"I suppose you're right." "Of course I am! I always am"--Young Frankenstein
"Danbury wasn't a prison, it was a crime school. I went in with a Bachelor of marijuana, came out with a Doctorate of cocaine"--Blow
Thursday night I saw Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein at the Fairview screening room with the Classic Movie Meetup. It holds up well in repeat viewings. The organizer handed out printouts of trivia about the movie from the Internet Movie Database, and I was surprised to learn that Brooks resisted including the "Puttin' on the Ritz" number until Gene Wilder prevailed on him. (It's hard to imagine a Mel Brooks movie without a musical number.)
I met Cecilia there for the first time since the spring. She was visiting her daughter in Brazil, and wouldn't let her participate in the Vinegar Revolt demonstrations. I warned her that Ivanhoe was not suitable reading for people whose second language is English. Even I have trouble understanding some of it. (Walter Scott uses words like "an" in place of "if.")
Last night I rented the video of Ted Demme's Blow and watched it for the second time. It's the somewhat self-serving yet largely believable story of a drug dealer who reached the heights but ended up in prison for 60 years. Johnny Depp has a good scene near the end when he realizes that his partners are ratting him out. Ray Liotta has a good role as his working-stiff father, especially the scene where Depp tells him "I'm great at what I do!" and he responds "You could have been great at anything!" It's a very sad story, which doesn't reduce my anger about the wasteful War on Drugs.
No comments:
Post a Comment