WCBE 90.5 FM: "Grizzly Man," "Fitzcarraldo," "Kaspar Hauser - Everyman For Himself and God Against All," "Aguirre: The Wrath of God"

WCBE #234-Final
"It's Movie Time" with John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Director's Special: Selected Films of Werner Herzog -
"Grizzly Man," "Fitzcarraldo," "Kaspar Hauser - Everyman For Himself and God Against All," “Aguirre: The Wrath of God”
Air Time: 3:01 and 8:01 pm, Friday, January 27, 2006
Streaming live on the web and on demand at http://www.wcbe.org.

Script:

Clay
Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man" has a grizzly ending . . .

John
Fitzcarraldo" is crazy about Caruso. . .

Clay
In "Kaspar Hauser" every man is for himself and god is against all . . .

John
"Aguirre" is crazy about his daughter . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:
"It's Movie Time" in mid-Ohio, with John DeSando and Clay Lowe, featuring today a special salute to the films of Werner Herzog . . .

MUSIC UP AND OUT

John
Hi, I'm John DeSando

Clay ("Grizzly Man")
And I'm Clay Lowe.

John, it seems to me that in his documentary, Grizzly Man, German director Werner Herzog favors the thoughts of Thomas Hobbes over those of nature loving Jean-Jacques Rousseau.  Hobbes, of course, was the 17th century philosopher who described man's life in the natural world as being "nasty, mean, and brutish."  And brutish wildness is what narrator Herzog says he saw in the eyes of the grizzly bear that eventually devoured Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend.

No apologist for Treadwell's eccentric love of the grizzlies, Herzog lets Treadwell's impassioned ravings on camera stand alone.  Never bothering, however, to connect Treadwell's ideas about wildness with those similar notions held by America's native peoples.  And never does Herzog dignify Treadwell's love for the Alaskan grizzly by pointing out that naturalist Dian Fossey had the same kind of love for her African gorillas.

Too bad, Treadwell's passions deserve more respect.

John ("Fitzcarraldo")
I never respected self-destructive idiots either. Building an opera house in the South American rain forest is the goal of another Werner Herzog crazed visionary. The titular Fitzcarraldo needs to introduce a steam paddle wheeler to the jungle by dragging one over the mountain to reach a navigable river. After that, he can make enough money to fund Enrico Caruso to sing there.

Klaus Kinski is again the alter ego of director Herzog, and Herzog's reputation as just another of his own megalomaniacs is certified in Les Blank's Burden of Dreams, a doc about the making of the film, showing Herzog as looney as his hero by actually dragging the boat over the mountain, something the historical Irishman on whom the hero is based never attempted.

Seeing and hearing a phonograph playing Caruso as the steamboat loses control in rapids is every bit as powerful as the monkeys overcoming Aguirre's raft, monkeys Herzog stole from a museum as they were crated on a dock.

Clay ("Kaspar Hauser")
Fitzcarraldo and Timothy Treadwell were indeed men who lived out, their fixated passions.  But even Herzog had his own compelling interests in things strange and unusual.  For instance his fascination with the story of Kaspar Hauser - an 18th century wild man from Nuremberg, who became the darling of Germany's high society.  Much as John Merrick, the elephant man, became the darling of London's 19th century's elite.

Herzog, however, in his film version of Kaspar Hauser, depicted Kaspar as a gentle child of nature who was eventually brutalized by the civilized world.  Quite the opposite of Francois Truffaut's movie about the Wild Child who had to learn, for his own good, to become tame so he could more peaceably live in the civilized world of discipline and order.

Too bad Herzog didn't make "Wild Child" and Truffaut "Kaspar Hauser."  It would have made more sense.
J
ohn ("Aguirre")
Clay: Werner Herzog's 1972 Aguirre: The Wrath of God depicts the savage and futile quest in Peru of a band of Spanish conquistadors for the city of gold, El Dorado. The theme of man's doomed thirst for power is embodied in Klaus Kinski's Don Lope de Aguirre, a mutineer who takes his soldiers deeper into the heart of darkness as he becomes more deeply crazed.

For instance, he plans to make his daughter his queen. The allegorical  implication is there about leaders whose personal visions are at odds with rational behavior. The film is full of memorable images such as the opening extreme long shot of the soldiers marching down an Andean mountain carrying a cannon and a Madonna.
Herzog and Kinski fought all the way, with Kinski threatening to leave and Herzog holding a gun to his head.

I'm outta here.

Clay
John, only you could turn are little academic evaluation of the films of
Werner Herzog into a cliff hanger.  Such a show man.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle
"It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe for WCBE 90.5 FM in Columbus.  Your announcer was Richelle Antzcak.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

"It's Movie Time" copyright by John DeSando and Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "The New World," "The Notorious Bettie Page," "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World"

WCBE#252-FINAL
“The New World,” “The Notorious Bettie Page,” “Looking For Comedy in the Muslim World”
It’s Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers:
John DeSando & Clay Lowe
For: WCBE 90.5 FM
Record Time: 1:30 pm, January 18, 2006
Air Time: 3:01 and 8:01 pm, January 20, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and “It’s Movie Time” on-demand at: www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay
“The New World” will render you speechless . . .

John
“The Notorious Bettie Page” deserves her notoriety . . .

Clay
“Looking For Comedy in the Muslim World” is looking for fun in all the wrong places . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:
“It’s Movie Time” in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.’’

MUSIC UP THEN DOWN AND CROSS FADE TO MUSIC (CUT 1: WAGNER'S OVERTURE TO DAS RHEINGOLD) AND HOLD UNDER FOR BOTH JOHN AND CLAY'S REVIEWS

John
I’m John DeSando

Clay
And I’m Clay Lowe

John (“The New World”)
Clay, why am I seeing The New World so late in the Golden Globes, Oscar seasons? Having already sworn my allegiance to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain for best picture, I now find Terrence Malick’s New World about John Smith and Pocahontas is probably a better film in most categories except acting.

**If you believe that cinema’s superiority over other art forms rests in its visual literacy, then New World is a classic.

**If you believe no other medium can capture so perfectly an era and ethos, the early seventeenth century Jamestown seems as beautiful, crude, inchoate, and lawless as it must have been.

In the end, while the settlers never come off well against the noble
savages, Malick has optimism in his title and his imagery. When Captain Christopher Newport (Christopher Plummer) says, “Eden lies about us still,” Malick makes the artistic statement of hope for a conquering nation that will eventually affect the world for good.

Clay “The New World”
Well, John, Terrence Malick’s The New World arrived in theatres just in time to be eligible for the Oscars but too late to become a serious contender for the Golden Globes.  Too bad, but that’s O.K., for the payoff of this movie, like the best things in life, is in the thing itself.
Elegant in its depiction of the beauty that stuns the first English settlers
as they glide into harbor, and equally awesome in its ability to capture
the sense of awe we see silently expressed in their faces, Terrence Malick’s opening shots in The New World evoke a sense of expectancy that rarely, if ever, has been so intensely captured on film.

His visual motifs repeat the imagery of his earlier films.  The weaving
fields of marsh grass recall the waving fields of wheat from Days of Heaven, and his close-ups of men in combat recall the violent moments that stunned us into silence in The Thin Red Line.

One well acquainted with both beauty and grief, Terrence Malick is a
filmmaker, who, like the poet William Blake, is able to discover and reveal universes in drops of water and grains of sand.

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

John (“The Notorious Bettie Page”)
Clay: Let’s talk about beauty we both are acquainted with.   Here’s a way to have guiltless titillation and take a time travel back to the fifties: At The Wexner see The Notorious Bettie Page, a sweet biopic about the most famous pin-up of the last century.

Yes, see a fetchingly dark haired Page be innocently naughty with some
outrageously bondage costumes or none at all because Bettie could do it all with a naiveté so sincere you might believe she thought her soft, sadomasochistic photographs innocent indulgence for nice people.

Gretchen Mol plays Page with a clear-eyed innocence, the perfect embodiment of sex without guile. The Notorious Bettie Page fails only by denying us a look at her emotional life either by herself or with an important man.

Remember your Genesis: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” Neither was Bettie, who when she was naked, never seemed so.

Clay (“Looking For Comedy in the Muslim World”)
Well, John, no one is more naked on stage than a comedian who fails to
connect with his audience, and no one captures that sense of shame more painfully than that master of self-effacing comedy, Albert Brooks.  [Only Rodney Dangerfield did it better and he wasn’t nearly as classy.]

So does Brooks’ film persona in “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World” ever discover what makes a Muslim laugh?  No.

Does he entertain us because we can laugh at him at because of his failures? Not really.

And that’s too bad, because Brooks willingly mocks himself for not knowing how to escape the bubble of his own culture.   And he willingly feigns arrogance by not attempting to make references to the ironies and beliefs of cultures other than his own.

The failure of this movie is that Brooks sets up a great hypothesis but never follows it through.  He shows us how NOT to make a Muslim laugh, but he never shows us how.

But enough of elegant naturals, innocent nudes, and comedians who fall flat on their faces, John, because it’s grading time.

HIT DRUMS AND UNDER

John
Holy Natural Women,  Hooray!

John
“The New World” earns an “A” for its ASTONISHING ARTISTRY . . .

Clay
“The New World” gets an “A” because Terrance Malick proves AGAIN he’s the poet laureate of AMERICAN cinema . . .

John
“The Notorious Bettie Page” earns an “B” because sex isn’t all BAD . . .

Clay
“Looking For Comedy in the Muslim World” gets a “C” because it’s only about CRASHING and burning on stage . . .

DRUMS OUT

John
Clay, I’m off to the Caymen Islands with my Russian Pocahontas. I hope I haven’t spoiled her innocence with my sophisticated ways.

I’m outta here.

Clay
Swagger as you will, John, you’re the one who’s the lost Innocent.  Das
Vidanya . . .

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING MUSIC (AIN"T WE GOT FUN), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:
The award winning “It’s Movie Time” is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Casanova," "Tristan & Isolde," "Breakfast on Pluto"

WCBE 90.5 FM
“Casanova,” “Tristan & Isolde,” “Breakfast on Pluto”
It’s Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers:
John DeSando & Clay Lowe
For: WCBE 90.5 FM
Record Time: 1:30 pm, January 11, 2006
Air Time: 3:01 and 8:01 pm, January 13, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and “It’s Movie Time” on-demand at: www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

“Casanova” is a bedroom romp full of powdered whigs and one déspicable prig . . .

John

“Tristan & Isolde” post-modernizes the old cuckold lament . . .

Clay

“Breakfast on Pluto” has Neil Jordan gender-bending at his best . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

“It’s Movie Time” in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.’’

MUSIC UP THEN OUT

John

I’m John DeSando

Clay

And I’m Clay Lowe

HIT MUSIC FOR CASANOVA: “CORELLI VIOLIN SONATAS” (CUT 2 - VIVACE), THEN UNDER FOR:

John (“Casanova”)

Clay: The new Lasse Hallstrom film, Casanova, stars Brokeback heartbreak Heath Ledger in a rendition that ultimately “rehabilitates” the historical libertine into a seeker after the hand of just one woman, arch-feminist Francesca.

Clay

Sounds risky to me.

John (Continues)

Laced throughout are arguments about the place of women in the Enlightenment.  In a Shakespearean turn, Hallstrom has Francesca disguise herself as a man to win for Casanova at court and to sword fight the Inquisition buffoons at his side.

Few institutions of that era escape the film’s own sword, especially the Catholic Church, whether it be its condescension to women or its brutal Inquisition.   The music is a Baroque blend of such composers as Vivaldi, Albinoni, and Corelli.

Even the excessive disguises leading to numerous mistaken identities, so common in Restoration and 18th Century comedy but overdone here, cannot compromise a carefree comedy with love on its mind.

It is one of the best farces, regardless of period, to come out in years.

KEEP MUSIC UNDER CLAY (TRY TO BRING UP BRIEFLY THEN UNDER AGAIN)

Clay “Casanova”

Folks, no doubt the world could use a little more carefree comedy, but the world could also use more role models who are capable of instructing us in the arts of genuine passion. Here’s where Lasse Hallstrom’s Casanova falls wantonly short. More farceful than forceful, and more pretty than handsome, Heath Ledger plays Casanova as cool as can be, and that’s far, far too cool for someone like me.

Playing a laid back dude may have worked for him up on Brokeback Mountain [where his only competitors were the sheep], but down in the bawdy boudoirs of steamy Venice he needed to turn up the heat.

No doubt the pretty and giggly ladies in this movie’s cast found him naughty enough for them. And no doubt Hallstrom’s proto-feminist Francesca found him, already, too male and aggressive for her, but history is history, and Casanova was Casanov, folks, so why not just let it be.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

John (“Tristan & Isolde”)

If adultery is your interest, then add the new Tristan & Isolde to your library that probably includes King Arthur, Madame Bovary, and Bill Clinton.
Clay

I thought he didn’t have sex.

John (Continues)

The current film is low-level Wagner without the music, a fairly-faithful rendition of the classic story of a young hero, Tristan, asked by Cornwall’s King Mark to win the hand of the Irish king’s daughter, Isolde, for marriage.  Guess what happens!

Although James Franco’s Tristan is more underwear model than warrior and Sophia Miles more Bridget Jones than queen, the costumes, supporting cast, and sets are so good I’m tempted to give it an above average grade.  But then I remember a line like “With every look he gives you I get sicker and sicker,” and I get sick.

If you’ve just read the Tristan in your English lit course, this is the film for plot. If not, then see The Graduate again for a more pleasant dose of the scarlet A.

HIT MUSIC FOR “BREAKFAST ON PLUTO,” THEN UNDER FOR:

Clay (“Breakfast on Pluto”)

Well folks, Neil Jordan’s “Breakfast on Pluto” is not about scarlet letters nor bad scripts. It IS a delightfully told story about a small town boy from Ireland who heads to the big city of London to see if he can make it as a rather fetching cross-dressing boy-would-be-girl. Shades of Hedwig and his angry inch minus the botched operation.

Cillian Murphy is marvellous as the often vulnerable, and sometimes abused, young man who sets out, like David Copperfield-in-drag, to find his fortune (surprise, surprise) in this sometimes dangerously alien world.

Woven into the texture of this movie is Liam Neeson’s bewildered performance as the priest who originally takes in the young foundling boy, and then add in to the mix the strong performances of Jordan regulars, Stephen Rea and Brendan Gleeson, and you have one more minor masterpiece from the man who taught us how to both laugh and cry in “The Crying Game.”

Full of whimsey and great sixties and seventies music, “Breakfast on Pluto” is one of the better movies of the year that will probably escape having to endure the honor of receiving an Oscar.

But enough of swinging swordsmen, unfaithful lovers, and boy-girl wannabes, John, because it’s grading time.

John

Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

“Casanova” earns a “B” for ITS BREATHTAKING BAROQUE BACKGROUND

Clay

“Casanova” gets a “C” because by CASTING off his passion he CASTOFF’S his reason to be . . .

John

“Tristan”  earns a “C” for its  sad  CASTING . . .

Clay

“Tristan & Isolde” gets a “D” because the cast DUMBS DOWN an otherwise beautiful movie . . .

And “Breakfast on Pluto” gets an “A” because Neil Jordan both ALLOWS and encourages our imaginations to run wild . . .

DRUMS OUT

John

Clay--

We hiked in Cornwall without seeing anyone who knew about the sad story of Tristan?  Do you think the Cornwalleans were just too absorbed in surviving their inhumanly steep coastal trail?

Clay

The waves were high, the cliffs were steep, but the memories of Cornwall are meant to keep. That’s why the famous Kneehigh Theatre from Cornwall will be staging Tristan at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston this coming spring.

I think I may go order my tickets right now, it’s gotta be better than the movie.

I'm outta here.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING MUSIC THEN
UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

The award winning “It’s Movie Time” is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006