WCBE 90.5 FM: "Because I Said So," "Chinatown," "Harold and Maude"

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Because I Said So," "Chinatown," "Harold and Maude"
Written, produced, and directed by John DeSando and Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, February 9, 2007
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org
Download at http://www.wcbe.org ("arts")

John

"Because I Said So" is a comedy no one should SAY is good . . .

Clay

"Chinatown" is a film noir masterpiece in full color . . .

John

"Harold and Maude" is a comedy I SAY is better than most  . . .

HIT THEME MUSIC (STAR WARS)

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("Because I Said So")

Clay, Diane Keaton in Because I Said So plays an obsessed mom on a campaign to marry off a daughter, Mandy Moore, whose catering business has become her love rather than an eligible man.

Clay

You mean she's not happy catering to men?

John

The only way to save this lame romantic comedy, which exists to showcase the aging Keaton’s remarkable body and lingering Annie-Hall flourishes, is to include enough pratfalls, cakes in the face, and other comic clichés to hope that the pre-Oscar audience, hungry for even a whiff of entertainment, will ignore the stupidity of the script and Keaton’s forced performance, surely signs that this actress knew it all was weak from the get-go.I was embarrassed for Moore, who deserves much better material.

Clay

Boy, you hate this movie.

John

Avoid Because I Said So because I said so.

Clay ("Chinatown")

Well, folks, I SAY, if you're listening to our three o'clock show you'll be able to catch "Chinatown" (1974) tonight at the Wex. But if you're listening at eight, best settle for a rental because it's booked only for a one night stand.

In a mood, thicker than evil, director Roman Polanski goes for substance rather than show.  Steven Soderberg should have taken his lessons from him on how to really capture the spirit of film noir. 

John

I presume you’re referring to the not so Good German.

Clay

Jawol! (quick pause, then)

Go for the acting: Polanski centers on Jack Nicholson, the personification of the busted-cop turned private private eye.

Go for the dialogue: Robert Towne's tailored his script to match the cynicism of Nicholson's persona.

And, finally, go for the heart: let Jerry Goldsmith's steamy music drive home the mood. 

HIT MUSIC (CAT STEVENS), THEN UNDER FOR NEXT TWO REVIEWS

John ("Harold and Maude")

Oh, those steamy ‘70’s. Here’s another one:

Last week, we saw Peter O’Toole’s ancient Maurice courting a woman more than
60 years younger. This week at Studio 35 we study Ruth Gordon’s 79 year old Maude courting 20 year old Harold in the splendid 1971 comedy Harold and Maude.

Clay

Must be something in the water.

John

My screenwriting daughter calls it an inspiration for her writing career. I count it a hilarious affirmation of the bond between the young and the old, and the living and the dead, Joyce’s melancholy unity.

Clay

More like the quick and the dead . . .

John

Mmm . . .  a younger Sharon Stone in leather . . .

Harold and Maude has a carpe diem motif best described by Maude: “We have only now. We own nothing else.”

Maude also counsels Harold to “go out and love some more.” If that doesn’t catch the spirit of the free-love seventies, then you, Dr., are not the hermaphrodite of love, the embodiment of O’Toole and Gordon.

Clay ("Harold and Maude")

Well, folks, the high cliffs and rolling hills of California's Big Sur have always embodied the sense of place for wounded souls.

Think the poet Robinson Jeffers. Think photographer EdwardWeston.  And think prose writers: Jack Kerouac and Henry Miller.  Something there in those barren landscapes that attracts free spirits.

So what better place could Harold retreat to when he needed to mourn his loss of Maude.  I know, John, it's a spoiler, but come on she was even older than we are.

John

IMDB didn’t forgive you for spoiling and I won’t either.

Clay (continues)

One of those genuinely sweet movies (that don't torture your teeth), Harold and Maude counters its inherent over-the-top romanticism with it use of equally over-the-top black humor.

Score one for the hippies, and one more for the music of Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

But enough of reincarnated Annie Halls, slit-nosed detectives, and sagging bodies, John, because it’s grading time.

John

Holy Has-Been Hippies, Hooray.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER

John (Cont)

"Because I Said So" earns a D for DAMAGING DIANE’S career . . .

Clay

"Chinatown" gets an "A" because good writing and good directing ALWAYS
triumph over time . . .

John

"Harold and Maude" earns an A for AUDACIOUS AMOUR . . .

Clay

"Harold and Maude" gets a "B" because even singing troubadours have to move on . . .

John

Clay, we’ve had incest and incontinent lust today. “Who knows the secrets
of the human heart?”

I'm outta here.

Clay

Elementary, dear doctor, our vice-president knows, but he's not talking. 

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC (CAT STEVENS "IF YOU WANT TO SING OUT"), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright John DeSando & Clay Lowe 2007