American makes best foreign language film
That little old lady with blue hair wearing K-Mart tennis shoes
writes ‘Mr. Venzykulu, in your story about meeting Queen Elizabeth
didn’t you mean Prince Phillip and not Prince Charles, or are you
one of those who suggest inbreeding in the British Royal
family?
”
American makes best foreign language film
That little old lady with blue hair wearing K-Mart tennis shoes writes ‘Mr. Venzykulu, in your story about meeting Queen Elizabeth didn’t you mean Prince Phillip and not Prince Charles, or are you one of those who suggest inbreeding in the British Royal family?”
“Suggest” inbreeding? Hell, if I had handed the Queen my banjo that day I can bet without benefit of a lesson she would have banged out the theme from “Deliverance.”
Speaking of “Deliverance,” please deliver me from those who say Scorsese must win the best director Oscar this year, after all one of our great directors has never won. Even if he doesn’t deserve it? I just came back from the one who does.
All the world goes to church on Christmas day, but in Hollywood we all rightfully go to a movie. Since it was our wedding anniversary, why not a good war movie. Something to remind us of our honeymoon and marriage. What a marriage, what a movie. Clint Eastwood’s “Letters from Iwo Jima” is the best movie about war ever made and the best-directed film of the year. Akira Kurosawa is considered the best director of Japanese films ever. Who is to argue? Me! I have loved Kurosawa films from the 1940s to the “Seven Samurai” when I was a teen and into the 1990s. I even saw some of his more obscure works when I was stationed in Okinawa in 1959 and without benefit of subtitles. That said, I can without prejudice say that Clint Eastwood is the best Japanese language film director ever.
Yes the film is in Japanese with English subtitles and yes that is a turn off to most but if you’re ever going to enjoy foreign films in their original language then this is the film to start with. I was lucky to have seen it with half of the audience being of the Japanese persuasion. My Japanese was a little rusty, but they seemed to understand when I greeted and bowed with “Feliz Navidad ya all.” Ay chee waa waa!
Speaking of navidad this year I won’t bore you with the old joke about the Hollister city council having to cancel their live Nativity Scene in front of the Hollister city hall because they couldn’t find three wise men. But don’t get me going about finding a virgin.
My neighbor Jesus is a devout Christian but every Sunday and Christmas he goes to the Pussycat theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Don’t ever say that God doesn’t have a sense of humor. When the Pussycat gave out its last triple X purr, he thought it would be the purrfect spot for a church.
I am not a fan of “Rocky” nor was I taken in by the hype when it won the Oscar in 1976. But I do like Sylvester Stallone in every movie but that series. “Lords of Flatbush” is one of my favorite films and I am the only one I know who liked his “Judge Dredd.” It was at the Hollywood premiere of “Dredd” at the Galaxy theatre on Hollywood Boulevard that I saw Sly for the first time along with Ronnie Lott. A couple months ago I saw Stallone again on Hollywood Boulevard and he has hardly changed. Even the shoe polish he must use on his hair looked the same.
Oh I’m sorry did I offend you when I said “Rocky” was not the best film in 1976 despite winning best picture. Here is what “Rocky” beat out. One of the great movies of all time “Bound for Glory,” the Woody Guthrie story, “All the President’s Men,” the best fictional political thriller ever, “Taxi Driver,” the best taxi driver film ever and “Network,” the best ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore’ movie and that is why I’m still mad as hell.
And yes I want to thank all of you who called to remind me that my brother Freddie was an even better baseball player than he was a boxer if that was possible. But this column isn’t about my great older brother…it’s about me, me, me!
Krispy Kreme stores are closing down here in the Southland after all their hype. I never could understand their popularity. When I was a teen growing up in Hollister my nino Joe Zazueta owned a bakery shop that served up donuts whose holes tasted better than Krispy Kreme’s donuts.
And finally I am glad that the good Christians after years of trying just recently closed down the last Pussycat theatre here in Hollywood, which was a part of a chain that included theatres in Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles. How do I know? I just do. The one in Sacramento was the best as you could see assemblymen and senators trying to sneak in but the shadow knows.
Anyway Christians have succeeded in getting porn out of the theatres and on their home computers where it belongs. Ay chee waa waa!
