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writers gone wild!
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Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 40 | May 2003

from the editor

"Life's a beautiful thing /
As long as I hold the string …"

Well, sad to say, in spite of our death grip on "the string," someone, something kept grabbing it out of our hands. Between the Iraq "war," Bush and friends' assault on civil liberties, the RIAA wasting endless time and money trying to shut down file swaps, the depressing deification of those godawful Krispy Kreme donuts — well, you get the idea. We're late because the zeitgeist couldn't keep its hands off our string!

But not to worry. Life's again a beautiful thing, particularly with these handy rose-colored glasses. It's amazing how good the world looks when you can't see it.

Still, we urge you to open your eyes — only briefly, we wouldn't want to waste precious perception time, or frighten you more than you already are — and check out the latest Bright Lights. As usual for the last umpteen issues, there's no overall theme. "Variety is best," my wizened, drunken granny used to say, "especially in a magazine devoted to cinema!"

BL associate editor Alan Vanneman shook some — only some — of the venom off his goose quill this time, with pithy reviews of Fred & Rita in You'll Never Get Rich, Billie Holiday and Satchmo in the otherwise dreadful New Orleans, underrated goddess Ginger Rogers, and jazz compilation DVDs.

New writers this issue include Richard Shaw, eloquently expounding on Ingmar Bergman and Euro cinema; Alan Kohn, finding much to praise in John Garfield and Out of the Fog; Ren Hsieh, describing with elan Better Luck Tomorrow; Seth Nesenholtz, audaciously analyzing the queer subtext in Will Smith's movies; and A. Jay Adler, ingeniously investigating imitation in film. Welcome, comrades!

Beloved BL regulars are also here in force. Andrew Grossman continues his amazing deep-sea dive into the roiling waters of realism, artificiality, music, and cinema started in issue 37. Bob Castle weighs in with a thoughtful study of Fellini's rarely discussed Orchestra Rehearsal. Megan Ratner reports with panache on a French film fest in New York and uncovers the pleasures of I Know Where I'm Going on DVD. Scott Thill, editor of the fantabulous zine Morphizm, gives a hot look-see at In a Lonely Place on the occasion of its DVD release. Robert Ecksel meticulously examines Auto Focus and Bowling for Columbine. Matt Kennedy grandly fetes Griffith on the occasion of Kino's juicy boxed set of DVDs. Our Brit pal Richard Armstrong turns a loving eye toward the glory days of film culture. Another Brit, Ben Dickenson, slams the 75th Oscar ceremony with verve.

From my well-guarded eyrie in the Palace of the Perverts, yours truly offers an interview with Warhol superstar Holly Woodlawn (interviewed), a review of gay art-porn pioneer Wakefield Poole's movies on DVD, and a round-up of recent queer and queer-inflected movies.

Please note that when I'm not at the palace, guarding the archives, filching the jewels, or holding court, I can be found somewhere nearby, looking for that string.

Gary Morris

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Watch for new issues of Bright Lights every three months: August, November, February, and May. To be automatically notified when the next issue is posted, join our mailing list.

Visit the archives for hundreds of other articles, dear.

articles antechamber

Tongues Untied: Art, Politics, and Business Collide at Oscar's 75th — It's contagious — even Oscar dissented

Through a Glass Darkly: Bergman as Critical and Cultural Bellwether — As Bergman goes, so go attitudes toward European art cinema

What's Rita in the Hay Worth? — Fred finds out in You'll Never Get Rich

"I Like His Face": Nicholas Ray's Noir Classic Restored on DVD — Do you like his face?

Fellini's Society Rehearsal: Orchestra Rehearsal Reconsidered — In which "Fellini takes us beyond our frailties and chaos"

They Lost It at the Movies: Film Culture in the Age of Positif and Cineaste — "I can't believe that you let these people put pictures on your skin." — C. W.'s father to C. W. Moss in Bonnie and Clyde

Little Big Man: John Garfield Triumphs in Anatole Litvak's Out of the Fog — Garfield wraps it up in this 1941 prole drama based on a Group Theatre production

features foyer

How to Turn One's Back on a Tyrant: Part Two — The opposite of realism is not fantasy, but disappointment

Together Again for the First Time: Movies Holding Mirrors Up to Movies — Imitation: great for flattery, bad for art

palace of the perverts

Unintentional Camp and the Image of Will Smith — Camp — and coded queerness — finds a surprisingly happy home in the films of Will Smith

Sex in Shangri-La: Wakefield Poole on DVD — "No top, no bottom. Just two men discovering each other."

Little Stabs of Homo Happiness (and Horror): Random Short Reviews of the Worthy and the Worthless in Recent and Old-School Cinema — Hits and misses from the arthouse to the grindhouse

recent film roundabout

Out of Focus Auto Focus — Hogan's Hero becomes Rerun Victim in a few delirious years

From Joy Luck to Better Luck — The title is a little too accurate

Bowling a Strike for Columbine — Michael Moore hits the screen with both barrels blasting

interview root cellar

"Fabulous Gowns but No Pussy!": An Interview with Holly Woodlawn — A superstar talks Trash and papayas

festivals vestibule

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, 2003 — Fine performances are the main attraction of this timely New York tribute to recent French film

temple of video

The Beauty of Uncertainty: I Know Where I'm Going on DVD — Powell/Pressburger's fairy tale comes to live on Criterion's DVD

The Sound of Jazz, the Sound of Gene — New DVDs offer rare TV appearances by jazz greats Billie Holiday, Gene Krupa, Coleman Hawkins, and Benny Goodman. But where's Thelonious Monk?

Making History: D. W. Griffith on DVD — A weighty package of early films by the cinematic titan

Desperately Seeking Ginger — Hollywood Rhythms, Vol. 2 on DVD offers relief for the Rogers-deprived

Bad Film, Great Soundtrack: New Orleans on DVD — How Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday saved New Orleans from the Yankees