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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 16h

I’d like to read this too. Stumbled on Gordievsky’s story recently when reading about Labour MP Ron Brown - infamous for being suspended when he damaged the Parliament mace during a Poll Tax debate - because Brown reportedly had meetings with him during the Cold War…a minor scandal in the 90s

Ron Brown (Scottish politician) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 17h

Really enjoyed that, thanks!

And had no idea Claudia Weill is actually related to Kurt Weill

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

First time watching this #filmsky

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks a lot!

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

Did a longwinded thread above - I really liked it!

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

Also I meant to say - it features a young La Forge

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Daniel Kennedy @fliglman.bsky.social · 1d

I was shocked once while talking about literature with a lit academic type guy when he asked me what kind of stuff I read for fun. And I had to explain to him that I actually liked literary literature and that I read it for fun

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

Monday night decadence - coffee and pecan Bundt cake made by @iamtheowwl.bsky.social 🤌

coffee and pecan Bundt cake - view from above

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

Name an Italian who deserves a day more than Columbus

The Inventor Of Tiramisu, Roberto "Loli" Linguanotto, Passes Away At Age 81

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

And secondly…I’m now really in the mood to rewatch Excalibur, the best Arthurian film in my book (because of and not in spite of its sheer excess)

Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

Two observations as I work my way through this book

I forgot quite how important Arthurian myth was to the modernists, much as it was to ‘anti-modernists’ (Lewis, Tolkien et al) - i.e. the Fisher King and Grail mythology elements of The Waste Land, Woolf’s early pre Raphaellite associations etc

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

I can imagine!!

Have you seen it since?

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

It also looked great

Richard Brooks is an interesting filmmaker, from scripting top tier noirs (The Killers, Key Largo etc) to directing diverse midcentury classics (Elmer Gantry, In Cold Blood), and his Tennessee Williams adaptations. I think I need to watch his The Happy Ending!

/ End thread

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

The film it reminds me of the most was actually Roeg’s underrated Bad Timing (1980) in theme and also its fractured syntax

I also wonder if the final scene directly influenced the equally crucial final scene in Doom Generation (1995), with the flashing light etc…

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

Keaton’s character is troubled yes, but not beyond ‘salvation’, to take the Catholic themes to their ultimate conclusion…or in a secular sense, essentially learning what might be healthy limits to various excesses…

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

But even with all that, I didn’t think the story was an inevitability - the ending is all the more shocking because it’s not inevitable. It’s not a ‘descent into hell’ film in a tradition moralist sense…

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

You have to wonder, was it as equally successful in the cities, with characters recognising themselves or their friends in the lifestyles on show, as outside of the cities, where it confirmed what plenty of anxious viewers already assumed about big city living (sin sin sin)…

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

And this is where you get the complicated ‘second wave feminism 🤝 reactionary conservatism’ overlaps, which might help explain why it was a massive hit at the time? It’s adaptability to differing receptions and perspectives …

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

In some ways, it’s not very different from the post-sexual-revolutionary cautionary, fable-like, exploitation films from earlier in the decade (Last House being the most obvious example)…

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

Also, being based on a bestselling book that in turn was based on a real life crime, it’s got a little of the ripped-from-the-headlines ‘beware of men’ cautionary tale of Smooth Talk from a decade later…

And indeed, all the men are a potential (or realised) threat...

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

Something of course shifts in the middle and latter third, and this where more reactionary readings creep in - the ‘dark side’ of the sexual revolution, the ‘saint/whore’ dichotomy made the starker through the character’s ever-present Catholic guilt (the scene with the nun on the subway is GREAT)…

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

In that way I found it obviously more proto-Girls than Sex and the City…

I wonder if it actually influenced the wonderful Girlfriends from a year later - there’s a fair amount of overlap, including the frequent intrusive question of how much the characters apartments would be worth now…

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

I mean, it’s a film that opens with a sexual fantasy from a female perspective - something rare in the 70s but still rare today

If you took just the first half of the film, it’s essentially a clear-eyed look at the challenges of and pressures on women in a post-sexual revolution urban environment…

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

I also think the conventional reading that it’s primarily about self destructive behaviour is too simplistic and reduces Keaton’s character to a cipher

And I think that’s crucial. Too many critics view Keaton’s character as naive or “repressed”, but this devalues her perspective and agency…

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Rob Tyers @thexclaim6.bsky.social · 1d

A few thoughts on Looking for Mr Goodbar (1977) 🧵

A remarkable, challenging work that’s ambiguous enough to produce multiple readings (like a lot of the best films). Sensationalism meets realism but at its heart a humane character study that would be lesser without Keaton’s powerhouse performance…

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