MUSINGS, PONDERINGS, RUMINATIONS AND FANCIES

[Dargo]

Getting back to Voight here for a minute (sorry Bronxie), but the thing I've always found interesting when it comes to some people is how they can become despised by their own offspring?! As I understand he and his daughter Andelina Jolie have had a very prickly relationship since her youth.

Okay sure, never having had any kids of my own, I suppose this contributes to my lack of understanding about such a thing, and with the additional thought that I pretty much had a wonderful relationship with my parents who adopted me immediately after my birth.

(...I guess what I'm sayin' here is that it's always appeared to me as if there's always been some sort of personal "defect" in people who are or were unable to instill within their own children at least modicum respect and love towards them as parents, and regardless what wacky political views they might have)

Hard to do when the father leaves the home when you're one year of age...

Uh-huh, and with the idea of a father's choice to abandon of his one year old child being just another example of a "personal defect", wouldn't ya say?

(...btw, and along the same lines of thought here, wasn't it absolutely GREAT that that mother in Michigan got convicted for HER lack of parenting skills the other day?!...well, I loved it anyway, and thought when I heard of the verdict, "It's about TIME, and hopefully THIS will start a new trend in accountability in these regards!")

[Dargo]

Is Andelina Jolie a typo, or does Angelina Jolie have a secret sister that she's never talked about?

OOPS! Or should I say "Whoa Nellie" here?!

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll go correct the spelling of her name.

Btw, can you tell me the names of the two sports announcers who were famous for using the expression "Whoa Nellie" during their broadcasts?

I'll bet you already know Keith Jackson was one of 'em, but probably not the one from whom Keith borrowed this catchphrase and who was first to become famous for saying it on early-television in the Los Angeles area when he announced for televised sports such as Roller Derby and Wrestling. He was also a character actor earlier in his career in many a 1930s and 1940s B-picture and low-budget movie and often played a cop.

(...any guesses here?)

[Swithin]

I think the Oscar for the most hilarious name in film history goes to hair stylist Nellie Manley.

Nellie was a popular name and was featured in many songs, my favorite being "The Bird on Nellie's Hat."

[Dargo]

I'm really fascinated by all of this!! And no, I couldn't possibly know who the originator of the phrase was, but I am sure there is probably a very intriguing story behind it. I'll let you share it when you're ready.

The actor and then later sports announcer's name was Richard Lane...



And who later during his announcing years went by the name Dick Lane.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Lane_(announcer)

(...and NOT to be confused with another little L.A. inside joke and nickname we Angelenos had for Mulholland Drive and where a lot of "parking and sparking" would take place!) LOL

[Bronxgirl48]

Pondering: Is Rozsa's score for THE VIP'S his worst?

I didn't much care for his score for Bhowani Junction.....

I'll have to listen. It's been a while since I've seen this film and don't remember the music. I usually find the Indian themes he weaves into much of his work no matter the genre quite beautiful and haunting.

[Bronxgirl48]

I learned from Professor Suber last night that THE WIZARD OF OZ is a "sacred drama for secular audiences"

Bless his heart LOL

[HoldenIsHere]

Getting back to Voight here for a minute (sorry Bronxie), but the thing I've always found interesting when it comes to some people is how they can become despised by their own offspring?! As I understand he and his daughter Angelina Jolie have had a very prickly relationship since her youth.

Okay sure, never having had any kids of my own, I suppose this contributes to my lack of understanding about such a thing, and with the additional thought that I pretty much had a wonderful relationship with my parents who adopted me immediately after my birth.

(...I guess what I'm sayin' here is that it's always appeared to me as if there's always been some sort of personal "defect" in people who are or were unable to instill within their own children at least modicum respect and love towards them as parents, and regardless what wacky political views they might have)

Jon Voight and Angelina Jolie's parent-child relationship has indeed been thorny to say the least. Angelina was very close to her mother Marcheline Bertrand, who essentially raised her daughter as a single parent after the split with Voight before their daughter's first birthday. Voight and Jolie played father and daughter in LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER in 2001, but by 2002 she stopped speaking to him because the relationship was unhealthy to the point that she felt physically ill. After she legally had her surname changed from Voight to Jolie (which is her middle name), Jon Voight went on ACCESS HOLLYWOOD and wept about his poor kid with mental problems who needed help so she could understand true love. After that, Angelina's mother and brother also stopped speaking to Voight.

After her mother's death in 2007, Angelina Jolie reconnected with her father primarily, she has said, for the sake of her brother and her children. When they do speak, they don’t talk about the past. She has said that was a condition for them to have any kind of relationship.

[CinemaInternational]

I learned from Professor Suber last night that THE WIZARD OF OZ is a "sacred drama for secular audiences"

Bless his heart LOL

I am very glad that series is over. I might talk about films a lot, but I don't try to put on airs while discussing them. Too much of the talk on the series was too lofty and grandiose, sometimes over very lacking material.

[Andree]

I liked it for the most part, even though Prof Suber did go over the top fairly frequently.
But if somebody has been teaching cinema for fifty years they can't just say it's mass
entertainment with little deeper meaning for the most part. So they tend to pile it on,
which I suppose one can't blame them for. He seemed to have a thing for Michael Corleone,
emphasizing the family aspect, when he basically turned into just another killer. I also
got a kick out of him enumerating the things that made James Bond a true hero. C'mon,
Bond is basically a cartoon character who is indestructible no matter how many high-tech
weapons and assassins the villain throws at him. Actual heroism has little to do with it. I
don't believe he used the word escapism in the final episode. He talked about hope never
ending and fantasy, but couldn't seem to admit that a lot of this stuff is mostly escapism,
however high a gloss he tries to put on it, not that there's anything wrong with a little
escapism. I do hope the customary accompanying book makes a few bucks.

[HoldenIsHere]

I am very glad that series is over. I might talk about films a lot, but I don't try to put on airs while discussing them. Too much of the talk on the series was too lofty and grandiose, sometimes over very lacking material.
[/quote]

I liked it for the most part, even though Prof Suber did go over the top fairly frequently.
But if somebody has been teaching cinema for fifty years they can't just say it's mass
entertainment with little deeper meaning for the most part. So they tend to pile it on,
which I suppose one can't blame them for. .

I don't believe he used the word escapism in the final episode. He talked about hope never
ending and fantasy, but couldn't seem to admit that a lot of this stuff is mostly escapism,
however high a gloss he tries to put on it, not that there's anything wrong with a little
escapism. I do hope the customary accompanying book makes a few bucks.

So far I've only seen one episode in THE POWER OF FILM series, "The Power of Paradox." I chose to watch that one because ls subject intrigued me. At the risk of sounding like posters from TCM's Facebook page who do cartwheels praising anything that TCM airs, I really liked what I saw.
I didn't find Howard Suber's commentary at all snobbish or grandiose, certainly not for a university professor. And, his ideas were supported by numerous examples from movies. I would have enjoyed taking courses from him in media studies when I was college. The documentary series is a labor of love by his former students as UCLA, and based on what I saw in Episode 5, their affection for him is deserving. I will likely watch more episodes.

In the episode I saw, Professor Suber did mention that the primary objective of popular film was to entertain and that if a movie fails to entertain it has failed.

[Andree]

Some of the professor's insights were interesting, others not so. I'd call it a mixed bag.
There are levels to interpreting movies and it is to be expected that a professor of
cinema is going to try to dig deeper than the "average" movie fan. Whether those
results are worthwhile is a matter of individual opinion. I recall he discussed patterns
in one episode and sure there are discernable patterns in movies, but being less generous
are they patterns or just cliched plots, situations, and characters? Folks will likely have
their own take on it.

[Bronxgirl48]

Holden, I would actually have enjoyed being one of Professor Suber's students because I have a feeling he'd give me high marks for my paper on Fascism and 1942's The Ghost of Frankenstein.

Bela Lugosi's Ygor is really Hitler ("We would rule the state!") with Lionel Atwill's Dr. Boehmer either Goebbels or Goering.

I wish I were kidding.