Karina on SpoutBlog

Under discussion:

Fight Club  (1999)

• The Underwire points to Barackula, “a short political horror rock musical about young Barack Obama having to stave off a secret society of vampires at Harvard when he was inducted into presidency at the Harvard Law Review in 1990.” The ten minute film is not online yet, but we’ll be first in line for its debut.
• Speaking musicals that plumb unlikely sources for kitsch, Chuck Palahniuk, David Fincher and Trent Reznor are apparently trying to put together a Broadway show based on Fight Club, to coincide with the film’s ten year anniversary in 2009. American Idol castoffs should start working out now, I guess…
• Whoops! According to Andy Baio via Steve Bryant, the slow closing of the theatrical to DVD window, of which one benefit is supposedly the reduction of piracy, is actually making piracy worse.
• Pitchfork’s offers a short review of Kurt Cobain: About A Son, sparked by news that the doc is soon coming to DVD. “So basically what I’m saying is if you want your childhood dreams shattered, go see About a Son. (Kidding.) But really, it’s an essential movie for Nirvana fans.”
• The apartment that Heath Ledger died in is already on the market??????and rent has been jacked up about 15%.
• This is probably the most horrifying celebrity glamour shot that I’ve ever seen. But this, this and this are all kind of amazing.

Under discussion:

Gilda  (1946)

Fleshbot recently pointed to Vintage Girly Magazines, a blog which hosts nothing but vintage (apparently mostly from the 40s-60s) pin-ups and striptease videos, where I found a clip from a series called Hollywood Funtime! One particular clip, called “Red-Headed Riot,” features a dancer who looks a lot like Rita Hayworth, who even seems to be mimicking Hayworth’s famous hair flip from Gilda. Of course, in Gilda, Hayworth does a song and dance number at a club, during which she removes her gloves and tosses them to the crowd, and at the end of which she says, “I’m not very good at zippers,” and invites men in the audience to come help her out. This gets as far as two volunteers actually rushing the stage, before Gilda is ushered away. Maybe something like “Red-Headed Riot” is the wish fulfillment extension of that scene??????the fantasy of what Gilda/Hayworth would have shown/done of she hadn’t been stopped by the Production Code in the form of a narrative device.

I’ve tried and failed to find more information about Hollywood Funtime, but I wonder: was the series sort of a precursor to the contemporary trend of using Hollywood films as the takeoff point for quasi-narrative porn (ie: Pulp Friction, Lady Scarface)? If any of you vintage porn aficionados have an answer, let us know.

In the meantime, “Red-Headed Riot” (which is not explicit at all, but still probably not safe for work) lives here, and you can compare it to the above fan montage from Gilda. Vintage Girly Magazines also has at least one early short directed by Joe Sarno, Andrew Sarris’ favorite sexploitation auteur of the 60s and 70s.

Under discussion:

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt  (1956)

• The Academy’s Sid Ganis, desperate to come to some sort of revealable conclusion as to what kind of Oscars he’s going to preside over, has been pestering the WGA to grant a waiver to allow the producers to use writers/put on a show and not get picketed. So far he’s been denied, and it sounds like his hands are wringing fairly fervently. “I’m nervous. We’re getting down to the final moments; we need to make plans.”
• In the second remake of a 1950s Fritz Lang film announced in as many weeks, Michael Douglas and Amber Tamblyn have been cast in a do-over of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.
• Do Sonic Youth get to make any money off of this?