Listener comments!

Mon. 10/22/07 11:27pm From: EL

Here we go Boston— HERE WE GO!

Mon. 10/22/07 11:44pm From: Yank's fan

If everyone loves Boston and the Red Sox so much then what are you doing down here in the Tri-State area for? ;)

Mon. 10/22/07 11:48pm From: A. Booklyn

Re. "Control," isn't it amazing that someone with such a mundane life and milieu like Ian Curtis was able to produce such incredible, timeless music? I mean, based on the movie, his life was mostly just an ordinary domestic melodrama. Anyone else relying on such thin gruel for inspiration, as Ian did, would not have come up with a whole lot. And the guys in Joy Division, whose less than insightful comments on their historic band I've followed for years, were not the sharpest tacks--but it seems they all went beyond the moment and whatever limitations they may have had. That's the real story there, it seems to me (unless I'm missing a large part of puzzle--and it is a puzzle).

A. Booklyn

Mon. 10/22/07 11:49pm From: EL

It's Red Sox NATION.

Tue. 10/23/07 12:07am From: A. Booklyn

EFD--You are so right: their music was glaringly simple; that's how they cut to the bone. (What is a scalpel after all but a thin piece of metal and a handle.) The lyrics, are less simple, owing to Ian's literary pretensions/influences. He was a brilliant allegorist; there is a lot going on there.

Joy Division is as good as they ever were (and they were the best)--their power hasn't dulled a bit in all these years. How is that possible!? Who else can you say that about?

Tue. 10/23/07 12:15am From: craig keller

Hi Evan -- Just a small correction.. sorry if it seems nitpicky. 'Election' is not Japanese... it's a Hong Kong film..

Tue. 10/23/07 12:16am From: craig keller

(PS - I also bring it up because today I subjected myself to 'The Cannonball Run' for the first time, in which Jackie Chan plays "a Japanese man," despite speaking Mandarin throughout, to a man who actually is speaking Japanese to him... apparently it's "all the same" though, for auteur Hal Needham!)

Tue. 10/23/07 12:29am From: efd

Thanks for the correction, Craig, I appreciate it. As for your quibbles with "Cannonball Run," take those up with Tom Scharpling!
@A. Booklyn, thanks for your comments on Control!
@EL, thanks for having my back. :)

Tue. 10/23/07 12:53am From: craig keller

Funny you mention that. I took the 'Cannonball Run' viewing-tip from that episode of The Best Show a few weeks ago -- the "best-movie-lines-ever" follow-up installment. I don't mean to write the thing off completely -- the whole picture plays like a(n?) hallucination, and I suppose there's something to be said for this. The sheer audacity of each scene is jaw-dropping, to the degree that its tastelessness goes so far south on the sensibility-globe that it ends up reappearing from the polar north and turns into "all up-side". I think. If that makes sense.

The line that convinced me to check it out btw (per Tom's mention) -- which is even crazier in the context of the scene itself: a completely earnest moment, Burt Reynolds and Farah Fawcett in their underwear, reclining in the back of an ambulance. Tender repose. Fawcett: "I'm surprised things ended up like this... just me and you [or words to that effect]. I thought I was in for a gang-bang." Reynolds [and, again, I can't emphasize how -tenderly- the thing is played]: "Gang-bang? We're racers... not rapists."

I concur with Mr. Tom too about the greatness of 'Clifford.' And I'd make the case for Tom Green's 'Freddy Got Fingered,' too, which is truly a Great Film.

PS - Thanks for introducing me to, yes, The Slow Poisoner (first time a couple weeks back). And The Holy Kiss. And Pinnacle. And The Howling Hex. And the amazing Pastiche. -- all in the scope of one show!!!

craig.

Tue. 10/23/07 12:55am From: slugluv1313

i have *got* to get on Film Forum mailing list again -- TOTALLY missed out on "CONTROL" . . . and the recent "Lost/In Memoriam" too . . .

did you know that "Stand Tall" by Burton Cummings was the first release on Portrait records? (yep, i was a record-collector-GEEK even back then so i just HAD to run out and buy the 45 for that reason)

goodness i just found out in the past few days that Lady Jaye and Lucky Dube are no more -- now Paul Raven too???

Tue. 10/23/07 12:58am From: slugluv1313

to craig keller:

glad to hear that you dig PASTICHE!!!!!!!!

Tue. 10/23/07 1:16am From: efd

@sluglove - yes, sad but true re Paul Raven. See http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/killing_joke/news/10500 and http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003661390 for details.
@Craig - thanks for the thanks! great to know i turned you on to those bands (especially Pastiche!)

Tue. 10/23/07 3:33pm From: Jodi B.

I am in LA and saw "Control" on Friday, it was lovely to look at, but godamn that Ian Curtis is just not a very sympathetic character, don't you jsut wann shake him?

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