It's a Mohammed Monday!

 

THIS WEEK WITH JESUS & MO

 

The Scottish Play, Retold

At some point during the mid-1950s, writer/artist Mort Meskin created the following retelling of Shakespeare's "MacBeth". Meskin's version moved the action from 11th century Scotland to 20th century America, and replaced the competing clansmen with gangers. Enjoy this rarity (and click on each page for a larger, more easily read version).

 
 
 

 

For more obscure (but fascinating) comics and art, check out The Bristol Board.

'Knife in the Water' is a great first feature film

Knife in the Water (1962)
Starring: Jolanta Umecka, Leon Niemczyka, and Zygmunt Malanowicz

Director: Roman Polanski

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A businessman (Niemczyka) invites a hitchhiker (Malanowicz) to spend the weekend with himself and his wife (Umecka) on their small yacht. The two men soon begin to compete for the woman's attention and to engage in a rapidly escalating battle to prove who is the most macho.

"Knife in the Water" is in a category of movies that I generally can't bear to watch: It's a story of people in a cramped space who tear each other apart on a psychological level for no reason other to tear each other apart. The better the acting and cinematic craftsmanship, the more uncomfortable the film is for me to watch. 

For example, I recognize "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1966) and "Boys in the Band" (1970) as some of the very best movies I've seen, but they are not films I would watch again unless I have to for some professional (or blogging) reason. Everything about both pictures is excellent and that's what makes them so hard to watch.

I don't like watching people tear each other apart for no reason other than to tear each other apart, especially when there isn't a character that I can cast as the villain of the piece. I watch movies for the entertainment, not to watch suffering for the sake of suffering. This is the same reason why I couldn't stand those "torture porn" films that were all the rage during the early 2000s.

With all that said, I recognize "Knife in the Water" is well-acted and well-filmed. Polanski (and/or his director of photography) did a brilliant job framing scenes so even when the characters were on the deck of the boat, with an expansive horizon ahead, things felt claustrophobic even though the surroundings were open and airy.  

Similarly, the acting is universally excellent--generally restrained and in perfect keeping with the slow burn of the film's story. The calm demeanor of the characters, coupled with the way they are clearly trying to get under each others skin, along with the knowledge that none of them have anywhere to escape to when the inevitable explosion of rage happens.

The pacing of the film is immaculate almost up the very end... and perhaps even at that point. It felt to me like the aftermath of the eventual confrontations, as well as the lead-up to the film's cryptic ending felt like it dragged a bit. I don't know if that sense was just my reaction to the conflicts in the film mostly having been resolved, or if it was my unfulfilled expectation that there would be an additional twist.

"Knife in the Water" was Roman Polanski's first feature-length film, and it shows that he had a great eye for framing scenes from the very beginning, as well as pacing the story for maximum building of tension. As mentioned above, he doesn't quite manage to deliver a solid ending--we can see how much he improved as a storyteller in the similarly-structured "Cul-de-Sac" a couple years later--but this is still a very well-mounted film. It's also a fine example of what a talented filmmaker can do with a limited budget, and it's worth examining by would-be filmmakers to this day.

Checking in with the Moon Girls

The researchers at the Shades of Gray Observatory have captured another image of a Moon Girl making sure everything looks right in the night sky! 

Musical Monday with Little Simz

In 2015, British actress and rapper and photographer released the first single for her debut album "A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons". That sentence represents the sum total of what I know about her and her work, but based on what you'll find if you click on the video below, I think you'll probably be looking her up to see what else she might have to offer. (I know I'm going to see if she's made more videos suitable for a future Musical Monday!)

Dead Body (2015)

Starring: Little Simz

Director: Jeremy Cole

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

(One word of caution, especially for Americans: If you're not used to certain British working class accents, you might want to follow along with these printed lyrics as the video plays.)

Elmo Aardvark Strikes Again!

Here's another installment in the "Adventures of Elmo Aardvark" by the great cartoonist and painter Milton Knight. Enjoy!

To Be Continued?

Only time will tell! 

Movie Magic ala Georges Melies!

The Tiny Dancer (aka 'The Dancing Midget') (1902)
Starring: George Melies, an Anonymous Actor, and an Anonymous Ballerina
Director: Georges Melies
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A magician (Melies) conjures an assistant, eggs, and ultimately a miniature ballerina. But he's saved his greatest trick for last!

 "The Tiny Dancer" is one of the many films by stage-magician-turned-pioneering-special-effects-artist Georges Melies performs cinema-enhanced magic tricks that culminate either in a magical mishap or a visual joke of some sort. I'll not say how this one turns out, because I don't want to spoil anything.

I've said before that this type of film are among my least favorite of Melies output. That said, this one is lively and amusing enough that it kept my attention throughout. The ending also make me snicker, and I always appreciate the short films that leave me smiling (for the comedies) or squirming (for the horror films).

But why don't you check it out? It's only a couple minutes long. Let me know in the comments whether you liked it or not!

Also, if you see Elton John, recommend that he check it out, too. I think he'll love it, for obvious reasons.

Annie Wersching passes away at 45

Annie Wersching, an extremely talented character actress who's had recurring roles on several of my recent favorite television series--such as "Bosch", "The Rookie" and "Timeless"--has lost battle with cancer. She passed away, entirely too young, on January 29, 2023.

She began her career as a stage actress, but turned to television in the early 2000s and found great success. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, but kept her health condition private and continued to work until she completed her scenes and the story arc of the serial killer Rosalind Dyer on "The Rookie" in 2021.

We mark Wersching's passing with sadness and a small gallery of photos in her memory.

It's January...

 ... for just one more day. 

 

Well, Lois January will still be January come tomorrow. She hopes!

Musical Monday with Maggie Reilly

"Everytime We Touch" is a beautiful song with a trippy, mildly creepy video. When I first heard the song, I thought it was another team-up of Reilly and the great Mike Oldfield. When I saw the video a short time later, I WAS certain it was another team-up between Oldfield and Reilly... why else would that guitarist be in shadow like thet? I took it as confirmation of my assumption, because it felt obvious that Oldfield didn't want to steal the spotlight from her. Additionally, I made up a story about the weirdness going on in the video; maybe I'll relay it some day.

Of course, I was WRONG about this song being a team-up between Reilly and Oldfield. That's NOT him on guitar, and this is not a song from his pen, which became obvious to me as I grew up and my ear became more refined. I still like my little fantasy about Oldfield making an anonymous cameo appearance this video.

If you've never heard this song (which was a huge hit across Europe in 1992 and 1993), I hope you'll fall in love with it as I did and that you, too, will come to think of it as "the greatest Mike Oldfield song he never wrote".

By the way, I'm not the only person who made wrong assumptions about this song and who performed it. Adults and even musicians have made the same mistake, as you'll learn from looking at the comments on this video... or from just watching this really well-done cover of "Everytime we Touch" at YouTube.