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writers gone wild!
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Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 49 | August 2005

from the editor

BL joins the war effort!

We know, we know — Bright Lights is the last place you'd expect to hear such talk. And it's true that we spend most of our time drinking cordials and reading The Imitation of Christ. Don't blame us; that's how we were raised in one of America's many cultured homes. Remember them? But now that we're "at war," we feel compelled — and will very soon — don mufti (we have a designer working on something special), take up (antique) firearms, and proceed into battle. America's honor needs defending now, it seems, and Bright Lights is ready! We'll rely on you readers to inform us where the next battle will be — location, if the terrain is very rough, bathroom locations, whom to kill, etc. — and we'll see if it doesn't conflict with previous plans. The twelfth of never is usually open.

During lulls between watching old war movies and exercising (we use the spa scenes in The Women as our guide), we've managed to whip up a big new issue of Bright Lights. In our obsessive need to be "in the now," we're covering a number of new films. BL associate editors Alan Vanneman and Robert Keser stick their bayonets in, respectively, Batman Begins and War of the Worlds; and SpongeBob SquarePants, Mad Hot Ballroom, and Princess Raccoon. BL newbie Shari Last takes aim at The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the latest in the endless Star Wars series. Another fresh face here, Dana Levanthal, lobs a grenade at the misogyny of Sin City.

The articles antechamber features Bob Castle returning after going AWOL the last few issues with a bracing take on the sociology of The Truman Show. Dan Callahan, who feted Jane Fonda last time, digs deep into the life and career of the incomparable, unjustly forgotten Margaret Sullavan. Recent recruit Lesley Chow thoughtfully tours the pleasures of Elmore Leonard-based cinema. Tom Sutpen, one of our treasured recent recruits, demands that somebody (well, Universal, who owns the rights) distribute Peter Watkins' brilliant, and sadly repressed, Privilege. And Arnaud Desplechin gets the once-over three times this issue, with fine analyses of Kings and Queen by former BL MIA A. Jay Adler and new contributor Damon Smith, who also did a revealing interview with Desplechin.

The features foyer is a mine-field of fun, with Vanneman gingerly exploring Chaplin's Mutual films; associate editor Megan Ratner handily negotiating recent German films on the Nazi era; and first-timer Jason Sperb finding new pleasures in On Her Majesty's Secret Service

In addition to the Desplechin chat, we have Lars von Trier being almost indecently candid with BL newcomer Karin Badt, and Darren Stein discussing his fun doc Put the Camera on Me, about his career as a pre-teen gay Orson Welles.

Entering the vale of video brings us to Matt Kennedy's arch analysis of two Jacques Becker films, along with recent BL arrival Sheila Skaff writing authoritatively on late Polish cinema. More new cinema can be found in two film festival reviews: Joanne Bealy skirmishing with the San Francisco International, and Cleo Cacoulidis parrying with the Human Rights Watch fest. Yours truly takes on Jenni Olson's excellent poetic doc The Joy of Life, along with the usual "Little Stabs of Happiness" round-up. More experimental works, by Austrians Oliver Ressler and Gertrude Moser-Wagner, are artfully analyzed by recent recruit Robert Grossman.

Meanwhile, your editor commandeers homo corner for articles on Arthur Dong's doc Licensed to Kill, about queer-killers; and Fred Halsted's S&M porn career— and finds much to love in the work of brilliant documentarian Kim Longinotto.

Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a lovely cordial waiting.

Gary Morris

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Visit the archives for hundreds of other articles, why don'tcha you babe.

features foyer

Looking at Charlie — the Mutuals: An Occasional Series on the Life and Work of Charlie Chaplin — "Love backed by force, forgiveness sweet,
brings hope and peace to Easy Street"

Führerkontakt: The Emerging German Perspective on the Third Reich — "In short, completely normal."

On On Her Majesty's Secret Service: Re-Viewing a Bond Masterwork — "We have all the time in the world"

recent cinema roundabout

Batman Begins: Now with 50% fewer nipples! — It's one step forward, two steps backward as our long national aureoline nightmare refuses to end

Going My Way? The Hitchchiker's Guide to the Galaxy's Finally on Film — Say "Slartibartfast" fast three times

Ready to Rumba? Dance Fever Doc Mad Hot Ballroom Busts a Groove — The kids are all right

The Cross and the Ukelele: Seijun Suzuki's Princess Raccoon — Suzuki blows morning glories

Superwomen? The Bad-Ass Babes of Sin City — or Are They? — This noir-drenched comic adaptation is retro in more ways than one

Bikini Bottom Babylon: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie — He's fun-damental, not fundamentalist!

The Dark Side Inside: Thoughts on Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith — Anger leads to fear, fear leads to hate, hate leads to suffering ...

War of the Worlds: You Win Some, You Lose Some — Steven Spielberg meets Tom Cruise (again), and things get boring (again)

articles antechamber

Pulp with a Soundtrack: Getting Elmore Leonard on Film — "My sound is the absence of me." (Elmore Leonard)

Performance World: The Truman Show's Sociology — The show must go on

Thinking (and Talking) It Through: Arnaud Desplechin and Kings and Queen I — "Is there anything more dazzling than the possible?"

The Disturbance of the Real: Arnaud Desplechin's Kings and Queen II — How real is the director's much-vaunted "multilayered depiction of reality"?

interrogation alcove

The Human (Tragi)Comedy: Talking to Arnaud Desplechin — Of Kings and Queen and other subjects

The Kid Behind the Camera: Chatting up Darren Stein — Put the Camera on Me's queer wunderkind speaks

At War with Myself: A Word with Lars von Trier at Cannes 2005 — On Manderley and more

the empty guest room

Margaret Sullavan and the Art of Dying — "Now ... here comes the paradox ... "

avant-garde atelier

Isolating Isolationism: Recent INDEX Releases from the Austrian Avant-Garde — Part 1: Austrian Exhibitionists

Crossing the Bridge: Jenni Olson's The Joy of Life — Navigating a haunted, and haunting, world

distribute this!

Distribute This! Privilege (Peter Watkins, 1967, Great Britain) — Watkins' savaging of commodified culture remains disturbingly relevant

film festivals flying buttress

Capturing Chaos: On the 2005 Human Rights Watch Film Festival — These docs and features show a world of upheaval — and, occasionally, hope

Everyday Freaks and Fantasy Wars: The 2005 San Francisco International Film Festival — It was the best of times ...

the vale of video

Two by Jacques Becker: Casque d'or and Touchez pas au grisbi on DVD — Criterion resurrects a French master

After Kieślowski: Six Recent Polish Films on DVD — Of Pornography and beyond

homo corner

The Rage from Nowhere? Arthur Dong's Licensed to Kill Interviews Murderers of Gays — "I'm bad, but I'm locked up."

Private Rituals Made Public: The Lost Erotica of Fred Halsted — "The whole world wears a jockstrap!"

documentaries dormer

Rebel Girls: Six Documentaries by Kim Longinotto — On Dream Girls, The Day I Will Never Forget, Divorce Iranian Style, Shinjuku Boys, Gaea Girls, and Runaway

little stabs of happiness

Little Stabs of Happiness (and Horror): Random Short Reviews of the Worthy and the Worthless in Recent and Old-School Cinema — "It's a spring break party 24/7 365 days a year!"