fuckyeahlespleen

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Easy Rider (1969)

Director: Dennis Hopper DOP: László Kovács Art Direction: Jeremy Kay

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The Long Goodbye is a fantastic deconstruction of the noir film, and it helped me finally click into place what noir really is.

The hardboiled detective that is cynical as hell is only that way because he's the last man alive with any decency or humanity. The other people he interacts with during the case, or perhaps at all, don't follow any code. They lie, cheat, steal and do anything and everything to enrich themselves regardless of the cost of others. That's why he's so tired all the time: doing the right thing is exhausting if you know you're only going to be punished for it.

Philip Marlowe in this movie exemplifies that fully. He gives a friend a ride to Mexico, and the next day police are at his door asking questions. Do they simply respect his right to be silent? No, they assault him and imprison him until he talks (he never does, but they let him out anyways when they don't need his testimony anymore). Gangsters are after him for money he doesn't have and had no idea even existed. Everyone lies to him, abuses him or just uses him as a plaything.

What does he do in return? Stay honest and loyal at every turn. He helps his friends, he listens to people that beg him for help. At one point he notices a low level gang member is tailing him. His response is to give him advice on how to better stay hidden, and even tells him where he's going in case he gets lost on the way. He's messing with him, but he's also just straightforwardly helping a person that is actively trying to harm him.

The movie begins with Marlowe trying to feed his cat. His cat wants only one brand of cat food, and he doesn't have it. The store doesn't have it either, so he tries to put other food into an empty can and pretend it's the same. The cat scratches him for his deception and leaves. The cat has the same moral code as Marlowe, the difference being that cats are proud and Marlowe is a complete and utter loser. He's a cat in a world of vicious dogs, including multiple scenes where he is literally chased by a dog.

Most other noir films, especially before this one, doesn't have the hardboiled detective be quite so pathetic. That archetype was created for the 40's and 50's. This film takes Marlowe to the 70's, where he's a man out of time. The world has moved on without him, and his only response is to rage against this change. For Marlowe, that means trying to put on a happy face and uphold his own values no matter what anyone else thinks.

I really thought this was going to be a fun murder mystery (and it still is, the plot is fantastic here) but it's actually a great character study of not just Philip Marlowe but noir protagonists as a whole. Pretty amazing film.

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Donald Westlake on Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels and inspirations behind his own Parker series, written under the Richard Stark pen name. Excerpt from The Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany (2014), published posthumously.

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SOPHIA BUSH AS BETH MCINTYRE John Tucker Must Die | Dir. by Betty Thomas

Peace & Love. No guy is worth fighting over.

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Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1963)

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A mock funeral held for Laura Palmer in Tokyo on February 23, 1992.

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Barbie.com in 2004/2005

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Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)

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30 Days of Classic Queer Hollywood

Day 28: James Dean (1931 - 1955)

"No, I am not a homosexual. But I'm also not going to go through life with one hand tied behind my back." - James Dean when asked about his sexuality

James "Jimmy" Dean was one of the most iconic actors of the 20th century. Despite only starring in 3 films (East of Eden (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and Giant (1956)), he is one of the most recognizable actors of his time.

This lasting fame is largely due to the fact that he died in a car crash in 1955 at the age of 24, just as he was reaching stardom. He became the only actor to receive two posthumous Academy Award nominations for Best Actor. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the 18th best male movie star of the Classic Hollywood.

James Dean was a bisexual man. He had relationships with many women, including model Pier Angeli and actresses Liz Sheridan, Barbara Glenn, Ursula Andress, and Beverly Wills. He reportedly had private liaisons with men including Marlon Brando, radio director Rogers Bracket, writer William Bast, and director Bob Stevens.

He was relatively open about this with his costars and coworkers. Nicholas Ray, the director of Rebel Without a Cause (1955), is on record as saying:

"James Dean was not straight, he was not gay, he was bisexual... Jimmy himself said more than once that he swung both ways, so why all the mystery or confusion?"

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drugstore cowboy (1989) ୨୧

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DRUGSTORE COWBOY ↳ 1989 | Gus Van Sant

I knew it in my heart. You can buck the system, but you can’t buck the dark forces that lie hidden beneath the surface. The ones some people call superstitions. Howling banshees. Black cats. Hats on beds. Dogs and the evil eye. So I relaxed and gave in to the notion that, for the very first time in my life, I knew exactly what was going to happen next.

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Lick the Star dir. Sofia Coppola

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made in hong kong (1997)

dir. fruit chan

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shopping at Blockbuster for a movie night in 1993

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i miss lucas & kai together, i miss superm, i need them back

“eh hehEhe”