jonathan demme!

Good reporting on the rerelease of Something Wild.

why did nobody post on here? so much goodness. i kind of lose track after philadelphia, but still...

when he was filming beloved i had several nice conversations with him. he would come into the corner store i worked in almost every day. very nice guy.

i still have never seen beloved though.

but i like almost everything from caged heat to silence of the lambs.

there must be another thread on him.

<3 something wild, is there a commentary on the criterion?

demme's the greatest. I even dug Rachel Getting Married

and something wild is excellent, love it

The Criterion Something Wild has a long interview w/Demme in lieu of a commentary.

count me among those who thought the Ray Liotta act of SW is too jarring. and just not very good.

Bought the Criterion edition of Something Wild and rewatched it last night; these days I prefer this to Blue Velvet in 1986's Suburban Diptych. Morbs not OTM.

Also: filmed in Tallahassee!

it was filmed everywhere!

something wild is terrific. makes me very happy.

his talent seems to have shriveled up and blown away though. being feted by the industry, winning awards, etc. seems to have been very bad for him.

I liked his Neil Young movie a lot.

I liked Rachel Getting Married

well his documentaries are still fine.

rachel getting married ugh. so sad to see this guy who was a master of composition and subtle reframings and etc. just give in wholesale to the whole queasycam thing.

I dunno, I usually hate that too but just that he shot it all on the fly and had everyone kinda improv as they went made the fictional event feel like a real event unfolding, I dug it

but I know lots of ppl hated it so I won't stan too hard

still love Stop Making Sense. Also Silence of the Lambs for all time

Anne Hathaway kills a lot of movies with overacting (she strikes me as a drama club kid all grown up) but it kind of fit in RGM.

im all about married to the mob

man i've entirely forgotten that movie exists

melvin and howard needs a criterion release or something. not enough people know that one.

Married to the Mob is great

he's a fricking genius, but Rachel Getting Married made me wanna chuck the telly outta the windae.

the ending to Married To The Mob (the couple kiss! everyone in the barber shop applauds! Pfeiffer's boss winks at the camera! a cartoon love heart appears onscreen!
New Order's Bizzare Love Triangle starts up!) is one of the best bits of any film i've seen in my life

Silence of the Lambs is, as Armond White once said, feminist claptrap.

must-see: his doc The Agronomist

I had both Melvin and Howard and Married to the Mob on my comedy poll. (The latter higher, even though I count the former as the better film, if that makes sense.) I have very good memories of Handle with Care/Citizen's Band, too--I've got a home-taped copy and keep meaning to watch it again one day. Sadly forgotten: Paul Le Mat, who inexplicably wasn't even nominated for Melvin and Howard (Steenburgen won, and Robards was nominated).

wow, dr morbs, your littl thread-bombs are transcendently irritating. would you ever care to actually explain, the first time out, any of your devastating contraventions of conventional wisdom? or is trolling just, you know, your thing?

Rachel Getting Married > any other Demme film I've seen, but I know I haven't seen most of the right ones

are you supposed to hate every single character in Rachel Getting Married?

i think so, actually; that's one reason demme liked the script.

The Jonathan Demme I once knew and loved was destroyed by a bad case of the Oscars, which may explain why everything he's done to the left of Hollywood lately has been massively better than his high profile pics. Beloved, The Truth about Charlie, Manchurian Candidate=yuck.

yeah philadelphia is the precise moment where he kind of flattens. though there are some good things in that movie.

Related: this is playing at our new documentary theatre this weekend (I don't think I'll be able to get in to see it, unfortunately).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185371/

am: no, and by your personal definition that seemingly applies only to me instead of the other one-line "trolls" on this goddamn shithole of a "community," yes.

tSoL is homophobic, too. Seven is much the better of the high-grossing Grimm's fairytales of the '90s.

am: no, and by your personal definition that seemingly applies only to me instead of the other one-line "trolls" on this goddamn shithole of a "community," yes.

please leave, then.

i dug rachel getting married but i dont know if i would if i re-screened it.

however i think rachel getting married to the mob would be a pretty amazing movie.

think about it.

i dug rachel getting married but i dont know if i would if i re-screened it.

― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Saturday, March 17, 2012 10:58 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

picturing you in a roger ebert-like basement screening room with big plush seating and a 35mm projector. "roll film, please!"

"roll film, mother!"

i dug rachel getting married but i dont know if i would if i re-screened it

― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Saturday, March 17, 2012 10:58 AM

wow, dr morbs, your littl thread-bombs are transcendently irritating. would you ever care to actually explain, the first time out, any of your devastating contraventions of conventional wisdom? or is trolling just, you know, your thing?

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 17 March 2012 15:11 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol this movie

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:12 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

formerly known as lol this guy

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:26 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Sunday, 15 November 2009 03:15 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Saturday, November 14, 2009 9:15 PM

like i said

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Thursday, 31 December 2009 19:49 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:10 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

amplify?

― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:28 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he made Storefront Hitchcock so he'll always be alright by me. Plus he was super nice the one time I met him.

!

Are we still talking about Morbs

Haven't met Morbs. And I doubt his Storefront Hitchcock would be about Robyn.

hey did anybody see the pilot of that Patrick Wilson "Doctor Who Sees Ghosts" show that Demme directed? Rough, clumsy stuff.

lol this movie

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:12 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

formerly known as lol this guy

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:26 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Sunday, 15 November 2009 03:15 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Saturday, November 14, 2009 9:15 PM

like i said

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Thursday, 31 December 2009 19:49 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:10 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

amplify?

― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:28 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― Ward Fowler, Saturday, March 17, 2012 3:01 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark

http://i.imgur.com/xnbty.gif

hey slocki, since i got a lot of shit from you on the rgm thread for not digging the movie, i'm curious why you think you wouldn't like it now

I've gotten some blowback on recommending Something Wild to people lately. Even if people admit the movie does more with the manic pixie dream girl archetype than most, they're still not glad they saw a movie where Melanie Griffith is a manic pixie dream girl.

I love Something Wild. Mr Veg made me watch it a fews ago, I love how it turns into a whole other movie

*a few years*

yeah i had be like "no, no, there's a tonal shift! just wait!" around the hotel scene

yeah I was NOT excited about it at all at first, lol

Difference is Griffith actually feels like a genuinely nutty and endearing character, not the random assemblage of indie quirks that made up later iterations of the form. She's more of a screwball heroine than anything

^^^

I think people are skeptical because Melanie Griffith has basically become a manic aging pixie.

Working Girl and Something Wild are maybe the only 2 movies I've really enjoyed her in, where I haven't wanted to stab myself in the eye.

She's amazing here. Demme gives her a closeup after Charlie unwittingly reveals how much she means to him that's devastating.

wow, dr morbs, your littl thread-bombs are transcendently irritating. would you ever care to actually explain, the first time out, any of your devastating contraventions of conventional wisdom? or is trolling just, you know, your thing?

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 17 March 2012 15:11 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol this movie

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:12 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

formerly known as lol this guy

― by another name (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 19:26 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Sunday, 15 November 2009 03:15 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Saturday, November 14, 2009 9:15 PM

like i said

― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Thursday, 31 December 2009 19:49 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:10 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

amplify?

― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:28 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― Ward Fowler, Saturday, March 17, 2012 2:01 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this guy

Difference is Griffith actually feels like a genuinely nutty and endearing character, not the random assemblage of indie quirks that made up later iterations of the form. She's more of a screwball heroine than anything

― Number None, Saturday, March 17, 2012 2:49 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, March 17, 2012 2:53 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

btw SW has my favorite use of music -- as commentary, found objects, counterpoint -- in a movie ever.

yeah seriously.

let's watch the ending shall we?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z8NSqlaTMM

that film is a beautiful representation of the 1980s. dated in the best possible way.

I want The Feelies to play my reunion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_9Vlh1OtB8

i wonder -- is she actually hitting on him or is she playing with him since she probably knows he's not actually married to lulu?

also: love the couple in the background.

Demme has a great feel for music in general, imo. His choice of Goodbye Horses for the dancing scene in SoL was fucking genius. (Feel free to crap on my head now Morbs)

hey slocki, since i got a lot of shit from you on the rgm thread for not digging the movie, i'm curious why you think you wouldn't like it now

― da croupier, Saturday, March 17, 2012 3:40 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good question, i don't have a specific answer beyond 'it hasnt really stuck with me' tbh

no I like the way JD has used music, often

cept Storefront Hitchcock is Robyn on an off night

lol

always felt that Into The Night was easily the best of the urban/yuppie nightamre sub-genre. actually were After Hours, Something Wild and Into The Night the ONLY films in this sub genre? hm. well anyway i was recently amazed to see that someone else thought Into The Night was amazing too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr-CGHH6Ys0

great genre

Suddenly realizing that a good number of movies I've long intended to see were Demme's. And also that several are streaming on Netflix! Stop Making Sense and Rachel Getting Married (FUCK THA HATERS) are fantastic.

after hours is my favorite scorsese movie i think. it is good.

does naked fit into this subgenre btw?

mike leigh's?

I keep avoiding Mike Leigh's Naked, for perhaps obvious reasons.

yes

xpost

also frankenheimer's seconds is like a weird cousin to this subgenre no?

I've always loved 'Naked'. Its been a while since I rewatched it, but for me it's THE Thewlis performance. He can only ever be THAT guy to me.

I watched it again recently and it is... kind of great and kind of totally weird and maybe dated in some ways. Don't see it as part of this genre tho

Naked could be seen as the British equivalent of those movies but it's a helluva lot grimier and more disturbing. Funny too of course

Music-wise, how do people feel about Demme having Q Lazzarus change the Talking Heads to "Heaven is a place where nothing can go wrong" in Philadelphia?

gonna go out on a limb and say that the feelies and robyn hitchcock songs in truth with charlie are also a little shoehorned

truth about charlie, i mean. haven't seen the manchurian candidate remake so i can't say whether the Go4, Mission Of Burma and Jah Wobble tracks imdb lists on its soundtrack work.

Literally the only thing about Manchurian that works is casting Robyn Hitchcock as a villain.

naked doesnt fit the bill at all, it's not about a straight/yuppie/uptight dude accidentally cast into urban chaos

yeah, he really is already a part of that world. If it was about the security guard...

always felt that Into The Night was easily the best of the urban/yuppie nightamre sub-genre. actually were After Hours, Something Wild and Into The Night the ONLY films in this sub genre?

miracle mile fits the bill, i think.

outlier

desperately seeking susan, definitely.

and on the margins (different margins) are risky business and romancing the stone, etc.

but the reason why i'm here:

what do y'all think of "philadelphia"? aside from the neil young song, which is beyond criticism IMO.

Well-meaning, some good performances, but clumsy and mawkish? Also seemed like an apologia after Silence of the Lambs. (Agree that "Philadelphia"'s really nice.)

You can't buy Citizen's Band/Handle with Care on DVD--not officially, anyway. I found one place selling a bootleg. That's terrible. This would be perfect for Criterion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS7s6YkVKEI

The Truth About Charlie--which I reflexively want to call The Trouble with Charlie--was worse than I thought it'd be (was hoping for something in the neighborhood of pointless but attractive). Almost felt sorry for Thandie Newton. There is a good Silence of the Lambs joke if you can last past the awful Charles Aznavour end-credit sequence, itself a variation on something Demme did so well in Married to the Mob.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB__-cQ8LzM

"Out-Of-Print Criterion LaserDisc/DVD audio commentary by Jonathan Demme (director), Jodie Foster (Clarice), Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal), Ted Tally (writer), and FBI agent John Douglas.. "

Did anyone actually see Ricki and the Flash, or was the prospect of Streep + Diabo Cody far too frightening? Only wondering 'cause the clip that Sound Opinions recently played of Streep singing "American Girl" sounded fun.

I'm not really sure about it as a whole but there's a lot to like.

RIP

wow.

I saw him at the movies with his kids a couple times.

I could never tell if his career went off the rails or if Hollywood simply made it too hard for him to work; m I thought Beloved was a stiff at the time, then he followed it with two totally unnecessary remakes. Rachel Getting Married was I guess comeback and people liked Ricki and the Flash, but it often felt like his heart was in documentaries.

aw man :(

Perfect Kiss is one of my all-time favorite music videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3XW6NLILqo

RIP

yesssssssss

and i'm pretty much not a Talking Heads fan save for Stop Making Sense

just watched Stop Making Sense when we were doing the Talking Heads roll out, watched Silence of the Lambs a couple months ago. Films hold up really well, both classics. RIP

RIP director of New Order's the Perfect Kiss video, which is sublime. xpost

sad :( i watch Rachel Getting Married at least three times a year

I can't think of another director with such a cool relationship to cool music. I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_9Vlh1OtB8

Soundtrack to Married to the Mob is super hip, too.

omg i didn't realize he directed that!

My rockcrit friends will immortalize him, deservedly, for Stop Making Sense. But until 1993 Jonathan Demme skipped from strength to strength; he even seemed to learn from Swing Shift; his first mainstream Hollywood debacle. Caged Heat through The Silence of the Lambs is an impressive streak.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z8NSqlaTMM

sister carol in the closing credits of wild thing, quintessential american new wave movie -- need to rewatch

weird I was just talking about Demme cuz I caught Swing Shift (underrated!) and had also happened upon that stupid Documentary Now episode that parodies Stop Making Sense really poorly (fuckin Armisen, so sick of that guy)

Christine Lahti was a joy in SS. Melanie Griffith has never been better than in SW. He knew how to work with actresses.

wow this sucks, he was fucking excellent. and yeah his soundtracks were the bomb; the best use of Bizarre Love Triangle is in
Married To The Mob in the hairdresser's.

YES Alfred

also the alleged use of the fall's hip priest in silence of the lambs -- to this day i have never spotted it

and Colin Newman!

The Feelies in SW

he was a really excellent filmmaker. i always admired the atmosphere he gets from SOtL without going OTT into banal gloomy cinematography or anything. there's a pretty singular creepy vibe to the whole movie from the beginning that is hard to pin down but i think has a lot to do with how he frames actors within the surrounding spaces and a shot as simple as Jodie Foster training or exercising at the beginning or whatever it was is full of dread. it's impressive bc there are a lot of guys who identify as horror filmmakers who are unable to conjure up anything nearly as effective and usually strain hard for effect.

or Foster's defeated walk down the airport terminal at the end

i remember that shot when she gets a call from lecter at the end and while she speaks with him, she looks off towards Scott Glenn's character while he's talking to some other people, and there's this sense that she's looking for help but it's not coming and in fact it's going the other way. it's a quick moment, almost a throwaway, but it really makes the scene for me.

I got the sense that like Lecter the Scott Glenn character had his own sado/voyeur tendencies, thanks to the way he threw Clarice into those awful scenarios

jd someone with a real eye for (gendered) detail when it came to dress, decor, the subtle background you don't always even have time to see clearly -- which is why he was such a good director of sotl, as it's so key to the story, clarice spotting stuff her male colleagues overlook

in the book, she's playing off her two male mentors against one another -- learning different things from each

yeah i think it was p quietly a movie about male figures of power. i think it was discussed a lot at the time actually but i think in the wake of lectermania and that character becoming the most important one, that element was lost a bit in the discourse. i mean i don't have a problem w/Hopkins in the role or the conception of the role but I think Foster does such a great job and Demme is sympathetic to her character's ambition and also what roadblocks she faces.

Swing Shift as is plays just fine, and screening soon in NYC.

https://quadcinema.com/film/swing-shift/

also the alleged use of the fall's hip priest in silence of the lambs -- to this day i have never spotted it

― mark s, Wednesday, April 26, 2017 9:00 AM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's the final scene, it's heard for a long time but very faintly. buffalo bill answers the door to clarice and it is playing quietly in his basement in the background, then they end up in the basement and its heard very indistinctly and echoey iirc

yeah i think it was p quietly a movie about male figures of power. i think it was discussed a lot at the time actually but i think in the wake of lectermania and that character becoming the most important one, that element was lost a bit in the discourse. i mean i don't have a problem w/Hopkins in the role or the conception of the role but I think Foster does such a great job and Demme is sympathetic to her character's ambition and also what roadblocks she faces.

― nomar, Wednesday, April 26, 2017

movie very much part of the fabric of the Thomas-Hill hearings; it seemed more obvious when out on video the following spring.

I never completely bought into Lambs bcz of the friggin' Hopkins camping, but it's OK.

yes he's definitely the problem in it -- tho the character is unplayable i think, it's such a device

^^^otm

Brian Cox came close but I can't see him handling the laff lines

it bothers me that it's a good movie w an irritatingly ludicrous character at its center

xp

I'm not sentimental enough to think this increases my odds of watching Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids.

the best Lecter is probably Mikkelsen (funnier, smarter, less predictable in his sinister aspects) but I think Hopkins works, most of the time. Some of the lasciviousness is OTT, i think...some of his one liners are basically sick dad jokes.

but Caged Heat, yes

xp

I think of the ceremony in Rachel Getting Married and at the time I read a couple snarky things dismissing its hipster cachet, but it's obvious from the way it follows a sequence of events and from how Demme shot similar scenes in other movies that this kind of temporary bliss constitutes fragments shorn up against his characters' ruins (Debra Winger's last scene confirms this).

Nice post from Robyn H

https://twitter.com/RobynHitchcock/status/857259489510252545

RIP.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BWwchFufu4A/TcOlcalGIqI/AAAAAAAAAkQ/0b8uRpXQ7HM/s1600/Citizens-Band-Paul-Le-Mat-Candy-Clark-Roberts-Blossom.png

Citizens Band comes recommended through the SW!

roundup

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/jonathan-demme-1944-2017

"his final work as director, an episode of Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Fox drama Shots Fired, airs, in an eerie coincidence, tonight.”

http://theplaylist.net/oscar-winning-silence-lambs-director-jonathan-demme-dies-age-73-20170426/

i was just watching clips of "rachel getting married" a couple of days ago

i think it's possible i saw this Sarandon/Walken Vonnegut adap on PBS in '82

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083325/

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7775266/jonathan-demme-new-order-the-perfect-kiss-video

hip priest is during the cellar scenes of sotl yes -- not even that hard to hear now i'm listening out for it, suspect that i was so on edge at the action i'd stopped listening out for it previous times i watched

fwiw I think Philadelphia (which I otherwise don't get much from) and Manchurian 2.0 (best appreciated as a cover version) are two of the top Denzel Washington performances.

Demme introducing the Timberlake film in February

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuS48xA3T98&feature=youtu.be

what the hey

try Keith Uhlich's Twitter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS7s6YkVKEI

anyone watch his "Shots Fired" episode last night?

not in my region, but i did rewatch lambs and something wild last night -- among other things noticing a whole raft of the same excellent minor character actors used in both

“In lieu of flowers, [Jonathan Demme's] family has asked that donations be made to Americans For Immigrant Justice"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJjxVf7X0kM

Uhlich:

http://www.keithuhlich.com/2017/04/jd-a-wannabe-tennessee-kid.html

he was a really excellent filmmaker. i always admired the atmosphere he gets from SOtL without going OTT into banal gloomy cinematography or anything. there's a pretty singular creepy vibe to the whole movie from the beginning that is hard to pin down but i think has a lot to do with how he frames actors within the surrounding spaces and a shot as simple as Jodie Foster training or exercising at the beginning or whatever it was is full of dread. it's impressive bc there are a lot of guys who identify as horror filmmakers who are unable to conjure up anything nearly as effective and usually strain hard for effect.

I ... actually agree with this.

Howard Shore goes a long way toward making a lot of the movie work too.

I I wrote something.

this 1986 comedy stars Jeff Bridges as Charlie,

Umm

yeah, Bridges not that awkward or big-jawed...

as Kael wrote, young Jeff Daniels "*just* missed out on being handsome."

two-syllable white guy name typo

a thing that occurred me as i was re-watching SW last night -- first time in many years -- was that the opening scene, in the little cafe(where sister carol is a waitress, also contains the seeds of another, very different film, namely "do the right thing"… and of course SW's closing sequence (sister carol toasting wild ting as the credits roll) is recapped and transformed by rosie perez boxing-dancing to "fight the power" in DtRT's opening sequence

demme's film is FULL of black people -- in new york and in virginia -- and if today we can hardly help avoiding noticing that they're backdrop characters and, well, funky colour, to a tale of three* white foax, they're not just that, bcz demme is so generous to his minor characters

i can imagine lee watching SW -- it came out the same year as his first feature, she's gotta have it (filmed in black and white, no white characters at all iirc) (once again a long time since i watched it) and thinking, this is a wrong that needs righting, let's tell another story, of white people in a black space

i was livetweeting watching last night, and couldn't quite get across that i wasn't criticising demme for this -- for from it, tho i can imagine lee criticising him -- but trying to acknowledge that SW was actually also a breakthrough moment, for what i'm describing: its portrait of a multi-ethnic city where people really do move past one another all the time, and really do take some (much, even) of their energy and identity from passersby, and also its portrait of small-town virginia, where there's a social proximity** between white and black (alongside tougher racial aspects he doesn't portray at all, of course) … and yes, sometimes this is tourism and cultural appropriation (thinking a bit of melanie griffith's afro-carib-style bangles and accessories) but nevetheless, this was a film that got a genuine social fact on-screen, even if it's a fact that's been overtaken by subsequent breakthroughs

*four if you include susan martin as irene, a striking if brief funny siren-ish performance which takes her well away from her usual big-hair foofy kooks

**i mean physical oroximity more perhaps than a through-and-through sentimentalied social closeness which would be a bit stephen foster, which i don't think this material is -- there's also aspects of southern life and welcoming kindness and formal friendliness that he sketches in just for the joy of getting it on onscreen, like the little black girl by the church who comes over to charlie rough-looking and sleepy in his car, and asks if he's ok or needs help -- plus the church ceremony that happens as a backdrop as a gentle indication that a certain separation still exists, even if legally enforced segregation doesn't

for from it = far from it

from the NYT obit:

The family moved to Miami, where Jonathan went to high school and worked in a kennel and an animal hospital. Wanting to be a veterinarian, he attended the University of Florida with that in mind until he failed chemistry, at which point he went to the university newspaper, discovered it had no movie critic, and assumed the job himself, he said, so that he could get into movies free.

He also became a critic for a shopping guide in Coral Gables, for which he wrote a glowing notice for “Zulu” (1964), about a bloody 19th-century battle between British soldiers and African warriors, a film whose executive producer was Joseph E. Levine, the founder of Embassy Pictures, the film’s American distributor.

It happened that Mr. Levine was on vacation in Miami Beach, staying at the Fontainebleau Hotel, where he had become acquainted with the hotel’s publicist, Robert Demme. The elder Demme introduced Mr. Levine to his son, whose review of “Zulu” impressed him. Mr. Levine offered him a job.

demme's film is FULL of black people -- in new york and in virginia -- and if today we can hardly help avoiding noticing that they're backdrop characters and, well, funky colour, to a tale of three* white foax, they're not just that, bcz demme is so generous to his minor characters

I remember a Toronto reviewer going after Demme for being patronizing. I didn't agree when that charge was leveled at Boyhood, I didn't agree when Demme was the recipient. Generosity, yes.

S&S republishes some Demme pieces. Is his cut of Swing Shift viewable anywhere?

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/swing-shift-making-of-jonathan-demme-directors-cut-comparison

NYC retro in August

http://www.bam.org/film/2017/jonathan-demme-heart-of-gold

I watched Married to the Mob the other day, it holds up pretty well. Michelle Pfeiffer and Dean Stockwell are both wonderful. I totally forgot that Alec Baldwin plays her doomed husband, and there's a funny cameo from Chris Isaak.

It hadn't really struck me before how strongly influenced this was by Desperately Seeking Susan; Pfeiffer is basically Rosanna Arquette as mob wife. I guess there was a whole genre of films in the 80s where straight-laced people go to NYC and have wacky things happen to them. After Hours is another like this.

just caught this interview portion last night, hes so likeable here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw8FKmqzfZI

watched married to the mob for the first time, what a delightful and odd movie. matthew modine kind of sucks in it but i'm not sure it's his fault, that character doesn't make any sense at all. but yeah pfeiffer and stockwell are fantastic, mercedes ruehl is really funny/over the top, and there are so many "oh that guy" actors in it.

the character doesn't make any sense but Modine is great in the role

yeah, it’s a very odd and very likeable movie - pfeiffer in particular is wonderful in a role that could easily have been a cliche but she invests so much in her character’s intelligence and self-reliance

the blank check podcast is just wrapping up a run on all demme’s non-documentary, it’s def worth a listen and has sent me down a demme rewatch rabbithole over the last few weeks (and revealed something wild as a perhaps intentional companion piece / mirror image to this one)

that's what got me to watch it! i listened to the stop making sense and something wild episodes and i realized i had never watched MTTM

hello fellow blankie

michelle pfeiffer is such an underrated actor tbh, it must suck to be incredibly talented but also supernaturally beautiful

i wish she and demme worked together again, it feels from this like they really got each other

Watched Philadelphia for the first time since December '93. It's not a good movie but....it's a complicated movie. Hanks doesn't play a character, but he plays a Gay Man and he doesn't flinch at all. I don't understand Washington's "arc" unless I read him as a closeted gay man -- which Demme absolutely suggests, i.e. the way Demme stages the homophobia, the way the famous aria sequence plays extra diegetically follows him home into bed with his wife.

Something Wild is terrific. It starts out kinda quirky and turns into a thriller 2/3 of the way in.

Plus, The Feelies!

I actually rewatched Melvin and Howard yesterday afternoon. Robert Ridgley as the game-show host is priceless.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOGU5NTI0M2YtZDllNC00NzYwLTk0MWUtYzVkYjAxYmM5OGI1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg

Something Wild is streaming on Amazon. Watched it for the first time since seeing it a bunch of times in my late teens. Lots of different thoughts, but (as Alfred does way above) I started comparing/contrasting it to Blue Velvet, which left me cold during those same late teens.

I love how busy this is with detail, all the background action and music (break-dancers at the gas station), how truly magnetic Griffith and Liotta both are, how Lulu seems a whole lot like Hannibal Lecter in the opening NY/NJ scenes of outwitting and controlling situations intuitively, how The Feelies songs evolve from "I'm A Believer" to their own ominous, songs in the course of the reunion, how much it brings back the joys of thrift-store shopping.

how The Feelies songs evolve from "I'm A Believer" to their own ominous, songs in the course of the reunion

Excellent point. I missed this.

Is it just me, or is their version of "Fame" in this supposed to be cringingly bad?

They cue to The Feelies own music right about the time Liotta enters the picture. Seems like the lighting gets a little dimmer then too.

I love those little bicentennial top hats they wear at the reunion.

In addition to Blue Velvet, another movie of the same era that I have always compared it to is Betty Blue, which had a similar "first half-madcap, second half-dark" vibe.

Hey, fancy new edition of Married to the Mob incoming

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/frontpage-partner-labels/products/married-to-the-mob-fun-city-editions

I finally saw Something Wild and loved it. I had always mixed this movie up with Wild at Heart (which I haven't seen either) until recently. The casting is superb - roles each of the three main actors seem born to play. I saw Melanie Griffith in an episode of Miami Vice a few months back and she was terrible, but here her awkwardness works for a character that is also acting by putting up a tough exterior. The dual reveals that Audrey and Charlie have been lying to each other and the tonal shift were really well done to me. Something about the movies' (and Melanie Griffith's) early energy prepares you for it.

Ray Liotta is so gorgeous and scary.

As a hardcore Lynch fan, I have to say that Something Wild >>>>>>>>>>>> Wild At Heart

It's pretty perfect, love the soundtrack. Is this the best Melanie Griffith movie?

That's Cherry 2000

Yeah, soundtrack is very good and Feelies are so good in the reunion scenes.

"Wild Thing" used really well in three different versions (including original).

Inspired cameos as well, John Waters, Su Tissue, John Sayles, etc. Probably my first exposure to both the Feelies and the Go-Betweens.

First time I heard the original version of New Order's "Temptation" was in Something Wild -- from a passing car, no?

Yes, I believe it was a car passing in front of Audrey's mom's house when they first arrived there.

"Something Wild" has maybe my favorite romantic exchange, when Audrey/Lulu finally unlocks the handcuff that Charlie has been wearing as a bracelet:

"What are you doing"
"Setting you free."
"Maybe I don't want to be."
"May-be you're not."