Instead of knuckling down to a
post mortem on Jonah, as promised, or gloating in print (or whatever
medium this is) over Jonathan Ross directing a little of his boundless
enthusiasm my way last Saturday (in an interview with Mitchell and Webb
about the new TV series – listen to the last fifteen minutes if you must - he lightheatedly
bemoaned the non-transfer of a radio sketch I wrote called "Asbo
Zapruder". By me. And then he went on about "Padlockigami". Which I
wrote. Which was nice. Bracket brackets: for the record, I don't see the
logistical problem being Rob dressing up like a baby seal, so much as
James Bachman having to pass himself off as a French heron. Also, once
you've got over the initial visual gag, the sketch is basically just five
minutes of watching a man text)... yeah so instead of gloating over
that, which you'll see I haven't, I have, it appears, posted the following
comment on David Cairns' fine movie blog "Shadowplay" still sat here in my coat (I meant to
get some eggs). When not bigging up Fritz Lang's tedious, horribly acted
Die Nibelungen, Mr. Cairns has been asking for people's personal moments
of cinematic "euphoria", and then charmingly and intelligently
broadcasting them. Mine's not a particularly remarkable choice, but I've
made it now, and it's all I have to show. So here. Enjoy. (If you have
broadband obviously. If you don't, here's an old flyer:)
"1. the opening credits of Do The Right Thing:
2. The escape by boat in Night of the Hunter.
To my mind another pretty-much-perfect movie. Suddenly, finally, here with the image of Mitchum stuck in the water, and the kids heading off into the top right hand corner, we're out of the spiky German shadows and into a children's story. Everything is made to look as simultaneously fake and as life-like as possible. I can't explain. I first saw this late at night when I was about seventeen, and it was as the boat set off that I went from loving this picture to being in love. I can think of many examples on film of a violent mood-jolt from peace to horror, but no other example of this, its opposite, a scream that lingers as a lullaby. It's unspoofable, which is pretty much the same thing as sacred.Of which I could find no clip. So here instead is Danny Kaye declaiming "Giacomo hides not behind drapes!" Happy Valentine's, you all.
Both these clips are completely unconcerned with any tradition that I'm aware of. They just go: Hey we can do whatever we like! And then they do it... To which should be added, now I think of it: 3. The pan over to Christina Ricci's tap-dance in Buffalo 66."
