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Live!
(2007)
This is the blackest of black comedies about an ambitious TV executive and
her search for the ultimate reality show. After discarding several ideas, she
hones in on an offhanded comment by one of her staffers, and comes up with a
plan to have six people play Russian roulette on camera, on live TV. Five of
them will go home with $5 million each. The sixth will not go home at all. The
film's assumptions are: (1) a greedy network would actually air such a show if
they knew there would be no legal repercussions; (2) ambitious executives
would push the idea to further their careers without ever considering the
ethical implications; (3) there would be no shortage of contestants; (4)
Americans would flock to their TVs watch the show, especially the grand
finale.
I don't know whether those conjectures are true or not, but this film stays
true to them, and it works because of that. It is a strangely powerful film
because of its internal dynamic. At first we watch it as we would watch any
cynical black comedy, placing ourselves above the characters and snarking away
at the human greed and exploitation before us. Then something miraculous
happens in the center of the film. As the fictional audition process unfolds,
the film's loyalty to its premise makes us aware of the various kinds of
desperate and/or crazy people who would agree to play Russian Roulette for
money. The auditions at first seem to attract only suicidal loonies, but
the losers who want to die are eventually weeded out in the audition process and the
network finds people who want to live, but are willing to risk death for a
chance to escape or improve their existing lives. When genuine, attractive
and/or sympathetic contestants emerge, the laughter turns inward toward the
sadness which is the ultimate source of black humor. By the time the
apocryphal reality show airs its final episode, in which one person must
actually die, our jaded guffaws have turned to outright horror because we
realize that there will be no cop-out ending, no last minute reprieve. One of
the six contestants is actually going to blow out his or her brains before our
eyes. We realize that the premise is not so far-fetched because we, like the
fictional audience in the film, are completely wound up in the game and are
wondering which contestant will die. As each of them pulls the trigger, we are
holding our breath. By the end of the film, the script completely knocks down
the fourth wall because it not only posits that people are theoretically jaded
enough to watch such an offensive and morbid reality show, but it proves it to
us - by getting us to watch it, and to get involved in it. The show's
real audience is not the people sitting in the chairs up there on the screen.
It is us.
Don't expect this film to be a comedy. It has some humor, to be sure, and
you'll probably laugh out loud a couple of times in the early going, but you
won't walk out of the theater feeling the way you normally feel after a
comedy. The humor just keeps moving closer and closer to the gallows variety
until we are standing right there with the executioner. Worst of all, the
hangman is not only joking cavalierly at our expense, he's also selling
shampoo.
Does the film have a significant audience? I doubt it. Few people will
watch it voluntarily if they read the plot description. When I read about this
film, I had no interest in it, and thought it would be repulsive. But I had to
watch it to catalogue the nudity. By the time it was near the the end, I was
deeply involved, and disgusted at myself for that involvement. I wanted to
shout at the writer/director, "You did this. You tricked me." Maybe his
manipulative techniques represent a course in psychological dirty pool, and
they are certainly no way to win a popularity contest, but there is no doubt
that those machinations are powerful.
In this film clip, Monet
Mazur (one of the six finalists - the least sympathetic, a performance artist)
shows her butt from the side in a still photograph. Later in the same clip, an
unidentified woman strips down (full rear nudity) for a performance art piece.
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OTHER CRAP:
Catch the deluxe
version of Other Crap in real time, with all the bells and whistles,
here.
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Azul Oscuro Casi Negro
(2000)
Dark Blue Almost Black is a Spanish Drama. Jorge, like his father, worked as a janitor, but dreamt of
something better, and worked at night on his bachelors degree in business. The
night he told his father he would not be working as a janitor, his father
dropped and became an invalid. Since Jorge's brother was in prison, Jorge not
only had to
keep his hated job, but also had to take care of his father.
Cut to seven years in the
future, Jorge is still trapped, but his brother has a girlfriend in prison who wants to get pregnant
in order to move into the
maternity section of the prison and get better treatment. The brother turns
out sterile, and asks Jorge to impregnate her. To complicate matters,
Jorge's own girlfriend returns from an internship in Germany.
By that time Jorge has obtained his degree in business, but finds that doesn't get him job
offers.
Jorge's brother is finally released from prison, and helps to take care of the father,
but with a plan to steal his money.
Everyone but me seems
to have liked this one. IMDb readers score this 7.4, and it cleaned up at the Goyas, with three
wins and three nominations. I thought the performances were fine, and it was
my kind of film, but I didn't end up relating to the characters, all of whom
were looking out exclusively for their own interests.
Marta Etura shows everything.
Eva Pallarés shows breasts.
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Eden Quest
These clips are from a videotape entitled Pamela Anderson: Edenquest. That
they came off a videotape means the clips are not exactly crystal clear and
wonderful. Nope, they sure aren't. But they do include not only Pammy but four
or five other women you might know. There is Leeann Tweeden showing more skin
than usual, Alexandra Kabi (who was a bikini model of some fame back in the
90's), Raquel Gardner of Species II fame (in that movie she is in the middle of
boffing a male mamber of the Species when he reverted to his true form) and
Rosie Tennison, model and identical twin of former Hefmate Rene Tennison. A
couple other gals show up but show little. So the clips are better than nothing
and the gals are sorta semi-famous. Worth a look, I figured.
Today's featured women:
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Notes and collages
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Make room on your hard drive. Lots of film clips today, nearly half a gig worth.
Isild le Besco in A Tout de
suite
Johanna ter Steege in Magic
Paris (Brand new short film. You might remember Johanna as Beethoven's blond
sister-in-law in Immortal Beloved.)
Edwige Fenech in one of those Policewoman movies, namely La Poliziotta della
squadra del buon costume. (A policewoman on the vice squad.)
Kadee Strickland in
American Gangster
The women from Silk, Sei Ashina and
Keira Knightley. These clips
represent an upgrade in quality from the previous clips of this exquisitely
photographed film from the director of The Red Violin.
Two women from Shottas, Marilyn Manhoe
and San-San. It's a Jamaican movie. Slant
magazine said, "The film—subtitled because of its characters' heavy patois—is
little more than a music video-ish glorification of the hip-hop lifestyle
crammed full of shootouts, drug deals, busty women, and endless use of the word
'bloodclot,' Jamaica's version of everybody's favorite four-letter expletive."
Carmen Kass in Täna öösel me
ei maga.
I didn't like this movie that much, but I loved the sequel, Täna öösel me ei
maga 2: Electric Böögalöö.
Or not.
I haven't seen it of course, and the truth is I know nothing abut the film
except that it is a 2004 film from Estonia and is actually in Estonian, a
language similar to Finnish. The famous international supermodel Carmen Kass is,
in fact, Estonian, and this was her first starring film role. Here's the summary
from IMDb: "On one summer evening, four strangers are brought together by a
mysterious murder. A case which at first seems like a regular crime
investigation turns out to be something more: a tale of love, alienation and new
hope."
A comprehensive look at Sylvia
Kristel in Private Lessons (147 meg download, many clips)
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Monica Cervera in 20 Centimeters |
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Hollywood bad girl Michelle Rodriguez (?? I guess) swimming topless. |
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Here are some alternate versions of
those Laetitia Casta underwater scans
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