Criterion Newsletter (Part 2)

[Calvin]

Criterion may have wanted Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at My Door? to include in their long-gestating release of his shorts. Claudia Weill's Girlfriends is another film that would 'fit'.

[Cinephrenic]

Perhaps they are rabbits.

[med]

Even if it is a pretty lame pun, shouldn't we all be ecstatic that Badlands is finally coming?

i don't buy it...if it is Badlands it's the absolutely worst clue they've ever given. they're clearly both male greaser sheep. I don't get how that equates to Badlands....so i'm not ecstatic because I think it's something else.

As has been mentioned by numerous other people prior to your post, the file name reads "wacky lambs," not sheep. The one on the right does indeed dress like Martin Sheen in Badlands. As for the one on the left, I don't recall anyone wearing leather jackets in the film, but it fits the timeframe of the movie. Also, a second lamb is needed for the pun to work.

All this isn't to say it's indeed Badlands, but, if it is, it's not the "worst clue they've ever given."

[mteller]

Clearly this is an upgrade of Bob le Flambeur

[pzadvance]

Even if it is a pretty lame pun, shouldn't we all be ecstatic that Badlands is finally coming?

i don't buy it...if it is Badlands it's the absolutely worst clue they've ever given. they're clearly both male greaser sheep. I don't get how that equates to Badlands....so i'm not ecstatic because I think it's something else.

As has been mentioned by numerous other people prior to your post, the file name reads "wacky lambs," not sheep. The one on the right does indeed dress like Martin Sheen in Badlands. As for the one on the left, I don't recall anyone wearing leather jackets in the film, but it fits the timeframe of the movie. Also, a second lamb is needed for the pun to work.

All this isn't to say it's indeed Badlands, but, if it is, it's not the "worst clue they've ever given."

Exactly. People seem to be forgetting that oftentimes, the newsletter pic doesn't depict something that's relevant to the film so much as something that can lead you to a pun which reveals the film's title. Last month's "caught C's" didn't pictorially have any relevance to the Qatsi trilogy, it just functioned like a Mad Gab in leading us to a title.

[captveg]

As for the one on the left, I don't recall anyone wearing leather jackets in the film, but it fits the timeframe of the movie. Also, a second lamb is needed for the pun to work.

Sheen wears a jean jacket similar to the clue:



This photo, which someone posted at blu-ray.com, seals it for me.

[swo17]

Does he ever have a pack of cigarettes tucked into his shirt sleeve in the film?

[captveg]

Does he ever have a pack of cigarettes tucked into his shirt sleeve in the film?

Been too long since I've seen it to recall.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Does he ever have a pack of cigarettes tucked into his shirt sleeve in the film?

Probably, it's par for the course for James Dean wannabees.

[Mathew2468]

Jeeez. The leather jacket, denim jacket, and white T-shirt with cigarettes under sleeve are clichés. Not exclusive to Badlands.

Aaaand Kit is Charles Starkweather (sp?) who was a denim jacket wearing, cigarette smoking, duck's ass sportin' James Dean wannabe.

[Drucker]

I haven't seen the movie, but reading the plot of Badlands, it seems like you could say that Spacek and Sheen are "on the lamb" during the film...

[flyonthewall2983]

It's spelled "lam" but good point nonetheless.

[colinr0380]

I just can't believe that there are people who haven't yet seen Badlands! It's the best film to pull out to disprove the old adage that films should never use narration (although like any device, if used poorly or as a pure substitute for action, narration can be excrutiating. Although whether it is used appropriately or not should really be more a reflection on the filmmaker's skills than of the device of narration in itself) as it has perhaps the best example of narration in film. Or at least it is up there along with The Magnificent Ambersons and La Jetee!

While I really like Malick's other films, I still think that Badlands is his best. It has all those elements that would crop up in later works - the lyricism and the use of nature with both acting as a backdrop to and being corrupted by human actions - but feels much more grounded than even Days of Heaven. There is something that just keeps the characters rooted to a mundane reality even when Spacek's character is having flights of fantasy and there are violent murders occurring, while most of the other films feel as if they transcend earthly problems at some point. There is poetic transcendence in Badlands, particularly in the Antonioni-esque 'beyond the clouds' final sequence, but it is always tempered with a more down to earth point of view that never lets the character escape from the present, as much as they may want to.

It is sort of the ur-film from which all of Malick's arguably greater (certainly larger canvassed) works feel like they come. And we shouldn't forget how influential it has been on other works - for example the scene of burning the house gets very obviously homaged in Dust Devil (even with the radio playing, contrasting with the record player in the Malick film), and the first section of the film detailing the relationship and the murder of the father feels as if it got reworked in a far more grotesque manner for Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone's film feels like the funhouse mirror version of Badlands, with all the sympathy for the characters scrubbed clean to allow for the media satire, and which seems appropriate for celebrity murderers of the 1990s as opposed to the charming crime spree killers of the 70s!)

[scoundrel]

It's spelled "lam" but good point nonetheless.

Baaaaaaaaaad spelling.

[Gregory]

pun /pən/ n. A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.

[flyonthewall2983]

Maybe but it was worth scoundrel's quip.

[bamwc2]

In which film did Chaplin wear a beard? I feel as though I should know this off the top of my head.

[antnield]

Bluebeard = Monsieur Verdoux

[jedgeco]

Monsieur Verdoux. antnied beat me to it.

[Jeff]

That was a pretty easy, straightforward clue after several months of clever (and not-so-clever -- oof, Bad Lambs) puns. Verdoux is my second favorite Chaplin. Didn't think it would happen so soon and couldn't be more pleased!

[bamwc2]

Bluebeard = Monsieur Verdoux

Yes, exactly right and what a wonderful film! I made the mistake of thinking that it was a reference to a Blu-Ray edition of the film, but they haven't done that since they began releasing all new releases in HD.

[matrixschmatrix]

Ehhh, I'd rather have City Lights. Or The Circus. Or The Kid. Might skip this one, I was powerfully unimpressed- though a commentary as good as the other three were would probably sway me.

Counting Modern Times as a silent, as Criterion does, it looks as though they're alternating sound and silent, right? Modern Times, The Great Dictator, The Gold Rush, Monsieur Verdoux?

[triodelover]

Ehhh, I'd rather have City Lights. Or The Circus. Or The Kid. Might skip this one, I was powerfully unimpressed- though a commentary as good as the other three were would probably sway me.

Counting Modern Times as a silent, as Criterion does, it looks as though they're alternating sound and silent, right? Modern Times, The Great Dictator, The Gold Rush, Monsieur Verdoux?

Could it be two? After all, he's not dressed as the Tramp in Verdoux.

[swo17]

Ehhh, I'd rather have City Lights. Or The Circus. Or The Kid.

I'd rather have those very three films as well (in the exact same order), though I do still like Verdoux quite a bit, aside from the preachy ending.

[knives]

Could it be two? After all, he's not dressed as the Tramp in Verdoux.

He's not really iconic looking as Verdoux.