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Mailer Must Die: The ‘Maidstone’ Fight
10.08.2012
10:22 pm
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There are few things sexier in this life than seeing a young, virile Rip Torn go medieval on acclaimed writer, wife-beater and underground filmmaker, Norman Mailer. This may sound like some wondrous fever dream but sometimes magic happens in real life and such an incident not only occurred but was documented in Mailer’s 1970 film, Maidstone. This event was so monumental that already half-whispered legends are born from this moment, including some speculation that Torn was tripping to the gills on acid for two days beforehand, but that’s just the tip.

Artists are mere flesh and blood, too, but with more passion, madness and imagination than the average person, so when they fight, it can quickly turn into a dark, more violent version of Destroy All Monsters. This is exactly what happened behind the scenes on the set of Maidstone, one of three underground films that Mailer directed in the late 60’s. (The other two being Wild 90 and Beyond the Law, with Torn also starring in the latter and the former being written by D.A. Pennebaker) The essential back story is that Mailer changed some key elements from the original script, including an alluded-to brothel sequence. Add in Torn, being the passionate artist that he was (and undoubtedly still is, even if his underground film days are long behind him), some potential chemical and physical exhaustion, all adding up to method acting going one step further.

In the film, Torn’s character, Raoul, the half-brother of famed director and presidential candidate, Norman Kingsley (Mailer), plots an assassination of his politically ambitious and arrogant kin. Torn begins the scene, letting Mailer know only when he clubs him on the head with a hammer. This is no stage magic, though, as they wrestle to the ground, both bleeding for real, with Torn’s coming from a vicious bite on the ear courtesy of Mailer. The tussle is something to behold, with Mailer grunting like an enraged caveman and Torn remaining cool as a cucumber, even saying, “No baby. You trust me?” Mailer pulls a chump move by acting like all is forgiven, only to attack Torn when his defenses are briefly down. But Torn, despite being smaller in size, deftly pins back him down and starts to choke him, when Mailer’s on-screen and real life wife, former-model and actress Beverly Bentley, realizing that the bloodshed was real, starts to scream and freak out, making the Mailer-children brood scream and freak out too.

From there, the battle continues, but with words instead of hammers and fists. Torn is clearly hurt and using words like “fraud” repeatedly, while Mailer tries to he-man it up, coming across like an Ivy League brat playing Hemingway. What’s amazing is, despite all the drama, Torn still manages to one-up Mailer, with one of the highlights being when, off screen, one of the Mailer children says, “don’t fight any more.” It is Rip, not Mailer, who responds, saying “That’s right baby, no fighting. It was just a scene in a Hollywood whorehouse movie. Okay baby? You know it’s okay and your Dad knows it’s okay.” Then he whispers under his breath, looking right at Norman and smiling maniacally, “Up yours.” What’s the best Mailer can come up with? “Adios.”

It would be easier to feel bad for Mailer if he didn’t reek of ego and macho bravado, all in stark contrast to the very earthy and naturally masculine Torn. On top of that, the man was a notorious blowhard with a history of violence against women, including stabbing his second wife Adele Morales. That’s not to say he wasn’t a talented writer and to his credit, the whole reason we are blessed to have this phenomenal fight to enjoy is that he actually included it in the film. Rare moments of slack aside, seeing the young, wild-eyed Torn best Norman Mailer is a borderline-harrowing gift of wonder.

Thankfully, Criterion, as part of their Eclipse series, has recently released not only Maidstone, but also Wild 90 and Beyond the Law as a two-disc set. So now a new generation of fringe film viewers can get a peak into late 60’s underground cinema and see the evolution of one of the greatest working character actors today.

Posted by Heather Drain
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10.08.2012
10:22 pm
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Hey now: The Godlike Genius of ‘The Larry Sanders Show’


 
In the past weeks, my lovely wife Tara and I have watched every single episode (89 total over six series) of The Larry Sanders Show. What a masterpiece of comedy. It’s awe-inspiring, a tremendous artistic triumph. One that was sustained at a very, very high level for many years. The final two years were the best of all. It truly went out on a high when it left the air in 1998

The Larry Sanders Show features one of the greatest ensemble casts in the history of television comedy: Garry Shandling in the title role, Rip Torn as Artie the show’s producer, Jeffrey Tambor as “Hey now!” Hank Kingsley, Janeane Garofalo and Penny Johnson, understated but so brilliant as Larry’s personal assistant, Beverly. Scott Thompson was also fantastic in later seasons as Hank’s assistant, Brian.

The celebrity cameos the show was so famous for came from the likes of a then up-and-coming Jon Stewart, Carol Burnett, Sharon Stone, Mimi Rogers, Billy Crystal, Alec Baldwin, Elvis Costello, Ryan O’Neal… real celebrities playing often awful fictionalized versions of themselves (a neat trope Ricky Gervais, a huge fan of Sanders, availed himself of for Extras). I thought Ellen DeGeneres, Lori Loughlin and especially David Duchovny were standouts guests. Even The Butthole Surfers (who actually sang about Garry Shandling in one of their songs) were musical guests on the series (Larry acts like he wants to hang out with them, in a really insincere way and they sneer at him).

The Larry Sanders Show is simply one of the best things I’ve ever seen and it has aged like a fine, fine wine. I got the same kind of high watching Sanders as I get from listening to great classical music. Every element of the show is orchestrated perfectly. It’s a marvel to behold.

When the show actually aired, I didn’t have cable, and so I was never really exposed to more than an episode or two. Viewing all 89 episodes compressed into a matter of a few weeks like this (we’d watch 4 or 5 of them a night) was an especially good way to appreciate the perfection that each and every episode represents. There really is no end to the superlatives I could heap onto onto the production. It’s comedy cut like a multifaceted diamond. There’s not a single bad episode in the bunch and even the “worst” one would still be a 9/10.

Garry Shandling is a comedy god to me. He’s in the pantheon of the greatest greats in my book. There’s no wonder that he’s kept a relatively low profile in the years after Larry Sanders: How the hell do you top something this great? Why squander that kind of cultural capital? Writer/producer Judd Apatow went on to his own numerous successes, of course.

In any case, The Larry Sanders Show, wow. I may be a little late to the party on this—13 years, in fact—but chances are that some of you reading this, some of you like me, who spent the 90s doing anything but watching TV, might have missed it, too. Fear not, for you can watch the entire series on Netflix and I noticed that the 17 DVD set of the entire series of The Larry Sanders Show is on sale at Amazon.
 

 
Jeffrey Tambor is a genius:
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.20.2011
05:53 pm
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Tropic of Cancer: the movie

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Saddened to see last week the passing of underrated film director Joseph Strick.  You might not know the name, but there can be little doubt you’re familiar with some of the books he adapted into films.

If you’ve never seen his take on James Joyce’s Ulysses, it’s definitely worth checking out—if only for the rather graceful way Strick handles the closing monologue of Molly Bloom.  It was banned in Ireland for 33 years, but now, thanks to Chinese video site, Youku, you can stream the entire ‘67 film here.

Ulysses wasn’t the only 20th Century modernist classic the director would try to wrestle into submission.  Two years later, Strick brought to the screen Henry Miller‘s Tropic of Cancer.

While Miller’s initial hopes for the project ran high (in a letter to the Hungarian photographer, Brassaï, Miller wrote, “The film of Tropic of Cancer will be definitively produced and directed by Joseph Strick, who made Ulysses.  He’ll do it the same way.  No castration, no modification.  Bravo for him, I say!”), he was ultimately saddened that in no way would the production budget allow for a faithful recreation of Paris in the 30’s.  Hired as a consultant on the film, Miller’s visit to the set would be the last time the author set foot in Paris.

While Tropic of Cancer had Rip Torn as Miller, a definitely sexy Ellyn Burstyn as Mona, and incorporated generous portions of the novel into its voiceover, the film never had much of a chance to reach an audience.  It opened to middling reviews, and, more damaging, with an X rating (it’s since been rated NC-17).  Long available, to my knowledge, on bootlegs only, its opening moments follow below:

 
Joseph Strick, Who Filmed the Unfilmable, Dies at 86

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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06.10.2010
08:45 pm
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