Nearing the midway point in Simon Reynold’s immense and endlessly fascinating history of post-punk music 78-84, Rip It Up and Start Again. At this juncture I’m amazed (overwhelmed?) with the comprehensive aspect of the book - how he has managed to cover so much ground, so many bands, and yet - to do it so well. There are many values to a book like this (history!) but for me the best part is getting inspired and excited to dig out albums I’ve forgotten about buried in the piles and to pick up new ones I’d missed over the years (for whatever cause). Of course, this can be hard on the wallet (the reason the book sat on my shelf for over a month before finally being cracked open - fear). One would certainly go broke if they tried to listen to every album and single Reynolds touches upon, as his view of “post-punk” is quite inclusive. A 26 page discography is available online in PDF fromat here. Major groups covered include PiL, Joy Division, Gang of Four, Talking Heads, Devo (not surprisingly the funniest section of the book so far), The Fall, Wire, The Slits, The Raincoats, The Minutemen and obviously a hell of a lot more. Another thing the book does especially well at is showing the youthful enthusiasm and idealism that made this kind of creativity explosion possible. At the same time, it's somewhat depressing how quickly those same vibrant scenes and bands can fade, how easily those dreams can go wrong - it's a warning to treasure your time. Every section seems to be just about the right length - giving me the info and key ideas I’m interested in, without getting bogged down in useless trivia or ill advised opinionating. The writing is sharp and always interesting and the analysis seems fair and well thought out. For the first (that I know of) complete overview of the adventurous music scene that grew out of the punk explosion of 76/77, I think it would be hard to ask for more than Reynolds had delivered. At well over 500 pages, it’s sure to remain the key book on the music some call post-punk. Available now in the UK and supposedly February 2006 in the USA. 9:25 PM >>> 0 comments

Robert Bresson’s 1966 film, Au Hasard Balthazar (recently released on R1 DVD by you-know-who) is a strangely enigmatic, gloomy and deeply moving masterpiece. No shit! Typical of Bresson, the pace is uniquely slow but also packed with events. In fact, over the coarse of only ninety-five minutes the film follows the life of a donkey (Balthazar) as he moves through the hands of seven different “owners,” who we get to know, and also follows the life of a young girl (the donkey’s first owner) from innocence to something much worse. Considerable time is spent on man’s cruelty to man and especially to “beast.” SPOILERS... when I wrote gloomy above, I meant it - not only do the three most major character characters experience horrible suffering, but they also all end up dead (in separate, but equally tragic incidents). Balthazar, who seems to possibly be the re-incarnated Christ(!!!), of course also suffers essentially the same fate as Jesus. Essential viewing for those who want to see cinema working on the highest levels and for those looking for something more than that - a cinema asking the most serious of questions.

Also of note is the twelve minute long interview with Donald Ritchie included on the disc. I think he does an amazing job of summing up what is so wonderful about Au Hasard Balthazar and Bresson’s approach to making movies. 6:58 PM >>> 0 comments

High-quality Quicktime preview of the new Jim Jarmusch / Bull Murray feature length, Broken Flowers, is currently available here. It's one of those weird trailers that isn't particularly great, but that somehow makes the movie look like it might be pretty good (well, look who's in it & who made it). I'm definitely looking forward to it (early-August). 7:53 PM >>> 0 comments

From 1955, and filmed in gorgeous color and widescreen Cinemascope, Sam Fuller’s House of Bamboo has just been released on R1 DVD as part of Fox’s second wave of “film noir” titles. While not as crazy or as much fun as Fuller’s 1960 masterpieces, The Naked Kiss & Shock Corridor, House of Bamboo is a very solid picture with some fantastic scenes, especially the climatic sequences on a crowded Tokyo rooftop’s amusement park. The plot, dialog and acting is essentially b-movie, but the budget seems to have been a step up. The extensive location filming in Japan certainly is worth the price of admission, and much of it has an almost documentary feel I really appreciated.

House of Bamboo remains essentially the often told story of cop going under cover into the mob in an attempt to bust up a group of thieves and murderers. The twist here being that this is a mob of ex-American soldiers operating in the heart of Japan. And while the movie is certainly from a Western perspective, one of the delights of the film is the way it seems to portray 1950’s Japan in a realistic, honest and clear-eyed fashion - surprising for an American film from the era. Fuller not only doesn’t blink at showing the casual (unconscious?) racism of the Americans, but also isn’t afraid to subtlety point out some of the same attitudes from the Japanese. It’s one of the ways the movie seems more objective, and to some extent unwilling to take sides. In fact, even though the “bad guys” are really “bad,” you can also understand the way they feel so twisted up and betrayed by the cop who has snuck into their midst, that they end up cooking their own goose - really losing by mistake instead of being caught by particularly good police work.

While House of Bamboo is hardly a perfect film - it drags occasionally - and some of the acting is a little too wooden (though some may dig that classic b-movie approach) for such a beautiful to look at piece - but fortunately the flaws are minor compared to the rewards. It’s definitely among Sam Fuller’s best films. 11:01 PM >>> 0 comments

Thanks again to Criterion for a superior R1 DVD release of François Truffaut’s 1962 film, Jules and Jim. After watching this again for the first time in far too many years, it has risen quite a bit higher into my personal ranks of perfect films. Truffaut manages to bring a surprisingly light (and very French) touch to a fairly dark subject - the impossibility of the successful traditional male / female relationship and the equal impossibility of a truly successful non-traditional relationship - and makes a fast moving, fun, beautiful and serious movie that works on every level. Typical of Criterion the DVD comes packed with tons of excellent archival interviews with Truffaut and others - including Jean Moreau and Jean Renoir talking about Truffaut from a 1965 TV show - and a twenty minute interview with cinematographer Raoul Coutard. There’s also a nice 42 page booklet that includes essays by Truffaut, John Powers and Pauline Kael’s review of Jules and Jim. 12:31 PM >>> 0 comments

It’s certainly true that in the 1970’s American cinema found itself free to explore the enigmatic possibilities of film like it never had before, or after. While Monte Hellman’s Cockfighter is a small, modest film, it certainly can stand next to the best of what that era’s freedom allowed to blossom. As unsentimental, and no-nonsense a film as has ever been made, Cockfighter winds its way through a brief season of matches across the South. After taking a vow of silence (in part to end his load-mouthed ways after ruining a previous season), Warren Oates attempts to rise to the top ranks of the “sport,” which has become his sole obsession.

Obviously a movie about cockfighting is not going to be the faint of heart. Besides graphically showing the brutality of the fights themselves, there’s buckets of dead roosters, and one particularly memorable scene with Oates pulling a bird’s head clean off - yipes! Viewer beware - real life is harsh.

The unexplained, love / hate relationship between Oates and the always fun to watch Harry Dean Stanton creates another level of interest throughout the picture - there’s a certain weird respect there that is something unique. That respect seems to grow out of the fact that both characters play (pretty much) fair - while almost everybody else in the scene seems to be trying to cheat things to their own advantage (whether through sticking their finger up a rooster’s ass to get it to fight better - or just good old fashion robbery at gunpoint). Both have also had at least one relationship with the same woman - although there’s a certain indifference there too - even if in one case it leads to marriage.

Both Monte Hellman’s direction and Nestor Almendros’s cinematography work together perfectly to create a low-key, nonchalant atmosphere that perfectly captures that 1970’s American small town margin dweller feeling. It’s never showy, but always just right. A mysterious, but extremely confident film like Cockfighter could have been made at no other time. Highly recommended. 12:07 AM >>> 0 comments

I seem to be awfully busy lately - without actually doing much of note. Hanging out at home, in the neighborhood and at work. Lately my mood reminds me a bit of The North Carolina Years - pretty fucking relaxed. Hanging out at the cafe after work and reading The Red & The Black! Listening to Beat Happening’s Dreamy!

Just finished reading Jack London’s alcoholic memoir - John Barleycorn - which I’d recommend, despite a few short dud chapters - too many good stories about manly drunk days along the old Oakland waterfront. Enjoyable DVDs recently viewed include Kihachi Okamoto’s The Sword of Doom, Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World (the first Maddin feature length I’ve seen - for shame) and Yasujiro Ozu’s Equinox Flower (surprisingly decent transfer via Panorama altho some subtitles are a bit muffed). 9:09 PM >>> 0 comments

Still shot from Earth, the Ukrainian silent film directed by Alexander Dovzhenko.

There’s a dreamlike feel to this film from 1930 (several years after silent films had disappeared from the USA), with wonderfully stylized editing. There are many amazing images peeking through the fairly decayed film - that unfortunately seems to have been transferred to R1 DVD by Image directly from a video tape(!) - don’t know if there’s a better release available in another region. Arguably the story of a small town’s effort to industrialize - - just dig the excitement of the arrival of the first tractor to this remote village, as it struggles to leave behind the superstitions and old class divisions of the past. Bookended by deaths (natural and not so natural), Earth is a rare example of the early use of motion pictures to transcend entertainment and achieve the level of real art. 11:23 PM >>> 0 comments