and a director,” she told me. “And he’s out there.” She pointed beyond her pool. I’m not getting it.
“‘I’m yours for twenty-four hours,” he said. “Till the limo picks me up and takes me back to the studio.” She was a student then and she knew how to listen. He liked her language, the way she set up the scenes, the humor of it. He liked the idea that he could play with what she wrote. And there were good supporting actors. The coach from Cheers is the barber. The story is about the haircut of a lifetime for a big shot in the music business.

As he acted, or stripped away the actor’s tricks, Cassavetes taught her what a director should be. How to look for the moment to shut up and let the actor work. How to listen for what was inside the face of a human being giving what he really is. How to wait for the pauses that are true to life.
They all knew they had something magical in twenty-four hours. Susanna Hoffs, The Bangle who was only a Bang was in it. Her mother wanted to take her out, but Cassavetes loved it for its realness.

When it was done and he had given everything he could give, John Cassavetes stood in the street and stripped off his suit, shirt, and shoes, dropping into the back seat of the limo to return to the studio in his shorts.”

If you’re a Cassavetes fan, this will be a real treat. And twice as cool if you like, as I do, The Bangles.
 

 
Happy Birthday Herman Hesse.

Battered copies of Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha (New Direction edition) bulged in the back pockets of flower children in the Sixties as we went in search of our own personal enlightenment. It certainly kickstarted my interest in Buddhism and has, along with On The Road, Been Down So Long, It Looks Up To Me and In Watermelon Sugar, been one of those touchstones that I measure my life by. At least in terms of literature. The others, sex, drugs and rock and roll, would require a book of their own to recount.
 

 
Avon heir and reformed junkie Conrad Rooks, who had directed the semi-autobiographical head film Chappaqua, made a significant leap as a film maker with Siddhartha (1972), a sensuous and gorgeously photographed (by Sven Nykvist) movie that captures the book’s mind expanding allure. Shot in India in hues of twilight and dawn, the movie has a languorous pace and is imbued with the kind of hippie vibe that had aging flower children swaying like poppies in the Himalayan breeze.

Here’s Siddhartha in its entirety.
 

 
Nine years after its initial release, Tommy Wiseau’s The Room continues to splay itself across theater screens with the grace and majesty of a drunk pissing against the side of a building. Midnight screenings all over the globe are attended by fans in a state of Rocky Horror Show-type fervor and the enigmatic and oh-so-goofy Wiseau is a cult star of epic magnitude.

Whether or not you’re a fan of dubstep is irrelevant when watching this video. The concept is brilliant and the hook indisputable. Enjoy.
 

The TARDIS

I love this. Artist Judith Mascolo makes these wonderful one-of-kind glass pieces of pretty much anything you wanna nerd-out to like Dungeons and Dragons, Doctor Who’s trusty TARDIS, Futurama , superhero logos and much more.

Mascolo takes custom orders, too. I wonder if she’d make a stained glass Troy and Abed for me? Now that would be somethin’!

See more of her work at Nerd Glass. 
 

D&D
 

Wonder Woman logo
 
More after the jump…

 
Dangerous Minds pal Glen E. Friedman is involved with a new “dockumentary” about flamboyant major league baseball pitcher Dock Ellis, who threw a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1970 while high on LSD.

Friedman listed Ellis in the acknowledgements of his book, Fuck You Heroes and considers him to be a personal hero. Recently Glen gave an interview about his youthful interaction with the man they called the “Muhammad Ali of Baseball” and told his story to the filmmakers:

How did you meet Dock Ellis?
I first met Dock at Shea Stadium, here in New York, when I was a kid around 11 years old. When I went to games, I was fervent about getting autographs and memorabilia and I would always get there early to watch batting practice and to try to talk to the players ... asking for autographs, loose practice balls, broken bats, whatever a player had access to.

One afternoon Dock walked over to me, probably 1973, and asked why was I yelling so much. Of course I just wanted his attention, to say hello and to get an autograph. He said relax, not to worry, after he was done practicing he’d come back over and give me an autograph. A few minutes later, he came over and asked me why I wasn’t wearing an authentic Dock Ellis shirt? I happened to be wearing the nearest thing to a game jersey one could get in the early seventies - a 100% nylon Willie Stargell kid’s jersey I picked up in Cooperstown, just across from the Baseball Hall of Fame. There was Dock, pulling at my most prized shirt and asking why was I wearing a fake. I was bummed he was making fun of my favorite shirt, so I asked him, “Well, where can I get one of the Dock Ellis shirts you’re talking about? I’ve never seen one.” He didn’t really clue me in on that, but he signed my autograph book, for the first of many times.

Eventually in the conversation… Dock told me to meet him by the press gate later in the day, once he was sure he wouldn’t be called upon to pitch (midway through the 2nd game of a double header). I went to the designated place at the designated time and there came Dock strutting out in platform shoes, double-knit black flair paints and a red fishnet t-shirt. He was behind a fenced-in area, near the press gate and player entrance. People saw him and started yelling his name, “Dock, Dock!” He walked straight towards me. He’s got a brown paper bag, lunch bag sized, in his hand. He knelt down and started to talk to me, and said, “Don’t open this up! Don’t even peek inside this bag, until you get back to your seat, otherwise you won’t get outta here alive.” I said, “OK, Thanks Dock! See you around ...” thinking I’d got some super cool “Official” Dock Ellis T-Shirt.

I got back to my seat and looked inside the bag then, as discreetly as possible. I didn’t really believe my eyes, so I couldn’t just peek in the bag, I had to take out the contents to really see what it was, if in fact it was, yes it was his actual game jersey right off his back! I had a Number 17 Pittsburgh Pirates visiting team jersey. That was the first time I met Dock, but I saw him and hung out with him several times over the years after that.

You grew up a bi-coastal kid, in both Los Angeles and the New York metropolitan areas, how did you become a Pittsburgh Pirates fan?
I grew up a Pirates fan, because as most little kids, I just liked PIRATES—with eye patches, bandannas, swords and severed limbs—and I never let go. I never lived in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Pirates team that I grew up with became great winners just as my baseball enthusiasm was peaking. Remember, from ‘70 to ‘75 they won four out of five National League East pennants, one NL Pennant, and the World Series in 1971. Those years had to be there strongest in the history of the franchise. With players like Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Al Oliver, Bill Mazeroski, Dock Ellis, Steve Blass, Manny Sanguillen, what’s not to like?

How important are the Pittsburgh Pirates to Dock’s story and how important is he to theirs?
Dock was the personification of the growth of the Pirates team through the civil rights era, as much as they were the steel town they became a melting pot of the new American society. Dock was the antithesis of Jackie Robinson, but he was the man who Jackie and so many other black major league players before him were waiting for. He was the Satchel Paige of his generation: unapologetic, friendly, spirited, confident, rebellious and wise. The pitcher as the first all black opening line-up took the field, there were few who could pull that off as Dock. Being one of the first two black pitchers, with Vida Blue, to open the All Star game. Being the first pro ballplayer ever to be talked about for wearing curlers in his hair, which unless you were black, you had no idea in the ‘70s what that meant culturally. Dock, perhaps more than any other player up to that time (or since), “kept it real.” Who was important to whom? You figure it out.

Read more…
 

 

Quvenzhané Wallis.
 
Beasts Of The Southern Wild is a stunning film with an absolutely amazing performance by young actress Quvenzhané Wallis. Directed by Benh Zeitlin with great delicacy and vision, the movie deals with the spiritual consequences of life out of balance with nature and the struggle of a community of outcasts to maintain their identity as a tribe and as individuals.

Using hurricane Katrina as both the reality and a metaphor for what happens when people are torn from their roots, the film is a deftly constructed blend of harsh truths and dreamlike fantasy - without the dreams, the movie, like its characters, would be trapped in almost unbearable suffering. This was not always so. The scenes before the great storm hits are almost magical in their depiction of life in a mythical southern Louisiana bayou called The Bathtub. Dirt poor, but living in tune with the bountiful waters surrounding them, the denizens of The Bathtub are a motley collection of drunks, soothsayers and wild children who seem to have wandered out of the same asylum as the townsfolk in King Of Hearts. With the arrival of Katrina they are confronted not only with devastation to their ramshackle homes but to their souls as well.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild is one of those magic-realist fables that require you to suspend belief and surrender to the story’s flow in order to fully enter its world. Prehistoric creatures appear in the film, the power of voodoo thickens the air and characters often seem more like apparitions than embodiments of flesh and blood. Cynics and those who resist having their tears jerked may find the movie’s sentimental moments cloying and its narration by the little girl, Hushpuppy, too heavy on homegrown homilies, but I fell under the movie’s spell and longed to return to the magic lurking in those southern wilds.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild is playing in New York City and L.A. and starts a national roll-out on July 13.
 

 
Benh Zeitlin’s short film Glory at Sea after the jump…

 
Berlin Super 80 is a compilation of 18 short movies shot in Super 8 by West German experimental film makers during the late 1970s/early 80s. Featuring music by Malaria, Reflections, Einstürzende Neubauten, Frieder Butzmann and Die Tödliche Doris. It’s a hit or miss affair with films that range from the brilliant to the banal. Well worth watching for the flashes of genius.

01. Brand & Maschmann: E Dopo? (1981)
02. Christoph Doering: 3302- Taxi Film (1979)
03. Markgraf & Wolkenstein: Hüpfen 82 (1982)
04. Yana Yo: Sax (1983)
05. Maye & Rendschmid: Ohne Liebe gibt es keinen Tod (1980)
06. Stiletto Studio,s: Formel Super VIII (1983)
07. Walter Gramming: Hammer und Sichel (1978)
08. Georg Marioth: Morgengesänge (1984)
09. Hormel/Bühler: Geld (Malaria Clip) (1982)
10. Notorische Reflexe: Fragment Video (1983)
11. Jörg Buttgereit: Mein Papi (1981)
12. Die Tödliche Doris: Berliner Küchenmusik (1982)
13. Butzmann & Kiesel: Spanish Fly (1979)
14. Manfred Jelinski: So war das SO 36 (1984)
15. Klaus Beyer: Die Glatze (1983)
16. Markgraf & Wolkenstein: Craex Apart (1983)
17. Andrea Hillen: Gelbfieber 1982)
18. Ika Schier: Wedding Night (1982)

A DVD of these films is available with a music CD of Berlin bands as part of a box set, available here.
 

 
RZA directs. The legendary Corey Yuen (RZA’s mentor) does the choreography, Russel Crowe does the scowling and Lucy Liu and Pam Grier bring the Yin to the Yang in what looks like a killer martial arts action flick with a shitload of style. I’m so there.

The press release:

Quentin Tarantino presents The Man With the Iron Fists, an action-adventure inspired by kung-fu classics as interpreted by his longtime collaborators RZA and Eli Roth. Making his debut as a big-screen director and leading man, RZA—alongside a stellar international cast led by Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu—tells the epic story of warriors, assassins and a lone outsider hero in nineteenth-century China who must unite to destroy the clan traitor who would destroy them all.
Since his arrival in China’s Jungle Village, the town’s blacksmith (RZA) has been forced by radical tribal factions to create elaborate tools of destruction. When the clans’ brewing war boils over, the stranger channels an ancient energy to transform himself into a human weapon. As he fights alongside iconic heroes and against soulless villains, one man must harness this power to become savior of his adopted people.

Blending astonishing martial-arts sequences from some of the masters of this world with the signature vision he brings as the leader of the Wu-Tang Clan and as one of hip-hop’s most dominant figures of the past two decades, RZA embarks upon his most ambitious, stylized and thrilling project to date.

No exact release date as of yet, but it will be later this year. Word is some time in October.
 

 
Happy birthday to Mel Brooks on his 86th birthday.

(The great American funnyman and director of such comedy classics as High Anxiety, Blazing Saddles and The Producers is really “Two-thousand years young.” He just looks great for his age!)

Below, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner performing their all-time classic “2000 Year-Old Man” sketch on The Hollywood Palace TV variety hour in 1966
 

 
Degenerate Cinema, the first in a series.

Here’s a real find courtesy of the whacked-out geniuses at Soiled Sinema: Mother’s Meat & Freud’s Flesh, written, directed, and starring Russian-Canadian Demetri Estdelacropolis. This 1984 assault on good taste reminds me of the anarchic films of The Kuchar Brothers, Jack Smith and John Waters - and it holds its own against those masters of mayhem.

Soiled Cinema’s Ty E describes Estdelacropolis’s brilliant freak fest thusly:

Mother’s Meat & Freud’s Flesh is a magnificent nonlinear mess that is comprised of eccentric slapdash scenes that mostly revolve around sexual deviancy, humorous ‘soul-searching’ existential isolationism, and pathetic personal crises. Despite its lack of plot, the film moves along quite fluidly and never wavers in the realm of vulgar artistic pretense, nor pseudo-intellectual banality, but it does feature a wealth of scatological imagery and themes, as well as a sordid buffet of bittersweet food-for-thought. Mother’s Meat & Freud’s Flesh is further accentuated by an exquisite soundtrack by the German New Wave group Trio. In both sight and sound, the film is ultimately a foremost work of avant-garde cinematic debauchery that features a number of quotable lines and ever-present replay value. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, it is nearly impossible to find a copy of Mother’s Meat & Freud’s Flesh on the internet, let alone in dvd form.

Well, Mother’s Meat & Freud’s Flesh is now available on the Internet so please take the time to enjoy this twisted mindfucker.

For more on Mother’s Meat & Freud’s Flesh  visit Soiled Sinema here. It’s a terrific website chock-full of articles on all kinds of obscure films, a veritable smorgasbord of cinematic mystery meat. Yum yum.