Passages

[MichaelB]

It's a difficult one - I certainly don't approve of cockfighting as a sport and yes, the film does contain footage of it, some of it edited in. Much of it MIGHT get past the BBFC on the grounds that they were genuine cockfights that Hellman and his crew filmed and which would have happened anyway. But one key scene definitely won't get past uncut - the hotel-room scene, in which the fight was staged for the film and arranged for a particular outcome, with one cock wearing plastic spurs and the other steel ones. (I am not a lawyer and it wouldn't be me money spent if anyone did submit the film to the BBFC.)

That's my understanding of the situation. In my experience - and over the last 32 years I've had a surprising number of direct and indirect dealings with the BBFC over animal cruelty - they're generally only too happy to wave something through if you can produce reasonably convincing evidence that the footage qualifies for one of the two loopholes (the cruelty was faked/it would have happened anyway).

For instance, for The Stranglers of Bombay they were happy to accept a comment from the since-deceased camera operator that the mongoose-vs-snake fight was bought in from an Indian documentary filmmaker, as this was corroborated by the visual texture of the film noticeably changing at those points - but they didn't demand proof that the original footage wasn't staged (which would of course have been completely impossible to come up with, and I suspect they knew this). It's basically legal arse-covering - they don't want to cut this stuff, and the fact that there's at least some evidence (even if it's not 100% clinching) to suggest that everything's OK vis-à-vis the Animals Act is likely to discourage anyone from going to the expense of mounting a private prosecution.

So with Cockfighter, as you say, the genuine cockfights would probably be OK - but I honestly can't see how the hotel room scene would get through unscathed, and any UK distributor picking up the film would have to assume upfront that it would be cut at that point. Which is presumably why nobody has picked it up, and nobody's likely to.

[agnamaracs]

Burlesque legend Tempest Storm.

[hearthesilence]

Either last summer or later in the year, I decided to buy Road to Nowhere since I always wanted to see it. (I had completely missed out on its brief theatrical run.) I was kind of surprised it was already out-of-print, but with a little patience, it seemed like you can get a copy for a good price. Sad that he never finished another (more on that in a sec), but what a great film. Even after all these years - decades - he made something startlingly original and insightful out of an old concept that was getting beaten to death around the time it came out.

It's been interesting going through the obituaries - more than usual, not only do they cover different details of his life, but they throw a different spin or emphasis on each one. For example, that slasher sequel he made in 1989 is understandably seen as the low-point, with one quoting his dismissal of the film as the worst thing he's ever done, but the Guardian points out that it began a professional relationship with the executive producer, and the two of them more or less "discovered" Tarantino's script for Reservoir Dogs (which Hellman wanted to direct and then produced for Tarantino, raising the funds and mentoring him during production as some financiers were concerned about Tarantino's lack of experience).

A tribute on RogerEbert.com points out that he was on social media, and since Road to Nowhere, he posted quite a few photos of him working, but strangely nothing else was ever heard about those projects. Surely he must've been working on more films...on second thought, I wonder if it was usually something related to his job teaching at CalArts rather than a new film?

[beamish14]

A tribute on RogerEbert.com points out that he was on social media, and since Road to Nowhere, he posted quite a few photos of him working, but strangely nothing else was ever heard about those projects. Surely he must've been working on more films...on second thought, I wonder if it was usually something related to his job teaching at CalArts rather than a new film?

I believe these videos are related to Cal Arts projects. Like Alex Cox, to also migrated to academia at the University of Colorado, Hellman really believed that film students should be engaged in filming and constantly going into the field as opposed to just hearing about production methods vis a vis lectures. Hellman was with some of his pupils on the Criterion Two-Lane Blacktop disc.

[MichaelB]

Alexander Mackendrick and Wojciech Marczewski are other filmmakers who largely abandoned directing their own projects in favour of film education - Mackendrick because he was sick and tired of directing, Marczewski because he refused to work with the Jaruzelski government after it imposed martial law. And it's worth looking on the bright side in cases like this: regardless of what we lost in terms of unmade films of theirs, all three are frequently cited as being absolutely inspirational teachers.

[Forrest Taft]

For example, that slasher sequel he made in 1989 is understandably seen as the low-point, with one quoting his dismissal of the film as the worst thing he's ever done, but the Guardian points out that it began a professional relationship with the executive producer, and the two of them more or less "discovered" Tarantino's script for Reservoir Dogs (which Hellman wanted to direct and then produced for Tarantino, raising the funds and mentoring him during production as some financiers were concerned about Tarantino's lack of experience).

If I remember correctly, Hellman did Silent Night 3 as a favor to his friend Richard N. Gladstein, who wanted to become a producer, and would get a shot with this project if he got a name director. A few years later, Hellman read the Tarantino script and passed it on to Gladstein - now a producer who had done a few pictures. It was at this point the project started gaining momentum, though it wasn't till later, when Keitel signed on, that it got financed.

I second the rec of the Brad Stevens book. When I viewed Arrow's Robocop-disc, the only thing I missed was a Hellman interview. They had interviewed Mark Goldblatt, one of the other two (?) second unit directors on the film, and his experience of doing second unit work for Verhoeven was very different from what Hellman experienced as detailed in the aforementioned book. Of course, Hellman by this point already had some experience with action pictures, having edited The Killer Elite, and directed (till he was fired) Shatter, a somewhat enjoyable Hammer-Shaw Brothers co-production, shot on location in Hong Kong.

I should revisit Road to Nowhere one of these days, I was very impressed with it when it came out.

[colinr0380]

And to defend Silent Night Deadly Night 3 a little further, it does feature the first film role for Laura Harring, later to be better known for her role in Mulholland Drive. There's a Cinema Snob video devoted to it here.

[Forrest Taft]

And her boyfriend in the film is Leo Johnson! Benjamin Horne is also there, in the opening scenes.

[wishhersafeathome]

Alexander Mackendrick and Wojciech Marczewski are other filmmakers who largely abandoned directing their own projects in favour of film education - Mackendrick because he was sick and tired of directing, Marczewski because he refused to work with the Jaruzelski government after it imposed martial law. And it's worth looking on the bright side in cases like this: regardless of what we lost in terms of unmade films of theirs, all three are frequently cited as being absolutely inspirational teachers.

It's an interesting transition from being "sick and tired of directing" to instead teaching essentially the same subject. I've known countless artists who had to teach to survive and who, despite their public statements otherwise, would have dropped that gig in a heartbeat for the opportunity to practice their chosen profession "in the wild."

Whereas a number of critics do/did make the inverse switch from the academic approach to the practical, which makes much more sense to me.

[Never Cursed]

Richard Rush, director of The Stunt Man and Color of Night

[therewillbeblus]

Richard Rush, director of The Stunt Man and Color of Night

Again?

[Never Cursed]

Lord, why did it take the Times so long to scrape together an obit for him?

[therewillbeblus]

Maybe they felt it was too soon to spread the love or a stunt, man

[MichaelB]

I remember Ronald Bergan and I were racing each other to see who'd be the first to get our Walerian Borowczyk obits into print - him for The Guardian, me for Sight & Sound. You'd have thought he'd have a massively unfair advantage there, but in fact he only just beat me, thanks to a twenty-day delay that he had nothing to do with: evidently, everyone else who died between 3 and 23 February 2006 was considered higher priority.

And when Googling for the obituary date, I see that the New York Times waited until March 6...

[dwk]

Shock G.

[fiddlesticks]

Magnificent mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig

[fdm]

Michael Collins

[therewillbeblus]

Walter Olkewicz (Jacques Renault of Twin Peaks)

Wow, Walter Olkewicz just showed up in the season three episode of Taxi as Jim’s brother when he returns home to Boston- hardly recognizable as a high society square!

[dadaistnun]

Anita Lane

[Ovader]

Johnny Crawford

[Pavel]

Anne Douglas, Kirk's wife, at age 102

[phoenix474]

According to Daphne Alexander, Olympia Dukakis has passed

[MichaelB]

Belgian cinematographer Willy Kurant, whose filmography includes work for Godard (Masculin Féminin), Alain Robbe-Grillet (Trans-Europe Express), Jerzy Skolimowski (Le Départ), Orson Welles (the abandoned The Deep and The Immortal Story) and Maurice Pialat (Under Satan's Sun, which won him a César).

[Never Cursed]

Hermine Karagheuz, of Rivette fame

[soundchaser]

Oh, that's a shame. She's really the glue that holds Duelle together.