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Monday, January 10, 2005

"THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU"


AN ODDBALL-COMEDY IF THERE EVER WAS ONE


Cast & Creators:


Wes Anderson .... Writer & Director
Noah Baumbach.... Writer

Bill Murray .... Steve Zissou

Owen Wilson .... Ned Plimpton

Cate Blanchett .... Jane Winslett-Richardson

Anjelica Huston .... Eleanor Zissou

Willem Dafoe .... Klaus Daimler

Jeff Goldblum .... Alistair Hennessey

Michael Gambon.... Oseary Drakoulias

Noah Taylor .... Vladimir Wolodarsky

Bud Cort .... Bill Ubell

Seu Jorge .... Pelé dos Santos

Robyn Cohen .... Anne-Marie Sakowitz

Waris Ahluwalia .... Vikram Ray

Niels Koizumi .... Bobby Ogata

Pawel Wdowczak.... Renzo Pietro

Matthew Gray Gubler.... Intern #1




A BUD CORT MOVIE!!! A BUD CORT MOVIE!!!


Hold still: I'm going to coin a term, here, I think. It'll only hurt for a minute... Just a sec... Wait... Hold STILL! There! That's got it! "Oddball- Comedy." There, now that wasn't so bad, was it? "Oddball- Comedies" have always existed, just like "Screwball- Comedies," or "Film- noir." Labelling doesn't really help you or the film, except when you're coming up dry at the video store.

Screwball- Comedies were, of course those delightful films by guys like Howard Hawks, Frank Capra and Preston Sturges, featuring very young, very lovely, very kooky ladies, like Katherine Hepburn, Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert and Myrna Loy, alongside up- and- coming young leading men like Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart and sly older guys like William Powell and Spencer Tracy, made in the mid- Thirties through the mid- Fifties, with a few others here and there.

The best are films like "Bringing Up Baby," "The Philadelphia Story" and "Sullivan's Travels". They're generally pretty sexy, within the absurd constraints of the time, with the erotic payoff always off- screen, and usually after the end of the film, by implication. You had to have more imagination, to get a nut, in those days...

Oddball- Comedies, by contrast, are those focusing more on the male lead, who is always a borderline personality, though you'd hardly notice it, with all the other weirdo's in these films, including some actual psycho's. Bud Cort was the uncrowned, but undisputed king of these films, beginning in the late 60's, until they sputtered out in the early 80's, with a few odd odd ones here and there in other decades.

"Harold And Maude," is the gem of the genre, and the prototype for a whole new type of comedy in American films, one scratched at by Hollywood fliks such as "A Thousand Clowns," and "Harvey," but really only ever achieved by those pix with a genuine Indy feel, even if made by a big studio. "Brewster McCloud" was another gem, starring Bud Cort. They pretty much defined "Cult- Classic," too. Don't know if any of them ever made any money.


The no- dough thing may be due to some of the best things about my little oddball comedies: They're small, usally low- budget flicks; featuring unknown or rebellious directors, frequently writing their own scripts; unknown and usually odd- looking actors, many of whom went on to, well, nothing; and a very dark, OK, lets say it, BLACK humour that frightens off a lot of dummies.

Dummies hate to think. It scares them. They love to see hot chix eviscerated in teen- screamers like "Halloween," but throw in a sardonic twist, a bit of social commentary, and an actual, written screenplay, heavy on the dialogue, and whoa, dude, too much! And so it goes, direct to video, these days, thank Gawd.


Cuz now you can discover what I grew up munching popcorn on, in the dingy cinematheques of New York City, circa 1970+. As a young, alienated punk kid, these movies spoke directly to me. When I see them now, as a broken- down old fart, I feel... REALLY OLD!!! HOLY SHIT BUD CORT LOOKS AWFUL!!! I have to get up in the middle of the film to go look in the bathroom mirror, just to see if I look THAT bad. I do.

I go back to my seat and there is my old, weird friend Bud, underneath that old, weird face, showing every line from his horrible car accident that pretty much squelched his non- career at its' non- height, and all the reconstructive surgeries since, plastered all over a fifty- foot silver screen. And I see the original spirit of a real original, brimming with the same insane joy in the pain and stupidity of life as poor old Brewster and Harold, strange young kids just thirty odd incredibly short, painful, stupid years ago. And it is good.

As good as finding an obscure, tiny old toy, a remembrance of lost Christmas, stuck in a box or a bin, as precious as memory itself. Better than some damned old girl named Madeleine. Every time Bud appears on the screen in this film, I feel the weight of thirty years lifted off my heart, and I am as young as he was, as I remember him, as he is, withal, even today, and as I am, too. So I go get some jujubes.


One, or two, things about Oddball- Comedies: They're not violent: Though they may deal with violence, they explicitly reject, and mock Hollywood's formulaic violence, where waving a gun solves all your problems. And sex, well, the Oddballs rarely get laid. But that's how it is in real life, right? And that is the ethic of these films: Odd, but Real.

Not everybody is beautiful, or strong, wise, brave, lucky or even properly recognized for their deeds. As in real life, Oddballs just keep plugging away. But they are heroic in that they stubbornly cling to their oddness, no matter what: Something most of us only wish we had the courage to do, instead of conforming to an utterly false "norm," which oppresses us all. Worse than shoes, even...


Oh, yeah, the other thing: They're not gratuitously gross, or mean- spirited, or deliberately "politically- incorrect," like Farrelly films, for example: Oddballs are by nature gentle things, with a razor's edge. They're adult, intellectual comedies, not mindless, adolescent goofs. And the writers and directors share, or admire, or have genuine and respectful curiosity for their characters.

They're not made out to be grotesques, or idiots, or sicko's, as in John Waters' execrable trash. The film- makers don't mock their Oddballs, or condescend to them, or distance them: They inhabit them. They make us see their odd reality. It's just damned good honest story- telling. Like Homer and his Oddballs, or Chaucer and his, or Melville and Moby. A whale of a tale! Yo- ho- ho!


Oh, yeah, they create an absurd, magical, beautiful undersea world in this movie, as you might hope, from the title. And the music is really good, as in most of these Oddball films: David Bowie, Iggie Pop, Brazilian, some digital stuff. The sound and special effects are unusually good for an Oddball. So, Hollywood's good for something. I guess.


I'd like to thank the Academy, or, wait, fuck the Academy... I'd like to thank the writers and the director and the casting director of this film, Douglas Aibel, for stitching together the bleak 1970's and the, lets face it, even bleaker 2000's, via Bud Cort. It's a reminder of the eternal oddness of the so- called Human Spirit, and the choke it gives each and every one of us every time we actually, fully experience something. Aw, fuck, just go see this movie. And all of Bud Cort's films. And all of the writer/ director's films

Why? WHY?? BECAUSE I SAID SO, GODDAMMIT!!! Respect yer elders, ya little PUKE!





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FILM: ODDBALLS & SCREWBALLS


THE VERY BEST MOVIES: CLASSIC ODDBALL-COMEDIES 1965-1975 +/-


In alphabetical order by Director, then chronological, more or less...



Robert Altman



1.
"Brewster McCloud"



2.
"MASH"




Hal Ashby



3.
"Harold and Maude"


4.
"The Last Detail"




Paul Bartel



5.
"Eating Raoul"




Fred Coe



6.
"A Thousand Clowns"




Roger Corman



7.
"The Little Shop of Horrors"




Robert Downey, Sr.



8.
"Putney Swope"




Milos Forman



9.
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"




Ron Howard



10.
"Splash"




Ján Kadár



11.
"The Angel Levine"




Henry Koster



12.
"Harvey"




Elaine May



13.
"Mikey and Nicky"



14.
"The Heartbreak Kid"




Bob Rafelson



15.
"Five Easy Pieces"



16.
"The King of Marvin Gardens"




Jim Sharman



17.
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show"






THE VERY BEST MOVIES: CLASSIC SCREWBALL-COMEDY 1935-1955 +/-


In alphabetical order by Director, then chronological, more or less...




Frank Capra





George Cukor



4.
"Holiday"



5.
"The Philadelphia Story"



6.
"Adam's Rib"




Howard Hawks



7.
"Twentieth Century"


8.
"Bringing Up Baby"


9.
"His Girl Friday"




Garson Kanin



10.
"My Favorite Wife"




Gregory La Cava



11.
"My Man Godfrey"




Leo McCarey



12.
"The Awful Truth"




Wesley Ruggles



13.
"No Man of Her Own"


14.
"True Confession"




George Stevens



15.
"Woman of the Year"




Preston Sturges



16.
"The Lady Eve"



17.
"Sullivan's Travels"



18.
"The Palm Beach Story"



19.
"The Miracle of Morgan's Creek"




W.S. Van Dyke



20.
"The Thin Man"



21.
"After the Thin Man"



22.
"Another Thin Man"



23.
"Shadow of the Thin Man"





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IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:
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