Mildred Pierce by James Cain

How many James Cain novels have been made into movies? I'm not sure. Three of the best adaptations were Mildred Pierce, Double Indemnity, and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Of these three, my favorite is Mildred Pierce. I think I've seen it at least ten times.

I bought a copy of it first in videocassette form and later in DVD. All this, and it never occurred to me to read the book. This year that changed when HBO announced they would be turning the book into a five part miniseries.

The original movie (for which Joan Crawford won an Academy Award) was less than two hours long. What could be in the book that could possibly fill five parts? I was intrigued enough to read the book. It was a great read, but very different from the movie.

Veda, the daughter, was even worse in the book. To this day, I still can't watch a movie with Ann Blythe without picturing her as that evil child. Joan Crawford was also excellent as the mother even though just as in real life she sucked as a mother.

I'd give both the book and the movie an A. To HBO I'd give a warning. Remember that James Cain's novels were sexy thrillers not sleazy trash.

Virtual Ebertfest!

Can't attend all the Ebertfest activities this week? Neither can I, alas.
(But check out the Ebertfest website. Some tickets are still available, and you'll get a great taste of what's going on.)

Here's an exciting new Ebertfest option! You can view some of the activities from the comfort of your own computer!

Roger Ebert, an avid user of Twitter, has just tweeted
"Ebertfest will stream live on the net. Here is the *correct* link *with* the guide with days and times. http://j.mp/cOj3pW"

The page Mr. Ebert points to has the schedule, times, and the link to the streaming videos.

Not the movies, of course, but you can access the morning UIUC panel discussions and the Q&A sessions after the films.

Enjoy Ebertfest! Now it's only a computer away!

So Much Testosterone

A former English professor of whom I'm greatly fond once wrote me,

I can't hear what happens in rock music. Indeed, it's as bizarre to me as watching a baseball game or a football game--it's as though I see people moving but I cannot begin to understand how anyone can appreciate what is going on, which seems to be bodies moving around in a blur.

Rick Ernst's documentary Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal is unlikely to help him decipher these mysteries. But it goes a long way in explaining the mindset and passions of many young males in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Um ... myself included.

Bang-yao Liu's DEADLINE

This fantastic stop-motion film was created by a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design. The "making of" video is available here.

If stop-motion movies tickle your fancy, check out our documentary Monster Road, about animator Bruce Bickford:

Man Up: Katt Williams

Two items on steady under-the-radar circulation:

the CD and DVD editions of comedian Katt Williams' It's Pimpin' Pimpin'.

One reviewer at Amazon.com writes:

"I live in a building in South Florida with a lot of old people. We laughed so hard and loud ... that one of my neighbors told the security guard to come tell us to be quiet."

Williams also appears in the films Norbit, First Sunday, and The Perfect Holiday.

Author Presentation, Film Screening, and Book Signing

April 6^th, 2:00- 4:00

Author Talk “When God Looked the Other Way : An Odyssey of War, Exile, and Redemption” + Film Screening “Children in Exile”

In the fall of 1939, when Wesley Adamczyk was only 7 years old, Soviet forces invaded his small Polish village. Wesley and his family were deported and found themselves shipped to one brutal Siberian camp after another, surviving communist double agents, desert scorpions, starving wolves, and the afflictions of extreme poverty. Miraculously young Wesley endures this ordeal, which he recounts in his memoir "When God Looked The Other Way" -- an account that manages to charm and engage even as it breaks the reader's heart. Adamcyzk places his own survival story in a broader context, telling not just his own story but also the story of one of the more overlooked aspects of World War II -- the Soviet assault on Poland

Please join us for the film’s first screening, “Children in Exile”, unanimously voted as Best Documentary Film in the 2008 San Luis Obispo film festival. Children in Exile is a documentary based on Wesley Adamczyk’s story. This film has not yet been released for public viewing, but the Urbana Free Library has been granted a special exception in honor of the Heroes events.

The State Within

A quick recommendation for fans of top-class British TV -- a six-part BBC drama called The State Within.

Imagine a show that combined the nailbiting, non-fascist aspects of 24 with the fast-talking inside-the-beltway realpolitiking of The West Wing, mixing in a healthy dose of ripped-from-the-headlines War on Terror shenanigans of...well...The Bush Administration, all wrapped up in some classier-than-classy BBC production values.

That's The State Within.

The series boasts a sprawling, multilinear plot that seems at first to lead everywhere before settling into an all-too-believable story centering on UK ambassador to the US Mark Brydon (Jason Isaacs -- get this man for the next Bond movie, NOW) and the aftermath of a terrorist attack that threatens to jeopardize relationships between the two countries.

All sort of skullduggery and double-crossery ensue, in a narrative that forces the viewer to lean forward and pay close attention to every scene. If you are one of those people (and I am) who tends to say "Hang on, why is he saying that to her? I thought he was with the good guys? Is that the same guy we saw planting the bomb in the last episode? etc." then this show will most likely make your head swell up to twice its normal size.

There are no big names in this production, although many involved deserve to go on to become huge in the coming years. Isaacs in particular, looking a bit like Clive Owen if someone ironed out some of those crumples from his face, manages to radiate experience and gravitas while complicating it with a little loss of control around the edges (a loss of control that only increases as things progress.)

In general, The State Within achieves a level of believability and realism that is usually lacking in shows of this genre -- a realism that encompasses both the plot itself, as well as individual scenes (the aforementioned terrorist attack, for example, is unexpectedly gripping and harrowing, trapping the viewer very much in the role of helpless bystander.) Fans of intelligent TV drama, Anglophiles, conspiracy theorists, and especially anyone who has recently read Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" will all be sitting and nodding their heads throughout.

-- this blog post taken, with permission, verbatem from the Transatlantica Blog