Avenue Kurtodrome

The author of No One Belongs Here More Than You is Miranda July, she also stars in others’ video clips (Blonde Redhead’s Top Ranking) and makes movies (You and Me and Everyone We Know), but today I’d like to talk about her book. I don’t know what it is about Miranda July, but she’s like a ghost to me: when I wanted to go and watch her movie, it wasn’t playing (and that was the final day in my homebase, so tough luck). When her movie was going to be shown on Dutch telly, it got cancelled in favour of a repeat of the Coen brothers’ “O Brother Where Art Thou?”.

I noticed her book in Dutch translation and crossed the aisle to see if they also had her collection of stories in English version. They did. Sometimes Dutch books have lovely covers, which make you want to buy the translations rather than the originals (as mentioned in an earlier thread). This time the Dutch book looked a bit bland. The English paperback, however… well, judge for yourselves:

Wow, I don’t know about you, but I just love that picture…

I still haven’t read the book (I’m about to), but I’d like to think my money went to buying that photograph. 

Anyway, if you have a couple of minutes, do check out the website Miranda made for her book. It may just be the best book site I’ve ever seen:
http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/

I hope you agree. Even if you don’t like reading.

P.S. This is an older post. I’d planned to put it in the archive of this blog on the day I’d originally written it (March 30), but then I previewed the post to see if every link was working and I saw the book cover again. And then I decided: no, it may seem silly to repost this, but I like the cover and Miranda July’s book site (did you check the link above?) so much… it deserves a second chance. So you there you go.
Since the original post I’ve read the book. It’s full of stories with a twist: e.g. a woman who used to learn three older people how to swim doesn’t seem abnormal, until you realize there is no pool or beach in the town and she’s teaching them swimming lessons in her kitchen. Odd situations and fucked-up families, No One Belongs Here More Than You is full of such stories. Not all of them are hits, but the beauty and oddness of the more perfect(ed) stories make up for that.

Verdict: 7.5/10

Now, will you check Miranda’s book site? Pretty please?

In case you’re wondering why I’m going to bother you with my book of the year 2007 (”Isn’t this supposed to be a film site?”), don’t worry: my book of the year is a book about film.
Silent comedies to be precise and the author is one Paul Merton. You may (read: should) know Merton as the deadpan comic genius on Have I Got News for You and you may also have seen some of his other comedy work. That is why, to some, it was a surprise that Merton was such a fan of silent comedies. (An opinion that I, personally, just can’t wrap my head around: why would that be special?)

The BBC commissioned Merton to make a four-part series on silent comedians and - in an attempt not to shock people who’d immediately reach for their remote if they saw a programme with black and white footage - broadcast it on BBC4. This didn’t stop Paul Merton from touring the country with his lecture on classic comedy and this was such a success the comedian penned down his thoughts. The result is this book.

A book on four silent comedy icons (Keaton, Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy and Lloyd) written by a contemporary comedian… don’t worry about high expectations, Paul Merton will not let you down.

Unlike the 2006 BBC4 tv series Silent Clowns (which got more viewers in 2007 thanks to the torrent sites and a long overdue repeat on BBC2 - it was finally shown in November 2007) which dedicated an episode to each comedian (let’s just make my life a bit easier and see Laurel and Hardy for the length of this review), Silent Comedy chooses to tell the story in a chronological order. This may seem odd, but one of the many things you’ll learn from this book is how those silent comedians ‘learned’ from each other and used it in their own movies.

Merton discusses every movie with great detail. He will tell the plot, give his own opinion of how good the film was and highlight the most memorable moments of the film. For this he uses his narrative charm (which you may remember from several bits of Paul Merton: The Series), which will enchant you so much you won’t be able to shake off the urge to go to your videostore or browse the internet (remember the Archive?) to find some of these movies and enjoy them thoroughly.
The Guardian’s critic Charlie Brooker never felt much for Buster Keaton and after 35 minutes of Merton’s tv show he eagerly wanted to see a Keaton movie. I myself could not be called a big Charlie Chaplin fan and, after reading Silent Comedy, felt I’d enjoyed last week’s screening of The Circus much more than I would’ve done otherwise.

Here’s something the book taught me: Buster Keaton was married against his own will, which is why he made several references to unhappy marriages in his movies. In one of his movies a car is willfully destroyed: quite an outlandish thing to do in an era when most of the audience wasn’t able to purchase something as luxurious as an automobile. However, the car was just like the wedding gift Keaton had received from his producer (and father-in-law).

If you want to know more about how Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd created their on-screen personae, which Chaplin jokes are nods to other comedians, how Keaton dared to ignore the ban on using comedian Roscoe Arbuckle or how long the road to success had been for Stan Laurel, then Silent Comedy is a must.

Heck, if you like movies, Silent Comedy is a must.

Okay, so we’re already a couple of days into this new year, but we haven’t put up a list of my favourites of 2007. (Not that anyone would lose some sleep over that if I wouldn’t post them.)

* F * I * L * M *

As it’s a film site after all, let’s find out who made it to my top 10 there. 2007 wasn’t the most inspiring of years, I’ve noticed. A lot of the films I watched didn’t get more than 5 out of 10. Maybe I missed out on some movies. Like The Assassination of Jesse James By The Rest of That Very Long Movie Title I Can Never Remember: that one got quite some praise, but sadly just didn’t play long enough for me to go and see it. But I did have time to go and watch Notes of a Scandal (oh, the horror).

Anyway, enough chit chat: here’s the list.

MOVIE TOP 10
1. PERSEPOLIS
2. EASTERN PROMISES
3. CONTROL
4. PAPRIKA
5. DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN
6. INLAND EMPIRE
7. FAY GRIM
8. NAISSANCE DES PIEUVRES (WATER LILIES)
9. OBER
10. MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS

(I chose a picture of Water Lilies to accompany because that’s the only movie in my list that didn’t get a single mention on DV. The full list, albeit in Dutch, can be viewed here.)

* B * O * O * K * S *

Before we get to the music, I want to remind you that my book of the year was Paul Merton’s Silent Comedy. I did get time to read lots of other books and one I never had gotten round to before but that I was manage to crawl through in 2007 was Mark L. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. I beg your pardon, House of Leaves.
If you aren’t an avid reader, I’d advise you to stay away from this. But if you like to read and don’t mind a gigantic challenge: try that one out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves

And if you’d like some music with that, here’s my 10 favourite tracks of the year.

* M * U * S * I * C *

1. TUNNG - Bullets
2. COCOROSIE - Japan / Rainbowarriors
3. BLONDE REDHEAD - 23
4. THE FIERY FURNACES - Ex-Guru
5. LOW - Breaker
6. BEIRUT - Cliquot
7. FEIST - Sealion
8. THE RAVEONETTES - Aly, Walk With Me
9. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - Get Innocuous
10. ARCADE FIRE - Black Mirror

Please visit the special Democratische 99 page on my website to find the entire list (all 99 tracks) plus lots of MP3s and YouTube links.

No New Year is complete without a look back at the year that was… 2006 brought us movies, films and books. As Delirium Vault is mostly a movie site I’ll just mention the books and music I feel should be mentioned and then we’ll go to my personal movie favourites of 2006.

BOOKS
- Fiction: Thomas Pynchon - Against The Day
Pynchon released a new novel in 2006 and this time we only had to wait nine years! 1085 pages of postmodernist nonsense, a book spawning from 1893 to just after World War I. The good airship Inconvenience will guide the Chums of Chance through their adventures, cameos of Tesla and Groucho will pop up, Icelandic spar, people drowning in mayonaise… Pynchon’s latest novel is impossible to describe (that’s 1085 pages chokeful of characters), but oh what a joy to read.

- Non-fiction: Joris Luyendijk - Het Zijn Net Mensen (They’re almost people)
Former news correspondent for the Middle East Luyendijk has published a book about his experiences as a media man. His analysis of the region: the more you learn about the Middle East, the less you understand. Neatly describing how the media work in countries governed by dictators, the way the media distort the news and the Israeli-Palestinian media wars… this book is so essential to read it’s well worth learning Dutch for.

MUSIC
Usually I publish a list of my favourite tunes, but 2006 proved to be a bit too busy to listen to a lot of music, so I think I’ll skip one year. Which doesn’t mean I can’t make a top three:

1. The Fiery Furnaces - I’m In No Mood (album: Bitter Tea)
2. Stereolab - Interlock (album: Fab Four Suture)
3. Sufjan Stevens - Dear Mr Supercomputer (album: The Avalanche)

And now it’s onto the movies…

1. El Laberinto del Fauno (9,5)
I’ll discuss this movie, better known as Pan’s Labyrinth, later on DV. Let’s just say, for now, it’s definitely the best movie of the year. And I’ll only let you disagree with me on this one if I’m in love with you.
2. Zwartboek (9)
Paul Verhoeven came back to Holland and what a comeback Black Book is! People are finally understanding why I’ve been saying Carice van Houten (pic) is an incredibly talented actress. Stylish, fun and good…
3. United 93 (9)
Paul Greengrass already directed Bloody Sunday and proved to be the best man for the job to make a movie about the hijacked plane that didn’t reach its target on 9/11. Thanks to the talent of Greengrass the movie stays sober and good. Let’s face it, this could’ve easily become a sad work of propaganda. Worst error: the scene where the terrorists tape a picture of their target onto the steering wheel. I didn’t know we knew for sure what the target was. See, there’s always a bit of propaganda with this sort of film.
4. The Secret Life of Words (8,5)
I’ve already discussed this on DV. Please scroll back.
5. Good Night, And Good Luck (8,5)
I’ve already discussed this on DV. Please scroll back.
6. Children of Men (8,5)
Utterly mind-blowing when you see it, but you do get a feeling of “it wasn’t that great” after a few hours and days. Nevertheless, notice how long certain scenes in this movie are and you’ll just have to admit this movie was a product of a lot of talented people coming together.
7. Slither (8)
Not the most original movie of the year, but one with its heart on the right place. References to Slugs, Shivers, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Yuzna and Henenlotter are never far off. Who said horror couldn’t be fun??
8. Capote (8)
Hoffman is amazing, the film is good.
9. Walk The Line (7,5)
Oh, how Reese Witherspoon deserved her Oscar for this movie. Phoenix and Witherspoon are so good you get to feel the love between Johnny and June. They even sing the songs themselves and get away with it.
10. The Descent (7,5)
I’ve already discussed this on DV. Please scroll back.

Bubbling under…Brick, The New World, An Inconvenient Truth, The Inside Man and  Tideland.

We’ve already reviewed another Pocket Essential guide, the essential on horror films. Like this guide, that one was also written by Colin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc.
Whereas we had some reserves for their Pocket Essential Guide to Horror Films, we’re more pleased with their 96-page-long epic on vampire films.

Odell and Le Blanc know their horror films: they know many details, but don’t always feel the need to mention every anecdote the reader might find amusing: no, this is a Pocket Essential. In 96 pages you should learn to bluff your way through the Nosferatus of this world. Though we haven’t really tried this out (all it takes is to find an ignoramus, make him read the book and have him spend some time with a horror movie buff and see if they can keep up the facade), we can say that the authors’ taste is fairly consistent. Of course you do notice that two authors compiled this booklet, but their tastes match.

“Vampire movies,” we are told, “are almost as old as film itself. Constantly remade and reinvented for each new generation, the films, like the vampires themselves, adopt many shapes - from the faithful adaptation of Francis Coppola’s Dracula (1992) to the art movie approach of Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu remake (1979] via the high-school horror of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992).”
“This handy book traces the vampire film from its beginnings to the present day, acknowledging on its way all the classics of vampire cinema from the original Nosferatu (1921) right up to Blade (1998) and beyond. From saucy French vampires to hopping Chinese ones, from Hammer horrors to Hollywood blockbusters, whatever your favourite bloodsucker you’ll find it here.”

And you know what, the text doesn’t lie. The Vampire Films guide covers probably every sort of film with a vampire in 12 chapters: the first chapter discusses the vampire film’s themes and sources and prepares you for the chapter-to-chapter look at the vampire genres. The second chapter kicks off where it should kick off: it introduces the reader to the earliest vampire films. The introduction mentions movies like Méliès’s Le Manoir du Diable (1896) before going deeper into the early classics like Nosferatu, Vampyr and Dracula.
The third chapter isn’t called “Hurrah for Hammer” for no reason: Hammer Films are highly influential when it comes down to our look at the vampire movie. No wonder then that no less than 13 pages are dedicated to Hammer. The Hammer chapter is actually split up in another three parts: apart from a third part compiling all the Hammer vampire flicks we take a closer look at the Dracula series that made Christopher Lee so famous and at Hammer’s Karnstein trilogy (The Vampire Lovers, Lust For A Vampire and Twins of Evil).
For the next chapters Odell and Le Blanc crossed the channel: the fourth chapter highlights the best and worst of European cinema while the fifth is dedicated to Jean Rollin. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t a big fan of Rollin’s work, but this essential guide made me interested in some of his films I hadn’t planned on seeing otherwise.
The sixth chapter focuses on another series, the Chinese Mr. Vampire series, and uses their stay to discuss a few other Asian vampire films (along with some South-American movies) in the seventh chapter. I hadn’t heard about this series, but after reading this book, I had a good idea of which Mr. Vampire films I could watch and which I’ll gladly give to someone I can’t stand. The Mr. Vampire parody on Police Academy, Vampire Settle on Police Camp, springs to mind.
From South-American films to vampire comedy is but a small and logical step. The chapter is a reference to one of the better horror comedies: “Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are In My Neck” is of course the subtitle of The Fearless Vampire Killers.
Both the independent cinema (chapter 9) and Hollywood (chapter 12) have made their fair share of vampire films and once again they’re reviewed here from the very best to the very worst. (Speaking of worst, From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money is apparently the most horrible vampire film ever. Not having seen it, somehow I think I might agree.)
The tenth chapter of this guide is dedicated to the weirder films (starring a vampire, that is) of the world: according to the authors, The Lair of the White Worm gives you every proof you need that Ken Russell is an underrated auteur. Three more pages to be filled and one further genre to dissect: “Sci-Fi Suckers” covers the “bloodsucking fiends in other forms” (p. 71) and is allegedly where movies like The Omega Man and Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires belong. To be honest, it was the only chapter I found a bit confusing. Why does Zoltan, Hound of Dracula not belong here then? (Although, it does fit in the weird and deranged chapter.)

The twelve chapters aren’t the only way these movies are categorized, there’s also the Fang Factor which tells you how good and/or vampiric the discussed movie is (of course, a good vampire films stands or falls with its vampire.)
From the pale Fang Factor 1 to the bloodred Fang Factor 5, it tells you whether the authors think this movie is one to watch or miss. Apart from this Fang Factor, each movie gets a synopsis and a short discussion on the pros and cons of the film. This allows you to possibly disagree with the authors, which we think is quite essential to any sort of genre compilation.
From Dusk Till Dawn 2 will have to do with Fang Factor None, but which movies did Odell and Le Blanc like best? Seven movies deserved a Fang Factor Five and personally I can follow the authors’ taste. These magnificent seven (sorry) are Hammer’s Dracula, Rollin’s La Morte Vivante, Mr. Vampire, The Fearless Vampire Killers, George A. Romero’s powerful Martin, Cronos and The Hunger. But wait, one movie beats them all and walks away with Fang Factor Six: the ultimate vampire movie is the Belgian masterpiece Daughters of Darkness (aka Le Rouge aux Lèvres).

So how essential is this movie guide? Pretty essential, give us 96 pages and we couldn’t do it better (though we might have shortened the 20-page-long Hollywood chapter, but then again, these are the movies you might spot first in your local video store).
The authors even did a better job compared to their guide on Horror Films: we only spot two mistakes in this guide (and now that we’re comparing both guides, Mario Bava gets more praise in this guide than in the authors’ guide to horror films): still, for people who went through all these vampire movies, you could’ve expected them to look up the exact title of Franju’s horrific masterpiece. Yeux sans le visage it certainly isn’t.

Still, this book shows your vampire movie bible doesn’t need to be hundreds of pages long: 96 pages is enough and an essential buy at the £2.99 it originally cost when released in the year 2000.
Two years later you had to cough up £3.99 (whereas that might make you less enthusiastic, we can reassure you you’ll still get your money’s worth) and now it’s “currently unavailable with no reprint date announced”.
We suggest you write to Pocket Essentials and demand a reprint. Tell them Delirium Vault sent you.

Writing an essential book on someone’s work isn’t easy, so you can expect how hellish it must have been to write an essential guide to horror films. Oh, and could you do that in 95 pages? Michelle Le Blanc and Colin Odell did it.
Such a work is bound to be incomplete: how can you compile 105 years in 95 pages? Well, first and foremost by starting at the Twenties and ending with the Nineties. For every decade, they made an introduction and then reviewed three movies that were saying something about their decade.
This is of course not enough and that is why Le Blanc and Odell also dissected the works of ten horror auteurs. After an introduction, two or three movies got a close examination.

That could still be a initiative that sounds well, yet falls flat on its face when executed. Le Blanc and Odell, however, didn’t fall into that trap. Almost every important auteur is mentioned in this booklet: if they were not one of the lucky ten, one of their works could have been mentioned in one of the decades (and with every reviewed movie you learn a bit more about the director or the studio). If that wasn’t the case either, they probably got mentioned in one of the introductions to the decades.

The problem I have with this guide is the errors they make. Mind you, this is a personal work, so if they feel that most Italian directors like Bava or Freda were nothing more than cheap imitators, then that’s their opinion. A wrong opinion, but an opinion nevertheless. They certainly have no sympathy for Lucio Fulci, he gets the harshest verdict: a complete loser, only capable of stealing ideas or showing mutilated bodies.
Well if they feel that way about him, then that’s their problem. But I think they should at least have tried to spell the director’s name correctly. He is mentioned three times as “Fulchi”.

There are more stupid errors: “Lucio Fulci’s [spelled correctly for a change] notorious Zombie Flesh Eaters was even marketed as Zombi 2 in some quarters to cash in on Dawn of the Dead’s continental title.” (p. 68) Could you get further from the truth? It might seem to the English that the whole of Europe is an unimportant mess of countries, but in fact Dawn of the Dead was only marketed as Zombi in Italy. Fulci is Italian, which explains why he chose the title Zombi 2 (the films are unrelated however) for his movie. So Zombi 2 is the official title of Fulci’s movie and the film was only called Zombie Flesh Eaters in America and England.
Likewise, I have problems with “[after Nosferatu Murnau] would go on to direct Faust (1926), [...] before moving on to non-genre projects.” (p. 14) Murnau made non-genre projects before Faust and even before Nosferatu.

But if you would the number of errors from the number of times Le Blanc and Odell tell you vital information, you’ll still have to conclude that for 95 pages and £3, this is a booklet worthy of your money. Before I leave you, I would like you to check the films and directors mentioned in Horror Films:

Twenties: The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Haxan, The Phantom of the Opera
Thirties/Forties: King Kong, The Ghoul, Dead of Night
Fifties: The Quatermass Experiment, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Les Yeux sans Visage
Sixties: Peeping Tom, The Masque of the Red Death, Rosemary’s Baby
Seventies: Theater of Blood, The Exorcist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Eighties: Evil Dead, The Thing, Spoorloos
Nineties: Braindead, Dust Devil, The Blair Witch Project
Tod Browning: Dracula, Freaks
James Whale: Frankenstein, The Old Dark House, Bride of Frankenstein
Val Lewton (producer): Cat People, The Body Snatcher, Bedlam
Terence Fisher: The Mummy, The Curse of the Werewolf, Dracula: Prince of Darkness
George A. Romero: Night of the Living Dead, Martin, Dawn of the Dead
Dario Argento: Deep Red, Suspiria, Inferno
David Cronenberg: Shivers, The Fly, Dead Ringers
Joe Dante: Piranha, The Howling, Gremlins
Wes Craven: A Nightmare on Elm Street, The People Under The Stairs, Scream
Clive Barker: Hellraiser, Nightbreed, Lord of Illusions

And if that’s not enough, at the end of the book you’ll find 50 other films certainly worth seeing. I guess you know what to do know.

Horror Films by LeBlanc and Odell is part of the Pocket Essentials collection. They’re cheap and concise guides to directors, genres and subgenres.

I confess I don’t own a lot of movie books. I often find them too specialized. Mark Cousins wrote The Story of Film, a brave attempt to talk about all the movies made from 1895 to now, not just from Hollywood and the UK, but also from Europe, Asia and Africa.
The question is, can one book explain the entire history of cinema? And can Cousins write that book?

The answer:The Story of Film by Mark Cousins is an incredible read. £19 is a lot of money, but it’s not wasted on this heavy book.

The big problem with the book is that Cousins (film critic, producer and the second host of Moviedrome) can be a bit full of himself, but make no mistake, this man knows a lot about film.
He was asked to write a book in one volume about the history of cinema. The book is approximately 500 pages long and it’s well-written and highly informative.
Cousins doesn’t just focus on Western cinema, but also mentions Indian and African cinema. Of course he can’t write about everybody in just 500 pages, so he only wrote about those directors that had an effect on other directors.
While some favourites of yours may not have made it (and indeed he doesn’t mention B Cinema that much), this book has told me more about cinema than I’ve read in dozens of other works about film.

Cousins explained his choice as follows: if A makes a new form of cinema and other directors (B-H) follow him, Cousins’ll briefly mention B,C,D,E,F,G and H after talking about A.
If, however, director E was directly influenced by the work of A and took those ideas a step further, Cousins will mainly talk about A and E.

He also divided his book into the three most important periods of film:
A. Silent Cinema
B. Sound Cinema (1928-1990)
C. Digital Cinema (1990-now)
Why? Because there have been lots of changes in cinema’s history, but these three are the most important changes of them all. First they learned how to make still move, then sound was added and from the nineties onwards digital effects were good enough to add something to the cinema we already knew and liked.

Within those three chapters Cousins skips flawlessly from continent to continent, making you feel inadequate about the small size of your video library.

As an added plus, the book is full with beautiful stills and photographs (more than 300) and they’re a joy to look at.

But not all is well: the book’s editor was sloppy and left quite a few spelling mistakes in the book. Plus, Cousins occasionally has it wrong (the first time is on page 8 when he says DVD stands for Digital Video Disk - when in fact the V stands for Versatile).
But if you’d like to correct the man on his knowledge of directors, you’ll have a much tougher time.

When nearing and reaching the era of digital cinema Cousins does tend to become a bit more personal in his choices. Then again, it’s always hard to write history and his choice of who’s becoming the first director genius is as good as mine.

Is this a perfect book? No, but such a book will never be written. Is this a book that does an astonishing job in reviewing the most influential and important cinema of the first 110 years? Definitely.
Let those who think they can do better, try it. We’ll see who’ll have the last laugh.

Mark Cousins
The Story of Film
suggested price: £25 (hardcover), £10 (softcover)

The book has also been published in the US (by Thunder’s Mouth Press), but you’ll have to get used to the horrible cover. A Spanish translation has also been made.