Today at Film Forum: Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr., The Boat, My Wife’s Relations, Daydreams.
This is a stellar selection, folks. Steamboat Bill, Jr. is a classic Keaton film: poor soul in love, trying to get the girl, hit by a hurricane, floods, and even the entire side of a house.
The Boat is – simple & indescribable. It’s the one that clarifies why Beckett loved him so much.
Daydreams & My Wife’s Relations are two top-notch two-reelers, as well.
Week 3: Buster Film Fest
Today at Film Forum: Buster Keaton’s Seven Chances, with shorts Three Ages and Hard Luck.
NYT: When Jane Becomes Jack
From today’s NY Times, specifically an article called “The Trouble When Jane Becomes Jack”:
The fact that there is no apparent parallel imbroglio in the gay community toward men who become women is a subject of some speculation.
Despite the tangled set of issues involved, the survival rate of lesbian couples seems higher than among gay couples when one partner changes gender, advocates say.
Interesting that he’s looking for the wrong “other” situation, since the majority of MTFs who are in relationships and transitioning are in heterosexual relationships. It’s “The Trouble When Jack Becomes Jane” that I want to read next, and I hope it’s written with as much sensitivity.
"Having Boobs Sucks."
I never expected my quote of the day to come from South Park, but there you go: Having boobs sucks.
It was the single funniest South Park I’ve ever seen. That it happened to completely explain sexism made it even funnier. If I taught Sex Ed in high school, I’d show it to my classes.
Short version: a girl named Bebe, who’s in the the South Park class starts to develop breasts. Boys go wonky and can’t figure out why Bebe seems so cool all of a sudden & they never noticed it before. Other girls start to call her a slut, simultaneously. Bebe hates new attention, asks mom about it, who encourages her to use her breasts as power. Bebe asks mother, “Mom, what’s 6 x 8?” Mom replies, “Honey, 6 and 8 are two different numbers.” (It’s somewhere in here she says, “Having boobs sucks.”) Later, after boys have
become neanderthal, beating each other up and mumbling about tatas, Bebe – after failing to convince a plastic surgeon to give her breast reduction surgery – comes to school wearing a box. Boys behave normally, can’t figure out why she doesn’t seem so cool anymore. School guidance counselor explains the power breasts have over male minds. Jealous girl shows up with new implanted breasts; boys mock her in order to regain control over breast mastery of their brains.
(Though the show where some kids from NYC call the South Park kids “queefs” and the SP kids don’t know what it means was pretty hysterical, too. Really, I’m very ashamed of myself.)
* the picture on top is Betty as an SP character, and the other one is me, as same. Make yourself into a SP character at SP Studios.
Just Go.
NYC’s Film Forum is having a Buster Keaton film festival – and they do
them well. Most of the times I’ve seen Buster on the big screen it’s been there, actually. & For some screenings there will be live music, which is cool & groovy, but if you can’t make one of those don’t let that stop you!
The only week I won’t recommend to newbies is the week of 9/18, when they’re showing College. It’s a funny movie, they all are – but it’s not the kind that makes people into fans. But all the others – Sherlock Jr., Steamboat Bill Jr. and The General (voted one of the top 100 films of all time) are all fan-makers. (They should have picked Go West, instead.)
Just go. Eight Mondays, starting with this upcoming one, August 7th.
If my raves aren’t enough to convince you, check out what this guy said about Buster’s films.
(Thanks to Caprice for the news and to Megan for the link.)
Victor/Victoria
Tonight I finished my last revision of Chapter 7, and coincidentally Victor/Victoria was on PBS, and I happened to catch it right from the beginning. People will be surprised to hear that I’ve never seen it before. (Though no-one should be, I keep saying that I just don’t like movies, and I think I saw Chariots of Fire that year instead, because I really do see only a few a year.)
I can see how utterly shocking this movie must have seemed in 1982 when it was released. But I can’t see Julie Andrews passing at all; I mean she’s Julie Andrews! The hills are alive and all that.
But the romantic subplot (or is that the main plot?) with James Garner is – well, dumb. But at least it’s not one long homophobic joke… except it is. There’s also just something creepy about the way it’s all so ‘demimonde packaged for the suburbs’ too, which is beginning to tire me. The scenes of them trying to navigate public spaces as a gay couple are hurting my brain.
“I guess the problem is that we’re not really two guys.” UGH. My crazy bet is that she’s going to choose to drop the act and become properly gendered so they can be together. Am I right? (It’s not over yet, still on while I’m typing.)
And why a Polish count? Are Polish folks just considered genderqueer or something? I’m starting to think so. I have very little idea as to how this movie was received, and I’m sure most of you have seen it, and I’d love to hear your thoughts, initial reactions, etc.
When the Media Gets It Wrong
I was researching some issues tonight concerning journalism and the proper use of pronouns and discovered that the NLGJA (National Lesbian & Gay Journalists’ Association) have a Rapid Response Task Force whose job it is to target any form of media that’s getting a story wrong about LGBT people.
From their site:
NLGJA’s members and staff work daily with our colleagues in the news industry to fulfill the organization’s mission of fair and accurate coverage. Sometimes, though, a more targeted response is required to promote greater understanding about how to fairly and accurately cover the LGBT community.
NLGJA’s answer to this is the Rapid Response Task Force. This panel of working journalists from mainstream and LGBT media answers complaints about reporting seen as unfair and/or inaccurate by readers, viewers, listeners and our peer journalists around the country. Since its inception, the Rapid Response Task Force has not only informed countless newsrooms about appropriate terminology and the appearance of bias, but has also used these contacts to spread awareness about issues facing the LGBT community.
And they encourage you to submit stories that you feel included unfair or inaccurate coverage. So you can do something besides gripe on the message boards!
Math I Like
Not long ago I was looking for a photo of – you know, I don’t remember what. But I happened upon this photographic math equation*, because – well, maybe that’s obvious. But I didn’t quite get what Buster was doing there.
But then we saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest the other night, and suddenly it made perfect sense. It’s one of the only movies I’ve seen where the sight gags might have impressed Buster; my favorite was probably the Jack Sparrow Shishkabob, but the running cage was damned brilliant, too. But once I saw the water wheel, I *knew* there was a Buster Keaton fan working on the stunts. You just don’t use a water wheel (or drop the side of a house on someone) unless you intend to conjure up Buster.
But even better is that Betty’s got Jack Sparrow’s accent nearly down: “I love those moments… I like to wave at them as they go by.” Anyway, go see it. It’s everything you want in a summer movie: swashbuckling, pretty girls dressed as deck hands, creepy things, and great clothes.
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*Whoever designed that little graphical equation seems to have taken it down, because I can’t find it online anymore.
No Sissy Stuff
I was just watching a documentary about Gene Kelly, who my mom always loved & who I came to love watching as well, and they mentioned that in 1958 he did a TV show called Dancing: A Man’s Game which basically showed how the movements and timing of sports were much the same as the movements and timing of dancing.
Interestingly, Kelly wanted to be a Pittsburgh Pirate, and only accidentally (or incidentally) became the dancer and movie star he was.
Still, the documentary asserted that Kelly is the one who re-defined dance to include not only athleticism but a blue-collar masculinity, evidence by his own quote:
I didn’t want to move or act like a rich man. I wanted to dance in a pair of jeans. I wanted to dance like the man in the streets.
Betty did a part a long time ago where he had to leap up on a desk and sing wearing a pair of jeans; his character was a union organizer, and it was the actual musical called The Cradle Will Rock (that the Tim Robbins movie is about). & Yes, it was probably my favorite part he ever did (though in a three-way tie with Algernon and Macheath).
Underarm Feminism
For a brief time, you can buy specially packaged Secret deodorant, each one featuring the “look” of a woman from the last 50 years, or the last six decades.
Yeah, feminist deodorant! Now if they only came with collectible cards and bubblegum, we’d really be equal!