Archives for February 2012

Happy Valentine’s Day from FNB!

February 14, 2012 by

Gene Tierney

On Valentine’s Day, I’m reminded of a line from 1945’s “Leave Her to Heaven,” starring Gene Tierney as Ellen Berent, a socialite who marries writer Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde). “There’s nothing wrong with Ellen,” says her mother (Mary Philips). “It’s just that she loves too much.”

In this case, Mumsy’s really in denial because Ellen’s idea of love is flat-out obsession, which of course leads to trouble. But, no matter, “Leave Her to Heaven” is a wonderful film noir (directed by John M. Stahl, it also stars Jeanne Crain and Vincent Price) and, for today, too much seems just right.

As Oscar Wilde said, “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.”

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Book offers breezy look at Elizabeth Taylor’s feminist legacy

February 13, 2012 by

She wasn’t a bra burner – her bras were too pricey to torch. ; ) But mega-star Elizabeth Taylor, as defiant as she was dazzling, introduced a broad audience to feminist ideas through her portrayal of iconic characters. So says author M.G. Lord in her new book “The Accidental Feminist: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciousness and We Were Too Distracted by Her Beauty to Notice” (Walker & Co., $23).

For proof, Lord analyzes a number of films, including “National Velvet” (1944), “A Place in the Sun” (1951), “Giant” (1956), “Suddenly, Last Summer” (1959), “BUtterfield 8” (1960) and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966). Lord also looks at Taylor’s off-screen life (it would be hard not to), particularly her fund-raising efforts in the 1980s for AIDS research.

Elizabeth Taylor (Feb. 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011)

The book – a potpourri of breezy backstory, biographical nibbles and fresh insights into Taylor’s work – is a fast, fun read, perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon, followed by tubs of popcorn and Taylor movie-viewing.

Of Lord’s many sources, I especially liked the input from syndicated gossip columnist Liz Smith, who described Taylor as follows: “No movie of hers quite captures the rather ordinary woman she is – full of fun, rather wacky, often wise, often foolish, her life and motivations inevitably morphed by fame.

“When you are with her, it is her history and the atmosphere around her that are daunting. She is just a short, funny gal who wants to talk about what’s next on the menu.”

Lord, a cultural critic, investigative journalist and author of “Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll” and “Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket Science” will discuss and sign “The Accidental Feminist” at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 17, at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood. And at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 23, Diesel bookstore, 225 26th St. in Brentwood, will host a publication party for Lord’s book.

Peter Coca and Cheryl Klein

Additionally, The Last Bookstore this week welcomes writers Cheryl Klein and Peter Coca in what looks to be a noir-infused event. Says Klein: “I’ll be reading from my untitled circus-novel-in-progress, and I’ll do my best to find something appropriately post-Valentine’s. Meaningless sex? A breakup? Happy singlehood? You’ll have to wait and see. Also, bring your own stuff for the open mic if you dare. Please dare. Or don’t. It’s cool either way.”

The reading will start at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at The Last Bookstore, 453 S. Spring St. in downtown Los Angeles.

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Strong acting, stellar cast can’t save ‘Rampart’

February 10, 2012 by

Rampart/2011/Millennium Entertainment/108 min.

“This used to be a glorious soldiers’ department,” says Woody Harrelson as dirty LA cop and Vietnam vet Dave Brown early on in “Rampart” by director Oren Moverman.

He’s right. Beset by the Rampart scandal, the LAPD in 1999 is anything but glorious. And corrupt, bloodthirsty, womanizing, racist Dave is anything but sympathetic. Dave’s also oddly verbose at times, perhaps signaling that he isn’t as smart as he thinks he is.

The best part of “Rampart” is the strong acting by Harrelson and the rest of the cast – Ned Beatty, Ben Foster, Robin Wright, Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon, Sigourney Weaver, Ice Cube, and a cameo from Steve Buscemi.

Despite the formidable acting, there’s scant character development, a turbid storyline and gimmicky camerawork. Sometimes the script, by Moverman and James Ellroy, just thuds. When Dave meets Linda (Wright) in a bar, his opening gambit is: “You’re wearing a courtroom suit and you have litigator eyes.” Really?

And when Beatty’s character, an ex-bad-cop, meets Dave in a library, he tells him: “I don’t play games. I don’t name names.”

As much as I wanted to like “Rampart,” I found the film unpleasant to watch. Granted, it is unpleasant subject matter, but dramatically this is a letdown. I had high hopes for “Rampart” because I admired Harrelson and Moverman’s excellent movie “The Messenger” from 2009. For really sizzling neo-noir stories of police corruption, give me “L.A. Confidential” (based on Ellroy’s novel) or “Serpico” anytime.

Filed Under: Neo Noir Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Valentine’s Day gifts: Candles with character, vintage cool, ever-chic chocolate

February 8, 2012 by

Want to get your Valentine’s Day shopping done early so you can ensure plenty of lounge-time this weekend? Here are a few ideas:

The Joe (shown here) and Kurt candles are top sellers.

Jason Linscott’s 2550° Artisanal Candles, launched late last year, are truly brilliant. These hand-blended  hand-poured creations offer fresh fragrances with unusual depth, and they are named after mysterious men – Joe, Kurt, Clive and Luc.

Though some might think of candles as a girly purchase, Linscott saw an opportunity to sell to men as well as women. Candlelight, he says, is nostalgic and appeals to anyone looking for an antidote to our fast-paced digital age.

“I’ve always been into candles,” says Linscott, a native of Northern Idaho who now lives in Portland, Ore. “They’re evocative of the past, of romance and shadowy evenings.”

Linscott called on his background in design and visual merchandising to create layered and complex fragrances – using scents such as a worn leather, whiskey, tobacco leaves, absinthe, dark chocolate, black tea, oakmoss and sea spray – that reflected aspects of his invented characters. “The idea was what that person’s home would be like and what it would smell like.”

The candles, $38-$45, are prepared using an all-natural, clean-burning soy wax base with botanical and fragrance oils. Packaging is fully recyclable; the glass containers and lids are intended for reuse as cocktail glasses or catch-alls.

Levis 501 Rough Rinse, 1944

Who among us owns enough pairs of jeans? Levi’s Vintage Clothing taps the brand’s history to capture the spirit of American workwear. The Levi’s archive dates to the 1870s and, says the company, each LVC garment faithfully reproduces the fits, fabrics and characteristics of a specific time period.

The ’40s and ’50s men’s jeans are great fun; and there’s much to choose from. There aren’t as many women’s styles, but a salesperson at a Levi’s store told me that more are in the works.

Take Man Du Jour shopping. If you don’t know his inseam measurement, now is the time to find out!

Founder Katrina Markoff started Vosges from her Chicago apartment in 1998.

Yes, red roses are a cliché, but chocolate’s always chic, especially when it’s from Katrina Markoff, founder of Vosges Haut-Chocolat.

Trained at Le Cordon Bleu, Markoff launched Vosges from the kitchen of her Chicago apartment in 1998, drawing inspiration from the cuisines of France, Spain, Italy, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, China, Australia and Hawaii. She now has boutiques in Chicago, New York, Las Vegas and Beverly Hills.

I remember eating Vosges in Chicago – try it and you will appreciate genius!

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‘The Big Combo’ and ‘Pitfall’ to screen in downtown LA

February 6, 2012 by

The Million Dollar Theater in downtown Los Angeles will show two classics of film noir on Wednesday night.

“The Big Combo” (1955) by Joseph H. Lewis
Cornel Wilde plays Police Lt. Leonard Diamond, a cop on a mission to nail a badass gangster (Richard Conte). Jean Wallace (Wilde’s real-life wife) plays the woman they both love. Lewis, the auteur of  “Gun Crazy,” directed. Noir master John Alton (“T-Men”) was the cinematographer and David Raksin (“Laura”) composed the music. Leonard Maltin calls it “a cult item, stylishly directed.”

“Pitfall” (1948) by André De Toth
Murder is the last thing on John Forbes’ mind when he starts an affair with model Mona Stevens. He’s just bored with the insurance biz and married life. But this is film noir and things get complicated quickly, especially since Mona’s also involved with an embezzler.

“Pitfall” stars Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt as Mrs. Forbes and Raymond Burr as MacDonald, a nosy, lecherous ex-cop. MacDonald is one of noir’s slimiest villains and this is one of Burr’s best performances.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. this Wednesday, Feb. 8. The theater is at 307 S. Broadway Ave., Los Angeles, 90013. Tickets are $10.

Filed Under: Classic Noir Reviews, Noir Style Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Free stuff from FNB: Win ‘Notorious’ by Alfred Hitchcock

February 6, 2012 by

Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in "Notorious"

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I am giving away a DVD copy of the 1946 Alfred Hitchcock classic “Notorious,” starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains. Both an espionage thriller and a tortured love story, the movie is considered one of Hitchcock’s finest works and was François Truffaut’s fave. I will run a review in the next few weeks.

(Patricia is the winner of the January reader giveaway, a paperback copy of “We Need to Talk About Kevin” by Lionel Shriver. Congrats to Patricia and thanks to all who entered!)

To enter the February giveaway, just leave a comment on any FNB post from Feb. 1-29. We welcome comments, but please remember that, for the purposes of the giveaway, there is one entry per person, not per comment.

The winner will be randomly selected at the end of the month and announced in early March. Include your email address in your comment so that I can notify you if you win. Your email will not be shared. Good luck!

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Compelling but flawed ‘Kill List’ melds drama, thriller, horror

February 4, 2012 by

Kill List/2011/IFC Midnight/95 min.

“Kill List” is a resonant film that demands your attention with its oblique weirdness and darkly alluring characters, but in the end doesn’t live up to its full storytelling potential.

An ambitious mix of genres, the film is divided into three parts – it begins with fly-on-the-wall family drama, segues into a black-humor thriller about two matter-of-factly brutal hitmen and culminates in full-on horror centering on a furtive, frightening cult. But while the first two thirds of the movie are richly atmospheric and unusually compelling (there’s an intense realism to the acting), the final chapter feels disappointingly banal.

“Kill List” has real spontaneity in the performances though, perhaps because director Ben Wheatley co-wrote the script with Amy Jump specifically for the actors, then encouraged them to improvise. That, said Wheatley at a round-table interview Friday in West Hollywood, gave the film sweeter, funnier moments than he had in the script.

MyAnna Buring

Neil Maskell plays Jay, an English hitman figuring out his next step, several months after a job went wrong in Kiev. An average Joe with a pudgy face and love handles, Jay might just as easily be a used-car salesman or an insurance agent who has hit a dry patch and needs to pull in some cash.

Tension simmers between Jay and his wife Shel (MyAnna Buring, an icy Hitchcockian blonde). Their young son Sam (Harry Simpson) winces when his parents fight, which is frequently.

Jay’s work prospects look brighter after a visit from his friend, goofy-looking Gal (Michael Smiley) and his smoldering girlfriend Fiona (Emma Fryer). Jay and Gal, despite their apparent inefficiency in Kiev, are entrusted with a new assignment. The victims accumulate, Jay’s grasp on reality is increasingly tenuous and the hitmen are drawn into the workings of the cult.

Wheatley, who also directed the 2009 crime comedy “Down Terrace,” has a penchant for ’70s films. In “Kill List,” he said, he had elements of these films on his radar: “Race with the Devil,” “The Wicker Man,” “The Parallax View,” and “The Manchurian Candidate” as well as the work of directors John Cassavetes (“Faces”) and Alan Clarke (“Scum”).

As for the genre-bending in “Kill List,” Wheatley said he front-loaded the film with characterizations so the last part would work. “Knowing who these people are amplifies the violence and you’re primed for the crazy horror.”

All well and good. Except that, despite laying the groundwork, the horror seemed more half-baked than truly disturbing. But that’s just me. Pointing out that much of the film’s violence is implicit – imagined and defined by viewers – Wheatley said, “You look at the film and the film looks at you. Your own prejudices come out. [The film] puts a weird curse on the audience.”

Filed Under: Neo Noir Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Author Anthony Slide to discuss ‘Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine’ as part of the Evening @ the Barn series

February 2, 2012 by

Acclaimed author Anthony Slide will discuss his book “Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine” at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at the Hollywood Heritage Museum as part of the Evening @ the Barn series. The museum is housed in the restored Lasky-DeMille Barn (c. 1895).

Slide will explain how the fan magazines dealt with gossip and innuendo as well as how they handled the Hollywood scandals of the 1920s, World War II and the blacklist. Slide will show a PowerPoint presentation to accompany his talk.

Critic Leonard Maltin says: “For anyone who equates ‘fan magazines’ with supermarket tabloids, this book should come as a revelation. Tony Slide has done a formidable job of research to chart the birth, rise and fall of Hollywood fan magazines in the 20th century, their relationship to the industry they covered and the readers they served. It’s a colorful, well told history that’s full of surprises.”

“Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine” will be on sale in the museum shop ($40) and Slide will sign books at the end of the program. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times also had high praise for the book; you can read his September 2010 review here.

Tickets are $5 for members and $10 for non-members. The Hollywood Heritage Museum is at 2100 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, CA 90068; 323-874-2276. You can buy tickets here.

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Honey, your February noir horoscope is here …

February 1, 2012 by

Clark Gable

Fate reigns supreme in film noir, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love us some zodiac fun. Hope your February is full of luscious roses and flashy rocks. And happy birthday, Aquarius and Pisces!

A special shout-out to Aquarians Clark Gable and John Ford (both Feb. 1), Lana Turner (Feb. 8), Jennifer Aniston (Feb. 11), Kim Novak (Feb. 13) and Pisces women Drew Barrymore (Feb. 22), Joan Bennett and Elizabeth Taylor (Feb. 27).

Lana Turner

Aquarius (January 21-February 19): As you mark your birthday or extend the celebration, remember to be patient with people who (yawn!) lack your vision and courage. Be creative, solve problems, then go with the flow while the rest of the world catches up with you. If you’ve just begun dating someone, you needn’t be available 24/7 but do make time to hang out. It’s surprising how both sides can lose interest if too many days go by without reconnecting. In a relationship? Take the lead this Valentine’s Day and make it a Monday to remember.

Pisces (February 20-March 20): This month is all about celebrating the youness of you, especially if it’s your birthday. There is a project that calls for your expertise and you are well placed to provide direction. Lovely! But do not get roped into executing the nitty-gritty tactics, just because someone asks you nicely. On the social front, keep in mind the old saying: If you can’t be good, don’t get caught. You may need Excel to track your suitors as Valentine’s Day approaches. If you’re in an exclusive relationship, a long romantic weekend may be in the cards. Pay special attention to details on the weekend of the 18th. [Read more…]

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