Comments on A Bad Week for Movies

Surely you meant to say that it is a bad week for FILM.

It would be a bad week for movies if Michael Bay and George Lucas died within the same 7 days.

Thing you used enough dynamite there, Butch?

Errr ...

THINK you used enough dynamite there, Butch?

(I can't type this early in the morning)

all the more reason to go see Blow Up for free August 15th at Havana! *cough cough plug plug*

"Zabriskie Point" is lesser Antonioni although its release was eagerly anticipated. The film and its two stars made the cover of Life or Look or Time (can't remember).

I took my mother (of all people) to see it and neither one of us got it. For her, it was out of her frame-of-reference, and for me - well - I was just too young to understand. 18-year-olds weren't quite as worldly
then as they are now (thank goodness).
I'm pretty sure I only went because I thought the young male lead (both leads were non-actors) was so incredibly cute. He wound up in prison, I believe, somewhere in Massachusetts and accidentally died in prison at the age of 26 while lifting weights.

Re: Zabriskie Point - I was just reminded of the chapter in John Fahey's How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life, where he recounts going to Italy to work on music for this, and ends up punching Antonioni in the face over an anti-American comment.

Antonioni says 'What I want you to do is to compose some music that will go along with the porno scene.' I kept saying, 'Yes, sir.' Then he starts this, 'Now John, this is young love. Young love.' I mean, that's young love? All these bodies? 'Young love. But John , it's in the desert, where there's death. But it's young love.' He kept going 'young love/death' faster and faster. I was sure I was talking to a madman. So I experimented. I had instrumentalists come in and I told them just to play whatever the felt like. They had to pretend to understand what I was talking about, especially if Antonioni came in the room. I came up with some sections of music that sounded more like death than young love. I played it for Michaelangelo and he thought it was great.

I'm a cinephile and everything, but is it really bad when really old people die? I think if you can make it almost to or past 90, and you have a great body of work behind you, it's a great thing. Yang was 59 when he died and Truffaut was 52. Those were bad days for cinema.

Well said, Andy.

A death just marks the end of an era (of sorts). It's the finality.

It's like when a jazz great dies (and there have been a passel of them who have in the past 10 years). Their recordings will live on forever. Still, you mourn because there'll be no more new work; it's the end.

He was a nice guy.

Why oh why couldn't it have been hacky loser Brett Ratner?