Daily Grab 112: The Duel

The duel in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp represents one of the great choices in cinema, crossing direction, editing, cinematography, and acting.

When the audience expects to see a thrilling, climactic duel, Powell and Pressburger choose to avoid the route taken by other films, from any version of Scaramouche to the various Robin Hood(s) to even The Princess Bride. The duel itself is less important than the build up and the aftermath. The actors knew the importance of the preparation and approach, since the duel itself would barely be seen.

This scene represents one of the most perfect series of choices in cinematic composition, and Criterion's new Blu-ray shows off the whole movie in a manner befitting one of the greatest movies ever made. Scorsese does a marvelous newly-recorded introduction, and Thelma Schoonmaker offers keen insight as she always does on Powell's films. This is one of the best discs of the year, and we're just 1/4 of the way through.

I swear I'll finish a review of this one soon. I've been busy finshing off my monster 2012 Best in Blu-ray multi-list article, among other things.

Daily Grab 104: Afraid to Hit Back

From this week's wonderful Criterion edition of Michael Powell's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. It includes all of the features found in the Region B disc I imported late last year, plus a half hour interview with Thelma Schonnmaker-Powell and a meaty introduction piece with Martin Scorsese, on top of the carried-over Criteiron commentary track. A full review and comparison are in the works.

The Daily Grab (22): The Boer War

"I spoke this afternoon to Conan Doyle, he thinks something ought to be done about it, too."

...

"And who’s Conan Doyle?"

"The author chap sir, writes the Sherlock Holmes stories in The Strand Magazine."

"This Doyle fellow writes the Sherlock Holmes stories?"

"Yes sir, Conan Doyle. You must have seen his name."

"Never heard of him, but I’ve read every Sherlock Holmes story since they started in July ’91."

"Are you reading The Hound of the Baskervilles, sir?"

"Am I not! What’d you think of the end of the last installment?"

From the outstandingly lovely new Region B locked UK Blu-ray, released over there last week. This is one of the Technicolor films that was in greatest need of rescue and restoration. Marvelous work. Review tomorrow.

Back in the Saddle (Again)

Welcome or welcome back!

My appearance on tonight's episode of The Comic Shack on 5by5 prompted a sooner-than-I'd-planned relaunch of this thing.

This column abruptly ended its run at its original home, Hollywood Elsewhere, just as I left Apple to work for the Alamo Drafthouse here in Austin. I currently write a weekly column for Ain't It Cool News, a gig that is a little surreal for a guy who started reading that site in its infancy.

The old header artwork from the Hollywood Elsewhere version of Arthouse Cowboy

There are loads of abandoned Big Ideas that I had planned for the column back in 2010. I started an insanely ambitious career retrospective on Yasujiro Ozu, and I wanted to do one on Michael Powell. I also had ideas for podcasts and all sorts of other things that never came to fruition...mostly because I was trying to do way too much all around.

There was always "later". Then my dad had a massive stroke that has rendered him unable to speak. Then my brother died of a cancer that he beat the shit out of before it took him. Then I read and listened to loads of things that Merlin Mann has written and/or said. Then I finally had enough of having excuses for everything, and started focusing on how to spend my time the right way. I finally started answering "what do I really want to be and do?".

Now, I'm just doing it. No more excuses or "reasons why". No more "I wanted to, but...something came up". No more grand plans that never materialize due to unrealistic ambition.

This ongoing journal is a major part of that. It's been an enormous, gaping hole in my creative life, and I'm glad I have it back to myself.

My entire Hollywood Elsewhere back catalog of over 900 posts is here. I'm sure loads of them are all kinds of screwed up in terms of formatting. Fixing them up is an ongoing "spare time" project.

The Ozu series? It's getting "remastered" and re-posted here in its own specialized index, with the original versions of articles remaining in their original form and chronology. In case you don't know who I'm talking about, Yasujiro Ozu is still one of the greatest directors that cinema has ever known. Reducing him to "that Japanese director who never moved the camera" is neither correct nor clever.

The Michael Powell series is in what I'd call "pre-production". I need to watch and read a lot more before starting on that.

I'm taking a fresh pass on the Soderbergh career retrospective that I wrote under the header of "Soderberghopolis" for Badass Digest.

I want to do series on other artists, all of which can happen simultaneously and creep along at a snail's pace as I have time. These series are all conceived with the idea of revisiting, filling gaps, and further solidifying what I know about the people whose work I love in the world of talking (and not-talking) pictures. When I dig into filmographies, I like to do it chronologically, and I’d rather do more of that than constantly over-promise and under-deliver.

My Criterion Collection column, "Criterion Collected", will live here. I finally named it when I was with Badass Digest, but I own the name outright (since I was never paid or contracted for any of my writing there).

I kicked around various formats for a column dedicated to Blu-ray (hardware, software, and so on), and I think I’ve cracked it. Those posts will go under the heading of “Blu-Grade”, a term that I think that I coined.

"Monty Cristo's Musings" will live on Ain't It Cool, which is the only place I use that AICN-traditional codename. The articles will be linked from here, sometimes with a little bit of extra something or another for those of you who only follow this RSS feed.

The biggest reason for kicking off this new iteration of Arthouse Cowboy is that, regardless of where I do anything else, I need a centralized home base for what I write about the moving image.

I've spent a few months preparing and doing dry runs so that I can make this a true daily journal. There will be days I really write a piece, and yet others when I excerpt something I've read that I think is worth a bit of your time.

I'm going to put something new here every day, simple as that. Expect no frequency promises otherwise.

Thanks for reading in advance (and in retrospect).