The very good movie director Whit Stillman directed the November 15 episode of HOMICIDE, and while the show was written by one of H:LOTS' executive producers, I thought I detected Stillman's sure touch throughout. Stillman has directed the cult classics "Metropolitan" and "Barcelona." These Stillman-esque elements stood out: (1) The show used an unusually complex structure to bring home tragedy and the sheer force of human feeling. Stillman has great empathy for his characters, and this was shown by the adroit juxtapositions of different flashbacks, and the small touches--the birthday cake, Meldrick's smile at the return of the little girl. (2) Stillman is known for his funny, literate, philosophical dialogue. Munch's little speech about "irony" and Pembleton and Kellerman's encounters would have fit right into one of his movies. (3) Chris Eigeman has appeared in both of Stillman's movies, playing preternaturally annoying characters. Last night he played Silvio, and the edge was still there, although in a more sympathetic context. (4) Most importantly, Stillman's theme of the power of simple human decency came through, embodied interestingly enough by the seemingly hard-boiled Cox. Her behavior in the morgue ("You were very kind to me") and her final speech ("What dies is not the real 'us'; we are something higher") indicate Stillman's belief that ordinary, everyday acts of humanity get us through life's toughest trials. He is a carefully optimistic artist; Rosanna Arquette's cautiously hopeful character seeed to speak for him. (And once again, Michelle Forbes gave a tremendous performance. She is one of my very favorite actresses, playing a terrific role.) Overall, this episode reminded me of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt": it left me wrung out with grief, but purged; willing to acknowledge the worst, but also willing to try again. This was a classic episode of the best drama on television.
==================================================== R.W. Rasband hsu...@freenet.mb.ca Heber City, UT rrasb...@mail.coin.missouri.edu Lisa Kennedy Montgomery forever! ====================================================
In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.961116223809.24036A-100...@winnie.freenet.mb.ca> "R.W. Rasband" <hsu...@freenet.mb.ca> writes:
> (3) Chris Eigeman has appeared in both of Stillman's movies, playing > preternaturally annoying characters.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is three times in the last week you've used "preternaturally." Did someone send you a William F. Buckley, Jr. Word-of-the-Day calendar or something?
Jim, note that this is not intended to be reminiscent of the semiliterate goons of my youth asking "how come you use all them big words?" -- j-hi...@coewl.cen.uiuc.edu http://www.swcp.com/~jimhill/ http://members.aol.com/SaveEZSts "Hey, everyone: Check out badass Jim! He's so cool that the worst punishment possible would be to end up in His killfile." -- Andy Banta
> The very good movie director Whit Stillman directed the November 15 >episode of HOMICIDE, and while the show was written by one of H:LOTS' >executive producers, I thought I detected Stillman's sure touch >throughout. Stillman has directed the cult classics "Metropolitan" and >"Barcelona." These Stillman-esque elements stood out: > (1) The show used an unusually complex structure to bring home > tragedy and the sheer force of human feeling. > Stillman has great empathy for his characters, and this was > shown by the adroit juxtapositions of different flashbacks, > and the small touches--the birthday cake, Meldrick's smile > at the return of the little girl. > (2) Stillman is known for his funny, literate, philosophical dialogue. > Munch's little speech about "irony" and Pembleton and Kellerman's > encounters would have fit right into one of his movies. > (3) Chris Eigeman has appeared in both of Stillman's movies, playing > preternaturally annoying characters. Last night he played > Silvio, and the edge was still there, although in a more > sympathetic context. > (4) Most importantly, Stillman's theme of the power of simple > human decency came through, embodied interestingly enough > by the seemingly hard-boiled Cox. Her behavior in the morgue > ("You were very kind to me") and her final speech ("What dies > is not the real 'us'; we are something higher") indicate > Stillman's belief that ordinary, everyday acts of humanity > get us through life's toughest trials. He is a > carefully optimistic artist; Rosanna Arquette's cautiously hopeful > character seeed to speak for him. (And once again, Michelle Forbes > gave a tremendous performance. She is one of my very favorite > actresses, playing a terrific role.) > Overall, this episode reminded me of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt": >it left me wrung out with grief, but purged; willing to acknowledge the >worst, but also willing to try again. This was a classic episode of the >best drama on television.
Damn!! I'm sorry to have missed that....but does anyone know what will the next movie project will be for Stillman? and for that matter Chris Eigeman? I liked him in kicking and screaming...
> The very good movie director Whit Stillman directed the November 15 >episode of HOMICIDE, and while the show was written by one of H:LOTS' >executive producers, I thought I detected Stillman's sure touch >throughout.
(cuts)
> ==================================================== > R.W. Rasband hsu...@freenet.mb.ca > Heber City, UT rrasb...@mail.coin.missouri.edu > Lisa Kennedy Montgomery forever! > ====================================================
And FYI...Peter Weller directed the 11/8/96 H:LOTS.
> In article <56mnf5$...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, j-hi...@ehsn24.cen.uiuc.edu > (James Lloyd Hill) wrote:
> > In article > <Pine.SOL.3.91.961116223809.24036A-100...@winnie.freenet.mb.ca> "R.W. > Rasband" <hsu...@freenet.mb.ca> writes: > > > (3) Chris Eigeman has appeared in both of Stillman's movies, playing > > > preternaturally annoying characters. > > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > This is three times in the last week you've used "preternaturally." Did > > someone send you a William F. Buckley, Jr. Word-of-the-Day calendar or > > something?
Hey, it could be worse. He could have said....*gritty*--Eva Whitley
> Naw, must have been a reader of the old _Spy_ magazine, before everyone > who was funny left the rag. Kinda like the old _Lampoon_ (moment of silence > while the death of satire in this country is pondered).
Ah, youth. Do the names NEW TIMES magazine or even RAMPARTS mean anything to you?--Eva Whitley
> The very good movie director Whit Stillman directed the November 15 > episode of HOMICIDE, and while the show was written by one of H:LOTS' > executive producers, I thought I detected Stillman's sure touch > throughout. Stillman has directed the cult classics "Metropolitan" and > "Barcelona." These Stillman-esque elements stood out:
The wildly overrated movie writer-director Whit Stillman somehow beat the odds and managed *not* to butcher his episode and transform it into a series of stilted, arch monologues, as in his own films. Name value does not always correlate with talent.
> In article <56mnf5$...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, j-hi...@ehsn24.cen.uiuc.edu > (James Lloyd Hill) wrote:
> > In article > <Pine.SOL.3.91.961116223809.24036A-100...@winnie.freenet.mb.ca> "R.W. > Rasband" <hsu...@freenet.mb.ca> writes: > > > (3) Chris Eigeman has appeared in both of Stillman's movies, playing > > > preternaturally annoying characters. > > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > This is three times in the last week you've used "preternaturally." Did > > someone send you a William F. Buckley, Jr. Word-of-the-Day calendar or > > something?
> Naw, must have been a reader of the old _Spy_ magazine, before everyone > who was funny left the rag. Kinda like the old _Lampoon_ (moment of silence > while the death of satire in this country is pondered).
You are absolutely correct about my use of the word "preternaturally", although I didn't realize it at the time. I didn't know anyone actually paid that close attention, so I used it as much as I felt like. But I must have been feeling some unconscious nostalgia for the good old SPY Magazine, whose editors deployed large, faux-pretentious words like molotov cocktails on their satirical targets. I keep my back issues of SPY from the 80's and early 90's in a bomb-proof, earthquake and fire-secure vault;-)
Incidentally, the idiots at KSL-TV in Salt Lake City (my local NBC affiliate) preempted last night's episode of HOMICIDE for a special about the BYU-Utah football game (!). So I have no idea whether or not Frank passed his firearms test.
Cheers,
==================================================== R.W. Rasband hsu...@freenet.mb.ca Heber City, UT rrasb...@mail.coin.missouri.edu Lisa Kennedy Montgomery forever! ====================================================
In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.961123232816.20250A-100...@winnie.freenet.mb.ca> "R.W. Rasband" <hsu...@freenet.mb.ca> writes:
>> > > preternaturally annoying characters. >> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >> > This is three times in the last week you've used "preternaturally."
>> Naw, must have been a reader of the old _Spy_ magazine, before everyone >> who was funny left the rag.
>You are absolutely correct about my use of the word "preternaturally", >although I didn't realize it at the time.
Much to my horror, the lead story in this week's Entertainment Weekly prominently features the word "preternaturally" in its headline. Methinks that 'gritty' and 'extreme' are being supplanted.
