{"id":2848,"date":"2008-11-06T05:00:30","date_gmt":"2008-11-06T09:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=2848"},"modified":"2008-11-06T08:15:05","modified_gmt":"2008-11-06T12:15:05","slug":"ill-sit-facing-the-corner-in-a-funny-hat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/ill-sit-facing-the-corner-in-a-funny-hat","title":{"rendered":"I’ll sit facing the corner in a funny hat"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend, I read Benjamin Schwarz’s review<\/a> in the Atlantic<\/em> of “Have You Seen . . . ?” A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films<\/a>\"\", David Thomson’s follow-up to his Biographical Dictionary of Film<\/a>\"\". I’ve never read that earlier book, but I’ve seen enough references to it to figure that it’s kinda canonical in film criticism and bathroom reading. The new book sounded like an entertaining read, with its one-page writeups of a thousand movies (including a couple of TV shows like The Singing Detective<\/a> and The Sopranos<\/a>). Wrote Schwarz:<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible to read this book from cover to cover without being convinced that Hollywood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greatest achievements are not the monotonously important dramas that so often sucker in Academy voters but the stylish, highly polished entertainments, largely comedies, that endure even though they weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t made to be lasting. Above all, Thomson prizes wit, charm, and good-natured ease. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reached an age, he notes in his appraisal of North by Northwest,<\/em> when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rather have a great screwball comedy than a profound tragedy. After all, tragedy is all around us and screwball is something only the movies can do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On Tuesday, I meandered around the nearby Borders during my lunch-hour, and noticed Mr. Thomson’s book on the new non-fiction table. It’s organized alphabetically by movie title, so I turned to Miller’s Crossing<\/a> to see what he thought of it. I couldn’t help it, Tom! It’s my nature!<\/em><\/p>\n

I was gratified to find that he loves the movie, and that several of his comments were in sync with mine. I began skimming through the book to see if he commented on any other of my idiosyncratic faves and fascinators. Sadly, no entries for Another Woman<\/a>, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<\/a>, Shallow Grave<\/a>, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang<\/a>, or Three Kings<\/a>. Still, I thought, this would be a great book to have on hand, one to dip into every so often and read his ideas on movies I liked, didn’t like, or never saw. Exactly the sort of thing I would pick up occasionally and read for an hour at a time.<\/p>\n

Of course, we live in the future, so I couldn’t just buy it there. After all, its list price is $40, and I figured Amazon would have it for 30-40% cheaper. I looked it up that evening and saw that Amazon was selling it for $26.37 (34% off). I was about to add it to my wishlist when I noticed two things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. it weighs 3.4 lbs. and is almost 2.5″ thick, and<\/li>\n
  2. it’s also available for the Kindle.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Sure, I was a little irked that the Kindle edition<\/a>\"\" sells for $23 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d most Kindle books are $10 or cheaper \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but it’s got criticism of a thousand flicks, the e-book is searchable by word, and I’ll have it with me wherever I travel. Frankly, that’s worth $23 in my world. It looks like the twin forces of new technology and my desire not to carry lots of stuff around sure has messed with my book-buying habits.<\/p>\n

    (I just wish Cultural Amnesia<\/a>\"\" \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Clive James’ 800-page collection of short biographical essays on 20th century literary, political and artistic personae \u00e2\u20ac\u201d had gotten en-Kindle-ized. It would’ve been a good fit for the exact reasons as “Have You Seen . . . ?”<\/em>, but I gave up waiting last week and bought the paperback for $10.77. Grr.)<\/p>\n

    Anyway, here’s Mr. Thomson’s review of Miller’s Crossing<\/em> (I figured out how to copy-and-paste off the Kindle, sorta):<\/p>\n

    I am not a steadfast enthusiast of the Coen Brothers, and I have given up trying to explain the haphazard movements of their career. But the thing that nags me about their record is Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crossing<\/em>, a superb, languid fantasia on the theme of the gangster film that repays endless viewing. It is derived quite plainly from Dashiell Hammett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s The Glass Key,<\/em> although the script was done by the Coens themselves.<\/p>\n

    At the heart of the film\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s assurance are the dour, glum rhythms of Gabriel Byrne as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hero\u00e2\u20ac\u009d figure who happens to be fucking his friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s girl. The girl is Marcia Gay Harden, never better and so sexy that you understand why Byrne did not bother to debate the temptation. The friend is Albert Finney, charged with energy and booze in equal parts as the thick-headed crime boss who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see a con if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a cat curled up on his lap. This broken bond between Byrne and Finney is a good version of the relationship between Ned Beaumont and Paul Madvig in Hammett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s novel. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a shared virtue of both works that they convey the disgust and disbelief in tough men that sees how they can betray each other over a piece of ass. Of course, it is a testament to Harden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ass that we never question the imperative of the ruinous equation.<\/p>\n

    The next thing to remark on is the way Canadian studios and locations give such a rich, satisfying air of period and place. We never know, or need to know, the city, but there is nothing shabby or secondhand in the d\u00c3\u00a9cor, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an eagerness in the look of the film that speaks to a real love of space, furniture, light, and mood. The same pleasure vibrates in the very intricate story structure. There are some who find Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crossing<\/em> too clever by half, but I think that misses how far the Gabriel Byrne character recognizes the curse of intelligence that hangs over him and the duty it imposes \u00e2\u20ac\u201d of always being driven to nose out the cons of others, while hoping that his own subterfuges are going unnoticed. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kill or be killed and the air of life is smartness. Take it or leave it.<\/p>\n

    There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more, much more, and I think it centers on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Schmatta\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as played by John Turturro \u00e2\u20ac\u201d queer as a coot, a dandy, a coward, and as brave as any coward who takes terrible risks. This could be the finest work of one of our best supporting actors. And don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget that he stands out in a movie that includes the adorable Jon Polito and the very frightening Eddie the Dane (J. E. Freeman), not to forget a passing secretary, who is Frances McDormand flashing the camera a quick greedy eye as she minces by.<\/p>\n

    All of that said, after learning to love the crammed texture and its nearly constant inventiveness, it is the more baffling and disconcerting that the Coens seem so often prepared to deliver films that are enervated and without a single good reason for being made. Do they wake up at night wondering if they were ever really this good, or do they refuse to look at the film again?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Now I wonder if he thought any better of Casino than I did<\/a> . . . ?<\/p>\n

    UPDATE: I do have a significant complaint about the Kindle edition of this book. There should be a table of contents with hyperlinks to each movie. Grr.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This weekend, I read Benjamin Schwarz’s review in the Atlantic of “Have You Seen . . . ?” A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films, David Thomson’s follow-up to his Biographical Dictionary of Film. I’ve never read that earlier book, but I’ve seen enough references to it to figure that it’s kinda canonical in film criticism … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “I’ll sit facing the corner in a funny hat”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,4],"tags":[426,425,127,146],"class_list":["post-2848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-literature","tag-clive-james","tag-david-thomson","tag-kindle","tag-millers-crossing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-JW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8041,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-fail-better","url_meta":{"origin":2848,"position":0},"title":"Podcast: Fail Better","author":"Gil","date":"July 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories: David Baerwald\u00a0- Fail Better \"Artistically, LA's a disaster. It's full of amazing stories. But as a city, it's not a city. Nobody but bus-drivers see the whole place.\" Singer-songwriter, musician, inventor, dad, reader, and writer David Baerwald joins the show to talk about the ups and downs of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"coverblock","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/coverblock-440x440.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13316,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/covid-check-in-with-david-baerwald","url_meta":{"origin":2848,"position":1},"title":"COVID Check-In with David Baerwald","author":"Gil","date":"May 5, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show COVID Check-In: David Baerwald Let\u2019s check in with musician, songwriter, producer, inventor and now novelist David Baerwald. We talk \u00a0about America conforming to the apocalyptic vision of his 1992 album, Triage, and his friends realizing he wasn't as crazy as they thought. We get into the novel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidbaerwaldcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C412&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidbaerwaldcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C412&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidbaerwaldcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C412&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidbaerwaldcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C412&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidbaerwaldcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C412&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13411,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/covid-check-in-with-david-leopold","url_meta":{"origin":2848,"position":2},"title":"COVID Check-In with David Leopold","author":"Gil","date":"May 20, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show COVID Check-In: David Leopold Author, archivist and curator David Leopold checks in from Bucks County, PA. We talk about curating art in a quarantine and organizing the Socially Distant Theater virtual exhibition of Al Hirschfeld's drawings of solo shows, how museum audiences are changing over the years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidleopoldcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C535&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidleopoldcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C535&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidleopoldcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C535&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidleopoldcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C535&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidleopoldcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C535&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15568,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-507-w-david-marx","url_meta":{"origin":2848,"position":3},"title":"Episode 507 – W David Marx","author":"Gil","date":"October 4, 2022","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 507: W. David Marx \"I realized I had three questions: How does status affect the behavior of individuals? How did the status struggles of certain groups lead to the creation of new cultural forms? And why does culture change and why does it stick?\" With his new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/marxcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C789&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/marxcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C789&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/marxcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C789&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/marxcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C789&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/marxcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C789&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17718,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-653-david-leopold","url_meta":{"origin":2848,"position":4},"title":"Episode 653 – David Leopold","author":"Gil","date":"September 10, 2025","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 653: David Leopold \"Hirschfeld and Sondheim are two men of the theater who have theaters named for them.\" Curator and archivist David Leopold rejoins the show for a wide-ranging talk centered on the amazing new HIRSCHFELD'S SONDHEIM: A Poster Book (Abrams ComicArts). We talk about David's decades\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/leopold2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/leopold2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/leopold2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/leopold2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/leopold2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9227,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-146-david-jaher","url_meta":{"origin":2848,"position":5},"title":"Episode 146 – David Jaher","author":"Gil","date":"December 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #146: David Jaher \"Like most people, I associated the Jazz Age with gaiety and decadence, but what I came to recognize was the underlying fear that, after World War I and the influenza epidemic, rather than heading toward a new enlightened era, the world was headed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"witchcover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/witchcover-292x440.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2848"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2861,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848\/revisions\/2861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}