Month / September 2007

by Edward Champion

O Lucky DVD!

While poking around Alan Price’s site, I have learned that one of my twenty-five favorite films of all time, Lindsay Anderson’s frequently misunderstood masterpiece, O Lucky Man!, will at long last be released on DVD on October 23, 2007. I understand that Malcolm McDowell recorded a commentary track.

If you have not seen this great picaresque film, which, in three hours, savages more institutions and ideologies than almost any other film I know of, you must check this out. Then again, despite talking with many film geeks over the years, I seem to be the only American to dig this flick.

In the meantime, whet your appetite with Lindsay Anderson’s satirical documentary, Is That All There Is?, which can be found, rather miraculously, on YouTube: [Part One] [Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Four] [Part Five] [Part Six]

This was his final film. And for those who have clocked in numerous hours viewing documentaries, the film is an unexpectedly touching and often hilarious portrait of Anderson in his autumn years. As if responding to every known documentary cliche available, Anderson intercuts footage of starving children while shopping in a supermarket, inserts television clips of current events that have absolutely nothing to do with Anderson’s life, stages needlessly contentious conflicts, and even includes a closing musical number with Alan Price.

Lindsay Anderson is arguably one of the most misunderstood British filmmakers of the past fifty years (indeed, he spent the last of his days searching for money to make more of his surrealistic and anarchistic films) and I’m glad that Warner has seen fit to take a gamble with the release of O Lucky Man! on DVD.

by Edward Champion

Fading Mencken

The Smart Set: “Mencken’s sad, empty house, feels like a physical manifestation of the thing he’s become — a writer still around, and likely to always be around, but set off as a novelty, as a thing that stands awkwardly alone. The idea was reinforced when I left the house and walked across the street to Union Square. The small park was once the verdant center of a neighborhood of families, but it’s been long neglected. The water fountain was filled with cigarette butts. The grass was weedy. The trashcans were overflowing. In the center was a fountain honoring Mencken. Around its edge were bronze covers of his books, each bearing the name of a different donor. Some of the covers were missing, screw holes left behind. And the fountain was dry, trash blowing around its base.”

by Edward Champion

Silverblatt’s Stats

Here is the point in each installment of KCRW’s Bookworm, in which Michael Silverblatt finally permits the author to speak. (It is also worth noting that Bookworm is a twenty-eight minute show.)

Marianne Wiggins: 2:11
Miranda July: 1:59
Nathan Englander: 1:45 (only because Englander interrupted him)
Naeem Murr: 2:34
Michael Ondaatje: 1:30 (!)
Helena Maria Viramontes: 1:50
Kurt Vonnegut: 1:38
Richard Flanagan: 1:30
Jim Crace: 2:19
Jonathan Lethem: 2:07