William Friedkin’s CRUISING

Written by Joe D on September 22nd, 2023

I am going to go out on a limb here and say I think CRUISING is William Friedkin’d best film. I saw it in a theater just off Times Square back in 1982 or so. I had just started a job as an assistant editor, the editor I was working for, Bud Smith, told me it was playing and I should go see it. So I did. At the time I was creeped out by the film and the creepy forty deuce theater I saw it in. I thought it was confusing, I did not get it. I was in awe of some of the visuals, powerful images , shadows, dead bodies, a Blue Arch in Central Park at night. But I didn’t think it worked. I recently rewatched it and I had a revelation, the filmmaking is top notch! The camera work, editing and score( by my old friend Jack Nitzsche) are all great. The plot is bizarre, but now I think it is genius in a David Lynch kind of way.

The first victim comes back to life to murder the second victim. All the killers are dubbed by the REAL KILLER’s father. Who exists only in the mind of his son, having died years earlier. And when the REAL KILLER is being interrogated, he says in his fathers dubbed voice “I didn’t kill anyone” . this is all subversive filmmaking of the highest order. What does it mean? Well, Friedkin was inspired to make this film by talking to a real killer in jail for murder. This guy had appeared in a small role in THE EXORCIST. He played an X-Ray technician. He told Friedkin that the cops said they would go easy on him if he confessed to a whole string of gay murders, even though he only recalled doing one of them. I’m sure this got Friedkin thinking, do we ever know the truth about these things. Are they more complicated than we realize? Are people influenced by other forces when they commit these horrifying crimes? I think he found a creative way to explore this ambiguity, uncertainty. The film had such a negative backlash, mainly due to protests by the gay community in NYC, but none of them had seen the film. They were reacting to a film about gay people being murdered. The S&M gay community supported the film and a lot of them appeared in it.

 

I actually think the film was a step forward in the Cinematic treatment of gay people. There are scenes in leather bars, S&M clubs, extreme sexual things are happening but you never feel they are being judged in any way. No one is saying “That’s bad!” or “That’s disgusting!”Friedkins cameras are in documentary mode. He’s showing us what goes on behind these doors but not making any judgement calls. Also in so many “Straight” horror films , people have sex and are then slaughtered by a monster , the Puritanical result of out of wedlock fornication. Here gay people are given the same treatment. So they are being treated exactly the same as straight people. All in all I think this film represents a big step forward in portraying gay characters.

The film opens with two incredible poetic images, Hi-Con Black and White shots of iconic images from the film, one is a crowd of leather clad club goers outside of The Mineshaft, the other is Pacino in Central Park standing in a stone archway. There’s no explanation as to why these images are here, but with the minimalist atmospheric score I find them enigmatic, compelling, in a word poetic. And that sets the stage for some great Cinema, offbeat, unorthodox. The murder scenes are gripping , the one in the Peep Show, that yes the projected porn as a visual element is Cinema of the highest order. There is even a subliminal ( 4 frame) cut of a penis slithering into a butt during the stabbing, Artfully done, it took me a couple of viewings to see it.

The soundtrack is amazing too. Great sound effects , great Foley of creaking leather, rattling chains, all kinds of strange atmospheric textures laid over the scenes in an incredible way. It makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The score is great, iconic, Nietzsche recorded several bands for this movie including The Germs and Willie DeVille. He told me that Friedkin complained that he spent too much on the score. I guess because the movie did not do well at the Box Office. It’s really a shame that this film was so badly judged and received, mainly because of the protests, it had a negative publicity campaign before it came out. Some theaters even put up signs saying they were sorry they had to show the film, they didn’t want to but were contractually obligated to. It’s bad when things are judged by people that have not seen them or read them or heard them. Just attacking something based on a rumor, something they read, not making their own minds up about it. The film was a commercial flop. unfortunately because Friedkin should have continued in this vein of creativity. A sort of Metaphysical Thriller. He really forged a new style that he wound up abandoning in reaction to its reception. A Real Shame.

An often overlooked fact about this film and The Exorcist is that Bud Smith and Jack Nitzsche worked on both of them. Their contributions to both was inestimable in my opinion.  Bud met Jack while working on Bob Downey’s Greasers Palace, a psychedelic Western.

            Bud Smith

Denizen of the Midnight Movie Craze of the 60’s and 70’s along with El Topo, Fantastic Planet and Performance. (more on this film in a minute) Nitzsche started out as an arranger, the guy that wrote the parts for Phil Spector legendary Wall Of Sound. The Rolling Stones were enamored of this sound and sought Jack out. He collaborated with them on several songs and wound up scoring the Mick Jagger starring film Performance by Donald Cammel and Nick Roeg. An amazing score, one that supposedly Friedkin loved. Bud introduced Nitzsche to Friedkin and Jack along with his friend Ron Nagle recorded a lot of special sound effects for The Exorcist, rats running on sandpaper, crashing glass, glass harmonicas, bees in a jar. All kinds of exotic sounds. Then Bud would edit them into the film in a very creative unsettling subversive way.

                                                                                                       Jack Nitzsche

The combination was irresistible. Their collaboration on Cruising was just as powerful. They deserve so much credit for the atmosphere and unsettling nature of these films. Both masterpieces of sonic and Cinematic brain manipulation. Bravo!

My final thoughts on Cruising (at least for this write up) deal with the subject matter, Pure sex, pleasure uninhibited, no Catholic guilt, just raw experience, such a powerful force, that it’s been controlled by Laws, the Church, the Public Mores of Society, clamped down, repressed, locked away. Here is a film that exposes pure hedonism, pure freedom of personal sexual expression as the backdrop for a murder mystery, a detective film in a Meta universe where the dead can come back to life, in their own form and controlling the body of others. But not in a Supernatural Zombie vampire kind of way. In a freudian head trip kind of way. Psychological not Supernatural. A real mind bender.

Jacques Rozier, Last of the New Wave Cine Poets is dead

Written by Joe D on June 18th, 2023

The last of the French New Wave directors has checked out. He didn’t get the acclaim here in the USA that others got but he was respected and admired by Truffaut and Godard. I’ll post a trailer for his film Adieu Philippine. It kind of looks like Hard Days Night meets early Truffaut.

How To Be Loved

Written by Joe D on June 10th, 2023

Here is a great Polish Film from 1963. Directed by Wojciech Has. And starring the great Zbigniew Cybulski, one of my favorite actors, I should say costarring because the real star of the film is Barbara Krafftówna, a great performance. Beautifully shot in B&W, this is a real Art Film! Has came from the Polish film school that Polanski attended. Seems like a good place to study Cinema. It is based on a novel of the same name by Kazimierz Brandys

and it feels like it. A truly literary work of Cinema, with the plot, scenes characters, inner dialog, of a beautiful book. I love films that play like novel and this is a classic. There’s only one part of the film I didn’t like. Otherwise I really enjoyed watching it. I recommend it to those that want to visit a lost world of pure Cinema. Breathe the rarefied air of the Lodz Film School of the 60’s. Fantasize about being a student there, making films there, living the Art Life.

Ernesto Gastaldi’s LIBIDO

Written by Joe D on January 24th, 2023

Here is a very cool 60’s B&W Giallo from one of the most talented and prolific screenwriters of Italian Cinema! Ernsto Gastaldi wrote screenplays for very amazing genre of the Golden Age of Italian Cinema! Peplum (aka Hercules, Maciste type historic films) Horror, Vampires, Westerns, Thrillers, Giallos, Science Fiction, you name it! Check out his IMDB page and prepare to be blown away. This thriller was co directed by Ernesto and Vittorio Salerno for almost no money! It features an unknown(at the time) Giancarlo Gianinni, appearing as John Charles John. Ernesto’s wife, the lovely Mara Gastaldi appears as Mara Maryl. This film was made to prove a theory that the two producers had a bet about, who makes a better film, a technician (like a cameraman for example) or a screenwriter. Ernesto won the bet. Featuring a great score by Carlo Rustichelli, a lovely Giallo! Here it is in the original Italian. There is also a BluRay version you can buy with a lot of extras.

To The Fair! Alexander Hammid

Written by Joe D on January 19th, 2023

I went to the NY Worlds Fair when I was a little kid. It was great. Bob Downey told me he worked at the fair as a young man from Forest Hills along with his friend Ron Neely, (who later played The Holy Ghost in Greaser’s Palace). Here is a film the great Alexander Hammind made about the Fair. He also did To Be Alive, both with Francis Thompson. Hammid was a true filmmaker, he could make a film about anything. He was involved with the development of IMax and was Supervising Editor on To Fly. He also made Meshes of The Afternoon with Maya Deren, one of the most influential underground Art Films of all time. They are having a major retrospective of his work at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC so if you are in the Big Apple go check it out!

The Mad Fox

Written by Joe D on December 9th, 2022

I watched Tomu Uchida’s The Mad Fox the other night on ARROW. A streaming channel from Arrow Films. They mainly show Horror films and I am always tempted to cancel my subscription but then I run across a film like this one, that’s hard to find and really great. This is a very strange film, not really seen outside of Japan for many years. Based on a Bunraku play from 1734 it mixes Japanese theater techniques in with traditional filmmaking. At one point in the film we are transported to a house on a stage, the proscenium is in view and the story continues sort of as a play. There are characters wearing masks (The Foxes) who can assume human form. I love this mixing of techniques, rotating stage, masks, curtains, simple but effective practical visual effects brought over from Theater. To me it speaks of a confidence of the artist in his performers and material. For example there is a baby in the film, it is obviously a wooden doll but I defy anyone not to be moved by the actors interacting with it. Amazing! As Fellini and other filmmakers have said, Film is like Magic, an illusion you create in the mind of the audience.

The sets, costumes ,photography are all excellent, it is a visually beautiful film. The acting is great, even though it seems like traditional Japanese theater acting, it’s great. It transcends the cultural differences. There are paper butterflies flitting about on strings but they are cool little fires fly around, the spirits of the Foxes. Just great stuff.

The Film is really about the treachery and duplicity of humans compared to the nobility of the Animals. The Foxes in this case. It’s also a doomed love story. A Tale of Evil and  Innocence in Imperial Japan. Kind of a Fairy Tale for Adults. I recommend it.

I also watched a Crime Film by Uchida on ARROW. Another film little know outside of Japan but a big hit there. A Fugitive From The Past, another film that kept me from cancelling my subscription. Someone at ARROW is a real expert and lover of Japanese Cinema. Bravo!

Tomu Uchida

Nick The Sting DVD Featuring Split Screen Video Essay by Mike Malloy on Pablo Ferro

Written by Joe D on October 31st, 2022

The Great Pablo Ferro

My good pal Mike Malloy created a short film on multi-screen sequences in Feature films as a supplement to the new dvd release of Fernando DiLeo’s Nick The Sting. He asked if I had any footage of my old friend Pablo Ferro that he could include in his film. Pablo was a great title designer ( Dr. Strangelove, Bullit, Good Will Hunting,etc.),  He made the amazing multiple sequence for the original version of The Thomas Crown Affair. I had filmed Pablo at an Optical Printer a few years back and I was happy to let Mike use the footage, Here is the film Mike made.

Clip for bonus feature on the upcoming Blu of NICK THE STING, the 1976 Eurocrime film: https://www.kinolorber.com/product/nick-the-sting-blu-rayMusic by Scott Burton: https://scottburton.bandcamp.com/ Footage of Pablo Ferro / optical printer courtesy of Joe D’Augustine: http://www.filmforno.com/

Interview with Stanley Kubrick

Written by Joe D on October 26th, 2022

Here’s a great recording of an interview with Stanley Kubrick. Done during the shooting of 2001, A Space Odyssey. It’s very interesting to hear Kubrick’s voice and he tells some informative tales. Check it out.

F.W. Murnau’s Faust

Written by Joe D on July 27th, 2022

I just watched Faust again last night. I bought the BluRay put out by Kino and it looks terrific. You can really appreciate the time, effort and artistry put into making this film. UFA gave Murnau unlimited money and time to make the best film he could. He succeeded marvelously. The imagery is superb.

So many amazing miniatures were built, especially memorable is where Mephisto looms over the city and the flying POV over mountains and water, a huge miniature filmed with a camera on a small rollercoaster track. When Faust summons Mephisto rings of fire rise up around him, this same effect was used later by Fritz Lang in his epic Metropolis. Something I did not know, Murnau disliked the script he was given and secretly collaborated with Thea Von Harbou. She would later write Metropolis and Marry fritz Lang!

 

There are other parallels with Metropolis, the biggest one being burning the woman at the stake as the climax of the film. The lighting is amazing as well. The sets beautiful. Back then they could not make dupe negatives of good quality so they filmed with 2 cameras and did alternate takes for different world markets. I think there were 7 complete negative versos of Faust from which they struck the hundreds of prints for distribution. It is incredible to think that a hand cranked little machine ( the early motion picture camera) could create such sensations in millions of people. It is almost like Magic or witchcraft. Incredible. I also noticed for the first time that William Dieterle was in the cast. No wonder he became such an amazing director. Working for Murnau, learning everything from such a maestro. Check out his films, especially Portrait Of Jenny.

In any case watch Faust, get the Blurry, it’s worth it and experience one of the most influential films ever made. I mean this and Nosferatu are maybe the 2 most influential films made by the same director.

 

Ilya Muramets

Written by Joe D on July 14th, 2022

There is a new restoration of Aleksandr Ptushko’s masterpiece, Ilya Muramets. I ordered a copy but have not got it yet. The image quality looks amazing and I believe it contains scenes that were cut from the old American release. Here’s the trailer for the new restoration, by Deaf Crocodile. Check it out.

 

A Hero

Written by Joe D on January 23rd, 2022

 

                                             Asghar Farhadi

I just watched A Hero by the great Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi. An excellent film, the story of a man who tries to do the right thing and is of course punished by Society. I have seen almost all of his films, they are all great, wonderfully written, acted and directed. Moral puzzles, all worth watching. I was lucky enough to see him speak at a screening of The Salesman, a truly great film, that posed some very complicated questions and did not give you the answers. Something I like in a film. Farhadi himself said he did not know the answer to these questions, he had a feeling what had happened but he the filmmaker did not know for sure. Amazing! He left it up to the audience to decide! On the way down to the parking garage, a man in the elevator expressed his view vehemently! “He definitely raped her!” He proclaimed. This is great Cinema, it has the power to create dialogs that last long after the film has been projected. Filmmaking through time. Also, we are at odds with Iran, our governments are almost at war, yet Cinema has the power to show the humanity of the people living in the Forbidden Country, what a great gift.

A Hero is also in my opinion a homage to the great Luis Bunuel Film, Nazarin. A film where a simple country priest(in Mexico) tries to live according to the true teachings of Christ. And of course is spurned and eventually arrested. In A Hero the daughter of the Creditor that our hero owes money to is named Nazarin, also at the end of Bunuel’s film, a peasant woman taking pity on Nazarin, who she assumes is a criminal because he’s being led to jail in chains, gives him a pineapple. At the end of A Hero, he gets a box of baklava.

Let’s Get Lost

Written by Joe D on January 18th, 2022

Here on You tube you can watch the whole Let’s Get Lost, a beautiful documentary on the late great musician Chet Baker. Made by the great photographer Bruce Weber, this film is a minor masterpiece. Edited beautifully by Angelo Corrao, it is a real pleasure to watch. When I lived in NYC I was friends with a wonderful guy named Leo Mitchell, a jazz drummer, he always wanted to play Rock and Roll music with me because he had grown up as a Jazz musician and never played straight ahead Rock. What a great guy. He toured with Chet Baker in Europe several times. Years later I asked my friend Jack Nitzsche about an album he had done with Chet Baker called A Taste Of Tequila” or something like that. He said “Don’t listen to that album. It’s horrible. Chet and I both needed the money.”

Anyway watch the film and be amazed.