actor profiles

animation

book reviews

director profiles

documentaries

experimental &
avant garde

exploitation

film festivals

film noir

film reviews

gay & lesbian

hong kong films

horror

interviews

japanese cinema

music & musicals

silent film

tranny cinema
 
- - - - - -
To be automatically notified when the next issue is posted, join our mailing list.

writers gone wild!
Keep up with Bright Lights between issues by visiting our companion blog, Bright Lights After Dark.

our space at MySpace
Visit us at MySpace.

donate, comrade!

Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 56 | May 2007

from the editor

So many scandals, so little time.

We've laid down our lorgnette, poured ourselves a fresh cordial, and sauntered from the eyrie from which we've been viewing the continuing unraveling of our government via the Bush Borg. We had a good reason for abandoning the most balefully entrancing spectacle in post-millennial America — it was time for a new issue of Bright Lights. Now it's your turn to pick up the lorgnette, and there's plenty to see this time around.

In the features foyer, you'll espy a pair of in-depth pieces sure to distract you from the dust of a culture in collapse: Julian Upton's detailed, simpatico profile of Richard Pryor's tragic last years, and David Pike's exhaustive tour of Canadian cinema and its cultural identity in the shadow of its 50-Foot-Woman-like southern neighbor.

A peep into the articles antechamber presents further diversions for those who wisely prefer cinema's confections to reality's "fresh hells." Lesley Chow riffs dazzlingly on Kirsten Dunst, fashion, and Coppola's Marie Antoinette. Robert Castle offers new insights on Hitchcock's much-maligned "mothers." Erich Kuersten deftly unearths the curious subtexts in Hawks' underrated Man's Favorite Sport? New contributor James Corbett nails Tron as an allegory of American triumphalism in the face of an Olympic defeat. And Dave Saunders performs his subtle sleight-of-hand on everything from Pasolini to Turtles Can Fly to the Wife of Bath.

For those who can't resist the here and now (however much they might ultimately prefer the there and then), there's a wealth of new reviews to ponder. Alan "Leo" Vanneman as always takes the lion's share. This issue he waxes witty on Blades of Glory, Breach, Colour Me Kubrick, Letters from Iwo Jima, Music and Lyrics, and the cheesy thrills of Magnum P.I. Anya Meskin joins AV in "the moment" by taking Black Snake Moan to task, while newbie Charles Lord finds much to love in Casino Royale. Ian Johnston presents sensitive readings of The Free Will and Time of the Wolf, and Tony Macklin explains Zodiac as a brilliant policier.

Watching the body politic on life support inspired us to publish two fascinating articles on the failures (and fetishized pleasures) of the human body as seen in cinema: Jesse Stommel's revisiting of some "body horror" classics and Amy Nolan's deep sea dive into American Psycho and its singular take on flesh.

In the interrogation alcove, two of cinema's great subversives, Roger Corman and Ken Loach, speak, thanks to the artful proddings of, respectively, Damien Love and Damon Smith. Meanwhile, Bright Lights bows to the romantic past with Dan Callahan's thoughtful tribute to the unmatchable Jean Arthur; and Gordon Thomas's cruise into the roiling waters of Louise Brooks, G. W. Pabst, and Pandora's Box. Gordon has also kindly rounded up a number of worthy films on DVD in his continuing "Bright Sights" column. In the documentary dormer, Megan Ratner handily probes the failures of the (idealized) family in her review of 51 Birch Street. And Bob Keser and Karin Badt get the goods on, respectively, Chicago's EU Fest and Thessaloniki's Documentary Fest in the film festivals flying buttress.

Did we forget anything? No? Then it's back to the eyrie to observe the continuing carnage. Igor — a drink!

Gary Morris

- - - - - -
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.

features foyer

Extinguishing Features: The Last Years of Richard Pryor — A genius self-destructs, with a little help from Hollywood

Across the Great Divide: Canadian Popular Cinema in the 21st Century — Indigenous film, global dreams

articles antechamber

Fashion and Dunst: The Substance of Marie Antoinette — "The Coppola ideal is a young girl trapped in fustiness: she can be an object of voyeurism without a trace of lewdness, and remain spiritually intact even when accessorized."

The Mothering of Evil: In Several Hitchcock Films — "She is so enthralled by her boy, the loving product from her own body, that she remains blind to his true nature."

Fear of Fishing: Closets and Product Placement in Hawks' Man's Favorite Sport? — Bwaaaaah!

Digitizing the Cold War: Olympic Wish Fulfillment in Tron — "The blue Tron team delivers the red team the drubbing the Americans were never able to deliver the Soviets . . ."

Sovereign Remedies: Queen of Hearts to President — A Progress

cellar of silence

Of Sexual Hate and Lonely Death: The Mysteries of Pandora's Box — "When what you write about is what you see/What do you write about when it's dark?" (Charles Wright)

recent cinema roundabout

Moanin' Low: On Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan — Stick to the trailer

Will Ferrell on Ice! Speck & Gordon's Blades of Glory — No Betty White, but funny!

Billy Ray's Breach: At Last, a Film as Boring as DC! — The evil that men do in a Fairfax County regional park

Uncovering the Romantic Bond: Thoughts on Casino Royale — "By describing a conscience for James Bond the character, the story has provided a subconscious for James Bond the movies

Being John, Seeing Stanley: John Malkovich in Brian Cook's Colour Me Kubrick: A True . . . ish Story — "Plot keywords: drugs, glamour, party, rent boy, sex, bisexual, celebrity, con artist, male model"

No Exit: On Matthias Glasner's The Free Will — "It's a critique that's one step away from excusing Theo (the ‘woman was asking for it' defence) . . ."

In Like Clint! Letters from Iwo Jima Is Excellent — With one, yeah, pretty major caveat

Isn't It Romantic? Hugh and Drew in Marc Lawrence's Music and Lyrics — The King of the Backseat Blowjob gets mildly post-ironist on your ass

Lost World: Michael Haneke's Time of the Wolf Reconsidered — "What we're given is a sense that the structures of our civilisation have broken down . . ."

Man in the Dark: On David Fincher's Zodiac — "A brutal, slick game"

tv land

Tight Pants in Paradise: Tom Selleck Is Magnum, P.I. — Keats, Shelley, and firm, manly thighs

interrogation alcove

Nearer My Corman to Thee: Roger Corman Remembers, and Roger Corman Remembered — Give us another naked nurse and some more explosions!

Our Time of Troubles: Ken Loach on War, Irish History, and The Wind That Shakes the Barley — "But I was accused of enjoying walking up and down the red carpet! Their rage knew no bounds."

the empty guest room

Uneasy Living: The Insecure Charm of Jean Arthur — "Funny, tender, a little neurotic, a little erotic, and always spontaneous . . ."

documentary dormer

Treed by the Family: On 51 Birch Street — For boomers, "the idea that Mom and Dad are flawed human beings with complicated histories and real feelings can be hard to accept."

temple of the body

Anorexic Logic: On American Psycho — "I should like to keep that out of me"

"Pity Poor Flesh": Terrible Bodies in the Films of Carpenter, Cronenberg, and Romero — "We are always already in a state of being on the cusp of an unraveling, a violent deconstruction, an explosive discharge of disruption and freeplay . . ."

film festival flying buttress

Secrets of the European Union: Chicago's Tenth Annual EU Film Festival — They saw what you did!

On the Border of the Thermian Gulf: The Ninth Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival — "The documentaries that most stood out have a near fictional flair, blurring the border between reality and fable."

bright sights

Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: Mouchette, 1900, Siberiade, Oyster Princess, I Don't Want to Be a Man, King Lear, Another Sky — An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases