I Just Watched...

[kingrat]

Accident has not aged well. I'm not sure that any of Harold Pinter's screenplays have aged well; his clever time-shifty screenplay for The Pumpkin Eater is much the weakest element of that film, which has sublime cinematography. Does the Bogarde character in Accident rape Jacqueline Sassard while she's unconscious? I don't recall.

As for Capote, his early fame as a writer may have been fate's cruelest blow for him. He never wrote as openly about homosexuality as contemporaries like Gore Vidal and John Horne Burns; did that make it easier for the society ladies to welcome him in? Did Capote want to be the pet ocelot for the upper-crust ladies of New York society? The high-toned ladies he writes about in Answered Prayers are boring. Every one of us has known dozens of women more interesting than these.

[Lorna]

For me a better FEUD would've been Joan vs. Olivia (maybe after Olivia's lawsuit they are gunshy, even though Olivia is dead!)

I may just be quoting DEATH ON THE NILE here, but I literally think that you cannot libel the dead, so as long as no one in the tale is still living they could ostensibly go to town.

weird, I know.

[Lorna]

my introduction to TRUMAN CAPOTE was in elementary school when my 4rth grade teacher read A CHRISTMAS MEMORY aloud to us and I think I CRIED IN CLASS- to the surprise of NONE of you, I was a very sensitive child- and there was something in me that day that UNDERSTOOD THAT LITTLE BOY and HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OLD LADY (was she an Aunt? His Grandma?) and THE BEAUTY THAT COMES WHEN TWO KINDRED SPIRITS OF THE "KOOKY" VARIETY ARE BLESSED TO CROSS PATHS IN LIFE.

SO, while I know that he turned into an objectively awful person- a CANDY COVERED TARANTULA, to quote a doc I watched about him and THE SWANS a year or so ago- I just can't forget that deep down he was once- and still is, somewhere- that PECULIAR LITTLE SEXLESS BOY WHO enthusiastically HELPED HIS ECCENTRIC AUNT (GRANDMA?) BAKE FRUITCAKES FOR ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (and others) EVERY YEAR.

PS- A TALE OF TWO FRUITCAKES would have been a decent alternate title if someone else already had claim on A CHRISTMAS MEMORY.

[Hibi]

For me a better FEUD would've been Joan vs. Olivia (maybe after Olivia's lawsuit they are gunshy, even though Olivia is dead!)

I may just be quoting DEATH ON THE NILE here, but I literally think that you cannot libel the dead, so as long as no one in the tale is still living they could ostensibly go to town.

weird, I know.

I wish they would! Plenty of material. Wouldn't have to make up stuff.

[Hibi]

my introduction to TRUMAN CAPOTE was in elementary school when my 4rth grade teacher read A CHRISTMAS MEMORY aloud to us and I think I CRIED IN CLASS- to the surprise of NONE of you, I was a very sensitive child- and there was something in me that day that UNDERSTOOD THAT LITTLE BOY and HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OLD LADY (was she an Aunt? His Grandma?) and THE BEAUTY THAT COMES WHEN TWO KINDRED SPIRITS OF THE "KOOKY" VARIETY ARE BLESSED TO CROSS PATHS IN LIFE.

SO, while I know that he turned into an objectively awful person- a CANDY COVERED TARANTULA, to quote a doc I watched about him and THE SWANS a year or so ago- I just can't forget that deep down he was once- and still is, somewhere- that PECULIAR LITTLE SEXLESS BOY WHO enthusiastically HELPED HIS ECCENTRIC AUNT (GRANDMA?) BAKE FRUITCAKES FOR ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (and others) EVERY YEAR.

PS- A TALE OF TWO FRUITCAKES would have been a decent alternate title if someone else already had claim on A CHRISTMAS MEMORY.

I think it was his aunt or his great aunt. I saw the televised version many years ago with Geraldine Page. I think she and the show won an Emmy. Loved it.

Actually, after looking it up, she was his distant cousin.

[TikiSoo]

my introduction to TRUMAN CAPOTE was in elementary school when my 4rth grade teacher read A CHRISTMAS MEMORY aloud to us and I think I CRIED IN CLASS- to the surprise of NONE of you, I was a very sensitive child- and there was something in me that day that UNDERSTOOD THAT LITTLE BOY and HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OLD LADY (was she an Aunt? His Grandma?) and THE BEAUTY THAT COMES WHEN TWO KINDRED SPIRITS OF THE "KOOKY" VARIETY ARE BLESSED TO CROSS PATHS IN LIFE.

I saw it too and it made me cry too. As a non-Christian/non-consumerist have celebrated Christmas that way ever since.

[CinemaInternational]

Accident was directed by Joseph Losey, who might have started before the blacklist as an RKO contract director (and doing a fine job on The Boy with Green Hair), but he ended up in Europe making art films that were done with very distant emotions. Sometimes it worked (The Romantic Englishwoman), sometimes it emphatically didn't (Boom!). But it's a strange career, and pretty aloof. I never saw Accident, but I can fully understand why it's not for everyone.

As for talent and the blacklist, some who were blacklisted did indeed have great talent, like Lee Grant and Burgess Meredith, but it is also true that just because someone was blacklisted does not automatically mean that their work is going to always be good. Dalton Trumbo wrote The Sandpiper (1965), which is such a dreary film, and some of his other scripts after his post-blacklist comeback were also undercooked. And another blacklistee, Abraham Polonsky, when he did get hired again, did a movie that might have looked handsome but had the speed of congealed molasses: Tell Them Willie Boy Was Here (1969).

I haven't seen either version of A Christmas Memory (either the Geraldine Page version or the Katharine Hepburn version in the 1990s), but Capote must have had fondness for a spinster aunt or two because he also wrote The Grass Harp, which was turned into a beautiful film in the mid-90s that never got the audience it deserved. (Maybe it was due to the tearjerker ending). But it was well worth watching and it had a lot of good performances, especially from Piper Laurie as the beloved aunt. It also featured Edward Furlong, Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Mary Steenburgen, and with cameos from Jack Lemmon and Roddy McDowell.

I haven't seen the last two episodes of Feud yet, although I plan to. While it might be frustrating for things to be invented, it is seemingly inevitable with Hollywood productions, from the era of Night and Day (fictional cinema definitely with a few real names) to now. They always love to goose up a story. And with this miniseries, it still seems worth it to keep going due to Naomi Watts and Diane Lane, who are both delivering marvelous work, but maybe I am wearing rose-colored glasses again. And the one reason that it feels like its spanning decades is because of the nonlinear elements of how its presented: the first episode had a flashback to the 50s, the ball episode was set in 1966, but all the scenes involving the fall-out so far are set in 1974, 1975, and 1976, but it feels like a longer period due to all the cross cutting.

Hibi, you mentioned this miniseries as going on too long, saying that it would have been better served as a TV movie. That's one thing in general that is an issue with modern TV: the near disappearance of the TV movie replaced by the multipart miniseries, ostensibly to increase depth and to build an audience. and now, they have a whole generation or two who expect to see stories that span 7 or more hours, and are eager to watch those, while dismissing a regular feature length film as sketchy and incomplete. It's an odd development.

Kingrat, you brought up The Pumpkin Eater, and while the story's vignette structure was a bit odd, it still was a good script overall and the film worked due to the masterful Anne Bancroft performance as well as having other fine performances from Peter Finch, James Mason, and very briefly, Maggie Smith. The film was directed by Jack Clayton, who didn't direct many films, but his was a fascinating little career. The other films he did were Room at the Top, The Innocents, Our Mother's House, The Great Gatsby, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, and there isn't a single film there that isn't interesting, that doesn't have fine acting, that isn't well scripted. I wish he had made more films....

[HoldenIsHere]

my introduction to TRUMAN CAPOTE was in elementary school when my 4rth grade teacher read A CHRISTMAS MEMORY aloud to us and I think I CRIED IN CLASS- to the surprise of NONE of you, I was a very sensitive child- and there was something in me that day that UNDERSTOOD THAT LITTLE BOY and HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OLD LADY (was she an Aunt? His Grandma?) and THE BEAUTY THAT COMES WHEN TWO KINDRED SPIRITS OF THE "KOOKY" VARIETY ARE BLESSED TO CROSS PATHS IN LIFE.

SO, while I know that he turned into an objectively awful person- a CANDY COVERED TARANTULA, to quote a doc I watched about him and THE SWANS a year or so ago- I just can't forget that deep down he was once- and still is, somewhere- that PECULIAR LITTLE SEXLESS BOY WHO enthusiastically HELPED HIS ECCENTRIC AUNT (GRANDMA?) BAKE FRUITCAKES FOR ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (and others) EVERY YEAR.

PS- A TALE OF TWO FRUITCAKES would have been a decent alternate title if someone else already had claim on A CHRISTMAS MEMORY.

I love that story as well as the adaptation with the great Geraldine Page (one of my all-time favorites) as the relative who was known as Sook, who made the fruitcakes.
Sook was a distant cousin of Truman Capote (then Truman Persons). They both lived with Truman's maternal aunts, in the house that belonged to Sook's sister.

[HoldenIsHere]

Angie Dickinson

as

Sadie LaSalle

“And then lunch with Zanuck and Brown. Oh, and, Ferdy, at three o’clock remind me to call Bergman on that package deal for Streisand and Taylor.”

[Andree]

Baking fruitcakes with a distant relative. No wonder the guy was messed up as an adult.
Fruitcakes (the literal kind). Yuck. I'm glad my grandma baked pecan pies.

[Masha]

I am humbled.


I have now watched all ten episodes of the game show: The Floor (2024).

The basis for the contest is that eighty-one people each have a specialist category. Two contestants have a: 'duel' in which they take turns identifying images from one of the two categories. Each person has forty-five seconds for all of their answers. The first one to run out of time loses. The number of images shown varies according to how fast the contestants are answering. It ranges from approx. twelve to more than forty. Play continues until all players but one have lost.

I love learning and I find that game shows are excellent sources of culturally significant factoids. They illuminate also those areas of general interest which I should study further.

I feel that I did well above average in most categories and had more right answers faster than most of the contestants. There were obviously a few things here and there which I did not recognize or did not know their common name.

The reason that I am humbled is that there were several categories in which I had absolutely no idea who the image represented. From one to three dozen images shown for each and I knew none of them! I would have been unable to answer even if given unlimited time because I had absolutely no clue. I did not even know what might be used as keywords to do a google search.

A complete lack of knowledge in certain areas is to be expected because people have wildly varying interest and experience and all people have only cursory knowledge concerning a great many topics. This does not relieve me because all of the game show's material was considered general knowledge.

All episodes are available for viewing for free with commercials on: TubiTV
https://tubitv.com/series/300002258/the-floor
I believe that it is available for streaming on: Paramount but I have read that there are many more commercials than on: TubiTV.

[TikiSoo]

Fruitcakes (the literal kind). Yuck. I'm glad my grandma baked pecan pies.

Don't malign the Fruitcake based on 50's-60's "quick, easy" processed candied recipes that resulted in cement bricks.

REAL fruitcake is made with fruit soaked in rum. After baking, the loaf is spritzed regularly with brandy to preserve it for consumption over the long, cold winter.



Real fruitcake is hearty, flavorful & a great source of vitamin C when fresh fruit wasn't available year round like it is now.

[TikiSoo]

I recently looked for COCOON '85 and it's not streaming free, so got a copy from the library. I talked it up as "Ron Howard's best film" while cautioning I remembered it as "corny". Sometimes corn is OK, but sadly, Cocoon doesn't hold up nearly as well as my memory of it.

It's the story of Aliens retrieving life form "pods" distributed in Earth's ocean and acclimating them in a swimming pool to prepare them for their journey home. The swimming pool is on an abandoned estate next to a Senior Community where a group of old guys regularly trespass to swim for exersize.
(mistake #1- NO ONE would keep up a costly swimming pool full of water/chemicals on abandoned property)

The oldies found rejuvenation from the nutrient rich water, turning back their bio clocks. Soon everyone wanted to swim in the Fountain of Youth resulting in destruction of some pods.

The Seniors realized their mistake and helped the Aliens return the living pods back to the sea so they could be successfully retrieved at a later date. Since there was now room on the ship, a group of Seniors left Earth with the Aliens, presumably to live forever.
Oh, like "heaven"...why not hit us over the head with sappy metaphors?

This wasn't Ron Howard's best film at all-instead it's typical of his work; slow moving, poorly written dialogue but well acted with more corn than Capra would have even dared. I love Ron Howard as a person- a talented actor, but this movie showcases all his failings as a director.

Ron Howard is as manipulative as Schpielberg using self-important lofty music and crazy unnecessary special effects that cheapen whatever message he's trying to convey. I can't believe I ever thought it was a good movie.

Actually, all the Seniors played by great Golden Age Actors was the only piece of this movie that keeps your interest. Brian Dennehy is spectacular as the head coordinator Alien, flashing his big beautiful smile while keeping his eyes "dead" so you always realize he's not human. Other supporting actors & their situations were a total yawn & unnecessary to what would have been a great story.

Cocoon is now tied with Jurassic Park as the worst resulting movie from a promising, imaginative story. At the end credits Mr Tiki said in exasperation, "What the hell was that movie even ABOUT?

[Swithin]

Fruitcakes (the literal kind). Yuck. I'm glad my grandma baked pecan pies.

Don't malign the Fruitcake based on 50's-60's "quick, easy" processed candied recipes that resulted in cement bricks.

REAL fruitcake is made with fruit soaked in rum. After baking, the loaf is spritzed regularly with brandy to preserve it for consumption over the long, cold winter.

Real fruitcake is hearty, flavorful & a great source of vitamin C when fresh fruit wasn't available year round like it is now.

I love fruitcake. I'm usually fortunate enough to be in London in November, when all the holiday fruitcakes are available, although a wide variety of fruitcakes are available year round. They're all different, and the variety is amazing. Christmas cakes in the UK tend to be fruitcakes with a later of marzipan and royal icing. The British cakes tend to be soaked in brandy rather than rum.


Marks and Spencer Fruit Cake


Waitrose Christmas Fruit Cake

[Lorna]

You know, I googled it and found what purported to be THE FRUITCAKE RECIPE USED BY TRUMAN AND HIS DAFFY COUSIN, and I copied and pasted it, but it was just too long.

someone gave my office a MOSTLY NUTS fruitcake this christmas and it tasted like THOSE SQUARE-GRANOLAISH-NUTTY BARS THEY KEEP BY THE REGISTER AT THE WHOLE FOODS- WHICH I HAPPEN TO LIKE A LOT.

I know this is wrong, but I like THE GREEN THINGS in fruitcake, whatever the **** they are (and I think it varies)- ANGELICA, PINEAPPLE CHUNKS DYED WITH ARSENIC, CONGEALED ANTIFREEZE SLICES- I don't care. If it is SWEET AND CHEMICALLY DYED AND PROCESSED TO THE POINT WHERE IT IS POSSIBLY POISONOUS, I AM DOWN TO TRY IT.

(It's my Southern upbringing, I think)