42 Fishing With John
-
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:53 pm
- Location: all up in thurr
42 Fishing With John
Fishing With John
[img]http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/314/42_box_348x490_w100.jpg[/img]
John Lurie knows absolutely nothing about fishing, but that doesn’t stop him from undertaking the adventure of a lifetime in Fishing with John. Traveling with his special guests to the most exotic and dangerous places on earth, John Lurie battles sharks with Jim Jarmusch off the tip of Long Island, goes ice fishing with Willem Dafoe at Maine’s northernmost point, braves the Costa Rican jungle with Matt Dillon, takes Tom Waits to Jamaica, and searches for the elusive giant squid with Dennis Hopper in Thailand.
Disc Features
- All six complete episodes
- Commentary by writer/director/musician John Lurie
- Big Heart music video by John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
Criterionforum.org user rating averages
Feature currently disabled
[img]http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/314/42_box_348x490_w100.jpg[/img]
John Lurie knows absolutely nothing about fishing, but that doesn’t stop him from undertaking the adventure of a lifetime in Fishing with John. Traveling with his special guests to the most exotic and dangerous places on earth, John Lurie battles sharks with Jim Jarmusch off the tip of Long Island, goes ice fishing with Willem Dafoe at Maine’s northernmost point, braves the Costa Rican jungle with Matt Dillon, takes Tom Waits to Jamaica, and searches for the elusive giant squid with Dennis Hopper in Thailand.
Disc Features
- All six complete episodes
- Commentary by writer/director/musician John Lurie
- Big Heart music video by John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
Criterionforum.org user rating averages
Feature currently disabled
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
Tow Waits, listing his 20 favourite albums for The Observer, can't resist a sideswipe at John's fishing exploits:
7 Lounge Lizards by Lounge Lizards (EG) 1980
They used to accuse John Lurie of doing fake jazz - a lot of posture, a lot of volume. When I first heard it, it was so loud, I wanted to go outside and listen through the door, and it was jazz. And that was an unusual thing, in New York, to go to a club and hear jazz that loud, at the same volume people were listening to punk rock. Get the first record, The Lounge Lizards. You know, John's one of those people, if you walk into a field with him, he'll pick up an old pipe and start to play it, and get a really good sound out of it. He's very musical, works with the best musicians, but never go fishing with him. He's a great arranger and composer with an odd sense of humour.
- milk114
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 5:38 pm
- Location: Mar Vista, Los Angeles
What was the genesis of this show? Is it really, as the essayist wrote, a way to write off travels? Where and when did the show air? Are we really to believe that there is no "acting" involved, that these performers are allowing their real selves to show though and not portraying the "performer" image that has been cultivated over the years? And was there really zero scripting involved. as in are these quys as witty as they appear onscreen? In other words, is what is shown as close to "real life adventures" as anyone can come, whether be well-known performers or not?
I was reminded of this series while watching Willem Dafoe in Paul Schrader's Auto Focus yesterday. Something about the, as the essayist wrote, "the homoerotic element of male friendships" that Dafoe and Jarmusch talk of and display in their "normal" personas that seemed to cross over to Dafoe's character John Carpenter and his relationship with Greg Kinnear's Bob Crane. Again, this made me question how "true" Fishing with John is versus how much of it was performed.
I was reminded of this series while watching Willem Dafoe in Paul Schrader's Auto Focus yesterday. Something about the, as the essayist wrote, "the homoerotic element of male friendships" that Dafoe and Jarmusch talk of and display in their "normal" personas that seemed to cross over to Dafoe's character John Carpenter and his relationship with Greg Kinnear's Bob Crane. Again, this made me question how "true" Fishing with John is versus how much of it was performed.
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
From Lurie's commentary, it seems that the 'storylines' for most of the episodes were invented in the editing suite (e.g. the 'Search for the Giant Squid' didn't even exist as a crazy conceit while John and Dennis were filming in Thailand), so I'm prepared to believe that the shooting consisted of random weird shit, mostly improvised (and the occasional bit of fishing).
In which case, "zero scripting" isn't really accurate, but what scripting there was seemed to occur after the shoot.
In which case, "zero scripting" isn't really accurate, but what scripting there was seemed to occur after the shoot.
- skuhn8
- Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:46 pm
- Location: Chico, CA
I think the commentary is pretty thorough on the matter.zedz wrote:From Lurie's commentary, it seems that the 'storylines' for most of the episodes were invented in the editing suite (e.g. the 'Search for the Giant Squid' didn't even exist as a crazy conceit while John and Dennis were filming in Thailand), so I'm prepared to believe that the shooting consisted of random weird shit, mostly improvised (and the occasional bit of fishing).
In which case, "zero scripting" isn't really accurate, but what scripting there was seemed to occur after the shoot.
I'm surprised this made it into the CC, or made it onto TV for that matter. IMO this is easily in the top five worst CC's. The concept was great, but Lurie totally choked on the opportunity. He even found a great narrator and utterly wasted him; he could have been spouting all kind of unholy nonsense, and insteads is given maybe 5-6 decent zingers. He knows that we know that he knows that fishing is as boring as hell to watch so it's the sideshow stuff that's supposed to keep us on board, and he just couldn't come up with the goods. Again, just in my opinion.
- LightBulbFilm
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:11 pm
- Location: Florida
- Contact:
Finally picked this up. I love it. Tom Waits sticking a fich in his pants is worth picking it up, if not anything else.
EDIT: Does anyone have the image of Lurie's signature? It doesn't appear on the Criterion site.
BTW, does anyone know if the little ad for the soundtrack and the Lounge Lizard's new CD at the end with the credits were added for the DVD or on the original TV show when it aired?
EDIT: Does anyone have the image of Lurie's signature? It doesn't appear on the Criterion site.
BTW, does anyone know if the little ad for the soundtrack and the Lounge Lizard's new CD at the end with the credits were added for the DVD or on the original TV show when it aired?
Last edited by LightBulbFilm on Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Antoine Doinel
- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
- Location: Montreal, Quebec
- Contact:
- LightBulbFilm
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:11 pm
- Location: Florida
- Contact:
Re: 42 Fishing With John
So lately I've been backing up all my DVDs to a hard drive using Handbrake, and I come to Fishing With John. So I find the DVD source after popping the disc in and Handbrake says there's only one title, it's the Jarmusch episode. I've watched the DVD before myself and it was intact, no problems at all. This makes me wonder a few things. Is it possible I have a bootleg copy? Is there a flaw with this disc some how? Is Handbrake not working correctly? Could some check for me and verify if my problem is with the disc or Handbrake or tell me if I have a bootleg (Which I question, I love Fishing With John, but really who would bootleg the Criterion disc to try and resell?)
- Donald Brown
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:21 pm
- Location: a long the riverrun
Re: 42 Fishing With John
Even if it were a bootleg, it should still show the files for all content on the disc. If all the content is there when you watch the disc, it should be there somewhere to back up, legit or not. Something else is the problem.
- LightBulbFilm
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:11 pm
- Location: Florida
- Contact:
Re: 42 Fishing With John
You don't happen to know what the problem is, do you Donald?
- Lemmy Caution
- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
- Location: East of Shanghai
Re: 42 Fishing With John
A reasonable question, but just last week, a bootleg of the Criterion Fishing with John turned up in China. For the past 2 years there was a bootleg of a Japanese edition with burnt in Jap. subs.LightBulbFilm wrote:or tell me if I have a bootleg (Which I question, I love Fishing With John, but really who would bootleg the Criterion disc to try and resell?)
I often wonder who buys these sorts of films in China, besides myself. But a steady stream of art film titles regularly hits the copywronged streets of Shanghai.
- Mr Pixies
- Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2004 10:03 pm
- Location: Fla
- Contact:
Re: 42 Fishing With John
The Chinese are people too! They fish! Tom Waits is big in Japan!
- dx23
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:52 pm
- Location: Puerto Rico
Re: 42 Fishing With John
Have you played the disc in a regular DVD player? If the player has problems reading the DVD, it may be rot, similar to the one A Night to Remember suffers. I think Criterion may replace the disc if that is the case.LightBulbFilm wrote:So lately I've been backing up all my DVDs to a hard drive using Handbrake, and I come to Fishing With John. So I find the DVD source after popping the disc in and Handbrake says there's only one title, it's the Jarmusch episode. I've watched the DVD before myself and it was intact, no problems at all. This makes me wonder a few things. Is it possible I have a bootleg copy? Is there a flaw with this disc some how? Is Handbrake not working correctly? Could some check for me and verify if my problem is with the disc or Handbrake or tell me if I have a bootleg (Which I question, I love Fishing With John, but really who would bootleg the Criterion disc to try and resell?)
- Donald Brown
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:21 pm
- Location: a long the riverrun
Re: 42 Fishing With John
No. We can rule out simply being a bootleg as the problem, but that doesn't help much.LightBulbFilm wrote:You don't happen to know what the problem is, do you Donald?
- Matt
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
Re: 42 Fishing With John
There's a fascinating article about Lurie in this week's New Yorker, but only a short excerpt is available online.
- matrixschmatrix
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm
Re: 42 Fishing With John
Jesus, the abstract is pretty depressing. Does the actual article have any better news?Matt wrote:There's a fascinating article about Lurie in this week's New Yorker, but only a short excerpt is available online.
- Steven H
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:30 pm
- Location: NC
Re: 42 Fishing With John
I read it a few days ago. I'd say it's more "bizarre" than depressing.
- Cash Flagg
- Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:15 pm
Re: 42 Fishing With John
Some humorous moments though, as when the author relates how Matt Dillon, dismayed over what he perceived to be an unflattering portrayal in Fishing with John, asked Lurie "Why did you make me so stupid?", and Lurie responded "God did that."Steven H wrote:I read it a few days ago. I'd say it's more "bizarre" than depressing.
- Steven H
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:30 pm
- Location: NC
Re: 42 Fishing With John
That was funny, but I was SURE I had heard that somewhere before but I couldn't place it.
- Ogre Kovacs
- Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 10:04 pm
Re: 42 Fishing With John
As I recall, in the commentary track for the episode Lurie says a softer variation of this. Instead of "God did that", he says something along the lines of "well isn't that the point of the show."Steven H wrote:That was funny, but I was SURE I had heard that somewhere before but I couldn't place it.
- Person
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 3:00 pm
Re: 42 Fishing With John
I recall how I used to cretinously think, "uh, what the fuck is THIS doing in the Collection? Fishing with celebs?". Now I think, "this sounds AWESOME!". Tom Waits in Jamaica! I lost my snobbery regarding Criterion years ago. I MUST buy Fishing With John.
- cdnchris
- Site Admin
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:45 pm
- Location: Washington
- Contact:
Re: 42 Fishing With John
I think it's fun and it's one I've thrown in a few times to watch. The dead pan narration is what really sells it.
- Person
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 3:00 pm
Re: 42 Fishing With John
Dead pan narration? Definitely buying it.