Eponymously Yours, W. Skeffington Higgins

The Daily Mail ran a picture portraying the shooting of the new Dan Brown movie, Inferno.


Copyright New Press Photo/Splash News
Their caption?

"Delightful sights: Last week, the cast and crew on Inferno were spotted shooting in the city of Venice"

Unless the Uffizi Gallery in Florence has, unbeknownst to me, turned itself into a nationwide franchise with a branch in Venice, including a sculpture gallery of celebrated Florentines, um, I don't think so.


Copyright 2013 by William S. Higgins
Orcagna is disappointed in the Daily Mail.

I wonder if this movie will have any antimatter in it.

If you are a filmgoer who enjoyed the Irish animated feature The Secret of Kells as much as I did, it will please you to hear that Tomm Moore is directing a new film, which is nearly completed: Song of the Sea.

For dyed-in-the-wool animation buffs,* I have further news. Just as he did with the previous film, Mr. Moore has been keeping a blog describing the ongoing progress of Song of the Sea.

Yesterday I learned that a trailer is available:

I have no idea when it might be released here. I have no idea whether it will get wide distribution, so I can see it at the nearby multiplex, or instead appear only at art-house theaters, which would require driving into Chicago. Either way, I'll be in line.



* Perhaps "inked-on-the-cel animation buffs" would be more correct.

As is his habit, lsanderson has today rounded up links to film reviews in the New York Times.

One of these is If Only Orson Welles Had Starred: ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune,’ From Frank Pavich

It's a documentary about Alejandro Jodorowsky's effort, ultimately unsuccessful, to film Frank Herbert's epic science fiction novel in the 1970s. (Other directors have since brought Dune to the screen, in a 1984 feature film and a 2000 TV miniseries.)

Sounds interesting. But I started wondering about the title. How do you write it?

There are rules for writing the titles of movies. But this movie title has a movie title inside of it.

In its headline, the Times encloses the title in single quotes:

‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’

In the body of the story, the Times encloses the title in double quotes:

"Jodorowsky’s Dune"

(In fact, they employ curly-quotes, but for the moment, let's not go there.)

The W. Skeffington Higgins stylebook, the one inside my head (a patchwork of high-school rules and random ideas from elsewhere), dictates that, where possible, film titles ought to be italicized:

Jodorowsky’s Dune

But wait-- if the film title itself contains a film title, shouldn't the title-within-a-title be emphasized somehow?

All-capitalized?

Jodorowsky’s DUNE

Emboldened?

Jodorowsky’s Dune

Embiggened?

Jodorowsky’s Dune

Superscripted?

Jodorowsky’s ^Dune

I often see, and often use, a convention like this: When something italicized hits a word that would itself normally be italicized, it toggles the italicization "off" and reverts to normal roman type-- resuming the italicization afterward. In this case such a convention would lead to:

Jodorowsky’s Dune

HTML has an "emphasis" tag that is supposed to take care of this sort of thing: enclosing text between <em> and </em> toggles the italicization on and off, and I believe these can be nested. Let's try:

Jodorowsky’s Dune

No, I guess the second <em> does not cancel the effect of the first <em>; neither does it have any discernible effect on the text it encloses.

In sending e-mail, my habits were formed on the unreliable Net of the Eighties. I generally do not trust that italics crafted in my mail client's editor will be displayed correctly when my text arrives at my correspondent's screen. Following Postel's Robustness Principle,† I fall back on conventions that I am sure will get through, even to someone who can only receive 7-bit ASCII. So if you get e-mail from me, any reference to a book or movie title will be enclosed in asterisks:

*Jodorowsky’s Dune*

Though in the present case, perhaps I should enclose the title-within-a-title in double asterisks to distinguish it:

*Jodorowsky’s **Dune***

All right, NOW I'm getting silly.




† Postel's Robustness Principle: "Be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others."

Today is the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first woman to orbit the earth, Valentina Tereshkova, aboard Vostok 6.

I wrote an answer to James Nicoll, who in his blog inquired:

"Does there exist a non-monster-driven SF movie suitable for viewing on the anniversary of Valentina Tereshkova's flight?"

I think the choice is clear: Космический Рейс (Cosmic Voyage), directed by Vasili Zhuravlev in 1936.

A technically-competent woman, an elderly male genius, and a space-obsessed boy stowaway, all loyal to the Party, undertake the first flight to the Moon as part of a massive Soviet spaceflight program-- and have non-monster-driven adventures.

The film's technical advisor? Different elderly male genius. Fine special effects. Plausible space suits. Portrays lunar exploration as part of a massive government-sponsored effort with many launches, including unwomanned* precursors to the first piloted landing attempt.

Silent, because not many theaters in the Soviet Union were equipped to show talkies in 1936.

In their most dire danger, the cosmonauts' salvation is brought about by something that will be particularly appreciated by James. Those who do not care about SPOILERS may advance the slider to 1:02:58 for a hint.

Can there be a more appropriate choice?

Useful program notes. Thorough fan site (in French). DVD Savant review by Glenn Erickson. Good review by Scott Ashlin.

Edited (30 May 2014) to add: Someone has been kind enough to make English translations of the title cards. Because in space, no one can hear you speak Russian.


* For you, Valentina. Happy fiftieth!

Want to see a movie with us?

My wife K was fortunate enough, in the month of her birthday, to receive a number of free passes from the Hollywood Blvd (that's how they spell it, "Blvd") restaurant-theater over in Woodridge, Illinois, on 75th Street just east of Interstate 355. We're allowed to bring up to six friends.

We're planning to see Star Trek: Into Darkness, in two glorious dimensions,* arriving on Thursday, 23 May at 6:30 for a showing that starts fifteen minutes later.

The "free" passes are not exactly free. They're free admissions to see a film-- but each theatergoer is required to order at least one drink or food item. Here's the menu.

We are also required to have everyone assembled at the time we purchase the tickets-- so we will not wait long for latecomers.

If you are:

1. Available for a 6:30 Thursday rendezvous at the theater, and
2. Willing to purchase food or drink,

please contact me at higgins a t fnal d o t gov. If we haven't run out of passes yet, we'll count you in. And together we'll head (I can't resist saying this) literally Into Darkness to see the movie.

The address:
Hollywood Blvd
1001 W. 75th St.
Woodridge, IL
Link to Google Map
Hollywood Blvd's site

* The same number of dimensions in which the original Star Trek: Nothing After The Colon was broadcast.

It is readily apparent that the post-9/11 thriller Team America: World Police is a note-perfect parody of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

It is, however, puzzling to contemplate another fact: Team America: World Police was released in 2004. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was released in 2009.

Team America trailer.

G.I. Joe trailer.

Official site for the sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, of which Richard Roeper writes in the Chicago Sun-Times:

ridiculous and overblown debacle [...] To say “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” is a video game for the big screen is to insult a number of video games that are far more creative, challenging and better-looking. Like a Dumpster bin behind Tiffany’s, this contains nothing but well-packaged garbage.

[...] the sequel is a heavy-handed, explosion-riddled, ear-piercing disaster with an insanely stupid plot and an endless stream of mostly generic fight sequences that straddle the PG-13 line.

A while back, at Saint Irene's, one of the plants behind the altar was rather odd-looking. It stirred a childhood memory.


Left, a plant. (Copyright 2012 by William S. Higgins) Right, Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins. (Copyright 1964 by Walt Disney Productions.)

Now that I think about it, as portrayed by Julie Andrews, Mary herself was a bit prickly.

Sudden thought: Does the vaudeville routine "Slowly I Turned" ridicule a victim of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Have we at last reached the point where comedy routines have their own (carefully analyzed, but quite unfunny) Wikipedia articles? Yes. Yes, we have.

The Three Stooges do it as performers-within-a-performance in Gents without Cents. This is the version I remember from my childhood, and it has the best-timed violence.

The best performance I have found is Frank J. Scanell, as a comic hired to teach "a burlesque act" to Lucille Ball. It startes at about 0:50 in this clip, and runs to 6:00.

Lou Costello does it with Sid Fields. Somewhat sloppy.

An aged Moe Howard reprises the old routine with Mike Douglas(!) in 1973. Extremely sloppy. The novelty of cameos by Roger Miller and Lee Meriweather Julie Newmar does not really improve it.

Another thought: This routine must surely be detested by anyone who must tell people that he or she is from Niagara Falls...

Now that I have seen Iron Man 2: The Re-Ironing, I realize that I have a lot of questions about it. All involve spoilers.

Some of my confusion may derive from having seen it at the new Hollywood Palms Cinema in Naperville, Illinois. It's a cinema-restaurant where you are brought food and drink during the film. It has theme-park decor and you sit on swivel chairs or barstools at a table.

I enjoy this place but it takes some getting used to; a waitress would materialize, and ask us questions, so at several points during the movie my attention was diverted from Iron Man et al. Nor could I ask my wife what I missed, since her attention was on the waitress at those same moments.

So if you find my confusion derives from momentary inattention, please do not judge me harshly.
( SPOILERS and questions behind cut )

For some reason, the frequent mentions of Iron Man to which I have been exposed in the past few months have invariably triggered the theme from the animated Spiderman TV show in my head. This may have been reinforced by the innovative re-use of this song in the Simpsons movie a few years ago. I'm not complaining-- it would be far worse to have the theme to the Grantray-Lawrence Iron Man cartoon as an earworm. Come to think of it, all five of the 1966 Marvel Super Heroes cartoons had annoying theme songs.

Speaking of songs, I noted Richard Sherman's name in the song credits. He's half of a songwriting team heard on the soundrack of innumerable Disney movies. He turns up in Iron Man because the story revolves around a decades-old World's Fair-like theme park (for which the site of the 1964 New York World's Fair stands in, nicely) and the old fair needed a Disney-style theme.

As I have already written, we went to some trouble to see The Secret of Kells last week, but we were amply rewarded. It's a visual feast.

It's an animated movie about Brendan, a boy living in a 9th-century Irish abbey, who assists the monks in transcribing and illuminating sacred manuscripts. Outside the walls lies a scary forest, home to wild animals and creatures of folklore; beyond that, the menace of raiding Northmen, bringing death and fire wherever they go.

When Brother Aidan, a legendary master illuminator fleeing the raids, takes refuge at Kells, he brings an incomplete book and invites Brendan to help him finish it. Though Brendan is forbidden to venture beyond the walls, in order to gather materials for inks he enters the forest, discovering both terror and beauty there. He is aided by a mysterious orphan girl, Aisling (to my ear, "Osh-leeg," the final "g" being barely audible), who says "Let me show you my forest..."

Good overview of The Secret of Kells, with plenty of large stills.

Good trailer.

Even better trailer. Gives a good sense of the storyline.

"Related videos" clips in right-hand column of this give you a better idea what the film looks like, at the risk of being a bit spoilery.

Really terrible trailer, whose voiceover makes an outstanding film sound like boring Extruded Fantasy Product. Best avoided, unless you are a student of "how not to write copy for movie trailers."

Eight Reasons Why You Should See The Secret of Kells, from John L. at Creative Juices.

The Blog of Kells, by co-director Tomm Moore,begun in 2005, which, among other things, collects lots of reviews in one handy place. Plus, you can go back in time and watch the multinational production effort unfold. The film was spearheaded by Irish animators, but other studios in France, Hungary, Brazil, and Belgium collaborated. The financing was even more of a patchwork. The blog features lots of model sheets, backgrounds, and other impedimenta of animation.

The film was released in Europe last year, as Brendan and the Secret of Kells. As always with independent films, distribution in the United States is a struggle. It's being shown in art houses, approximately one per city. Not in neighborhood theaters, so far. Confirmed dates for screenings in the U.S. Is it showing where you live? Go see it!

One may hope that a DVD is released in this country, eventually. There is already a DVD for Region 2, so if your player can handle it, you could watch the film at home.

A thoughtful review by Stephen D. Greydanus in Christianity Today heaps praise upon the movie, but offers a mild complaint I had myself: it soft-pedals the Christianity of the Irish monks, never explaining that the Book is a book of the Gospels, and may leave audience members wondering why the tome is so important to the characters.

I don't know much about the Book of Kells, but my friends with an interest in medieval culture have mentioned it frequently. In four volumes, it contains the Gospels in Latin. Roger Ebert writes: "The Irish are a verbal people, preserving legends in story and song; few Chicagoans may know there's a First Folio of Shakespeare in the Newberry Library, but few Dubliners do not know that the Book of Kells reposes in Trinity College." It represents a pinnacle of illuminative artistry, and its Celtic designs keep inspiring later artists, century after century.

The town of Kells wants the Book back, but Trinity College isn't letting go.

Illuminated manuscripts are rare these days, but here is one project to produce a modern handwritten Bible in English: the St. John's Bible.

In one of the most fascinating interviews I've ever seen on C-SPAN, Donald Jackson, chief calligrapher, talks about the Bible project, and demonstrates some of his techniques.

Charles Solomon of L.A. Times comments on the cat portrayed in The Secret of Kells. Most of the other characters are fictional, but Pangur Bán is a historical figure.

English translation of a famous Gaelic poem about Pangur Bán.

Here's the Gaelic version. It's recited over the movie's opening credits.

Solomon writes:

Director Tomm Moore says, "We learned the poem in school, along with the story that a monk had written it in the corner of a page he was illuminating. It was only later that I learned that the last line can be translated as 'turning darkness into light' or 'turning ink into light,' which I thought was a nice reference to creating an illumination."

Even though he and the other artists making the film have spoken of identifying with the scribes in the story, here Mr. Moore misses an additional possible meaning:

"Turning ink into light" is also a nice description of making an animated movie.