curse of adrian lyne

There are times in life, when it is over, you can summarize with a song.
Like, 1999 was an Elvis Costello song.
1997-1998 was down and dirty gloomy like Crustation.
This is fine. The worst is the time when your life can be defined with movies, a particular director's filmography to be exact.
It is fine, if this is Tarantino, kinda pathetic but funny if it is Woody Allen.

I'm on the end of a period which can be defined by... Adrian Lyne.
Downright bad. 'in yer face' nasty. restless. uncomfortable.

The filmography speaks for itself:


- Nine 1/2 weeks (1986)
We know this is the pinnacle of erotic dramas. but it is not just that. the misery of kim basinger is unbearable. the obsession caused by mickey rourke's unpredictability is sick.


- Fatal Attraction (1987)
This one defined Glenn Close's star persona. No other role can top that psychotic bitch. Alex Forrest (Close) is a woman you wouldn't wanna get involved. Apart from being fatally dangerous, she constantly embarrasses herself, keeps being rejected and humiliated, continues to drown in her own jealousy. she is emotional sickness on two legs and big hair.

Defining moment:
Dan Gallagher: You're so sad. You know that, Alex? Lonely and very sad.
Alex Forrest: Don't you ever pity me, you smug bastard.
Dan Gallagher: I'll pity you... I'll pity you. I'll pity you because you're sick.
Alex Forrest: Why? Because I won't allow you treat me like some slut you can just bang a couple of times and throw in the garbage?


-Indecent Proposal (1993)
Everytime i watch this, my heart breaks for Woody Harrelson, who plays the unfortunate husband David Murphy. The movie leads you to a slow and painful end, which you've seen it coming but couldn't do anything. You know David will lose his wife (Demi Moore). You know, this 'game' will turn ugly. You know he is helpless. When he finds Redford's card in her bag, you feel the same shit feeling: "I've seen it coming. I knew it." Then he throws the wine bottle to the fridge. Everything shatters down.
Defining moment:
Diana: Somethings are not for sale.
John: Such as?
Diana: Well you can't buy people.



-Lolita (1997)
I don't have to explain anything about this. Everything in one disgusting package.

Humbert: I missed you. I missed you a lot.
Lolita: Well I haven't missed you. In fact, I've been revoltingly unfaithful to you. But it doesn't matter, because you don't care about me anymore anyway.
Humbert: What makes you think I don't care about you?
Lolita: Well you haven't kissed me yet, have you?


- Unfaithful (2002)
Tagline reads: "Where do you go when you've gone too far?"
One of the nice questions with no answer. It is like solving the mystery of the universe. What kind of cheating is forgivable, how long can you stand living a dual life? How can you tell yourself to stop? Should you forgive someone who is unfaithful?
I detect myself in craziness.
Defining moment:
Connie Sumner: I think this was a mistake.
Paul: There is no such thing as a mistake. There are things you do, and things you don't do.

---
I look forward to a Kusturica kind of life.

If filmmakers directed superbowl

Boys will be boys

Glamour UK did a photo shoot with bright British actors for its February issue.

Spielberg: "This is gonna be the biggest hit of all time"

Lucas Looks Back On Movie-Making



As creator of the Star Wars universe, George Lucas launched a franchise whose impact on pop culture — and on Hollywood — has been immeasurable. His special-effects house has pioneered one cinematic revolution after another.



His latest project, though, is a book. George Lucas' Blockbusting is a go-to blueprint for the aspiring filmmaker, a behind-the-scenes history of movies that looks back over 100 years through the lens of 300 major hits: their creative genesis, why they stood out, how they became lasting icons. But mainly, it strips away the glitz and glamour of the movie-making biz and gets down to the nitty-gritty of how a movie is made, including everything from advertising expenses to production budgets to shooting schedules.

Of course, it all begins with the love of the movie. And with breaking into the business. Back in the '60s, when Lucas was getting started, there was "zero chance" of finding a way in, he says. In that notoriously nepotistic age, "you had to be related to somebody," he says.

Lucas and a small cadre of film-school friends, including the then-unknown Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola, set out to make their own way in.

"We loved movies, we loved making movies, and we cooperated with each other and were helping each other," Lucas says. "We were like, you know, rebels trying to work our way in somehow."

They screened their movies for each other, offering frank feedback and sharing advice. For years, even after the men had made names for themselves — Coppola with 1972's The Godfather, Lucas with American Graffiti in 1973, Spielberg with 1975's Jaws and 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind — they kept up the practice.

"When I did that with Star Wars, it was in really rough shape," Lucas says. The special effects weren't in yet. John Williams's score, either. And not everyone got it.

"Some friends, like Brian de Palma, said, you know, 'What's this crazy Force stuff, and why isn't there more blood?' ... I mean, the great thing about having friends watch your movie is they give it to you, which is what you want."

But one friend saw the promise, Lucas remembers.
"Some of them didn't understand it. ... [But] some of them, like Steve Spielberg, said, 'This is going to be the biggest hit of all time.'"

New Skins!

The Jazz Loft

The Jazz Loft Project is the most amazing thing I heard about recently. The book was published months ago. But I have just found their web site.

White Rose bar sign from the fourth floor of Sixth Avenue 821

From 1957 to 1965 legendary photographer W. Eugene Smith made approximately 4,000 hours of recordings on 1,741 reel-to-reel tapes and nearly 40,000 photographs in a loft building in Manhattan's wholesale flower district where major jazz musicians of the day gathered and played their music. Smith's work has remained in archives until now. The Jazz Loft Project is dedicated to uncovering the stories behind this legendary moment in American cultural history.

Eugene Smith at the loft.

The exhibition starts on February 17th, NY Public Library of Performing Arts.

Childhood Fierceness

I've been following Maxigumee's blog for about 4 years now. It's been a while since I last checked. Came across this sweet photoshoot today.
All about a childhood fantasy where you dream about having the whole hotel room to yourself and trashing it all down!