Edmund

In the house of decrepitude

I’ve sworn that I will never again buy any of those overpriced DVDs at the local drugstore but I just couldn’t resist getting the HBO movie Grey Gardens last night. The movie is based on the 1975 cult documentary of the same title by the Maysles Brothers, and Grey Gardens is the name of the decayed mansion, where Jackie Onassis’ aunt and cousin, the two Edith Beales (“Big Edie” and “Little Edie”), lived in isolation—and in filth, that is, in very unsanitary and unhygienic conditions. I wasn’t really expecting a lot from the HBO movie, since nothing can replace the documentary, but it turned out to be actually quite good. Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore looked and acted like the Real McCoys, and the script, in a way, clarifies a few questions that were kind of left open in the documentary (e.g., why Big Edie didn’t want to leave Grey Gardens and why Little Edie chose to stay with her). When I first saw the documentary, I cringed (because of the dirt—you could even almost smell it), laughed (because the two Edies were hilarious and lovable) and cried (because of the tragic undertones). The HBO film will make you feel the same, in a lesser extent though.

Both The Criterion Collection and The Masters of Cinema Series have their respective editions of the Maysles Brothers’ Grey Gardens. HBO’s 2009 Grey Gardens is presently very much available anywhere. Just don’t buy it from my local drugstore.

Overheard

“Hi! I’m So-and-So Solo.”

“Cool! . . . How are you related to Han?”

Awkward silence.

Horror scope

My horoscope for today:

There could be some pushing and shoving between various facets of your life that normally should be in balance—such as your home and professional life, your logical mind and emotions, or your conscious and subconscious mind. If you keep a balance, you should be very successful in your quest to achieve. If not, there could be problems. This is the best time to complete any projects that were previously abandoned. If you own a home, you may consider revising the loan so as to pay off your mortgage earlier than planned. This evening brings about a time of nostalgia and thinking about security and permanence. Family members would love a break this evening—perhaps a thoughtful, take-home meal or pizza order could be delivered.

But I believe Cassius [ from Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)] more:

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves . . .”

Whatever Lola wants . . .

Lola Montès. Directed by Max Ophüls. France and West Germany, 1955. 2:55:1. Color. 110 minutes. French, English and German.

Last year, when The Criterion Collection released three Max Ophüls classics on DVD—La ronde, Le plaisir (my all-time favorite Ophüls, since it was based on Guy de Maupassant short stories) and Madame de . . .—I was really disappointed when Lola Montès was left out.

Lola Montès is a fictionalized and non-linear retelling of the life of the 19th century dancer and courtesan Lola Montez. The aging and ailing Lola, now reduced to being a circus freak, recalls her scandalous past and torrid affairs in flashbacks. It was Ophüls’ final opus, and its history has been as tumultuous as its subject’s life. When it was first released, the film flopped, and it was heavily panned by critics. The studio re-edited it chronologically and cut its original running time, much to Ophüls’ chagrin. For years, Lola Montès was shown in its heavily-butchered form. But now, as Agnes Poirier puts it, “Lola Montès is back and more beautiful than ever.” The film has recently been restored according to Ophüls’ original vision and version.

The Restored Edition Region 2 DVD looks great, but it would’ve been greater had the subtitles weren’t burnt in and a nice commemorative booklet been included in the package. But, like Lola herself, we do not always get what we want in life. So I guess we’ll just have to wait (again) for a much-superior release of this restored gem—hopefully, in Blu-ray and by The Criterion Collection.

The story of Lola is very sad and tragic. It will make you cry. While I didn’t cry this time around, I did feel a certain aching pain in my heart. It’s the pain one feels when one realizes that no one makes beautiful films like Lola Montès anymore.

Still a muggle

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens next week, and I saw the J.K. Rowling ABC special last night. I then realized that I actually have the entire Harry Potter canon—which includes, of course, the supplementary works, such as the purported Hogwarths textbooks Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages—and a copy of Entertainment Weekly, with Daniel Radcliffe as Harry on the cover. However—up until now—I have only read the first chapter of the first book, and I never really finished watching the first movie. Maybe I’ll read all the seven books this winter—or just wait for the Blu-ray boxed set of all the eight films.

Little Ashes is the little-seen film about the love triangle between the great Spanish artists Federico García Lorca, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, It stars heart-throb du jour Robert Pattinson as Dalí. I’d like to see this movie because I’m a huge fan of Buñuel, and so I’m waiting for its North American release in Blu-ray. Its Region 2 DVD was released last Monday, and I was quite tempted to get it. However, the cover art looks appallingly cheap, and—most probably in a last-ditch effort to lure Edward Cullen’s Pattinson’s myriads of screaming girls into buying the disc—it contains a very prominent blurb that reads “Featuring the Star of Twilight.” As if we don’t know. His fans, by the way, do not know or care about La casa de Bernarda Alba, Nazarín and La persistencia de la memoria.

Told you so

I’m scared of cats. I’ve been saying all the while that they’re evil, cunning and manipulative. And I was dismissed as paranoid. But now my view has just been validated by a recent study. Huh!

My favorite clone

I finally got my hands on Regina’s now out-of-print Curiosity CD yesterday—after twenty-two long years! Regina was one of the hundreds of Madonna wannabes that populated the music scene in the ’80s. Wait—let’s first have a definition of terms for clarification’s sake. The word “wannabes” (as in “I wanna be like Madonna”) was especially coined for Madonna’s then-legions of fans who dressed up like her. I personally use the word “copycat” to describe the horde of ’80s female pop singers who desperately wanted to be like Madonna by emulating her looks and musical style (e.g., Alisha, Sinitta, Stacey Q, Elisa Fiorello, to name a few—and I remember being particularly irritated with Stacey Q). But Regina was more than a Madonna wannabe or a copycat—vocally, she was more like a Madonna clone. Those who remember Baby Love, her only chart hit, still find it hard to believe that it was not sung by Madonna. She sounds uncannily like Madonna—the Madonna of the first two albums before True Blue. (It’s quite difficult to describe Madonna’s distinctive singing voice in those days, but listen to Pre-Madonna [an unauthorized CD of early recordings] and any of her albums before the Evita soundtrack, and you’ll get what I mean.)

Curiosity was released in 1986—during the height of Madonna’s power as a pop princess. I was buying only Madonna’s albums (in cassette tapes!) back then, so I never got to have Regina’s Curiosity, although Baby Love was played a lot on radio and I really loved its follow-up, Beat of Love. I once placed a bid for a second-hand copy on eBay but lost. But finally I have it, and listening to it really took me back in time. I remembered High School . . .

Here’s the Baby Love video—close your eyes and pretend it’s Madonna:

Rain

The rain that was forecasted for this afternoon didn’t happen. I was really looking forward to it, as I really hate the humid and sticky summer weather. I miss the rain in the Philippines—me and my friends used to shower in it as children. I last showered in the rain in 1990.