MUSINGS, PONDERINGS, RUMINATIONS AND FANCIES

[Andree]

I'm sure Ed did feel that way, even if he was an audience of one. It's certainly his most well known flick and he didn't
have to worry about the Hearst Corporation coming after him.

I like Light in the Piazza. It's a charming love story which for the most part is absent the sappiness of many
love stories. And Yvette's mental problems seem rather minor.

That's the unfortunate things about foreign films. We can't see them repeatedly like most American films, so it's hard
to grasp the continuity of directors. There used to be a fair amount of Fassbinder films on YT, but many of those are
gone. There are still a few around, but some don't have subtitles. He was very prolific, "cranking out" two or three films
a year. Of course that average dropped to near zero after his death. I found a wonderful photo of Fassbinder and Hanna
Schygulla, but it's so large I'll just put it in a separate post.

I love potato chips, but I stick to the old regular ones.

[Andree]

Fassbinder looks like he's starting to nod off.

[laffite]

Fassbinder looks like he's starting to nod off.

Is that Hannah S. ?

[Andree]

Ja wohl.


{No Lederhosen emoji. Darn}.

[CinemaInternational]

I have seen two Fassbinder films: Lola about a scheming woman who gets away with her subterfuges, and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul which is a decidedly R-rated German variant on All That Heaven Allows. It is a touching film on the whole, but it wasn't necessary for the male lead to strip down entirely twice to show audiences how well endowed he was. It's arguably some of the most unnecessary nudity in movie history.

[TikiSoo]

It's arguably some of the most unnecessary nudity in movie history.

Unnecessary? Makes me want to see it!

[Swithin]

Fassbinder films were quite the rage in New York at one time. I remember seeing Veronika Voss, which opened the New York Festival Festival in 1982. Before that, The Marriage of Maria Braun was the Festival's closing night selection in 1979. I had friends who were obsessed with Berlin Alexanderplatz, Fassbinder's 14-part miniseries, but I've never seen it. I like Fassbinder's films, including the outrageously campy Querelle, which features this unusual musical performance by Jeanne Moreau (though I must confess, when I saw the film, people laughed during this scene.)

[Andree]

I have seen two Fassbinder films: Lola about a scheming woman who gets away with her subterfuges, and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul which is a decidedly R-rated German variant on All That Heaven Allows. It is a touching film on the whole, but it wasn't necessary for the male lead to strip down entirely twice to show audiences how well endowed he was. It's arguably some of the most unnecessary nudity in movie history.

I saw Lola several years ago. Lola is a shrewd manipulator, no doubt about it. It's also enjoyable as a satiric look at
small town mores, the corruption, the respectable/seamy side divide, the gossip, the people in that small orbit always
bumping into one another. Then the stern new sheriff in town comes along and gets pulled into the whole mess.

Since the actor who played Ali was Fassbinder's lover at that time perhaps that nudity was not strictly for artistic purposes.
Though Fassbinder took the basic plot from All That Heaven Allows the gulf between Ali and Emmi is so much wider
than the one between Rock and Jane that I took the similarities as a minor point. With or without the nudity it's still an affecting
film. Fassbinder himself let it all hang out when he directed himself in Fox and His Friends. I don't recall if he was well-
endowed or not, but he was in a state of non-arousal.

[CinemaInternational]

Fassbinder films were quite the rage in New York at one time. I remember seeing Veronika Voss, which opened the New York Festival Festival in 1982. Before that, The Marriage of Maria Braun was the Festival's closing night selection in 1979. I had friends who were obsessed with Berlin Alexanderplatz, Fassbinder's 14-part miniseries, but I've never seen it. I like Fassbinder's films, including the outrageously campy Querelle, which features this unusual musical performance by Jeanne Moreau (though I must confess, when I saw the film, people laughed during this scene.)

I am reminded that Hanna Schuygulla would likely have been an Oscar nominee in 1979, had Hollywood power player Ray Stark not moved up the release of Chapter Two to December '79 instead of Spring '80, after he noticed Vincent Canby writing a glowing piece on Fassbinder's film

[LawrenceA]

I watched Gods of the Plague, The American Soldier, and Beware of a Holy Whore this past weekend.

Meh.

[Hibi]

It's arguably some of the most unnecessary nudity in movie history.

Unnecessary? Makes me want to see it!

LOL!!!

[Bronxgirl48]

Watching THE OSCAR after a long time brought back such pleasant memories of a great bad movie, one of the very worst, right up there in the pantheon with VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and LOVE STORY. Ed Wood only wishes PLAN 9 could compete with such true classic drek, of any genre.

[LawrenceA]

Did you know that the primary ingredient in ketchup was originally mushrooms? And that even after tomatoes replaced them as ingredient #1, another central ingredient was originally anchovies?

Something to muse, ponder, and ruminate over.

[Intrepid37]

Mmm... anchovies.

[Andree]

Don't put the blame on Ed. Woody didn't have those multi-million dollar budgets which are sometimes necessary to produce
a truly distinguished piece of movie crap. He did what he could with what he had.

FX had What a Way to Go! on this afternoon, one of those all star comedies with Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert
Mitchum, Dick Van Dyke, Dean Martin and tons of supporting actors from the movies and TV. I was tempted to watch it, but
wasn't quite in the mood. I'll catch it if it shows up again. I enjoy those mid 1960s comedies that are a bit adventurous, but
can't go as far as they could a few years later. Kind of a slow tease before the dam burst.