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john kennedy toole

A Confederacy of Dunces: Stephen Fry on his decades-long struggle to adapt the most unfilmable book ever written

From The Telegraph, by Alexander Larman. As per the cover art, the edited book Theology and Geometry is in press. +++++++++ In 1969, the 31-year old, would-be author John Kennedy Toole killed himself. Frustrated and miserable that his magnum opus, a picaresque New Orleans-set comic novel entitled A Confederacy of Dunces, had failed to find a publisher,…

comedy

Chico Marx

Born on this day: Chico’s on-screen persona was the prototypical “foreign man” to Andy Kaufman’s Latka character. According to his daughter Maxine, Chico’s off-screen character can be summed up as a . . .  Bon vivant, compulsive gambler, congenital liar, and faithless husband who, as manager for the Marx Brothers, steered them to phenomenal success from vaudeville…

cinema

Belle du Jour

Catherine Deneuve — the epitome of sophisticated, cool eroticism, accomplishment,  strong and independent womanhood. I can’t see her stooping to group zombiefication wearing a pussyhat. Update: here is the English translation of the manifesto Deneuve signed. belle du jourcatherine deneuvecinemafeminismLuis Buñuelregressive leftSimone de Beauvoir

superfly

‘Super Fly’ Remake in the Works

Oh dear, yet another potentially lazy, flat and ham-fisted Hollywood retread is apparently in the works. I’m not saying it couldn’t be a decent effort (the brilliant music is, of course, in place assuming it will be reused) — but in the prevailing climate of hysteria emanating from the various politically “correct” priesthoods and their associated…

cinema

Harry Dean Stanton

It’s puzzling that HDS’s most important film gets relatively short-shrift in so many of the reports on his death. It took someone of the calibre of Dirk Bogarde to make sure that this film got its due recognition. Anyway, here is Roger Ebert’s review and a Guardian reassessment. Wim Wenders’ “Paris, Texas” (1984) is the story…

cinema

Wrong Is Right

This really was a thoroughly crap film back in the day and though it hasn’t improved with age, I guess it was onto something (well at least the novel on which it was based). Here is Joe Dante making a case for the film to be reassessed, at least on the grounds of its prescience. Here too is…