Whit Stillman Directs HOMICIDE, 11/15
R.W. Rasband
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 rras...@mail.coin.missouri.edu
Lisa Kennedy Montgomery forever!
====================================================
James Lloyd Hill
In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.961116...@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-h...@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
Christina Hsu
In <Pine.SOL.3.91.961116...@winnie.freenet.mb.ca>
"R.W. Rasband" <hsu...@freenet.mb.ca> writes:
>
> 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.
> 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.
>
the next movie project will be for Stillman? and for that matter
Chris Eigeman? I liked him in kicking and screaming...
anyway...
later,
Martay
Barb Johnson
In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.961116...@winnie.freenet.mb.ca>
"R.W. Rasband" <hsu...@freenet.mb.ca> writes:
>
> 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.
>
> ====================================================
> R.W. Rasband hsu...@freenet.mb.ca
> Heber City, UT rras...@mail.coin.missouri.edu
> Lisa Kennedy Montgomery forever!
> ====================================================
--Barb
Eva Whitley
Strayhorn wrote:
>
> In article <56mnf5$k...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, j-h...@ehsn24.cen.uiuc.edu
> (James Lloyd Hill) wrote:
>
> > In article
> <Pine.SOL.3.91.961116...@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." 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
TJ
>
> There's not a million men left in this country who could find
> their way out of a ten-acre woodlot. - Harry Crews
But there is at least ONE woman who could.
Who edited the episode. I don't watch, so I couldn't see to catch.
Surely one of you die-hards taped it.
Please?
tj
Joe Clark
> 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
> "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.
--
Joe Clark
joec...@interlog.com
<http://www.hookup.net/~joeclark>
Dave Quinn
>
>Who edited the episode. I don't watch, so I couldn't see to catch.
>Surely one of you die-hards taped it.
>Please?
>tj
I'll look it up, i have it on tape. My uncle Tom played the old guy
whos Daughter was Murdered.
--
___________________________________________________________________
"Gimme gimme gimme some Motorhead" - PuzzleBox
qu...@ix.netcom.com
C.E.O. of Tiltwheel Brothers Gun Shows Ltd.
http://www.tumyeto.com/tydu/music/bands/bands.htm
___________________________________________________________________
R.W. Rasband
On 20 Nov 1996, Strayhorn wrote:
> In article <56mnf5$k...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, j-h...@ehsn24.cen.uiuc.edu
> (James Lloyd Hill) wrote:
>
> > In article
> <Pine.SOL.3.91.961116...@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,
James Lloyd Hill
In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.961123...@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."
>>
>> who was funny left the rag.
>
>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.
Jim, working to get 'inchoate' into the daily lexicon
--
j-h...@coewl.cen.uiuc.edu http://www.swcp.com/~jimhill/
Save the Streets! http://members.aol.com/SaveEZSts
"Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand..."