The day is just beginning, but I am already pleased to be able to read Baz Bambigoye in print in the Daily Mail (he has a shot of Kate Hudson in Nine that still looks like used goods)… and many of the other Brit papers. The obsession with the UK version of Cloris Leachman is starting to slow, though the older gent who quit is now causing the BBC to refund the telephone expenses of all who voted for him this last week.
Sad to see that Clive Barnes passed. I was not really in sync with Barnes, but a great old pro who will be missed.
The last two movies last night were, again, quite good. Epperlein & Tucker’s Bulletproof Salesman is more subtle than either of their earlier films. The film about an German armored car salesman/manufacturer traces the path of the Iraq War and in his very specific field, the need to evolve from bulletproof to bombproof. Tucker, whose voice I recognize, though he is not in the film as a character, is along for the ride, literally. What’s it like to be in a car with people shooting automatics at you? We now know, thanks to Mike. This husband/wife team continues to do fascinating work, outside the margins. Their first film, Gunner Palace, was the first of its kind. But since then, their interest in the kinks of the individuals who live in the war zone has been completely compelling.
This was followed by Citizen Havel, which was a perfect capper to both the Iraq film and War Room Redux. The film was very much in that Maysles/Hegedus/Pennebaker style of being a fly on the wall… only here, instead of documenting the supporting cast, the center of this film is the head of state. Keeping it lively is Havel’s personality – cheerful, goofy, vain, direct, repetitive, and undistracted by his own flaws.
This is the kind of film that ages with you… more layers as you think about it more… because it is not directly about his story so much as it is about a man in that very unique position. When he waffles on issues, he seems like every guy at a kitchen table trying to hash something out. When he makes the same joke about a foreign head of state for the fourth time, it is still charming because he is still selling the joke as well as telling us something he thinks is profound. When he prepares to have photos taken, he is like any family leader at a Sears Photo Studio, wondering if he looks good in that shirt.
If there turned out to be a theme for the day, it was the breaking down (and building) of mythologies. High profile people and stories from perspectives that were unexpected.
The only oddball remains the audition piece from Brazil, which, as I think about it, has elements of Spike Lee’s Girl 8… which also left me wondering.
On to the day… there seems to be some sun up in the sky… really enjoying this town… even having not gone to visit the Red Light District yet… can you come here and not? interestingly, another huge buzz story in the UK is about new efforts to penalize men who go to legal prostitutes who turn out to be human trafficked “slaves.” The issue is controversial, even there, with other women’s issues not getting as much buzz, though many feel they should. But it does seem like people are waking up to the shockingly large issue of women being trafficked around the globe.

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