slaytonf

Traven is a great writer. I haven't read his work in a long time, so I can only provisionally say he'd have to go a long way to out-do Conrad or Melville on the wide open.

Prostitues, perhaps. Or loose-moralled sophisticates. Someone who knows the historical character of that region of Manhattan could clarify it.

You got it.

What a great idea! That way they could just show the same three movies over and over again.

As I said before: How 'bout Something of Value (1957)? With Sidney Poitier, Rock Hudson, Wendy Hiller, and Juano Hernandez: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2060/Something-of-Value/ Click on READ THE FULL SYNOPSIS button for a detailed description of the story.

He used to play motets on Curly and Larry's heads. They sounded flat to me.

I agree. It's a lot of fun. Too bad TCM doesn't have it on this year.

That the frogs--oh, um, well, nothing--I--ha, ha. . . .

The only recorded instance I have encountered of this actually happening. I considered it myth. Bytheway, isn't that Norman Bates as your avatar?

It offendedeth mine eye, and I averted it. Save for Monterey Pop (1968)--Ravi Shankar rules. Oh, yes, and the short ani on nappy hair. A great start. Clever, witty, satiric, and with something real to say. Why could they not follow in the same line? Was there nothing else new in the list of movies selected worthwhile?

Or just different.

IF something offendeth thine eye, don't look at it.

I think there was one person in the upper Elbe valley who may have been unclear, but the rest of the population had no doubt where the 'n' -s were coming from, and headed to. Seeing as it was the fundamental tenet of their philosophy, and the basis of every single speech made by every single of its adherents, and the theme of everything written by them.

Oh, I think people knew.

I've tried to get my head around this, Dargo. How someone who wrote one of the great testaments for individuality and humanity, could end up supporting an institution devoted to the individual's annihilation and subjugation to the Great Machine is beyond me.

The point of my thread was to register my objection to the fraud--yes, fraud committed against viewers by the TCM programmers. Omitting the scheduling for the evening, a break from the pattern all the rest of the year, was undoubtedly to pique interest and curiosity in the audience--one distinctively characterized by its avidity. The implication was that there would be a surprise, something fresh, new, different in store. So here we are at the table, fork and knife in hand, appetite whetted, and--oatmeal. Frankly, I feel TCM did itself a disservice. If they were going to offer up the sameol' sameol', then just go ahead and list it. If I didn't know any better about what TCM does provide, I'd say it was just a mean dirty trick.

Well, Monterey Pop's (1968) not so bad. 'Scuse me. . . .Janis is on.

Dargo, if you live by the pun, don't offer excuses.

Owooooo. . . . .

Here was all this build-up to tonite. All the mystery to heighten anticipation of what we'd see. Something new, fresh, provoking, engaging. And whaddo we get? After a couple of snippies not even worth the title of appetizer, one of war-horsiest of war-horses, My Fair Lady (1964)! How pathetic.

People who are afraid of Metropolis' (1927) vision flee to the conventional dialectic of communism/capitalism to find justification for facile dismissals. They studiously ignore the real message of the movie, the human message of the movie. The message stated at the beginning and the end of the movie: The mediator between the head and the hands must be the heart! Whatever politics, economics, or class struggles are brought into the story are there as devices used in exemplifying that premise. Lang and his wife, Thea von Harbou, who wrote the screenplay/novel, were alarmed, along with many others, at the effects of industrialization on human society, and foresaw an impending dystopian Armageddon. They argue in the movie exactly what its detractors criticize it for, that economic, or political theories can't cope with our greatest challenges. The only real possibility to overcome discord, division and upheaval is through humanity, the heart. Advocates of traditional social norms can take heart the Mediator is of the patrician class--though he loves a lassie of the prols.

How 'bout Something of Value (1957)? With Sidney Poitier, Rock Hudson, Wendy Hiller, and Juano Hernandez: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2060/Something-of-Value/ Click on READ THE FULL SYNOPSIS button for a detailed description of the story.

That is from Viva Maria! (1965), a really terrific romp by Louis Malle set in 1800's South America, starring Jeanne Moreau and Brigitte Bardot as a couple of showgirls who get caught up in revolutionary activity. TCM shows it--rarely, and in the dubbed version, which is severely disappointing, because you don't get these two gorgeous women's equally gorgeous voices.

I believe it was for Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) that Bertolucci was one of the writers.

I checked it for a moment and it looks fine today, so it must have been a transitory condition.