No, I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. The Exorcist was directed by William Friedkin, who dated Howard Hawks’ daughter for a while. Also, Mercedes McCambridge was in Welles’ Touch of Evil.

Plus, just because people want to be credited doesn’t mean they necessarily are. Hollywood is an industry as much as an art. Lots of…

Yes. I think it went beyond that, though - a clash of personalities. One thing’s for sure: Marquand was an odd choice, and Lucas’s first choice, Lynch, was more than odd. Lynch isn’t the American director of his generation with an uncompromising dominant personal vision. He’s the American director with an…

Do you (or anyone) happen to know why Marquand had such a tough time on set? Kershner went over budget and over schedule but was beloved. Marquand was not.

“C’est quelquechose de monumentale : que la barrière entre le Bien et le Mal soit d’aussi ambigu que les relations familiales eux-mêmes est d’une profondeur digne de la littérature quelconque.”

Yes, I think so. There are some IV>V>VI purists out there, but few and far between. I believe the Times was one of few outlets to lambaste Empire, which no less highbrow a Canadian cineaste David Cronenberg called “the most beautiful film ever made.”

- Yep, just checked RT. Canby: “I found myself glancing at my watch…

I have this weird theory that the prequels’ only aesthetic goal was to show Jurassic Park’s CGI could be employed at the service of an actual story, such as it was. He felt an obligation to save film from itself.

On those terms, they were hugely successful. Little kids don’t care that the kid was so awful or that…

“Well, the turkey has less chicken in it.”

a) Hold penis.
b) Remove.

Billion stars, esteemed fox

I’m staying in one of the fancyish downtown NYC hotels right now. They ran out of coffee at 9 am. A fellow traveler and I asked the only staff member, a busboy, sitting in the restaurant, reading the Wall Street Journal (?).

- Hi, we’re looking for some coffee?
- Down.
- Down?
- Down.
- The coffee’s downstairs?
- (Shakes…

Reads like good Charles Bernstein to me! The New York school has a new member.

DFW (whom I do not adore, but anyway) apparently disliked poetry and felt guilty about it. On a ride from SF to LA my brightest literary friend and I defended the medium right up until our first drink in Silver Lake, whereupon she said, “Poetry’s gay.”

(She’s not a self-hating lesbian; she just loves lit.)

We agree it…

Friend from Milton knew her from BB&N, always said she’s a racist jerk. I can’t watch her show for the anti-Muslim jokes alone, it’s like trying to watch Die Meistersinger.

It remains Fincher’s best film.

I agree. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a business built around the engagement of sexual relations in exchange for benefit. Where I draw the line is someone having sexual activity with another person (or persons) for compensation - whether it be money or some type of valuable goods.

It’s not just common sense.…

True. True.

Obviously you’ve never been to Pepe’s, I think the best crust I’ve ever had in the US. Modern Apizza on State is good too.

You’re probably about to hear quite a bit about them. New Haven’s got a big Italian-American community from the Amalfi Coast, just north of Naples.

I must admit, part of me is still oddly furious that out of all my academic friends (which are legion, I have a humanities phd), who have pretty much all made their careers on stuff like [Com]Migrant Formalities: Post-Colonial Aesthetics in Kipling, Strauss and Ray, didn’t have time to actually go to Film Forum to see…

Besides the corgis?

Money money money money money money money money. Which covers everything anybody else has mentioned (shitty music [it’s cheaper], douchey bros [they’re richer], overpriced drinks, splitting a check [money], sleeping late [time is money], keeping up with new music [marketing => peer pressure => consumerism], hearing…