Some Came Running

Yarbles

As you might know if you follow me on Twitter, or follow other film writers on Twitter, myself and a whole bunch of other freelance writers for the MSN website were informed today that soon there was no longer going to be any work for us at the site. (Here is an odd news item concerning something like this thing.) I send condolences to colleagues Kim Morgan, James Rocchi, Kate Erbland, Don Kaye...and there are others I'm not sure I can mention. I thank all the people who've been kind on Twitter and via e-mail and in comments on this blog. I am, as they say, "confident" that I will "land on my feet" and all that, but the immediate experience of this condition, unfortunately, feels rather akin to having received a sharp kick in the middle of the forehead. And I had wanted to get so much more work done on my second novel this evening. Have I mentioned that I'm trying to be a novelist now? I'll keep you posted, promise. In the meantime enjoy this mordant bit of musical entertainment from a fellow whose current state reminds us all that, yes, it could be worse. And incidentally, I SHALL be contributing reviews (and even a listicle thingie) to MSN through the end of September. Thanks and stay tuned. 

A toast...

To Robert Koehler and especially to Kent Jones. Above, Barry Sullivan and Dennis O'Keefe, Getting Gertie's Garter, Allan Dwan, 1945. 

Free in the sky, man

I can't be the only one who thinks of Zabriskie Point whenever this news story gets updated. Can I?

By the way, a domestic DVD of Antonioni's 1970 picture, which I think is really an underrated masterpiece and which I love more every time I see it, is coming out in June from Warner. I would love to see a Blu-ray of the thing, really. I mean, Criterion is Blu-raying Marienbad around the same time. What, exactly, is too much to ask for, I wonder.

No Blu-ray for "Ran"

I didn't want to post this yesterday, as I figured it might be taken for a sick April Fool's joke, but word's come down that the Criterion Collection's Blu-ray of Akira Kurosawa's late masterpiece Ran has been "withdrawn from Criterion's schedule due to a rights issue." This is a tremendous bummer. The splendiferous Ran has had a long and largely ill-fated career on home video, with Criterion's wonderful 2005 standard-definition release finally getting it right. I can say with some confidence that their Blu-ray would have been magnificent. The only Blu-ray of the picture extant is, according to the mavens at DVD Beaver, pretty bad news. 

Back when the picture first came out in the States, me and my, um, homies, latched onto it in a way that we hadn't for any film since The Shining back in '80. I think I saw the Kubrick, in the company of various fellow travelers, nine times in one summer. Ran, something like six, eventually. My friend Joe Failla reminds me that at my third viewing, his first, I deliberately ducked out of the theater to make a call as the epic fire and battles scene was about to start, and came back after the end, and asked Joe, "Did I miss anything?" What an impish douche I was back in the day...

Anyway, there's no further information readily available about the situation at this time. When there is, I'll update. Feh. It's enough to make you wanna take up crack.