Well, since I'm stressed, tired, worried about the general state of EVERYTHING right now, and just generally need some levity (and I think the members of the Liz Phair Forum players do, too!) I'm creating a new thread for the creation of Liz Phair Forum Productions, as well as lost films, etc. that deserve to be reissued, evaluated again, etc.



Now, why this GEM of a film-Robert Altman's COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN-is not yet available on DVD I haven't a clue, but boy would I LOVE To see it right now...

Marci & Fub you would both LOVE LOVE LOVE this movie...

It is stagy-Altman took his entire cast from the Broadway show & made the film version, but unlike most "plays that are filmed" this really works-it gives the story an eerie, claustrophobic feel, and one can just feel the sadness and rage of Sandy Dennis' character, Mona, a woman who claims her mentally challenged teenaged son (never seen in the film) is the love child of James Dean. Sandy, Cher & Karen Black were never better than in this film-this was actually Cher's first 'serious' acting part & in a way, is still the performance of hers I love best (though I think she truly is a gifted actress period).

FOR THE LIZ PHAIR FORUM PLAYERS PRODUCTION:

Mona (Sandy Dennis)-FUB
Sissy (Cher)-KATEFAN4
Joanne (Karen Black)-COOLCHICK275
Stella Mae (Kathy Bates)-PHREAK (Sorry, you gotta do cross dress in my shows sometimes)
Edna Louise (Cute, young blonde actress Marta Heflin)-CHERRY QUEEN


This is still an extremely popular play to perform for small casts, so I truly am suprised the movie is so unavailable at the moment!

I LOVED that movie!!! I think more should be shot that way.

Another great movie that is not yet available on dvd and was a play/movie is "Night Mother" starring Anne Bancroft and Sissy Spacek. An emotional ride that one would soon not forget. Two actors, a table and some of the best dialogue ever.

^Why you were reading my mind!!! 'NIGHT MOTHER was actually going to be one of the next entires in this thread...I haven't decided which of the players should do the Sissy role, but I actually DID do a scene in college acting class back in the day as a male version of Anne's part & now that I am older I know I could really do it justice!!!
When I need to cry for a part on stage, I actually focus on Anne's monlogue from the end of the show when she tells Sissy's character, Jessie (locked in the bedroom), that she just never realized Jessie "was so alone"...I need to stop, it's making me tear up now.
Powerful film/play by Marsha Norman.

"One of the often overlooked stage-adaptations by Altman, which he made several in the 80ies. This is a rip from Italian TV, no DVD available at this time. The file has two audio sections: first one in Italian, second in English. Enjoy!"

That's the copy I can access.

Any idea why it would be in Italian and English? It's not two tracks and there's no subtitles?? I don't get it.

oh there is a DVD too...

http://www.third-ear.com/p_prod.aspx?id=1776

it's not been released here in the states. it doesn't help that it's been released somewhere else as the dvd player one has may not be able to play it due to the region code and all.

I am SO STOKED that today's choice IS actually being reissued on DVD November 11th!!! I have had this film/play on my mind A LOT lately & will be THRILLED to see it again!

Today's production is Mart Crowley's THE BOYS IN THE BAND. Like JIMMY DEAN, the entire original cast was actually used for the film (Ilove it when they do that!), so the acting is really superb, and while the film does seem stagy, it really works.
THE BOYS IN THE BAND was pretty controversial for being the first play/film entirely focusing on gay characters. In this case, the night of Michael's birthday party for Harold. The film deals with a lot of issues gay men dealt with at the time, and, while it is a product of it's day, still seems fresh and relevant. It's essentially about human relationships, friendships, jealousies & strong emotion. It's an important film/play for showing gay men were and are no different in feeling than anybody else. I saw this film as a teenager & I LOVED it-I wanted my life to be that cool & dramatic!





LIZ PHAIR FORUM CAST:
Michael...PHREAK
Harold...KATEFAN4
(Excellent because we'd both get to drunkenly rip each other a new one...I seriously always wanted to play either of these parts for real...really great dialogue).
Emory...FUBSTER
Donald...COOLCHICK275 (I love casting Marci in man drag!)
Hank & Larry...WLY & BAUD (Couple who fights a lot...sorry only one 'straight' part in this show, but don't think either one of you would want it anyway)

hahaha wly and baud, a couple!!!

oooh
sexy

you've never heard of a region free player! hahaha wly you are so fucking retarded please don't reply to any of my posts on any subject ever again. you're just wrong all the time.

It's actually harder to get DVD players that are that strict about region coding. I don't think barely any of them on the market here even have region coding anymore. You're just so stupid WLY. Chronic foot in mouth, nothing in brain, disease.

Just bang the rocks together next time WLY.

ooooh the chemistry between you two is electric.

:swoons:

^THE BOYS IN THE BAND is a movie you would enjoy, Fub-it has male roles you would really like (they are more of the diva variety).

Today's film/production is Shelagh Delaney's A TASTE OF HONEY



This classic of the British New Wave is only available as a Region 2 DVD & then apparently is even OOP right now in Britian. This fine film totally deserves a Criterion release. As a moody teenager, this film brought me alot of hope & comfort. The leading character is Jo (played by the marvelous Rita Tushingham), a young lower class British woman who lives with her semi-prostitute, fun loving mother, Helen (the fab Dora Bryan and by Angela Lansbury in the original Broadway cast). Jo falls in love & gets preganant by a black sailor who leaves her. Her mother also leaves her to marry. Jo begins to live with an openly gay man and they form a close bond. Basically, A TASTE OF HONEY is a bittersweet slice of life film. It may take place in 60's London, but the themes and characters could basically be today. It's not a 'happy' picture, but a realistic one.
This is also the fav film of Morrissey.





MAIN LIZ PHAIR FORUM CAST:

Jo...COOLCHICK275 (a part I think she would really like)
Geoff...FUBSTER (a part he would really like)
Helen...KATEFAN4 (would excel in the bitchy, drunken moments)

Today's Film/production is arguably my favorite film of the 80's (and one of my all time fav films in general)



Paul Bartel's classic black comedy EATING RAOUL is available on dvd. However, fans of the film bitched from the get-go about the lackluster dvd treatment this received from Columbia, and I notice it is already OOP new on Amazon. The film's importance to the independent film scene of the 80's and it's influence on independent comedy makes this classic worthy of a much better, criterion style reissue.
EATING RAOUL mirrored the conservative Paul & Mary Bland (classic performances from Paul Bartel & Mary Woronov)-the ultimate retro squares vs. the swingers of late 70's wife swapping, free loving culture. When a cash flow crisis threatens their plans of opening their dream restaurant in the country and an unfortunate 'accidental death' of a swinger happens in their retro 50's apartment, Paul & Mary concoct a scheme to earn some extra cash while ridding LA of a few swinging perverts (Luring them with sexy ads & then dispatching them with a frying pan). All of this is complicated by Raoul, a burglar the Blands contract with to get rid of the bodies. Raoul makes a play for Mary & real problems start for Paul...
This film still seems so fresh, funny & punk. I find it ironic that the Noguchi furniture & 50's trappings found in the Bland aprtment would be so extremely desireable today (they would have been more valued to gay & punk crowd in the early 80's). The film also boasts one of my all time character performances by the fab Susan Saiger as the irreplaceable housewife turned Dominatrix, Doris.







LIZ PHAIR FORUM MAIN CAST:
Paul Bland...Katefan4
Mary Bland...Coolchick 275
Raoul...Phreak
Doris, The Dominatrix...Fubster

Paul: Mary, I just killed a man
Mary: Paul, he was a man...Now, he's just a sack of garbage...

you give me the juiciest parts. oooooh. zex.

i dled a taste of honey. lol

Today's film/production is Joseph Losey's 1968 film SECRET CEREMONY



Currently, this film is only available on Region 2 DVD (and then I think it's OOP there, as well), but I would absolutely wet myself for a good, US reissue of this strange late 60's gem.
The plot defies description, but I'll post what IMDB states the story of SECRET CEREMONY to be:

Plot summary for
Secret Ceremony (1968)
Leonora, a prostitute, mourns the death by drowning years earlier of her daughter. She encounters a strange waif-like girl, Cenci, who bears a strong resemblance to her lost child. Cenci is herself struck by the great resemblance of Leonora to her own mother, whose death the mentally unstable Cenci has been unable to accept or even acknowledge. The two women quickly develop a symbiotic relationship, moving in and out of the illusion that each is the lost loved one of the other. The complicating factor is the arrival of Albert, Cenci's stepfather, whose incestuous attachment to her may well be the cause of her mind's unbalance. With Albert's arrival, no one in the strange trio is safe

To me, Elizabeth Taylor is more than just a "great movie star" (as she is rightfully thought of today). I feel she is the definitive 1960's film actress. Unlike many stars of her own time (or even today), Elizabeth (from VIRGINIA WOOLF forward) chose to do mostly avant garde 60's projects that she found more personally satisfying than for any big box office, so much so that it eventually hurt her box office appeal. Yet, Elizabeth often comments that her 60's output were the main films of hers that mattered & the ones she was most proud of artistically (I'm going to list more of them in this thread so I won't repeat titles here). She is FINE in SECRET CEREMONY-truly the plot desription doesn't do the film justice. It's great snippy dialogue ("GET OFF MY BACK YOU LITTLE BITCH!" Taylor oozes to Farrow at one point-pretty bold for that time! LOL!) and beautiful camera work make this a truly eerie, avant garde picture that I think holds up well (I have to confess I haven't been able to see this film for a number of years). The final bit of dialogue has to be seen to be believed-it is just so strange...




LIZ PHAIR FORUM CAST:
Leonora...KF4
Cenci...CC275
(good psychodrama for us!!! LOL!!!)

Today's film/production is Marsha Norman's remarkable 'NIGHT MOTHER



Phreak & I were discussing the film version of this Pulitzer Prize Winning play earlier in this thread. The film version has almost slipped into obscurity-it is not available on DVD and the VHS copies are rare. That's a shame-this is a powerful version of an important American Classic.
Sissy Spacek is Jessie, an epileptic woman who feels her entire life has just been a string of failures-from marriage, to work, to motherhood. She has decided to end her life. Anne Bancroft is her mother, Thelma, a life loving, salty woman who has to deal with keeping her daughter alive after she has been told by Jessie that she is committing suicide that very evening with her dead father's gun.
I checked out the play script of this & Marsha Norman also wrote the screenplay-the words are just some of the most powerful in the American Theatre,
When Jessie describes her divorce & why her husband left her she calmly states that "you don't pack the garbage when you move..."
The film version of this was actually DISLIKED strongly by critics in the early 80's. Honestly, while the Theatre was willing to respect a story about the decisions we make in life-including our choice to end it-the mainstream film world was not at the time. Spacek & Bancroft are brilliant and I would be thrilled to see a DVD release of this film.
The final monlogue of Thelma just moves me tears-as do many of the lines of the play.
And I relate TOTALLY to both Jessie & Thelma-they are both right-there is no wrong in their characters-just honesty laid out in full.
A remarkable piece of writing.

LIZ PHAIR FORUM CAST:
KF4, CC275, Fub & Phreak could all alternate playing both Jessie & Thelma-I see a lot of them in all of us.

Probably the most honest work either of these two greats have ever done.

I was at the table - I swear!!!!!

^New Productions will commence soon-KF4 has had an exhausting week...

congrats, jeffie

Today's Film/Production is John Huston's film version of Carson McCuller's novel REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE.



Unlike most other films in this thread, this film is available on DVD-however, only in a big Marlon Brando box set. I was however able to just get a single copy off of Amazon (not that the Brando box isn't worth it, but I have limited space).

Like many of Elizabeth Taylor's later 60's film, REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE is just downright BIZARRE. In honesty, it's not the best film by any means (Huston's tackling of sensitive materila makes the story just seem downright trashy). However, that's part of the fun of REFLECTIONS, and, in truth, this film seems to be aging rather well.

Honestly, I can't write a BETTER description of the plot than the hilarious one for REFLECTIONS at IMDB:
On a U.S. Army post circa 1948, a major who is an impotent, latent homosexual is married to an infantile birdbrain who never misses an opportunity to ridicule his masculine failings. He displaces his hostility by brutally flogging her horse and she retaliates by humiliating him before a houseful of guests, repeatedly slashing him across the face with her riding crop. She is also committing adultery with the officer next door, who's wife cut off her nipples with garden shears after the death of her baby. She has sought solace in the ministrations of her effeminate houseboy. The sixth character, coveted by the major, is a darkly handsome noncom, a voyeur and lingerie-fondler, given to nightly appearances as a peeping tom in the birdbrain's bedroom and daily sessions of horseback riding in the middle of the woods stark naked. Written by filmfactsman

Well, THAT IS the story in a nutshell...The saving grace of this film is that the cast really is STUNNING. This film was panned by the critics & public at the time (1967), but, in retrospect, Brando & Taylor are just fantastic. I actually do think it's truly one of Brando's finest performances. Taylor just spews venom as Leonora, his bitter wife. She also just looks amazing in her cool 60's clothes & hairstyles-Elizabeth, to me, truly was the most BEAUTIFUL woman to grace the screen.

The ending MUST be seen to be believed-Huston really tried to make some bold choices that, while not totally working throughout the film, make this one of the most interesting 60's films to me.


Original Japanese poster I'd love to have!





LIZ PHAIR FORUM CAST:
Leonora...CC275
Major Penderton...PHREAK
Lt. Langdon...KF4
Alison Langdon (wonderful performance by Julie Harris!)...FUBSTER

Today's film is Douglas Sirk's CLASSIC 1954 version of MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION



I just about wet myself just now when I found out Criterion will be doing a release of this, one of my all time fav melodrams, in January!
Douglas Sirk may, stylistically, be my fav director of all-time. His over the top, wild 50's melodramas (lushly produced by Ross Hunter) are a genre of their own. He was the hero of Fassbinder, and Sirk's influence can be seen readily in his work.
While other Sirk fanatics actually prefer his 1959 version of IMITATION OF LIFE or the other Jane/Rock pairing in ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION is actually my fav of his 50's classics.
The story was turgid, dreadful & even dated for 1954, but the wildly cool visuals and bizarre directorial choices make this film a mirror of 50's society.
Jane Wyman is one of my fav classic film actresses & MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION is truly her Icon film-she looks amazing in her cat eye sunglasses & cool 50's outfits. She receieved one of her many Oscar nominations for the film.



The color process in the Sirk films is also just amazing-they are like being in a 50's picture postcard (that is the effect they wanted to make with the color in THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE).

Criterion provides a good, brief synopsis of the plot:
Reckless playboy Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson, in his breakthrough role) crashes his speedboat, requiring emergency attention from the town’s only resuscitator—at the very moment that beloved local Dr. Phillips has a heart attack and dies waiting for the life-saving device. Thus begins one of Douglas Sirk’s most flamboyant master classes in melodrama, a delirious Technicolor mix of the sudsy and the spiritual in which Bob and the doctor’s widow, Helen (Jane Wyman), find themselves inextricably linked to one another amid a series of increasingly wild twists, turns, trials, and tribulations.

The Criterion release will also feature the original 1935 film version which starred Irene Dunne (a cool, classic actress in her own right) and Robert Taylor (the handsome, conservative actor who was married to Barbara Stanwyck).
TOTALLY COOL! I can't wait!!!!
VIVA SIRK!!!

Today's film is the neurotic 1950 classic HARRIET CRAIG-directed by Vincent Sherman and starring the one and only Joan Crawford.



This is a truly essential film to Crawford fanatics, and seeing as well as Joan has sold on DVD, I'm surprised Columbia hasn't issued a DVD of this yet. Hopefully in the next Crawford box set they will fix this situation.

Bluntly put, it is easy for a modern audience to totally accept Christina Crawford's vision of her adopted mother through the viewing of the on-screen characterizations of Joan in her 50's melodramas. HARRIET CRAIG may be the best example of this. Joan portrays an intensely neurotic woman hell bent on running her richly appointed home EXACTLY the way she pleases, including manipulating her husband, family, employees & maintaining rigorous standards of cleanliness.
One of my favorite vindictive scenes in all cinema is the sight of Crawford firing poor Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton form TV!) for breaking a coffee cup from her "best coffee service." And she docks "the cost of the cup" from her final pay!!!!!!!!
I've seen this film about 20 times but really still get twisted glee from it.
I'm always fascinated by Joan-who knows if this woman we see on the screen truly was her own charatcer in real life. Joan always commented that she was never a scholar, but I wonder if she ever tok the time to look back over her padded shoulders to view herself as a real person, not just her own creation.
There is an earlier film version called CRAIG'S WIFE starring Roz Russell, but it's nowhere near as good.

KF4 is a little too tired to post a movie of the day today-will return (hopefully) tomorrow.