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writers gone wild!
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Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 34 | October 2001
Editorial: Hey You! Yeah, You.
We know you’re uptight — nervous — bitter — and why not? The world’s a mess and, X to the contrary, it isn’t in his kiss. (We know; we kissed him.) But we can help. Bright Lights has always considered itself a panacea for the world’s problems. If you can’t do anything about a situation, we say, read a popular-academic hybrid online film zine! It’s always worked for us, and never more than in these bone-rattling times. In this issue we offer a tasty selection of palliatives that should help even the grimmest reader lose the blues, if not lunch. The satin ‘n platinum world of Astaire-Rogers is just a mouse-click away, as are rampaging French women; David Lynch’s psycho-tour of Mulholland Drive; Italy’s "ignorant fairies"; the troubled Toons of Roger Rabbit; American cinematic imperialism; and the seizure-inducing mix of Boy Scouts, pup tents, and Clifton Webb.
Jumping from the (features) foyer to the fire, hardy souls — all right, readers bored with the rest of the site — will find goremeister Herschell Gordon Lewis in interview, the bloody Japanese psychokiller flick Audition, and a bunch of preternaturally well-adjusted San Francisco trannies. A new section of Bright Lights, the Temple of Alternative Video Kulture, gives Richard Kern’s transgressive teenflicks a whirl and puts a slew of music subcult-based docs under BL’s compound eye. Two worthy film fests with barely pronounceable names — Cinemayaat and Qfilmistan — join the parade.
Our ever-expanding — okay, bloated — video section is a veritable world tour of classic world cinema, including masters like Buñuel, Rene Clair, Bergman, Sirk, and Paradjanov and endearing oddities such as The Fall of the House of Usher and Dixiana, as well as a provocative biography of Sven Nykvist and the gruesome "artistry" of Adolf Hitler. Two not unrelated book reviews — on westerns and John Ford — and a very unrelated one on John Waters diva Divine wrap it up. There now. As the B-52’s so aptly put it in "Lava," "Say, don’ choo feel lot better now huh?"
Gary Morris
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Visit the archives for hundreds of other articles, dear.
features foyer
Fred and Ginger Miss a Step in Shall We Dance — "Let’s call the whole thing off?"
Occupied Territory: Sylvie Groulx’s In the Shadow of Hollywood — America’s cultural colonizing is scored in a French-Canadian documentary you’ll probably never see
La Vie en Rage: Rampaging Women in Five French-Language Films — As the world spins out of control, so do these women
The Not-So-Straight Story: David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive — It’s just Lynch being Lynch. And that’s a good thing.
Gay Pride, Italian Style: Ferzan Ozpetek’s Le Fate Ignorati (Ignorant Fairies) — Ozpetek’s queer melodrama excites and disappoints in equal measure
On and Off, On and Off: Riding Through Roger Rabbit’s World — There’s more trouble in Toontown than even the Toons imagined
Mr. Belvedere Joins the Scouts: Mister Scoutmaster’s Man-Boy Love — What’s going on in that tent?
interview rotunda
The Wizard of Gore: Herschell Gordon Lewis Speaks! — Wit and wisdom from the man who created one of cinema’s most enduring genres
psychokiller alcove
Gore Galore: Takashi Miike’s Audition — This is one audition some viewers may want to skip
tower of the trannies
Mondo Tranny: Monika Treut’s Gendernauts — This love letter to San Francisco’s tranny community is a little too loving
temple of alternative video kulture
Snapshots from Hell: Richard Kern, The Hardcore Collection on DVD — Kern’s trashy teens fight and fuck their way through an incomprehensible world
Rave On: Five Indie Music Docs on Four DVDs — Jello Biafra meet ‘90s D.I.Y. meet Patti Smith meet Rave Kulture meet…
film festival fruit cellar
Cinemayaat 2001: The Fifth Arab Film Festival — More relevant now than ever, this solid fest brings some of the complexity of the Arab world to often uncomprehending western eyes
Qfilmistan: The First South Asia LGBT Film Festival (September 2001) — A treasure trove of short queer cinema — and one feature — from cultures where creating it can be a criminal act
video reviews root cellar
Buñuel on DVD: Diary of a Chambermaid and Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie — Murder and dinner — almost — among the upper crust
Dixiana on DVD Has Everything but Bill Robinson’s Feet — Where’s the rest of him?
We’ll Always Have Paris, Now That Rene Clair’s Le Million Is on DVD — Not many extras but lots of fun
Mozart’s The Magic Flute on DVD — Ingmar Bergman does it again!
Dionysus in Georgia: Paradjanov on DVD — Three features, a documentary, and a rare short showcase the peculiar pleasures of the late Russian director
A Divine Wallow: All That Heaven Allows and Written on the Wind on DVD — Criterion Collection serves up two Sirk beauties
Beauty and the Beast: The Architecture of Doom on DVD and VHS — The artistic underpinnings of Nazi terror
Fear of Darkness: Light Keeps Me Company on VHS — Bergman’s cinematographer found more solace on the set than in real life
Jean Epstein’s Fall of the House of Usher on DVD — Poe’s favorite story dressed to kill by a legendary surrealist auteur
book reviews boudoir
The Western Genre: From Lordsburg to Big Whiskey, by John Saunders
Searching for John Ford: A Life, by Joseph McBride
My Son Divine, by Frances Milstead, with Kevin Heffernan and Steve Yeager
