cigarjoe
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Posts posted by cigarjoe
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The Fugitive Kind (1960) Steamy Tail Fin Drama Noir
Directed by Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men (1957), The Pawnbroker(1964), Serpico (1973),The Verdict(1982), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)) Written by Tennessee Williams and Meade Roberts.Cinematography was by Oscar winner Boris Kaufman who shot Vigo's L'Atalante (1934). He helped to introduce neo-realistic style to American films, notably (On the Waterfront (1954), Baby Doll(1956), 12 Angry Men(1957), Splendor in the Grass (1961), and The Pawnbroker (1964)). Music was by Kenyon Hopkins who later provided the soundtrack for Mister Buddwing (1966).The film stars Marlon Brando as Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier, Joanne Woodward as Carol CutrereAnna Magnani as Lady Torrance, Maureen Stapleton as Vee Talbot, Victor Jory as Jabe Torrance.R. G. Armstrong as Sheriff Jordan Talbot, John Baragrey as David Cutrere, Virgilia Chew as Nurse Porter, Ben Yaffee as "Dog" Hamma, Joe Brown Jr. as "Pee Wee" Binnings, Madame Spivy as Ruby Lightfoot, Sally Gracie as Dolly Hamma, Lucille Benson as Beulah Binnings, and Emory Richardson as Uncle Pleasant, the Conjure Man.
Marlon Brando as Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier 
Maureen Stapleton as Vee Talbot 
Joanne Woodward as Carol Cutrere 
Anna Magnani as Lady Torrance 
Victor Jory as Jabe Torrance 
R. G. Armstrong as Sheriff Jordan Talbot 
John Baragrey as David Cutrere The Tennessee Williams play had two titles. Originally in 1940 called Battle Of Angels, it nose dived on Broadway. Perhaps the, end of The Great Depression/on the brink of WWII audience wasn't quite ready for such a dark film. Then it reappeared in 1957 as Orpheus Descending.
Williams wrote: "On the surface it was and still is the tale of a wild-spirited boy who wanders into a conventional community of the South and creates the commotion of a fox in a chicken coop. But beneath that now familiar surface it is a play about unanswered questions that haunt the hearts of people and the difference between continuing to ask them...and the acceptance of prescribed answers that are not answers at all." (Wikipedia)
The StorySnakeskin aka Valentine Xavier is a guitar picking, home fatale, bad boy. He's a chick magnet. It's hinted at that he probably played the various dens of iniquity/whorehouses that flourished unofficially underground in New Orleans once the legal prostitution district of Storyville was closed down in 1917. He's also got apparently "something in his pants "wink-wink." Whether or not it was part of his performance is never mentioned. The film opens with a prequel vignette of Snakeskin being told to get his **** out of town.
Hitching his way out, Snakeskin is dropped off in a downpour and ends up in some drenched Southern ****-hole flyspeck. A high water rack pile of white trash flotsam.
There he meets Vee Talbot the wife of the local law-dog a gentle soul of a woman, who gives him shelter from the storm. She puts him up in a lockup that was just vacated by an escaped prisoner. While they converse you hear in the background the sound of hounds braying in the distance, then the final cornering of their prey and gunshots.
Chick magnet effect working, Vee is immediately attracted. Vee tells him that the general store down the street needs help. It's owned by Jabe and Lady Torrance. Jabe a bitter intolerant man, a kind of sweaty tyrant. He is slowly dying, spending most of his time ruling his eyrie like roost in the apartment above the store.Lady was the daughter of an Italian immigrant, a mandolin player and a lover of life, who started a rustic wine garden out in the sticks at the edge of town. He makes the mistake of selling wine to black folks which gets his wine garden burned out by the clan and himself roasted alive. Lady is a woman who was deflowered, impregnated, and discarded by the alcoholic, local rich plantation playboy, David Cutrere. Lady in permanent mourning always wears black.Local daughter, "persona non grata," and sister of David is "round heels" nymphomaniac Carol Cutrere blows into town.Carol is also an alkie, it runs in the family. She "knows" Snakeskin from his infamous life in New Orleans and it's strongly hinted at that it's in the "biblical" sense. Here again, though the Motion Picture Production Code is beginning it's death spiral in 1960 all the innuendos are still heavily coded.
Watch Carol's very suggestive hands during her conversation with Snakeskin. Carol is instructed to get out of the county.
Carol's Hands
Snakeskin removes his trademark jacket dons a square john blue suit and tie and transforms to Val. Val begins to work at the general store where he still attracts high school girls who come in the the excuse to try on shoes. They like to flirt. Val works his magic on the bitter Lady.Lady begins to sweeten as her soul is stirred, like sugar in black coffee. She enjoys life again as Val "primes her pump." She and Val of course have a steamy affair, but this being 1960 all their assignations fade to black.
Lady adds a confectionery onto the lot beside the general store. It visually represents a new beginning, all Christmas lights, baubles, wind chimes and tinsel. Its also symbolic of the new life stirring inside her as she is pregnant with Snakeskin's child. Of course Lady's happiness stokes Jabe's sadistic resentment and it all goes Noirsville.
The Confectionery
Noirsville
Most of the performances are brilliant or near so. Brando, Magnani, Stapelton, Jory, and Armstrong are spot on. With Jory being the most impressive. Woodward is stuck in what seems to be the Hollywood method acting standard crumbling "Southern Bell" mode, though she is a bonafide one from Georgia, it's a minor flaw. Actually filmed in Milton, NY and the Gold Medal Studios, Bronx, New York City. Screen caps from Criterion screener. Full review with more screencaps at Noirsviie 7/10 -
a blind-pig - an illegal bar
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Lol, we had a discussion about a year or two ago concerning one of the Film Noir that was shown on some other movie channel where they actually blurred out the breast of a woman on a statue. It was either done to the Crack Up! or The Dark Corner if I remember right, but it may be another film entirely.
The scene has two cops commenting on the statue, I can't it all (the dialog) but one cop states "that's art!"
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Tarantino interviewed in Rome:
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23 minutes ago, TopBilled said:
But don't you think discussions about studio era films and stars are getting lost on the General Discussions forum? Or do we still have plenty of that going on?
31 days of Oscar goes up to date no?
It's not so much getting lost but "Time" marches on. Classics include films from the late 60s and 70's now. That generation may want to discuss their Classics also. Have them afforded the same reverence. TCM has got to adapt and go with the flow a bit and still retain what they have in the vault but add the next chronological classics to the mix.
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Maybe it just had a lousy second half.
I think it was just before that red knight image below
So I didn't know what was going on looked like a typical Sword and Dragon fantasy whatever and I never bothered to check it out again. But it could be about something else entirely, it's just how first impressions strike you.
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20 minutes ago, laffite said:
My heavens, what a glowing review you give this film. I am intrigued.
I caught it in the middle once and couldn't get into it, so I really can't comment on it one way or the other.
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17 hours ago, CinemaInternational said:
The Day of the Locust (1975) --- 10/10
Source: Amazon Video ($2.99 SD streaming rental)
Simply astonishing. It's amazing to think that this film only had mixed reviews in 1975, because it is in a league of its own. A bold cautionary tale, its thrillingly cinematic, the period detail is ideal, William Atherson, Karen Black, Donald Sutherland, and Burgess Meredith are excellent, the cinematography is rich, the writing on point and hypnotic, the directing ideal. And then there is the truly gonzo ending, one of the most terrifying sequences put to film. A must-see and a knockout.
Believe or not I've never seen this one but I can check it out on Amazon Prime, thanks for the heads up.
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On 8/7/2019 at 1:09 PM, hamradio said:
A little revealing isn't it?
Ah yes the beauty of HD restorations......
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Tarantino And DiCaprio's 'Hollywood' Is A Bigger Hit Than You Might Think (Box Office)
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood is (sadly) only the second wholly original flick to pass the $100 million mark this year, after Jordan Peele's Us ($175 million). With weekend-to-weekend drops comparable, in a good way, to Django Unchained and Inglourious Basterds, there's a strong chance that the $90 million Sony release could end its domestic run with closer to $130 million than $120 million. Overseas is an open question, but it opened with $7.7 million in Russia last weekend, triple the $2.5 million debut (ten years ago) of Inglourious Basterds.....
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I would stick The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) in this category also. All the Tampico sequences are quite stylistically noir-ish (check out the whole bar sequence with Pat McCormick (Barton MacLane)) and you have Fred C. Dobbs increasingly becoming your Classic Noir alienated and obsessed individual. When they head out to prospect for gold the feel of the film goes back in time 50 years to the Western. You have this Western/Noir diametric going on.
You could place it along side of High Sierra, Detour, Ride The Pink Horse, The Scarf, The Hitch-Hiker as the granddaddies of our modern Western based "Film Soleil" Noir, those sun baked, desert or tropical set Neo Noirs.
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For me it was a few segments of The Crawling Eye (The Trollenberg Terror) (1958)
For my son
Shelly Duval was scarier than Jack Nicholson in The Shinning (1980)
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43 minutes ago, Gershwin fan said:
Also Cobra Verde is a great film. Definitely worth watching.
Agree
I haven't seen:
Grizzly Man (2005)
Rescue Dawn (2006)
Encounters at the End of the World (2007)
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009)
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) -I guess I've got a lot of Herzog to catch up on.
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On 8/7/2019 at 9:45 AM, MusicalsGalore said:
Rebel Without a Cause - Ain't as good as I remember it being. Dean's acting was a little over the top, especially with the line "YOUR'E TEARING ME APART!"
I never liked it all that much anyway.
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7 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
I watched the AVA GARDNER documentary that aired last night on TCM on HULU. I like it when they feature a bio of the star on their SUTS DAY.
it was hard not to love it...and hard not to take a special understanding of it, seeing as how, like AVA, I am also NORTH CAROLINIAN (we have a distinct accent, way of life and personality.)
i was heretofore unaware of AVA'S 1950'S LIFE IN FRANCO'S SPAIN, I found much of that section to be inspiring- particularly amusing, you could probably do an interesting film adaptation of the time SINATRA came to her seaside village and the locals conspired to act as a informant chorus, piping his whereabouts to AVA, who would then move on to the next hotel bar.
(He never did find her.)
Also the story of how American films came to be produced in SPAIN was interesting.
the doc spends a fair enough amount of time criticizing AVA for turning a blind eye to the poverty and horrors of FRANCO'S regime, but then at the same time, the other 7/8 is dancing on table tops, and PASSIONATE affairs with MATADORES ("no, no, you mustn't fall in love with me...you mustn't...") and GOWNS BY BALLENCIAGA!!!!!! that you just can't help but be #TeamAVA in the end.
it's odd that they use relatively few clips from her films and almost none where she is speaking, and many clips played with the dialogue replaced the the doc's narrator's narration (almost reminded me of the courtroom scene from THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA where a narrator tells us all about her great performance before the jury, but never SHUTS UP AND LETS US LISTEN...
the included scene of her with the MARACA players in the night surf from NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, for example, is great, but they don't show ANY of her other scenes, and as far as i'm concerned, her work in that film is some of the best done by an actor in 1964.
the filming of SHOWBOAT is not covered nor is THE KILLERS. PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN is given an awful lot of prominence.
they one time they do use a scene is of AVA actually ACTING in a picture, it's of her and GRACE KELLY arguing in MOREGUMBO, presenting one of the least impressive and outright worst performances to ever be nominated for Academy Awards.
It was better than 80 percent of most films.
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30 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:
Must've come from the same group of miscreants that thought Ben-Hur and Messala were gettin' it on.
I wouldn't call them miscreants, if you are predisposed to something, anything, that only a smaller cognoscenti are aware of your either gonna give something your own twist or pick up on deliberate double entendres or going to be witty enough make some where there aren't any. All art is subjective.
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29 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:
I'm lost as to what or who A*A*A
Automobile Association of America
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In reality, none, though I did like one of Hussey's films I saw. It would probably be better if instead of a star a day they would take all the stars of SUTS and randomly show just their films during the month. You know mix it up a bit. Even Red Skelton gets pretty old after a whole day.
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8 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:
Funny the things autocensor eliminates. I recently discovered I can't even say the name of a certain well-known racist organization that's represented by saying the same letter three times. And yet Vautrin describes Bob Balaban performing a graphically explicit sexual act and autocorrect's like oh yeah I'm totally cool with that! No problems there!
I didn't know the A*A*A was racist?
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It's got some of the most spot on depictions of a late 60's era night life (it looked real to me), compared to most Hollywood renditions with canned elevator rock music.
I remember a TriBeCa "loft warming" party at George and Irmie DiCaprio's that was pretty wild and quite similar.
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3 hours ago, Gershwin fan said:
Woyzeck and it's not even close. This is the shortest one and yet it is by far the most boring. I was waiting for him to just kill her the entire first hour. The film moves at a snail's pace. We all know he wants to kill her so he should just do it. The drum major sleazeball who helps commit the adultery also faces no retribution from Kinski. w-t-h? Just let the cheater walk free? Good one, Herzog. Wacky characters like the doctor who drop cats out of windows and prescribes eating only peas to everyone just come across as lame and annoying to me. The only redeeming scene is the great finale.
The rest of the films are all 10/10s for me but this one is like a 5/10. There was an interesting concept but this was just boring. This was shot in under two weeks and really feels like he had an interesting idea but just hurried through it.
Agree
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Boogie Nights (1997) Porn Biz Noir
Written, produced and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Hard Eight (1996), There Will Be Blood (2007)). Cinematography by Robert Elswit, Music by Michael Penn.
The film stars Mark Wahlberg as Eddie Adams/"Dirk Diggler", Julianne Moore (The Big Lebowski (1998)) as Maggie/"Amber Waves," Burt Reynolds (Deliverance (1972)) as Jack Horner, Don Cheadle (Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)) as Buck Swope, John C. Reilly (Hard Eight (1996), Gangs of New York (2002)) as Reed Rothchild, William H. Macy (Fargo (1996), Hit Me (1996)) as "Little" Bill Thompson, Heather Graham as Brandy/"Rollergirl", Nicole Ari Parker as Becky Barnett, Philip Seymour Hoffman (Hard Eight (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)) as Scotty J., Luis Guzmán as Maurice Rodriguez, Philip Baker Hall (Hard Eight (1996), Hit Me (1996)) as Floyd Gondolli, Thomas Jane (The Punisher (2004), Give 'em Hell Malone (2009), Dark Country (2009)) as Todd Parker, Robert Ridgely as the Colonel James, Robert Downey Sr. as Burk, Nina Hartley as "Little" Bill's wife, Melora Walters as Jessie St. Vincent, Alfred Molina as Rahad Jackson, and Ricky Jay as Kurt Longjohn.
Boogie Nights begins at the height of the "Porno Chic" Era before the "Golden Age Of Porn" began to lose its luster. The era stretched from 1969 to 1984. It was a time when sexually explicit films went mainstream, got a mentioned and joked about on late night talk shows and when even some of it's slang terns became part of the national lexicon."Porno Chic" Era began when leading pop artist Andy Warhol directed and released Blue Movie (1969) an artistic cut above a plain Hard Core loop, and that was followed by Mona (1970). They were the first two adult erotic films depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release. Notable hits of "Porno Chic" were 1972's notorious Deep Throat starring Linda Lovelace directed by Gerard Damiano, and Behind The Green Door starring Marilyn Chambers, followed by 1973's The Devil in Miss Jones also by Damiano, and 1976's The Opening of Misty Beethoven by Radley Metzger. Warhol had once stated that Blue Movie was an influence for Brando's Last Tango In Paris (1972) an international hit that was nominated for two Academy Awards and which won seven other US and international awards.
Burt Reynolds gives one of his best performances since Deliverance. I've never cared for the majority of all his good ol' boy, corn pone shtick movies, that seemed to be his go to persona, between these two films. I'll admit maybe I missed something but that is because Burt being in a film was never a drawing card for me. I have enjoyed a few of his Westerns. Notable in the ensemble cast are, Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Heather Grahame, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, and Ricky Jay.
The rest of the massive cast also acquit themselves admirably, they give humanity to countless similar real life Sexploitation/early Porn makers who nowadays are mostly just forgotten names on IMDb lists if the titles even show up. (Note IMDb must have a filter in their search a lot of titles will not come up when you use IMDb's search, however the links appear when you do a Google search).
For a film about the Porn Industry there is not a whole lot of nudity or sex, you have to go to the source films for that commodity and particularly those from the vintage year of 1969 . That was the year where full frontal nudity and simulated sex first was allowed. It would be today's equivalent of and NC-17. Boogie Nights is not even a hard "R." Where in real Sexploitation it was all about the most you could get away with, Anderson is just telling an interesting story of Bizarro Hollywood.
Anything more than the "T&A" in Boogie Nights would earn it that economically disastrous, for the box office, NC-17 rating. The prosthetic **** of Dirk isn't real, lol.
Anderson does give us a quite a bit of style, and some homages to other films. Entertaining 8/10. Fuller review with some screen caps in Film Noir Gangster.
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Boogie Nights (1997) Porn Biz Noir
“There are shadows in life,baby.''
(Jack Horner)
Written, produced and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Hard Eight (1996), There Will Be Blood (2007)). Cinematography by Robert Elswit, Music by Michael Penn.
The film stars Mark Wahlberg as Eddie Adams/"Dirk Diggler", Julianne Moore (The Big Lebowski (1998)) as Maggie/"Amber Waves," Burt Reynolds (Deliverance(1972)) as Jack Horner
Don Cheadle (Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)) as Buck Swope, John C. Reilly (Hard Eight (1996), Gangs of New York (2002)) as Reed Rothchild, William H. Macy (Fargo (1996), Hit Me (1996)) as "Little" Bill Thompson, Heather Graham as Brandy/"Rollergirl", Nicole Ari Parker as Becky Barnett
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Hard Eight (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)) as Scotty J., Luis Guzmán as Maurice Rodriguez, Philip Baker Hall (Hard Eight (1996), Hit Me (1996)) as Floyd Gondolli, Thomas Jane (The Punisher (2004), Give 'em Hell Malone (2009), Dark Country (2009)) as Todd Parker, Robert Ridgely as the Colonel James, Robert Downey Sr. as Burk, Nina Hartley as "Little" Bill's wife, Melora Walters as Jessie St. Vincent, Alfred Molina as Rahad Jackson, and Ricky Jay as Kurt Longjohn.
Burt Reynolds as Jack Horner 
Mark Wahlberg as Eddie Adams/"Dirk Diggler" 
William H. Macy as "Little" Bill Thompson 
Don Cheadle as Buck Swope 
Heather Graham as Brandy/"Rollergirl" 
Julianne Moore as Maggie/"Amber Waves,"
Boogie Nights begins at the height of the "Porno Chic" Era before the "Golden Age Of Porn" began to lose its luster. The era stretched from 1969 to 1984. It was a time when sexually explicit films went mainstream, got a mentioned and joked about on late night talk shows and when even some of it's slang terns became part of the national lexicon.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Scotty J
During the gradual demise of the Motion Picture Production Code independent film directors and producers began to push the envelope of what was allowed to be shown. Their films were labeled Exploitation because they exploited the new found freedom. In the hierarchy of Exploitation films dealing with sex the stages were Nudie Cuties, Sexploitation, Roughies, Rough Core, and finally the White Coaters. White Coaters functioned as the old Public Service films showing what was forbidden in the guise of doctors studies and cautionary warnings about sex. The next step was plain straight Hard Core loops that were common at smokers and stag parties.
"Porno Chic" Era began when leading pop artist Andy Warhol directed and released Blue Movie(1969) an artistic cut above a plain Hard Core loop, and that was followed by Mona (1970). They were the first two adult erotic films depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release. Notable hits of "Porno Chic" were 1972's notorious Deep Throat starring Linda Lovelace directed by Gerard Damiano, and Behind The Green Door starring Marilyn Chambers, followed by 1973's The Devil in Miss Jones also by Damiano, and 1976's The Opening of Misty Beethoven by Radley Metzger. Warhol had once stated that Blue Movie was an influence for Brando's Last Tango In Paris (1972) an international hit that was nominated for two Academy Awards and which won seven other US and international awards.
The Story
1977, Torrance, California. Eddie Adams, loser. Still living at home with his mom and stepdad. His real dad skipped out years ago. Mom's a whack job, abusive. Stepdad is a classic wimp. Eddie works as a busboy/dishwasher at a nightclub called the Resada. The club is owned by Maurice Rodriguez a player who rubs shoulders with California pornographers.
Rumors are going around that Eddie has a "big" package.
Anderson probably based Eddie on John C. Holmes or Johnny Wadd . Holmes was renowned for his unusually large ****. It was supposedly the longest, thickest, hardest, and longest lasting in the adult film industry. It was rumored to be between 10 and 13 inches.
The package
"John Holmes was to the adult film industry what Elvis Presley was to rock 'n' roll. He simply was The King." (Cinematographer Bob Vosse in the documentary Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes).
So these rumors of Eddie's junk get to the ears of a porno filmmaker Jack Horner. Horner auditions Eddie with one of his porn actress proteges Roller Girl. Roller Girl always has sex with her skates on, it's her trademark. Jack lives with porn actress Amber Waves. Amber eventually also becomes a filmmaker in her own right. Anderson may have been basing Jack and Amber on porn pioneers Michael and Roberta Findlay.
Horner likes what he sees. Eddie after partying all night finally gets home only to be smacked around by his mom, who in the process trashes his room. Eddie having enough of that noise, splits for Jack's place in the San Fernando Valley.
Jacks place is a sort of halfway house for porn stars and various other flunkies. A modest flop with a pool.
It all goes well at Jack's place. Eddie befriends other actors in the biz. His porn biz name is Dirk Diggler. He becomes something of a phenom with his big tool. Dirk's able to buy house and a '77 Chevy Corvette. With fellow porn actor Reed Rothchild he stars in a series of action hero porn flicks. Dirk even wins a sort of porno Academy Award
With fellow porn actor Reed Rothchild he stars in a series of action hero porn flicks. Dirk even wins a sort of porno Academy Award
Here again Anderson borrows from the John Holmes template. Holmes starred in a series of adult films built around a private investigator named Johnny Wadd.
The film nicely delves into the various idiosyncrasies of the "artistic" personnel of the porn biz. The small vignettes are very entertaining. Porn star Buck Swope is a stereo salesman on his day job, he longs for his own store eventually. We see him doing his sales pitch, and later watch his travails when he applies for a loan. Later he gets a Tarantino-esque Deus ex machina that solves all his problems.
Buck Swope: See this system here? This is Hi-Fi... high fidelity. What that means is that it's the highest quality fidelity.
A few more vignettes depict the problems between Little Bill Thompson and his nymphomaniac wife. Little Bill constantly finds her having sex with strangers. In one sequence he finds his wife (played by real life porn star Nina Hartley, who started in the biz when she was 25 in Educating Nina (1984)) having sex out in the driveway surrounded by onlookers.Little Bill walks away and is confronted by cinematographer Kurt who wants to discuss a new zoom lens.
Little Bill with Ricky Jay as cinematographer Kurt Longjohn.
Things go well until they don't At the end of the '70s, during the 1979-1980 New Years Eve party Jack Horner's assistant director, Little Bill Thompson, once again discoverers his porn star wife having sex with another man. Thompson loses it shooting them both dead and then blowing out his brains. Happy New Year!
Dirk and Reed begin heavily using drugs with "Peruvian Marching Powder," aka cocaine their preferred brand. The narcotics begin to affect his performance on the set. Horner seeing the writing on the wall hires a new stud. In 1983 after a big **** match with Jack, Dirk is fired.
"You're not the boss of me"
Dirk: You're not the boss of me, Jack. You're not the king of Dirk. I'm the boss of me. I'm the king of me. I'm Dirk Diggler. I'm the star. It's my big dick and I say when we roll.
Dirk and Reed get a bright idea to start rock 'n roll careers but are stymied when they can't come up with the $5,000 scratch they need to get their recording tapes from the studio.
It all of course goes Noirsville. The porn industry is changing. The advent of cheap videotape, low production costs and the adult bookstore home video market destroys the Grindhouse Theater business. Why go into dubious neighborhoods and sit in dank dilapidated theaters with sticky floors when you can beat off in the sanctity of your own home.
Floyd Gondolli: This here's the future. Videotape tells the truth.
Philip Baker Hall as Floyd Gondolli,
Jack Horner: Wait a minute. You come into my house, my party, to tell me about the future? That the future is tape, videotape, and not film? That it's amateurs and not professionals? I'm a filmmaker, which is why I will *never* make a movie on tape.
Porn once again regressed basically to simple direct to video "loops" once known as stag films. With all aspects of the business changing, Jack has go with the flow. He has to abandon film and begin shooting on tape. Former high priced porn stars are replaced by amateurs, high concept films are replaced with gimmicky hooks, and everyone has to cope with the new reality.
Noirsville
Nina Hartley as "Little" Bill's nymphomaniac wife 
Burt Reynolds gives one of his best performances since Deliverance. I've never cared for the majority of all his good ol' boy, corn pone shtick movies, that seemed to be his go to persona, between these two films. I'll admit maybe I missed something but that is because Burt being in a film was never a drawing card for me. I have enjoyed a few of his Westerns. Notable in the ensemble cast are, Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Heather Grahame, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, and Ricky Jay.
The rest of the massive also acquit themselves admirably, they give humanity to countless similar real life Sexploitation/early Porn makers who nowadays are mostly just forgotten names on IMDb lists if the titles even show up. (Note IMDb must have a filter in their search a lot of titles will not come up when you use IMDb's search, however the links appear when you do a Google search).Doing research for Noirsville during the 1960-70 Transitional Noir period, I've come to recognize some of the early Sexploiraion "Noir" directors and talent that spearheaded and forged what was to come. The very composited fictional people that Anderson depicted in this film.
Directors, the Findlay's with their art house beat generation roots, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Lee Frost, Barry Mahon, Anton Holden, Joseph W. Sarno, and Kemal Horulu are some of my faves. Sexploitation actresses of note were, Janine Lenon in Aroused, Roberta Findlay, June Roberts, Fleurette Carter, and Victoria Astor (Hot Skin and Cold Cash). Some actors that impressed were Bob O'Connell as the demented mob boss in Some Like it Violent, Joe Santos in Flesh and Lace and mob pickup men Wes Bishop and Stefan Zema in The Pick-Up.
For a film about the Porn Industry there is not a whole lot of nudity or sex, you have to go to the source films for that commodity and particularly those from the vintage year of 1969 . That was the year where full frontal nudity and simulated sex first was allowed. It would be today's equivalent of and NC-17. Boogie Nights is not even a hard "R." Where in real Sexploitation it was all about the most you could get away with, Anderson is just telling an interesting story of Bizarro Hollywood.
Anything more than the "T&A" in Boogie Nights would earn it that economically disastrous, for the box office, NC-17 rating. The prosthetic **** of Dirk isn't real, lol.
Anderson does give us a quite a bit of style, and some homages to other films. Entertaining 8/10 Fuller review with more screen caps at Noirsville.
I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
The Fugitive Kind (1960) Steamy Drama - Transitional Noir
Directed by Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men (1957), The Pawnbroker (1964), Serpico (1973),The Verdict (1982), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)). Written by Tennessee Williams and Meade Roberts and based on a rewrite of a rewrite of a Williams' play . Cinematography was by Oscar winner Boris Kaufman who shot Vigo's L'Atalante (1934). He helped to introduce neo-realistic style to American films, notably (On the Waterfront (1954), Baby Doll (1956), 12 Angry Men (1957), Splendor in the Grass (1961), and The Pawnbroker (1964)). Music was by Kenyon Hopkins who later provided the soundtrack for Mister Buddwing (1966).
The film stars Marlon Brando as Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier, Joanne Woodward as Carol Cutrere
Anna Magnani as Lady Torrance, Maureen Stapleton as Vee Talbot, Victor Jory as Jabe Torrance.
R. G. Armstrong as Sheriff Jordan Talbot, John Baragrey as David Cutrere, Virgilia Chew as Nurse Porter, Ben Yaffee as "Dog" Hamma, Joe Brown Jr. as "Pee Wee" Binnings, Madame Spivy as Ruby Lightfoot, Sally Gracie as Dolly Hamma, Lucille Benson as Beulah Binnings, and Emory Richardson as Uncle Pleasant, the Conjure Man.
Most of the performances are brilliant or near so. Brando, Magnani, Stapelton, Jory, and Armstrong are spot on. With Jory being the most impressive. Woodward is stuck in what seems to be the Hollywood method acting standard crumbling "Southern Bell" mode, though she is a bonafide belle from Georgia, it's a minor flaw. Actually filmed surprisingly in Milton, NY (opposite Poughkeepsie) and the Gold Medal Studios, Bronx, New York City. Screen caps from Criterion screener. Full review with some screencaps in Film Noir/Gangster 7/10.