Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Porky Pig Looney Tunes cartoon, the inspired 1938 Porky in Wackyland, directed by Bob Clampett
This short subject is celebrated for its surreal humor, such as when Porky is chasing the bird, it disappears and suddenly the Warner Bros. shield emerges from the horizon's vanishing point, as it typically did at every cartoon's beginning, and complete with the standard stretched "boing" of the steel guitar. The Do-Do comes from behind the shield to bop Porky on the head and we see the shield immediately turn to return to the horizon with the bird riding it there (with, consequently, the boing sound played in reverse).
The staff atThe ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour hope you can stomach one more holiday special. And what doesn't scream the holidays like forcing celebs to eat colon burning chicken wings. So let's all watch this year's holiday special from the folks at The Hot Ones, featuring Kristen Bell:
I have to say that she is a real trooper
We’ve selected another entry from the excellent reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Today’s film is the 1986 comedy Down by Law, directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni. Down by Law was Jarmusch’s third feature film. His first, Permanent Vacation, was made right after he dropped out of film school, using his scholarship money instead of attending classes. He financed the film himself, taking out a bank loan he claimed was to buy a car, and using the check from his Louis B. Mayer scholarship, which was mistakenly sent to him instead of his film school. His second film, Stranger Than Paradise, followed a New York protagonist dealing with a visiting cousin from Budapest and starred (and was co-written by) Down by Law co-star John Lurie.
After Jarmusch began writing his Stranger Than Paradise follow-up - a “sketch of something” featuring Tom Waits and fellow actor-musician John Lurie; he met comedian Roberto Benigni while traveling in Italy and decided to make him the film’s “central character.” Jarmusch wrote his first treatment for the film in Rome, where he was able to confirm Benigni’s casting. Tom Waits’ record label, Island Pictures, later agreed to finance the film.
Apparently, Jim Jarmusch had never visited New Orleans or its surrounding bayous before writing the film, so he based the script on Tennessee Williams’ plays, pulp fiction, 1930s and 1940s crime films, and the Rhythm and Blues music that originated in New Orleans. While scouting locations, Jarmusch listened to Tom Waits’ songs and later claimed they influenced both the development of the script and the rhythmic tempo of the scenes. Conversely, John Lurie - known at the time for his band, the Lounge Lizards, a small jazz ensemble - composed and performed the film’s score. Jarmusch wrote detailed scripts but allowed room for improvisation.
Please find a comfy chair and join us here at The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch this dark comedy: Down by Law.
The title Down by Law is a reference to a colloquialism used in 1920s African American culture, particularly during the Great Migration northward from the Southern states. The phrase described the assimilation of recent arrivals - when people became confident navigating their new surroundings and gained a sense of control over their lives, they were considered “down by law.” Although the term later fell out of fashion, it was adapted into prison slang, where “down by law” came to mean that an individual is trusted and accepted as part of a gang.
Demand Euphoria!
No comments:
Post a Comment