Panique (France, 1946)

Based on the same book as Monsieur Hire, about an alleged misanthrope, an astrologer by trade, which surprised me, in a small French town. A commentary on French conduct under Nazi occupation. When a woman is found murdered, suspicion falls on the misanthrope who doesn't seem like that bad a guy. Not friendly, but he doesn't go around saying rude things like most movie misanthropes.

It's not a mystery. We don't see the murder but everything is spelled out in dialogue.

The things that stood out to me were that the real killer (male) was clearly wearing lipstick. It was black & white. Maybe that was his natural appearance. And amusement park rides---bumper cars and a rollercoaster---were enjoyed only by adults. 

There was an early scene when a woman and her boyfriend go to another fortune teller who does a pretty good cold reading. She correctly guesses that the woman was institutionalized, but not that she was in prison, but doesn't do well predicting future events.

Available on the Criterion Channel.

The Octogon (Chuck Norris, 1980)

In a world of choices, for one man there is no choice. He must face---THE OCTOGON.

A relatively early Chuck Norris effort, an actual karate movie, before he just walked around shooting people. Plot involved mercenaries, terrorists and guys who like killing terrorists. A woman decides a karate expert would be the perfect person to destroy a mercenary/terrorist training camp run by Japanese martial artists.

I saw it in a movie theater with a friend who was an avid reader of Soldier of Fortune magazine. He started repeating lines from the movie, like I hadn't seen it with him a few days earlier. We were in the same high school. I knew he didn't fight terrorism.

Thinking back, it's strange that he identified with Lee Van Cleef rather than Chuck Norris. Although Van Cleef had better lines.

Saw the movie again later at the university. It was before home video had taken over. Student groups would show movies on the weekends. Some of the classrooms had projection booths.

The college kids laughed at the scene where Chuck Norris says, "That's an insult to both of us. It makes me stupid. And you a whore," and at the high speed chase. The bad guys pull their car across the road blocking Chuck Norris, so he backs up and goes around as the terrorists watch helplessly.

It was all right, though.

Lance Kerwin, RIP

Teachers at my junior high school often complained about the state of television. In Lance Kerwin's show,  James at 16, the title character has unprotected sex. The writers wanted to show him buying condoms but the network refused to show teenagers planning to have sex.

Kerwin died yesterday at age 62.

He had a more troubled life than I would have imagined, struggling with drug use until the 1990's.

I, Tonya (2017)

Poor Tonya Harding. Abused child turned battered wife whose idiot husband ended her skating career by arranging an assault on ice-skating rival Nancy Kerrigan.

Nancy Kerrigan went on to win a silver medal in the Olympics; she was criticized for not being a better sport about a Ukrainian teen beating her out for the gold medal and was later attacked on Dateline NBC after they picked her up on microphone expressing embarrassment at having to wear her silver medal while playing a princess in a Disneyland parade. There was a terrible backlash against the poor girl. I don't know how Tonya Harding is regarded these days.

The movie was okay. An antidote to Portlandia.

Alec Baldwin to be charged with involuntary manslaughter

They're reporting that Alec Baldwin is to be charged with involuntary manslaughter. Maybe he SHOULD have assumed that the prop revolver he was handed was loaded. What do I know.

Both Baldwin and the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, will be charged with involuntary manslaughter. Assistant director David Halls will plead guilty to Negligent Use of a Deadly Weapon.

I thought John Landis should have been put away for murdering three people, two of them small children, on the set of The Twilight Zone, so I may be horribly wrong to be on Alec Baldwin's side here, but it's hard to imagine an actor being handed a prop gun and asking, "Say, this isn't loaded with live ammunition, is it?"

 

SAG-AFTRA came to Baldwin's defense:

“The prosecutor’s contention that an actor has a duty to ensure the functional and mechanical operation of a firearm on a production set is wrong and uninformed. An actor’s job is not to be a firearms or weapons expert. Firearms are provided for their use under the guidance of multiple expert professionals directly responsible for the safe and accurate operation of that firearm.  In addition, the employer is always responsible for providing a safe work environment at all times, including hiring and supervising the work of professionals trained in weapons. 

“The Industry Standards for safety with firearms and use of blank ammunition are ​clearly laid out ​in Safety Bulletin 1, provided by the​ Joint​ Industry-Wide Labor Management Safety Commission. The guidelines require an experienced, qualified armorer to be put in charge of all handling, use, and safekeeping of firearms on set. These duties include ‘inspecting the firearm and barrel before and after every firing sequence,’ and ‘checking all firearms before each use.’  

“The guidelines do not make it the performer’s responsibility to check any firearm. Performers ​train to perform, and they are not required or expected to be experts on guns or experienced in their use. The industry assigns that responsibility to qualified professionals who oversee their use and handling in every aspect.  Anyone issued a firearm on set must be ​given training and guidance in its safe handlin​g and use, ​ but all activity with firearms on a set must be under the careful supervision and control of the professional armorer and the employer.” 

It would have been so safe and easy and more pleasant for everyone involved to add muzzle flashes digitally. It's not like the movie would have been that good anyway.

It's the Communists

I read a quote somewhere in the 1970's when I was in high school. A French guy noted that "You can say anything in America as long as you start and finish by saying 'I hate Communism'."

Well, those Communists are at it again. This from the London Telegraph:

Maybe she has a point. I don't know. In Texas, physical education was shown to be driving students from school.

At least she doesn't blame Vladimir Putin.

Madness!

 

How does this make sense?

It remains impossible (unless you have access to editions circulated by Russian pirates) for anyone in the US to watch Roman Polanski’s 2019 film on the Dreyfus Affair. It’s crazy that you can stream every other Polanski film but not An Officer and a Spy, which, if it’s at all faithful to the Robert Harris novel (and by some accounts it’s one of the best historical dramas ever filmed), speaks directly to our current crisis, though perhaps not as articulately as the campaign to expunge it.