Category Archives: Film

326: The Queer History of the Word “Gunsel”

The Shorter OED defines Gunsel as “1 A naive youth; a homosexual youth, … 2 An informer; a criminal, a gunman.” Merriam-Webter’s Unabridged is similar.

The older of the two meanings, in the U.S., was “homosexual,” and the word was used with only this meaning in Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon. However, when that novel was translated to the screen in 1941 (starring Humphrey Bogart), the film was “one of many of the era that … could only hint at homosexuality.” [Wikipedia] The hint was subtle indeed. When one character who frequently brandished a gun was repeatedly called a “gunsel,” most moviegoers thought that the unfamiliar word meant “gunman” or “gunslinger.” This mistake, owing to the fame of the film, eventually became an accepted alternative meaning.

Pauline Kael once mentioned that she had a very high regard for the 1941 film, for its original cinematic qualities and pacing. However, the film is, almost shot for shot, a literal translation of the novel. Many of its virtues are not original in film, but were derived from the book. It’s possible that Kael hadn’t read the novel (at the time, I didn’t venture to ask her that, because I hadn’t read it then, either.)

<END>

Leave a comment

203: “I Can’t Get That Tune Out of My Mind!”

Why is that? It happens to almost everyone, and the particular music that sets it off seems to differ in each of us. There’s some indication that a repetitive theme helps generate the effect, but not everyone keeps hearing Ravel’s Bolero in his head. Almost all music, come to that, is repetitive, not “through-composed”. What sets me off, for one, is modulations on the same theme, a technique common to much film music. Right now, I have Francis Lai’s theme music for the movie Emmanuelle II in my head, and I know it will be there for several days (it’s happened before — I’m paying the price for listening to it again). Another piece of music that does it for me is Scharwenka’s third piano concerto.

What if there were a piece of music so cunningly conceived that anyone who hears it will keep hearing it — forever? Sounds like a great concept for a sci-fi story. Although perhaps that idea has been used. Over and over and over.

<END>

Leave a comment

142: Movie Music

I like film (and TV) scores. Music from studio films is often released in CD or download formats. Many of the great scores of the past were French: Tirez sure le Pianiste (music by Georges Delerue); Cleo de 5 a 7 (Michel Legrand); Jules et Jim (Delerue); Parapluies de Cherbourg (Legrand). In the 1930s and 40s, many composers influenced by Mahler fled to the U.S. and found jobs in Hollywood; a major improvement in Hollywood film music was one result. (If you think that Mahler ‘sounds like movie music’ you’re right, in a way; but it’s the other way ’round.) Recent American (or mostly American) films with superlative music include Kill Bill 1, Collateral, Paycheck, and of course The Mission.

I also like Radio IO (www.radioio.com). If you pay an annual subscription, you get music, and only  music, streamed to your computer; you avoid the really annoying ads their no-pay audio channels run. So I’m happy to pay to hear music that no station in this area (Washington, D.C.) would touch — including serious classical music (rather than ‘safe’ classical music), — and an all-soundtracks channel.

What I don’t like are soundtracks presented one cut at a time, five minutes of Star Wars and then three minutes of Dexter and four minutes of Titanic, and so on. I want to hear the composer’s presentation of his music straight through, just as I want to see a film straight through, see a play straight through, and hear a symphony straight through.

I sent this message to Michael Matheny at RadioIO: “Excellent choices. But it’s disconcerting to hear the music jumping from album to album, rather than playing complete scores. Music for a film should be heard as a whole, just as films should be seen as a whole, not jumbled up with scenes from other films.”

I received a response, making the point that some cuts in a soundtrack album are weaker than others. That’s true. But some symphonic movements (the classical third movement in many cases) can be weaker than the other three movements. We don’t skip them just because they’re pretty much a change of pace, a breather before the heavy stuff begins again. There’s a reason the composer wrote these movements, and we need to recognize that. And soundtrack albums aren’t literally what you heard in a theatre; the composer has room to ‘revise and extend his remarks’ as they say in the Senate; to shape an album from the music he composed for a film (some of which may not have made it into the theatrical release); to create an artistic whole. This, also, should be recognized; and respected.

Also, it isn’t the case that RadioIO just skips an inferior cut here and there — their soundtracks channel plays one cut from film ‘A’ and then switches to film ‘B’, and then on to ‘C’. If you wait long enough, you’ll hear the ‘A’ cut you should have heard where it belonged.

<END>

109: Top Ten Science Fiction Films

A very personal view of great science fiction films, not including TV series or made-for-TV movies:

1. Top ten modern sci-fi films, in alphabetical order:

Alien (director’s cut)

Alien 3 (theatrical release version)

Bladerunner (‘final’ director’s cut)

Brazil (original uncut version)

Clockwork Orange

Final Cut

Minority Report

Paycheck (with the deleted scenes; some of these make essential plot points)

Rollerball (1975, not the remake)

Twelve Monkeys (and the original, La Jetee)

2. Honorable Mention:

Dark City (original version now finally released, without the Kiefer Sutherland prologue)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978- the one with Donald Sutherland)

Children of Men

The Man Who Fell to Earth

3. “More than the sum of its parts”: Individual films are weak, but the series as a whole adds up:

Terminator 1, 2, 3

Cube 1, 2, 0   [must be viewed in that order!]

4. Special award for brilliant concept though movie not so good:

The 13th Floor

5. Dubious award for an underscore so excellent it pulls your attention away from the screen:

Paycheck (music by John Powell)

<END>

16: An Unnoticed Cinematic Allusion?

Just this week I watched Conan the Barbarian (1981) for the first time. The most striking aspect of this film to me (aside from the story and acting, about which the less said the better) was the resemblance of its cinematography and musical treatment to Lord of the Rings (2001-2003). Consider, as only one of many possible examples, how thudding music is used with closeups of running feet. I don’t believe this was coincidental, nor do I believe it was simply a matter of two film-makers responding to similar themes. But there’s nothing wrong with getting your inspiration wherever you can!