Videodrome listening

Last night I listened to Tim Lucas' brilliant commentary track recorded for Arrow's edition of Videodrome, and what a joy it was to experience the film again with such knowledgeable company. What's particularly unique about this commentary is that Tim actually visited the Videodrome shoot and his memories of his two week stay on the set as Cinefantastique's correspondent are an integral part of the commentary. Tim speaks with great fondness about the warmth and good humor of James Woods (and his aversion to special effects) and shares an amusing anecdote about an elusive Debbie Harry. His updates on the film's Canadian players are particularly welcome - I've been watching these beloved Videodrome characters for over 20 years, yet had little or no clue about the actors playing them. Elsewhere, Tim balances illuminating analyses of ideas and concepts that flow thru the film with interesting factoids for trivia hunters, such as the deliberate color of the Videodrome torture room and the Masha character's referential surname (in case you missed it, I certainly did!). Tim also speaks about Videodrome's rare TV version and the interesting diversions it takes from the film, and talks about the various permutations Cronenberg's screenplay went thru - the collected drafts stand knee high we’re told and are a measure of Cronenberg's ambition very much outrunning the technical limitations of the day. At one point Tim reveals that Cronenberg, in search of an ending for the film asked Tim himself to devise a conclusion but instead Tim got to pull a wire on one of the film's major special effects, a satisfying trade-off I think. All told, this is a comprehensively brilliant commentary and for Videodrome fans is required listening, and if I may add, your's truly gets a mention at one point !

Broken Mirrors...

I’ve just spent a pleasant hour and a half listening to Kim Newman and Alan Jones’ commentary track for Suspiria available on Nouveaux Pictures’ 2010 Blu-Ray. This is a very good, lively, engaging track, full of interesting analysis, factoids and trivia. I think I was most intrigued by Alan Jones’ revelation that one of Luciano Tovoli’s methods for achieving Suspiria’s singular look was by using mirrors to reflect the light. Jones describes a scene from the production: “All over the set, out of camera range are masses of mirrors all refracting the light on top of each other to make it as sharp and as vivid as possible” I like this idea of those big Suspiria sets full of mirrors - mirrors and reflective surfaces have a thematic resonance within the film, but perhaps more interesting is their powerful association with the Occult. Had Daria Nicolodi been on set I imagine she would have approved. Incidentally, be sure to check out Tim Lucas' post on the film and some of its more subliminal details - including a fabulous find involving the film's reflective director...

An Art film for Teenagers

I've just listened to Francis Ford Coppola’s audio commentary for Rumble Fish and very much enjoyed the great director ruminating on his vision for the film, ( “an art film for teenagers”), his experiences with the actors and so on. Coppola makes no bones about his love for the film, it’s clearly his favourite picture and at one point he ponders why he didn't devote his career to making small, independently-minded films. It would have been an interesting alternative career trajectory to be sure. Elsewhere Coppola reveals that the look of The Motorcycle Boy was modeled in part on Albert Camus, with accounts for Mickey Rourke’s cool French intellectual style. In an amusing moment Coppola recalls an unhappy week Chris Marker spent on the set, invited to work on the film to pick up some second unit shots but completely uninspired by the location around Tulsa Marker promptly left. Highly recommended listening.

John Waters on Pink Flamingos

Continuing a series recalling little nuggets heard on film maker commentaries. In this installment John Waters remembers filming the most infamous scene from his most infamous film. Waters once said that even if he had discovered a cure for cancer, he would still be best remembered for the scene where Divine samples a little... present left by Pat Moran's dog...

How can I tell this story in a new way ? We just waited and waited and waited. He wouldn't go. Somebody, I can't remember who gave the dog an enema with a hair applicator and dye bottle...and he did it - once. Later that night they all got together and Divine said "Oh God, am I gonna get sick from this?" They were all smoking pot and hash and they called Hopkins hospital and Divine pretended he was a mother and said "I have a retarded child and he just ate dog shit" And they said, "Well he'll be alrite. He could get the white worm, check for that". And they all howled on in a hashish frenzy !

John Waters, Pink Flamingos (New Line DVD, commentary index point 91:18)

Jeff Lieberman on Squirm

Continuing a series recalling little nuggets heard on film maker commentaries... In this instalment Jeff Lieberman remembers seeing an alternative version of his 1976 film Squirm...

One time Channel 11 WPIX in New York showed by mistake Squirm in black & white... I dunno if you can do this on your TV - tweak it, take the color out and watch this whole sequence with no colors and I'm telling you it's 10 times better. I called the station. Far from complaining I said that was the most amazing thing seeing Squirm in black & white... A thing like this in black & white looks great. Maybe we should put that on the (DVD) menu -  a choice to watch Squirm in black & white...

Jeff Lieberman, Squirm (MGM DVD, commentary index point 80:30)

Gunnar Hansen on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Continuing a series recalling little nuggets heard on film maker commentaries. In this instalment Gunnar Hansen remembers filming a scene with Marilyn Burns during the legendary 27 hour shooting day and the moment when the mild-mannered actor transformed into his character Leatherface...

This scene there's a tube...a bulb in my palm with the knife and there's a tube to feed the fake blood. We shot this over and over again because the tube kept clogging. There's a piece of scotch tape over the blade edge to keep it dull. We couldn't get the blood out of the tube onto the knife edge and so after the 4th or 5th take while they're all getting ready to shoot it I turned away from everybody and stripped the tape off the knife and the blood tube and actually just cut her. And the reason was at this point we were insane and now we're 18 hours into this 27 hour day and at this point I was so crazy I just wanted to get the film over with. And I didn't care about anything, I didn't care about hurting her, I just wanted to not do this again...

Gunnar Hansen, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Dark Sky DVD/Blu-Ray, commentary index point 71:01)

Cronenberg on Videodrome

Continuing a series recalling little nuggets heard on film maker commentaries. In this instalment David Cronenberg recalls a moment of protest by his leading man resulted in an impromptu director's cameo...

Jimmy Woods would not put on this helmet. He was worried he would be electrocuted. I thought he was kidding but he was serious. So that’s me in the helmet right now, those are my hands you are seeing, held up in front of the lens and it’s me in this shot because even though Carol Spier my production designer who designed the helmet put the helmet on for him, stood in a pool of water on the Videodrome set and fired up the helmet to show him he wouldn’t be electrocuted, he wouldn’t put on the helmet...

David Cronenberg, Videodrome (Criterion DVD/Blu-Ray, commentary index point 52:01)

 

Commentary #1 - Michael Mann on Heat

This post marks the first of a projected series recalling little nuggets gleaned from film maker commentaries. In this first instalment, Michael Mann remembers a primary source of inspiration behind his cops n’ robbers epic Heat...

There was a painting that inspired me about this moment and that painting probably got me interested in making this motion picture of Heat longer than anything else, and it was a painting of a table with a .45 on it and a rear shot of a man standing against a background, and contained within it somebody was involved in some life of aggression and action and yet the contrast was in the mental state because here was a moment of inner loneliness. It didn’t dictate something, instead it posed a question – what is this man thinking, what is he imagining...

Michael Mann, Heat (Warners DVD/Blu-Ray, commentary index point 20:12)

Pacific by Alex Colville, 1967

The Lost Criterion Commentaries

It’s a real shame that the Criterion-recorded commentaries for Taxi Driver and David Cronenberg's Crash are still marooned in laserdisc limbo, such is the habit of Criterion for hanging onto their extras, when they lose the rights to a particular film. Luckily, mp3 rips have been made of the director commentaries for their Taxi Driver and Crash laserdiscs, and both are presented here...

David Cronenberg always delivers fascinating commentary tracks for his films but the Crash commentary is especially illuminating as Cronenberg discusses and elaborates on some of the more esoteric ideas in the film, as well as the controversy that followed the release of the film.

The Taxi Driver track is one of Scorsese's better commentaries, recorded as Scorsese watched the film (and not stitched together from interviews). Joining Scorsese on the track (but recorded separately) is writer Paul Schrader, and both men deliver an excellent and comprehensive overview of their iconic film. Listen out for Scorsese in a rare slip, bungling a Jean-Luc Godard title !

Late addition: John Sturges commentary for Bad Bay at Black Rock, from the Criterion laser (Many thanks to Rob for this!)

Crash - David Cronenberg (Mediafire)
Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader (Mediafire)
Bad Day At Black Rock - John Sturges (Mediafire)