Kung Fu

Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle is part Charlie Chaplin, part Akira Kurosawa, part Vincente Minelli and part Zhang Yimou. You might think that this combination would be crap. But oh how wrong you would be. Kung Fu Hustle is hilarious, visually cool, and always inventive.

I've been seeing more Italian cinema than usual, as well. Last night on the recommendation of my boss I saw Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice from 1971. It's very good, but it's not a movie I would go around recommending. It's a very very sad film about death and morality amidst a plague (a symbol, perhaps, for moral weakness) set to the music of Gustav Mahler. Like I said, it's wonderfully made, but I didn't love it. (Sound familiar?)

Friday nights blow... I'm always too tired to really do anything like go out dancing or partying or dating (oh yeah, I don't do that anyway.)

I still don't have a concept for The Two Gentlemen. Why am I suddenly a talentless hack who can't even come up with a concept? Grr. I need to read it again. It will come to me. Maybe it hasn't come because the cast isn't finalized...

Oh... and I got the script that I've been hired to direct in the Fall and the gods must be crazy. Stephen Jeffreys' version of Hard Times clocks in at three hours. What? The Heidi Stillman version you see at right (if you're reading this on my main page) is a totally different animal, evidently, although the characters--and some of the lines--are the same. Hmm. I guess I have my work cut out for me.