I can't find
on DVD, and that's a damn shame. I did, by chance, find it on TCM early this morning--I watched until 3:45 am because it's a fantastically beautiful film with numerous breathtaking sequences and the exquisite Claudette Colbert nude in a milk bath. Sure, there are problems with the history in DeMille's epic, but the lovingly filmed Christian martyrdoms alone make this worth owning. I was blown away by the camera work repeatedly (I'd seen it before at the urging of The Dazzling Urbanite), and most particularly during the opening of the games--the camera moves back as columns of advancing gladiators enter the arena, then follows them as they march left and parade in front of Nero (Charles Laughton, never better) amongst dancing girls in sheer cotton flinging flower petals, then the shot moves forward to the slothful, disaffected emperor bored on his chaise lounge, hundreds of rabid spectator extras behind him. The crowd, the music, the cacophony! Very stirring, very imaginative--and then we get Amazons fighting pygmies. At times the direction is a bit too sympathetic and pedantic in its treatment of the Christians, but that's I'm sure to assuage the censors who allowed unbelievably naughty behavior in this magnificent, violent, sexy romp. This film desperately needs the Criterion Collection!
I also saw about 45 minutes of
which was fantastic as well--and notable for this utterance of Lord Henry: "Don't you find that one of the charms of marriage is that it makes deception a necessity for both parties?" Fans of
will recall the magnificently oily Hungarian Sandor Szavost using precisely this uncredited line in an attempt to bed Alice Harford despite her connubial protestations.
God, I need to take a break from films and do some reading, but I can't concentrate on anything since finishing Garcia Marquez.
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Huh--intrestingly enough this morning I was ogling some photos of Claudette Colbert in Daniel Blum's Screen World 1949.
I tried to read this Oxford history of medieval art but was put off by some weird mistakes. It refers to the Monstrous Races on the Hereford cathedral world map--"ranged, according to common belief, at the southern edge of Africa {3}." The goofy thing is {3} is a detail of "Three inhabitants of Siberia" from the Livre des Merveilles. And the comment under describes the Blemmye (faces on their chest), Sciapods (one enormous foot) and "a naked wild man." Except, that's not a naked wild man it's a goddamn cyclops for crying out loud!!
Anyway that bugged me so I dropped it and well I guess I better get back to work...
A naked wild Cyclops? I've seen it described elsewhere as a demon.
Got Gorgon from Alibris for $2.99.
Good--it's a neat read. Started reading a Ballard story this morning--it is really nice!
The only Ballard I ever read was Crash, but I really liked it, so I should read more.
I should read more, period.
As I've noted in my Amazon review of the worst book ever written, "Hollywood vs. America" by Michael Medved, I am delighted when "conservative film festivals" show DeMille's film of "The Ten Commandments" and praise him as some kind of movie deity who championed wholesome entertainment (Medved himself provided opening comments last year).
"Sign of The Cross" shows what DeMille was REALLY made of. It was so subversive it helped bring on the wrath of the Catholic Legion of Decency against Hollywood. Medved neglected to mention this in his glory hallelujahs about the "good old days" of family moviemaking.
Fag or no, I would love to have gotten my hands on Claudette Colbert.
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